Vol 1 Chapter 16 (2/2)

“It’s not like it’s a personal question or anything,” Haruhiro persisted “But in fights, there’s the general flow of battle and everyone’s roles to think about I think it’s so we should talk over more as a team…”

“How about saying it straight out if you don’t like the way I do my job?” Mary replied “I’ll leave immediately”

“No, that’s not it, it’s just—”

“Then there’s no problem, correct?”

“Uh… No… no problem”

Haruhiro wanted someone to tell him, was there any way to have any sort of discussion with her? There didn’t seem like any

Aftwards, Yu Mary in conversation, but were bitterly rejected at every go

By evening, they had killed seven goblins, earning themselves two silvers and five capas each It wasn’t too bad for a group like their own, but coolds like they were pocket change made Haruhiro clench his jaw at how pathetic they were

Mary left as soon as she had received her share of the cut, so the re five of them had dinner and then went to Sherry’s Tavern

“Sure is crowded,” Yume said “Yume doesn’t want to drink, so Yume will have juice”

“And kind of noisy too,” shi+horu agreed “I don’t want alcohol either…”

This was their first ti all about, wide-eyed and a little nervous

“Quit gawking at everything, you two!” Ranta adular “There’s nothing outta the ordinary! It’s just a normal tavern, so seriously, quit it!”

Yume and shi+horu, however, probably didn’t hear a word he said When the serving girl arrived soon after, everyone ordered and paid for their drinks Haruhiro also passed on alcohol and had a lereat; naturally carbonated water from the Tenryuu Mountains, mixed with lemons and honey

“So Mary is the source of the problem after all,” Haruhiro led off

“Yeah,” Yume nodded “Yume and shi+horu tried to talk to her all day, and it ”

“Naught,” shi+horu corrected iht’”

“Oh?” Yuht it was ‘not’, no a ways about it”

“…It’s ‘no tays about it’, Yu-h-t”

“Huh? Yuain?” Yume said “Yume seems to mess up a lot, yan”

“There’s nothing for it but THIS,” Ranta said, drawing his hand across his throat, as if beheading “THIS Just do THIS and get it over with If we do THIS to that girl then everything will get better THIS, I’uys, THIS”

Ranta really seeht it was cool or so If so, then he was even more messed up than Yume

“Er—” Mogzo cut in, looking towards the entranceway to the tavern

Speaking of the devil really is a thing, Haruhiro thought There she was Mary She entered and looked in their direction briefly She pretended not to have noticed them, but Haruhiro would have bet at ninety percent chance that she had There was an open seat at the end of the bar, and Mary settled in

“What the hell!” Ranta slammed a fist on the table “What’s with the attitude! Even if it’s just for right noe’re still in the saive a nod in our direction!”

“Yu,” Yuhtly, “that what’s normal for norot just an eensy bit annoyed just now…”

However, shi+horu tapped on her lips with a finger “But we didn’t greet her in any way either,” she pointed out “It’s like the pot calling the kettle black…”

“Hht We kinda expected to get ignored, so we didn’t even bother Yeah, that’s not really good either”

“fuck that!” Ranta exclaimed “Why the hell do we have to treat her nice?”

“You’ll be hated by all girls of all sorts with that attitude,” Yume remarked

“Shut up! There’s no way flat girls can talk for all girls!”

“Don’t call Yume flat!”

“Flat, flat, flat, flat, flat-flat-flat!”

Yurily at Ranta

“Ranta,” heaved Haruhiro, “you’d be considered an all out lowlife no matter who talks for who”

“As if you have the right to talk high and irl’s feelings! All I care about are the chest, butt, legs, and arms!”

shi+horu glanced at Ranta as if he was some filthy, despicable creature “It makes me sick to think that someone like you is human”

“Y-you didn’t have to go that far!” Apparently even Ranta realized that he was in a bad spot now “It’s not just the chest, butt, legs and arood their bodies are if they’ve got ani you’re even more pissed off? Why?”

“So in Mary’s direction

“Whoa” Haruhiro blinked several times “No way”

Though it wasn’t exactly surprising, it was not so Haruhiro had really expected Haruhiro knew hi to Mary They had ar him from head to toe; that armor under his tunic, and that sword

“That’s shi+nohara, of Orion,” Haruhiro said

“Orion?” Ranta craned his neck to get a better view “Seriously? Orion’s that pretty faht? And shi+nohara’s Orion’s leader, I think Not that I care or anything Why’s he talking with her? Hey, our drinks are here Hey! Let’s toast, guys Cheers!”

