The Hero Is a Girl

Aulthia is an apprentice potion-maker ranked 45,731st.

At the bottom of the potion-maker rankings, she spends three days waiting at the Hero Registration Guild, but can't find a single hero who doesn't look down on her for being weak.

Just as she's about to give up, she spots a girl lying fast asleep on a roadside lounge chair, clutching a broken wooden sword.

A hero's ranking tag hangs around the girl's neck.

[Novice Hero Helen, ranked 178,464th]

Aulthia's eyes light up.

She can't find someone strong to cling to, but she can find someone to work hard alongside! Surely one bottom-ranked hero won't look down on another!

After they successfully form a party, Aulthia assumes that their journey as a pair of bottom-ranked adventurers will be a difficult one.

But...

Can someone explain why the battle-scarred lord kneels before her hero and expresses his utmost reverence? Why the young elf king offers her his greatest blessing? Why the most notorious summoner behaves like a well-behaved little brother around her... and even the legendary Demon King cries in her arms?

Aulthia is stunned.

Isn't her hero at the bottom of the hero rankings?!

Later, in a dangerous dungeon where they must slay a dragon, she watches her bottom-ranked hero casually cut down a dragon with an ordinary silver sword.

A sacred golden light covers the plain silver sword, inspiring awe and fear.

Suddenly, Aulthia remembers the tales of the strongest hero of the previous generation.

They say that hero slew countless evil dragons, saved countless lives, and defeated the legendary strongest Demon King... Any sword in his hands could be called a holy sword.

No one has been able to do the same since.

But...

"The hero statues made by the world all seem to be... Wait, who says a hero has to be a man?"

Helen used to be a hero.

She didn't become one because she wanted to be a hero. She just needed to earn enough to eat and protect herself, so her worthless life wouldn't end without warning.

She never expected that, while simply trying to survive, she would become humanity's last hope and embark on the "main quest" of defeating the Demon King. Then, before she knew it, she had saved all of humanity.

You'd think that a hero who defeated the Demon King would enjoy a comfortable life afterward.

But no matter how strong she was, she was still only human. Old injuries and illnesses eventually took their toll, and she died one winter, not long after she had finally found a chance to enjoy herself.

She became the least celebrated hero in history.

But to her surprise, she opened her eyes a hundred years later and became a novice hero ranked 178,464th.

Remembering the hard life she had worked through in her previous life, she flops down on a lounge chair and takes a long nap.

Let whoever wants the job be a hero.

Reader's Guide:

1. Helen is the protagonist. Aulthia is the big shot and Helen's little sidekick, with a bit of a mother-daughter dynamic.

2. A light novel with a Japanese-style Western fantasy setting and lots of original worldbuilding.

3. There are a few secret identities, but not many. In her previous life, Helen had plenty of people harboring one-sided feelings for her.

4. A powerful protagonist casually leveling up.

Theme: In the name of freedom