Chapter 132 – [Hero] Sleeping Princess
She gets hit by Arin not being able to say her words, but she will be fine as Uni has spoken her words for her.
But strangely, I was always worried about Arin.
“Let’s go, Eric.”
“Ah, yes…”
First of all, Uni is in front of me. So let’s focus on Uni.
I tried to ignore the uneasy feeling that kept creeping up.
We went around asking mainly merchants and people who seemed to know something, but we didn’t have much success.
I’ve never had success with something like this lately anyway, so I didn’t expect much.
Maybe that’s why, even though we did our research with enthusiasm at first, in the afternoon, the atmosphere gradually loosened up, and it became like we were out for a bit of fun.
“Wow, look at this Eric! They say it’s the leaves of the world tree!”
“Is there such a thing?”
It just looks like a leaf…
“Hohohoho, yes. These are the precious leaves of the World Tree. You can boil it or eat it raw! If you eat it, worry about getting sick! We call it the panacea.”
The horse smells a bit like a cheater… Really?
“Wow, does it really cure any disease?”
“Sure, lady! What was that in the past… Magazarad! There is a story that even King Magazarad was cured after eating this when he was ill with an unknown cause!”
“You know very well! By the way, have you ever heard of a sleeping princess?”
“Uh…”
The merchant pondered for a moment with the expression of what it was, and then he said with an awkward smile.
“Sure! If only that person had the leaves of this world tree…”
“Ah-ha, I see… Eric, let’s go.”
“Uh? Huh…”
Weren’t you going to buy it?
I think I was just arguing with him to get some information.
“Could Sera be playing a joke on us?”
“… No way.”
For some reason, it is an image that would be enough to play a joke on her, but she certainly wouldn’t try to trick us with such a hassle.
There must have been something else, so he must have asked us instead.
Come to think of it, why did he ask us, the enemy?
Shouldn’t you be able to find it yourself?
“Hmm…”
It’s not a problem that will come out with an answer anyway, but I still feel like I’m missing something important.
“Uni, what do you think?”
I briefly summarized my thoughts and told Uni.
Then she looked behind her to hear her opinion, but Uni’s eyes were on the other side.
“UNI?”
“Huh? Oh, that? Hmm… I do not know either.”
It doesn’t. Seriana and Arin should know this well.
Anyway, what was Uni looking at?
“Where shall we go now… Awesome!”
I can’t give up here and go back, so I wanted to listen to one more place, but suddenly the pain came to my left arm and I couldn’t finish talking.
It felt like my arm had been cut by a knife.
I hurriedly pulled up her clothes to check, but Uni was startled and grabbed her arm.
“Eric! What’s the matter?”
“Uh? No, it hurts like something was cut…”
“Where did you scratch?”
“That, well…”
I don’t think I’ve ever had anything like that, but what the hell is going on?
I tried to walk my forearm once again to check the wound, but Yuni said she would help me and walked my arm and washed the wound clean with the water spirit.
Uni, who had finished emptying her water bottle, looked at my arm and tilted her head.
“Eric, the pattern…”
“So where were you injured?”
At that, Uni looked at my arm again and asked back.
“Aren’t you hurt anywhere?”
“Uh?”
No, but you just bled?
I checked it with my own eyes, but I didn’t see any scratches or anything like that.
Only three flowers were growing on my arm.
Two small flowers and… Still a large flower.
Let’s not mind.
“Uh? What?”
“You weren’t really hurt, were you?”
“No, it must have been painful and bleeding… It’s strange.”
Where was it not cut?
However, no matter how much I looked, there were no traces of cuts.
In the end, I had no choice but to pass it off as an illusion.
There is no pain now, and there are no traces, so it is difficult to see anyone hurt.
It definitely hurts, but it’s strange…
I can’t keep worrying about something I don’t know, so I stopped thinking about it and even went to inquire with Uni.
And came back with no income.
“Welcome, Eric.”
Everyone was already back, probably because we were late.
With Seria, Uni, and Jeren… Who is this kid
“Eric. Hey, her grandmother is an elf and she knows about the sleeping princess.”
“What? Really?”
She looks like a human, but her grandmother is an elf?
As she looked at them with her puzzled eyes, her little boy looked at them with her frightened eyes.
“Yes yes… Well, actually, I’m a quota, so it doesn’t show much…”
“Quarter?”
What is it?
“A half-elf born between an elf and a human. If that half-elf and human get married again and have children, that’s the quota.”
Arin supplemented and explained.
“Elves have a long lifespan. But after adolescence, they all go back to the forest, so the majority of the elves we encounter here are relatively young elves of similar appearance and age.”
Come to think of it, I had never encountered an old elf before.
I didn’t even think it was weird, but there was a reason for that.
“This grandmother is a rare case. For an elf that old, she’s usually already gone back to the forest.”
