I Was the Scout for the Hero’s Party

After Maya left, I tossed and turned in bed with various thoughts, eventually spending the night almost completely awake.

Although my body was exhausted from traversing the forest occupied by the Demon King’s army for 8 days to reach the city, I couldn’t fall asleep after Maya’s sudden visit, her tearful apology.

Finally getting up from bed in a half-asleep state, I had put on the bag I’d packed the night before and was nodding off while sitting on the bed.

-Knock Knock

Just as my body was about to slump forward from intense fatigue, Lady Alexis’s voice came with a knock on the door.

-Sir Austin… Are you awake?

I sat dazed for a moment with my mouth half-open, then finally managed to get up and open the door.

“Ah… Sir Austin. You’re awake.”

She appeared to have been about to knock again when I didn’t answer, as Lady Alexis stood frozen in the knocking position, looking up at me.

“Good morning, Lady Alexis.”

“Yes. Um, since you said yesterday that you wanted to use the gate as early as possible today… I had to knock at this early hour. If I’ve disturbed you, I apologize.”

“Not at all, thank you. The earlier the better for me.”

After exchanging brief morning greetings, we had a simple breakfast on the first floor of the inn and then headed toward the magic tower.

“……”

“……”

Sensing a strange distance and somewhat awkward atmosphere that had settled between us, I deliberately refrained from initiating conversation.

After walking for quite some time, Lady Alexis finally broke the silence and addressed me.

“Um… Sir Austin.”

“Lady Alexis.”

“Y-Yes?”

“If I may say so now, you don’t need to use honorifics with me. Just ‘Austin’ is sufficient.”

“…Ah…”

Attaching the honorific “Sir” to me, a commoner—if I hadn’t been a former hero’s party member, such an honorific wouldn’t have been used.

Lady Alexis’s continuous reference to me as “Sir Austin” had been bothering me as it seemed to remind me of my previous position as a member of the hero’s party.

“Then… Austin…?”

“…Yes. That’s fine. It’s rather strange for a commoner like me to have the honorific ‘Sir’ attached to my name.”

Originally, the title “Sir” was reserved for knights, so I would have expressed reluctance even if it didn’t specifically remind me of the hero’s party.

I know my place well.

“I apologize. So, what were you going to say…”

“Ah! Well… this might be an impertinent question, but could you tell me under what circumstances you left the hero’s party…?”

My brow twitched involuntarily at Lady Alexis’s question, which again reminded me of the hero’s party, just after I had managed to get her to stop using the honorific.

“…You mentioned that you attend the Academy, Lady Alexis.”

“Yes. But why suddenly…”

I continued speaking, meeting Lady Alexis’s questioning gaze.

“At the Academy, what kind of teaching methods are typically used?”

When I didn’t answer her question and asked one in return, Lady Alexis momentarily looked confused, then answered while counting on her fingers.

“Hmm…… Basically, professors give lectures in classrooms. They occasionally assign tasks, usually individual assignments, but about twice per semester we also do group projects where teams are formed randomly.”

“When you’re assigned to a group project, how do you deal with team members who disagree with you or are uncooperative?”

“…Although I haven’t had such experiences… I would first try to resolve it calmly through conversation, but if there’s no sign of improvement, I would speak to the professor to either change team members or move to a different group… that would be best.”

In response to Lady Alexis’s answer, which seemed to question why I was asking this, I smiled bitterly and said:

“Like group projects at the Academy, parties formed by adventurers or mercenaries are not much different. When I was in the hero’s party, I experienced unintended friction, and that’s why I left. I don’t know if this is a satisfactory answer… but it was just a trivial matter, so please don’t worry about it.”

As I spoke with a slight smile, Lady Alexis seemed to accept this explanation and nodded slowly.

If I were to complain to just anyone or expose the shitty aspects of the hero’s party… well, it might feel cathartic.

But I don’t want the discord within the hero’s party to become a subject of public gossip, and even more so, I don’t want to become entangled with them again because of it.

“Shall we go?”

“…Ah, yes…!”

After hearing my answer, Lady Alexis walked with a contemplative expression all the way to the magic tower.

So, maintaining yet another awkward silence, we reached the magic tower around the time the sun had fully risen.

After gaining entrance to the magic tower through Lady Alexis’s status, she excused herself to briefly visit the tower master, who she said had been her private tutor long ago.

Not wanting to intrude on the reunion between old teacher and student, I sat on a long bench in the corridor of the magic tower, waiting for Lady Alexis.

Perhaps due to my lack of proper sleep the night before, I started to drift into a shallow sleep, nodding off without even noticing someone’s presence right next to me.

As I fought drowsiness, nodding on and off, I felt something gently placed on my head, and my body tilted sideways, my head resting on something soft and comfortable.

Ah… this is comfortable. If I could just sleep for exactly one hour…

“……?”

Due to a tickling sensation on my cheek, I struggled to open my heavy eyes and frowned to focus my blurred vision.

Long blonde hair that seemed familiar was sweeping across my face like a feather, and through it, a faint smile was visible.

