The Banished Black Swordsman Wants a Peaceful Life with the White Saint in the Frontier ~Huh? You Want Him to Come Back with the Saint? It’s Already Too Late~ - 66

Chapter 66: The Proposal from Cron and Lusha

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After lightly pressing his back against the chair back and taking a sip of tea, Lloyd turned back toward the two of them. He could not leave things hanging any longer. At the very least, he should talk about what lay ahead for Elena and Fran as well.

“Hey, I’ve got one question.”

“What is it?”

“Do you really want to insist on your own innocence no matter what, and drag Julius’s bastard name through the mud?”

He had tried to ask it as gently as possible, but the irritation he could not fully suppress seeped into his voice.

Lloyd himself did not have a good impression of Julius. After hearing Elena and the others’ story, that feeling only deepened. With the incompetent warrior left behind and Elena and Fran gone, it was easy to imagine how harsh his adventures as a hero would become. But shelving his past of firing party members or failing to protect them, declaring his companions dead, and then searching for new talent—Lloyd could not sympathize with that sort of disposition. Part of him could not help thinking that Julius deserved to suffer a little.

Elena blinked once, lightly set the ferrule of her staff against the floor, and then let out a small sigh.

“It’s not really like that. It’s just… I don’t like being told I’m living on the run, or that I disobeyed a royal command. If I can live freely, then honestly, I don’t really care about Julius anymore at this point. Well… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t angry, though.”

It was said without being swept away by emotion, as if leaving behind only a small thorn in the air after the breath she exhaled. From Elena’s perspective, she had been the victim of attempted rape. Completely forgiving him was probably impossible for her. Fran fidgeted, interlacing and separating her fingers atop her knees as they restlessly changed shape, and picked up where Elena left off.

“I’m kind of the same, honestly. Even if I did go back to the Church, I’d probably still be seen as ‘the one who failed to carry out a royal command,’ you know?”

The looks on their faces were still troubled. They were not driven by fierce anger, nor were they clinging desperately to someone. Rather, feelings that had lost their destination sat heavily as furrows between their brows.

Lloyd narrowed his eyes, as if tracing the outline of that weight.

Both of them probably understood it in their heads. Even if the king acknowledged their innocence and condemned Julius’s lies, they would never be able to return to the same place as before. Landmarks, titles—once a framework was bent out of shape, it would never return to what it had been. Their position was different from Lloyd’s, who had never had a place to return to in the first place. Being unable to go back to where one belonged must be unbearably painful.

“Then… I’ve got a proposal for the two of you.”

At that moment, Cron gave a small cough and opened his mouth, as if measuring the timing. He returned the quill on the desk to its glass bottle and leaned forward without making his chair creak. There was something about his tone that suggested he had been prepared for this.

“Elena-chan and Fran-chan, right? How about the two of you trying your hand at running a ‘handyman’ business here in this town?”

Cron’s sudden proposal caught Lloyd off guard just as much as it did them. Elena and Fran widened their eyes and looked at each other.

“Huh?”

“Us… Running a ‘handyman’ service?”

Cron nodded calmly. That ironic composure of his childlike face was reassuring at times like this.

“Yeah. Like I said earlier, the reason Lloyd and the others’ notoriety shot up so much is because I relied on them too heavily, and because there weren’t any other ‘handymen’ around besides them. If there were another pair running the same kind of business, information and rumors would get mixed up, and wouldn’t it end up being distorted by the time it reached outsiders?”

The “boy merchant” said with a shrug.

“That’s just how hearsay works, after all.” 

True, Lloyd agreed inwardly. If there was only one set of footprints, they could be followed straight to the source. But once there were two or three, they would suddenly become much harder to track. Even in terms of scattering one’s trail, it was not a bad proposal. And if it was Elena and Fran, their abilities were more than sufficient. They could handle a wide variety of jobs.

“The ‘handyman’ reputation’s gotten good enough that requests have been piling up, and I was just thinking Lloyd and the others can’t handle them all alone anymore. Of course, I fully intend to pay you enough that you won’t have trouble making a living. And if requests dry up, well, maybe I’ll ask you to guard my caravan instead.”

Faced with the unexpected proposal, the two of them blinked blankly once again. Fran murmured softly.

“…What do you think?”

“What should we do?”

Elena echoed back with a short reply. There was hesitation, but it did not seem tinged strongly with rejection. At that point, Lloyd decided to give them a gentle push.

“If you don’t have anything else in particular you want to do, why not just try it out for a bit? Think of it as a temporary fix until you’ve figured things out. And if a request looks like it might be dangerous, we can take it on together.”

“Yeah. I recommend that too.”

Cron chimed in immediately. It felt as though the stepping stones they had lined up together sank neatly into the surface of the water.

“I think… Being a ‘handyman’ might actually work for me. I don’t really have anywhere else to go, and I kind of want to give it a try.”

The first to give her answer was Fran. The shadow that had lingered in her voice until moments before had lifted slightly. In times like this, the speed of her decision-making was a weapon.

“What about you, Elena?”

“Let’s see… I suppose we can give it a try for now.”

