Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen: Why it Was Sealed 

So there was a village that needed a large quantity of weed killer. We hurried there. 

“Master!” 

“What is it?” 

“Um… These plants are amazing!” 

Raphtalia and I craned our necks to look outside. The street was covered in writhing vines so thick they threatened to cover the entire street. 

“What the hell?!” 

It was moving slowly, but if you watched closely you could see the vines crawling out further and spreading over the road. 

“The village…” 

I looked around to get a sense of our surroundings, and I saw something in the distance that looked something like a refugee camp. 

“Filo, take us over there.” 

“Okay.” 

We arrived at the camp and quickly started selling our products. 

“All right, so what price should we set for the weed killer?” 

They must have needed it to try and control those vines we’d seen. 

I was starting to understand why the accessory dealer recommended this place to us—sure enough, we should be able to do some business here. 

But how much? How much money would we make off with? 

“There might be a specialized buyer.” 

“Good point.” 

We climbed out of the carriage and started asking around. 

I changed my shield into the Book Shield. Then I rotated it around to the inside of my arm and pretended to be a merchant just walking around with his book. If they didn’t notice my shield, they wouldn’t think I was the Shield Hero. 

“I heard that you were in need of weed killer, and were willing to pay for it.” 

I found someone in the camp dressed better than the others. He seemed to be in charge. 

“Ah… A merchant? You’re just in time.” 

“What happened here?” 

I looked off in the distance to see the whole area covered in vines. 

“Yes, well… Our village was experiencing a severe famine.” 

That reminded me… I think I’d heard about this place. But didn’t Motoyasu take care of it?” 

“The Spear Hero was able to release the seal on an ancient miracle seed for us. That solved the famine, and yet…” 

“You mean this is from the miracle seed?” 

I looked back at the vines. Looking closely, I saw various fruits and vegetables growing from the twisting stalks. 

So the refugees had plenty to eat, and the famine was solved. They were able to get potatoes from the roots. They were digging at the vines with shovels. 

So apparently they were able to fix the famine problem, but the vines were too powerful, and they ran out of space to live? 

How stupid can you get? 

Thinking back on it, that must have been the reason the seed was sealed away in the first place. If they had just left it there, everything would have been fine. 

Motoyasu, the fool! What was he thinking? 

Oh yeah… We’d been nearby a little while ago, when we were with the witch. 

“To he who would break the seal of the seed. It is my desire that this seed never be released into the world. It will play with the people’s desire to be freed from famine, granting their wish in the worst way imaginable. The seal is not so easily broken.” 

Yeah, that’s what it had said. Why would he break the seal on the seed? 

He must not have read it. He must not have known that from all his game experience. 

“Out here on the periphery there is no major problem. But if you head into the village, the plants have begun to turn into monsters.” 

So the plants could mutate… Great. 

He really was an idiot. 

It was so easy to put me in a bad mood. It had happened so quickly this time. 

He was very skilled. He knew how to ruin my mood. 

“So that’s why you want weed killer?” 

“Yes.” 

If these people were famers, you’d think they already knew how to control weeds… but whatever. 

“At first we were all so happy. But once the vines came over our fields, and then our houses… Well, we went out with axes to try and hold the vines at bay, but they were too fast.” 

“When did all this happen?” 

“Once the Hero moved on, we didn’t have any trouble for two weeks. But about half a month ago, things started to…” 

“Uh huh. Didn’t you report to the Crown?” 

“Yes. But they said that it would take a while before a Hero would be able to make it out here. Therefore we have been forced to do what we can with weed killer for the time being…” 

Huff… I let out an involuntary sigh. 

“Why don’t you try burning it?” 

“We’ve tried everything that we could think of.” 

“So I guess you tried burning it…” 

They had probably tried reaching out to adventurers for help too. 

I looked around the camp, and sure enough—there were a bunch of people with weapons and equipment there. They would not be villagers. 

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” 

An ear-splitting shriek came from the direction of the village. 

“What was that?!” 

