Gossip: Three Heroes ~Escape from the Kingdom ①~

Recently, Rio had been acting strange. She didn’t really listen to us at all. I didn’t like admitting this, but between the three of us, Rio was the one who was usually the most reasonable. And even so, recently she’d been at Leonard’s beck and call.

Rio was in love with Leonard, and I knew that people liked to align themselves with the people they liked, but it was still kind of strange. How should I put it, rather than it being like interacting with the person you love, it’s more like...... right, like a master and servant. I couldn’t shake that feeling.

I tried telling this to Kanon too, and it seemed that she felt the same way, but she said, “Maidens in love are just like that,” and didn’t pay it any mind. However, with what happened recently, even Kanon couldn’t just explain it away anymore.

As for what happened, it occurred while we were out on a routine monster-hunting quest in order to raise our levels. The request we’d accepted from the Adventurer’s guild was to exterminate a band of orcs that had infested a village near the capital. Our methods involved Leonard coming up with a plan, telling us about it, and then we would go out to hunt the monsters. But this time, things didn’t go as planned.

Kanon came forward a little late. In the end, we managed to exterminate the orcs, but thanks to Kanon being late, we had a little more trouble than we should have. Kanon got reprimanded by the knights and told to exercise more caution. Kanon herself knew that it was her own fault, so she accepted it honestly. Kanon even said herself, “Today was my fault. I’ll have to do better next time.” She was reflecting on it seriously.

Even so...... As soon as it became just us three — Kanon, Rio, and I — Rio started blaming Kanon. “Why didn’t you do as Leonard said?! Are you stupid, Kanon?!” Starting with those words, she threw around other words like ‘fool’ as well. Angry like a raging fire, Rio laid into Kanon with the dirtiest words she could muster.

Kanon and I were simply confused by how far she was taking it. Rio wasn’t the type to do this kind of thing. At the very least, she wouldn’t berate her friends like this. Thanks to that, Kanon finally recognized that Rio was being weird.

When Kanon and I discussed why that happened, we couldn’t think of any standout reason.

“I feel like it’s got to be the stress.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. We did just get thrown here straight from modern Japan, after all.”

“But, if that’s the case then we’re the same......”

“Yeah. For just Rio to become like that......”

The idea that the stress was the biggest reason for her behavior came up and was the best one we had, but neither of us were really convinced by that......

In the end, neither of us could come up with a compelling reason and we spent our days in worry.

It was at that time. I ended up hearing the knights talking.

“Rio’s turning out well.”

“Yes. She’s loyal to what I say.”

“It might be about time for us to put the Dominance Bracelet on either Kaito or Kanon now.”

“If that’s the case I’ll put it on Kanon first. I want to hurry up and finish this annoying job after all. As long as I get this on her, she’s all mine. After all, the only ones who can take these things off are us, the masters.”

“Then next will be Kanon. And lastly......”

“Kaito, right? If I can put the bracelet on Kaito I can get promoted too. I’ll definitely get it done.”

I hid my breathing and listened in on Leonard, Aaron, and Louise’s conversation. When the three of them finally left, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

A ‘Dominance Bracelet’? From that name, it probably forces the wearer to comply to orders like a slave, right? And they put that kind of thing on Rio? I finally realized what this country was up to.

They were trying to use us up like slaves.

I immediately talked about it with Kanon. At first, she didn’t believe me, but she finally did after appraising Rio’s bracelet.

When I tried using Appraisal on the bracelet, it read:

【Dominance Bracelet】

It was the same whether Kanon or I appraised it. It was probably because our levels were still low, but we were only able to read the name. But nothing good could come out of anything named something like a ‘Dominance Bracelet’.

“At any rate, we need to leave this country as soon as possible.”

“I think so too, but what about Rio? From what you said, Kaito, only the master can take it off, right? The master must be Leonard. And he’ll probably never take that off......”

“You’re right...... Anyway, we’ll just have to think of a solution. But there might not be enough time.”

“Because Aaron wants to put one of those on me, too, right?”

“Yeah. If the situation ever goes that way, just put it off however you can. But I think it’ll only work once. It’s them we’re talking about, so if you have to do it two or three times, they’ll probably figure out that we know about the bracelets. If it comes to that, they’ll try to immediately put it on us by force.”

“Yes, you’re probably right. If he ever tries to put the bracelet on me, I’ll do whatever I can to put it off......”

A few days after that conversation, Aaron made an approach just like we were watching out for. Kanon somehow managed to get him to back off, but it seemed like there wouldn’t be a next time.

“Kanon, this is going to be pretty harsh, but please think of just running away with me and leaving Rio behind.”

As for Rio’s situation, no solution came to mind in the end. While feeling guilty and sorry for Rio, I could only figure out a way to run away — just Kanon and I, leaving Rio behind, since we were the only ones with free will. Kanon must also have not come up with anything regarding Rio, as she only quietly replied, “Got it...”

With little time to spare, Kanon and I started discussing where to go even if we did leave the country. We did things like sneak into the library to look at maps, and after gathering as much information as we could, we figured that the neighboring country of Marveil was probably the best place to go.

In reality I wanted to head for the kingdom of Erman or Leonhardt, but both of those were too far. We were said to be heroes, but we weren’t stupid enough to think that made us invincible. We knew that there were people and monsters that were stronger than we were. Assuming that we headed for either the Kingdom of Erman or Leonhardt, it would all be over if we encountered a strong monster on the way.

And even if we headed for Erman or Leonhardt from the kingdom of Reijseger, any country on the way would be too close to here. When I thought of being caught on the way there and being made to go back, or being caught up to by people chasing us, we ended up deciding that it would be best to first head to a country where Reijseger couldn’t reach. Since that was the case, the neighboring kingdom of Marveil would be the fastest.

Right now, the kingdoms of Reijseger and Marveil were close to war. The opening of hostilities was only a matter of time. And in that state, there was no way Marveil would ever help Reijseger. Even if it was found out that we were heroes, they probably wouldn’t return us to Reijseger anyway.

At any rate, we decided to look for an opportunity to leave, and then head for the kingdom of Marveil. So we would be able to run at any time, we started to stockpile food and clothing. The only regret was that we’d be leaving Rio behind.