NOVEL NEXT chapter 36
36. Justice of the Hero (5)
36.
As a child, I thought of myself as a good person.
At the very least, I think I made an effort to become a good person.
After being branded as an apostate, it was the same when I wandered around the back alleys.
But the moment of the first murder comes to everyone.
The moment I had to smash the man’s head with a broken brick to live, I saw another child who looked at me and trembled with fear, and I think I stopped being a good person after that day.
I don’t remember in detail. It’s such an old story.
Throw questions and answers in your head.
Am I a good person?
“Hmm.”
I don’t think so.
I’d rather be a worse person here.
If necessary.
“A good person.”
I touched my chin as I repeated the question to myself.
What’s certain is that I didn’t say that to Elise to look like a nice person.
I’ll just sit back and watch, but my face turned to death as if I was thinking too much, so I just said something to cheer up.
At first glance, my old face overlapped with her face as she tried to get out of her father’s shadow and start standing alone.
If someone hears it, they’ll tell you to know the subject.
There’s nothing you can’t say good things about when you become a warrior.
“Why are you curious about that?”
A lightly thrown question.
“… No. Please don’t mind.”
Elise’s bland answer follows.
Seeing that her head is turned to the other side and the tips of her ears are set open, she seems to think that she has asked a vague question even to her own eyes.
“I am actually a very nice person.”
“Yes?”
“In terms of justice, I would count it among the top five on the continent.”
“… Yes?”
“He is kind, kind, rich, and there is nothing he cannot do.”
“Before that, everyone in the kingdom knows that the hero is poor.”
“No, why do you know all that?”
“If you look at the clothes you wear.”
Clothes? How are my clothes
I looked like a beggar when I pulled my front brush with that expression.
The trousers are old, and the sword is also old.
A truly old warrior.
“No, as long as the clothes don’t smell, that’s fine.”
“Are you sure it doesn’t fly?”
“It doesn’t fly? Take it.”
I know who else is a real beggar.
I only wear clothes for a long time, not dirty.
I’m just living on a practical level.
As I lifted the apron and brought it close to Elise’s face, she looked at me with a puzzled expression, then her gaze lowered a bit.
“Wait a minute, it’s okay if you don’t take it!”
“I’m not okay because you keep treating me like a beggar?”
“When I was treated as a beggar, and then, hungry….”
At that time, a sloppy magic circle began to be drawn in front of me.
It’s not a fancy magic circle, but a gray magic circle drawn crookedly, as if it were drawn by a troublesome painter.
Jabak.
Someone stepped out of the magic circle and stepped on the ground.
“You were here?”
“The Archmage?”
The Archmage, the Mage Master, Elish’s teacher, and so on.
Nia Rishkarte.
Silver hair, rich in the reverberation of mana, slowly fell back onto her shoulders.
Nia was about to say something to me with a friendly look, but then she turned her gaze to see Elise, who was sitting a little further away from me.
“Hmm?”
“… Hello, Lord of the Magic Tower.”
Elise got up from her seat at the sudden appearance of a new person and bowed her head in a polite manner.
“Someone said it was Elise. Ergenuk Knight Commander, right?”
“Yes.”
“Hello? But why are you here with Ellen?”
I also tried to get up from her sloppy seat to say hello to Nia.
“Ellen can sit down and rest. She didn’t even come to say hello.”
“Yes.”
I sat down again.
Elise looks awkward as if she hasn’t seen Nia often.
I answered Nia’s question instead.
“The captain was helping me train, Archmage.”
“Is that so? And Nia, not the Archmage.”
“Yes?”
“Call me Nia.”
“… Yes, Miss Nia.”
“Hmm, so what kind of practice? Knife?”
“Umm, about swords and images….”
“Were you doing something interesting?”
Is this interesting?
I bet you didn’t come here to talk about your half-brother-in-law again.
Elise looked at us quietly and spoke awkwardly like her wooden doll.
“Two minutes. You seem to get along very well.”
“It’s not a good thing, there is some sort of….”
“Okay, between us.”
“I see.”
My opinion being ignored.
If those two were Elish, Tania, or EL.
I would have left baptism overnight, asking how dare you cut off what the warrior said….
On the contrary, it felt a little strange to have two people next to me who hadn’t done anything wrong to me.
So I decided to cast my right to remain silent and sit still.
If you keep your mouth shut, the middle will go.
It was the hero’s secret skill that he realized while eating the most relentless punishment at the warrior school.
“Come on.”
While the two of them were talking, a wooden water bottle thick enough to hold with one hand was held out in front of me.
With little Nia’s hand.
“You sweat a lot, drink.”
“Are you here to get water?”
“Huh? Huh. Yes? I came just to get Ellen a glass of water, not on the official mission of teaching swords or magic.”
“It’s okay if you don’t have to come here….”
