Chapter 51: Hiroki-kun, Are You Satisfied With This?
In Oldam, a young boy’s voice echoed.
It was the Hunter Academy Men’s Dormitory; Hiroki’s name was on the nameplate.
“What are you doing here, Mom!
And you, you’re done guiding her, so get out already!”
“Fuu, I can finally relax,” the woman called “Mom” said as she sat down.
The boy fumed as the man, who was the same age as his mother and had guided her, sat down next to her as if it were perfectly natural.
“Hey! How can you say such a thing!
You kids are being raised with Owen’s money, you know!?”
“Eh,” Hiroki’s words caught in his throat. Ami, perhaps knowing this, gave a wry smile.
“N-No way!? You bastard, you used money to… with Mom…” he glared at Owen, his face looking like he was about to cry.
However, it was his mother who stopped him.
“Don’t be ridiculous!!
Ah, honestly, you’re always worrying about things like that!
Enough! I’ll tell you!
I was the one who seduced Owen and pushed him down! I was the one who undressed and made him undress!
Hiroki-kun, are you satisfied with this!?”
Hiroki was so shocked by her outrageous words that you could almost hear a “thud.”
Ami and Owen both pressed their foreheads as if they had a headache.
Paying no mind to them, she raised her voice to state her business.
“More importantly than that, today, I have something important to tell everyone about myself.”
While showing his displeasure at his room being occupied, Hiroki turned his gaze to his mother.
He had a pretty good idea what she was going to talk about.
It’s about her remarrying, isn’t it?
She had tried to bring it up many times before, but he had ignored her every time, not wanting to hear it. However, recently, after listening to Rui’s advice and starting to learn under him, it had become difficult to refuse to listen without hearing her out.
With complex feelings, he stared at his mother.
“So, what’s this talk about…?”
“Well… yesterday, my father came to the house. He asked if I could help him…”
Even Owen turned a surprised gaze towards her at the unexpected opening, as if to say, “What is this about?”
“About that, I’m thinking of accepting.
So, Owen, I’m sorry!! I might not be able to marry you…”
“Wha—! Why would you…?!
Wait, Sayuri’s father was a soldier from Razbel, wasn’t he… You, don’t tell me…”
In a situation where his engagement seemed about to be broken, Owen involuntarily knocked over his chair with a bang and stood up, but then he remembered the flow of the conversation and stopped speaking.
Hiroki showed a slight smirk, but at the ominous turn of the continuing story, he exchanged glances with Ami.
“That’s right. I was asked to return to Razbel and serve as a Military Healer.”
“Ahaha,” Sayuri said lightly, her voice causing the atmosphere to freeze, but she continued, oblivious to the mood, “It was the first time my father ever prostrated himself before me, you know.”
“Wh-What are you saying—” “Absolutely not!!!”?!”
Owen suddenly shouted, cutting off Hiroki’s voice, and a startled Ami flinched.
“Sayuri!! Do you understand what kind of situation Razbel is in right now when you say that!?”
Even Hiroki slightly recoiled and straightened his posture at Owen’s unprecedented display of fury, but Sayuri paid him no mind and returned a sharp gaze.
“I’ve heard all about the situation. My father was apologizing the whole time. I believe I understand.
Even so, I’ve decided to help my precious family.
I appreciate your concern, but it’s useless to object.”
“What are you going to do about Hiroki and Ami!”
“I know it’s selfish of me, and I’m sorry, but as long as Hiroki is here, it’ll be fine.”
“He’s confirmed for graduation, right?” she said, peeking at Owen’s face.
“W-W-W-W-Waiiiit!!
Hold on! There’s no way I can let Mom go to a battlefield!?”
“Of course! Hiroki, we have to stop her, no matter what!”
“Yeah!”
“Oh my, you two have gotten along before I knew it… But no matter what you say, I won’t change my mind!”
The two of them continued to try and persuade her for a while.
However, Sayuri didn’t budge on her opinion one bit.
Owen crossed his arms, still sullen. “I don’t care anymore,” Hiroki said, throwing in the towel.
When their voices died down, Ami tugged on Sayuri’s hem.
“Mom, as a Military Healer, where will you be and what will you do? You won’t be fighting on the front lines, right?”
“Of course not. I’ll just be in the treatment room at the Razbel territorial army garrison, casting Healing Magic every day.”
“So it’ll be fine,” she said, smiling at Ami. Hearing that, Hiroki, who retorted with “Really?!”, turned his gaze towards Owen.
“Basically, yes, if we’re talking about the work a Military Healer does, that’s not wrong.
Especially this time, since it’s a defensive war and the fort is close, they probably wouldn’t send out healers who can’t fight.
