Evading the Hero’s Party with Full Effort

Chapter 26

Ch.26 I clenched my molars tightly.

After defeating the desert bandits, we obtained unexpected spoils of war.

One was the horses presumed to have been ridden by them, and the luggage presumed to have belonged to them…

Why do I say ‘presumed’? Firstly, because the desert bandits had already gone off to a better place; secondly, because those items were located slightly away from our tent.

That is merely my presumption.

“It’s a tent that smells a bit, isn’t it?”

“Yeah? Well, still, considering the circumstances, we’re lucky to have even this much.”

Our own tent had nearly collapsed entirely, so the horses and slightly smelly tent we acquired by looting the desert bandits were extremely valuable given our current situation.

“There’s quite a bit of money here too?”

Leah, with practiced hands, rummaged through the desert bandits’ luggage.

—Pip?!

Pipi, seemingly thrilled about something, trotted eagerly beside Leah, clearly anticipating what might come out next.

Leah used her dagger to tear open the luggage and swiftly gathered anything useful inside.

Watching her work, I began to wonder slightly whether she was truly a mage or perhaps a bandit herself.

“There are quite a few gold and silver coins here.”

Leah, visibly satisfied, naturally slipped the money into her subspace.

This wasn’t the first time she’d done this, clearly.

Certainly, in the game there had been quests involving exterminating mountain bandits or thieves…

But this felt somehow different in nature.

She seemed almost like a professional thief!

I hoped it was just my imagination that she resembled a bandit robbing other bandits.

“Huh? Master, look at this.”

What she brought over to me was a single map.

“Hmm?”

The most intriguing feature was an X-mark drawn right in the middle of the desert.

Was this… the Sand Elf village?

They were a new type of elf added alongside the New Continent, distinct from regular elves or dark elves.

Unlike pale-skinned elves or completely pitch-black-skinned dark elves, these elves possessed chocolate-colored skin and were characterized by having prospered greatly after pioneering the waterless desert using elemental spirits.

Were they targeting them?

“This seems to mark the Sand Elf village?”

At my words, Leah asked back with evident curiosity.

“What’s a Sand Elf?”

“Hmm… Elves existing on the New Continent, perhaps? Somewhat different from regular elves or dark elves?”

Departing from the conventional wisdom that elves dwell in forests, Sand Elves live by pioneering deserts like humans do.

Perhaps one could say they’ve built their own unique culture, similar yet distinct from humans, using spirit magic and magical abilities exclusive to them?

Leah, intrigued by my explanation, asked with a curious expression.

“How are they different? Do they eat meat like dark elves?”

“Well… I heard they’re somewhat more aggressive than what we know, yet also friendly. And the fruits they cultivate are supposedly incredibly delicious.”

True to elves’ love for trees, Sand Elves have established orchards even within the desert.

The fruits they grow are famously extremely delicious.

“Huh? Really? What kinds of fruits do they grow?”

“Figs, dates, watermelons, things like that?”

“Huh? Master… we don’t have any fruit. Can’t we go there and buy some?”

At her suggestion, I looked again at the map.

If I cast holy magic on the horses, we might reach the Sand Elf village—located within distance to arrive by tonight.

I nodded gently.

“Alright. It’s not an extremely far distance anyway. Let’s go visit the Sand Elf village.”

Thus, we headed westward.

***

Mia was currently not in a good mood.

Circumstantially, someone—though she didn’t know who—was trying to interfere with her and the Sage.

She surmised that whoever committed this act must know about the relationship between herself and the Sage.

She was a precious and sacred High Elf.

Could this be the doing of elven noble factions seeking to prevent the union between herself, a noble being, and the Sage, a lowly human?

But soon, she shook her head and changed her thoughts.

They wouldn’t know the names of Mia’s and Cecilia’s lovers.

Although as party members who had spent five years together, they were practically half-family and had opened up to each other, they certainly wouldn’t have told such private matters to people who barely knew them.

Leah and Cecilia.

Considering the fame those two held, there would be no shortage of people wanting to eliminate their lovers.

Still, it seemed unlikely they themselves would undertake such a dangerous act.

