The Kingdom of Rhine we finally arrived at seemed quite peaceful for a country without a hero.
Perhaps they didn’t care much whether such a hero was present or not, since they hadn’t placed much expectation on the ‘incompetent hero’ from the start?
No, maybe they don’t even know that Hero Friet has disappeared.
The higher-ups, worried about the anxiety and confusion of the people, might have spread false information that the hero is not currently missing but resting.
“Hey-! Old man Hans! Did you catch any fish today?”
“Of course! I caught a real whopper, a proper big one!”
…Well, either way, it looked peaceful, which was nice to see. It made me feel a bit peaceful too.
“Miss Hilde…? Um, are you okay…?”
Perhaps my appearance of staring at the riverbank as if entranced looked a bit worrying. Friede carefully took my hand and asked if I was alright.
She knows me as Brunhilde herself, so she probably thought I was lost in nostalgic old memories.
The brightest time in Brunhilde’s life. Memories of her time as a royal knight boasting unparalleled talent among her peers, before being selected for the hero’s party.
“I’m fine. Just a bit tired.”
I turned my head to look at Friede through the veil, gently pulling up the corners of my mouth as if to say not to worry.
Her expression of understanding my feelings completely was a bit amusing and troubling. It was a misunderstanding based on a wrong premise from the start.
She couldn’t possibly understand my feelings. No, not just Friede, but no one in this world could.
Because I’m not Brunhilde.
I’m just an outsider suddenly handed Brunhilde’s abilities and her own karma, acting as her.
A secret that can never be revealed to anyone, especially not to Friede herself.
Because of that secret, I had to feel a bit of unease every time I saw Friede showing unlimited goodwill, thinking I was Brunhilde herself.
It felt like the triangle of conscience that had almost completely worn away due to the mindset of surviving first was reviving and pricking my heart again.
Recently, there have been so many precarious situations that I was able to forget about the guilt somewhat… but the unease never completely disappeared.
That influence wasn’t insignificant in allowing my body to respond to Friede’s requests.
Because of the psychological debt of deceiving her for my own survival, I couldn’t refuse when she said she wanted me.
From the start, I was in a situation where I couldn’t refuse due to the lies I had told so far… but even so, if there had been no guilt, I would have tried to get by with just kissing instead of allowing my body.
Making excuses like saying ‘that’ should be done in a more stable situation, after properly holding a ceremony, or something like that.
“Um, if you’re tired, then… lie down here! I’ll watch over you well while you sleep!”
Friede pointed at her thighs with her fingers, seeming to have mistaken my casually thrown excuse for the truth.
“…Yeah. Okay, thanks.”
While thinking her appearance was very cute, I inwardly let out a deep sigh at the intensified unease.
Of course, even if I felt uneasy, I couldn’t refuse. I obediently bent my waist to lie down sideways, resting my head on her soft thighs.
Doing so seemed to reduce the unease a little.
…No, something sounds a bit strange here.
My heart didn’t feel at ease because of the sweet scent like baby powder seeping into my nose, or the soft and plump sensation of her thighs.
It’s just that willingly responding to Friede’s request itself, how should I put it…
It felt like I was paying off at least part of the debt in my heart, so the psychological burden was lessened and I felt a bit better.
Really.
Surely, I couldn’t have such a gloomy taste as to feel happiness from the thighs of a girl who looks four years younger than me.
Of course, there’s no way. Absolutely not. Really not.
I shook my head unconsciously. Like a defendant desperately pleading their innocence in front of a judge’s gavel.
Soft and plump.
Smooth and tender.
…It is quite cushiony.
The judge in my heart brought down the gavel and pronounced me guilty. The lawyer in my heart gave up the defense and turned away.
It was a soft and plump tragedy.
* * *
Three days passed.
Perhaps because we had secretly crossed the border without a single casualty?
Even though enough time had passed that it wouldn’t have been strange for pursuers aiming for my bounty to attack under normal circumstances, we hadn’t had to draw our swords even once since crossing the gateway bridge.
Thanks to that, we were able to advance straight towards our destination without any delay.
