Yuusha no Segare

Short Story 05 – Dealing with it calmly

When Yasuo climbed down the stairs and entered the living room, he saw that Diana had a pale face and had sunken down onto the floor.

“W-What’s wrong?”

“Y-Yasuo… It’s… it’s terrible.”

“Huh?”

Yasuo looked to see what Diana was pointing at, and saw the house phone which was made of plastic, yellowed with age.

“T-The phone rang just now…”

“The phone?”

“Yes. Madoka told me that I don’t need to answer the phone, but I was standing right next to it when it rang, so I answered it without thinking.”

“Really? Was the phone call something bad?”

“Yes… Umm, what should I do…”

“Eh? Hey, Diana! What’s wrong!?”

Diana burst into tears for some reason, and Yasuo began to panic.

“H-Hideo is…”

“Dad? Did something happen to him!?”

“H-Hideo… caused a traffic accident…!”

“A traffic accident!?”

This was indeed serious.

It was a phrase you hear often, but if it happened to you, it was serious enough to turn your life upside down.

“A-And he apparently ran over the old lady after hitting her…”

“Hmm?”

“Apparently both of them are in the hospital with serious injuries, so they couldn’t talk on the phone. But the policeman said that if we act quickly, we can settle this out of court, so we should prepare the money.”

“Hang on. There are many suspicious parts in that statement. I mean, this is still a problem, but in a different way than you think.”

“Eh….?”

“Think about it. We don’t have a car. It was destroyed in that battle with the Shii a few days ago.”

“Y-Yes.”

“Also, Dad is a Hero, right? It would be weird if he got injured badly enough that he had to be admitted in a hospital and couldn’t talk on the phone.”

“Y-Yes, you’re right.”

“Moreover, the police won’t ask you to prepare money. It’s obviously an impersonating fraudster.”

“I-Impersonating… Eh? Fraudster?”

“And finally, one more thing.”

“Y-Yes…”

“Dad’s in his room right now, watching baseball on TV.”

“……Eh?”

Diana looked up at the ceiling where Yasuo was pointing with a stupid expression on her face.

“Ah… That’s right, today is that day of the week when people don’t go to work.”

“Yeah.”

“They said something about calling back later, though.”

“Seriously!? Dad! Mom! We might be in a bit of trouble!”

How seriously had Diana taken that fraudster’s call?

In any case, if the fraudster really called back later, then they had a duty as citizens to report it to the police.

Yasuo, the high schooler, didn’t hesitate for a second before relying on his parents.

“Thank you for your help. A few people had already fallen prey to this, but as it was a small organization and they demanded only small amounts of money, we were able to resolve the situation before it became serious.”

“No, it was nothing really. One of my relatives’ children just happened to pick up the phone call, that’s all.”

Three days had passed since then.

A policeman from the nearby police box whom they had become familiar with after the incident when the front door was destroyed came to the Kenzaki residence to inform them that the police were able to catch the fraudster thanks to their help.

A lot of similar calls had been made to houses in the locality and many reports had been made to the police, but the recording taken by the Kenzaki family contained the decisive evidence required to find the criminals, so the police wanted to thank them.

Madoka was properly dealing with the policeman, and as for the “relative’s child” in question,

“Humiliating… I’m so ashamed… If I had just thought about it calmly I would have immediately realized that it was strange, and yet…!”

Diana was constantly blaming herself for losing her composure in spite of being a Knight, and because of that…

“Diana-san, you’re amazing! Even though you came to a different world, you still defeated the bad guys! Awesome!”

Seeing how depressed Diana was, Nodoka tried her best to cheer her up.

“Well, I’m just glad it was resolved without any damage.”

Seeing that, Yasuo breathed a sigh of relief.

“As if I would run over someone and put them in the hospital… Seriously, saying such horrible things about me.”

And for some reason, Hideo was still angry with the fraudster’s methods.

– The End –