The Impostors Find a Place to Belong

Now, several weeks had passed since the party of “Brown Dragon's Heel” had arrived at Emi's base.

Patchino hadn't set off to slay the green dragons, nor had he run away again...... he was still staying at the base.

And where he stood now was inside Zamago Forest...... in a clearing where Emi had cut down the trees.

Behind him stood the perverted old geezer, Earthcell.

What was he doing?

The answer was simple: “road building.”

“‘O fire, become a wave and swallow my foe! 【Fire Wave】!’”

Patchino unleashed yet another fire spell; he had lost count of how many that made today.

But its target was not a monster coming at him.

It was the undergrowth and stumps that remained after the felling.

Having heard the rumor that ‘the hero of this generation wields flame,’ he had practiced fire magic quite a bit during his fake-hero days, so he could manipulate this spell with fairly good precision.

He wouldn't accidentally burn down more of the forest than intended.

And his magic did the job beautifully, burning away one section's worth of undergrowth and the like, turning it into black char and white ash.

The ground the magic had struck still gave off heat, and the scenery beyond shimmered and wavered.

“Foooh~~~! Looking good, Patchino!”

“Damn right! This much is a piece of cake!”

“Well then, I'll do my part too! ‘O earth, become a wave and swallow my foe! 【Soil Wave】!’”

Picking his moment, Earthcell followed Patchino up with earth magic.

The scorched clearing was leveled in an instant by the magic.

“And then, ‘O earth, harden and protect me! 【Harden】!’”

The earth magic released next had the effect of ‘hardening the earth,’ as the incantation suggested.

It was really a defensive spell, cast on defensive walls and the like for protection, but Earthcell, this former special-grade adventurer, had adapted it and was using it to level the ground.

“Hmm.”

Earthcell lightly kicked the completely leveled ground twice with the toe of his leather shoe.

It gave off a hard kon, kon.

“Right! This section is complete! On to the next!”

“Roger!”

“UOOOOOH!”

Just then, a muscular big man and a black-haired, black-eyed girl approached from ahead, pushing through the undergrowth they hadn't burned yet.

Darmacy and Emi.

These two worked ahead of Patchino and the others, handling the heavy lifting of moving rocks and oversized stumps out of the way of the road.

“Hm! Is something the matter!?”

“Almost noon.”

Emi pointed at the sky, sparing her words.

When they looked up, the sun floating in the pale-blue autumn sky had climbed quite high.

A six-winged creature like a dragonfly slid across the edge of their vision.

“I'm hungry.”

“Oops, my apologies! Well then, road-building crew, let's take our lunch break here!”

“Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this!”

“UOOOOOH!”

They promptly sat down in a circle, took the lunch boxes out of the bag Earthcell had been carrying on his back, and dug in eagerly.

These had been made in the morning by Giovanno, who led the harvest crew within the base.

That old man's cooking was getting better day by day, and his lunch boxes were nothing to sneeze at either.

By the way, Niese and Modokin, who weren't here, were working inside the base today as part of the harvest crew.

“......Delicious.”

Even with his mouth stuffed full of stir-fried Topopolock meat and grill greens, Patchino murmured.

The seasoning was nothing but salt.

For aroma, it was coated with a sauce made from demon-repelling herb berries.

It was nothing more than that, and yet to Patchino now it seemed like the best thing he had ever eaten in his life.

“Uooh......”

Ah! From the side, Darmacy is sneaking a hand toward Patchino's lunch box!

Th, that's not nice, Darmacy!

He's clearly trying to steal someone else's Topopolock meat!!

“Don't screw with me!!”

Patchino immediately slapped Darmacy's arm, thwarting the meat theft.

But in that opening, Emi—from the other side this time—snatched away the biggest piece of meat, the one Patchino had been saving to eat last, too fast for the eye to follow!

“A, AAAAAH! Miss!! Give it back! GIVE THAT BAAAAACK!!”

“Mogu mogu mogu mogu.”

Patchino desperately shook Emi's shoulders, but the meat was already in her mouth.

With a blank expression, Emi chewed at super-high speed and swallowed it in an instant.

“This, can't be helped. The meat, was telling me, eat me.”

“Don't screw with me, Miss! That, right there, is something a person must never do! Having your treasured meat taken! Do that, and even a close, happy family'd end up in a punching, kicking brawl!”

“It can't be helped, Patchino. Emi-chan is a growing girl! I'll give you my meat, so why not forgive her!?”

“Perverted old geezer! You're way too soft on Miss! What is she, your first grandkid!? Giovanno-san told us to say no when something's no, us included!”

“I've got a grandchild already! She works at the Adventurers' Guild! The one who sent me into this forest alone was that very grandchild!”

“Whoa, scary. What's that, isn't she trying to kill you?”

“We both figure this much won't kill me, so she's not trying to kill me! She's my darling grandchild! I'll probably call her over here once soon, for work!”

“Whoa, scary. I'll have to not meet her eyes then.”

“UOOOOOH!”

Now, “Brown Dragon's Heel” had been scared witless of Emi at first, but as you can see, they had since grown close enough to chat with her this easily.

They called Emi ‘Miss’.

Because Giovanno and Earthcell so plainly treasured her.

To them, Emi must be a precious young miss.

