Running Away From The Hero!

Chapter 2. Uhh… Mm… What’s that? Scary…

2.25 Their Story

[1] Raina Rel Swin: What the hell, that hurts!

Today, too, I was served porridge.

And that day, I thought of the pain of being unable to eat the delicious food in front of me. I thought of the humiliation that I had to take by eating porridge.
While I ate porridge with an annoyed face, the instructor spoke.

“Come to the drill hall by 10 once you finish eating.”

The only thing that I did the past month was to learn survival techniques, and do basic strength training.
A drill hall… I thought that we would finally learn something useful. Seriously, why would a survival technique be useful to me? I’d have little to no chance of running away if something happened here, as I would be a prioritized target.

I cautiously moved to the drill hall with my beloved sword in hand.
There are no allies here. This is a place full of demons.

Putting trust and faith into your teammates? Don’t joke with me. My last hope, 17, realized that she couldn’t beat 46, and began to attack me as well. She interferes with me from the start to the end, and creates all kinds of traps to put me in danger.

Nowadays… I’m afraid of women. They’re seriously scary. At first, my heart thumped a little when I saw beautiful women, but now, it’s beating faster than ever. It’s not a dokun dokun, it’s a boom boom boom boom. It’s probably because I get into life-death situations near them.

And soon, I arrived at the drill hall. Its walls were arranged in a circular manner through the use of stone walls, and there were various weapons on one side of the wall.

“What the, so there was a legit drill hall here?”

What the hell, I thought he was just going to do something ridiculous because there was no drill hall.
As I thought that, the instructor began to talk looking straight at me.

“102, come out with your weapon.”

As he said this, he took out a small club from his waist. It’s size was… about as big as my leg? It was a little too big to call it small, but it was a little too small for a staff. It seemed a little bigger than a normal sword.
But what? He’s using a club instead of a wooden sword? Are you kidding me?
When I took out my sword with such a complaint, the instructor spoke words that were like the devil’s temptation.

“If you manage to subdue me… morning practice is canceled.”
“Huaaa!”

Was this what the berserker spell was like? I ran forward without thinking anything.

And.

Paa-!
“Wh, what the?!”

I, I can’t see! No, before that, my eye hurts!
And as I tried to say something.

Crack!
“Pue?!”

The thing that seemed to be the club hit me. It was a shout that seemed to be a mix between a scream and a moan! I shouted as I felt an unspeakably large amount of pain.

“U, unfa-! Puha! W, wai… Uaaa!”

A cold voice responded to me when I said that.

“Unfairness… then do you think there is a fight that is ever fair?”
“F, fight fairly!”
“Fight fairly… they’re just fancy words.”

Crack!

“Kuhaaa?!”

The instructor responds, but the club does not stop. The pain penetrated through the bones! It felt like I was hit in the waist, but the pain spreads to the rest of the body.

W, what the hell?! Hurts! Hurts a lot!

The instructor kept on denying what I said about fairness as he gave me more pain.

“Fairness. It sounds good. Yes, it truly sounds ideal. But there is no fairness in the world.”
“L, lia… kuha!”
“For example, there is the general known as Harten in the Empire. In the battle of Harken, he pushed away a large amount of soldiers to discourage the enemies from attacking the Empire.”

H, how’s that related!

“S, stop hitting! Pukaa! W, while speaki- Uaaa!”
“He was known to be fair and just. But… fair? Are you kidding me? Anyone can push away an enemy with five times the amount of soldiers they have. If you want something that’s really fair, you should fight on equal grounds.”
“T, this and that are differeeeeennnnnntttttt!”

No, in the first place, fairness doesn’t even matter! Just stop this pain!

Crackcrackcrakittycrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcra

I was about to faint from the strange rhythmic strikes. But why is that I was still able to hear the instructor’s words clearly?

“What is the fairness you talk of? Justice? Don’t make me laugh. Justice all changes depending on the context. The heroes all gang up on the Demon King, and call that fairness? And they always talk about unfairness when they’re the ones to get ganged up on. Hostages are unfair? The very first thing the Imperial Palace does when dealing with criminals is to take the criminal’s family as hostage. Now, back to the main talking. Spraying sand into your eyes is unfair? You must be kidding me. If that were the case, all knights who use the life sword are unfair.”
“Wh, why is thaaat! Un, unfaaaaaaaair!”

I keep trying to tell him to stop, but my mouth is saying something different. What the hell?! Why am I like this?! Am I going mad from pain?

“Knights all talk of their sword skills. They think they would get strong the more they perfect their sword skills. But when they become able to use the life sword? They do not care for sword skills anymore. They just try to learn fancy skills, and do not try to learn more about the life sword’s essence itself. The life sword enables one to easily train his body, easily increase his sword’s sharpness, and easily kill his enemies.”

I know that much. Talent is more important than sword skills. Even if your sword skills are bad, if you are talented in using the life sword, your life is all set.

“T, that’s talent…”

Crackcrackcrack!

“Kuaaa!”

I thought we were taking a break, and then I got hit again! And it hurts even more than before?!

