Chapter 79
*
While I was busy waking up the unconscious horse and righting the overturned wagon, the surrounding adventurers dispersed.
They probably aren't free to linger around.
So of them muttered things like, "Being kind even to scavengers, is the 'Fla-Haired Longdagger' an angel?" but I didn't feel like confirming who they were talking about.
More than such an obvious matter, what concerns is their attitude toward the scavengers.
"Is their attitude always like that?"
I asked purely out of confusion while supporting a wheel that had co off its axle.
The person I directed my question to——the adventurer Edds, who had been on the brink of death just monts ago——tilted his head.
"What do you an, Longdagger-san?"
Being addressed with honorifics by soone my own age made unintentionally pull a strange face.
"Just Longdagger, or rather, Shin is fine."
At my words, the other adventurer, Pal, stopped attaching the harness to the horse and rapidly shook their head, saying, "No way, no way, no way," in a triple barrage of refusal.
Nowadays, the na Longdagger apparently refers to the most famous adventurer in Hekatai, or sothing like that.
Behind them, Erika nodded with satisfaction, petting the horse with a pleased expression.
I reflexively felt the urge to deny it but held myself back.
"Then at least call Shin, since she's also a Longdagger."
"This is my wife, Erika Longdagger."
When Erika said that with a graceful smile, Pal let out a high-pitched squeal, saying, "So the rumors were true! You're the incredible married couple of adventurers!"
"Anyway."
Ignoring Pal's excited squeal, I desperately suppressed the creepy smile threatening to form on my face.
"Is their attitude always like that?"
At my repeated question, Edds and Pal exchanged glances and tilted their heads.
Seeing that they genuinely didn't understand what I was asking, I ntally tilted my head as well while continuing my words.
"I an the mocking attitude of the adventurers around us."
When I said that, Edds and Pal looked slightly ashad, and without hiding that they thought it was natural, they replied like this.
"Well, we're just scavengers, so..."
Pal nodded in agreent with Edds, saying, "Yeah, it can't be helped," with the sa sentint.
"You've got to be kidding ."
My surprise slipped out of my mouth without thinking.
"Scavengers are the bravest of all adventurers."
At my words, Edds and Pal tilted their heads even more than when they didn't understand the question.
*
"Scavengers are adventurers who pick up the magic stone fragnts left behind by others, right, Shin?"
It was Erika who asked this on behalf of Edds and Pal, who were still tilting their heads.
Acknowledging that she might be rude, Erika prefaced her words before continuing.
"Since they can't hunt monsters with their own strength and instead gather magic stone fragnts, isn't it inevitable that they'd be looked down upon by adventurers who are judged by their prowess?"
While thinking that this was a very Erika-like perspective, I shook my head.
Even if the scavengers themselves nodded in agreent with that view.
"No, that's not right, Erika."
At my words of denial, the two scavengers tilted their heads, while Erika looked at with curiosity.
"It's true that scavengers are often adventurers who can't defeat monsters themselves. But that ans they're aware of their own lack of strength and still venture into places crawling with monsters."
I recalled the tis in Faltarl when my ntor took out to hunt monsters.
The faces of those scavengers who followed us, careful not to get in our way, in areas where monsters targeted by soone like Kindhearted Barbara road, were utterly intense.
Lacking the strength to defeat monsters, it's inevitable that most scavengers are novice adventurers.
The ntor-apprentice relationship among adventurers isn't so soft arrangent where the ntor looks after the apprentice's livelihood, so they have to earn their own keep.
Despite being aware of their own inadequacy, their courage to venture into places where high-rank adventurers go, without hesitation to pick up magic stone fragnts, is praised in Faltarl.
Among adventurers full of muscleheads, the bravest of them all are these scavengers.
When I explained this to Erika, she nodded in understanding.
A beat later, for so reason, she looked slightly flustered and averted her gaze from my face to look at Edds and the others.
"I apologize for my rudeness. I deeply regret unintentionally insulting you by belittling you."
As Erika bowed her head to Edds and the others, a passing adventurer looked on in surprise at the scene, while Edds and the others panicked.
Watching this unfold, I was wrestling with a serious doubt in my mind.
*
"If we go to Faltarl, will we be respected too?" were Pal's words.
Through casual conversation while making ergency repairs to the wagon, I learned sothing simple: in Orclah, since there are many easy-to-hunt monsters, even low-rank adventurers tend to leave magic stone fragnts behind, which is why scavengers are looked down upon.
