I Was in Charge of Scouting for the Hero’s Party

7. People can’t rewrite

After Maya left, I tossed and turned in bed thinking about this and that, and eventually ended up staying up all night with my eyes open.

My body was tired from coming to the city through the forest where the demon army was stationed for 8 days.

It was when I finally got out of bed with a drowsy mind, and sat on the bed with the bag I had packed in advance the night before, dozing off.

– Knock Knock

As I was about to lean forward due to heavy fatigue, Princess Alexis’ voice came along with a knock on the door.

– Sir Austin… Are you awake?

I sat there blankly for a moment unable to close my half-open mouth, and then I got up with difficulty and opened the door to my room.

“Ah… Sir Austin. You’re awake.”

Princess Alexis looked up at me with the same attitude as she knocked on the door, probably trying to knock on the door again when I didn’t get an answer.

“Good morning, Princess Alexis.”

“Yes. Yes, Sir Austin said yesterday that he wanted to use the gate as soon as possible today… I unavoidably knocked on the door at an early hour. I’m sorry if I’ve bothered you.”

“No, thank you. I’d better go early.”

After saying good-bye to each other, we had a simple breakfast on the first floor of the inn and then moved to the magic tower.

“……”

“……”

I felt a strange sense of distance from earlier and an awkward atmosphere somewhere, so I didn’t bother to speak to them first.

As I was walking for such a long time, Princess Alexis first broke the silence and started talking to me.

“That… Sir Austin.”

“Princess Alexis.”

“N… Huh?”

“I’ll tell you now, but you don’t have to use honorifics for me. It’s just Austin.”

“…Ah…”

For a commoner to give me the title of honor, if I wasn’t a former warrior party member, I probably wouldn’t have been given this honorific title.

Princess Alexis kept calling me Sir Austin, as if it reminded me that I was a member of the warrior’s party before, so it bothered me from before.

“So… Austin…?”

“…Yes. That’s fine. Rather, it’s strange that I, a commoner, have the title of sir.”

In the first place, since the title of Sir was reserved for knights, even if they didn’t remind them that it was a warrior’s party, they would still have expressed their reluctance.

Because I know my subject well.

“Excuse me. So, what I was going to say…”

“Ah! That… This may be a rude question, but could you… Tell us how Austin came to leave the hero’s party?…”

I had to stop using the title sir at best, but at Princess Alexis’s question, which reminded me of the hero’s party again, my eyebrows twitched involuntarily.

“…Princess Alexis said she attends the academy.”

“Yes. But why?”

I continued talking while meeting Princess Alexis’ eyes as she looked at me with a questioning expression.

“In the academy, what kind of classes do you mainly conduct?”

When I didn’t answer Princess Alexis’s question, but asked her instead, Princess Alexis put on a puzzled expression for a moment, then spread her fingers one by one to answer.

“Um… First of all, the professor gives lectures in the classroom. Sometimes he gives assignments, but usually the assignments can be done by oneself, but he randomly forms a group twice a semester. We also do group assignments that do homework.”

“Princess Alexis, how do you deal with members who disagree or are uncooperative when working in groups?”

“…Even though I don’t have that kind of experience… At first, I’ll try to calmly solve it through conversation, but if I still can’t see any room for improvement, I’ll tell the professor and change the group or I’ll go to another group… That would be nice.”

At Princess Alexis’s answer, which suddenly seemed to ask why she asked such a question, I said with a wry smile.

“Like the group assignments at the academy, the parties made up of adventurers and mercenaries are no different. I suffered unintentional friction when I was in the warriors’ party, and that’s why I left the party. I can’t find a satisfactory answer. I don’t know if it happened… But it was just a trivial thing, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

When I said this with a smile on my face, Princess Alexis slowly nodded her head in agreement.

If anyone catches on and complains, or exposes the sh*tty parts of the warrior’s party… Well, I should be relieved.

However, I don’t really want to see the discord of the warriors party go up and down in people’s mouths, and I don’t want to get involved with them again.

“Let’s go.”

“…Ah, yes…!”

From the time Princess Alexis heard my answer to the time she arrived at her mage tower, she walked for a long time with a pensive expression on her face.

With another awkward silence like that, we arrived at the mage’s tower by the time the sun fully appeared.

Princess Alexis, who was allowed to enter the Mage Tower as Princess Alexis, entered the Mage Tower with her. .

I didn’t want to interrupt the reunion between her old master and her apprentice, so I waited for Princess Alexis while sitting on her long chair in the hallway of the Magic Tower.

Perhaps it was because I didn’t sleep well last night, while I was waiting for Princess Alexis, I didn’t even notice that I could feel someone’s presence right next to me. I nodded her head and started to fall into a light sleep.

As I struggled with such drowsiness, I felt something lightly put on my head, leaning sideways and feeling my head rest on something soft and fluffy.

Ah… It’s comfortable. I only slept for an hour like this…

“……?”

Feeling that my cheeks had been tickled since earlier, I struggled to open my stiff eyes and wrinkled my brows to correct the blurred focus.