But that’s not the issue… Most likely, Razbel will fall in this war.
If you want to save your father, you should forcibly bring him here.”
“Huh!? Razbel will fall? Why?!
Lestall is stronger than Mildrad, isn’t it!?”
He had heard about it in class, sort of.
That they were refraining from sending reinforcements to prevent the war from escalating.
At the time, he’d only listened vaguely, but now that his mother was involved, he couldn’t not ask.
Owen answered Hiroki’s question, directing his words towards Sayuri.
“The Empire is involved in this war.
They declared that if troops are sent to Razbel, they will raise their entire army and invade all of Lestall. A royal decree was issued by the King forbidding participation.
That’s why, even if I had a reason, I can’t carelessly join the war.”
Because it would be problematic if well-known individuals from Lestall participated on Razbel’s side, a notice informing the nobles of this had been circulated.
“Did you tell Yuri and Rui about that…?”
“No, I haven’t.
Part of it is that I only received the document the other day, but before that, it’s a military secret.
It’s not something I can speak openly about.”
The thought of those two crossed his mind, and he asked without thinking, but Owen awkwardly averted his gaze.
However, this showed Owen that Hiroki genuinely wanted to protect his mother.
Hiroki muttered, “Is that so…” and looked down.
“Right now, it’s about Mom, not Rui-kun and the others, right!? If it’s that dangerous, then no way!”
“Ami-chan, I’m sorry.
I want to at least perform this final act of filial piety for my father, whom I made lonely by being selfish.”
Sayuri apologized and hugged Ami, who looked up at her mother with teary, glistening eyes.
“Hey… when are you going?”
“I’ve booked a seat on a Beast-Drawn Cart leaving the day after tomorrow.”
“What the hell… deciding things on your own…”
He stood up, yelled “Damn ittt!” and slapped his cheeks twice as if to wake himself up.
“If you won’t listen even if I tell you, then I’m going too…
Sensei! Lend me your strength to protect Mom!”
“Of course! No, leave it to me. You kids have school.”
“This isn’t the time for saying things like that!
If it’s just about getting qualifications, I can just transfer to a school over there!
More importantly than that, Mom really isn’t going to the battlefield, right?
In a pinch, is it possible for you to forcibly get us out of town with your power?”
At his words, Owen started, then fell into thought, and soon the corners of his mouth lifted.
That’s right, as long as they weren’t entering the battlefield and were just protecting family and evacuating, it wouldn’t violate the King’s decree.
If she was in the position of a Military Healer, it could be done if they acted forcefully.
Seeing a way out, he regained his usual composure.
“Protecting the three of you… There will be danger, but I’ll manage somehow.”
“What are you saying! Hiroki and Ami-chan, no! You stay here and watch the house!”
“”Mom (Sayuri), you keep quiet!””
“Haaah? Even Hiroki! You, you take after Yuu-kun only in his bad traits!!”
Remembering Yudai, Hiroki’s late father, Owen couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“Bfft, he certainly does resemble him… But it’s not just the bad parts.
That’s right. Those you want to protect, you should protect with your own strength.
Sayuri, no matter what happens, I will absolutely protect you completely.”
Faced with Owen’s serious gaze, Sayuri fidgeted, her face slightly red, “Hey… I’m angry at Hiroki right now.”
Ami immediately jumped in to tease her. Just then, an unexpected voice was directed at Ami.
“Ami, you stay behind. We’ll protect Mom.”
“Heh? No way. I can’t just wait alone at a time like this…”
“Idiot! This is war. It’s nothing like what happened with Karls, you know?”
Hiroki, with a grief-stricken face, grabbed her shoulders and said, “It’s a place where those who freeze up in fear die.”
“I know. But this time, I’ll do it properly.
It’s okay. I even learned Elemental Magic!”
“Eh? Ami-chan, you gave up on Healing Magic from the start, so how did you learn something like that?
You’re not even good at Magical Power control…”
“I’m not that bad!
Hiroki learned fire, and I mastered water.
Ehehe, amazing, right? Rui-kun showed me every day.”
“Oh my. I’ll have to thank him later,” Sayuri said. The two men sighed at the two girls, who were as carefree as ever.
However, with their course of action decided, they immediately started to move.
Right, the teaching staff couldn’t just suddenly disappear, so they had to come up with a reason and quickly arrange for a handover.
Even Hiroki had to explain the situation to his party members, Naomi and Akito.
Because Sayuri had decided on the day after tomorrow, everyone was incredibly busy.
Just as the two of them were about to leave the room, Hiroki called out to stop Owen.
“Hey… I’ve decided to acknowledge you as my old man.
