Despair
Just as Mina said, she sent me a letter every day.
The content of the letters was about how tough her journey was and how she was dying to see me.
I also wrote back as I filled the hole in my heart.
Weird changes started to happen after a month had passed.
Around that time, Mina began to talk about the hero in her letters.
She described many incidents of sexual harassment that were disguised as accidents.
That bastard makes me sick. He’ll pay for putting his hands on Mina.
It appears that the hero’s companions, the bow and staff princesses, were all completely infatuated with him. Night after night they took turns spending the night with him.
Mina went on and spelled out all the filthy things he did.
In her letters of the third month, she started to defend the hero a little.
It seems that the hero had saved her at a dangerous moment when they were attacked by demons.
She said that he might not be such a bad guy after all. Mina…are you okay?
More changes occurred in her letters by the fourth month.
Up until that point, she referred to the hero as “the hero”. But now, she began to refer to him as “Yuto”.
I wonder what happened to cause this change. It made me uneasy.
Entering the 5th month, I had stopped receiving her letters on a daily basis. At first, I was worried that something might have happened to her but it appears that she was just simply busy.
I finally started to receive letters from her again at the half-year mark. However, at that time, I had only received them at a rate of once every two weeks.
Almost all of what she wrote was in short sentences. It was as if I could not feel any emotions in her words.
And by the 8th month, the letters did not come anymore. I had become very anxious. Could something have happened to Mina in a place that I don’t know about?
However, I received a letter from Mina several days after that. In the letter, she wrote that she would be returning to the royal capital temporarily.
Since defeating one of the demon king’s leaders had made defeating the demon king a more likely reality, it seems that they will be regrouping for a moment to prepare.
I was so happy when I heard that. I could finally see her!
With those thoughts in my mind, I went to the royal capital at the same time that they were arriving home. There was lots of traffic in the royal capital.
I spent almost all the money I had to get there but I’ll worry about how to get home later.
My heartbeat hastened as I waited for the triumphant return of the heroes. The royal capital was already filled with people who were doing the same.
At last, the heroes have returned. They rode in on their horses one by one, and walked on the red carpet that was laid out for them. The people of the kingdom happily welcomed them.
Mina? Where’s Mina? There she is! She was towards the end, riding a horse.
She looked very lively even though she hated the journey in the beginning. She was happily waving to the citizens.
And she’s even wearing chest armor that showed cleavage. I shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as I am, though.
I was trying to get her to notice me somehow, but not only did she not notice me, she even went into the castle with the hero and his party.
Then, the hero and his group came out of the castle shortly after. It seems that they have an important announcement to make. I wonder what it was going to be about.
The hero then spoke in a loud voice,
“EVERYONE, THANK YOU FOR GATHERING HERE TODAY! TODAY I HAVE TWO THINGS TO ANNOUNCE! FIRST, WE HAVE DEFEATED THE DEMON KING’S CLOSE AIDE! THE DAY OF THE DEMON KING’S DEFEAT DRAWS NEAR!!”
“OHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
The audience cheered loudly.
“AND THE OTHER THING I WANTED TO ANNOUNCE IS- MY MARRIAGE! I’VE DECIDED TO MARRY ALL THREE OF MY COMPANIONS WHO HAD GONE ON THIS JOURNEY WITH ME! EVERYONE, WILL YOU GIVE US YOUR BLESSINGS?!”
“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Once again, the audience cheered with joy.
Wwait a minute. Marriage? What do you mean? With three people? Polygamy is not even allowed. Rather, WHAT DO YOU MEAN you’re including Mina in it?! She’s MY FIANCEE. What the hell are you talking about?!
I looked in Mina’s direction and…she was blushing as she looked at the hero.
No way… Is that real…?
My heart sunk into the dark, dark, depths of the ocean in that moment. The king came out and said something after that, but I could no longer hear a thing.
How long have I been standing here for? The sky had already become dark and no one was around anymore.
I walked towards the castle as I dragged my feet while murmuring to myself like someone who had lost their mind. Needless to say, I was stopped by the soldier at the front gate.
“What do you want?”
“I have to make sure…”
“Huh?”
“Let me see Mina! She’s my fiancée! MY FIANCEE!”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
The soldier shoved me flying in the air as he said that.
I got up and tried to get in again.
The soldier pushed me away again.
This process was repeated several times until my clothes got torn, and eventually, the gate opened. What came out of the gate was Mina and the hero.
“Roush?”
Then, she explained the situation to the soldier, and I was allowed inside the castle. I was given a seat on a guest chair as the hero took a seat on a chair as well.
“What are you doing, Roush?” Why are you causing trouble?”
Mina said as she looked at me.
“You’ll be an annoyance doing something like that”
“An annoyance you say… But what was that about?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The thing about you marrying the hero?”
“Ah, yeah. I’m getting married to Yuto. What about it?”
Mina did not seem to care much about what was being said in this conversation.
“But…aren’t we getting married?”
Mina held her stomach and began laughing after I said that.
“That thing I said from such a long time ago? That was just a joke from the naïve, old me. It was just a joke. There’s no way it was going to be decided just like that. Above all, there’s no way I would marry you with your small-fry skill”
“B-But… Weren’t you the one who told me that it didn’t matter what kind of skill I have, and that I’ll always be me?”
“Forget them. Things like that. Anyway, I’m going to be marrying Yuto so don’t talk to me like we’re all that close to each other anymore, okay?”
“Wait, Mina!”
