Chapter 73

“…Tch.”

Perhaps, like me who instinctively felt my chances of victory had greatly increased, she too was certain that the tide of battle had turned against her.

Belita spat at her feet and roughly scratched her head with her left hand.

“Ha, damn it. I’ve lost my edge. Have I been resting too long lately?”

She muttered to herself what seemed like a rather unsightly excuse.

“Why don’t you take an eternal rest while you’re at it?”

I uttered provocative words with a grinning smile, while taking very thin and deep breaths as if suppressing my heavy breathing.

Feeling my slightly trembling arms and legs gradually regaining stability.

…Good. It seems the recoil from Iron Arm has almost completely recovered.

If that’s the case.

“If you want, I’ll help you!”

A lightning-fast thrust. I charged forward, kicking off the ground and thrusting my longsword. Pressing the pommel instead of the hilt with my slightly open left hand to add penetrating power.

“Don’t look down on me, you adventurer bitch!”

Belita switched her long spear to her left hand and threw it toward my feet.

I thought her shoulder pain would somewhat hinder her movements, but is it bearable to this extent?

The speed of the thrown spear was so fast it was reminiscent of a flash of light.

Whoosh!

Moreover, the approaching spear tip was already engulfed in flames, as if the flame explosion technique had been activated.

“Argh!”

In this situation, my abdomen or lower body would be directly hit if I continued forward. I hurriedly stopped my feet and leaped backward to pull my body out of the explosion radius.

Right after that.

Boom!

The long spear that had driven into the ground with a roar caused an intense flame explosion.

The earth burst as if struck by a giant’s fist. Stones blown away by the blast pressure scattered like shotgun pellets, sweeping the surroundings.

Rattle rattle rattle!

As I curled up my body in midair and took a defensive posture, the fragments flying toward me were blocked by my armor and bounced off with a sound like popping corn.

“Throwing away your weapon, despite what you said, it seems you’re running out of options?”

After landing by sliding and digging up the dirt with my heels, I raised my head to look at Belita and sneered.

The spear she had thrown as if in desperation hadn’t caused me any harm.

The distance had widened a bit again… but well, that was no longer an issue to worry about, given that I had figured out the weakness of her charge attack.

“Running out of options? Does it look that way?”

However, instead of charging at me, Belita pulled up the corners of her mouth while bandaging her shoulder with a torn piece of her cloak.

“I just needed some time to utter a few words, that’s all.”

“…A few words?”

Belita didn’t answer my reflexive question.

Instead, she suddenly turned her head toward those fighting in front of the wagons, and shouted loudly with her mouth wide open.

“Hey, you adventurers struggling over there! Do you even know what you’re transporting right now!”

A shout that rang in my ears.

“What…?”

It was a cry whose meaning was difficult to understand. What we’re transporting? Well, wasn’t it daily necessities including food supplies…?

“Do you know why your lives are being threatened right now!”

Instead of rushing at her and swinging my sword, I unconsciously leaned in to listen, waiting for her next words.

I could wait for a few seconds.

To be honest, I was curious about the reason for this attack too.

“Did you think it was just ordinary daily necessities? No way. You’ve been deceived!”

There seemed to be no reason to interfere. The woman who wouldn’t give a proper answer no matter how many times I asked was finally about to open her heavy mouth.

“This…! What are you doing not fighting! The enemy has dropped her weapon, isn’t this the perfect opportunity!”

As I listened to Lug, the caravan leader, urging me with a pale face, it certainly did look a bit suspicious.

“I’ll tell you!”

Belita shouted, stretching out her left arm to point at the wagons.

“What these guys have been transporting is a precious item you couldn’t obtain even if you worked your whole lives, the heart of a Jötunn!”

The heart of a Jötunn.

“They’ve been disguised as an ordinary merchant group to sell off an item stolen from the Goddess Church!”

Belita revealed that this was the identity of the cargo the Rivilla merchant group was transporting, and the reason why they had attacked us.

So that’s why she kept going on about hearts earlier like some kind of idiot.

Certainly, if it was the heart of a Jötunn, it would be more than enough reason for a silver token adventurer-knight level fighter to attack like a robber.

No, in fact, it wouldn’t be strange even if a gold token level came running.

The giant race, Jötunn, was a demon folk that could only be encountered after descending dozens of floors even in deep dungeons, so to obtain a fresh Jötunn heart, one would have to break through as if conquering a deep dungeon.

‘The Rivilla merchant group was transporting such an item?’

Honestly, it was hard to believe. Even Gunther of Burgundy or Heid of Hervor would still be honing their skills in mid-level dungeons at this point.

As they haven’t dared to enter deep dungeons yet, the knightly orders of each country should also be maintaining a standoff, sealing off dungeon entrances without entering.

So where on earth did they get a Jötunn heart from?

…

Surely, it couldn’t be from that undead giant…?

No, really, it couldn’t be.

Although it was a giant’s corpse, it was originally a completely rotten corpse raised and animated by necromancy, so how could an intact heart have remained inside?

