CH 560

As Rei heard Ruchard ask the question with a calm expression, he guessed a few things in his mind.

Goto wasn’t on the frontier in the same sense as Gilm, but it was still a rural village close to the border. Few people would visit the place outside of events like the Spring War.

It was in such a situation that Rei had arrived.

If it wasn’t someone as famous as Rei, such as an ordinary traveler, he wouldn’t have been so cautious.

But since Rei was someone who had been active in the Spring War, Ruchard seemed quite cautious of him.

That said, despite being cautious, he had still invited Rei to his house……

「I see, you’re from the Bestir Empire……or more precisely, you’re one of Theorem’s men.」

The words that came from Rei’s mouth caused Ruchard to stiffen for a moment.

That alone was enough for Rei to get his answer.

「I knew it.」

Hearing Rei’s mutter, Ruchard looked towards a nearby kitchen knife……but in the end, he didn’t make any moves.

It was because he didn’t think he could take on Rei.

Even if he attacked Rei with the knife, he couldn’t see an outcome where he could do anything without getting easily caught.

No, rather, he would be killed by the scythe he had seen earlier.

Reaching the conclusion that he wouldn’t stand a chance no matter what he did, Ruchard let out a small sigh as he turned to look at Rei.

Rei didn’t seem to care much for Ruchard’s look of resignation as he spoke up.

「Don’t worry, I don’t have any intentions of doing anything to you. Besides, you know what I’m here for right? I’m meeting Theorem here.」

It would be more accurate to day that he was meeting with Vihera, who was leading Theorem, but Rei decided not to mention it.

The man in front of him might be one of Theorem’s subordinates, but it didn’t mean he was a confidant.

In any case, Rei’s words made Ruchard give a sigh of relief.

「Is that so? ……Honestly, I can’t imagine what kind of relationship Rei-san and Theorem-sama have.」

That was only natural. Considering they had been hostile to each other during the Spring War, it was strange to think of them as being on good terms now.

Ruchard looked at Rei, as if asking for an explanation, but Rei just responded with a small shrug.

「Well, a lot of things happened. So, can I ask about you?」

「It’s not much of an interesting story. I’m just one of Theorem-sama’s subordinates.」

Ruchard didn’t say what he was doing here in particular.

Just as Rei didn’t completely trust Ruchard, Ruchard also did not completely trust Rei.

From Ruchard’s perspective, it was only natural.

Perhaps understanding htat, Rei didn’t push the conversation any further.

Instead, he changed the topic.

「So, have you heard when Theorem will get here?」

He probably hadn’t heard. That was what Rei thought but he decided to ask just in case. As Rei expected, Ruchard shook his head.

「Unfortunately, all I’ve heard is that Theorem-sama will be coming to this village with someone. Even then, Theorem-sama had only dropped by this village in secret to pass me a message when he entered the Mireana Kingdom.」

「……I see. Then, it looks like I’ll be waiting here a while. Sorry, but I’ll be bothering you in the meantime.」

「Yeah, I’m not in a position to say no to someone with connections to Theorem-sama, so I don’t mind. But, even if you stay here, there’s not a lot to do in this village. The only place that’s worth mentioning is the bar.」

「A bar? Alcohol aside, is there any good food?」

Hearing Rei’s words, Ruchard looked a little unsure.

「I don’t know. There are many of the dishes in this village aren’t that good……if you want know if they are any good, you’ll have to try them.」

Saying that, Ruchard turned back to Rei, thinking of something.

「Speaking of which, the wheat harvest will start in a few days.」

「……I think I would rather go to the Selemus Plains to hunt undead.」

Putting aside ordinary undead, if he could kill some rarer undead, he could absorb their magic stones to increase his strength.

Since he was going to be heading into enemy territory, there was nothing wrong with increasing his strength even just a little.

「Well, sometimes……very rarely, undead do come out of the Selemus Plains and towards the village, so if you could do that, the village residents would be glad.」

Due to the proximity to the Selemus Plains, Skeletons and Zombies would come over once every few years.

The village residents knew that and, of course, they were able to deal with monsters of that level.

Even so, there would always be injuries, so it would be great help if Rei voluntarily went to hunt the undead on the Selemus Plains.

「It looks like I’ll have a lot of free time until Theorem gets here.」

Rei muttered to himself out loud, but Ruchard shook his head slightly as he replied.

「When he came here, he was on a pretty good horse, so I don’t think it will take him that long.」

「……I see.」

Since Theorem had come to the Mireana Kingdom to find the Second Princess and return to the Bestir Empire as soon as possible, it only made sense for him to have an excellent horse.

(That said, even if Theorem and Vihera get here, there’s no point until Daska and the others also get here. We’ll all have to wait here a while. ……Well, I’ll need to talk with Theorem about the matter with Elk in advance.)

As Rei thought of that, it seemed Ruchard thought that was enough explanation for the time being as he spoke up.

「Then, I’ll be heading back out to work the fields. ……About my current situation……」

Rei knew what he wanted to say and simply nodded in return.