Long blonde hair, which I have seen many times somewhere, sweeps my face like a feather, and a faint smile is visible through it.

“Austin… It looks like you didn’t sleep well last night. He’s usually wary of his surroundings and never sleeps…”

“……Isabel.”

In front of my eyes was Isabel, a saint who smiled and treated me coldly while I was at a party.

* * *

“Really… What the hell did you do last night… Are you dozing off?”

“…….”

Like Maya did last night, Isabel’s sudden and out of place friendly attitude toward me made me stand up from Isabel’s thighs without saying a word.

Isabelle put on a regretful expression for a moment, then she smiled again and asked me.

“…Yesterday. Maya came to visit, right?”

“…Did Maya tell you about me?”

When I asked the question in reverse, Isabel continued her words with a faint smile that seemed to know her inside.

“No. Maya… Didn’t tell anyone else. Rather… I guess she was trying to hide it?”

“…Maya?”

When I asked in a disbelieving tone, Isabel slowly nodded her head.

If Maya hadn’t told me about me, how on earth would Isabel have come to know where I was?

“hehehe… There is a way. Don’t try to know too much…”

Isabel’s words seemed to see through my thoughts, and I couldn’t help but get a little goosebumps.

“…So. Why are you here?”

“Don’t we have something to talk about?”

“I’m not talking to you.”

“Oh…Don’t do that.”

I put on an expression of boredom at Isabel’s act of slipping her arm into mine, and I pulled her arm out and moved to the far end of her chair.

Isabelle stared at me like that, then came closer to me again, narrowing the distance.

“Go away. Maya is the same, why do you keep clinging to everyone now?”

When I mentioned Maya’s name, Isabel, who was about to cross her arms with me again, paused and stared at me.

“……Why?”

“What happened to Maya last night…?”

“Why do I have to tell you that?”

“No, just… Ha…”

When I kept refusing to answer and cut off the conversation, Isabel, who seemed impatient, brushed her hair with one hand and let out a sigh.

Isn’t this a situation where I need to sigh?

“…Austin. I don’t know what happened to Maya yesterday… But at least I do know that Maya apologized to Austin yesterday.”

“Whether you know it or not, it’s none of my business. Get out of here.”

“Last night, Maya didn’t get a wink of sleep. Neither did I.”

“Can’t you hear me? Don’t talk on the sidelines and go away.”

“Maya slept right next to me. Because of her sniffling all night, I was really worried that Adrien would wake up, so I was really scolded?”

“…Is this woman senile? Get out of here? Or I…”

“I’m sorry.”

“…What?”

Saint Isabel, with a gentle face, is a stubborn and proud woman unlike her appearance.

I’ve seen her like that countless times at parties, so I had no choice but to turn my eyes to Isabel’s apple and meet Isabelle’s eyes.

“I’m really… Sorry. For all the evil I did to you at the party, I sincerely apologize. I’m sorry.”

“…It’s too late, you know that.”

“I know…But…”

“…But?”

When I asked again, Isabel, who was slurring her words, must have been uncomfortable looking into my eyes. She moved her pupils around and then she lowered her head.

“…Austin. We have a mission to catch the demon king. You know that well.”

“It’s amazing. I don’t have a mission like that anymore.”

“Austin… Can you please reconsider leaving the party…? You know best how much effort we’ve put in. Are you going to let our efforts go like this?”

“…What?”

Isabel suddenly mentioned ‘our efforts’ and said as if I was ignoring the efforts they had made and left.

“Our efforts? f*ck, did you finish your words?”

Looking at this crazy b*tch’s impudent attitude, I looked back at how sincere Maya’s apology was yesterday.

“When I was at a party, they treated me like a slave and didn’t even heal me when I was hurt. Now what? Our efforts?

Even though I frowned and cursed, Isabelle continued her speech without a moment’s agitation, still with a serious expression on her face.

“…Austin. I apologize for the rude remarks I made to you. However, at this rate we will not be able to subdue the demon lord. Please reconsider leaving the party.”

“Okay. I’ll reconsider. I just reconsidered, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m leaving. Okay?”

“Austin… Are you going to keep coming out like this…?”

“If it keeps coming out like this, what are you going to do? Let’s hit it?”

“Please… Austin. I need you to defeat the demon lord.”

‘…Just. It’s my stubbornness. I need Austin.’

Why is Isabelle’s and Maya’s apologetic attitude compared to each other?

I let out a deep sigh in my irritation, trying to calm my bubbling stomach.

“…Austin. Are you really going to come out like this?”

Until Isabel said something that made me scratch my insides.

“…I wanted to solve it quietly, but I can’t. Austin, if you keep doing this, I have no choice but to bring the hero.

“…… Hey.”

“Have you changed your mind? That’s great. I didn’t want to force you to drag me…”

– Wow!

Isabel’s cheeks, which were still fluttering uncontrollably, hit the palm of my hand.

Isabel turned her head, grabbed her already red and swollen cheek, and stared at me with a bewildered face.

“You motherf*cker. Say it again.”