Chapter 17 – / 17

/ 17

“..Hmm? “What were you talking about?”

“Ah, so… This is a summons from the capital. I think you’d better leave immediately.”

“Oh, that’s right. Okay, we’ll leave today.”

After receiving a salute from her guard captain, Aisha went straight up to her room and took her women’s clothes.

This inn was also a place that Aisha had a fondness for. In fact, it would have been easy for her to find a separate house in this village, but she decided to stay at this inn for a long period of time. Sometimes she had a problem with someone who got drunk like today, but that was something she just had to deal with quietly.

Aisha left her room carrying her small luggage aside and ran into a small girl in her hallway. She was Annie, the child who had been molested by drunkards earlier.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes, I have been indebted to you a lot during this time.”

“Thank you. I received a lot more help.”

Aisha strokes Annie’s head in silence. Even though she is the benefactor of the empire, she is still a beast. The discrimination that had accumulated over a long period of time did not disappear, but the girl in front of her saw her as she was. She has lived for over a hundred years and has built up many relationships, but she has had very few people who see her as she is.

Was that why? The reason I could hardly leave this small inn.

“Don’t make that kind of face. It’s not like I can’t see you forever.”

“Yes…”

Even though she said so, Aisha did not think that this girl’s future would be bright. She has been able to protect herself so far, but once even she is gone, this child becomes alone again. There was no guarantee that one day she wouldn’t be caught by mean men like today and be treated badly. Just like Aisha was sold to a pervert nobleman in the past.

But Aisha could not say anything. She will never be like Leon, who saved her as a child. It is irresponsible to say something useless when she is not responsible.

“Then let’s go.”

Aisha, carrying only a little bit of women’s clothing on her side, passed by Annie. Annie watched her back in silence.

“..Huh?”

Annie tried to turn her head one last time to see Aisha disappear down the stairs, but she had no choice but to stop looking at her again.

“That guy is definitely…”

As soon as Aisha went down, she saw a man coming up her stairs, crossing her path. He is a man wearing strange clothes that I have never seen before. Come to think of it, I think he definitely saw it when he was at the pub. I don’t remember her very well, though.

But things were turning strangely. For some reason, Aisha, who had gone down the stairs, was trying to come back towards the man. No, to be exact, she was Aisha. She was trying to get as close to the man as possible.

“Why are you doing that?”

Annie became curious as she looked somehow different from the usual Aisha, so she started to approach the two people.

At that time, Aisha’s voice was heard. It was a voice so desperate that Annie, who was approaching, was started and stopped in her tracks.

“Leon..!”

…

“Leon..! “Leon!”

Aisha was crying.

Almost a hundred years have passed, but she still remembers that smell. It was the scent of the former warrior, Leon.

As Aisha walked down her stairs, a man passed her. That was the smell coming from him.

Since she was seeing the man she loved again after almost a century, it was only natural that she shed tears and hugged him.

But the man was not the one she was looking for.

“Hey..! Calm down. It’ll be troublesome if you suddenly act like this…”

“..Eh?”

I definitely thought it was Leon… But the other person was completely different from Leon in voice and appearance, just an ordinary man I had never seen before.

When Aisha realized it too late, she was embarrassed and said,

“I can’t believe it… Leon’s scent is definitely… Still like this…”

“Hey, I don’t know the situation, but I’m not that guy named Leon. So, that’s enough…”

The man said that and went into his room without even looking back.

“…”

Aisha could only stare blankly at her back with her still wet eyes.

…

In the end, Aisha was unable to leave Roswell Village that day. The man who smelled like Leon, who was staying in the room next to her, was so nervous that she couldn’t bear it.

Aisha decided to stay one more day, but that night, she secretly broke into the room next to her where the man was staying. She was a Myoin and a martial artist, so sneaking in through the window of the room next to her was a piece of cake.

“…”

Aisha quietly looked down at the face of the man sleeping soundly in her bed.

