Yuri’s Past, And Her Present

My name is Yuri Claudevel.

Just recently, I was expelled from the Hero Vanrost Rain’s party, and an adventurer named Roy came to my aid.

If he hadn’t been at that tavern, who knew what would have happened to me by now… I probably would’ve been forced to sleep outdoors for a while.

At present, I was living together with Roy in a solitary house in the mountains.

It seemed there weren’t any requests from the Adventurers’ Guild right now either, so our peaceful days continued.

This place was deep in the mountains, about an hour by wyvern from the commercial city of Eto, but it was tranquil, the air was fresh, and there weren’t all that many monsters around.

I wiped my forehead while doing laundry by the river.

I could simply clean clothes with Clean Magic, but washing them properly in water once in a while left them feeling much fresher.

And bedding wouldn’t become nice and fluffy unless you gave it a proper airing in the sun.

After I finished hanging up the laundry, I wiped the sweat from my forehead.

Back when I lived in the village, I used to do laundry like this all the time.

I wondered if everyone in the village was doing well.

The village chief had asked me to look after the Hero, but he’d also told me to come home once I’d fulfilled my duty.

But there was no home of my own waiting for me in that village.

I’d been an orphan from the start and had merely been taken in by the village chief.

The chief’s wife hadn’t been particularly happy about having me around. She’d deliberately say within my earshot that they already had their hands full feeding their own children.

I needed to become independent as soon as possible.

After all, even now, I was still imposing on Roy by staying at his house.

Vanrost Rain had been recognized as the Hero because he was born holding the Divine Stone in his hand.

The Divine Stone was a clear blue stone inscribed with Divine Script.

Van had been raised with the utmost care because everyone knew that someday he would set out on a journey to defeat the Demon King.

But—

“I can’t be bothered with magic lessons!”

“But, Hero-sama…”

“Shut up! Are you talking back to the Hero?!”

“…”

Perhaps because he’d been pampered too much, he often refused both swordsmanship and magic training, causing endless trouble for the knights and mages who came to the village to teach him.

Van turned sixteen without ever training properly.

According to tradition, the Hero had to set out on his journey to defeat the Demon King upon turning sixteen.

That was because the first Hero had departed at sixteen. I assumed it was because sixteen had been considered adulthood back then, but even now, when adulthood began at twenty, the custom remained unchanged.

But sending the current Van beyond the village borders on his own was far too worrying.

That was why I, who had been raised to serve as the Hero’s bodyguard, was assigned to accompany him until he matured.

“As the Hero’s bodyguard, forget that you’re a woman.”

I was an orphan, and because I’d always worn boys’ clothing and kept my hair short, all my friends had believed I was a boy, and when I was little, even I had thought of myself as one.

Even after I became aware that I was a girl, I had been given the mission of protecting the Hero, so the village chief who raised me repeatedly told me to forget that I was female.

I kept telling myself that I was a boy as I fought alongside Van and our other companions.

But without either a sword or a staff, the only things I could really use were support spells.

At first, I’d fought with the sword the village chief had given me, but Van sold it because, according to him, I defeated too many monsters without leaving enough opportunities for the Hero to shine.

Even though it had been an important sword the village chief had given me.

I could cast offensive magic barehanded too, but it only had half the power it would have had if I’d been holding a staff.

Support magic, on the other hand, could help everyone regardless of whether I had a staff, so I’d strengthened my allies’ offensive spells and cast healing magic capable of purifying undead monsters, but apparently Van and the others had considered even that an unwanted nuisance.

In the end, they called me useless and expelled me from the party.

Apparently, that meant Van could manage without my protection anymore.

My role had ended there.

Roy suggested that I, having lost any place to go, should take the adventurer promotion exam.

It was the promotion exam I’d never been allowed to take while traveling with Van.

I’d assumed there was no way I’d pass on my first attempt.

To advance as an adventurer, you had to face powerful monsters by yourself.

Van had always told me that someone as useless as me could never manage it.

But when I actually took the exam, every opponent was a monster Van had dismissed as small fry.

Even while wondering, Is this really all right?, I focused solely on making sure I defeated every enemy in front of me.

The tests went smoothly one after another, and I managed to qualify as S-rank in a single day.

Wolk, the Guildmaster, had told me.

He said the final monster was something only an S-rank adventurer could normally defeat.

And yet Van had told me the monsters on the promotion exam were far too strong for me.

The Hero had lied to me.

Deep down, I’d already begun to realize that I was being deceived… No matter how difficult the magic I learned became, Van never allowed me to take a promotion exam.

But I’d forced myself to believe otherwise.

There was no way the Hero—the people’s symbol of hope—would tell lies. Everyone in the village had always treasured Van so that he could grow into a beacon of hope for everyone.

That was why having the reality that he’d lied to me placed right in front of me made me sad.

But he treated commoners arrogantly, chose only beautiful women when selecting companions, and refused to let men join him.

Every time I was confronted with the reality of what kind of Hero he truly was, I felt the loyalty toward him that the village chief had drilled into me gradually cooling away.

Even if I hadn’t been expelled and had continued traveling with the Hero, perhaps I would eventually have left the party on my own.

Despite my disappointment in the Hero, I was genuinely happy that I’d become an S-rank adventurer.

At this rate, it looked as though I could become independent much sooner than I’d expected.

But there were still so many things I didn’t know, and I wasn’t confident enough to manage everything alone, so I asked Roy if I could continue being his partner.

Not only did Roy readily agree, he’d also been as happy about my passing the S-rank exam as if it had happened to him.

“You did a great job, Yuri.”

…I found myself remembering those words Roy had said to me.

No one had ever told me I’d done a good job before.

And when he’d gently pulled me into a hug, my heart had started pounding… Maybe he’d only meant it as simple encouragement, but it had been the first time a man had ever hugged me.

Had he thought I was a strange woman for turning so red over something like that?

…Just remembering it was making my heart pound again.

Roy’s chest had been broad and warm.

If he would hold me like that again… N-No, no, no! What was I thinking, acting so needy?!

Of course Roy would find something like that annoying.

I needed to stop thinking strange things and hurry back home.

When I entered the house, Roy’s face looked neater than it had earlier.

…Oh, he’d shaved.

He looked younger than before.

Now that his face was clean-shaven, it was even easier to see just how handsome Roy’s features were.

H-He really was a good-looking man.

For some reason, he was smiling a little bashfully too. When he smiled, he had this charming, almost adorable look. I wasn’t sure whether it was appropriate to call a man adorable, though.

But then…

A thin line of blood trickled down from his chin.

“It’s been so long since I shaved that I messed it up…”

Roy gave a wry smile.

Ah, he’d nicked his skin with the blade. I immediately held my hand over the wound on his chin and cast Healing Magic.

Phew… I was glad it wasn’t anything serious.

But just as I relaxed, I realized that while healing the cut on his chin, my fingertips had apparently brushed against Roy’s lips.

My face instantly turned bright red, and I hurriedly apologized, “Sorry!”

Roy stared at me blankly, looking confused.

“Why are you apologizing? I’m the one who should be thanking you.”

“Ah… but…”

“Thanks, Yuri.”

My chest grew warm when Roy smiled at me like that.

Healing people had simply been expected of me in the Hero’s party, so no one had ever thanked me for it.

Roy’s words of gratitude made me feel like crying.

Every day was so happy that it frightened me.

Even though someday I would have to become independent and leave his side.

Somewhere inside me, I found myself wishing I could stay with this man for as long as possible.