Boukensha Ni Naritai To Miyako Ni Deteitta Musume Ga S Rank Ni Natteta - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Seventeen Years Prior
Occasionally, the now missing leg would start hurting again. It’s the symptom known as phantom pain.
A burning pain of the time it was eaten by that black magic beast. Even though almost eight years had pa.s.sed since then, it would still annoyingly hurt sometimes.Belgriff once again woke up before the sun rose. The nonexistent right leg felt like it was burning.
Pressing down on the thigh muscle that still remained, Belgriff stayed in that position covered in greasy sweat for several minutes, enduring the pain. However to the person in question it felt like it had finally subsided after many hours.
“f.u.c.k…”
Sighing, he began to get up, not the least bit tired now.
Out the window, the sky was slowly starting to light up. However as the stars still s.h.i.+ned in the sky, the more the sky would light up conversely the darker the surroundings would seem.
Carefully attaching the prosthetic leg that lay next to the bed, Belgriff stood up. After years of practice he was now able to walk using it without any difficulties. After the long rehabilitation period even fighting using a sword would be possible. But mentally it seemed a bit too soon for him to return to being an adventurer.
It was around seven years ago that Belgriff had returned to his home town of Tornela Village. Now he is twenty-five.
His parents pa.s.sed away when he was young, and when he became fifteen he had decided to go out to make a name for himself and return famous. For that purpose he left for the Capital of Orphen, however a bit over two years after becoming an adventurer his right leg was bitten off by a magic beast.
He still tried to do jobs such as gathering medicinal herbs as his rehabilitation progressed, but eventually he gave up and decided to leave all of it behind, returning to his home town.
Belgriff walked outside. The cool, clear air cleansed his lungs.
The cries of roosters could be heard from all over. The early-rising farmers were already preparing to start working. The surroundings slowly got brighter, and the ridges of the mountains in the distance were becoming clearly lit up. It’s morning.
As Belgriff walked, he ran into one of the farmers, Kerry, seemingly heading out to their farm. They are of the same age and used to play together as children. Grinning, Kerry raised his hand.
“Hey, Bell. G’morning.”
Although Belgriff was slightly bothered by that nickname sounding feminine, he had already given up on changing it.
“Morning, Kerry. You’re sure working hard.”
“Yeah, since I’m gonna go to plant the onions now. Would you mind helping me with them?”
“Although I would love to help right away, would tomorrow still be fine? I already promised Granny Kaiyah to gather some medicinal herbs for her today.”
“That’s fine, It’d be a great help with you around. But still, you’re always really busy. You don’t need to push yourself so much.”
“Nah, it isn’t that much to worry about. If you have any work that still needs doing tomorrow, call me.”
“Hahaha, I’ll be relying on you then. See ya.”
“Later.”
Kerry continued on his way to the fields.
When Belgriff had first come back to the village he was initially made out to be the laughingstock of the town, but now
he is someone relied upon by the entire village. Ever since returning he would take the initiative and do jobs that n.o.body else wanted to do, use the knowledge he had gained as an adventurer to gather medicinal herbs, and exterminate any magic beasts that appeared. He would help out working the fields, and often went out hunting to treat the villagers to meat. Now all the villagers completely trust him.
Once Belgriff had confirmed there were no signs of magic beasts while patrolling around town as his morning stroll, he returned home and practiced swinging his sword, had breakfast, prepared his lunch, and headed off into the mountains.
“Right, it’s autumn…”
The sun rose, making the sky feel even more distant and blue. The trees’ leaves were gradually tinted red and yellow, the atmosphere making it feel as if the summer heat from a month ago could never have really happened.
Looking at the ground, Belgriff wandered around searching for the fruits of the vines that cling onto the trees, stacking more and more herbs in his basket.
“Almea gra.s.s, tor fruit, harvest moon gra.s.s… Hm, the mountain grapes are already growing.”
Belgriff took a single small grape and put it in his mouth. A sweet and sour taste flowed out of it.
“Delicious. The kids’ll probably like these.”
Although he wasn’t requested to do it, Belgriff gathered mountain grapes and akebi fruit together with the herbs in his basket.
Traversing the mountains is a dangerous job. Of course magic beasts appearing is a possibility, but even regular wild animals are enough to be a threat to humans. Although the woodcutters would work on the forest near the village, all of the villagers would hesitate to enter the mountainous area in the depths of the forest.
However Belgriff the former adventurer was able to fight against both magical and non-magical beasts. Although not at best form due to the loss of his right leg, he would still not fall behind the kinds of magic beasts that appear in that area.
Having gathered a large amount of herbs throughout the morning, Belgriff sat down in a sunlit area and took out his lunch.
Although it was nothing more than some goat cheese sandwiched between hard bread, adding the mountain grapes and akebi he had gathered to it made it quite delectable.
