“Eat bitterness~”

‘Something seemed wrong with that logic.’ Idalec thought, “What is the purpose of a hero?”

Sato looked over at Idalec. “To save the world.”

“And what is the purpose of a coward?”

“To run away?” Sato asked with a confused expression,

“And you are?” Idalec made eye contact with Sato,

“The Hero Sato?” Sato stated the obvious,

“...”

You could practically see the gears grinding in Sato’s mind as he put together the puzzle of three pieces that Idalec had laid out for him. “I don’t get it?”

“Think about it a little more,” Idalec said, raising his hand as Prix was about to speak,

Sato made a motion for his pocket but came back empty-handed, and at one point he looked genuinely confused for a minute. “Wait-” Sato pointed at himself, “-I have to figure this out?” he added incredulously,

“Who else?” Idalec said patiently,

“I doonnn’ttt waaaant toooo.” Sato pouted, looking at the map.

“...”

“Just tell me already, Idalec. I’m not seeing it.”

“...”

Sato stood up and started pacing. “Ok, so we were going to the Elf Tree to buy an elf slave, and we voted to go there. Then Idalec asked what the purpose of a hero is, and I said it’s to save the world. Then he asked me what a coward and I said it’s someone who runs away from battle. And then he asked me who I was- why isn’t the answer the Hero Sato?” Sato kept pacing, his hand going to his chin. “You know, Idalec, if we were back in Japan, I could have just GPTed it and not had to deal with this.”

“...”

“Why are all of you not speaking? Sunya, come on, help me out here!” Sunya opened her mouth for a moment but then closed it. “I should have guessed you also can’t parse this riddle.” Sato kept passing, “Wait! Rome- and yesterday you said quod erat demonstrandum; this means that this is a Latin riddle.” Sato cupped his face in his hands, “Latin, Latin- Rome- Claudius Caesar Augustus, Claude! I can’t use Claude.” Sato lowered his hands as he kept pacing

Idalec started getting noticeably concerned as this was taking far too long for Sato to figure out.

“Heroes, I am the Hero Sato, heroes save the world-” Sato stopped. “Are you saying that we have to buy all the elf slaves to save the world?”

“No.” Idalec rasped,

“Am I close?”

“No.”

“Heroes save the world; I’m a hero.” Sato started before hitting his forehead, “OOOHHH! You're saying that I’m a hero but not saving the world by dealing with the calamity. You're a genius, Idalec- of course, since I’m just like Ayanokoji, I was able to see through your 10D chess game.”

“It’s classic modus tollens…” Idalec trailed off,

“Exactly, you must be seething that I unravel your 10D chess scheme while only using 1% of my intellect.” Sato flexed, striking a pose,

“I sure hope you only used 1% of your intellect,” Idalec said worriedly,

“I guess we can head to Rome then,” Sato said, looking down at the map,

“I’m glad you understand,” Prix said seriously as she rolled up the map and put it away into her bag,

“Anyway, let's have some breakfast before going.” Sato looked around expectantly as Luna threw away the core of the fruit she was eating.

A few well-deserved moments of silence passed. “Where’s the food?” Sato asked again, “Luna?”

“Eat bitterness~” Luna mocked him,

“How?”

Another moment of silence, which ended with Prix facepalming and Luna bursting into laughter.

“We’ll hunt something for lunch. Go pack your tent.” Idalec got up and started disassembling his tent.

“Did I do something stupid?” Sato quietly confident to Sunya as he walked towards his tent,

“Everything, master,” Sunya replied with pity.

Sato's mouth stayed closed; his stomach did most of the complaining as their party of six walked down the road,

“Hey, Prix,” Idalec said, walking beside her,

“Yes?” Prix huffed, shoulder carrying her tent

“How do you know when something is good?”

“What do you mean, Idalec?”

“How do you know if an action is good?”

Prix blinked a couple of times. “I just sort of know.”

“But you're basing it off something, right, and then extrapolating somehow.”

“I guess.”

