I have never been this embarrassed in my life... The thing is, to get to the Demon Lord's castle, we have to pass through the capital again. But at this point, pretty much everyone in the capital knows my face... So walking through the capital is a recipe for misunderstandings... And also, I have a man with a pot on his head following me... If that's not confusing, I don't know what is... We could go around the capital instead, but when you take into account the actual size of the capital, just going around it would be a huge delay in our quest.

We enter the capital and everyone starts looking at us with confused looks, like I thought... Maybe they're wondering if I already beat the Demon Lord, or maybe just wondering who's following me... Some are already celebrating the Demon Lord's death... Please stop! I can't take the shame!

I'm on the verge of tears as we finally arrive on the other side of the capital, the actual right way to the Demon Lord's castle. We're about to go through the main door as we hear screaming from far behind us. I turn around and see Dug running with 5 guards following him. He then screams at me:

"Hey! Boss! Bring me with you!"

"What!? Dug? What are you doing here!?"

"No time to explain! Yes or no?"

"OK! Yeah!"

"See!? Told you!" He says to the guards following him. And, as he said that, they stopped.

Dug then arrived at our side and the guards went back to their post.

"OK now... What's happening?"

"Nothing..."

"You didn't escape your cell... did you?"

"Maybe..."

"Then why did the guards just stop following you all of a sudden?"

"Well... They can't really go against the hero, can they? So I may have used you a bit to get away..."

"I don't really mind, but how did you even know I was here?"

"I just followed the trail of people celebrating while crying your name and saying how you're their savior and all that..."

After hearing that, I wanted to scream and cry my heart out, but I did my best to keep it inside me. I just moved on from it and so we left for the Demon Lord's castle, but for real this time.