"Thanks for the hard work."

We had somehow managed to get the airship repaired for the journey back to Ragalon, and then back to Havia City. Unlike the useless Alicia, Alan and Sophia successfully escorted the princess back to the airship and kept her safe the entire time.

Well, there was a reason why I brought them along. Obviously I couldn't just solo everything on my own. I wasn't a god and I was definitely no Mary Sue.

While Alan and friends escorted the princess off the airship and toward a contingent of waiting royal guard in the capital, Nagano Nanaka had turned to me and temporarily bade me farewell.

"I couldn't have done this without you, Tanaka-kun."

"I can say the same about you."

If Nagano hadn't shown up and casted a barrier over me, I would have been crushed to oblivion despite my own Dark Barrier and Redwood jacket. The ancient dragon was just that powerful. Furthermore, she also helped in that last segment by protecting my undead dragon and shielding it from the worst of the ancient dragon's attack. Without her support, the outcome of the battle might be very different.

Nagano was right when she said that her role was more a support type than a frontline bruiser. Her defensive spells had been invaluable.

"Thanks for the assist. You saved me and my zombie dragon."

"Heh..not at all. In fact, I'm the one who should be grateful. Did you know? After defeating the ancient dragon, my special ability leveled up! My barriers now are much stronger than before! They no longer break as easily!"

Nagano was naively telling me about her special abilities even though she really should be keeping them to herself. I forced a smile and nodded.

"That's great."

"What about you, Tanaka-kun? Did any of your special abilities level up?"

"Not really..though I can now summon a zombie ancient dragon."

After all those victories and accumulated experience, it appeared that my Summoning special ability had improved tremendously. I could now summon zombies from thin air. Not just human or humanoid zombies but also wyverns and dragons. That was how I managed to summon the undead wyverns during the battle against the ancient dragon.

And with the victory against the ancient dragon, I could now summon its corpse to do my bidding as a reward for prevailing over it. And with Thousand Astral Graves to boost its power even further..I wouldn't be surprised if I could wield the equivalent of a dragon god.

"Anyway, I'll see you guys later."

Feeling exhausted, I decided to leave. I had no interest in participating the formalities that would ensue when the princess was welcomed back to the castle and all that. I honestly had no intention of dealing with all that BS right now.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Back to the inn."

"Oh no, you don't. You're coming with us." Nagano frowned. "Otherwise you won't get your reward."

I gulped at that. Hell no. there was no way I was going to let that happen. With the threat of my hard-earned gold being snatched away from my hands, I decided to put up with the whole thing and go along with them.

Fortunately, the welcoming ceremony didn't take very long. We just followed the princess and her honor guard back to the castle, where her father, the king, greeted her happily.

"Merly!"

"Father!"

Princess Merly and her father embraced at the entrance of the castle. The elderly king wasn't patient enough to wait inside the throne room for his daughter and had personally rushed to the gates to greet her.

"I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Not at all. These people saved me!"

She gestured to the party standing behind the honor guard. Alan bowed his head.

"Your majesty."

"Ah..thank you. And you, especially, Hero-sama! To personally step out and save my daughter even though you're so busy with the war..I'm indebted to you...the royal family is indebted to you!"

"I didn't do it alone," Nagano replied as she directed the king's attention to Alan and the others. I tried to stay out of sight and keep a low profile but my former classmate was having none of it. As expected of the former class representative..she made sure everybody was included.

Huh, but she couldn't do much when I was being bullied because she was afraid of Kobayashi and was barred from helping me by Tsukishima and the other girls. Well, it wasn't as if I held a grudge against her for that.

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"Thank you all as well. I hear you're from the mercenary guild? You're all very brave, risking your lives to rescue my daughter from the dragons. I'll personally ensure that you get your rewards. Anything. If there's anything you want, name it."

"No, we only did our duty, your majesty," Nagano replied.

"It was an honor to save. We ask for nothing in return." Alan bowed. Alicia, being from a noble family, followed suit as well.

However..

"No, I insist! Well, let's go inside first. We'll discuss this more inside..it's awkward to stand outside talking like this. Come in!"

We followed the king and princess into the castle, the royal guard flanking us. I was so drained that I didn't pay any attention to what was going on, and time seemed to just fly past. While hanging back, I vaguely listened to the other members in my party make their respective requests. Alan wanted a promotion and probably a noble title, Sophia wanted a new grimoire that was hard to find in Havia, Alicia wanted a rare potion (sounded suspiciously like a love potion or aphrodisiac).

