The Situation of the Other Two Childhood Friends

Since our departure, one week has passed. The journey from Lamour to the

Royal Capital will take at least two weeks. We're taking a break as the sun

has gone down. Currently, I have lined up to receive the rationed dinner.

「Only… this?」

I reflectively asked when I saw that the portion I got from the middle-aged

cook-like man was only a piece of hard, black bread. Surely, I might be

staying in the same coach as Rose and the others, but I had heard from my

grandpa that he had already paid my travel expenses beforehand to the

merchant. Therefore, there was no reason for me to keep my silence upon

receiving this kind of treatment.

「This is the order from Lord Fracton. Now get lost! You're blocking the

line!」

The middle-aged, cook-like man waved his hand to drive me away as if I

were not worth his time.

Fracton was the proud-looking bearded man who had advised Rose before

we departed from Lamour. He hates me and never misses the chance to

speak ill about me on this journey. Even I think that his hate toward me

looks so childish.

Nevertheless, most of Rose's attendants were also treating me almost the

same way as him. Therefore, I gave up trying to protest against them.

When I returned to my tent, someone kicked me on the back, and I fell

forward.

「OI INCOMPETENT! How dare you hit me!」

A bearded, plump, old swordsman kicked my stomach with a vein bulged

on his forehead.

「GUH!」

I couldn't breathe for a moment. At the next moment, a dull pain assailed

my body.

「Are you trying to infect me with your filthy presence too, huuuuh!?」

I could only curl up like a turtle when the man was about to kick me again.

The heck, if you don't want to get infected, then don't come to make trouble

for me. It seems this old man has the mentality of a child who didn't grow

up properly.

Even the nearby attendants didn't try to stop this extremely unreasonable

violence. I thought they were rotten from the bottom of my heart.

After who knows how many time he kicked me―

「Stop at once!」

The rain of kicks finally stopped when an angry young woman shouted at

the swordsman.

When I raised my face, I saw the angry face of the red-haired woman. She

put her hand on the old, plump swordsman's shoulder.

「OI ANNA, are you trying to protect this apostate, who is lower than

trash!?」

The old swordsman shouted at the red-haired woman as blue veins bulged

on his forehead,

「I'm not doing this to protect him. I'm just doing my job since he's Rosesama's guest!」

The red-haired woman who didn't back down was one of Rose's attendants,

Anna. As the two of them glared at each other, a voice rang out.

「Who made this ruckus!?」

A blue-haired man with an unshaved beard walked toward us. When the old

and plump swordsman saw this, he clicked his tongue. He spat on the

ground in front of me and headed toward the cook to receive his dinner.

「T-Thanks.」

I bowed to thank Anna for her help.

「If not for Rose-sama's order, I wouldn't have come to save you! Now, go

back to your tent immediately!」

""

However, she left as soon as she said those words.

The blue-haired man with the unshaved beard had a great sword on his

back. He passed by Anna's side as she left and arrived in front of me. Then,

after staring at me for a while, he looked at the other attendants around us

like a falcon looking at their prey.

「You people better explain yourselves later!」

He spoke to them in a voice that sent chills running down my spine. The

attendant who was dressed in white armor left with a terrified look on his

face as if he were running away from the blue-haired swordsman.

This blue-haired swordsman was called Al-san, and he was the manager of

Rose's attendants. He was also one of the few people who treated me like a

normal human.

「It seems our people are bringing trouble for you again, Kai-kun. My

deepest apologies for this.」

Al-san bowed to me.

「N-No, it doesn't matter. I'm used to this kind of treatment.」

That's right. Even back in Lamour, it was normal for the owner of a trash

gift like me to receive such unjustified treatment.

Such treatment was common especially in the Holy Amelia kingdom, the

place where people's faith toward the Holy God of Martial arts, Ares, was

strong. Although this faith wasn't that extreme back in my hometown,

Lamour, the gift bestowed by God Ares was treated as something that

defined the value of people. In short, as I had received [The Most

Incompetent in this World] gift, I was treated like a worthless human in

this world. After all, it seemed as if God had declared that I was an

apostate. Well, I had never done something like that though. I mean, I was

thirteen years old.

