Chapter 77: Legendary Warrior (2)

“…What the hell?”

Ibi still seemed to not quite understand what she had just seen.

On the other hand, Miki had been frozen in place since a while ago.

“Th-That person, is he, the…”

If Ibi was in disbelief, Miki seemed to be in denial.

“Legendary warrior… who was a member of the Kapers…?”

It couldn't be helped.

The sight of Toric we had just seen was too far removed from that of a legendary warrior.

As much as he had been excited to finally meet a member of the organization that the heroes he had admired since he was a child belonged to in real life, he must have been more than just disappointed.

It was as if his fantasies had shattered, and his childhood memories had been completely denied.

“M-Maybe it was someone else? Maybe we came to the wrong place…?”

Seeing Miki's completely dazed expression, Lily seemed to be trying to somehow salvage the situation, but unfortunately, that pot-bellied drunkard was indeed the warrior I was looking for.

“We are not suspicious people.”

Therefore, I knocked on the door again.

“We are not missionaries, nor are we merchants.”

At that, whether he was deliberately ignoring me or not, there was no response from beyond the door, but I stubbornly continued to knock.

Then, finally, a response came.

Instead of the slow, creaking sound of the wooden board from before, I heard stomping footsteps.

Then once more, the door was thrown open.

“Don’t you know what ‘get lost’ means?”

I raised the corners of my lips in a grin at Toric who had come out and said.

“I just came to have a little chat with you, Toric.”

“…Get lost, while I’m still being nice.”

Toric shot back in a tone that was clearly annoyed and tried to slam the door shut again, but before he could, I quickly held out what I had in my hand in front of his eyes.

“It's the finest liquor from Stout, you know?”

Then I lightly sloshed it.

“Should I really get lost?”

“…….”

Toric seemed to stare intently at the liquor bottle sloshing in front of his eyes for a while, and then.

“…Hoo.”

He let out another loud sigh and went back inside the house.

However, this time, instead of slamming the door shut, he left it wide open.

I gave a light nod to my companions.

“Kehahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

Toric and Ibi burst into hearty laughter.

Perhaps it was because they were both drinkers.

After a few drinks together, the two of them became friends at a very fast pace.

“That’s when I said. ‘Last one! First come, first served!’”

“Kehaha! You really screwed them over!”

“You should have seen the look on their faces when they came running, shouting ‘Me! Me!’.”

The age difference between the two, even though they were of different races, was almost nine to ten times.

Nevertheless, the way they exchanged trivial jokes and roared with laughter made it hard to believe that they had just met today.

Of course, for the first three drinks or so, Toric had just silently accepted the liquor I poured for him.

But from the next drink, he started to open up, and by the sixth drink, he had become friends with Ibi.

Sure enough, the liquor from Stout that I had brought was quickly finished, but Toric started to treat us, saying that his house was overflowing with barrels of liquor.

And indeed, one room was full of liquor barrels.

The eyewitness account from the tavern of seeing him carrying a large wooden barrel must have been of him carrying that liquor barrel up.

“Hey, want a bomb shot?”

“Oh, sounds good. Make me one.”

As we drank like that, the sun had completely set outside.

Since my purpose wasn't to drink, I was deliberately holding back and controlling myself.

…There was also the last incident.

Rine didn't drink much in the first place, and Miki, who was a pretty good drinker, was still in a daze, as if he hadn't recovered from the shock, and was barely drinking.

And Lily, had already passed out long ago.

It was because, not long after receiving the first glass when we opened the liquor from Stout, she kept giggling next to me, fiddling with my hair, or smacking her lips at the sight of my exposed neck, and then, when she belatedly thought she should come to her senses, she had gulped down what was actually Rine's glass, not water, before we could stop her.

Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that the empty bottles and barrels rolling on the floor were practically the work of Ibi and Toric.

But thanks to that, we had succeeded in lightening the mood, so.

“May I ask you one thing, Mr. Toric?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

It was now time to get to the main point.

“I heard a rumor that you were a member of the ‘Kapers’, is that true?”

The moment the word Kapers came out, I saw Miki flinch and subtly prick up his ears.

On the other hand, Toric, who had been roaring with laughter while drunk just a moment ago, froze with a completely hardened expression, as if nothing had happened.

Even Ibi, who had been laughing with him, was so taken aback that she also stopped laughing.

Then, he soon twisted his lips into a bitter smile.

“…That's an old story.”

Then he chugged the beer in his hand in one go, and let out a burp that reeked of alcohol.

At that moment.

“Y-You really were a Kaper…?!

Miki, who had been quietly sipping in the corner, suddenly got up and moved to sit in front of Toric.

