Pen and Paper Translations

As expected, it’s better to bring back jewels than to help with the fieldwork.

This is absolutely not because doing farm work seems like it would be hard.

It’s just that bringing back a few jewels would be far more profitable.

By simple arithmetic, they’re worth much more that’s all. It is absolutely not because I find it bothersome.

Reinhild offered an explanation to himself that no one had asked for.

To fetch the jewels, I’ll have to go all the way to the Demon King’s Castle, right?

It was impossible for Reinhild to bring the jewels himself.

Much as he wanted to go to the Demon King’s Castle in person, Reinhild still had no strength.

And he couldn’t leave the house for long, since Xion would worry.

He would have to ask others to bring the jewels on his behalf.

Rebecca, that human, worked at the mercenary guild. He was sure of it.

He could make a request to the guild through Rebecca.

But can mere mercenaries even break into the Demon King’s Castle?

Probably not.

The moment they tried, the demonfolk would surely dispose of them.

No matter how much stronger humans had become, the demonfolk had grown stronger as well.

If every living thing in this world except Reinhild had grown stronger equally, then ordinary humans still wouldn’t be able to take on demonfolk.

He’d better draw a map marking every secret passage in the Demon King’s Castle to make it easy for the humans to slip out the jewels.

With luck, they might reach the Demon King’s chambers without ever running into a demon.

The Demon King was absent, so if they timed it for when no cleaning demon was around, it would be perfect.

Will Rebecca even grant my request?

Wouldn’t she be startled if a Demon King she’s never met suddenly spoke to her?

The humans in this village didn’t seem terribly surprised to see Reinhild, but that was only because he was with Xion.

If Reinhild went alone, in secret, she might be shocked.

Even so, she wouldn’t refuse if he said it was a request to help Xion.

They seemed to be quite close.

Good, that should do.

The plan was perfect.

Now he just had to find a way to meet Rebecca without Xion knowing and ask her to place the request.

Ah, but Rebecca, who tells Xion absolutely everything, mustn’t blurt this plan to him.

He’d hire the mercenaries through Rebecca but keep the job details hidden from her.

And since the mercenary humans might get suspicious about a client who knows the Demon King’s secret passages, he would have to conceal who the requester was.

Huh? It feels like the list of things I have to plan is getting longer and longer…

Just as Reinhild was frowning and mulling things over, Xion suddenly stopped.

Reinhild stopped too and stared fixedly at Xion.

Normally Xion would have turned to face Reinhild and given him a bright smile, but now he was looking off toward the village in the distance.

“Xion?”

“Pardon me, Rein.”

“Whoa!”

Before he could even ask what was wrong, Xion scooped Reinhild up into his arms.

Startled, Reinhild wrapped his arms around Xion’s neck.

He wanted to grumble and ask what Xion thought he was doing all of a sudden, but Xion’s face was so set that he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Holding Reinhild, Xion ran for the house.

From far off, there seemed to be the sound of hoofbeats.

There aren’t supposed to be any horses in this village.

He wanted to look toward the hoofbeats, but before he could get a handle on the situation they were already at the house.

Still holding Reinhild, Xion carried him into the room and gently set him down on the bed.

“Please rest here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Xion headed back out of the house.

“What’s going on?”

The moment Xion closed the door behind him, Reinhild got off the bed.

He drew the curtain slightly aside to peer out the window, but there was nothing in particular to see.

He couldn’t even see Xion’s back.

Xion’s house sat in a corner of the village, with many trees around it, so unless someone came near, you couldn’t see much.

Conversely, it meant that even if something happened in the village, you couldn’t see it well from Xion’s house.

That was one of the reasons Reinhild had been able to hide out here without being discovered, but at times like this it was a bit frustrating.

“Should I go out?”

Xion had told him to rest. He hadn’t said not to go out or to stay in the house!

Having conquered his fear of going outside now that the Hero problem was settled, Reinhild stepped out.

Of course, he didn’t stride out boldly; he tiptoed.

Xion hadn’t told him not to go out, but for some reason it felt like he shouldn’t get caught.

What’s that?

Once evening falls in the village of Root and the sun sets, it gets so dark you can’t see an inch ahead.

The industrious people of Root begin their day when the roosters crow and go to bed that early.

