I Am Not the Heroine

Lux was watching as the Hero ran around the prairie while munching on a meat sandwich (no peppers).

Suddenly, he remembered something he had overlooked.

‘…Come to think of it, there’s been a variable introduced.’

Mage Water Mill Village was a place that was never mentioned in the novel.

But now, it was a request that the Hero had personally brought for him.

In other words, this meant that the time required to fix the water mill would delay their arrival at the Twilight Fortress.

‘This seems a bit risky.’

During the episode at the Twilight Fortress, a soldier had casually mentioned, “[If the Hero had been two days late, we all would have been dead…].”

Yeah, two days. If things went badly, the uncertain future the soldier imagined might become a reality.

‘Plus, if I combine the time needed to arrive early to assess the situation…’

No, this might mean he had to cancel the water mill request. If not, he needed to at least speed up the time taken for the other two requests.

‘Anyway, these two combat requests don’t significantly impact the party.’

Just a matter of hunting down a horde of magical creatures.

Therefore, adjusting the time wouldn’t make much of a difference.

‘Then… I guess I should participate in this battle request as well.’

By taking part, he needed to minimize the time spent in combat and movement.

A few days later, in the middle of a vast forest.

“Everyone, battle formation!”

Suddenly, the Hero’s shout echoed, and in an instant, the Hero party was in position.

He summoned his pen and stood next to Rapirie.

“Aswel, what are we up against?”

“A pack of jackals. About two hundred of them. This is the first request.”

“They must have run into each other while moving. I didn’t expect it, but it’s not bad.”

Serelin and Aswel quickly assessed the battlefield.

The place that had been our resting area until just now was now ready to spill blood.

“Lux.”

Without warning.

Was he sensing the situation? Lux approached my side with the other horses.

Jackals and Noh are magical creatures that eat animals resembling horses.

These creatures resembling beasts and quadrupeds prefer hunting according to their respective traits of four-legged and bipeds.

“Lux, do these kids need to stay behind me?”

The five horses were high-quality prey the jackals desired.

Thus, as the non-combatant, I had a duty to protect them.

“Don’t overdo it; just stay within the two of you.”

At Rapirie’s remark, I quietly nodded.

Yeah, that would be the case. Those two are the Hero and the future Swordmaster.

Besides, the Saint was also watching their backs.

Even if one or two came back here, there was an elf archer positioned here.

The reason they were only now looking for a mage was because they hadn’t been able to handle the disadvantage in large-scale battles.

They needed more efficient teammates to win large-scale battles comfortably.

From the start, the four of them had rung countless victory bells, regardless of whether it was small or large battles. It was just that large battles took more time.

And this situation wouldn’t change even after I showed up.

‘It will probably take about two hours.’

With the holy sword, a sword, and a bow, it would take that long to eliminate nearly two hundred creatures.

My task here was simply to monitor the five horses so they wouldn’t panic and run away.

…That would normally be the case.

But this time, I would participate in the battle as well.

Of course, since I found it hard to use direct attack magic, it would be in a supporting role.

I lifted the hand holding the pen into the air.

“Rapirie.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll support you, so would you shoot your bow when I signal?”

“….Okay.”

As the golden letters began to be etched into the air, Rapirie quietly drew back her bowstring.

The temporary spell I’d embed in her arrow was a chain reaction.

One golden inscription absorbed into Rapirie’s arrow.

Then the next inscription was with Serelin’s sword.

Since my spell wouldn’t be etched into the Hero’s holy sword, I had to use hers instead.

The temporary spell I would impart was a wave.

The spell was etched onto Serelin’s sword, temporarily turning her weapon golden.

“In front of Serelin, a jackal. Now!”

“Got it.”

As soon as my words finished, an arrow was shot from Rapirie’s bow.

The arrow flew at a terrifying speed and pierced the neck of a jackal that was about to clash with Serelin’s sword.

—-!

Before the creature let out a dying scream, Serelin’s sword sliced through it.

At that moment.

Piiing.

The arrow and the sword of Rapirie and Serelin.

The two temporary spells stored therein reacted.

A wave burst forth from the jackal’s corpse, enveloping the surrounding magical creatures.

Not all magical creatures died from the wave. However, several of the weaker ones met their demise from the shock of the wave.

Thus, a new wave erupted from the bodies of the slain creatures.

It looked like multiple waves forming in a puddle on a rainy day.

One wave, many waves, dozens of waves erupted in succession, sweeping the area.

