1 Chapter 1: Part of the Hero party

"Klein, do you have a moment?"

I stopped by the stairs and glanced up. Irene was waiting at the corridor of the inn our party was staying at, blushing shyly as she covered her mouth with her fingers.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Here…please follow me."

Irene led me around the corridor and into a dark, quiet corner where there was nobody else around. She continued to look down, her face red in embarrassment.

"Klein…once the war against the Demonic Emperor and his Legions is over, could you please make me your bride?"

For a moment, I wasn't sure if I was hearing her correctly. The beautiful girl with long, golden blond hair, eyes the color of sapphire, skin the color of snow (wait, that was a pretty unhealthy complexion), was asking me to marry her?

I studied her in disbelief. Irene was a priestess, which meant she specialized in holy blessings, which buffed the other members of our party during a fight, and healing magic. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was the most vital member of our party. Without her healing spells, it would be difficult for any of us to survive any of the battles thus far. Going forward, her role was only to grow ever more important.

That wasn't even saying anything about her beauty, which made her look like an angel. Her well-endowed chest, her seductive curves and gorgeous figure added to her innocent-looking face…most men couldn't resist her charms.

Fortunately, I was not most men.

"Uh, sorry. But no."

"What…?!"

This time it was Irene's turn to be shocked. She stared at me in disbelief, uncertain if she had heard me correctly.

"…no?"

"Yup. No." I pushed my glasses up and shook my head. Irene wasn't able to conceal her dismay. Things were obviously not proceeding the way she thought they would.

"But…but why? Don't you like me?"

She almost had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from shamelessly asking, "How can you not like such a beautiful girl like me? Every single man out there is in love with me. None of them can resist being enthralled by me. How are you not falling all over me and clamoring for my affections?"

Because I wasn't a simp. By the way, it wasn't that I had the ability to read minds. Irene's thoughts were pretty clear on her face.

That was why I didn't like her. As beautiful as Irene was, her personality was rotten to the core. I put up with her only because of her healing magic, but she was a whiny, self-centered, narcissist bitch who relied on her beauty to seduce men to help her do whatever she wanted. The further I stayed away from her, the better.

Also, why me? We weren't particularly close. In fact, I had taken good care to keep my distance from her. That made her proposal tonight even more suspicious.

However, I didn't say all that. Instead, I merely smiled.

"Someone like me isn't qualified to be your husband. Besides, aren't you in love with Herman? You should get married to him instead."

Herman was the Hero, as well as the leader of the party. Unlike me, who was pretty much a brooding, socially awkward nerd with messy dark hair, he was a handsome jock with blond hair, blue eyes and a great physique. Girls flocked toward him like flies around shit. And I was pretty sure that Irene was the biggest fly among them all (as well as the most disgusting).

Irene looked away glumly. "Herman…he has no time for me. He has so many women about him, every one of them competing for his affections. I think he prefers Yvonne, or Miranda."

Huh. Come to think of it, Herman was spending quite some time with both other girls in our party recently. Yvonne was a huntress, a lithe and sexy girl with her long red hair often tied into a ponytail. She was well-muscled and athletic, adept at tracking monsters and taking them out with an arrow from over five hundred meters away. Miranda, on the other hand, was the first mage (with me being the second). She had dark hair that reached her shoulders and was dressed in ostentatious robes. Unlike me, she fitted the archetypical appearance of a witch, armed with an oak staff and hiding her pretty face under a tall hat. While I specialized almost exclusively in ice magic, she was capable of a wider repertoire of spells, including fire, earth and wind. She couldn't do water and ice magic, though, which was the only reason why I was accepted into the Hero's party.

Not that I wanted to join them, but…whatever.

But yeah, a few nights ago, I saw Miranda enter Herman's room. Before and after that, he was always intimately close to Yvonne.

Well, it was none of my business. Herman was the Hero. Of course he would have a harem. It was only natural.

"So…if possible, I would like…"

Irene looked up at me wistfully, her fingers entwined. I sighed.

"So…I'm basically the rebound guy? The second choice because you failed to get with the guy you really wanted to be with?"

"Eh…? No, I wouldn't say that…"

"In any event, I'm afraid I can't. I don't have the right to do so." I bowed my head and turned away, returning to my room. Before I left her, I decided to add, "I wish you happiness and hope you find the one meant for you."

Hopefully that made her feel better. I felt like a jerk, but I wasn't going to coddle our party's priestess just because she got dumped. Not after all that open flirting with Herman previously, and her lack of hesitation in seducing other men to act according to her whims.

"Wait…" Irene protested, but whatever else she wanted to say was lost when I shut the door and closed her voice out.

If I was worried that she would be angry about that, all concern was dispelled the next day when we raced to defend Viridian Village from the monstrous armies of the Demonic Empire. A massive contingent of dark demonic mages and orcs had attacked the outlying village, which wasn't too far from the territories of the Demonic Empire.

"Divine Protection!" Irene shouted, as focused as always. For all of her flaws, she was an excellent priest, always covering her comrades with blessings.

"Thanks, Irene!"

