The Porter Is Not Interested in the Hero Party

79 – good friends (5)

The huge cave exhaled unpleasant air as if it were breathing. As if demons were directly attached to our bodies, sticky streams came out from all directions. Approaching the cave, we made eye contact, took a deep breath, and stood Lena forward. Lena, who was scanning the area around the cave with her eyes, slightly stuck out her foot toward the floor and tapped it lightly.

Blinking and looking inside the cave, she nodded and told us.

“let’s go.”

I unknowingly gripped the sword at my waist. For mobility, all luggage was hidden in the woods. The reason I am here now is to buy time for the hero to escape in case this operation fails.

Jim also took out and separated the amount of food that the hero and Millet could carry, so he made sure to pick up only that while running away.

Lena crouched in front and cautiously stepped forward, followed by Ashuria, clutching her knuckles. Since I couldn’t look back, I couldn’t tell what kind of expression the hero and Millet were making, but I was sure that it wouldn’t be much different from my face now.

Even as I walked, I was thinking about death. Dog deaths of all kinds. To die from a crossbow. Unluckily, the stinger was deadly poison, so it spurted blood on the spot. The stone of the cave collapses and you die without swinging your sword once.

As the door to this cave closes, he gets lost and wanders around, then starves to death.

I wasn’t afraid to die. I was afraid that death would bury everything I had ever dreamed of, along with a single death report. The fear of catastrophic oblivion that had strangled me on the battlefield and even when I left the Empire haunted me here too.

“under… … .”

When I unknowingly let out a deep sigh, it was only natural that Ashuria looked at me with a frown on her face. I hand apologized to her and faced the darkness.

There was no light in the cave, so the further we went, the darker it became. In the tension of not being able to turn on the lights or making loud noises, we were sucked into the darkness as if we were having a nightmare.

can i get out?

The thoughts I heard during the operation were still haunting me at this very moment.

*****

“They came in.”

A demon wearing a hood said so in a dark room. The man with a bird tattoo resembling a heron on his neck nodded at the demon’s words.

“yes. I saw it too.”

Her eyes, which could see clearly even in the dark, flashed green. The man who grinned, showing his white teeth, looked back at the demon and asked.

“Are the others ready?”

“Everyone is waiting. If you tell me, I’ll send them right there. I will go down now, so send the hero to my room.”

The demon was wearing a sword at his waist. The large scar on his face and his blunt face seemed to hint at the pride he had for his swordsmanship. The man tapped the demon on the shoulder and said.

“By the way, can you really beat the hero? He is said to be a promising swordsman among the demons, but his opponent is a monster who defeated even Greta.”

“Don’t compare me to a power-hungry, mechanical guy. I was a renowned swordsman among the demons and a swordsmanship instructor for the demon soldiers.”

Contrary to his blunt tone, his face was distorted. Seeing the emotional response and angry expression, the man smiled even brighter, showing his teeth. The twinkling green eyes gave it the feeling of being out of people.

He didn’t care that the Demon’s hand was pointing to the sword or that his teeth were grating.

“But aren’t you a loser now? Even though I was stuck in a gutter as a member of the Black Society, I heard your story. You said you were unilaterally smashed by a new article recently? I never thought I would quit my swordsmanship instructor job and volunteer for the field. It seems that your pride has been hurt quite a bit.”

“…stop.”

The demons expressed their feelings honestly. The man nodded his head and stepped back when he saw the attitude full of intent to kill him with just one more word.

“great. okay. okay. Come on, go to your seat. I’ll send a warrior right away.”

When the man shook his hand and pretended to soothe, the demon clicked his tongue and turned around. The huge back and thin clothes drew curves, and the clinging muscles hinted at his strength. The man confirmed that the demons were going down the stairs, and then turned around and started touching the mechanical devices.

And he started talking to Lena. In a small voice Lena couldn’t hear.

“Lena. When I was building the Black Society base, did I tell you something? If they’re big enough to invade our base, then our traps will be pointless in number, or our traps won’t work. So, you shouldn’t be content with traps, you should be able to come up with other numbers as well.”

