Episode 339 With These Hands (3)
“…Why do you ask that?”
Daniel had a hunch that the voice suddenly quieted down. He won’t be together anymore. More precisely, it seemed like he no longer had the will to exist as a warrior’s companion.
“I just… I was curious so I asked. “I’m sorry if it bothered you.”
“It’s not something to be sorry about.”
The adventurer shook his head in a calm tone, but Daniel did not take his words literally. Doesn’t the fact that cancer isn’t something to be sorry mean that it’s a question that can be accepted cheerfully?
Being with them, and even the act of dedicating oneself to a great cause, may have become extremely tiring for him.
“For now… I’m thinking about it.”
“Is that so.”
However, Daniel himself would not be qualified to say anything here. Just as the adventurer didn’t want to mess around with the boy and what happened between him.
“…I hope that whatever you choose, it will bring you peace and happiness.”
So he ultimately refrained from saying anything. I’m worried because he’s a warrior who has to carry everything on his own… but just because it’s a hardship he can’t take off, he can’t just pass it on to someone else, right?
Even a young guy… he’ll take care of it. Anyway, he did the best he could.
“…I hope so too.”
“You can do that.”
Anyway, this is the end of what I wanted to ask. Daniel grabbed the shovel again, thinking he had had a good rest. There were still many remains to be buried.
“Please step aside for a moment.”
But how many holes were dug? A new spectator has been added. He was a Qureity soldier with gray hair and triangle-shaped ears.
“Wow… now even soldiers come to see the Lord.”
It is not new for people to show their faces in this place.
This is why a remains disposal site where a hero who saved the city is currently serving is likely to attract people’s attention.
Well, if you dig into detail, it’s not that the remains disposal site is receiving attention, but it’s more like people flocking to see a hero who was out for the first time in five days.
“…that person.”
Anyway, it is not unusual for people to come here for that reason. Just because a soldier is a hero doesn’t mean he or she doesn’t want to see heroes, so it’s not surprising that one of them is a soldier.
“Do you know someone?”
If there was anything special, it would just be an adventurer recognizing one of the onlookers.
“okay.”
The adventurer with a sombre expression lightly put his shovel into the ground. Sigh. It doesn’t seem like I applied that much force, but most of the wide part of the shovel got stuck. It was a formidable force.
“I’ll be back for a bit.”
“Be careful.”
I wonder what would happen if the hero approached that area in a situation where civilians were restricted from interfering with the work…
Daniel, who checked the adventurer’s expression, did not mention that fact.
The adventurer is not only a foolish person, but he also has this much power, so anything could happen. It was all a case of neglect based on firm trust.
“If anything happens, don’t forget to call me!”
…Still, I took out some insurance just in case. All adventurers are good, but the people were too kind. That was the whole problem.
* * *
“I will not go to the Western Front.”
The meister watched the red-haired young man spit out words with a cracked throat.
“Inquisitor…?”
“San.”
The two people standing around were confused, perhaps because the story had not been coordinated in advance. If you think about it a little, it was a natural conclusion, but I didn’t know why I was so embarrassed.
“I need to speak louder to be heard.”
Unless the Inquisitor intends to inform only them, she needs to speak louder. This is because, as long as you are standing outside the magic boundary, the conference participants will not be able to hear you at this level.
“I will not go to the Western Front.”
As if confirming the advice, the Inquisitor spoke in a clearer and louder voice than before. The green eyes that I thought would regain their shine these past few days are drying out again.
─Hmm?
─I think someone just said that…?
─Has anyone spoken?
However, even to that extent, I was unable to reach words in the end. In the end, the Inquisitor raised his hand and asked for the understanding of the wizard who was maintaining the magic. In a way, it was also a signal to Soseongju.
“Please come in.”
So Seong-ju, who confirmed the signal, obediently stepped aside a little. The attitude was that it was okay for the body to move halfway out of the circle drawn around the chair.
It probably doesn’t matter to him that his image in the other person’s area is cut off in half. At least that’s not what he sees.
─Hey hero.
—The representative of God….
