Chapter 5
The moment I realized there was a knife pressed against my neck, I froze right where I stood.
Something was strange.
In the game, there were only two situations in which the slave traders took someone hostage.
Either when they realized the soporific incense wasn't working on us, or when we noticed beforehand, confronted them, and threatened them. In other words, once they'd realized our plan, they had no choice but to take a hard line.
Come on, even so..
Even if this isn't a real wound, I'm still a girl with a bandage around my neck—you can't just shove a knife at me and threaten me like that.
That's what I told myself, but in reality I was so terrified that I couldn't do anything; my whole body was frozen stiff. Of course anyone would be scared and freeze on the spot if a knife were held to their neck.
“Tsk..”
Maybe because I was being held hostage, the Hero couldn't make any rash moves.
This was my fault.
I had assumed nothing like this would happen because I thought the carriage's nature was already known, and hadn't reacted. I thought they intended to spread the soporific incense, put us to sleep, and sell us just like in the game.
Even so, I had been too careless, which was why I'd ended up caught and turned into a hostage.
I should have done something..
“Stay still!”
The arm wrapped around me tightened even more as I tried to move, and the blade was pressed fully against my neck. Fortunately, it seemed not to have reached my bare skin but only the bandage, so I wasn't being cut—but if I moved even a little, it would dig in and pierce my neck.
I'm scared.
My body began trembling on its own.
I should have learned to use magic by now, but I hadn't.
“Then maybe you should've taken a different carriage, huh? This kid's going to die because of you.”
The man said that to the Hero with a vile smile.
A different carriage..?
Had the Hero done something?
Otherwise, there was no way to explain what was happening.
Come to think of it, earlier he'd told me to wait a moment and approached the carriage alone. If he'd done something to them during that time, the situation made perfect sense.
How could he have threatened them in return without even properly checking what they were carrying, or knowing what might happen?
It was absurd, but otherwise there was no explaining the current situation.
The disguised slave traders must have decided to take a hard line; they were revealing their identities and taking the passengers hostage one by one.
“Don't grab me with those filthy hands!”
“Tsk.. You bitch..!”
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that this hadn't happened to everyone all at once. Since I had been taken hostage first, everyone else had a chance to react. The other passengers were fleeing from the men approaching with blades to take them hostage as well.
Just then, the Hero came running this way.
The man holding me tried to press the blade against my neck, but the bandage kept it from sinking in properly.
“What the..?!”
While the man was flustered, the Hero, who had somehow already reached us, struck him with the hilt of his sword, sending him tumbling backward.
“Are you all right?!”
I nodded in response to the Hero's question.
Um, thanks and all, but..
As I glanced toward the back, the Hero followed my gaze.
Only then did he seem to notice the people fighting for their lives.
“Ah.”
You're the Hero, so don't make a face like you're only noticing this now..
.
.
.
.
Thankfully, things didn't escalate too badly.
It became difficult to capture the carriage driver because he abandoned the carriage and fled the moment the situation inside was brought under control.
In any case, the driver had run away so we wouldn't catch him, leaving us wondering what to do next. Fortunately, one of the passengers volunteered that they knew how to drive a carriage, so we weren't left stranded.
“No wonder they charged so little.. These pieces of trash, seriously!”
“Aaaah!”
A woman was venting her anger by repeatedly stomping on the hand of a slave trader who was bound from head to toe and tied up in a corner. She must have been furious about what had happened earlier, because the bones in the hand beneath her foot made crunching sounds.
That looks painful.
Well, I didn't feel particularly sorry for someone who deserved whatever happened to them. Setting everything else aside, he was one of the bastards who had held a knife to my neck, so there was no way I could feel any goodwill toward him. I only wished she'd stomp harder.
And I could fully understand why that woman was acting like that.
I turned my head and looked toward the man who had been stabbed earlier.
Since not everyone here was strong in combat, several people had been stabbed during the scuffle. The others had only suffered shallow cuts or the like and weren't in serious danger, but the man who seemed to be part of that woman's group appeared to have been stabbed fairly deeply.
Was that a stab wound through the abdomen?
Although the bleeding had been staunched, I wondered whether he could hold out until the next village.
“Lumia.”
