Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 156

Chapter 156

< Running Away from the Hero! 156 #18. What did I even do? (5)>

All the carefully laid plans had a tendency of going astray at some point.

For instance, plans made at the end, or the beginning, of the year usually falls by the wayside eventually, dont they?

Youd cook up a plan for the entire year, then buy one of those diaries that cost an arm and a leg despite nothing is written inside. On top of that, youd also buy the planner just in case.

While feeling chuffed about yourself, youd start writing your resolutions for the coming year in those diaries and planners, then tell yourself that youd definitely succeed this time.

As for the resolution itself, its contents would largely be similar person-to-person.

This year, I will study something-or-rather. This year, I will start that diet. This year, I will get a qualification for this-and-that. This year, I will read X number of books in a month!

You tell yourself that, make all sorts of plans, then do your best to carry them out.

Only up to the first quarter of the year, that is.

By the time the heat of Summer arrives, the diary with only the first portion filled out would sit there covered in dust, its pages forever destined to be left blank. And this diary with only the events of January and February written on its pages would get discarded come the end of the year when you go out to buy its replacement.

This cycle would continue to repeat itself forever.

However, this act wasnt completely meaningless. Well, at the very least, the employees of the diary manufacturer would get their monthly salaries, so theres that.

Besides, me not sticking to the resolution was because of my own whims changing over time, not due to someone else interfering with my life, anyway.

Unfortunately, though Whats happening right now wasnt because of my mind changing, but other people butting in to ruin my plans. And this act of ruining my plans was totally irreversible, too.

Sir Hero!

It, its Sir Hero!

Its the Hero of Light, Sir Swinn!

A massive crowd of cheering people could be seen rushing up to us.

Kkyah~, just how did they recognise this idiots face from so far away?

Man, your vision must be 20/20 or something. Are you all perhaps the descendants of the Mongols?

What a scary village this was, one that might conquer the entire world someday!

-Master, master. I thought your disciple was the Hero from the Order of Nature? So why is he the Hero of Light now?

-How should I know?

The hero later told me that people gave him that title because of his blonde locks and his penchant for using a golden-hued sword aura.

Hearing that explanation only made me more curious about why he wasnt called the Hero of Gold instead, though. However, I decided to not bother asking since even the hero himself didnt seem to know.

Whatever the case might be, I still got the feeling that his title would be rather helpful towards manipulating information in my favour.

Sir Hero, bandits raided our village and kidnapped some of our womenfolk, sir!

Not only that, but orcs also raided us and robbed us of our food supply!

And on top of that, our evil feudal lord forcibly confiscated the meagre food remaining under the pretext of collecting tax

And even goblins

Villagers clung to the hero and began to whine about their plight.

Damn, every single story they told him sounded pretty serious. As if they all received correction from the Hero Effect (passive).

-Master, this world is so scary

-My sentiment exactly.

Being a bandit in this world was a very challenging life choice to make. You see, there was a good chance of monsters roaming around in the mountains.

A gang of bandits usually formed when people, who couldnt stand the tyrannical ways of their evil lords, chose to flee and gather as a group. Some were criminals that couldnt live normal lives among regular folks.

It was safe to assume that most of these gangs didnt have anyone with professional military training under their belt. Which meant their combat prowess wasnt all that better than most regular citizens.

So, to say that such a gang of bandits could survive in the wild mountainside populated by monsters?

Now that would be a tall order, indeed.

Of course, it was more common to find a mountain with no monsters living on it. But that would, in turn, imply that the security issue with that particular region was rather excellent. A safe place, in other words.

When monsters were too scarce to give the soldiers any practical combat experience, it was not unusual to see their target shifting over to bandits, instead.

It wasnt for nothing that there was an old saying of, Being a bandit is tougher than being a mercenary in this world.

But to my surprise, some bandits decided to raid this village. Not only that, orcs, an evil feudal lord, and as an additional bonus, even goblins, too!

Such a comprehensive set list of gifts would be rather difficult to see in ones lifetime!

And the damn hero!

Its quite alright, everyone. Something like that happens often in life, after all. I shall take care of them.

Accepted them all without even batting a single eyelid!

-Master, he even said these things happen often, too.

-I always figured its only my surroundings that have lost their damn minds, but as it turns out, my life so far has been a blessed one.

-Master, could it be that the village we lived in happens to be the safest one in the entire world?

-Thats a good possibility, actually.

The odds of running into such a comprehensive gift set would surely be lower than the former Sword Star living next door to me under the guise of a kindly grandpa.

