Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai - CH 44

I Didn’t Do Anything

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

TN: In celebration for being Christmas, I will be releasing double chapters of my works this week!!

“Oh, it’s Hermes-sama, isn’t it. You’ve come just at the right time.”

“Nn?”

In the evening, when I was wandering around the town of Pindos, I heard a voice which was sounding familiar or friendly, or something like that.

When I turned toward the voice, I saw an old man I knew.

There was an old store, the books almost overflowing to the outside of the store.

This is Casios-jiisan, an acquaintance who runs a bookstore here in Pindos.

“Casios-jiisan. What’s the matter, with just the right time?”

“Mmfuh, I’ve got a good one. Wait a minute.”

The corner of jii-san’s mouth quirked up in a grin, and he walked back into the store.

“Hou……?”

I also found that the corner of my mouth was rising too.

I’ve known the old man Casios for a long time now.

Most of the photo books I have, the ones that are so-called “rare”, were purchased from the old man Casios.

The old man said, “I’ve got a good one”.

The expected value will inevitably go up.

After waiting at the storefront for a while, the jii-san came back.

“Here. It’s a photo book that’s long out of print.”

“Let’s see. White Wall War Princess…… no good, I can’t read a part in the name.”

Perhaps because it was a fairly old photo book, the latter half of the title was so faint that I couldn’t read what was seemed to be its name.

So, I tilted my head, but the old man was.

“Pull it out some more and take a closer look.”

“If you don’t pull it out, you won’t be able to see it, is it…… Hmmm, is the last name in the second half? Is there just a little left? That is…… Canoe huh…… Canoe?”

“Yes”

Looking up at Jii-san with a startled face, the old man had a proud face, and made a proud laughing expression showing me his only three teeth left, upper and lower together.

“This girl, Hermes-sama, is the first head of the family.”

“The first generation!?”

Surprised, I looked at the cover of the photo book again.

Of course, I know the name of the first generation, her full name.

As I try to look at it again with that knowledge ―― certainly, the blurred portions do read that way.

“That means, this one is hundreds of years old.”

“I had a hard time getting it, you know?”

“Heh”

With a different feeling than when I look at various Orthia’s photo books, I flipped through the first-generation photo album.

“……strong”

“Hah?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

How careless of me.

By mistake, I uttered a serious impression.

Because I couldn’t help it, the first-generation female swordfighter reflected in the photo book was extremely dignified and was a considerable sword user as I could see through the photos.

No…… she’s seriously strong.

She is by far the strongest swordfighter I know.

It oozes from every corner of her.

How could I understand that, you say …… Because I thought that this woman has an absolutely stubborn and obstinate type of personality.

Because even though she’s in a photo book, she’s in a serious “swordsmanship” pose, not caring at all about looking good in the picture.

Stubborn, inflexible, and just plain strong.

The first generation’s photographs have appealed for it strongly.

“The first-generation Canoe-sama, you said?”

“Amazing, she’s beautiful, I’m falling in love”

“I wish a girl like her would come to my house to be my wife.”

“Whoa!”

I was so surprised that I was thrown off my feet.

Before I knew it, the town’s residents had gathered around me, and were peering at the photo album in my hand.

They’re all looking at the photo album I’m holding with great interest.

“It’s just like the image of the first-generation Canoe-sama that I got from my grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather.”

“On closer look now, she does resemble the current lord, doesn’t she?”

“It’s true, their atmosphere is similar.”

When someone said that, everyone’s eyes focused on me this time.

They were seriously staring at me, and it is a little uncomfortable.

Well, I’m her descendant, so if they say that I look like her, then I would have to say that that’s the case.

I smiled wryly, now then, what to do ―― at that time I thought so.

I heard a commotion from a distance.

When I wondered what happened, I looked over there this time.

“Geh”

It was bad in another sense, I thought.

Those people, were just walking down the street, then the residents will naturally clear the way for them, those rough-looking people, that’s, it was the dream troupe.

Not that they were doing anything wrong, but they looked like common bandits, so the residents became frightened on their own, clearing the way and whispering in the distance.

Incidentally, the dream troupe seemed completely unconcerned by this, and walked along the middle of the road normally.

