《Mushoku Tensei (LN)》 Volume 7 - Prologue A forest spread before them. Three carriages cut through the lone road crossing through the forest, driving past at great speed. ¡°The Dragon¡¯s Beard.¡± That was the name of this forest that was situated between the northern border of Asura Kingdom and ¡°The Red Dragon¡¯s Upper Jaw¡±. The Red Dragon¡¯s Upper Jaw is the counterpart to the valley that runs through the southern border of Asura Kingdom ¡ª ¡°The Red Dragon¡¯s Lower Jaw.¡± While the Lower Jaw is at the edge of the southern border, between the northern border and the Upper Jaw lies a forest. The reason for that is due to the great number of demons that reside within it. Long ago, the kingdom built a massive wall encompassing the southern edge of the forest, and in doing so closed off the demons from attacking their border. This allowed them to greatly reduce the amount the country needed to spend on demon subjugation. Thanks to that, the forest is now rife with demons, wanted criminals fleeing the country, and the like. For that reason, there were few that would choose to travel through here. Though few, such travelers still did exist. Trading merchants and those on urgent business from Asura to the north came through from time to time. The man leading the three carriages rushing through was one such merchant. He was an up and coming merchant who had rapidly risen to prominence within the past year and just recently entered the Merchant¡¯s Guild. A man by the name of Blune. Blune was carrying two carriage¡¯s worth of goods north from Asura Kingdom. Their value was such that if the worst were to happen, he would incur losses so huge that he may as well hang himself. The worst being¡­ attacked by demons or bandits, thus losing his merchandise. Back when he had just been a small time, but willful and proud, peddler he was able to count on his own sword skills to guard himself and his wares. However, now that he had risen in the world, the amount he stood to lose, and the danger involved, both increased. No longer could he count on his sword skills alone to protect his livelihood. But as the danger increased, so too did his budget. He could now afford to hire guards for his caravan. Riding in the last carriage were the adventurer guards he hired, along with three other travelers. The adventurer guards were a B-rank party of five called ¡°Counter Arrow¡± who were based in Asura. Of the three travelers, two were swordsmen on a journey to hone their skills, while the last was a gloomy looking magician boy clad in a grey robe. The three travelers were not guards, but Blune assumed that if his caravan were to be attacked they would be in danger too, and so would help fight to protect themselves at least, if nothing else. By the way, the gloomy magician¡­? He was a boy named Rudeus Greyrat. Swaying slightly with the shaking of the carriage, he gazed at the sky with a blank expression on his face. Slumped against the back of the carriage, he stared on with empty, lifeless eyes and a mouth half open. His heart was empty. Truly, and completely, empty. There was nothing for him. [Empty. That¡¯s all I feel. Why am I even alive right now? Is there any point in me being alive right now? I honestly don¡¯t know. All I know is that right now, I¡¯m filled with nothing but emptiness. Zero. That¡¯s all I am. My heart is as empty as space itself.] It felt as if his heart was shouting those words to the world, that was how depressed he seemed. ¡°Haaaah¡­¡± He breathed a listless sigh. Because of him alone, the entire carriage was filled with a dark atmosphere. ¡°Hey, you. You¡¯ve been sighing a whole lot. What¡¯s wrong?¡± A woman sitting in the carriage called out to the boy. She was dark skinned with dreadlocks, and a member of the B-rank adventurer party, Counter Arrow. Outfitted in a breastplate and gauntlets, her equipment was rather light. Still, it was too much for a swordsman, meaning she was probably a warrior. In response to her words, the boy slowly raised his head¡­ and smiled. The female warrior was taken aback. The boy himself may have thought that that smile was a pleasant one, but in truth, it was devoid of any human warmth. A smile that could be seen carved on a wax doll. ¡°Was I really sighing that much? Sorry about that. But don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing.¡± His voice was cheerful, but his eyes were still empty. His face still gloomy, at complete odds with his voice. ¡°Oh yeah, why are you traveling north?¡± The female warrior did not give up. She had expected to be ignored, but at the very least, he responded. ¡°Huh? Why? What do you mean why?¡± ¡°From the looks of it you¡¯re a magician but¡­ You¡¯re still a kid, right? Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a bit too early for you to start adventuring right out of magic school?¡± That boy with empty eyes looked to be very young. 12, maybe 13 at most. Still just a child really. After being pestered with all these questions that boy, with such a youthful face, twisted his lips to reveal a crooked smile. ¡°Umm, there¡¯s no real need for me to answer that is there?¡± Said the boy, trying to end the conversation. He did not want to talk to anyone. He was depressed, simply waiting for the carriage to finally reach its destination. Normally such rude, blunt words would offend a person. That being said, there was also an implicit understanding among travelers not to pry too deeply into each other¡¯s affairs. Normally if someone cut the conversation abruptly like that, you would shrug your shoulders and give up. The dreadlocked woman was about to do just that. ¡°Suzanne¡¯s just trying to be nice! What¡¯s with that attitude!?¡± But the girl sitting next to the dreadlocked woman would not stand for it. She asked Rudeus thusly, in an indignant voice. With blonde hair and a confident expression on her face, she was dressed lightly, much like a swordsman. Strapped on her back was not a sword, but a bow. She looked to be about 15 years old, a bit older than the boy. It was apparent that she was not aware of that implicit understanding between travelers. The boy turned his head to face the girl who had yelled at him so suddenly. He stared at her for a moment, then turned away with a tired look on his face. ¡°Now, now, Sara. It¡¯s not like he¡¯s trying to pick a fight with us. He¡¯s just a bit blunt.¡± ¡°But Suzanne, haven¡¯t you been worrying about him since yesterday? Going on and on about how he seemed to be depressed about something. Even though you tried to talk to him he just¡ª¡± Looks like the dreadlocked woman was called Suzanne, and the other Sara. Though the boy had turned his face away, he continued to steal glances in their direction every few moments. It seemed he was at least a little curious about those two. His smile had vanished, replaced with a dark expression; it was impossible to guess what he was thinking. After a few seconds he finally spoke, in that same falsely cheerful voice that would only make one worry. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going north to search for my mother who went missing in the Fittoa region metastasis incident.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± ¡°The Fittoa Region¡­¡± After hearing that the two both had an apologetic expression. The Fittoa Region metastasis incident. It was a dreadful, shocking accident for the people living in Asura at the time. While they were not from that area, upon hearing of the Fittoa Region¡¯s disappearance, they did their best to aid the restoration efforts as adventurers. They had chanced upon many refugees in their adventuring travels. Looking back at him, you could tell the boy¡¯s face was just like those refugees. The despairing face of someone who had lost their friends, family, and home. She should not have asked. Suzanne did not say it, but her face clearly conveyed those words. ¡°Still¡ª What gives you the right to act like that?¡± Sara was still displeased. The boy did not seem to mind however. He went silent and turned away again. The atmosphere in the carriage got even gloomier. The other two traveling swordsmen stirred slightly, feeling awkward. ¡°How do you even plan to search for her? The Northern Frontier is huge.¡± Suzanne continued her questioning. She knew she was being nosy, but she really could not stand the dark atmosphere they were traveling in. The boy made a face that said ¡°She¡¯s still going?¡± and turned around again, once more making that empty smile. ¡°Well¡­ I guess I¡¯ll just figure it out as I go along.¡± ¡°Do you have a destination in mind? Some kind of information about the whereabouts of your friends or family? It¡¯s dangerous to travel alone, you know.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± It was then that the boy finally realized something. She would not stop trying to talk to him. Honestly, he did not really want to keep talking. If he tried to cut off the conversation like before, he would just get yelled at by the other girl. He had not noticed it before. ¡°In that case, would you like me to teach you about the Northern Frontier? It¡¯s better than knowing nothing at all about it, right?¡± ¡°Haaah¡­ Well, alright. I guess.¡± After a brief silence, he finally replied. But his face showed that he did not care about actually learning more. It was apparent from his expression that he thought that continuing to answer questions would be a pain, so he would rather just have her talk about whatever for some time. ¡°Alright. Clean out your ears and listen well.¡± Suzanne decided that was good enough for now and began to talk. The Northern Frontier. As the name suggests, it refers to the area covering the northern section of the Central Continent. Most of the Northern Frontier was a desolate wasteland. Not as bad as the Demon Continent, but it was buried in snow for a third of the year, resulting in the crop yield being quite low. Most countries were poor and the people were always raiding each other in a fight over the scarce resources available. Not only were there many demons roaming around, but they were quite a bit stronger than those you would find in Asura. It is for that reason that many wandering swordsmen and experienced adventurers find their way here. However, this does not bring the respective countries of these regions any real revenue. But even in this harsh land there are a few countries that have managed to prosper. Commonly known as ¡°The Three Magic Countries¡±. The one most advanced in magic education, the Kingdom of Ranoa. The one most advanced in the development of magic items, the Kingdom of Neris. The one most advanced in the research of magic, the Kingdom of Basherant. Together they are joined in an alliance and cooperate to further the advancement of magic. It is through the power of magic that they have managed to prosper in the Northern Frontier. Suzanne¡¯s party had found it difficult to find work in Asura once they had advanced all the way to B-rank. They planned to move to one of the three magic countries and continue their adventuring there. This was also Rudeus Greyrat¡¯s destination, but he had yet to choose a particular country out of the three. Volume 7 - CH 1 Rozenburg. The second largest city within the Basherant Dukedom. At about two months travel time from the northern border of Asura, it marked the entrance to the Northern Frontier. The significance of that position made it one of the most important cities in Basherant. Over half of Basherant¡¯s revenue was generated by the exportation of magic tools from Rozenburg to Asura. ¡°So we¡¯re finally here.¡± I survey my surroundings as I step off the carriage. Merchants and adventurers can be seen milling about under the cloudy sky. The caravan I came in had been carrying a large quantity of valuable goods. Apparently, exotic goods all the way from Asura fetch a high price here. ¡°It¡¯s cold¡­¡± Many are wearing an assortment of thick clothing, likely due to the autumn chill. Supposedly it snows heavily and gets quite cold here during the winter, so I should get some winter wear soon. Now is probably as good a time as any to get some. But before that, I need to find a place to stay. It¡¯s not like I have much luggage, but every adventurer knows that it¡¯s better to start working after you¡¯ve established some kind of home base. With all that in mind, I set off. Surprisingly, there aren¡¯t many outdoor stalls around here. Perhaps the caravan entered the town from a different entrance than the one adventurers usually use. Actually¡­ Wait. It¡¯s almost night out. Considering how cold it gets here, most shopkeepers probably close up before it gets too late. Before I knew it, I arrived at the Inn District. While confirming the prices written on the signboards, I pick one that looks suitable and enter. According to the sign out front, it was an inn that mostly caters to B-rank adventurers named, ¡°The Round Shield¡±. What crappy naming sense. On top of that, there was a picture of a buckler on the sign. This place could easily be mistaken for an armor shop. Personally, I would¡¯ve been fine with a C, or even a D-ranked inn. According to Suzanne though, the cheaper inns do not have proper heating so you¡¯re more likely to freeze to death there than anything else. That¡¯s why if you¡¯re going to stay at an inn, it has to be at least B-class or better. To be honest, I didn¡¯t really pay attention to that warrior¡¯s lecture, but I did learn a few things of value. Information is important after all. ¡°Hm?¡± As I enter the inn a man, who appeared to be the innkeeper, was in the middle of cleaning. The moment he saw me, he scowled. His expression clearly full of animosity. What a rude fellow. ¡°I¡¯d like to rent a room for¡­ ¡¯bout a month.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Sign here. Put your thumbprint here. Once you¡¯re done with that the furthest room in on the third floor is yours.¡± His tone was as rude as his expression, but at least he prepared the room and paperwork right away. I quickly finished signing the form and paid him for the room. Seems like Asuran currency still works here. At some point I may end up having to exchange my money, but for now it seems to be fine. According to that warrior woman, Asuran coins are highly valued even as far out as Rozenburg. The innkeeper¡¯s eyes went wide the moment he saw the Asuran Silver Coins I¡¯d put on the counter for payment. Even if he doesn¡¯t like someone, so long as they¡¯re willing to pay, he¡¯s satisfied, huh? I still had almost all of the money I¡¯d managed to make on my way to Asura from the Demon Continent. All this money was meant to be split between the three of us, but I ended up holding on to most of it. Plus, I also had some money I got from Alphonse back for helping out at the Fittoa Refugee Camp. Lodging fees for a month weren¡¯t exactly what you¡¯d call cheap, but I had more than enough left over. Still, I¡¯d need to earn some more eventually otherwise I¡¯ll run out. While continuing to worry about my finances, I head to the third floor and enter my room. ¡°Hmm.¡± Inside the room was a bed, a closet, a table, and a chair. The only thing special was the fact that it was made out of brick¨Cwhich you don¡¯t see often¨Cand had a huge fireplace. Next to the fireplace was some kindling and a flint. I guess you¡¯re just supposed to light it yourself if you get cold. I¡¯m not quite sure how to operate the fireplace, but I can ask the innkeeper later. ¡°Haaah¡­¡± With a huge sigh, I throw down my luggage and plop down onto the bed. As I lean back I catch a glimpse of the pure white sky outside. I guess the constant cloudy weather is just an inherent trait of snowy countries. The skies were always a pure blue back in Asura. Without even a hint of clouds, an endless expanse of blue. I¡¯ve been traveling under that kind of sky for as long as I can remember. Yeah¡­ Blue really is a pretty color. The complete opposite of me. ¡°Ah¡­!¡± Let¡¯s not think about that. Let¡¯s not think about colors. What¡¯s under the sky is more important. I get up off my bed and peer out the window. To my surprise there¡¯s quite a bit of green. I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s due to being on the third floor, or because this is a slightly more expensive inn, but I have a completely unobstructed view of the town outside. Countless trees dot the landscape of Basherant. Supposedly they were planted so that they could be harvested for firewood if the need arose. But because of how neatly they¡¯re all planted it looks as if the whole country is overflowing with greenery. Speaking of which, that forest we passed through after leaving Asura was pretty nice too. That place was filled with huge, leafy trees that rustled when the wind blew. Forests are nice. Nature is nice. Looking at nature lets you forget about all of your worldly worries. Just traveling through a forest is enough to cleanse your heart. ¡°Eris¡­¡± The moment I muttered that word, I became depressed once more. No matter how much you purify a broken heart, it still won¡¯t heal. Eris¡¯ departure really came as a huge shock to me. I thought I¡¯d really connected with Eris. I thought we both loved each other. I thought I¡¯d be able to continue to support Eris¨Cwho¡¯d lost her parents¨Cand live together with her in Asura. I had been willing to take on that responsibility. Call me self-serving if you want, but she¡¯d been the first person I¡¯d slept with. The first girl I¡¯d truly loved. I¡¯d been prepared to love her to the very end. Even if the Greyrat house was a noble house, no matter what would come after, I¡¯d been prepared to protect her forever. Whether it was by fighting or by running away¡­ But that¡¯s not how she saw it. I wasn¡¯t anyone special to her. [Sniff.] I sniffle a little. Alright, let¡¯s stop with the depressing talk. It¡¯s been months since Eris left. How long do I have to dwell on it before I¡¯m satisfied? Eris left by herself. She no longer needs me. We¡¯ve gone our separate ways, and we both have our own goals. Our respective paths leading onwards. Isn¡¯t that good enough? In the end, all it means is that¡¯s all I amounted to. I wasn¡¯t able to become someone special to another. Rather than bemoan my misfortune, I should be glad I got to do it once at all. More importantly, there¡¯s a reason why I came here. My goal takes priority. Of course, that goal is finding my mother, Zenith Greyrat. This isn¡¯t some sentimental journey to heal my heartbreak. Not in the least. I didn¡¯t leave Asura to avoid a certain girl¡¯s face from constantly popping into my head. I left because I have to find the last missing member of my family. After all, I promised my father that I would. That being said¡­ I don¡¯t really have a plan in mind. I have no idea how to even start searching for her, let alone find her. ¡°Haaah¡­¡± All that ever comes out of my mouth these days are sighs. I still can¡¯t forget what happened that day. Just why did she leave after she so happily spent that night with me¡­? ¡°No, no. I need to stop thinking about this.¡± Let¡¯s forget about that for now and start thinking of how to find my mother. My brain doesn¡¯t really want to work properly, but I need to make it do so. Alright, let¡¯s start by narrowing down the possibilities. Quite a bit of time has passed since the metastasis incident so it¡¯s unlikely Zenith is anywhere a lot of people pass through. This town is pretty big so it¡¯s still possible that she¡¯s here. But if Zenith really is here, someone else should have found her by now. Scouring more densely populated areas might yield some results. There¡¯s no reason for her to go somewhere devoid of people after all. Even if she has managed to land herself in a place where search parties couldn¡¯t find her, to investigate such places I¡¯d still need to get information. Information from somewhere where there¡¯s a lot of people. So, basically, I need to start my search from a populated location, but I also need to expand my search net once I get more information. Specifically, I need to find those places where search parties haven¡¯t been able to investigate yet. