I Was in Charge of Scouting for the Hero’s Party

16. Meeting was a bad fate

After receiving treatment from Father Royman, Austin disappeared.

I’m sure you were talking to Mr. Robin just a moment ago… Now that Mr. Robin is sitting over there, I think she should ask a question.

“Hey… Mr. Robin. Where did Austin go…?”

“Ah, Princess! If it were your senior… He followed the hero. I think he said he had something to talk about.”

“I see…”

Austin… It seemed like he had a lot of trouble to solve with the hero. It would be nice if it worked out…

“Oh, and… You can just call me Robin! I’m a commoner like you, too… Calling me Robin makes me feel a bit distant…”

Mr. Robin … No, she seems to want Robin to be close to me.

Well… We are members of the same party, but using honorific titles is a bit like that.

“Yes, Robin.

Robin too, it seems she wanted to call me by my first name.

She looks visibly happy… Like a puppy.

“Yes! Oren, take care of me too!”

If I go back to the capital, I will have to prepare for graduation from the academy, but even after graduation… I want to be with them.

Anyway, when will Austin come…

“…Eh…?”

Who is that child…?

Suddenly, Austin walked from the place where he was talking to the hero, looked around, and stopped as he approached Priest Royman.

…I’m still too young to get used to the smell of blood.

Eventually, she looks around and then comes to me.

“Uh… Austin, please stay here for a while…”

…Looks like there’s a pretty serious story going on.

Anyway, I think I will have to wait a little longer.

* * *

“How… How. How could you guys do that to me? Not everyone else, you guys?”

“…Austin, Joe… Calm down…”

As I spoke in an angry voice, the warrior grabbed my arm with a bewildered expression and sweated hard to calm me down.

Seeing such a warrior in my heart… What, now?

“…I don’t know about other people, but you shouldn’t do that to me.”

How could you treat me like that?

When I think about it now, I am amazed at how angry I am.

“I, for you guys… Did everything I could. Was the role of scout that funny?”

“Oh… Austin… I’m sorry… I mean…”

“No? I’m not sorry at all. If you look at my seat so ridiculously and lowly, how would you be able to sit down with a kid like that?”

“Ah… No…! It’s not like that…!!”

I don’t know. How much of this woman’s words are lies, and where are they the truth?

No, wasn’t it full of lies from the beginning to the end?

Now… I don’t know.

I let out a deep sigh and sat down on the floor.

The worried eyes of Maya and Isabel looking at me like that didn’t seem so bad now.

At least, there wasn’t any lies in those two eyes.

I looked into the hero’s eyes.

In the shaking eyes of the hero looking at me, there was sorrow and earnestness.

I don’t know if it contains lies or not.

I can’t believe everything about this woman anymore.

“…Where did I go wrong?”

How did they change to this extent?

“Oh… Austin… Please…”

“From the time I… After every battle, when I started taking care of you, who must have been having a hard time?”

“It’s not like that… It’s not like that…”

“Or since I started accepting all your complaints?”

As always, when the time came to camp after the day was over, we would sit around the campfire in groups of two and three and tell each other what we were feeling.

“…Perhaps, the fact that we first met at the palace itself was a bad relationship.”

Yes. That’s it.

Without the need to blame someone for wrongdoing. Simply…

“For us, the meeting itself was a bad relationship.”

After I finished speaking, I shook my butt and stood up without hesitation.

“…Austin… I’m sorry. I… I’m sorry…”

“I don’t know what kind of change of heart there was, but I have no intention of accepting your apology.”

The reason why I didn’t accept the apology is that Isabelle and Maya are the same.

There was no need to accept the hero’s apology, I thought.

Secretly freeing the hand of the warrior who begged me by the hem of my pants…

Release…

“Suck!…”

…How strong is that?

“…Hero. Let go of this.”

“No… I won’t let go until Austin accepts my apology.”

“I thought only strength was a bull, but stubbornness is a bull, yes. Let go of this quickly.”

How strong is this madman?

As a warrior, I tried my best to free the warrior’s grip on the hem of my trousers, but the firm grip that didn’t budge made my fingers feel like they were going to break first.

“This f*ck… Don’t let this go? Oh really! How did you get so ignorant!”

“Austin… We’re sorry… Please…”

“No, I’m not going back to your party!”

While the hero was holding on to the crotch of his trousers and arguing with me, Gracie suddenly sighed and opened her mouth.

