The final piece of the plan had fallen into place. With this, it should be possible.
That was what I thought, but the problem arose from an unexpected place.
"No."
The Empress had rejected my proposal in a firm voice.
"Why..."
"I understand what you want to say. I understand how you feel too."
She began with words of agreement, but anyone who wasn't a fool could tell that this was only the prelude to a refusal.
"But it's too dangerous."
The thing that had blocked my path the most until now was not a powerful enemy or some pitch-black malice.
"Your plan has too many gambling elements. If even one thing goes wrong, it's total annihilation."
The thing that had blocked my path the most.
It was none other than reason.
The reason that said sacrifice one to save ten. The reason that said if you try to save everyone, everyone will be put in danger.
Reason, in the name of reality, had always held back my steps and silenced everyone else. Ideals shine and become something to long for precisely because they are so far removed from reality.
People who live in reality do not realize ideals. No, they do not.
Because ideals are too dangerous, and reality is too heavy. That was why my greatest enemy had always been the wall called reality.
You can't do this, you can't do that. It was frustrating and annoying, but the biggest problem was that I myself strongly agreed with those words.
I could understand it. I had to understand it. The weight of life was far too heavy, and I knew all too well how foolish it was to drive people to their deaths for the sake of an ideal.
There can be no sacrifice in battle. What I was doing was nothing more than selfishness. No one would risk their life for selfishness.
The weight of life became shackles that pressed down on me as they were. I had always agonized, and agonized again, before that weight.
But...
"Even so, we have to do it."
I had already worried enough to be sick of it. My own sense of justice was already complete.
I would always keep thinking, keep weighing it over and over, but even so, I still couldn't give up this foolish choice.
"There's no such thing as a rational sacrifice. We won't let anyone die."
"Hey, you think I don't know that?! It can't be helped!"
"You say sacrifice in battle can't be helped?"
I understood her words. More than anyone, I understood them desperately.
I had gone on many adventures. There was no way I didn't know how absurd it was to speak of a path where everyone survived.
Even knowing that, I chose this path.
No matter what hardships and trials waited ahead, I, we—
"We're adventurers."
"...!"
"We're not just people who turn back to the safe road."
For a moment, everyone there was overwhelmed.
They understood that this man, who seemed more clumsy than anyone else, was more of an adventurer than anyone else.
An adventurer is someone who fights with their life on the line. Then what do they fight for with their life on the line?
Wealth, honor, power—there are many answers, but the word that expresses it best is this one.
Everything. Adventurers want everything.
So greedy, and so desperate—a contradictory existence.
That is an adventurer.
That is a hero.
"Putting your life on the line isn't a bad thing."
No matter how much flowery language you piled on, an adventurer was ultimately just a fool who bet their life on the Dungeon, that gambling den.
But. Even so.
"But shouldn't the reason you bet your life be something other than dying?!"
Even if you risk your life, it has to be for living, not for dying.
"You're saying a few sacrifices let everyone survive? No, there's no way that's true!"
The moment a few sacrifices are required, you can no longer use the word everyone.
"If we're going to do it, then all of it! It only has meaning if everyone truly makes it back!"
In the rabbit's eyes, the Empress saw it.
She saw a gaze that condemned them for not even being able to do this much, and still calling themselves heroes.
As the lion once tested the rabbit, the rabbit was now testing everyone here.
Were you adventurers worthy of admiration?
Were you heroes?
That gaze was almost mad, but no one could look at it and call the rabbit insane.
Then a brief silence fell.
"...I'm in favor."
"...! Arphia!"
"After all, the most important role in this battle is mine, isn't it? I'll make the decision."
The witch's firm declaration only deepened the confusion.
No one there failed to notice that the woman who had been the most rational, and the most self-willed, had quietly sided with the rabbit.
No, maybe sided wasn't quite the right word.
To be precise, this wasn't support. It was inspiration.
Like fire catching on kindling, the rabbit's foolishness had spread to the witch.
She would abandon the easy road that could be walked with a little sacrifice and throw herself into a thicket of thorns and hardship.
When the person least likely to change changes, it causes a ripple, whether you like it or not.
Whether that result will be a huge success or a complete failure, no one knows yet.
But there was one thing certain.
The dice had already been cast.
"...Hah, you damned lot."
She clutched her head and let out a sigh. Her blood pressure had shot up from the sudden turn of events.
