"That's right, just assume I ate something bad. For certain reasons, my stomach's going to keep acting up for a while, but it won't affect my fighting at all."

Banxia stood and patted his still-solid frame to show he was fine.

"So that's how it is. As expected of Mr. Banxia." The three of them accepted this without much argument.

He was a hero who could effortlessly take down the Great Demon Geist, after all. Bizarre things happening around him stopped being surprising a long time ago.

Seeing the mistress and servant move to handle the arrangements immediately, Banxia stopped them:

"If we're putting on a show, we do it right. You know this better than I do, so I won't give instructions. As for the expenses — deduct them from my shares."

"That won't be necessary. You've done this much for the peace of the south, Mr. Banxia. Please let us contribute something," Kaguya Shinomiya said quickly.

"Besides, compared to everything we've gained by borrowing your name, a little money like this isn't worth mentioning."

"Suit yourselves." Banxia didn't have the energy to argue.

His stomach genuinely hurt, and all he wanted was to lie down somewhere quiet and stop thinking. "I'm heading back to bed. The rest is yours to handle."

He needed rest.

At least until that "greeting" from the nature spirits fully ran its course, he had no intention of pushing himself.

Once the two of them left, Banxia returned to his room under Roxy's care and let himself collapse onto the bed.

Lying on something soft after so long, properly idle, properly still, was nothing short of heavenly.

Banxia let his eyes drift half-shut.

"Adventurer?" The elf's voice drifted in from outside the room.

The elf had gone up to the second floor earlier to sort through personal belongings and had only just come back down.

"Ah — oh no..." Roxy suddenly remembered. She had said she'd go right up to help.

One lapse of attention, and she'd completely forgotten about the guest.

...

The next morning, a piece of news that shook all of Alterna spread fast.

In a tavern in the outer city, a Silver-rank adventurer party was gathering.

The party's warrior sat with eyes wide open, locked onto the newspaper in hand.

"Did you all read today's paper from the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce?!"

"What's wrong?"

"You actually haven't read it?!"

"Of course not. I don't have silver coins to throw around on that kind of thing. I've been scraping to the bone just to afford magic tomes." The party's mage and thief both turned to stare at the warrior in flat disbelief.

Not everyone was a bachelor fighter with no real expenses to speak of.

"Let me guess — some noble lord's youngest son got caught with the head wife again?" The thief flashed the usual grin.

"Who cares about that garbage?" The warrior waved it off and slapped the newspaper onto the table. "It's about Lord Hero Banxia!"

"What? Hero Banxia?!" The mage's expression shifted completely. One hand shot out and grabbed the paper.

Among mages in the south, Hero Banxia had long since become the most revered name in circulation. A small number of them had even come to regard him as the reincarnation of the God of Magic himself.

He had shattered the old assumption that pureblood humans were inherently inferior to the long-lived races when it came to magic, shattered it completely and without room for debate.

According to what had spread in his name: as long as you had a body strong enough and paired it with the kind of effort that Heaven Rewards Diligence, even a pureblood human could go far on the path of magic.

That idea had taken root. Most southern mages these days trained their bodies alongside their spells, and those with enough talent had gone all the way, walking the path of dual mastery in magic and martial arts.

The mage and thief leaned in over the front page and read through it line by line.

Then both of them went still.

What exactly did it mean by "Lord Hero Banxia, heart full of compassion for all living souls, unable to bear the sight of travelers and common folk being slaughtered by monsters any longer, has resolved to march north and wipe out every Human Forbidden Area"?

And in barely one month, he had already slain the legendary terror Xiaoyan, conquered the myth-grade Lova Labyrinth, and defeated the strongest warrior in history, someone who had existed only in legend?

The report went on to say that the Lord Hero had sustained near-fatal wounds in the process. Fortunately, he made it home through a secret technique and was now recovering slowly under the care of priests.

"This... can't be real..."

Even the mage who believed Banxia was the reincarnation of the God of Magic couldn't help showing doubt.

Not that it was hard to understand. The contents of this newspaper read like a mythological epic come to life. It was genuinely difficult to picture any of it happening in the real world.

"Why wouldn't it be real?" The warrior hadn't tangled himself up in any of that.

He thought back to what the bard from the north had been saying last night while bragging over drinks, and his chest straightened on its own.

"I heard a while back that Lord Banxia took down Xiaoyan one-handed, easy as anything.

I just didn't expect that a few days later, he'd already cleared a mythological labyrinth on top of it. Truly worthy of Lord Banxia."

The warrior's face was open, unguarded reverence.

To mages, Banxia was a living legend. To warriors, he was something closer to a god walking the earth.

The kingdom's former strongest warrior had been dropped by a single close-range blow from Great Demon Geist. And Geist himself had been crushed in a handful of moves by Lord Banxia's bare body, no Battle Aura, nothing.

That kind of record made the battle gods sung about in mythological epics sound understated.

A so-called strongest warrior of the mythological age? There was no comparison to be made.

