Chapter 32: A Common Way Of Entering A Stage (It Won'T Hurt)!

Hi, Indra here. Your local heroine who showed up as promised!

Yep, you could put it like that, right? Anyway, it seems like things have gotten slightly hairy.

I wondered what I should do since I hadn't been taught whether it was alright for me to poke my nose into the battles of other adventurers, but if they die because I didn't help them, I'd feel like it was my fault, and if that argument doesn't fly, I'll just allow myself to get scolded, yep.

In the first place, the monsters don't really seem to be all that tough. Is something wrong with them? Are they maybe tired or something?

Well, it's obvious that they're exhausted, I suppose. Maybe they enjoyed the thrill of going without a map a bit too much and got lost?

"T-These guys are evolved goblins! A Goblin Warrior and a Goblin Mage! Normal methods won't work against them!"

Thanks for the explanation.

In short, they're strong...? They are shivering in fright as they're looking at me, though?

"...They don't appear to be all that strong, though..."

"Is this the time to look down on the enemy!? If you do something like that, you'll die right away!!"

"But, they seem to be scared of me, you know? Monsters can discern strength, so they have to be weak enemies since they've become afraid after seeing me."

"...Eh?"

The girl looks at the monsters, apparently stunned.

Hmm, it'd go against my style to kill those who don't attack me out of fear. Then again, I don't really have a style.

"If you leave now, I'll let you go. So, get lost."

When I said so to the goblins, they scurried away in a hurry. Yep, as I thought, they were weak.

"Wait a sec!? Why are you letting them get away!?"

"My current request is to rescue stranded examinees. Not the killing of monsters. Besides, if I killed scared, non-resistant monsters, it'd leave a bad aftertaste. Getting joy out of tormenting frightened monsters is a fairly trashy fetish to have."

Since my remark caused everyone to look dumbfounded, it looks like I've messed up again.

...I'll ignore it!

I took out a hand-held magic tool for communication.

"Sword, Indra speaking. I've succeeded in rescuing one party of the rescue targets."

...With a crackling, I can hear various line such as 『Hey Ryoku, how can I talk to her?』, 『Eh? This? Rather, your goin' to talk?』, and 『Give it a rest 'n pass it to me. I want to talk to her!』.

『Can you hear me, Indra?』

"Loud and clear."

Then I heard, 『Ohh, so you can hear me!』, 『Eh? You want to talk with her?』, and 『No, it's fine. I'll talk with her』.

You, who have are currently chatting veeery normally with Ryoku, always look at me coldly whenever I talk with Ryoku!

『*cough* We are...done on our side. I think it's fine to call it like that. We had some troubles over here, but I'm gonna toss them into Ryoku's pod and head back』

"Ehh!? Wait a sec! Could you spare me from throwing filthy, old men into my cute Ryoku? Those guys stank quite a bit, okay? I'm 100% sure that they don't wash themselves!"

『Don't worry, I'll wrap 'em up in blankets! Anyway, I'm goin' back, so hurry back yourself as well!』He yelled at me.

I disconnected the communication device with a shrug, and faced the girls. They were still frozen in sheer amazement.

"Let's see...I guess I'll first take care of your injuries."

Since one of them had been stabbed, I treated her.

"...What's this?"

That's what draws her attention?

"...Ah, around here you can heal everything with a medicine called healing potion or something like that, right? I don't really like that. Medical treatment should be carried out slowly through your own bodily healing functions. Then again, it'd be bad to leave the wound alone. Once you carefully wash out the wound opening and block it with fat, it'll heal up nicely through your own regenerative powers. This here is a special ointment I made myself which combines detoxifying, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects. On top of that it does skin care and repairs the flesh tissues. If you apply this, cover it with a jelly pad, and rest for a bit, your wound will heal up completely in a week. Probably."

Probably because I haven't tested it myself yet since I didn't get injured so far. But, the ointment is a special creation that uses the ingredients I found after capitalizing on the knowledge of my otherworld self. Hence it ought to work, I think.

I smeared it on her wound, and applied a handmade jelly pad.

"Okay, all that's left is to carry you girls."

"""Haah...?"""

I took out a special wooden rack with shoulder straps. With its bench shape, three girls can easily fit on it.

"...Wait a minute! Are you possibly planning to put us on that thing and then walk while carrying us!?" The strong-willed girl pointed at the rack, trembling all over.

"No need to guess the obvious, is there? Don't worry, a girl's weight is famous for being lighter than that of a feather."

"""Who would believe such nonsense!?"""

It's clearly true! My weight is lighter than that of a feather, after all!

I had the unwilling girls sit down on the rack, and then fastened them to the rack and tied them together.

"Alrighty, make sure to not bite your tongues since it might be a somewhat bumpy ride. I've warned you, okay?"

"Wait a sec. This is a crazy idea!"

"Stop, please stop. Seriously!"

"Hey, I'm wounded, or did you forget!? What are you going to do if things end up in a disaster by you trying to do the impossible!?"

They keep quacking, but luckily I don't hear aaanything thanks to my soundproofing spell.

"Okay, now hold out for a bit. Also, grit your teeth, relying on your willpower as girls, to avoid puking, got it?"

After lifting up the rack on my back, I dashed off at full speed.

"""Nooooooo~~~~~~~~~ooo!!!"""

