Chapter 21 – The Foolish Child

Oh, what a foolish child!

Yuto Alzeider gazed at Akari as she stuck close to him by clinging onto his arm.

It’s absurd how she easily believed the words of a stranger she just met in the forest and got tricked into using her powers.

“Akari, I’ll talk to the members of your escort team first. You’re probably tired from the purification, so it would be better if you rest for a while.”

“But…..”

“It will be fine. Just leave it to me.”

“Um, okay.”

Yuto grins. Akari easily agrees whenever he flashes her a smile that had often been dubbed by them as suspicious.

How easy.

Ah, but certainly, ‘they’ probably don’t know how to handle this child. That’s why they’ve been getting their fingers burned until now. Well, if you ask ‘them’, it doesn’t really matter if she’s here or not; if not for the ‘request’, she’d probably be the type to get cut down first.

Apart from that, since the tainted lands and the demons aren’t such a big deal, they probably think that they won’t need the Saintess who won’t do the purification after all.

“Well, I guess it’s a lot easier if they just leave the purification of the tainted lands to the Saintess anyway.”

“Eh!?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Well then, I’ll be looking forward to their reactions when we meet.

ーーー

ー

“…………”

“…………”

“…………”

It took Syltina three full minutes before she was finally able to speak.

“We’re glad you’ve returned safely to us, Saintess. We were even surprised that you were able to successfully do the purification.”

Yuto heard someone quietly say, ‘if you can do it then you should’ve done so from the start.’ It was probably Alhart or Kreutz who were behind Syltina.

“And who is this?”

Another whispered, ‘Why are you here anyway?’

Yuto thought it would be bad if he laughed, so he kept himself from doing so.

“Hello. I’m Yuto Alzeider. I was wondering if we can talk for a bit?”

“…… Very well. Tedla-sama, Frackt-sama, please accompany the Saintess outside.”

“Understood.”

“Of course.”

“Tyr, look after the Saintess. Call me immediately if something happens.”

“Understood.”

As soon as they confirmed that the two had escorted Akari to the carriage, Syltina and Alhart both grabbed Yuto’s arms and led him to a different location.

“Hey, don’t be so rough!”

“You’re not in a position to say that, you know?”

“She’s right, Yuto. Why the hell are you even here?”

“Do you…know each other….?”

“…… Milliane-sama, Yuto doesn’t bite, so, can you get closer? It’s hard to talk like this.”

Syltina called out to Milliane who had been hiding under the shadow of a tree ten steps away from where they were. But, even as Milliane went closer, she was still several steps away from them.

“Yuto is one of the members of the guild that we belong to, The Double Winged Sword*.”

“I’m Yuto Alzeider. Pleased to meet you.”

“Oh, I’m Milliane Frucktor.”

“Yuto, didn’t you receive an emergency summons from the Master? What are you doing here?”

“Ah, yes, it arrived. It’s this, isn’t it?”, Yuto took out a white envelope as he spoke.

“If you received it, then hurry up and go back. You guys are always going about as you wish, so, Master is always running about teary-eyed.”

“It’s fine. I already told Master that I was in the country. After all, everyone will be coming to this country, won’t they? Since that was the case, it’s troublesome to go back, so it was settled that I would be helping Kuu-chan and the others, but I never expected to meet you guys first. I was wondering what happened to the Saintess when I found her inside the forest, you know?”

“Ah, so it was like that. But, you were able to skillfully fool her, so you really helped us back there.”

“Oh yeah, I was just about to say it, but is she really okay? I never thought she’d easily believe me, you know. Well, you and Lady Sylti probably knew what to do with the Saintess when you accepted the escort request, but, you probably never knew how airheaded she was. It was amazing. Even though I never asked her, she glibly told me that she was from another world, and at the end, it all came down to ‘despite everything, I’m still doing my best for everyone’s sake.’”

It seemed Akari talked as if she were some tragic heroine in a story. That she was pitiable for suddenly coming to a world she knew nothing about.

That she was bullied by a noble young lady, yet she bravely worked hard to finally expose the noble’s crimes.

That she suddenly became the Saintess who would save the country, but nevertheless, she continued to stand up for those people who had helped her while being hurt.