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible for me to search everywhere like this by myself. What to do¡­ ¡°Ideally, it¡¯d be best if she was able to find me.¡± I roll around on my bed as I ponder this. It doesn¡¯t seem like that bad a plan after saying it out loud. Finding one person among everyone in this huge world is practically impossible. For example, finding one left-handed person among 10,000 people just isn¡¯t feasible. If there was some kind of way to get a report from those 10,000 people then it¡¯d be a different story. If you were able to ask ¡°Would those people who are left-handed please raise their hand?¡± you could pick them out easily. So¡­ If I¡¯m able to make myself famous enough, it¡¯s quite possible Zenith would hear of me and come find me of her own accord. Considering she still hasn¡¯t been found after this long, it¡¯s also quite possible she¡¯s run into some kind of trouble¨Cmuch like Lilia. Even so, as long as I make my name well known, someone¡¯s bound to try and make contact. That¡¯s gotta be it. I¡¯ll get famous and have Zenith find me. ¡°But how exactly am I going to make myself famous¡­?¡± I need to make my name as well known as possible. But¡­ How!? I could try and do the same thing I did with Rujierd and Dead End, doing good deeds in his name to increase his popularity and make people realize he¡¯s actually a good person. I didn¡¯t really get to see how effective it all was in the end, but I do know it at least had some effect back in the Demon Continent. I guess if I did something similar where I try and promote my name as an adventurer I¡¯ll eventually manage to become famous. Unlike Rujierd, I¡¯m not afflicted by a curse that makes me hated. If I just go on as usual, I¡¯ll naturally become famous. A magician by the name of Rudeus searching for his mother Zenith who had vanished in the Fittoa Region metastasis incident. Using every tactic at my disposal, I¡¯ll make sure the world knows that such a boy is working around here. Even if Zenith herself can¡¯t, whoever it is that knows about Zenith will at least eventually come to contact me. It could get a little troublesome if they want a ransom or something, but I wouldn¡¯t mind paying out. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to do this though¡­¡± Running around by myself under this cold sky, promoting my name. There¡¯s no guarantee that Zenith will find me even if I do manage to make a name for myself. If anything, the chances of her finding me are pretty slim. If the Fittoa Region search party¨Cwhich is a pretty huge organization in and of itself now¨Cwasn¡¯t able to find her, the chances of her not finding out about me are even higher. I¡¯m certain there¡¯s also a lot of people smarter than me in that search group. Far better than me at collecting and disseminating information. Those people had the means, the will, and the ability to do so much and even they couldn¡¯t find her. Is there even any point in me trying then? I¡¯m not very good this kind of thing. There isn¡¯t much of a point is there? There¡¯s no way I can find her. Everything I¡¯m doing is just useless isn¡¯t it? ¡°¡­¡­¡± The very thought of it makes me want to sigh, but I can¡¯t think of any other ideas, nor can I to keep dawdling either. All I can do is try out every idea I come up with, one-by-one. It¡¯s quite possible that while I¡¯m doing this I might chance upon another idea and then a new set of options will appear before me. ¡°For now let¡¯s just sleep.¡± I decide to stop thinking there for the night and close my eyes. I thought I¡¯d gotten used to traveling, but the fatigue from that long carriage ride finally caught up to my body and I fall asleep instantly. I wake up the next day and head towards the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. For whatever reason, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild here isn¡¯t anywhere near the entrance to the city or the Inn District. I don¡¯t know why that¡¯s the case, but I also don¡¯t really care. ¡°Ugh.¡± As I open the ornate double doors and enter the guild, numerous gazes fall upon me. It feels as if their glares are piercing right through my very being. I guess I¡¯m still not used to being stared at. I had started to get used to it a little bit traveling through the Central Continent, but there were also other people with me back then. Rujierd and Eris were both¡ª Let¡¯s not think about that. ¡°Hey look, it¡¯s a kid.¡± ¡°A newbie, huh?¡± ¡°I bet he just came to play around.¡± The adventurers inside laugh scornfully at me. They¡¯re not harassing me outright, but it¡¯s still not pleasant to hear. Before, I was able to just ignore such insults, but for some reason they really hurt right now. ¡®Course, it¡¯s not really surprising that I stand out so much, considering a 12-13 year old boy just waltzed into the guild. I¡¯d better learn to get used to it quickly though. Once I¡¯m famous I¡¯ll have to face a lot more of these painful gazes. At any rate, there¡¯s some things I need to handle before taking requests. With heavy steps I walk up to the reception counter. The lady there wasn¡¯t exceptionally pretty, but she was still wearing clothes that revealed her big bust. I swear, there has to be some kind of rule that only busty women can be receptionists in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. I show her my Adventurer¡¯s Card. ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯d like to¡­ disband my party.¡± My party¡­ The words ¡°Dead End¡± were still carved into the very bottom part of my card. Dead End. The party I¡¯d made together with Rujierd and Eris. No one from that party remains anymore. It¡¯s just an empty name now, so it¡¯s only proper that I disband it. Yeah, it¡¯s all gone now¡­ All gone. [Sniff¡­] Tears start running down my face, and I unconsciously sniffle. I tried my best not to cry, but I ended up crying anyway. Rujierd and Eris aren¡¯t by my side anymore. When that harsh truth is thrust before me I can¡¯t help but cry. ¡°Understood. Please wait a moment.¡± Seeing my teary expression, the receptionist began the disbandment process with a sympathetic face. I just come in here, ask to disband a party, and suddenly burst into tears. She¡¯s probably disgusted with me. ¡°Here you go.¡± ¡°Thank you¡­¡± I wipe my tears away with my sleeve and take my card back. The words Dead End have vanished from it now. Whenever Rujierd and Eris update their Adventurer Cards they¡¯ll see that it¡¯s been disbanded. I wonder what they¡¯ll think of it. Rujierd will be disappointed I¡¯m sure. But Eris¡ª No. No¡­ I can¡¯t think about that. It¡¯s all in the past now. ¡°¡­¡­¡± When I turn back around I notice everyone¡¯s staring at me. Is seeing a crying kid really that rare? Come on, they¡¯re all over the place. ¡°Hey, you think he¡¯s crying because¡ª¡± ¡°You think they all got wiped out?¡± ¡°Poor kid, he was the only one to survive¡­¡± Oh. They¡¯re pitying me. They think that my party was annihilated and I¡¯m the only one who made it out alive. Not a single one of them is thinking I¡¯m crying because I got dumped by a girl. Man, I¡¯m pathetic. Honestly, I¡¯d at least have a reason to cry if they¡¯d all been killed. Not that I¡¯d ever want them to die of course. ¡°¡­¡­¡± I silently walk over to the request board. There are a lot of requests pinned up. Not as many as I saw back on the Demon Continent, but way more than I ever saw in Asura. Looks like adventurers are in high demand around here. Most of the requests are C or B-rank though. Almost all the requests were low ranked back in Asura. That¡¯s why most adventurers out there eventually have to move out if they continue to raise their rank, usually either south to the Dragon Kingdom, or north to the Three Magic Countries. ¡°Alright, which one should I do¡­¡± I¡¯m A-rank right now. According to the guild¡¯s laws I can only take requests within one rank of my own. From the looks of it, there are no S-rank requests right now so I¡¯m limited to only A or B-ranked stuff. Fortunately, there¡¯s quite a lot of A and B-ranked requests here. I didn¡¯t expect to see this many in the Central Continent. Just means that the Northern Frontier is that harsh, I suppose. [A: Eliminate the den of Raster Grizzlies that have taken up residence near Kukuru Lake.] [B: Work as a guard for the large scale logging project in Hadra Forest.] [B: Work as a guard for the merchant caravan heading to Neris.] Hmm¡­ Well I guess any one of them will work. I peel off the very first request I saw, the A-rank one. Raster Grizzly elimination. Judging from the name I¡¯d guess they¡¯re some kind of bear, but I don¡¯t know. Whatever. It¡¯s too much of a pain to gather information on these demons. I take the request back to the receptionist. ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯d like to take this request.¡± I hand over the request paper and my Adventurer Card. ¡°Huh?¡± The receptionist has a bit of a confused look on her face. She¡¯s probably wondering why a guy who just disbanded his party wants to take on a party quest. ¡°Umm, even if you are an A-rank, to try and take this on by yourself¡­ I mean, this request was designed to be handled by a party.¡± ¡°Yeah. I know.¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I can¡¯t let you take it on.¡± Well, it is a request to eliminate an entire den of demons. Normally you wouldn¡¯t go it alone, but that¡¯s just perfect for me. If I want to get famous I¡¯ll need to do some pretty reckless things. Of course, there¡¯s danger associated with this path but¡­ Whatever. There¡¯s nothing fun about living anyway. Despite my best efforts, I lost everything in the end. Everyone left me. All I had left were painful memories. I¡¯m certain that¡¯s all that awaits me in the future as well. If that¡¯s all there is to life, then what does it matter if I die? ¡°Ah¡ª!¡± The moment that thought crossed my mind my chest started to ache. Unconsciously, my hand had started reaching for my pocket. I tightly grip what¡¯s in that pocket, and grind my teeth. Somehow, gripping it made me calm down. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Some kind of dispute?¡± Hearing those words behind me, I come back to my senses. ¡°It¡¯s not really a dispute.¡± When I turn back around I see some familiar faces. It was the brown dreadlocked warrior woman. The one who¡¯d kept talking to me back in the caravan. Next to her, the girl who¡¯d kept snapping at me. I¡¯m pretty sure the warrior was called Suzanne, and the other girl Sara. Behind them were a few guys who I can only imagine were the rest of her party. I honestly don¡¯t remember their names at all. They¡¯re the B-rank adventurer party, Counter Arrow. ¡°I think I get it now. Your party got annihilated and now you¡¯re trying to find your missing mom but have no money. That¡¯s why you¡¯re trying to take on such a crazy request all by yourself, right? What an impressive young man you are.¡± Please don¡¯t put words in my mouth. I never said my party got annihilated, nor did I say anything about having no money. Obviously, I¡¯m not rolling in money, but it¡¯s not like I¡¯m dirt poor. ¡°But¡­ I don¡¯t like your expression. That isn¡¯t the face of someone determined to go on alone, even with their party gone. That¡¯s the face of someone who no longer cares even if he dies.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± She gently touches my cheek. I bet ¡®bullseye¡¯ is written all over my face right now. ¡°So how about it, boy? Wanna try that request together with us?¡± ¡°With you guys?¡± ¡°Yeah, we just got here ourselves. There¡¯s a lot we¡¯re still unfamiliar with too. Originally we were just gonna get by on our own, but since we¡¯re both new here, how about we work together?¡± ¡°No thanks. I¡¯m planning on going it alone and becoming famous to make searching for my mother easier¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way you¡¯d become famous working alone. You need people to spread tales about you to gain fame. To do that, you need to join a party and live longer than you¡¯re planning to. You guys all think so too, right?¡± The rest of her party all nod in agreement, but Sara¡¯s still pouting unhappily. Her displeasure is completely understandable. If you¡¯re new to this place it makes more sense to try and recruit someone familiar with the area. I didn¡¯t really help them much with their guard work when we were traveling either. It¡¯s obvious from my garb that I¡¯m a magician, but they have no way of knowing how strong I am, what kind of magic I use, or how I fight. In other words, she¡¯s just pitying me. She¡¯s inviting me out of pity. ¡°¡­¡­¡± That being said, she does have a point. It¡¯s true that if I just try and solo everything, rumors about me won¡¯t spread. Adventurers generally don¡¯t care very much about other adventurers. There¡¯s no one who goes around gathering information about something they don¡¯t care about. Depending on how things pan out, it¡¯s quite possible that at best, there would only be rumors about a magician boy working solo in the area. ¡°There¡¯s a magician who can use chantless magic¡±, ¡°He¡¯s from the Fittoa Region¡±,¡°He¡¯s looking for his mother who disappeared in the metastasis incident¡±. If details like that don¡¯t spread, there¡¯s no point in me becoming famous. For that to happen people to need to really know about me. In which case, it would be best for me to join a party. The bigger the party, the better. While it¡¯s true that most adventurers pick a certain town as their base¨Cand then generally never leave¨Cthere are others who are just trying to make enough money to get to their destination, much like we once were. If I was able to convey my goals to guys like that then¡­ ¡°You look pretty young, but if you¡¯re really an A-rank then you must be pretty skilled, right? So what can you do?¡± ¡°In¡ª In my old party I was the rear guard. I¡¯m best at providing support to the vanguard with my magic.¡± ¡°Perfect. We¡¯ve been needing another rear guard for our formation.¡± I guess I¡¯ll just go with her for now. ¡°Alright¡­ I¡¯ll join then.¡± ¡°Great! In that case, finish making your preparations by tonight and meet us by the North Gate tomorrow morning. I¡¯ll explain how our party works in more detail along the way.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± It¡¯s not ideal, but it¡¯ll do. Through that whole exchange, that Sara girl¡¯s sullen expression never once wavered. Volume 7 - CH 2 The next day, I headed towards the northern gate as promised. I can¡¯t say I was all too eager to team up with them, but once I¡¯d decided to do it my body seemingly went through the motions on its own. Yesterday, I went around gathering information on Kukuru Lake and Raster Grizzlies. This too, I simply did out of habit, if nothing else. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Gloomily, I examine my surroundings only to discover that no one¡¯s here. They did say to meet at the north gate in the morning¡­ but perhaps I might have come a little too early. I didn¡¯t have a watch so I couldn¡¯t be sure, but my guess was that it was around four in the morning Yeah¡­ I probably came too early. Well, I couldn¡¯t really sleep last night anyway. Perhaps because it had been too cold, or maybe because I was a bit on edge after hearing I¡¯d be partying with some people I don¡¯t really know that well. ¡°They¡¯re late¡­¡± We never set a specific meeting time, but it¡¯s common knowledge among adventurers that if you¡¯re going to be heading out on a long expedition, you meet up early. It¡¯s certainly better to be early than late. Better than leaving me here alone to wait all day. In fact, there was another adventurer group here at the north gate finishing up their departure preparations. It seemed they were waiting for just one late person¨Cas opposed to me¨Cwho was the only one on time. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± Maybe I¡¯m the one who has it all wrong and we were actually supposed to meet up at noon. Maybe they planned out our departure time so we arrive at our destination at the right hour. In which case, it might have been better to tell them where I was staying yesterday. That way, when they actually decided on our meeting time they could have just contacted me. ¡°Ah!¡± As I was brooding over all that I suddenly spotted a silhouette coming up the road. Several people came walking towards me out of the morning mist. ¡°Oho, you¡¯re pretty early, Boy. Considering your attitude yesterday I was almost certain you¡¯d be late today.¡± ¡°I just woke up early, that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°I see, I see.¡± Suzanne was grinning but I could hear her unspoken words, ¡°Are you sure you weren¡¯t just lonely? Are you sure you¡¯re not just being tsundere?¡± Well, it¡¯s too much of a pain to deny those accusations. ¡°Alright then.¡± I took my hand out of my pocket and proffered it to Suzanne, who was standing in front. ¡°As we¡¯ll be in the same party for a while, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Rudeus Greyrat; Magician. As mentioned previously, my specialty is rearguard support, and I¡¯m an A-rank Adventurer as well. I look forward to working with you.¡± Suzanne looked surprised. Granted, I had been rather curt with her back when she was trying to talk to me in the caravan, so of course she¡¯d be surprised if I suddenly start acting so friendly. I hadn¡¯t really thought that deeply about it though. I just thought it would only be common courtesy to introduce myself properly. ¡°I¡¯m Suzanne, Vice Leader of Counter Arrow. I¡¯m a Warrior, and I serve as our Vanguard.¡± ¡°Vice Leader? Are you not the leader?¡± ¡°Effectively I am, since I do all of the work. Our actual leader is someone else.¡± Suzanne jerked her head and a man stepped out front. He looked like a pretty gloomy guy. From a glance at what he was wearing, he was a Mage too. After all, he was clad in a reddish brown robe and carried a long staff in his hands. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Timothy. I¡¯m a Mage. I¡¯m part of the Rearguard, and my specialty is offensive magic. Technically, I¡¯m the leader of this party, but¡­¡± ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± So, basically, Suzanne¡¯s the one who¡¯s actually in charge. Often times you see cases where it¡¯s the Vice Commander who holds the real power in an organization. Sometimes it¡¯s even considered preferable to the leader holding all the power. Better someone capable take charge than an incompetent, lazy one. Whether or not Timothy is actually incompetent is something I wouldn¡¯t know though. After all, a fractured organization can¡¯t run well, so it¡¯s quite possible that Suzanne still defers to Timothy¡¯s orders when it comes to big decisions. Something along the lines of: She handles the day to day operations of the party while he decides the overall direction the party is to take. In other words, one does the grunt work, the takes care of the party as a whole. Suzanne and Timothy¡¯s relationship seems a lot like two cornerstones holding up a building. Completely different from how Eris and me were¡­ [Sniffle.] ¡°Huh!? W-What¡¯s wrong!?¡± ¡°Sorry, I was just remembering something from the past.¡± ¡°Ah¡ª Were you reminded of your former party leader? He must have been a splendid person.¡± ¡°Not exactly¡­¡± He wasn¡¯t splendid at all. Up until the very end, he¡¯d been a failure. The real splendid one had been the man who became our party¡¯s namesake¡­ ¡°Well, anyway, I¡¯ll do my best not to get in your guys¡¯ way.¡± ¡°Is that so? I look forward to working with you.