Vol 7 Chapter 2 (1/2)
The next day, I headed towards the northern gate as proer to tealy went through theinformation on Kukuru Lake and Raster Grizzlies This too, I si else
“……”
Gloos only to discover that no one’s here They did say to ht have come a little too early I didn’t have a watch so I couldn’t be sure, butYeah… I probably caht anyway Perhaps because it had been too cold, orI’d be partying with some people I don’t really know that well
“They’re late…”
We never set a specificadventurers 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 finishi+ng up their departure preparations It see for just one late person–as opposed to me–as the only one on time
“Ugh…”
Maybe I’ and ere actually supposed to meet up at noon Maybe they planned out our departure tiht hourIn which case, ityesterday That hen they actually decided on ourtime they could have just contacted me
“Ah!”
As I was brooding over all that I suddenly spotted a silhouette co towardsmist
“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 ofin front
“As we’ll be in the same party for a while, please allow ician As uard support, and I’ 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’uard”
“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 uy Froe too After all, he was clad in a reddish brown robe and carried a long staff in his hands
“hello, I’uard, and ic 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 Coanization So all the power Better soe than an incompetent, lazy one Whether or not Ti I wouldn’t know though After all, a fractured organization can’t run well, so it’s quite possible that Suzanne still defers to Ti 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 relationshi+p see Completely different from how Eris and me were… [Sniffle]
“Huh!? W-What’s wrong!?”
“Sorry, I was just re from the past”
“Ah— 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 uys’ way”
“Is that so? I look forward to working with you”
The self introductions continue
“I’ic, and beginner rank in detoxification ic”
He was of awhitish robe
“My naic Warrior, but really I can only use beginner rank wind ic, so I’m mostly just a Warrior”
Patris ell built and had a sword belted to his waist In his hand he carried a beginner’sthe leader, all three of the 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 Co Soe 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 ain, 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 et one of our party killed, I’ll never forgive you Got that?”
“Got it”
I give her a listless reply If I’ to be in a party with her I suppose I should have triedwith her… but I’ll only be with the to be that hostile, I don’t really want to try and be friendly
“Step off, Sara”
“But Suzanne—”
“There ht 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 theet aith just not tea to be possible fro hoith 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 so ahead to what ht happen five, or even ten, years frorown quite a bit, and she too er than her That possibility would only grow the older she gets too If she could handle tea up with someone whose attitude is as bad as ster no probleEither way, it’s not like it’ll get in the way of oal
“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 caathered earlier Kukuru Lake, the supposed location of the Raster Grizzly herd, was only a few hours froht 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 the to reflect on hoe handled the monsters we encountered on our way here Counter Arrow’s not a bad party by any uards They’ve got a good balance of roles Once you include y basically becomire on theic to pick off as e 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 daic On the road, we encountered and defeated ave ether 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 hoork together as a party far better than Eris did Although, seeing as howso
“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 coical power in case the battle drags on for too long! All you need to do is slow theh!”
“Then… Once the battle turns into a uard to help as well?”
“Do you want to get shot down by me?”
I tried suggesting everything I could think of, but Sara denied , it’s rather bothersome If I joined in on the attack I could probably finish thee battle As it is noe end up entering close coe, 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 uess it makes sense I did that back ere 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 soency I can always uess there’s no har as a unit with them Teamwork can only be built out of continual practice I don’t really have confidence in h–or even my teamwork ability really…
“You’re the newcoet in our way!”
“OK”
It doesn’t look like Sara wants to work on our tea to make her hate me, but she still seems to hate me Must’ve been that bad impression I made on her the first tiet along, but her acting so cold towards s 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… Irespectful…”
“That’s nor we’re all adventurers Besides, you don’t use them either, you know”
“Yes, but—”
“Then keep your coation request soon, so stop your petty bickering”
“S-Sorry”
Sara shrank back fro at roupover 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 fro upnext to me It’s Tireeted with a sight of a splendidface 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 froement and is pretty quick witted She doesn’t have any faults In terth, she’s probably A-class
There aren’t many Archers in this world While it’s true bows candistance attacks, they pale in both firepower and range when co as you sleep, there’s a li Theyou 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 ic
Every now and again though, you find geniuses with such skill that they can ap in base poith 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 ic, then even a bow becomes a deadly weapon As far as the occupation of adventurer is concerned anyway Of course, it’s a co to beco 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 froht You’re the first person I’ve seen who can use chantless ic school teacher”
“Just so back the people that are ih…”
“Yeah, that’s true Sorry…”
It’s true being able to use chantlessto feel superior about What use is it when it’s not even enough to keep one woman by your side…
Well, I guess it e people as well, but Zenith surely knows I can use chantless ic
“At any rate, I’m sorry Rudeus”
“Don’t worry about it”
This is rather interesting Aside from Sara, it seeher than what I’ on This is the kind of perceptiveness you’d expect from veterans They kno 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 kno to use their abilities to the fullest, they’ve been able to make it as far as B-rank They kno 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 bad me the whole ti 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 tiure out just how capable I aure 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 leadsPerhaps… out of sympathy After all, it’s i only off of logic and calculations
“You only did as natural”
At any rate, all thismy 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 et some rest”
“Will do”
I nod reement, 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 co 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 ti that tiressive and often attack huly docile in su that time to breed, which is usually the best time for adventurers to eliminate them
There’s a set eliet the period
“Alright”
We climb up atop a small hill, and confir in a thicket on a hill, upwind of the herd There’s no way they’ll be able to find us They ht They don’t even bothercaves or shelter, they just drop dead tired where they are That’s e’re going to light the the our way By the tih, uard and Middle Guard will be able to dispatch the rerizzlies
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 See 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 ed to tell you the exact nu fro 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’ our position, we should have the advantage I can slow themire, and since they just went to sleep, with Tiic, 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 rip my staff
“The land thy seek is protected not fros of the land Giant Fireball!”
“Quagmire!”
As soon as Ti his interht around the e 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 fros of the land Giant Fireball!”
Tiiant fireballs Despite their enorh speed and irizzlies and scorched it to death in an instant A few of the power, speed, and precision He’s pretty skilled with them
“Take this!”
The Raster Grizzlies suddenly started an to head our way It’s pretty hard to hit a , but even so he kept burning them down, one by one
This is easy