Chapter 197: The Impostors Find a Place to Belong

* * *

Now, a few weeks have passed since the "Tea Dragon's Heel" group arrived at Emi and the others' base.

Patchino was still staying at the base, not going to defeat the green dragons, but also not running away somewhere else again.

And where he's standing now is in the Zamago Forest...... a clearing where Emi had logged.

Behind him is the perverted old geezer, Earthcell.

What is he doing?

The answer is simple, "road building."

"'Fire, become a wave and engulf the enemy! [Fire Wave]!'"

Patchino unleashed a fire magic spell for who knows how many times today.

However, its targets are not monsters attacking him.

It's the undergrowth and stumps left behind after logging.

Having heard the rumor that 'today's hero controls flames' and practiced fire magic quite a bit during his fake hero days, he can manipulate this magic with decent precision.

He doesn't accidentally burn more of the forest than necessary.

Splendidly, his magic burned away the undergrowth and other things in one section, turning them into black scorch and white ash.

The ground after receiving the magic still carries heat, and the scenery beyond wavers.

"Foooh~~~! Looking good, Patchino!"

"Piece of cake! This much is a breeze!"

"Well then, I'll do my job too! 'Earth, become a wave and engulf the enemy! [Soil Wave]!'"

Timing it well, Earthcell unleashes an earth magic spell following Patchino.

The scorched clearing is instantly leveled by the magic.

"And, 'Earth, harden and protect me! [Harden]!'"

The next earth magic spell unleashed has the effect of 'hardening the soil' as evident from the chant.

Originally a defensive magic spell to be cast on defensive walls and such to protect oneself, this former special-rank adventurer Earthcell applies it to harden the ground for leveling.

"Hmm."

Earthcell lightly kicks the completely leveled ground with the tip of his leather shoe a couple of times.

It makes a hard, solid sound.

"Alright! This section is complete! Let's move on to the next one!"

"Roger!"

"Uooooh!"

And there, a muscular big man and a black-haired, black-eyed girl approached from in front of them, pushing through the undergrowth that hadn't been burned yet.

It's Darmacy and Emi.

These two are in charge of the heavy lifting, going ahead of Patchino and the others to remove rocks and overly large stumps from the road.

"Hmm! Is something wrong!?"

"Almost noon."

Emi points to the sky with few words.

Looking up, the sun floating in the pale sky blue autumn sky had climbed quite high.

A six-winged creature resembling a dragonfly crosses the edge of their vision.

"Hungry."

"Oh, my bad! Well then, the road-building team will take a lunch break here!"

"Alright, I've been waiting for this!"

"Uooooh!"

They immediately sat down in a circle, took out lunch boxes from the bag Earthcell was carrying on his back, and started eating eagerly.

These were made in the morning by Giovanno, who leads the crop harvesting team inside the base.

That old man's cooking skills are improving day by day, and the taste of the lunch boxes is not to be underestimated.

By the way, Niese and Modokin, who are not here now, are working in the base today as the harvesting team.

"......Delicious."

While stuffing his mouth full of stir-fried topopolock meat and aburi-na, Patchino muttered.

The seasoning is only salt.

It's sprinkled with a sauce made from demon-repelling herb seeds for flavor.

Even though it should be a dish with just that, to Patchino now, it seemed like the most delicious dish he had ever eaten in his life.

"Uooh......"

Ah! From the side, Darmacy is secretly reaching his hand towards Patchino's lunch box!

T-That's not good, Darmacy!

He's clearly trying to steal someone else's topopolock meat!!

"Don't mess with me!!"

Patchino immediately slapped Darmacy's arm, preventing the meat from being stolen.

But taking advantage of that opening, this time Emi snatched away the biggest piece of meat that Patchino had saved to eat last, with a speed too fast for the eye to follow!

"A-Ah! Miss! Give it back! Give that back!"

"Munch munch munch munch."

Patchino desperately shook Emi's shoulders, but the meat was already in her mouth.

Emi chewed at ultra-high speed with an expressionless face and swallowed it in an instant.

"Can't be helped. The meat was telling me to eat it."

"Don't mess with me, Miss! That's something you shouldn't do as a person! Having the meat you cherished taken away! Even close families would get into fistfights over that!"

"It can't be helped, Patchino. Emi-chan is a growing child! I'll give you my meat, so forgive her, will you!?"

"Perverted old geezer! You're too lenient with the Miss! Is she your first grandchild!? Giovanno-san told us to say no to what's wrong, you know!"

"I have other grandchildren! They work at the Adventurer's Guild! The one who sent me alone into this forest was also my granddaughter!"

"Eh, scary. Isn't that like trying to kill you?"

"We both think I won't die from this much, so she's not trying to kill me! She's a cute granddaughter! I'll probably call her over here soon for work-related reasons!"

"Eh, scary. I'll have to avoid making eye contact with her then."

"Uooooh!"

Now, while the "Tea Dragon's Heel" group was initially terrified of Emi, they have now built a relationship where they can have such casual conversations like this.

They call Emi 'Miss'.

It's because Giovanno and Earthcell visibly cherish her.

To them, Emi is their irreplaceable young lady.