“We tried to stop him, but there was an adventurer that wanted to fight 

in the village to raise his levels. That must be him.” The villager sighed his answer, as though he’d done all he could. “Damn! Filo!” “Okay!” I pointed in the direction of the village. Filo had been stuffing her 

cheeks with fruit from the vines, but immediately took off running at my signal. She ran, full speed, right into the village and came back shortly with 

three adventurers. They were beat up pretty badly. “How did the village look?” “Hmm… Well, the monster plants were wriggling over everything. 

There were some cool ones that spit poison and acid and stuff. Weak 

adventurers shouldn’t go in there! Stupid!” “That last part wasn’t necessary.” “Okay!” The villagers were shocked when they saw Filo talking. “Oh, we’ve heard of you! You’re the miracle-working saint with the 

bird-god carriage!” As if they just noticed me, they ran over and shook my hand. “Well I don’t know about saint… but I have a bird and a carriage.” “Please save our village! There are people even that have been consumed by the vines!” “You mean they are parasitic? Oh jeez…” 

I took some restorative medicine and some weed killer and then was led over to a tent. Inside there were a number of people laying down, and their bodies were half-transformed into plants. 

“I can’t promise that I can cure them. And besides, I’m no philanthropist. I expect to be paid.” 

“Yes…” 

I went over to the closest patient, a child that seemed to be having trouble breathing, and administered the restorative medicine. 

The child was enveloped in a soft light, and his breathing seemed to stabilize. I then applied weed killer to the affected areas of his body. 

The child was in pain for a short time, but then the leaves withered and fell off, and the child seemed to be cured. 

“Oh…” 

“That’s a saint for you!” 

Everyone was whispering in amazement. I administered the same medicine routine to the remaining patients. 

Once everyone had been treated, the atmosphere around the camp improved greatly. I guess anyone would be happy to see their lot improve, however little. 

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” 

Everyone thanked me. 

“Time to pay up.” 

I asked for a price that was higher than the average market price. 

Here’s why: if they had already appealed to the Crown for help, then there was a chance that another Hero might show up at any time. And if he did, then pretty soon they would know who I was too, and then they’d be singing a different tune. 

The villagers happily paid me. Everything was going according to plan. 

“All right, I’ll sell you the weed killer. Let’s try to make this quick. Once you buy it, I’m out of here.” 

“Um… Saint… Could you please save our village?” 

“What?! I thought you’d asked for a Hero to come.” 

“Yes, but…” 

Ugh… All the villagers were throwing themselves at my feet and begging me. 

I wasn’t exactly all-powerful here. And besides, it’s not like I had any responsibility to them. 

“No thanks.” 

“Please. If you need money, we’ll find a way…” 

“You need to pay upfront. And if anything happens, I don’t want to hear any complaints. Now, if you know anything about the seed that the Spear Hero unsealed, you better tell me about it now.” 

The villagers called out to one another, and soon I was surrounded by people pulling money from their pockets. I spent the time trying to find out all that I could. 

Apparently the seed had been sealed away in some nearby ruins, and had been watched over by a powerful guardian. 

If the vines were overtaking everything, someone must have wondered what had happened to the guardian. No? I sighed… These villagers weren’t good for much. 

The villagers believed that the seed was the masterwork of an alchemist that had made his hideaway in those ruins. And that the seed was sealed away some time later on. According to reports that they had, the area had, sometime in the past, been overtaken by vines. 

“If you have a legend like that around here, why would you remove the seal from the seed? Didn’t anyone notice?” 

Everyone turned their eyes to the ground. 

They must have thought it was safe because a Hero had brought it to them. 

We were talking all this over when they announced they had raised the money I’d requested. 

It was quite a lot of money. I could have taken it and just run off. 

“Ok, I’ve got it. I’ll do what I can.” 

I changed my shield to the Chimera Viper Shield. That would be better for battle. 

“Sh…The Shield Hero?!” 

I ignored the shouts of the villagers and pressed on further into the vines. Raphtalia and Filo followed close behind. 

I put all the money into a pouch and tied it around my waist then moved deeper and deeper into the vines.