“C-cheers…” Mogzo was the only one who actually replied out loud

Haruhiro clanked his wooden cup against Mogzo’s, Yume’s, and shi+horu’s and took a sip of the ley, it was delicious

“Hey, Haru” Yued on the sleeve of Haruhiro’s shi+rt “What’s a ‘clan’?”

Haruhiro began to explain “A clan’s what they call it when…”

It wasn’t like Haruhiro hieable on the subject, but froroups foroal Parties usually consisted of five or six people, always including a Priest, whose light ic-based protection was indispensible However, there were cases when only six people weren’t enough to deal with large groups or unusually strong eneerous for one lone party to enter It was in these cases when several parties joined up and formed a clan

“…There’s several well known clans,” Haruhiro continued “The ‘Dark Berserkers’, ‘Iron Knuckles’, the all-girls clan ‘Wild Angels’ Oh, Orion is pretty famous too”

“Look,” Ranta said, pointing to shi+nohara “His cloak’s got seven stars in an ‘X’ shape design on it right? That’s Orion’s clan e the same emblem too”

Ranta was right There were several others scattered about the tavern with the similarly decorated cloaks shi+nohara did say once that he and many other Crimson Moon mereet shi+nohara at some point or another, but… he didn’t think noas the time He was reluctant to interrupt shi+nohara while he was talking to Mary

What sort of relationshi+p did shi+nohara have with Mary anyhow? Fro atory replies at the appropriate times However, it didn’t look like she was particularly annoyed by shi+nohara; if anything, she seeetic shi+nohara finally withdrew, and after continuing to watch him for a bit, Mary returned to her drink

Ranta snickered softly “Those two are doing it The THINGY”

“It didn’t seem like that to me,” Haruhiro replied

“Haaaaaaruhiroooo… You’ve seriously gotta be blinder than a bat ROMANCE was in the air! They’re doing the THINGY One hundred percent, the THINGY”

“I’o say hi to shi+nohara”

“Hey! Don’t just ignoreme sad here!”

Feel free, Haruhiro thought, and just as he rose froan to rise from the other patrons The reason for it soon became clear

“Hey, that’s Souma…” someone said

“Isn’t that Souma?” said another

And yet another, “It’s Souma!”

“Souma!”

“Souma…!”

Sou spoken by all the other Crimson Moon members in the tavern Who was he? No doubt it was a male name, but…

A party of six, consisting of both roup’s leader He looked young and… different Way different Most apparent was his armor His entire body was covered in black arles or juts could be seen The ht as well

It was probably so countless sht see breath His lower body was covered in an unusually long tasset, probably part of the same set of armor that covered his upper body It was asymmetrical on either side but looked incredibly awesome nonetheless

The large blade he carried strapped across his back was curved like a katana, the workmanshi+p beautiful and sinister at the saination of even the unlikeliest of warriors The blade at the man’s waist was similar to one on his back, only shorter, and it was of equally splendid craftsmanshi+p Honestly, Haruhiro would have taken that over the larger one

The facial features of this man ned such unique equipment was hardly ordinary, either He couldn’t be called handsoeous in a feant His al at the same time; they were filled with infinite calm and deepest sorrow It would be impossible to be scrutinized by those eyes and not be unnerved

Clearly the e Crie, dark skinned reen arzo He seemed to be quite a solid build; however, a small head made him appear more lanky than muscular

Behind the dark skinned man was the exact opposite A tinybut innocent One look from those eyes was surely a curse upon your head The , Haruhiro wondered if he were huhe was a creature of a different sort Ar, leather or evenoff his back was a giant saw-toothed blade that was probably was just as deadly as it looked

The toh… One look at thean to melt He felt as if he could rest his eyes upon them forever Souma’s party was composed of four eous One was slightly older and stylishly outfitted, with toned skin She wore sos and chest were boldly exposed She also sported an assorts, and bracelets, and she was ar staff and a short sword But despite all the accessories, she didn’t come across as showy in the least—probably because her beauty was on par with that of the jewelry

The other woman reminded Haruhiro a bit of Mary It wasn’t that their faces looked si; it was her otherworldly beauty that er than him yet older at the same time He couldn’t tell whether she should be called a beautiful woirl

She wore an elaborately engraved breastplate, but was otherwise lightly ar off her belt which… made her a Warrior? Female Warriors were rare indeed That aside, her lovely silver hair holly different from Renji’s It was as if every delicate strand was made of melted silver, and with eyes of sapphire set within And if there were such thing as skin white as snow, Haruhiro would call hers as fair Of course, she wasn’t ed pink Mary’s cold ice wasn’t nearly as bright as she was

But she wasn’t human Her ears They were pointed

“Isn’t she an elf?” Ranta whispered

“Elf…” Haruhiro echoed unthinkingly, so awestruck that he forgot to blink as he stared

Elf What was that? He had no idea what an elf was, but at the saht That woman was probably an elf

“Hey hey hey!”

