I Am Not the Heroine

“This kid’s name is Dokkoi.”

“………”

“………”

“………”

“………”

I declared this while holding the reins of Dokkoi in front of the gathered hero party of four.

The name of this majestic black horse is Dokkoi. The reason is simple.

Because it’s incredibly clever.

“…… Are you serious?”

I tilted my head at Rapirie’s question.

“Seriously? You mean its name is really Dokkoi?”

“Yes.”

Well, it’s smart after all.

“Our mage really can’t name things…”

“Ah, ahaha…”

What’s with these reactions?

I looked at the heroes as if I didn’t understand. Isn’t it the protagonist’s job to manage the heroines?

But even the hero avoided my gaze.

“…….. Dokkoi, you’re okay with that name, right? Huh? … Huh?”

Reluctantly, I turned to ask the party member, and Dokkoi was backing away.

It was stamping its feet and shaking its head to escape from the grasp of the reins.

“Dokkoi?”

Pfoosh!

It’s not like it’s voice-activated, but it threw a fit as soon as I said Dokkoi.

I was quite shocked by that.

Wasn’t it the kid that just moments ago was begging for help and being cute?

“Is it really that… distasteful?”

In the end, it turned its head coldly without looking into my eyes.

In the end, I had no allies in this situation.

“….. It’s not that you completely dislike it, right? Wouldn’t it be better to have more options?”

It seems I tried to speak as kindly as possible to consider me, but that didn’t ease my mood.

I slumped my shoulders and walked past the four into the inn.

I could feel some flustered vibes from behind me, but I tried to ignore them as much as possible.

Right now, I had to act sulky to the best of my ability. I was definitely not genuinely sulky.

*

“Ru, Rui.”

Ariya tried to follow the mage filled with disappointment.

“Ariya, there’s no need to go. Dokkoi was just too much…”

Rapirie grabbed Ariya and stopped her.

It was clear that, given Ariya’s kind-hearted nature, she would want to comfort the mage.

But I thought it was better to leave it alone for now.

“Yes…? That’s not it. I was just going to tell them to put that in the stable at the inn…”

“………”

Could it be that she lacked emotional insight? What would happen if you said that to a disappointed person?

If she directed that at Rui, I felt a terrible thought that she might just lock herself away in the lab until the journey was over.

“I-I’ll handle that.”

“Then, I guess it’s fine…”

With those words, the party temporarily disbanded. The hero and Serelin moved to figure out the next destination while Ariya headed to the church.

Rapirie had personal matters to attend to as well, but she picked up the reins of the black horse left behind by Rui.

‘What a really smart kid.’

The eyes of the black horse Rui brought were as sharp as any among the hero party’s other horses.

No, it might even be more than that. Plus, its black mane and coat were glossy and soft, as if they had been well cared for for a long time.

What about its personality?

It seemed to have a bit of stubbornness, but listening to Rui, it seemed to possess quite remarkable intelligence.

And combined with its clearly sturdy build… it looked like it was more than capable of being a horse for a hero party where battles often occurred.

“Come here.”

As I grabbed the reins, the black horse looked at Rapirie with an unreadable expression.

Then, it snatched the reins from Rapirie’s hand with its mouth and walked itself into the stable.

“….. Huh?”

After going through that series of events, Rapirie watched the black horse’s retreating figure with a puzzled expression.

She felt dazed and opened the door for the black horse to enter the stable.

At that moment, the four horses that were originally in the stable met the black horse.

An unknown tension spread throughout the stable.

The tension emanated not from the lone black horse, but from the horses gathered together from the hero party.

Even so, they didn’t kick up a fuss or run away just because the black horse came, which made it a notable horse indeed.

“Well then, get along, okay? Since we’ll be together from now on.”

After saying that, Rapirie closed the stable door.

I could see the black horse making its way among the herd of horses with footsteps behind it.

Finally, before Rapirie did what she needed to, she stood in front of Rui’s room at the inn.

‘Though I said that… I should at least offer a little comfort, right?’

Rui was, in a way, a creator or akin to an artist.

The magical tools she made transcended mere tools and seemed to reach the realm of art.

Therefore, Rui might even view ‘naming’ as part of the artistic process.

If that’s the case, then just now, Rui might have felt that the entire hero party denied his art.

