“…Well, I guess it wouldn’t be bad to try and confirm as a test.”
After pondering and pondering excuses to convince myself, I finally made up my mind.
Unless the conditions were completely impossible, I might as well sleep comfortably.
Click.
As I swallowed dry saliva and undid the lock on my helmet, lifting it over my head, lemon-colored hair wet with sweat flowed down like a curtain, draping over my shoulders.
“Phew…”
Letting out a faint sigh at the feeling of my head clearing as the stuffiness dissipated, I carefully observed the presence around me.
Since there was no light at all inside the tent, my face wouldn’t be visible even if I took off my helmet, but still, just in case.
If there was a party member who stopped breathing in shock or twitched their shoulders, it could be considered that my identity had been discovered.
In that case, I would have no choice but to ‘deal with’ it. To ensure that the party member who recognized me would keep quiet and stay calm.
“…”
…Hmm. There doesn’t seem to be any suspicious reactions.
Seeing that everyone was no different from before I took off my helmet, it seemed certain that they hadn’t recognized my face.
“Oh, you took it off? Are you okay…?”
Instead of being surprised by my face, Amy asked worriedly if I didn’t have any anxiety symptoms, and Friede just lay still.
“…Hmm…”
Gerda seemed to have already departed for dreamland.
“…Yeah, I think I’m okay. I should be fine sleeping like this.”
I answered while slightly covering below my nose with the edge of my cloak.
“That’s good. Then, sleep well.”
“You too, Amy.”
“Ah, good ni- I mean, um, sleep well, Hilde.”
“Yeah, sleep well, Friede.”
After exchanging good night greetings with my party members, I closed my eyes.
While endlessly reminding myself in my head that I needed to wake up before sunrise tomorrow morning.
Sleep came in an instant.
* * *[ Friede ]* * *
In the predawn hours when everyone except the night watch patrolling outside the tent was deep asleep.
Friede quietly sat up like a ghost and turned her head to look down at the person next to her.
“…”
The lemon-haired swordswoman who had fallen into deep sleep not long after closing her eyes, perhaps because she was very tired.
‘…Brunhilde.’
The woman who had been her mentor and comrade.
‘Finally, we meet again.’
Cheeks flushed with joy. The corners of her small mouth curled up in a smirk. A gloomy delight settled on her youthful face that looked five years younger than her age.
‘My wish has come true. This time, properly.’
Friede stared down at the soundly sleeping Brunhilde as if entranced, recalling her journey over the past few months.
The story of how she left the Rhine Kingdom after returning to her original body, until meeting Brunhilde again like this.
* * *
Immediately after regaining her original body through the power of the holy sword, Friede holed up in an inn room for three whole days, pondering.
Where on earth Brunhilde, who had left Gunther’s party and disappeared, might be now.
Had she returned to the Rhine Kingdom? That possibility was low.
The upper echelons of the kingdom were currently grinding their teeth over the desertion and disappearance of the hero’s party, which they had been pouring full support into.
To the extent that they had issued an entry ban on Imelia and Irina, who had fled to Burgundy, and Brunhilde, and declared throughout the country that it was permissible to shoot them on sight if found within the Rhine Kingdom.
It was an utterly justified kill order.
After all, a hero’s party is supposed to grow into an asymmetric force for their own country.
That’s why they had emptied the national treasury to provide not only huge activity funds but also all requested equipment free of charge, and even arranged dungeons one by one to help with rapid growth.
But after receiving all those benefits, the party members fled to another country and joined up with that country’s hero, so how could the kingdom’s upper echelons not have their eyes turned inside out?
It was like they had spent a huge amount of money to strengthen another country’s forces.
For the Rhine Kingdom, it was already surprisingly merciful that they hadn’t sent a bunch of assassins to cut off their heads and bring them back.
‘So, she wouldn’t have come back to this country. If she left that man… Gunther’s party, she wouldn’t have stayed in Burgundy either.’
Friede was certain of this.
That Brunhilde had gone to a completely different country, neither the Rhine Kingdom nor the Burgundy Kingdom.
The Rhine Kingdom had declared they would kill her on sight, and if she stayed within the Kingdom of Burgundy, there was a great risk of being discovered by Gunther.
The only way for her to successfully disappear after leaving Gunther’s party was to flee to a third country.
Then where would she have gone?
Being human, she wouldn’t have headed to the lands of elves or beastkin, or the swamplands full of lizardmen.
There were only two choices left.
The Kingdom of Hervor in the northern continent… and the barbarian kingdom of black-haired easterners who call themselves Huns, located in the far east of the continent.
‘It won’t be the east. Brunhilde’s hair color and eyes would stand out too much there.’
The conclusion left by process of elimination was only one.
Only the Kingdom of Hervor in the northern continent.
‘Could Brunhilde be there…?’
Even Friede couldn’t be certain of that.
Perhaps all this reasoning was just her wishful speculation, and Brunhilde was simply resting quietly by Gunther’s side.
Even if not, she might have gone to the elf country of Elfenland or the beastkin’s Baltgard for reasons unknown to Friede herself.
If so, searching the Kingdom of Hervor would be nothing but a meaningless wild goose chase.
“…”
However, despite this, Friede made her decision.
‘…She’ll be there. In that place.’
To go to the Kingdom of Hervor and search the entire country thoroughly to find Brunhilde.
‘Yes. That’s right. I’m sure of it. I can tell. Right, Brunhilde? You’re there, aren’t you?’
Friede had an intuition. That Brunhilde would be in Hervor.
It was an intuition close to certainty, branded like a branding iron in the center of her mind.
Despite having no physical evidence, why did she feel such a strong certainty?
Friede couldn’t understand the reason at all, so she created a reason to convince herself.
