chap 14 4

No, he didn’t. He only fell to one knee, bearing the pain.
Renji wiped the blood from his forehead with one finger. “You’ve got a hard head. Tell me your name.”
“...It’s Ron. Damn, you’re strong.”
“You’re pretty tough yourself. Come with me, Ron.”
“Yeah. I’ll stick with you for now.”
“Good. Now, who else...” Renji looked around the office, stopping on me.
Ron was first, and I was second, huh?
Oh, screw you, was something I didn’t think. But Renji could tell.
He looked away from me, eyeing Glasses instead. “You look like you could be useful. Come with me.”
Glasses crossed his arms, thinking it over a little before nodding.
“Sure. I’m Adachi. It’s a pleasure, Renji.”
I let out a little sigh. He kept taking things from me.
Why? What was it that made Renji one step faster than me?
It was that Renji didn’t hesitate. Because I stopped to think things over, I was a step behind. That might have been it.
“You there, Chibi.”
“Aye...?”
But this one was a big surprise. Renji was choosing that petite girl.
“Come.”
When he gestured for her to follow, the petite girl tottered over in his direction, and looked up at Renji.
He patted her on the head. “You look like you’ll be useful. Come along.”
“...Aye.”
While I looked at the petite girl’s face, which had turned a deep shade of red, I desperately tried to figure out why. What? What criteria did Renji choose her based on? That she’d be useful in battle? Her physical strength? Her intelligence? No, that’s not it. Or, at least, that’s not all there was to it. What, then...?
“We’re going.” Renji took Ron, Adachi, and the petite girl with him as they went to leave the office.
Four people. Is just four people enough?
“Wait!” the flashy woman called after Renji. “Take me, too!”
“I don’t need any useless baggage.”
“I’ll do anything!” Flashy said, clinging to Renji. “I’m Sassa. Please. Absolutely anything, I’ll do it.”
“Absolutely anything, huh?” Renji said, shoving Sassa away violently.
In that instant, I saw it. It was only slightly, but Renji smiled.
“Don’t forget those words.” I get. That makes sense.
It was loyalty. Not whether they would be an asset in battle. That was important, of course, but it was whether he could make them obey him or not.
Would they submit to him? That was what Renji looked for. At this stage, he already had an image in his mind. He was trying to build up a team with him at the center.
When Renji left the office with Team Renji, Kikkawa said something and headed out, too.
“Well, I’m off, too,” I said.
For now, I didn’t want to stick around. It felt like I’d been left behind, and I didn’t like it. Right now, I wanted to get outside as soon as I could. That was how I felt, but for some reason, I was smiling.
“I won’t learn anything staying here, so I’m going outside to look around.” I smiled at the five losers. Then, like it was no big deal, I added, “See you all later.”
“Yeah, see you.” Haruhiro was waving.
He must want to come along, I thought. Well, he should, then. Why doesn’t he? Because no one else is? Is that a reason? I don’t understand.
I left the office. I was frustrated, but when I touched my face, it still had a smile plastered to it.
What is this? Just what kind of person am I...?

2. Getting a Feel For it
While I was walking around Alterna, I learned some things about myself.
I was so personable that even I was shocked. I could strike up a conversation with anyone, and even if I didn’t mean to at the time, I’d end up smiling. In most cases, it seemed everyone else had a positive impression of me.
I didn’t know anything, and everything was new to me. Not only was I not afraid of this situation, I was starting to like it.
I saw a certain figure at a distance in the plaza. He looked lost.
I just get a vague sense of that, but I guess that’s how it is, I thought. That’s not bad, in its own way.
“Haruhiro!” I called.
“Huh?” Haruhiro came running straight at me. “Manato...! Manato!
I’m trying to make my way back to the office, but I can’t find it!
Meeting you here feels like stumbling across the Buddha in Hell!”
“You’re exaggerating,” I said. With a smile, of course. “Haruhiro, are you alone? Are there any others?”
“Yeah. Ranta, Shihoru and Yume are in front of the office... or should be. Shihoru started crying, see. After that, we agreed that I was going to go gather information while they waited there.”
“Oh, so that’s it. So, you figured out a bunch of stuff, and you’re on the way back now?”
“Well... I don’t know that anything I figured out counts as figuring stuff out. What was there... the Yorozu Deposit Company, maybe...?” “Yorozu? Deposit Company? I don’t know about those yet.”
“No way. Seriously? It’s a place where you can deposit your money, or have it converted. It seemed kinda important. Oh, also, there was a good meat skewer place in the market... Nah, that one’s not so important.”
“I took a peek at the marketplace a bit myself. So there are meat skewers there, huh? If they’re as good as you say, I’d like to try one.”
“I’ll show you the place. I remember exactly where it was. ...Though I forgot the way back to the office.”
