The Starving Hero

"Hey, are you alright? Hang in there."

Ria called out. Being in a state of starvation meant it had to be worse than just hunger.

"I'm… so hungry…"

When Ria lifted her up, the girl's face was revealed.

Identify didn't show the other person's appearance, after all. She was a cute girl with her hair cut at shoulder length. Sixteen years old.

Even when checking directly with Identify, she had the Hero title. No doubt about it.

"I'll get you food right away. Just hold on a little longer."

Ria teleported together with Sei. Their destination was the dining hall in the dwarf village.

"Uuu, food…"

Light returned to her eyes. She was probably drawn by the smell.

"Chef! Make something that can be eaten right away, anything's fine!"

In response to Ria's shout, the cook answered with a hearty affirmative.

Sei thought soup might be better at first, but the girl started wolfing down the food brought to her without any problem.

What an incredible appetite. They placed additional orders, but everything was quickly deposited into the girl's stomach.

It was abnormal. She was probably eating more than her own body weight. And yet she still wasn't satisfied.

With the surrounding gazes gathering on her, she must have regained some composure. The girl's eating pace slowed down.

Even so, she was still eating too much. If she entered a competitive eating contest on Earth, victory would be certain.

"Um, excuse me…"

Having been satisfied for now, the girl bowed her head with mountains of plates stacked on either side of her.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't have any money. If I sell this armor and spear, I might be able to cover it somehow…"

"I understand the circumstances to some extent, so don't worry about it. Are you done eating?"

Ria said without losing her composure, but Sei was dumbfounded.

"Eh… Is that okay? Then just a little more…"

That 'little more' amounted to about a day's worth of food for Sei.

"Let me properly introduce myself. Thank you very much. My name is Tsubaki Mako. I'm currently unemployed, but I'm confident in physical labor. I'll do any job you introduce me to, but please spare me from anything lewd."

Mako said this and bowed her head to Ria. Sei, still stunned, checked Mako's status.

She had a Gift called 'Gluttony'. This was probably the reason for her extraordinary appetite.

"I'm Ria, and this is Sei. So, you're definitely a Hero, right?"

Mako seemed slightly surprised but nodded in confirmation.

"The kingdom was attacked by a dragon, and you were sent away by teleportation magic. That's also correct, right?"

"Yes, that's correct, but how do you know?"

At that, Ria turned her gaze to Sei. She was probably telling him to handle the explanation.

"My name is Sei. On Earth, I was called Kojima Sei, but now I go by Sei Christor Parla."

"On Earth… you say?"

Mako tilted her head. That was understandable.

"Huh? You're not a Hero, right? … Could it be you were summoned by another country?"

In response, Sei began his explanation.

That he had been in an accident on Earth and was told by a god to bring back the Heroes.

That if the Heroes remained here, a crisis would befall Earth.

That if they agreed to return, he could send them back with a Return Stone.

"I can go back?! That's great!"

Mako stood up in joy. She was crying a little.

Meanwhile, Sei was also relieved. Given this reaction, she would probably want to go back right away.

"So, how about returning right away?"

However, Mako didn't respond immediately to Sei's words.

Mako crossed her arms and thought. Was there some problem?

"Do you know that other Heroes were summoned besides me?"

"Yeah, thirty-six of them, right?"

"Right. Actually, among them, there are a few people who have some… quite serious behavior problems."

"Delinquents?"

"Yeah, on Earth they were just delinquents, but… after being sent to this world, they've become uncontrollable…"

A bad feeling welled up. Were they the type to flaunt being Heroes and enjoy special privileges?

"They… pick fights with townspeople, do lewd things to women…"

"Well, I suppose there would be types like that."

Ria brushed it off, but Sei was a fastidious young man when it came to such matters.

He wanted girls to be happy! Preferably with other cute girls!

"That's unforgivable…"

"Yeah, so if possible, I'd like to help send those guys back too."

Either she had a strong sense of responsibility, or was embarrassed as a fellow Earthling. Either way, Sei could understand.

"What do you think, Shishou?"

In response to Sei's question, Ria answered while eating a meal she had ordered at some point.

"Well, there shouldn't be a problem. If we can't send them back within ten years, she can just be the first one. But it will be dangerous, you know?"

"It's fine! Even though I look like this, I'm actually quite strong."

Having been told that, Sei used Identify and was surprised.

Compared to her near-death state from earlier, her stats had dramatically increased. About the same level as Sei's.

So this was what a Hero was like.

