Chapter 14
Did I defeat it..?
Really?
Me?
That monster?
As I stared blankly at the anaconda's corpse, shattered while frozen solid, someone approached me and held out a hand.
“You did really well, Lumia.”
It was the Hero.
The Hero was holding out his hand to me with a bright smile.
I cautiously took the outstretched hand as I looked down at it.
Lumia's magic had been incredibly powerful from the start.
Just as you'd expect from a mage in the Hero's party, her Magic stat had been absurdly high even when she first joined—far too high for the early game. An anaconda with poor magic resistance couldn't possibly survive a hit from my magic.
Even so, I never imagined it would die outright to a simple freezing spell. Fire and ice magic had been the most damaging types in the game, but the anaconda itself wasn't so weak that it should have died that easily.
Am I just that strong?
“Good work.”
The man who had shouted to me earlier said that as he passed by me.
What was that supposed to mean..?
His manner of speaking was pretty damn unpleasant, but I didn't have the guts to say anything, and I couldn't speak anyway, so I decided to let it go.
Right, I'm putting up with it only because I can't speak, not because I'm scared of that guy and unable to say anything. Even if I looked like this, I had just effortlessly wiped the floor with an anaconda that guy couldn't even defeat, as easily as eating cake.
If he picked a fight with me, I'd freeze him like I did earlier.
“Should we head back to the carriage for now?”
Well, we'd defeated the monster, and since all its materials had been destroyed when I froze and shattered it, there was no cleanup to do. Everyone was making their way back to the carriage, and I, too, tried to get up from my spot so I could return.
“..?”
My legs gave out.
I should have realized something was wrong when I collapsed earlier, but this was...
Just in case, I checked the mana remaining inside me.
Judging by how much less mana I had than before, it was clear I couldn't stand because of a momentary feeling of weakness caused by having expended a considerable amount of mana. No wonder the anaconda had died so easily—after I'd poured this much mana into it, how could it possibly have survived?
It would've been even more horrifying if it hadn't.
That would have meant it was something I couldn't defeat on my own.
“Have you lost your strength?”
“...”
Reluctantly, I nodded.
Honestly, it wasn't merely that my strength had given out; I couldn't put any strength into my body at all.
I didn't know whether it was because the magic just now had consumed so much energy or because using so much power all at once had left me unable to move, but in any case, the fact remained that I was having trouble moving right now.
No. This won't do.
I mustn't sound weak.
If I collapsed and couldn't even stand after casting just one spell, the adventurers around me might laugh at me. Lumia wasn't the sort of character who would collapse and have her legs give out just because she'd used a spell of this magnitude.
It was just then, as I was straining my legs with all my might.
Swish
“..?!”
The Hero approached me, embraced me, and lifted me straight up.
“?!?!?!?!”
What?!
N-no, what are you doing?!
Since he'd suddenly picked me up, I looked at the Hero in bewilderment. Though he might have upset me by lifting me without permission, he asked me to bear with it until we reached the carriage.
As the Hero had said, it was unpleasant, but judging by the looks from those around us, it seemed we had to get back to the carriage quickly, so I decided to put up with it for now.
“I'm really glad we weren't too late.”
The Hero said that with a relieved expression.
Hmm..
Saying it was fortunate that he hadn't been late... At first glance, it sounded as though he meant it was lucky he'd arrived just in time when I was in danger, but couldn't it also sound as though he'd known in advance that I was in danger and found me immediately so he could save me?
Even if he'd been watching carefully, we'd moved away from the carriage, so he shouldn't have been able to know what was happening to me unless he was nearby—so how had he noticed and come to help me? If this, too, was something that had happened before the Hero regressed, then it wasn't impossible to understand, but...
Actually, there was a much bigger problem than any of that.
“Oh..”
“She's hot~”
“...”
I was embarrassed.
Incredibly embarrassed.
No matter that I couldn't move and had no choice but to entrust myself to him, there was no way not to feel embarrassed about being carried like a princess in front of everyone. Unable to bring myself to lift my head, I bowed it deeply to avoid the others' gazes.
