Chapter 18: The Hero’s Widow

‘You bastard, Griergo. You snagged a beauty early and still dared to badmouth me to Liana?!’

Once this is over, if I don’t dig up your corpse, my name isn’t Landon!

Landon swore to himself that he would find out what happened to him. At the same time, he looked up at Aisha.

She finally couldn’t resist her thirst and unscrewed the water pouch for a sip.

“You don’t have to ration it. It’s a magical tool,” Landon said. “It refills automatically after you drink.”

“Huh?”

She put her lips to it for less than a second before pulling back. Her movement froze midair.

Whispering Town had no mages. Only those heretics had magic. That was why Landon had been hailed as a city hero for killing an entire squad of heretics.

Incidentally, the guard squad also used only cold weapons.

Mages in small towns either faded into obscurity or spent money to study in the big cities.

The Western Ring City-State would write recommendation letters, sending those with money and willingness to study magic to Griffin Academy in the Imperial Capital.

If someone didn’t want to go, they could study and work under a mage in the Western Ring City-State. That was the fastest way to earn money.

Landon had been a special case. He went straight to the Western Ring City-State, then to Griffin for an in-person exam. He scored zero on the written test, but won against the instructor in combat. That was how he was admitted.

The water pouch was the prize for first place in the practical exam.

A magical water pouch that refilled itself, using spatial magic and runes to establish a link with the nearest lake.

When Landon had filled it from the creek on the other side of the collapse, he had already located and built the connection. Since arriving here, he hadn’t drunk a single mouthful of local Whispering Town water.

Neither had Helentine.

After all, she had invented this magic, so she was the pouch’s true owner.

“It only fills at a fixed time each day. It probably won’t be full until tonight. Go ahead and drink.”

Landon was worried she wouldn’t dare.

Hearing that, she raised her head again and brought the pouch to her lips. A long moment passed before she lowered it.

Not because the pouch held much water, but because she drank slowly, as if savoring fresh water. She sealed her mouth around the spout and took tiny sips, drinking for a long time.

“Thank you. I was planning to lick the water droplets as a way to hydrate…”

She let out a breath, the corners of her mouth lifting a little.

“Since you’ve drunk my water, can you tell me about Griergo?”

Landon leaned against the pillar at the end of the bench and watched her expression stiffen slightly.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really tactless?”

Aisha smiled bitterly. After drinking clean water, her body and mind had relaxed a lot. Her emotions had stabilized too.

If someone drank water smelling of rotten flesh and blood every day, how could they stay mentally stable?

To deal with the smell, they had added wild vegetables or spices to the water. But without staple food, adding only spices was strange.

Anyway, this water pouch was indeed worth her telling him about the past, even if it was painful.

“Yeah, plenty of people.”

Landon nodded. He thought of Helentine, Olivia, Liana, and all the people in the Imperial Capital who had accused him countless times of not reading the room.

When it came to being tactless, Olivia and Landon were almost evenly matched.

“But before that, can you tell me about the Griergo you remember?”

Aisha asked him instead.

Landon had no reason to hide anything in front of Griergo’s wife. But a problem soon came up.

Griergo had been a member of the guard squad like Landon, but they had been rivals. She was Griergo’s wife. Griergo was dead. Should he say something nice?

Landon fell into thought. Landon gave up thinking.

“Actually, we didn’t get along. He liked Liana back then, and Liana and I were closest. He couldn’t stand me, and I couldn’t stand him.”

Landon chose to tell the truth.

“But our biggest conflict was probably wanting to be heroes!”

He thought for a moment and added that.

He looked up at the crack in the corridor ceiling.

After the earthquake, most buildings were precarious. Only the church was relatively safe. The Goddess Church really had money, pure financial power.

“Heroes?”

Aisha leaned forward, elbows on her thighs. She was curious.

“That childish farce? Everyone wants to be a hero, everyone fantasizes about being the brave one in a story?”

Landon couldn’t even remember who had brought it up first. It was a childhood thing.

“That’s why we joined the guard squad. Especially after I became a city hero, he kept saying he could do it too, but he never got the chance.”

Once Landon started recalling the past, he couldn’t stop.

He didn’t dare say these things to Liana because she would feel hurt. He was afraid of poking at her pain. If he told Helentine, she would fall asleep and not listen at all.

Talking to the wife of his old rival was somehow easier.

As Landon talked, he accidentally let slip all of Griergo’s dirty laundry. How Griergo went mad when drunk, how he had fanatically pursued Liana, how he had even fought Landon…

By the end, Aisha was doubled over laughing, and only then did Landon realize he had said too much.

“Ah! But Griergo was still a good man!”

Landon hurried to patch things up.

“Yeah, I know.”

Aisha smiled.

“I was worried I’d hear some perfect, noble Griergo from you. That would have scared me, made me wonder if I’d married the wrong man. Good, seems I didn’t.”

Aisha leaned back as if letting go, both hands propping up on the bench, arching back as far as she could, looking at the sky.

Landon waited for her to speak.

“The Griergo I knew probably wasn’t that different from the one you knew. The only change was that he liked me more. He still met and talked with Liana, but it was mostly friendly.”

“That sounds right.”

“But when I married him, he was already the guard captain! So he was half a hero too.”

Aisha suddenly pointed that out. To Landon, it felt like she was emphasizing how impressive her husband had been.

“Ah, but if he was the guard captain, didn’t he arrange for some people to stay here and protect you?”

Landon suddenly thought of it. There wasn’t a single person here who could use a weapon, let alone a guard squad member.

Griergo wasn’t an idiot. How could he not have thought of that?

“At first there were some. Until the heretics appeared in town again,” Landon saw her grip her skirt tightly, bunching it up, “then we ran short on manpower.”

“I know my question is stupid, but if it were you, you could have at least kept Griergo here, right? If he had stayed, things might have been different here.”

Landon had spent time in the military. His instructor had told him the importance of preserving your forces.

There might be a chance to counterattack later, so staking everything on one throw was the worst strategy.

And from Aisha’s description, maybe if she had said a few more words, Griergo would have stayed to look after them. The situation here wouldn’t be so bad, and their food supply could be secured.

But no one could say for sure back then. Maybe if he hadn’t gone, there would have been no battle with the word “future” in it.

That was why Landon said his question was stupid.

As someone living after history, one could think and speculate countless times about the optimal solution. But maybe the decision back then had already been optimal. Who could say whether it was right or not?

She suddenly gave a bitter laugh, brows furrowed, eyes full of unwillingness and resentment:

“Well… when your husband is going off to be a hero and save the world, how could I be tactless?”

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