Chapter 194: The Impostors Deceive
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The Zamago Forest, where the eerie cries of unknown monsters echo.
In front of the log bridge spanning the ravine at its entrance, four men and women were staring at the forest.
"Hey, Patchino...... Are we really going......?"
A short man with unkempt hair and a mean look called out to the man who was about to set foot on the log bridge right in front of them.
"Huh!? What are you getting scared of now, Modokin! What demon realm? With my skills, it's nothing to fear!"
The one who raised his voice in irritation at his companion's complete reluctance was the leader, Patchino.
He seems to be in his mid-twenties.
He is a decent magic swordsman, a decent tall man with a decent muscular physique, and has a decent handsome face.
His decently beautiful golden hair shimmered decently in the pouring sunlight.
"Make up your mind, Modokin. Being cautious is a good thing for a scout, but you know."
The one saying that in a drunken voice is the party's only female member, Niese.
She is wearing the robes of the Holy Goddess Church, but she is not a priest now.
She was excommunicated for misconduct.
She has some knowledge of magic and the skill to create simple potions, so she serves as the party's mage and pharmacist.
"......Uooh......"
And the big man groaning in the back for some reason is Darmacy.
Still not sure, but when it comes to battle, he might rampage using that blessed physique. Not sure on that though.
Patchino, Modokin, Niese, and Darmacy.
They are all rank 7 adventurers and members of a party called the "Tea Dragon's Heel."
They are a group of four with decent combat power and can be considered quite skilled as an adventurer party.
If they took on requests seriously and worked hard, they could save up enough for the future and be considered first-class adventurers to that extent.
If they worked seriously, that is.
However, they were not serious.
They lived for the moment, often drinking during the day, and they hardly saved any money.
And they had low morals.
They wanted to have an easy and good time, even if it meant doing something a little underhanded.
Thinking that way...... no, thinking that way is fine, but they had low enough morals to actually carry out what they thought.
What they did.
It was "hero fraud."
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"Hero fraud."
It's a criminal act that is almost certain to occur whenever the battle between the hero and the Demon Lord begins.
It is customarily called "fraud," but any criminal act committed under the guise of being a hero is considered hero fraud.
For example, claiming "I am the hero" and threatening with force to extort money and goods.
This can be said to be a typical case of hero fraud.
It is said to be a despicable crime where victims often endure it, thinking "It's what the hero is doing," and end up suffering in silence.
Patchino and the others of the "Tea Dragon's Heel" were committing such hero fraud.
However, what they did was quite tame compared to other hero fraudsters.
After all, they basically just engage in normal adventurer activities.
They find settlements troubled by monsters or bandits and help those people without going through the guild's requests.
And after that, they reveal that they were actually the hero's party, and using the favor of helping and the title of hero, they rake in more than the usual reward.
This is what they were doing.
As mentioned earlier, Patchino has a decent face and is a decent smooth talker.
Niese may smell of alcohol up close, but from a distance, she looks like a clean and tidy priest-like woman, and Darmacy looks like a reliable warrior.
Modokin is dirty, but he fits the role of a companion that even a hero might have.
The innocent villagers were completely deceived by them and ended up offering quite a large reward out of goodwill.
They wished for it to be "used in the battle against the Demon Lord."
In many villages, they received unfair rewards without even being suspected of being impostors.
Having engaged in such hero fraud, they started to get carried away as they realized this was going better than expected.
At first, they mainly targeted backwater villages with little knowledge of the world, but they gradually shifted to larger villages along highways and even larger towns.
And the final target was Nebo Town.
Here too, they defeated the unidentified river monster that had been troubling the town, pretended to be heroes, and illegally raked in money and goods.
So far, so good. So far.
But here, they did something they don't usually do.
Nebo Town is famous for its rare Ahate River Shrimp.
Moreover, due to its location right in the center of the Saikanan Highway, delicious alcohol is brought in from west and east.
So they decided to stay in Nebo Town for a while.
To dine and dash on rare shrimp and delicious alcohol using the title of hero.
......This decision was a mistake.
They should have left Nebo Town right away as usual.
After all, while they were pretending to be someone else and doing as they pleased, the real hero arrived in Nebo Town.
The red-haired boy, the real hero, denounced the "Tea Dragon's Heel" according to his own sense of justice.
At first, the "Tea Dragon's Heel" argued back, saying things like "Show me the proof" and "There's no way a kid like this can be the hero," but the moment the boy hero slightly released the divine aura dwelling within him, they realized.
Ah, this is no good.
This is the real deal......
After that, they desperately challenged him to a duel and attacked the hero's party, but the "Tea Dragon's Heel," who had a difference in base strength to begin with and were completely drunk, were no match for the real hero and got beaten to a pulp, ending up in the custody of Nebo Town's guards.
There, their other crimes were investigated, and all the hero fraud acts they had committed were revealed.
Although they were not imprisoned for a long time, all the money they had deposited was confiscated as compensation for the victims, and they were made to continue paying the remaining unpaid compensation through the Adventurer's Guild.
On top of that, their bad reputation was quickly spread to the surrounding towns and villages by the merchants staying in Nebo Town, and they were now looked at with cold eyes wherever they went.
Trying to avoid the surrounding gazes, they fled east along the Saikanan Highway.
They needed money.
Even if they completed guild requests, a portion of it would be deducted as compensation for the victims.
Their bad reputation came back to haunt them, and they could no longer directly negotiate with clients as before.
They were in dire straits.
Amid this, while clutching the drinking money they had somehow scraped together, they heard it at a seedy tavern they visited.
The rumor of dragons.
In the eastern demon realm Ranrananga Mountain Range, on the ridge of Mount Nanga at its westernmost edge, green dragons reside.
That's why people don't venture into the Zamago Forest at the foot of the mountain.
It is the territory of the green dragons.
Therefore, development has not progressed. Pokkeroce still designates that land as an outdated destination for exile by banishment. The country should do something about dragons. How foolish. How pathetic......
The heavily drunk merchant who was the source of the rumor rambled on like that, but the "Tea Dragon's Heel" didn't listen to the latter half of the merchant's grumbling at all.
What was important to them was the fact that there were green dragons on Mount Nanga.
Dragons are a treasure trove of materials.
If they could hunt them, it would be a fortune.
They had no choice but to hunt them.
In a drunken frenzy, they decided on a course of action.
They were so cornered that they couldn't calmly consider whether they could actually do it.
We can do it.
Because we are heroes......
Unable to deceive others anymore, they finally started deceiving themselves.
It is true that the Zamago Forest was (past tense) the territory of the green dragons.
That's why people didn't venture in, and that's why the monsters kept increasing.
However, due to the presence of the ravine, it seems those monsters didn't overflow from the forest.
By the way, even the Adventurer's Guild didn't have an accurate grasp of how many green dragons there were on Mount Nanga.
They seemed to think there were at most a few.
Green dragons are hot-blooded, and before their numbers increase too much, conflicts arise and the herd usually splits.
In reality, they had become quite a large herd under the leadership of a dragon named Samezan, but if the Adventurer's Guild had known that fact, they certainly wouldn't have dispatched Earthcell to the Zamago Forest.