“..!”
That startled me!
I barely managed to hold it back before it came out as words.
Was that the Hero?
I turned to look, wondering what was going on, and found him suddenly bowing his head to me.
What the hell? Why is he suddenly acting like this?
“I'm sorry, Lumia. If I'd been a little more careful, this wouldn't have happened..”
No, I think we should be grateful it ended with only this.
To be honest, if we'd simply never boarded this carriage, none of this would have happened. But looking around at the people in this carriage, I also felt this might have been better after all. If we hadn't been here, these people would probably have been drugged with soporific incense by now and sold into slavery.
I shook my head.
“But because of me..”
The Hero said that as he looked at me, but his face soon filled with horror.
“There's blood on your bandage..”
“..?”
Huh? When did this get cut?
I thought the bandage had kept me from being cut, but apparently that wasn't the case.
“Let me see the wound for a moment.”
At the Hero's words, I shook my head from side to side.
It stung only a little, so it didn't seem like a serious wound, but I didn't want to undo the bandage just to show him. More precisely, I was trying to imitate Lumia Secriphice, a heroine who didn't particularly like undoing her bandages.
Maybe I'd show it after getting together with the Hero?
“Ah... I'm sorry.”
The Hero seemed to realize that I didn't want to show it, apologized with a look of dawning understanding, and sat down.
I had no shortage of questions about this guy, but for now, I felt we should deal with that man's injury first. It was a little frightening to see someone dying right before my eyes for the first time, but I wanted to do everything I could.
I didn't know whether I could heal him.
In the game, she was a mage called the Child of the Stars, and apparently had magic that could restore vitality and heal wounds. It wasn't a patch on the Saint's miracles—which could reattach severed limbs or save someone on the verge of death—but it should be enough to keep him going until we reached the next village.
I stood and approached the man.
As soon as I approached, the teary-eyed woman asked what was going on. I shrank back a little under her hostile gaze, but steeled myself again. Once I sat down, I looked at the man while pointing at his wound, as if asking him to show it to me.
“Haa.. Hoo.. Are you a mage..?”
I could hear the man's question.
Not that I could answer anyway.
I simply met the man's eyes.
“Hey, you.. If you try anything funny, I'll kill you with my own hands..!”
Ugh, seriously. That's quite a way to talk to someone trying to save your life.
Whew, all right.
If hearing that was enough to make me stop, I wouldn't have started in the first place.
I carefully placed my hand over the wound.
If my guess was right, a wound like this was nothing.
I called to mind the sensation of using something that seemed to have been magic earlier.
Common sense told me that it was impossible to suddenly slip and fall on bare ground covered in bushes.
In other words, it had happened because I'd wished for it.
I didn't have this girl's memories, so I didn't know anything about magic, but if this was how it worked, I should be able to do it.
I prayed silently.
Please heal this wound.
And then,
“What the..”
“The wound..”
A magic circle appeared over the man's hand, and the wound slowly began to close.
“Tsk..!”
That looks painful.
Apparently, unlike the Saint's miracle, it didn't heal him perfectly; this treatment left scars and caused pain. How much time had passed? Once the wound seemed to have healed completely, the magic circle lost its light and slowly disappeared.
I hadn't done it.
I had only asked for the wound to heal.
And yet it had.
“Hughes, you..!”
“Ah.. It's healed..”
“Th-that's a relief..”
The man touched the wounded area, then grimaced with a pained grunt.
Instead of answering, I gave a small bow and returned to where the Hero was sitting.
Maybe because I'd used magic, I felt sleepy.
No, maybe it was because of what had happened earlier, not the magic.
The moment my tension eased, a wave of drowsiness washed over me..
In any case, for now I wanted to sit down and rest.
“W-wait, Mage?!”
I'm going to sleep, so don't bother me.
And I don't like the way that woman talks, so I'm not going to talk to her.
I felt like flipping her off, but I was tired, so I held back.
The ride was pretty crappy, but it couldn't be helped.
For now, I would sleep for a while, wake up, call the Hero over privately, and try talking things over with him.
No matter how I thought about it, something was strange.
Maybe..
No, would that be taking things too far?
I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.
For now, I just want to sleep.