It had started with Modokin, who thought as much and began calling her that.

And they called the old man ‘Giovanno-san’, using a proper honorific.

They thought the way he rarely talked about his past, and that slightly bad-boy air of his, were cool; and because he kept Emi, monster-type girl that she was, properly in check, and faced the troubles of “Brown Dragon's Heel” with sincerity, they respected and adored him.

Before they started their hero fraud, they had all been misfit adventurers thrown out of their villages to make one less mouth to feed.

And until now, there had never been a “dependable elder” like Giovanno in their lives; that only spurred their respect for him on.

By the way, they called the perverted old geezer the perverted old geezer.

Because he was a perverted old geezer.

“Haaaaah......”

Patchino let out a quiet sigh.

For now, there was nothing to be done about the meat, so he gave up.

Then, after tossing the remaining grill greens into his mouth, he gave a wry smile.

◇ ◇ ◇

Until they reached that base, they had never imagined they would end up living like this.

Slay the green dragons, get a fortune, turn everything but their money for the winter into liquor and drink themselves silly, or be killed by the green dragons and die.

Either way, they had only ever pictured a wretched future in their heads.

And if anything, they all vaguely understood that dying was the likelier of the two.

But they had no option except to push on toward the green dragons.

Their own thoughtless way of living had robbed them of their future.

They had been driven into a corner by none other than themselves.

But at the base Emi had hauled them off to, they met Giovanno and Earthcell, and a new path opened up.

“Give up on something as reckless as hunting green dragons and work here. There's food enough to rot.”

Giovanno had said that.

Even after learning that “Brown Dragon's Heel” had been hero fraudsters, he hadn't looked down on them; he had taken them in.

“It'll be paid later, but let's call this a request from the provisional Zamago Forest branch! The money you earn, you can use to make amends for your mistakes!”

The perverted old geezer also seemed willing to support them as an official of the Adventurers' Guild.

But...... “Brown Dragon's Heel” had dug in, only to be silenced by Emi's words: “To begin with, the green dragons, aren't there anymore.”

What did she mean by ‘not there “anymore”’?

Why did this girl know that?

“......By the way, how big a flock, was it?”

“More than 10.”

“Eh, seriously? Nobody told me about that, I'll have you know?”

Why did she know?

Why could she even give a number?

There was no need to ask; Emi's next words cleared that question right up.

“They were tasty.”

......Those were her words.

The monster beyond reason, shaped like a human, standing in front of them.

In other words, this girl had eaten them all.

The green dragons they had been aiming for.

Normally, anyone would want to say ‘Don't be ridiculous’, but “Brown Dragon's Heel,” having been bathed in her 【Intimidation】, understood all too well that this girl was anything but normal.

If this girl said she had eaten them, then she really must have.

Dragon flesh and blood was supposed to hold far too much magic power for people to eat unless it was cooked by following the proper steps, but......

But if she said she ate them, then she ate them.

She could eat them, this girl.

Their goal, and probably the end of the road for their lives.

Told that those green dragons were gone, Patchino felt the strength leave his body, and he sank down where he stood.

“Brown Dragon's Heel” no longer had any reason to refuse Giovanno's proposal.

“Well, if you get sick of life here, just run. Until then, you're welcome here.”

With that, Giovanno twisted his villain's face into a grin and shook hands with Patchino.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Foooh~~~! Well then, break's over! Let's work hard this afternoon too!”

“Okay.”

“Roger!”

“UOOOOOH!”

At the perverted old geezer's command, the four members of the road-building crew stood up all at once.

The road to the base they were aiming for was almost complete.

Patchino looked back and gazed at the road they had built so far.

No liquor.

No entertainment to speak of.

But still, days with no worry about food, regular and healthy.

Days of sitting around the campfire after dark, talking nonsense, then going straight to sleep.

Days of labor in a pioneer settlement in a demon-realm forest.

They were days he had never even pictured before he came here.

He had never once thought that he wanted to live this kind of life.

But still, a life like this turned out to be not half bad.

Giovanno had said ‘you can run,’ but Patchino no longer had the slightest desire to do so.

The other three most likely felt the same way.

Not as heroes.

Knowing full well they were outcast former hero fraudsters.

That base, which took them in all the same, was where they belonged.

Their new home, one they had to protect.

That was how Patchino felt now.

“Come on! Don't stand there spacing out; hurry up and cast your spell!”

“Shut it, perverted old geezer! I was just about to!”

Earthcell nudged him and he swore back, but Patchino's face wore a smile.

Not one he forced...... a perfectly natural smile.

H, hasn't the story skipped an awful lot, “Brown Dragon's Heel”!?

It does kind of feel that way, but it can't be helped.

We already did the new-companions bit when Earthcell joined.

If you do something once and then do it again, you'll get bored, right? (this author will)

So this is fine.

It's a hobby novel, so what's the point if this author doesn't do what he wants!

By the way, back at the planning stage, the fake heroes were originally going to show up in Kaise Forest.

Their fakery would come out, they'd be banished to the forest, they'd snap at Emi when they met her there, and then get eaten by a huge monster—a hopeless role.

Yeah...... good thing the plot changed, huh!

Well, in a little while, the story in this chapter will start to roll along.

I wonder if I can pull it off~?

I humbly ask for your continued company.