Elena lifted the corner of her lips and nodded. It was not as if she was simply being carried along, but it did feel like a “well, if Fran’s doing it, I might as well” sort of decision. With that, Cron clapped his hands together and stood up from his chair.

“Then it’s settled. I look forward to working with you. If you want requests, come by our office.”

He walked up to Elena and held out his hand. Elena took it first, and Fran followed with a handshake of her own. The second ‘handyman’ team was officially decided. The flow of information and the trail they left would likely be stirred up a bit now. Perhaps the day would come when they would tackle a large request together. That, too, sounded enjoyable.

“But if that’s the case… We’re going to need a base somewhere nearby, right?”

“Paying for an inn every day would be rough and cheap inns don’t exactly feel secure.”

Their expressions brightened only for a moment. Soon enough, anxiety seeped back onto their faces. An inn bed was kind to the backs of wanderers, but as a roost, it was unreliable. Anyone could come and go, which meant the risk of a sudden attack, and every little noise would be unsettling.

What should we do…?

As Lloyd turned the problem over in his mind, after a brief pause, a glint of inspiration crossed the eyes of the adjacent Lusha.

“Um, Lloyd.”

Lusha leaned closer and lowered her voice.

“Hm?”

“There were still quite a few houses in the village that looked usable, right?”

That question alone conveyed her intent. Indeed, in the ruins of Zaxon Village, there were several abandoned houses that could be lived in with some work. The idea was to repair one more and let Elena and the others use it.

“If we’re talking about fixing it up, that’d be a lot of work for you, Lusha… Are you sure?”

“I’d be completely fine. And besides, I’ve always admired the idea of people my own age living nearby.”

As she spoke, her cheeks faintly colored, and she smiled as if to hide her embarrassment. That gentle core unique to her… Just looking at it was soothing.

“Alright. Let’s go with that.”

Lloyd nodded shortly. Come to think of it, Lusha had said that since leaving the convent, she had not really interacted with people her own age. As a girl of her age, there were probably times when she wanted to chat with same-aged female friends.

“What’s going on?”

“Are you whispering secrets?”

Watching the two of them exchange hushed words, Elena and Fran tilted their heads suspiciously. Lusha turned back toward them and offered a bright smile.

“Sorry, we have a small proposal… If you’d like, would you consider becoming our neighbors? It’s not in a livable state right now, so it wouldn’t be immediate, but…”

“And just so you know, the rent’s free. It’s a bit far from Gluteridge and inconvenient, but as long as you’ve got a horse, it’s no problem. We have a bath, but it’s a shared bath though.”

Picking up where Lusha left off, Lloyd added the benefits. The distance to town was inconvenient, but in exchange it was quiet, and there was the advantage of not having to worry about prying eyes. They could bathe every day, too. All things considered, it was not a bad location.

“What is that, some kind of shady offer?”

“What do you mean by ‘neighbors’?”

Their eyebrows twitched upward in unison. Wariness, suspicion, half-belief.. It all showed plainly on their faces. Lloyd and Lusha exchanged a glance and gave a small laugh. Lusha explained honestly.

“We actually live in a renovated abandoned house.”

The way she said it sounded somehow happy, and just a little shy. Elena’s eyebrow twitched again.

“You live there…?”

“Um. I’ve been wondering since earlier… Could it be that Lloyd and the Saint-sama are—”

“Yes, we live together.”

At Lusha’s reply, Fran’s jaw dropped as if it might fall off, and Elena froze like a cracked stone statue. Their stares pierced him painfully, and a moment later, heat gathered in Lloyd’s cheeks. Fran somehow managed to string words together.

“S-so… That means you’re not just living together, right?”

“Um. Up until yesterday, that was true. But now…”

Lusha glanced up at Lloyd, quickly turned bright red, and hurriedly dropped her gaze. She swallowed lightly. For just an instant, the soft morning light and her body warmth from earlier resurfaced in his mind.

“Ah, so you finally made progress. Congrats.”

Cron declared it in an exaggeratedly flat tone, tapping the desk with the tip of his quill and shrugging his shoulders. Perhaps, having watched the two of them all this time, he had his own thoughts about it. The atmosphere in the room loosened in an odd way.

…Or had it? Elena was still frozen stiff, and Fran began lamenting as if she were about to clutch her head.

“Ugh, I’ve got way too many dangerous secrets now, there’s no way I can go back to my old life! A man who laid hands on the Saint-sama is practically family now… Ahh, Goddess-sama! Am I doomed to carry this secret to my grave!?”

“Don’t say ‘laid hands on’!”

When Lloyd shot back reflexively, a small laugh escaped from Cron across the desk, and Lusha ducked her head, her face red as an apple. Seeing that, Elena finally seemed to relax her shoulders. Exasperation, resignation, and just a faint hint of relief layered together across her expression. In the end, they decided to call it a day there, with plans for Elena and Fran to visit the ruins of Zaxon Village together another day, and the conversation wrapped up.

A lot had changed too quickly between yesterday and today, but… It was not bad. That was what they thought for some reason. 

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