I didn’t check it personally, but isn’t this nonsensical by common sense? If you opened up the chest, it seems like only rotten flesh would have spilled out.

“You understand? You were just disguised shields to be used cheaply by these people! Shields exploiting the blind spot that they wouldn’t use mere copper tokens to escort a Jötunn heart! And now you’ve been exposed like this!”

Belita shouted in a passionate voice like a labor union exposing corporate corruption. Perhaps because of her red hair, her tone was very international.

“…Hmm.”

“No way, really…?”

“Did they really deceive us?”

Perhaps their ears had perked up at her speech like mine. Bardu, Jane, Friede, and Amy, who had been struggling in fierce combat, stirred with faces full of doubt.

“…What’s a Jötunn heart?”

“How would I know…?”

“Um, so… I don’t know what it is, but isn’t she saying that this guy has scammed us? That’s why we’re in this state now.”

Amina’s trio of gigolos looked somewhat dumbfounded, as if they didn’t understand the meaning of Belita’s words themselves.

“Well, isn’t it an interesting story? You’re not dying because of me, but because of that guy!”

“The ravings of a madwoman! A Jötunn heart, what an absurd slander!”

Lug shouted in denial with veins popping on his neck.

Judging by his expression alone, he looked like he was dying of injustice, but cold sweat was streaming down as if he was taking a bath, so it wasn’t at all convincing.

“Ha, playing innocent! Look! These bitches are the very proof!”

“…What, you mean me?”

Belita suddenly turned her arm to point at me. I flinched a little in surprise and reflexively took a step back.

What nonsense is this, suddenly saying I’m the proof? Could it be that the fact I took down the undead giant has leaked out somewhere?

No, the only people who know that fact should be Friede and Amy…?

“Don’t you see? These are clearly knights! The swordsmanship, unique but with a solid foundation, the skill to match me and inflict wounds!”

Unexpected high praise. Honestly, it gave me slight chills.

I’m just the copper token adventurer Hilde, but the original owner of this body was indeed a knight of the Rhine Kingdom, so Belita’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

Of course, this was as far as she spoke correctly.

“Would such a thing be possible for mere copper token adventurers? Of course not! The copper tokens around their necks are just disguises, these are knights! Knights equivalent to at least silver token level for you!”

“That’s not it…”

Um… it seems you’ve made quite a big misunderstanding.

It’s true that I have knight-level skills, but that doesn’t mean this adventurer token I’m wearing around my neck is a fake identity.

Since it would be troublesome to draw too much attention if I were to hide the fact that this body’s identity is Brunhilde, I was planning to advance slowly after getting the copper token.

…Come to think of it, isn’t that usually called a disguised identity?

“Why would such knights be escorting mere merchant wagons while disguising themselves as copper tokens! It’s obvious. Those who stole the heart must have placed them as a contingency plan in case of any unforeseen circumstances!”

“That’s not it either…”

A contingency plan to protect the Jötunn heart, she’s really writing a novel here. Writing a novel.

There’s a limit to nonsense, I just found out now that such a thing was hidden in the wagon, what contingency plan?

For me, it was truly an absurd misunderstanding.

‘Ah, so that’s why she said we were the winning ticket earlier.’

Only now could I roughly understand the nonsense Belita had been spouting.

From Belita’s perspective, when she attacked a suspicious-looking merchant caravan on a whim, two knight-level skilled individuals immediately popped out.

Seeing that, she must have been convinced that this merchant group was definitely transporting a Jötunn heart.

In reality, for me who had no connection to escorting the heart, I felt both dumbfounded and wronged by such a misunderstanding, wondering how she could make such a mistake.

Of course, the only people who could understand my feelings of being wronged were my party members Friede, Amy, and Kikel.

They clearly knew that I wasn’t some contingency plan employed by the Rivilla merchant group, but had just taken on a suitable request casually.

…In other words, this meant that the other adventurers who didn’t know this fact had no choice but to suspect me.

“Certainly…”

Bardu muttered, glancing at me sideways.

A gaze full of doubt and distrust, wavering, completely different from the previous look that regarded me as a reliable ally.

It was a look like that of a virgin man who found another man’s underwear in his girlfriend’s house who claimed to be pure.

Don’t… don’t look at me with those eyes…!

I unconsciously flinched and turned my head away from his gaze.

The sense of betrayal contained in his eyes was so intense that if I kept eye contact, I felt like guilt would surge even though I had done nothing wrong.

“No, um… it’s true that I’m a bit strong, but that’s not…”

I tried to hurriedly explain to prove my innocence, having turned my gaze away from Bardu.

That my skill level being that of a knight was true, but everything else was just this crazy woman making unfounded assumptions.

However.

“Damn it…! At this point, there’s nothing left to hide!”

With Lug’s sudden action of drawing his sword with a frantic cry, my words of explanation that I was about to utter were completely buried.

“Listen, everyone! Abandon the rear wagon. Open a path with your lives!”

It was a cry that perfectly affirmed all the accusations up to now, like a confession.