Evading the Hero’s Party with Full Effort

Chapter 30

Ch.30 Why Does a Man Like Me Have So Many Sins?

Nekhuf quickly dodged Leah’s kick to the side and lightly swung his sword.

-Tok!

He lightly tapped Leah’s arm with his wooden training sword and smiled broadly.

“I won.”

“Wh… what is this…… how did you do that?”

Leah’s face was full of bewilderment.

It was unseen. The way he blocked, dodged, and counterattacked Leah’s attacks was something that would naturally draw applause.

“Are you really unable to see?”

When Leah asked, Nekhuf nodded his head.

“Yes, I cannot see.”

“Then how are you blocking and dodging?”

“Because the air changes.”

“What?”

At Nekhuf’s incomprehensible words, Leah’s expression became blank.

“The air changes? No, what does blocking an attack have to do with the air changing?”

“It’s because your breathing changes when you attack, Sister.”

Leah tilted her head, seemingly still unable to understand.

It was natural she couldn’t understand.

Elves are originally assigned higher base stats than humans.

Nekhuf, having to compensate for his lack of sight, must have had no choice but to develop his other senses that much more.

Therefore, Nekhuf’s senses were not something an ordinary person could possess.

“Huh? There’s no such thing? Let’s do it again.”

Unable to accept the win or loss, she tilted her head; I patted Leah’s head.

“Isn’t this your specialty? Be mature and let it go.”

“Tch!”

As if upset by that, Leah turned her head away.

I kept patting her head to soothe her anger. Gradually, Leah’s anger subsided.

“Don’t be angry over something like this. It’s a waste of your nickname, ‘Genius Mage’.”

Objectively speaking, if Leah had used magic, Nekhuf would have lost.

Maybe a future Nekhuf with more experience, but the current Nekhuf couldn’t possibly beat Leah if she used magic.

“It’s only because you went easy on me, Sister. If you had used magic, I would have lost, right?”

Nekhuf agreed, saying that was right, but soon he hesitated and chose his words carefully.

“Um…… Brother…… Sister, with this level of skill, would I be capable enough to go on a journey?”

“Nekhuf!”

At Nekhuf’s words, Nephert shouted loudly.

“I said no. Traveling is too dangerous.”

Nekhuf tried to say something in response but soon made a troubled expression.

“I know, but maybe later……”

“No, you can’t! Do you know how many bad people there are in this world?”

“Even so.”

“Absolutely not!”

Nephert glared fiercely at Nekhuf’s face like that.

In the original work, Nekhuf also longed to travel.

Even though he lost his sight in an accident when he was young, Nekhuf never lost his dream of being an adventurer.

Knowing the future story, I also knew that Nekhuf would leave this village someday.

Because that was probably Nekhuf’s destiny.

But since it’s a matter for the future, I don’t need to worry about it.

I just watched Nekhuf and Nephert’s argument.

“Master, what are you doing? Why aren’t you petting me?”

“Ah, sorry.”

On top of that, it feels like I’m keeping a cat too.

***

Meanwhile.

The Hero party, who had noticed that the patron, priest, sage, and master were all the same person.

They formed their party again after a long time and left the Imperial Capital.

Of course, they cruelly refused the desperate pleas of high-ranking nobles or priests…… no, even the Emperor and the Crown Prince, who tried to stop them, and practically hijacked a ship bound for the New Continent and headed for the New Continent.

Of course, there was some opposition……

But attacking the Hero, the Saint, and the High Elf was unthinkable.

The Emperor, who was grandly preparing a celebration festival for defeating the Demon King, suffered a massive blow to his prestige, but that was none of their concern.

Because for them, how to deal with Hans and Leah was the most important thing.

“First, let’s deal with that wench Leah, and then Priest Hans……, no, what should we do about Master Hans?”

While Scarlet was thinking for a moment at Cecilia’s words, Mia preempted her and spoke.

“First of all, the Sage promised to be with me.”

“Don’t lie, Mia. Clearly, it was a vow you made to offer yourself, wasn’t it? There was no word from Master Hans that he would accept it.”

Scarlet pointed out Mia’s obvious lie.

