The Wrong Hero

Chapter 54 - Family

Rishia knelt on the ground. Her hands were dug into the dirt as she stared at her parents' graves. She sat there, wordless.

Dante turned to the man that brought them here. "What happened?"

The man wore a frown. "They were killed by bandits, or so they say, but..."

Dante gestured for the man to elaborate.

The man told Dante that the Ivyreds did indeed raise taxes to pay off their debt. However, when they had enough and returned the money, the neighboring lord refused to return Rishia. From what Dante gathered, it was around the time Rishia was sold off. They tried petitioning the crown, but no response came. The Ivyreds ended up taking their recently hired soldiers out with them to take back their daughter.

Not even a day later, the soldiers returned. They claimed the Ivyreds were killed by bandits on the way. After that, the soldiers brought the land under the neighboring lord's control, but kept the taxes high. Many people here thought they killed the two, and Dante had to agree, but there was no proof.

From what Dante gathered from the man and Rishia, the Ivyreds weren't well liked by their fellow nobles. As far as Dante could tell, there were no demi-human slaves here. He hated to admit it, but that was likely a factor in their lack of wealth. Slaves weren't exactly cheap, but there was no denying their use as a labor force.

Crying distracted Dante from his thoughts. It started as soft whimpers before quickly growing into loud wailing. Dante let Dio walk up to Rishia and sit next to her, the girl clinging to the filolial as she mourned.

There were concerns about leaving Rishia here before. The biggest worry was that neighboring noble learning Rishia was back and trying something with her again. In that case, all she had to do was call for him and Dante would bring whoever he was with and crush the problem at hand. He could've discussed with her parents beforehand to figure out what an appropriate response would be.

Now, though...Leaving Rishia here was even more dangerous.

The only people she could really count on here were the villagers. If their demeanor was any indication, they had no say on anything. If the guards were all on that noble's payroll—a notion Dante could easily believe—then the first one to recognize her could report it to him.

That last part was looking more and more likely. The people here were starting to take notice of Rishia, and that would soon lead to the guards coming. As much as Dante wanted to keep him being here a secret, he didn't have the heart to tell Rishia to quiet down.

Well, I don't think I could leave Rishia here, anyway. The guards figuring out I'm here will only cause problems for Rishia if she stays, so it doesn't really matter. She might have some family elsewhere, though I don't know how that'd work out.

Whatever plans Dante was coming up with were quickly dashed. Something he didn't expect to happen so soon did.

A notification popped up in his vision. Eclair was calling for him. She was back in the village, so it'd be an easy to get to her quickly, but that wasn't the problem.

What the hell could be happening there right now—her HP just dropped!

It wasn't only her. Elvira was calling for him too, and her HP took a hit as well.

"Rishia, I'm sorry about this, but we need to go." Dante looked around again. A pair of guards were approaching.

"Gweh!" Dio called out. Not having the same information as Dante, she likely wasn't pleased.

"Something's going on in the village." Dante said, coming closer to the pair. The guards were nearly there. "If you're coming, we need to go."

He wished he didn't need to bring her back. He wished she could have time to grieve properly. But, it looked like things couldn't work out that way.