It started when Modokin, who thought that, began calling her that.

And they call the old man 'Giovanno-san', properly adding an honorific.

His stance of not talking much about his past and being a bit roguish seemed cool to them, and because he properly controls Emi, the monstrous girl, and sincerely addresses the concerns of the "Tea Dragon's Heel", they respect and adore him.

Before they started hero fraud, they were all misfit adventurers driven out of their villages as extra mouths to feed.

The fact that they never had a "reliable older figure" like Giovanno in their lives also accelerates their growing respect for Giovanno.

By the way, they call the perverted old geezer a perverted old geezer.

Because he's a perverted old geezer.

"Haaah......"

Patchino quietly sighs.

For now, there's nothing he can do about the meat anymore, so he gave up.

And after tossing the remaining aburi-na into his mouth, he smiled wryly.

* * *

Until they reached that base, they never thought they would lead such a life.

Defeat the green dragons, gain a fortune, and either exchange the money not used for surviving the winter for alcohol and drink to their heart's content, or be killed by the green dragons and die.

Either way, they had only imagined a bleak future in their minds.

And if they had to choose, they all vaguely understood that the odds of dying were higher.

However, they had no choice but to aim for the green dragons and move forward.

Their own thoughtless way of life up until now had robbed them of their future.

They were cornered by their own selves.

However, being led by Emi to the base and meeting Giovanno and Earthcell opened a new path.

"Give up on the reckless idea of defeating the green dragons and work here. There's food rotting away."

Giovanno said that.

Even after learning about the "Tea Dragon's Heel"'s past as hero fraudsters, he accepted them without contempt.

"It will be paid later, but let's say this is a request from the tentatively named Zamago Forest Branch! You can use the money you earn to make amends for your mistakes!"

The perverted old geezer also seemed to support them as an employee of the Adventurer's Guild.

But...... as the "Tea Dragon's Heel" group persisted, they were silenced by Emi's words, "The green dragons are already gone anyway."

What does she mean by "already" gone?

Why does this girl know that?

"......By the way, how many were in the herd?"

"More than 10."

"Eh, seriously? I haven't heard anything like that!"

Why does she know?

Why can she even answer the number?

That question was resolved without even asking by Emi's next words.

"They were delicious."

......That's what she said.

The irrational monster in human form in front of them.

In other words, this girl ate them all.

The green dragons they were aiming for.

Normally, one would want to say what nonsense, but the "Tea Dragon's Heel" who had been exposed to this girl's [Intimidation] understood all too well that this girl was not normal.

If this girl says she ate them, she probably really did eat them.

Dragon flesh and blood should have too high a magic power concentration to be edible by humans unless cooked according to proper procedures, but......

But if she says she ate them, she probably did.

She can probably eat them, this girl.

Upon being told of the loss of the green dragons, their goal and probably the end point of their lives, the strength left Patchino's body and he unconsciously sat down on the spot.

The "Tea Dragon's Heel" no longer had a reason to refuse Giovanno's proposal.

"Well, if you get tired of living here, you can just run away. Until then, we welcome you."

Giovanno said that while twisting his villain face into a grin and shaking hands with Patchino.

* * *

"Foooh~~~! Alright, break's over! Let's work hard in the afternoon too!"

"Okay."

"Roger!"

"Uooooh!"

At the perverted old geezer's command, the four members of the road-building team stood up at once.

The road to the base they're aiming for is almost complete.

Patchino turns around and gazes at the road they've built so far.

No alcohol.

No particular entertainment either.

But a regular, healthy daily life where they don't have to worry about food.

A daily life where they gather around the campfire when the sun sets, talk nonsense, and go to sleep early.

Such are the days of labor in the pioneer settlement in the demon realm forest.

Until coming here, he never even thought about living such days.

He had never even slightly considered wanting to lead such a life.

However, such a life wasn't so bad after all.

Giovanno had said they could "run away," but Patchino no longer had any such intention at all.

The other three probably feel the same way.

Not as heroes.

Even after knowing they were outcast former hero fraudsters.

Even so, the base that accepted them is their place to belong.

It's their new home that they must protect.

That's how Patchino felt now.

"Hey! Don't space out and hurry up and chant the magic!"

"Shut up, perverted old geezer! I'm doing it now!"

Even as he was poked by Earthcell and cursed, Patchino's face had a smile.

It wasn't a forced one...... it was a very natural smile.

W-Wait, aren't you skipping a lot of the story, "Tea Dragon's Heel"!?

I have a feeling that might be the case, but it can't be helped.

The topic of adding new members has already been done at the stage of Earthcell joining.

Doing the same thing again that's already been done once would be boring, right? (for the author)

So this is fine.

Since it's a hobby novel, the author should do what they want to do!

By the way, originally the fake heroes were planned to appear in the Kaise Forest at the conceptual stage.

They were supposed to be exposed as fakes, exiled to the forest, meet Emi there, curse at her, and get eaten by a large monster, playing a hopeless role.

Yeah...... it's good that the development changed!

Well, the story of this arc will start rolling a little more soon.

I wonder if I can do it well?

I look forward to your continued support.