Just the Two of Us
"You already know this, Olivia, but I think we'd do well to worry about being followed, too."
"I'd imagine so. The Holy Sword came to me, and Alex isn't an idiot — the first thing he'd think of is the possibility that I'm still alive. And once you add in the rumors of a golden light being seen at East Port, he'll have no trouble figuring out that I'm headed for Elvenheim, the land of the elves."
"Yes. I don't know whether Alex will come himself or send an assassin, but we'll need to be careful."
Obtaining the Holy Sword had improved the Hero's physical condition — but "improved" was all it was. Compared to her prime, she was unmistakably weaker. On top of that, there was no telling when a seizure from the curse might strike, and it was entirely possible she could be reduced to something close to combat-incapable in the middle of a fight.
Of course, most monsters wouldn't last more than a few seconds in front of her, and if you limited the field to humanity, that was even more true. Even so, there was no harm in being cautious. When it came to circumstances, it was always best to assume the worst.
"Alex is probably treating your being healed by the World Tree Sap in Elvenheim as his condition for defeat."
"I'd think so. He didn't have the confidence to beat me, so he went with poison… no, a curse, I suppose? Either way, he avoided a head-on fight."
"Considering even the Demon King was no match for you, that judgment was sound enough."
It hadn't even been a mutual kill. From the sound of it, she had simply beaten him into the ground, one-sidedly.
"No, he was strong. The Demon King. Well… he was weaker than me, that much is certain, but I couldn't kill him in a single blow. It took a fair amount of time."
It was an assessment you could hardly believe was being applied to the king of all monsters. Previous Heroes had either gone down together with the Demon King, or, even if they made it back alive, had often returned with any number of physical disabilities. Coming home with all four limbs intact was more than anyone could hope for — just winning and making it back at all was already a blessing. And yet this Hero had not only won, but, to put it bluntly, had achieved what you could fairly call a solo, overwhelming victory.
This was why Alex feared her. That overwhelming power. A strength so innate it was as if she were a true Hero in the genuine sense of the word, chosen by the Goddess herself. The person herself was simply strong.
Honestly, I sometimes — no, often — found myself wondering whether we even belonged to the same human species.
"You really are strong, Olivia."
"I was born this way."
"Would you mind giving me a more Hero-like answer? Something like, 'I worked hard'?"
"That's just false hope. It's not that I didn't work hard. I worked myself half to death — but not everyone who works as hard as I did can become as strong as I am. Honestly, talent is eighty percent of it."
It wasn't the sort of thing you'd expect from a Hero, the living symbol of every dream. But she wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, this world placed considerable weight on talent, and without it, you simply couldn't climb. That wasn't to deny the efforts of those without talent — but if such a person wanted to go beyond merely making a living on that path and actually reach its peak, it would be a very difficult road indeed.
"Of course, sometimes you get late bloomers, too. In my case, I was the type whose talent was visible from the start, and who just kept climbing."
"That's true."
"But then there's the opposite type — people who show no talent whatsoever at first, then at some turning point they suddenly burst into strength. The closest example would be Velita, I think?"
"You mean Saintess Velita?"
Honestly, calling the woman who'd tried to discard the Hero like a used hunting dog a Saintess didn't sit well with me.
"I don't know the details myself, but apparently she was ordinary, and then all of a sudden her abilities exploded, like she'd awakened or something. I don't know why, either."
"Is that so? It may have been her awakening as a Saintess."
"Why didn't I get an awakening as a Hero?"
I very nearly said, Weren't you more or less awakened the moment you were born? — but I managed to hold it in.
It was the second day aboard the ship. If we were lucky, we would reach the Eastern Continent as early as tomorrow. The problem of the Hero's remaining lifespan had been resolved, but the matter of pursuers was still outstanding, so the sooner we arrived, the better.
"Anyway, we'd better move fast."
The Hero's hand trembled.
"Feed me."
I looked down at the mashed rice and smiled awkwardly. Watching the Hero cling to my side like a baby bird, mouth open in a waiting aah, filled me with such a sense of wrongness that I couldn't find a thing to say.
"You can eat on your own now, can't you?"
"My arm's gone numb — kh! The Curse of the God of Death!"
She wasn't even trying to hide that she was putting on an act, the theatrical tone laid on so thick it was almost impressive. I decided not to poke at it. Letting out a small sigh, I brought the food — mashed fine enough to eat like porridge — up to her mouth, and she opened up and ate.
"I seem to recall you used to hate this sort of thing."
"That was then, this is now. …Honestly, once I'm better, how many chances will we have for something this couple-like? I want to enjoy the present."
"You're being far too honest."
The Hero smiled.
"I don't want to lie to you. Of course, I might end up with things I want to hide someday, but I don't want that right now. I believe that when the tip of my blade wavers, you'll be the one to catch me."