The man laughed as he pulled the lever.

“If they can’t get inside while we escape, that’s a win.”

*****

Even in the dark, Lena’s trained eyes could see through as if it were daylight. Sensing the feeble light, his gray eyes observed stalactites from which gruesome beasts grew like teeth, and strange walls boasting grotesque cross-sections.

The silhouette wriggling out of sight was just a poorly grown stalactite, and sometimes ore embedded in the wall at an odd angle served as a guidepost.

And none of these were pitfalls. The road meandered in complicated directions, or headed to a place wide enough to embarrass even the nervous woman, but there was no device that sprayed poison gas on the floor, and no crossbows flew from anywhere.

It was just an ordinary cave. Her eyes caught neither the scaffolding for the trap, nor the fine thread that broke upon contact with her flesh.

A cave with nothing.

The further she went, the more Lena could not help but be convinced that it was a cave with nothing in it.

Although the visibility was dark and I felt stuffy, there were no traps in the cave.

She relaxed her tense body and took a deep breath.

There were no traps, but it seemed like I had been walking forward nervously for too long. I couldn’t even hear the movement of Ashuria and the porter from behind.

She turned her head to suggest taking a break.

“uh?”

And there was no one behind her.

without any sound or foreshadowing.

She alone was left in this cave.

The road she had come from twisted differently from the one she had followed, and the end of the road was blocked.

“Lena.”

And at the end of the black and dark clearing, green eyes were calling out Lena’s name.

******

Ashuria was following Lena’s back in the dark.

I thought it must have been. However, when I was walking around the winding alley several times, I missed Lena’s figure at a certain corner. The moment he took a few steps forward to find Lena. Lena’s figure disappeared without a trace.

It was in the dark, so he thought he couldn’t follow him because he was blind, so he took a few more steps and looked back. The porter and the hero were gone.

“what… … !”

Ashuria opened her mouth in embarrassment, realizing that her voice was quite loud.

She had been wandering in the dark and before she knew it, she came out into a large clearing.

And there were those who were waiting for Ashuria. Those with sparkling blue eyes, holding weapons and calling her with boiling voices.

“The church dog has arrived… … .”

“Kill… ! kill… !”

“Accept our grudge… … !”

Ashuria was flustered, but had to stand up. Since the enemy appeared in front of her eyes, she had no choice but to fight.

*****

The figures of Ashuria and Lena disappeared before my eyes. At first I thought I had missed it, so I took a few more steps, but before I knew it, the road was leading me in a different direction.

In the darkness where you couldn’t see an inch ahead, when you looked back, you couldn’t see the hero or Millet.

I carefully drew the sword from my waist and looked around.

It’s a trap.

I don’t know what kind of trap it was, but everyone seemed to have fallen for it.

I felt myself breaking out in a cold sweat.

can i get out of here?

If I die here, who will remember me?

There was a faint sound of footsteps in the darkness.

footsteps.

The sound of a scabbard hitting the hem of a garment. Heavy steps and regular pace. The steady breathing and the feeling of the weight of the armor rattling every time you move your arms.

I closed my eyes and nodded.

Someone wielding a sword was waiting on the other side of the darkness.

There was no escape for me.

The air is different between an empty lot and a narrow road. As I stepped out into the open, a heavy voice greeted me from the other side of the darkness.

“…You are not a hero.”

Looking in the direction the voice came from, they were about the same size as me. I drew my sword and nodded. I didn’t answer on purpose.

“is it. However, I think it would be perfect for warming up before facing the hero.”

He said as if he heard my answer.

His blue eyes flashed for a moment, and I reflexively swung my sword as I felt a terrifying death.

The two swords collided and sparks flew, revealing his face in an instant.

A huge scar from a straight line and a mean smile.

cried the bastard.

“I’m not talking about anything. It is quite.”

He can see me in the dark.

I have to distinguish him only by sound.

“Cowardly bastard.”

I unknowingly spit it out.