Kays Translations

Chapter 36: At Last, It Was Ren’s Turn

The following morning, several of the adventurers who had called for rescue departed the fort, along with the examinees whose condition made an early descent advisable.

The bedridden adventurers could not move without assistance, so the evacuation proceeded slowly. Every adventurer who had accompanied Ren on the rescue mission left with the first group.

“Hero! You saved us!” Meidas called as he prepared to leave.

“About my name—and calling me ‘Hero’…”

“Ah, sorry. I don’t know why you asked, but since it was your request, I should have remembered.”

With Kai on his back, Meidas set off down the mountain, smiling at Ren with heartfelt gratitude. The two female adventurers who had been teasing Ren also departed, which secretly came as something of a relief.

The fort grew quiet all at once. Only a handful of examinees, the people who were still too ill to travel, Ren, and the adventurers and knights who had remained for Ren’s and Fiona’s protection were left behind.

That afternoon, Ren returned from hunting.

“Did I bring back too much?”

“No. None of it will go to waste.”

The two Clausel knights who had stayed at the fort came to meet him at the entrance. They had initially opposed letting Ren hunt alone, but after considering the awkward situation between him and Fiona, they had accepted his request and remained behind.

“Magnificent!” one of them exclaimed.

“This would feed everyone for a month!”

Ren lowered the monsters he had carried to the space outside the entrance.

“I’m back. How is the official merchant’s treatment going?”

Fiona had been using her ability to care for the people who had collapsed, and the merchant was one of those who still required treatment. That was why they had been unable to insist that Fiona leave with the first group.

At the same time, evacuating only Fiona and the official merchant under heavy guard would have been questionable. The other examinees were also children of noble families, and no mistake could be permitted in their protection.

“Lady Ignat says the treatment is proceeding well,” one knight replied.

“That was a relief to us as well. If the merchant died here, it would undoubtedly create another political problem.”

“Thank goodness.”

The arrangements now seemed likely to work. Two knights accompanying the first group would separate from it after reaching safer ground and hurry ahead to summon additional aid from the villages and Clausel. The remaining escorts were sufficient to protect the students.

Waiting at the fort for a new rescue party would have taken ten days or perhaps nearly two weeks, and the bad weather meant their beacon might not even be visible from the foothills. With the examinees already exhausted and swarms of monsters roaming near the fort, sending a first group down immediately had been the safer choice.

“Leave the butchering to us,” a knight said, interrupting Ren’s thoughts.

“Please go wash off the sweat, Ren.”

“Then I’ll take you up on that.”

The old fort unexpectedly contained a bathing room. It was as plain and rugged as the rest of the stone structure, but having hot water in such a place was a luxury.

The water had already been heated. Ren washed away the sweat of the hunt and warmed himself before leaving with a towel draped around his neck. Without a magic tool to dry it, his damp hair clung to his forehead and nape.

As he passed the hall where the sick adventurers had been laid, its door opened.

“—!”

Fiona emerged looking exhausted. Startled to find Ren directly outside, she pulled the door shut behind her and bowed.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“No, I’m sorry for suddenly appearing beside you.”

There was no real reason for Ren to apologize, but he did so out of concern for her.

Silence followed. They both looked away in precisely the same direction.

Unable to endure the awkwardness, Ren opened his mouth to explain the incident with the female adventurers.

“Um—”

“Excuse me—”

Their voices overlapped. When they turned back, their eyes met and neither knew where to look.

“P-Please, you first,” Ren managed.

Fiona hesitated, took a cautious half-step back, and said something entirely different from what he expected.

“I heard that all of you came from Clausel—”

She stopped herself and hurriedly bowed again.

“I’m sorry! We agreed not to interfere with the adventurers, and yet…”

“It’s all right. But how did you know that was where I lived?”

Fiona hesitated once more, but curiosity overcame her reluctance.

“I have a benefactor in Clausel. When I heard that you came from there, I wanted to ask whether you had ever met him. I thought… you seemed close to his age.”

She did not call him the person who had saved her life. Ulysses had concealed the severity of Fiona’s illness, and given her position, she could not reveal the truth carelessly.

“Please forget I asked.”

Fiona bowed deeply, regretting that she had broken the promise of noninterference. She feared that offending the adventurers might somehow affect the evacuation of the other students.

“I’m sorry. This is practically the same as breaking our agreement.”

“No, I asked you a question in return. Please don’t worry about it.”

Ren smiled reassuringly. Fiona bowed several more times before hurrying away.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

After several days, the examinees appeared to have grown accustomed to the adventurers. Even so, the two groups did not form any close relationships, and the agreement of noninterference was observed.

The fort remained cold and austere despite the number of people inside it.

At last, however, their wait came to an end.

One evening, the knights and adventurers returned. Every one of them was exhausted, yet they had forced themselves back through the snow to evacuate those still stranded at the fort. Reinforcements from the foothills accompanied them, bringing additional equipment and magic tools for the descent.

They had assembled as many capable people as possible for the march through the snow.

Ren looked over the group and frowned.

“Where is Meidas?”

A knight who had only just arrived answered him. Meidas had left a message on parchment and departed from the foothills because Kai had not yet recovered. It had happened while the knights were occupied with the students, and by the time anyone noticed, he was already gone.

The other adventurers were openly irritated.

“He has no sense of obligation. No matter how worried he was about his partner, he shouldn’t have turned his back on the Hero after everything that was done for him.”

“Exactly. He accepted the help and then disappeared. Pathetic.”

The knights remained silent, apparently troubled by mixed feelings.

“You knights think so too, don’t you?” another adventurer pressed. “When things became desperate, you carried our people down the mountain. Meidas owed you and the Hero.”

“It is not our place to condemn him,” a knight replied. “The adventurers also helped us evacuate the examinees.”

“That argument goes in circles.”

“We have been helping one another. There is no point pretending otherwise.”

“An adventurer who never repays a debt will eventually be abandoned. I understand Meidas was worried, but Kai was not going to die. He should have returned to help.”

Fortunately, the incident created no rift between the Clausel knights and the adventurers. If anything, the adventurers present defended the knights and expressed their own disappointment in Meidas.

“In any case, Hero,” one of them said, placing a hand on Ren’s shoulder.

No students, including Fiona, were close enough to hear, so he used the title without restraint.

“We’ll stay with you to the end. We also owe you for saving our younger comrades during the Steel-Eating Gargoyle incident.”

Their determination reassured Ren. At last, it truly was his group’s turn to leave the mountain.

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