"…"
She had come to trust me quite a lot. As far as the Hero was concerned, my presence seemed to have transformed into something that simply felt good to have nearby.
This was a problem. I had never expected our relationship to become this close. If things went on like this, even after she was healed in Elvenheim, shaking her off would be difficult. Not that I necessarily needed to shake her off — but if we stayed together and she found out my secret, that would be a bloodbath in its own right.
The Hero might well let it slide. I was the one who couldn't stand it. Everyone has parts of themselves they dislike, and I was no exception. There were things about myself I hated so much I wanted to deny they were even me.
"Trusting me that much is a little troubling."
"It's fine. In exchange, I'll protect you if you're in danger."
"How about protecting your own body first?"
"I will. …But before that, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it? I'm not curious about your measurements."
I didn't need to look to know the numbers would be downright outrageous. They seemed far more ample than they'd been around the time I was banished.
"Why aren't you curious about that? No, no, that's not it… hmm. It's a rather sensitive subject, I suppose."
"What is it? Is something making you uncomfortable?"
A man and a woman sharing a single room — there were lines that needed to be drawn, even so. Unfortunately, I did not have the kind of proclivity that got excited over a patient, so I wasn't particularly having those sorts of feelings toward the Hero at the moment. There were brief flickers where I registered her as a woman, but reason quickly settled me with a reminder: She's a patient.
"So… Elvenheim has to give us the World Tree Sap, right? That's the idea?"
"That's right. It might be difficult, but if you go in as the Hero, there shouldn't be anything they can't grant you, should there? If we just explain the circumstances properly…"
"Mm. That's the problem, I suppose."
"Pardon?"
What was that supposed to mean?
"After I banished you, I went to Elvenheim, remember?"
She said it as if I ought to remember, as if she wanted me to share the memory — but I hadn't been there, so it was a rather difficult thing to answer.
"There was a bit of an incident there…"
"…Would you mind explaining in detail?"
"Well, a magical beast attacked, and I, uh… cut down a few too many trees."
"…"
Elves had a habit of treasuring trees. They weren't vegetarians, and they didn't treat civilization as a joke, but they lived in the world according to their own colors, and they held the forest especially dear. And she had, apparently, cut down their trees.
"How many?"
"Everything in my field of vision."
"…"
Wouldn't it have been more accurate to say she'd simply cleaved them all apart?
"And…"
"There's more?"
"They started blaming me, and I got a little angry, so I… called them long-eared gnats."
The sheer, unimagined racial slur nearly made my mind go blank on the spot.
"So I left Elvenheim looking more or less like I'd been kicked out."
"Elvenheim is an isolationist place, so the rumors never spread, and the truth simply vanished like an echo ringing through that forest. Is that it?"
"Yeah."
"…"
"I-I have things to say in my defense, too! I saved their lives, you know? This thing they called a forest beast was running wild, rotting the trees and devouring them — if I hadn't killed it on the spot, it would have been dangerous!"
An Absorption-type Monster, then. With that breed, disposing of it quickly really was important. Depending on how much time you gave it, the range of damage expanded exponentially, and the monster itself — the main body — grew stronger.
"So I had no choice. I cut them down and split them apart to deal with it, and then every last elf started yelling at me, asking what the hell I thought I was doing!"
"So you lost your temper."
"Yeah. I'd basically saved Elvenheim. They didn't have to welcome me, but they didn't have to curse me out either, did they?!"
"Yes, that's true. But that's our point of view, not Elvenheim's — and that's become the important part now."
It wasn't that I didn't understand. A monster that not only rotted the forest but absorbed the trees' power was exactly the kind of thing you wanted to deal with as fast as the Hero had. She may have been a little excessive, but the method itself wasn't wrong. What was unfortunate was how emotional her response had been afterward. The elves had responded emotionally as well, so before you even got to who was at fault, it was a mess — but the problem was that we were now in the position of bowing our heads to ask for the World Tree Sap, and they were in the position of granting it as a favor.
"You're aware that the World Tree Sap can't be given to anyone but an elf, except in truly special cases, yes?"
"…"
"And yet our standing with them has ended up in a rather interesting place, hasn't it? I thought that as long as we had the name of the Hero, we'd manage somehow — but looking at it now, that name might actually backfire."
"To summarize… yes. That's about right…"
"Well, hearing the story, I don't think you did anything quite that terrible, Olivia."
"Right? I knew I wasn't in the wrong!"
"You didn't do well, either, so sit down."
"…Yes."
Right and wrong didn't particularly matter here. At this present moment, we were the ones asking, and they were the ones in a position to give.
"Lois, I have a good idea."
The Hero raised her hand as she spoke.
"If you're about to suggest we take it by force, I really will get angry."
The Hero's hand came down at once.
"I don't have a good idea."
"…"
My head hurt. So we had to find some way to talk them around, then. One more thing had been added to the list of what needed to be done.