Volume 1 - CH 3

Act 1-3: The Situation of the Other Two Childhood Friends

Since our departure, one week has passed. The journey from Lamour to the Royal Capital will take at least two weeks. We’re taking a break as the sun has gone down. Currently, I have lined up to receive the rationed dinner.

「Only… this?」

I reflectively asked when I saw that the portion I got from the middle-aged cook-like man was only a piece of hard, black bread. Surely, I might be staying in the same coach as Rose and the others, but I had heard from my grandpa that he had already paid my travel expenses beforehand to the merchant. Therefore, there was no reason for me to keep my silence upon receiving this kind of treatment.

「This is the order from Lord Fracton. Now get lost! You’re blocking the line!」

The middle-aged, cook-like man waved his hand to drive me away as if I were not worth his time.

Fracton was the proud-looking bearded man who had advised Rose before we departed from Lamour. He hates me and never misses the chance to speak ill about me on this journey. Even I think that his hate toward me looks so childish.

Nevertheless, most of Rose’s attendants were also treating me almost the same way as him. Therefore, I gave up trying to protest against them.

When I returned to my tent, someone kicked me on the back, and I fell forward.

「OI INCOMPETENT! How dare you hit me!」

A bearded, plump, old swordsman kicked my stomach with a vein bulged on his forehead.

「GUH!」

I couldn’t breathe for a moment. At the next moment, a dull pain assailed my body.

「Are you trying to infect me with your filthy presence too, huuuuh!?」

I could only curl up like a turtle when the man was about to kick me again.

The heck, if you don’t want to get infected, then don’t come to make trouble for me. It seems this old man has the mentality of a child who didn’t grow up properly.

Even the nearby attendants didn’t try to stop this extremely unreasonable violence. I thought they were rotten from the bottom of my heart.

After who knows how many time he kicked me―

「Stop at once!」

The rain of kicks finally stopped when an angry young woman shouted at the swordsman.

When I raised my face, I saw the angry face of the red-haired woman. She put her hand on the old, plump swordsman’s shoulder.

「OI ANNA, are you trying to protect this apostate, who is lower than trash!?」

The old swordsman shouted at the red-haired woman as blue veins bulged on his forehead,

「I’m not doing this to protect him. I’m just doing my job since he’s Rose-sama’s guest!」

The red-haired woman who didn’t back down was one of Rose’s attendants, Anna. As the two of them glared at each other, a voice rang out.

「Who made this ruckus!?」

A blue-haired man with an unshaved beard walked toward us. When the old and plump swordsman saw this, he clicked his tongue. He spat on the ground in front of me and headed toward the cook to receive his dinner.

「T-Thanks.」

I bowed to thank Anna for her help.

「If not for Rose-sama’s order, I wouldn’t have come to save you! Now, go back to your tent immediately!」

However, she left as soon as she said those words.

The blue-haired man with the unshaved beard had a great sword on his back. He passed by Anna’s side as she left and arrived in front of me. Then, after staring at me for a while, he looked at the other attendants around us like a falcon looking at their prey.

「You people better explain yourselves later!」

He spoke to them in a voice that sent chills running down my spine. The attendant who was dressed in white armor left with a terrified look on his face as if he were running away from the blue-haired swordsman.

This blue-haired swordsman was called Al-san, and he was the manager of Rose’s attendants. He was also one of the few people who treated me like a normal human.

「It seems our people are bringing trouble for you again, Kai-kun. My deepest apologies for this.」

Al-san bowed to me.

「N-No, it doesn’t matter. I’m used to this kind of treatment.」

That’s right. Even back in Lamour, it was normal for the owner of a trash gift like me to receive such unjustified treatment.

Such treatment was common especially in the Holy Amelia kingdom, the place where people’s faith toward the Holy God of Martial arts, Ares, was strong. Although this faith wasn’t that extreme back in my hometown, Lamour, the gift bestowed by God Ares was treated as something that defined the value of people. In short, as I had received 【The Most Incompetent in this World】 gift, I was treated like a worthless human in this world. After all, it seemed as if God had declared that I was an apostate. Well, I had never done something like that though. I mean, I was thirteen years old.

