The Villainous Noble Tried His Hardest to Break the Original Storyline, and Now the Heroines Are Acting Weird - 29-30

Chapter 29

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Riding the horse that Sasha was guiding, we headed north. On the way, monsters naturally appeared. For those that were too risky to simply outrun on horseback, it was safer to take them down.

So, I cast lightning magic and cleared out any monsters that crossed our path as we advanced. Then a question suddenly came to mind.

“Sasha, how does it feel compared to when you were fighting with one arm?”

“I spent the entire past month training for that, so now I can fight with two swords just fine.”

“…So you were dual-wielding, huh?”

“I couldn’t use my left arm to fight before, but thanks to my one-armed days, now I can fight with both.”

So not everything about that time was bad. It just goes to show, there’s always something to gain from any experience.

“I see.”

“With this, my offensive power should be doubled.”

That wasn’t how it worked in the game, as far as I remembered. But maybe there was some kind of logic in this world that I didn’t know about.

“What do you mean?”

“If you fight with one sword, you can attack once. But with two swords, you can strike twice, right? That makes it stronger, doesn’t it?”

“…By that logic, the more swords you can handle, the stronger you get?”

“I think so. Of course, if you can’t control them properly, it’s no good.”

Yeah. That part definitely wasn’t the main problem here. Anyway, it looked like Sasha’s idea of “common sense” wasn’t something I could rely on. I might’ve made a mistake at picking my companion…

A group of wolves had started approaching us, growling as they chased us. The horse was fast, but at this rate, they were going to catch up.

There were three of them. Just as I was about to prepare a spell, Sasha called out to me.

“I haven’t shown you how I fight yet. Should I try taking them on?”

“…Yeah, good idea.”

At this rate, we’d end up reaching Boldright with me doing all the fighting using magic. Sasha brought the horse to a stop, and we quickly dismounted. The wolves that had been closing in stopped and glared at us intensely. Sasha drew the swords from both sides of her waist and gave me a gentle smile.

“Leave it to me.”

“…Are you sure?”

“Yes. Please watch the horse.”

So she said, but this horse was also raised at the estate, and was quite used to combat. Even now, it just sat there calmly, resting without a care. I’d heard the horses had been trained well enough to take down weaker monsters on their own—and sure enough, it looked completely at ease.

As I watched Sasha, the voice of the Goddess rang in my ears.

『Aaaah! You already left on your journey without me noticing!?』

『…Ages ago. Finished your work over there?』

『Yes! We had a meeting! Thanks to my recent accomplishments being recognized, I’ve been put in charge of managing another world! My career as a goddess is moving right along!』

She sounded really proud, but she did realize that it was thanks to me, right? It would’ve been nice to get a little bonus or reward out of it, but I supposed I could use that as a bargaining chip if I needed something from her later.

『Anyway, I recorded the parts I missed, so I’ll catch up with you later—』

Wait, she’s recording this? Is she seriously treating my life like some kind of entertainment program? Does she have any idea whose fault it is that I’m in this mess to begin with?

As always, she started munching on sweets.

『S-Sasha-san… She’s gotten crazy strong!』

Just as the Goddess said that, Sasha kicked off the ground and rushed the wolves in a flash. One of them was sliced down before it could even react. The remaining two responded a moment later, but Sasha took them both out in the blink of an eye, wielding a sword in each hand.

Her movements were noticeably sharper than when we trained together before.

『…Yeah, she’s seriously strong.』

『…Her attribute value are definitely above this world’s standard values. At this rate, even if she can’t take down the Demon Lord herself, she could totally fight demonfolk by herself… Even though the original setup required four people… Uhh, I’ll just configure this so it doesn’t get recorded in the world logs… Alright. There.』

It seemed like she’d learned how to fudge the records and was fiddling with things on her end. She was one step closer to becoming a corrupt goddess.