At this hour, the sun should have been setting and the sky starting to darken.

But today, the village of Root was brightly lit.

As if someone had lit fires.

Fwoooosh—!

It wasn’t just that lights were burning. He could hear the sound of fire roaring.

What? Is that actual fire?

What would actually be on fire? And at this hour?

Reinhild quickened his pace and slipped deeper into the village.

Then, hiding behind a large tree, he poked his head out and looked around.

Far off, people were gathered in front of the village chief’s house.

There, a huge blaze was roaring.

“Gasp.”

He’d been startled, thinking the village itself was on fire.

Looking again, it wasn’t the village burning—there were just many torches blazing.

Reinhild patted his pounding chest in relief.

In a world where convenient things like magic lamps exist, why on earth were they carrying torches?

He couldn’t understand why these people turned their backs on such handy items and behaved like primitive humans.

“…Huh?”

Looking closely, the people holding torches weren’t locals.

Are there other humans out there who haven’t enjoyed the benefits of magical progress and still live by primitive means?

Still hidden behind the tree, Reinhild craned his neck and looked the humans over.

Those holding the torches were not people of this village.

They were all wearing armor, armed with swords and spears.

Just like knights from the capital.

What’s going on?

No one in Root wore armor or walked around with weapons.

You couldn’t even get armor or swords here.

Even at the smithy, Root was the sort of place where you couldn’t find so much as a toy sword.

Which meant they were people from elsewhere….

Why had outsiders come all the way here?

For what reason?

Reinhild narrowed his eyes and examined the armor they wore.

There was a strange emblem engraved on the armor.

I’ve seen that somewhere.

Reinhild racked his brains.

If it felt familiar but he couldn’t recall it, perhaps it was something he’d seen 500 years ago.

What was that? Where had he seen it?

Remember. Remember, Reinhild!

“…Ah!”

A faint memory surfaced.

Eyes going round, Reinhild looked again at the emblem on the armor.

He had seen that emblem even 500 years ago.

He was sure.

It was the emblem etched into the damned Hero’s sword that had pierced Reinhild’s heart.

The crest of the Duke of West.

Why are the Duke of West’s knights here…? Ah!

There was no need to ponder deeply. There was only one reason.

The Hero, who had come all the way to a country village to find the Demon King, had been smacked with an umbrella by a mere farmer and driven off.

Would a Hero who’d been treated like that by a commoner, not even a Demon King, meekly withdraw and train to grow stronger?

If so, that would have been good news for Reinhild—but apparently the Hero hadn’t chosen that path.

The Hero had run home to whine and snivel.

Some commoner bullied me. Teach him a lesson.

Send knights to find the Demon King in my stead.

“What a pathetic little Hero bastard!”

How dare he drag his family house into a fight between Demon King and Hero?

This is cheating.

Well, maybe not “cheating,” but it was certainly a dirty move.

It was like dragging your parents into a neighborhood kids’ scuffle.

Calling the Demon King and Hero’s battle a kids’ fight might be a stretch, but given the level of the two of them, it wasn’t that different.

Cowardly human.

Lose the first bout and then scurry to the ducal house to tattle?

Who does that!

Of course, it wasn’t as if his side could claim to have fought fair and square either.

It hadn’t been Reinhild who drove off the Hero. Xion had stepped in and handled it.

Still, he could insist Xion was his subordinate and be done with it.

There was no way all those knights were the Hero’s party members.

A Hero’s party is limited to four, after all!

In any case, this was against the rules.

To drag your house into the battle between Demon King and Hero…

It was such a cowardly foul that he could have lodged an official complaint.

He was only holding back because there was no one to complain to.

“This…!”

While Reinhild was huffing in indignation, the knights in the distance began shouting something loudly.

What are they saying?

Because of the village folk murmuring, he couldn’t make out a word of what the knights’ leader was bellowing.

Reinhild carefully took another step closer.

Getting as close as he dared without being noticed by the knights, he pressed himself flat against the tree and listened.

This time, the knights’ shout rang very clearly in his ears.

“We have come to hold the village of Root accountable for insulting and driving out the Hero!”

Reinhild nearly leapt out from behind the tree to shout at them not to spout nonsense.

This is cheating!

But the cry within Reinhild’s heart reached no one.