Chapter 21
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Arata Village
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Silently, we moved to a new spot together.
Sobs of grief and anger leaked out, weighing down the air.
Truth be told, whatever happened to these people didn't really concern me much.
I could have just ignored them and gone on my way.
But even though I didn't want to become cruel or hateful, it was hard to turn a blind eye when something like this actually happened right in front of me.
"We've put some distance between us now, so let's talk. What do you all do?"
They each gripped weapons like axes or swords, but since they'd been helplessly pushed back by the goblins, they clearly weren't professionals who made a living fighting.
At my question, one of the women in the group glanced around nervously before answering timidly.
"...We're aspiring adventurers from Arata Village..."
"Arata Village?"
That was the village I was heading to.
The small one marked on the map.
It didn't have any particular features, but from what I knew, it wasn't severely lacking in anything either.
For them to aspire to be adventurers from a place like that...
"Is something going on in Arata Village?"
"...No, we just... left the village because we wanted to become adventurers."
It was such a small village that it didn't even have an Adventurer's Guild, apparently.
I had no idea why they wanted to become adventurers, but if they wanted to pursue that path, they'd have no choice but to head to a guild in the city.
So it seemed they'd set out from the village with like-minded friends to chase their dreams in the city, only for this to happen along the way.
"You've chosen a tough path."
More than anything, I was amazed they dreamed of being adventurers with skills like theirs.
Tsk—I clicked my tongue as I spoke, and the woman continued as if making excuses.
"But back in our village, we were told we had talent."
"By who?"
"The vigilante guys..."
No matter how I looked at it, that sounded like empty flattery. In cases like this, there were two possibilities.
Either they really had talent but were total rookies in real combat, leading to all sorts of mistakes and this mess, or the vigilantes had just said whatever to humor them, and they'd taken it seriously.
Whatever the case, with my short but real experience scraping by as an adventurer, I couldn't call this a good choice.
It was their decision, so I couldn't say much, but still.
"Anyway, you're heading back to the village, right?"
"...Yeah. We have to bury our friends' bodies and explain what happened to the village."
She bowed her head like a criminal, swallowing tears as she spoke, and I let out a sigh.
Separate from how pitiful they seemed, this wasn't their fault.
They'd been traveling on the main road, after all—running into me proved that.
Who could have predicted monsters ambushing them on the main road out of nowhere?
If I had to offer some consolation that wasn't really consolation, this was just bad luck.
"Our destinations match, so let's go together for now."
I needed to reach the village anyway, regroup, and then set out again.
Blindly pushing on like this was too dangerous.
I could endure simple fatigue, but danger was a whole different story.
"By the way... what do you do?"
It was surprising she was only asking now, but I decided to answer.
"Adventurer. Apprentice."
By achievements alone, I could match bronze rank, but since time spent adventuring mattered too, not just results, I hadn't qualified yet.
"......Are all adventurers as strong as you?"
I showed them my wooden plaque, and they stared in wide-eyed shock, forgetting their grief for a moment. I shrugged.
"I'm weak too."
They seemed to be misunderstanding something.
I wasn't as strong as they thought.
With my lowered endurance, I scraped by using an extremely sharp sword combined with my traits to navigate situations. Objectively, my skill put me around the middle-lower end of bronze rank.
But fights didn't have to be fair, head-on clashes of pure skill, so factoring everything in... I was probably top-tier among bronze ranks.
I'd only met adventurers in the previous city, so I couldn't say for sure, but at least there, I figured the ones above me could be counted on one hand.
Silver ranks were supposed to be knight-level, from what I'd heard.
I'd only glimpsed a few, so I didn't know much.
I didn't even fully grasp what "knight-level" really meant.
"I hate to meddle in your decisions, but unless you have no choice, I'd recommend against becoming adventurers."
I watched them silently swallow their rage while carrying their friends' bodies and spoke plainly.
"They're rude and rough around the edges."
"......But we wanted to chase our dreams instead of living ordinary lives like our parents back in the village."
"Then I won't stop you. No reason I should."
If you wanted to be a commoner with freedom, romance, and respect, nothing beat being an adventurer.
If you wanted to achieve your dreams through your own strength, adventurers were unmatched.
But there was one condition: that only applied to silver-rank adventurers and above.
The Saint herself was operating as a silver-rank adventurer, which said it all.
"By the way, could I have your name and age?"
"...Call me Ellie. My age..."
She was actually 26, but when she'd first gotten her adventurer's license while traveling with her grandfather, she'd lied and said 13.
No one would have believed this body belonged to a 26-year-old anyway.
"Don't ask."
"...Y-Yes."
But I had no obligation to tell them.
Saying 13 might make them look down on me.