We arrived after around five minutes.

*

"Oh, there you are."

"Sorry, one of them was wounded, so I had to treat her."

Sword was already waiting for me. After opening the pod, he retrieved some old dudes from within.

"...Sure made somethin' weird again, haven't you? Or rather, don't you have any pity with 'em?" He commented while looking at the girls who were ghastly pale while still fastened to the rack.

"No, I actually think you should use this as well. This one here is a lot more stable."

"No thanks. It'd be a huge pain if they started to piss themselves."

Oh, I hadn't considered that possibility.

...Peeing, huh?

"Did you know? The water coming out of a girl is called 『Holy Water』. I hear some men will pay big amounts of money for it." I informed him with a broad grin of what I had suddenly recalled.

"Hey, old man, gimme a break with weird ass noble knowledge."

"You're wrong. It's knowledge from the other world."

"That's even worse!"

...When I quickly glanced at the old men Sword had pulled out of the pod, several of them were dead.

"You weren't in time, huh?"

"Two have survived."

The two men rolled out of the pod, their clothes in tatters. The instant they came out, one started to yell at Sword.

"It's all your fault! You! If you had come to save us earlier...! Moony, Sig, and Nick wouldn't have died!!"

......

What is he ranting about?

I kicked him for good measure.

"Uuuaagh!"

Sword scratched his head, "Come on, don't kick 'em. It'd waste my savin' them if you kill 'em here, don't you think?"

"The request has been completed since we've rescued them. We're now free to do as we please, aren't we? It's a common occurrence for the people you rescued to turn against you or switch into being your enemy. If they're not happy with being rescued and cut their ties, I'll kill them."

"Don't."

I reluctantly nodded since Sword held me back. I guess I'll keep it at a level where they won't die.

I looked at one of the old buggers, "Hey, you there. If you claim that we're at fault for your party members having died because we came too late to your rescue, how much responsibility do you carry for having taken the C-Rank exam?"

"W-What was that!?"

"I'm asking you how much responsibility you bear for letting your friends die in such an easy dungeon because you didn't even possess the ability to protect them."

Sword slapped his forehead.

"Hey, give him a break. He lost his cool because his friends died. You gotta understand that he can't cope with it unless he lays the blame on someone else."

"And that's you then? I don't get the reasoning... The people of this world are truly selfish. I got to say, this place seems to be teeming with folks who blame their own mistakes on others."

"...Hey." Sword placed a hand on my shoulder.

"He's blaming someone else because he lost his cool? And you get blamed even though it's not even your fault? I don't understand how this kind of logic would even work. ...You, explain it to me. Tell me why Sword's having come too late for the rescue would be at fault for your party members having died? Did you ask Sword to help you? I was always at his side, but I've never heard you utter any such words, you know? Having come too late for the rescue would mean that you had at least requested Sword to rescue you guys and that Sword accepted that request, right? Of course it'd have come with the term that he'd need to take responsibility in case you died, no? ...But, I don't know anything of such an exchange between you two. Come on, hurry up and answer me."

"...Shut up! In the first place, our pace got messed up because you went ahead so quickly!"

Whoa, how scummy. Now this guy is trying to push the blame on me.

In the next moment, Sword kicked him, blowing the moron away.

"...I feel like it was you who warned me to not kill them." I retorted, but got ignored.

"...I can forgive it if you stick to blamin' me. I'm an S-Rank, so I'll accept the blame if I hadn't been in time despite 'em still bein' alive when I headed out for the rescue. But, why'd you blame an unrelated adventurer who took the same exam as you? Also, care to tell me what you've said to her before the exam started? Well?"

Sword grabbed the guy by the hair with a somehow scary face, and started to question him.

"You said 『She's set to pass this rigged exam thanks to her connections』, and you ridiculed her with 『Only an idiot would run so quickly』 even after the exam started, didn't you? In other words, you considered her to be someone who'd pass through her connections without even havin' the ability to back it, right? So? Why would such a superb adventurer like you fail to pace himself due to the existence of a stupid D-Rank adventurer who doesn't know how to pace herself in a rigged exam? Come on, tell me! Why? Explain it in a way I can understand!!"

After having been kicked, the guy started to bawl while groaning. Sword clicked his tongue, threw him on the ground, and gave him another kick.

I looked down at the idiot, tilting my head to the side.

"Shouldn't we rather say that he's the one to be blamed the most for his party members having died? In short, he's desperately pushing the blame on you and me because he wants to shirk his own responsibility, and not because he lost his cool, don't you think? It's a really common trick among selfish old men with a big pride who specialize in shifting the blame."

He reminds me of my otherworld's boss!

When I looked up, I noticed that everyone was watching us with indescribable expressions.

"...It is very reasonable for you to have taken offense, but please leave it at that. We still have some business with these guys."

"...Okay, okay." Sword spat out a deep sigh, and turned around.

......Somehow Sword seems to be acting weird.

*

It looked like we'd be given a ride on a carriage on the way back to town, but I didn't want to get on something that shook so much.

Hence, I'll ride Ryoku!

"I can take those who are injured or totally exhausted with me, if you like? If you're worrying about peeing or puking, don't worry. I can give you a lift after making you faint."

I said out of deepest kindness, but everyone shook their heads at ultra-high speed.