A Side - There's Something to See (5)

A hero.

A person who could destroy any calamity and save the world. A person only talked about in fairytales.

And someone suggested creating one? To make them want to defend my town?

It was ridiculous on a number of levels.

After all, such a character did not exist.

Yet the room remained silent.

"It's infeasible."

"Impractical."

"Outrageous."

"However... it can be done," I finished the thought we all had. If we could somehow convince a person that they were a savior, then we might be able to their moral sense of justice to help defend the town. If they actually succeeded, I wouldn't mind having the entire town treat them with such a high status. It was a trick, a gray area.

But that was simply how desperate I was.

Nobody could think of a better solution, so we decided to give the hero strategy a try. The question was how would we flatter them while also guaranteeing they have some power?

After a bit of discussion, we settled on the following. I would act as a damsel in distress about to be kidnapped by criminals, played by my knight captain and two of his subordinates. The bandits would then rope in any passerby who stumbled across and challenge them to a fight. Depending on the battle, the target would either be chased off or allowed to rescue me. Then, I would have to flatter my savior into coming to Todd.

"This is completely embarrassing." Those were my true thoughts. They were asking me, a mage and a warrior, to play a meek little girl.

"But there's no one else who could fill the role."

"I know... I know..." I would have to put up with it, for the sake and continuation of Todd.

Our preparations were rather simple. We bought some secondhand clothes from one of the commoner stores and then dirtied them up with a few slices for a more worn look. My knights and I were then caked in mud to help hide our hygiene as the back alleys were not so clean compared to the rest of town. It was disgusting, yes, but necessary.

My knights wore some chainmail beneath their clothes and iron-played leather on top for protection. There were playing the part of evildoers, so they were the most likely to get hurt. We also took a mage skilled in ice and wind magic to act as a lookout for any unforeseen circumstances.

With that, it was time to put our plan into action.

And almost immediately, we were off to an abysmal start.

Originally, our plan was constructed with safety in mind, so when choosing a location for our act, we picked a place that saw less foot traffic than usual. However, that neglected that the people walking through the back alleys were already few and far between. Because of that, not a single person passed by our spot.

The next day, we moved a bit closer to the main streets, which did allow some people to see us. However, they quickly saw through our disguises, either because of the way we talked or moved. There were even a few that called me a honeytrap. Those that did found their head embedded into a wall.

Still, we continued to shore up our issues and refined our movements throughout the week.

And it was working too.

For every five days, around five in every twenty people tried to rescue the "damsel" and was strong enough to receive approval from my knights. Out of those four, two agreed to be heroes. While it wasn't enough people to sail through the oncoming storm, we were finally in the realm of possibility to pull through.

That alone brightened my mood. I felt myself lean more and more into the role, trying to raise that number. It seemed to scare my knights, but they knew well to hold their tongue.

Today was just like the others. Our first few visitors weren't strong enough to overpower the "criminals", so they were knocked out and left along the public street. Then, one girl came along who did meet the strength requirement and was willing to join our cause.

The sun had nearly reached its zenith as the mage signaled that another person was passing through. We assumed our positions, my laying on my knees, my knights surrounding me with lecherous looks.

"Now what's a pretty lady like you doing in an alleyway like this?" the knight captain began. He had mastered a kidnapper's attitude perfectly, which probably wasn't a good thing, but desperate times permitted desperate measures.

And then, I saw her.