Unable to refute, Mia clicked her tongue.

“Tch……”

At their conversation, Cecilia frowned.

“Is it okay for an elf to lie?”

“It wasn’t a lie.”

Cecilia and Mia glared at each other.

“But Mia, you definitely used formal speech before, right? Why the sudden informal speech?”

Mia was the oldest here, but as a High Elf who loved peace, she had been kindly using formal speech with everyone; Scarlet was puzzled by her change in speech.

“Hmph, I only did that because we were comrades then. Now, you are just competitors.”

‘Competitors…… After all that happened. Do you still like that kind of person?’

Scarlet had never made any future promises with Hans.

It was just her one-sided crush. That was the precise nature of her relationship with Hans.

In contrast.

“Cecilia. But did the patron really confess to you?”

Cecilia puffed out her chest and spoke.

“Yes, that’s right. None of you have received a confession from Master Hans here, have you?”

It was true that Hans had confessed. But, it was almost no different from Cecilia forcing him to.

No one knew this fact, so Cecilia spoke brazenly.

“Ugh……”

“Lies. I know the Sage well, and he doesn’t like airheaded women like you.”

To tell the truth, he didn’t love any member of the Hero party.

Hans just formed close relationships with all members of the Hero party to save this place.

Actually, Hans had his own grievances.

It was true he was good to them, but it wasn’t because he had a romantic interest in them.

He was just good to them as friends of the opposite sex.

However, the concept of ‘friends of the opposite sex‘ that exists in South Korea did not exist here.

It was common to marry the partner chosen by one’s parents. In an era like this, where love marriages were rare, being good to someone of the opposite sex was flirting itself.

Moreover, since they were all pure women with no romantic experience, the effect was very potent.

This was nothing less than a butterfly effect that Hans had never anticipated, and it had bound him tightly.

“Airheaded? How dare you?”

“Hmph, you probably pressured the Sage using your position as Saint, just like Leah said.”

“No, that’s not true? Besides, when we first met, I wasn’t a Saint or even a candidate?”

“Humans always lie. For a Saint chosen by the Goddess to lie… In my long, long life, this is the first time I’ve doubted the divine judgment.”

“Ugh……”

Cecilia’s conscience was pricked, and she couldn’t say anything.

Scarlet, who had been watching their fight, brought up something she had been curious about for a while.

“But. Why did the patron treat all of us so well?”

As if it were obvious, Mia opened her mouth.

“It must have been because he was worried about me. The Sage probably sent letters to you guys as well while taking care of me.”

“No, that’s not true? It was because he was worried about me? Mia, you haven’t even received a confession.”

Cecilia often bickered with Leah, but originally, she didn’t have a bad relationship with Mia.

But after learning that Leah had left for the New Continent, she began to argue fiercely with Mia.

Watching this, Scarlet thought that perhaps Cecilia had the worst personality in the Hero party.

Scarlet tried to calm the overheating argument by diverting attention to another topic.

“Um…… everyone, calm down a bit. Mia, you said that Master Hans saved your kingdom and told you to join the Hero party if the Demon King revived, right?”

Mia, who had been growling at Cecilia, lost some of her momentum.

They had all shared their past stories to clearly understand the person named Hans.

“That’s right. I couldn’t easily believe it then, but eventually the Demon King revived, and I joined the party.”

“Leah also said she trained hard because the Demon King would revive.”

“Then, circumstantially, wouldn’t it be that Master Hans knew the Demon King would revive?”

Scarlet brought it up, having that thought.

“That would be impossible. Predicting the Demon King’s revival is not possible.”

When Cecilia, the Saint, said that, it somehow seemed believable.

“But the Sage predicted it. The Sage is the only one in this world who can mix divine power and magic to produce power rivaling a god’s.”

At Mia’s words, Scarlet recalled the night she was writing the letter.

‘Now that I think about it, I think I heard something like that back then?’

“Pfft! Don’t lie. No matter how great Priest Hans is, how could that be possible?”

Cecilia shook her head as if it were nonsense and waved her hand dismissively, but Mia was unwavering.

“You are the one who knows nothing about the Sage.”

