As Lin Yun's carriage rolled into the village, he saw a huge bonfire blazing atop a pile of firewood in the village square. Beside it stood a Bard in flowing gray-and-white clothes.
He held a lute, playing and dancing as a crowd of villagers sat all around him, their faces peaceful and smiling.
It was a beautiful sight.
The carriage was too noisy, especially the wheels rattling over the ground, and its arrival interrupted the Bard's performance. Everyone's attention shifted to Lin Yun and his companions.
"Ellie." A young-looking villager hurried over first and looked toward a golden-haired girl with twin tails huddled in a corner of the carriage. But it was obvious that she had already...
At the shout from the man who might have been her young father, the villagers began recognizing their relatives, too. Most of the girls had suffered terribly. In Lin Yun's world, people might have thought them too dirty to touch, but these villagers only felt grateful that they had made it home.
Nearby, the Bard watched the villagers. It clearly wasn't the right moment for him to make an entrance, so he could only smile helplessly. He took a waterskin from his belt and tipped it into his mouth. In the firelight, though, his face began to turn red. It probably wasn't water, but wine.
Lin Yun had noticed the Bard. From behind his helmet, he studied him and found that his style was unusually distinctive. Some Bards were certainly artistic, but this fellow wore a robe more like something out of a wuxia story, and there was something oddly familiar about him. There was a good chance he was a player.
A Bard who used a sword? Bards weren't noncombatants, of course, but they usually focused on negotiation, story events, and support in battle. One who went out and hacked at people with a sword was pretty impressive.
Of course, one Bardic college was called the Bladesong Academy. Its poets were known as Blades, and they entertained audiences with weapon tricks.
Blades performed stunts such as sword swallowing, juggling, knife throwing, and mock combat. Though they used their weapons to entertain, they were also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.
Their talent with weapons led many Blades to live double lives. A Blade might use a circus as cover for evil deeds such as assassination, robbery, and extortion. Others fought evil, pursued justice, and stood against tyranny and brutality. Most troupes welcomed Blades who added their entertaining skills to the show, but few performers trusted them completely.
Blades who abandoned their lives as performers usually ran into trouble that made it impossible to keep up their secret activities. A Blade caught stealing or acting as a vigilante was too much of a liability for most troupes. They put their weapon skills and magic to use elsewhere, becoming enforcers for thieves' guilds or setting out on their own as Adventurers.
So it wasn't really strange for someone from the Bladesong Academy to fight goblins up close on his own.
Besides, on the way here, Lin Yun had already learned a little from the coachman. Since Lin Yun had warned the villagers to come down the mountain early and prepare, quite a few of the braver ones had taken up hoes, manure forks, hammers, and other makeshift weapons. Goblins were used to ganging up on others; they'd never been on the receiving end of a mob before. For a while, they'd been swept up in a sea of villagers. From one perspective, the Bard had mostly just been there to finish them off. That explained it.
Even someone from the Bladesong Academy couldn't be that amazing, after all—taking on that many goblins with nothing but level-one or level-two abilities.
Still, this fellow had made quite an entrance, and despite having a style that clashed with the world, he'd fit into it with surprising ease. He was probably at least a veteran Dungeons & Dragons player, and nothing like that Thief who'd vanished at some point and did nothing but talk big.
At least this guy had the guts to kill goblins. Even if he'd only been finishing them off, courage was courage.
The Bard seemed to notice Lin Yun watching him. He looked his way, smiled, and nodded, but didn't seem interested in talking further. He turned to leave.
Just then, the young warrior stepped forward. The Bard looked a little confused as the young man said with earnest sincerity, "Thank you so much for your help."
"Huh? Sir, what are you doing? I don't think there's anything you need to thank me for." The Bard gave the young warrior a stiff smile, clearly unsure what he meant.
"If we hadn't been so weak, those goblins wouldn't have reached the village. You helped the villagers deal with them, which also made up for our mistake. Thank you so much." The young warrior spoke earnestly again.
"This guy..." The Female Mage felt like she couldn't bear to watch. To her, that was a pretty flimsy excuse.
Even the simple-minded Goddess Priestess could only manage an awkward smile. She seemed to feel a little superior, intellectually speaking—or something like that...
As for Lin Yun, all he wanted was to use Command to make the guy get lost.
"No. I only did what I had to do for my adoptive father." Lin Yun noticed the Bard glance at him. Then the man smiled helplessly, his eyes brimming with tears that he was holding back, and spoke.
"D20+4+2=16, failed check." Lin Yun didn't notice this message. It was as if, somehow, he'd simply ignored it. But at almost the same moment, the Goddess Priestess hesitated.
"Your adoptive father?" the young warrior asked at just the right moment.
"Yes." The Bard tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle, gazing upward at the perfect angle as if to keep his tears from falling. "I was an abandoned baby. It couldn't be helped, since I was only a Half-elf. Then my adoptive father, a kind human, took me in and raised me. He was an outstanding Bard, and his performances at the theater brought in plenty of money. I grew up in fairly comfortable circumstances. But one day, my adoptive father went out to perform with his troupe. They were attacked by goblins, or so I was told, and my father died. So I decided I would wipe out every goblin in the world. Unfortunately, as you can see, I'm only a Bard. Compared with those vicious goblins, I'm just... Ah, there are simply too many of them." The Bard wiped his face with his sleeve and continued.
"Th-that's so moving, sir! If you don't mind, you could join our party. We're specifically taking on quests to wipe out goblins." Sniffling, the young warrior looked deeply moved as he spoke to the Bard. He almost seemed to think that if the Bard didn't join him, it would mean he looked down on him.
"Yes, that would be wonderful. I've already heard a little about you from the villagers. You defeated a goblin tribe of at least thirty, and they even kept wolves. You must be very high-ranking Adventurers." The Bard spoke with the wistful air of someone reciting poetry. It was a little strange, but... to someone from another world like Lin Yun, it felt that way. To the people of this world, it was called... handsome.
Lin Yun could practically see the words NEW PARTY MEMBER ACQUIRED. By then, he'd figured it out. There was no doubt that this guy was a player, and judging by what had just happened, the background he'd described was probably his actual one. Of course, there might be subtle differences. Either way, whether he'd been lying or acting, his performance had left Lin Yun unable to judge him for the moment.
Just as expected from the dirtiest class: Bards.
But had the guy mistaken the young warrior's words for some kind of game introduction? Was he really putting that much effort into the act?
Lin Yun's expression grew even more complicated behind his helmet.
"Well, we're only Porcelain-rank Adventurers for now, but I'm sure we'll be promoted by a rank after we get back this time." The young warrior scratched his head bashfully, then spoke with complete confidence.
"Is that so? That's quite impressive." The Bard smiled.
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