Chapter 3: Piolo
‘There's a road toll? For real? This isn't even a tourist spot.’
Roan muttered to himself inwardly.
Because he couldn't believe it.
"How much is it?"
"2 silver leaves."
Even enough to rent a room to lay down in for a night.
‘He said it was for the prosperity of the kingdom. Who's the king right now?’
Roan had never had any interest in history, but this was someone too memorable to have trouble recalling.
‘Jercoire Lionheart.’
Negligence.
The kingdom's leader—someone who could be summed up in that single word.
In his previous life, he hadn't been greatly entangled with this person. Both had been too busy with their own affairs.
‘Did I pay money back then too? I don't think that existed at the time…’
"Hey, you there!"
While he was trying to trace back old memories, a thundering voice rang out from a short distance away.
Followed by the clank-clank of armor.
A knight in gilt armor, adorned with far more extravagant decoration than the guards, appeared.
"Ugh! C-Captain of the Guard! No irregularities to report during patrol!"
"No irregularities, you say. I watched with my own 2 eyes as you collected a road toll from a civilian."
The captain of the guard reprimanded the 2 guards.
He then approached Roan and readily extended a hand.
It seemed to carry the meaning of an apology.
"My apologies. It seems they lack proper training and committed a discourtesy."
Roan clasped that hand.
―Squeeze…
A handshake that seemed to carry peculiar force.
But Roan's grip held firm.
"…Please come in."
After a brief silence, the captain of the guard permitted entry into Piolo.
Roan stepped inside and looked over Piolo's scenery.
A tavern where the villagers gathered.
A simple dining spot.
A building that seemed to house the guards.
The adventurers' request board…
‘The request board! There it is!’
Having spotted it, Roan dashed over at once.
"Hello! I've come to take a request—"
He flung the door open and called out boldly—but what was actually inside was nothing but cobwebs and spiders, not a single person.
‘Ah, that can happen. Barely anyone passes through this village.’
Ordinary matters could probably be handled by the villagers working together. That was likely how they had been getting by.
‘Then things get a bit complicated… Should I try going somewhere and ask if they have any work for me?’
Or he could search the area around Piolo for monsters worth money.
When you thought about it, there were plenty of ways.
Before leaving, Roan took one last sweep of the request board.
It was a habit.
A habit of scanning the surroundings to check if any threats remained.
‘This really is eerie.’
It felt less like decay from the passage of time and more like someone had deliberately trashed the place.
"Hm?"
As he swept his gaze across it, something caught Roan's eye.
A sofa so thoroughly shredded no one could sit on it.
And from beneath it, a corner of paper jutting out ever so slightly.
Among the rotting wooden planks and the time layered thick with cobwebs, it alone had a strangely gleaming quality.
Roan pulled it out and looked at it.
[The residents of Piolo do not want the guards.
They extort livestock and grain under the guise of taxes and protection, and they barge into the homes of people struggling to the point of being unable to pay their taxes and seize their belongings.
The adventurers' request board was also destroyed by them. So that even if adventurers visit, they lose interest and leave.
We earnestly ask that whoever finds this petition hear our voices.]
A rough hand.
Pressed-in lettering.
Misspelled words here and there.
A faint smear of iron dust.
Writing that was closer to a petition than a request.
Even so, to Roan it felt more desperate than any request he had ever known.
He helps people who need help.
In his previous life he might not have—but in this one, he wanted to.
‘Let's not make things to regret.’
Because that was the most important thing about his life this time around.
He took the petition and stepped outside.
At that exact moment, he came face to face with the captain of the guard, who was walking through Piolo.
"…It seems you stopped by the request board. Were you looking for a request?"
"Yes."
Roan answered the captain's question.
"But there was nothing there."
Having said that, he showed him what he was holding.
"Except this."
The captain received the offered paper, paused for a moment, then glanced around.
"…This was inside the request board, you say? Ha ha, quite the amusing prank."
The captain's words, dismissing it as a prank.
How did Roan respond to that?
"…Everyone!! Residents of Piolo, everyone!!"
He shouted.
Loud enough to make the whole village shake, loud enough for everyone inside their homes to hear.
What a set of lungs. Even through a helmet, it was the kind of roar that made you want to cover your ears.
And naturally, the villagers who heard it had no way of just letting it pass.
"Wh-what…? Oh? A visitor?"
"Where did they come from? I didn't even notice…"
As people began trickling out, Roan raised his voice again.
"Everyone! Is it true? The extortion of money and food under the guise of taxes and protection? Did these people oppress you?"
A shabbily dressed man shouting at the top of his lungs.
A shield made of bark.
A crudely whittled wooden sword.
Including everything on his person—
Everything about him was obliterating any credibility Roan might have had.
Yes, they had secretly sent a plea for help. Yes, every villager wanted to be saved.
But.
‘That person is a little…’
The thought came to them that he probably couldn't do it.
"Ha ha, you all saw, didn't you? The courage is admirable, but needless meddling has a way of threatening one's life. Why don't you just quietly—"
"He's telling the truth!!"
A stir.
A youthful voice that broke the flow.
The captain of the guard, beneath his helmet, furrowed his brow.
Without turning his head, he looked toward the source of the voice with his eyes alone.
It was a boy who had been born and raised in the workshop of Piolo.
"That man bullied us! He beats people who can't pay! He steals! He even tried to take everything from the place where my dad works!"
The child's pure cry sent ripples through the hearts of the others.
"Th-that's true… I never said it out loud but…"
"I, well… when a visitor comes in the middle of all this, they treat them nicely. To avoid making a fuss…"
Several people voiced their agreement.