“Does a good person do good deeds?” Idalec asked. This had been on his mind for the past sixteen years, along with his past, which had been constantly haunting him. “You did figure out what I was getting out with Sato earlier, right?” Idalec asked, feeling like he might be going crazy,

“Yes, I figured it out. I’m only embarrassed that I didn’t realize that Sato was…” Prix looked back at Sato, who was deep in thought. “... this slow.”

“Ok.” Idalec nodded. “So does a good person do good deeds?”

“Yes, they do,” Prix said tensely; she didn’t know what Idalec was getting at,

“And good deeds make a good person?”

“Yes.”

“Can a good person do bad deeds?”

“They can.”

“So where’s the flaw in my logic?” Idalec asked, looking to Prix,

Prix ran the conversation back through her head. “Good people don’t always do good deeds. They try their best.” Prix answered,

“I see-” Idalec nodded along with a smile, ‘I didn’t think about that; maybe I’m not so different from Sato, who’s unable to see the obvious.’ “Are you a good person, Prix?”

The question hung in the air, lingering in Prix’s mind as she connected the dots.

“Do you think I did something bad?” Prix asked, “Did you try to catch me being a bad person?”

“I think you're a good person. You have a spark of goodness in you which I can’t figure out.” Idalec admitted as they rounded a corner.

Up ahead there was a stopped hay cart with a man slumped against a wheel.

“This feels even more like a setup than what you did to Sato,” Prix whispered to Idalec,

Idalec let out a laugh, ‘Fate really dances to my violin.’

“Thank god there’s a cart here. I don't think my legs could take another inch.” Sato yelled out,

The man looked over at the six of them walking over without greeting them,

“Good afternoon, sir.” Prix gave the man a curtsy as they were in front of him.

“Good afternoon,” the man replied; his wagon of hay had just a bar out front without any way to attach a draft animal to it.

“Would you be our Uber driver?” Sato asked, collapsing exaggeratedly and shamelessly right in front of the tired man.

“Don’t pay him much mind,” Prix said, embarrassed,

“Ok,” the man nervously laughed, looking at everyone else. “I should get going,” the man said, standing up and dusting off his pants,

“Sir, can you give us a ride? I’m dying!” Sato said, rolling over, and to his credit, his bloodied shorts, sleeves, and whole right side did paint a convincing picture.

“Do you think you can make it to Easetan? It’s not that far from here,” the man said, bending down,

Prix gulped, “Sato is exaggerating.”

“It looks like he’s lost a lot of blood,” the man said with concern as he helped him up. “Can you help me pull? My name is Oron,” the man added as he hoisted Sato up, who had closed his eyes and was now grinning,

“Sweet,” Luna said, jumping into the hay,

“Are-” Oron said as he hoisted Sato into the hay pile, “Are you not going to help pull pussy?”

“Nope,” Luna said without a care in the world.

“Beast folk.” Oron spat as he moved towards the front bar,

“I’ll help,” Prix said, moving,

“Thank you.” Oron said approvingly, “It’s always the hardest to get started.”

“You dropped your tents again.” Idalec pointed out the two tents Sato and Prix had dropped.

“Oh, just put them in the back.” Prix waved,

Sunya quickly grabbed Sato’s and put it in the back of the wagon while Idalec dropped off his own and Prix’s tents.

“1…1,2,3!” Oron and Prix then pushed the wagon together into motion.

“Do you think the master would buy some food for us in Easetan?” Sunya whispered, holding her stomach,

“Can’t you just hunt for your own food like Luna?” Idalec asked an uncomfortable Sunya, “Not much of a hunter?” Sunya didn’t respond. “We’ll definitely get something to eat,” Idalec said as they kept walking down the road.

By mid-afternoon, the hero's party, along with Oron and his hay wagon, arrived at Easetan, a small trading outpost, with wooden walls running around the perimeter; inside there were only a handful of buildings, a quaint inn, two taverns with a small gap between them, a market square and a stable where tired beasts of burden rested.

“Thanks, Oron!” Sato jumped out from the back once they came to a stop.

“What?” Oron asked, baffled by Sato’s perfect health,