Chapter 33: CH 33

Having found the conmen who had caused the destruction of Liliella-san’s village and having walked along with them while concealing ourselves with magic, we finally arrived at the village belonging to their latest target, a village chief.

“Alright, now we just wait a bit, and then it’s business as usual.”

“Yeah.”

“Hehehe”

The three of them were discussing their plans, hiding in some shade.

I had heard them speak in a way that suggested that they wanted to fool the village on the way there, but this was definitive proof that they were criminals who were going to con the village.

And as for Liliella-san, her worries of having perhaps been mistaken what with the length of time that had passed since she had last seen them now gone, she was staring holes through them.

I had somehow managed to convince her after quite a few tries that we had to catch them red-handed, otherwise there’d be no point to it, and she had been able to restrain herself from attacking them.

“I get it, okay, so please could you stop trying to stop me running after them by literally hugging onto me?”

“Well, but, at this distance, I thought that you’d touch one of them if I didn’t pin your arms down…”

Mhm, we were really close to them, after all. And if one of us touched them, the magic would be dispelled.

“Look, they’re moving.”

Then, when the sky was threatening to get dark, the trio entered the village, pretending to be travellers who wandered in.

And, as they had discussed earlier, the trio then asked if they could stay at an inn for the night when it got really dark out.

When they were told there wasn’t an inn in the village, they offered to pay a small amount to stay in the village chief’s home.

During dinner, they pretended to earnestly listen to the chief’s worries, waiting until the last moment to reveal that they were A-Rank adventurers.

“W-will you really accept the request!?”

“Yeah, it must be fate. This is forbidden by the guild though, but as long as you keep this a secret from them, we’ll do it!”

“T-thank you! You sirs are the saviours of our very lives!! We won’t be able to pay much, but we’ll do our best to scrape together every coin we have!”

The leader of the trio stopped the village chief when he asked his wife to bring in their best alcohol to drink along with the dinner.

“Please, don’t force yourselves. Your lives aren’t easy, are they?”

At first glance, it seemed like he was looking out for the village chief.

“That’s a lie, it’s just easier to run away when you’re not dead-drunk.”

Liliella-san, who had been observing them from literally right in front of their faces said.

Although, the only ones who could hear her were me and the furball.

As the village chief was moved by the man’s words, the trio’s leader moved onto the main topic.

“But, we’d like you to pay in advance. We’re doing this in secret from the guild, and for less than it would normally be. We won’t be really motivated to fight unless we can actually get the rewards.”

“Eeh!? You want us to pay in advance!?”

The village chief made a troubled face.

“If you don’t want to, we’ll just leave it at that. We won’t lose anything from not accepting the request, after all.”

“B-but…”

“You’re being too rude!”

The trio’s leader said, telling off his companions for being rude.

“I don’t mean any offense, but adventurers directly accepting requests from small villages like yours without involving the guild and then not getting paid afterwards due to the client having some kind of complaint is pretty common. And since the request didn’t go through the guild, such adventurers can’t ask the guild for help. I’ve cried myself to sleep for working and then not getting paid quite a few times.”

The trio’s leader explained to the village chief as if it was something unpleasant yet unavoidable.

“So, having you pay us in advance is just to see how prepared you are to protect your village.”

“H-how prepared we are…?”

“That’s right. And if you don’t want to, you can always just abandon this village and move to a different one where there are less monsters.”

“There’s no way we could do that!”

“But then you have to protect everyone in the village.”

The trio were offering the village chief a way out.

‘It’s okay if you don’t want to, you can just flee; it’s all right to refuse.’

However, that was but an illusion, such an option didn’t exist.

“…Please let me talk to the people of the village.”

Said the village chief, standing up.

“It’s the same as what happened in my village. Everyone was tricked.”

Liliella-san said, glaring at the trio as if she was going to attack them any second.

However, she was desperately enduring it.

So that we could catch them red-handed.

Then, after a small while, the village chief returned.

“All right. I will pay the reward in advance.”

They had decided on the wrong choice.

“It’s settled, then.”

“Please, please protect the village!”

“Yeah, leave it to us. We’ll do as much as we got paid to do.”

“Thank you very much!”

Then, the trio went out to guard the village’s fields that very evening.

“It’s kind of wrong for me to be saying this, but I wonder why they accepted such a suspicious proposal.”

“Well, cornered people have a narrow field of view, I guess.”

A-Rank adventurers had appeared unnaturally conveniently, and even more conveniently, they had been willing to accept such a request purely out of good will, asking only for the reward to be paid in advance.

It was super-suspicious.

“But, we were so cornered we accepted such a proposal. Us, and now these people…”

Liliella-san’s face was a mix of embarrassment and anger at her past self.

♦ ♦

“Should we help out?”

