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

The staff then went back to continue his work. Alpha turned and smiled at Akira.

“You did well dodging him.”

Akira smiled smugly.

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Since I can do all of these things only because I have your support, it’s all thanks to you. Not to mention that I would not be able to do this request if I don’t have your support, so if that much of lying is not allowed, then I shouldn’t be here in the first place. I’m 100% relying on your support after all.”

“You’re not wrong there.”

If Alpha stopped her support, Akira would just turn into a deadweight. So he was planning to keep on relying on her so as not to slow the other Hunters down.

Although in the end, it caused a staff to doubt his own intuition when he noticed Akira relaxing, it was an acceptable sacrifice looking at the bigger picture. It was way better than getting ambushed by a swarm of Yarata Scorpions.

After the small conversation, Akira kept watch of his surroundings as time pa.s.sed by without anything interesting happening.

The Kuzusuhara underground ruin exploration and Yarata Scorpion nests extermination went on for 24 hours. After all, the monsters in the underground city kept active regardless of whether it was night or day. Thus the Hunters had to stand watch 24 hours to secure the area.

Akira’s s.h.i.+ft lasted for 8 hours. It was the shortest working s.h.i.+ft available. The Hunters who wanted to earn more money could stay in the underground city for 24 hours. But of course, Akira was planning to immediately return back home after 8 hours.

Alpha told Akira that his s.h.i.+ft was almost done, so he pulled out his terminal and contacted the HQ.

“This is number 27. HQ, are you there?”

“This is HQ. What’s wrong?”

“My s.h.i.+ft is almost over, so please send another Hunter to take my place.”

“Oh? Wait for a sec, let me check again, number 27, huh… You do fulfil the minimum working hours quota. And there’s no problem with the number of Hunters present there, so you can just go ahead and return back home. Thank you for your hard work.”

“What should I do with my rental terminal?”

“You can carry it around as long as you’re taking this request. If you’re afraid of losing it or breaking it, you can come to the temporary HQ and hand it over to our staff. If it’s too much work to do, you can just carry it with you back home. For tomorrow, you just need to go to the first floor of the HQ with that rental terminal. Even if you lose it, you’ll just get your reward subtracted. In the end, it’s just a cheap ma.s.s-produced terminal and we have a lot of reserves left. After all, they often break in battles.”

“Roger that. I’ll return back home for today.”

“Be careful on your way back, remember that you won’t get any reward from the monsters that you kill if you get attacked on your way back home. That’s all. Once again, thank you for your hard work.”

The HQ then ended the call. Akira’s work for that day was completed.

Akira took the request for 1 week, so there were still 6 days to go. Although his bad luck was rather worrying, it would be great if he could finish his s.h.i.+ft just fine like today for the remaining 6 days.

Alpha smiled and hoped that would be the case.

“Good work for today. You survived another day, we just need to do it 6 more times. Let’s give our best.”

“We’re not done yet for today. It’s not safe yet until I’m back in the city, or at least, I should not put my guard down before I’m back to the surface. Your detection ability will turn back to normal once we’re out from the underground, right?”

“That’s right, let’s head to the surface as soon as possible. It’s a good thing that you didn’t immediately drop your guard just because the situation has calmed down. It’s proof that you’ve grown.”

Alpha was honestly praising Akira’s growth and he felt that it did not feel too bad to be praised.

As Akira was thinking of going back, he caught a glimpse of Katsuya’s team. Katsuya’s team was already underground when Akira came, so if they took the same s.h.i.+ft as Akira, they would have headed to the surface before him.

“Those guys are still staying down here, huh?”

“They’re really hard-working Hunters. Or maybe, their contract is different compared to your contract. Well, whatever it is, whether they stay here or not, it’s none of our business.”

“You’re right, let’s return back as fast as we can, I can’t wait to take a bath.”

As Akira was about to excitedly depart, Alpha suddenly reminded him.

“Be sure to finish the rifles’ maintenance before taking a bath, okay? Judging from how tired you are, I’m sure you’ll fall asleep before cleaning your rifles if you take bath first.”

Akira tried to negotiate although he knew it was futile.

“Can I do it tomorrow instead…?”

“Nope.”

“Okay…”

Akira hung his head low after Alpha rejected him. He sighed and then dragged his feet back home, Alpha just smiled as she looked at him like that.

Reina’s eyes followed Akira’s back as he left that place. It was not like she had any particular reason why she did that, or at least, she herself was not aware of any.

Though, Katsuya noticed Reina’s action.

“Reina, what’s wrong?”

Reina looked like she was somehow in a good mood when she answered back.

