I was Reincarnated as an Incompetent Leader with Zero Popularity who met his downfall early on. Instead of banishing the hidden cheat Protagonist, I decided to embrace him, and somehow, I ended up being treated like a Hero instead. - Chapter 40

“I’m going to… die? Not from an illness or anything like that?”

“No. You take Chrono on an adventure, but you end up falling into an enemy’s trap and don’t make it out alive.”

Deep within a cave, the Demon King and his army awaken from their seal.

Facing overwhelming enemies, Noah merely smiles nonchalantly.

Yet, he already knows his fate.

Entrusting his purpose and sword to Chrono, he uses teleportation magic to send the boy to safety.

The reason he doesn’t flee with him is simple—if he does, the monsters will escape the cave and wreak havoc.

So, he sacrifices both his life and magic to hold them back.

I explained the story as I knew it to Noah.

Unlike before, he didn’t react with visible shock, but he seemed to be carefully processing my words.

Honestly, I had expected him to laugh it off as nonsense, so his serious consideration was unexpected.

Maybe Noah already had a hunch about the cave where the Demon King was sealed—perhaps he was even planning to explore it.

If that was the case, I wanted to tell him: Don’t go if you want to live, even without Chrono.

Sure, Noah’s death was what led Chrono to obtain his memento sword, a powerful item for his growth, but it wasn’t necessary.

“…Do you know where this cave is?”

Breaking the silence, Noah turned to me with a question.

Now it was my turn to think.

I had no reason to withhold the information, but the problem was, I simply couldn’t recall the exact details—like its name or precise location.

I was fairly certain it was somewhere in the mountains.

Even after racking my brain for a while, nothing else came to mind, so I had no choice but to apologize and tell him the truth.

“A cave where the Demon King is sealed, huh…? Well, I can think of about ten possible locations.”

“That many?”

“Yeah, plenty. All of them are crawling with powerful monsters, so I wouldn’t recommend going there on a whim~.”

If only you had remembered the exact location, it would’ve saved me the trouble of searching them all.

Noah’s words made me hang my head in frustration.

I should’ve created a proper setting guide when I wrote the novel.

Back then, I named places and characters on a whim, never considering that one day, I’d have to remember them in such detail.

Now, my past self’s bad habits were making my current life much harder.

“By the way, how do you die? Do you sacrifice yourself to protect Chrono, like me~?”

He suddenly shifted the conversation to me, catching me off guard.

Of course, my death wasn’t nearly as heroic.

As a worthless leader, my role ended once I exiled Chrono.

After that, my character simply disappeared from the story—dead, without any real significance.

Unlike Noah, my death had no impact on Chrono whatsoever.

I told him as much.

“I see~. So, you stopped mistreating Chrono because you didn’t want to end up like that?”

“That’s part of it. But also… in my past life, I couldn’t bring myself to exploit or yell at a child. It just didn’t sit right with me.”

“A past life, huh…? Sounds like you came from a world with a pretty strong moral compass~.”

Living as an adventurer in a world like this must be pretty tough for you, huh?

Noah’s words made me smile awkwardly.

“Even so, this is the world I live in now.”

“Well, if you can’t go back, you’ll just have to adapt~. Alright, I’ve made up my mind!”

Repeating himself for emphasis, Noah suddenly grabbed both of my hands.

He was ridiculously strong—there was no way I could break free.

With a bright, almost innocent smile, he stared straight at me.

Is this his way of warning me that if I refuse whatever he’s about to say, he’ll break my hands?

“I just had a great idea~.”

His casual tone sent a chill down my spine.

I focused all my attention on his next words.

“Both Chrono and you should become my disciples and train under me. If you put in the effort, even you should be able to reach Gold rank~.”

When the Demon King’s seal breaks, it’ll be better to have more strong heroes besides me.

Noah grinned as if he had just come up with the most brilliant plan ever.

Clearly, he had no intention of letting me stay on the sidelines.