‘It must be because I wished to meet her again. Yes. Nibelung told me. Where Brunhilde is. To fulfill my wish.’
Whether this reason was truly the truth, or just Friede’s grand delusion, the result would prove it.
‘So… let’s go. To the north.’
On a torn bed in a dingy, dark inn room, Friede finally got up again.
‘I want to see you.’
With her golden eyes shining with obsessive determination.
* * *
The journey that began like that was incredibly arduous.
A journey full of hardships she had never experienced even once during her time as part of the hero’s party, when she had been transformed into a male body.
Friede realized.
The villagers who had seemed endlessly naive and kind when she was active in the hero’s party.
They were people ready to transform into a gang of robbers the moment they encountered a girl traveling alone without an escort.
It was commonplace for the food she was served to be laced with drugs.
A farmer who offered to let her stay the night in his daughter’s room who had left for the city snuck into the room that night with a rope.
Such incidents happened close to ten times, not just once or twice, and pickpockets, robbers, and outright bandits were too numerous to count.
Proper cities were somewhat better in terms of public safety, but in small villages, it was better to just pass through and sleep rough.
In the midst of such a journey, the golden greatsword she had raised while vowing to protect people became thoroughly stained with the blood of those very people.
At first, Friede had simply threatened the villagers with her greatsword to drive them away…
-You little bitch. What? You say you’ll show mercy just this once? Why don’t you try saying that again?
But when she let them off like that, they often came back with several times more men gathered.
So Friede had no choice. As soon as they tried to harm her, she had to swing her greatsword and cut them in half.
If it had been her former self – that is, during Friet’s time – dozens of armed villagers would have been difficult opponents to deal with without armor.
However, for the current Friede, slaughtering all of them was far too easy.
‘My body feels light. As if it could fly.’
Just by returning to her original body, her skills had greatly improved from before when she couldn’t even properly handle a single orc warrior.
Perhaps due to her height increasing by over 20cm, her sense of balance and distance that had always been slightly off returned to normal, and her body weight also became surprisingly light.
The trajectories and openings of her opponents’ weapons became crystal clear, and her body that had never listened before now moved perfectly as she willed.
‘…To think it was this simple.’
With just that alone, Friede had become clearly stronger than when she was a man.
‘If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have made such a wish…’
She sighed softly, thinking that if she could have fought like this from the beginning, if she just hadn’t transformed into a man’s body, maybe the other party members wouldn’t have left.
Anyway, Friede, who had gained more power than before, headed north while chopping up attackers like frozen butchered meat.
Until she crossed the border of the Rhine Kingdom and reached Hervor.
* * *
Even after arriving in Hervor, there were still mountains of obstacles to overcome in order to find Brunhilde.
Not only did she have to find the city where Brunhilde was hiding within this vast kingdom territory, but she also had to solve the issue of her own status, having become stateless.
‘As for the status issue… I could become an adventurer. More importantly, Brunhilde comes first.’
Where could Brunhilde be hiding?
Surely she wouldn’t be quietly laying low while working in a place like a flower shop.
Since the only talent she possessed was swinging a sword, she must have chosen a life where she could utilize that power. Friede assumed so.
‘If that’s the case…’
There were three options she could think of.
A hero’s party here in Hervor, someone’s knight, or, like Friede herself, active as an adventurer.
‘Hervor’s hero… It won’t be Heid. If she had intended to be active in a hero’s party, she wouldn’t have left Gunther’s party.’
The possibility of her working as a knight was also low.
Although she was a former hero’s party member, the party’s reputation itself had been buried in the ground because of Friede…
‘…There probably wouldn’t be an employer willing to take her.’
Who would readily employ a fugitive knight who had changed countries twice?
Being a royal knight was obviously out of the question, and nobles would also shake their heads, saying they didn’t need a knight specializing in desertion.
So, there was only one option left.
‘Adventurer…. Yes, that’s the only thing left.’
The last resort for those who couldn’t become knights. Only the Adventurers’ Guild.
* * *
Brunhilde must have become an adventurer in Hervor.
Convinced of this, Friede settled in a suitable city, became active as an adventurer, and gathered all suspicious rumors she could find.
It was a busy time.
Since she needed to become at least a copper token to firmly establish herself as an adventurer, she had to continuously handle all sorts of requests and accumulate achievements.
In the midst of that, she also had to collect rumors from other cities, and she had to completely overhaul her own swordsmanship from the roots.
If Brunhilde, whom she miraculously reunited with, saw her swordsmanship, she might notice her identity.
Even if she didn’t realize the truth that she was ‘Friet’, she would at least be certain that she was someone related to Friet.
Friede didn’t want this.
Although she might reveal it herself someday, she hoped that at least for the time being, Brunhilde wouldn’t know.
Because she might leave again the moment she realized.
Several months later.
An interesting rumor flew into the ears of ‘Raven’ Friede, a copper token adventurer from Levant.
A rumor about ‘Iron Face’ Hilde, an adventurer from Vespian, a large city near Levant.
‘Finally…!’
Friede sensed it. She was certain, with an excitement that felt like her chest was swelling up. She cried out inwardly, trembling with joy.
That she had finally found Brunhilde’s whereabouts.
* * *
And now.
“…”
The golden-eyed girl who had finally reunited with her comrade silently looked down at the woman sleeping soundly.
‘…She’s changed a lot. Very, very much.’
An appearance that was so different from the Brunhilde she knew in every way.
She was inwardly astounded by how much her manner of speaking, behavior, and even personality seemed to have greatly changed.
‘But, rather, now she’s…’
She seems much more lively than before, making her even more attractive.
Sticking out the tip of her tongue to lightly lick her glossy lips, Friede sat there silently for dozens of minutes.
With her mouth corners pulled up in a wide smile.