Chapter 26 – Behind the Scenes of the New Heroine
Madis, where numerous cargoes from all over the world gathered, was a commercial city and also the place where airships were first developed.
“Wow…”
As soon as he arrived at Madis, the warrior who got off the carriage exclaimed at the sight of large and small airships flying through the sky.
Everyone at least once dreams of freely roaming the magnificent sky.
The hero was no exception, but he hadn’t learned flying magic from Yuria yet, so he hadn’t realized that dream.
“I wanted to fly in the sky at least once, but I never knew that dream would come true like this.”
Strictly speaking, I was not a hero, but an airship, but there was no change to the fact that I would soon be flying in the sky.
It wasn’t just the hero who was excited about that fact, but Mirian and Horde, who had no ties to magic and never imagined that they would fly in the sky, also had expressions similar to those of the hero.
“Hero, looking at this, it looks like the liner to Elysium is coming this evening.”
“Okay? Then there is still a little time left.”
“I’ll go to the reception and make a reservation, so what about the hero in the meantime… Would you like to go sightseeing?”
“Tourism… Well thank you…”
The line at the reception was endless, but by the time Lina finished her reservation, it was clear she didn’t have time for sightseeing.
As Mardis is a place where various cargoes gather from all over the world, there were so many things to see and food to sell. Thinking of making it so only Lina couldn’t see it, the warrior’s feet didn’t come off easily.
“Is Lina okay?”
When the hero made an apologetic expression, Lina smiled and said.
“Most of the things here are things I’ve seen locally, so don’t worry.”
“Still…”
“Hero, I’ll stay too, so it’s okay to just come back comfortably.”
Yuria abruptly said to the hero, who did not feel comfortable leaving Lina alone, and her feet did not fall.
“Are you YuRia?”
“Huh… I’m sorry to leave you alone, and it’s annoying to walk around, so don’t worry too much about it.”
She went to Yuria and said that, and in the end, the hero left her ticket with her power of attorney to Lina and said.
“… I’m sorry, but I’ll ask you.”
“Okay, take a good look.”
The streets were full of fruits that had never been seen before and seafood that was hard to see in the inland area, but all of these attracted the attention of the warrior.
The streets were lined with not only food ingredients, but also special products brought in from all over the country, such as paintings of people who seemed to be aristocrats and statues of majestic beasts.
While looking at the shops lined up on the street, Martha poked the hero’s side with her elbow and said,
“Hero, it’s been a long time since only the two of us are left, shouldn’t we be a little more considerate?”
“… Consideration? Oh, you mean Mr. Hod?”
Realizing what Martha was saying, the hero glanced back at Hod and Mirian.
The two were looking around the shop like warriors, but they were making faces as if something was troubling them.
‘Should I be considerate of the two of us as Martha said?’
Normally, hero parties basically move together unless there is something special, so there would be few opportunities for the two of them to be alone.
Of course, if you were a Horde with a lot of people, you would go on a date together, but even then, there might be times when you just wanted to be alone.
She felt sorry for Yuria, who was left with Rina, but thought that she should be considerate of Horde and Mirian here, so the warrior looked back and said.
“Mr Horde. Shall we meet at the airship landing in the evening and part ways for a while?”
“Yes… ? What is that all of a sudden…”
Horde didn’t know what the hero was talking about, so he looked genuinely embarrassed, but the hero, who thought it was embarrassing, said calmly.
“Since there won’t be many opportunities for the two of us to be together like this, I wondered if it would be okay if the two of us enjoyed a date together.”
“No, that…”
To be honest, Horde, who was not comfortable with the atmosphere, wanted to nod his head.
However, he kept his expressionless beside him, but when he saw Mirian’s hands shaking with anger, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
“Well, you don’t need to be so concerned.”
“It’s okay, let’s go! Mr. Horde is more comfortable that way too.”
The Horde said nothing to the hero who said that and recommended that the two of them stay together.
Just when I wondered if there was anything more I could do, Mirian, who was next to me, said.
“Hero, as the Horde said, you don’t need to care that much.”
“Huh? Still…”
When Mirian declined, the hero hesitated, unable to find words to say.
While the hero hesitated, Mirian glanced at Martha, who was next to the hero, and said,
“… I’m sorry for YuRia, who is waiting with me to buy her ticket, so don’t worry, I won’t be comfortable with the two of you.”
“Um… Then there is nothing you can do.”
With Yuria as her shield, the hero had no choice but to withdraw without saying anything.
The Hero group, who decided to go together like that, ate a simple meal at a stall and continued to look around the store.
While strolling through the streets, the Hero group stopped at a plaza. Perhaps because it was a place where a lot of people gathered, there were clowns and minstrels making money by singing and dancing.
“Hero! Look at that!”
There were so many different races in the square, such as a man with many joints in his arms and a short man whose height was no more than the warrior’s waist.
While watching the clowns perform their tricks in the plaza, Hero’s party stopped at the clear voice echoing from the corner of the plaza and looked at the singing bard.
“The king of demon beasts comes with thunderbolts!”
A blonde bard who appears to be in her mid-twenties plays guitar and continues to sing.
