Chapter 60: The Tattered Soldier

Since taking Crow as a familiar, the number of harmful birds around has drastically decreased.

Although I haven’t actually seen Crow hunting, its watchful presence has ensured zero damage so far.

Apparently, Crow doesn’t need a coop—it just curls up beside the villa to sleep. Even while asleep, it keeps an eye out, and at night, Thread takes over, making the farm even safer than during the day.

I still don’t know what will happen once the Moaful I planted bears fruit, but at this rate, I feel like I won’t have to worry about harmful birds anymore.

Thanks to Crow, I was in high spirits while preparing breakfast when suddenly—someone knocked on the villa door.

It had been a while since I last had a visitor, not since the Christmas party.

It could be Velvet-san, or maybe Ren-san and the others.

I’d be happy to see either of them, so I hurried to open the door and welcome them in—

But the person standing there was neither Velvet-san nor Ren-san.

“Sorry, but could you spare me some water?”

It was a tattered-looking soldier—a woman who seemed on the brink of death.

She looked suspicious as hell, but I couldn’t just turn her away.

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

I quickly went back inside, informed Sheila-san about the worn-out soldier, and brought a cup of water.

“Here, have some water.”
“Thank you. I owe you one.”

The soldier took the cup and drank the water eagerly.

She still looked barely able to move, but the water seemed to revive her slightly. She forced herself up, bowed, and tried to leave.

She was heading in the complete opposite direction of the royal capital.

Everything about her screamed “stay out of this,” but I couldn’t just ignore her.

“…Um, would you like to rest a bit? I can at least provide some first aid.”
“No, I have nothing to offer in return. I can’t impose any further.”
“Don’t worry about that. If you collapse and die, I’d feel guilty.”
“…If that’s the case, I’ll take you up on that offer for a little while.”
“Of course. Please, come in.”

I welcomed the battered soldier inside.

Sheila-san remained highly cautious, but—I had a feeling she wasn’t a bad person.

“This is quite the house for such a rural area. Did you build it yourself?”
“Please don’t refer to me as ‘you.’ My name is Sheila. And this here is Sato-san.”
“S-Sorry. I’ll call you by your names from now on. I’m Lua—a knight… or rather, former knight from the Lusanso Republic.”

The Lusanso Republic… So she’s from another country?

And the way she corrected herself suggests that she really is a former knight.

“Lua-san, right? Nice to meet you. This house is actually the king’s villa. I’m just borrowing it, so I don’t know how it was built.”
“The king’s villa…? Are you or Sheila royalty?”
“No, I’m an otherworlder. Because of that, I was given special treatment and allowed to stay here.”
“An otherworlder… I’ve heard of that. Like, a potential Hero candidate or something?”
“That’s right. But in my case, I was just dragged into this whole thing—I’m just an ordinary person.”

Sheila-san, seemingly worried I was saying too much, tugged on my sleeve to stop me.

Maybe I shouldn’t be telling this to someone from another country, but… it’s not really a big secret, is it?

“If you were just an ordinary person who got caught up in all this, you must’ve had a tough time.”
“Who knows? Honestly, I’ve been enjoying life here more than I did in my old world, so it doesn’t feel like a hardship. More importantly—what happened to you, Lua-san? How did you end up here?”
“If I told you everything, it’d take too long, so I’ll keep it short. As I said, I was a knight in the Lusanso Republic, but after some internal conflicts in my unit, I was unofficially dismissed about a month ago. I planned to leave the country and become an adventurer elsewhere, but I must’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere between the border and the capital… I got lost. After wandering aimlessly, I ended up here. I barely had any water for two days, so you really saved me.”

If that’s true, it’s pretty much what I expected.

She probably just got lost and happened to stumble upon this place.

“May I ask you one question? If you were a soldier, you must be skilled in combat, right? So… why are you in such bad shape?”

Sheila-san, still on guard, asked in a rather cold tone.

“I just got beaten up by monsters, that’s all. The monsters around here are weak, sure, but the ones near the border are much tougher. Since I was traveling alone, I became an easy target. After being chased around by them, I ended up in this sorry state… Sorry for making you suspicious. Once I rest a bit, I’ll leave right away.”
“…No, I apologize for doubting you. It doesn’t seem like you’re lying.”
“Yeah. Right now, I’m just an unemployed nobody. One more thing—could you point me toward the royal capital? I need to find work as soon as possible.”

She lost her job and has nowhere to go.

Maybe it’d be a good idea to let her work here?

…But Sheila-san definitely wouldn’t approve.

“I’ll show you the way to the capital later. If you can’t find work there, feel free to come back here. I can’t pay you, but if you help out with farm work, you’ll get three meals a day and a place to stay.”
“That’s a tempting offer. If I can’t get a job in the capital, I’ll take you up on that.”

This arrangement should be acceptable.

Sheila-san is glaring at me, but honestly, we do need more hands to help.

After chatting for a bit longer, I treated Lua-san’s wounds and gave her directions to the capital.

She bowed to us repeatedly before setting off—only about an hour after arriving.

“Sato-san! Inviting a clearly suspicious person into our house like that is way too reckless! This world has bandits and thieves everywhere, you know?!”
“S-Sorry… She just didn’t seem like a bad person, so I let my guard down.”
“…Well, your kindness is one of your good points, but still—please be more careful!”

After Lua-san left, Sheila-san gave me a proper scolding.

Thinking about it now… yeah, maybe I was a bit too careless.

“Alright. I’ll be more cautious from now on.”
“As long as you understand… Also, you were way too flustered. You didn’t invite her in just because she was beautiful, did you?”

Sheila-san eyed me suspiciously.

I mean, sure, Lua-san was beautiful, but I helped her out of pure goodwill! …Probably.

“Of course not. I was just being nice.”
“…If you say so.”

She still looked unconvinced, but at least she dropped the subject.

If Lua-san comes back, I’ll deal with it then.

For now, I should refocus and get back to farming.

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