It was definitely not Leon. He looked different and seemed to be of a different age. Leon was a handsome young man in his early twenties. On the other hand, the man in front of him looked a little older than he was at the time, and they didn’t seem to look much alike. In the first place, there is no way that Leon, a human, could have survived in his youthful form for over a hundred years.

If I had to find something in common between Leon and this man, it would be black hair, which is rare among humans on this continent. She liked Leon’s hair, which was the same color as her own. What more can I say about her, as the unknown man in front of her was starting to like her even more because of the color of her hair.

Little by little, Aisha suppressed her increasingly rough breathing, and she carefully placed her nose against the man’s body.

“Sniff… Ah…! It’s this smell as expected… Leon… Leon…!”

Aisha looked ecstatic, as if she had inhaled a dangerous drug for a moment. Her reason was telling her that the man in front of her was not Leon, but her instinct was telling her to rush into the man’s arms and embrace him. Aisha was literally showing extreme patience to suppress that instinct.

“But why… What on earth is this man…?”

It was that time.

“Hmm..?”

“!”

The man opened his eyes.

The two people’s eyes met, and there was a bit of silence.

“Ah… That one from earlier… Ugh..!?”

As soon as the man opened his mouth, Aisha quickly covered his mouth and attacked the man.

“Eup!”

It was an instant for the man to be subdued by Aisha. Since she was originally Aisha, a member of her former Hero party and a former hero, it was impossible to defeat her unless she was a decent man.

“Quiet… If you move carelessly, I will rearrange the positions of all the joints in your body.”

“…”

The man could only nod his head in response to the bloody threat.

On the other hand, Aisha was also questioning her own actions. Why am I subduing and threatening a man I just met? He is already committing something that is no different from a crime. There was that awareness, but it was already too late to turn it back.

After Aisha had the man lie face down on her bed, she climbed on top of him and restrained his arms. Only after she was in the perfect back mount position did Aisha gently remove her hand from covering her man’s mouth her her her her.

Aisha said.

“What is your name?”

“Your name..? I’m Kang Min-woo, but… “

“River… “What?”

“This is Kang Min-woo. Please just call me Min-woo.”

“Minwoo… That’s a strange name.”

“Is that really the case?”

Aisha continued to ask questions, not noticing that the man was strangely calm despite being subdued.

“What is your relationship with the hero?”

“A hero? If you’re a hero… Do you mean that you are summoned from another world to defeat the Demon King?”

“Don’t act like a fool! Don’t even answer a question with a question!”

“Ah, it hurts! I understand. I understand…”

The man started crying just because Aisha lightly applied weight to him. I don’t think such a weak man could be a hero, but… Aisha quietly waited for the man’s answer.

“Actually… I’m not from here.”

“What does that mean?”

“So… Ugh… I don’t know… But when I came to my senses, I found myself in a strange place…”

“Explain it so I can understand it properly!”

“Hey… Can’t we just let this go and talk about it? I don’t have the ability or intention to run away from you anyway…”

“…”

Aisha regained her cool slightly at the man’s plea. Yes, anyway, this man only has the strength of an ordinary villager. Even if he doesn’t oppress him, he won’t be able to run away from himself.

Above all, Aisha could not help but feel weak as the man who smelled like Leon begged her. Although she didn’t notice it herself.

Aisha released the man.

The man wiped away the sweat and smoothed his wrists. Aisha’s pressure she must have been quite painful. Aisha held back the words that were about to come out of her mouth, saying sorry, but then she said something else.

“I let you go, so explain quickly. What does it mean… To not be from here? Explain everything about who you are.”

Aisha scolded the man without giving him any time to spare. But in reality, it was on her part that she had no peace of mind. She would definitely notice that the man was smiling faintly.

The man started talking.

The story was simple yet absurd. The man told me that he was from another world, that he had been summoned here without his knowledge, and that he had walked all the way here in a desolate field, desperate for his life.

There was no evidence that he was not a hero, but Aisha had already received a summons from the empire. The summons stated that a new hero had been summoned and that he should come and act as a teacher. In other words, the new hero is now in the capital. Then, the conclusion is that this man is not actually a warrior.

“Then you’re not really a hero.”