“Drink.”
My opinion is cut off like a thread.
“… ….”
“Drink.”
“Yes.”
If you want to drink, you should drink.
I obediently took the water bottle Nia gave me and started drinking it.
It was cool.
It wasn’t just water, it was a simple enhancement magic, and I felt that my body’s fatigue was relieved to some extent.
But why are you here?
“Oh, and did you say Commander of the Knights of Elise?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Suddenly, the wagons were getting ready to leave, but I thought they might have to go.”
At Nia’s words, Elise looked at the sun that had already risen brightly.
The forehead wrinkles slightly from the glare of sunlight.
Elise looked at me once, licked her lower lip slightly, then bowed her back to greet her politely.
“Let’s go now, Lord of the Tower, and the warrior.”
“Goodbye.”
“Please go in.”
“… Next time.”
After saying hello like that, I turn around to see her back as she walks away. I want to say sorry.
“Thank you for today.”
Whatever it is, whether it works or not.
Because it is right that Elise took time for me.
It can be said that it is the duty of a person to say hello at least.
Elise turned her head to look at me, nodded lightly, and then disappeared.
There are many forests around the meadow, so after walking a few steps, you won’t be able to see the back.
“The weather is nice.”
The true value of the superb view of the meadow is the way the sunbeams leaking through the thick forest and between the leaves light up the ground in groups.
I tried to turn my head to Nia’s place while basking in the sunlight to my heart’s content.
Since when did she look at me, Nia, who was staring at me, met her eyes, and her eyes blinked quickly.
“… ….”
“… ….”
“… Why?”
“What?”
“Why do you look like that?”
“Just watching? Are there any problems?”
“No, there is no problem….”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t come here to make fun of you as a son-in-law. I know why she signed a contract with Elish, so I have no intention of putting more pressure on her.”
“Thank you for that.”
“Thank you, drink a little more.”
“Yes.”
I took a few more sips of water to avoid her gaze.
Nia, who sat next to me without hesitation, put her hips on the seat some distance away.
“Since I sit like this, the sunlight is hot again.”
“Isn’t it warm?”
“Women’s skin is inherently more sensitive.”
Is it okay to think of a person as high as an archmage as an ordinary woman?
Nia wiggled and moved her hips so she came into the shade.
“Is training helpful?”
“Yes. I have been feeling like my skills have stagnated lately, but I think it will help.”
“I’m glad. Aren’t you going to ask about magic?”
“I’m still fine with magic. However….”
“Yes.”
“Why are you so nice to me?”
I finally asked what I wanted to ask.
Even if it is assumed that the three women of our expedition team have received some unknown grace from me while returning, Nia is not from the expedition team, and she has not received anything from me, but she suddenly starts to be nice to me, so she is strange. Did.
She was more curious than curious.
Nia stared at me, then tapped the bottom of her water bottle with her index finger.
“Drink, drink.”
She just said that.
I was thirsty anyway, so I picked up the water bottle again and emptied it.
It felt more and more cool and sweet.
I wonder if it came with sugar.
It wasn’t until I emptied the water bottle that Nia began to follow her.
“Yes, the Expedition of Heroes is the property of the state, so we must generously support it.” Not many people know.”
Because of generous support.
It seemed like he was referring to the regulations that the kingdom was using as a noose rather than support.
“I didn’t know that the hemp tower also had an obligation to support.”
“Until now, Ellen didn’t move, so she just stayed still.”
“I see.”
“Yes, anyway, now that we have officially started moving, I would like to provide appropriate support….”
To read that literally and try to support it to your heart’s content.
Certainly, Nia Rishkarte is a good person.
The question of whether Elise is a good person should have been asked by Nia, not me.
“However, he said he would not accept support from the Magic Priest Corps, and when I sent my apprentice, the first apprentice was already in the expedition. Then this is the only support I can give.”
“Is that why you came?”
“Yeah, is that all? Or do you have something I want from you?”
She was the one who had no money, no power, no honor, nothing she didn’t have.
Nia looks at me with innocent eyes.
I strained her eyes and looked at Nia for no reason, but she didn’t look away from me, blinking slowly and putting a smile on her lips.
At this point, it seems worse to find and dig up a ulterior motive that doesn’t seem to exist.
“That’s why today’s support is cool water.”
Nia smiled as she took her empty wooden water bottle back.
She was still a mysterious archmage, but she seemed to want to take care of me, at least for now.
Is that why?
“Do you like it?”
“… ….”
“Don’t like it?”
“No, it can’t be.”
She must have lived several times older than me. Why did her smile look so refreshing?
Why was the goodwill of someone who had done nothing wrong and had no filthy entangled past as sweet as water?
I was the unknown kind, as I had never been.
Although the wariness still remained in my heart.
It was a feeling I didn’t hate when someone suddenly appeared on my side.