Chapter 47 - Katsuya’s Complaint (1/2)

Akira looked like he was in a good mood as he was stuffing his magazines back into his rucksack. He was happy that the HQ said the requester would still pay for the bullets that he used. Reina awkwardly approached Akira, s.h.i.+ori and Katsuya’s group followed behind her.

Akira only glanced at Reina before returning back to stuffing his magazines. Although s.h.i.+ori looked calm from the outside, she was actually pretty shaken up inside.

Reina hesitated, she looked like she wanted to say something to Akira. But she went silent to think about it. Once she had thought enough, she said.

“Uhmmm, I heard about your call with HQ regarding the reward distribution and if I’m not mistaken, it seems like you told them to divide the reward equally for 3 people, is that correct?”

“Yeah, they asked me what to do and I did say that.”

Reina looked a bit troubled. Looking at her made Akira uneasy too. Both of them were staring at each other, trying to understand why the other person said what they just said. But since their way of thinking was totally different from each other, neither could not catch the meaning behind their short conversation.

But before they could clear up the misunderstanding, Akira quickly drew a conclusion and looked annoyed as he said to Reina.

“Are you thinking of telling me to give you all the reward from that battle since I was in the middle of your support request and what I did was just a form of support for you? Just to let you know, I won’t do that, okay?”

Seeing how Akira’s mood worsened, s.h.i.+ori quickly put her guard up, the same happened with Katsuya and his team.

Reina could not immediately understand why Akira said that, but the moment she did, she shook her head in panic.

“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant!! It’s the opposite!!”

“The opposite?”

“You took out more than half of the scorpions that we defeated, right? So if the reward is divided equally, it would mean that my reward will be way bigger than it should, are you okay with that?”

“We stopped them together, so it’s only to be expected to divide the reward equally, right? Well, if I had to pay for my own ammo, I would like to divide it equally after covering for my ammo expense. But since the requester paid that for me, so I’ll just divide it equally with 3 people. To be honest, I don’t want to argue too much about that, or is that you have any complaints about it?”

“W-well, not really, but…”

“Then you have no problem dividing it equally with 3 people, right? If the reward from the extermination request is only divided according to the number of monsters that you take out, won’t the Hunters who focus on scanning enemies only get a small amount of reward? It’ll definitely cause a fight, you know?”

If not for Reina and s.h.i.+ori, Akira would have found himself surrounded by scorpions back there. Reina and s.h.i.+ori did work well. Akira seriously thought so.

Moreover, it was not like Akira had discussed with them beforehand as to how to divide the reward. He could not think of any better way to share the reward other than dividing it equally among the members of the team that was formed on the spot.

Although Reina understood what Akira was saying, it was not like that was enough to convince her. It was true that she did not want to be a deadweight for him, but she also understood that she could not produce the same result as him.

“Milady, since he is okay with it and it doesn’t reduce the amount of reward that we receive, I believe we should just accept it. Arguing might only cause a needless fight.”

s.h.i.+ori was signalling Reina that continuing it might cause another fight with Akira. Thus Reina quickly decided to stop arguing and said in a panic.

“Y-you’re right. It’s not something worth fighting about.”

“So, is that all?”

Reina was about to answer that question, but s.h.i.+ori suddenly interjected.

“That would be all, we’re sorry to have troubled you. Milady, let’s return now.”

s.h.i.+ori immediately suggested Reina to consider withdrawing from the conversation. Reina looked a bit troubled with her sudden request before awkwardly leaving that place together with s.h.i.+ori.

After they walked away from Akira, Reina asked s.h.i.+ori.

“Uhmm, I was trying to be careful back there. Did I do something wrong?”

Reina was actually trying to be careful not to cause a fight, but then s.h.i.+ori suddenly pulled her away from that conversation. So she thought that she did something that she should not have done.

s.h.i.+ori frowned as she answered.

“Well, it’s true that you caused a misunderstanding which worsened Akira-sama’s mood, but I believe it was because of Milady’s clumsiness. But again, with that being said, you can’t blame your clumsiness. It’s wrong to a.s.sume that the other person will always understand what you’re trying to say. There’s always a possibility where the other person misunderstands and their misunderstanding might not get cleared up or even become worse.”

“But I just wanted to talk with him, you know…”

“Milady, you yelled at him once that he can just die alone somewhere. So, I believe that you should not rush into a conversation so quickly, you should give him some time to cool himself before talking to him again. He’s not like Katsuya-sama, he would not just laugh it off if you make a spicy remark about him.”

“Y-you’re right. I understand.”

Reina wanted to know how well she performed, she wanted to know Akira’s opinion about her performance, that was why she wanted to talk more with Akira. But it seemed that she had to postpone that for now. Reina looked depressed since she understood that it was all because of her own action.

Reina and s.h.i.+ori had left Akira to his own devices, but Katsuya and the other two girls were still there. Katsuya looked hesitant as he asked Akira.

“Uhmmm, there’s something I want to ask you, what do you mean with that support request?”

Akira answered back apathetically.

“Just ask Reina.”

