Chapter 139: A Respite From Adventuring I (1/2)

It was a neither-here-nor-there time in the morning, so I went to my party member's place, thinking that I could discuss future plans with him.

When I showed up at the brothel, I found out that he was out, and when I asked about where he was, I was told that he went to Gladvain-sama's place.

I headed to the dormitory and found that my entire party was there.

「Otou-san」

「Hey there, what happened to your arm?」

I found Otou-san standing at the corner of the training ground. When I walked up to him, he immediately asked me about my arm.

My right arm was slung up in a triangular bandage, so it must look like I had broken a bone or something at first glance.

「It seems that I’ve injured my elbow. I'm letting it rest」

「Your elbow, huh? Recently, my knees have also been aching because of the cold」

「Your knees, you say」

Is it nerve damage from old age?

Come to think of it, I don't know Otou-san's exact age. He looks to be in his late thirties, but he's been an adventurer since before the founding of Lemuria, so he must be over forty at the very least.

Even with the magic of regeneration point, the body still gets injured and worn out. The fact that the average age of adventurers is so young is a testament to how grueling the work they do is.

「I'm getting old. Most of the adventurers in my batch have already retired. It's obvious, but a person's life is something that can be worn down. There's a difference between whittling it down unnecessarily and honing it to a sharp point though」

「You say that you're getting old, but you're still rather sharp, isn't it? Your age doesn't show in the slightest」

I don't see any signs of decline in Otou-san's bearing.

He appears much stronger than most young adventurers.

「I'm just putting up a front, you realize? A man should never complain about pain and suffering. But don't start acting weird about it, okay? It's fine when I say it myself, but it's annoying to hear it from others. Don't feel sorry for me. Instead, observe calmly. It's the leader's job to cut loose adventurers who have declined and become broken」

「That said, Otou-san, I can't picture you retiring at all」

If the things humans can imagine are what we encounter,

Then what we cannot picture are probably the things we aren't willing to deal with.

As he is now, there's no way Otou-san will quit being an adventurer before I do.

If that's the front he's putting on, then there's no problem.

「Rather than that, shouldn't you be keeping an eye on that?」

Before my eyes.

And the focus of everyone's attention was a petite elf and an equally petite reptilian beastkin.

The elf was clad in a martial artist's outfit. It was pretty revealing, so I didn't really want others to see.

I mean, she's my wife after all.

The beastkin was only in her underclothes, despite the cold.

But, well, this is how most female beastkin dress.

The two of them exchanged light jabs, then each took a step closer and unleashed a flurry of blows.

And they avoided all of them by paper-thin margins.

I was overwhelmed by the unexpected spectacle.

「Princess Rana may be the only elf on this entire continent who can fight this well bare-handed」

「Seriously?」

Is Rana going to become the first elven martial artist in the alternate world?

「Apparently, she's developed a whole new way of fighting that combines magic with martial arts」

「Ha……haha」

For some reason, a karate fighter with a boomerang on his back flashed across my mind.

After checking each other out with that barrage of blows, they opened up a bit of distance between them. Rana drew back her right fist exaggeratedly and unleashed what was clearly going to be a straight. The beastkin effortlessly threw a counter.

A cross-counter with her hips behind it.

But that was what Rana was after.

A counter to the counter.

Rana drove her knee into the beastkin's side. Using that knee as a fulcrum, she then sent the beastkin's body spinning around. As the beastkin fell to the ground, Rana swung her fist down like a karateka breaking tiles.

「Whoa」

I couldn't help but exclaim.

The beastkin had taken Rana's fist solidly in the face.

The reptilian beastkin is also a girl. And if I recall correctly, she's about the same age as Maria. I had thought that Rana was going to stop the punch short, so I was surprised that she struck her mercilessly like that.

「Otou-san, this is training, right?」

「Yeah, what of it?」

Rana followed up with a flurry of blows.

However, the lizard girl didn't seem to take much damage from them. She was taking the punches with a blank expression.

「The fists of an elf probably can't do much damage against Hitoto's skin and flesh」

「Ehh, no, but……」

Maybe you're right, but come on, women shouldn't be doing such things to each other, right?

「Could it be that you're looking down on them because they're women?」

「No way, I'm surrounded by strong women, remember?」

「Then what's your problem with it?」

「How can you calmly watch on as people you're close with are going “sutegoro”?」

「Sute-what?」

「It means fist-fighting」

「This is training though」

「R, right」

Someone, anyone, back me up on my delicate feelings please.

「This will decide the fight. No, if she can't settle it with this, then it's Princess Rana's loss」

As per Otou-san's commentary, Rana was gearing up to end the fight.

She sent Hitoto's body up into the air with an uppercut, then grabbed her by the neck with both hands and held her up.

What's she going to do from that position? was the question on my mind, but everyone else watching the fight seemed to know what was coming and were readying large shields. Otou-san had also held up a shield, so I ducked behind him.

Rana started chanting magic.

It’s an advanced flame magic that I’m quite familiar with. But can she invoke magic without a medium like a staff?

「Doragubeinnnnn!」

At Rana's cry, flames burst forth.

It was destructive magic unleashed at point-blank range. Or rather, she had caught herself in the flames completely as well.

Gladvain's kin and the father of adventurers didn't move an inch. I was the only one who had panicked.

When the short torrent of flames died down……

「………………」

……there were two collapsed figures.

For some reason, their hair was still intact, but their faces were stained with soot, and smoke was rising from their clothes.

Hey, isn't that just a suicide attack?