Empowered by her protection, Herman lunged at the swarm of orcs that stood in our way, swinging his sword and cleaving a bloody path through them. Dozens of headless or limbless corpses were blown into the air by his three blows, each swing of his sword sending up a gust of destructive gale.

"Ho ho! Not bad!"

Beside him, the burly warrior, Bradley, charged into the fray. He made use of his huge, armored bulk to smash a path through the massed ranks of the orcs, trampling them beneath his feet. Raising his two-headed axe, he cut or bludgeoned through the poor creatures, leaving very few in his wake.

"Careful!" Miranda shouted as she conjured a barrier made completely of earth. The deadly spells of the dark mages, coming in the form of shadow spikes, lanced toward us – only to be blocked by the solid wall of rock.

Without hesitation, I unleashed a barrage of icicles upon the dark mages. They rained down on my targets, who quickly responded with a shadow barrier of their own. However, as powerful as my onslaught of icicles was, it was but a distraction.

Alan snuck amidst the formation of dark mages, his daggers flashing and slitting throats from the shadows. The horned, grotesque humanoid figures of the demon mages were rendered unrecognizable by his swift blade work, blood spurting from severed limbs and ruptured arteries. More than a few literally lost their heads.

One of the dark mages spun about, flames igniting in his hand as he attempted to incinerate the assassin within their midst. Alan didn't bother to dodge – he didn't need to. Before the dark mage could burn him alive, an arrow struck him in the head, dispelling the fireball and killing him outright. From a distance, Yvonne notched another arrow to her bow and searched for another target, sniping another dark mage who was conjuring wind blades to slice Alan apart.

Another dark mage who was throwing a chain of lightning found himself entombed in ice, courtesy of yours truly. Alan didn't even acknowledge the cover from both me and Yvonne, so absorbed was he in his work of killing that I could barely see him amidst a mist of blood.

The roar from the orcs drew my attention back to Herman and Bradley. Irene had summoned a holy barrier to protect them both from arrows and rocks, while Miranda launched several fireballs in retaliation. A massive orc burst out from the unruly mob and cleaved one of the fireballs into two, much to our party's surprise.

I didn't hesitate, throwing out a hand to conjure a fresh wave of icicles. The barrage impaled another several dozen orcs, amputating their limbs ruthlessly, while freezing those who survived. Only the massive orc stood tall, swatting aside the icy projectiles impetuously as if they were nothing more than chalk thrown by a teacher at a student sleeping in class.

"That one is going to be a lot of trouble," I remarked to myself. Casting a more powerful ice spell, I got ready to deliver a sure-kill blow. A titanic icicle that was enough to sink even the largest battleship in history.

However, before I could unleash the spell, Herman jumped in. His body sparkling with holy magic that amplified his strength by several dozen times, he swung his sword. The colossal orc spun about and met his strike with its own, its crude broadsword swinging upward to smack the relatively small figure of Herman aside like a baseball.

If it hit, the massive orc would have scored a homerun!

Unfortunately, the orc champion's baseball career was cut short when Herman's sword sliced through the monster's weapon as easily as hot knife through butter. There was a shriek, and then the orc champion staggered back, its right arm falling at its feet.

Herman had just cut off one of its arms.

Even wounded, the orc champion was still a dangerous foe. With a snarl, it spun about and tried to pulverize Herman with a single meaty fist that was almost the size of the Hero himself. Before the punch could land, however, Bradley surged forward and parried the blow.

"Thanks, Bradley!"

Herman then leaped forward and slashed the orc champion, opening a series of wounds on its chest. The massive creature staggered back with a snarl, but it remained standing. Its brethren tried to help, but I scythed down its subordinates with a fresh wave of icicles.

"Good job, Klein!" Herman glanced at me with a smile. "Bradley, Irene and I will take care of the orc champion. Miranda, I'll leave its remaining subordinates to you."

He then studied the regrouping demons at the back, and then issued new orders on the fly. As expected of the Hero, he was quick thinking.

"The demonic legion is splitting up and retreating. We can't let them get away or they'll raid other villages. Alan, go to the west and take them all out. Yvonne, I'm counting on you to track and hunt down those fleeing to the east. Klein, you scout the north and flush them out!"

"Understood."

"Leave it to me!"

"All right."

The three of us nodded and then split up to our respective directions. Behind me, I could hear the orc champion bellow defiantly as it challenged Herman. Picking up its fallen broadsword with its remaining arm, it charged.

Then I ducked around a house and my comrades and the colossal enemy disappeared from sight. Jogging around a dirt path, I increased my pace and headed toward the north gate.

Surprisingly, the enemy was sparse, but there was still one left. Gathering azure mana into my hand, I prepared to fire off an ice spell, but the single enemy unleashed an ice spell of her own. Two tsunamis of blue collided, and the northern district of Viridian Village was suddenly entombed in ice.

"You…" I murmured, recognizing the enemy before me. Dread filled my heart as I studied her beautiful and delicate-looking face, as well as the long silver hair that almost glittered like snow. "…the Witch of Winter."