“Wow! Look, look, Ed! There are all kinds of people here!”
“I get it. I get it. Calm down.”
Entering the town of Chemonia and seeing the wide variety of Chemonians living there, Tia was excited to see so many of them. Although I was okay for now because we were holding hands, I feared that the moment I let go of her hand, she would dash off towards them.
“Well, then, Ed and Tia. I’m going to rest today as soon as I find an inn, and tomorrow morning I will be going to the hunting shack to get a proper job. What about you guys?”
“Ah, yes. We’re kind of in the same boat, so I was hoping we could join you for work tomorrow. …”
“I see. Then meet me tomorrow morning at the hunting shack here in town! See you later!”
“Yes. See you tomorrow.”
As I watched Waffer’s back as he walked away while waving at us, Tia tugged at the hem of my shirt tightly.
“Hey, Ed. Why are we meeting tomorrow morning? If we’re gonna be in the same party, shouldn’t we have rooms at the same inn?”
“Ah, that. It is true that I offered to accompany him and was allowed to do so, but from Waffer’s point of view, we are just along for the ride and not his friends yet. So, he won’t take care of our accommodations, and if we don’t show up tomorrow morning, he’ll probably do the job on his own.”
“I thought it was odd how easily he agreed to let us join him. So, that’s how it is. Then…”
“Mm-hmm. The real work starts tomorrow. Where we will demonstrate what we are capable of doing and have Waffer officially recognize us as his friends.”
Chemonian was basically a meritocracy. Not saying that the weak had no rights, but there was no doubt that the strong had a wide range of rights. Waffer, in particular, was a Hero candidate …. In other words, he was not yet a hero, but was in the process of seeking strength to be recognized as one, so if he could prove that he was a strong warrior, he could easily be made a member of the group.
“… Are? But the old … no, Ed in the dream world was weak, right? What happened at that time?”
“Ugh!? That’s, well, … I did a lot of things cleverly.”
“Hmm?”
I did my best to turn my face away from Tia, who was looking at me with a wonderfully annoying smile on her face.
Incidentally, in the first round in Tia’s World of Dreams , I mistook Waffer that suddenly appeared for a magical beast and attacked him, but was beaten to a pulp in seconds. The moment he identified himself as one of the Hero candidates, I got down on my knees and requested to accompany him, and he looked at me with pitying eyes and allowed me to accompany him… or rather he protected me, which was how I reached the city.
I know it sounded pathetic, but at the time, I had no choice. There was no way that I, a common mercenary, would be able to beat Waffer that was a candidate for a hero, and also a Chemonian with physical capabilities greater than a human. It was funny that Tia, who jumped at the first sight of a Chemonian, exclaimed how cute he was. I generally… expect it to be the standard… mistakes made in youth were just a statute of limitations after 100 years, don’t you agree?
“Ed! You’re thinking of something uncool, aren’t you?”
“Gooooo!? H, How?”
“Fufu~. I can see what Ed is thinking! But I think that kind of uncoolness is cute too, don’t you?”
“I’m not happy about this in the slightest. … Well, never mind. We’ll get a cheap hotel for the time being, and then we’ll go exploring the town, as you are so eager.”
“Yay! Wait, cheap hotel? I have some money, you know?”
Tia produced a shiny silver coin from the bag at her waist and showed it to me. I gently grasped her hand and pushed it back, shaking my head slowly.
Incidentally, for some reason, currency could be used as it was in most of the world, just as language could be understood. There was something like a large copper coin in denominations of 10, or in poorer places there may be something like an iron or stone coin below copper coin, but that was about it.
“We should avoid standing out too much before we become friends with Waffer. We humans … or in this world known as hairless are supposed to be few and far between around here, so if they know you’ve got some odd money, they’ll attack you, okay?”
“Oh, really? From the outside, it looks peaceful and the public order isn’t that bad.”
“Ah, well, it’s not about the town so much as it is about the conflict between the humans and the Chemonians. Just as well, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the area as we walk around town.”
“Yes, please.”
I lightly coughed while looking at Tia, who stood next to me and gazed into my face, and then began to talk.
“First of all, let’s see, … To give you a rough idea of this world, there is a realm in the west that is ruled by the Demon Lord, in the center is the Chemonian country, where we are present right now and people like us, i.e., humans, live in the east side. Then what happens?”
“Eh? How …… by that lineup, does that mean the Demon Lord is attacking the Chemonian country?”
“Yes. They are attacking only the Chemonian countries. The human nations are aware of the existence of the Demon Lord, but they are basically ignoring him because they are not being attacked. They seem to be providing some sort of light ration support, but, well, that’s only on the surface. The humans don’t understand the threat of the Demon Lord at all, but rather think of the Chemonians as nothing more than shields to protect them. In contrast, the Chemonians are fighting hard to defend their own country, but there is nothing interesting about the existence of a human nation that is just sitting idly and carefree in the background while they are spilling their own blood. The base physical abilities of the Chemonians are higher than humans, but there are plenty of strong human beings as well. The Chemonians are demanding such a force, but there is no way the human side would agree to their demands as they themselves are not in the line of fire, and, as a result, both have sides have a delicate relationship, ostensibly joining forces to fight the Demon Lord, but behind the scenes, both sides look down on the other.”
“Wow, I … don’t know what to do about that.”
Tia raised her eyebrows at my explanation with an indescribable expression on her face.
“We can’t really do anything about it. Even if the Demon Lord is defeated, there is the possibility of a war between humans and Chemonians afterwards. … That’s for the rulers of this world to figure out, not for us, ordinary, otherworldly people, to do anything about it, so don’t worry about it. To return to what I was saying before, the Chemonians are fighting the Demon Lord and his army on a daily basis, but there will be a match in two months to decide the strongest “hero” to break out of this stalemate. Waffer is one of the contestants ……, which means he’s a hero candidate.”
“I see. So, we just need to help Waffer-san become a hero?”
“That’s about right. Well, I’m sure he’ll win even if we leave him alone.”
“Yeah. …?”
Tia sounded puzzled at my words. I understood that feeling, but it was almost a given that Waffer would win and become the Hero.
“No, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The reason we are trying to be friends with Waffer because I know he’s going to win and become the Hero. All I did in the first round of the World of Dreams was to carry the baggage that Alexis trained me to carry, so as long as he doesn’t do anything too weird, he should be able to win.”
“I see. Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Hmmm. If I had to guess, I’d say cheering?”
“… is it okay to be that relaxed?”
“There’s nothing better to do. We’ll cheer Waffer on, so that he can comfortably become a Hero and be expelled from the party at the right moment. That’s what we’re supposed to do in this world.”
“Something’s different from what I thought …”
Tia, who was probably expecting to have a great adventure in another world, was obviously disappointed with her long ears drooping. I could understand that feeling, but I chuckled and patted Tia on the head.
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“Don’t be so disappointed. It is worthwhile enough to support those who are doing their best, isn’t it? There are ways we can support each other now that we’re here.”
“Our unique support? Is that …?”
“Fufufu~, We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”
I had no intention of letting myself be carried away by inertia, thinking that as long as I could save Tia, that was all I needed to do. Since I was starting over, I had to be greedy.
(Watch me, …, or rather, you’re watching, right? I’m sorry, but I’m going to do whatever I want, okay?)
I threw a grin along with a challenging glance toward the clear blue sky.