I'd saved them because I could, and we were heading the same way, but I didn't know if these people were good yet.
I remembered the lesson not to trust people easily, and adventuring had burned me on that a few times.
Anyway, they all looked like defeated soldiers.
Exhausted. Pushing on stubbornly from here seemed risky, so I took the lead, glanced around at everyone, and made a suggestion.
"...Should we rest for now? The sun's setting."
"...Y-Yeah."
"By the way, you guys."
"...Yes?"
"Why is only this woman answering? And why do you keep glaring at me?"
Your friends died. Friends you'd shared dreams with since leaving the village, heading to the city together—gone before they could even chase those dreams.
I got that their hearts hurt.
When Ban died, that emptiness was unbearable for me, so I understood.
And that was after just a few days together.
If it were close friends fading away like that, it'd be even harder.
I knew they needed time to pull themselves together in moments like this.
But not now.
Especially not when they were showing hostility toward me.
"Goblins have gone mad, charging onto the main road to hunt humans. We've gained some distance, but it's still a dangerous situation where anything could happen anytime."
That's why I'd suggested resting right now.
They looked too exhausted to even hold their weapons properly in an emergency.
Even though they could move more, I'd made that call.
"If you keep showing hostility in a situation like this, I'll have to abandon you."
I'm helping because our paths align and you seem pitiful and naive.
But if they kept grating on my nerves like this, there'd be no reason to.
"Is it because I criticized you earlier?"
That was the only thing I could think of that might make them resent me, and when I glared back, a few averted their eyes.
It was ridiculous that it really was about that, so I shook my head.
"Should I have let that one guy chase after a goblin alone then? You know goblins have intelligence, right?"
There'd have been traps, or it'd scream and call over nearby allies.
If things went that way, even I'd be in danger—that's why I stopped it.
Was that so hard to understand?
"Should I just go ahead alone? I'm helping without getting anything in return, but these glares are getting annoying."
Before questioning why I stopped you, figure out if you could even handle it first.
"It hurts, you're angry—I get it. Anyone would be furious and sad after something like this. But if you take out that grief and rage on someone unrelated, you're truly pathetic."
"Sorry..."
At my words, the man who'd been the most fired up during the goblin fight lowered his head.
I knew it was a reluctant apology, but since most people wouldn't even bother with that, I accepted it.
"It's fine. Now get ready and sleep early. I'll take watch."
"You don't have to—"
"I'm doing it because I don't trust you guys. It's fine."
After that brief exchange of nerves, we set up camp.
Through the night, wild animals drawn by the corpse stench approached.
Foxes, wild dogs, crows, insects.
In normal circumstances, I'd have told them to bury the bodies nearby,
but the way they'd insisted on carrying their "friends'" corpses here—despite the pus and rotten blood oozing out—nagged at me, so I ended up guarding the bodies all night.
Dawn broke, and we set off again, finally reaching Arata Village.
People who seemed to be the parents of the dead rushed out wailing, each parent worrying, raging, grieving in their own way as we watched.
"...You're Ellie?"
I turned at the surprisingly gentle voice.
A rugged man with a thick beard and a strong presence looked down at me.
Leather armor, spear in hand, bow on his back.
He seemed to be part of the vigilante group, from what I'd heard on the way.
Bandages covering his eyes soaked red, lips bluish, skin pale.
At a glance, it was no ordinary injury.
"......You're badly hurt."
"I heard the kids owe you a lot. Thanks."
"It was just what needed doing—no need to thank me. More importantly, what happened?"
"...After the kids left, goblins suddenly started attacking in groups. We fended them off once, but it was touch and go."
As if to prove the goblin raids weren't exaggeration, broken fences dotted the village, crows perched on splintered branches everywhere.
And fresh graves where the soil hadn't fully settled.
"And to think they came back like this after saying they'd become adventurers... Still, most made it back alive thanks to you. That's something..."
From his muttering and groan, I realized the goblin problem was more serious than I'd thought.
"Do you know why the goblins are suddenly acting up?"
"Seems some leader-type showed up and unified them."
As expected.
No matter how I thought about it, raids reaching the village pointed to that one possibility.
"Then isn't this village in danger?"
"Gonna have to send a few vigilantes to the nearest city's Adventurer's Guild for backup."
"Do you have the commission fee?"
"...It's a small village, so we can't offer much."
"Then the adventurers won't come."
"......Probably not."
"...If we could just deal with the goblin leader, the goblins would fall apart, right?"
If a leader was forcibly uniting them,
without it, the coerced goblins would turn on each other and self-destruct.
That was my judgment, so I made the offer.
"Want to commission me?"
"...You?"
"I can't win a head-on fight, but assassination? I'm confident."
And there was one more thing I trusted.