The Faraway Paladin, volume 2: The Archer of Beast Woods.
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final Chapter.
Under the brightness of the summer sun, long grass swayed in a pleasant breeze.
“Yeeeaaahhh!”
“Here’s to victory!”
The field was full of adventurers clapping each other on the shoulder and raising their horns in toast.
There had been a lot to deal with in the immediate aftermath of the battle, but we’d sorted most of it out, and were attempting to head back to Whitesails. However, the enormous number of beast heads and demon dust we were carrying with us caused roars of celebration in each village that we passed through. Casks were brought out, and parties started in middle of the day. The ale poured into the horns tasted refreshing under the early summer sunshine.
All the villages had that same kind of party mood. The adventurers, too, were enjoying the feeling of release after their life-or-death battle, and raising a racket in every place they went. The trip back was very lively.
We were soon able to join back up with Bee and Tonio, whom we’d unfortunately left behind some time ago.
With his usual, soft expression, Tonio congratulated me on a job well done. It was thanks to his help that I was able to provide dozens of adventurers with the supplies they needed, and get them all working together. He was always lending me his subtle and modest support when things began to look shaky, the time after I beat the wyvern being the perfect example. I wanted to find some way to thank him sometime soon.
Bee jumped at me and Menel with her usual brightness. She pestered us repeatedly to talk more about our adventure, and ran ideas for her tales by us. And then, clenching a fist, she declared, “Looks like I need to get Menel included in this one!”
“Oh, shit! No!” The look on Menel’s face completely changed as he suddenly realized that he should have been paying attention to this conversation as well.
“Awww, why not?!”
“This weirdo might be happy to grin like a goofball while everyone gawks at him, but I’m not!”
“Meanie pants! I can tell you’re planning to follow your darling Will down the path of heroes anyway, so put up with it, mister grouchy!”
“Shut up! And he’s not my darling!”
“He so is! Oh! I know! I’ll make your title Meneldor the Beautiful!”
“Then all the poets are gonna add some twist, like turning me into a woman!”
“And then you can be Will’s girlfriend!”
“Dammit, if you agree with me, don’t do it!”
Everyone burst out laughing watching the two of them running around. I laughed, too. As usual, Bee was cheerful, spoke her mind, and had a way of making all my worries seem completely stupid. Watching her really made me think: Yeah, there are other ways to go through life! You can be pretty carefree, if you want!
Incidentally, let me add that as a result of Menel’s fierce objections, his nickname was revised from “Meneldor the Beautiful” to “Meneldor of Swift Wings.”
The excitement of taking down a powerful enemy seemed to have worn off for Reystov; he had returned to his normal, lethargic self, taking tiny sips of his drink with a sullen, dull look on his face. He was the kind of guy who didn’t make a big thing of himself. He had a kind of subdued coolness.
The finesse he had with that sword was very impressive, too. He’d killed that demon in a single thrust. I asked him if we could train together sometime, and he gave me a silent nod. I hoped my eyes would be good enough to spot the secret to his stabbing technique. I badly wanted to steal it.
I looked around at the villagers. Now that the threat from demons and beasts had eased off, their faces were looking a lot sunnier.
“Everything’s gotten so… lively.”
Only about half a year had passed since the days when I’d lived in that city of the dead with just me, Blood, Mary, and Gus. What a merry circle of people I’d surrounded myself with in just that short span of time.
“It’ll get even livelier,” Menel said from beside me. “The beasts and demons are much less of a threat now. More people are gonna come to the south, looking for a new world down here. I bet it’ll cause some problems, too…” He was looking philosophically into the distance. “Gonna have to live with it, I guess.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Wonder what I’m going to do now.”
Menel tilted his head when he heard that. “Now?”
“Yeah, I mean, what next. Of course, if there’s any matters left to sort out on the way to Whitesails, I’ll be helping with those… but I wonder what I’ll do after that.”
I’d reached a good stopping point for this area. I felt confident saying that I’d achieved the task my god had charged me with here. In order to run what looked a lot like a military campaign in Beast Woods, I’d ended up becoming a knight, but I didn’t have any land and it wasn’t a hereditary knighthood, either. It was pretty much an honorary position. Not only did I have no territory to rule over, I didn’t even hold any real official post.
