Healing Life After Deserting the Hero Party
Episode 10: Infiltration
Crackle, crackle.
The sound of a campfire burning reached my ears.
Rustle.
I gently turned my head to look toward Yuria.
Perhaps because she’d struggled with the motorcycle for so long in the heat, she seemed to be completely asleep.
Had my first appearance been the problem?
It must have been because I’d come rolling down as a wooden stick snapped.
I was talking about how Yuria had shaken her head at me when I boldly declared I would go find parts.
“Reckless.”
Yuria hadn’t hesitated at all.
It didn’t seem to be because she was terribly worried about someone she’d just met.
Rather, it felt like she’d stopped me out of a sense of morality, simply thinking that entering the Imps’ Forest was an extremely reckless act in itself.
“I can’t let you take that kind of risk because of my parts.”
It’s a misunderstanding, Lady Yuria.
I stared at Yuria intently and nodded.
I no longer thought of that motorcycle as someone else’s.
How could I?
It was a child that would soon give me a ride all the way to Toran.
Besides.
There was something I needed to go get.
“I got it in Piena, in the Imps’ Forest! I received it after solving an imp’s request!”
In a sphere, a hero party had appeared and boasted about a round bracelet.
At first, I’d wondered why a Constellation was shining its light on such an old bracelet that didn’t even look expensive.
It turned out that everything had its use.
“Thanks to this bracelet, I was able to learn a technique from the Nameless Swordsman!”
That was the reason I was trying to get my hands on the bracelet.
The Nameless Swordsman who appeared in the sphere had settled in Montmartre.
So I wanted to secure the bracelet before going there.
I had to take it.
Yeah, obviously.
If it had been a trivial technique, I wouldn’t have bothered stopping by Piena.
But the technique shown after the bracelet boast was so cool and powerful that it made you doubt your eyes.
A hazy purple sword aura erupting and cutting down all the surrounding trees.
So freaking cool…!
After shaking my head once at the memory of that sword aura.
Rustle.
I raised my body from my spot as quietly as possible.
I wondered if I really had to sneak away like this, but what could you do?
“Let’s walk to Toran together when dawn breaks tomorrow.”
Yuria was so kind that I felt sorry for having worried, even for a moment, that she might shoot me with a gun.
Despite having met not long ago, she’d told me to definitely go to Toran with her tomorrow, worried that I might do something reckless.
The world is still worth living in, everyone.
Pushing back my welling emotions, I walked over to the motorcycle.
The provisions Yuria had neatly prepared caught my eye.
I-I’m just borrowing them!
It was absolutely not my intention to steal them like I had in Viet.
I just needed a bit of food to eat on the way to the Piena Forest, so I was borrowing them.
Thump.
I grabbed a handful of provisions and stuffed them into my pocket.
…
I gazed at the remaining provisions for a moment.
Lady Yuria didn’t eat much, after all.
Recalling what I’d seen during the day, I grabbed another handful.
Since this was enough food for Yuria to last at least two weeks on her own, this much should be fine.
Shall we go?
Just as I was about to turn away with my bulging pockets.
I spotted repair tools placed beside the provisions.
I wasn’t going to fight imps.
Since they were rice cakes, they couldn’t launch threatening attacks at me.
But.
Even if there was no fighting, there might be some beating involved.
Swoosh.
I bent down and picked up a long rubber bat.
Great!
After patting my perfectly secure pocket once.
I turned my body in the direction of the Piena Forest.
* * *
“…Mmm.”
In the sunlight shining brightly on her closed eyes.
Yuria, who had been sleeping deeply, opened her eyes.
‘The sun is already high in the sky.’
Since she’d been fiddling with the motorcycle all day in the blistering heat.
It would’ve been stranger if she hadn’t conked out.
“Hwaaah!”
Yawning and stretching, Yuria raised her body.
Since she’d concluded yesterday, while inspecting the motorcycle, that it couldn’t be repaired.
She’d planned to set out early to walk to Toran.
Together with Lian, the newbie hero she’d met out of nowhere.
“…”
Rubbing her eyes, Yuria dropped her hands.
The person who should’ve been there had disappeared, leaving only a blanket behind, lying empty.
‘H-he really did it.’
Yuria jumped up and looked around.
Even though the wasteland offered a fairly wide field of vision, there was no sign of Lian anywhere.
“Damn it.”
Yuria pressed her forehead.
She’d been anxious since yesterday.
“I’ll go find the parts!”
With clothes torn here and there from rolling down, and a face covered in dirt.
At Lian speaking so innocently with a ragged appearance that looked like he wouldn’t last another day, Yuria had shaken her head without hesitation.
She did need parts, but it was too dangerous.
“It’s not exactly known what abilities the imps possess.”
That was the reason many heroes didn’t enter the Imps’ Forest.
“I-I’m doomed.”
There had been heroes who mustered their courage and entered a few times.
But when they woke up, they were outside the forest, completely stripped of everything.
They had no major injuries, but scratches here and there and tremendous muscle pain that made them scream were a bonus.
“I… can’t remember.”
They hadn’t been seriously injured anywhere.
Nevertheless, they couldn’t remember the process from when they entered the forest until they came out at all.
That was why.
That was why the Imps’ Forest was called an unknown place and a restricted area.
‘Heroes really…!’
To ordinary people, heroes were the very embodiment of recklessness.
People who enjoyed life-or-death adventures without a care in the world.
