The State Of The City And Helping People

The next morning. We left Ivan and Rosalie’s house early and first headed toward the city’s main street.

“Seeing it again, it’s really devastated…”

“Yeah, the entire country is basically like a slum.”

“Where should we go first?”

“For now, let’s check the places that were probably the most prosperous one by one. If those places are all just as ruined, then the whole city will probably look the same no matter where we go.”

“That makes sense. Then let’s start by following this main street toward the royal castle.”

Buildings that were probably once shops had their wooden parts rotting away, leaving only the stone structures still standing, though they were dirty. The parts of the stone buildings that were broken might have been hit by stray attacks from battles that happened nearby.

“There really aren’t many people on the main street.”

“People probably avoid coming here because it’s easy to be spotted. Oh, but there are some people over there.”

At the edge of the main street, several men had gathered around someone, seemingly shouting angrily.

“Hey old man, we said we’ll let you go if you hand over that meat!”

“Hurry up already!”

“You probably stole it from somewhere anyway, right? If that’s the case, just steal some more!”

“T-this meat is from a monster that I hunted outside the city with the people in my neighborhood… it belongs to me.”

The person surrounded by the men was a thin, timid-looking man. In his arms he held something wrapped in leaves, which must have been the meat.

“I see, I see. But that doesn’t matter! If you don’t hand it over quickly…”

When the man raised the iron rod in his hand threateningly, the man in the center shook his head repeatedly with a pale face from fear.

“P-please don’t do that…! Then… I’ll give you half of it.”

“No. All of it.”

Just as the man holding the iron rod said that with a nasty grin, I called out to them.

“Hey. Stop.”

“Huh? Don’t get in our way!”

The man turned around and shouted at us, and perhaps because he was irritated, he immediately swung the iron rod down with full force.

I deflected it with my sword and pointed the tip of my blade at his throat. The man instantly lost all of the bravado he had earlier and began sweating nervously as his face turned pale.

“I told you to stop.”

“…O-okay. I get it. I’ll stop, I’ll stop, so lower that sword.”

“I’ll lower it after you leave.”

Hearing that, the men shot frightened glances at me before running off into a nearby alley.

“Th-thank you so much for saving me…!”

“Please don’t worry about it. Are you injured?”

“I’m fine.”

“No, your clothes are stained with blood. And you have a scratch on your cheek.”

Rebecca pointed out the man’s injuries with a worried expression, and the man gave a bitter smile as his shoulders slumped.

“These injuries were caused by monsters, not those men earlier. As you can see, I’m quite weak, but I have to secure food for my wife and daughters…”

“From monsters…”

Now that I thought about it, he did say earlier that the meat came from a monster hunt. If he had to suffer injuries like this just to obtain a single bundle of meat… this man’s life might be in danger before long.

There were probably many people like him in the city, but once we had become involved, we couldn’t just pretend not to see it.

“Um, could you come with us into the alley for a moment?”

The man looked wary at my words, but perhaps because we had just saved him, he trusted us enough to follow.

“I can use light magic, so I’ll heal your injuries.”

“…What!? I couldn’t possibly accept that! I have nothing to offer you in return…”

“Please don’t worry about that. Alright, here I go.”

Thinking he would keep refusing if we waited, I activated Heal a little forcefully.

“How does it feel?”

“A-amazing… the pain is completely gone.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Thank you… truly, thank you…”

“No need to worry about it. We came from another country, but the real problem is that this country is abnormal.”

“You’ve all been through so much… Please take this as well.”

Rebecca took out a sack from her bag filled with potatoes. There were several other vegetables mixed in as well. Early that morning, Rebecca and I had gone to the Divine Domain together to prepare supplies in case we encountered people in need.

The Divine Domain stored many prepared meals, but it also stored ingredients like vegetables and grains. I had stockpiled them in case we ended up somewhere where food couldn’t be obtained, but I was glad they could be useful now.

“…Potatoes and vegetables.”

“We just happened to have them. We can always hunt monsters for meat, and we can leave this city anytime. Please take them and eat.”

The man hesitated at Rebecca’s words, but perhaps he couldn’t resist the appeal of food that could be preserved. Slowly, he reached out and accepted the sack.

“Thank you… very much.”

“Don’t worry about it. Where is your home? If it’s far, we can walk you there. In exchange, please tell us about this city.”

“…Understood. Thank you.”

After that, while listening to the man explain the city’s current situation in detail, we walked deeper into the alleys. Before the Empire fell into its current state, the man had run a secondhand bookstore, so we were able to learn about the city from a perspective different from Rosalie’s.

“My home is here. Thank you… truly, thank you.”

“No, thank you for telling us so much.”

After watching the man enter his house, we turned back along the path we came from to return to the main street.