“Great, at this rate I’ll be able to go help Kerry later in the afternoon.”
As he had found enough of the herbs he needed sooner than expected, he would be able to go back to the village earlier in the afternoon.
As he stretched and stood up, suddenly he faintly heard the sound of something cry out. Belgriff immediately moved his hand to the sword strapped to his waist, squinted his eyes, and surveyed the area. There was no sign of a magic beast. However when he concentrated he could definitely hear the sound of something crying. Like that of a baby.
“…In the middle of the mountains?”
There exist magic beasts that make sounds like that of human babies. Specifically, a magic beast known as the pixie. Although they are not good at combat they are mean-spirited magic beasts that do things such as imitating the sounds of crying babies or using magic to confuse a person’s sense of direction.
Although Belgriff had never encountered any pixies in these mountains, he decided there
there was no harm in being cautious. Leaving his hand on his sword’s handle, he slowly headed in the direction of the crying voice.
“What…”
After making his way through the thickets and seeing what was there, Belgriff let out a voice somewhere between that of surprise and bewilderment. After all, what lay there was not a pixie but an actual human baby.
The baby laid in a basket woven from wisteria vines. Whether due to hunger or something else, the baby cried out loudly. It felt almost like a miracle that it wasn’t found by some wild beast first.
Belgriff approached the baby and stared at it for a long time. It had black hair. As Belgriff held it up in the air, the baby stopped crying and stared back at him with its large, black eyes.
Belgriff furrowed his eyebrows.
He had not heard of any newborn, or about to be born babies in Tornela Village. It is a small village. If there was anything of the sort then Belgriff would have heard of it.
It must be from a village on the other side of the mountains, Belgriff concluded.
“Now, what to do…”
He hesitated slightly, but seeing the baby he was cradling go silent as if in satisfaction he felt that he could not just leave it there.
Belgriff tenderly stroked the baby’s head. It started to fall asleep, now feeling in peace.
What a quiet child.
Multiple sheets of old cloth remained in the basket on the ground, and herbs said to fight off evil lay scattered around. It didn’t seem like the baby was abandoned out of animosity or neglect.
“…No choice then.”
Together with the basket Belgriff carried the baby down the mountain.
Five Years Prior
“Haaaaaa!”
The short-cut black haired girl rose her wooden sword and struck out at Belgriff. Her footwork was exceptional. As if she was expertly sliding on ice she closed the distance and struck where Belgriff’s guard was weakest.
However Belgriff merely pivoted on his artificial leg to easily twist his body and avoid the girl’s wooden sword, and in exchange whacked her head with the other wooden sword he held in his hand.
The girl yelped out and crouched down.”You were too focused on the obvious openings I left. Try to predict your opponent’s movements a bit more.”
“Uuu… Daddy, you seriously hit me…”
Seeing the girl’s teary eyes, Belgriff lost his composure.
“Uh. Well, that’s, you asked me to take you seriously…”
Frowning, the girl raised her hands towards Belgriff.
“…Carry me.”
“Jeez… I spoil you too much, Ange.”
Seeing Belgriff indicating that he would carry her, the girl happily jumped into his arms and clung onto him.
It had been twelve years since Belgriff took in the baby he found in the mountains.
The black-haired baby he named Angeline grew up into an adorable young girl. Possibly due to her always being with and watching the former adventurer Belgriff, she had at some point started to admire adventurers.
The swordsmans.h.i.+p Belgriff had taught her for self defence ever since she was barely able to walk was now at the level where even the adult villagers would be no match for her. Though she has yet to land a single hit on her teacher, Belgriff.
Angeline rubbed her head against Belgriff’s chest.
“Daddy, you smell good…”
“What are you talking about… Well, let’s have
let’s have dinner shall we?”
“Yeah.”
Still carrying Angeline, Belgriff entered the house. It was almost dusk.
Belgriff would turn thirty-seven that year.
Although he was approaching forty, his body was still healthy and he would still exterminate magic and wild beasts and go to the mountains. Completely used to his prosthetic leg now, his movements actually seem more supple than back when he was still young. After continuing to simply honestly work for the sake of the village, the villagers would come to trust him more and more to the point where they now even treated him like a leader of the village.
Their dinner was vegetable-and-salt soup with some small pieces of meat added, and hard bread with goat cheese.
Their dessert would be a large heaping of Angeline’s favourite rock cowberries. Usually they would only have a little, but the dinner they had on that day would be the last they would spend together. Surely that much extravagance could be forgiven for the occasion.
Lately the animals in the mountains had been more active than normal so Belgriff would frequently take Angeline out hunting in the mountains.
And though they too would eat some of the meat, they would share most of it with the other villagers.