Whether it was the old swordsman who kicked me before, or Anna, who was scorning at me, or the other attendants who chose to become a bystander while I became a target of unreasonable violence, everything only happened because I was regarded as an apostate by God due to the gift I received.

Al-san gritted his teeth upon hearing my reply.

「Next time, I’ll carry your meal to your tent.」

He made that suggestion with a stern look on his face. He was not allowing me to say no.

「No! There’s no need to go that far for me―」

「Kai-kun, you shouldn’t hide your feelings like that.」

After saying that, Al-san went toward the cook-like middle-aged man. Rose’s attendants quickly opened a path for him.

「Give him the proper meal that he should receive.」

Al-san spoke in a calm voice when he arrived in front of the cook-like middle-aged man.

「B-But, Lord Fracton―」

「ARE YOU DEAF!? I said, give him his proper meal!!!」

Al-san seized the cook-like man by his collar and glared at him while shouting those words.

「R-r-right away!」

After screaming like a baby, the cook-like man gave me a wooden tray with a proper meal.

「Be grateful that I only gave you shameless people a proper education this time. Don’t think that I’ll be so kind to warn you if you do this same sh*t again.」

Leaving behind those words, Al-san went into the tent of the nobleman called Francton with a demonic expression on his face.

Seeing that, I brought my meal into my tent.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

The mountain trail of Silke great forest!

A few days later, we entered the mountain trail of the Silke great forest. Currently, we were camping on one of several camping sites along the mountain trail.

""

Ever since that incident, Al-san kept bringing my meals to my tent. Moreover, I couldn’t see the blatant hatred of Rose’s attendants, at least not on the surface.

Nevertheless, they still avoided me, and the look in their eyes when they saw me was still the same as before. However, the disappearance of their blatant hatred toward me was truly a blessing on my side.

Good grief, my life has been completely turned upside-down after I received my gift.

Well, I rarely used to get along with other people. However, even the attitudes of those who I regarded as friends until now had completely changed as soon as they knew about my gift. They had started to speak ill about me being an incompetent apostate.

Although I was hurt at first upon receiving such treatment, Lyla, Rena, and Keith were there for me. The three of them treated me like before.

「I wonder what Rena and Keith are doing right now.」

When it was confirmed that both Rena and Keith had received rare gifts, namely ‘Sword Saint’ and ‘Archmage,’ they had both been brought to the Royal Capital to receive proper training.

At first, both of them had firmly refused to go to the Royal Capital, but they realized later that they were different from Roman, who had received proper combat training from a young age.

Therefore, they had no choice but to go to the Royal Capital due to the unique characteristics of their gifts.

Keith’s gift was ‘Archmage,’ a gift geared for magic. Unfortunately, Lamour was famous for its martial arts; if he stayed in Lamour, he wouldn’t get proper training. Therefore, the Amelia kingdom’s government had arranged for Keith to become the apprentice of the chief of the royal sorcerer.

As for Rena, she was the owner of a gift that could be said to be the bane of the demon race army. That was why her existence had to be revealed to the public as fast as possible. For that reason, Amelia kingdom’s government had forced her to train along with the hero team, the most elite team for the Demon King’s subjugation.

Unlike Lyla and I, who were forced to participate in combat training from a young age, Rena had never even held a wooden sword in her entire life before receiving her gift. Yet, those crazy bastards had forced such a girl to join the hero party, the most elite party in the Demon King’s subjugation.

""

Naturally, I had opposed such recklessness. But, no one was willing to hear the opinion of an incompetent like me. Rather, they scolded me and told me that I was just jealous of Rena’s gift.

「Kai, are you still awake?」

The clear, transparent voice of a woman called out my name from outside my tent.

「Yeah, I’m still awake.」

I immediately woke up and replied to her. Then, an extremely beautiful, pink-haired girl dressed in a white robe entered my tent.

It was Rose, the master of all those attendants. To be honest, I had a hard time dealing with her. That was why I always tried to get as far away as possible from her.

「Is something the matter?」

I asked her that question in a tense voice.

「My apologies!」

She apologized and bowed her head toward me.

