There is No Escaping the Hero
Chapter 8: Thief vs. Princess Part 1
“Ugh, uuu…”
Sobbing on the bed was the Princess of the great nation of Andreia, Soare Andreia. Ever since Schutz had told her of her sister’s desperate battle and the outcome, she had been like this. Schutz watched her with pity.
Meanwhile,
(This is awkward.)
『Yeah.』
Solo and Toro could only stand there with indescribable expressions. It wasn’t that they couldn’t understand the pain of a relative dying at all, not even a little bit, but still, as complete strangers, Solo and his partner were not in a position to say anything about her sorrow.
Sympathy is cheap.
Comfort is even cheaper.
In the first place, there was no such culture in the gutter. Because having relatives was rare to begin with.
“H-Hey, Pops. Should I wait outside?”
“If you are not with me, you will be arrested as a suspicious person.”
“…Oof.”
He had to wait until the girl’s sadness settled down. Solo didn’t really like tears. It dehydrated you, it was tiring, and above all, it was meaningless.
He was of the nature to want to laugh and look forward rather than cry.
Even if it was in the midst of losing someone important—
“…”
“Have you calmed down, Princess?”
“…Yes, a little.”
“That is good.”
Finally seeming to have calmed down, Soare rubbed her swollen eyes and said,
“Hey, Schutz.”
“What is it?”
“…Schutz, you checked Elder Sister’s body, and she wasn’t there, right?”
She voiced it.
Schutz made a troubled face.
“Y-Yes. However, considering the situation, survival is hopeless—”
“But, it’s Elder Sister! If it’s the country’s greatest warrior, Luna Andreia, surely she is alive. She was always stronger and kinder than anyone, but sometimes, you know, she would play pranks, right? Trying to surprise me… Surely it’s the same this time. Absolutely!”
“P-Princess.”
In contrast to the flustered Schutz, vitality was visibly returning to Soare’s eyes. Strength returned to them.
“Elder Sister wouldn’t make anyone sad. Elder Sister is—”
Seeing such a figure,
“How stupid.”
Solo couldn’t stop the words rising to his throat.
Even if—
“Solo!”
“What did you say?”
Even if it meant pouring oil on a raging fire.
“Pops, who was at the scene, said she’s not alive. Obviously she’s dead, right? Have you ever seen a dragon?”
“…Impertinent.”
Soare’s eyes fixed on Solo. The same eyes as that King, eyes looking at something that shouldn’t even be in their vision, a gaze of scorn; it wasn’t unusual.
What was unusual was that she was a person who shouldn’t be like that.
“Besides, people dying isn’t exactly rare. Both that old man and you, whining on and on… seriously pointless. Isn’t there some huge war still going on right now? Then it would be far more meaningful to think about that. You’re royalty, after all.”
There was also the matter of the Demonic Tree. There shouldn’t be any room to grieve.
“Solo, the death of a relative is not something so easily wiped away.”
“That’s why I’m saying I don’t know about that. I’ve been a loner with no family since I can remember. I can’t understand it, and I don’t intend to. For us lowly people, whether we cry or scream, if we don’t secure tomorrow’s meal with our own feet and hands, we are the ones who will die.”
Solo put strength into his left hand and raised it.
“If you grieve, you get sympathy. Someone prepares your meals and your bed. …Royalty sure are carefree creatures.”
Their births were different. Their ways of living were different.
“Princess, this man is—”
“Silence, Schutz.”
“Princess!”
Their ways of thinking were different.
So, maybe this was natural.
“Retribution for impertinence. Atone with your body.”
Collision.
Soare took off her glove and threw it at Solo. Even born in the gutter, raised in the gutter, he knew what that meant.
『Hehe, well, figured it would come to this.』
It was a duel.
***
Currently, there were three people in the training grounds attached to the royal palace.
One was Schutz, who reluctantly ended up serving as the witness.
Another was Soare, who was dressed luxuriously from the perspective of someone born and raised in the gutter, but compared to her previous dress, she was now in an outfit easier to move in.
The last person looked up quietly at the ceiling,
(…I might have said too much.)
『It’s too late now.』
(…Can’t Pops mediate for us now?)
『Her eyes are glaring daggers; she’s fully intent on chopping your head off. Give it up.』
(…Why did I say unnecessary things?)
He was immediately regretting that his unnecessary words had developed into a troublesome situation. Schutz was shooting piercing glances that said I told you so, but it was too late.
『If you had just let the Princess’s words slide, we could have said goodbye to this suffocating royal palace by now. Well, I don’t know where we’d go after saying goodbye, though.』
(That’s the thing. In the end, what are we going to do now?)
『Doesn’t Pops have a plan? Although, all of this depends on getting through this first. Kekeke.』
(…Haa, exactly.)
Solo sighed repeatedly. It was his own fault; no matter how much he regretted it, spoken words couldn’t be taken back. The opponent was full of motivation, while his motivation was rapidly deflating.
He shouldn’t have poured it, the oil.
“Are you ready?”
(Not at all.)
“Well, it doesn’t matter if a nameless person like you isn’t ready.”
(Her personality isn’t great either, this one.)
His motivation rose a tiny bit due to the opponent’s bad personality, but fundamentally, this duel was too meaningless, so he couldn’t even muster up fake enthusiasm.
(By the way, her impression is different from when she was in the dress, right?)
『She’s pretty good, by my assessment.』
(…Do princesses these days have to be strong?)