Over here ―― they’re coming.

“Oh”

After one of the group members spotted me, they all came towards me at once.

This is not good. As it is, this is bad.

While I was wondering how I was going to deceive them, they all came in front of me.

The residents who had gathered to see the photo book also began to be frightened by the dream troupe.

“Lo,lord-sama. Please help”

Then, someone told me.

Almost at the same time, one of the group members opened his mouth and tried to speak to me, but hearing the words of the inhabitants, Kyorus raised his hand to interrupt him.

Kyorus looked at me with a straight face and then.

“Are you, the lord of this town?”

“……Yeah”

“……I see”

I and Kyorus look at each other with difficult faces.

The other members of the Dream Troupe are puzzled, and the residents are frightened.

This is bad, I wonder how should I get through this.

I’d like to keep the fact that I’ve become the leader of the Dream Troupe hidden, if possible.

A Viscount that has become the boss of a group of extremely famous bandits.

Hmm, I can’t predict if it’s good or bad, but it’s obvious that I’m going to be famous and will have full of trouble.

I have to deceive them somehow ―― as I was wondering so.

“Excuse me, we’re a bunch of bums called the Dream Troupe.”

“……Yeah?”

I was a little confused by Kyorus’ dialogue.

This is …… perhaps?

“On one point, I wanted to see the Viscount of Canoe Family.”

First time meeting, is it…… is he performing a play?

I thought so, and it was correct.

Kyorus casually gave me a wink which only I could see.

Talking together, yes, it sounded like he was telling me so.

“What do you want with me?”

“As you know, we’re bandits―― in other words, we’re doing business that doesn’t need a source of money, just robbing the rich.”

“That’s a fancy way of putting it.”

“Therefore, I wanted to meet the Viscount once.”

“We’re meeting now, though. So?”

“As expected of a descendant of the world’s strongest, no, perhaps the strongest swordsman in history, Canoe-sama.”

Yes?

Descendants of Canoe-sama―― Is it about the first generation?

“What a surprise, Canoe-sama’s military fame is still talked about throughout the continent.”

“I see”

“You may look calm, but such demeanor, isn’t from an ordinary person. As expected of the descendant of the so-called Canoe-sama.”

Kyorus lifts me up while using the first generation as a pretext.

“Yes, I can tell even if you hide it. We’re no match for you.”

“Eh?”

“We were wrong in our conceitedness. Please, can you overlook us”

Kyorus said so, and bowed to me.

Behind such Kyorus, the other members of the Dream Troupe look at each other, and poke each other with their elbows.

“““Please overlook us!!”””

Then, they acted in unison with his voice.

The fact that the members of that famous dream troupe all bowed together shocked the people around me.

“O,oy. Is the Lord-sama that strong?”

“I don’t know, but the Dream troupes are bowing to him.”

“It’s natural, though, he’s a good man who has a strong vestige of the first generation-sama.”

The background chattering voices I heard, was somehow convinced at it.

No, they were being guided by Kyorus.

“Etto”

“Please overlook us. We won’t do anything bad in Canoe-sama’s territory.”

“““Please overlook us”””

They all spoke in unison, raised their heads once, and then bowed again.

The surroundings, were all staring at me.

There is an expectant color in their eyes.

It’s the type of public will that can’t be defied, the kind that is filled with expectations.

“I,I understand. If you act normal, I won’t do anything.”

“Thank you very much”

“““Thank you very much”””

Thrice, the dream troupe shouted together.

The faces they raised seemed to be smirking somewhere.

That’s still good, what’s even worse than that, was.

“Amazing, he suppressed the dream troupe without doing anything.”

“Is our Lord-sama such a great man?”

Saying that, I heard a word that I couldn’t ignore.

No, it’s not like I haven’t done anything.

Although I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything here! To tell you the truth, I didn’t do anything, though!

“Mumumu……”

I can’t even go to the point where I can reiterate my relationship with the Dream troupe.

I, am in front of the public.

Without doing anything, I ended up forcing the continent’s worst group of bandits to yield.

And this matter ―― this type of matter.

Became a big rumor with its tail and spine. (TN: A proverb)