That’s Right, We’re Perverts c1

Ames Village.

It was an unremarkable village located at the borders of the kingdom of Terinadin. However, its origin could be said to be quite remarkable. A thousand years ago, it was called the World’s Origin. A hundred years ago it was called the Hero’s Hometown. Even now, this was still a place filled with legends and splendor.

Yet, if you wanted to come give this village a tour, it would not be an easy task.

Of the Towers of the Eight Sages which symbolised the Magic Society, the Tower of the Wind Sage supplied wind power to raise the tiny island which supported the village into the sky; and another tower from the Towers of the Eight Sages–the Tower of the Light Sage–utilised large-scale magic to conceal the existence of the village.

As a result, one cannot easily enter Ames Village just by relying on their curiosity for the Hero’s Hometown.

……

“That fool, Al, still hasn’t arrived yet!”

The instructor known as the Head(hair)less Horseman, Kabal, bellowed angrily.

Having to face this problem student who was practically the acc.u.mulation of a ma.s.s of annoyances, Kabal would virtually lose his voice from shouting every day.

Al Leonhart.

Nominally, he was the genius who inherited the blood of the hero; except, he was dead last within this year’s cla.s.s of swordsmen.

With a head of beautiful silver hair, from the time he was 8 years old, Al had never done anything seriously. In literature cla.s.s, Al would normally enjoy researching the breeding methods for frogs; and as for swordsmanship training, there has never been one time where he: showed up on time, didn’t leave early, didn’t goof off, and trained seriously.

Normally, Al would’ve been expelled ten times over by now, even directly throwing him off the floating island wouldn’t be excessive. But, Al, who had completely inherited the bloodline of the hero had a special persuasive power. It wasn’t only once where academy’s supervisor wanted to severely punish Al, yet…every time his mind became clear again, he would discover that Al had already settled the matter just by using that mouth of his.

Like for Kabal, just this month he considered putting Al in detention over ten times, yet he could never successfully catch him.

Just as Kabal made a resolve in his mind to severely punish Al for sure this time, the silver-haired youth known as Al sluggishly arrived at the training field.

“Al! Today is the day of the mock battle, and you actually came a whole half-an-hour late!”

Kabal’s pent-up anger exploded all out in a single breath, his hoa.r.s.e voice resonated throughout the entire training field.

“Don’t you feel that someone who possesses a broad mind would not care about something as trivial as tardiness?”

With a beaming smile on his face, Al asked disapprovingly.

Starting his sentences off with words like, “don’t you think,” and, “don’t tell me you don’t believe,” those who hear Al’s words would unwittingly agree with him.

“Eh…and what about it?”

“I believe that Instructor Kabal is a broad minded person.”

“Of course! Alright, enough nonsense. Quickly go and conduct your mock battle, your opponent is already impatient.”

In a few words, Kabal, who originally had a belly full of fire, suddenly felt that he was unable to say any more. Although his mind was vigilant, nevertheless, he was still lead along by the persuasive power in Al’s words; his train of thought was guided along by Al to say the words that Al hoped to hear.

“Okay.”

(The hero’s power sure is convenient…except, using it in this way perhaps isn’t too good.)

With their short exchange over, Al muttered to himself a little bit in his mind, and stood on top of the training field. Looking at the other end of the training field, stood a young girl with a simple black ponytail, releasing a keen intent to fight.

The young guy’s delicate and pretty appearance looked a bit familiar, he remembered her name was Delia. She was donned in a black steel body armour, and just from looking at it, one could understand its degree of solidness. This made Al feel deeply afraid.

“My opponent…all I need to do is take her down in a fight?”

“Yes, that’s the rule.”

Al looked at his opponent for several seconds.

Delia annually received the t.i.tle of the strongest swordsman, so there she was not lacking in any way as his opponent. Actually, more like if he had any naive thoughts about the other party being a woman, then the one struck down would be Al.

“Don’t blame me if you get injured.”

Al said gloomily as he took out a crossbow from the bundle that he always carried with him, and aimed it at Delia’s direction.

Dong.

Al was ruthlessly whacked on the back of his head.

“Eh???”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me! Taking out a ranged weapon in a sacred duel between swordsmen, you still have the nerve to act surprised?!”

Kabal berated angrily.

“So it turns out I’m a swordsman?!?!”

“You’re asking me?!”

Kabal started to hop about angrily on the spot, and in the process of jumping, his wig fell from his head.

“Is that so…can’t do anything about it then.”

Looking at the wooden sword pointed at herself, Delia who was on the opposite end, wrinkled her eyebrows.

“You looking down on me?”