Thus, Mia’s mind grew somewhat complicated.

‘The Sage’s name is Hans… Is this mere coincidence?’

It was a name Leah and Cecilia talked about so incessantly that Mia’s ears nearly developed calluses from hearing it.

Though Mia was generally indifferent toward humans, she couldn’t possibly have failed to memorize that particular name.

What if, by any remote chance, the Sage’s name matched that of their lover?

“Hehe… That’s impossible.”

Three members of the Hero party all liking the same person?

How likely was such an absurd situation? Mia chuckled incredulously.

“But where has he gone?”

The Sage, who recently didn’t reply even when she sent letters. Thinking of him made her heart feel stifled.

She had opened the coffin to confirm he wasn’t dead, but she still couldn’t understand why he would play such a nasty prank.

‘Should I really consider this just a prank?’

Elves regard human behavior as foolish.

Why do they live life with such passion? For elves with long lifespans, it was hard to comprehend.

Should she seriously accept this as the Sage’s tasteless joke?

“Do humans often pull pranks like this?”

If she were an elf, she’d grab her lover by the scruff of the neck and fight it out, but since humans might consider this a normal prank, she treaded cautiously.

Mia thought she ought to understand them to some extent, given their different species.

But regardless, separate from that, the rising irritation and sense of grievance were unavoidable.

“The Sage, who did wrong, doesn’t even show up.”

Then suddenly, her comrades came to mind.

Since they were humans, might she learn something by asking them?

Why did the Sage play such a prank and hasn’t shown his face at all?

“Come to think of it, everyone should be in the capital now? Maybe I’ll go see their faces after so long?”

Companions who had shared joys and sorrows for five years.

Since this festival period might be the last time she’d spend with them, she smiled faintly.

‘It was rather fun.’

Though Leah and Cecilia bickered noisily, she felt slightly nostalgic now that the party had disbanded.

Just right—I’ll also get to see the person they love and hear news about him…

Mia began writing a letter.

***

Scarlet had been having busy days lately.

She was searching for Giovanni, who introduced himself as the knight of her patron, Hans.

Of course, Giovanni had fled the capital hastily and desperately on the day he witnessed Cecilia smashing the gravestone…

But Scarlet had no choice but to track down Giovanni, who was somehow connected to her patron.

‘Where did he go?’

Her patron’s name was Hans.

And Giovanni’s claim that such a patron had died left Scarlet deeply confused.

Naturally—it wasn’t as if the name of the person Leah and Cecilia adored wasn’t also Hans?

‘Impossible… That can’t be…’

If her patron’s name truly was Hans, it would be difficult to dismiss this as mere coincidence.

Logically, it was inconceivable that all three members of the Hero party would happen to adore different individuals sharing the identical name ‘Hans’.

Even common sense dictates this situation makes no sense.

And then there was Giovanni, who apparently knew all about this.

After searching for several days without finding any trace of him, she felt frustrated.

Yet, even if she considered going to ask Leah or Cecilia directly, what if she herself had jumped to the wrong conclusion?

If, by any chance, she saw Leah and Cecilia each with different lovers, she might collapse.

Because that would essentially mean her patron was dead.

Though rationally she sensed something strange, if Giovanni’s words turned out to be true…

Though rationally she sensed something strange, if Giovanni’s words turned out to be true…

‘I might collapse.’

How utterly despairing had she felt upon first hearing her patron had died?

Her heart pounded madly as though about to burst, while a chill crept up her spine.

And the sensation of the ground crumbling beneath her feet.

The entire world appeared ashen gray, as if collapsing around her.

Just like the world before she ever met her patron.

Nowadays, people praised Scarlet highly as the Hero, but she knew well.

When she first became the Hero and faced her trials.

How everyone pointed fingers at her, calling her incompetent because she failed to pass the trials…

So much so that Scarlet’s early nickname had been ‘Incompetent Hero’.

A girl raised in the countryside, chosen for the destiny of a Hero, yet unable to defeat even the golem created by the Mage Tower.

Perhaps it was only natural.

An innocent, naive little girl who dreamed of becoming a Hero in her childhood—how could anyone reasonably expect her to pick up a sword for the first time in the capital and defeat a golem?