“…Haa… That’s it for today, let’s go back to Cologne soon. The sun will set soon. Austin, can we talk again next time?”

“No, I have no intention of meeting you again…”

“I’m sorry, Austin. As a knight with a heart dedicated to sword and justice, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I think the other party members still have a lot to say… Can we talk again next time? “

“…Yes. If you can, come and see.”

I’m going to the capital soon anyway, so what does it matter whether the warriors and thugs are looking for me?

Finally, when I forced my head to nod, the hero finally released his grip on the crotch of my trousers.

“Well then. Take good care of the demon king. Even if we meet in Cologne, let’s not pretend we know each other.”

After those words, I left the warrior party and walked slowly to the place where the party was.

Goodbye now.

…Hi, right?

* * *

As I walked without looking back, it was evening and I arrived at the place where the party was resting in the empty lot.

Seeing the bonfire and tents spread out, it seems that I prepared for camp, knowing that I would be late.

Well, I don’t have the heart to go back to Cologne with a party of warriors, hahahaha, hoho, so maybe it’s better to camp.

Robin, who was sitting by the campfire sharpening his dagger with a portable sharpening stone, saw me and sprinted in front of me.

“Senior! Did you solve it well with the hero?”

“Uh… Well, how did it work out?”

I looked around while answering Robin casually, and I saw Max, who was sitting next to Royman and having a conversation with him.

“Oh, f*ck.”

What else should he do?

The little boy who talks to Royman is a child who has not yet become an adult.

He is still a weak and immature child to take the scouting position of the warrior party after me.

I walked slowly and sat down next to Max.

“Ah… Austin. The story is over…”

“Hey Max”

“N… Huh?”

I had a kind of responsibility to Max.

In the end, the reason Max went through such a hard time was because I left the warrior party on my own.

Of course, the party of warriors who heard my screams won’t use Max as a scout anymore, but if that happens, Max will have nowhere to go.

Looking at the main shortbow on Max’s back, I continued.

“…How good are you at shooting a bow?”

“A fire… A bow…?”

“Yeah. The bow you sling over your shoulder. Do you know how to shoot it?”

A certain amount of strength is required to use a normal bow.

Unlike a crossbow that only needs to be pulled once and hooked, the bow must be aimed with the bow string pulled, so there is no option with child-level strength to continue using the bow.

“Uh… My father is a hunter, so he can shoot to some extent…”

“…Really?”

I can’t have this child in a warrior’s party, and seeing her foolish like that, it’s easy to see a bad situation if I let her live an adventurer’s life like this.

…I haven’t had a wild dog since Robin… But I can only hope this kid has potential.

I opened the ranger pouch on my side and took out a small, plainly decorated dagger.

Looking at Max with a puzzled expression in front of me, he smiled at me and cut my finger.

“Tongue… Brother?!”

Ignoring Max’s wide-eyed expression, as if surprised by my sudden action, I splashed my blood on the side of the dagger and then snapped the bloodstained dagger into the plain dagger case.

A faint red light leaked through the gap between the scabbard and the dagger, and before long, he saw a hound-shaped mark floating on the scabbard, and handed it to Max.

“From now on, you are my wild dog. From now on, call me senpai. I hope you become a great hunting dog.”

“They… Overview…?”

“Seo… Senior?!!”

When I took Max as a ‘wild dog’, Robin, who was sharpening a dagger next to me, jumped at me in amazement.

“Ah… No! Senior!! I tried so hard to become your wild dog!!! What would happen to me if you just gave me away like this!!”

“…No, he still has some responsibilities on me.”

“Responsibility is what responsibility!! Haa… What is this… Do you know how much, how much effort I’ve put in?! If I do this, then I’m the only fool!!”

“…Well, Max should work hard from now on, right? I can’t leave it like this… Others took 5 of them, but I’m a nobleman.”

I let go of the clinging Robin and turned my gaze to Max, who stood there blankly, still holding the dagger.

“Take that dagger and go to the ranger training center in the capital. If you show me the dagger I gave you, they’ll probably accept you. Why don’t you want to be a ranger?”

“I… I’m a Ranger… Yo…?”

Max too, after 3-4 years, he will become a great ranger as good as Robin… I believe in the kid in front of me.

“Max… He’s small and uses a shortbow, so his firepower won’t be that good… He’ll fight with speed. So…”

Robin sticking close to me seems a bit uncomfortable, but…

“From now on, your two names are Terrier.”

Today, I got a new wild dog.