CH 2.3

CHAPTER 2 – I’M JUST A LEVEL 1 VILLAGER, CAN I DEFEAT THE DEMON KING?

PART 03

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“Shall we go find Harissa?”

Following the woman’s directions, R and I headed to the western tower and ascended to the top floor.

*pant pant*

“Just how high up is this place?”

“256 steps.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I’m floating so it’s OK for me.”

I reached out to swat R into the floor, but she floated away easily.

Exchanging more insults, we finally reached the resource room.

“Can you hear something from inside?”

“Sounds like crying.”

“Can it be Harissa…?”

“Probably.”

With much reluctance, I silently pushed the door open.

The room was lined with shelves filled with books and scrolls, and tall stacks of paper piled upon the floor. If an earthquake were to happen, anyone here would be buried in a second. It was hard trying to get a full view of the place with all the stacks of books around, and I didn’t manage to see Harissa right away.

Following the sound of crying, I finally found a robed figure sitting in a corner of the room, hugging her knees as she cried.

“Harissa.”

“Huh?! …H-hero-sama! J-J-Jearim Neckr-”

“Wait! Don’t run away.”

I grabbed Harissa’s hand, afraid that she would turn invisible and escape again.

Harissa tried desperately to escape from my grasp.

“D-don’t! Hero-zama shouldn’t touch me, I’ll get filth on you.”

For a moment, Harissa’s accent sounded just like the woman from the kitchen. That’s right, she had said that they came from the same village. So this was how she normally sounded like.

“That’s not gonna happen, so calm down.”

“No! My hand will sweat when in contact with hero-zama’s!”

Now that she mentioned it, her palm was indeed slightly moist, but that wasn’t important now.

No matter what she said or how she struggled, I kept my grip firm, and her face slowly reddened.

“P-p-p-pushu~~!”

Finally, like a machine gone into overheating, Harissa slumped weakly to the floor.

“Rekka-san, I do wish you could be more assertive like that when it comes to other situations.”

Ignoring R’s random comment, I focused my attention on Harissa.

“Alright…”

I quickly updated Harissa on what the woman from the kitchen had told me.

“…So what did she mean when she said that you would be ‘saved’ too?”

“…I’ve actually been put on death row.”

I gulped.

“W-why?”

“…I’m supposed to be an expert on magical summoning, but…”

Slowly, Harissa revealed her story.

“My task is to use magic to summon spirits from the spiritual world. But spirits can be really moody creatures, so it’s up to the summoner to please them. If we can’t do that, the spirit may get angry and go on a rampage, messing up our world very badly before they would leave.”

“That’s not very nice…”

“I know. But I failed disastrously.”

“When?”

“…When I joined the 7th Demon King Suppression Contingent.”

“Gasp!”

Talk about bad timing.

“I was supposed to summon a spirit to intercept the Demon King’s army… But I couldn’t control it well…”

Harissa started to sob as she continued her story.

“The spirit turned on us and destroyed our headquarters… In the end, the 7th Demon King Suppression Contingent had to retreat… And I was blamed for the destruction of the headquarters and sentenced to death…! …But because I’m the only summoner left in the kingdom… I was given a chance to be granted pardon if I could summon a hero through the royal legend’s ritual.”

“I see.”

So that was why she looked so stricken when I insisted I weren’t a hero.

“……But it’s alright,” Harissa said as she gave a defeated smile.

Her expression…spoke of utter dejection. It was the first time I’d ever seen anyone look like that.

The left side of my chest clenched up in pain.

Having led an ordinary life, I could not possibly imagine how it must feel to embrace the amount of despair that Harissa’s smile hinted at… How can it be right that someone younger than me has to face such a thing? Is this how everyone in this kingdom really feels, facing defeat at the hands of a Demon King? Is that the reason why nobody had stepped up to help Harissa? Because the kingdom is doomed…?

“I’m stupid, a crybaby, unable to help with farming back at the village… I was so happy when I learned that I passed the military selection test that selected me as a potential summoner, but it seems like I’m not up to it in the end.”

Harissa buried her face in her robe-clad knees.

So there is really noone in this kingdom who could dispel the dark and gloomy look on her face?

“I’m just a pest who brings misfortune to everyone. Unhappiness really suits me best… Oh, if only I had been executed back then…”

A smile came to Harissa’s face. It was an enlightened smile, her belief that she was doomed already sealed.

…No, that can’t be.

Nobody should accept death so easily. Harissa must have reached out to me because she wants to live. How strongly she must have reached, trying to connect with a “hero” from another world… And I had pushed her away.

No matter how much Harissa seems prepared for death, she isn’t an immortal.

She’s just an ordinary girl. A girl who doesn’t want to die, who wishes to be saved.

Therefore,

“No.”

Having pushed her away once, I gripped her hand tight this time.

Harissa raised her head, her face dripping with tears.

“Don’t say that unhappiness suits you.”

“Hero…-sama?”

“It’s like saying that it’s ordinary to be unhappy… How can that ever be true?”

I like being ordinary. I love it. I mean, that’s what makes me happy.

But Harissa was now insisting the opposite.

That being unhappy is ordinary.

That’s just something… I can never tolerate.

“…Arghh~~ Dammit! Guess I have no choice!”

Harissa stared as I clutched at my head.

“Sorry, Satsuki. I’ll head back as soon as I can, so please wait for me.”

I sent a silent apology to Satsuki back on Earth.

I know I don’t have time to make detours… But I have no choice.

Without me, this “story” and this poor girl will be doomed.

So… it’s ordinary for me to want to save them.

“I’ll defeat the Demon King.”