The Bird That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (4)

“And, when talking about friends, I can’t leave out my childhood friend Mary. Mary was a very cute girl with freckles on her face and curly pigtails. The ribbon on her blonde hair suited her so well, and she had a big chest and liked to wear fluttery skirts. She said she’d wait for me in the village, I wonder what she’s doing now.”

While the hero was talking about his meticulously crafted family background and countryside life, a woman sitting at a table a little distance away was silently mocking the hero with her eyes closed.

War is never just about strength.

In war, those who always grasp more information and know how to use it have been victorious. She saw the hero’s careless mouth and innocent face. And she scanned the somewhat disgruntled faces of the party members.

Their expressions were revealing as much information as the hero’s past stories.

First, Lena making such an expression was clearly because the hero she liked was talking about his first love.

“Pathetic woman.”

She sneered at Lena’s appearance. Despite betraying the Black Society and playing under the hero, in the end, she was living as a plaything of a playboy without even winning the hero’s love. The woman smiled even more brightly as she scanned Lena’s face through the gaps in her wine glass.

Next to Lena was a man with sharp eyes. The reason he was making such a subtle expression was clearly because he was displeased that the hero was living a playboy life despite having a woman waiting for him back home. Judging by his serious appearance and seeming older than the hero, in her opinion, he wasn’t an easy man to deal with.

Especially seeing how his sitting posture and the way he scanned the surroundings showed signs of being a soldier, he was probably a knight or someone with equivalent military experience.

“I’ll have to be a bit careful with that man.”

The woman’s gaze turned to the nun sitting next to him. As a woman’s intuition could tell, that nun was a very chaste and devout person. She could read the nun’s affection for the hero from her hand gestures and eyes towards him, and now she was clearly shocked by the hero’s flirtatious nature and the fact that he had a woman waiting for him.

The woman mocked the nun’s disappointed back.

“You get hurt when you love.”

Her gaze moved to the elf. That elf, who had no interest in the hero’s story, was a typical elf. Remembering that nothing goes right when involved with elves, the woman naturally turned her gaze away.

The hero.

Beautiful looks that could be mistaken for a woman at a glance, bright blonde hair, and blue eyes. His hand movements showed grace, but according to the hero’s claim, he was from the countryside.

“From the countryside… Yes, he must be from the countryside.”

There’s no benefit for a noble playboy to lower his origins. Noble ladies only deal with other nobles. So, the woman deduced that the hero must be from a fallen noble family in the countryside and couldn’t reveal his noble title.

His graceful appearance and the contrasting detailed countryside experiences were evidence.

The woman naturally moved her steps. Neither Lena, nor the others, nor anyone found it strange that she was leaving. Stepping outside leisurely, she savored the outside air and called Lena’s name.

“Lena. You’ve become even softer outside.”

Her name was Banyan. She was an elusive woman among the Black Society’s assassins, specializing in disguise and makeup. Due to performing in a circus troupe when young, her flexible body had reached a level where she could control her physique to some extent, and during her acting career that started for undercover purposes after joining the Black Society, she learned makeup techniques and how to give different points according to characters.

She could walk like a completely different person with just slight movements and created different habits each time.

“How many times do I have to tell you that the important thing for an assassin is not to expose information?”

Once, when assassinating a nobleman, there was a rumor about a prostitute who trembled her right hand due to alcohol addiction and couldn’t move her legs properly.

While soldiers were searching everywhere to find the prostitute, she, the culprit, was leisurely sitting in a cafe pretending to be a noble lady. An assassination on an elegant and quiet bed. Lena cursed her as a prostitute, but Banyan retorted that Lena’s vulgar and obscene methods were closer to a back-alley prostitute.

Banyan moved her steps forward. Beautiful red dress and blonde hair, heavy makeup, and a clean neck. Banyan smiled and suddenly turned her steps to walk into a back alley. As she walked step by step, she smiled and kneaded her face.

“You should have joined us earlier, Lena. I didn’t dislike you.”

The heavy makeup like a bar hostess melted away, and freckles appeared on her face. Rustic but beautiful features settled in, and part of the red dress rolled up to become a ribbon. Pigtails swayed, and the dress had somehow changed into ordinary clothes.

The octopus tattoo on her neck wriggled and then faded away. By the time she came out of the alley, she had transformed into a charming country girl with a peculiar appeal.

Banyan stroked her arms and legs and mumbled in a small voice:

“Demon King. The best.”

---

Even if the hero staked his life on claiming to be from the countryside, the world moved on. As if to prove that our conversation yesterday had no nutritional value, I couldn’t remember anything except the story about his well-endowed childhood friend.

Massaging my head throbbing more from fatigue than hangover, I went downstairs to find Lena already eating breakfast early. I sat across from Lena, ordered food, and then asked her:

“Have the others already woken up?”

“Mille is still sleeping, and Ashuria went for morning prayers. The hero also went out for a bit saying he had to go somewhere.”

“He should be resting though.”

“He says that is resting for him. Really, you can’t understand religious people’s thoughts? Even God would understand not doing morning prayers at times like this.”

I let Lena’s complaints slide with a smile. The inn’s breakfast menu was bread and soup with a simple salad. The salad had chicken breast, so the eating method was to dip it with lettuce, put it between bread, and then dip it in soup. Lena, biting into the soaked bread, shivered happily and said:

“This is delicious. Old man. Try it.”

“Then I’ll order one too. I wonder where the hero went?”

“Right? I wonder if he has something to do from the morning.”

“Maybe he met a hometown friend. That childhood friend he said was waiting in the countryside.”

“Childhood friend? Ah, that big-chested girl.”

Lena also remembered the mention of the well-endowed woman. But she didn’t seem to really believe that the hero knew such a woman. She said:

“Does he really know such a woman?”

“We should forgive our comrade’s lies. He must have his reasons.”

“You don’t believe it either, huh?”

“I believe he knows well-endowed women.”

Lena chuckled at my words, then smoothed her clothes with her hand. Then she glanced at me and asked:

“Do you like big-chested women, old man?”

I smiled at Lena and said:

“Don’t all women have their own unique charms? There are too many women in the world to live fixated on just breasts.”

She had a strangely bright expression, but when I concluded, she frowned and muttered:

“Playboy.”

“I’m a lover.”

Lena snickered at my words and then asked again.

“But are you going to meet women too?”

“…Well, since strange rumors also spread about the hero, shouldn’t we restrain ourselves a bit in the capital? If we make a mistake and cause trouble this time, the hero might really get angry.”

There was no need to pour cold water on the heated atmosphere after the hero’s party had achieved military exploits. Since the rumors had safely disappeared, I had to endure and not meet women while in the capital. Lena said:

“Despite everything, you really take care of the hero a lot.”

I nodded while dipping bread in soup.

“A person carrying a burden recognizes another person carrying a burden. I’m a porter, after all.”

“You mean to rely on you when it’s tough, right?”

“Rely on me anytime.”

Lena gave me a comfortable smile. She made her hands into a flower shape and rested her face on them while looking at me. With curved eyes and a happy-looking face, just as she was about to open her mouth to say something.

“Excuse me…”

We both turned our heads at the same time.

And we both probably recalled the hero’s story at the same time.

[Mary was a very cute girl with freckles on her face and curly pigtails. The ribbon on her blonde hair suited her so well, and she had a big chest and liked to wear fluttery skirts.]

“Excuse me… I heard the hero was here, so I came…”

Because a woman similar to the hero’s description had come looking for the inn.

Lena and I looked at each other with confused eyes.

No way, it’s real?