That she persevered for everyone’s sake even though her life was dangerously threatened and was oppressed by the same noble lady, whom she had once exposed for her wrongdoings, and her companions.

“Even though, although, in spite of, that was all she ever talked about. ‘Even though I’m doing my best,’ or ‘I’m not doing this because I want to,’ or ‘I’m formerly from a different world, but…’ or ‘I don’t even have any offensive powers,’ or ‘I haven’t even done a purification before,’ or ‘although I’m just a powerless girl,’…………Lady Sylti,** you’ve endured it well. If it were me, I’d immediately wish to leave someone like that. No matter how many years I’ve been prepared for the plan, I. Would. Never. Be. Able. To. Put up with that kind of person. I can’t stand it”, Yuto said it with a face that was undoubtedly full of disgust.

“Fufu. Yuto still hasn’t trained enough. 2 years ago, I was unable to properly communicate with the Saintess, so I felt like I had to understand people who completely thought differently than me.”

“Ahh, so it won’t work unless you at least have that feeling.”

“But, you really helped us out this time. After all, Al and I have already given up  trying to understand her, so someone else had to take charge. She’s attached to you, and if you’re around, she would do the purification properly.”

“To tell you the truth, she’s obedient as long as you use kind words towards her. She’s that simple-minded. Rather, wouldn’t that make it easier for you guys to handle her better?”

“Not really. It doesn’t matter to us if the Saintess is around or not. What only concerns me is if we have time to do something to keep the tainted lands under control until it becomes usable again.”

“I thought you’d say that.”

In general, it would take a long number of years before plants could grow again on the tainted lands due to the demons.

However, that was the ‘general common sense’, and it was a little off mark as it did not apply to the members of The Double Winged Sword.

The rumored guild, The Double Winged Sword, was known around the world as ‘the guild that has the power to overthrow a country’. But, as a matter of fact, it was a small guild that only had at least a hundred members. However, the rumor about their ability to ‘overthrow a country’ was indeed possible once they put their minds to it.

In other words, they were a small, elite guild. Each individual’s ability was more than equal to a thousand men.  Thus, it is with this precise reason that these people would have a countermeasure against the tainted lands that only they could carry out.

”If you wipe out the demons and surround the area with a light barrier, then it would gradually weaken the impurities bit by bit so that after a few years, the land could be usable again. That’s why we really don’t need the help of such an incompetent Saintess.”

”However, nobody but, us know how to do it, and to begin with, most people can’t defeat the demons. Moreover, even a barrier that would stretch over the land requires considerable amounts of magical power, so only the members of The Twin Blade Sword could pull it off. Besides, this is still considered a ‘country’, so there’s also the problem of taking care of the living conditions of the people who originally lived in the tainted lands. And even for us, it would be difficult to distribute dedicated staff for it, so even if the Saintess is incompetent or whatever, it would still be better to have her perform the purification instead.”

”I know. That’s why I accepted the request to ‘escort the Saintess’.”

”Well, it seems that the Saintess will willingly use her powers ‘for my sake,’ so I could always rein her in.”

”If that’s the case, then I will contact the Master. And Milliane-sama, please don’t tell anybody about us being acquainted with Yuto.”

”Ah, yes. But umm….is it really alright to tell me all this?”

”If only we went to talk with Yuto, then, the other side would be suspicious of our relationship with him, so taking you along decreases that risk. Well, not that those dimwitted fools would suspect us anyway.”

Milliane tightly smiled back at Syltina, whose smile dripped with poison.

While looking between the two, Yuto pitied Akari’s foolishness from the bottom of his heart.

Two years ago…….No, even before that. Even before she came to this world, Akari’s surroundings had already consisted of plenty of ingeniously crafted lies.

She never even noticed it. Not even a sliver of doubt.

“Ahh, she’s such a fool.”, as he said so, Yuto seemed terribly delighted.

Notes:

*Changed the guild name “双翼の剣” from the previous translator’s “The Dipterous Sword”, into “The Double Winged Sword, but should I keep it after all?

**The honorific used after Sylti’s name was “–嬢” (“–jou”) which means a lady from a rich family or nobility, thus the “Lady” title.