“This is when the real work starts. For the sake of the people, and the sake of the world, you are going to have to do all sorts of difficult things,” I reminded her.

“The same goes for you, Naofumi!” she bit back.

“Only until the waves end. You’re stuck with this gig for the rest of your life. All I have to do is fight. You need to handle all the other stuff behind the front lines. Man, it’s so easy being a hero!” I laid it on nice and thick.

“Bah! Just give it to me straight, why don’t you? I’ll show you!” she retorted. With a determined expression on her face, Melty stood and raised both of her hands in order to attract everyone’s attention. “Upon reflection of his great deeds during the uprising, I now bestow upon Shield Hero Naofumi Iwatani the title of archduke!” she proclaimed loudly.

What! The more important I got, the more annoying jobs it would force me to do!

“You little—” I started. Melty just laughed.

“Trying to force all the boring work onto me? Never!” she crowed.

“I’d rather die than take such a title! You take that back, right now!” I commanded.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?! I am declaring this a royal edict!” Melty proceeded to put the boot in. Her further declaration was met with applause from the coalition army representatives. I could only wonder why they didn’t bring Melty to task for her slovenly, childish behavior. But she wasn’t finished yet. “I think Archduke Iwatani deserves all of the Faubrey territories that we obtained during this most recent conflict. Takt has left them badly scarred, to be sure, but they should still be able to provide some taxes.” A nobleman spread out a map and outlined the territories to be given to me. As befitting the title of archduke, perhaps, it was a pretty big chunk of land.

“Stop pushing your own agenda!” I shouted. At that point, Trash stepped in, an uncharacteristic smile on his face as he gently raised his hands.

“Yet it is a fact that we won the war thanks to your actions, Hero Iwatani. Failure to reward you would reflect poorly on our nation,” Trash pointed out.

“Trash! The exact same thing could be said about you!” I fired back. In fact, Trash had done the most out of anybody. Why does the title of “hero” attract this kind of trouble?

“I acted only as a representative of this nation, now as I have in the past,” Trash replied. I mean, Trash was already second only to the queen. He was already in a top management position, basically. But I still couldn’t accept my own sudden promotion.

“There are still many tasks that I need my new Archduke Naofumi to handle!” Melty stated.

“Shut it! Stop pushing everything onto me! I’m not going to be your archduke!” I replied.

“And I didn’t want to become queen either! We don’t have much choice, either of us!” Melty retorted.