Others, drawn in by those voices, gave their own testimonies.
After the chain reaction repeated a few times, it transformed into a single plea for help encompassing all of Piolo.
The captain, who had been quietly listening to it, drew his sword from his hip.
The gleaming blade caught the sunlight and silenced the people's mouths.
"Silence! You country bumpkins! Just because an opportunity arose, look at the sorry state of you all howling like that! Does the person in front of you look like a savior to you?"
The captain scoffed as he recalled the first time he had seen Roan.
"Raggedy clothes. Toys like something from a children's game. To say he'll save you with something like that—it makes no sense!"
He swung his sword through the air, and 4 soldiers who had been stationed at the entrance and exit came running.
Few in number, but enough to suppress the residents.
Having gathered them, the captain looked at the residents of Piolo.
"…I suppose I'll need to start the education again."
He muttered it as if wanting them to hear, then turned to look at Roan.
Nothing had changed.
A worn cloak. Tattered shoes. Arms full of scratched and torn wounds.
"Needless meddling gets you killed—I said that just now, didn't I?"
He knocked his sword blade against the shield as he issued the threat.
And yet Roan didn't budge.
As though he had been waiting for this, he only lifted that crude shield and wooden sword.
…Oddly enough, a slight sense of pressure emanated from that very sight.
"…Seize him!"
A sharp command.
The soldiers came charging.
‘Hmph, just some runt giving off a strange air. Not even flinching.’
He didn't bother turning his head to check.
Not a single person in Piolo had ever beaten his soldiers.
But.
Thud!
Crash!!
"Uggh…!"
"Aaagh!!!"
What rang out was not Roan's screams.
Startled, the captain whipped around.
All 4 who had charged were sprawled out on the ground.
‘…All 4? With those toys?’
For a moment, the captain doubted his own eyes.
But only for a moment.
‘It seems he's got a bit of strength. Not particularly a concern. After all, those soldiers were just for intimidation.’
The captain sized him up with a probing stare.
Then he charged at Roan and began to execute the orthodox swordsmanship he had once learned in the kingdom.
Clank!
Crack!
The sound of iron-clad boots pressing into the ground rang out menacingly—but
"…Huh?"
He didn't budge.
Not so much as an inch.
A shield made of bark.
He wasn't using it to block.
‘He… deflected everything?’
He had deflected it.
A technique far more difficult than simple blocking.
The captain's bewilderment grew even greater.
‘He deflected it. He knows the kingdom's swordsmanship.’
The captain clenched his teeth.
‘No.’
―Swoosh!!
He couldn't be pushed back by some country bumpkin like this.
‘I said no!’
―Swish!!
He cried out inwardly and surged forward with greater momentum—but that too slid away.
The very moment arrogance was broken along with the attack—
―CRASH!!
The captain's entire body was sent flying backward with a violent impact.
The simple process of being shoved by a shield.
But the impact of it was nothing to dismiss—
"Gghk!!"
A shock as if his lungs were being crushed.
With it, he rolled across the ground and slammed into a wall.
―Clatter…
The sword he had been gripping fell limply to the ground.
What made it even more humiliating was that Roan picked it up.
As if to say’ I'll make good use of it.’
His ringing ears faintly caught the sound of cheering voices.
But that was no longer important.
‘Impossible… What… how could some backwater bumpkin—’
With shaking vision, the captain looked up at Roan.
He was a wall.
"A wall…"
His heart froze as it tasted defeat.
It was the moment he realized that the discomfort and oppression he had felt moments ago had been real.
***
.
The captain fell silent, and the guards withdrew.
With what had been suppressing them gone, the request board would begin operating again.
With the request board working, adventurers would visit, and they would take on the role of a citizens' militia.
It was a small village, so that degree of self-cleansing was sufficient.
‘Of course, it might not work out properly. But even so, won't these people grow their own strength on their own?’
Roan thought as he jingled the pouch of silver leaves he had received as a reward.
Not especially heavy, but enough money to make the journey to the Mage Tower—which had been his original destination—without trouble.
‘I wasn't actually after a reward, but—’
If it's given, you take it!
Having spared himself the effort of taking more requests, a humming naturally rose in him.
Just as Roan set out to find a carriage like that, someone came sprinting toward him breathlessly.
It was the workshop's blacksmith.
"S-savior!"
"Come on, savior's a bit much, isn't it?"
He had failed once, after all.
Swallowing a bitter thought, Roan looked at something the blacksmith had brought.
An unidentified object wrapped tightly in cloth.
"I'm sorry for doubting you, savior. To think that you would truly find that petition I left and make it a reality… It may not be enough to satisfy you, but I've prepared something. I thought there might be something I could help you with on the equipment side of things…"
The blacksmith unwrapped the layers of cloth.
At what lay inside, Roan's eyes lit up.
"Oh."
A shield.
A clean-looking shield, hammered out from quality iron with great care.
The snow-white gemstone set in its center seemed to gleam particularly brilliantly.
"Wait, isn't this too much…"
"I felt there was nothing else I could offer in return…! In particular, the gemstone in the center carries great meaning in Piolo—there is a legend that it drives away malice and darkness…! Please, I would be grateful if you put it to good use…!"
Roan thought it might be too generous—but it was pressed into his hands regardless.
A reward that came as the tail end of goodwill.
Without having done it with any such intention, Roan had ended up with fine equipment.
…Not that he had the slightest intention of refusing, of course!
Gratefully equipping his new gear, he set off again to find a carriage.
The next destination: the Mage Tower.
To meet Debbie Jane.