Rapirie gently knocked on the door.

Just then, a small voice of Rui could be heard from inside.

“Blackie? Or Fluffy? No matter how I see it, Dokkoi is the best…”

“………”

She stopped.

That guy needed more time to look at himself with a colder perspective.

Rapirie left the inn, forgetting the terrible names she just heard.

Simultaneously, she prayed for the black horse in the stable, which might end up with a horrendous future.

*

“Night Lux… what do you think?”

After much deliberation, I finally voiced my last name candidate.

“It’s named because your eyes shine like the night sky.”

Then I cautiously asked the subject who would hold that name.

The kid waved one front paw in the air carefully.

“Okay… huh?”

I carefully walked over to the kid.

And when I gently placed my hand on its head, it accepted my touch unlike before.

The black horse, now to be called Night Lux, seemed to like the name.

Only then did I let out a sigh of relief and plopped down on the ground.

Nearby were piles of crumpled papers, remnants of my deliberations.

From Blackie to Fluffy, I had tried naming all sorts of things drawn from myths and creation.

But in the end, the chosen name was one that captured its traits well.

“Lux.”

The nickname I had thought of in advance seemed to please it too.

I slowly stroked Lux’s head, trying to connect with it.

Lux’s eyes, as if they held the night sky, gently closed as it leaned toward me.

From now, we would be comrades on this journey together.

When I shared the name of Lux with the hero party, they all looked relieved.

“What’s with that reaction?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“We knew you would give it a good name.”

“……..”

“Well then, shall we talk about our next journey?”

I wanted to say something, but since it was the topic at hand, I just let it pass.

“First, our next destination is the capital city Abineri Ta. But before that, we have three places to stop by.”

What the hero placed on the table were three request forms.

These were requests that had been lingering in the adventurer’s guild for a long time or required higher-ranked problem solvers.

The hero party used these to maintain and grow their skills, while also gathering additional funds apart from the imperial family’s support.

“Two of them are combat-related requests, just like we originally received. But the other one… I thought it might be more suitable for Rui.”

“Me?”

Huh. Thinking back, we had only originally accepted two requests in this place.

So, one could say a new branch occurred when I got involved.

I took the request form the hero handed me and examined it.

[We need a mage to fix the magic water mill in the village.]

A magic water mill.

Such magical devices aren’t common but are occasionally installed in certain villages.

Most of the time, they’re set up to improve the lives of the villagers, often requested by previous villagers who pooled their money to get a mage to install them.

And in this case, it could be seen as a request for repairs.

‘But isn’t this something other mages could easily do?’

[Five mages have come and gone so far, but it hasn’t been resolved. They say the spells used were from a high-ranking mage and couldn’t be interpreted…]

While it might not be a sufficient incentive, they asked for help due to significant inconvenience in drawing water right now.

“The most competent mage who came here was at the 5th circle. So, I thought you might be able to do it, Rui.”

“But if it’s a high-ranking mage, I might struggle too…?”

I might struggle too.

I almost said that but suddenly read the text in the incentive section.

[Incentive: Remains of a meteor that fell on the village, 10 gold.]

The remains of a meteor?

Meteors, in other words, are a type of meteorite.

And meteorites… are incredibly rare materials that one cannot easily obtain.

Its rarity easily surpasses that of the lucid moonflower the hero helped me get.

“I’ll do it.”

Five mages before me likely took on this quest targeting that.

But sorry. This fragment is now mine.

I’m going to make it happen.

“Then let’s head out.”

“No, we’ll set out tomorrow… And the village will be the second stop.”

“………………”

In a few days, I will make it happen.

I quietly sat back down at the table.

After that, the meeting continued a little longer until dinner time arrived.

And the next day, at long last, the days in Trasse came to an end, and a new journey began.

“Lux.”

Holding the reins of my newly added comrade, Night Lux, I called out the nickname.

Lux quietly sat where it was, waiting for me to get on.

“Wow… it’s smart.”

“Thank you.”

My praise for Lux was also a compliment to myself for choosing it.

I gratefully accepted Serelin’s compliment and gently stroked its mane.

“…… Shall we set out then?”

The hero looked at me with a strange expression. Because the usual hero was absent from behind, there was a bit of an empty feeling, I suppose.

But before I had time to notice that, the party began to move again.

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