A Rope To Kill Time

Afternoon in the Royal Capital.

Languid patches of sunlight lay scattered across the streets.

I had come back to the shop.

The shop looked idle, with no customers in sight.

Sophia, in her priest robes, was sitting at the counter, head down reading a book.

Looking closely, I saw it was a book on angel magic. She must have borrowed it from Liricia.

When I stepped into the shop and walked a little further in, she finally lifted her face, blue hair swaying.

“Ah, welcome back, Alec-san.”

“I’m home. Where’s Teti? I’d like her to do some herb gathering.”

“She’s probably in her room right now. We’ve been taking turns resting.”

“I see. So we really do need at least two people. Thanks.”

“No, I’m the one being looked after here.”

“Then I’ll leave the shop to you.”

“Yes!”

Sophia narrowed her eyes and nodded with a gentle smile.

I headed toward the back of the shop.

In the kitchen behind the curtain, I entered the dungeon through the wardrobe.

I walked down the narrow corridor and came to the front hall.

Since Teti wasn’t there, I went into the back hall.

I spoke to the round orb sitting in the center.

“Kou, where’s Teti?”

“She’s in her room on the right. I’ll call her now.”

When I looked to the right side of the hall, I saw two doors.

The door to the back room opened with a clack.

Blond-haired Teti came out, her white blouse and black skirt swaying.

She swung her slender arms and legs as she trotted over.

“Welcome back, Alec-sama! What’s up?”

“Liricia has business and won’t be back for a while. Do you think you can handle herb gathering alone, Teti?”

“Hmm, it was at least seven leaves, right…? I think I can probably do it, but… I’m still not all that confident.”

Teti tilted her head, her fine brows knitting.

I nodded firmly.

“You’ll be fine. If you come up short, you can use some of the herbs from the shop’s stock.”

“Okay, got it! I’ll give it a try!”

She spun, her blond hair fanning out, and was about to dash off.

So I hurriedly called out to stop her.

“Hold up a second.”

“Huh? What is it, Alec-sama?”

“Kou, we had one spare core left, right?”

“We do.”

“Make a Kou Phone for Teti.”

“Roger~”

Pale blue light ran across the surface of the orb, and a small treasure chest appeared.

I opened it and took out a thin, board-like Kou Phone.

I handed it to Teti.

For some reason, her jade-green eyes went perfectly round and she froze, so I forced it into her hands.

“If anything dangerous happens, use this to let me know right away.”

“W-wha!? Are you sure…? Aren’t dungeon cores really valuable…? I mean, I’m a slave, you know!?”

“Slave or family, either way it’s only natural to protect you from danger.”

“No way… I can’t believe it. That you’d go that far for someone like me…”

Her eyes were still wide as she gave a slight shake of her head. Her blond hair trembled faintly.

All I could do was shrug and speak.

“Don’t worry about it. Beating up monsters is about all I’m good for, so when you have monster trouble, just give me something to do. —More importantly, I’m counting on you for the herbs, okay?”

“Alec-sama… Okay, I understand! I’ll do my very best, thank you!”

She gripped the Kou Phone tight in her small hand, her eyes welling up as her face lit up into a bursting smile.

Then she suddenly turned on her heel and sprinted off, trails of sparkling light spilling behind her.

—She didn’t have to rush that much. Also, what is that light?

Wondering about it, I headed home at an easy pace.

By the time the afternoon sun had slanted quite a bit…

I was sitting on the sofa in the mansion’s living room.

I had already let Liricia know we had arrived at the house in the forest.

All that was left was to wait.

Since I apparently got in the way of resurrection magic, I couldn’t really go out much.

Not even being able to watch the shop in the Royal Capital was a bit dull.

—It might be the first time in a long while I’ve had nothing to do.

My thoughts wandered over all sorts of things.

I wondered if the princess’s resurrection was going well.

Edgar had said he would be executed if he went back to his country, so what did he plan to do after bringing her back?

Would he live here with the princess instead?

Ah, since we’d gone to the slave trader anyway, I should have hired Cheryl while we were there.

It would be easier if Teti got a bit stronger too…

Come to think of it, I should have practiced compressing my Holy Wave.

I’d left it alone since it was basically harmless…

Maybe I should try it a bit… like this? Or more like this?

…No good, I had no idea.

