I Left the State-Sanctioned Party, and Eventually Became a Hero in the Frontier ~ A Tale of a "Scoundrel" Starting Over as a Hero ~

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“Why the hell is one of those things hanging around near the village…?”

Crouching low and hiding myself, I peered at the creature. It looked like a reptile, its back lined with poisonous-looking spines like those of a stonefish. It walked on two legs in a hunched posture. Its eyes darted around wildly, it had sharp claws, and every so often, it let out a bleating “Meeh” like a goat. After confirming its features, I carefully kept quiet and concealed myself behind the hill.

“No doubt about it.”
“Yeah. It’s a Vampire Goat.”

—Vampire Goat. A monster that feeds on livestock by sucking their blood. If it gets hungry enough, it’ll attack humans too. A troublesome beast, and fairly tough on top of that.

“Must’ve come out of the unexplored region.”
“Could be. But we didn’t have things like that back when we were kids, right?”
“Seems like it only started recently. What do we do, Yulg?”
“We kill it. Obviously.”

When a Vampire Goat shows up, the norm is to issue a subjugation request through the Adventurer’s Guild. It’s not something a regular person can handle. If left unchecked, it moves from livestock to humans as prey—and the damage can grow fast. But with Rolo and me here, that’s not going to happen.

“I’ve already cast Night Vision and Enhance Weapon on you.”
“Appreciate it. Alright, let’s do this like always—”
“Yeah.”

I’d take the front, Rolo the middle line. Since we didn’t have a rear guard, Rolo should have more freedom to move than usual.

“Going in!”

With that, I kicked off the ground. The Vampire Goat was about ten large strides away—meaning contact would come fast.

“MEHHHH!”

Was that surprise, or joy that prey had come right to it? Having spotted me, the Vampire Goat let out a shriek and lunged with its tongue-like blood-sucking organ.

Jumping straight to the bloodsucking, huh? Don’t underestimate me.

“Take this!”

I dodged its incoming tongue at the last second, and with a shout, brought my heavy mace down toward its head.

“Mehh…?!”

The Vampire Goat tried to leap back and avoid the blow—but too bad for it, Rolo’s magic had already caught it. The sluggish movements caused by his magic made it too slow to dodge. My steel war club connected with its head, crushing the skull and driving its neck down with a sickening crunch. Its head crumpled inward, and the Vampire Goat collapsed with a dull thud, no longer moving.

“One-hit kill. As expected of ‘Skysunder Yulg.’”
“Don’t tease me. I can fight sloppily like that only because I’ve got your support.”

The magic that slowed the Vampire Goat, Slow—Rolo’s specialty—is a low-level spell with short duration, but he says he can cast it with just a flick of his fingers. I’ve never met anyone else who can do that.

When we were in Silhasta, Rolo wielded that magic in perfect sync with the battle situation. That alone shows how much he contributed to the party. For a brute-force fighter like me, Rolo’s support spells directly translated into increased killing power.

On top of that, he cast Night Vision and Weapon Enhancement. No nighttime combat disadvantage, plus an amplified first strike. Albert used to mock Rolo as a “jack of all trades, master of none,” but honestly, his ability to use the right magic at the right time makes him more of a “jack of all trades, master of most.” If such a term existed.

“Alright, that’s one monster down. Not that it’ll count toward our Adventurer Credit since it wasn’t a formal request.”
“There’s an Adventurer’s Guild in the dairy city. Should we bring back proof of the kill, just in case?”
“Yeah, good idea.”

I used a knife to slice off the Vampire Goat’s longest spine near its neck—our proof of subjugation. Then I poured oil on the corpse and set it alight. If left there, the scent of blood might attract more monsters. On the other hand, the smell of burning monster flesh tends to drive others away. With this, we’d be sending a clear message: there’s someone near Marhas who burns monsters.

“That ought to let the villagers rest easier, huh?”
“I bet they’ll be overjoyed!”
“Alright, then… you take this back to the village.”

I handed Rolo the spine as proof of the kill, nodding toward the village lights in the distance.

“What about you, Yulg?”
“Dinner. My soup’s gonna boil over.”

Rolo let out a small sigh, then pushed my outstretched hand away and shook his head.

“Come with me, Yulg.”
“But the soup—”
“Then bring it with you. Our dinner’s about to get a lot fancier!”

Rolo smiled at me—but it was a little scary. That’s the face he made when he was pissed.

“Hey, Rolo…”
“Nope. Not letting you wiggle out of this. You’ve always been awkward like this. Everyone only ever saw your bad side—but I know how many good things there are about you.”

I turned my gaze away a little. There weren’t many people who praised me so straightforwardly like this. He really is too good of a friend for someone like me.

“Yulg… you protected the village—protected Marhas—tonight.”
“Yeah. I was useful, for once.”
“No, not like that. You chose to protect it. You decided to, and you acted on it. So come with me. Hold your head high. ‘Troublemaker Yulg’ is now ‘Skysunder Yulg.’”

Was this a lecture, or encouragement? Probably both. Man, Rolo really does take care of me.

I thought I’d be repaying the favor by leaving Silsasta and escorting him home, but in the end, he’s the one reminding me of what matters again. If this isn’t the definition of being in someone’s debt, I don’t know what is.

…Guess I’ve got no choice.

“Alright, alright. You win.”
“Good! I was this close to casting Sleep Mist and dragging you back.”
“…Please don’t.”

Not sure if he was joking or not, but I let out a bitter laugh and looked up at the sky. The starlit night looked pretty much the same as it did in Advante.

…Come to think of it, I wonder how the folks in Silhasta are doing now?