It was as if the shock of seeing the warrior he had expected was one thing, and the story of the Kapers was another.

“To meet a Kaper…! It’s an honor!”

Toric was so taken aback by the sparkling eyes that started to look at him that he even flinched back a little.

“……I’m, a Kaper.”

Perhaps burdened by that gaze, Toric eventually turned his head away from Miki.

“I’ve never done anything worth boasting about to others, enough for you to look at me with those eyes.”

“B-But, in the stories I’ve heard──”

“Stories are just stories.”

When Toric firmly cut him off, Miki seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then, as if he couldn't easily accept his words, he continued.

“You’ve saved the world from crisis several times…”

“……No.”

Toric, who seemed unable to bear it any longer, finally shot up from his seat.

“I couldn’t save anything.”

But he was already very drunk and lost his balance for a moment and staggered, and Miki, surprised, hurriedly got up to support him.

Toric pushed his hand away as if to shake him off, and then.

“Go now. It's late.”

He waved his hand and staggered, barely managing to keep his balance, and headed to the bedroom.

“Thanks for the drink.”

Although it wasn't as harsh as when he had chased us away from the door, his tone was even more firm than then.

* * *

In the backyard of Toric's house, there were two small stone towers.

Every dawn, Toric knelt in front of them.

He didn't say anything, or clasp his hands, or bow his head.

He just sat there with his eyes closed, as if meditating.

The villagers didn't know that it was his own way of praying.

Leaving aside the meaning, in the first place, they had no reason to come up here, at this early hour of the morning.

No one had ever seen it.

But since I knew its meaning well, I sat on a nearby rock and waited quietly so as not to disturb him.

Even so, he must have felt my presence, but Toric showed no reaction and just continued his prayer in silence.

“…Why are you here again?”

Until he got up from his seat after a while and finally spoke to me.

Then, instead of looking at me, Toric walked towards the liquor bottle he had placed nearby, and as soon as he picked it up, he chugged it straight from the bottle.

Even after chugging down a whole bottle without stopping, he didn't look at me.

“Were you praying?”

“…….”

He did flinch for a moment at my direct question, but that was it.

Toric walked back to the house without another word.

“If you're looking for an interesting story, there's none here, bard.”

“I didn't come looking for a story.”

I followed Toric's large back and continued.

“I came looking for a companion.”

At these words, Toric, who had stopped opening the old wooden door, finally glanced at me.

Then he let out a snort.

“Then you're looking for something that's not here even more.”

Slam!

Then the door was slammed shut.

After returning to the campsite set up on one side of the village and finishing breakfast, this time, I went to Toric's house with my companions again.

“…You’re here again? You guys never get tired, do you.”

As soon as he saw me, Toric immediately let out a sigh and shook his head.

“I don't know what kind of rumor you heard to come all the way here, but there’s no legendary warrior here, nor any Kaper from the stories.”

Thwack!

A heavy axe blade came down, and a thick log was neatly split in half.

Toric didn't stop and brought another log and placed it on the wooden stump again.

“But there is a ‘warrior’, isn't there?”

I said to Toric with a nonchalant smile.

“You’re still a warrior, aren't you?”

“Are you kidding me?”

Toric sneered at me.

“I haven't held an axe since I put it down a long time ago. I’ve forgotten how to swing it.”

“Then what's that in your hand right now?”

“…….”

At my words, Toric looked at the ‘axe’ in his hand.

But that was also for a moment, and in the end, ignoring my words, he chopped the firewood again.

Thwack!

This time too, the neatly split logs fell to the floor.

“Get lost.”

Well, his words weren't a lie.

The axe── not that logging axe, but the ‘war axe’ he had wielded as a Kaper, he really hadn't held it since he put it down.

In the first place, he had buried it in the ground, vowing never to hold it again for the rest of his life.

“I'm sorry, but you'll have to pick it up again.”

“What?”

“Your axe.”

Therefore, he was no longer a legendary warrior.

Just a pot-bellied drunkard of the same level as us, whose skills and body had rusted away.

“It was ‘Stras’, wasn't it?”

“……!”

For a moment, Toric's eyes, as he looked at me, turned fiercer than I had ever seen.

To the point where my companions who saw it with me flinched unconsciously.

It couldn't be helped.

“…Which bastard, told you?”

Because it was the name of the culprit who had made him put down his axe.

“He's alive. That guy.”

──Spin, and.

For a moment, my vision rotated.

When I came to my senses, I was already looking at the sky.

With the enraged face of Toric, who had rushed over in the blink of an eye, pushed me to the ground, and grabbed me by the collar.