“Ha, Grandma because of me…”
It turns out that the little girl’s parents died in an accident, and her grandmother did not return to the forest, and she remained in the city.
“What are you going to do? Actually, I’m not sure if I can still believe it… I will follow your judgment.”
Looking at the little boy’s clothes, she said, she didn’t seem to be living very well.
Are you sure you’re trying to trick us or something?
But when I saw this kid who looked scared by Seria and Arin, even though he didn’t know why, it seemed like she wouldn’t be like that.
After thinking for a while, I looked at Yuni unintentionally.
It wasn’t for any particular reason, it was because I suddenly remembered it when I looked at Seria and Arin.
“Huh? I’m not sure. But isn’t it a situation where you need to know something more?”
As she said
“Yes… Okay, let’s go.”
As I nodded her head and said that, Arin’s eyes narrowed for a moment.
“Also…”
“Huh?”
“No. Then let’s go right away, Mr. Eric.”
“Huh. … Huh?”
I blinked at the unfamiliar name, and Arin looked at me and smiled.
“I think this one suits me better… Are you uncomfortable?”
“Uh… No! It feels more friendly and I think it’s good!”
Mr. Eric… It was an awkward title since I had only heard of the hero from the beginning, but still, calling me by my name instead of my status as a hero is a good meaning, right?
Maybe it meant Arin was more comfortable with me.
Since he is Mr., It seems that he feels a sense of distance, but that is because Arin is a polite person who always uses honorifics.
So there is nothing strange about it.
“Whoops… Then let’s go. Guide me.”
Seeing the two of us like that, Seria laughed a little and helped the little girl stand up.
“If you don’t know, let’s be careful. Don’t relax.”
“Uh? Uh…”
Isn’t it a bit like saying this in front of her child who says she helps at best?
She had been a frightened and withdrawn child before, but she looked even more withdrawn now.
She’s not Arin who can’t be considerate of things like this, so why is she doing this?
She was puzzled, but she seemed to have a purpose of her own, so she decided to stay put.
Maybe she has a bad heart and she might get scared and give up.
When we all agreed, the child took the lead and escorted us to his house.
On the way, for some reason, Uni clung to my side a bit too much, but Seria and Arin didn’t say anything about it.
Maybe that’s why she moved her feet towards her slums with Yuni, who somehow seemed to be in a good mood.
I predicted it from the outside, but his house was also a shabby tent in the slums.
How to put it, if we use the tent we use for another ten years, it will look like this.
But we looked at each other without even showing it.
“I think it’s going to be hard to get in… What to do?”
Seria pondered for a moment and said.
“If you want to hear the story, I should be there. Let me and Eric go in.”
“Can’t I?”
Yuni looked at her and asked, but Seria shook her head.
“I’m not specifically ignoring Uni or anything like that, but when it comes to complicated things, I need someone who will listen and understand.”
Hmm… Well, smart people have to listen to understand right away, but I didn’t know that if I or Yuni listened to it, they wouldn’t understand.
Yuni put on a look that slightly displeased her, but she didn’t stop, as if she understood.
We slipped into the tent.
“Cough Cough… Who are you?”
An old woman who was coughing on a blanket looked at us and asked.
Ears are long.
Is this an old elf?
“Hello, sorry for the sudden visit. I know it’s suddenly rude, but there’s something we’re looking for. I heard that Grandma knows this well…”
Seria, in her own manner, let her know about our situation.
In return, she picked up some money and herbs.
“Aww, all these things… How much does this old man know… Coke… You were Eddie’s guests…”
Eddy must have been the name of the little boy earlier.
Her grandmother showed no objection to our visit and she readily agreed.
“So… What did you come all the way to here out of curiosity?”
We asked about the sleeping princess.
I couldn’t talk about the Four Heavenly Kings, so there was no explanation to add.
“A sleeping princess? … You mean Princess Ertina?”
“Ertina… Princess?”
It was the first name I heard.
Does anyone really know the story?
“Coke… Why did you come all the way to this place…”
She seemed a little puzzled.
When we told her that no one knew the story, she was even more surprised.
“This story… Nobody knows… ?”
Was Seria right?
Someone this legend… Or the story was covered up.
“So… You kept telling me to come back to the forest after seeing this old man… It was like that…”
She nodded her head to herself, as if there was something that made sense.
“I guess it wasn’t like that in the first place?”
“It did… One day, all the older elves were suddenly called to the forest… I thought it was just that, but this happened… Well, that’s not a very good story…”
I clenched my fists in tension and asked cautiously.
“How… Who is the Sleeping Princess? Why is it called that?”
“Princess Ertina…”
***
“Eric, how was it?”
“Eric! What?”
As soon as we came out of the tent, Arin and Uni asked with excited expressions.
I met Seria’s eyes and thought about what to say for a while.
“… You have a bad expression. What did you hear?”
Seria answered instead of me.
“The sleeping princess… He was the elementalist of the previous Hero party.”
