The Villainous Noble Tried His Hardest to Break the Original Storyline, and Now the Heroines Are Acting Weird - 27-28

Chapter 27

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『Goddess. You’ve been acting like you’ve wanted to talk for a while now—did something happen?』

The Goddess had been saying persistently, 『If you have time, please listen to me!』So, I wrapped up the conversation with Sasha and turned to ask the Goddess.

If this turned out to be something stupid, I was going to be pissed. Maybe she read my thoughts, because the Goddess let out a faint squeal, 『Uhi!?』 before continuing.

『It’s about when you treated Sasha-san.』

『I had something I wanted to ask about that too. How many levels did I gain?』

『Um… You gained two levels after you treated Sasha-san.』

To gain that many levels at this stage… This reward was beyond my expectation. Thanks, Sasha.

『Just as I thought, treating someone with that kind of serious injury is super efficient, huh?』

『T-That’s the problem! Forcing healing on people in this world with your powers isn’t good! It’ll mess things up in all kinds of ways!』

『Did something happen?』

If the Goddess was panicking, then something must have happened.

『…S-Sasha-san’s status ended up getting all messed up.』

『What do you mean?』

『When I looked at Sasha-san’s status, it was like her limits matched those from Final Quest! Her status isn’t like a character from this world anymore!』

『…Did that happen after I treated her?』

『Yes! Most probably, it’s because of your healing magic, Rubest-san!』

Probably? No, there was no doubt about it. So it was my healing that had caused it. But I had used healing magic on knights before, and the Goddess never made a big fuss about it then.

Which meant the real cause was that I healed Sasha’s scripted loss event, something that shouldn’t be fixable in this world. By doing something that was impossible here, I must’ve triggered some kind of bug.

『So-So…I’d really appreciate it if you could maybe hold off on using healing magic….』

『…But there are people out there suffering in this world, you know? I want to help them!』

『You’re saying noble things, but really, you’re thinking about raking in tons of EXP, aren’t you!? You’re just being greedy! And it might make my job harder!』

You can’t complain about your job getting harder when you’ve been doing it half-assed all this time.

So yeah, I had no intention of listening to the Goddess. When I told my family about the journey, their reactions were mixed. Father seemed to accept it, but Mother and Liana hugged me tightly from either side.

“I’m against it. I’m against Rubest leaving the estate… I’d hate it if something happened to you.”

Mother seemed genuinely worried as she said that. Liana, too, clutched at my clothes with a lonely look in her eyes.

“Nii-ni… I don’t want you to go away.”

Now I was starting to second-guess this whole trip. Liana’s tearful eyes shook me a bit—but I firmly shook my head. If I didn’t go on this journey, I wouldn’t be able to save the people I could save.

Father, however, cleared his throat and looked straight at me.

“It’s true… I’ve struggled with the idea of Rubest going on a journey too. But thinking about Rubest’s future, it’s important to build connections in different places.”

He had a point. I was the next head of the Fortas family. While the specifics of this trip weren’t fully decided yet, the plan was to visit the home of a nobleman my father knew. Looking ahead, this was something I needed to do and maybe Mother understood that too, because her grip on me loosened just a little.

I guess I will be able to go on a journey?

But there was still Liana, who I hadn’t managed to convince. Her eyes welled up with fresh tears.

“I don’t want to stop playing with Nii-ni…”

As much as I hated to admit it, this was practically a done deal already. I didn’t want to part with Liana either—but I needed to go to other towns and see what was happening in this world. I reluctantly tried to persuade her.

“I’ll be back before my birthday. Until then… Could you hang in there for me?”

To be honest, there were less than six months left until then. That was why I was actually feeling pretty rushed. I wanted to at least learn the highest-tier lightning and healing magic before then.

“…But still…”

“I-I’ll bring back souvenirs too.”

“Souvenirs… I want lots of sweets.”

“Yeah… So, is it okay if I go?”

“Okay then. I want to eat lots of sweets.”

Wait, what? Did I just lose to sweets? I felt a little sad about it, but at least I managed to persuade her.

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Chapter 28

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With the persuasion completed successfully, my journey became something everyone supported.Just as planned, time passed, and a month went by.

During that month, I did what I always did: training myself and treating the injured. As I had explained to Sasha, I treated people who had suffered serious wounds from the Demon Lord, but only under certain conditions.

Thanks to that, I managed to treat most of the seriously injured people in this town who were acquaintances of my father. I had also raised my level to 30, so the efficiency of this method was insanely good.

Though honestly, with how grateful everyone was, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. After all, I didn’t heal them because I wanted to be showered in thanks or anything. I was doing it simply because I wanted the experience points.

W-Well, they do say doing hypocritical good is better than doing nothing at all.

How the people I healed interpreted my actions was up to them. We also got in touch with one of my father’s acquaintances, and it was decided that I would continue my activities in the neighboring town.

For now, the next town I would head to was a place called Boldright. Apparently, the lord managing the town had a daughter the same age as me, and he was a close friend of my father’s.

They said I had met her when I was younger, but I didn’t remember much. That daughter had also been injured by the Demon Lord, so my first objective was to treat her.

“Do you have everything? Didn’t forget anything?”

“I’m fine, seriously. I’ve got my item box, remember?”

When my mother asked me that, I gave her a wry smile in return. She’d been like this since yesterday. Clearly, she didn’t want me going on this journey.

Well, we all knew there was definitely going to be some kind of interference from the Demon Lord on my fifteenth birthday. Until then, she probably just wanted me to enjoy our peaceful life for as long as possible.

Of course, I had no intention of letting this peaceful life end on the day I turned fifteen. No matter what the Demon Lord tried, I planned to overwhelm him with sheer power and crush him.

I was ready, and Sasha was prepared as well. Just like I asked, she had disguised herself. Her hair, which had only been about bob-length before, had grown out to semi-long. She even had some braiding now, and wore makeup too. Even with just minimal makeup, the impression she gave off was totally different.

Wow, amazing. 

The change in her appearance was so drastic that no one would recognize the current Sasha as the one-eyed, one-armed Sasha from before.

“Rubest-sama? Is something wrong?”

“No, I just… I just really think you look beautiful.”

“R-Really? I worked hard to look nice! Ehehe.”

She looked a little embarrassed but puffed out her chest proudly, clearly happy. Her appearance might have changed a lot, but on the inside, she was still the same puppy-like girl.

We had considered changing her name too, but ended up deciding against it. There was no need to go that far. Most people didn’t even know Sasha to begin with, so they wouldn’t make the connection. Even if someone did recognize her, the number of people who knew Sasha was small to begin with.

It was a sad reality, but in this world, the story of a skilled adventurer being summoned by the Demon Lord and having their life ruined was all too common. Sasha climbed onto the horse we’d prepared at the estate, and I got on behind her. She held the reins while I clung tightly to her.

Because, well… I couldn’t ride a horse. I technically had the horseback riding skill, but I didn’t have the luxury of spending skill points on something like that. Turning around, I looked at my family. They were all standing there, watching me as if to see me off, so I bowed my head quietly.

“Well then, I’m off.”

“Take care, and be safe.” 

“Nii-ni, don’t forget souvenirs! Really take good care of the souvenirs, okay?!”

“Rubest… Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Only my father, who knew the real reason behind my journey, spoke with such a serious gaze.

Family, huh. To me, it was something I still wasn’t used to. But to my parents, I was their precious son.

Have I been acting like a proper child of theirs?

I felt a little unsure, but even so, as the son of the Fortas family, I was going to gain the strength to defeat the Demon Lord and come back here. And of course, I wasn’t going to forget to bring back souvenirs for Liana, too.

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