Possibly because of that the villagers are all very well nourished, with their complexions healthy and their diligence in work high. Tornela has the highest crop yield out of all the surrounding villages, and they are viewed positively by the lord of the land due to always being able to smoothly pay their taxes.
Although the primary reason for hunting was to obtain meat, it was also to train Angeline. If she were to become an adventurer it would be useful for her to have experience fighting against non-human opponents in different terrain as well.
Belgriff looked at Angeline eating the bread happily across the table.
In the beginning he had displayed disapproval towards Angeline becoming an adventurer.
However it was true that he was also an adventurer, and he also didn’t want to do anything so boorish as to deny a youngster’s dream of leaving to the Capital to stretch their legs and test their own ability instead of rotting in the middle of nowhere.
But even so, he still really felt that a daughter should act cutely and not have to face danger.
After a long time debating with himself over it, he had now decided to give his full support in helping his daughter become a true adventurer.
If she was going to end up as one anyway it would be best to improve her abilities and make sure that it would be as rare as possible for her to run into anything too dangerous for her to handle. That is the answer Belgriff came to.
But even after her abilities improved that much she still acted childish. Belgriff worried slightly whether she would be able to make it as an adventurer like that, but always being fawned upon by her didn’t feel that bad.
His feelings as a parent and his feelings as the teacher of an adventurer would fight frequently like that, but most often his parental side won out. He is human too after all.
“I give my thanks for the food.”
“…for the food…”
The dishes clatter together as Belgriff stacked them and took them and took them away to wash them. Using water taken out of an earthenware pot he began cleaning them when Angeline started tugging on the hem of his s.h.i.+rt.
“Daddy…”
“What is it?”
“I’ll do it…”
“No, you don’t have to. Daddy will do it for you so…”
As Belgriff said that Angeline shook her head.
“I’m going to the Capital tomorrow so… then I won’t be able to help anymore…”
“…Haha, I see. Then would you mind doing them for me?”
Belgriff ruffled Angeline’s hair while stroking it. Angeline narrowed her eyes happily and started was.h.i.+ng the dishes in place of Belgriff.
What a good girl she has become, Belgriff thought to himself.
Tomorrow Angeline would leave for the Capital. After only a bit more preparation she would be ready to leave.
Although they had no intention of making this the last they will see of each other, they are still saying goodbye to each other. There’s no way they wouldn’t feel lonely.
As having too large a farewell would just make it all the sadder, Belgriff and Angeline planned to spend their last day as normal, not doing anything special for the occasion. Other than eating more rock cowberries than normal.
“Time sure flies…”
Belgriff muttered, gazing from behind at Angeline was.h.i.+ng the dishes. She is turning twelve. Although her short hair is somewhat boyish, her face has the cuteness of a girl. She would have been a great wife for someone had she not become an adventurer, Belgriff started to think before shaking his head and dispelling his thoughts.
“How irresolute I am.”
Angeline came flying over towards Belgriff, still smiling wryly at himself.
“Who”
“Daddy… hug me tightly…”
“Your hands are still wet… oh well.”
As Belgriff tightly hugged Angeline, she continued to act spoilt like a cat.
“…I’ll try my best.”
“Yeah.”
“Even alone… I’ll try my best, and become a great adventurer.”
“Yeah.”
“And then someday I’ll get a hit in on you, Daddy.”
“Haha, I can’t wait.”
Belgriff said as he pet her.
“What do you do when you’re lost in the woods?”
“Look for silver dragon gra.s.s. The large petal always faces north, so you can use it to confirm what direction you’re going in.”
“What about when you need to find water?”
“Follow the smell of the onibamisery. They only grow where there is clean water.”
“What do you need to be wary of when fighting magic beasts?”
“Whether there are any other magic beasts in the vicinity. Also whether the terrain works to my advantage or not.”
“What do you do when you run into an opponent you can’t beat?”
“Run as soon as possible. When I can’t run immediately, with escaping as top priority I should attack the opponent’s weaknesses to slow them down as much as possible while securing a path to retreat via. Then I run away.”
“Good,” says Belgriff, nodding satisfied at her answers. “That’s good. An adventurer can only adventure if they are alive, after all. You must never push yourself.”
“Yes… understood.”
Angeline nodded.
“Now then, we’re waking up early tomorrow. We should go to sleep soon.”
“Daddy…”
Once Belgriff stood up, Angeline grabbed onto the hem of his s.h.i.+rt.
“Can we sleep together tonight…?”
“Hm? Aren’t you practicing to sleep by yourself?”
“…You’re acting mean.”
Seeing Angeline pout, frowning, Belgriff let out a hearty laugh.
“I’m just kidding. Come on.”
“Yay…!”
Angeline happily clung onto Belgriff’s arm.