“Don’t get close to her”
“Ughuuuu”
When I tried to grab a hold of Mina’s hand, the hero blocked it and kicked me away just like that.
I hit the wall in an unsightly manner. Then, the hero walked up close to me, crouched down and said,
“Listen up, okay? I don’t know how long she’s been your fiancée, but Mina is my woman now. You got that? Both her body and her mind are mine”
“You p-piece of shit. Why would Mina like you…?”
“I’ll tell you for your future benefit. For girls, they would surely see the person who rescues them during times of crisis as their prince, you know? Even if the whole crisis was all planned and directed by me, you see”
No way, this fucker. He plotted and acted out that whole thing about him saving her from demons.
This scummy bastard. Unforgivable!!
“UOHHHHHHHHH”
I mustered up the last bit of my strength and swung my fist at the hero. However, he swung a punch of his own at the same time and hit me directly on my cheek.
“Don’t touch me with your dirty hands!”
“Uu,uuuuu…”
“Hold on, aren't you going a bit too far?”
Mina said as she looked at me like I was something dirty.
“It’s fine, I just beat up your stalker. He got what he deserved”
“Well, that’s that I guess. Well then, Roush. You can stay the night here, so please leave tomorrow”
Mina got up and kissed the hero. Unlike her kiss with me, it was an experienced kiss with tongue. The hero was looking at me as it was happening as if he wanted to deliberately show it to me.
“*Ammuu*, Yuto, we can’t do it here. In..the room”
“Hehe, you’re right. See ya' then, “coward”. Meaninglessly comfort yourself alone in this room”
With that, the hero walked away as he held onto Mina by her waist.
I was introduced to my room by a servant after that. It was a room that was a little too big for me to sleep alone in. I fell asleep on my back without knowing what to do.
I couldn’t think of anything at all.
Let’s just sleep like this. Yeah, let’s forget everything.
I closed my eyes.
However, despair did not leave me. My hearing that had sharpened due to having my eyes closed was picking up some weird noises from the room next to mine.
It was a mellow voice of a young woman. I can tell even without any experience. They're the sounds that a man and a woman make when they are doing “it”.
Then, I realized. I realized it. The woman’s voice resembles the voice of my childhood friend.
I got up from my bed since I could not endure it anymore.
I exited my room quietly, and walked to the door of the next room. Their door was carelessly left slightly open.
I peeked into the room with the last bit of hope in my chest, hoping that I would not see Mina.
"……Ah!"
"Why does this feel better than usual, Mina?!" "Is it because of your childhood friend?"
"Don't speak! Yuto, Yutooo!"
I felt a raging stream start to come up from my stomach. I held my mouth with my hand and rushed to the toilet.
"OooEE.. OEEee blaaaaaaaa hhhh"
I threw up. I continued to puke. Snot and tears ran down my face; everything was overflowing. Unable to think about anything, I collapsed until morning came.
Mina and the others had already left by then. The servant found me collapsed in the bathroom and told me to rest back in the room after helping me a bit.
I was in bed, face up, intently staring at the ceiling.
"Despicable……"
The word that came out of my mouth after a long time- just who was I trying to direct that word to?
Yuto? Mina? Or myself? No… It’s everyone.
The hero who easily stole my childhood friend and the slut who opened her legs so easily.
And the powerless me, who was unable to do anything about it.
I hate them all!
I want to have revenge on those guys. However, I have no power to go against the heroes. What should I do?
The only thing that I can use as a weapon is my useless skill. But I still want to have my revenge somehow.
Calm down, me. Revenge is not something that you can succeed at by rushing it. I will take it slow as I hold in the bitterness.
My skill, “unimportant”, is one that makes it difficult for others to be wary of me. In other words, this is a skill that would let me get close to people easily, since I would be more likely to make a good first impression.
Can I use this skill to get close to someone in this castle and use them to outsmart the hero?
Speaking of which, the servant had said something earlier. The hero is going to marry this kingdom’s princess. Certainly, that would mean that the princess would be the main wife and Mina and the other girls would be his concubines. This bastard is fucking around everywhere.
Hold on…What if I can get “close” to the princess? Wouldn’t that be the thing that he would hate the most?
I would surely crush this guy’s pride and shred it to pieces if I get in between him and the princess. It seems that he has not laid his hands on the princess yet.
Well, I would probably be in deep shit if the king finds out, but I don’t care as long as I can have my revenge on the hero.
However, it’s a bit frustrating that I can’t do anything to Mina. Let’s fix that with a little re-planning later before extracting my revenge.
Wait. If I remember correctly, the queen of this country started as a commoner. If I can use this knowledge to my advantage…
This would be too idealistic of a scenario, but first I can get close to the king and the princess, and become recognized as an official fiancé candidate. It will be an all-in gamble. Since the queen came from a commoner background as well, the king might just accept it if I could make the princess fall for me at first sight.
Then, I can slowly implant bad impressions of the hero to the princess. When the hero returns from subjugating the demon king, I will drive him into a corner by condemning him with arguments.
The heroes and his party will be humiliated. At that time, I will get the princess to break off her engagement with the hero. In addition to that, in an ideal scenario, I will also give some candid advice to the king as well, regarding the hero. Then, all the trust this bastard has will be lost. Mina and the other girls will also point their fingers the other way.
Well, if things would go smoothly like that, my life wouldn’t have become something like this- A life that I couldn’t care less for. I’m going to do it.
I will…steal the princess.