“Hoh, obviously not.”

For unknown reasons, Al was full of confidence.

“Wait a minute, give me that wooden sword to look at.”

Kabal stretched out his hand and demanded for Al’s wooden sword.

“Ah…that, that…”

Al was twisting about with his wooden sword in hand.

Kabal didn’t wait for Al to come up with an excuse, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the wooden sword from his hands.

“What’s this red b.u.t.ton?”

Kabal asked while squinting his eyes as he gazed upon Al. Without waiting for Al’s reply, he pressed down on the b.u.t.ton.

Pew.

A beam of light shot out from the sword tip, penetrating through the bronze statue of the headmaster that was only a short distance behind Kabal.

“Tehe~”

……

As a result, Al was punched again by Kabal without restraint, who then tossed the longsword that he used himself for training over to Al.

“I’ll deal with you again after the mock battle ends!”

Leaving behind those threatening words, Kabal turned around and withdrew from the battle zone.

Al turned to face Delia, who had already set herself up into battle position long ago.

“Truth be told, I really don’t have the time to watch your clown show.”

Delia said, with no hint of politeness.

“A real coincidence, I also don’t have time to play this fighting game.”

Al, who was full of confidence, shouted back in a loud voice.

“Looks like there’s no use in talking any further.”

Al and Delia raised their swords and pointed the tip at one another at the same time, this was the signal to start the mock battle.

Accompanying an angry roar, and some incomprehensible shouting, Al and Delia charged towards the centre of the battle zone.

……

For the tightly protected Ames Village, every day was tranquil and peaceful. So, if you were to mention the most recent major event in the village, it would be the matter from 16 years ago, where there were two people born at the same time who inherited the hero’s bloodline.

Naturally, it wasn’t only one person back then that took down the Demon King.

According to the words of the wandering minstrels, the hero’s party at the time consisted of 8 people in total.

And among them, the Berserker of the Moonlit Night—Leonhart—along with the Saviour of the Holy Light—Einfrunz—settled down together in Ames Village after the conclusion of the war.

With the pa.s.sage of time, after ten generations, the two people chosen by the prophecy was the silver-haired Al Leonhart, and the golden-haired Lydia Einfrunz.

Healer Lydia.

Using the party that took down the Demon King back then as the standard, the job system that was naturally formed does not include the cleric job. Healing was distinguished as a basic magic within white magic. It’s just that Lydia isn’t able to use any other magic besides healing, and her healing was unimaginably powerful, hence everyone warmly addressed her as a healer.

One is a hero who would streak around the village naked every evening; and the other was a hero who could save someone no matter how grievous their wounds, as long as they still had a single breath in them…

Why is it that despite growing up in the same way, in practically the same environment, and even having the same age, the difference between the two heroes was so large?

This was a question that the villagers of Ames would discuss enthusiastically every day.

……

When Al opened his eyes again, he found himself in a bed that wasn’t like the one he usually slept on.

Al felt his entire body being enveloped in a warm aura. This feeling was not new to him, this was the feeling of healing being applied to one’s body.

Although Al’s entire body couldn’t move due to its stiffness, he was still able to move his eyeb.a.l.l.s left and right. From the corner of his eyes, he found Lydia who was currently applying healing magic to himself.

“Yo, long time no see, Lydia.”

Al greeting her in hearty manner that did not match at all with his current situation.

“It hasn’t been that long.”

With her head lowered, Lydia squeezed out a warm smile and replied, as she continued to maintain a tense mental state.

“I keep thinking that lately we keep meeting under these kinds of circ.u.mstances.”

Al said, as he used his freshly healed right hand to touch his head which was suffering from a splitting headache. He couldn’t remember what had happened. Why was he lying here flat on his back?  All he could remember was that not too long ago he was conducting a mock battle with Delia.

“OOOOOOOOOOH, I REMEMBER NOW! I can’t believe Delia would actually be so merciless in a mock battle.”

“Although I’m not too clear on the details, but I’m certain it was because Al-chan was being too rude.”

Lydia, who was very familiar with Al, said calmly.

Generally speaking, Al was the type of person who would treat things such as etiquette as food to eat. In fact, he possessed an exceptionally straightforward att.i.tude. No matter if the other person is a man or a woman, he would still go up and put his arms around their shoulders, and even hugging them would be frequent affairs.

Hearing Lydia’s blunt words, Al had a look of realisation on his face after reflecting on it for a moment.

“Ah, I remember now! But I mean, you can’t blame me for that. I knew that Delia was the type of fellow to take those kinds of things super seriously…so, with my pants on I’m unable to display my full strength, and that would be quite rude to Delia, don’t you think?”