Among them, there were those classified like time bombs: newbie heroes who had just started their adventures.
The recklessness of rushing in headfirst without distinguishing danger, all because of the excitement of starting an adventure.
Because of such recklessness, newbie heroes had the highest death and injury rates among heroes.
“I don’t care anymore. I warned him enough.”
Yuria shook her head and turned around.
Since he’d gone despite her warnings, she planned to leave alone.
“…”
As she turned, Yuria’s eyes spotted an empty water canteen.
“C-can I have two sips…?”
Lian asking with teary eyes came to mind.
He’d introduced himself directly, but to Yuria, Lian was a completely green newbie among newbies.
Setting aside his young and innocent-looking appearance, she could tell just from the fact that he’d just departed from Viet, the city called the City of Beginnings.
“Haaa!”
With Lian’s blue eyes, which seemed to hold a lake in them, flashing through her mind as the last image.
Yuria let out a sigh and picked up the provisions and her gun.
If she hadn’t known, it would be one thing, but now that she knew a clueless newbie hero was in danger.
Thud, thud.
She couldn’t turn a blind eye.
* * *
Good, I’ve made it.
I looked at the Piena Forest before my eyes.
To the point that it was hard to believe such a forest existed near a wasteland.
It was a forest brimming with lush green energy.
“Hmm…! So fragrant!!”
After briefly enjoying the forest’s refreshing scent.
I walked toward the giant tree in the inner forest.
Thud, thud, thud!
After picking up a stone and digging diligently.
I put in the money and items I’d scraped together in Viet and covered them with dirt.
Steal them, and I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth.
In truth, no one was going to steal them anyway.
Maybe after some time had passed.
Because right now, this place was a forest filled with nothing but the unknown and danger, a forest whose very name, Piena, hadn’t even been revealed yet.
Tap, tap.
After pulling grass from nearby and scattering it over the dirt.
I stuck a branch in to mark the spot.
“Phew! I need to get to a city with a bank quickly.”
After stretching my lightened body for the first time in a while.
Rustle, rustle.
I grabbed a handful of dirt from below and started smearing it on my face and neck.
My skin tone is too bright.
Normally, it was quite the charm point.
But because it reflected light easily, it was a fatal flaw for infiltration.
Splat, splat. Wriggle.
“Shit!”
The ground seemed fertile.
I hurled away an earthworm that suddenly emerged from the dirt.
Tap, tap.
Finally, I stuck a few branches into my hair and clothes.
“Hmm. Perfect.”
It was worth spending the whole day cooped up in a tavern watching the sphere.
Adventures involving sneaking into dangerous enemy territory were one of the Constellations’ favorite regular genres, so they were introduced often, and by watching them, I’d learned the essence of infiltration inside and out.
“Shall we go?”
After giving my destination a once-over.
Low crawl!
Rustle!
Before anyone could see, I quickly lowered my posture.
With the mindset of becoming one with the ground, maintaining the closest possible posture.
It could be called the most basic of basic movement techniques for infiltration.
Crawl, crawl.
I advanced bit by bit, parting the grass.
Drip.
The posture was uncomfortable, so sweat was already trickling down, but somehow.
I felt happy even though I was just crawling on the ground.
Because I was actually doing an infiltration that I’d only ever watched in videos.
It was hard not to feel excited.
By the way, where could it be?
The place I was going to was the village where imps lived.
If there was a small problem, it was that I didn’t know the village’s exact location.
“We can’t reveal the village’s exact location! The imps have their own lives there! If you’re curious, build a rapport with an imp you meet in the forest and receive permission!”
Damn it! Why not just tell me?
Blaming others for no reason, I continued advancing.
That was the reason for my current infiltration.
I had no intention of building rapport and wasting time as the hero had suggested.
My plan was to follow the imps visible in the forest and find out the village’s location.
Who do those guys think they are that I’d sit around building rapport with them?
I shook my head from side to side.
Past hardships are bound to be glorified into memories.
The heroes who recommended building rapport must have struggled like hell at first to figure out the imps’ characteristics and counter their debuffs.
There was no need for me to go through that too.
I just need to find the village location.
Once I found the village, the rest would be smooth sailing.
The imps’ specialty, hypnosis, didn’t work on me.
From the rice cake imps’ perspective, it would be like meeting an invincible giant.
I planned to take the village hostage and extort the bracelet and parts.
Just you wait, rice cakes!
With a big, happy smile on my lips.
Crawl, crawl!!
I picked up my crawling speed.
* * *
How long had I been crawling in a low posture?
Rustle.
Focusing my ears on the presence coming from the other side.
I carefully advanced my body.
With the sound of busy movement, white squishy things passed by through the grass.
Rice cakes!
I was so happy I almost jumped up.
Tremble.
My arms and legs hurt so much from crawling continuously.
Because I wanted to end this infiltration quickly.
I just had to follow them.
While watching the imps going back and forth and waiting for my timing.
Tock.
A small ball that looked like a toy flew and fell beside me.
“…?”
In the moment I was wondering what this was.
Whoosh.
With a fast movement sound.
One rice cake emerged right before my eyes.
“…”
“…”
The rice cake had frozen stiff after locking eyes with me while trying to pick up the ball.
And me, stopped dead, unable to go back or forward.
…
An awkward silence flowed for a moment.
“Nyanyanyanyang!!”
The imp’s shout echoed through the forest.
[The imp shouts, “Intruder!!”]