"The Gluttony Gift, huh… The more you eat, the stronger you become, and depending on what you eat, you can gain Gifts or skills. The downside is that your stats decrease when you're hungry. And becoming starved after skipping just one day is pretty rough."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"I have a Gift called Dragon's Eye. I just looked at your Gift with it."

Mako was impressed, but Ria had noticed the danger of her Gift.

The more she ate, the stronger she became. If she ate a dragon, or if she ate a god, how strong would she become?

It might be overthinking, but didn't this girl possess a means to reach godhood?

"Well then, you can stay at my place for a while. I'll train you along with Sei."

"Is that okay?! Thank you so much!"

Sei was also happy.

A girl had appeared. And she was quite cute, too.

"Now then, today's quota isn't finished yet."

After paying the bill, Ria returned home with a pale-faced Sei in tow.

Knowing nothing, Mako simply followed after them.

As always, Kukuri and Gantz were at the shop.

"Welcome back. Do you have a guest?"

Carla greeted Mako with a smile. Mako nervously greeted the beautiful woman.

"She's one of the Heroes. We'll be looking after her for a while."

Ria added while roughly patting Mako's head.

"I see. She can share a room with Sei, right?"

Huh? Sei was surprised, but then remembered that he was currently a girl.

Viva! Girls! Getting to sleep in the same room as a girl!

… Not that anything was going to happen, of course.

And so, in the Sacred Chamber of Time, five men and women excluding Carla had gathered.

For starters, Sei was killed once.

"What?! Whaaaat?!"

Mako rushed over to Sei, who had been dealt a fatal wound. She cast basic healing magic, but it wasn't enough to help in this state.

And yet, Sei revived. Startled because Mako's face was directly above.

"Huh? You're alive? Could it be that in this place, you come back to life even if you die?"

"Ah, did I not mention it? I'm immortal."

Seeing Mako's eyes go wide with surprise, Sei felt a little amused. But the conversation didn't end there.

Apparently, among the summoned Heroes, there was one who had the Immortality Gift.

Since they couldn't die no matter what was done to them, the person themselves had been happy about it. But that was only at first.

"One day, to level up, we split into several groups and entered a nearby forest, but we were attacked by a pack of powerful wolf-like monsters…"

That Hero, thinking that they wouldn't die anyway, faced the monsters alone and let the others escape.

A rescue party was formed and immediately headed to the location, but what they saw was the immortal hero having their organs and flesh continuously devoured.

There were apparently moments of consciousness even while being eaten.

They were rescued and treated, but the hero—that girl—had gone mad.

"Being immortal isn't as great as it sounds."

Mako stated definitively. Because she knew what had happened.

Sei shuddered, but he had already died hundreds of times. Among those, there must have been patterns where all the bones in his body were broken before finally being finished off.

"Why haven't I gone crazy?"

"First of all, Sei, your mental fortitude was originally strong."

Ria analyzed it calmly.

"And because you have insanity resistance, you're hard to drive mad. Also, you die almost instantly, so you lose consciousness quickly. Plus, you're healed and regenerated immediately after dying."

"Um, I've been gaining unconsciousness resistance…"

"I'm knocking you out with attacks that exceed it. I'm kind, aren't I?"

Sei responded to Ria's beaming smile with a dry laugh.

In the end, Sei was killed many times that day as well. He was used to it by now.

But being eaten alive was something he definitely didn't want to experience.

"Well, you're the first one I've trained this thoroughly."

For ordinary apprentice candidates, Ria apparently trained them at the delicate line between life and death.

Even so, most of them ran away within a few days, but in Sei's case, it was training at the level of "Normally you'd die. Even if you're not normal, you'd die. It would be stranger to be alive."

Training that assumes immortality was something even Ria herself had never done.

But precisely because of that, as long as his mind didn't break, Sei had the potential to match even Ria. He also had resistance to mental abnormalities.

His base power had also been granted by the dragon's blood. As long as Sei himself didn't give up, he had the potential to keep getting stronger without limit.

And Sei wouldn't give up.

He wondered why he could keep going without giving up, but since he was able to push through anyway, there was nothing he could do about it.

Even with every bone in his body broken, there was still more to go.

He swung his broken arm at Ria to attack.

Even with broken legs, he crawled and attacked. He would be properly healed later anyway.

Not just Mako, but even Kukuri and Gantz, who should have been used to seeing this, turned pale from how hard Sei was pushing himself.

That's right. This was a good opportunity. If he lost his arms, he'd use his legs; if he lost his legs, he'd use his teeth to attack the enemy.

"You've broken through one barrier."

Along with those pleased words, Ria's wooden sword destroyed Sei's head.