Chapter 101 – [Hero] Escape
It was the morning of the 7th day.
According to Sarah, the day Luella goes out of town.
Finally, she woke up early in the morning, pounding in her heart that she could get out of here.
Mr. Jeren was still sleeping, but everyone else was down on the first floor.
Sarah said she was coming to visit her, so it would be better to gather here instead of going out today.
Thinking so, everyone sat still, but all seemed nervous.
“Eric, did you sleep well?”
Uni, who was the first to notice me coming down the stairs, waved his hand.
I also waved my hand and accepted it.
“Hi.”
Seria looked at me and smiled softly.
She was slightly knocked out by that bewitching smile, but did not show it.
Come to think of it, what about Arin?
When I looked at Arin sitting next to her, she also looked at me and avoided her gaze in amazement.
“Why is that, Arin?”
“Oh, no, just… That, Joe, good morning, hero…”
When Uni asked, Arin barely greeted me with her embarrassed expression.
“Yeah, hello Arin too.”
But somehow Arin felt different from usual.
What is it?
Her clothes are still the same, and there doesn’t seem to be anything different from usual.
As I stared at her, Arin lowered her head as if she was ashamed of her.
Oh, I see.
Arin’s hair was a little frizzy.
Her hair, which has always been sleek, seems to be toxically under-maintained today.
I’ve been with Arin for a long time, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him.
Could it have something to do with yesterday?
It felt uncomfortable, as if a stone had been placed in my heart.
“Is Mr. Jeren awake yet?”
Seria asked, looking upstairs at her.
“Yeah, I don’t know when it might come anyway, so I thought I wouldn’t have to wake it up.”
“Then you should wake up now.”
Startled, I turned her head in the direction of the voice.
Sarah had entered through the back door of the dorm before she knew it.
“Everyone, aren’t you too defenseless? If I had had a different mind, I would have died.”
There was no right word to say.
Normally, such vigilance was the work of the spirits of Uni, but since there were no spirits in the city, I couldn’t even pay attention to them.
There were no other threats in the city.
Still, it is true that she lacked attention, as she said.
To be in a position to be pointed out by the enemy.
I was ashamed and wanted to hide somewhere.
“Oh, sorry Eric… I should have done better.”
Uni apologized to me as if it was her fault.
No, it’s not her fault.
How could it be her fault that she had no spirits in the city?
Rather, the fault was on me for not considering that.
Of course, if Yuni had told her, she might have done something, but… Now, she didn’t want to make it her fault.
Come to think of it, why didn’t Yuni tell her?
No, I don’t think I’ve run into Uni lately.
I don’t think I’ve really been able to spend time with Yuni since I stopped training her.
Um, I’m a little sorry.
“Rather than that, Eric, can I trust this woman?”
Seria crossed her arms and glared at her slightly, as if her Sera didn’t like her.
“Whoops, what are you going to do if you don’t believe me?”
But we were in no position to complain to her.
She would never have had a chance to escape if it hadn’t been for a favor she didn’t know why she did this.
“Shall we go into detail? Please wake up your sleeping colleagues.”
“I’ll go.”
After Sera finished speaking, she stood up from her seat as if Sera had been waiting.
“… No, I’ll do it. I am sitting and resting.”
Seeing her like that, for some reason, I felt a sense of rejection from her and stopped her.
She tried not to care, but after yesterday I started to care more about her relationship with Mr. Jeren.
She had already buried it in her mind for a long time, but the problem came to mind again when she saw Arin.
If someone sees it, they might laugh at it.
‘Cause that’s how I see it.
But if the girls had acted in such a way that there was no room for misunderstanding from the beginning, I wouldn’t have…
No, what am I thinking
Are you thinking of passing the blame on to them?
I brushed off my wild thoughts and went up to wake him.
Climbing the stairs again, I met Sarah’s eyes, but I didn’t like the way she laughed with one hand over her mouth as if she read my thoughts.
After waking up Mr. Jeren, we all walked the streets together for the first time in a while.
In the meantime, I couldn’t get together because I didn’t know what the girls would do, but it felt good to feel that our party was reunited after a long time.
Of course, there was one person who wasn’t very welcome.
“Doesn’t it feel like a hero party for me too?”
Sera had been talking to Uni with a smile since earlier.
I don’t know why it was Uni, but thanks to her, Uni was sweating her response.
“I-I will…”
“Huh, I can play the role of priest well… How is it, warrior?”
“What are you talking about!”
Arin got angry when she jokingly talked to me.
“But, do I know more than you?”
“Eww… Me too soon…”
Arin said something more, then she mumbled and turned her head away.
“Practice hard. You will be able to use it in no time.”
Did she teach Arin something?
Why are you doing this to us?
There seemed to be an intention, but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out what it was.
“Ah, I can see the castle gate soon.”
As she said, the gate began to appear on the other side of the road.
If you go beyond that place, you will be outside of Aseila.
Is it really possible to escape so easily?
It’s fortunate that I can go out easily without fighting or anything like that, but I was also at a loss because I wondered what the hell I had been through all this time.
“Do you remember what I said?”
Suddenly, instead of Uni, she approached me and asked subtly.
“… Are you talking about the forest of elves?”
“Huh, I’m glad you remember.”
Could this be her purpose?
What lures us there?
“As soon as we get out of here, we will contact the church and the palace. Are you okay though?”
Seria, who was glaring at Sera as if she still didn’t like her, threw it away.
Can I say this She wanted to, but when I thought about it, there was no way Sarah wouldn’t know that.
“Follow your heart. Now the role of this city is almost over.”
“… Are you saying it’s already too late?”
