Episode 028.
Lately, Prisia had become noticeably full of questions.
After training ended, or on the way back from finishing a request,
she would trot along behind me like a chick following its mother, opening her mouth without pause.
“Master, spicy food is far too painful to eat. You think so too, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Ma-Master. What was the name of the sword art you used when you cut down that monster earlier? It wasn’t an S-rank sword art like the Twenty-Four-Hand Plum Blossom Sword Art, was it?”
“Yeah.”
“Master! Master! Master! I want to eat ice oranges! Next time, let’s dig through the snow together and…”
“Yeah.”
“Master! Master! Master! Masteeer!!”
“……”
Was she pitying me?
At any rate, while I was humoring her string of utterly pointless questions, Prisia suddenly tugged lightly at the hem of my clothes and stopped walking.
“Um, Master, have we not met somewhere before?”
“Before?”
I looked down at her with a puzzled expression.
Prisia looked up at me with her cheeks flushed red, her eyes strangely serious.
“I mean… haven’t we known each other since a very long time ago? From the moment I first met you, Master, you somehow didn’t feel like a stranger.”
What was she talking about?
Since long ago?
Of course, I knew Prisia very well.
The version of her in the game scenario, the most efficient recruitment route, and even the fact that once class-changed, she became the best vanguard.
But that was knowledge I had as a player.
As Tanas of this world, it was true that this was my first time seeing her.
In the first place, what chance would there have been for me, an orphanage kid, and her, a noble from the frontier, to meet?
Common sense said it was impossible.
But I also couldn’t exactly say that to my disciple, who was waiting for my answer with those sparkling eyes.
So I decided to play along moderately.
“Well, my name is fairly common. Maybe that’s why?”
“No, it is not! Absolutely not! Someone as handsome as… ahem! As outstanding as you, Master, could never be common!”
As if she disliked my answer, she rubbed at her face and pouted.
The answer was already decided.
Was this one of those things?
To change the mood, I casually added one more remark.
“Then why don’t you ask your friends? Even if you tell me, what I can say won’t change.”
At those words, Prisia, who had been rubbing her face, froze.
She tightened her grip on the hem of my clothes, then looked down at the ground and whispered in a very small voice.
“…I do not have any.”
“What?”
“Friends to ask… I do not have even one, Master…”
The moment I heard her answer, I realized I’d messed up.
Come to think of it,
it was only natural.
Her mother, who had been a knight, had passed away, and her father, who had been an adventurer, had wandered the continent until he fell gravely ill and was now barely clinging to life.
On top of that, Viscount Gondor had spent nearly ten years thoroughly isolating and pressuring the Springfield family.
The surrounding nobles avoided her, unwilling to form ties with the Springfield family at the risk of earning Viscount Gondor’s grudge.
And Prisia must have grown up guarding her family alone amid that loneliness.
But Prisia lifted her head slightly and continued as if sulking.
“…There is one. Just one.”
“One?”
“Yes… A very long time ago… I had one friend, the first friend I ever made. Though now I can hardly remember where that friend is, or even what their name was…”
Like someone who had found a diary from childhood,
Prisia gazed up at the distant sky for a moment, her eyes steeped in nostalgia as she recalled old memories.
“The atmosphere was a little different… but that friend was also very kind to me, just like you, Master.”
“……”
“Maybe that is why? When I first met you, Master, that friend somehow came to mind.”
‘…Don’t tell me this friend of hers even looked like me?’
Feeling a strange sense of unease, I gave a short cough.
But soon, I realized.
For Prisia, who had spent so long in solitude, living on memories of her only friend,
just how much weight I must now hold in front of her.
“Well, it’s fortunate you have even one. The number doesn’t matter. What matters is how well your hearts match.”
“Is that so?”
“Later, once you’ve perfectly mastered the Twenty-Four-Hand Plum Blossom Sword, why don’t you find that friend first and brag about it?”