Unlike in Faltarl, it's apparently not a situation where a single mistake could turn you into minceat.
In fact, even ordinary humans who aren't adventurers sotis do it, fully aware of the slight danger.
As a forr resident of Faltarl, the sheer guts of Orclah's common folk seem like pure madness to , but I guess it's a matter of different places, different customs.
There are many things you can't learn just by hearing stories from adventurers who operate across countries or reading books.
Well, that's obvious, I suppose.
I thought that while seeing off Edds and the others as they thanked before leaving.
Now then......
I took a light deep breath and decided to confront the issue I had been avoiding.
That is, the glimr of golden magic that kept catching my eye, and the gaze that was averted whenever I tried to trace its source.
I steeled my resolve as I looked at Erika, who was seeing off Edds and the others.
*
Let make one excuse here.
If you think deciding to steel your resolve ans you can act imdiately, you're gravely mistaken.
Yeah, that's right, I chickened out, I totally chickened out!
Thinking that a single word or resolve can make a person act is a huge mistake in the first place.
Just as scavengers beco brave for the sake of their livelihood, for a person to reach their limit, they need a reason to reach that limit.
There's no way I can ask Erika sothing like, "Hey, Erika, aren't you glancing at my face a lot?"
What kind of extre reason would I need to ask sothing like that?
Or rather, that's more in the realm of recklessness than bravery.
If soone can ask a person who knows about their feelings, "You've been looking at a lot, what's up?" then they must be out of their mind. Where does that kind of confidence even co from? Just imagining it makes respect them.
If I were so unparalleled handso man, I could think it's natural to attract gazes, but I've never once had confidence in my looks since the day I was born.
So, from my perspective, Erika glancing at repeatedly ans she has so dissatisfaction she wants to convey to .
There's no other explanation.
Even I think I'm talking nonsense, but since I can't think of any other reason, there's nothing I can do about it.
Knowing Erika, who could cut down requests from royals at the academy with a single "No," I'm moved by the kindness she shows .
Waiting for the right timing to express her dissatisfaction is probably the utmost kindness she could show to soone in a farce like this.
For a mont, the doubt of "What if it's another reason?" popped up, but if that's the case, I'm already checkmated at that point.
Thinking about it is pointless; I'll just die honorably.
It was at that mont, as I made my desperate resolve and took a light deep breath.
Suddenly, Erika, walking beside , stopped in her tracks.
What is it? I was montarily captivated by the gentle smile on Erika's face before following the direction of her gaze.
One of the several churches in Hekatai ca into view.
At its entrance, a man and woman surrounded by family and friends were smiling happily at the center of the circle.
"It's a wedding, isn't it?"
Erika said to no one in particular.
After the calamity of monsters overflowing from the Demonlands, it's probably ant to be a auspicious event to wipe away the misfortune.
Well, the root cause of that calamity is us, though.
"It's a nice thing, isn't it?"
Erika said.
"Fighting to protect a scene like this out of one's own will, not out of duty or obligation as a noble, is a truly wonderful thing about being an adventurer."
Feeling awkward at Erika's words, I scratched my head to brush it off.
"Hunting monsters for the sake of the powerless is the ideal the Adventurer's Guild upholds, but, well, it's just a fantasy, Erika."
As soone who beca an adventurer simply because I wanted to, I couldn't help but deny it.
Whether it's , who just wanted to be an adventurer, or adventurers who had no other ans to survive besides violence, the root of it is the sa.
We had no other options.
There's no such sparkling thing as Erika says.
Erika denies my words.
"Fantasy is important, my dear husband. In the end, the beginning doesn't matter. Fantasy is the destination, the goal. No one walks a path that doesn't lead to a fantasy. Even if each step on that path is for tomorrow's bread, if anyone mocks that, I will correct their misunderstanding. Even if there is a path, it's because the path exists that the very first step is supre."
My fantasy, Erika, says sothing incredible.
If you gathered the adventurers around here and let them hear this, they'd probably all charge straight into the Demonlands. And in that case, I wouldn't let anyone else take the lead.
"As a human who has walked a pathless path, my ears hurt hearing this."
Erika laughs at my jest.
"That's wonderful in its own way. It's very 'you.' I'm sure it was a path full of flowers."
Saying that, a fleeting envious expression crosses Erika's face as she smiles and watches the wedding.
Naturally, I followed the direction of her gaze and felt a certainty there.
Erika, who seems to have so dissatisfaction she wants to convey to , deliberately stopped to watch the wedding.
And at the end of that gaze, there it was.
I understood.
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