“It doesn’t matter whether it stays here or not.”
When Seria glared at her, Sera calmly passed her gaze.
“… Huhu, being proud is the same as Luella.”
“Who, who is that bitch and… !”
When Seria heard her name, she gnashed her teeth in indignation.
Years, did he hate Luella that much?
Well, if the professor I trusted and relied on was actually my enemy, I think I would hate it too.
After fighting like that, we arrived at the gate before we knew it.
The guards recognized us and tried to do something about it, but when Sera beckoned, her dazed expression made it a little scary to step out of the way.
“… With a blessing, something like this is possible.”
Arin muttered in disbelief.
She couldn’t believe it, so did I after hearing that.
Is this a blessing?
The same blessing that Arin bestowed upon us?
No matter how you look at it, it looks more like mind manipulation than a blessing.
Can we win if we go head-to-head with her?
“Now, it is really over. It’s been fun so far. Goodbye.”
Sara finished her speech plainly and greeted politely.
I didn’t know exactly what the posture was, but I could tell that it was a very polite gesture.
“That…”
Arin seemed to recognize the movement.
I’ll ask later
We looked at each other for a moment and then approached the gate.
I still can’t believe that it came out so easily.
Wouldn’t Luella come out from the side of the wall right now…
“So it is. Sera, you traitor bitch.”
… Yeah, I mean like this
“Luella… !”
Thinking that she had been tricked, I turned around and saw that Sera was taken aback by her appearance.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know you were whispering with the Hero and the others?”
“Luella, you lied to me… ?”
“You cheated first.”
There was an uneasy air current between the two.
We stood between them and watched intently.
“Uh, what?”
“… Let’s look at the situation for a moment.”
Seria answered Uni’s question instead.
Then it is. There’s no way things could work out like this.
“You seem to be misunderstanding, but I did not betray the Demon King.”
“Are you going to claim that helping the enemy escape is for him?”
As Louella made her impression, Sarah’s expression grew more and more stern.
But what about this…
Rather than fighting the Four Heavenly Kings, it feels like just two women fighting.
Of course, if the two actually stick together, it won’t stop that much.
“Aren’t you interpreting it too simplistically? Are you saying this because you really don’t know what the Demon King was thinking when he told us that?”
“… Use common sense, Sara.”
“Common sense? Luella, aren’t you interpreting it arbitrarily?”
With the feeling of becoming a third person, we stood quietly so as not to go against the feelings of the two.
Even though he couldn’t aim for a one-hit blow, he didn’t look like a hero at all.
“The hero and his companions.”
“… Yes yes.”
All of a sudden, his gaze was fixed on us, so I answered calmly without realizing it.
It’s as if we’ve been pushed back in a power struggle.
In reality though…
“Go to the forest of the elves. And find the ‘sleeping princess’.”
Sara said that to me while still looking at Luella.
Sleeping Princess? What is it?
I looked back at the party members, but they all had similar expressions.
At least none of us know.
“… You, can’t you still…”
Rather, it was Luella who responded to Sera’s words.
Suddenly, the overbearing aura of her body disappeared.
“You still haven’t given up.”
“…”
Louella spoke softer than before and looked at Sarah.
Sera looked at her like that, her face looked sad somewhere.
“Ha…”
Now Luella also began to sigh with her complex face.
What? What’s the matter?
“I bet he doesn’t want her to wake up again.”
“… That’s something you don’t know. Isn’t time the most powerful magic?”
Sarah smiled.
Ruella looked at Sarah quietly and turned her gaze to us.
“What, what…”
“How do you know what they will do to her?”
Luella looked at us as if she were looking at a child who had misbehaved.
The bad ones must be that way, but for some reason, it felt like we had become the bad guys, so I wasn’t in a good mood.
“Isn’t that why I went with you? I believe in that young warrior.”
Hearing this from the enemy
It was really absurd.
“… Joy. Stupid bitch.”
Luella crossed her arms as if she still didn’t like her, but that was also a sign that she wouldn’t attack us in this situation.
“Come on, go. And I want you to remember what I said.”
“Don’t just remember.”
Sarah spoke softly, and Louella added, glaring at us.
I looked back at our party members for a moment.
Everyone seemed to be thinking differently, but everyone nodded eagerly, so I nodded too.
“… All right.”
We came out of the city with Sera seeing us off and Luella pressuring us.
I had just passed the gate, but already a cool breeze blew and I felt refreshed.
“Are we really here? Yes?”
Yuni stroked her chest as if she was happy.
Judging from the human form passing through the wind, it seemed to be a wind spirit summoned by Yuni.
“Whew… Thank god. Even the spirits are the same.”
Uni’s expression was the brightest among them.
It was as if all of her powers were sealed in this city, so she must have felt a different sense of relief than we did.
But to varying degrees, we were all glad we got out of that city safely.
“Now what?”
“First of all, we need to tell you the truth about that city.”
Seria answered my question firmly.
“For now, let’s go to the nearest town or city. I should write a letter from there and decide on my next destination.”
“Uh? Weren’t you going to the forest?”
As Uni tilted her head, Seria sighed and said.
“It’s a suspicious place no matter who sees it. Would you please visit us there because we are crazy?”
“…”
Um, is that so…
If you think about it logically, she’s right.
But in fact, my mind was inclined to the forest to some extent.
If you ask why, I don’t know either.
I just wanted to somehow.
Did he even feel humanity in Sera?
Anyway, it seems that no one will welcome you right now, so let’s do what Seria said first.
I confirmed what we all agreed on, and set the next destination to the nearest town.
It’s about two days on foot.
“Then let’s go.”
So our party started walking towards the next town.
