Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai - CH 39

Similar to Big brother

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

On the outskirts of Pindos.

I was watching the autumn leaves dancing in the wind with Orthia.

“Beautiful……”

Orthia showed a rare expression of emotion as she looked at the autumn leaves.

“Thank you, Hermes-chan, I’m glad I saw this.”

“Your lifetime request, did it come true?”

“Yeah! Thank you very much!”

Orthia’s smile was her usual carefree and cheerful one.

When I went to the Brothel, she told me a “request for a lifetime” again, and I got defensive, but all she wanted was to see the autumn leaves, so I brought her here.

It wasn’t a lot of effort, but I was glad to see Orthia’s nice smile.

And so, as I gazed at the autumn leaves with Orthia ―― a tactless sound interrupted the world of us.

It was the sound of horses’ hooves, and it’s not just at the degree of one or two.

When I turned toward the sound, I saw a dozen or more of them coming towards us from beyond the horizon, sending up a cloud of dust.

“Wha,what is that”

“Hide behind me”

“Yes”

I stepped forward quickly, hiding Orthia behind my back.

I braced myself, thinking that there’ll be something like a fight, but the people on the horses passed in front of us.

“It looks like they’re not looking for us.”

“Ah. But their expressions had changed. What happened?”

“I wonder what it is.”

As Orthia and I were twisting our heads with this, one of the horses at the end of the pack suddenly stopped.

With that, some of the leading horses also pulled back their reins, and stopped with a horses’ whinny.

The big guy with a beard at the end of the line stared at us.

“Are you guys’ lovers? Or a prostitute and a customer?”

“Something like that.”

“Is that so…… Oy, give your horse to these guys.”

The bearded man said so to another man.

The man who was told to do this, had a troubled face.

“Ho,however, if I give them a horse――”

“You goddamn idiot!”

The bearded man yelled loudly.

It was quite powerful, and Orthia, who was behind me, jolted out.

“Did you forget your Aniki’s teachings!” (TN: Aniki stands for ‘older brother’)

“N,no!”

The man who yelled hah, jumped off his horse, then he pulled the reins of his horse and came towards us.

“You can use this, and ride it.”

“…… What’s going on?”

“Ride it and run away, okay.”

The bearded man said to me, and pulled on the reins in order for the horse to run.

The other guy who gave us the horse jumped on his buddy’s horse and rode off in the same way, as a two-seater.

We who got a horse, saw them off.

“What happened”

“……Evil is coming”

Behind them―― they said so to me as I looked in the direction the men were running from.

Over the horizon, something that gives off a quite evil feeling is coming towards us.

“Is that evil, a monster?”

“Ah, it looks like they’re running away from it.”

“But why did they give us a horse?”

“Let’s go after them and see what they have to say”

“Yes!”

Even though she was a prostitute with no combat skills, Orthia’s curiosity outweighed the fear she would normally have.

Me and Orthia ride together on the horse, and chase after the men.

The horse he gave me was a pretty good one, and it ran like the wind even with two people on it.

Immediately, I caught up with the men.

“Oi”

“Don’t come over here, you’re going to get involved”

Get involved? What does he mean?

No, more than that.

“Why did you give us the horse?”

“You guys, base on how you look, are bandits, right?”

Orthia, who put her arm around my waist, asked.

She impliedly asked, “Why would bandits help people?”.

“It’s a teaching from our Aniki, the man who is the boss of this group. We steal and rob, but we don’t kill people. If someone is about to be killed, save them. That’s our policy.”

“Ha”

I was strangely impressed.

No, I don’t know if I could really say that I’m impressed with this.

They’re not your average bandits, that’s for sure.

“That Aniki was also killed. You guys better get the hell out of here, too.”

“Why run away. Don’t you ever think of getting revenge?”

“I want to do that, but”

The bearded man bit his lower lip in frustration.

His teeth were digging into his lips with such a force that it felt like he was going to bleed.

“It’s aniki’s command, run away from this place alive.”

Despite his regret, the bearded man didn’t stop running away.

As I look closely, I could see that the other men on horses all look frustrated.

They are frustrated, but they’re running away because it’s their Aniki’s last command.

I see.

“You should escape obediently”

“Nn?”

“I saved you, in part because of what Aniki taught me, but…… because I thought you looked like Aniki. That’s why, make sure you run.”

“……Got it”

I pulled the reins back and slowed down the horse.

I understood the story.

I saw off the men as it was. When they were almost out of sight, I turned my horse in the opposite direction ―― towards the way we came.

“Hermes-chan, you’re gonna do it, right”

“……What”

“Don’t hide it, don’t hide it”

Orthia laughed and slapped me on the back.

“That kind of feeling is coming out of you, letting those people escape. They’re outlaws, but they’re good people.”

I smiled bitterly.

I wonder if it was obvious.

“Anyone will understand, if they knew Hermes-chan.”

“Is that so. Well, that’s what it was. Even though they were in danger themselves, they tried to keep the word of their dead Aniki, and let us, who they met for the first time, escape. They’re the ones I didn’t want to die.”

“I know right”

“That’s why, just pretend you didn’t see what I’m about to do.”

“I wish you could just stop hiding it already, Hermes-chan?”

“It’s a request for a lifetime”

“Mou, Hermes-chan!”

Orthia protested with pursed lips.

It was a light exchange of words, but I was confident that if I did this, Orthia would not speak about this.

That’s the kind of woman she is.

I finished forbidding her from talking, and as I waited for a while ―― it came.

From beyond the horizon, a brown giant steadily approached me with a thumping sound of the earth.

“Ogre, hah”

“Wha,what will you do, Hermes-chan. You don’t have any weapon.”

Wondering where our light-hearted talk from earlier went to, Orthia asked me with a frightened look.

As it should be, the size of the ogre was so large that the perspective felt a little strange.

It was about a size larger than a two-story house.

“No weapon, huh? On the contrary, that may be convenient.”

“Eh?”

“Because――”

The ogre was right in front of us, and we were completely covered by the shadow made from its giant body.

The ogre raised the club it was holding ―― immediately after.

Its body was ripped in half from the waist down.

“Eh?”

Orthia was surprised, with my right arm swung out.

And then, there were claw-like attack marks on the surfaces of the ogre’s body which was cut.

“E,e,eeeeeeeehhh!?”

“I’ve never done this before, but it worked. With this, it would look like a fight between monsters.”

The body of the fallen ogre, the one who died, was torn apart by “claws” for all to see.

If it’s a weapon, like a sword, which one usually uses, they’ll say that it’s the work of a human and start looking for the culprit(hero), but if it’s a trace of a battle between monsters, I can get through.

Yeah, let’s go with this from now on.

If anything, tearing them apart with claws will make it look like monsters which fought each other.

I’m confident of this approach and was a little pleased.

“Thi,this is stupid”

“Eh?”

I turned towards the voice that I suddenly heard.

There was the man from earlier ―― or rather, the group of bandits.

They returned before I knew it, and were differentiating me and the corpse of the Ogre with astonished faces.

I was seen…… I was exposed!?

No, more than that.

“Wh,why did you come back”

“Because you looked like Aniki…… since you had a face like you were going to do something. I knew I couldn’t overlook something like that, so…….”

“……Ah”

I looked at Orthia.

It’s the same argument that Orthia made earlier.

Because she knows me well, she can tell when I do something on my own accord.

“And yet, when we come back …… amazing”

It appears that I was being watched firmly.

“Ohh……”

Apparently, their Aniki and I were very much alike.