Raising the Hero

Do you know the game Raising the Hero?

Although it advertised itself as an RPG, digging deeper revealed it was essentially a hero-raising simulation game. On top of that, the fact that it was an adult game—difficult to sell commercially—held it back, making success unlikely.

It was definitely supposed to be that kind of game.

However, after streamers and drama channels exposed its story—a source of shock and horror in more ways than one—it gained a cult following.

First of all, no matter how skilled the player was, the Demon King could never be defeated on the first playthrough.

Not only that, but the mage who traveled alongside the player to defeat the Demon King would sacrifice herself. By using all her power to seal herself away alongside the Demon King, the game would be forced into a bad ending.

Of course, it wasn't a bad ending in the strictest sense, since only the mage sacrificed herself and the Demon King was sealed away. Just as the game called it, the mage sacrificing herself to seal the Demon King was the normal ending.

If you lowered the mage's affection all the way and she disappeared, or if you failed to build enough of a bond with your teammates, they would all flee from the battle against the Demon King, resulting in a bad ending.

If that was all there was to it, you might have dismissed it as just another game, but this one had a peculiar feature.

You cannot kill the Demon King.

Never.

No matter what in-game means you employed, neither the game's systems nor its equipment could ever defeat the Demon King.

Even if you killed him by raising your stats through external means, not only would it all be crushed under the name of the Enraged Demon King's Authority, but the player, the mage, and all their party members would be brutally murdered as well, along with the declaration that using power that wasn't permitted was unbecoming of a hero.

The mage in particular was portrayed being gruesomely murdered in such a chilling manner that some users gave it something resembling praise, perhaps because the creator loved her so much—or possessed a rather twisted form of affection.

Before long came the worst bad ending of all: a total party wipe. Then the save file was deleted, too.

If all you heard was that, everyone would dismiss it as a garbage game that screwed over players who had worked so hard to get that far. Instead, because of that very story, it gained overwhelming fame.

A pure-love story disguised as a game.

The biggest clue was probably the fact that only the hero's voice could be heard.

Who would have thought they'd put regression into an ordinary adult RPG?

They used a system commonly called multiple playthroughs, but added regression as a story device to continue the plot. The hero could use the power of the holy sword to start over in the past.

Naturally, even if the hero couldn't bring everything from the previous playthrough, the hero would begin with certain mental skills and all the fortunate encounters available to a hero already acquired.

And each regression yielded a hint about the happy ending.

The most shocking thing in this game was the condition for its happy ending, so the irony was almost absurd.

For a 3D RPG, it had all the lavish CG galleries and scenarios with its heroines one could expect from an adult game, along with beautifully crafted models, extravagant OSTs and illustrations, and combat scenes and systems so highly praised that they hardly seemed to belong to an adult RPG.

It would be no exaggeration to call all that a facade created to hide the condition. On the surface, the game even encouraged the player to recruit as many heroines as possible, regardless of what else they did.

The game was encouraging the player to build a harem.

However, perhaps the developers had at least a shred of conscience, because they scattered hints everywhere—not only on the game's cover, but also in the early dialogue and through various systems.

So then, what exactly was the condition for the game's happy ending that warranted such a long explanation?

The condition for that happy ending was none other than this.

“We're fucked.”

The hero had to end up with only the mage, not any of the other heroines.

And the most important thing was, of all things, pregnancy.

I had no idea why, but that was the condition for the happy ending.

.

.

.

.

.

The creator was obviously a pure-love fanatic to the core.

Otherwise, there was no way they'd have made such a fucking shitty ending.

Of course, I'm on the side of happy endings and pure love.

I know that NTR freaks deserve to die.

But fuck, this is too much.

I can't even imagine how much the creator must have suppressed their own instincts and worn themselves down to make a game that looked like a harem on the outside but was pure love at its core. Some twisted pure-love fanatics from the deepest depths of hell even praised it as a pure-love story destined to live on in history.

Of all things, I ended up inside a game where the only way for everyone to survive and achieve a happy ending was “that method.”

And on top of that...

With this heroine...

“Phew...”

I looked at the mirror.

A girl with turquoise hair, subtly interwoven with untidy pale-violet strands, cascading to her waist, and a pointed hat atop her head. The staff I held and the pointed hat I wore made me unmistakably a mage.

“I can... speak.”

So this was what my voice sounded like.

It had a youthful quality, but was clear and beautiful.

Well, naturally, since I had never heard it in the game.

In the game, I wore a bandage around my neck to make it appear that I couldn't speak.

The fact that I was still wearing the bandage now made me almost certain.

“Magic... should be fine.”

Normally, I wouldn't be able to speak, so I couldn't chant or use magic. But I was a star-blessed child said to have the innate talent to cast spells without incantations, so that detail hardly mattered.

But something was strange.

Wasn't it clearly stated that I couldn't speak?

“Ah.”

The words came out just fine.

And I could hear them clearly, too.

That meant my hearing was fine, too, didn't it?

Why had I pretended to be mute and deaf?

At any rate, the story did explain how this mute mage could hear and communicate with other people.

Apparently, the mage normally used magic to discern and understand the sounds around her. Of course, since she could only tell that a sound had been made, she seemed to figure out most of what was being said by watching the other person's lips.

When the mage needed to speak, she used a technique called voice transmission in martial arts—or, in superpower terms, something like telepathy—to communicate with other people.

That was probably why the game had no voice acting at all.

Why I couldn't speak was something revealed by the happy ending, so I didn't know.

All I knew was that this character wasn't a bad person at all; if anything, she was a pitiful heroine.

At least, in the original story, the mage sacrificed herself during the fierce battle with the Demon King and sealed him away. Thinking about it, there were more than a few suspicious points, but this was all I knew, so I couldn't do anything even if something didn't sit right with me.

“Ah...”

I'm dizzy.

The fact that I'd come to this world meant that, in the end, I'd have to go after the Demon King. And that meant I'd ultimately have to choose one of three paths: run away without going after him, go with the hero to fight him and get wiped out, or be conquered by the hero.

“Ah... What the hell am I supposed to do...? Fuck, this is driving me crazy...”

I don't want to die...

But I didn't want to be conquered by the hero, either.

Then running away was the only option left, but fleeing now wouldn't mean I could survive the Demon King. If I disappeared, the hero's party would have no way to defeat him, so I couldn't do that either.

“Should I look for another way...?”

The Demon King was so powerful that the game went into detail describing his strength.

In fact, when I actually faced the Demon King, his absurd stats and the power of his Authority were so overwhelming that, no matter how much stronger I had become through my adventures, nothing I tried was permitted to work.

In one hit,

Everyone was wiped out in a single blow.

“How was I supposed to beat that monster...?”

No matter how good your controls were, you couldn't win.

There was no way to win.

The attacks didn't even deal damage, so how could you possibly win, no matter how good your controls were?

Even though this game was a horrific hybrid of a raid game and a Soulslike, a Soulslike still had to let your attacks deal damage. If no damage registered at all, then go ahead and dodge the patterns all day long.

Did you really think you could beat the boss?

That was just a garbage game.

Sigh...

“Everyone around me knows I can't speak, right?”

I even have a bandage wrapped around my neck, after all.

Everyone must at least know that I'm mute.

I looked around, then carefully opened the door.

I should probably go downstairs and see what's going on.

And the first thing I needed to find out was whether I was already in a party with the hero or not. If we'd already met, the hero would already know that I was mute, so I shouldn't speak for now.

I touched the bandage wrapped around my neck and stepped out of the room.

First, I needed to gather information.