Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai

A whole day after the resolution of the incident, I haven’t exchanged words with Bernadette.

No, it’s not like, I wanted to talk with her to the point of overdoing it, you know?

But, it’s kind of like……there’s a bad aftertaste.

That was the reason, but I did hide the fact that I was the Hero, and deceived her after all……But I’m not at fault.

Ahー, seriously, what should I do? This has really become something troublesome……

As I was thinking such things, I arrived at the inn.

Uumu, what should I do. She’ll probably also go after the matter about how I secretly carried her underwear, no mistaking it.

No, in regards to the underwear, if I tell Bernadette that it was to sniff them out……That’s no good. I collected them before the incident.

「What should I do……Oh?」

When I opened the door to the private room of the inn I was staying at while thinking of an excuse, there was a woman sitting on the bed looking downward.

She had black hair that was relatively rare for this other world and a black habit.

It was Bernadette.

「Ahー……Um……」

I was at a loss for words.

It, it couldn’t be helped. It turned into an extremely dark atmosphere after all.

I was thinking “Did I unintentionally get the wrong room?” but since I saw the scattered clothes that I took off and meant to wash on top of the bed, this was unmistakably the room that I was staying in.

Which would mean, this really is a talk about the 『Hero』. ……Uumu, this is an atmosphere that says that I can’t just postpone it……

Indifferent to me was about to blow a fuse from this situation, Bernadette slowly……stood up.

「B, Bernadette-san?」

I put myself on guard thinking that she might thrust her gun point or something at me, but without any signs of her doing so, she came closer while slowly swaying her body.

「……Bernadette?」

When I got closer thinking that she was acting really weird, *gurah* (collapse)……Bernadette dropped her posture and collapsed.

「Bernadette!? Your body is hot……is it a cold? Oi, are you really alright!?」

While surprised, when I extended my arms halfway out of reflex and held her, her body had become hot enough to make you unable to think that it was normal.

「H, huh? ……Yashiro……san?」

So you didn’t even notice that!?

「Dammit, I’ll need to pay attention to carrying her. It’s the futon that I slept in but deal with it.」

I tried to lie Bernadette, who had finally noticed me, on the bed, but Bernadette struggled as if to resist within my arms.

「っ, There’s no, need for that……More importantly, there’s something, I want to ask……」

「Shut up! If you keep on blabbing, I’ll put my tongue in and kiss you!」

「っ……!」

Certainly, it was a threat that I said to stop you from resisting, but I don’t think that you needed to go so far as to bite down on your lower lip like that to be silent, idiot.

「……Wait, this isn’t the time to be screwing around. Just wait for a bit.」

When I laid her down on the bed and covered her with the futon, I went down all the way to the first floor and stole the newspaper of the innkeeper that was reading the newspaper.

「Wha, what the heck are ya doin’!」

「We’ll talk later! Lend me a bucket-full of water and a towel. There’s a sick person, make it quick.」

When I shouted looking like I would go on and on, the innkeeper kept on nodding and then started to run to call his wife.

◇

「Rather than a cold, it looks like her physical condition just deteriorated. Well, since she had sweat quite a lot, I had her clothes changed.」

「Thank you for everything.」

An Oba-san with a good physique appeared from the room holding Bernadette’s habit.

After that, the innkeeper’s wife that offered to help in the nursing did things like wiping her down and changing her clothes. She was left with the things that I, a man, couldn’t do.

「You don’t need to worry about it. I heard from Vodan-danna that you guys that were staying here were the ones that solved the kidnapping problem. I was just wondering if there was anything that I could do for you!」

「Vodan-shi said that? ……That really helped.」

Frankly, I was thinking “was it alright to say it to ordinary people?”, but since we were helped that to it, I decided to let it go.

「By the way, who is the person called 「Yashiro-san」?」

「? That’s probably me……」

When I answered such, Oba-san made a broad smile.

「I see, I see. So that Yashiro-san was you. Come one, go be by the little lady’s side.」

Somehow understanding what Oba-san wanted to say, I nodded with a complicated face.

「O~i, are you alright~?」

*Gacha*. When I entered the room while turning the doorknob, Bernadette had a wet towel on her forehead and was lying down in the bed with the futon covering her up until her shoulders.

「Y, yes. ……Somehow.」

When she noticed that I had come in, she covered her face with the futon as if to hide it.

However, only her mouth was hidden and her eyes could still be seen.

「That’s great.」

「……」

「……」

「……」

When I sat down in a nearby chair, Bernadette said nothing and stared at me.

……Uumu, should I be the one to break the ice? Or should I just have her slowly go to sleep for today and talk to her again tomorrow?

「……Yashiro-san……are you, really, the Hero?」

Maybe because she was unable to just watch me worry over it, Bernadette went and broke the ice.

「…………Well. Technically, that’s what I was called before.」

She didn’t speak in a way that sounded like she was threatening me, but thinking that she was criticizing me, I corrected my posture and nodded.

「……」

Closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath, what spilled out from Bernadette’s eyes, were tears.

「Ah……N, no, um, how should I say this……S, sorry, for deceiving you! I didn’t mean to deceive……No, I did mean to deceive you. ……But, it was more because I didn’t want to fight you……」

I answered while lightly blowing my fuse from the tears that suddenly streamed down.

If I say so myself, it was a splendid way of panicking.

「……Sorry. Being together with you, it was fun. I didn’t want, this relationship to crumble.」

Probably, these were my true feelings. Having made the stupid-seeming pretense of traveling with an assassin that was aiming for me, just to counterbalance that risk, it was just as fun to be with her. (In the worst case, even if she had hostility, since I had a body that wouldn’t die, I thought that I could deal with it somehow.)

I couldn’t match my eyes with Bernadette whose eyes were moist with tears and was looking at me.

「I had always, thought about it…… That if you, Yashiro-san, were the Hero…… Then why, did Saint-sama die. ……Why, did the Hero that should have loved Saint-sama, abandon Saint-sama?」

At that time, I felt a shock as if I had just had my head struck with a hammer.

「To me, the Hero was……This is going to the extreme, but he was a terrible person that survived by abandoning the woman that he loved. Moreover, that woman was Saint-sama that was called the Apostle of God. ……Naturally, she was a noble existence that had all kinds of divine protection and blessings…… That’s why, I always resented the Hero.」

……I bet she did. In actuality, Olivia’s popularity was amazing.

A pure being that descended to the earth in place of God, that’s the Saint image that the Ulquiorra believers came up with.

「But……To me, Yashiro-san, you didn’t seem like that kind of person.」

Slowly getting up, Bernadette looked at me.

「Please tell me……Did you really, did you really let Saint-sama die without trying to help her!?」

While halfway sobbing, Bernadette shouted.

This was probably the core of what Bernadette wanted to hear.

「……Saint……Saint, huh. ……You know, what the Saint’s name was, right?」

「Olivia Fin Lutecia Leezelion……wasn’t it?」

*Kokun*, Bernadette nodded, and answered.

「That’s right, ……It was Olivia. What you want to know is, the reason why Olivia died, that’s fine, right?」

From Bernadette’s silent nod, I unintentionally let out a sigh.

To be honest, I don’t want to talk about this. It’s because I would remember the sense of helplessness that I experienced three years ago.

「At any rate, abandoned her……huh. That really hurts. Rather, you could say that I was obstructed. ……However, only the fact that Olivia died because of me, is the truth.」