“Hehe! Of course! An S-rank sword art, no less! When that time comes, Master, you must come with me and prove my skills!”
As if her spirits had returned, Prisia smiled brightly and stuck close to my side.
“Yo, Tanas!”
“You’re a bit late today, aren’t you? Want a drink?”
Jack and Gran, who were drinking at a street stall near the castle gate, waved their hands.
I gave a light nod, then turned to Prisia, who was walking beside me.
“Prisia, aren’t those guys friends too, in a way? They’re people we run into often in Artem.”
At my words, she sharply turned her head away and let out a sigh.
“Hmph! Those old men are not my friends… My friend should be a little more… someone dignified, like you, Master!”
With the age difference, I suppose that reaction was only natural.
Leaving her whining behind, I continued down the road when I saw Milene in the distance, running all over the place with an urgent expression.
It was unlike her usual composed demeanor as an officer of the guild.
“What’s with Milene?”
At my question, Gran answered while chewing on jerky.
“Ah, something happened. It might be good news for you, Tanas.”
“Good news? What is it?”
“You know Sieg, the guy who openly picked a fight with you not long ago.”
“Sieg?”
“The bastard who went berserk because he lost first place.”
Ah, that guy?
“What about him?”
“He was carried in with a fatal wound. His party members gave him emergency treatment, but… it probably won’t be easy.”
When Gran made a throat-cutting gesture, Jack took over with a grimace.
“It wasn’t an ordinary wound. It was rotting away terribly.”
‘Rotting away?’
In that instant, one possibility flashed through my mind.
Leaving Gran’s sneer behind, I started moving.
I had to check it for myself.
“Hey! Where are you going!”
I immediately ran to the Adventurers’ Guild.
Bang!
When I opened the guild door and went inside, several adventurers greeted me.
At the center of the lobby,
Sieg lay on a stretcher, his complexion deathly pale as he groaned.
“Master…”
Prisia gripped my sleeve tightly.
Her eyes trembled slightly at the sight of the blood around us.
“At this rate, Sieg will… Potions, are there no more potions?”
“Ordinary potions barely have any effect! The decay is repelling them as if it’s interfering with the mana… We need at least a high potion…”
Sieg’s party members clutched their faces.
Milene, as an officer of the guild, had asked the higher-ranked adventurers for help, but everyone shook their heads.
It was probably partly because Sieg’s usual conduct was awful, but in a frontier region of the kingdom, a high potion was a precious item akin to an extra life.
“Please, is there no one who can help! Sieg may be rough, but he’s not someone who deserves to die like this!”
“Please help! Anyone, please…!”
When I pushed through the crowd and stepped into the center,
Sieg’s party members turned their heads with eyes full of hope for a moment,
only to lower their faces again.
“…Tanas, did you come to mock Sieg?”
“What this bastard did was trash, but… do you really have to do that now of all times…?”
Come to think of it, considering what he’d done the other day, they must have assumed there was no way I would help them.
But I paid them no mind and examined Sieg’s wound.
A khaki-colored fluid oozed from between the sharply torn skin.
‘This is it!’
I cheered inwardly.
As expected, people weren’t meant to just die for no reason.
I didn’t know if Prisia was lucky,
or if she was being compensated for all the misfortune she’d suffered so far, but the cause of the wound was an Inbium monster.
A special monster needed to make an endgame item.
Its respawn rate was so terrible that you could hardly see it even once in a single playthrough, and now this?
But I didn’t let it show on my face and spoke with a serious expression.
“…The wound is grave. He won’t last the day.”
“Damn it… Like we don’t know that?”
Then I took a high potion out of my pouch.
The moment they saw the liquid shining brilliantly inside the transparent glass bottle, the eyes of the adventurers around us widened.
“I-Insane! A high potion?”
“Don’t tell me you’re…”
I looked coldly down at Sieg’s party members and gave them my condition.