「Yeah, I won’t say a thing to the other villagers.」

「Thank you. Actually, I would like to talk about more thing in greater detail, but I can’t ignore my work, so we’ll discuss the details tonight. Ah, about your room, please use that room.」

The structure of the house consisted of one large room with main entrance, living room, kitchen, and three private rooms connected to it.

Ruchard pointed to one of the private rooms.

「Thanks.」

Hearing that, Ruchard left the house to go back to his work.

For a moment, Rei wondered if it was fine for Ruchard to leave him alone in his house, but reached the conclusion that it was because he knew Theorem and Ruchard trusted him based on that.

Inside the empty house, Rei thought about how to spend his time……before eventually standing up.

Whether it was waiting for Vihera and Theorem or Daska and Elk, it was necessary for him to spend some time in the village. That was why he decided it would be better to see what the village was like with his own eyes in case anything happened.

(It’s been a long time since I’ve played around with Set.)

It didn’t take long for him to think of something to do.

While it was true that he had been with Set ever since leaving Gilm, it had mostly been just travelling.

Whenever they landed, it was just to eat, rest, or camp. He had spent time with Set, but none of it had purely been playing around.

When he left Ruchard’s house, the first thing that caught his eye was a pair of eyes looking at him.

However, compared to when he had first come to the village, the pair of eyes that were looking at him were filled with curiosity rather than caution.

It didn’t seem like they were trying to hide their stare.

Turning to look at the person staring at him, Rei saw a boy.

Age wise, they must have been around 5 years old.

He was hiding behind some wooden boxes that had been piled up next to Ruchard’s house.

「-!?」

This continued for several seconds. Staring at each other and creating a mysterious space of silence around them.

As they stared at each other, Rei realised why the boy was probably here.

He was probably too young to help his parents.

If they were over 10 years old, they might have been able to help out a little, but at 5 years old, any attempt to help would probably only drag their parents down.

Because of that, they had probably been left free to play in the village, was what Rei thought.

『……』

After a minute of staring at each other in silence, the boy was the first to give in and make a move.

He came out of hiding behind the crates and walked over to Rei.

「I’m Apika. Who are you nii-chan?」

「I’m Rei.」

「Hey, I’ve never seen nii-chan before, are you from the village?」

It was a small village with less than 100 people, but it seemed that it was still hard for children of this age to remember the faces of all the villagers.

At the boy……Apika’s question, Rei shook his head to deny it.

「Eh? Really Then, then. Tell me about things outside the village!」

「……That’s right……」

For a moment, Rei thought that it might be a good idea……when he saw a familiar shadow in the sky.

He was flying quite high, but Set was there.

Perhaps he hoped that Rei would find him to play with him as soon as possible.

However, Rei was also reluctant to leave the child staring at him with twinkling eyes. Suddenly, he thought of the children who had flocked to Set in Gilm.

Of course, even those children didn’t immediately fall in love with Set. But since he was here……maybe it would be fine.

Besides, Set only seemed scary at the beginning, if he stayed with Set for 10 minutes, he would quickly become attached to him.

「Since you’re out here already, why don’t you come with me? I’m going to meet up with my partner.」

「Eh? But mum and dad said I’m not allowed to go outside.」

「It’s true that you can’t do it alone, but I’ll be with you.」

「Ehh……hmm……」

Looking at the distressed child, Rei wondered if it was good for him to be trusted so easily.

The residents of the village were quite closed off, but the children seemed completely different.

However, he soon realised why.

Yes. Travellers rarely came to this village because it was so closed and, as a reulst, the children probably grew up without being wary of people they didn’t know.

Naturally, their parents must have told them about it, but there was no way a child 5 years old would be able to fully understand it.

The end result was……

「Um, I understand!」

He simply nodded.

「Okay, then, we have to get out of here and find a place where the adults in the field can’t find us. Do you know of any good places?」

「Umm……ah, that’s right. This way!」

Saying that, Apika pulled Rei’s hand as they headed towards a less popular part of the village.

It was a small village, so even for a kid like Apika, they arrived in less than 30 minutes on foot.

As it was near the Selemus Plains, the village of Goto was surrounded by wooden fences.

It wasn’t good enough to be called a protective wall, but it was barely enough to stop undead, such as Skeletons and Zombies from entering the village from the Selemus Plains.

However, since not all the fencing was new, there was naturally some older sections.

Apika took Rei to such a place.

The lowest part of one of the planks, about up to Rei’s knees in height, was broken, leaving a gap.

At a place like Gilm, you never knew what kind of monsters would try to get in, so something like this would have never happened.

However, since the undead that wandered in from the Selemus Plains had no intelligence, the villages probably decided it wasn’t too big of an issue.

「Here, I think we can get out here. Do you want to go?」

「Yeah, let’s go.」

Replying to Apika, the two of them crawled out through the gap in the fence.

Rei was short and wasn’t very well built, so while it was a little tight, he still managed to squeeze through safely.

Luckily, the ground was covered in grass, so he didn’t get too dirty.

With that, Apika followed Rei out of the village.

「Gururururu~!」

While being careful not to be too loud, Set gleefully came down to the ground with a cry.