MTLNOVEL Chapter 2 - Bullying (2)
Yoris added a word too.
“Mr. Maru. Everyone experiences farewells in life. You must not show an ugly appearance at the end. Accept it calmly like me. I’m sad inside too, but what can we do? If this is the will of Lady Hero and Lady Natali, we must accept it.”
“This is so sudden, fuck! Why did they decide by themselves! Without even discussing it with me!”
“Who are you to discuss with?”
Natali looked at him with mockery.
Lucy also wore a mocking smile.
“Mutt, are you a hero or something?”
Yoris was the same.
“We all gathered here for Lady Hero.”
“No, what I mean is…!”
Maru dropped his head.
“Forget it. Nothing, nevermind.”
He didn’t open his mouth anymore.
He maintained a gloomy expression for a long time before falling asleep around dawn.
And when he opened his eyes the next day, none of his companions remained.
“Disloyal bastards.”
Maru grumbled while starting to clean up the surroundings.
Even after packing everything, he didn’t leave the campsite for a long time.
‘Kiera might come back. We’re lovers after all. She wouldn’t leave without saying a word…’
He waited anxiously all day, but it was in vain.
His girlfriend didn’t return until sunset.
As it was about to get dark, he quickly walked out of the forest.
He planned to go to the lord’s city where Kiera visited yesterday.
Since his companions, no, former companions, had taken their own luggage, his steps were lighter than usual.
He had always been the porter, carrying mountains of luggage.
Thanks to that, he had even developed a slight disability where his neck and waist were bent.
“What if I miss Kiera on the way…?”
That night.
Maru arrived at Midos, the city ruled by Duke Toledo.
He headed to the duke’s mansion first, and he was able to hear news of Kiera from the guard at the main gate.
“If you mean the heroes, they all left this morning.”
“This morning…? Then, didn’t you hear where Lady Kiera was going?”
“How would I know that? Get lost, you stink! Ugh, the smell. How many days have you not washed?”
Afterwards, Maru wandered around the city until late at night before finding what looked like the cheapest inn.
In a narrow room.
About ten men were sleeping while snoring.
He squeezed in among them and lay down sideways like a shrimp, hugging his luggage.
Though it was cramped and difficult, he spent the night with a thread of hope.
“Since the gate guards didn’t see Kiera leaving, she must still be in the city. Let’s work hard to find her.”
The next morning.
Being hungry, Maru wandered around looking for a cheap restaurant.
He didn’t have much money since he had spent what he earned on buying equipment for Kiera.
“The prices in this big city are no joke. But I haven’t eaten since yesterday. Even if I can’t eat lunch and dinner today, I must at least have breakfast…”
Then he accidentally ran into his former companions who were just finishing their meal and coming out of an expensive restaurant he was passing by.
“Natali? Lucy? Mr. Yoris? Why are you three together? And…”
Maru looked behind his visibly flustered former companions.
The woman with short silver hair standing behind them with her head down.
Maru’s face brightened.
“Kiera! I missed you! You must have been looking for me a lot too!”
While Maru was happily running over with a large backpack on his back, Kiera quickly whispered reproachfully to her companions in front.
“What’s going on? Why is that person here? Are you going to handle things like this?”
Natali clicked her tongue.
“I thought he was smarter than me and would understand with just a vague explanation, but he’s such a troublesome guy.”
Yoris laughed.
“The day before yesterday wasn’t really coherent, was it? We should have said that Kiera had left for another city so our paths wouldn’t cross.”
Lucy yawned.
“Kiera, at this point, let’s just be honest and send him away.”
“I don’t even want to talk to him anymore.”
“Kiera!”
As Maru approached, Kiera quickly raised her hand.
“St-stop!”
“Kiera…?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“Don’t come closer? Why?”
Kiera briefly placed her hand on her chest, then lifted her head as if she had made up her mind and walked forward.
“Go back to your hometown.”
“What? Hometown?”
“Wait at your hometown and I’ll return after everything is finished.”
“What are you suddenly saying? We agreed to catch the Demon Lord together, didn’t we? And now you’re saying you’ll travel alone?”
Lucy cut in.
“You usually act so smart, but why are you so dense now? You’re not our companion anymore. You’ve been kicked out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Maru reflected on the past days in confusion.
The cold party atmosphere only towards him.
Even trusted Kiera’s cold gaze.
He already knew.
That such a day would come.
Now that it had arrived, he just felt dizzy.
He didn’t need long explanations to roughly understand why they were trying to kick him out.
They probably wanted to earn even one more coin by getting rid of a useless porter.
Ah.
He heard Kiera’s slightly trembling voice.
“We’re going to join Duke Toledo’s army as an elite force and head to the Kingdom of Basilite. There’s no place for Maru there. There are only places for people with abilities. So…”
“Shut up!”
When Maru glared at her, Kiera flinched and avoided his gaze.
“You all lied about disbanding the party because you wanted to exclude me? Everyone?”
Maru burst into a hollow laugh.