The Hero and Serelin in front flinched back upon seeing the spectacle but were unaffected by the wave.

‘Even though I cast the spell, would they not recognize the owner?’

If it were an attack that also hit allies, the loss would greatly outweigh the gain.

That’s why I put related formulas into the spell from the start.

As a result, a battle that should have taken two hours ended in under five minutes.

“Uh…?”

The Hero’s voice was filled with exhaustion. It seemed to represent the feelings of the other party members as well.

“Lu, Rui…? What on earth is this…?”

Whew…

After pouring a bit too much mana into the two temporary spells, I let out a slightly labored breath.

‘It would have been great if I had more mana naturally.’

For now, there were means to accept mana externally, but they were far away.

So I started moving closer, but given the distance, I was still running.

“Rui, was that you just now?”

The Hero approached me, noticing that there were no living magical creatures left.

I silently nodded my head.

“Uh… but you didn’t need to participate in the battle.”

Technically, I had said I wouldn’t.

As a non-combat mage, I would focus on supporting your equipment and tools.

Thus the four seemed to have bewildered expressions.

‘Hmm.’

Faced with the Hero’s question, I had to momentarily close my mouth.

What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t just reply, ‘I’m trying to match the story timeline.’

I was fiddling with my fingers, looking for excuses when the cause of this dilemma, the Mage Water Mill, suddenly came to mind.

“…I wanted to see the water mill.”

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to see that amazing mage water mill, and I want to receive the remains of a falling star as compensation as soon as possible.”

“Aha…”

Fortunately, the reaction wasn’t bad.

In fact, if the reaction had been bad, that would have been more surprising. After all, I had been a big help in ending the battle quickly.

“Looks like a mage indeed, kekeke.”

Rapirie laughed, lightening the mood.

I instinctively thought it was good that I helped her first to get closer.

“Surely because of Rui’s help, we’ll arrive at that village early.”

“What do you mean?”

“Haha, then let’s finish cleaning up and head out right away.”

“Then, then. Since the mage said they wanted to see the water mill as soon as possible.”

Uh?

Serelin’s words were undeniably accurate, but there was something strange about the feeling.

It was true that I wanted to see the water mill… but…

“Rui, such a great mage and you still like seeing the water mill?”

“Y-yes?”

“What? That could happen.”

“E? Wait a minute.”

“Don’t worry Rui! When I was young, I liked watching ants march in a line! And, by the way, I still do sometimes…”

“No, that’s not…”

I meant to say that I wanted to see the ‘mage’ water mill, not just the ‘water mill.’
I wanted to clarify, but Serelin, the one who originally spread the misunderstanding, had moved away to clean up the magical creature corpses, and the other two heroines were looking at me with understanding expressions.
The Hero was just smiling gently from a distance.

“Hero?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t laugh.”

“……Puhaha! Ah, I’m sorry!”

“……”

“Well, but Rui does have a way of saying things that’s easy to misunderstand…”

Ugh.

When have I ever?

I’m the one who’s become a Hero and spread around inciting and distorting statements without hesitation.

I clenched my fists tightly with both hands and started playfully hitting the Hero.

There were no meaningful hits, but I kept at it regardless.

“Ah, ahaha! Sorry, sorry!!”

“Hmph, I’m never helping again.”

“Sorry…!”

Just you wait until we arrive safely at the Twilight Fortress.

If you come up to me crying while clutching at my robe with your equipment and all, there won’t be any soup for you.

‘…Of course, I’ll have to give you shoes.’

I should be able to finish that by the time we reach Water Mill Village, so I could give that and leave it at that.

After all the commotion, meaning the first request had concluded rapidly, the Hero party rested and resumed their journey.

“We need to hurry.”

“Serelin.”

Puhuh, I’m sorry.

I frowned, making a scary face to threaten her.

She quickly hit her own mouth and apologized.

I sighed and looked up at the sky.

The sun was setting, and the dark night sky began to unfold.

And over there, little blinking light was visible to the east of the crescent moon.

‘We’re almost there.’

If we had come a bit faster, I wouldn’t have been breathless using two temporary spells.

But this was my fault for being overconfident with the mana stored away in the Space of Space, so it couldn’t be helped.

Once it gets close, I could recharge and just needed to wait a bit longer.

“I think we’ll reach the village soon.”

The Hero said as I unfolded the map. Sure enough, the mark of the village that requested the mage water mill was nearby.

What would the mage water mill look like?

And what kind of majesty would the remains of the falling star show?

My heart started racing for no reason.

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