Kiraware Yūsha ni Tensei Shitanode Aisare Yūsha o Mezashimasu! - Chapter 38

[Hated Hero, Worrying About Human Relations]

“That was a magnificent display.” The plump, short-mustached, middle-aged man approached me with a good-natured smile. His appearance matched the one described in the original storyline to a T.

“…Wade?”

“Oh my? Do you know me? Well, well, what an honor!” The middle-aged man rejoiced exaggeratedly—ah, crap. Barrett hadn’t met this person yet at this point in time.

The name of this middle-aged man was Wade.

In the original storyline, he was Barrett’s exclusive merchant who provided him with weapons and items.

He gave off the vibe of a suspicious person and in fact, as his appearance and behavior suggested, he made many suspicious movements in the original storyline. The weapons and items he handed to Barrett were of unknown origin, too. There were mentions that he was involved with other shady stuff behind the scenes, though it had yet been made clear as of the latest chapter.

If I wasn’t mistaken… he had already become Barrett’s exclusive merchant by the time he made his first appearance in the original storyline.

I never imagined their relations went as far back as when he was still in the academy.

“For a great personage such as yourself to know my name… I can’t describe how elated I am.”

“I-I see…”

What a blatant sucking up. He clearly had ulterior motives… it was obvious to anyone that his words were insincere.

Did the original Barrett favor Wade because he fell for this blatant sucking up? If so, his ability to judge people must be suck.

“…If you have no important business with me, I’m afraid I have to excuse myself. I’m still in the middle of class.”

“Ah, silly me, how could I forget that? Pardon me for holding you.”

Wade backed down more easily than I’d expected.

I wondered if it was because he thought he would ruin my mood if he pushed too hard.

After parting with Wade, I proceeded to the training ground again.

On the way, I tried to recall information on those around Barrett in the original storyline.

In addition to Wade, Barrett had many other allies. Though ‘allies’ might not be an accurate word to describe them.

Without a doubt, they all were gathering around Barrett only because of his title: ‘Hero chosen by the Holy Sword’. None of them supported Barrett because they were impressed by his charisma, goals, or such.

Bonds tied by profit and loss were fragile.

The lower Barrett fell, the farther they distanced themselves from him.

Wade was one of them.

…That wasn’t all.

Being chosen by the Holy Sword, there was no end to bad adults approaching Barrett. They may still be laying low right now, but… from now on, more and more people like Wade would come, I reckoned.

“One trouble after another, huh.”

A sigh escaped my lips.

I’d thought that now I’d settled my women problem, I could finally concentrate on solving Raul’s berserk incident… well, as long as I was careful it wouldn’t be much of a problem, I supposed.

“Ah, Barrett♪.”

Once I arrived at the training ground, Tayte immediately ran up to me. Seeing her running to me the moment she caught sight of me… how should I put it? It made me feel like I could see a tail swaying left and right behind her. I was sure that if Tayte was an animal, she’d be a dog.

“Is something the matter?”

“Ah, nothing… it’s just, Tayte sure is like a dog.”

“Huh?”

Ah.

Damn.

I ended up saying it unknowingly.

As delicate air drifted between us, a boy suddenly approached and greeted us.

“Hi there, nice to meet you.”

The boy’s name was Jarvis Lekrust. He belonged to the other class of this joint practice.

He was the firstborn of the House of Lekrust, a noble of the Bramshal Kingdom.

He had gender-neutral features. At first glance, he appeared like he couldn’t harm animals, much less humans—but he was, in fact, the one I had to be most careful about among all other students.

The reason being, he was Barrett’s right-hand man and would accompany him on his journey as a warrior of the hero party after graduation. It was described that he was actively involved in the expulsion of the Protagonist Raul, and was the second most hated character in the story after Barrett.

Just before Barrett vanished into the slums, various criminal acts that he had done to curry up favor with Barrett came to light—courtesy of the Protagonist Raul and his party—resulting in his capture by the order of knights. It was said he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In a way, his end was more miserable than Barrett’s, wasn’t it?

…Anyway, that was why I tried my best not to get involved with him, but… was he here to curry favor with me, too?

“You did splendidly in the previous match. Our class’s strongest, Thomas, can’t even do a thing to you.”

“…Thanks.”

My reaction ended up a bit curt—perhaps because of my caution.

Tayte, on the other hand, tilted her head.

She probably felt that something was amiss with my response.

“I sure hope we can spar some times.”

“Y-yeah, likewise.”

“Well, I’ll see you around. I’ll be up after this.”

With that, Jarvis left refreshingly.

…It looked like I must be more careful in building relationships at the academy.