If we went all the way back to the carriage like this, the people there would see me in my current state too, so was this really okay..?
The Hero seemed to consider my inability to move more important than the looks of those around us, and kept telling me to let him know if I was uncomfortable.
No.
This really wasn't okay.
He's a regressor.
Absolutely.
This is something a transmigrator could never do.
It's something only the real Hero could do..!
- L-Let me down..
In the end, unable to bear it any longer, I used telepathy to ask him to put me down, but the Hero said we'd already reached the carriage and earnestly begged me to endure just a little longer. Since I'd asked him for something, only for him to ask me in return to endure a little longer, I had nothing to say.
I made a miserable face.
I think I'm really going crazy..
Sigh..
.
.
.
Even after we returned to the carriage, I still couldn't lift my head and kept it bowed.
I tried to pull my pointed hat down as far as possible to hide my face, but perhaps the female adventurers had warmed up to me after I defeated the anaconda, or perhaps they wanted to forge some kind of bond with me; they crowded around me and began talking about what had happened earlier.
The one saving grace, if it could be called that, was that the setting was that I couldn't hear anyone's voice except the Hero's. So all I could do was think about it internally, unable to answer even when I wanted to.
My only concern was whether these people might get angry because I wasn't answering at all.
But I couldn't simply ignore them, and there was no way to hide from these people who kept approaching me, even though I was trying to cover my face, flushed bright red with embarrassment. Were they really enjoying my reactions that much? Where had those veteran-looking adventurers I'd seen earlier gone? All I could see now were neighborhood aunties.
Uh, what was it... strong-looking?
They were fierce-looking female adventurers, with scars and muscles showing here and there, but from the way they actually spoke, they seemed nothing like that at all.
“So? How far have you gotten?”
“..?”
What?
“Why bother asking? If a man and a woman have fallen for each other, they go somewhere private and basically have se..”
“Hey, hey, watch what you say!”
“What is there to watch? They're old enough to know all about it anyway.”
“I-is that so..?”
What was going on..?
I couldn't follow the conversation.
I did understand what that person was saying, but there was nothing to gain from pretending I did, so I remained sitting quietly.
“She doesn't seem to know?”
“Is she embarrassed..? She isn't answering.”
It's not that I wouldn't answer; I couldn't.
I smiled bitterly to myself.
“You two over there.”
“Huh?”
Huh?
It was the Hero's voice.
“She can't answer; it's not that she won't. Can't you tell from the bandages around her neck?”
The adventurers only then looked down at the bandages wrapped around my neck, after the Hero spoke in an annoyed tone.
“Ah..”
Only then did they seem to realize why I hadn't answered.
“And she couldn't have heard what you were saying, either. She can't hear, you know.”
The two adventurers' faces went pale at the Hero's words.
It seemed only then that they realized they'd treated me terribly.
Good. Looks like they've finally realized how serious what they said was.
Please, just let me spend these three days until we reach Plania in peace.
Please..
.
.
.
.
.
The three days passed in the blink of an eye.
At one point, they asked whether I could actually hear and whether I hadn't reacted to the Hero's words during the earlier attack, but the Hero answered with complete honesty that I couldn't hear any other sounds, while he could speak with me directly because he was the Hero.
Though everyone already knew he was the Hero from their adventurer IDs, I worried that he was being a little too blunt about it. But the female adventurers made such a fuss about how the two of us were practically bound by fate and how jealous they were that the matter fizzled out without causing any problems.
Once they learned that I had a disability, the adventurers started treating me carefully—“at least,” I suppose—so I think I somehow got through it.
Thankfully, they were kind people, unlike what I'd worried about at first.
And then...
“...”
I looked toward the Hero.
The Hero was completely absorbed in taking in the sights of Plania, his eyes shining.
I took a deep breath.
I would be meeting the Saint soon.
If he really was a regressor, I figured he would know the path leading to the happy ending, but there was also a chance he didn't.
So there was only one stance I could take right now.
Seduce him, but only halfway.
That was the answer.
I steeled my resolve.
I would settle this in this city.