Rubel’s was visible because it was fire, so that must have made it easier to understand.

Liricia could probably sense Holy Wave. I should ask her to help me practice sometime.

But Liricia really was beautiful.

Had she always been that beautiful, even as a child?

Do angels even have childhoods to begin with?

How old was she…? I should ask her next time…

It was quiet…

In the mansion in the forest, the only sound was the light rustling of wind in the trees, with not a single other noise.

And I realized I didn’t even know how to kill time.

There was a book someone had been reading left on the table. Either Teti’s or Liricia’s.

But I didn’t feel like reading. I just wasn’t in that kind of mood.

…Come to think of it, I really hadn’t done anything else with my life.

I didn’t even have a hobby.

Since I was nine years old, all I’d ever done was quietly and steadily kill monsters.

I’d believed that was just how things were.

But when I was a child—

Suddenly remembering the past, I stood up.

I went out the front door and walked around to the side of the mansion.

Leaning against the wall of the house was a bundle of hay the Wyvern had brought.

I picked out only the stiff, dry stalks of hay and pulled out a few hundred of them.

Carrying them in both arms, I went back to the mansion’s living room and bundled a few stalks together, pinching them between my feet.

Then I rubbed them together with both hands, twisting them into rope.

—Before I became a hero, I helped with the family work.

Or rather, if I didn’t, we couldn’t survive.

We were poor farmers who rented land from the village landlord to till the fields.

Even if we worked hard to farm the fields, taxes and land rent left us with almost nothing.

So in the evenings after work, the whole family gathered in our cramped living room to do side jobs.

My job was to twist sturdy rope like this.

Beside me, my mother spun thread, while my father carved wood into bowls, plates, and other daily necessities.

That was how we scraped together extra income.

Rope didn’t sell for much, but if I quietly and diligently twisted long, strong rope, the traveling merchants who came through the village would pay a little extra for it.

My mother would smile and say, “You’ve worked hard.” The taciturn old man that was my father wouldn’t say anything, but he would ruffle my hair with his rugged hand.

That made me happy as a child, and I silently twisted rope.

I had always been good at focusing on one thing.

Even so, no matter how hard the family worked together, we only just managed to get by.

Most meals were just hard bread and salted vegetable soup, and only occasionally did we get to eat some stringy meat.

But I had a father who acknowledged me and a mother who praised me.

Somehow, I had been happy.

I kept adding hay stalks into the rope and silently twisted more.

After I became a hero at nine, my life changed drastically.

I stayed at first-class inns all the time and ate good food.

On long extermination journeys, I ate local specialties in each region.

My parents’ lives changed too.

The kingdom granted them their own land and house, and all their taxes were waived.

Healers and priests made regular visits to the village to check on my parents’ health.

Their lives became prosperous and healthy.

If they’d wanted more, they could have moved to the Royal Capital and taken honorary posts, like a consultant to merchant houses under royal influence or an honorary advisor in a government office.

They could have earned money without working at all.

Originally, the hero system existed to defeat the Demon King.

Since no one knew where in the world a hero might be while traveling, the kingdom couldn’t pay them or send them rewards.

Instead, the hero’s family received the maximum support in finances, education, employment, and medical care.

That way, the hero could cut off all worries about home and focus on defeating the Demon King.

But my parents never left the village and kept on working the fields.

I only saw them rarely.

Still, whenever I happened to be able to stop by the village, they welcomed me with nostalgic smiles.

My father never said a word, just nodded at me with gentle eyes.

My mother praised me with a smile lined by even more wrinkles.

“You’ve really been working hard. Alec, you’re such a good boy.”

They apparently heard about my exploits from the priests and others who visited regularly.

—Had I managed to be a good son to them?

Before I knew it, I had finished making the rope. It was about fifteen meters long.

I glanced casually out the window.

The sky was dyed red, long shadows stretching across the ground.

At some point the room had grown dim as well.

I muttered under my breath.

“…Once I have some time, maybe I should visit their graves—with my wife.”

And then—

Something buzzed and vibrated.

The Kou Phone in my pocket was shaking.

“Kou? What is it?”

“Your wife came back to the shop. She’s calling for you.”

“Got it. I’ll be right there.”

I ended the call and slowly stood up.

Then I went through the dungeon and headed for the shop.