I don’t know what the bard sings, but when I listened to the lyrics, it was about a monster.
The king of beasts with huge horns and a blue mane.
The mere step of his foot shakes the ground, and his cry shakes the heavens and the earth.
The appearance of scattering thunderbolts and wiping out all humans and demons is truly the incarnation of thunder.
His name is Beast King Behemoth. He is the king of demon beasts commanding thunder and lightning.
When the bard’s song ended, the people who were listening to the song started tossing fairy tales at the hats on the floor with applause.
The hero and other party members also threw fairy tales along with the people, and the hat filled up in an instant, and the fairy tales piled up like a mountain.
“Thank you! Thank you!!”
The bard, who took a hat with a fairy tale on it, left the plaza with a grinning expression.
As the bard left, the warrior turned to the other party members and said.
“Hey, didn’t he sing very well earlier?! The song was a bit cheesy.”
“Yes! I’ve never seen anyone sing so well, even in the choir! The lyrics are a bit cringy though!”
“I liked it too. I didn’t quite understand the psychology of a person who fell in love with music, but now I think I understand. The lyrics are lame.”
“I liked it too. Although the lyrics were a bit childish.”
The lyrics weren’t very good, but everyone acknowledged the bard’s skills.
In the midst of recalling the bard’s clear voice, the warrior asked the other party members.
“But what was that Behemoth?”
“Well… I’m sure it’s a Witchbeast, but I’m not bright about things around here.”
The other party members were the same about that, but they didn’t know about the Behemoth because they weren’t familiar with the circumstances around Mardis.
“Should I ask Lina later…”
Saying that, the warrior who thought of Lina realized that she often relied on Lina whenever something happened that she did not know about.
Even though she was a colleague, it was not good for her to be so one-sidedly dependent on him.
‘… He’s still helping.’
The hero looked around for Lina, who was still struggling, with the idea of expressing his gratitude by giving her something as a gift.
“Hero?”
When the hero suddenly looked around, Martha thought strangely and asked.
“Why is that? Are you looking for something?”
“That is… Come to think of it, I think I’ve been relying too much on Lina lately. She’s still standing in line, so she wanted to thank me by giving me something.”
“Gift…”
After hearing that, Martha was silent for a moment and said as if she had just remembered.
“Come to think of it, it looks like Rina’s gloves are a bit worn out. How about buying her gloves?”
“Gloves?”
Certainly, when I thought of Lina’s usual appearance, I felt that her gloves were a bit worn out.
“When it comes to gifts for women, things like accessories and flowers are common, but if you’re an experienced adventurer like Lina, wouldn’t you prefer practical gifts like gloves? And if you carelessly present something like an accessory to a woman, it could lead to misunderstandings.”
“Is it… ? Then let’s do it with gloves.”
Wanting to buy something good, the warrior went into the high-end shop he saw earlier.
This store was aimed at at least B-level adventurers, and in addition to high-end equipment, it also sold accessories such as courtesans and gifts for lovers.
“Warrior. I’ll look back a bit and come back.”
Mirian must have been interested in the weapons and armor he had never seen before, so he said that and headed to the area where various weapons were displayed.
“Me too… These days, my shoes are a bit worn out, so I’ll come and see if there’s anything plausible.”
The Horde, which was bothering them with too many shoes, left for another area, leaving only the hero and Martha.
There were various types of gloves depending on the material and purpose of use, but there were so many that it seemed like I would be late for the appointment.
“There are so many types of gloves… Shall we split up and look for it?”
“Yes! Then, if you find something plausible, let’s meet again here!”
The warrior who was separated from Martha and was left alone was looking for something similar to Lina’s gloves.
“This…”
While looking for her gloves, the hero’s gaze was caught on something completely different from the gloves.
After looking at the item and thinking about it for a while, the warrior called a nearby clerk and said,
“Here, please wrap this.”
*****
Returning to her landing with the gloves Martha had chosen in her arms, the warrior spoke to Lina, who sat on her bench and fanned her hand.
“You worked hard, Lina. Can I get on now?”
“No, there are a lot of people, so I think we will have to wait a bit.”
Looking in the direction Lina pointed, people were lined up and boarding the airship.
Airships cost a lot of money to ride once, so the number of users was naturally limited, and most of them were nobles or high-ranking adventurers.
“Are those people adventurers?”
It was not unusual for an adventurer in a hurry to use an airship, but if adventurers wearing the same armor were lined up, it was bound to stand out.
“The one with a lot of military discipline is more like a knight than an adventurer. But the article is like this, so there must be nothing to hear?”
If a knight was urgently needed, he would launch a dedicated airship, but seeing that he rode a regular airship, it seemed more likely that he would be an adventurer rather than a knight.
The identity of the bizarre adventurers, who seemed to be in the middle between a knight and an adventurer, was soon revealed along with a person on board an airship.
The mantle of the figure, who seemed to be the captain of adventurers, had a pattern of the moon and a sword crossed.
It is the symbol of Azul Kingdom, home of the Horde and now a fallen country.
Their identities were the knights of the Azul Kingdom, who had become adventurers from knights.
