The Saint's Teasing Returns
The sight of Estelle drifting away from the battle with Abel and Cloe, heading toward the village, left me with a strange sense of satisfaction.
“Hmm....”
The village had been reduced to complete ruins. The charred remains of homes and people littered the ground, and the only intact building left was the somewhat larger structure to the north. It was probably the village’s central assembly hall.
“Kuiik! Humans, where did you come from!”
“...There are orcs everywhere.”
“Holy Arrow!”
A blinding arrow shot forward in an instant and pierced straight through an orc’s neck. The orc didn’t even make a sound before its eyes rolled back.
Holy Arrow
Estelle was thinking of Abel the entire time she dispatched the orcs with shocking speed.
The hero is doing well~♥ I hope he didn’t get hurt too much~.
After eliminating the orcs so quickly, she continued walking. As she climbed the village’s main street and routed every orc that appeared, she stopped at a certain point.
“Kuiik! Meat! Meat!”
“Kuiik! Just as the chief said! There was plenty of meat in the village!”
“Kuiik! Eat and drink to your heart’s content, kuiik! You brave warriors deserve it, kuiik!”
Estelle’s gaze landed on the group of orcs feasting right in front of the village hall. They were far more numerous than the ones she had seen roaming the streets earlier.
Holy Arrow
The orcs I took care of must have been the guard unit.
At their center stood an orc dressed in feathers and clutching a staff made of bones.
“So the one leading the orc band was an orc shaman, Mitsural.”
The orc shaman and the orcs all turned their heads at Estelle’s murmur. Receiving the gazes of those fearsome-looking orcs, Estelle frowned.
“Those stares are disgusting.”
“Kuiik!? Since when have you been here!”
“What are the guards doing, kuiik!”
At that moment, one orc shouted.
“Kuiik! Chief! This human is very pretty! I want to make her my bride, kuiik!”
The orc who spoke was even larger than the others and his armor looked superior. Estelle recognized him instantly.
Divine Sword
There’s even an orc champion? If I fight him, he’ll make a decent opponent for the hero....
Estelle was still thinking about training Abel while the orc bizarrely declared her his bride.
“Kuiik! Gelorund, you are the greatest warrior! You deserve it!”
“Thank you, chief! Kuiik, human! You are my bride from now on, kuiik!”
The massively built orc declared Estelle his bride and raised a fittingly enormous axe. Estelle felt genuine disgust at the sight.
“Hearing such words from orcs... that’s the worst.”
“Kuiik! Warriors! Grab this woman and offer her to me, kuiik!”
Divine Sword
“Divine Sword!”
—Kwaang—!
“...Kuiik, Gelorund?”
A radiant greatsword larger than an orc appeared and sliced Gelorund’s body in half.
Gelorund had been the strongest warrior in Mitsural’s tribe. With a little more experience, he might have become the orc lord. Now he lay split in two, dead.
“Divine Arrow!”
“Kuiik! It’s blinding!”
“Kuiik! What is that, chief!”
Dozens of glowing arrows materialized above Estelle’s head. Seeing the scene, Mitsural trembled in terror.
“...This, this isn’t human, kuiik!”
“Hmph, I don’t want to hear that from orcs.”
Starting with arrows piercing Mitsural’s head as he shook, every orc present had their heads pierced by the arrows. It didn’t take long for all of them to die.
The arrows infused with the power of the Sun God delivered merciless punishment to the orcs. Estelle looked around the now-quiet area and murmured.
“...One left.”
Another arrow appeared and pierced the last orc hiding between the corpses.
“Cwip!....”
Estelle had exterminated an entire orc band. She paused briefly to watch the hall, then moved on, still intending to deal with the remaining orc stragglers in the village.
#
More than an hour passed before the Saint returned. She seemed to have worried for nothing; the Saint walked back completely unharmed, not a scratch on her. Cloe and I both let out a long sigh of relief upon seeing her.
“...Saint. Where did you go without saying anything?”
“Huh?”
“You disappeared without a word and we were worried.”
“That’s right! You vanished completely without a sound....”
The Saint tilted her head cutely.
“Didn’t I leave a note?”
“That was... well, um....”
“Mother♡ Hero, did you perhaps worry about me~?♥ The scrubby hero worrying about me♡”
I knew you were ridiculously strong. But I still can’t help being surprised when you suddenly vanish. If a person next to you suddenly disappears, how are you supposed to not get startled?
“...Still, you should at least explain where you’re going.”
The Saint glanced at me for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes, I’ll do that. Don’t worry though~♡ I wouldn’t go anywhere while leaving the scrubby X-meal hero behind♡”
“...Fine.”
...From the way she’s talking, it seems I’m the only one worried.
The Saint laughed, seemingly amused by something.
“Still, it feels good that the hero worries about me~♥”
“...What exactly is ‘good’ about it?”
She stared at me in silence for a moment. Why was she looking at me like that?
Then the corner of her eye curved like a new moon, forming a gentle smile instead of the usual bold one.
