The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

Mr. Ras left with the elf Riel.

‘But that guy looked like he had a lot he wanted to say?’

She looked like she had a lot she wanted to say, but Riel left without saying anything in the end. She had a face like she had been threatened by someone… A terrifying being who could threaten the great elves… Wouldn’t it be only someone like the Demon King? In the end, since there’s no way a being capable of threatening elves exists currently, it was just my delusion. She probably just had that face because she had a lot she wanted to say but didn’t know what to say. Thinking I should treat her better next time she comes, I returned to my usual daily life.

According to Mr. Ras, the World Tree had given me not only the World Tree’s protection but also a blessing. Thanks to its tremendous effect, the uncomfortable feeling in my body completely disappeared. Moreover, the amount of ‘natural mana’ I could hold in my body also increased. At this level, it seemed like I could engage in some combat.

‘At this level, I could probably easily handle a B-rank mercenary.’

If I had my way, I would have wanted to follow Mr. Ras and the elf Riel.

…But I decided not to.

Honestly, since gaining ‘natural mana’ as a means of attack, it had been lingering in a corner of my mind. Couldn’t I fight by Sera’s side too? Such thoughts kept trying to take root inside me. But knowing it was excessive greed, I always shook them off, and now I had completely abandoned such thoughts.

My role is to wait here for my disciple to return. That’s the role I need to fulfill.

I didn’t want to be like an old man in the back room, leaving everything to the kid, but…

The current me wasn’t of much help to my disciple. Rather, I might become a hostage or my death might have some negative influence on that child. It was clear that staying like this would be more helpful to that child. Knowing when to step up and when not to, that was the tact that a mercenary should naturally have.

“But she came with Mr. Ras, she could have shown her face… There must be a reason.”

For a moment, I reflected on my lack of maturity.

♧♧♧

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that another name for turbulent times is the ‘Age of Bandits’. Because no matter how much you eliminate them, like insects or weeds, they keep appearing and causing chaos in the world. The strongest knight orders in the empire are not interested in what happens in the frontier, and the local lords don’t move actively because they’re afraid of wasting troops on eliminating bandits only to be stabbed in the back.

At this level, it’s rather cute.

There were many cases where they turned a blind eye, tempted by the offerings from bandits. Clever bandits would offer tributes to the lords and operate without touching anything related to the lords, so for the local lords, they turned a blind eye because what they gained was more than the damage they received. Of course, merchants and commoners would have to live in pain, but if a lord cared about such things, they wouldn’t have accepted bribes from bandits in the first place, so expecting too much from such trash worse than filth would be a waste of mental energy.

The Belk Bandit Group occupying and operating in the Yorka Mountains was one such case. Though Belk looked like someone who would only engage in power struggles without much thought judging by his size, contrary to his appearance, he had the qualities of a fox. With the strength of a bear and the mind of a fox, he had just the right abilities to succeed as a bandit, and as a result, he started with nothing and bare hands and rose to the position of bandit leader, commanding bandits under his name.

He diligently bribed the surrounding lords and tried to avoid anything related to the lords as much as possible while thoroughly plundering merchants and commoners. However, the fate of the Belk Bandit Group was not long. Soon, hero candidates who had completed their training under numerous superhumans and masters would have the necks of all bandits cut off to gain fame and be recognized as heroes. The Belk Bandit Group was to be one of them.

Therefore,

The Belk Bandit Group should not have ended yet.

If they hadn’t encountered a certain hero candidate who was in a very bad mood and looking for a target to vent her anger on somehow.

“The enemy is just one! Just one! Don’t be afraid!”

The leader Belk, who was shouting not to be afraid, looked the most frightened. That’s because a small girl was wielding an aura blade, smashing the mountain fortress and carrying out a massacre… If someone didn’t feel fear here, they should have gone to the capital to take the knight exam instead of doing bandit work in this countryside, but there was no way someone with such great capacity would be here, so everyone was busy preparing to run away in fear. But even if they tried to run away, they couldn’t because…

“Aaaargh!”
“Pl-Please spare…! Guaaack!”

The hero candidate’s advance was too fast to even have time to beg for their lives.

In the end, all the bandits except leader Belk became corpses.

“…I want to surrender…”
“……”

Soon, leader Belk could watch his own body falling.