Two ladies riding a completely wrecked boat was such a suspicious sight to anyone, so we had to quietly disembark during the day and hide until sunset, but still.
Anyway, after advancing like that for three nights…
“Hmm… I think it should be around here. Let’s go to the riverbank for a moment. I need to check something.”
We finally reached the place estimated to be where the hidden piece was sleeping. Probably.
Why the question mark, you ask?
Well, isn’t it obvious? It’s not like there’s a quest marker floating in the air like in a game, and I didn’t come here looking at photos or illustrations.
Think about it. How could it be so simple to find the exact location of an area with just a few lines describing the surroundings?
The description I remember was only ‘A few days’ distance from the gateway bridge. Where a tributary of the Rhine River splits into three. Near a rock resembling a wolf’s head.’
Since there wasn’t just one place where the tributary split into three, effectively the only clue was the wolf-head rock.
Well, for that reason, we tied the boat to the riverbank and wandered around near the river searching for the wolf-head rock.
About thirty minutes might have passed.
“Oh, that! Isn’t that it? Look there, Miss Hilde! That rock!”
Friede pointed excitedly at one part of the riverbank.
“Really? Let me see, so…”
I turned my head towards the direction Friede’s finger was pointing.
Through the pale, rippling mist seeping with moonlight, a rock formation close to a ‘ㄷ’ shape was shining with a dim silhouette.
Um, hmm… is that it? It must be, right?
The snout is a bit long for a wolf… hmm, well, the possessed person in the original novel visited this place quite a while after now…
In the meantime, the tip of the rock might have collapsed, or been eroded by waves and shortened, or something like that.
“What do you think? That there, is that rock the right one?”
“Yeah. I think it is. Well done.”
I praised Friede while patting her head.
The way she looked up at me with sparkling eyes, it was obvious she wanted to be praised like that.
Perhaps because I was patting her head that hadn’t been properly washed for days, I felt like the debt in my heart was being forgiven a little bit again.
To be specific, by the weight of the hair oil on my hand.
…Sniff sniff.
“Ah, uh, oh…! No, why are you smelling that…!”
When I unconsciously opened my palm and smelled it, Friede, startled as if shocked, grabbed my arm with both hands and pulled it down.
Her face was bright red like an apple.
“Ah, well, I did it without thinking.”
I smiled awkwardly. I too was wondering what I had just done.
“That, that’s something you shouldn’t do…! Really!”
“Yeah. Sorry, sorry… But you know, it didn’t smell bad. Kind of like, flour from a mill? Something similar to that scent.”
“Uuugh…”
I smiled, shrugging my shoulders lightly as if to soothe Friede, who couldn’t take her hands off my arm with her reddened face.
I wasn’t lying though.
Honestly, I thought it would smell like a wet dog or pungent seaweed, but surprisingly it had a scent close to flour.
Come to think of it, it was a really strange thing. For hair washed only with water for days to smell like flour instead of a bad odor, it’s not something that should happen to a person.
Other adventurers I had partied with during my adventurer days smelled fishy, moldy, or like a rag.
Even Amy started to smell a bit musty after rolling around in dungeons for days until she learned cleansing magic.
But strangely enough, I had never smelled such odors from Friede.
As if she were some kind of human perfume, Friede would still give off a good scent as usual, not to mention bad odors, even after not washing for days.
In fact, not just Friede, but I too had never heard anyone say I smelled bad.
Not just smell, but I think I often heard people say I smelled like lemons… Ah, could that have been a polite way of saying I smelled of sweat?
It might be. It’s a bit strange for an unwashed person to smell like lemons, isn’t it?
It’s not like I’m going around spraying lemon perfume or eating only lemons for every meal.
Even a death row inmate wouldn’t eat such things as meals. Having only lemons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn’t a meal, it’s torture.
Living like that for just a month or two would probably be enough to confess all the sins committed in a past life, and then some. Or smash your head against the prison wall and commit suicide.
Well anyway, it was such an inexplicable thing that such idle thoughts naturally sprang up. That Friede’s hair smelled like flour.