“Okay, should we go together, then?” I’m amazed I can say these things, I thought, but it came out so easily. This had to just be the kind of person I was. “I was just thinking of heading back to the office.”
“Huh...?” Haruhiro seemed to be stunned silent.
Yeah, I guess it made sense that he would be.
I did say something like, “See you all later,” but I wouldn’t blame him for thinking that was just me being polite.
I was, after all. Not that I’d tell him that. It seemed this was just the kind of guy I was.
“Hm? Is something wrong?” I asked.
“N-Nothing at all, actually! L-Let’s go. To the office. I don’t care about Ranta, but I’m sure Shihoru and Yume are feeling alone and helpless.”
Like that, I ended up forming a party with the leftovers: Haruhiro, Ranta, Shihoru, Yume, and Moguzo.
Haruhiro was unreliable, Ranta was noisy, Shihoru was awfully timid, Yume was an airhead, and Moguzo was slow. The five of them had more weak points than strong ones.
But I hadn’t lost hope. That wasn’t me putting up a strong front. I was honestly enjoying myself.
It was a mystery to me as to why. I mean, if I was going to team up with this group, I was going to have to decide everything, and when it came to Ranta, he wouldn’t even listen.
Like, here was a thing that happened.
The first thing volunteer soldier trainees do is join a guild and receive training in a job. So, looking at their aptitude, I decided Haruhiro would be a thief, Shihoru would be a mage, Yume would be a hunter, and Ranta would be a warrior.
But then Ranta went and became a dread knight.
If Moguzo, who’d already become a warrior, hadn’t joined the party, what would have happened to us?
So long as a party has its two pillars, the priest and the warrior, the rest can, frankly, be just about anything. This was something anyone who listened even a little would know, and my comrades didn’t understand it. They weren’t even thinking through things in the first place.
Hilarious, wasn’t it?
I doubt Renji could have taken it.
He’d put together an easy team to work with, so he wouldn’t have to. He would make all the decisions himself, and use the rest as pawns. That was probably how that man operated. It was efficient, after all. I think it was the right way.
But it seemed I was different. If I left them to their own devices, no one tried to lead the way, so I was forced to take point, but seeing no one in front of me didn’t feel right.
While we searched the forests near Alterna for goblins or ghouls, I kept feeling something was off.
Maybe this wasn’t supposed to be my position.
If I thought about it, I’d struggled to choose between warrior or priest, and then settled on priest. The priest’s role was to treat the wounded. The warrior had to stand on the front line, protecting his comrades, and also draw in the enemy and slay them. I’d tried to have Ranta do that.
I had a reason, of course. Ranta was short, but he had stamina, and he was speedy. His personality was defective, but he had an indomitable spirit, and there was a part of him that loved being around people. Guys like him had a hard time abandoning others.
I had considered being the warrior myself, but I’d felt like Ranta would handle it just fine, too.
Ultimately, I had failed to read Ranta’s selfishness and freewheeling nature. That was a mistake on my part, but someone needed to fill the warrior and priest roles. Shihoru was too sensitive, and Yume was too out of it, for me to trust either of them to do it. Haruhiro, too. His personality probably wasn’t suited to being a warrior. And Ranta as priest was unthinkable.
Which meant our warrior was Ranta.
That wasn’t the only option, no. I didn’t think Haruhiro as priest would have been that bad, which was why I would have been fine with being the warrior. But that wasn’t the choice I made.
Renji had surely become a warrior. And Team Renji’s priest was with me at the guild, so I knew who that was. It was the petite girl.
I had probably planned to be the priest from the beginning, leaving the role of warrior to someone else.
Was it that I didn’t want to be in the line of fire? Was it that I was scared? No, that wasn’t it... Ranta suddenly jumped up.
“Wha?! Wh-What?! W-Whoa?!”
When I looked, there was a beast about the size of a cat, with its body covered in needle-like hair, trying to cling on to Ranta’s leg, and scratching him.
“A pit rat,” said Yume, looking around. “Pit rats are supposed to attack in packs, so there may be more around here.”
“They’re here...!” I quickly spotted another pit rat, and I took a swing at it with my staff, but it dodged. “Urkh! They’re too quick!”
“Hey! H-Help me out here, guys! Helping me should be first priority! H-Help! Somebody heeeelp!”
“Fight, dread knight!” Haruhiro drew his dagger, swinging it down at the pit rats. That missed, too. “Animals are fast...!”
“Hunghh!” Moguzo’s bastard sword nearly scored a blow on Ranta instead of the pit rat.
“Eeek! M-Moguzo, damn it! Are you trying to kill me?! Dammit! Dammit, dammit! My allies are trying to kill me, I’m still being targeted, nothing is going my way...!”
Moguzo looked really apologetic, but he couldn’t say anything.
Haruhiro tried to kick the pit rat, but it dodged again. “Moguzo was trying to help you! Be grateful!” he shouted.
