Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 40
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Today marked the fourth day since we left the imperial capital. The hero’s party, with a renewed sense of beginning a new journey, tried to guess where the Black Flame Dragon might have gone.
Gerard insisted it would have gone north, where there were many mines, while Elonen argued it would head south, where there were more people.
No matter which direction we chose, it was unlikely we’d find any trace of the Black Flame Dragon, but in the end, we decided to first head north since it was closer.
“Carry it properly.”
Gerard’s nagging suddenly came flying at me as I walked in silence. Without a word, I adjusted the bag slung over my shoulder.
The reason I bothered to carry things on my shoulder, even though they could go in Gerard’s subspace, was simple.
“If you can’t do anything else, at least you should carry the luggage!”
That was Gerard’s reasoning. Honestly, one of these days I really was going to snap his staff in two.
“Gerard, don’t be so harsh.”
Kyle spoke up for me, taking some of the load off my shoulder.
“Kyle, aren’t you coddling him a bit too much? Did he pay you off or something?”
“Gerard, you relate everything to money too much. If you’re that obsessed with money, you’ll end up bald.”
Kyle joked, and Gerard started shouting something in response, but his voice was drowned out by Elonen’s laughter.
“Wait, what’s that sound?”
Suddenly, Kyle stopped and spoke. Gerard, who was still grumbling, closed his mouth and listened, and even Kakaros held his breath and focused on the noise.
“Someone over there is calling for help.”
Kakaros was the first to dash toward the sound, and Kyle followed right after.
“Really, I’m so tired of chasing after that hero.”
Gerard muttered as he trudged along, and Elonen and I followed behind.
Kakaros and Kyle ran down the hill. There, they saw a person being attacked by a monster in the form of a giant eagle.
“Aaagh! Help! Somebody help me!”
The eagle had pecked at him so much that the man was bleeding profusely. Next to him were a broken cart and the horribly mangled corpses of others.
“Can’t you let that person go?”
Kyle swiftly drew his sword and leapt forward. With a single sweep, he sliced off the eagle’s head.
As the eagle’s head flew off, the man who’d been shouting for help let out a scream.
“Even when we save him, he still screams.”
Gerard grumbled, while Elonen quickly hurried over to the man.
“You’re badly hurt. I’m Saint Elonen. I’ll heal your injuries, so please wait a moment.”
“Thank you, thank you! You’ve saved my life.”
A bright light shone from Elonen’s hand as he began to heal the man’s wounds.
“Hey, what were you doing out here?”
Gerard approached the man and Elonen, asking suspiciously. I took advantage of their distraction to inspect the monster’s severed head.
On its forehead, a magic stone was embedded. As expected, this monster had probably once been just an ordinary animal.
“Ah, I… well, I run an inn in the nearest village, and while I was out urgently gathering supplies, I was attacked by a monster.”
Everyone’s gaze shifted to where the man gestured.
From this spot below the hill, we could see a village that hadn’t been visible before. It was quite large and not far from here.
“There could be more monster attacks, so once you’re healed, we’ll escort you there.”
“Thank you so much. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“We’re the hero’s party. We don’t accept money.”
One of the reasons the group was called the hero’s party was that they helped people without taking money.
If they accepted payment, they’d be no different from ordinary mercenaries, or so they said. Only Gerard disagreed with that policy.
“T-The hero’s party…!”
Realizing who had helped him, the man’s eyes grew wide as he leapt to his feet.
“In that case, please come to my village and let me give you a good meal as thanks.”
But accepting things in a different form than money was fine.
“Kakaros wants to eat. Kakaros is hungry!”
Kakaros shouted more cheerfully than anyone. Kyle nodded, looking just as pleased.
“Yeah. We’ve been pushing ourselves too hard. We do this to survive, after all. Let’s eat a quick meal and then get moving.”
As Kyle spoke, I stuffed the magic stone into my pocket.
For some reason, I had a bad feeling that something was about to happen in that village.
