Chapter 169
The story continues off the page
The Dare in the Back Room
Two academy girls, one lethal measure, and your slate paying for it
We were able to leave the city the very next day.
In the first place, preparing preserved provisions wasn't particularly difficult.
After visiting a few grocery stores in the city, we quickly gathered enough food for two weeks.
Of course, since we'd filled up only on cheap, easy-to-store items, there wasn't much that was actually appetizing.
That left Esca visibly downcast, but it wasn't a major concern.
For the record, Ash, who had left the inn, spent the night elsewhere and returned just before we departed today.
I had no idea where she'd been or what she'd done all night.
Ash had kept her mouth firmly shut in silent protest.
Shabel merely watched her mood and couldn't bring up what had happened yesterday again.
The party atmosphere had grown bleak in an instant.
‘All the better.’
I rather liked the situation as it was.
Just thinking about how much these deadweights had tormented me back when this was a game.
Whenever I thought about it, I wanted to kick them all out right then and there.
There was no need to stay attached to these losers. I could just find and hire other competent people.
Since this was reality, I had that much freedom.
Unfortunately, though, I didn't have the authority to meddle in the party's composition.
I'd just report them to the Hero every time they pulled something stupid.
“Hmm?”
I was in the middle of driving the wagon.
I sensed a commotion ahead and pulled on the reins to slow down.
“Hero.”
“Yes.”
“You should come out for a moment.”
“Why?”
Shabel came out to the front of the wagon, looking puzzled.
The other companions soon poked their heads out one by one to see what was happening.
“This is……”
Broken wooden fragments were scattered across the swift-flowing river.
“The bridge has collapsed.”
“What could have caused it?”
“Who knows? It hasn't rained recently, so the river shouldn't have risen……”
Simon and Esca each offered their own guesses.
“Could it have been shoddy construction?”
In my experience, that was the most likely explanation.
They'd cut corners by leaving out a few reinforcing bars.
And installing one or two fewer pillars.
Of course, the bridge in front of us was wooden, so there weren't any reinforcing bars to leave out.
“There are other people here, so let's go ask them.”
“Understood.”
We got down from the wagon and approached the other people.
Near the riverbank, people and wagons that had arrived before us stretched out in a long line.
“Excuse me.”
I spoke to a middle-aged man leaning against a nearby cart.
“May I ask what happened?”
“The bridge collapsed at dawn today. It was already like that before the sun came up. Fortunately, it seems no one was crossing at the time.”
“Why did it collapse?”
“I don't know about that. But the people camping nearby said they heard a loud noise. Apparently, the ground shook.”
“Could it have been the sound of the bridge collapsing?”
“There's no way to know.”
I looked at Shabel as if to ask whether she'd heard that.
She seemed to still have questions, so she asked the man again.
“How long would it take to repair the bridge?”
“Who knows? The current is so strong that I can't say how long it would take. They had to build it with a mage's help even back then.”
“Is there no way around?”
“There is a road if you head west. But magical beasts are swarming there, so no one goes that way unless they've lost their mind. That bridge wasn't built for nothing.”
“I see……”
After hearing the whole story, we returned to the wagon.
“Princess, what will you do? We could wait, I suppose.”
“Hmm……”
Shabel was lost in deep thought.
She gave Esca only an ambiguous answer to his question.
“What's there to think about? They say there's a road to the west, so let's take it. No matter how many magical beasts there are.”
“That's true.”
Simon nodded at Ash's suggestion.
It was a fairly reasonable opinion.
For the Hero Party, a horde of magical beasts couldn't even be called an obstacle.
But Shabel didn't readily agree with either side.
I realized from her usual personality that Shabel was worried about something else.
“You want to repair the bridge.”
“Huh……”
“We can simply take a detour, but the others have no choice but to use this bridge.”
“……Yes.”
Only then did Shabel slowly nod.
I knew it.
Our noble Hero was troubled by the thought of people being stranded here.
How kind of her.
But why did someone like that treat me……
“I, Esca Laurent, am once again moved by Your Highness's noble heart. However, waiting until the bridge is rebuilt will take a long time. Are you sure that's all right?”
“You said before that you were upset whenever our schedule was delayed. But now it's all right?”
“I certainly did say that, but……”
Her earlier words had come back to bite her.
Ash, who had recently felt betrayed by Shabel, was especially sarcastic in her tone.
Ah, this won't do.
Looks like I'll have to help her again.
“No, is a little time really that important? There are people who need help right in front of us!”
“What?”
“Why are we making this journey? Is it to defeat the calamities?”
“That goes without saying—money……”
“No, it isn't. We're doing this to help innocent citizens who are suffering because of the calamities. Isn't that right?”
That was the textbook reason for a Hero Party, but I knew better.
I knew that all of you had joined the Hero Party to satisfy your own selfish interests.