“He didn’t help at all! Rahhhh, Hatred! Wha? My dread knight skill! It missed...?!”
“Don’t use skills recklessly! Ugh, jeez...!”
Oh, wow. This is a mess. How many rats are there? Five? Six? I exhaled. I need to calm down first. Yeah, this isn’t scary. At all. I don’t think I’m even flustered.
“Marc em Parc.” Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff while chanting, triggering the magic spell Magic Missile.
Her eyes are still closed. That’s bad, isn’t it? I thought, and lo and behold, the bead of light shot from the tip of Shihoru’s staff to strike Ranta square in the back of the head.
“Gwah?!”
“Huh?! I-I’m sorry! I...”
“You bitch! I’m gonna kill you! Actually, no, just let me grope you...!” Ranta rubbed the back of his head, getting ready to assault Shihoru.
Oh, come on, seriously? I’m gonna have to do something.
I swept Ranta’s legs out from under him with my short staff. He stumbled forward with a grunt and tripped. It looked like I was going to have to teach him a lesson.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted at Ranta, meaning to give him a piece of my mind, but a pit rat came at me. I tried to hit it, but I missed.
These little guys really are fast. This’s getting interesting.
“I-If we could just get a little!” Yume was swinging her machete around wildly. “If we could just get a little damage in! Master said most animals’ll run off if you can do that, so everyone do your best!”
That made sense. They weren’t playing around. In a battle to secure food and keep living, getting wounded was absolutely forbidden.
While I was following the pit rats with my eyes, impressed by them, Moguzo’s bastard sword struck a tree, showering him with bugs and leaves. “Hunghh! Whuh?!” he cried out in surprise.
That was just too funny. No, but this wasn’t time for me to be amused.
“This is going nowhere!” Haruhiro suddenly dropped to one knee and lowered his posture.
Huh. Wow. He’s baiting them.
Using his own arm as bait, it looked like he was deliberately planning to let them bite him. But, before that could happen, a different pit rat tore into Haruhiro’s right shin.
“Yowwwch...?!” Haruhiro hollered, trying to shake it off, but the initial pit rat bit his right arm. “Ouch!”
“Haruhiro...!” I called. Nice one! Haruhiro’s scheme had, in a way, succeeded. I took aim at the two pit rats biting Haruhiro. “Don’t move...!”
With one strike of my short staff, the pit rats squealed. But that needle-like hair was tricky. It absorbed the impact, so it wasn’t that effective. The two pit rats quickly recovered and took off running. Maybe they were sensing it was time to give up? The other pit rats vanished, too.
When I was treating him, Haruhiro was surprised to see light magic for the first time.
“Awesome... Thank you, Manato. You ended up being the one to drive off the rats in the end, too.”
“Thanks to you acting as live bait for them, Haruhiro.”
“Nah, the plan was to use my arm as bait, then handle them myself...”
“Sure... But, you know, all’s well that ends well.” Honestly, it wasn’t a bad result.
It looks like I’ve been underestimating Haruhiro, I thought. If I’m being blunt, the one who made a decisive move was Haruhiro. Using his own arm as bait. Even if you can think of it, it’s not so easy to put the idea into action. That means he can commit. He’s got the ability to make decisions.
The problem is, he doesn’t look like he does. If he were sharper, it would be easy to pivot around him. He’s got a strong tendency to need to rely on others, too. He’s clearly depending on me.
Whatever the case, we got results. Haste makes waste. Best not rush things.
The next day we searched the forest again, and we found a small spring. There was a mud goblin there.
With some subtle guidance, I had Haruhiro serve as our scout. He was the one closest to the spring.
When Haruhiro nodded, I nodded back. When I was about to give the signal to come back—Haruhiro raised his right hand, and swung down.
Come on, there’s no need to be hasty. Oh, too late.
Ranta charged forward with a battle cry. Naturally, the mud goblin noticed us, and tried to flee.
“There!” Yume shouted and immediately loosed an arrow, which stabbed into the ground ahead of where the mud goblin was going.
Thanks to that, it stopped.
The mud goblin was unarmed. That didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous, but I decided to watch and see.
Haruhiro used Slap with his dagger. That scratched it. The mud goblin was stuck in the spring for a bit, but it quickly went on the counterattack.
Haruhiro narrowly dodged.
Ranta’s Hatred was too blatant, so it missed.
The mud goblin performed a jump kick on Ranta, knocking him down. That looked a bit dangerous.
I took a thrust at the mud goblin’s shoulder as it was about to jump on Ranta, driving it off.
Shihoru was trying to cast a spell with her eyes closed again, but Ranta stopped her. She needed to work on that habit.
“Moguzo, get in front of the mud gob!” I ordered. “Everyone else, surround it! Don’t let it get away!”
