With his blood loss and the poison, walking for long stretches was difficult.
We progressed while taking rests in abandoned villages and shacks along the way.
“You said your home became hard to live in, but where was it?”
I deliberately didn’t ask his name. It was going to be a short acquaintance anyway. My way of living is to avoid anything that makes parting painful. Don’t call me a lonely guy.
“A city called Tsiknok. Recently, the ‘Human Traffickers’ have been especially active there.”
Human Traffickers… basically, scum who buy and sell people.
“So you ran away because you thought you or your sister would be targeted?”
His name was Eryuk. I’d been calling him “kid,” but he told me his name, saying he wasn’t quite young enough to be called that.
“I was attacked on the way back from a job I took because I was told it would pay a lot of money.”
“And that leads us to now.”
I’d been secretly testing the effects of the medicines I took from the Boss on my own body during the trip. That said, I didn’t touch the nearly empty one that was clearly poison. The one that looked like an antidote was indeed an antidote. I tried small amounts of the others with the same label. They seemed to be stimulants; even a small dose made me forget the physical fatigue for a while. I also felt they had some minor healing properties.
I explained the effects of these potions, and since Eryuk agreed, I gave them to him.
Thanks to that, Eryuk gained the strength in body and mind to head for home, though he still needed rest, which brought us to our current stop.
“Actually, I wanted to settle in Enherika, but there are rumors of war, so I decided to live in Uroguma instead.”
Uroguma is a commercial city southwest of Enherika. I have knowledge that it has plenty of stable work for adventurers… but I don’t know how old that information is.
However, the fact that he chose Uroguma over the volatile Enherika suggests my info might not be that outdated.
“If we go a bit further, we’ll hit the main trade route. Once we’re there, we might be able to catch a stagecoach. You are… um…”
He looked like he wanted to ask my name. He understood why I didn’t ask his, but I guess that’s a separate issue for him.
Hmm. A name, huh? Naming things isn’t my forte. I scanned the area for inspiration. All I found in the shack was an empty bottle of booze called [Rums Molasses].
There was something written before “Rums” on the label, but it was so dirty I could only make out the character for “G.” If that’s what caught my eye, I might as well use it. It’s lazy, but that’s probably how I’ve named myself in the past, too.
“It’s Gram.”
“Gram-san, won’t you come to Uroguma with me?”
“I don’t have a permit or identification, so don’t worry about me.”
“I do worry! You’re my savior. I’ll convince them to let you into the city, no matter what.”
“Fine, fine. I get it. If I actually get in, I’ll be crying tears of joy. Don’t be weirded out by how happy I’ll be.”
It certainly would be great if I could enter the city with Eryuk and become an adventurer.
Becoming an adventurer is my dream. In Uroguma, that might actually come true.
Holding onto that dream, I decided to rest.
✘✘✘
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“No luck at all, huh?”
I could only manage a bitter smile.
bandits who make a living by attacking people hate busy highways. You can’t do your “job” in places like that. We were just a short distance from a safety zone like that. Right before the goal, we were ambushed by a group of bandits.
“Finally found ya! You’re the adventurer who killed my bandit brothers, ain’t ya?!”
Truly no luck. If we had taken another path, or if our rest had been just a bit longer, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Eryuk grimaced with annoyance and reached for his sword hilt.
“The brat’s going to the traffickers, and that punk over there… I’m gonna beat him with this until he’s mincemeat!”
The bandit Boss swung a crude club, probably trying to intimidate us.
I whispered into Eryuk’s ear.
“I’ll handle this. Run. The fact that these guys are chasing us means there are no other bandits claiming this territory.”
bandits are very territorial. If another gang enters their turf, they’ll kill each other over it.
Because of that, the Boss and their lieutenants are always gathering info on the surrounding gangs.
Even if they’re pissed off, they usually won’t chase someone into another gang’s territory.
An overwhelmingly powerful bandit might ignore boundaries, but at the very least, the guys in front of us didn’t look like that kind of powerhouse. So, if he ran with everything he had, he shouldn’t run into another trap.
However, we probably weren’t going to win a head-on fight together.
If Eryuk were in top shape, we might have had a chance, but I couldn’t rely on him when his stamina hadn’t fully recovered.
To my suggestion to flee, he started to say, “But—”
“Just think about your sister. Got it?”
When I put it like that, he didn’t have any other choice, right? Even I thought it was a dirty way to phrase it. But I didn’t save him just to have him die here.
I lowered my head as if to apologize… and used the chance to pick up a few stones.
“HYAH!”
The moment I stood back up, I slammed a stone into the face of a nearby bandit. A clean hit.
“Go!!”
At my roar, Eryuk took off.
“Wait, you—gaff!”
The Boss tried to go after Eryuk’s back, but I blocked him with a throwing technique.
“HRAA!”
With a shout, I threw a stone that tore through the air and smashed into the Boss. It wasn’t just a clean hit; you could call it a critical hit.
Bleeding profusely from his face, he swung his club wildly. Based on the blood loss, he wouldn’t have the stamina to chase Eryuk.
Of the underlings, one was dead instantly, and seeing their Boss take such a heavy blow, the other one’s spirit broke.
I kept buying time after that, but in the end, I was crushed by the Boss’s final blow and died.
Well, I made the choice that left no bad aftertaste.
I can only pray that Eryuk made it back to his sister safely.
✘✘✘
Uroguma.
As a commercial city, its name echoed through the surrounding lands, and the flow of people never ceased.
Eryuk had been able to hitch a ride on a merchant wagon thanks to the trust afforded by the Adventurer’s Guild identification tag hanging from his neck.
These tags were specially crafted so that if anyone else stole one and wore it, the metal would turn incredibly dull and cloudy, serving as a guarantee of identity.
Exhausted, he felt a profound sense of gratitude as he opened the door to his home.
“Brother! You’re back!”
The one who greeted him with a hop was his beloved sister. Since they lost their parents in an incident, they were each other’s only family. In this chaotic era, it wasn’t rare for parents to be killed. One could even say they were lucky that his sister survived.
“Brother…?”
“I’m home… Marie.”
Heavy fatigue and intense relief. He was grateful to be alive. However, he didn’t think he could tell his sister what had happened. He couldn’t tell her he nearly died. It would only make her worry.
“Something happened at work, didn’t it?”
However, his sister was clever. She sensed something had happened, but she also understood it wasn’t all bad.
“Please tell me, Brother.”
Her words left no room for argument. She lived because of her brother’s struggles. Even if she hoped to repay that debt one day, there wasn’t much she could do now. She believed the only thing she could do was listen to his story and lighten the burden on his heart.
“I was saved. …By someone who should have been an enemy. But that person—”
He told her everything that had happened over the past few days without hiding a thing. Since she asked, he wouldn’t keep secrets.
“I see… Brother. Then, from now on, let us pray for the name of the person who saved you whenever we eat.”
At the very least, so they wouldn’t forget their gratitude. Even if they couldn’t know everything about him, doing this would keep her close to her brother’s heart. He nodded at her suggestion.
“Yeah. Let’s pray. His name was Gram. Despite his rough appearance, he was a kind and wonderful person.”
“Gram-sama. That’s the same name as the one in the Tranquilica Hero Tales. Maybe he was a real hero who appeared from the stories to protect you.”
He hugged his sister as she smiled innocently.
The lands now divided into Enherika and Liselka were once called Tranquilica. The name of the hero who saved the life of the Great Count who developed Tranquilica is still passed down today, along with his statue.
The hero’s name was Gram.
Neither the siblings nor the man himself had any way of knowing that Gram was the hero himself.
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