“Regardless of your support, I will not go to the Western Front. Going west now would be a waste of time.”
Also, the Inquisitor had the same thought. No, this might be closer to not even being considered at all.
The meister crossed his arms as he watched the hero who was surprisingly talented at making the right decisions.
─Why do you say that?…
“The collapse of the Western Front is not only a huge disaster, but also a disaster that I cannot solve on my own. Also, the distance between here and the West is so great that by the time I get there, the situation will either be over or it will grow out of control.”
─Hmm. That’s right.
Of course, the presence of a human being with an interesting look on his face from time to time was a bit unpleasant. The only thing he did wrong was mismanaging his subordinates, but what could he do if he just hated him? We have no choice but to look down on each other and pass it over.
Well, now that we have only unilaterally discovered the existence of the other person, the disdainful gaze is probably just one thing.
“So, rather than going to the Western Front, I want to take the lead in joining the Northern Front.”
─Why us?
“…Didn’t the Magic Tower lord say that earlier? “With Glutton’s death, the capabilities that can be exercised in the north have changed.”
─That’s right.
“Then wouldn’t you consider attacking the Demon King’s Castle when I join?”
In any case, the statement of pursuing maximum efficiency, maximum rationality, and maximum profit continued. If the speaker had not been the Inquisitor, the castle lords with a temperament as strategists might have added that it was right.
─…The situation will have to support it, but it won’t be impossible.
“If you do, please tell this to the discussion in which the northern castle lords participated.”
Even if the speaker wasn’t the Inquisitor, wouldn’t he have been able to speak? Otherwise, it would have been like asking the hero to abandon the Great Hall.
“I join the North.”
Therefore, it is fortunate for everyone that the originator is an Inquisitor.
“To the north, not the west.”
Except the Inquisitor himself.
* * *
“…Let’s talk.”
I asked for the understanding of the soldier who was blocking people’s approach and took one person out. Because he was also wearing a soldier’s uniform, no one around him found the sight suspicious.
These are faces that seem to understand that there must be one thing I ordered the soldier to do.
“I guess this will do.”
That’s enough. I found a quiet place and stopped. It was a perfect corner spot where not a single person was caught by my senses.
“I…”
At that point, the person who had not said a word until he was brought to me finally opened his mouth.
“Perhaps…”
But I couldn’t continue speaking easily. It has to be that way. Because the actions of the ‘wizard’ he knew and ‘me’ were too different to be the same.
“Mr. Richa.”
But I decided to bridge the gap myself. Under normal circumstances, I would have left him alone to wonder, but I couldn’t do that because I knew the title that preceded his name.
“I’ll give you back what you borrowed.”
Richa He is Faust’s maternal uncle.
“…This?”
I selected something from my inventory and took it out. All the miscellaneous items returned from the meister blinded my eyes for a moment, but even in this strange feeling, it was not difficult to find the item I wanted.
The lucky bag was returned to Richa.
“…You really are a wizard.”
“I should have returned it right away. I’m sorry.”
“…I’m just grateful that you remembered me.”
I guess… After debating whether or not to take off the hood, I decided not to. Instead, I put the words I had been struggling with ever since I discovered him on my tongue.
“Faust is alive.”
“…!?”
“The others were killed by the devil… but Faust survived.”
“Pa Pashaga.”
“Due to the aftermath of the curse, it is impossible to meet right now. But one day… we will be reunited again.”
Will this person keep your secret? However, I don’t want to remain silent without informing him of the news of my nephew’s survival. Death was painful, but the unpredictable longing was so desperate that it could not be helped.
Any hope is worse than no hope.
“How did you do that—”
“I apologize for only telling you now. “I needed to be sure that you were Faust’s blood.”
Therefore, I decided to abandon the idea of strictly keeping the secret and leave it to one’s conscience. It was a gamble in which he risked everything because of his love for his family.
“Mr. Richa, I know that my remarks may be questionable. But I swear to God, there is no truth in what I say.”
But perhaps defeat will not be mine. I believed the Mr. Richa I saw.
