8 The Hero's Party

But to hear that the heroes already reported my death… it should have been expected, right? The heroes themselves witness what happened, so the information shouldn't be wrong.

The guard continued his words after seeing my reaction. "Anyway, I am glad that you survived somehow. Anyway, would you like to rest first in our outpost or do you want to report to the heroes? Because they are still staying at the mayor's place."

He then pointed in the direction of where the hero's party staying. It was a relief since I could report to the heroes right away about my survival.

After thanking the guards for the information, I make my way to the mayor's place.

As I made my way towards the mayor's place, the guards noticed me right away. But none of them are hostile and they immediately opened up the gate after recognizing who I am.

It seems the heroes have really informed everyone of our demise as they probably didn't expect any of us would survive.

I entered the mansion and looked for the hero's party right away.

I found them after asking one of the maids for their location.

And as soon as the maids guide me to the room where the heroes are resting, she immediately knocks on the door.

After a while, someone opened the door. "Who is it..." the maid bowed her head politely and said, "Prince Rolen, one of the soldiers has survived. He wishes to speak with you and the others right away."

The maid then pointed at me standing a bit far behind her. Prince Rolen noticed me quickly.

After realizing that it was really me, his expression immediately changed. "You can excuse yourself, I need to talk with him privately first." He said that to the maid while staring at me.

She then excuses herself after hearing him and walks away right away. 

Prince Rolen, the first prince of the Kingdom of Aleceria. He was the leader of the hero's party... and the strongest among them all.

I then bow down to him right away and greet him politely. "It's nice to see you, Prince Rolen. I am glad to see that the rest of you are alright."

He then looked at me closely and said. "To be honest, I am happy that you survived but... I have to ask, how did you manage to escape the golem without injuries?"

Hearing his question, it's not like I can hide it right away. It's best to reveal that I have obtained an artifact as well, that was the helmet that I currently wearing right now.

"Well to be honest Prince Rolen, it is thanks to this artifact that I manage to survive. That helmet does provide me with an amazing stats buff. Thanks to that, I was able to defeat the golem and escape the dungeon safely."

I point at the helmet as I state the truth to him. Well, most of the truth…

But after I finish saying all of that, one of the hero party members laugh at me. I know that the laughter came from someone hiding behind Prince Rolen.

She then revealed herself right away. It was one of the hero's party that was blessed with with tremendous holy power from her goddess. She is the strongest healer in the hero's party. Her name was Mercilia. 

"So are you implying that the helmet that you using right now is granting you a strong buff? Like what the others say, I find it very hard to believe... Are you sure your brain is still okay after what happened? You seem to be talking nonsense right now."

Well to be expected. It wasn't hard to guess the reaction from the rest of the hero's party members. But regardless, I still need to prove myself.

"There's no way a broken and worn-out helmet like that is an artifact. You should know that an artifact wouldn't be in that state of condition..." Azaro said that to me. 

Azaro was the brute that relied on strength above all. He was blessed by the god as well and it's safe to assume that he was the strongest member of the hero's party in that regard. 

It seems like both of them didn't believe me at all. And from what I see, neither do Prince Rolan and the other two members of the party.

"I'm glad that you survived but I don't think that helmet is an artifact, it simply doesn't look like it," The girl named Celina said to me.

Celina is the strongest mage from the hero's party. With her intelligence above anyone else in this world, it should be expected that she too doesn't believe me.

Then lastly, I look at the last member of the hero's party. Even if he was hiding his face with a mask. From the eyes alone, I knew he was staring at me intently.

As if he trying to guess what I'm thinking…

That is Vetis, the assassin hero. He is blessed by the god of assassins but there wasn't anything impressive about his personality. He never speaks his mind but he always observes the surroundings carefully.

It wouldn't be farfetched that he is the one that informed everyone of our demise. He did witness us getting defeated by the golem as he was the last to escape that dungeon.

But even though it was four against one, I simply refused to give up and prove myself. After all, Helmy, the helmet is the reason I survived that golem.

"Please, if you don't believe me then try using identification skills on the helmet. If the skill confirms that the artifact exists, please believe me." I then bow down and try to persuade the heroes to believe me.

Prince Rolen looks at me and then looks at Mercilia for a second.

"Alright, I check it with my skills... but if you lying to me, expect some punishment," Mercilia said that right away as she cast an identification spell.

I'm sure that this issue will be resolved with this. Because artifacts are weapons that were forged during the age of God and were blessed by a powerful divine energy.

I don't know a lot of things but I'm sure that Mercilia could tell the difference with the skill of her. 

As someone who has been blessed with holy magic, her identification skill could reveal whether the weapon is an artifact or not. 

If it was proven an artifact, the artifact would begin to glow as soon as Mercilia activated her identification spell.