"So? Do you have a concrete plan?"
"Nope."
"What the fu—"
A vein bulged on the Empress's forehead.
Why did the rabbit's face somehow remind her of an irritating old man? The unbelievably shameless answer left her speechless in a different way than before.
"Do we really need a plan?"
The rabbit spoke as calmly as if stating the obvious fact that water flows from top to bottom.
If there was such a thing as a true hero—
Not someone who wielded a sword, not someone who raised a shield, not someone who brought healing,
"Aren't everyone here people who can stake themselves?"
If they carried out their wishes and shouted their hearts, then that was...
"The most wonderful kind of hero."
So there was no need for some trivial plan. If everyone was staking themselves and charging ahead, there was no reason for one.
—Right?
With a gaze so straight it was almost violent, he spoke with complete sincerity.
The Empress stared blankly at that look for a moment, then...
"Haah, feels like I picked a fight with a lunatic."
She sighed in exasperation.
"Forte."
At that moment, the lion spoke up.
"What do you think?"
"What else? Obviously it's insane."
"Yes, it is insane. Reckless, and irresponsible too."
Human lives are precious. They understood that more keenly than anyone—no, precisely because they were adventurers.
But.
"And yet, isn't that why it has meaning?"
"...What?"
"Whether someone is a hero or an ordinary person. Isn't that what gets decided here?"
The other word for hero is fool. They leave the easy road clearly visible before their eyes and keep repeating reckless choices.
Most cannot bear that weight and fall, but sometimes there are those who go beyond everything.
"Those are the ones who are called heroes."
By contrast, those who cannot are called ordinary.
Whether you have the resolve to endure all manner of absurdity, recklessness, and ignorance—every kind of bizarre ordeal, hardship, and trial—and to overcome it.
If that is the difference between a hero and an ordinary person, then...
"Then we'll give it a try."
We had no intention of ending as ordinary people, not even a little.
We had no intention of compromising with a pathetic reality, not even a little.
We would seize everything we wanted.
We would win without letting anyone die.
That was the ideal an adventurer, a hero, should pursue.
"I'm going."
What about you?
The lion's eyes turned to the Empress.
"Ha."
A laugh slipped out before she could stop it.
They were crazy. They were all crazy. To agree to this insane operation.
To leave the safe road behind and deliberately choose adventure.
That rabbit had twisted everything.
Arphia too, Maxim too.
And herself too.
"Fine, damn it. Let's give it a shot."
No matter how much she tried to deceive herself, she too was a vessel for a hero.
She had only become passive because she had taken on the crushing weight of leadership, but at her core, she was still an adventurer.
No, she wasn't the only one.
The other word for hero is fool.
And all the adventurers here were fools.
They would stake their lives and move forward, just to make it back alive.
[What are you thinking, Zeus?]
At the old god's voice from beyond the barrier, Zeus answered in a bored tone.
Judging by the faint irritation in his voice, he seemed displeased that the children had been pushed into even greater hardship.
That alone reminded him of Hera's complaints, and his own voice turned dry as well.
"What are you talking about?"
[Why did you rush the expedition?]
This expedition had come about roughly a year earlier than planned.
And all of it had happened because Zeus had forced the issue.
If the expedition had started later, the subjugation would have gone far more smoothly, and the number of children who were sacrificed would have been far smaller.
"That's exactly why I rushed it."
[...What are you thinking, Zeus?]
The same words, a different meaning.
Zeus caught the implication hidden within them, and a smile spread across his lips.
"The time of the promise is almost here."
[Grace], [companions], [souls], [spirits], [vows], and [conclusion]—all the conditions had begun to come together.
The moment everyone had been waiting for was drawing near.
In that case, it was only right that he be the one to raise the signal flare for the beginning.
"It's a hero race."
The lion, the queen, the witch, the warrior. The vessels of heroes that he and Hera had carefully selected and gathered.
And now, the white rabbit who had appeared out of nowhere.
Among them, who was the one they had been waiting for? That was what would be decided.
[...Don't tell me.]
"That's right."
The voice beyond the barrier began to tremble. In inverse proportion to that, Zeus's voice filled with delight.
By now, there was no way not to understand.
The story of the children that had continued since ancient times.
The being who would bring that story to its conclusion.
"The final hero is about to appear."
The end of all stories was drawing near.