Episode 027.
“Master, why are you in a place like this?”
That evening, after returning from a request with Prisia, she asked with an uncharacteristically serious expression.
The gazes of Milene and Jack, who had been tending to the wounded nearby, and even Gran, who had been nursing a cup of liquor, all fixed on me at once.
“……”
They say a talented person is like an awl in a pocket.
Why were they all so curious?
It seemed the region of Artem was far too small to contain me.
“If you’re asking what my dream, my goal is…”
To take the Demon King’s head.
But I couldn’t exactly say that, so I crossed my arms for a moment, pretending to think.
Then I tossed out a reply.
“Fame.”
“Fame, is it…? If it is merely for that, would it not be far quicker to go to the royal capital or the Empire?”
“No. I don’t mean something as small as that. I mean enough that my name would be known no matter where in this world you are.”
The intent behind my words was clear.
Scenarios, quests, and so on—I needed overwhelming name value to obtain hidden pieces or negotiate with the Order later.
But the moment my words fell, the air around us froze in a strange way.
“…He’s insane. Is he saying he needs to become something on the level of a legendary adventurer?”
Jack muttered blankly.
Then Gran set down his cup and laughed.
“No matter where in this world you are… That’s not just being recorded in the Empire’s history books. That’s saying you’ll earn the alias of ‘Roadseeker.’ An adventurer whose name resounds beyond the human realm, into the spirit realm, and even as far as Heaven…”
“Kuh! …So that was it. To think you had such a grand dream… that even the souls who died and went to Heaven would know your name.”
No, excuse me.
I just said I’d build up fame, so why are you bringing Heaven into this?
They were reading far too much into my words, but the mood was as though everyone accepted it.
Milene in particular looked at me with pitying eyes and whispered softly.
“Come to think of it… it was strange, wasn’t it? Why would someone as skilled as Tanas roll around in this dangerous frontier for pocket change? Could it be… he lost his family? So he wanted his name to reach even Heaven…”
“…Now that I think about it, that Tanas guy has never once talked about his family… He must have had a sad past.”
I’m an orphan, you idiots.
Gran and Milene, who knew what they were thinking, looked at me with warm, sticky gazes, as though they were looking at an abandoned stray cat.
“It’s burdensome, so wipe those looks off your faces.”
I let out a small sigh and looked around to change the subject.
“More importantly, there are quite a few wounded.”
“You can say that again. There have been too many monsters lately. It’s not just that their numbers have increased. They’ve become far more ferocious than before. Tanas, if you hadn’t donated those herbs to the guild, there would have been even more casualties.”
Jack and I exchanged a brief glance.
It was information we understood without needing to say it aloud.
The monsters had grown stronger.
That meant the Demon King’s army was advancing, and the area was beginning to fall within the Demon King’s domain.
“I hear the Eastern Front is still holding.”
“Well, if that place falls, then here… goes without saying, right?”
Gran answered while pretending to be calm, but the end of his voice trembled faintly.
If the Demon King’s main force moved, a frontier territory like Artem would be erased from the map overnight.
‘It’s about time to start preparing.’
I looked outside with cold eyes.
To begin with, the [Artem] region was a place that vanished no matter what you did in the game’s scenario.
As a player, the only difference was whether you recruited Prisia before the east was completely smashed, or recruited her later after she lost her territory and wandered.
It was just that, because I was not the Hero, I had come a little earlier than that point.
There was also the fact that Viscount Gondor had fallen for the demons’ temptations and was gnawing away at the eastern forces, but there was only one reason the Eastern Front was barely holding on right now.
‘Because the Empire up north is hard-carrying like crazy.’
The Empire, known as humanity’s final bastion.
If that vast shield, which was blocking the Demon King’s main force by grinding down its enormous territory, population, and its talents beyond common sense, did not exist, a kingdom like this would have long since been reduced to ashes and scattered like dust.
The problem was that, with the Demon King’s main force struggling against the Empire, they were trying to divert part of their forces toward the Ersha Kingdom.
Even if only a portion of the main force came this way, the Eastern Front would be torn apart like paper.
“Master? Is something the matter?”
Prisia asked, tugging at the hem of my clothes.
I roughly ruffled her hair.
“It’s nothing. …Prisia, you need to become stronger.”
“Heheh! Leave it to me! Master’s grand dream of making your name known even in Heaven… This Prisia shall accompany you to the very end!”
At her confident declaration, the surrounding adventurers all applauded her and me at once.
Under the warm gazes of the adventurers,
my head, as the person actually involved, was beginning to ache, but…
It didn’t matter.
Prisia’s growth was already on track, and now she had reached a level where she could wield her swordsmanship stably and make fiery plum blossoms bloom even in the cold rain.
However, if you ask me whether this was the Twenty-Four-Move Plum Blossom Sword Art, I have nothing to say.
“Ma-Master, how about we go eat dinner soon?”
She whined softly and shook my arm.
It was then.
“Kheheh… Do you think this place is some kind of orphanage?”
A man with dull blond hair swept roughly back approached with a sneer.
“You think you can survive here with a brat like that?”
It didn’t seem like he was worrying about me.
