Chapter 1: [Prologue] I was kidnapped...willingly
The Kingdom of Lenaar was in a festive mood. Of course, since they had just won the war against the Demon Lord of Wrath. The cities were filled with banners and littered with flower petals. How did they manage to have a lot of petals in the middle of winter was beyond Valmeier.
The Capital was even more vibrant; lanterns with magic stones were deployed to every corner, and the night was as bright as the day in some places. It sucked a lot of taxpayer money, but who cared about the peasant's hard-earned money during a very happy day like this.
They looked happy though, throwing flowers and confetti at the parade of the young teenage hero, barely an adult. The kind yet naïve hero smiled bashfully at people's praises and went red as the princess, which also happened to be the saintess, hold his hand with a loud cheer from the crowd. The mage and the knight waved at the citizens, and the half-elf archer scoffed at what they thought was a sub-par reception.
"Truly a classic combination of the so-called Hero's Team," Valmeier muttered softly as he watched the parade from the tower of the Lenaar Head Church.
The dashing hero, the beautiful saintess, the formidable allies. It was the classic trope of every 'summoned hero versus demon lord' story.
It had nothing to do with Valmeier.
The door to the room where he'd been waiting for five hours finally opened, and an annoyed old man with his stern-looking templar bodyguard, as well as expressionless men whose faces said there were only here for business, entered the room.
"Let's hurry this up, we don't have much time before the banquet starts," said the old man, as if Valmeier was the one who made him wait for five hours.
But arguing would be useless, so he just sat in the chair in front of the old man quietly. He was only here to be 'judged' anyway.
The winter after the war was cold. But the treatment Valmeier received was even colder, although he grew used to it by now. There was no small talk, just straight business.
One of the expressionless men took out a contract, which Valmeier already knew the content of. It was the penalty he had for 'failing to return the royal artifact' that he had to pay. He had taken out all of his life savings, which was not much considering he was just a priest, and it barely covered one-tenth of the debt.