“Then…”
“But… it must be a secret that I am the same person as the wizard. Faust was cursed by the devil and became entangled in a very complicated problem, and in the process of helping him, my situation became very… ambiguous. “It is in the same context that my appearance has changed since I was a wizard and my attitude to the outside world has also changed.”
“…if.”
“…If that fact comes out, I will be in trouble. Faust will be like that too.”
“…is this a threat?”
“It’s not a threat, it’s a request for cooperation. “Just because Richa is telling the truth about me doesn’t mean there’s anything I can do to stop it.”
“….”
But regardless of the risk I took, it would still be difficult to immediately believe the words of someone I don’t know well.
I understood Mr. Richa’s hesitation. That’s why I didn’t do anything like harvesting. Patience was the best course of action right now.
“…Why did you tell me all this, even though it would be embarrassing if you got caught?”
After a while, Mr. Richa, who had sorted out the confusion, asked me. It wasn’t a very difficult question.
“Because you missed me to the point where other people immediately reminded me of my nephew.”
If Richa hadn’t missed her nephew in the first place, she wouldn’t have told me the truth just because I was a blood relative. For a person like that, it’s not even worth taking the risk.
“Only for that reason…”
Richa’s expression distorted.
“I don’t think at best.”
“….”
If my parents were sure that I would wake up, the waiting would be much easier. What’s different about this person?
I slightly avoided eye contact so as not to embarrass him, and asked a question just in case.
“Have you already told someone about me?”
“…No, not really. I reported about what I experienced while meeting the wizard and coming here… but I never confessed the suspicions I had about the wizard and the hero to anyone.”
report? Oh, he was a soldier. For me, who was an unknown mage—though it was a misunderstanding—there would have been no other way than to convey the details of his activities.
If you do that, it’s okay to organize it. Anyway, the magician’s existence was said to have been manipulated by Soseongju into causing the incident and his death. The important thing is to hide the fact that the wizard and I… the demon knight are the same person.
“Really. “There is no way that anyone would believe speculation without evidence, and since it was something I was very sensitive to in the first place, I didn’t mention it carelessly.”
“Yes, I believe it. So excuses are fine.”
“I just don’t know what happened to the soldiers who were watching you…”
“Oh, they’re okay too. “The Lord of Soseong promised to stop them from joining.”
“Lord Xiaoseong…?”
“yes. “He knows about me too.”
If you keep it to yourself and keep quiet, you will feel all kinds of uneasy, but you will be relieved to know that the most powerful person in the city (scheduled) is also contributing to the cover-up. It would be good to trust my words.
I used that point to express to Mr. Richa that I was not a suspicious person, that I was just trying to help Faust, and in the process I got caught up in some trouble.
“…Is that why you asked that question then?”
“…?”
“no. “It just took me a moment to feel confident that I could trust what you said.”
But it worked so well. Richa’s expression has gotten much better. My disbelief was completely gone, and my heart began to fill with the thought, ‘Faust is really alive.’
“…Will I really see Pasha again?”
“We will do our best to make that happen.”
It would have been nice if Faust had seen this. I smoothed the edge of the hood, remembering the boy who was still asleep.
“I’ll tell you once again, I am a different person from the wizard you saw, Mr. Richa.”
“…yes.”
“thank you.”
Now I just have to go back and finish my work. I walked away feeling relieved that I had finished one of the homework I had put off. “Oh wait a minute…!” Although Mr. Richa’s voice made it stop for a moment.
“Do you have any problem?”
“…Can I see you again?”
“…Why do you want to see me again?”
“You are helping my nephew, and you are also the benefactor who saved my life. So how could you, as a human being, hand over the favor without repaying it?”
“…that.”
“Please tell me that I can get that opportunity.”
The answer to this question is a bit tricky. I’m just saying it in a twisted way, but in the end it’s no different from asking about my future plans.
And I still can’t decide. Even though I know that staying here would be the most peaceful and peaceful choice for me.
『Thank you.』
The weight of the thread bracelet that was still in the inventory was heavy.