Healing Life After Deserting the Hero Party
Episode 9: Route Change
“Huff! Huff!”
Leaning on a wooden stick I’d picked up along the way, I gasped for breath.
Unlike the dawn when I’d set out full of vigor.
My legs trembled madly from the endless hills and sand.
“Damn, this map bastard—huff! It counts hills and mountains as flat land.”
I’d planned to just rough-estimate the distance and walk.
But the hills and slopes I’d crossed so far already numbered over ten.
Squeak.
Before I knew it, the sun was high in the sky.
The cool dawn air was long gone, replaced by scorching sunlight beating down mercilessly.
My clothes, once fluffy and dry, were already completely soaked with sweat.
They squelched with every step, pushing my irritation to its absolute peak.
Gurgle.
I’d thought I’d prepared more than enough—excessively, even.
But my canteen, far from merely feeling lighter, was now trickling empty, filling me with helplessness.
Ah!
A thought flashed through my mind, and I pulled a small booklet from my bag.
I knew this would happen!
My thoroughly prepared self—let me praise you to the heavens!
# Beginner Hero’s Adventure Guide
It could be called a small but mighty item.
An all-purpose booklet containing countless situations that could arise during an adventure and how to deal with them.
For an absolute beginner like me, who had never properly left a single city, it was practically essential.
# With this alone, you can survive anytime, anywhere, in any situation!
“Huff!”
I quickly combined keywords in the table of contents.
Of course, I wasn’t even halfway to my destination, there were no villages or cities along the way, and on top of that, I’d run out of water.
Please let there be something!
Praying, I searched the table of contents.
# You still have a long way to go but you’re running out of water!?
The entry I wanted caught my eye.
Oh hallelujah!
I quickly found the page and opened it.
# Hydration is essential for adventuring! You absolutely must drink water even if you can’t eat! Do you see any cacti nearby?
I looked around.
Not a cactus in sight—not even any plant that resembled one.
None.
I picked my option and turned to the next page.
# No cacti!? Then there’s no way to get water! Beginner heroes, please be careful not to get into such situations! That’s all for now! Wink!
“…….”
The sheer absurdity of it made me forget the heat for a moment.
“Kiaaaack!”
Fwump!
I screamed and tore the booklet to shreds.
I’d paid 30,000 seeds for this piece of trash.
Rip, shred…….
Huh?
As I was tearing the booklet into even smaller pieces in anger, a rumbling sound reached my ears.
It was similar to the engine of a mechanical bike I’d occasionally seen in cities.
Pat, pat.
Hoping against hope, I quickly climbed the hill.
“Holy……!”
It seemed a bit far, but.
A glint.
Something reflecting sunlight was below the hill.
And even the figure of someone busily working beside it.
“Over here!!”
Maybe because I hadn’t eaten properly.
My voice came out weak as I hurriedly moved downhill.
I didn’t know who it was or what they were doing.
But they were someone with a very high chance of saving me instead of that utterly useless booklet.
“There’s a person here, sa—”
Crack!
The moment I shouted again and leaned on the branch, an ominous sound rang out, and my off-balance body pitched forward.
* * *
Should I call this fortunate?
Thanks to the broken staff, I was able to get down the hill quickly.
It wasn’t on my own two feet, so my whole body ached.
“…….”
I wanted to rub my sore spots, but that seemed difficult right now.
“Wh-what are you!?”
I stared at the gun barrel pressed right against my forehead.
Perhaps because of the heat, the coolness of the metal actually felt pleasant.
“A p-person…… No, I’m a beginner hero. Please spare me.”
It was a woman with long greenish hair holding the gun.
She looked me over with suspicious eyes.
She had green irises that matched her hair color.
“Wh-why did you suddenly appear from the hill?”
To the woman who asked while still keeping her gun trained on me, I showed the remains of the wooden stick in my right hand.
It was broken in half, looking utterly dead no matter who looked at it.
“This is our first meeting, so it’s awkward to say this, but…….”
She seemed to have lowered her guard slightly, but I spoke before she could lower the gun.
“……?”
Even as I ached everywhere from rolling down, my eyes went to the canteen at the woman’s waist.
“Could I please have a sip of water?”
“…….”
I looked at her with eyes like a puppy soaked by the rain.
The woman who’d been staring at me with a *what’s with this guy?* look lowered her gun and handed over the canteen.
Scramble.
I quickly sat up and took the offered canteen.
“Can I have two sips……?”
“D-drink as much as you want. I have plenty of water.”
The moment permission left her lips, I gulped it down.
It flowed down my throat like ice water, as if she were carrying a refrigerator around.
“Kyaaah!”
An exclamation burst out of me unintentionally.
Water of life.
This was water that saved people.
Ah.
“Thank you!”
I wiped the water trickling from my lips and handed back the canteen.
The woman was wearing thick engineer coveralls despite the hot weather, as if she’d come from work somewhere.
“Oh……!”
Beside the woman who dazedly took the canteen back, a shiny, sparkling motorcycle reflecting the sunlight caught my eye.