Whether it was the old swordsman who kicked me before, or Anna, who

was scorning at me, or the other attendants who chose to become a

bystander while I became a target of unreasonable violence, everything only

happened because I was regarded as an apostate by God due to the gift I

received.

Al-san gritted his teeth upon hearing my reply.

「Next time, I'll carry your meal to your tent.」

He made that suggestion with a stern look on his face. He was not allowing

me to say no.

「No! There's no need to go that far for me―」

「Kai-kun, you shouldn't hide your feelings like that.」

After saying that, Al-san went toward the cook-like middle-aged man.

Rose's attendants quickly opened a path for him.

「Give him the proper meal that he should receive.」

Al-san spoke in a calm voice when he arrived in front of the cook-like

middle-aged man.

「B-But, Lord Fracton―」

「ARE YOU DEAF!? I said, give him his proper meal!!!」

Al-san seized the cook-like man by his collar and glared at him while

shouting those words.

「R-r-right away!」

After screaming like a baby, the cook-like man gave me a wooden tray with

a proper meal.

「Be grateful that I only gave you shameless people a proper education this

time. Don't think that I'll be so kind to warn you if you do this same sh*t

again.」

Leaving behind those words, Al-san went into the tent of the nobleman

called Francton with a demonic expression on his face.

Seeing that, I brought my meal into my tent.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

The mountain trail of Silke great forest!

A few days later, we entered the mountain trail of the Silke great forest.

Currently, we were camping on one of several camping sites along the

mountain trail.

Ever since that incident, Al-san kept bringing my meals to my tent.

Moreover, I couldn't see the blatant hatred of Rose's attendants, at least not

on the surface.

Nevertheless, they still avoided me, and the look in their eyes when they

saw me was still the same as before. However, the disappearance of their

blatant hatred toward me was truly a blessing on my side.

Good grief, my life has been completely turned upside-down after I received

my gift.

Well, I rarely used to get along with other people. However, even the

attitudes of those who I regarded as friends until now had completely

changed as soon as they knew about my gift. They had started to speak ill

about me being an incompetent apostate.

Although I was hurt at first upon receiving such treatment, Lyla, Rena, and

Keith were there for me. The three of them treated me like before.

「I wonder what Rena and Keith are doing right now.」

When it was confirmed that both Rena and Keith had received rare gifts,

namely 'Sword Saint' and 'Archmage,' they had both been brought to the

Royal Capital to receive proper training.

At first, both of them had firmly refused to go to the Royal Capital, but they

realized later that they were different from Roman, who had received proper

combat training from a young age.

Therefore, they had no choice but to go to the Royal Capital due to the

unique characteristics of their gifts.

Keith's gift was 'Archmage,' a gift geared for magic. Unfortunately,

Lamour was famous for its martial arts; if he stayed in Lamour, he wouldn't

get proper training. Therefore, the Amelia kingdom's government had

arranged for Keith to become the apprentice of the chief of the royal

sorcerer.

As for Rena, she was the owner of a gift that could be said to be the bane of

the demon race army. That was why her existence had to be revealed to the

public as fast as possible. For that reason, Amelia kingdom's government

had forced her to train along with the hero team, the most elite team for the

Demon King's subjugation.

Unlike Lyla and I, who were forced to participate in combat training from a

young age, Rena had never even held a wooden sword in her entire life

before receiving her gift. Yet, those crazy bastards had forced such a girl to

join the hero party, the most elite party in the Demon King's subjugation.

Naturally, I had opposed such recklessness. But, no one was willing to hear

the opinion of an incompetent like me. Rather, they scolded me and told me

that I was just jealous of Rena's gift.

「Kai, are you still awake?」

The clear, transparent voice of a woman called out my name from outside

my tent.

「Yeah, I'm still awake.」

I immediately woke up and replied to her. Then, an extremely beautiful,

pink-haired girl dressed in a white robe entered my tent.

It was Rose, the master of all those attendants. To be honest, I had a hard

time dealing with her. That was why I always tried to get as far away as

possible from her.

「Is something the matter?」

I asked her that question in a tense voice.

「My apologies!」

She apologized and bowed her head toward me.