Cecilia, perhaps taking Mia’s triumphant attitude as a provocation, bared her teeth and spoke.

“Really, now, do you think the Papal State and the Mage Tower have only tried mixing divine power and magic once or twice? It’s impossible. Impossible.”

“But he succeeded. And I saw him judge humans with that power. It shone brightly, creating a giant mushroom cloud that soared high into the sky with a huge explosion, and countless humans burned away and disappeared……”

‘Mushroom cloud? Judgment?’

Scarlet looked at Mia curiously, while Cecilia looked at her coldly.

“Mia…… are you sure you didn’t eat some strange herbs by mistake? I’ve never heard of a magic spell that creates such a mushroom cloud in this world.”

“I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it. It’s the law of the world that divine power and magic don’t mix.”

They, who had been bickering like children just moments before, were now serious as if that had never happened.

“But originally, a magic spell that creates a mushroom cloud…… there’s no way……”

Cecilia, who had been saying something.

Her expression stiffened in an instant.

“What’s wrong?”

“Cecilia, what is it?”

Cecilia was lost in thought.

Scarlet and Mia’s eyes met as they saw her face, which had become pale without a trace of color.

“By any chance…… did Master Hans carry a strange object?”

As Cecilia asked with an ashen face, Mia groped through her memories.

“A strange object…… the staff he used was a bit unusual. The magic he used was strange too.”

“How was it unusual, specifically?”

Urged by Cecilia, Mia hummed and recalled what its specific shape was like.

“He used a strangely shaped staff made of metal. If I were to point out its peculiarity, I’d say the handle was slightly bent? It was quite a unique shape, so it’s not easy to forget once you see it.”

At those words, Cecilia jumped up and rummaged through her luggage.

“What’s with her?”

In response to Scarlet’s question, Mia just shrugged her shoulders.

A moment later, Cecilia brought over a book, opened it, and searched for something.

“Where was it? It was here.”

And she showed them an illustration.

A sketched illustration colored in black.

A picture of a man aiming something with a bent handle and a short dagger at something dark and enormous.

And below it, hieratic script used by priests was listed.

“What is this?”

“Mia, by any chance, did the staff Master Hans carried look like this?”

“Hmm…… it did look similar. But the drawing is too rough, so I can’t be sure.”

At the ambiguous answer, Cecilia asked again urgently with a doubtful face.

“By any chance, was the name of that staff not ‘Equality’?”

“I don’t know that.”

At Mia’s firm words, Cecilia let out a sigh of relief.

“Haa…… Is that so? Well, there’s no way ‘Equality’ could have been released into this world.”

“Equality? What is that?”

When Scarlet asked, not understanding Cecilia’s words, she waved her hand dismissively as if it were nothing.

“No, you don’t need to know. This is a secret unless you’re high-ranking in the Papal State.”

As Cecilia put the book back into her bag, Scarlet responded irritably.

“What’s that? We agreed to share everything related to Master Hans, didn’t we?”

“It’s not related to Master Hans, so I’m not telling.”

As Cecilia stuck her tongue out slightly at that, Scarlet and Mia felt frustrated.

***

Late at night.

I secretly leave my room and head outside.

During dinner, Nephert hinted to me.

Meet me outside the house at noon.

‘Is this another female tribulation here?’

This damn popularity…… I really don’t know what to do about it.

Nephert is Nekhuf’s fiancée.

There’s probably only one reason she would call me out at midnight.

As someone who had never received a confession on Earth, I’m not used to these female tribulations here.

But thinking positively, maybe it’s because I have a face that’s somewhat attractive here.

‘But stealing a woman who has a fiancé is a bit…….’

In the game, Nekhuf and Nephert were a very sweet couple.

Nephert devotedly cared for Nekhuf, who couldn’t see.

Since both were Sand Elves, they were a handsome couple with exotic looks and were quite popular with users.

‘I ended up charming Nephert without even realizing it. Why does a man like me have so many sins?’

I forcibly suppressed my rising, foolish smile and waited for Nephert.

“You came?”

I turned around at the voice coming from behind me; Nephert with her sharp eyes was standing there.

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