Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Rebecca
Baran Village is a fairly large village with a total population of over five hundred, making it quite sizable for a border region.
As such, it was also a place that the Iskar border territory kept a watchful eye on, and since it was under the direct control of the territory, the village chief as its administrator wielded considerable power.
However, having great power also meant having great responsibility.
"Chief, I'm really tired though."
"Rudian, please!"
Looking at the crooked handwriting and grammar that had thrown proper spelling out the window, a sigh escaped involuntarily.
Seeing the village chief presenting this as some sort of document, Rudian sighed and rubbed his forehead.
'This wasn't my plan...'
Rather than immediately retrieving Diablo, Rudian had planned to stop by his hometown of Baran Village and spend some time on vacation.
But as he passed through the darkening village entrance, he made eye contact with the loitering village chief, and before he knew it, he was dragged by the chief and found himself in this situation.
At first, he thought something major had happened in the village....
"Really! Please, I'm begging you! The tax collector has been contacting me for days saying they're coming next week. The numbers are already not matching up, and if the paperwork is also a mess, we'll be in big trouble. Please help me out!"
Hearing the situation, well, it was indeed quite serious from the chief's perspective.
"Just deal with getting in trouble once."
"The problem is that fists and fines come together. You're smart enough to be employed by the Count's family, so this should be quick for you, right? Please save me. Hmm?"
Being in his early 40s and serving as the village chief, the chief's abilities were certainly not incompetent.
The problem was that the Iskar County had established a policy requiring paperwork to be attached to tax collection for all villages above a certain size within the territory.
"You should have just quietly learned your letters when I offered to teach you."
"It was too difficult."
"Or hire a scribe with the village funds."
"That costs too much money."
"Hey, you...!"
This was brazenness at its finest.
"What sins did I commit in my past life..."
Despite saying this, Rudian's hands were diligently organizing the documents.
When he first arrived in this world, "Seong-jun," who knew nothing, was barely able to avoid dying alone and adapt to this world thanks to the chief's help.
As such, he felt a great debt of gratitude toward the chief.
"...Just this once."
"Thank you, Rudian! You're our village's greatest treasure!"
The chief, who was also the village's only butcher, headed to the storehouse saying he would give some beef slaughtered today as a token of thanks.
His skills were top-notch, so tonight's dinner would likely be quite luxurious.
While the chief disappeared into the storehouse to gather meat, Rudian elegantly wielded his pen, rewriting the documents that had been close to gibberish.
'Trying to save public funds and suffering alone like this brings tears to my eyes.'
Well, needless to say, the illiteracy rate in this world was estimated to be about 98%.
Even in a village like this with over five hundred people, only two or three could read letters, and only the chief could write, even if poorly like this.
The decisive reason why Rudian, who was reincarnated as a commoner in this world, could enter service as the heir to the Count's family was that, for some reason, he had no problem reading and writing in this world's language.
"Hmm, there's not much discrepancy though."
In an era where knowing how to read and calculate is a powerful weapon.
The chief's attitude toward Rudian wasn't that strange.
After about 30 minutes had passed.
'...Huh, I'm not as tired as I thought.'
When he arrived at the village, his eyelids had been drooping, but now as he calmly wielded his pen, he found himself quite surprised.
One knows one's own physical limits best.
'Is it because of magic?'
They say that master-level knights who have reached the extreme of both physical body and magic don't get tired at all even after fighting for a week straight.
Although he wasn't at the level of those monsters, being able to handle knight-level magic made it feel like his physical limits had risen by several levels.
"It's done."
Completing the documents that the chief claimed took him three days and nights required only about an hour.
'Hehe, I may not have spent three years as a school dog, but I've definitely put in at least two years. I'm kind of an elite too.'
Thanks to the experience gained while serving as Calline's attendant over the past years, he could handle such paperwork even with his eyes closed.
"Here."
"WOOOOO! FINALLY!"
The emotional gleam in the eyes of the forty-something man was quite burdensome, but seeing his joyful expression made Rudian feel a bit proud.
After carefully examining the documents for a while, the chief suddenly turned his head and said:
"Ah, Rudian, tomorrow when day breaks, go see Rebecca."
The moment he heard those words, Rudian's body froze.
Rudian asked with a trembling voice.
"R-Rebecca? Why?"
"Why? She's the girl who meticulously took care of your house while you were gone. Isn't it proper manners to at least thank her, even if you can't pay her?"
"Ah, was she still doing that?"
Rudian recalled Rebecca's face while trembling like an aspen tree.
"Still doing that? She's been commuting to your house every day, saying she needs to manage it until you return."
"AAAAHHHH...!"
"What's with the 'AAAAHHHH!'? There are three young men in the village who've fallen lovesick because of her. You don't realize what a blessing has rolled right before your eyes... Tsk tsk!"
The chief clicked his tongue and looked at Rudian as if he were a fool.
But that was only because the chief didn't know the terrifying truth hidden within.
Just then.
BANG!
A bright and refreshing girl's shout shook the chief's residence.
"Rudian, I heard you got vacation time?"
A girl with distinctive orange hair appeared, flinging open the front door of the chief's house as if about to smash it.
"That one, that one, a complete chatterbox. Hey! Rebecca! I told you to come tomorrow because Rudian is tired!"
Both their gazes turned toward her who had suddenly barged in.
