episode_0361

Three days in Bridget Village with the warrior party of Ketmojoshegigot.

Of course, I had to faithfully complete my humanities inquiry class assignments until the third night before the final battle with the bandits.

‘The bandits will attack again on the night of the third day, so we must prepare.’ If you say the same thing to the villagers and abandon basic class assignments, it will eventually come back to you in terms of grades.

Even though hunting down spies and defeating bandits was half of the overall task score, it was impossible to completely abandon the existing tasks and wait for the last day.

“Hey, Mr. Bart! Bring me some wood from here!”

“Yes! Please wait a moment!”

“mas! I think we need more bricks here?!”

“Ah, yes! I’m taking it!”

“Miss Seri? It’s almost dinnertime, but we’re short on staff. Could you ask the daycare center to prepare a meal?”

“Ah, yes… ! Poetry, if it’s meal preparation, I’ve done it a lot at church, so please leave it to me… !”

“Yes? Church?”

“… Oh, that, that… .”

“Seri grew up in the same orphanage as me. Since I was young, I had a good personality, so I used to listen carefully to the adults at the orphanage.”

“Ah, so Miss Seri and Miss Sarah had similar names. Because we are from the same orphanage… .”

In reality, Celista and Seraphine were from completely different backgrounds, but the villagers did not notice anything strange about them.

As we all pretend to be ordinary students, the students in this class are all using pseudonyms just like before.

In addition to the children just mentioned, existing names are shortened or slightly modified, such as Silena is Lena, Luke is Crew, Agnes is Ness, and Natalie is Leah.

It is difficult to guess the original name just by hearing the pseudonym, but it was a simple enough name that I could understand.

No matter how you abbreviate it, it still looks strange, so the original surname Bolt has been changed and it is called Bart. No matter how you abbreviate it, it was a very strange combination of words, such as mojo, jochet, and shegi.

Please note that my pseudonym here is ‘Reece’, not Lily. Originally, I was going to use the pseudonym ‘Lily’ as I have used it so far, but Ethan seemed reluctant to do so.

I guess Lily was a nickname that Ethan and I used when we became equals without paying attention to each other. I guess he didn’t want anyone other than himself to call me Lily.

‘Anyway, I don’t know what I’ll do later if I feel jealous even about such trivial things.’

So I decided to use the pseudonym ‘Dan’ instead of ‘Ed’ as Ethan’s pseudonym. Because if something goes, something must come as well.

Anyway, from the first day they arrived in the village, the members of the warrior party worked here and there to restore the village with their own efforts, without even having time to recover from their fatigue.

My task in restoring this village was to strengthen the power of the existing villagers in preparation for emergencies.

“Then, let’s just do the simple movements we’ve learned so far. First, she pulls out the dagger hidden under her skirt with her right hand. Second, take the drawn dagger behind your back and stab the opponent upside down.”

-Clink!

“Oh, I missed it again… .”

“Me too. This isn’t easy, it looked easy when Ms. Reese did it… .”

It was a simple movement of taking out a long sword hidden in one’s clothes and stabbing it in an instant, but even this was a training exercise in which many failed.

I can’t help it. Women living in these outskirt villages would have used kitchen knives or axes more often than katanas in their lives. It would have been a bit difficult to get used to the sensation of this short dagger in just one night.

“Do I really have to do this… ? If I make a mistake like this, what will I do then?”

“If you show a hasty attitude of resistance, it could be dangerous. So, we need to learn more clearly.”

“Well, then, even if you are taken hostage, it would be better to remain calm at first… .”

“You should always keep in mind that bandits don’t just want money or food, guys. Not only are they guys who want to take advantage of anything that can make money, but in an isolated village like this, the easiest and most expensive things to get are ‘women’ like us.”

“… … .”

“If you do not prepare even the bare minimum for self-defense, it is you who will ultimately suffer. Also, if you are taken hostage, other people will not be able to move quickly for fear of getting hurt.

Dozens of people were sacrificed to save just one life, and with the life they saved, they were taken away by dirty-looking men and their chastity and honor were tarnished, and in the end, they were sold for only a few cows and spent their lives being sexually abused by animals. If you want to live with me, you can stop.”

“Oh, no… . sorry… .”

A woman who was reluctant to even hold a blade other than a kitchen knife once again grabbed the long sword in her hand.

You might think I was a bit overly scared, but this much had to be said clearly. I couldn’t bear to see other villagers being cut off one by one because of one woman taken hostage.

The more you defeat the bandits with as little sacrifice as possible, the higher your score in humanities inquiry classes will be and the more experience you will receive.

… Of course, even if that is not the case, human life is precious in the first place, so the main goal is to save at least one more person.

-Poof! Swish! Whick!

“… … .”

And, among the women who learned self-defense from me, there was one person who had particularly intense eyes.

Someone with brown hair braided on both sides held a sword in one hand and asked me a question.

“… Can I ask you one question?”

“Yes, lady.”

“Instead of using this self-defense technique of stabbing someone in the back, what should I do to cut off the other person’s head from the front?”

“… … .”

“I want to learn swordsmanship that can be used in direct combat, not just swordsmanship used for self-defense. You can kill those bastards by pretending to be weak at most once or twice, but after that, you’ll naturally be on guard, so killing them in earnest is… .”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but I can’t teach you that kind of swordsmanship right now.”

“… Why?”

“The only reason we teach self-defense swordsmanship is to avoid the worst situation. If you are lucky enough to save your life with self-defense swordsmanship, think of it as your last chance and focus only on saving your body.

Therefore, I cannot teach you any sword techniques other than those for self-defense. If I teach you ‘fighting swordsmanship’, you might make a dangerous attempt against a strong man.”

“… I understand.”

… Now that I think about it, the woman I just talked to was definitely a ‘collaborator candidate’ in the original game. I’ll have to remember that for now.

It’s only my first day in Bridget Village. A little more evidence was still needed to determine which of the three potential collaborators was the culprit.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

So, that night after a day in Bridget Village.

We all gathered again at the village hall and sat in a circle in the men’s room to exchange the information we gained on the first day.

“Ha, I’m tired. From the first day, I carried heavy loads like wood and bricks all day, and the day ended.”

“I’m feeling stiff too. They say they plan to start repairing the broken building in earnest starting tomorrow, but I wonder if my shoulders will be able to hold it… .”

“… I’m sorry. Because I can only do half the work as you.”

Of all the men who were called to do hard work, Ethan seems to have returned with the least amount of work done.

They were the two people who quietly shook their heads and comforted Ethan, who looked a little sorry when he saw Tom and Thomas.

“There’s nothing to think about like that. Eh, no, Dan. Dan still needs to recover from the injury he sustained last night.”

“Rather, if it weren’t for what Mr. Dan and Ms. Reese did last night, we would have been in danger, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Ethan had injured one of his arms and was still in the process of healing the injury, so his right arm was currently unusable.

It’s okay to pick up a fork or a knife, but of course it would have been impossible to hold a log or a sword during this day.

According to Celista’s explanation, it would probably be better by the last day, so Ethan had to save his shoulders as much as possible until the last day of defeating the bandits.

… If you want to heal even a little faster, of course you have to use the healing aura.

“But, come here.”

“Lease?”

– Malkang.

“… … .”

“… … .”

I hugged Ethan’s right arm as if wrapping my whole body around it, and deliberately placed his right arm between my chest.

Even though we couldn’t sleep naked hugging each other due to lack of room, we had to heal Ethan’s wounds at least in this case.

When Celista and Thomas saw me, they looked away in shock, and Agnes frowned with an expression of disgust, but she had no intention of quitting.