The village chief asked the trio when they arrived at the fields.

“We don’t mind people staying here, but we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to protect them if a high-tank monster shows up. The job we accepted was to kill any monsters attacking the fields. There was nothing in the request about protecting people who decide on their own to stick their heads in danger.”

“You’d just hold us back. We’re A-Rank adventurers. It would just become harder to fight with amateurs present.”

“That’s about it. If you don’t want us to fail, just go home and watch from there. And anyway, if you fight, what point was there in hiring us?”

Being told they’d just hold the trio back, the village chief went home.

Then, once there was nobody about, the trio began a whispered conversation.

“Pfft, ‘help’. They just wanted to make sure we didn’t run away.”

“Honestly. Even though we went out of our way to accept this request for less than what it’s worth.”

Even while muttering such things, the trio had sly grins on their faces.

♦ ♦

Then, once the night was almost over, they began moving.

First, they walked around the village one-by-one as if on a routine patrol.

Then, when they had all finished, they gathered in the field.

“They’re all asleep. And we put the ones who were on lookout to sleep. Let’s scram.”

The three of them left their posts in the fields and left the village.

Then, taking a large detour around the village, they arrived at the highway they had come from.

“Shall we go back then?”

“Yeah, there’s no signs of any monsters appearing.”

“We’ve completed what we’ve been paid to do.”

They had indeed been aiming for a time when all the villagers were asleep to run away.

Pretending to go on patrols had been to get the villagers to let their guards down, but also to check whether they were sleeping or not.

“They really are loathsome.”

Unable to hold herself back any longer now that they had abandoned their guard duties, Liliella-san slammed the bottom of her spear into the ground.

Right, there’s no need to hold back anymore.

But, it was at that moment.

A shadow appeared behind the trio.

“W-where are you g-going!?”

It was the village chief.

It seemed like he had been observing the trio in secret.

“Don’t tell me you’re abandoning the request and running away?”

Asked the village chief with a pale face, making the trio make annoyed faces.

“Hey, what was that about everyone being asleep. You had one job.”

“’S not my fault. This geezer was pretending to be asleep.”

“Enough with the excuses, let’s get rid of him already.”

“G-get rid of me!?”

The village chief jumped back in fear as the trio drew out their swords.

“Yep, sorry, but you’re gonna have to die.”

“Attacked by a monster, so tragic.”

“If you had played nice and gone to sleep, it would’ve ended with just your money being taken. You should curse your wretchedness, showing yourself in front of us.”

The trio swung their swords at the village chief with cruel smiles on their faces.

“Liliella-san, furball!”

“Right!”

“Gyuu!”

I let go of Liliella-san’s hand.

At the same time, the furball jumped off my head, running at them.

“Haa!”

“Hiyaah!”

“Kyuu!”

We stopped the trio’s attacks.

“W-who are you!?”

The trio were surprised by our sudden appearance.

“We are supporters of justice!”

“W-what!?”

The trio hurriedly backed away.

“W-what happened!?”

The village chief was confused by all the sudden happenings.

“These three are con men pretending to be A-Rank adventurers! We’ve been watching them from the shadows this whole time in order to catch them!”

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“Eeh!? Con men!?”

The village chief made a confused face when we told him that they weren’t adventurers, but swindlers.

“Who the hell are you to know about us!?”

The trio were also surprised, probably not having expected their true identities to be exposed.

“Since you don’t seem to know, I’ll tell you! I… am a survivor of a village you destroyed!”

Shouted Liliella-san angrily.

Her glare filled to the brim with anger showed how much she wanted to cut them to pieces.

“A survivor!?”

“D-destroyed!?”

The trio and the village chief were both surprised, albeit by different things.

The trio because Liliella-san knew about their past, and the village chief because Liliella-san’s village had also been tricked by the trio.

Even though they were in completely different positions, they were still all surprised.

“This is for everyone taken by the Forest of Magic Beasts, and for dad!!”

Liliella-san shouted, running at the trio.

“Kyuu!”

“Whoa there, you just wait here.”

I said, grabbing the furball.

“Kyuu!?”

The furball protested, as if asking why I had stopped it.

“This is for her to fight. Don’t get in her way.”

“…Kyuu”

Perhaps understanding what I wanted to say, the furball calmed down.

This fight was for Liliella-san to fight, it would be wrong for us to invite ourselves to join in.

“U-um, is it okay to let her fight on her own?”

The village chief, who had been speechless due to the quick succession of surprises, asked me, having returned back to the present.

“Yeah, it’s fine. She’s gone through some tough training for this. She won’t lose to that lot.”

Indeed, Liliella-san had been frantically training all the time.

She had completed training that would take a normal person years in just a few weeks.

Honestly, I respected her dedication.

