Reincarnated as a dragon’s egg ～Lets aim to be the strongest～

ng to it.
The church is now spreading word that he wasn’t a Hero… and that the real Hero is going to appear sometime soon.
Those speaking out publicly are thrown in prison, though… Everyone is wondering discreetly if it’s for the sake of preserving Harenae’s status as the ‘Land Where Heroes Are Born’… Are you satisfied with that?”

“I see… No wonder I got mismatched accounts when I asked in other countries.
Thanks, I’m satisfied.”

The man takes a swig of his alcohol and heaves a deep sigh.

“As I promised, I’ll stop asking around about it.
I met my objective… I’ll leave for another country tomorrow as well.
More than that, it doesn’t look like any good will come from me remaining here.”

“…What a thing to say.
Certainly, Harenae might seem simple and worthless to you, traveller-san… But even so, it’s our homeland where we were born.”

“That isn’t what I meant… No, I’ve said something rude.”

Suddenly, the tavern door is kicked clean open.

“Wha-!”

The proprietress lets out a sound of surprise.

Six soldiers come storming into the tavern.
Following them, an old man in a holy robe appears in the entranceway.

“W-what is this about?! My shop, why have these soldiers…!”

The robed man looks around, and his expression turns grim upon noticing the man.

“Found you! People have been talking about seeing you around!”

The old man raises his voice to shout.

“The traitorous Hero-killer… The former knight captain, Adofu Ahrens!”

“The former knight captain… That’s you!?”

The proprietress shouts, surprised.

The man… Adofu Ahrens gently gets to his feet, removing his mantle and showing his face.

“It’s been a long time, Priest-dono.
However, I should have already been acquitted from that incident.
Bishop-sama said as much to me in person.”

“Nonsense! That was done to expedite your reinstatement as knight captain, as you claimed to wish! Yet despite that, you left everything to us and defected to another country! You’ve thrown dirt in the face of Bishop-sama’s clemency!”

The priest shouts at Adofu in anger.

Formerly, Adofu had earned the ire of the Hero, and had false charges levelled against him and awaited the death penalty.
At that time, he was helped by the dragon, and managed to get his vengeance on the Hero with its support.

The church had been protecting the Hero, but with his death his evil deeds were leaked to the public one after the other, and the church was in fear of losing its authority by association.
They knew about Adofu losing his ability to fight with his shoulder injury, but by denouncing the Hero as a fake and reinstating Adofu to his position of knight captain – even it was in name only – and making him Harenae’s new symbol, it seemed like they would avoid losing their authority.　

However Adofu, having already turned his back on the church, led them to believe he wanted a reinstatement and got his name officially cleared of wrongdoing by them, before departing for another country after leaving just a letter behind.
After that, he spent his time in other countries, but Harenae would always be his hometown to him.
After hearing nothing but strange rumours coming from his homeland, he returned out of worry and an urge to know what happened after the strife with the Hero.

“I’m already leaving.
Will you stand down?”

“As if we’d let you go.
You know too much about our internal affairs.
I’d have overlooked it if you planned on coming back, but we can’t let you go free if you’re not! Arrest him!”

“Yes sir!”

The six soldiers encircle Adofu.

“There’s no need for us to fear a retired soldier like you!”
“Just surrender and don’t make a fuss.
We don’t plan on taking your life, Adofu-san.”
“Don’t tell me you think you can put up a fight without your good arm and with no weapon.”

After looking around at their faces, Adofu snorts.

“This is going to be tough.
There’s plenty of faces I recognise, too.”

“Catch him!”

The soldiers leap at Adofu as the priest yells.