¡± The self introductions continue. ¡°I¡¯m our Cleric, Mimiru. I¡¯m intermediate ranked in recovery magic, and beginner rank in detoxification magic.¡± He was of a medium build and wore a long whitish robe. ¡°My name¡¯s Patris. I¡¯m a Magic Warrior. Well¡ª I call myself a Magic Warrior, but really I can only use beginner rank wind magic, so I¡¯m mostly just a Warrior.¡± Patris was well built and had a sword belted to his waist. In his hand he carried a beginner¡¯s magic rod. He also served as our Vanguard. Including the leader, all three of them were in their mid-to-late twenties. I have no idea how long they¡¯ve been adventuring for, but seeing how they¡¯re a B-rank, they¡¯re probably pretty experienced. And lastly, we have¡­ ¡°I¡¯m our Middle Guard, Sara, the Archer.¡± With a scowl, Sara introduced herself while glaring at me. Compared to the other four in the party she was quite young. Somewhere in her mid teens; right around the age where she¡¯d be considered an adult in this world. Maybe it was because of her scowl or because of how her face was, perhaps it was due to her her Asuran looks, but she resembled Eris quite a bit. ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± She glared at me again, so I averted my eyes. ¡°Just so you know, I still haven¡¯t approved of you. I only agreed to let you tag along because Suzanne was so insistent. If you so much as get in our way, or do something to get one of our party killed, I¡¯ll never forgive you. Got that?¡± ¡°Got it.¡± I give her a listless reply. If I¡¯m going to be in a party with her I suppose I should have tried more to get along with her¡­ but I¡¯ll only be with them for a short while anyway. If she¡¯s going to be that hostile, I don¡¯t really want to try and be friendly. ¡°Step off, Sara.¡± ¡°But Suzanne¡ª¡± ¡°There might come a time where you have to leave our party and adventure with others too.¡± ¡°What? Are you saying we¡¯re going to disband!?¡± ¡°That possibility is always there, and if someone died we¡¯d have to find someone new to replace them too. Back in Asura, you were able to get away with just not teaming up with people you didn¡¯t like, but that¡¯s not going to be possible from here on out. So you better start learning how to work with others.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Ah, I get it now. She didn¡¯t take me on just out of pity. She also wanted to teach Sara a lesson. No wonder she was always acting so friendly. The reason why she chose someone as young as me was also because she was looking ahead to what might happen five, or even ten, years from now. At that point, Sara would have grown quite a bit, and she too may someday have to team up with someone much younger than her. That possibility would only grow the older she gets too. If she could handle teaming up with someone whose attitude is as bad as mine, she could handle a normal youngster no problem. Basically, she was just using me¡­ Well, whatever. If that¡¯s what you want, I¡¯ll play along. Either way, it¡¯s not like it¡¯ll get in the way of my goal. ¡°Got it? Anyway, now that we¡¯re done with our introductions, shall we head out?¡± At Suzanne¡¯s words, we began our expedition to go hunt the Raster Grizzly. Three days later. After three days of traveling north out of Rozenburg we set up camp. According to the intelligence I gathered earlier Kukuru Lake, the supposed location of the Raster Grizzly herd, was only a few hours from here. Apparently, Raster Grizzlies have terrible night vision, so their movements become very dull as the darkness sets in. Our plan is to wait until night and then launch a surprise attack on them. Until then, we¡¯re going to have a meeting to reflect on how we handled the monsters we encountered on our way here. Counter Arrow¡¯s not a bad party by any means. Two Vanguards, one Middle Guard, and two Rearguards. They¡¯ve got a good balance of roles. Once you include me as well our strategy basically becomes as such: The moment we spot an enemy I cast Quagmire on them to restrict their movements while Timothy uses fire magic to pick off as many as he can from long range. Once the enemy finally makes their way to us, Suzanne and Patris enter the fray, while Sara supports the two. If any of the Vanguard take damage Mimiru steps in with recovery magic. On the road, we encountered and defeated many monsters, which gave me a chance to see just how well they coordinate together. I must say, they¡¯re quite skilled. Suzanne, Patris, Timothy, and Mimiru are all veteran adventurers. Obviously nowhere near the level of Ruijerd, but they understand how to work together as a party far better than Eris did. Although, seeing as how my only job is to make quagmires, I end up with a lot of free time, so I try suggesting something. ¡°Once the Vanguard starts fighting, wouldn¡¯t it be better if I help support as well?¡± ¡°You still haven¡¯t fully grasped the movements of both Suzanne and Patris! What if you hit one of them by mistake!? You just stay back and make swamps!¡± ¡°Then should I help pick them off after I restrict their movements?¡± ¡°It¡¯s common sense that Mages conserve their magical power in case the battle drags on for too long! All you need to do is slow them down! That¡¯s more than enough!¡± ¡°Then¡­ Once the battle turns into a melee brawl, should I head to the Vanguard to help as well?¡± ¡°Do you want to get shot down by me?¡± I tried suggesting everything I could think of, but Sara denied me at every turn. Frankly speaking, it¡¯s rather bothersome. If I joined in on the attack I could probably finish them all off before it even became a close range battle. As it is now we end up entering close combat every time and our vanguard ends up taking damage, albeit only a little. It¡¯s really inefficient but, well, if I just think of it as Suzanne¡¯s way of trying to let Sara build up more experience, then I guess it makes sense. I did that back when we were on the Demon Continent too. As they say: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I¡¯ll just deal with it and use the opportunity to build some experience towards working within a team. In an emergency I can always make my own decisions anyway, so I guess there¡¯s no harm in conserving my strength and fighting as a unit with them. Teamwork can only be built out of continual practice. I don¡¯t really have confidence in my own decision making though¨Cor even my teamwork ability really¡­ ¡°You¡¯re the newcomer here so just do as you¡¯re told¨Cand don¡¯t get in our way!¡± ¡°OK.¡± It doesn¡¯t look like Sara wants to work on our teamwork. I don¡¯t remember doing anything to make her hate me, but she still seems to hate me. Must¡¯ve been that bad impression I made on her the first time we met. It¡¯s not like we have to force ourselves to get along, but her acting so cold towards me just brings back painful memories. Back when I was seven and Eris didn¡¯t listen to anything I said¡­ ¡°That¡¯s enough Sara. Why do you have to be so critical?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like¡­ I mean¡ª He¡¯s not even using honorifics or being respectful¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s normal considering we¡¯re all adventurers. Besides, you don¡¯t use them either, you know.¡± ¡°Yes, but¡ª¡± ¡°Then keep your complaints to yourself. We¡¯re about to start the subjugation request soon, so stop your petty bickering.¡± ¡°S-Sorry.¡± Sara shrank back from Suzanne¡¯s harsh words, but seeing as she¡¯s still glaring at me, it looks like she doesn¡¯t plan to apologize. With the group meeting over she promptly went to her bedroll and fell asleep. Truly this is the power of youth. I guess I¡¯ll go to the bathroom real quick and take a nap as well. I walk a bit away from the camp to relieve myself. While I¡¯m finishing up my business I suddenly notice someone standing next to me. It¡¯s Timothy. As he opened up the front of his pants, I was greeted with a sight of a splendid member that doesn¡¯t suit his boring looking face at all, and began relieving himself as well. ¡°Sorry,¡± he suddenly apologized. ¡°For what?¡± ¡°Sara. She¡¯s not a bad girl, but she¡¯s been a bit¡­ difficult recently.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only natural. To be so skilled at such an age, she really is a genius.¡± I¡¯m certain those four B-rank adventurers are all veterans, but Sara¡¯s on a completely different level. Her skill is way above the rest of the party. In battle, she¡¯s able to accurately get pinpoint shots at a monster¡¯s vitals, even from pretty far away. On top of that, she¡¯s got good judgement and is pretty quick witted. She doesn¡¯t have any faults. In terms of just strength, she¡¯s probably A-class. There aren¡¯t many Archers in this world. While it¡¯s true bows can mount long distance attacks, they pale in both firepower and range when compared to magic. Unlike mana, which regenerates as long as you sleep, there¡¯s a limit to how many arrows you can bring. The more you carry, the more you have weighing you down. It¡¯s not like an RPG where you can just walk around with 10,000 arrows in your inventory. If you want to be a long distance fighter, you learn magic. Every now and again though, you find geniuses with such skill that they can more than compensate for that gap in base power, with pure skill. If you have the technique to perfectly hit the enemy¡¯s vitals in any situation, and ability to keep up a rapid-fire long-range barrage that outclasses most magic, then even a bow becomes a deadly weapon. As far as the occupation of adventurer is concerned anyway. Of course, it¡¯s a completely different story if we¡¯re talking about trying to become the world¡¯s strongest or something. But still, A-rank strength at her age. Just like Eris. A genius. ¡°You say all that, but you¡¯re a genius too you know. I can tell just from seeing you fight. You¡¯re the first person I¡¯ve seen who can use chantless magic since my magic school teacher.¡± ¡°Just something like that isn¡¯t enough to bring back the people that are important to me though¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s true. Sorry¡­¡± It¡¯s true being able to use chantless magic is pretty convenient, but it¡¯s nothing to feel superior about. What use is it when it¡¯s not even enough to keep one woman by your side¡­ Well, I guess it makes for good publicity. It¡¯ll probably attract some strange people as well, but Zenith surely knows I can use chantless magic. ¡°At any rate, I¡¯m sorry Rudeus.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± This is rather interesting. Aside from Sara, it seems like everyone else has noticed my ability is higher than what I¡¯m letting on. This is the kind of perceptiveness you¡¯d expect from veterans. They know how to perfectly make use of their abilities without any waste. In all honesty, these guys¡¯ abilities are at best upper C-rank, but because they know how to use their abilities to the fullest, they¡¯ve been able to make it as far as B-rank. They know how to perfectly analyze their combat potential, and on top of that, how to use that potential to its utmost extent. That¡¯s how they¡¯re able to perform so well. On the flip side, that means they¡¯re also not laid back at all. Even when Sara was badmouthing me the whole time, they responded with remonstrations and nothing else. Partially because they want to let Sara grow as a person, but also because they don¡¯t play around at all. Since they take everything seriously, they know that if they misread what I¡¯m capable of and fell into trouble because of it, I wouldn¡¯t be able to follow up to help. Of course they¡¯ve spent this whole time trying to figure out just how capable I am, but at the same time, they¡¯ve also been trying to figure out just how far they can make it in this harsh land. Even if I tell them what I¡¯m capable of, they won¡¯t be able to trust just words. Which leads me to wonder why they decided to take me along. Perhaps¡­ out of sympathy. After all, it¡¯s impossible for everyone to act ideally basing everything only off of logic and calculations. ¡°You only did what was natural.¡± At any rate, all this means is I just need to focus on fulfilling my role as the support. No need to think about unnecessary things. ¡°Thank you for being so understanding. We¡¯ll be heading out once night falls, so make sure you get some rest.¡± ¡°Will do.¡± I nod my head in agreement, head back to camp, and fall asleep. The Raster Grizzly. A B-class monster. It seems to be rather common In the northwestern part of the Central Continent. It¡¯s covered completely in white fur, with a single streak of black running down its back. The only real differences between it and a normal bear are that they live and hunt in packs, and they spend the time leading up to winter stockpiling food. During that time they¡¯re rather aggressive and often attack humans. In comparison, they¡¯re surprisingly docile in summer. They also seek out watering holes during that time to breed, which is usually the best time for adventurers to eliminate them. There¡¯s a set elimination method for these guys. Aim to get them at summer, during their mating period. ¡°Alright.¡± We climb up atop a small hill, and confirm the location of the Raster Grizzly herd. We¡¯re hiding in a thicket on a hill, upwind of the herd. There¡¯s no way they¡¯ll be able to find us. They mate all day from noon till dusk, and then they sleep all night. They don¡¯t even bother making caves or shelter, they just drop dead tired where they are. That¡¯s when we¡¯re going to light them all up with magic, whittling them down until they start heading our way. By the time that happens though, most of them will already have been eliminated, so the Vanguard and Middle Guard will be able to dispatch the remaining grizzlies. That¡¯s our plan, basically. ¡°How¡¯s it look Sara?¡± ¡°I see around 20 or so.¡± Laying on top of the hill to scout out the enemy was Sara, as she has the best eyes of all of us. Seems like there¡¯s about 20-something Raster Grizzlies. I can¡¯t really tell from this distance myself. All I can make out is a bunch of white lumps that look like the Raster Grizzlies about 300 meters out. Ruijerd would¡¯ve managed to tell you the exact number if he was scouting from this far away¡­ Well, no point in talking about what someone who¡¯s not here could do. ¡°Think we can do it?¡± ¡°Definitely! Right?¡± Sara turned around with a look of confidence on her face. I¡¯m not sure how fast Raster Grizzlies can move, but considering our position, we should have the advantage. I can slow them down with my Quagmire, and since they just went to sleep, with Timothy¡¯s, Patris¡¯ and Mimiru¡¯s magic, we should be able to make short work of them. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡± At Timothy¡¯s words, everyone tensed up. Even if we can easily handle 20 or so grizzlies, it¡¯s still possible the worst could happen. Like everyone else, I prepare myself and grip my staff. ¡°The land thy seek is protected not from divine flame. Rampage o¡¯ flames, burn away the blessings of the land. Giant Fireball!¡± ¡°Quagmire!¡± As soon as Timothy finished chanting his intermediate level fire spell, I cast my Quagmire. Right around the maximum range Sara can effectively hit with her arrows. If I slow them down here, Sara will be able to help out too. ¡°The land thy seek is protected not from divine flame. Rampage o¡¯ flames, burn away the blessings of the land. Giant Fireball!¡± Timothy began to continuously shoot giant fireballs. Despite their enormous size, they sped towards the Raster Grizzlies at high speed and impacted. A fireball slammed into one of the grizzlies and scorched it to death in an instant. A few of them made it out, but Timothy¡¯s fireballs still had amazing power, speed, and precision. He¡¯s pretty skilled with them. ¡°Take this!¡± The Raster Grizzlies suddenly started making a huge racket and finally began to head our way. It¡¯s pretty hard to hit a moving target, and a few of his fireballs started missing, but even so he kept burning them down, one by one. This is easy. They¡¯re halfway to the point where I set up the quagmire. Considering once they reach that point, Sara¡¯s arrows will start whittling them down even more, we might not even have to engage in close combat this time. ¡®Is this seriously an A-rank quest?¡¯ ¡ª Is what I¡¯m thinking right now ¡°Haah!¡± Right before the Raster Grizzlies reached my quagmire, Timothy¡¯s fireball hit another one, lighting up the surroundings. In that instant, I saw it. Off to the side of the swamp; something about the same size as a Raster Grizzly, but all black, was heading right towards us. ¡°No way! A black Raster Grizzly!?¡± At Sara¡¯s shout, I understood what that was. It was mud. The Raster Grizzly had used mud to conceal itself in the dark. It was using camouflage. Obviously, it hadn¡¯t done that with the mud from my quagmire. There had been another herd of Raster Grizzlies near the lake, a bit further off from where the flock we¡¯d spotted had been. They¡¯d naturally just gathered in a swampier location of the lakeside. Since they¡¯d been sleeping nearby, when we attacked the flock we¡¯d spotted, they woke up panicking, and started heading towards us as well. ¡°There¡¯s too many of them!¡± ¡°Retreat! Retreat!¡± Timothy called out orders, in a panic. The new herd was huge. 50, no¡ª Maybe 80 large. That giant herd of Raster Grizzlies illuminated still by the fading light of Timothy¡¯s fireball, was rushing right at us. There¡¯s simply no way we can beat that. Timothy seems to have realized that as well, but¡­. It¡¯s too late. Honestly, they should have noticed that other herd before they¡¯d even started fighting, and decided to give up from the start. The party¡¯s failure had been not scouting the area out during the day. ¡°The terrain here isn¡¯t to our advantage. Fall back to that place we found a earlier!¡± Suzanne¡¯s voice resounded through the darkness. Her judgement was correct. In case we ran into more Raster Grizzlies than we could handle, she had scouted out a place where we could limit the amount of enemies that could reach us at once. Retreat back there and reform ranks, the correct decision. Like I said though, it was all too late. That plan was made with the assumption that we¡¯d be further away from the enemy, and I¡¯d be able to place my quagmire in their path. There¡¯s no way we can run away from those Raster Grizzlies running towards us at full speed from our flank. It¡¯s checkmate. ¡°Dammit! They¡¯re gaining on us!¡± ¡°Tch. Fine, I¡¯ll be the bait. Everyone else, run!¡± ¡°Suzanne!¡± Suzanne stopped in her tracks and turned around. Pale-faced, Sara turned back to look at her. ¡°No! I¡¯ll stay! It was my fault! I didn¡¯t notice them when I should have!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you dare stop!¡± ¡°You idiots! You think you can stop them with just the two of you!? Fine, if you¡¯re staying, then we all are!¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s show those bastards what we¡¯ve got!¡± At Sara¡¯s shout, Mimiru and Patris took their stances. The giant horde of Raster Grizzlies are closing in on us. The rumbling of their approach feels almost like an earthquake. Even in the darkness, the overwhelming pressure of their presence can be felt. Sara¡¯s legs are trembling. Not just Sara, even Suzanne, Mimiru, Patris, Timothy, everyone was trembling and pale-faced. But not a single one of them looked like they would turn and run. Seeing such a spectacle caused the beating of my heart to quicken. Because the Raster Grizzlies were coming? No, I couldn¡¯t care less about that. It was because of Sara, Suzanne, Timothy, Mimiru, and Patris. For some reason, seeing them caused my heart to pound. My spirits lifted for the first time, my breathing started to get rough. Why? I couldn¡¯t tell you. I might not know why, but seeing them stand up hopelessly against that number of Raster Grizzlies, I started to feel again. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± I had unconsciously put my hand in my pocket, and started gripping what¡¯s kept inside. ¡°Rudeus! What¡¯s wrong!?¡± Patris shouted my name and everyone turned around. I got a good look at everyone¡¯s faces, Sara included. None of their eyes had lost their fighting spirit. They hadn¡¯t given up yet. They were all trying desperately to stay alive. Even in this hopeless situation, they were still fighting on. Clinging to life with all their might. Seeing them all, I finally understood. The feeling of the object in my pocket, their faces, and the past I keep remembering. I finally understood. I understood why. Why they stopped to fight. I¡¯d known all along, and now I¡¯ve remembered. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Leave everything to me.¡± My calm voice surprised even myself. I suppressed the turmoil in my heart, and raised my staff towards the oncoming horde of Raster Grizzlies¡­ ¡°Exodus Flame!¡± An immensely huge flame burst from my staff, easily burning through the herd of Raster Grizzlies. One hour later. The area around the lake has all been turned into a burnt plain. A huge quantity of Raster Grizzly corpses are strewn across the landscape. Most of the corpses had carbonized, but a few were still intact enough that their fur could be harvested to sell. ¡°¡­¡­¡± We¡¯re currently harvesting the Raster Grizzly skins that are still salvageable. After I cast Exodus Flame, almost all of the Raster Grizzlies had been killed, and those that remained scattered and ran. A few them still charged at us, but Suzanne and the rest were able to bring them down while I shot down the ones that ran with my Stone Cannon. After the battlefield quieted down everyone was completely stunned. I simply said, ¡°Well, let¡¯s salvage what we can,¡± and now here we are. We¡¯re grabbing all of their tails as proof that we killed them, and skinning their fur to sell. I¡¯m sure you already know, but monsters like this have harvestable materials worth selling. Taking back as much of this as possible is something every adventurer does. We split into groups of two and started skinning them. My partner¡¯s Timothy. The Mage combo. Timothy¡¯s completely silent. His expression says he doesn¡¯t know what to say to me. Not just Timothy, everyone¡¯s like that. I don¡¯t mind, honestly. I¡¯m not really planning on saying anymore than necessary either. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Once we finish our work, we pile together all the tails and skins we collected, and begin burning the remaining bear corpses. By the time we finish all that, the sky begins to lighten. The air¡¯s filled with the scent of roasting meat. Smelling that smell made it really feel like we¡¯re finally done with the monster subjugation. At some point, Suzanne had come up right next to me. ¡°You saved us.¡± Shrugging her shoulders, she continued. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t been there, we¡¯d be dead right now. I knew you were more capable than you looked, but I didn¡¯t realize you were this good.¡± ¡°No¡­ If I hadn¡¯t been there you guys wouldn¡¯t have taken that request to begin with, right? A veteran B-rank party like yourselves would have taken on a C-rank request first to get a feel for the requests around here.¡± ¡°Well, yeah¡­¡± Suzanne scratched her cheek, at a loss. I didn¡¯t mean anything mean by it though. Rather, I¡¯m actually grateful to her. Thanks to what I realized during that fight, my spirits picked up a little. ¡°Regardless, it¡¯s good that we brought you along. Thank you so much.¡± ¡°If you say so. Anyway, let¡¯s go back.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Suzanne looked at my face, smiled lightly, and went back to where all the pelts were. Now we¡¯re going to take as much as we can carry back with us on our triumphant return. The elimination may have been completed, but the request wasn¡¯t over yet. We¡¯re still out on an adventure until we get back and turn our proof into our reward. Guess I should go help carry stuff too. As I go to pick up a bundle of furs, a girl suddenly appears in front of me. A girl about the same height as me. ¡°Thanks for saving us¡­¡± Sara muttered, then trotted back to Suzanne¡¯s side. As we returned to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild laden with bear furs we were met with a lot of strange gazes. The kind of stares you¡¯d give strangers. There¡¯s a lot of adventurers out there who set up base in a single city. That¡¯s why when people like us from somewhere else suddenly come in with a huge achievement, they start to get resentful. If it¡¯s a particularly bad place, it¡¯s possible you¡¯d get mixed up in some unpleasantness too. Where they¡¯d start asking for a ¡®protection fee¡¯ or the like. ¡°¡­¡­¡± I send our leader Timothy a questioning gaze. To my surprise, I find he¡¯s smiling as he looks around. Gazing about at the resentful glares of other adventurers who are surely thinking, ¡°If only I¡¯d been the one to clear that request, I would have made a killing.¡± He faces them all and proclaims: ¡°This is a celebration to commemorate our start in this town! Everyone here, food and drink¡¯s on me! Let¡¯s all party at the bar!¡± Everyone¡¯s faces suddenly went blank at first, but at the mention of free food, they all started cheering. ¡°We¡¯ve got some pretty generous newcomers this time around!¡± ¡°Haha! You guys are the best!¡± ¡°Yahoo! Free beer!¡± Seeing what had just unfolded, I was completely dumbfounded. He so easily just gave away seven days worth of earnings. ¡°This is how Timothy does things. As long as he spends a bit to treat everyone, no one¡¯ll hate us. Considering we¡¯ll have to spend quite some time working with these guys, even the weird ones, it¡¯s a small price to pay to buy their goodwill.¡± Suzanne explained to the dumbfounded me, while looking proudly at Timothy. I see now¡­ If success and money comes your way, it¡¯s only natural that you¡¯ll draw the jealousy of others. But if you share that wealth with everyone else, then even those that would have been jealous are willing to forgive you. Since adventurers need the reward money from requests to maintain their daily expenses, it¡¯s not something you can afford to do often, but if you ever rake in a big haul, it pays to share it with everyone to draw aggro off you. ¡°Listen up you oafs! We¡¯ll be in the guild¡¯s care from today onwards, the party Counter Arrow and the adventurer, Rudeus Greyrat!¡± At Suzanne¡¯s shout, cheers rang out. ¡°Counter arrow! Counter Arrow!¡± ¡°Rudeus! Rudeus!¡± The chanting lasted for only a short moment, but its effects were tremendous. I really should learn from these guys. I want to avoid pointless trouble with people like the time with Sara as much as possible. While thinking about it, I also started moving towards the bar, swept up in the festive atmosphere. A few hours later, I return to my room. After we¡¯d all gone to the bar, I¡¯d ended up drinking a bit too. I¡¯m not really used to drinking alcohol, and on top of that, the stuff they serve here is a really strong brew similar to whiskey. I got sick of it pretty quickly and started using detoxification magic. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever drink that stuff again. My head¡¯s still hurting a little bit so I cast some healing magic, and light a fire in the fireplace. ¡°Haaah¡­¡± The logs in the fireplace crackle softly as they release a small flame. It¡¯ll be a while before the room starts to heat up, but watching the fire is really relaxing. ¡°¡­¡­¡± While staring at the fireplace, I reach into my pocket, and take out what I always keep there. A white cloth. It¡¯s not a handkerchief. The one thing Lilia managed to send to me when everything else was lost in the Metastasis Incident¡­ Yes, my divine artifact. It¡¯s something I¡¯ve kept in my pocket all this time. I grasp it in both hands and press it towards my forehead. In that fight with the Raster Grizzlies, when I saw Counter Arrow standing up so bravely against death, I was reminded of Roxy. Roxy must have tried desperately to stay alive. Of course, I¡¯d never seen her in a life or death situation, but I knew she¡¯d once been an adventurer. She too must have found herself in desperate situations, fought desperately to protect her comrades, been saved by them in turn. Just like the members of Counter Arrow. Then she became my home tutor. She taught me all the things she learned as an adventurer. She let me experience what it meant to really live. And all that, she must have learned from here. ¡°I don¡¯t care if I die? What the hell, me.¡± I press the white cloth to my chest. ¡°What do you mean you have nothing left!?¡± Tears start streaming down my face. To prevent the sacred cloth from being soiled I press it against my forehead once more, and curl up, sobbing. ¡°Uuuu¡­¡± My voice comes out in choked sobs. My hiccups won¡¯t stop, and my whole body is shaking. I¡¯m still here. I still have things left. I may have lost something truly important, but that doesn¡¯t mean I have nothing left. How could I have forgotten what it is I promised myself when I came to this world. How could I have forgotten about Roxy, or the time she took me out into the world. These are things she taught me. Things I learned. How can I betray her now? And not just Roxy¡­ I touch the pendant on my chest. Lilia probably made it, this pendant carved of wood. She¡¯s devoted herself to me. She¡¯s waiting for the day we¡¯ll all be reunited. Even Paul is doing his best back in Milis. We may be all over the world, but that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m alone. ¡°Sensei, please guide me.¡± There¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m dying here. Yeah, maybe things¡¯ve been tough, but I¡¯ve been through worse. Sulking forever is pointless. It¡¯s time to start trying again. It¡¯s time to start doing what I need to. ¡°Alright.¡± I take out one last thing from my bags, another piece of cloth¨Cthe one feminine thing that Eris had been carrying around, the one memoir I have left of her¨Cand silently throw it into the flames. Sara¡¯s Point-of-View. Honestly, I¡¯d underestimated him. When I¡¯d first heard the name Greyrat, I thought of the noble family that governs over my homeland. Notus Greyrat, ruler of the Milbotts domain. I¡¯d only ever seen him once, when he¡¯d brought his soldiers to our village to hunt some monsters. My memories of that time are pretty vague, but I clearly remember his sly, crafty face. Rudeus reminds me a lot of him. The name Greyrat isn¡¯t all that uncommon in Asura, but most of the people holding that surname are all lower or middle class nobles. You won¡¯t find any commoners with the last name Greyrat. Well, most commoners don¡¯t even have a last name to begin with. Myself included. For someone like me, a daughter of a pair of hunters, the only name I get is Sara. My mom and dad don¡¯t have any last names either. What I¡¯m trying to say here is that that boy, Rudeus Greyrat, is the son of some noble. He may wear a cheap robe and not take good care of his appearance or hair, but it¡¯s that high quality staff of his that sets him apart from the usual adventurer. He probably doesn¡¯t understand a single thing about how this world works. But still¨Cwhat is a noble¡¯s son doing so far away from Asura, all the way out here in the North? Well, it so happens that I was able to figure that out just by looking at his expressions. He uses those polite words and soft speech to keep others at a distance, hiding his true intentions. He probably had some bad experience at that high class school for nobles, fought with his parents, and ran away. A noble kid running away from home isn¡¯t that rare an occurrence either. I can¡¯t understand it at all, but it seems like some people don¡¯t enjoy the privileged life of being a noble. Those kids that don¡¯t like it tend to run away from home and become adventurers. Nobles receive a gifted education from a young age. Obviously reading, writing, and arithmetic, but depending on the house, some of them also learn swordplay. I¡¯ve heard some noble houses consider magic unnecessary and don¡¯t teach it to their kids, but depending on which school you go to, beginner level magic proficiency is required. For some reason a lot of kids like to leave the luxurious life of being able to learn swordplay and magic, and even a decent amount about how the world works at school, just to be adventurers. Especially kids around Rudeus¡¯ age. I¡¯ve had to escort quite a few of those kinds of kids myself. None of them tried to leave Asura like Rudeus did but¡­ they all ran back home scared after just one or two adventures. Seems like out of all of them, there are a few who actually have some talent and manage to become adventurers, but I¡¯ve never seen one. I¡¯d thought Rudeus was just like those other noble kids¨Cand I hate those kinds of people. Born into a blessed environment, not having to work for anything, able to receive an education, and free to live an easy life without putting in any hard work. Just thinking about how weaklings like them tried to become adventurers makes me so mad. Well, I¡¯m willing to forgive them for trying to become adventurers, but what I can¡¯t forgive is that they don¡¯t have the determination to live and risk their lives as adventurers. The moment they encounter a demon and get hurt, or find their comrades in a pinch, they instantly run away. Why is that? Because they have somewhere to run back to. If it¡¯s too hard, if it¡¯s too scary, they can just go back home. They try to become adventurers all the while preparing their escape route before they¡¯ve even started. They don¡¯t give a single thought to the people who don¡¯t have anywhere to run to, those that live their whole lives out as adventurers. They don¡¯t care at all about the people who get dragged along with their whims, and get injured and lose the ability to continue adventuring, or die because of them. I thought Rudeus was one of them. I was surprised when at first he said he was looking for his mother, but after a bit I thought he must just have been lying. He probably thought he¡¯d try his luck in the Northern Frontier instead of Asura, like everyone else. Either way, when things got tough I thought he¡¯d just run. That¡¯s why I thought I¡¯d try to keep him from doing anything, so he¡¯d at least not get in our way. But I know now¨CI¡¯d underestimated him. Rudeus didn¡¯t run, rather he practically wiped out that entire Raster Grizzly herd single-handedly. He was hiding the fact that he was an advance class, or possibly even a saint class Magician. That just pisses me off even more! It¡¯s true that he did save us so I did thank him, but I have no intention of treating him like a savior or anything. ¡°Hey, Sara, how long are you going to keep sulking for?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sulking!¡± Even after returning to our inn, I¡¯m still pissed. I don¡¯t want to accept that noble boy¡¯s skills. I mean¡­ I hate nobles. ¡°Why are you so obsessed with him anyway, Suzanne?¡± ¡°Why¡­? I can¡¯t just leave him alone now can I? A small boy like that, traveling all by himself. If I found out later he died somewhere out there I¡¯d feel bad. Well, it looks like I didn¡¯t really need to worry about that though, seeing how strong he is¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, so why don¡¯t we just leave him alone then? I bet that whole spiel about looking for his mother and crap was all lies anyway. He probably just ran away from home like all the other nobles. If he gets himself killed it¡¯s his own damn fault.¡± ¡°Sara, I know you don¡¯t like him, but even you know he wasn¡¯t lying. Why do you keep insisting that he was?¡± Yeah, even I know that. If he really had been lying, Rudeus wouldn¡¯t have done what he had. He wouldn¡¯t have cried there in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. I know he¡¯s not lying. What he said¨Cthat he got caught up in the Fittoa Metastasis Incident, had to learn magic and spend years on the road to get back home, only to find out his home had vanished and his parents gone missing¨CI know all of that¡¯s true. The fact that he¡¯s suffered such a cruel fate is something I knew I understood just from adventuring with him once. ¡°¡­¡­¡± But somewhere in my heart, I refuse to accept Rudeus Greyrat. I refuse to accept what he¡¯s been through. Or maybe I just don¡¯t want to accept that we all had our asses saved by a noble brat. ¡°Hmph, he just wasn¡¯t in any real danger this time, that¡¯s why. I bet when we¡¯re in a real pinch he¡¯ll just turn and run.¡± Trying to reject Suzanne¡¯s words, I curled up into bed and turned my back to her. For some reason, I just felt so frustrated. Volume 7 - CH 3 ¡°Haah¡­ Haah¡­¡± I¡¯m running through the city in the predawn gloom. My breath pools before me in white puffs; the road ahead covered with a slight layer of frost. A Slight cracking noise resound every time my feet hit the ground, leaving behind a pleasant sensation. Casually taking in the sight of the town flashing past me, I concentrate wholly on running. ¡°Haaah¡­¡± I finally stop after arriving in front of my inn. ¡°What¡¯d you think of today¡¯s run?¡± As I take a deep breath I hear that voice coming from my trembling legs. My right leg, Tindalos; my left leg, Baskerville. I named them both after famous hunting hounds in the hopes that they would become as nimble and agile as them. ¡°Fufu, you did well. Good job.¡± I pet my legs just like you would a playful dog and then head inside the inn. It¡¯s important never to forget the massage that comes after a walk. Healing magic is forbidden for this. Sure, you could get rid of all the aches in your muscles with it, but that doesn¡¯t show the same level of love. ¡°You did good today.¡± I always fondle my legs with love after my runs. The more you love your muscles, the more they¡¯ll love you in return. They¡¯ll never betray you. They¡¯re something that always reward effort with results. On the other hand, if you neglect them, or push them too hard, they¡¯ll turn away from you. That¡¯s why you have to treat them well, so when the time comes, they¡¯ll be there to save you. ¡°Oops, almost forgot about you guys. Can¡¯t have that now, can we.¡± Once I finish my legs, I move to my arms. My right arm, Hulk, and my left arm, Heracles. The two arms I named in the hopes that they¡¯d be as strong as their namesake. I always tend to them after my legs. As a mage, I don¡¯t really need much arm strength, but that doesn¡¯t mean it won¡¯t come in handy sometimes. There¡¯s all sorts of situations where a person might have to use their two hands. If you don¡¯t train them there¡¯ll definitely come a time you¡¯ll regret neglecting them. Arms are a very jealous creature. On top of that they¡¯re the primary body part that connects with the world and transmits information to you. They¡¯ll start sulking if you tell them they¡¯re not needed. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s start with a set of 100 push-ups.¡± I lie down on the floor and slowly but steadily start working through my push-ups. My goal isn¡¯t to increase the total number I can do, but instead, to train my body. I call out encouragement to my trembling Hulk and Heracles, and continue my push-ups. I¡¯m hurting, but that means they¡¯re hurting too. This shared pain will eventually bind us together, turning into strength. ¡°Haaah¡­ Good work guys.¡± While thanking them I start massaging and cooling my arms. Hulk, Heracles, and my two legs too. We kept going until we hit that point where it starts feeling good to exercise again. We worked up a good sweat today too. ¡°Thanks for today, guys.