「E-EH?」

I was flustered since I had no idea why she did that.

""

「I heard about what happened to you from Al. He told me what the knights did to you.」

She spoke with a faint voice as she entwined her hands together with a sad look on her face. It was something I would never expect from a cheerful woman like her.

「No, please don’t worry about it… is what I wanted to say, but it did happen, and there’s nothing I can do about it.」

I knew that nothing good would come for both of us if I kept brooding over the matter. It was enough for me since they were at least treating me like a human for now.

Moreover, since most likely, I wouldn’t be involved with high-ranking nobles, such as Rose, again in the future, there was no need for me to get familiar with her.

「However, because I selfishly asked Sword Saint-sama to allow you to travel with me until the Royal Capital, you ended up…」

So she was the one who wanted to travel with me, huh. It might be a natural reaction from someone who doesn’t know about me, Kai Heinemann. Naturally, although I was famous as the sole descendant of the Sword Saint, Rose didn’t seem like someone who would go out of her way to request my grandpa just to satisfy her curiosity.

「Rose-san, why did you want to accompany me on this journey to the royal capital?」

「Because you’re Keith and Rena’s childhood friend.」

「You know them!?」

「Yeah, the leader of the royal sorcerers is my magic teacher. That’s why I know Keith. He’s my fellow student. As for Rena Groat, she’s my best friend.」

When Rose said that she was the student of the leader of the royal sorcerers, I became even more curious about her identity. Is she truly that famous Saint? No, no, no! That’s impossible. I mean, Lamour should’ve been in an uproar if such a big shot visited that city.

「Then, did they say something about me to you?」

「Yes. Especially Rena. She always talks about you. I came to know you better from her stories than from my conversations about you with Keith.」

Dammit! That Rena must’ve told Rose about the black history of my childhood. I mean, I’ve always been playing with Rena ever since I gained awareness about my surroundings.

「I see! Is that the main reason you wanted to accompany me on this journey? 」

「Yes. I wanted to meet you, who they always mention in their stories, in person. That’s why I asked Sword Saint-sama’s permission to allow me to accompany you in your journey.」

「Is Rena doing fine in Hero-sama’s team?」

Honestly, I couldn’t stop worrying about Rena since she was such an airhead.

「Well, not to mention Hero-sama, even the knights dote on her since she’s such an innocent girl.」

I see. I felt like I had just let go of a heavy load on my shoulder. I felt that this information was worth participating in her group.

「Thank you very much for telling me that, Rose-san.」

I bowed to Rose while expressing gratitude from the bottom of my heart.

Even though Rose and I enjoyed the conversation revolving around our childhood, we had to end our conversation. Rose’s attendant, the red-haired woman called Anna, had come inside my room with a demonic expression and forced Rose to go back to her tent.

A while after she left, a muscular middle-aged man with blue hair and an unshaved beard, Al-san, visited my tent.

「Sorry for disturbing you this late at night!」

「Don’t worry about it! Is something the matter?」

There had to be a valid reason for him to visit me late at night.

「Thank you for willing to talk with Rose-sama despite what her attendants did to you. I was really happy when I saw her talking so frankly with you.」

After he straightened his back, Al-san bowed to me.

「N-No, please stop bowing like that! Rather, I feel grateful that someone like her is willing to speak to an incompetent like me. Ehm―」

「Although it was not as much as you, my gift was amongst the low rank one. That’s why I feel some sort of sympathy toward you.」

「 Low-rank gift.」

「Yeah, that’s why this is all I can say to you. Never give up! Your efforts will never betray you!」

Al-san bumped his fist on my chest with an expression that told me that he had also struggled against his fate. He then left my tent.

’Your efforts will never betray you.’ It was the first time someone had told me that. Well, that aside, with what had happened until now, I could pretty much guess Rose’s identity. Most likely, she was the daughter of a high rank noble of this kingdom. This told me that Al-san had climbed up to his current position as the manager of Rose’s attendants after a long, bloody effort. As long as I didn’t give up, I might become someone like Al-san, who was needed by others.

My consciousness descended into darkness as soon as I lay down.