I couldnt see any tall, imposing mountains forming great mountain ranges anywhere nearby. But to think that orcs and bandits were co-existing side by side in a land of flat hills like this!

The empires scholars must be clamouring to get here as soon as possible, wanting to research and publish their findings right away!

-Thats because theres no need, master! Events like that dont happen to regular people, you know?! All this is happening because its you, master! Youre the problem!

-Keuk

I so badly wanted to deny it but couldnt.

Thats because I had already encountered every conceivable type of calamity imaginable. Those events might not have been on the level of Hero-class, but still!

-Nope, not true! Even the hero doesnt have it as insane as you, master! Youre marked by that Imperial Princess sister, marked by the elves, and now, even the gods have marked you, too! Wait a minute, what the heck? I didnt even include your disciples in that list, but its already this ridiculous?!

-N-no, hang on a bloody second! My trials still arent on the level of Hero-class yet! Im telling you!

My heart began burning down to cinders just like the corpses of the bandits burning vigorously away.

Dad? Why are you covered in a cold sweat like that?

My daughter, with the metal bat behind her covering her ears, lightly tugged at my sleeve while tilting her head.

Since I didnt want my girl to listen to the screams of burning people, I picked up a branch from nearby and scribbled some words on the dirt below.

[Well, all this playing around with fire is making me want to pee, you see.]

Eiiiit, dad! Youre such an idiot!

My daughter scolded me for playing around with fire even though I was a grown-up and all.

Even so, I couldnt tell her the truth when she had always been scared of a large-scale fire. Not to forget, she had to witness the scene of our farmlands going up in flames only a few days ago, too.

[My bad, my bad.]

I quickly scribbled my apology on the dirt, then told the metal bat to get somewhere as far away from here as possible.

About ten minutes later

Never mind the bandits, even their hideout had turned to piles of ashes by then. The hero flicked his hand once, prompting all the flames to go out instantly.

I made a comment at that. You have completely tamed the flow of magical energy as your own, Sir Hero.

Its all thanks to your teachings, instructor.

This punk, hes still saying that its all my fault and stuff?

-But master, the problem with that is its all true, isnt it?

-Hah, this damn talent of mine. It really

-Its your disciples talents, not yours!

Hey, its all thanks to me that their talents had a chance to bloom in the first place.

No, hang on. Before all that, though. I couldnt help but notice that every action this hero punk had made so far was based on all the things I taught him in the past.

-Heh, to think that the evil organisation was the best place to train the hero! What a shocker, master.

-I knew it. Every knowledge learned is useful in its own way, huh.

Thats why I prayed that those sundry subjects I had to learn back in my middle and high school days would come in handy sooner rather than later.

I mean, seriously now. Some other people became archmages or some kinda cheat magicians through their maths skills, you know!

-Master, you still havent let go of that impossible dream of becoming a magician until now?

-Well, becoming a magician is a mans romance, after all.

Someone once told me that a man could become an archmage when he turns thirty. But, uh, did it not apply to me because my previous life was also included in the equation or something?

Its finished now, instructor.

While I stood there thinking about any potential link between my previous life and this one, Sir Hero walked up to me and said something. He had already finished putting out the conflagration and even checked to see any embers were still remaining.

You dont seem all that conflicted, Sir Hero.

I only did what had to be done, after all. The hero shook his head while maintaining his usual expression. It was as if nothing of importance had happened here. Now then. Shall we make our way back down the mountain?

Yes, let us.

The hero displayed a rather mature, dignified air just then.

Of course, plenty of heroes ended up being broken after persisting in this path. However, he was one of my former disciples, so surely hed take better care of himself without me worrying about him.

Besides, my daughter is far more important than him, anyway!

I held my daughters hand and followed the hero from a bit of a distance away to climb down the mountainside.

With this, we probably were finished dealing with the matters plaguing that village. Ah, wait. There were the goblins too, werent there?

A villager informed us. The knights dispatched by this kingdom have already dealt with the goblins, Sir Hero.

Oh, oooh! It seemed that things were finally turning in our favour.

This was noticeably different from a certain other world where knights didnt want to deal with goblins since those monsters were seen as weak mobs.

And also some important people from the kingdom are here and they wish to speak to you, Sir Hero.

Is that so?

This kind of thing seemed to be a regular occurrence because the hero simply nodded and headed to the village chiefs house without much fuss.

And in that house

Please, Sir Hero! We beg of you to hunt the dragon down!

Please, save this kingdom!

We somehow got saddled with a dragon raid quest.