But others didn’t see it that way.

A Hero was fated to overthrow the Demon King.

Such a Hero could never be allowed to fall to something as trivial as a golem crafted by the Mage Tower.

She herself, burdened by self-reproach and feelings of worthlessness, worked harder—but only suffered more humiliating defeats.

So much so that she had verified multiple times with the Papal See whether she was indeed the true Hero.

And when confirmed she truly was the Hero, everyone—including herself—had fallen into despair.

Back then, she sank deep into dejection.

Each day, breathing itself felt difficult under the fear that the world might fall into the Demon King’s grasp because of her.

Scarlet, bearing the weight of humanity, was so inept in battle she shattered everyone’s expectations.

She wondered—shouldn’t she die for the sake of everyone?

Wouldn’t a new Hero appear if she died?

Wouldn’t everyone be happier that way?

Every day, caught between living and dying, she floundered helplessly in pure despair—

Until her patron appeared before her.

Meeting him changed everything.

If she was the savior of the world, then her patron was the one who saved her.

Yet she couldn’t avoid the truth forever.

Scarlet murmured in a self-deprecating tone tinged with sorrow and lament.

“I can’t keep running away like this forever.”

Thus, she went to find Leah.

To the address where Leah previously lived with her master.

Asking people along the way for directions to the address Leah had once invited her to visit, she found the building.

Climbing the stairs of an ordinary-looking structure, she knocked firmly on the door at the address Leah had clearly given her.

—Creeeak!

The door opened, revealing burly men who greeted Scarlet.

“Who are you?”

Inside, instead of a homely residence where a friend might live, various tools were scattered everywhere.

It looked unmistakably…

Like a workshop. Scarlet felt bewildered.

‘Is… is this not Leah’s house?’

Scarlet quickly collected herself and asked again.

“Isn’t this Leah’s house?”

“Do you think this looks like a house? As you can plainly see, this is a clockwork workshop.”

She checked repeatedly whether she’d gotten the wrong address…

‘But this is correct?’

Checking once more, the address was indeed correct.

At that moment,

She felt as if the entire world were deceiving her, and tears welled up.

‘What is this?’

She had come searching for Leah, but Leah had vanished like smoke.

Her haggard face and unfocused red eyes clearly indicated she was plunged into severe confusion.

Scarlet returned to her lodging, dazed.

Entering the inn with a pitiful expression and drooping shoulders.

Though Scarlet could have stayed at the Imperial Palace if she wished, she always lodged at her regular inn whenever visiting the capital to avoid the Crown Prince’s persistent clinging.

At least at her regular inn, she could escape the Crown Prince’s annoying advances.

“Oh, Hero!”

The innkeeper called out to her as she returned.

“A letter arrived for you today.”

As the innkeeper waved the white envelope in hand, Scarlet’s face brightened.

‘Could it be from my patron?’

Suppressing her pounding heart, she asked urgently.

“Who sent it?”

“Let me see… It’s from Lady Mia.”

“Oh…”

Any hope she’d harbored that it might be from her patron quickly faded at the reply.

“Here you go.”

The moment she entered her room, she unfolded and read the letter handed to her by the innkeeper.

A letter from a dear friend.

Though its contents were ordinary—an invitation to gather and chat together after a long time—one phrase stabbed sharply into Scarlet’s heart.

I want to see your lovers too.

Your friends will each bring their sweethearts.

She alone would attend alone. Imagining that moment, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

But she couldn’t just sit still like this.

She didn’t even know whether he was alive or dead, nor whether the name ‘Hans’ was correct.

Yet her patron had vanished abruptly.

During the days she spent searching for him, a delusion occurred to Scarlet.

Though inwardly she thought it impossible, what if?

The name of Leah and Cecilia’s lover was Hans.

But the name engraved on her patron’s gravestone was also Hans.

Could this truly be mere coincidence?

Scarlet entertained, however faintly, the thought that it might not be a coincidence.

Very faintly indeed.

‘No. If my patron’s name really is Hans, and if he appears there…’

—Grrr…

Scarlet clenched her molars tightly.

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