She was currently several, no, ten times as strong as when I had met her.

Even in a 3v1, she wouldn’t lose against that bunch.

“The Forest of Magic Beasts… I see, so you’re from that village…”

“What an honour that you deigned to remember it! I’ll have you regret doing that to us!”

“Idiot! You want to beat us with those slim arms of yours! We’re former mercenaries!”

The three of them swung their swords at Liliella-san.

“Haa!”

Not wavering in the face of the three swords coming at her, Liliella-san closed in on the rightmost of the men.

“Wha-!? She’s fa-!?”

“Hiyaah!”

Not letting him finish the sentence, Liliella-san put holes in each of his legs with one stab each, then backed away.

“Arghhhhhhhhhh!!”

Now that his legs were crushed, he couldn’t run away.

It was a good decision on her part to shave away the enemy’s strength while simultaneously stopping them from escaping.

She hadn’t killed him, so she must’ve wanted to capture them alive.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to give them an easy death?

“What the hell’s up with that speed!?”

“Shit! I didn’t know such a monster existed!”

“Who’re you calling a monster!!!”

Liliella-san shouted at the men.

“R-run!”

Surprisingly, the two of them abandoned their comrade without a second thought.

“W-wait, don’t leave me here!”

Even such evildoers are pitiful in such a situation.

“You won’t get away!”

It was at that moment.

“Guoooooooon!!”

“Gyaooooooon!!”

“Shaaaaaaaaaa!!”

A pack of gigantic monsters appeared from the darkness, blocking their escape route.

“U-uwaaaaaa!?”

“W-why are there such huge monsters this near to a village!?”

It was indeed a surprise to see such large monsters this near to a human settlement.

They must’ve been the ones that had been destroying the fields.

But like this, the village would also be damaged.

I jumped towards the monsters.

“Light!!”

I activated a large light magic behind me.

“““Gyaaaaa!?”””

The monsters became dazed from the bright light that suddenly appeared before them.

“Hiyaah!”

I kicked the head of the monster at the very front, sending it careening into the ones behind it.

“Kyuu!”

The furball jumped off from my shoulder, clawing out the throat of the monster next in line.

Whoa, those are pretty sharp. I’ll have to cut its nails later so it doesn’t accidentally injure someone.

Leaving monsters number two to the furball, I decapitated monster number three, who had been hit by monster number one.

“Alright, we’re done. Let’s leave the rest to Liliella-san…”

I said, turning around, only to see the two who tried to escape staring at me dumbfoundedly.

“Hm? What’s up?”

““T-there was another monster!!!””

How rude.

“W-who the hell are you, to be able to kill monsters with your bare hands!?”

I’m a normal adventurer.

“He’s a real A-Rank adventurer.”

“Eh?”

Came a voice from behind the two of them, and as the leader turned around, a spear stabbed both his legs.

Completely silently.

“…Eh?”

Half a heartbeat later, the leader noticed his legs had been stabbed.

“M-my leg… u-uwaaaaaaargghhhhh!? W-what the heeeeeeeelllll!?”

“Shut up.”

Liliella-san kicked him aside with a splendid roundhouse kick.

“Ugh!?”

Then, she pulled her spear out of the leader and turned to the last one remaining.

“A-aaaah!!”

His legs giving in, he tried to crawl away.

“You think you can run?”

Liliella-san stabbed his legs from behind.

“Ugyaaaaaa!!”

He began flailing around from the pain.

“You thought that would be enough payback for what you did? Think again.”

Her anger was so great her killing intent reached even me, even when I wasn’t its target.

And at that moment, a white shadow appeared in front of the man.

“W-what is it!? …Hiii!?”

It was, of course, the adorable furball.

However, it had just finished eating, so the area around its mouth was blood red.

“Ugh”

Witnessing the blood-soaked furball in the middle of the knight, the man succumbed to the pain and fear, fainting.

“…Haa, that’s enough.”

Perhaps coming back to herself due to the furball’s intervention, Liliella-san sighed.

She had a smile that was simultaneously relieved and sad.

“…I thought I could go further, but he turned out to be more cowardly than I had expected.”

Liliella-san might’ve felt a bit disappointed, but what was done was done.

The trio’s movements had been amateurish at best.

They might’ve called themselves mercenaries, but they had probably run away when they saw what real battles were like.

And that must’ve been how they became conmen.

“Liliella-san, those three are fake adventurers, just liars. They won’t stand a chance against a real B-Rank adventurer like you.”

I said to Liliella-san while tying up the trio lying on the ground.

“…I guess you’re right.”

Her face as she whispered that looked a little proud of herself.

While we were doing so, lights had gone on in the village, and it had become loud.

It seemed like all the noise we had been making had reached the village.

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