Rebecca stuck out her tongue slightly and smiled at the chief's words.
"Hehe, sorry, Chief."
"......"
Why would she be here at this late hour?
Rudian's gaze mechanically shifted toward the chief.
And the chief avoided his gaze.
"Chief?"
"...Sorry about that."
It was obvious that when he went out to gather meat, he must have met Rebecca and blabbed everything.
The scene was automatically playing in his mind without having to think deeply about it.
You Brutus!
***
"That's mean. It's been so long since we've seen each other, there's no need to look at me that way."
"I... I'm sorry."
It didn't take even a few minutes for Rudian to repeat to her exactly what he had said to the chief.
Seeing Rebecca's openly hurt expression, Rudian unconsciously scratched the back of his head.
Rebecca.
Her full name was Rebecca von Bloodrain.
This orange-haired girl with a glamour more suited to a big city than a rural village was certainly a beauty too precious to be in such a village.
With her gorgeous beauty and lively personality, she had received numerous confessions, and there were even rumors that several nobles in the vicinity had their eyes on her.
If it weren't for the chief, who was her guardian, she might have gotten into serious trouble long ago.
Normally, a man who rejects such a beauty would be called a eunuch and worse, but...
'I don't want to get involved and die!'
In Rebecca's case, that saying didn't apply to Rudian.
In fact, one of the reasons why Rudian was selected as Calline's attendant and left this village was because of Rebecca.
'Bloodrain.'
As can be inferred from her fierce-sounding surname, her origin was not ordinary.
'A demon eater who absorbs demonic energy and makes it her own. The Blood Witch, Rebecca Bloodrain.'
She was a character who played a major role as one of the heroines in the worldview, and even a main character among main characters belonging to the protagonist's party!
And typical of a character in the story, she was a possessive heroine who whispered love while stabbing the protagonist in the back!
This was the true identity of Rebecca as she appeared in the original work.
'I heard those orange eyes and hair turn blood-red when she fully awakens?'
Actually, because Rebecca was such a common name, it took him a while to notice her identity at first.
And after realizing who she was, they had already become quite close, making it difficult to openly distance himself.
The result of his ambiguous attitude was precisely what was happening now.
Perhaps his gaze was too obvious, as she smiled brightly and spoke to him.
"What are you looking at? Have you fallen for me?"
"No, nothing at all."
Rudian averted her puzzled gaze and recalled an incident from the past.
Rebecca, a demon hunter and inheritor of her half-human, half-demon parents' bloodline, had almost been kidnapped years ago by those targeting her lineage.
Fortunately, Rudian had noticed this fact and, with the help of the chief, rescued her along with the vigilante group.
It had been such an urgent situation that if they had been even a little late, a terrible fate might have befallen her.
Rescued by Rudian's help, Rebecca afterward showed deep affection for him and revealed her full name, and...
'I immediately fled to the Iskar Count's family who had offered me employment.'
For Rudian, who knew about Rebecca's obsessive attachment to the protagonist in the original work, it was something to flee from, but...
"I'll bring salad and stew from home. Just wait a bit."
"No, you don't have to go that far..."
"Your stomach will feel heavy if you only eat meat. I prepared some this afternoon, so just eat it quietly."
The madness from the original work isn't visible in her yet.
Rudian watched Rebecca's back as she went out to get the stew and laughed wryly.
'Well, well, isn't this something.'
From Rudian's perspective, Rebecca, who becomes the blood-crazed Blood Witch in the original work, was an ultra-powerful time bomb that could go off at any moment.
But the reason he couldn't coldly push her away was probably due to her vibrant personality that so easily wedged its way into people's hearts.
'Well, both the orphan 'Rudian' and I, who have to live alone here, can't easily push away someone who approaches like that.'
Honestly, Rudian didn't have much attachment to Baran Village.
Before being employed by the Iskar family, he was openly despised for being an orphan, and after employment, he was avoided by those fearing retaliation, so the only people close to Rudian in this village were, at most, the chief and Rebecca.
'If it weren't for that damned awakening event, I would have snatched her up immediately.'
Rudian sighed as he watched Rebecca's retreating back.
It truly was a lamentable situation.
***
"...Luciella, it's raining, so let's go a bit slower."
A man and woman in ordinary adventurer attire, or more precisely, an old man and a young girl.
The girl holding the horse reins had already advanced about ten meters ahead of her companion.
"Uncle! Aren't you excited that the holy sword Daylight, which went missing 50 years ago, has been discovered!"
The old man smiled bitterly at the girl who was so excited she was exhaling through her nose.
"It's just a lost item at best. We're not so weak that we need to stake our fate on a single symbol, are we?"
"But I'm so curious! Daylight is, if not the holy sword of the God of Order, one of the empire's most exceptional sacred artifacts!"
"That's true. For retrieving such a sacred artifact, rather than rushing, we should have taken the time to gather personnel worthy of the occasion."
"Uncle's presence alone shows sufficient respect to the Iskar family!"
"If you hadn't coaxed me into traveling just the two of us, I wouldn't be suffering like this."
CLACK! CLACK!
The attire of the two remained that of ordinary adventurers.
But if one were to see the distinctive shimmering golden hair beyond their hoods and the swords at their waists, no one would dare treat these two casually.
On the path the two were heading, there were small stakes marked "Iskar Border County."