Katsuya was a bit annoyed by Akira’s behaviour, but he held himself back and asked Akira once more.

“We’re Hunters from Drankam and she’s one of my team members. Well, I’m basically the leader of our team, so I wanted to know what she did when she was away from the team. I need to give a full report to the gang, you see. It has something to do with the reward, so, can you please tell me?”

“Just ask her.”

Akira answered back again, apathetically. It was as if he did not care at all.

Katsuya raised his voice and pressed for an answer again.

“Is it something that you can’t tell or is there anything that you’re trying to hide?”

“You can get all the details from her, can’t you? Or is it like you’re someone who doesn’t mind leaking the request that you took from others without asking for approval?”

Akira was someone who took his request very seriously. Although he was not told to keep it secret, it was not like he was told that he could freely tell other people either. Not to mention, he got so close to trying to kill them. Thus he thought that it was for Reina and s.h.i.+ori to decide what to tell and what to hide.

Akira thought that Katsuya could just go ahead and ask Reina instead. If Reina and s.h.i.+ori told Katsuya everything, then it must be something okay to tell others, but if they refused to tell Katsuya, then it was indeed something that he should not share with others. Akira concluded it as such and that was why he told Katsuya to just ask Reina and s.h.i.+ori instead of him.

Akira’s behaviour was rubbing Katsuya the wrong way. He just went silent and continued packing his magazines as Katsuya was glaring at him.

Yumina looked worriedly at Katsuya.

Katsuya had a bad habit of taking actions thinking that he was correct. He was simply worried for his teammates and he was only thinking of doing his duty as the team leader. One thing for sure was that Reina and s.h.i.+ori fought with some monsters when he was not around, he just wanted to know what happened. That was all.

But the person who knew what happened would not tell him anything, rising Katsuya’s anger. But, even so, Yumina thought that it was not enough of a reason to cause a fight.

At this rate, Katsuya might start yelling at Akira or even use force to make him talk. Yumina decided to calm him down before that happened.

“Katsuya, let’s just go back. It’s faster if we ask Reina.”

“Yumina!?”

Katsuya was shocked, believing that Yumina took Akira’s side rather than his own.

Looking at how Katsuya reacted, Yumina was able to immediately predict what he was thinking, so she quickly tried to explain it to him.

“It’s not like you can fully trust an explanation from a random stranger, right? So I think it’s much faster and more reliable if we ask Reina, who’s in our team.”

Yumina smiled gently at Katsuya when she said that.

Yumina worded it out as if she was mocking Akira. This was something that she would never do normally. This was done not only to calm Katsuya down but also so that Akira would blame her instead if anything bad was to happen.

“I agree. It’ll only cause you more trouble if he gave vague or even fake answers.”

Airi stated that straightforwardly.

Katsuya finally calmed down after hearing Airi and Yumina.

“You’re right. I guess it’s true that it’s meaningless to ask him, huh. Let’s head back then.”

After saying that, Katsuya turned and left that place. Airi did not say anything and followed behind him. Yumina, who was the only person remaining, stood there looking at Akira.

Akira did not seem like he was bothered by how they treated him, as a matter of fact, he did not even look at them. But even so, Yumina bowed politely to him as if she was saying sorry before following Katsuya.

Alpha smiled intrepidly and said.

“Although 3 of the 4 people here were p.r.o.ne to causing a fight, it ended peacefully. That girl is pretty good.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Is that so? Katsuya and Yumina. Those two seem to be in good terms and have been together for a long time. I’m sure this is not the first time she interjected to defuse the situation.”

“If that’s true, I guess she’s having it hard, huh.”

“I bet she’s doing that happily on her own volition, but Katsuya might have become like that because he’s been unconsciously relying too much on her. Well, it has nothing to do with us though.”

“…You’re right.”

Although he felt sorry for Yumina, it was not like he wanted to get involved in troubles that Katsuya and his team caused. He wished good luck for Yumina in case she was really doing that on her own volition.

Akira was talking with Alpha while watching his surroundings. Although he looked like he was seriously keeping watch from the outside, he was actually supporting his posture with his augmented suit while relaxing his body.

Akira, s.h.i.+ori and Reina were able to deal with a swarm of scorpions with only the three of them. It gave them an amazing accomplishment but left them dead tired. Because of that, Alpha decided not to tell Akira to watch his surroundings as a part of his training.

One of the staff who had a good intuition noticed that Akira was relaxing and not watching his surroundings properly, so he yelled at Akira and asked him a question that he would not be able to answer if he did not properly keep watch of his surroundings.

But Akira was able to answer him just fine. Of course, it was all thanks to Alpha.

That staff looked surprised and said to Akira.

“Ohh, so you’re properly keeping watch, huh? Sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s okay. It’s true that I might look like just daydreaming and it’s also true that I’m very tired, so I might be in a bit of a daze right now.”

Akira answered back straightforwardly. Although that staff could not see her, Alpha was floating beside him while smiling.

“Ah, I see, you’re the one who found that hole connected to the uncharted area, huh. I also heard that you went through a fierce battle too. I’m sorry but it seems that you need to work for a little longer.”

“I understand.”