"Yes, long time no see."
Cecilia looked at her senior from student days and old comrade from the first half of her knight career, feeling unprecedented emotion.
She hadn't expected that the goblin strategist mentioned by Her Majesty Elashia would be him.
Cecilia had thought he was dead.
After all, they were both warriors and old friends, so Cecilia spoke to him without reservation.
"I thought you were dead."
Hearing her words, the strategist laughed self-mockingly.
"Yes, I was indeed dead before, and now I've come back to life."
"Unfortunately, I'll have to die again soon."
He looked extremely carefree, showing no fear when facing death.
Cecilia just stared straight at him without speaking.
The strategist's nonchalance in facing death surprised her somewhat.
She understood Heo—she knew he was someone who feared death.
What had changed him into this?
Seeing Cecilia's surprised expression, the strategist laughed self-mockingly again.
"What? Very surprised?"
If Cecilia knew about his miserable past after the rebellion and his hopeless future afterward, there wouldn't be anything to be surprised about.
However, the strategist knew his life would probably end today.
He didn't have much time left.
So he didn't want to chat about those uncomfortable topics with his old friend anymore.
Thus he immediately changed the subject.
"Hey, let's not talk about these uncomfortable things. I'm about to die, can we talk about something happy?"
He sat down directly on the dusty ground without caring, and Cecilia also sat down likewise.
As if everything had returned to the day they graduated from knight academy.
Heo who longed to become a hero, Cecilia who longed to change the corrupt country.
Looking at Heo before her, Cecilia suddenly felt somewhat familiar for no reason.
So she spoke first.
"Heo, you seem to have returned to how you were at graduation."
After hearing Cecilia's words, the strategist also smiled.
What she said to him was also what he wanted to say to her.
"Cecilia, you seem to be the same way."
The person before each of their eyes seemed like that naive knight from back then.
As if neither had experienced old Elasia's darkness.
After studying Cecilia in her general's armor with bright eyes, the strategist said with a smile:
"It seems you've been doing really well these years. How is your sister now?"
Setting aside everything else, just from watching Cecilia command the Elasian Imperial Guard earlier, he could judge that Cecilia was definitely doing extremely well now.
Hearing his words, Cecilia smiled somewhat happily.
"Indeed, with Her Majesty Elashia taking power, almost everything has improved in these six months."
"Both Elasia and myself."
She smiled happily at the strategist again:
"Especially Sophia—her leg has almost completely recovered. Now she often chases and plays with girls her age at the magic academy."
"At home she's also so boisterous I don't know what to do with her."
After hearing her words, the strategist smiled and said:
"That's good."
Looking at the happiness-filled Cecilia before him, the strategist laughed self-mockingly again.
"Sigh, you were right back then after all."
If he hadn't chosen to rebel back then, maybe he would be as happy as Cecilia now.
Complaining about Elasia's darkness and corruption had always been the knights' after-meal activity, but there was one knight who never joined such activities.
That knight was Cecilia.
Back when he was still a knight, he had once been unable to contain his curiosity and privately asked Cecilia why she didn't vent her dissatisfaction with the country alongside her colleagues.
Cecilia's answer at that time was still fresh in his memory: "If I think Elasia is bad, I won't complain about it privately—I'll use my actions to change it!"
When he was preparing to rebel, he had tried to bring Cecilia along too.
But faced with his half-joking words—"We knights without backgrounds don't matter to anyone anyway, might as well rebel"—Cecilia had shown the first anger he'd ever seen from her.
He could still remember what Cecilia had said then: "Suffering is not a reason for evil!"
At that time, he thought Cecilia had been brainwashed by the Elasian royal family.
However, now he discovered that Cecilia had actually been correct.
From the battle with the Elasian Imperial Guard just now, he had seen that almost everyone in this army was willing to fight desperately.
As a former high-ranking knight of Elasia, he knew very well that such an army almost only existed in novels.
An army's courage couldn't come from nothing.
The reason soldiers could bravely face enemies before them was because they had something behind them that must be protected.
The corrupt old Elasia couldn't possibly have possessed such a fearless army.
Since the current Imperial Guard had become like this, it meant this country had undergone tremendous change.
He didn't know what current Elasia was like.
But he now finally understood why Cecilia looked just like when she had just graduated.
It seemed Elasia had finally welcomed a truly enlightened ruler...
Sighing again, the strategist said:
"Sigh... this is probably retribution."
Good times had come, but unfortunately he had no part in them.
"Good deeds bring good rewards, evil deeds bring evil rewards."
Looking again at the [Goblin Emperor] beside him that had died with eyes wide open, he smiled.
It was quite pitiful too.
If it had made its move before this enlightened ruler took power, then even without him, it definitely could have easily captured Elasia.
It just unfortunately didn't catch its good times.
Compared to the [Goblin Emperor], he himself deserved his fate much more.
The strategist knew that if he hadn't chosen to rebel back then, maybe if he had persevered to these good times, he might have lived as happily as Cecilia.
As long as he hadn't chosen to rebel then, he would at least be a legion commander in the Imperial Guard now.
But he didn't hate anything.
The reason was simple—the choice was made by himself, and he had to bear the consequences it brought.
He knew very clearly that he wasn't a good person.
Otherwise he wouldn't have become a bandit.
So naturally, he wasn't worthy of this bright golden age.
But Cecilia was different.
Even when old Elasia was at its darkest, even when her most beloved sister was placed under house arrest by the old emperor, she had never given up her passion for this country.
So naturally, Cecilia was worthy of this bright golden age.
Looking at his old friend before him who had already achieved the knight life of his dreams, the strategist suddenly asked a question.
"Hey, by the way, Cecilia, did you see what I did just now?"
Cecilia nodded.
"Mm, that goblin should have been the [Goblin Emperor], right? I saw it all."
A smile rose at the corner of his mouth.
He asked a quite abrupt question.
The atmosphere between them became heavy.
"So, do you think I'm a 'hero'?"
His question made Cecilia show a serious expression.
She had long known he would ask this question.
"Senior, I still have the same answer."
"I don't know what makes a hero, but I know what doesn't make a hero."
"When you desperately long to become a hero, you have already lost the qualification to become a hero."