While this Silver-rank party stood there in stunned silence, the same scene was playing out across every corner of Alterna.

The news moved like wind through every street and alley, until even the city lord and the nobility had been jolted awake by it.

Over a month of consistent publishing had built the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce's paper into something with real credibility. It almost never ran false stories.

Given that, even if the content looked as exaggerated as myth, that didn't make it untrue.

And beyond that, the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce was an enterprise Lord Hero Banxia himself had a stake in. Why would it play games with its own master's reputation?

With that thought rattling around in their heads, a good number of nobles with things on their minds hastily put together lavish gifts and made straight for Banxia's manor without stopping.

"Lord Banxia, are you home?"

Nobody knew which wave of visiting nobles this was by now.

Roxy wiped the thin sheen of sweat from her forehead. After moving the mountain of gifts piling up in the parlor to another room, the elf helping alongside, she came back out to receive the new arrival.

"Lady Jill." Roxy glanced at the small, carefully wrapped gift in the visitor's hands and let out a quiet breath.

Roxy had heard of this noble lady. One of the top mages at the aristocratic academy, outstanding in ability, and reportedly a contributor to the expedition that had taken on Great Demon Geist, a genuine combat practitioner, not just a name on a roster.

Privately, Roxy had also caught some whispered rumors. Apparently Lady Jill had been going out of the way to collect Hero Banxia's personal belongings. What exactly the purpose was, no one seemed to know.

Facing someone like that, Roxy kept her composure and led the guest into Banxia's room with proper courtesy.

"Lord Banxia. It's been a while."

"Yes. It has." He'd forgotten who Jill was, but Banxia lay in bed with a pale face and spoke as though even the words cost something, still managing a small nod.

To sell the performance, he threw in a few coughs for good measure.

"The strongest warrior in history, plus a great monster out of the mythological age, that really is a troublesome combination. To think even you ended up this badly hurt."

"Just minor injuries. I'll be fine in a few days." The same line he'd been running all day. But Banxia couldn't help taking a second look at this particular visitor.

The way Jill's gaze settled on him carried something he couldn't quite name, an odd quality, not unlike the mushroom maidens in the Mushroom Forest who'd watched him with that same hungry, longing look.

"..."

Banxia quietly pulled the blanket a little higher. He hadn't expected that even in a state like this, someone would still be eyeing the prize physique of an upstanding, respectable man like himself.

...

➤ Next: The Fallen Noble

Chapter 94 - The Fallen Noble

"It's a pity I'm not skilled in healing magic. Otherwise I could help ease your injuries."

"It's fine. After the Church's monks treated me, I'm already feeling much better."

"Looking at your mansion, it seems you don't have a proper maid yet. Do you need my help with that?"

"Having a noble do something like this doesn't quite seem appropriate."

"No, you misunderstand. I meant I could help you find several well-born young ladies to take care of your daily needs."

Hearing the deliberate emphasis on well-born, Banxia grew a little interested. "Tell me more."

It wasn't as if other nobles hadn't recommended maids before. Most had harbored ulterior motives, and he'd turned them all away flat. The noble before him still watched him with that slightly odd look, but the good intentions were plain enough to read.

Besides, after yesterday's events, it was clear this residence genuinely needed a maid to share the burden. Roxy secretly venting her stress, that might well be because managing the household on her own was wearing her down. And even after he eventually left, having someone to keep the girl company would be better than nothing.

"I know a junior from the Aristocratic Magic Academy. Her family ran into some trouble — things have deteriorated to the point where she has to sell herself into service. So I thought, if Lord Banxia doesn't mind, perhaps let her give it a try."

"Aristocratic Academy?" Banxia nodded. "Not bad. What's her name?"

"Tsubaki Rurikawa."

"Who?"

"Does Lord Banxia know her?"

"No." Banxia shook his head, though the name felt like something he'd glimpsed in his memories once or twice. Without using the Magic to Show Fond Memories to look closely, the fact that it had left any impression at all meant the person probably wasn't ordinary.

He turned it over for a moment, then said:

"Fine. Arrange for her to come by so I can meet her. Though I'm not guaranteeing I'll hire her."

"Then I'll bring her over shortly."

After Jill left, Roxy pushed half her body through the doorway and hovered there, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't quite bring herself to.

Banxia lifted an eyelid. "What?"

"...Nothing."

...

That afternoon, Hero Banxia's mansion.

The surrounding neighborhood had been undergoing constant renovation lately, with new estates going up one after another. Riding the wave of the hero's name, property values across the entire district had shot up several times over. The Xiaye Chamber of Commerce had even relocated its headquarters to the area. Picking up supplies or finding a monk or mage on any given day was far more convenient here than anywhere else in the city. Plenty of nobles had purchased properties and settled in as well.

The district had become the most coveted address in all of Alterna.

For many minor nobles, even renting a room here was harder than ascending to the heavens, to say nothing of those ruined families who had long since lost their standing.

And right now, led by the noble mage Jill, a girl whose family had fallen into ruin through mismanagement was making her way carefully toward the residence of that legendary man.

