Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai

Including our capturing of the labyrinth, our stay in Nordyord has already passed ten days.

It was just went we had settled the abnormal weather and thought that it was about time to make our departure.

「You’re sayin’ that ya can’t go ta Galarie!? Explain ta me why not!!」

Kuon’s angry voice resounded in the port. Being on the receiving end of that, the captain of the merchant ship that we came here on had his body tremble.

「I, I’m sorry, ojou. But, startin’ with things related ta provisions, we sold a pretty good amount o’ our cargo on this island, so we can’t possibly jus’ go ta Galarie, ya see.」

「Mu……Well, tha’ can’t be helped. At times where the cargo might go bad, doin’ tha’ is one of the tacit rules of a sailor.」

However, if that’s the case, then that would mean that we would have to go back to Be Io once and then head to Galarie after that. ……We looks like we won’t be able to make it to the Magic Clad Martial Arts Demonstration in terms of time.

「Can’t we just get on board another ship?」

Looking around at the vicinity, although it has diminished from when we first came here, there were still several ships that could be seen. Getting one of them to let us on board was Bernadette’s idea, but the captain of the merchant ship looked sullen from that proposal.

「There ain’t any guys tha’ ‘re goin’ directly ta Galarie among the remainin’ ships. The guys goin’ ta Galarie immediately left the moment the storm cleared up.」

「So there’s nothing more we can do, huh.」

In the middle of that resigned mood that was hanging in the air, a cheerful voice that could be considered as noisy reached our ears.

「Oya oya, it looks like yer in a bit of trouble, Black Hair!」

Shouting with a loud voice that didn’t lose to the sound of the waves, it was Angelica with the tall lanky guy and the shorty on standby behind her.

「What do you want, Three Stooges. Sorry but right now, we don’t have the time to deal with you guys.」

「That’s so cold, Black Hair. We’re close enough to have conquered that labyrinth together, aren’t we.」

I replied sounding a bit ill-tempered, but, seeming to be in a good enough mood to not mind that, Angelica came closer while humming a tune.

「If you want……I wouldn’t mind lettin’ ya board our ship, ya know?」

Angelica smiled with a grin. If she’s saying that she’ll let us board the airship, then that’s something we’d really appreciate but……no matter how I look at it, I can’t see that as being out of good will.

She’ll probably put out some bargaining point.

「……What are the conditions?」

「It helps that ya catch on quick. ……How does an air trip goin’ to Galarie at 20,000 f per person sound?」

20,000……,

Neither expensive nor cheap, it feels like a suitable price, I guess? No, it would be fine if it were a boat, but this is a trip on an airship.

If she’s taking passengers, it would be fine to make a bit more profit.

「And? Are you alright with only that?」

That’s right. Even if they are rotten, these guys are pirates. There’s no way it would end with such a fair price.

As proof of that, when I asked that, Angelica smiled with a grin.

「It really helps that you’re so sensitive. 」

Angelica undid a button of her blouse, and took something out from her cleavage.

Oh, it was a black bra.

「Geass Paper (paper of contract). I’ll have you sign on this.」

That was a scroll of parchment.。

「A Geass Paper……It’s amazing that you were able to get your hands on one of those.」

Geass Paper. Just as the name says, it’s a magic item that is related to contracts, activates when both parties making the contract come to an agreement, and has a simple ability of making them comply to the contract written on that page.

However, this Geass Paper is powerful to the point of being nasty.

First, the moment the contract is made, this parchment is bestowed with the abilities of being magic-proof and curse-proof.

It can’t be destroyed with half-hearted magic, and it won’t receive a reduction of its effect through a curse.

And then, right when one things that they were able to destroy it, next, a penalty directed towards the contracted party would be activated.

There are few magic items that possessed legal force that would go this far, and it was particularly treated as a priceless treasure by those that were involved in politics.

Now then, this magic item, probably because of the strength of that ability, its price was also high.

Not to be thought of as just a simple piece of parchment, it’s a precious item where a market value of several hundred thousand f would be trivial.

「When we sold the items that we gathered in Nordyord, it came out to be a splendid amount of money.」

So it’s the “if you gather dust” thing, huh.

「Eh~, let’s see?……『In the middle of embarkment, hostile actions towards Angelica Fon Bolteny are prohibited. In the event battle mobilization occurs in the middle of embarkment, Angelica Fon Bolteny is to be safeguarded and hostile enemies must be attacked.』?……What the heck is this?」

Since she brought out a strong magic item like the Geass Paper, I thought that an unreasonable demand like 『Become her slave』 would come, but compared to my expectations, they were considerably docile demands.