“The price is all the payment and items you earned today. If you hand over everything, without leaving out even a single piece of junk, I’ll consider it.”
The party members nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“Hey, hey, Tanas! Are you really thinking of helping that bastard? Think about what he did to you!”
Several high-ranking adventurers around me tried to dissuade me, but I didn’t waver.
This was an opportunity.
I had a few high potions to spare, and I could replenish them later.
But among the spoils Sieg’s party had brought back, ‘that’ was sure to be there.
More than anything, this was an event that would raise my reputation like crazy.
Holding the high potion up to the rotting wound, I answered in a low but firm tone.
“It’s a life that can be saved.”
“……!”
“I can’t abandon a fellow adventurer.”
“……!!!”
Ding!
++
[You have used a means of recovery on a dying target.]
[Passive ‘Merciful Salvation’ has activated!]
[The effect of the high potion increases by 1000%, and the additional ‘Decay’ status is purified.]
++
When I tilted the bottle, the brilliant jade liquid poured over Sieg’s wound.
At that moment,
a dazzling white light, one that could never be seen from an ordinary high potion, filled the guild lobby.
Sssss—!
The khaki fluid eating away at his flesh evaporated in an instant, and the rotting muscles regenerated like a miracle.
“Wh-What is this…!”
“Insane! That just now wasn’t a high potion! It was Elder Potion—no, elixir-level!”
“Tanas! You, just what are you?!”
The adventurers around us shouted as if screaming.
Color returned to Sieg’s once-pale face in an instant.
His brow, which had been twisted in pain, slowly relaxed.
“…Ugh.”
Sieg slowly opened his eyes.
He soon examined his body with a bewildered expression, then seemed to grasp the situation and frowned.
“Where the hell… I’m sure I was facing that monster…”
“Sieg, you’re awake? Tanas, Tanas saved you! He used that precious Elder Potion!”
At his comrade’s cry, Sieg’s gaze reached me.
For a moment, the guy wore a complicated, subtle expression before soon spitting out in a prickly voice.
“Hmph! I didn’t need help from the likes of you.”
This bastard?
Just as I was considering grabbing him by the collar and beating him senseless,
Sieg bowed his head deeply and spoke in a low voice.
“…But I’ll repay this debt. No matter what…”
“Waaaaaah—!”
“Tanas, you really are Artem’s treasure!”
“Tanas!”
Prisia shouted first.
“Tanas!”
“Tanas!”
“Tanas!”
“Tanas!”
The guild filled with cheers loud enough to lift the roof.
Even a few adventurers who, like Sieg, had looked at me unfavorably as an outsider became one in that moment and shouted my name.
++
[Your reputation rises explosively!]
[You used your power for the right thing.]
[Proficiency in ‘Recovery’ increases greatly.]
[Title: ‘Saint of Artem’ spreads widely throughout the region.]
[Your name has been reported to the royal capital and the Imperial Adventurers’ Headquarters.]
[Your influence over the nearby regions expands.]
*
*
*
++
‘Oh.’
This was a far greater gain than I’d expected.
The excited adventurers rushed over, trying to toss me into the air in celebration, but I lightly slipped away and headed toward the pile of spoils Sieg’s party members had handed over.
“Kyaa! What are you doing?!”
“You’re my disciple. You take it in my place.”
Leaving Prisia’s scream behind,
I looked over the many pieces of equipment and money the party members had set out.
Money was nice, but what I needed most was, as expected…
A black gem, roughly cut, yet holding darkness as deep as an abyss.
‘Eogeoji!’
I had only just finished the prologue, and yet I’d obtained a top-tier late-game material.
If things went well, Hero or whatever, I might be able to take the Demon King’s head all by myself.
Before I knew it, Prisia had approached and rubbed her face against me.
“I was truly moved… Master, you really are the greatest teacher to me!”
Forcing down the smile that was about to rise to my lips,
I returned once more to the face of an indifferent master.
Because the end was beginning to come into sight.
##