I Finished Saving the World, But Then I Picked Up a Girl With Amnesia - Chapter 16

An unfamiliar blue sky stretched above.

“…Huh? Where is this?”

The Hero wakes up.

I bolted upright, scanning my surroundings. Crap, crap, crap… Where’s Red Hair-chan? Just as the thought crossed my mind, I spotted her curled up nearby, sound asleep with a soft suuu… drooling. Cute girls are even cute when they’re drooling—what a deal. No, wait, that’s not the point right now.

“Hold on… I think…”

My sluggish brain worked overtime to piece together my memories. First, Red Hair-chan ate her fill and went to bed. Then, I drank with Knight-chan… said the wrong thing…

“Ahhh.”

Remembering it made me want to explode from self-loathing, so I shook my head. Regret wouldn’t help me now. I could apologize to Knight-chan properly the next time I saw her. No, I would apologize. Definitely.

I slapped my cheeks to reset my focus. The important thing now was figuring out why Knight-chan drugged both me and Red Hair-chan to put us to sleep.

By the way, this is about the fourth—or maybe fifth—time she’s drugged me. It’s been a while, so I totally let my guard down. My bad.

“Teleportation magic… probably.”

I looked around. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but wilderness. Sparse trees dotted the landscape, but there was no sign of a settlement or people. There weren’t even roads. The sun beat down harshly, its rays feeling much stronger than they did in the royal capital.

I quickly formed a hypothesis.

Sage-chan, being the genius she was, must have predicted an enemy attack on Red Hair-chan. Based on that prediction, she sent Red Hair-chan and me to Knight-chan, a regional lord with connections across various territories, to investigate the girl’s name. That was the primary objective. But, knowing Sage-chan, she must’ve thought ahead further than that.

To escape pursuit by enemies far more dangerous than mere bandits.

“She used an emergency teleportation circle to get us out of there.”

Man, I really owe them. They’ve probably taken care of the pursuers, too. I’ll have to thank them both properly later.

Being teleported to an entirely unfamiliar location is kind of annoying, but it can’t be helped. I opened my palm slightly to check.

The magical marker Sage-chan sneakily placed on me when I patted her head seemed to be working perfectly. With it, they should be able to track our location. I didn’t know where we were, but those two would figure something out—either contacting us within a few days or even coming to pick us up directly.

“Alright. Hey, Red Hair-chan. Wake up~.”

“Mmm… I can’t eat anymore…”

This girl is way too carefree.

—

“It’s so hot…”

“Yeah, really hot.”

After waking in an unfamiliar place, Red Hair-chan was understandably startled, but I explained the situation briefly, and we began walking. That was good and all, but no matter how far we walked, the scenery stayed the same—just endless wilderness. Red Hair-chan and I were already fed up.

“You know, it feels like we’ve been traveling a lot lately—visiting Sage-san, then Knight-chan, and all these different places…”

“Yeah.”

“But most of the time, we’ve just been teleporting around, like poof. Walking like this kind of makes it feel like a real journey.”

“Having fun?”

“I’m hungry.”

That was fast.

“Fuu…”

Red Hair-chan exhaled, using her hands as makeshift fans to cool herself down. I couldn’t help but think long hair must be a real pain in this heat.

“Let’s rest when we find some shade.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Red Hair-chan seemed to tire more quickly than I expected. Then again, her current outfit wasn’t exactly suited for walking.

Back in the royal capital, Sage-chan had gone on and on about it: “I can’t believe you’d dress a rescued girl in such plain, uninspired clothes just because she has amnesia. By the way, when I was young, the outfits you got me were awful. Truly horrible. Honestly, I wouldn’t wish your terrible taste on anyone. So don’t ever let Hero-san pick out your clothes, okay? One victim of his lack of fashion sense is more than enough.” She instructed her attendants to choose Red Hair-chan’s outfit, and I’ll admit, it was quite cute.

A simple white frilly blouse, a long black skirt, and a pale ribbon at her neck that complemented her hair. Since they didn’t know Red Hair-chan’s personal taste, they must’ve aimed for understated elegance, letting the high-quality materials shine. I understood why Knight-chan had been gushing, “So cute! So cute!”

But while this outfit worked fine for visiting people or strolling through town, it was absolutely not suited for trekking through the middle of a wilderness.

On top of that, there was… well, that.

White blouse, high temperature, sweat, intense sunlight—you get the picture. I won’t say it out loud, but yeah, that.

Suddenly, Red Hair-chan murmured quietly.

“This is my first time wearing such pretty, nice clothes… It feels like a waste to get them dirty. I feel bad for Sage-san, who prepared them for me.”

Her shoulders slumped as she spoke, her expression genuinely regretful. She looked so… well, so much like a normal girl in that moment.

“…Fuu.”

I mentally punched my swirling thoughts and banished them. Get lost, you trash.

“Ah, Hero-san, look! There are some trees over there!”

“Alright, let’s take a break. We’ll rest there and cool off.”