「It’s insurance for just in case. We’re Sky Pirates, so we have a lot of enemies.」

「Well, I can understand that, but that’s not really enough of a reason to make use of a Geass Paper……」

Even though we would normally assist if it were just that much……Just as I was about to say that, I noticed Angelica sweating on her forehead.

「……Tell it to me honestly, what are you making me fight against?」

When I asked that while severely feeling a bad premonition, maybe because there was something, Angelica turned her eyes away from me, and looked up in the direction of the day after tomorrow.

「……L, like a Dragoon (Dragon Knight)?」

「A Dragoon, you, that’s totally the army!」

Dragoon. Just as its name implies, it’s a knight that has a dragon as their partner.

Riding dragons and flying through the sky, they are pioneers of the sky.

Although the absolute number of them is small, excluding a portion of countries, Dragoons are deployed by a majority of the countries.

And that’s how it should be. A dragon that is able to fly the skies and make powerful breath attacks would become a huge war potential when there is a good number of them.

「It, it’s not like a Dragoon will definitely appear or anything. ……It’s just.」

「「It’s because we were attacked by a Dragoon that we had to do an emergency landing here, right, Nee-san!」」

「You idiots! I told you guys to call me Captain!」

While looking at Angelica who was yelling at the shorty and the tall lanky guy, I breathed out a sigh.

「It’s not like we’ll absolutely have to fight with them, right?」

「Of course not. But there is always the chance of it happening, right?」

「Then I’m fine with just helping in scattering them away.」

「Well, I guess we’ve come to an agreement with that.」

Angelica rolled up the Geass Paper and put it away in her cleavage.

Why in the cleavage? is probably something that is better off not asked.

「When can the airship take off?」

「It’s possible for 『The Black Rose』 to depart at any time. If ya don’t have any important plans, then hurry up and get on board.」

There was no luggage that we would have trouble carrying, and moreover, since most of our luggage was being carried on Silber’s back, it was possible to embark immediately.

Seeing as how we already gave our salutations to Ahato, there was nothing else to do on this island.

「Then we’ll gratefully get on board.」

「Yuu.」

When I said that and was about to walk to a certain part of the airship, Fiona called me to a stop.

「Well then, this is where we part.」

Sounding somewhat lonely, Fiona began to talk.

「Eh……Fiona, you’re not coming along?」

「Just when did I say that I would be accompanying you in your travels.」

Fiona said that sounding amazed. Well, I guess that’s how it would be. Fiona was investigating the historic ruins on this island long before we came here after all.

「……」

「……」

Without saying a word to each other, a silent pause was made. The one to break that silence was Fiona.

「It would have been great if this were a world without both the Demon Lord and the Hero.」

I put up a hand and stopped Fiona who started again saying “If it were”.

「I have no regrets about that journey we had three years ago. Even for its conclusion, ……right now, I don’t regret it. I don’t even want to regret it.」

「……」

「Though I do think that I’ll get dragged into battles, even so, I’ll walk it at my own pace. I don’t like being dragged around.」

I think I heard it somewhere before. Great power is accompanied by great responsibility or something.

The responsibility that Fiona talked about over and over was probably about that.

If you have the power to save someone, if you have the power to save the world, that’s what she said.

However──

「Besides, the Hero is an existence only meant to defeat the Demon Lord. ……Anything other than that should be dealt with somehow on your own. That’s what I think a Hero is.」

The Hero isn’t a mediator. No matter how much they do their best, in the end, it’s just an existence meant to defeat the Demon Lord.

「I see. ……So my warnings were unnecessary.」

I replied to Fiona who smiled as if deriding herself.

「No, it became a guideline. ……Sorry about that.」

Look at the world……for such an obscure objective for travelling, I was able to make a core with Fiona’s words……That’s how I feel.

「What is with that……」

I made Fiona take up something like a thankless role.

But, I have no intentions of saving someone as a 『Hero』.

The Hero is an existence that defeats the Demon Lord. ……If it separates from that, they can’t be called a Hero. I have no intensions of becoming something like a messiah.

「Well then, see ya.」

「……Yes. See you.」

Saying that, we parted with Fiona and headed towards the airship.