¡± After washing myself with hot water, I offer a prayer to the shrine that I erected in a corner of the room. I take out the holy relic stored within, carefully fold it, and place it in my pocket. Truth be told, the holy relic is not something that should ever be taken out of its altar, but I¡¯m worried that it might get stolen if I just leave it here, so I don¡¯t really have a choice. Everyone knows you take your valuables with you when you¡¯re staying at an inn. ¡°I hope there¡¯s some good requests today.¡± While muttering that, I change into my robe and head out of the inn. It¡¯s been a few months since the Raster Grizzly event. I¡¯ve once again taken up my muscle training routine¨Cand as planned¨Cbecome a full fledged adventurer here. ¡°Thanks for your help last time, Quagmire!¡± ¡°You really are reliable.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot I can learn from how you time your support magic.¡± I¡¯ve made a pretty good start as an adventurer. ¡°Oh no, the one who¡¯s thankful for the help is me. I just gave a little assistance. It was thanks to everyone else¡¯s strength that we succeeded.¡± ¡°So humble! Someone as skilled as you should be a bit more proud of yourself!¡± ¡°Hey, interested in joining my party?¡± ¡°Thank you, but no.¡± ¡°Hey, did you forget? Party invitations are a taboo subject.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Sorry¡­¡± ¡°Ahaha¡­¡± Technically I¡¯m a solo adventurer, but in reality, I basically offer assistance to parties whom want to take on more difficult requests but are uncertain of their ability to complete them. Kind of like an adventurer mercenary, I help out others. In return, I take a portion of the request reward. In addition, I make 50% of the money I get from the materials I harvest from demons along the way. Not joining a party, but instead making a living through mercenary work isn¡¯t exactly considered respectable to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, but since it¡¯s not technically a violation of the rules, they let it slide. The guild here also knows that my old party was destroyed, and that even then I¡¯m still searching desperately for my mother. I¡¯m sure if I move to another city though, I¡¯ll have to find myself a party to enter, even if it¡¯s only temporarily. But, I still have reservations about joining another party. ¡°At any rate, I¡¯m glad we hired you. I¡¯ll be relying on you again if anything difficult pops up.¡± I treat everyone with polite courtesy, but in battle I try to show off my strengths. Thanks to that, the name Rudeus Greyrat is quite well known in this city. ¡°Hey, Quagmire!¡± ¡°Quagmire! Come help us out for this request! We¡¯re just about to leave!¡± ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯ve already got a request that I plan to take today.¡± Though more than just the name Rudeus, it seems like ¡°Rudeus the Quagmire¡± is what¡¯s been spreading around here. Probably because I call myself a support mage, and mostly just cast Quagmire and Deep Fog in battle. Thanks to the tricks I learned from Timothy, almost all the adventurers smile at me now when I walk into the guild. ¡®Course, that¡¯s mostly because they think of me as ¡°young¡± and ¡°skilled but doesn¡¯t charge much¡±. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem to understand the value of money¡±, and so on. Everyone smiles at someone that¡¯s useful to them, but at the very least, this means that I¡¯ve gotten all the regulars of the guild here to remember me. At this rate, my name will spread out across town soon enough. ¡°Hey, Quagmire! If I hear anything about your mom, I¡¯ll let you know.¡± ¡°Oh, thank you very much.¡± I ran into a party that¡¯s planning to move to a different city in a few days and got them to help me spread the word in the search for my mother. Everything¡¯s going well. It¡¯s only a matter of time until Zenith hears about me. Well, that¡¯s only if she¡¯s actually around here of course. The odds of that are astronomically low, but even then, I don¡¯t want to believe that what I¡¯m doing here is pointless. If I can manage to make myself famous here, I can do it anywhere else too. If I keep going from city to city spreading my name, I¡¯ll be able to cover all the way through to the Eastern part of the Northern Frontier. Eventually, I¡¯ll have to run into where Zenith is. It takes about three months for my name to start spreading. About a year for me to be certain I¡¯ve gotten all I can in a place. This will take an awfully long time, but I¡¯ve gotta do it. Isn¡¯t that right, Roxy-sensei? ¡°Hey look, he¡¯s praying again!¡± ¡°Leave him be, he¡¯s just really devout. I saw him praying on the road the other day too.¡± Oh, whoops. I¡¯d started unconsciously praying to my holy relic again. As long as I¡¯ve got this, I¡¯m OK. I can keep going. I can keep trying. As long as Roxy-sensei is watching over me, I¡¯m invincible. The invincible Robo-Rudeus, an eternal working machine. ¡°Tch¡ª¡± ¡°Quagmire, huh?¡± ¡°Just look at how full of himself he is.¡± As with anything, there¡¯s still people that don¡¯t like me too. It¡¯s nothing to be worried about though. At the very least, they haven¡¯t tried to directly interfere with me yet. As long as I act humble and polite towards everyone, the number of people liking me will always be higher. Most people don¡¯t want to lose someone who¡¯s useful to them, so I just make sure I don¡¯t get involved with the people who don¡¯t like me. Honestly, it¡¯d be nice if they¡¯d help out too, but no point in trying for the impossible. My goal isn¡¯t to get along with everyone I meet. I just have to work to find my mom in the most efficient manner possible is all. ¡°Ah¡­¡± While lost in thought, I headed towards the exit of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. At that moment, a familiar face entered the room. It was Sara. ¡°Mu¡ª¡± Upon seeing my face, her expression turned to a scowl. It does feel a bit unpleasant. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± ¡°Nothin¡¯.¡± My relationship with her hasn¡¯t changed at all. Ever since that first request she¡¯s hated me. Even now, all these months later, she still talks to me curtly. ¡°Were you about to go back?¡± ¡°Yeah, I just finished a difficult request so I was going to go back to my inn.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ We¡¯re just about to take a new request, wanna come with us?¡± ¡°Umm¡­ Well¡­¡± I guess we¡¯re connected by fate or something. I¡¯d teamed up with the first party I met here, Counter Arrow, a number of times now. It was the party I¡¯d teamed up with the most now, actually. Thinking about it in terms of my overall goal, continually teaming up with one party wasn¡¯t the most beneficial thing to do. After I get to know a party decently well and they learn about my goal and see my strength, it doesn¡¯t make sense to keep teaming up with them anymore. ¡°Uh¡ª Are you guys planning on leaving tomorrow?¡± That being said, I never turn them down for some reason. I don¡¯t really understand it myself. Maybe I just want to pay them back for helping me realize how pathetic I was acting before. With all that in mind I inquired, but upon hearing my words, Sara¡¯s mouth tapered to a pout again. ¡°You always start out with those half-assed questions. If you don¡¯t want to go you can just say no, you know. It¡¯s not like we need you or anything.¡± As always, Sara¡¯s speaking to me quite harshly. Though it feels like her attitude towards me has started getting a little better recently. There¡¯s no real sting behind her words anymore like there used to be. I can¡¯t really say we¡¯ve started getting along, but¡­ Well, whatever. It¡¯s not like I want to be liked any more than necessary for my objective. ¡°Sorry for being so indecisive, but it takes me time to make a decision.¡± ¡°And, can you please stop acting so polite? It¡¯s disgusting.¡± Sara said, casually. She wasn¡¯t trying to be mean or anything this time, that was just what she really thought. Though even if you tell me that, I don¡¯t have any intention of stopping. After all, I¡¯d decided to keep acting polite and humble to everyone. ¡°Step off, Sara.¡± The other members of Counter Arrow showed up. The tanned girl with dreadlocks, Suzanne. After her came the red-robed Timothy, then Mimiru and Patris. All the members of Counter Arrow. ¡°Fiiiine.¡± At Suzanne¡¯s words Sara began sulking and turned away. ¡°So, Rudeus. You coming?¡± she asked. I¡¯d said earlier that it takes time for me to come to a decision, but I¡¯d already decided from the start. I just like to make it look like I¡¯m always hesitating. ¡°Yeah, sure. I¡¯ll come along. Thanks for inviting me.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s pick our request then.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Sara¡¯s hostility aside, the rest of Counter Arrow were all very nice people. There¡¯s Suzanne, who¡¯s very kind, caring, and slightly nosy; and Timothy who¡¯s quite sociable. The rest of the guys are all rather tight-lipped. They have pretty good balance for a party, and even when I¡¯m with them, their coordination is impeccable. It makes fighting go quite smoothly. Of course they want Sara and the vanguard to get more experience so they¡¯re still rather strict about not letting me hog the limelight. Rather than me just temporarily helping out, it feels more like we¡¯re working together. I guess in a sense you could say we¡¯re¡­ friends. ¡°Alright, which one should we take this time? We¡¯ve got Rudeus with us now too.¡± ¡°What do you think about this one, Ane-san?¡± ¡°Hmm, an A-rank collection request, eh? Collection of snow drake scales¡­ Hmm¡­ Don¡¯t you think that¡¯s a bit above our level?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve got Rudeus with us this time. We may as well try for a big one while we have the chance.¡± Watching them debate about which request to take in front of the bulletin board brings me back. Eris and Ruijerd used to argue about that a lot too. Even though I was the one who ended up deciding in the end anyway¡­ ¡°What do you think, Rudeus?¡± ¡°Eh? Yeah, I think that one¡¯s fine.¡± Now I¡¯m the one who¡¯s being asked an opinion of instead of the one deciding. We didn¡¯t really do that back in Dead End. I¡¯m not the leader, or even the vice leader. I¡¯m just an outsider of this group, really. I state my opinion and then I get to let others decide. It¡¯s kind of nice, to be honest. ¡°Alright then, it¡¯s decided. Let¡¯s take this one.¡± At Suzanne¡¯s declaration, our request was decided. It¡¯s similar to one we did before, but it¡¯s only by piling up experience like this that results start to show. I¡¯ll do my best. The Next Day. After finishing my preparations, I went out to meet up with the members of Counter Arrow and left the city together. Our destination was to the south. Apparently the ruins we need to go are two days south of Rozenburg. I¡¯ve never been there before. I did a bit of research on our request though. Snow drake scale collecting. Around these parts, the only place snow drakes can be found is the aforementioned ruins. As their name suggests, they have scales as white as snow and are a race of lesser dragons. They¡¯re usually three to four meters long. Since they don¡¯t have wings, they can¡¯t fly. Which is why they usually build their nests in caves or labyrinths. They tend to live in flocks and are known to be pretty strong, so they¡¯re classified as an S-class monster. However, they dislike light and rarely go outside, and have a relatively gentle personality. Unless you attack their nest, they probably won¡¯t attack you so they¡¯re not very dangerous. Which is why even at worst, this request won¡¯t get a rating higher than upper A-rank. Our plan this time is to head into the Gargau Ruins where they live and search the place for any loose scales that they dropped. Snow drake scales make for pretty good insulation, so they¡¯re used a lot in buildings around here. There¡¯s a number of good insulating materials here in this cold region, but snow drake scales are among the very best. They¡¯re tough, long-lasting and on top of that, the pure white transparent scales give off a dazzlingly brilliant blue shine when light is reflected off them, making them very pretty. They¡¯re often used as tiling for the homes of nobles and the like. They¡¯re also used in making armor and shields. Basherant¡¯s royal guards all wear armor made from snow drake scales. Only a few adventurers are able to afford such equipment, but because of how effective it is against the monsters in this area, there are a few S-rank adventurers who have snow drake armor. The strongest monster around here is also the strongest in fights against other monsters. In other words, even in combat against other monsters, equipment made from the strongest monster will be effective. Simple, right? And now we¡¯re going to be heading towards the territory of said strongest monster. Of course, we don¡¯t plan to get near their nest, but there are monsters other than snow drakes living in those ruins. Even if they are supposed to be gentle, you never know if one might come attack us for some reason. Which is why everyone in the party is feeling a little nervous. So before we enter the ruins, we¡¯re having a bit more thorough planning session than usual at camp. ¡°I brought fire drake arrowheads just in case, but they might not even work.¡± ¡°You think poison would work?¡± ¡°If they hate light, wouldn¡¯t fire scare them off?¡± ¡°If that was all it took to beat them, then this wouldn¡¯t be anywhere near an S-rank request.¡± They¡¯re all pretty serious. Everyone¡¯s pooling their collective information together and trying to find out how best to be able to utilize their abilities for the upcoming fights. If everyone in this party¡¯s abilities were maximized, and they were able to gather seven people for a full party, these guys could easily move up to A-rank. Their way of doing things is too serious for most adventurers though, so they¡¯d probably have a hard time recruiting. Most adventurers just ad-lib most of their requests. ¡°You haven¡¯t said anything at all. You sure you¡¯re not gonna slow us down?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°You better be. It¡¯s bad enough that my arrows might not work on those guys¡­ If they manage to make it to you, I might not be able to back you up.¡± Even Sara¡¯s nervous. She¡¯s got unparalleled accuracy, but against opponents with scales as tough as theirs, she can¡¯t do much. Places such the eyes or mouth are still vulnerable, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that she¡¯s at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, there are a lot of A-class monsters that can easily withstand or dodge Sara¡¯s arrows. The snow drake is just one of them. Most of the other monsters living in the snow drakes¡¯ territory aren¡¯t too hard to deal with, but if we run into anything A-class or higher, Sara¡¯ll be practically useless. It¡¯s pretty frustrating to think about, especially for an adventurer. There isn¡¯t much one can do with their power alone. Even I can¡¯t do everthing by myself. You see, a lot of people that get conceited thinking they can handle everything, then find themselves completely destroyed by a powerful enemy, or taken down by a surprise attack. This is why you have to live humbly at all times. Sara¡¯s still young, so she probably hasn¡¯t experienced failure too many times. Even now, she¡¯s still thinking, ¡°How will the party manage without me?¡± So long as we support each other, we should be fine. If we still can¡¯t manage somehow¡­ Well, we¡¯ll worry about that bridge when we have to cross it. ¡°There¡¯s no need to get so worked up, guys. At the end of the day, our request is to collect their scales, not fight them. It¡¯s just like we¡¯re cleaning up after them.¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s just try our best not to get into any fights in the first place.¡± ¡°If we find ourselves in trouble we can just run away.¡± ¡°You guys are fast at running, that¡¯s for sure.¡± ¡°Mimiru, you¡¯re the one who runs away the fastest out of all of us, you know?¡± At Timothy¡¯s words, everyone laughed, and some of the tension dissipated. He¡¯s usually pretty quiet, but he always knows what to say at the right times. I should learn from him. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go guys.¡± Suzanne slapped her fist into her palm and everyone¡¯s faces got serious as they stood up. The entrance to the ruins were past a mountain stream. Floating bits of ice could be seen travelling down the stream, past the cliff into the valley. A cave entrance waited just ahead of the stream. Half of the cave was covered in ice and huge pillars of it covered the roof like eaves, making it hard to see inside from above. It honestly looked more like a bear¡¯s cave than ancient ruins. So much so that I actually wonder if we¡¯re at the right place or not. Though, it¡¯s been said that the entrance to Gargau Ruins, which had been discovered by accident by an adventurer 10 years ago, was indeed supposed to look like this. There¡¯s not much information on the inside of the ruins though. ¡°This is the right place, right?¡± Suzanne muttered exactly what I was thinking. ¡°I can see footprints, so most likely.¡± There were indeed footprints where Sara was pointing. The exact amount was hard to tell, but it was obvious a fair number of people had passed in and out. ¡°Uh oh¡­ Does that mean someone else took this request too?¡± ¡°No. These footprints are five or six days old, so I don¡¯t think so.¡± ¡°But it is possible we¡¯ll have company.¡± ¡°There¡¯s footprints leading out of the cave too, they might have gone back.¡± While listening to Suzanne and Sara¡¯s conversation, I began making preparations to enter the cave. I take out the torch I¡¯d bought beforehand and light the tip. If you¡¯re going to be searching a cave, light is a necessity. A lamp works too, but the torch¡¯s fire itself can be used as a weapon, and you can be a lot rougher with a torch without it breaking. In a fight you can throw it and still have it work as a light source as well. It¡¯s true that it¡¯s possible there¡¯s gas spread throughout the cave, so bringing a torch would get you in big trouble. Using too much fire could also consume all the oxygen within, suffocating you, but if you¡¯re worried about those kinds of things you¡¯re better off not going into caves in the first place. I do wish there was something that gave off a more powerful light than a torch though, like a LED lantern or something. ¡°The ground¡¯s frozen over in places, so watch your step.¡± Suzanne, who was at the head of the party, called back to us. Apparently there¡¯s some parties who designate a specific member to hold the torch when exploring labyrinths, but in our case, everyone had a torch. None of us have good night vision. Plus, we have an archer with us, so the brighter the better in our case. With all six of us holding torches it was pretty bright. Maybe not quite as bright as it was outside, but still plenty bright. All idle chatter stopped once we entered the cave. We silently walk forward on the slightly downward sloping path. There aren¡¯t very many monsters. Every so often, some centipede like monster comes out, but they¡¯re so weak that Suzanne takes them out with ease on her own, so we haven¡¯t really been in a battle yet. Well, if a bunch of monsters showed up on this narrow cavern path, we¡¯d be in trouble so it¡¯s probably better this way. If it looks like the relative number of monsters is going to keep on increasing as we go deeper, we might have to consider retreating. Even if the very inner parts are devoid of monsters, if the path is full of them we¡¯ll have to reconsider the mission. Patches of the ground have frozen over, so you need to watch your step if you don¡¯t want to trip and fall. We¡¯ve put spikes on our boots just in case, but you can still always slip. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± ¡°Whoa!¡± Sara, who¡¯s right in front of me, started to fall backwards, so I quickly shot out an arm to support her. Having a foresight eye comes in handy at times like this. Actually, it comes in handy most times. I haven¡¯t really run into a situation where it hasn¡¯t. ¡°Hey, where do you think you¡¯re grabbing?¡± ¡°Nowhere in particular?¡± I put her back down on dry land, and Sara turned back to glare at me while patting down her chest. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Her face was completely red, but she was still glaring at me. I guess she¡¯s mad that I touched her boobs. Honestly though, I only remember the sensation of touching somewhere hard. I didn¡¯t even actually feel her boobs, just the hard breastplate. There¡¯s no real need to get mad. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to get excited by something so trivial. Maybe in the past my heart might have skipped a beat, but I¡¯m no virgin anymore. ¡°Sorry.¡± Well, I still apologize anyway. This path really is narrow, so it¡¯s only natural that the distance between us is going to get smaller. Right now Suzanne and Patris are taking up the vanguard, Mimiru and Sara in the middle, with me and Timothy at the rear. Basically, double file columns. In front of me is the back of Sara¡¯s head, but considering she¡¯s a bit shorter than me and in front of her is the fully grown Patris. She probably can¡¯t see anything at all. It¡¯d be better if the front row moved a bit to the side so the middle row would have a clear line of sight, but unfortunately there just isn¡¯t enough space. We just gotta keep going like this. Worst case, I can always just make an earth wall in front of our vanguard if needed. ¡°Oh¡­¡± As I was thinking that, the cave suddenly came to an end. As we stepped through, it got bright enough that you¡¯d think we¡¯re back outside, and our visibility improved greatly. ¡°Ooooh¡­¡± Looking up at the ceiling, you could see a countless number of things giving off a bluish white light. I can¡¯t tell if it¡¯s some kind of jewel, or moss or what. We can¡¯t tell what they are, but they¡¯re giving off enough light that we¡¯ll be fine without our torches. The path¡¯s gotten a lot wider too. You could barely fit two people side by side before, but now there¡¯s enough room for five people to walk with space to spare. Further in, you could see one side of the road ended at a cliff. The bottom of the cliff is a lot darker so it¡¯s harder to make out, but it seems like a lake or river of some sort lies at the bottom. If it¡¯s a lake, it¡¯s an underground one. There¡¯s definitely huge fish and stuff living at the bottom so I certainly don¡¯t want to fall in. The path ahead runs parallel to the cliff, ending at our destination. It¡¯s old and crumbling, but you can still make out the shape of a giant fortress. That¡¯s Gargau Ruins. ¡°Gargau Ruins are the remains of an old fortress that was built back during the first great human-demon war. It was created by the Subterranean Demon Lord, Raagon Haagon, who was feared as one of the five great demon lords at the time.¡± Timothy muttered. Sounds like the name of some evil demon the bad guy would summon with his dying breath. ¡°The demon lord was a master of God-class earth magic, so he created a fortress where humans could never hope to reach. Then he constructed an intricate network of underground roads to launch surprise attacks on the human forces.¡± ¡°Wow¡­ you sure know a lot Timothy-san.¡± ¡°The area around here used to be the main battleground between the subterranean demons and the humans, so legends of the battles have been passed down since then. I used to hear about it a lot, is all.¡± Stories passed down through the generations, huh? Well, there is a giant underground fortress right here, so the stories are probably true. I guess they made a bunch of roads and forts like this, and launched surprise attacks from underground. Knowing their walls were useless, always afraid of when and where the next attack will come from¡­ I¡¯m amazed the humans managed to win that war considering who they were up against. ¡°You were born in Ranoa, right, Timothy?¡± Suzanne said, turning around. ¡°Yes. I was born in a nameless village in Ranoa, studied at the famous Magic University in Sharia, dreamed of becoming an adventurer and headed off to Asura, found out how harsh reality really is, and now I¡¯m here.¡± Ranoa, eh. I¡¯ll find myself heading there eventually. ¡°Enemy Attack!¡± As I was spacing out thinking about the future, Sara suddenly shouted, threw down her torch, and unslung her bow. Ahead of us was a one meter long black something that was flying right at us. Pretty fast too. ¡°Giant bats!¡± ¡°Battle formation everyone! Rear guard, I¡¯m counting on you!¡± At Sara¡¯s shout, Suzanne began calling out orders, and Patris stood in front of me like a wall. Suzanne, Patris, and Mimiru all took up positions to guard me, Timothy, and Sara. Even if the space had opened up to become wider, with the cliff right next to us, it would be hard to go up against flying enemies with limited mobility. Thus, the vanguard would make a shield wall, and leave attacking to the ranged members of the party. ¡°Hya!¡± With a small yell, Sara started shooting arrows one after the other. The arrows all flew towards the fast moving bats as if they were being sucked right to them. Boom, headshot. One of the giant bats spiralled down and fell off the cliff. Each shot was beautiful. It¡¯s almost like art. ¡°Small embers, burst forth into a blistering blaze, enveloping all! Flamethrower!¡± Timothy went for the less artistic approach. With both hands pointing upwards, he simply opted to roast the giant bats with AoE fire magic. An instant later, two more bats fell into the lake. ¡°Blast Wave!¡± I was even less artistic than that. I just raised both of my hands, and created an explosion in midair. I figure for bats of this size, this should be enough. And as I expected, the remaining bats get puncture holes through their wings, making them incapable of flight, and causing them to all fall. As I watched the giant bats lose altitude, I let out a relieved sigh. And all of a sudden, something appeared from the lake. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± ¡°Uwaa¡­¡± The men¡¯s voice of awe and Sara¡¯s disgusted squeal overlap. What had come out of the lake and swallowed the giant bats whole was an even larger frog. With that poisonous-looking blue and black speckling, it looks just like a poison dart frog. That guy¡¯s gotta be poisonous. I can¡¯t tell how big it is from up here, but it swallowed that one meter bat whole, like it was nothing. It¡¯s at least five meters long, if not longer. It keeps on turning back and forth energetically, probably wondering if there won¡¯t be any more food for it falling down. It¡¯s not hibernating even though it¡¯s winter, I guess because it¡¯s a demon. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to fall down there¡­¡± At Suzanne¡¯s muttered words, Sara shivered and nodded vigorously. Looks like she doesn¡¯t like frogs. ¡°Let¡¯s get going. Be careful not to fall in.¡± At Timothy¡¯s words, we started walking down the cliff path. The Gargau Ruins were so huge that looking at them up close overwhelmed you. It was five stories tall, and as wide as a middle school building. It¡¯s impossible to tell how deep it goes, but considering how it¡¯s buried in boulders, it must go pretty far in. I won¡¯t say it¡¯s among the very biggest buildings I¡¯ve seen in this world, but¡­ considering something this big was built entirely underground, I can¡¯t help but be amazed. And it was all made with earth magic too. The entrance wasn¡¯t a grand front gate, but more a service entrance kind of thing. Really just a hole in the wall. The view in there was spectacular as well. To the left there¡¯s the cliff road we came on stretching on forever. On the right you can see a giant cavity, and the lake spreading out beneath it. Even in my old world you would¡¯ve been hard pressed to find a view like this. At best, you¡¯d be able to see it in a game or a picture somewhere, a true fantasy scene. But right now¨Cseeing it in person¨CI feel something I¡¯d never be able to feel from just a picture. The smell, the atmosphere, the occasional splash of the frog surfacing, sending ripples along the lake; they all gave this a true sense of reality. I just kept staring blankly at the view, while idle thoughts like [What would it be like to swim in there?] crossed my mind. ¡°How long are you going to stare?¡± ¡°Ah, sorry, I¡¯m coming.¡± At Sara¡¯s words, I shook myself back to reality and rejoined the group. ¡°Do you like buildings or something?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say I like them really. More so, it¡¯s just I haven¡¯t seen something quite like this before.¡± ¡°Right¡­¡± I¡¯m still in the middle of a job. If I had a camera or something I¡¯d have taken a picture, but we really don¡¯t have time for this. I need to hurry up and finish this mission so I can go home. To that¡­ cold lonely room that houses only me¡­ ¡°¡­¡­¡± I turned my neck, shook off those depressing thoughts, and looked forward. ¡°So this is what a fortress made back in the first great demon-human war looks like¡­¡± Seeing as I had traveled the Demon Continent before, I do have some idea as to what demon architecture is like. Starting from Kishirisu Castle in Rikaris, I¡¯ve seen a lot of large castles giving off a strange vibe. These ruins gave off that vibe too, but I¡¯m not sure whether it¡¯s because it¡¯s older or not. The vibe was slightly different from usual. Maybe it¡¯s because it was built for war. The scale of it is huge, even the ceiling is five meters high. Despite that, the passageways are quite narrow, giving off a sense of discord. Maybe the ceiling was built this high because the demons that used it were that tall. Unlike humans, there¡¯s a lot of different races of demons. They probably built this fortress with that in mind, and made the passages narrow to make it easier to defend if the fortress ever got assaulted. ¡°Hmm¡­ Make a right here, Suza.¡± ¡°Gotcha.¡± I just realized Timothy¡¯s holding a map of the ruins in one hand as he¡¯s walking. I guess enough people must have gone in and out of here that a map of the place got made. ¡°Sheesh, why¡¯d the demons have to make this place so complicated?¡± Timothy, who¡¯s standing next to me, sighed. I took a quick peek at the map in his hand and I saw the inner part was designed like one huge maze. From the quick glance I was able to get, it just looked like they made it needlessly complicated because they thought it¡¯d be cool or something. Considering how demons are, I wouldn¡¯t put it past them¡­ ¡°Their bodies are built differently from ours, maybe something like this was more convenient for them?¡± ¡°Makes sense.¡± Even if they did hide themselves underground, on the off chance that they¡¯d have to fight in the fortress, they probably built these tall ceilings and narrow passageways so flying demons and demons that can stick to walls could fight properly. Like, it¡¯s quite possible that that ventilation duct looking thing was actually a passageway for flying species. Even if it¡¯s only for some of them, having passageways demons could traverse that humans could not would probably have been very convenient. ¡°¡­¡­¡± More importantly, we haven¡¯t seen any monsters at all since we entered the fortress. Supposedly, there¡¯s a lot of bug-like and and amphibian-like monsters inside the ruins, but we haven¡¯t seen a single one. There¡¯s a few bones scattered here and there and bloodstains in various places, but no sign of an actual monster. Can¡¯t really say that it¡¯s reassuring though. Just then, the sound of wind rushing past reaches my ears. [Whoooooosh.] The kind of sound that sends chills down your spine. ¡°Enemy attack!¡± The moment we heard that sound, Mimiru shouted out. Upon hearing his shout, I look in front, behind, and even above me, but I can¡¯t see anything, giving me a really bad feeling. ¡°Where!?¡± ¡°Below us!¡± The enemy was below us. A bit further down the road, a pile of fallen bones began to assemble themselves with a loud clattering, and stood up. It was a bone-man! I mean, a skeleton. And then, as if beckoned by the skeleton, a translucent something showed itself. That something has no neck and no legs. With the rough outline of a person, and clad in a fluttering cloak, it slowly glided towards us. It was a ghost. ¡°It¡¯s some skeletons and a wraith!¡± ¡°Lure them in as far as you can, Patris!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± ¡°Sara, Timothy, Rudeus, get back! Aim only for the skeletons!¡± ¡°Gotcha!¡± At Suzanne¡¯s words, I backed up a little. The skeletons began clattering towards us, rusted swords in hand. They¡¯re surprisingly fast. ¡°Outta my way!¡± Sara slipped past me and Timothy who were in the rear, and headed forwards. She had her bow slung on her back, and had a large knife in hand instead. ¡°Rudeus, the skeletons are weak to strong striking attacks!¡± ¡°Perfect!¡± I raised my hands towards the skeletons. Striking attacks are my specialty, these guys are toast. ¡°Stone Cannon!¡± My most powerful spell shot towards the frontmost skeleton, and completely pulverised it. The stone bullet kept on going through the first, and smashed another behind it. ¡°O¡¯ ye capricious God. Heed my call and sunder thine foe. Stone Cannon!¡± A bit slower than me, Timothy also fires off his stone cannon, but it stops after destroying just one skeleton. Guess I win¡­ Not like this is the time to be competing about sort kind of trivial stuff or anything. ¡°We¡¯ve finished¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s not over yet!¡± As I was about to turn around to go support Suzanne and the rest, Timothy¡¯s shout had me turn back again. ¡°Ah!¡± The skeletons popped into my field of view. The one I¡¯d destroyed was slowly gathering its scattered bones and reforming once more. ¡°As long as that wraith¡¯s alive, these skeletons are immortal!¡± Come to think of it, I do remember hearing something like that. Skeletons are completely immortal. Even if you burn them they¡¯ll still move around while on fire. I you burn them down to ash, they¡¯ll reform from those ashes. That¡¯s why the most effective method is striking blows. It¡¯s the best way to incapacitate them. Once you¡¯ve incapacitated the skeletons you can focus on bringing down the wraith. You can bring the wraith down with fire magic, but that¡¯s just a temporary measure. Given enough time, even a completely burned away wraith can revive. The most effective way to eliminate a ghost is holy magic. It¡¯s far more effective and permanent than fire magic. If you destroy a wraith with holy magic, it can¡¯t revive again. Technically you can completely destroy a skeleton with holy magic as well, turning it into particles of light, but as long as the wraith still lives, it can just keep summoning more. ¡°O¡¯ mother earth, grace us with thy blessing! Bring divine punishment down upon those foolish enough to disturb thy holy order! Exorcist Rate!¡± It looks like Mimiru can use holy magic. I turned around upon hearing that unfamiliar chant, and saw Mimiru¡¯s ball of light collide with the wraith. ¡°Gyaaaaaaaaah!¡± The wraith disappeared with an agonized scream. It¡¯s translucent body was torn to shreds and bursts into particles of light. At the same time, the skeletons all fell into a crumbled heap, as if their strings had been cut. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s all of them! Everyone, return to your positions!¡± At Suzanne¡¯s words, Sara slipped past me again, and stood in front of me. Mimiru returned to the middle as well, and our original position was restored. But wow, so that¡¯s what holy magic is like. ¡°That¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen holy magic¡­ and ghost-type monsters to¡­¡± ¡°This is only my second time encountering them too. The first time we had no idea how to handle them and one of our comrades died. It was pretty harsh.¡± ¡°Was Mimiru not in your party back then?¡± ¡°Well, this was back before this party was even formed. Still, I¡¯m glad we practised our coordination for situations like these.¡± While Timothy and I were talking, Sara turned back to us,and raised a finger to her lips. I guess our conversation was too loud, making it hard for her to hear her surroundings. ¡°Sorry.¡± Now¡¯s not the time for idle chatter. Complacency leads to death. Still, it¡¯s rather strange that ghost-type monsters would show up here. That ghost¡­ It almost looked like a soldier. Maybe it¡¯s a remnant way back from the first great human-demon war? Nah. Can¡¯t be. There¡¯s no way such an old ghost would still be left here in a place where people pass through a decent amount now. It must¡¯ve been the ghost of an adventurer who died here a few years past. Namu Amida Butsu. May your soul reach nirvana. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re here.¡± My thoughts returned to the present at Suzanne¡¯s words. Ahead of us, the maze-like passageways finally came to an end, opening up into a huge hall. It seemed to span a hundred odd meters, and ended at a crumbled staircase. Rows of giant stone statues lined both walls. The layout just screamed that the room that lay ahead was of great importance. ¡°Oooh.¡± And then the floor, a huge number of white scales were scattered all over, strewn across the ground like freshly fallen sakura petals. They¡¯re what we came here for, snow drake scales. For something that¡¯s supposedly so valuable, there sure are a lot of them just lying around. Apparently this location is in the middle of the route that the snow drakes take to find their prey. Before heading out to go catch their prey, or after they¡¯ve already caught it, they come here to groom themselves. If you want to get their scales, this is the best place. ¡°Past this is the snow drakes¡¯ territory. Don¡¯t go past that last statue over there. Got it, everyone?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Everyone gave out a rousing cry and began gathering the scales. I¡¯m in a group with Sara and Timothy. We¡¯re on the lookout for any enemies. According to reports, the snow drakes live further in. Giant bats, myconids, wraiths, and giant moles might show up from the other side or the second floor. If snow drakes show up, we hide. If other monsters show up, we bring them down. Amidst all that, we¡¯ll continue gathering scales until the six bags we brought are all completely full, then go home. Mission complete. If a battle with snow drakes becomes inevitable, we might be in some trouble, but even then¡­ This is a bit too easy for an A-rank request. Honestly, it wouldn¡¯t have been weird to have run into more monsters on our way here either, but we¡¯ve seen surprisingly few. The only thing of note in here was the wraith. It¡¯s always times like this where something bad happens, so I need to be careful. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Thinking that, I keep a close eye on the entrance to the snow drakes¡¯ lair. I take a look at the innermost statue. It was in the form of an alluring woman, wearing short pants, a breastplate, and a large cloak, with a hand wrapped in chains at her waist standing with legs spread apart. It¡¯s a shame her head¡¯s fallen off. In between the space between her legs is an entrance to the other side, the beginning of the snow drake¡¯s territory. If they¡¯re gonna come, it¡¯s going to be from there. ¡°¡­¡­¡± For some reason I can¡¯t help but feel like I¡¯ve seen that kind of costume that statue is wearing somewhere else before. Ah! Could it be? Is that a statue of Kishirika Kishirisu!? When I saw her before she looked just like a kid though¡­ Eh, I guess the statue was made by exaggerating her features. It wouldn¡¯t be strange to paint her as such a beautiful woman. I think they might have exaggerated a bit too much though. Especially her breast size¡­ and height. Yeah. They¡¯re huge¡­ ¡°Whoops, no time for that now.