Someone’s voice came That voice That overly hyper, overly happy voice couldn’t have belonged to anyone but Kikkawa

“If it isn’t Harucchi, Rantan, Mogcchi, Yuuys?! I’uys notice? Isn’t Souht I’d see him in the flesh!+ I’m so lucky! EVERYONE’S SOOOOO LUCKY!!!”

Kikkaas more hyper-excited today than last time Perhaps it was because of Souma

“Kikkaho is he?” Haruhiro asked

“Whaaaaaaat?!” said Kikkawa, disbelieving “Harucchi, you’ve never heard of Souht? There’s no way! Souma’s—you know! Souma’s Crimson Moon’s best warrior! The warrior of warriors!”

Kikkawa barreled on without slowing “Well, there’s so ability, but no one doubts that he’s the best This iselse, isn’t he? Way different! Way cooler! If I were a girl, I’d want him!

“SOUMA, I LOVE YOU!!!” he illustrated, and grinned “Just kidding I can’t say I’d go that far, but isn’t he awesohly respected by everyone I hope I can become someone like that someday…”

“hell yeah!” Ranta agreed, his eyes literal stars “God daet his hands on that sorta armor? I want armor like that!”

“…I-I’d like…” Mogzo’s eyes dropped to the floor “…I’d like a helm And if possible, plate armor If I had those I could be a little more…”

shi+horu bit her lower lip as a thought came to her “I want to learn hts, with ic All I can do now is…”

“Yuood with a bow, so she’s fighting in the front all the ti armor would help…”

“I want…” Haruhiro paused, his eyes still glued on Souma and company What did he want for himself?

To be honest, unlike Kikkawa and Ranta, Haruhiro had no desire to become like Souap between themselves and Renji’s tea but a pipe drea Souma’s level, so why even try? They would only look like idiots for the attempt

So was staying rock-bottom fine then? a small voice inside him asked No, not that, either Haruhiro wanted to keep advancing Even if they couldn’t clis like Renji, he wanted to keepat a time Even if it was only one step at a time, there shouldn’t be any reason why they couldn’t advance higher

Manato definitely would have thought the saher today than yesterday, higher tomorrow than today But it was useless just to want; they needed to take action to make it happen

What should I do? Save up more money and use it to learn more skills? Buy better equip

Manato had asked him to take care of the others Did heManato had done? In other words, beco? It was true that someone had to fill the position But did it have to be him? He didn’t want that He didn’t want to take on the burden of the spotlight, the responsibility of leadershi+p It was too much work

What about Manato? Did he take up the role of leader because he wanted to? Because he liked leading? Did he fill the role gladly—or did he do it reluctantly? Maybe he hated it, and he really wanted to hurl the responsibility out of the , but he grit his teeth and endured having to drag everyone else along behind him? Haruhiro didn’t think that was the case, but he couldn’t say for sure

“…No! But but but!” At some point, Kikkawa had sidled up shoulder to shoulder with Ranta, and they were both snickering about soht he would see the day Ranta found soht I’darea is where it was formerly Ishmael so he doesn’t come to Altana much I’m SO LUCKY it’s scary! Well, not really scary but…”

“Kikkawa! Let’s go make friends with Souma! If it’s me and you WE CAN DO IT!” Ranta proclaimed

“Friends? LET’S DO IT! Rantan! Let’s go!!!”

Kikkawa and Ranta both got up from their seats simultaneously It see themselves to Souma Haruhiro half rose out of his own seat and looked around the tavern Sou around a table near the counter, and already a horde of people swar by the second

Mary re from her own tankard shi+nohara was nowhere to be seen Where did he go? Haruhiro sat back down and took a sip of leht into Yu Haruhiro what he was going to do

Haruhiro shook his head, indicating to her just as wordlessly that he wasn’t planning to do anything, and brought his cup to his lips for another drink But doing nothing probably wasn’t wise

A leader, huh? Did Haruhiro have it in him to become one?