“Talent? What is fairness to you? Is it fairness if two people tried just as hard, but lost because one was more talented? Is that what you truly think? Right, the life sword exists because of talent. It is like magic, but is completely different, making it like a completely different field of study. Right. Then do you mean that it is fine to not train your sword skills under the name of talent?”
“I, I’m not talking about thaaaaaahaaaahnnng!”

I can’t even scream anymore. No, well… It still hurts, but… something feels weird at the same time? D, dangerous! I feel like I’m going somewhere dangerous!

The instructor seemed to have sensed something as well, and stepped on me instead of hitting me.

“There is no fairness in the first place. There is no equal talent, no equal abilities, and your class is chosen the moment you are born. If you had the power to rule the world, and was of the Royal Family, you would be hailed as a holy king, but if you were of the peasant’s family, you would be marked as a seed for rebellion.”

I’m becoming unconscious, and yet I can still hear well. I felt like fainting several times already, but my consciousness gets clearer instead. What the, scary!

“There is no justice in the world. There is no evil in the world either. The opposite of justice is yet another justice, and the opposite of evil is yet another evil. There is nothing in the world without a story, and there is no action in the world that does not have a motive.”

No, there is justice in this world. There is evil as well. Justice is to have that demonic stick disappear, and evil is that stick itself. That is the weapon of the devil. No, that is something that not even the demon king would dare use.

“What if there was a murderer who killed a single woman in front of you? Would it be alright to kill him? What if the woman was the witch who had destroyed his entire life altogether? What if she was someone who had stolen important files from the Empire? What would you do then?”

It is simple. You just have to beat them with the stick. Then they will say the truth.
17, who did not realize this yet, answered with a trembling voice.

“W, we should listen to their story?”
“What if he had been lying? What if the woman was completely innocent?”
“W, what?!”

I’m telling you, just beat them with the stick.

“That’s why I said, there is no justice… there is no evil as well.”
“…Why does that matter?”
“There is no justice. Those who talk of it are just trying to convince others that what they’re doing is not wrong. Look at the Empire, for example. It is the strongest nation in the world, and it is also a place with 700 years of experience. It even has two subordinate countries under it. Truly, it is an amazing nation.”

I know that well. Even though I look like this, I am the son of the emperor of this nation. Well, he was one of the reasons who put me over here, though. He said something about lions pushing off their own cubs off a cliff on purpose? I’m not even a lion… no, in the first place, why would you push a cub off a cliff?
As I complained in my head, the instructor scanned us children again, and kept talking.

“Do you know the origin of this Empire? It is actually quite simple. A single peasant went against the Imperial Palace and revolted. He gathered comrades and destroyed corruption, and created this nation.”
“A, and therefor, he’s just… kahak!”

H, hurts! Can’t I even respond?!

“But what they did was ultimately a revolt.”
“N, no! At the time! There was only corruption!”
“Then are you telling me there is no corruption in the Imperial Palace as of now?”
“…That’s…”

Eh, I can’t refute that. I wouldn’t be here if there was no corruption in the first place. The imperial palace is actually pretty shit, considering how everyone talks about how you’re going to kill someone after you insult the person once.

“There is still corruption. There is corruption in any nation of the world. Even the Empire that was created to get rid of corruption is corrupt. Now, I speak again: is the Empire good, or evil?”
“…Evil?”

That’s not true.

“Then is this organization, which trains orphans then uses them like tools, just?”

Nope.

“……”
“This is why justice and evil cannot coexist. If the Empire is just, this Organization is just as well, and if the Empire is evil, this organization is evil as well. What’s important is the importance of an individual. Do you get sad if someone dies? No. What if it’s a close friend of yours? You’d be sad. You’d be enraged. Right. That’s it. It just depends on whether you know the person or not.”
“Then… what must we do…”
“Decide for yourself. Do not think about justice or evil. Judgement? What a joke. Whether it be a king killing a slave, or a murderer killing a normal man, it’s both murder. But the Empire says that it is alright for an emperor to kill inferior humans, while it is evil for a murderer to kill a normal man. This is the reality of the Empire’s laws. But do you think you, who lived a little more than a decade, can judge this 700 year old system? Don’t joke with me. You’re not gods. No, even if you are, you still have no right to judge others.”

Ohh! Nice! So stop stepping on me already! So stop being a hypocrite already!

“Have a desire of your own. Take what you want. Protect what you need to protect. You want to save someone? Save him. You want to kill someone? Kill him. Do not base your morals around what the world tells you. The world is the people, and the people are just numbers. They talk of justice just because they are the majority. I refuse to believe that I teach idiots who listen to those monkeys.”

My desire is already decided. My desire is to not get hit by that club, my wish is to use that club, and what I must protect is my body that is being abused by that club.

Once I made my resolution, I made an evil grin after hearing the instructor’s next words.

“Next, 17.”

Huhuhuhuhu, hahahahaha!

“Y, yes!”

I have been freed!
And as I heard the screams coming from the other side, I made an oath to myself.

…I shall never be hit by that thing ever again!