“It means the hero thinks of me as precious in his own way, right?”
...Precious? That’s not it. How can you be precious when you only talk nonsense?
Just simply....
“...We’re companions.”
“Fufu, yes♡”
That’s the truth.
#
“The villagers are still alive?”
“It seems they were locked inside the hall~♡ It would’ve been hard for me to save them all alone, so I came to get the hero.”
“That’s really a relief.”
The villagers weren’t all dead after all. Following the Saint’s guidance, we walked toward the village hall and spotted the fallen orc corpses scattered everywhere.
...Did she really do all of this?
The Saint walked ahead as if nothing had happened at all.
...When am I going to get my revenge? I might never do it before I grow old and die?
“Haa....”
Even Cloe and I were sighing the same way. There really were about twenty orcs lying in the street alone.
...We only fought three each. Is the hero really necessary? The Saint could handle it herself.
“Here it is.”
“The building is still intact?”
“I think the orcs left it behind so they could use it to trap people. I saw them playing and feasting right in front of it.”
“...?”
They were playing and feasting? Then what were all those corpses I saw earlier?
Curious, we approached the hall. Cloe and I both opened our mouths in shock.
“Saint, what is this...?”
“...No way did the Saint do all of this?”
“Yes. Do you think there’s anyone else who could?”
At least a hundred orc corpses lay sprawled around. The bodies hadn’t been dead long enough to smell, so they were still fresh.
“S-Saint, did you really do all of this?”
Cloe looked utterly stunned. Considering she had single-handedly handled the ogre group before, it wasn’t surprising, but the difference was that she hadn’t seen the ogre corpses herself.
...I feel like I’m dating an incredibly scary person.
The Saint casually stepped over the orc corpses and opened the hall’s door. Inside, people were tightly bound with ropes.
“...There are almost no adult males?”
“They must have killed them because they thought the orcs would threaten them.”
The hostages were mostly elderly people, women, and children. Especially women. Anyone with a brain could guess what the orcs planned to do with them.
“...It’s disgusting.”
“Monsters are like that~♥ Saving people from such monsters is the hero’s role~♡”
The villagers looked terrified even seeing us. The orcs must have beaten them mercilessly. The Saint gave them a gentle smile.
“Don’t be scared, everyone. We’ve come to save you with the hero.”
Please always speak in that kind voice.
The Saint spoke with that voice I had heard at the adventurer guild before. I had heard it, but Cloe looked surprised and stared at the Saint with wide eyes.
It was genuinely startling at first. It was completely different from the Saint’s usual voice. Her usual voice was pretty, but this one sounded like a voice that would succeed on a spoon radio.
The villagers stirred at her words. An elderly man with completely white hair asked.
“Y-You’re really the hero? Is that true?”
“Yes, this person is Abel, the hero of the Mars Empire.”
“Ooh....”
The villagers cheered. Most were happy just to be alive, but some were also crying.
I had no way of knowing whether the tears were from joy or from losing a loved one and being the only one left alive.
All I could do was untie the ropes binding their bodies and check their conditions.
“Saint, there are no injured people.”
“That’s good.”
“This side too! Everyone is safe!”
Cloe flinched when the Saint smiled at her. She must not have been used to seeing such a side of the Saint.
...Honestly, neither was I.
“We’re truly grateful, hero.”
An elderly-looking man greeted me. He was probably the village leader.
After confirming everyone was safe, we all stepped outside. The villagers looked shocked at the orc corpses scattered around the hall.
We were surprised too, but normal people would be even more so....
I asked the villagers about their future plans. Since the village was destroyed, we had probably come to take them to neighboring countries. But the answer I received was unexpected.
“The village is like this and you want to stay?”
“Yes....”
“No, how are you going to live here?”
The only building left standing in the village was the hall in front of us. The people were also dead.
“Still, this is the village where our children were born and raised. Most of the people here grew up here. Even if the village is destroyed as the hero says, that can be fixed. Since not all the villagers died, reconstruction will take some time but there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
...She didn’t want to leave her hometown.
I understood that feeling well. I always wanted to go home too. The place you grew up in is always the most comfortable, and you miss it when you leave.
I asked the Saint, pointing at the ruined village.
“...Saint, is it okay if I help rebuild it?”
“...Huh?”
“It’s a village reconstruction. There are no young men left, so I’d like to help with the heavy work. Will that be too late?”
The Saint blinked once or twice at my question. Then she nodded.
“That’s true, it will be a little late.”
“Ah... then....”
Is it not possible?
“Why are you so disappointed? I never said it wasn’t possible. Dummy♡”
...Damn, then why didn’t she just say it directly?
“...I thought you opposed it because of your schedule.”
“Of course we’re busy, but the hero is someone who helps difficult people~♡ In that sense, the hero’s opinion is truly heroic♥”
The Saint smiled sweetly after saying that. It was a refreshing smile like a clear sky with a cool breeze blowing. It was a genuine smile I had never seen before, making me a little flustered and scratch the back of my head.
...You should smile like that more often, you girl.