“Hm? Ah, it’s nothing.”

Katsuya felt a bit annoyed by Reina’s answer, he thought that she was trying to hide something from him.

He cast aside his displeasure and asked Reina for the second time.

“…Really?”

Reina was puzzled since it was rare for Katsuya to do something like this. She then decided to say what she just thought.

“…Well, I just thought that he went back first although he came here after us. By the way, what’s going on with the people who have to take our place?”

When Reina said that, it reminded her that she was trapped there even though she also wanted to go back home. That was why she asked that question to Katsuya.

Katsuya answered back in panic.

“I-I’ve asked them to send someone. So just please wait for a bit more.”

Katsuya immediately thought that it was a big mistake when he said that to Reina. According to the contract between the city and Drankam, the Hunter replacements for the Drankam Hunters would be from Drankam. Because of that, they could not go back home yet like Akira who was able to go back because there were enough Hunters to take his place.

“But still, it’s already been 3 hours, you know. Don’t you think you should at least check with them?”

Reina’s mood was getting worse. She was checking the current situation while talking with Katsuya, and the result from that made her mood worse.

Reina was only temporarily forgetting her exhaustion from when she fought at full power. Now, all the acc.u.mulated tiredness weighed down at her. Although they were taking turns in resting, in the end, they could only sit on the hard floor, so it was not like they could recover much. Her tiredness only caused Reina to get even more annoyed.

Katsuya lamented what he just said to Reina. He looked remorseful as he tried to cheer her up.

“They said that they had some unexpected trouble when dispatching the Hunters. But they’re already heading this way, so let’s just wait for a bit more, okay?”

Yumina then tried calming Reina down too.

“Reina, calm down. It’s not like he can do anything about it even if you’re blaming him, right? So just be patient.”

Airi also joined in.

“It’s not Katsuya’s fault.”

Reina’s face twitched. If it was the usual Reina, she would start throwing a tantrum and yelling right there, and after that, s.h.i.+ori would try to calm her down while reprimanding her. Katsuya and the other two also thought that would happen as they frowned.

And as they expected, Reina tensed up and looked like she was about to start yelling.

But unexpectedly, she stopped and immediately tried to calm herself down. Reina was gritting her teeth as if she was holding back something, she then let out a big sigh.

“…I guess you’re right, I’m sorry.”

Katsuya, Yumina and Airi were surprised by the unexpected turn of events.

Reina was a bit displeased when she noticed how the others reacted.

“What’s with that face? Do you have any problems with what I said?”

“Ah, nope, nothing, right, Yumina?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah.”

“It’s good that you won’t cause a ruckus at every single thing.”

The last remark that was from Airi caused Reina’s face to twitch, but that was all. Reina sighed while trying to calm herself down. It did not take long before she returned back to her usual mood.

Akira judged that he would not employ Reina even if it was for free which was the second-worst possible evaluation, he did not take back that evaluation even after he was about to get into a fight with s.h.i.+ori.

Then Akira asked the HQ to divide the reward from that battle equally among the three of them. It showed that he judged she deserved to get the same amount of reward as him. Reina thought that he made that evaluation after seeing her skill, that was why she was in such a good mood.

s.h.i.+ori looked at Reina with a conflicted gaze. It was obvious that Reina’s skill had grown, but the trigger of that sudden growth was because she met with Akira. s.h.i.+ori actually hoped that trigger was her. After all, she stayed beside Reina in order to help and support her.

Katsuya looked at Reina who was talking with s.h.i.+ori. The usual fiery Reina was no longer there, he thought that might also be the reason why she was able to hold herself back from yelling.

Katsuya knew well when Reina changed, it was after she followed Akira.

Back then, Reina broke off from his team and chased after Akira. And when they met again after that, she had already transformed.

When Katsuya asked her what happened after she left the group, Reina proudly told him that she fought against a swarm of Yarata Scorpions. She told him how she fought valiantly and s.h.i.+ori who was with her confirmed that it was true.

By the way, both Reina and s.h.i.+ori decided to hide the fact that they were so close to getting into a fight with Akira. Even for someone like Reina, she knew well that it would only cause needless trouble if she told Katsuya about that.

Reina was mostly in a good mood after she met up with Katsuya’s team. Many would think she was in a good mood because she went through a good battle, but Katsuya did not believe that was the only reason.

Although he did not realize it himself, he actually found it rather displeasing that one of his friends went together with someone who he hated only to come back later with better skill and better mood than before.

Silavin: Gosh. Katsuya, you need to have better self-esteem here man. Your complex about Akira is showing…

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