Originally, he was supposed to give practical experience to the still inexperienced hero candidate through all sorts of hardships and, unfortunately from his perspective, die, but in this life, it ended too easily.

Hero candidate Sera, who had changed yet another future like this, called William who was busy cleaning up behind her.

“Are there no more around here?”
“…No, there aren’t.”

It was only natural that William’s voice lacked energy. Even for a Great Magician, as a magician, he inevitably had stamina issues. Above all, as Sera was catching all the villains in this area saying she wanted to vent… Following her with teleportation magic had become quite extreme labor.

“No! I don’t want to! I don’t want to work! We haven’t rested since dawn! It’s hard! I’m telling you it’s hard!”

Riel, who had ended up joining as a companion by chance, cried out as if screaming. But when Sera quietly looked at her…

“……”

She quietly shut her mouth.

She felt uncomfortable with Sera. She had stuck around because it felt wrong for a human young girl to shoulder the burden of being a hero candidate and fight, but even so, when she looked at Sera…

‘The master is special in his own way, and the disciple is special in her own way.’

But they were completely different. While the master showed her something as precious as a treasure, the disciple showed her something even lower than rock bottom. It was so terrible that she would erase it from her memory if possible. But she had already seen it, and it bothered her that such a young human girl possessed such things, so she had no choice but to stay by her side. Although her tone and atmosphere seemed endlessly childish, she was a kind-hearted elf.

“But if he’s your master, why are you hiding it like that?”

She had anxiously stayed by Jade’s side while he was sleeping, checking if there were any problems, and when it seemed like Jade would soon regain consciousness, she had quickly disappeared and insisted on keeping herself a secret, so Riel had no choice but to tell Jade that she and William had taken care of him… But Riel couldn’t understand it at all.

“……”

Sera, who had absolutely no confidence in explaining it in a way that Riel, who had lived without any connection to love or such things despite being female, could properly understand, just kept her mouth shut.

In the end, William stepped in and entered into a strategy of vaguely glossing over it.

“Ahem! Do not doubt my lord’s intentions, elf.”
“Just call me Riel, Great Magician. I might just reveal to his master that you, a Great Magician, are lying!”
“This is all according to my lord’s will.”
“……”

When he said it was because Sera ordered it, Riel tightly shut her mouth. If she said anything more here, wouldn’t it be challenging Sera’s will? She was afraid of that and didn’t want it. Although she remained by Sera’s side because she was concerned about her… What was difficult was difficult, and what was scary was scary.

“So there’s no more places to raid around here, right?”

William nodded at Riel’s point.

“…Sigh.”

Sera exhaled.

Although her bad mood still hadn’t cleared much…

She decided to stop because it didn’t seem right to push William and Riel any further for her sake.

“I’ll stop now.”
“Yay!!!!!!”

Riel cheered.

“Are you alright?”
“It’s a bit insufficient, but it can’t be helped.”
“……”

William couldn’t help but feel chilled at the fact that she still had stress left to vent even after venting on so many villains. I’m glad I lived a good life. I’m really glad my lord is on my side. William couldn’t help but think that with pure sincerity.

“It’s about time for the hero candidates to start moving around.”
“Already?”
“I’m already moving around, aren’t I?”
“……”

Do you have a conscience? To tell me to view you and those kids on the same level, what did those kids do wrong?

For a moment, he almost blurted out such words, but he, who had reached the level of a master in social skills while serving Sera as his lord, did not make such a mistake.

“Hey! Are those kids the same as you?!”

This didn’t apply at all to the elf Riel, who lived completely unaware of such things as social life.

“Anyway, it seems like it’s time to release what we’ve prepared.”
“Already?”
“Momentum is important in battle, and the simplest way to gain momentum is to move first.”

This is the part where William most admires his lord. His lord isn’t just strong. She’s wise and monstrously strong at the same time. Gaining wisdom and strength simultaneously is never an easy thing. It’s something that can barely be mastered after a really long time. But his lord was handling it naturally as if she had possessed it from the moment she was born.

‘Indeed, my lord is…’

William recalled a certain possibility from the conversation between his lord and the World Tree, but he didn’t make the mistake of voicing it. If it was something he should know, his lord would tell him first, and if it was something he shouldn’t know, it would be his role to remain ignorant until the end.

He was simply doing his best in his role.