As for Nagano..

"Do you mind giving me mithril ores, your majesty?"

"Mithril?" the king's eyes widened for a moment, but he then immediately nodded. "Of course, of course! How much do you need?"

"Not much. Three kilograms or so."

The king looked almost relieved. "I'll have it prepared and sent to you right away, Nagano-sama. I assume you'll be in the academy again?"

"That will be best, yes. Thank you for your generosity."

"No, thank you!"

And at last the king came to me. He studied me, smiling.

"And you..are the one who defeated both dragons?"

"Uh, well..not really.."

"Yes, he is," Nagano interrupted. I quickly offered an explanation.

"I only did the finishing blows. Everyone helped me tremendously."

"Heh, humble as well as powerful." The king studied me and then frowned. "Say, aren't you a hero as well?"

"It's..complicated. But no, I'm not a hero."

"Hmm.." the king looked unconvinced, but knew it was pointless to pursue any line of inquiry. So he just smiled and moved on. "What would you like as your reward?"

"Just the payment will do."

"No can do! I know! A house? Jewels? A wife?"

"No. I don't need any of those.."

"Just accept it," Nagano hissed as she nudged me. "Make any request. Otherwise you'll make the rest of us look bad."

I glanced around and saw the orgy party looking a little awkward and uncomfortable. Even though I was the one who seemed to have done most of the work (killing the dragons), I was the only one refusing a reward while the rest happily asked for whatever they wanted. I was succeeding in weighing them down with guilt and shame.

As much as I wanted to enjoy their clear discomfort and shame, I didn't want to waste any more time lingering around the godforsaken throne room. This was far from being the Golden Throne in Holy Terra.

"World peace."

"Huh?"

Everyone gaped at me. I shrugged.

"That's my request. World peace."

Nagano sighed and shook her head, groaning.

"Can't you ask for something more realistic and practical? That's too abstract and impossible to achieve."

"Is it impossible to achieve?"

This time I was addressing the king, who was looking as if he was at a loss from my ridiculous request.

"Well..it is difficult, but not impossible."

"In the first place, what do you mean by world peace?!"

Alicia broke out. I was about to shrug, but then realized I would be making a mockery of the whole thing if I made a request for something even I myself didn't know what it was. So I shook my head and sighed instead.

"Exactly what it means. I want the wars to stop. I want the world to be at peace, to stop fighting and warring among each other."

"I see. So you're talking about the war against the demons."

The king stroked his greying beard as he regarded me. All of a sudden he looked so very weary, as if he had aged a few years.

"You..are very wise for someone your age."

No, no, no. I was just bullshitting because I couldn't think of any wish. That was all. Oh come on. Don't tell me they were falling for it!

I was beginning to despair over humanity's lack of intelligence.

At the same time, there was something about the king's tone that drew my attention. I raised my head to stare at him, but he continued tiredly.

"Legnica and the other human kingdoms have been warring against the demons for years. No, decades. We're all so exhausted, so sick of war. To tell the truth, we thought the war would be over once we defeated the Demon Lord."

Yeah, well..somehow all these isekai stories always had the same trope. The moment the heroes defeated the Demon Lord, the war would automatically and miraculously end. Humans would enter a long-lasting era of peace. As if the death of one single figure would solve everything.

It was highly absurd, really. A bloody load of nonsense. Only in fiction would everyone live happily ever after upon such a ridiculously simple solution.

Unfortunately, reality was extremely different from fiction. The demons didn't automatically disappear after their Demon Lord was defeated. A new Demon Lord would succeed him – just like Regis Gremory – and the war would continue. This wasn't some fantasy story where the actions of a few characters would decide the outcome by killing the central villain, and have some deus ex machina descend to conveniently delete all the enemies from the game upon a single victory. The term "final boss" so often coined for games never translated well into reality.

After all, in the real world, there was no such thing as a "final boss".

It made me wonder why the gods bothered with this whole hero thing in the first place. It just felt so pointless and stupid.

"Well, you're the ones who insisted on pursuing the war until the demon race is entirely exterminated," I pointed out. The king glanced down at his feet.

"..yes, I will have to accept responsibility for that. But.."

There was something about his tone that caught my attention. I gulped and studied him.

"What is it?"

"To be honest, the new Demon Lord sent several emissaries, requesting for peace."

"..eh?"

I didn't hear about that. Neither did the orgy party, it seemed. Alan, Alicia and Sophia were all exchanging confused glances.