¡± Focus, focus. We could be attacked at any time, or an unexpected incident could occur, I need to stay focused. Besides, I¡¯ve stopped getting so worked up over just seeing a pair of boobs. I mean, I know what the real thing feels like now. I¡¯m no virgin. ¡°What was that!?¡± Timothy suddenly shouted. At the same time, a piercing roar reached my ears. ¡°I¡¯ve got a bad feeling about this¡­¡± ¡°Everyone, battle formation! Now! Put your bags near the entrance!¡± That bad feeling was right. We all gather together staying vigilant. That piercing roar just now definitely came from further inside, and it¡¯s getting louder. ¡°¡­¡­¡± We all exchange nervous glances. The number of roars is increasing too. If a huge number of monsters pop out, we¡¯ll have to just take the scales we¡¯ve already harvested and run. The three that were out collecting managed to get enough to fill three bags. That should be enough for the request. Suzanne looked once more to the scales, our bags, and then back where the roaring was coming from. ¡°From the sounds of it, they¡¯re not heading this way. We should hurry up and collect as much as we can, as fast as we can.¡± As Suzanne said that, she glanced back again at the empty bags. It¡¯s true that that roar was far off and didn¡¯t seem to be heading this way. If something else has gotten the snow drakes all riled up, then it is true that now¡¯s our chance to grab as much as we can. At the end of the day, this is all still conjecture, and it¡¯s quite possible we might get mixed up in whatever battle¡¯s going on. Do we play it safe and finish the request with the minimal amount required to clear it, or do we take a risk and try to get as big a reward as possible? The longer we sit here waiting, the closer that danger gets to us. I guess it is possible that nothing might happen in the end too, but either way, it¡¯s best to decide if we¡¯re going to run or keep going quickly. ¡°I think we should try and get more.¡± ¡°Me too.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t take long.¡± Sara, Patris, and Mimiru all seem to agree with Suzanne¡¯s opinion. Honestly, I think we¡¯re better off running away. Unfortunately however, I don¡¯t stand to lose anything if we fail this request. I¡¯m not the one that has to pay the failure fee, so I don¡¯t say anything. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s just grab a little more. Be quick about it.¡± At Timothy¡¯s words, we all return to collecting scales. Our watch was strengthened, and from the sounds of it, the roaring was getting louder and more violent. I tightly gripped my staff, and continued to stare past the statues. The roars were still far away. It felt like they were coming from in front of us, towards us. Perhaps due to the echoing through the ruins, it also felt like they were coming from behind us. It might be better if I seal all passageways except the one we came in through. If I do that though, we¡¯ll be doomed if monsters start swarming our previous route. I need to calm down. As long as we don¡¯t understand the situation, taking any drastic measures might backfire on us. Fortunately, we still haven¡¯t had to fight much. We¡¯ve still got most of our strength left. We¡¯ve got enough spare energy to pull ourselves out of a pinch. Yeah, that¡¯s why Suzanne prioritized gathering as well. If monsters show up, I¡¯ll beat them down. That¡¯s all I need to think about. While thinking that, I wait for everyone else to finish gathering scales. While listening to those roars that almost make my legs tremble, I simply wait. ¡°Hm?¡± The closer we get to finishing our harvesting, the smaller the screams seem to be getting as well. ¡°Huh¡­?¡± Suzanne looked up quizzically at the direction the screams were coming from. Looks like my fears were groundless. Maybe it¡¯s their mating season and that was just the sound of them courting each other. Certain animals get loud like that when it¡¯s their mating season too. Thinking that, just as I was about to release my grip on my staff¡ª ¡°Enemy attack!¡± From between the legs where the statue¡¯s head had fallen came a giant white clump. Lizard-like creatures with four legs and pure white scales¨Csnow drakes¨Cstarted pouring out from behind the statue with alarming speed. Seemingly, my field of vision was completely filled with them. With bloodshot eyes they spotted us and stopped suddenly right before reaching our location. I counted six of them. The rest were beyond my line of sight. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Everything happened so suddenly that even Timothy just stopped what he was doing and stared. No one could even say the word retreat. Its as if the other side is just as stunned as we are. I¡¯ve never seen a surprised lizard before, but these guys¡¯ eyes were all open wide. They all stopped right before us, vigilant, threateningly opening their mouths and bearing their fangs. As if time itself had stopped, we just stared at each other, the snow drakes and us. ¡°Run!¡± At my shout it was as if some spell had finally been broken, Timothy and the rest all turned and made a beeline for the exit. ¡°Gaaah! Not this shit again!¡± As if Patris¡¯ shout had served as some kind of signal, the snow drakes all began to move as well. ¡°Earth Fortress!¡± I raised up a giant wall of earth in order to block up the passage, creating a barrier between us and the snow drakes. It rose up to the height of the statues¡¯ shoulder, blocking off the snow drakes. Once the wall had been formed, I too turned around and began to run. When I glanced back, I involuntarily let out an undignified scream. The snow drakes are just like lizards. A wall, no matter how high, is no obstacle for them. They started pouring in from the gaps between the wall and the ceiling, and the sides of the passageway. Dammit, at this rate they¡¯ll catch up to us. Thanks to my daily jogging routine, I¡¯m not out of breath, but that¡¯s all. I¡¯m still slow. ¡°Ngh!¡± I turned around, and raised my hands. What¡¯s strong against lizards? Cold? I wonder if I can use it to slow their movements down. ¡°Blizzard Storm!¡± I instantly fired off an ice magic spell. A frigid wind started to blow, causing the scales on the ground to dance through the air. Frozen spears of ice as thick as my thighs shot towards the snow drakes. However, despite the narrow passageway, the snow drakes were able to nimbly dodge them. A few managed to hit their marks, but they didn¡¯t seem to have much effect. They weren¡¯t strong enough to penetrate those drakes¡¯ scales. I messed up. Their scales are great insulators and hey have to live in this frozen wasteland. Of course ice magic wouldn¡¯t work on them. The wall¡¯s being torn down too. From the rubble more white lumps can be seen heading towards us. There¡¯s more than I can count on even two hands. Giant white lizards are rushing at me. A bunch of them. I didn¡¯t see this many before, but more must have come as they were trying to get past the wall. Despite their huge size, every single of them move as nimbly and quickly as a small lizard. It¡¯s no good, I can¡¯t outrun them. I¡¯m gonna have to fight. I¡¯m going to have to retreat while fighting. I wonder if I can manage that. Probably not. I wonder if everyone else at least managed to get away. I¡¯ve left a letter back at the inn in case I die. It¡¯s a rule among adventurers that if someone dies, the remaining party members sort out the dead person¡¯s affairs. I¡¯m not a member of Counter Arrow, but I wonder if they¡¯ll deliver that letter to my family all the same¡­ I put my left hand in my pocket, and grip what¡¯s inside. I prepare myself to face the onslaught of snow drakes. ¡°Syah!¡± At that moment, I hear a voice behind me. An arrow flies past me, and strikes a snow drake square in the eye. ¡°Guyaaaaaah!¡± The snow drake let out a terrifying scream, stumbled sideways, and crashed into a statue. With its side still scraping against the wall, it slipped past us. ¡°Small embers burst forth into a blistering blaze, enveloping all! Flamethrower!¡± From my left, flames leapt up. Scared by the flames, the snow drakes stopped in their tracks. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Patris!¡± ¡°Yeah!¡± With Suzanne taking point, Patris and Mimiru leapt out in front of me. Three in the vanguard and three in the rear guard. Somehow with me in the center, that¡¯s what our formation looks like. ¡°Looks like they¡¯re not coming any closer! Just try to repel the ones in front of us!¡± ¡°You got it!¡± ¡°From the left!¡± While coordinating with each other, the vanguard began fending off the snow drake flock. Sara provided support with her bow, Timothy with his magic. They came to save me? Why? I¡¯m not even one of their party members. ¡°¡­¡­¡± While I was staring dumbfounded, Timothy lightly slapped me in the back. They came to save me. The moment I realized that, my heart began overflowing with warmth ¡°Nrgh!¡± I forcibly suppress these feelings. I don¡¯t know why. I just know I can¡¯t handle it right now. I can¡¯t handle that warmth. ¡°Stop spacing out! Help fight, you dolt!¡± Sara¡¯s voice brought me back to reality. ¡°G-Got it!¡± I point my staff at the snow drakes and begin gathering magical energy. Thanks to the vanguard holding them back, I¡¯m beginning to regain my composure. It doesn¡¯t really feel like they¡¯re attacking us. More so we¡¯re just an obstacle in their way that they need to eliminate, like they¡¯re trying to just get past us. They¡¯re avoiding us, and following the walls and ceiling to get behind us. In other words, our opponent isn¡¯t all of them. As long as we take care of the ones directly in front of us we¡¯re fine. If we deal enough damage, they¡¯ll just try to avoid us and run away. They¡¯re not like cornered rats, more like fleeing enemies. Sara¡¯s bow isn¡¯t all that effective, and Timothy isn¡¯t dealing any fatal wounds with his magic. Suzanne and Patris¡¯ attacks definitely aren¡¯t doing much damage either. If we can just hold out, we¡¯ll be fine. ¡°Stone Cannon!¡± Trying to divert the enemy in front of me, I fire a stone cannon at it. I get a direct hit and destroy its scales, damaging the flesh underneath. But it¡¯s still not a fatal wound. That¡¯s mostly because of the distance between us. The snow drake just barely managed to angle its body, lessening the impact, but that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s enough to make it change course. I simply keep repeating that action. That¡¯s all that¡¯ll keep us alive. ¡°Alright, everyone. Start moving towards the wall!¡± At Suzanne¡¯s words we all start heading towards the wall. Staying at the side of the wall will put us further out of the way of their rush than staying in the middle of the passage would. And if we follow the wall all the way back, we¡¯ll reach the exit. I don¡¯t know how long this wave of snow drakes is going to continue for but at this rate we should be able to escape. While thinking that, I continue to slowly move right. ¡°HORA HORA HORA!¡± Suddenly a spray of blood spouted from within the wave of snow drakes. Something jumped and ran towards the battlefield at high speed, hacking through the crowd of snow drakes. That wasn¡¯t all. From another place within the wave of snow drakes, something else showed up, firing off fire magic. As if being chased out by those things, the snow drakes continued to run away from them, trying to escape outside. ¡°Come on! Is that all you¡¯ve got!?¡± At the front was a man, taking down one drake after another, and behind him were a few guys supporting him. Reinforcements! I exchange glances with Timothy, looks like he¡¯s thinking the same thing. ¡°Alright, we¡¯re going on the offensive guys!¡± ¡°Yeah! Leave it to me!¡± With Suzanne at the front, we began our counterattack I was the one that took out the last snow drake. I got it right in the head with a stone cannon, boring right through its brain. ¡°Guess it¡¯s finally over.¡± I mumble, still vigilant about my surroundings. Scattered all around were the corpses of snow drakes. Most of them were beaten by the guys who came halfway through the fight, but we managed to take out a good number ourselves. Not a single one was left moving. I looked around at the ceilings and shadows to make sure there weren¡¯t any left hiding, but it looks like we¡¯re good. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Finally, I make eye contact with the group that came out from deep within the ruins. At the center was a Swordsman wearing a navy blue coat, surrounded by his party. Everyone was looking at us. There¡¯s another guy with the sword, one with a shield, and another with a staff¡­ No doubt about it, they¡¯re adventurers. The one in the very front is probably a Swordsman. A pretty good one at that. He began walking briskly over towards us. Maybe it was because the battle had just ended, but he had a rather menacing expression still. Regardless, it¡¯s still true he saved us so we have to show our thanks. Thinking that, I exchange glances with Timothy. It¡¯s times like this the party leader needs to act like a representative and do the talking. While it is true my slow retreat is the cause of this whole mess, I pull back and let Timothy handle this. ¡°Man, thanks for saving us back there. I¡¯m Timothy, of Counter Arrow.¡± Timothy says, courteously. ¡°We were¡ª Kuh!¡± Suddenly¨Cwith that grim expression still on his face¨Cthe man punched Timothy. As Timothy hit the ground, Suzanne and Sara reacted instantly, readying their weapons. ¡°You¡¯re the ones who stole our prey! Don¡¯t even think about doing anything stupid.¡± He glared at Sara and Suzanne. The man gave off a dreadful aura. You could feel his bloodlust. ¡°Steal!? They just suddenly came out and started attacking us! We¡¯re the ones who got caught up in this!¡± Suzanne shouted. The man simply smirked, and turned his gaze towards Suzanne. ¡°Sneaking in through a backdoor while we¡¯re busy working just to snatch some scales¨Cand you¡¯re complaining about being suddenly attacked?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like we knew you were here on a job!¡± ¡°Everyone knows! We announced it practically everywhere!¡± ¡°Yeah, well¡ª We don¡¯t!¡± The guy¡¯s pretty mad, as are the people behind him. It looks like this conversation¡¯s getting nowhere, but I recognize who these guys are now. They¡¯re ¡°Step Treedar¡±. An S-rank adventurer party. They¡¯re part of the large clan, Thunderbolt, and are highly accomplished. They¡¯re based in Rozenburg and are known as the strongest adventurers in the area. This guy must be Step Treedar¡¯s leader, Zoldart Heckler. He¡¯s a master of the Sword God style, one of the best swordsmen around. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± I suddenly made the connection. In response to my sudden exclamation, Suzanne turned back to me. Not just her, everyone there turned to look at me. With this many gazes locked onto me, I winced a little. ¡°Did you realize something Rudeus?¡± ¡°Well¡­ Now that I think about it, I did hear about an S-rank request being taken up back at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± Back when Counter Arrow was out on a different request, news of it had been circulating around the guild. They¡¯d been going on about how they were going to take the request and make a huge name for themselves, and that everyone should praise them when they get back and stuff¨Cbut that request had been¡­ ¡°A request to eliminate the large herd of snow drakes that had suddenly appeared at Ilbron Caverns.¡± ¡°Ilbron Caverns!? That¡¯s a full day away from here!¡± Suzanne exclaimed. In response to that, Zoldart frowned and shouted. ¡°Are you retarded!? What do you mean a day away? This is Ilbron Caverns!¡± ¡°What was that!? You¡¯re the retarded one! This is Gargau Ruins!¡± A shouting match broke out between Zoldart and Suzanne. ¡°Suzanne, calm down.¡± Timothy, who¡¯d been punched earlier, stood up and pulled Suzanne back. ¡°Timothy¡­ Are you ok?¡± ¡°Yeah, seems like he held back¡­ Sara, you can put your bow away.¡± Timothy patted his neck with one hand, and held the other out to stop Sara. She reluctantly put her bow away. ¡°I think I get it now.¡± Timothy heaved a sigh, but still smiling, looked up to Zoldart and spoke. ¡°It¡¯s indeed true that a few days back a large number of monsters appeared in Ilbron Caverns, and the party that went to go eliminate them got annihilated. It¡¯s also said the lone survivor came back to report that a huge nest of snow drakes had been discovered¡­ I know that much.¡± Yeah, I know that too. The Ilbron Caverns are a series of caverns about a day¡¯s travel from Rozenburg that are mostly populated with E to D-ranked monsters. There¡¯s a lot of salt deposits in the caverns so adventurers go in there from time to time. A few days back though, a large number of C-class monsters started to show up in the caverns suddenly. There¡¯s a town near the caverns, and Rozenburg itself is pretty close too, so it was a rather dangerous situation and an elimination request popped up quite quickly. However, the party that went to go eliminate the monsters got wiped out instead, and the lone survivor came back with reports that a large snow drake nest had been found in the caverns, and the previously B-ranked request got bumped up to an S-rank request. Suddenly no one wanted to risk the request. That¡¯s where the S-rank adventurer party Step Treedar, whose primary occupation is labyrinth exploration, came up and took on the request. ¡°I¡¯d wondered why we¡¯d seen so few monsters on our way here¡­ but I get it now. It looks like the innermost parts of Gargau Ruins are connected to the Ilbron Caverns somewhere, and for some reason all the monsters started pouring into the caverns from the ruins.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± What is now the Gargau Ruins was once a demon fortress. A castle built underground, with holes leading to the surface so that the demons could launch surprise attacks on the humans. If the Ilbron Caverns are just one of those underground paths to the surface, then¡­ it all makes sense. I don¡¯t know if that passage was sealed purposely because of the war, or if cave-ins over a long number of years ended up causing it, but once that sealed passage was reopened, monsters must have followed it to their new feeding grounds, Ilbron Caverns. That¡¯s probably why there were so few monsters here. ¡°So you guys came here for a completely different request?¡± ¡°Correct. If you don¡¯t believe me, you¡¯re free to go check with the guild.¡± Zoldart spat in annoyance. ¡°Tch. Sorry for hitting you back there¡­¡± ¡°No, no. It¡¯s perfectly understandable considering there was such a misunderstanding right after that fierce battle. You were probably still just in a battle rage. I¡¯m sorry as well.¡± Even though we¡¯ve done nothing wrong. Even then, Timothy apologized. This is what they call wisdom. ¡°But still, these guys were supposed to be our prey, so you¡¯ll only get to harvest a single one of these snow drakes, got it?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± Timothy¡¯s still smiling cordially, but Sara and Suzanne don¡¯t seem very pleased. The reason they¡¯re not complaining out loud is because of the tacit agreement among adventurers. If another adventurer party gets involved when your party¡¯s fighting monsters, they only get one corpse to loot. Originally, this rule was put into place to prevent parties from purposely stealing the spoils from other parties. ¡°Just take your scales and leave. We¡¯ll handle the rest, including filling up the hole connecting Gargau ruins and the caverns.