“You’re a warrior but you’ve only learned cowardly acts, Natali. Don’t call yourself a warrior anywhere, it’s embarrassing. You’re just a liar with no loyalty or honor!”
“You pig bastard…!”
“Let him vent.”
Kiera stopped Natali who was trying to draw her sword.
Maru continued raising his voice at his companions.
“Yoris! You don’t deserve to serve god! You vile priest!”
“Oh heavens… grant me the patience to endure today’s blasphemy.”
“Lucy! You’ve always been this kind of bitch so fuck it. You’re just doing what you always do. Nothing to say, fuck. You must be so happy making others miserable.”
“I’ll let it slide just this once. If you insult me again, I’ll kill you, mutt.”
“I was tired of hanging around with you all too. I’ll leave quietly, so just leave quietly too!”
Maru turned his head sharply.
“Kiera! How could you do this? We’ve been together since our teens! I bet everything on you, how could you do this!”
“……”
Kiera just listened quietly with her eyes closed.
As if telling him to say everything he had inside.
As if telling him to shake it off and leave quickly.
That attitude made Maru even angrier.
“I noticed it since a year ago when you started not refusing dances from men! I was always put aside while you hung around too freely with princes, noble sons, merchant sons, those kinds of guys! You probably wanted to break up with me and catch another guy?”
It seems he provoked Kiera.
She opened her eyes wide and slapped Maru’s cheek.
Slap!
“Watch your words!”
Maru touched his painful cheek and giggled.
“Did I hit a nerve? Huh?”
Kiera immediately used Heart Speech, one of the hero’s abilities that allows speaking through minds.
Her voice filled with indignation was heard only by Maru.
-You had nothing compared to them! And you’re too weak! You can’t make me shine now! I want to aim higher than other heroes! I want to receive full material support from nobles! When I told them I had a lover, they all took a step back as if they had made a promise! I’m not saying I’ll give myself to them. I just wanted to use them more easily!
So this is it.
This was her true heart.
It was bitter.
“I didn’t know you were such an ambitious woman.”
-It’s natural for a hero to seek greater power. Even just to avoid dying to the Demon Lord.
“……”
Since she declared it over herself, it was rather easier to give up.
Having endured so much within the party, he didn’t feel like pathetically holding on.
Because of love, and loyalty, he just couldn’t speak up, but perhaps Maru himself was the one who wanted to escape from the current situation first.
“I’ve known since a few weeks ago. That it was broken. I tried to protect our love even wearing a mask, but you don’t seem to even want to try. Alright, this baggage will disappear now.”
Maru shouldered his backpack with one hand and waved to everyone while stepping backward.
“Let’s never meet again. Even if we happen to meet, I’ll pretend I don’t know you.”
Natali sneered.
“That’s my line. If you show even a bit of recognition, I’ll smash your head right there and then.”
Lucy laughed.
“He’ll probably get caught by bandits on his way home and die.”
Yoris also waved brightly at Maru.
“I won’t go far.”
Kiera didn’t say anything.
Her expression somehow looked relieved, as if a burden had been removed.
“This money is not enough, that dish is very expensive. Not just any noble can afford it.”
“Was it that expensive? Then please bring me any deer dish. A cheap one. I really want to eat it today.”
“Hmm. Since you don’t have money, how about I make a stew with the innards we were going to throw away, would that be okay?”
“Yes, I’ll take even that.”
“Ugh, you have quite a stomach.”
At an expensive restaurant in the city.
Maru sat in a corner and quietly ate the stew that the waiter brought shortly after.
Throughout the meal, he didn’t say anything or think anything.
He didn’t even look anywhere else.
He just stared at his plate and silently ate the stew made from deer innards.
‘Things that used to make me happy are now hell. I’ll never have a lover or companions again. I won’t trust people anymore.’
After the meal, he left the restaurant and went wherever his feet took him.
While walking aimlessly, he happened to notice people gathered at a plaza.
A female minstrel was singing surrounded by people.
As he unconsciously approached, her beautiful voice clearly penetrated his ears.
In a kingdom lived a valiant queen
In her youth, the queen was very powerful and her army was so fearsome it shook the world
One day she lost her husband to an assassin’s attack
The queen lost her will to live and eventually cut herself off from the world
The cheerful and lively queen became a different person
She didn’t come out of the castle for years
She confined herself in sorrow and loneliness
The queen would often talk to herself while clutching her chest
If only she had had a child with him, it would have been less difficult
Her lamentation reached the sky on the wind
On a night when the wind was howling like blade edges, a boy with pitch-black hair stood on the castle walls
The queen approached the unfamiliar boy and spoke to him
The more she talked with the boy, the more she felt maternal love
Won’t you live in my castle? I am the queen of this country and I can give you anything you want
I’ll be a good mother to you
Maru quickly covered his ears.
“Hah.”
He hurriedly moved his feet.
He pushed through the crowd and quickly moved to a far place, even further away.
The minstrel’s gaze kept watching his retreating figure as he got farther and farther away.