I’m saved!
On a motorcycle that looked big enough for two, a wave of relief washed over me—I was going to survive.
“I’m Yuria. Yuria Tishai.”
I extended my hand to Yuria, who introduced herself first.
“I’m Lian, Lian di Cassian!”
“…….”
Yuria hesitated to shake my hand, her pupils wavering.
Ah.
I quickly withdrew my outstretched hand.
Having tumbled all the way down, my hand was completely black, all trace of skin tone gone.
“I got lost because I read the map wrong! If it weren’t for you—ma’am, I mean, Miss Yuria—I would’ve died of thirst.”
“So you’re adventuring as a hero.”
Perhaps she thought I was too pure, or too stupid, to do anything bad.
Having noticeably lowered her guard compared to before, Yuria spoke comfortably.
“Where are you coming from and going to?”
“I left from Viet and was heading to the city of Toran.”
“……You enjoy recklessness.”
“I’m a beginner hero, so I’m ignorant about adventuring. I was thinking of getting something to ride once I reached Toran, but I should’ve gotten it in Viet.”
Well, I wouldn’t have known unless I’d actually left Viet.
All I had was information through the orb, so it was nothing but a shame.
And I’d been so busy hauling everything from home that I hadn’t had the leisure to get anything from Viet.
Swish.
I scratched my head and sneakily glanced at the motorcycle.
“If only I could somehow get to Toran…….”
“…….”
Yuria looked at me with *this guy……?* eyes, then shrugged.
“That would be nice if possible, but what should we do?”
“Huh?”
Yuria pointed to a part of the motorcycle.
“I’m in a crisis too.”
Smoke was rising from the corner of the motorcycle.
“……Why?”
I’d been all happy thinking I’d ride this to Toran and get a mount there.
But that smoke extinguished the spark of hope in an instant.
“An engine part was stolen.”
Yuria told me what had happened last night.
As the sun had set, Yuria had been looking for a campsite.
Parking her motorcycle in a spot that seemed decent for shelter from the wind had been the cause.
“I didn’t know it was an Imp forest. Engineers like me rarely leave the village.”
It’d been a while since I’d heard about them.
They were beings about knee-height, shaped like rice cakes.
At first glance, they were so cute you’d want to say “so small and precious!”
But they’re vicious.
Imps were one of the races that even renowned heroes avoided.
Due to the limitations of their rice-cake-like bodies, their combat power wasn’t particularly high.
They weren’t particularly hostile to humans either.
Yet the reason they were avoided was simple: they were terribly mischievous.
They didn’t act cute like their appearance suggested.
They habitually committed all sorts of bad deeds—pickpocketing expensive items or, like in Yuria’s case, running off with parts from machines or vehicles.
No wonder even the spirits ran away.
It was revealed later, but the forest where Imps lived was originally a spirit habitat.
The Imps had barged in and driven out all the kind spirits.
At this point, they should have gone extinct.
Though Imps were pests who tormented all races alike, there was a reason they hadn’t gone extinct.
At first, when I didn’t know Imps well, I’d thought they survived because they were cute, but that wasn’t it.
—Imps use a powerful hypnotic debuff.
An incredible hypnotic debuff with nearly 100% success rate, regardless of the target.
That was how those rice-cake rascals had survived until now.
“I’m trying to fix it as best I can, but it doesn’t look easy, so I was thinking of other ways. It’s impossible to get the part back from the Imps.”
“Hmm.”
I squatted in front of the rising smoke, scrunching up my nose and rubbing my chin.
Toran was quite far away.
Yuria had some food, but it wasn’t exactly plentiful for two people.
She might shoot me with that gun when food runs low.
She doesn’t seem like that kind of person, but even a saint would turn into a bandit in the face of survival.
It was natural to be angry when a stray pig suddenly appeared beside you and lapped up your food.
The route would change a bit.
I thought of the Imp forest Yuria had mentioned.
Though it wasn’t publicly known yet, the forest had a name: Piena.
It was a place that had appeared on the orb as it became famous as an Imp settlement, and I already knew Piena wasn’t far from here.
It was a stopover I had to pass through before going to Montmartre, so I’d checked its location in advance.
It would be hard to stop by Toran first.
I’d originally planned to get a mount and supplies in Toran, then go to Piena.
Because I’d looted from Seria’s party in Viet, my luggage was considerable and my food supply was meager.
“If only there were a passing merchant caravan.”
Yuria let out a deep sigh and raised her head.
Given the distance, it seemed Yuria also wanted to avoid the option of walking to Toran as much as possible.
Hmm! It can’t be helped!
“Up.”
I braced my knee and stood up, looking at Yuria who was deep in thought.
“Just wait here for about two days!”
“Wait……?”
Yuria stared at me with a puzzled face.
“If you wait just two days.”
I absolutely had to visit Piena before going to Montmartre anyway.
Since things turned out this way, I was going to go first.
“I’ll find the part for you!”