Chapter 44 : Pomera’s Dream

「I recommend the general stores around this area. They sell varieties of goods geared towards adventurers. You can find varieties of goods from knives, water flasks, and recovery drugs to withered tree branches to use as torches. As for the sewing tools, Pomera owns one set herself. Even if it was only once… Pomera’s sewing skill was praised by Holy-san before after all.」

After leaving the Adventurer’s Guild, I went to shop for adventuring necessities while listening to Pomera’s explanation. Though, I did ponder over the sewing tools for a while after I heard about them from her. It seemed to be used to repair their clothes after battling monsters. Sewing tools were apparently regarded as a must-have tool since damaged clothes increased the probability of being injured during battle.

「I’ve got several restorative potions. That also includes a water bottle and my specialty, fire magic, so I don’t think we need anything pricey at the moment.」

I picked up my magic pouch and tapped on its surface as I spoke.

「I-I see, you have a magic pouch… No wonder I didn’t see your baggage. I-I lost my nerve for a moment…」

Pomera shrugged her shoulders, shrinking down as if attempting to make herself smaller.

「T-This dullhead Pomera might be nothing but a hindrance but… please be relieved, I’m an experienced guide. Roy and Holy can prove that. Please prepare spare potions too since… since Pomera might run out of mana during a crucial moment!」

… I could imagine the hardships she probably suffered from the way she mentioned Roy and co’s names. But, it seems that she didn’t hate those two despite their cruel treatment towards her.

Though I felt that something was wrong with the way she’d recommended the store, I realized that she might have been trying to make herself a little bit more useful due to how harshly her former party members used to treat her.

Seeing her current condition, I couldn’t help but feel sad for her.

「To be honest… I don’t care about something like Levels.」

「P-Pomera will pay if you need money. I… It’s useless for Pomera after all.」

「Nonono, you don’t need to pay me either! I mean, my former traveling comrades give me a lot of money, that’s why I think I won’t be troubled by money for a while.」

I say that but I have no idea about the value of the currency here and how much I exactly have… but, I think the money I received from Lovis will at least last for a while.

「I-It’s okay even if you’re not troubled with money for now… Pomera is always the one who pays for these occasions in Pomera’s previous party after all.」

Wait a minute, that definitely wasn’t “okay” at all.

「Well since I already take my money out of my pouch, please tell me the necessary items I need, Pomera!」

After a long back and forth argument, we finally settled on doing a fifty-fifty payment.

Honestly, Pomera’s excessive consideration hurt my heart.

After we were fully prepared for the goblin subjugation, we headed out to outside the city walls.

「To be honest, I don’t think that Roy and co are good people you know… I’m sorry for asking this but, do you really not hate them?」

It was obvious that Pomera had extremely low self-esteem. It was to the point that I was starting to think that I was only being nosy.

「Uhm… Pomera also vaguely realizes that but… it really can’t be helped. There’s a long conflict between the elves who live in the nearby forest and Arbourgh itself.」

「Can’t be helped you say….」

「Pomera is born between the man of this city and Elf mother. Mother used to hate the humans too, but… she noticed a fact after she met my father and they became intimate with each other, the fact that the Elves’ leader might be the one who’s been inducing the entire population in the Elves’ village to hate the humans. As a result, both of them were chased out from the village.」

「Why in the world the Elves’ leader do that?」

「… Living for too long in a human settlement will weaken an Elf’s blessing of the spirit while also weakening them. The development of a city is closely related to that. That’s what my mother had told me.」

… So the entire Elvish population was brainwashed into hating the humans, huh.

Changing deep-rooted tradition wasn’t a simple matter, so I couldn’t really say that it couldn’t be helped if her mother hated the human settlements.

「… In addition… My father had told me before that the lord of this city, Garland has excessive hatred toward the Elves. Maybe he can’t accept the fact that there’s another race settlement right in the corner of his territory. In the end, the Elves in the village choose to leave the village after years of conflict and hatred not long after Pomera was born.」

The conflict between the two races was more complicated than I’d expected.

I could only smile wryly upon hearing that.

「… Garland’s hatred might be amongst the extreme ones but, recently, I heard a rumor that someone out there has been fanning hatred against Elves in the entire kingdom to a whole new level. Pomera is so vexed. That’s why Pomera wants to change the human perception… in order for the humans and Elves to be able to get along with each other. If only Pomera was stronger, Roy-san would definitely treat Pomera as his equal. That’s why… Pomera believes that and aims to become stronger and then increase the number of Pomera’s friends. By doing that, Pomera will be able to change the deep-rooted hatred toward Elves in this city bit by bit! That’s the only thing that no one but Pomera, a half-elf can do!」

Pomera gripped her cane with determination as she declared so.

Her face suddenly flushed red and her limbs moved awkwardly as if she’d just become aware of how bold she was just a moment ago.

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「S-S-Sorry… even though this is only the first day I meet Kanata-san, I ended up telling such a bold story… Normally, no one is willing to lend their ears to listen to Pomera’s story… they… just leave Pomera while… treating Pomera like troublesome person.」

「I don’t think so… I think that’s a nice goal.」

I mean, not everyone could do what she was trying to do. She was fighting against the norm, not the individual, and did so while being one-sidedly oppressed by the other party.

Pomera might look like someone with low self-esteem, but that was the result of her sticking true to her principles without hating anyone.

I respected her for her foresight that chose to look at the bigger picture.

I think all of this was possible only because Pomera was kind-hearted by nature.

「I’ll lend my hand as much as possible then.」

In the first place, my journey wasn’t the kind that had any particular goal in mind. I just wanted to bring a lot of stories for Lunaire to tell her when I could meet her again so as to not worry her about me.

Talking with Pomera, I realized that the best way to engage with her was to talk about her goals.

I did have a goal too: to bring Nyarlhotep to the negotiation table to allow me to meet my pet cat, Kuromaru, again… but, that was a pipe dream.

That Nyarlhotep hates me for sure. I think it’ll probably end up turning into a heated argument with a higher being.

In addition… There’s no way I could go back to my original world and leave Lunaire by herself here. Though I feel bad for Kuromaru for leaving him alone, I couldn’t do anything but hope for him to live on as a stray cat somewhere in Japan.

Pomera’s eyes opened wide upon hearing my declaration of support and then, tears started to overflow from her eyes.

「S-Sorry, I’m really happy… No one’s said such kind words to Pomera before.」

Pomera wiped away her tears with her sleeves.

「… But, Pomera doesn’t think she can pay back Kanata-san’s support… nor does she have anything worthy enough for that.」

Maybe the first thing I need to do is to make her gain a little bit of confidence in herself so that way she can accept my help far more easily…

Before long, we arrived right in front of the gate.

But still… goblin extermination, huh.

Maybe it’ll be strange from a third person perspective if I could win against goblins without a hitch… I guess I’ll need to put on an act to avoid any suspicion just to make sure.