This might be presumptuous of me, but when we go to Razbel, could you train me seriously?”
“Oh? That sounds interesting.
I don’t mind training someone with talent and motivation.”
“Well then… uh… I’m counting on you. Old man.”
“Ah, yeah…”
Although an awkward atmosphere lingered between them, their expressions had cleared up after they parted ways.
After that, Hiroki called Akito and Naomi and arranged a meeting to talk.
He explained his mother’s current situation and told the two of them that he would be moving to Razbel.
“I see. That can’t be helped…”
“Huh…? This is completely different from when it was Rui-kun, isn’t it? I thought you’d try to stop him.”
“Idiot. The circumstances are what they are, and if his goal is to bring her back without going to the battlefield, I won’t say anything.”
Naomi shot a sharp glance at the teasing voice, but Ami, noticing Naomi’s cheeks were slightly flushed, gave a knowing, “Hmm?” smirk.
“But… I see… What should we do from now on?”
Akito turned to Naomi with a troubled expression.
As expected, just the two of them wouldn’t be able to clear the Floors they had been tackling so far.
“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’? We’ll just have to tackle what Floors we can as a duo.
We can’t just ask Randall-san to become a permanent member because Hiroki and the others are leaving, can we?”
Rui had declared he was joining the war, so he was out of the question. Kyoko was his overseer, so she was also impossible. And it wasn’t like they could invite the Marquis’s daughter either.
The other potential members were all people they had barely even spoken to.
They were inevitably in a situation where they had no choice but to operate as a pair.
“Sorry about this. If I can come back, I’ll let you guys know.”
“If that’s the reason, it can’t be helped.
Besides, I’m truly grateful to everyone who helped create this current situation for me.”
“Hm? This current situation…?”
Prompted by the flow of conversation about Hiroki, or perhaps responding to something Ami said, Akito began to share his own story.
His family was also a single-mother household.
His mother was an ordinary person, but his late father had been a Hunter.
However, unlike Hiroki’s family, they had no supporter like Owen.
They were truly impoverished, to the point where there were times they couldn’t even secure their daily food.
As for swordsmanship, he would go to the training grounds of the feudal lord’s private soldiers and imitate their movements.
By consistently going there, a kind Knight would occasionally spar with him.
To him, the lord’s Knights who protected the town were undoubtedly heroes. Their occasional guidance continued to give him motivation.
As for Physical Ability Enhancement, he pleaded with the lord’s Knights, and each time they showed him, he would secretly write it down and memorize it, knowing it was a crime.
The problem was getting a textbook, but his mother somehow managed to scrape together the money for one.
And so, he desperately devoted himself to training and studying, and by managing to get into Class A as a Scholarship Student, he splendidly achieved enrollment.
He had planned to graduate in two years no matter what and send money home as soon as possible, but thanks to being blessed with good companions and achieving growth that set him apart from his peers, he was now earning enough to send money home even as a student.
When he occasionally returned home, he was treated like a hero.
He expressed his deep gratitude to the party members who had made this current situation possible.
Akito once again bowed his head and said, “Thank you.”
“That’s thanks to Yuri and Rui, isn’t it?”
“Well, there were dangers too, you know?”
“That’s true. Those two are quite the troublemakers.”
“Don’t say that. It’s not their fault…”
As usual, he tried to act as the brakes, but he gave a wry smile as the conversation, as always, went off track.
“Well, everyone has different goals, but I’m going to go much further.
I’ll definitely stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Rui, and someday, I’ll surpass him. I hate being left in the dust.”
The two girls responded to Hiroki’s declaration as if it didn’t matter much to them, but Akito looked at him with a perplexed gaze, thinking that Hiroki was already outstanding in their year.
“Much further…?”
“Yeah. I’m going to become one of the strongest, like him… like Sensei. That’s my goal.
You’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me, Akito, so you should be able to aim for it too, right?”
To Akito, it seemed like an audacious wish with no basis.
After all, Hiroki was saying he would surpass the lord’s Knights, who were Akito’s heroes.
But Hiroki, who declared it so straightforwardly, appeared dazzling in Akito’s eyes.
“Sigh, why are boys like this? Isn’t it enough to be able to protect yourself and make a living…?”
“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? If men get stronger, women get money.”
At those rather blunt words, Hiroki gave Ami a reproachful stare, muttering, “You…,” but the voices of the three didn’t reach Akito’s ears.
Normally, he would have dismissed it with a ‘That’s obviously impossible,’ but Rui’s existence denied that notion.
“I… can aim to be a hero…?”
His quiet mutter didn’t reach the three who were chattering away, but it deeply permeated his heart.