< Running Away from the Hero! 159 #18. What did I even do? (8)>

Uwaaaaah!

Sir Hero, hooray!

Please defeat the evil dragon!

Every citizen living in the capital was cheering on our dear hero.

Yes, spending all that money and diligently spreading the rumour was finally paying off.

What I did after returning to the capital was simple enough creating a scenario of our dear hero going mano-a-mano with the dragon!

Having too many combatants joining the expedition would only create too many witnesses. Thats why I needed to make sure that only a small team of elites no, scratch that, I needed to ensure that the hero would have no choice but to fight the dragon one on one.

I worked my butt off to manufacture the public sentiment along that line of thinking. And my rumour had enhanced the heros abilities to such a stratospheric level that

Youd almost think he was the greatest hero in the history of mankind just from hearing the rumours now. Yes, thats how over the top the rumour had gotten.

Oh, and I also invested funds in various strategic points to ensure that my rumour would spread beyond the castle walls and to the rest of this kingdom.

Thanks to my hard work, every citizen of this nation, including not just the royal family but even the nobles, no longer questioned the heros abilities!

Of course, there would always be those who dare to harbour suspicions but the thing was, this kingdom didnt have a single swordmaster and only one archmage. Which meant no one would dare to raise their voices of doubt regarding the hero.

Through intense prep work and utilising just a tiny bit of political connections, I made sure no one would raise rational-sounding objections. And the end result of all my hard work was!

The dragon raid party was formed in less than ten days.

Will this really be alright? A middle-aged man sitting next to me asked that.

This kingdoms strongest combatant, Yulkelis the Archmage, was sighing softly in anxiety.

I replied. Even if we bring a lot of people with us, one breath attack from the dragon would all melt them down, sir.

That is true

Not only was he the archmage, but citizens also widely acknowledged him as the strongest in the kingdom. As someone charged with guarding the Neidon royal family, he probably witnessed the truth from the closest vantage point.

The truth about the majestic power of Aruketai the Evil Dragon as it freely flew around the capital and toyed around the Neidon Kingdoms populace.

The wretched sight of the castle walls that stood tall to protect the royal family for hundreds of years melting down from the dragons single breath attack!

Thats why he mustve felt scared. Of course, getting scared would be the normal reaction.

Thats why I said this to him. Goddess of Nature has sent Sir Hero to save this kingdom, sir. Please believe in him.

It seems that Ive said something unnecessary. My apologies.

The archmage bowed his head slightly as a sign of reflecting on his actions.

The enemy we were about to fight was difficult to kill even when our morale was at its peak. As such, it was totally unacceptable to say something that could negatively affect the fighting spirit of his allies.

Yulkelis could be considered a commander of this expedition, yet he ended up doing that unacceptable thing. Somewhat surprisingly for a noble, he didnt try to hide how remorseful he was.

Over there. Thats the lair of the evil dragon, Aruketai!

To discover its location, we got the kingdoms financial support to hire various people.

Anyone could tell that the cavern ahead of us was artificially created.

That was the evil dragon, Aruketais lair!

The dragons lair

Gulp.

The one hundred or so members of the expedition began swallowing their saliva in nervousness.

The dragon.

The strongest lifeform in existence.

So strong that they didnt require the assistance of the gods.

The only race in this world that didnt believe in any gods other than the Creator!

Although, dragons did acknowledge the Goddess of Benevolence and Devotion, who sacrificed herself to save the world from the evil god.

A battle against one such dragon was just around the corner from them.

Post-Great Continent War, most of the northern region was broken up by various minor kingdoms. Neidon was one such minor kingdom.

The majority of our expedition lacked real-world combat experience, so how much pressure would they be under from the prospect of fighting a dragon?

Everyone, remember. All you have to do is follow the plan. We should do our best to support and assist Sir Hero from the rear.

Y-yes!

Understood, Sir Sage!

Keuh-hmmm!

The hero punk loudly cleared his throat, but lets just ignore him, shall we?

The crucial thing right now was the morale of these soldiers who would work as the cogwheels of my plan.

To lighten the pressure on them, I shall freely sell the hero down the river!

Besides, none of you would probably get to fight for real, anyway. Yes, the hero will take care of the fighting bit!

-Even though they would probably need to fight tooth and nail when the hero gets crushed, master?

-Thats why I brought them here, after all.

Sure, this was a trap where the odds of just dying instead of struggling tooth and nail were much higher. Regardless of what, though, they were still fated to fight one way or the other.

The king did have the option of giving up on rescuing the princess for the sake of the greater good. But heres the thing the dragon might have kidnapped the princess who was rumoured to be very beautiful, but how long would that last?

The dragon would probably get tired of her looks soon enough and decide it wants something else. And naturally, it would demand that something else from the kingdom.

Thats why, instead of letting the dragon take away this and that until the kingdom was sucked dry, the king was betting on the lone thread of hope called Sir Hero!

Well, the