「E-EH?」

I was flustered since I had no idea why she did that.

「I heard about what happened to you from Al. He told me what the

knights did to you.」

She spoke with a faint voice as she entwined her hands together with a sad

look on her face. It was something I would never expect from a cheerful

woman like her.

「No, please don't worry about it… is what I wanted to say, but it did

happen, and there's nothing I can do about it.」

I knew that nothing good would come for both of us if I kept brooding over

the matter. It was enough for me since they were at least treating me like a

human for now.

Moreover, since most likely, I wouldn't be involved with high-ranking

nobles, such as Rose, again in the future, there was no need for me to get

familiar with her.

「However, because I selfishly asked Sword Saint-sama to allow you to

travel with me until the Royal Capital, you ended up…」

So she was the one who wanted to travel with me, huh. It might be a natural

reaction from someone who doesn't know about me, Kai Heinemann.

Naturally, although I was famous as the sole descendant of the Sword Saint,

Rose didn't seem like someone who would go out of her way to request my

grandpa just to satisfy her curiosity.

「Rose-san, why did you want to accompany me on this journey to the

royal capital?」

「Because you're Keith and Rena's childhood friend.」

「You know them!?」

「Yeah, the leader of the royal sorcerers is my magic teacher. That's why I

know Keith. He's my fellow student. As for Rena Groat, she's my best

friend.」

When Rose said that she was the student of the leader of the royal sorcerers,

I became even more curious about her identity. Is she truly that famous

Saint? No, no, no! That's impossible. I mean, Lamour should've been in an

uproar if such a big shot visited that city.

「Then, did they say something about me to you?」

「Yes. Especially Rena. She always talks about you. I came to know you

better from her stories than from my conversations about you with Keith.」

Dammit! That Rena must've told Rose about the black history of my

childhood. I mean, I've always been playing with Rena ever since I gained

awareness about my surroundings.

「I see! Is that the main reason you wanted to accompany me on this

journey? 」

「Yes. I wanted to meet you, who they always mention in their stories, in

person. That's why I asked Sword Saint-sama's permission to allow me to

accompany you in your journey.」

「Is Rena doing fine in Hero-sama's team?」

Honestly, I couldn't stop worrying about Rena since she was such an

airhead.

「Well, not to mention Hero-sama, even the knights dote on her since she's

such an innocent girl.」

I see. I felt like I had just let go of a heavy load on my shoulder. I felt that

this information was worth participating in her group.

「Thank you very much for telling me that, Rose-san.」

I bowed to Rose while expressing gratitude from the bottom of my heart.

Even though Rose and I enjoyed the conversation revolving around our

childhood, we had to end our conversation. Rose's attendant, the red-haired

woman called Anna, had come inside my room with a demonic expression

and forced Rose to go back to her tent.

A while after she left, a muscular middle-aged man with blue hair and an

unshaved beard, Al-san, visited my tent.

「Sorry for disturbing you this late at night!」

「Don't worry about it! Is something the matter?」

There had to be a valid reason for him to visit me late at night.

「Thank you for willing to talk with Rose-sama despite what her attendants

did to you. I was really happy when I saw her talking so frankly with

you.」

After he straightened his back, Al-san bowed to me.

「N-No, please stop bowing like that! Rather, I feel grateful that someone

like her is willing to speak to an incompetent like me. Ehm―」

「Although it was not as much as you, my gift was amongst the low rank

one. That's why I feel some sort of sympathy toward you.」

「 Low-rank gift.」

「Yeah, that's why this is all I can say to you. Never give up! Your efforts

will never betray you!」

Al-san bumped his fist on my chest with an expression that told me that he

had also struggled against his fate. He then left my tent.

'Your efforts will never betray you.' It was the first time someone had told

me that. Well, that aside, with what had happened until now, I could pretty

much guess Rose's identity. Most likely, she was the daughter of a high

rank noble of this kingdom. This told me that Al-san had climbed up to his

current position as the manager of Rose's attendants after a long, bloody

effort. As long as I didn't give up, I might become someone like Al-san,

who was needed by others.

My consciousness descended into darkness as soon as I lay down.