“Austin… It seems you didn’t sleep properly yesterday. You normally never doze off, saying you need to be vigilant of your surroundings…”

“……Isabel.”

Before my eyes was Saint Isabel, who had treated me coldly with a smiling face during my time in the party.

“Really… what were you doing last night… to be nodding off like this?”

“…….”

At Isabel’s sudden affectionate attitude toward me, just as Maya had been last night, I silently rose from her thigh.

Isabel briefly showed a disappointed expression, but then smiled again and asked me:

“…Yesterday. Maya came to see you, right?”

“…Did Maya talk about me?”

When I countered with a question, Isabel continued with the same enigmatic smile that seemed to both reveal and conceal.

“No. Maya… didn’t tell the others. Rather… she tried to hide it, you might say?”

“…Maya did?”

When I asked in a disbelieving tone, Isabel slowly nodded.

If Maya hadn’t mentioned me, how did Isabel know my location and find me?

“Hehe… I have my ways. Don’t try to understand too deeply…”

Isabel’s words, which seemed to see through my thoughts, gave me chills.

“…So. Why did you come?”

“Don’t we have things to talk about?”

“I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Come on… don’t be like that.”

I moved to the far end of the bench with a disgusted expression as Isabel stealthily tried to link her arm with mine.

Isabel stared at me blankly, then approached again, narrowing the distance between us.

“Get lost. First Maya, now you—why is everyone suddenly clinging to me?”

When I mentioned Maya’s name, Isabel, who had been trying to link arms with me again, froze and stared at me intently.

“……Why?”

“Last night… did something happen between you and Maya?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

“No, just… Haah……”

As I continued to refuse to answer and kept cutting the conversation short, Isabel, who despite appearances had little patience, sighed in frustration and ran her hand through her hair.

Shouldn’t I be the one sighing?

“…Austin. I don’t know what happened between you and Maya yesterday… but at least, I know that Maya apologized to you yesterday.”

“Whether you know or not isn’t my concern. Just get lost quickly.”

“Last night, Maya couldn’t sleep at all. Neither could I.”

“Can’t you hear me? Stop chattering next to me and get lost.”

“Maya slept right next to me. I was really troubled because I was worried that Adrienne might wake up from her sniffling all night.”

“…Are you senile, woman? I said get lost. Otherwise, I’ll…”

“I’m sorry.”

“…What?”

Saint Isabel, with her gentle face, is actually a stubborn and proud woman unlike her outward appearance.

Having seen this side of her countless times while in the party, I couldn’t help but turn my gaze to meet Isabel’s eyes at her apology.

“I truly… apologize. For all the wrongs I did to you in the party, I sincerely apologize. I’m sorry.”

“…You know well that it’s already too late.”

“I know… but…”

“…But?”

When I prompted her, Isabel, who had trailed off, seemed uncomfortable meeting my eyes, moving her pupils around before finally lowering her head deeply.

“…Austin. We have a mission to defeat the Demon King. You know that well.”

“How interesting. I no longer have such a mission.”

“Austin… please, won’t you reconsider leaving the party…? You know better than anyone how hard we’ve worked until now. Will you abandon our efforts like this?”

“…What?”

At Isabel’s unexpected mention of “our efforts,” speaking as if I had disregarded their hard work by leaving, I was dumbfounded for a moment.

“Our efforts? Damn it, are you done talking?”

Seeing this crazy woman’s brazen attitude made me reconsider how genuinely heartfelt Maya’s apology yesterday had been.

“You treated me like a slave when I was in the party, didn’t even heal me when I was injured, and now what? ‘Our efforts’? You crazy bitch. There’s a limit to how much you can make someone’s blood boil. Watch your tongue.”

Despite my contorted expression and cursing, Isabel continued without the slightest perturbation, maintaining her serious expression.

“…Austin. I apologize for the disrespectful remarks I made to you. But at this rate, we won’t be able to defeat the Demon King. Please reconsider leaving the party.”

“Fine. I’ll reconsider. I just reconsidered, and I’ve concluded that I’m leaving. Happy?”

“Austin… are you going to keep acting like this…?”

“If I keep acting like this, what are you going to do? Hit me?”

“Please… Austin. To defeat the Demon King, we need you.”

‘…Just. My stubbornness. I need Austin.’

Why was I comparing Isabel and Maya’s apologetic attitudes from earlier?

I sighed deeply, trying to calm my boiling insides from rising irritation.

“….Austin. Are you really going to continue like this?”

Until Isabel said something that scraped at my insides.

“…I wanted to resolve this quietly, but it seems impossible. Austin, if you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to bring the hero. Wouldn’t it be better to resolve this through conversation rather than being forcibly dragged away?”

“……Hey.”

“Have you changed your mind? That’s good. I didn’t want to drag you away forcibly either…”

-SLAP!

My palm struck Isabel’s cheek as she continued to babble as she pleased.

Isabel’s head turned sharply, and she clutched her already reddening cheek, looking at me with a dazed expression.

“You fucking bitch. Try saying that again.”