Only Nagano stayed silent, a bitter expression crawling over her face.

"The human kingdoms were ready to accept the surrender and peace. We were all so tired after fighting such a long war, we have sustained so many casualties and lost so very much. Now that we had finally driven the demons out of our lands and reclaimed our territories and dealt them a blow they shouldn't be able to recover from, we were ready to accept their surrender and receive peace."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Kobayashi-kun."

It wasn't the king who replied but Nagano. I turned to her in surprise, but she said no more than that. Glancing back at the king, I caught his nod.

"Kobayashi-sama refused their surrender and insisted on exterminating the demons from the face of Restia. He killed the emissaries and sent their heads back to the current Demon Lord, and..coerced the human kingdoms to pursue the war."

"While taking a vacation from the frontlines?"

"..the heroes work in truly mysterious ways."

I didn't buy that bullshit. Not one bit.

"The heroes are too powerful." The king directed a glance at Nagano, who looked away. "We couldn't persuade them to give up the war. They're growing increasingly powerful and influential. Kobayashi-sama and his circle, especially, have begun to call the shots politically and militarily. Nobody can resist them."

I see. No wonder Hoshizaki and the others felt a need to form a renegade group in order to oppose Kobayashi and his clique. He was growing too big for his boots and exerting pressure on the human kingdoms.

"Believe me..after that first war, we really want peace. The demons too..they've realized how costly it is to wage war against us and attempt to invade our lands. We could have reached an understanding..but Kobayashi-sama is confident that we can exterminate them completely."

I snorted at that.

"No way. That's even more impossible than world peace."

"Perhaps..even if it is possible, it'll take us many more years before we conquer all of Morten and root every single demonic tribe out. Even then, there will be survivors who will fight against us more fiercely than ever..it becomes a cycle of hatred and blood that can never be quenched. The violence and bloodshed will never stop.."

I almost rolled my eyes at that. Stop being so dramatic. I couldn't believe he was spouting off those cheesy lines from some medieval fantasy story or sci-fi military story.

"We'll find a way to convince Kobayashi-kun," Nagano promised suddenly, drawing all attention to her. She ignored the collective gazes and instead clenched her fists tightly, her voice quivering ever so lightly. "We'll stop him..by force, if necessary."

"Not necessarily."

The king looked at Nagano sadly.

"I appreciate your support in this, Nagano-sama, but..we're no match for him. There's simply too many people on Kobayashi-sama's side. Even with the nine of you.."

"Nine?" Merly echoed. The king jolted up.

"Ah, sorry. I mean eight. Even with the eight Iron Knights who have declared their withdrawal from the company of heroes and went into hiding to oppose Kobayashi-sama, his remaining forces are too strong for us to resist."

"Even then..you're the king of Legnica! There must be something you can do, your majesty..!"

Nagano blinked and caught herself, shaking her head.

"No, forgive me. I was out of line."

"Not at all," King Leric assured her. "Every word you said is right. I understand your grievances, but.."

He paused and stared above. Following his gaze, I saw that he was studying the row of portraits that hung in the great hall, all dressed extravagantly, with crowns atop their heads.

There was no doubt that these were all former kings, ancestors of King Leric who had ruled consecutively over Legnica.

".."

There was a long pause as King Leric kept his eyes riveted on the row of portraits, his dark pupils almost not moving.

Then he finally spoke up.

"No, you're right. I'm the king of Legnica. What am I doing? Why am I allowing an outsider rule my own country?"

"But.."

Legis shook his head when Merly voiced an objection, and continued. His voice sounded a lot stronger.

"Yes, we owe Kobayashi-sama and the other heroes a great deal. They have saved our kingdom and the human races from the onslaught of demons. They have fought for us, risked and sacrificed much, and are now part of our kingdom."

I hated to break it to him. But Kobayashi and the others probably did all that because they treated the whole thing as a game. Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered.

"Nonetheless, I am the king here, and I have to make the decision for not just the heroes but the good of my own people as well. Even if we owe the heroes a debt we can never repay, we cannot allow them to take over as our new rulers and continue putting the population at risk. I need to protect my own people..and the soldiers of all the human kingdoms as well."

Cool story, bro. so what are you going to do about it? Giving an impassioned speech was fine and all, but I would very much prefer action than words.

"I'll deliver you your world peace," King Leric said to me with a smile. "I'll gather all the royalties of every human kingdom, and we will end this war once and for all."