Well, in the workplace, what matters most is how you cover your mistakes. After all, once you’ve worked long enough, you’re bound to make one or two errors. Rather than wallowing in them, it’s more important not to let the damage spread. In the grand scheme of life, those little slip-ups don’t matter much. It’s easier not to overthink them.

After the battle, Sasha let out a breath and walked over with a beaming smile on her face. Her eyes sparkled like those of an innocent child.

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Chapter 30

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“How did I do, Rubest-sama?”

Ah, there it is.

She looked like a cat bringing back prey to its master. She looked like she was dying to be praised, so I decided I should just go ahead and praise her.

“You did well, Sasha.”

When I said that, she showed a very pleased expression. It almost looked like a tail she didn’t have was happily wagging behind her.

“Yes, I believe I did well. At this pace, we can rely on your magic to take down any monsters we can handle on the move. If we need to stop and fight, I’ll take care of it.”

“I mean, I can handle those too, you know?”

“I couldn’t possibly trouble you with that, Rubest-sama.”

“I really don’t mind, though?”

“Then I’d have nothing to do.”

That’s true. 

Even dogs needed to be walked regularly. If Sasha was stuck handling the reins the whole time, she’d probably get stressed out too. I should make sure she gets some exercise along the way…

We arrived at the town of Boldright, which lay to the north of the town of Ecleana where we had been living. When I showed them the letter proving I was from the Fortas family, we passed through the gate without issue. This town was about the same size as Ecleana.

Sasha and I headed straight for the estate of the town’s lord. As she held the reins and slowly guided the horse through the town, Sasha turned to look at me.

“You’ve met him when you were a child, didn’t you, Rubest-sama?”

“Sort of.”

We hadn’t met since then, so I wouldn’t go so far as to call us acquaintances. Well, he was a character who appeared in the game, so I knew of him. Just that much. Still, considering his age at the time of the game’s events, I couldn’t really picture what he looked like now.

When we arrived at the estate, we handed the horse over to the butlers who came to greet us and entered the manor together. We were shown to a room where a man, probably around the same age as my father, looked over at us.

…He was likely the lord of the estate. There was also a woman by his side. She was in a wheelchair and looked to be about the same age as me. She turned her gaze toward me and smiled softly.

“Oh, we’ve been waiting for you, Rubest!”

The man greeted me in a cheerful tone. He was most likely Golsh-san. He matched the description my father had given me.

“It’s been a while, Golsh-san. Thank you for letting me stay here on my selfish journey.”

“No, no, no need to be so formal. It was a request from Kai, after all.”

When I thanked Golsh-san, he smiled happily. I approached him, gave him a light hug in greeting, then took a letter from my item box and handed it to him.

This was something my father had prepared. We’d chosen to deliver it directly because if we had entrusted it to someone and it was seen by the wrong person, it could have caused major problems. Even Golsh-san and the others didn’t know the full details of why I was on this journey.

“This letter contains the purpose of my current journey.”

“Oh? I see, I see. Thank you.”

Golsh-san took the letter, opened it slowly, and began reading through it. As I watched him, I felt a soft poke around my waist. When I looked over, the woman in the wheelchair—Aifi—was gazing up at me with an upward glance, smiling.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Rubest-san?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

Aifi, smiling gently, was a character who also appeared in the original story. She had lost the use of her legs. Her magical skills were quite advanced, but due to her immobility, she lacked any kind of mobility on the battlefield. When my eyes drifted toward her legs for a moment, Aifi looked a little sad, but then she quickly smiled again.

“Are you curious about my legs?”

“Eh? Ah… Uum…”

Yeah, staring like that was rude of me. From the game, I knew her legs had been taken by a demon. She probably had complicated feelings about it, so I shouldn’t have brought it up.

“Sorry… I just thought… Your legs are beautiful.”

No, come on, I could’ve said something better than that.

At this rate, they might judge me as some pervy old man. However, Aifi blushed slightly, looking embarrassed but also pleased. Ah, right. This must be the power of Rubest-kun’s face. If it were my past self, I’d definitely have been reported. Yeah. Having good looks was really an advantage.

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