The name Choi Yowon, the Hero, was legendary throughout the Empire. Whenever the silver brooch—the symbol of the Hero said to be bestowed by the Emperor himself—glinted in the sunlight, people couldn't help but stare. Because he bore the title of Hero, people naturally pushed him toward danger, using the convenient excuse that 'it is your duty to save us.'

Despite such transparent excuses, Choi Yowon would always laugh affably and get the job done. Seeing this, people naturally assumed that defeating the Demon King and saving the world would be a simple task for him, and their hopes began to swell. That hope eventually inflated into blatant demands and a sense of entitlement. Under that entitlement and those demands, the weight of Choi Yowon's responsibility grew even heavier. To live up to those blatant expectations, he had to push himself harder, constantly cutting into his personal time to swing his sword just one more time.

Today, Choi Yowon was in the middle of a dense forest, sitting on a fallen log as if it were a chair, inspecting the condition of his sword. He was likely checking his gear before heading out to subjugate monsters. Inside his head, two thoughts were clashing as if in competition.

'You are the Hero, so you must save the world.' And, 'Aren't you sick of this endless sacrifice?'

And gradually, Choi Yowon's heart was implicitly leaning toward the latter.