No Longer The Hero | TBATE

Chapter 8 | Insanity and Crests

{Timeskip - One Week}

It's been a little over a week since I saved the young elf from slave traders and agreed to guide her back to her home, and if I had to describe the past week in one word I'd describe it as monotonous.

The elf, who I later learned was named Tessia, seemed to have some sort of strange fixation with trying to get closer to me, and while I had multiple guesses as to why she was doing it, that didn't mean I enjoyed it.

And while her unrelenting attempts to get closer to me were annoying, the most annoying part about her was the fact that she had almost no physical stamina, making it so that we had to spend almost half of the time we were awake, resting.

'Even if she's a child how can she be so weak?'

The bodies of people in this world were naturally stronger than the bodies of people in my old worlds, making it so that even the body of a 5 year old child could easily be as strong as the body of an early teen in my old world. So the fact that this girl couldn't even walk for more than a few hours at a time made me wonder what her parents were thinking to not only shelter her to such an extent, but to also allow her to run away without any bodyguard.

Sigh...*

'Whatever.'

As I finally broke out of my thoughts I noticed Sylvie dipping her face in front of my own with an expectant expression, as she gazed at a leather bag I was carrying with drool at the corner of her lips.

'Papa, more meat!'

Unlike myself who was just barely persevering through this trip with sheer will power, Sylvie was having the time of her life as she devoured the corpses and cores of almost all the mana beast we either encountered or had the time to hunt.

'Didn't you just eat like five minutes ago?'

Sylvie just stared at me with an expression that almost fooled me into thinking she couldn't understand me.

'Sigh... fine whatever-'

"Arthur! Arthur! We're here!"

Much to my lizard daughter's dismay as I was reaching for a small piece of uncooked meat, Tessia interrupted me with an ear piercing scream as she pointed at an interesting looking tree.

"Me and my grandfather used to come here when I was a kid!"

I just gave a hum of affirmation and stopped walking as I fed the piece of meat to Sylvie.

"Arthur? Aren't you coming?"

Seeing that I stopped Tessia turned back towards me with a questioning gaze.

"No. Since you're home now, I no longer have to guard you."

My words seemed to strangely catch her off guard as she looked at me with a panicked expression and asked.

"Wait— y-you're not coming with me?!"

I shook my head.

"No, I'm going to find my own way out of Elshire Forest."

As my words registered in her mind, tears started to gather in the corner of her eyes and she asked.

"W-why are you always t-trying t-to get r-rid of m-me?"

Although I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about I didn't have the energy to try and find out, so I just shrugged in response while explaining

"You're deadweight, and I have nothing to gain from staying with you."

Hearing my words her eyes widened in shock before she finally broke down in tears as she looked up at me with a wronged expression.

"B-b-but what abou-"