So I wasn't saying this for your benefit.
“Hero!”
“Y-yes?”
“Am I wrong? As a Hero—or even if I weren't a Hero—shouldn't I help those who are powerless?”
I only needed to win Shabel over.
At my plea, Shabel looked flustered for a moment, but soon nodded, apparently realizing that I was right.
“……You're right. Though I don't like it.”
“You can leave off that last part.”
Shabel raised her head.
Her eyes held a look of determination.
“I'll speak as the leader. Even if it takes time, we'll repair the bridge and cross it together with the others.”
***
As soon as Shabel made her decision, she asked the people around us for help.
The merchants and travelers who had initially been lukewarm changed their attitudes when they learned that she was the Hero.
They calculated that it would be far more beneficial to repair the bridge while capable people took the lead than to wait indefinitely.
The able-bodied men rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward one after another.
“What should we do?”
“I'll cut the wood, so carry it over.”
“Understood.”
Shabel led the people into the forest.
She took out her spear and swung it several times, cutting down massive trees in great chunks.
The people stared blankly at the sight of huge trees falling like autumn leaves.
“Could you move these to the riverbank?”
“Ah, yes.”
The men latched onto the trees and began carrying them.
They were enormous logs that took several strong men hanging onto them just to lift.
“You call yourselves men, yet you're struggling with a single log. Cut off your dicks.”
Ash and Esca passed by beside them, each carrying a tree on one shoulder.
Logs gradually piled up along the riverbank.
“Everyone's working hard.”
“They certainly are.”
Meanwhile, Leon, Simon, and Morian were squatting in a corner, watching the scene.
“Huaaam.”
Simon yawned lazily while shaking the bottle of liquor beside him.
The priest reeking of alcohol in broad daylight looked more like a wastrel than a clergyman.
“The Hero is taking the initiative, so everyone else is working hard too. Especially the men.”
“That's what you get for being a princess, I suppose.”
Leon quietly watched Shabel as she gave the people a gentle smile.
In addition to her exceptional beauty, Shabel possessed a mysterious aura that drew people in.
When such a princess asked for help, the men squeezed out even more strength than usual.
“Father Simon, stop drinking and go work. The Hero will get angry if she sees you like this.”
“I want to help too, but unfortunately, I'm a priest, so I don't have any strength. Morian, you go help in my place.”
Morian, who had been sitting quietly, shook his head vehemently for once.
Making a mage do manual labor in this hot weather.
It was practically torture.
“What are you three doing here?”
The three of them were in the middle of shooting the breeze.
Shabel had approached at some point and was looking down at them with narrowed eyes.
“Why are you all sitting here while everyone else is working?”
“I'm a priest, so I don't have the strength……”
Simon made excuses while Morian waved his staff to emphasize that he was a mage.
Shabel let out a shallow sigh. She hadn't expected anything from those two in the first place.
“Be that as it may for the two of you.”
Her gaze naturally shifted to Leon.
“Why are you sitting there? You should go work.”
“This? Me? Why?”
“You were the one who argued that we should repair the bridge.”
“To be precise, I merely helped fulfill the Hero's wish. I helped you achieve what you wanted, so my job ended there.”
…….
“Besides, what is my role in this party? I'm the porter, aren't I? A porter should guard the luggage. Isn't that right?”
Shabel let out an incredulous breath.
Just moments ago, he'd appealed to her sense of justice, saying they had to help the powerless.
Yet as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he had sprawled beside the luggage and was merely watching. It was utterly absurd.
“Simon and Morian are guarding the luggage, so don't worry about that and go help.”
“Those two said they felt uneasy being left alone and asked me to stay with them.”
Shabel's gaze turned to the side.
“They said that?”
“No?”
Simon immediately denied it.
Morian shook his head as well.
Shabel's gaze returned to Leon.
“They say they didn't.”
“You traitors.”
“Haaah, enough with the wordplay. Get up and go work.”
“Tch.”
Leon clicked his tongue.
He didn't get up.
Instead, he lightly snapped his fingers.
Snap.
“Huh?”
“Huh? Th-the trees?”
At that, the things the people were carrying, along with the logs lying on the ground, floated into the air.
The trees drifted along and were neatly stacked one after another by the riverbank.
Shabel looked startled as she watched the bizarre sight.
She instinctively realized that Leon had done it.
“W-what did you do?”
“I'm extremely skilled with a sword. I can even make things float in the air like this.”
“Those aren't swords. They're trees……?”
“Anything I think is a sword is a sword.”
Leon was utterly resolute.
Rather than sweat through manual labor in this hot weather, he'd become a lunatic who believed trees were swords.
“Then you could have done all of this by yourself from the beginning!”
“But if they find out I'm capable, they'll obviously make me do all kinds of annoying jobs~.”
“No……”
Surviving as a slave.
The first lesson.
Never work hard.