『It means this isn’t an era where they get kidnapped and wait for help in the enemy’s grasp.』
(Is that so. …By the way, Toro-suke-sama.)
『Yeah?』
(You’ll help me, right? Your partner is in a pinch.)
『Of course I’ll help, but that way of asking really kills my motivation. Like, the partner vibe is weak, or rather, it sounds distant.』
(Let’s do this, Partner!)
『What a drag.』
Solo, whose sword and magic skills were only slightly better than an amateur’s, felt that doing this on his own was out of the question. He had honed that kind of instinct through his street life.
Though, he should have exercised that instinct before picking a fight.
“Well then, come.”
Still looking at him like a bug. At this point, he didn’t feel like telling her to stop with those eyes, and if anything, it was somewhat better than that crappy way she tried to cheer herself up after moping.
“Then, don’t mind if I do!”
Tap, Solo closed the distance to his opponent lightly. Parallel to his magic training, he was also learning Toro-style swordsmanship. Schutz was also teaching him even though he hadn’t asked.
With the power of the Demonic Sword Sein Troll added to that—
“…Tch.”
It became a speed exceeding the opponent’s imagination.
(Umu, he is fast after all.)
Speed enough to make the veteran knight Schutz marvel. Of course, compared to Luna, the difference was like a hare and a tortoise, but his speed alone was above the standard of an average knight.
Above all,
“Alright, took her back!”
Turning performance. Regarding his skill in tight turns, although Toro was going easy on him, it was enough to make even Schutz dizzy.
However,
“And?”
The opponent was Luna Andreia’s sister, Soare Andreia. The close sisters often enjoyed games like tag.
The sister who boasted godspeed also frequently took her sister’s back to surprise her.
She wasn’t naive enough to lose sight of him at this level of speed.
“Ugh.”
She spun around swiftly, switching her body position while retreating and simultaneously sweeping her sword horizontally. If Toro hadn’t blocked it, he wouldn’t have been able to react to the quick draw-and-slash.
『She has good eyes.』
(Seems like it.)
He was bad with opponents who had good eyes. Because it made pickpocketing difficult.
“Shi!”
A quick combo; difficult to dodge, and not easy to block either. She was a much better swordswoman than he thought. Not a princess shutting herself in the royal palace.
『Bad news, Partner.』
(Can’t win?)
『No, we can manage. But, stopping just before hitting is tough. She’s faster and stronger than I imagined.』
As expected of Demonic Sword-sama, even using the current Solo, he could manage to win splendidly. However, “managing” was the difficult part.
The opponent also possessed considerable swordsmanship and speed.
In this high-speed battle, could he successfully stop his blade just before impact? Even the Demonic Sword with three hundred years of image training wasn’t entirely confident.
It was different from monsters or facing Schutz, where getting cut a little wouldn’t matter much.
If a scar was left on her face—
(…I have a plan.)
『Say what!?』
(Just fight well. I’ll do my part.)
『Got it!』
Solo came up with a brilliant idea. Because the opponent was a girl, because the opponent was that Luna’s sister, and calculatingly because cutting royalty in the royal palace seemed bad—for these reasons, Solo decided to execute a non-lethal strategy. The opponent intended to kill, and possessed ability not much different from him including the Demonic Sword.
Still, Solo had a chance of winning.
(Mm, his speed dropped a little? But even so, Solo’s swordsmanship is superior. The magnificence of the Holy Sword’s protection. It’s a form I’ve never seen, spinning round and round like acrobatics… but it is splendid nonetheless.)
Schutz marveled at and praised the results of three hundred years of image training. And that was—
(T-To have my, the Azul family’s sword pushed by such a shabby man!)
Soare felt the same. Knowing her beloved sister was going to war, and wanting to stand shoulder to shoulder with her sister someday, she had trained at her mother’s family home, the Azul family.
Superior to that technique. Soare couldn’t forgive that.
For someone like a rootless wanderer with no surname—that was the ordinary thought filled with the prejudice of a noble. Because she didn’t know Solo’s sword was thanks to Toro.
(Also, this man, his retreating speed is too fast!)
His turning performance was high, but his retreating speed, in other words, his speed running backward, was outstanding even by knight standards. High-speed movement to the left, right, and back; this was—
『Partner’s strength from growing up on the streets.』
Movement techniques specialized for escaping were ingrained in his body, and his muscles had developed in a way suited to that purpose. Toro was simply manipulating that weapon skillfully.
Because he was manipulating him, he understood.
That this man was a skilled thief adept at not getting caught.
Above all—
“P-Princess!?”
“What!? Just now, I had a little room to—”
“That, um, boing, and!”
“Boing?”
The highest-grade weapon possessed by the thief Solo was,
“Whoa, huge.”
Opposite the hand holding Toro, his self-proclaimed Golden Left Arm.
That was,
“…Eh? Ah, wait, w-why!? My buttons!?”
Soare’s clothes, the buttons on her chest,
“Here you are, Princess.”
“H-Haaaaaaaaaaaa!?”
Had been swiped before she knew it. The huge things stored in there; she had been suppressing them with clothes, with buttons, but Solo had released that seal.
Of course, she was wearing undergarments properly, so various things weren’t visible.
“I win.”
Boom, Solo with a triumphant face.
『Yo, Partner! World’s best!』
(Cut it out.)
What he was doing was just sexual harassment.