Al, who had planned on liberating his lower half in the middle of the mock battle said so, matter-of-factly.

“So you took off your pants in the middle of the fight…”

This was a completely unexpected development! It’s no longer even a matter of politeness.

“I think that Al-chan shouldn’t have complaints even if he was cut up into dozens of pieces…”

“Speaking about that…my pants…”

Having said that, Al used his hand to feel around the area of his thigh; but, regrettably, the feeling of cloth was transmitted to his hands.

“While Al-chan was unconscious, I helped put it back on.”

Lydia said emotionlessly.

Sensing the feeling transmitted to his hand from the cloth, Al wrinkled his eyebrows and made an expression of incredible suffering.

“AHHHHHH…you want to kill me, right?!”

“Eh?”

“I breathe through my lower half! I’ll die if you make me wear pants!”

“No problem, Uncle Johann said this pair of pants ventilates very well.”

“… My lower half will rot without sunlight!”

“That kind of thing should just rot.”

“My…!”

Al sat up, trying to think of another excuse, but after looking at Lydia for a few seconds, he gave up.

Ever since he was born, the only one who could prevent Al’s strange behaviour was the weak little girl known as Lydia.

Rather than arguing uselessly, waiting for his body to recover back to normal and then finding a place to carry out his actions would be the correct choice.

(Occasionally putting on pants isn’t too bad.)

Al compromised in his heart, and stood up. He looked at the protective breastplate he had one and discovered that the right side of it was nearly completely blown apart. It looks like Delia really flipped out that time.

First of all,  Al was extremely good at dodging other people’s attacks. Moreover, one should know that the defensive equipment that Al has on his body was all produced from the hands of the famous blacksmith, Johann. Not to mention, the sword that Delia used was just a blunt sword used for training.

(Using that kind of blunt sword to smash apart superior defensive equipment, is that girl a monster?)

Al sighed and shook his head as he thought.

This time if he didn’t have Lydia, Al might have died for real. Not only this time, every time Al suffered a serious injury, Lydia would always be by his side diligently healing him. Unwittingly, this has become a habit up until now. That’s why, Al didn’t discover how dependent he was on Lydia.

Al looked at Lydia who was quietly sitting on the floor, looking like she could finally relax. Even for the most simple healing technique, wrestling against the grim reaper in order to save a life would probably be quite draining, physically and mentally.

“I say, Lydia.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want small gift or something?”

“…Yi?”  

Lydia stared at Al in amazement. It wasn’t to say that Al was very petty, it was just that Al was someone so dense he would even forget his own birthday. It wasn’t even New Year, why is he suddenly trying to give her a present…?

“Did you sell Uncle Johann’s blacksmithing hammer?”

“How could that happen…that baldy would sell me in return.”

“No matter how hard pressed you are for money, you can’t go and sell your organs~”

“I’m not that poor…”

“Then…then it would be fine to give me a strand of hair.”

Lydia cautiously probed.

“…I really have an income, so you can ask for something more luxuri–”  

“No,” Lydia interrupted Al’s words, “I’m not being modest with you, Al-chan. I really~have a use for it, that’s why I want your hair. I want to turn Al-chan’s hair into a specimen, and decorate it with the best picture frame at home, and then hang it by my bedside.”

Lydia had a physique where her face would turn red once she gets excited, so once she said those words, Lydia’s face turned red while her eyes sparkled.

After a short moment of silence, Lydia discovered that in the excitement of the situation, you said something she would not normally say again. As a result, she lowered her head once again.

“Although it looks like you really want it…but personally presenting my hair as a present is truly…” Al said with a perplexed look, “Is there nothing, more normal, that you want?”

“No.”

Lydia replied within a second.

“How about this, in the future when there’s a gift that you want, absolutely tell me. If it’s just one thing, I will do my best by any means to get it for you.”

“Actually, it’s not…”

“There’s no use in declining. A hero’s determination never wavers.”

Al said full of determination as he interrupted Lydia’s words.

“Fine, since Al-chan said so.”

Lydia smiled and accepted Al’s good intentions.

“But how come Al-chan suddenly wanted to give me a present?”

Lydia tilted her head and asked.

“Well, even if you ask me, I’m not sure how to answer that…without any reason I just felt like I should give something to ‘someone’, and you were just present, so the ‘someone’ became you.”

Al had a lifeless expression on his face as he said those unfathomable words.

“Oh…it’s that time again.” 

Lydia muttered in a low voice.

“Did you say something?”

“Nope~But, I’m really looking forward to Al-chan’s gift.” 

Lydia said with a radiant smile.

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