Vol 1 Chapter 10 (2/2)
“Four silvers” shi+horu blinked again and again, lost for further words
Mogzo siaped slack-jawed
Manato looked skywards Then he gave a long sigh and shook his head “No, not yet There’s no point unless we keep going It was easy this time, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy every time Now isn’t the tiet”
“Manato,” Ranta patted Manato’s back “You need to loosen up We finally got our first big victory! And IT’S ALL THANKS TO ME! Why shouldn’t we do a little celebrating?”
Manato’s expression turned stern for a brief moment, but was then quickly replaced with a broad s And you did really well, Ranta”
“I sure did! That’s because I’! Especially that cruel smile I had on ht-like!”
“Nuh-uh” Haruhiro waved hi that sword around in pure desperation”
“Idiot! I s?! Ohhh, right, over that way! Your sleepy eyes were too sleepy to notice!”
“Always saying the sa the bait every time”
“Take it! Take it or it’ll make me really sad…”
Everyone laughed and savored the moment for a while Then just as Manato had said, they returned to the search for their next target seriously Things ell in Da the days before this one, it was downright scary how s went
By evening, they had killed four goblins including the sleeping one, and frolass-like stone, a black stone, a reddish stone, a nus, so, and so except for the coins at the e for an additional two silvers and forty-five capas
The earnings were split a in one silver and seventy-four capas each with one capa leftover Haruhiro used fifteen capas for food and lodging for the day so that ht capas If tomorroent as smoothly, Haruhiro decided that he would buy a spare set of underwear and a small knife
The next day, however, did not go as well They had found a group of five goblins but, though Ranta wanted to engage, everyone decided to avoid them Without the eleainst one opponent Tas decidedly risky so five was out of the question
Haruhiro thought that to be the correct decision, but evening was fast approaching and they hadn’t found any goblin groups of two or less Finally, as they were returning to Altana they accidentally ran into a single goblin, which resulted in a sudden fight
In the end, their earnings for the day a like in terms of “onlys” would only lead to trouble They had earned a whole silver when they thought they were going to go back with absolutely nothing Haruhiro accepted it as that He would just have to earn a bitany personal necessities
On their third day in Damro’s Old Town area, they decided to make a basic map of the place as they searched for their quarry Well, it was Manato’s idea and in order to draw the map, he had procured a small notebook and a brush Manato insisted that if they were able to get an idea of the layout of the area and kept notes on where they spotted goblins, the information would be useful later on
At any rate, it turned out thatthe map as they wandered around the Old Town area was quite fun “Let’s take look around here…” or “we haven’t been here yet…” They naturally row nervous when they entered an area that wasn’t on their map and conversely felt a sense of security in areas that had they had already mapped out
They killed three goblins that day and after selling the loot, their earnings totaled to seventy-four capa each It wasn’t like that could put everyone in high spirits, however The aet excited over However, Yu, so Haruhiro also ith them to the market
He just happened to co around and even though he did his best to barter down the price, he still paid twenty-five capas for what looked to be like a used pair Now that he had spare clothing, he also needed so to carry it in so out of necessity also ended up buying a backpack Surprisingly, cheap used backpacks were fairly easy to find and Haruhiro had paid only thirty capas for one ot the feeling that the backpack was the better deal
When they returned to the lodge, everyone talked for a while about what shops offered what kinds of goods and what they all wanted to buy next The more they talked, the more animated the conversation became and no one could really fall asleep Suddenly, Ranta, who had been jabbering away excitedly just o soon followed suit
Haruhiro too decided it was ti rather drowsy, but for some reason his consciousness refused to fall into the realm of sleep
“Manato?” He called out tentatively and, just as he thought, Manato too was still awake
“Yes?” came Manato’s immediate reply
Although Haruhiro was the one who spoke up first, it wasn’t like he had anything in particular he wanted to talk about No, there should have been plenty of things to say; however, none of the at all was odd, so he had to say so
After a moment of panic—
“Thanks” The word spilled almost unintentionally from Haruhiro’s mouth and he suddenly felt a bit embarrassed
“What’s this all of a sudden?” Manato grinned “I’rateful”
“You’re… grateful? Why?”
“For everyone For you, being a real friend I really aht sound like lip service but I really mean it”
“No, it doesn’t sound like lip service, but…” Haruhiro bit down on the inside of his cheek “It’s just that, we’ve been depending on you this entire tiht not even be around”
“It’s the same for me If it wasn’t for you and the others, I don’t knoould have happened to me No matter how much I think about it, there’s no way I could have survived on my own”
Haruhiro hesitated on what he wanted to say next, but he wasn’t any good at hiding his thoughts, nor could he hold it all in either “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you could have made all the friends you wanted You could have asked to join any party and they would have taken you”
“A party of other Crimson Moon members? Honestly, I never really considered it I don’t really like deferring to others and I don’t think I’d be good at taking orders fro I did before we all appeared in this place, so I don’t really know”
And with a start, Haruhiro suddenly re fro he was reaching for would suddenly disappear without a trace, just as he was about to grasp it He had been so preoccupied with everything else that he had forgotten all about that
“Me too,” Haruhiro said “I don’t re either”
“But I get the feeling…” and then Manato stopped, seeo on “That I wasn’t the type of person that had a lot of friends”
“That’s…” What Haruhiro really wanted to say was, No, you’re wrong But he fell silent After all, he hadn’t known Manato before co here And it was the same vice versa
Neither Haruhiro or Manato knew anything of themselves The ot So he had decided that it was better not to think about it at all None of itto begin with anyway Not to mention they had plenty of other stuff to keep their h money to live from day to day
“It doesn’t matter who you were before,” Haruhiro said in the onna ask you about it either What matters is you’re our teammate now And leader too We’d be in trouble if you weren’t”
“I wouldn’t be able to do this without all of you either”
Haruhiro nodded, though Manato’s bunk was beneath hi in reply Anything But even as Haruhiro searched for the words, Manato started chuckling softly
“But isn’t it odd?” Manato continued “Everything, that is What are we doing, running around with swords and ame”
“A game, huh?” Haruhiro blinked and tilted his head to one side “Game How so?”
Manato was silent in thought for a while “I don’t know But it’s like I said, it’s like a gaht at the time”
“No, now that you ame?”
A sense of discoht in their throats and couldn’t be dislodged But it was definitely better to keep it sealed up inside This wasn’t the tiain
Haruhiro yawned It seemed as if he would finally be able to fall asleep now