I thought it might be an idea to get permission from the Duke of Southmark, if I could, and try going on a journey traveling around places like my parents had. Each day an adventure spent searching for ancient ruins and the like. That sounded fun—
“Well, you’re gonna be the lord, aren’t you?”
…Huh?
◆
“The lord?”
“The lord.”
“Of where?”
“The villages of Beast Woods.”
“Hahah.” I was worried for a moment, but Menel just had the wrong idea. “Come on, Menel. I’m a knight with no land who can’t pass on his title. It’s kind of like an honor, that’s all. In practice, I’m seriously no different from an adventurer!”
When I said that, not just Menel, but everyone around me went silent. Wh-What?
“He doesn’t realize…”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Really?”
“He… hadn’t been thinking about it?”
“And here I was, thinking he was doing a pretty good job…”
A small commotion started among the adventurers.
“This guy’s smart, but sometimes he’s the world’s greatest idiot, isn’t he?”
“I can’t believe he’s so good at managing what’s under his nose, but he wasn’t even thinking about how it’d end up.”
“No way…”
“So he’s clueless…”
H-Huh?
As I stood there, puzzled, Menel sighed deeply and began to speak. “Even if you aren’t given land, you have the freedom to conquer unclaimed areas, don’t you?”
“Conquer? No, I don’t plan on doing anything like that.” Maybe back when I fell into that dark place where I was trying to do everything myself, but certainly not now. I didn’t want to be a ruler…
“Lemme ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“Say you’re someone who wants to start a business in these woods. Who do you go talk to?”
Well… That would be the person who’s started dealing with large transactions and is already working industriously to help me with just that sort of thing, namely—
“Tonio.”
“And the majority of Tonio’s capital is financed by you, right? If you pull your funding, Tonio gets hit hard.”
Yep… Hm?
“I don’t plan on doing that.”
“But you could, is the issue, right?”
Everyone else nodded.
“Apart from that, you have the blessing of the god of the flame and you’re a paladin sanctioned by the Kingdom and the temple. You’re authority incarnate! You have the military power, hiring all these adventurers. Oh, and you’re also arbitrating village disputes, so this place is literally your jurisdiction for all intents and purposes. And, as I just said, you also have control over goods distribution.”
I tried calmly to think of a counterargument. But… Huh? Wait… Wait, what? It was strange… I couldn’t think of… anything…
“Basically, in the process of wiping out the demons, you’ve effectively taken complete control of this region’s authority, military power, legal system, and the distribution of all its goods. The position is blatantly about to be yours, and we’re all behind you. If you suddenly renege on it with ‘I don’t want to do it’ there’s gonna be chaos, brother.”
My mouth hung open. Menel and all the others were looking at me with faces of disbelief.
“So you literally hadn’t realized?”
I could feel myself going pale as I nodded repeatedly back.
I’d simply been hoping that if I just did a little something about the demons and then improved the poverty situation a bit, the rest would just naturally work itself out, and I hadn’t really thought in any detail about what would come after. I’d just been vaguely thinking that I could saunter off into the sunset like my parents had.
“Uhhh…”
“Yeah?”
“Wh-What do I do?!”
In the end, those were the words that came out.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go… When my parents had solved issues like this, they’d departed the scene dashingly without any problem! Had I somehow screwed up right near the beginning, and I hadn’t even noticed?! Where?!
“I… I guess I have to… get some people? Umm… um…”
“You already have merchants and priests who know about law, don’t you? If you need anyone else, I’m sure you can get that duke to introduce someone to you.”
The bishop had apparently seen this development coming. I could understand the priests who knew about the liturgy and sermons, but now I understood why the bishop had given me people with experience in law and office work as well…
“Oh my God…”
I hadn’t realized just how big things had become. As I held my head, the people around me cheered and laughed at my reaction.
“Where did I go wrong for things to turn out this way…? Please, tell me, Gracefeel…”
I felt like I heard faint giggling. Her as well?!
A cool wind carrying the smells of greenery and earth blew by as we laughed together in our merry circle, the dazzling summer sun shining brightly on this faraway land.
— The Faraway Paladin II: The Archer of Beast Woods.
— Finis.
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