“Yeah!” Moguzo’s response wasn’t bad. He immediately positioned himself in front of the mud gob, stabbing the blade of his bastard sword at it.
“F-Fine, guess I’ll have to, huh?!” Ranta moved to the right side of the mud gob. I was on the left. Haruhiro and Yume, who had dropped her bow and pulled her machete, were to the rear. Now the mud gob had nowhere to run.
This should do, for a start, I thought. “Moguzo! Pile on the pressure! Pressure! More pressure!”
“Hunnngh!”
“Hey!”
Ranta and Moguzo are taking the lead well, I thought—but then the mud goblin shrieked and threw a dried branch at Ranta.
It was only a branch, but Ranta backed away with an exaggerated,
“Whoa?!”
Is he stupid? I thought with exasperation. That’ll break our encirclement. I won’t let it happen, though.
I immediately stepped in to clobber the mud gob’s shoulder with my short staff.
Was that what made the mud gob snap? It turned on me and let out a terrible scream.
Is it coming? I readied myself. But it didn’t come. Is it acting tough? It might be scared of us. Well, of course it is. We have it outnumbered.
“G-Guys!” Ranta licked his lips over and over. “Don’t get cold feet on me now! It’s kill or be killed! I’m gonna murder this thing and accumulate vice...!”
You’re the one getting cold feet, Ranta.
“Stay cautious...!” I said as I stepped in, smacking the mud gob in the head with my short staff. It drew blood, and the mud gob hissed and glared at me, swinging both its arms around.
This guy’s desperate, too. I guess that should be obvious.
“Gobsy’s a real tough guy, huh...” Yume’s voice was wavering.
Moguzo moved up. “Umph! Umph!” he swung his bastard sword, making the mud gob back away.
When it did, Haruhiro and Yume were there.
“Th-This one’s ours, Haru-kun!”
“Y-Yeahhh...!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Urkh...” Haruhiro seemed to be intimidated by the mud gob’s wailing, but he swung wildly with his dagger.
It hit the mud gob’s right arm. It went pretty deep.
He could have pushed in deeper, but Haruhiro cried out in surprise and pulled back his dagger. What was he doing?
“Ugyahgyah!” The mud gob splattered blood everywhere, spinning around on the spot. It was just struggling in vain now. “Gyah!
Ugyahgyah!”
It was wounded, so we really couldn’t let our guard down now. We just had to calmly press the attack.
However, no one tried to touch it. Their breathing was ragged. Well, I was a bit winded, too. Was it because of the abnormal situation?
“What’s with this...?” Haruhiro muttered to himself weakly. He had a look on his face like his heart was about to break.
“Lives are at stake here...!” I shouted. If I didn’t motivate them, we were in trouble. “There are lives at stake here! Ours, and its! The goblin is serious! It doesn’t get any more deadly serious than this! There’s no way it’s going to be easy! Because no person, no living being, wants to die!”
“Marc em Parc...!” The first to act was Shihoru. You could say that was surprising.
The bead of light struck the mud gob square in the face. It howled in pain and confusion.
“Now!” I commanded, striking the mud gob.
Ranta brought down his longsword, burying it in the mud gob’s right shoulder. “—That’s hard! Was that bone?!” “Hungh...!” Moguzo went for a big swing.
The mud gob still had Ranta’s longsword stabbed into it, so it couldn’t escape anymore.
Moguzo’s bastard sword did a magnificent job of crushing the mud gob’s head.
It collapsed, and Ranta pumped his fist with a “Hell, yeah!”
I figured we had to be done at this point. No one would expect the mud gob to get up so quickly in that state.
“...You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me,” Yume stared in disbelief.
It wasn’t kidding.
“Wha...?!” I cried out in surprise and tried to trip it with my short staff.
That was because the mud gob took off running. Not just that, it managed to jump over my staff. I was flabbergasted.
“That’s pushing your luck!” If Haruhiro hadn’t caught the mud gob’s right leg with his foot and tripped it, it might have gotten away.
No, probably not. It was hurt too badly. Its strength would have failed before it got too far.
Moguzo bellowed, winding up his bastard sword to strike, but Ranta cut ahead of him.
“Out of my way, Moguzo! I’ll strike the killing blow...!” He didn’t so much cut it as hit it. And hit it. And hit it.
“Wahahahahahahahaha!” Ranta laughed maniacally. “Lord Skullhell! Did you see that?! To accumulate vice, a dread knight takes life from a living being and offers a part of its body at the guild altar, see! The ears are a bit big, so maybe a claw will do— Wait, whoa?!” Ahh. Yeah... that’s right. It’s not done yet.
It’s still breathing. The mud gob isn’t dead.
It’s trying to crawl away. Even though it’s hopeless.
Shihoru let out a sob, on the verge of bursting into tears.
“Guess it doesn’t want to die, huh...” Yume put her hands together in prayer. “Rest in peace...”

Chapter end