At a glance, I was thinking, What the hell is with this bastard?
Beside me, Gran broke into a cold sweat and whispered.
“…Tanas, be careful. That bastard is Zeke. Before you came, he was ranked first in Artem’s Adventurers’ Guild.”
“They rank people?”
“Well… unofficially. For reference, right now you’re first, the young lady is third, and he’s been pushed down to second.”
Gran proudly added that he was fourth.
“……”
What kind of… fucking…
I’m gritting my teeth and raising a disciple to stop the destruction of the world,
and this bastard, whether his name is Joke or Zark, is picking a fight with me because he lost first place in some unofficial ranking?
Well,
Jack and Gran had simply been on the same wavelength as me. Even Milene had been rather prickly at first.
Whether he knew what I was thinking or not,
“Tanas, I’ve heard plenty about you. But doesn’t this go against business ethics? I had reserved the extermination of the Poison Mantis swarm, and you just snatched it up?”
He wasn’t saying this before departure,
but bringing up something from the day before yesterday now. I could see exactly what Zeke was thinking.
“Tanas did that?”
“He doesn’t look like the type…”
“Let’s hear Zeke out first.”
And what, is a mission a restaurant? You can reserve it?
In the first place, the Adventurers’ Guild had no system for reserving missions.
In other words, it was nonsense forced together just to pick a fight.
He was telling the surrounding adventurers that I was in the wrong.
“……”
I looked Zeke up and down, and the brooch on his cloak shone unusually bright.
An illegitimate child of a noble, maybe.
The picture fit perfectly.
That was why he was so obsessed with rankings.
“You are being rude…”
I stopped Prisia as she tried to step forward.
Seeing that, he must have thought I was scared, because he continued, full of momentum.
“Why don’t you go suck on your mother’s tit a little longer, brat?”
I answered indifferently.
“I’d like to, but my mother passed away last year…”
“……!!”
In an instant, the inside of the guild went quiet, as though cold water had been poured over it.
“…I knew Zeke was rough, but he went straight for a parent insult?”
“I didn’t know he was that kind of scum.”
“He definitely knew and said it. Zeke… character controversy on the wiki… mutter, mutter.”
Zeke panicked and looked around before stammering.
“I-I wasn’t insulting your mother! I, I meant you should prepare properly… your weapon… Th-that’s right! Keke… Look at that pathetic excuse for a weapon!”
He mocked the “Sword of Barsha” hanging at my waist and showed off his own dazzling greatsword.
“Look at this! A sword should be a greatsword this huge and majestic! Do you think you can protect Artem with that scrap metal? Throw it away at once!”
The Sword of Barsha was the masterpiece of the Barden family head,
but its appearance was rather plain.
I answered calmly once more.
“…It is my father’s keepsake, so… I’m sorry…”
“……”
Silence flowed again.
A moment later,
“Boooo! You bastard! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?!”
“You piece of garbage!”
“Zeke… character controversy… cannot be recycled…”
“Guildmaster! Cancel the request I entrusted to Zeke! No matter how skilled he may be, my conscience will not allow me to leave work to someone like that!”
Boos poured down like a storm from both the first and second floors.
Before anyone realized it, Zeke’s party members had quietly put some distance between themselves and him.
“We have nothing to do with our leader.”
“That was merely the leader’s personal statement, not the will of the party members, so please don’t misunderstand.”
“…Y-you bastards?!”
Zeke’s face flushed bright red as he glared at me, but the situation was already over.
You’re trying to wage a public opinion battle against me?
What exactly do you think you can do?
In the end, he slammed the door and disappeared as if fleeing.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen Zeke that flustered.”
“He acted all high and mighty, too…”
Gran and Jack slapped the table beside me and snickered.
In any case, now that everyone had seen Zeke humiliated,
even if there were people who didn’t like me, there wouldn’t be any idiots stupid enough to pick a fight first for a while.
“Ma-Master… your mother, and… was it truly your father’s keepsake?”
Prisia looked up at me with tearful eyes that seemed ready to spill over.
I told you, I’m an orphan.
She seemed to have misunderstood something,
but I silently adjusted the sword at my waist and sighed.
“No.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s go. You said you were hungry.”
I led Prisia, who was looking at me with warm eyes, out of the guild.
***********
The central conference room of the royal capital.
Beyond the heavy doors engraved with a golden sun emblem, a weighty silence flowed.
The United Kingdom, the Empire, representatives of each nation, foreign envoys, and more.
This was the so-called “Holy Council,” where the leadership of the kingdom and the Order had gathered.
Breaking that silence, the representative of the Order of the Three Goddesses,
the High Priest, opened his mouth.
“We shall decide the disposition of Tanas, the Hero of Recovery. If anyone has an opinion…”
Tap, tap—
The High Priest’s gaze—no, everyone’s gaze—turned toward the woman seated at the end of the table.
The Sword Master of the Ersha Kingdom,
head of the Ronain family,
Helena Ronain.
She was famous for always maintaining neutrality, never involving herself in any political struggle,
and speaking only of the sword and of facts.
The Sword Master spoke.
“He is innocent.”
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