Chapter 3

Translated by AmaLynne

by AmaLynne

AN: Stories with ◆ in the title are from another perspective.

It was about the same time that Ares the Hero began his battle with Demiurge.

The three of them, Martina, Sofia, and Touka, who had left the hero party, were having lunch at a diner in【 Aqua 】, a lake town that flourishes far out in the wilderness.

With a look of resentment on his face that has yet to subside.

“Ah, geez!”

“Relax, Martina. You’re disturbing the other guests.”

“I know!”

“Then lower the volume a little. That man is no longer here. You should feel relieved.”

“Th-That’s true, but… After all, he didn’t apologize until the end. When I remembered that, I started to get angry again.”

Martina stabbed her fork roughly into the herb-roasted chicken lined up in front of her and chewed the meat with a mouth so wide open that it was hard to believe she was a girl before a knight.

To such a girl, Tohka let out a small sigh, “Hahh.”

“I don’t blame her, because I understand her anger, but I think women should eat more ladylike,” Tooka thought, looking at Martina.

“B-But then again, Ares-san is a terrible person. Even when he does something bad, he doesn’t show any sign of being sorry. I’m mad at him too.”

“Sofia… well, I don’t know how you two feel, but I’ve already broken ties with that man. There’s nothing to be gained by letting anger get the better of you. Instead, let’s just enjoy our meal here.”

“…Don’t you feel anything, Touka? You were so angry when we parted.”

“Of course, my anger towards the man still smoldered inside me. But if I let it show, it will only make me needlessly hungry. And I don’t even want to think about that man anymore.”

“…That’s true.”

After that, the anger was like a stain that had stuck to her, and it didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, but it was just too much to deal with.

Martina regained her composure and quietly resumed eating, although she was still vexed. Sofia did the same.

Touka loosened her eyes at them and let out a sigh of relief.

It would be a shame to be distracted by that scumbag for any length of time.

It’s best to just forget about it.

Yes. In fact, they are supposed to forget about Ares once and for all.

If only that man hadn’t left that thing behind…

“Hmm? Sofia, something is shining in your bag.”

“Eh? Oh, it’s true. What is it?”

“You might want to check it out.”

“O-Okay.”

This is the item bag that Sophia always carries around.

As a wise woman, she can use【 Space Storage 】¹, but there would be a gap if she had to use the magic to take out items every time she was in battle.

For this reason, she kept items such as recovery medicine in her bag so that she could retrieve them quickly.

“What is this? ………Eh?”

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Sofia?”

“Uh, err… there’s something in there that I’m not familiar with… Is this a letter?”

“A letter? Who is it from?”

“I-It doesn’t have a sender’s name on it…”

In the bag, an envelope was shining. The shape of the envelope indicated that it was probably a letter.

But Sofia had no recollection of ever having such a thing in her bag before.

She looked at Martina and Touka to see what she should do.

“Let’s open it. That’s the quickest way.”

“Umu. It might be a request form for a quest we forgot about. If that’s the case, there may be someone in trouble and you should check it out.”

“Y-Yes.”

Encouraged by their words, Sofia opened the envelope.

The bottom of the envelope contained several sheets of letter paper. It seemed that this was definitely a letter after all.

But if so, who is…

She checked the name of the sender, and what was written there was.

“Wh-What, this letter is from him!?”

At the beginning of the letter, there was a name written clearly so that I would know who the letter was from.

The name, however, was.

“Th-This is a letter from Ares-san. Here.”

“What, Ares!?”

Both Touka and Martina’s eyes widened in astonishment.

The three of them looked at each other in bewilderment as they realized that they had suddenly received a letter from a man they had just broken up with half a day ago.

But Martina was the first to snap out of her shock, lifting her eyes and twitching her nose.

“I don’t need to read a letter from that man! Just burn it. Burn it!”

“Eh? B-But…”

“Just burn it!”

“Uuu…”

Sofia was deflated by Martina’s fury.

Martina’s anger rekindled, she violently lifted the dishes and scraped the rest of the food.

Sofia, however, was pacing left and right with the letter, unsure of what to do.

Then, Touka came to her rescue.

“Don’t raise your voice so loud, Martina. Burning the letter without reading it at all is a little rude. You can at least give it a quick look over first.”

“You can read it alone. I’m not going to read it!”

As Martina sipped at the food on the table, Tooka sighed in disgust.

But what is that man going to write to her now?

Took a look at the letter behind Sofia’s back, even though she had her doubts.

Perhaps relieved by this, Sofia also joined her in reading the letter.

The letter began with the following words.

『 Hello. This is Ares, my beloved friend. How are you? 』

When they had read through a few lines, their eyes suddenly widened.

And then, when they had read it all the way through…

“―――!?”

“To-Touka-san, this… this is?”

As they read through the letter, Touka and Sofia’s expressions became confused, shocked, and pale.

When Martina saw the letter, she began to be curious about the contents of the letter, but she couldn’t ask to read it because she had said she would never read it.

However, after reading through the letter, Touka and Sofia gently held out the letterhead to Martina and told her to read it.

“What? I thought you said I don’t read.”

“Martina. Shut up and read this.”

“I-I don’t want to.”

“Ma-Martina-san, read it…”

“I don’t want to read it!”

Martina, like a spoiled child, never wanted to read the letter.

In the first place, Martina couldn’t understand why Touka and Sofia wanted her to read the letter of such an asshole.

But that didn’t mean that she didn’t care about the contents of the letter at all.

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to read Ares’ letter.

But when Martina didn’t pick up the letter, Touka finally got fed up with her.

“Just read it!”

“Hii―――?!”

She was shouting in anger that echoed throughout the cafeteria.

Martina’s body reacted with a jolt as she heard the loudest voice she had ever heard from her.

She glared at the owner of the voice with quizzical eyes, but Touka only gave her a serious look, indicating that she had no intention of backing down.

“O-Okay! I’ll read it, I’ll read it! Geez, why I’m reading his letter…”

Martina, who had been complaining but had been overwhelmed, snatched the letter from his hand and reluctantly checked the contents.

The first line of the letter was a joke, and she was tempted to tear it up and throw it away, but she pushed that urge away and read on.

As the letter progressed, Martina’s hands began to shake, and when she reached the end of the letter

“Wh-What this… what’s that, that, that… What the hell is this?!!”

Martina shouted in confusion, even louder than Touka’s angry voice from earlier.