To say she wasn't nervous would be a lie.

These days, at every tea gathering among the young noblewomen, the talk always came back to that same man. There wasn't a girl alive who didn't have her romantic daydreams, and who wouldn't want to lay eyes on a living legend?

Tsubaki Rurikawa clutched her sleeve cuffs and kept her gaze lowered, every line of her posture radiating tension.

Jill noticed and gave a light chuckle. "Don't worry. Mr. Banxia is a gentle person."

"Yes, Lady Jill..." Tsubaki Rurikawa answered, stiffly.

Jill's family was one of the preeminent noble houses in all of Alterna, and Jill personally ranked among the South's notable mages. The Rurikawa family had once been a minor house operating under their wing. Now that the family fortunes had completely collapsed, their mansion repossessed to settle debts, nothing left but an empty family name, when Jill offered to broker a position as maid in Hero Banxia's household, Tsubaki Rurikawa's entire family had barely been able to speak through their gratitude.

Before she left, her parents had urged her over and over: whatever happened, do not displease the Lord Hero. The consequences of that would be worse than offending royalty.

"That said, don't get your hopes up too soon." Jill's tone turned serious. "Mr. Banxia won't necessarily keep you. Once you're in there, it's up to you alone. Perform well, and your family will be proud of you."

"U-Understood..." Tsubaki Rurikawa felt like she could barely breathe properly.

Just thinking about standing before that legendary figure made her legs go soft. Even her father, a proud, stubborn man if there ever was one, probably wouldn't handle it much better than she was right now.

"Do your best?" Jill said nothing more and led her onward toward the mansion.

A clean family background, preexisting ties to Jill's own clan, if this worked out, it would be a good move for Jill too. Not only would it add a layer of connection between the clan and the Lord Hero, but more importantly, if Jill ever wanted to quietly purchase at a premium any items the young man no longer needed, this would provide a channel that drew no attention.

Before long, the two reached the front entrance.

"Mr. Banxia, as promised, I've brought someone to see you." Jill spoke, then waited quietly to the side.

A moment later, a petite blue-haired figure came to open the door.

"Good afternoon, Miss Roxy."

"Good afternoon, Miss Jill." Roxy glanced at the anxious woman standing behind Jill and, just for an instant, barely perceptibly, paused.

She already knew about the plan to bring on a maid. When it came down to it, this was Banxia's home, and adding a maid had nothing to do with her. Given his current status and standing, not having a maid would be the strange thing.

Only,

Roxy couldn't help wondering whether Jill had done this on purpose.

What exactly was going on with this maid?

Why were those two mounds on her chest operating in a completely different dimension from Roxy's...?

"Miss Roxy, is something wrong?" Jill asked, puzzled by the dazed expression.

"N-Nothing..."

"Good afternoon, Miss Roxy." Tsubaki Rurikawa gathered her nerve, stepped forward, and bowed.

Whether it was her imagination or not, the blue-haired girl's gaze seemed to carry a faint trace of hostility.

Facing the "lady of the house" before even stepping through the door, in an instant, all those old stories she'd heard at noble ladies' tea parties came flooding, unbidden, through Tsubaki Rurikawa's mind.

Could it be that she was about to walk straight into that fate of being made to suffer...?

"Hello." Roxy, unable to sort out exactly what she was feeling, led the two of them to the young man's room.

Banxia was lying in bed in his usual "weakened" state, face pale, voice deliberately softened. "The maid you mentioned — that must be her."

"Greetings, Lord Banxia..." Tsubaki Rurikawa raised her head respectfully.

Just as she'd heard. The Lord Hero's voice was gentle, and his face was strikingly handsome, a rare, exceptional specimen. With his current air of injury and illness, he stirred an almost irresistible impulse to pull him close and fuss over him.

"Her name is Tsubaki Rurikawa — the youngest daughter of the Rurikawa family, a minor noble house in the inner city," Jill said on her behalf.

"Mm."

Banxia gave a small nod.

The introduction was meant to say one thing: this girl had a clean background, no entanglements with other noble houses. He had already skimmed through his memories a moment ago and confirmed her identity well enough based on the familiar source.

"Since you're the one vouching for her, that's good enough for me."

"Your meaning is...?"

"Let's keep her on a trial basis for a few days."

Tsubaki Rurikawa's eyes lit up. She was so relieved she was nearly in tears.

Banxia glanced over at the blue-haired girl sitting quietly to the side. "Roxy, would you mind showing her around the mansion later? That way you won't have to handle everything on your own every day."

"Oh." Roxy answered with a flat sound, her feelings tangled in ways she couldn't unpack, she couldn't tell whether she'd just been relieved of a burden, or whether something had grown heavier.

As she led Tsubaki Rurikawa out of the room, she couldn't stop herself from stealing one more glance at the other girl's silhouette, so entirely unlike her own, and felt something settle heavily in her chest without quite knowing why.

...

➤ Next: The Demon Hunting Plan