¡± With that, Zoldart turned on his heel and left. The other members of Step Treedar just shrugged, turned around, and vanished into the depths of the ruins. Guess they¡¯re going to harvest all the corpses left back at the nest. Off to hoard even more of the spoils of battle. I won¡¯t say it¡¯s unfair, but it does feel a bit disappointing to know we¡¯re not going to be able to reap the rewards of our hard work. If it wasn¡¯t for them, we wouldn¡¯t have been cornered by monsters in the first place. Honestly, we deserve compensation from them if anything. But if we asked for it¡­ It¡¯d just turn into a fight, so¡­ Well, it¡¯s complicated. ¡°Well, I guess we should get our scales and leave.¡± Looking at Timothy¡¯s tired smile and swollen cheek, I let out a sigh. Upon returning to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, we see a huge pile of snow drake fangs, claws, and scales stacked up at the back of the room. By the way, the members of Step Treedar were also at the guild, boasting about their battle exploits. ¡°So basically, it looks like Ilbron caverns and the Gargau Ruins are connected to each other after all. If it wasn¡¯t for us, you guys would be overrun by a horde of snow drakes right now!¡± As Zoldart continued to boast about his feats, those listening around him all wore forced smiles. Looking at him reminded of me of Paul for some reason. Their faces didn¡¯t look anything alike but¡­ maybe Paul had been like this when he was young. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± At any rate, none of the members of Counter Arrow really wanted to hang around in the guild. With an annoyed look on our faces, we hurry across to the receptionist to finish up the request completion procedures, and leave the guild. ¡°Alright, Rudeus, here¡¯s your share. Make sure it¡¯s the right amount.¡± ¡°Got it. Thank you very much.¡± Inside the bag I was handed were a number of snow drake scales. Even if the mood was ruined, the reward was still nice. Despite everything that happened, we were still able to get our hands on more snow drake scales than we expected. Since it¡¯s possible that due to this incident the value of snow drake scales themselves skyrockets, we decided to split the rewards in terms of the scales themselves¨Cas opposed to directly converting it all into cash. It¡¯s quite possible the value of these scales will increase in half a year. I may have no use for that much money right now, but it¡¯s better to have it than to not. ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll take my leave now.¡± ¡°Rudeus!¡± As I turned around to leave, a voice from behind called out to me. Surprisingly, the one who called out to me was Sara. She looked like she wanted to say something, and halfheartedly stretched out her hand to stop me. It¡¯s probably just going to be more insults again, though I thought that, she said ¡°Why don¡¯t you come join our celebration parties sometime, eh?¡± ¡°Huh¡­?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s more just us going drinking at the bar than an actual party, but yeah.¡± No, I know what she¡¯s talking about. Usually adventurers go to a bar or something after finishing difficult requests that took a couple of days to praise each other on their fighting skills, and generally just congratulate everyone on making it back alive. Normally I never bother participating in such things; instead I usually just go back to my room at the inn, complete my prayers, and go to sleep. They know just as well that I usually just go straight home. I¡¯m going to turn them down. I need to go home and report the past few days¡¯ worth of events to my goddess, Roxy, and once again reaffirm that I did my best today too. That¡¯s what I¡¯ve always done, and that¡¯s what I¡¯m going to keep doing. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll come. I guess.¡± For some reason I nodded in agreement to her invitation. ¡°That¡¯s rare¡­¡± Even though she¡¯s the one that invited me, she looked rather taken aback. Maybe she was waiting for me to refuse so she could just badmouth me again. ¡°Should I not?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that¡ª Anyway, come on, let¡¯s go.¡± Sara deliberately made an effort not to look displeased and turned back to me with a normal expression. Then she walked past me and began heading towards the bar. Mimiru and Patris lightly patted my shoulders, and then headed on towards the bar as well. Suzanne and Timothy looked happier than usual and lightly patted my back as well. At a bar a ways away from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, we all raised our glasses for a toast. ¡°Alright everyone, cheers!¡± ¡°Cheers!¡± It seems this bar is a bit different from the usual one they go to. They picked a bar close to the riverbank to avoid running into any members of Step Treedar. Chances are those guys are gonna go drinking soon too. ¡°You¡¯re not gonna drink?¡± ¡°I¡¯m still a minor.¡± ¡°Man, don¡¯t worry so much about your age here.¡± Everyone else was gulping down alcohol, but I¡¯d just ordered juice. The only things you can get at a bar without alcohol in them are just juice and goat milk. ¡°Come on, come on. It¡¯s fine if he doesn¡¯t want to drink. It won¡¯t make the party any less fun.¡± It looks like Timothy also isn¡¯t going to be drinking. ¡°You just can¡¯t handle your drink, dude.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that I can¡¯t drink; I just don¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°Hahaha!¡± Timothy awkwardly scratched his head, while Mimiru laughed. ¡°Sheesh¡ª¡± From the looks of it, Timothy was unable to handle his alcohol and was always the butt of the party¡¯s jokes about it. Still, it¡¯s kind of rare to find someone who can¡¯t drink at all. It¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen someone in this world that can¡¯t handle their alcohol¨Cand an adventurer at that. ¡°At any rate, we were pretty lucky to go up against that many monsters and come out alive. Normally in a situation like that, at least one of us would have died.¡± ¡°You¡¯re pretty lucky, Rudeus,¡± Sara said, while laughing. ¡°Luck, huh? I think it¡¯s more thanks to the fact that you guys saved me.¡± ¡°That was part of your luck too. A normal party would have left you to die back there.¡± Basically she¡¯s trying to say I should be showing my thanks here. Well, she¡¯s not wrong¡­ ¡°Thanks, for saving me.¡± ¡°I-It¡¯s not like I did anything! If you¡¯re going to thank someone, thank Timothy and Suzanne.¡± As I bowed my head to Sara, she just blurted that out while pouting, and downed her glass in one gulp. Suzanne was grinning and leaning over, lightly elbowing Sara. ¡°Even though she said that, the one who dashed back first was her, not me. When Mimiru said there¡¯s no way we¡¯re gonna make it in time, Sara just yelled ¡®Yes we will!¡¯ and charged in¡­ She¡¯s pretty hot-blooded.¡± ¡°Hey! Enough of that, Suzanne!¡± Sara tried to shove Suzanne back, but Suzanne simply dodged, still grinning. ¡°It¡¯s just I owed you a debt from when you saved us before, so I wanted to make things even between us! I hate owing people¨Cthat¡¯s all!¡± I avert my eyes after being glared at by Sara. Upon doing so, I make eye contact with Mimiru. ¡°Ah, no, no. I¡¯m truly thankful to you for that time a well. Yeah, it¡¯s true that I wasn¡¯t thinking the most noble of thoughts back then, but I wasn¡¯t trying to leave you for dead or anything¡­ OK?¡± ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± Mimiru made the right decision. Besides, even if he said that, he still charged all the way to the front lines to help protect me. That¡¯s enough for me. ¡°Anyways, we all managed to make it back alive. We also made a ton of money too! All in all, it was a pretty good request, I¡¯d say.¡± At Suzanne¡¯s summary of things, we all laughed. ¡°Yeah, if it hadn¡¯t been for those guys showing up at the end, this really would have been a great request¡­ Haaaah¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s with those guys anyway? Just ¡®cause they¡¯re the strongest party around here they think they can just go around acting like they¡¯re the boss of everyone.¡± ¡°Right? All they do is hole themselves up in labyrinths hunting for glory. What¡¯s with the whole: ¡®If it wasn¡¯t for us, the whole town would have been overrun with snow drakes,¡¯ bullshit? If it¡¯d really gotten that bad the army would have made a move, so who cares?¡± ¡°The one thing I can¡¯t forgive is that he punched Timothy. What kind of party leader just punches a mage like that without even knowing the situation?¡± Everyone starts grumbling about Step Treedar. Complaining like this is necessary to vent your frustrations. Since Timothy managed to let things come to a peaceful resolution, it¡¯d be worse if they couldn¡¯t let out their stress here, and then start a fight with Step Treedar over something small. I don¡¯t really plan to complain much myself. I hate this kind of petty backbiting. After all, I¡¯d been nothing but trash in my past life. I¡¯m sure that swordsman¡¯s got his own fair share of troubles too. Unpleasant guys like him are probably trying their best in their own way too, just like how worthless people are trying their best in their own way. I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s why the rest of his party puts up with it too, only expressing their displeasure with bitter smiles. It¡¯s true that Zoldart¡¯s actions back there had been wrong, but simply declaring he¡¯s a bad guy just off the first impression from our first meeting is also wrong I think. ¡°¡­¡­¡± Of course, I can¡¯t say that here. If I say something like that here, they¡¯ll just exclude me. I want to say it, but I can¡¯t. It¡¯s best that I don¡¯t right now. While thinking that, I simply eat my food. Silently. It looks like it¡¯s some kind of bean soup. The slightly salty flavor stimulates my appetite and satisfies my hunger. ¡°At any rate, looking forward to working with you from now on too, Rudeus.¡± ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re a really reliable guy, you know?¡± ¡°Thanks. I look forward to working with you all as well.¡± They¡¯re all red-faced from alcohol, enjoying themselves thoroughly. It¡¯d be nice if these fun times continue forever. Then tomorrow, we could just do the same thing and have fun again. Maybe it¡¯s not the most eventful or fulfilling of lives, but it¡¯d be a good life all the same. ¡°Ah¡ª¡± The moment I think that, the door of the bar opens, and three men enter. I recognize all three of them. Especially one of them. I¡¯d remember him even if I didn¡¯t want to. ¡°Oho.¡± The moment I notice them, they also notice us. He headed towards us with an unpleasant expression on his face. Judging by his red face and unsteady gait, he¡¯s already drunk quite a bit somewhere else. ¡°Yo!¡± He walked over drunkenly, and slammed his hand on our table. It¡¯s Zoldart Heckler. ¡°What do you want?¡± Suzanne and the rest only just took notice of him. Their faces soured immediately. That¡¯s only natural though. After all, he¡¯s the guy they were bad-mouthing literally seconds ago, and now he just suddenly showed up. ¡°I think I got a bit too worked up in da caverns back there, so let me say it properly here.¡± Zoldart stared at us straight in the eyes, and said in a loud voice, ¡°I¡¯m, well¡­ Sorry for what happened back there. I didn¡¯t think it¡¯d end up that way.¡± But surprisingly, what came out of his mouth was an apology. The members of Counter Arrow all looked nonplussed. In response, Zoldart squinted menacingly and pointed to Timothy. ¡°But, you know, youuuuu. I don¡¯t like your fashe. Eben if you did what you did to stop a fight from happening, there are times when a mansh gotta fight, ya know!¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Well, I guess so. Suzanne tells me that a lot too¡­ I¡¯ll be careful from now on.¡± ¡°Yeah! Ash long ash you get it, ish fine!¡± Zoldart slapped Timothy on the shoulder, and Timothy smiled bitterly and scratched his head. Suzanne and the rest looked on at Zoldart, completely taken aback. I guess this is what they call being dumbfounded. Zoldart nodded, satisfied, and then looked over at me. ¡°Hey, Quagmire.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± I raised my head, surprised at hearing my name called so suddenly. Did I do something to make him mad? ¡°Timothy¡¯s fine but¡­ You¡¯re da worsh!¡± From that point on, Zoldart just let loose a storm of abuse. ¡°Why? ¡®Cause ya always worryin¡¯ bout how erryone sees ya!¡± ¡°And dat smile¨Cit¡¯s disgustin¡¯! You may thinkin ya smilin¡¯, but ain¡¯t no smile at all! Your eyes are just lookin¡¯ down on erryone!¡± ¡°Youuu¡ª I bet you jus thinkin ya da most unfortunate person in da world. Well don¡¯t you, huuuh!?¡± The insults he screamed at me resounded throughout the bar. ¡°Is it a fight!?¡± ¡°Get him! Get him!¡± ¡°Shuddap!¡± With one shout from Zoldart the cheering crowd went silent. ¡°Hey, you understand, Quagmire? Bastards like ya¡ª¡± ¡°Oi. That¡¯s enough, Zol.¡± As he turned to me and leaned forward to say something, his friends grabbed his shoulders from behind. ¡°Shuddap! Just look at dis bastard¡¯s face right ¡®ere. It just screams ¡®I¡¯m da unluckiest person in da world!¡¯ I don¡¯t know what da hell happened in ya past, but stop being so damned pessimistic. All ya doin¡¯ is runnin¡¯ away! And yet¡ª Ya keep actin¡¯ like ya da only mature one, dat you¡¯re da only special one, going around doing your mercenary work! I hate shitty brats like ya!¡± Those words pierced my heart. I hadn¡¯t even noticed, but my legs started trembling, and hands balled up into fists. My body, my throat, everything was trembling. And yet, somehow my voice came out calm. ¡°Sorry if I¡¯ve been an annoyance. I¡¯ll do my best to stay out of your way from now on.¡± At those words, Zoldart slammed his hands down on the table, smashing it. Splinters of wood and food flew everywhere. The red colored bean soup splashes all over my legs. ¡°Dun fuck wit me! What¡¯s wit dat attitude, huh!? Ya lookin¡¯ down on me, huh, bitch!? Fuck dat! Whaddya find so fun about sayin¡¯ ¡®Oh I don¡¯t need money; just spreadin my name errywhere¡¯!? People like us need dat money to live!¡± I responded to Zoldart¡¯s yelling with silence. Silence was all I could respond with. There¡¯s no point in saying anything to guys like him. ¡°Sorry, he drank a bit too much¡­ Come on, Zol!¡± ¡°Shut da hell up! Lemme go! Oi, come at me, Quagmire! I bet ya pissed! I¡¯m pissin¡¯ ya off, right!? Then come at me! If a pig like ya dat just mucks about in mud all day has da guts to fight, then come at me!¡± I simply hung my head, waiting for the storm to pass. There¡¯s no point in fighting him here. I won¡¯t gain anything from falling for his provocations. Nothing good comes out of confronting a drunk. I need to hold it in, that¡¯s all. ¡°Zol, cut it out! You¡¯re going to far!¡± ¡°LEMME GO! GODDAMMIT! Hey, Quagmire! Are you really ¡®aving fun livin¡¯ right now!? If ya dun enjoy life then hurry up and die! Just seein¡¯ ya face pisses me off!¡± As Zoldart got dragged off by his friends, I didn¡¯t meet his gaze. Instead, staring at the slowly spreading soup stain on my pants. I gripped the divine object in my left pocket and emptied my heart. I thought of nothing. I felt nothing. The whole time, all the way until Zoldart had left. Until Sara, who was sitting next to me, wiped off the soup stain. ¡°He¡¯s scum.¡± At Sara¡¯s words, I slowly nodded. Sara¡¯s Point-of-View In a fit of rage I return to my room, put by bow and quiver down on the table, throw my coat onto the floor, and flop onto my bed. ¡°He¡¯s absolute scum.¡± It¡¯s obvious how mad I am at him by how red my face is. What the hell does he mean ¡°There¡¯s times a man¡¯s gotta fight,¡± huh!? Even though Timothy¡¯s fighting so hard for us all the time, he just spouts nonsense like that. Suzanne told me once before, how that smile of Timothy¡¯s is his way of fighting, but he was made fun of for that¡­ Unforgivable. If a man¡¯s got times where he¡¯s gotta fight, then a party leader has times where he should avoid unnecessary quarrels and keep his party safe. And yet, Zoldart didn¡¯t try to do that at all. If it had devolved into a brawl, what would he have done? Did he think he could just kill us all and keep everyone else quiet about the whole thing? Back in the ruins in the midst of a monsters¡¯ den? With our escape route still unblocked? He must be real full of himself if he thinks that. The one who¡¯s not fit to be a leader isn¡¯t Timothy, it¡¯s Zoldart. Why¡¯d he have to get Rudeus involved in all this too? When Rudeus had to fight, he fought splendidly, didn¡¯t he? He bravely stood alone against that horde of snow drakes to make sure we could escape safely. Even though he doesn¡¯t know that, even though he wasn¡¯t watching him then, Zoldart still spewed all that crap about Rudeus. It¡¯s true Rudeus has an attitude problem. Unlike Timothy, he¡¯s always got that fake smile. It pisses me off too. In fact, because he always makes a fake smile even when there¡¯s no need for one, I get pissed off every time I see him¡­ But¡­ ¡°¡­¡­¡± Back in the ruins¡­ I realized I wanted to protect Rudeus. I wonder why? Didn¡¯t I hate him? Could it be that¨CI don¡¯t hate him? ¡°No way!¡± Yeah that can¡¯t be it. No way. I guess that means I hate Zoldart more than I hate Rudeus. Yeah, that¡¯s gotta be it. Rudeus is just better than Zoldart. At the very least, Rudeus doesn¡¯t hurl insults at us. He always treats Timothy and everyone else with respect. Despite being such an accomplished magician, he never looks unwilling to join us whenever we go out on requests. He even takes up the rear guard even though he¡¯s stronger than that. ¡°That¡¯s why¡­ It can¡¯t be that I don¡¯t hate him.¡± Rudeus is a noble¡¯s kid. Maybe he doesn¡¯t act very much like a noble, but that doesn¡¯t matter. He still has the blood of a noble flowing through him. I hate those noble brats who think they can be adventurers, but I hate real nobles too. My hometown was destroyed because of a noble¡¯s negligence, because even when monsters rushed out of the forest and attacked, those damned nobles didn¡¯t send out their knights until it was already way too late. My parents died as a result of that. It may be noble¡¯s duty to protect his domain, but he didn¡¯t protect us. I still haven¡¯t forgotten the despair I felt back then. Yeah, yeah, that¡¯s right. That¡¯s why I hate nobles, and that¡¯s why I hate Rudeus¨Cwho¡¯s also of noble blood. ¡°But, Rudeus fought for us¡­¡± Back when we were getting overrun by raster grizzlies, and again with the snow drakes, he fought for us. He didn¡¯t try to run away by himself. He had no duty to protect us. He¡¯s not even a member of Counter Arrow! But even then, he tried to be our shield all by himself so that we could run away. Seeing him like that made me think there¡¯s no way in hell I¡¯m going to let him die, which is why I went back to help him. It¡¯s not like I want Rudeus to die. Yeah, I definitely don¡¯t want him dead. But I¡¯m just¡­ surprised that I went back to help him. I¡¯d always thought it¡¯d be fine to abandon him in a situation like that. ¡°I¡¯m the worst¡­¡± Recently when I look at him, I feel like the ground underneath my feet is crumbling. I¡¯m supposed to hate nobles, but I don¡¯t hate him that much; it makes me uneasy. I no longer understand what it is I hate and what it is I like. I don¡¯t understand anything anymore. But, well yeah. I¡¯ll accept it. I don¡¯t hate him. He may be a noble¡¯s kid, but he¡¯s not a noble himself, so I don¡¯t hate him. All that means is I don¡¯t hate him. I definitely don¡¯t like him. Yeah, I don¡¯t hate him, but I also don¡¯t like him. ¡°I don¡¯t like Rudeus.¡± I confirm it one more time aloud, then proceed to fall asleep.