by Ao Jyumonji
He felt it was pathetic, but not completely pathetic. After all, this was a matter of life and death.
Both sides were serious. It didn’t get any more deadly serious than this. There was no way it was going to be easy, so he’d resort to anything he had to. That was something he’d learned from Manato.
When he could see the line, he had to keep his breathing steady. If he held his breath, or inhaled or exhaled in the wrong way, the line would disappear in an instant. He couldn’t bend his knees and lower his center of gravity, either. He couldn’t put too much strength into his wrist, elbow, or shoulder.
He didn’t have time think about what would happen if he missed this chance. He needed to act immediately.
Or, rather, by the time he saw the line, his body was already in motion. That was what it felt like. If his body didn’t go into motion automatically, he would never succeed. Rather than him choosing to follow the line, it might be more accurate to say that by the time he noticed, he was already following it.
This time, it worked.
Haruhiro’s body moved smoothly, his dagger easily entering the kobold’s back. The kobold spewed out its last breath and collapsed.
“Huh?” Yume blinked, staring at it in blank amazement.
“Yume, next!” Haruhiro shouted.
Yume nodded quickly. “Y-Yeah! Yume was surprised! Sorry ’bout that!”
“—Ohm, rel, ect, vel, darsh...!” Shihoru chanted, casting the Shadow Beat spell.
Vwong. The shadow elemental, which looked like a black ball of seaweed, flew forth.
The elder noticed and tried to avoid it, but it grazed its arm. The elder was wearing chain mail, so it probably didn’t do any damage. However, Shadow Beat didn’t use heat, or impact, or electricity: it used vibration.
The elder’s right shoulder trembled with a bwong. For one instant, the elder stopped moving.
“Thanks...!” In that moment, Moguzo attacked with the Thanks Slash. The elder still managed to block with its sword, but it wasn’t in the right position. The elder’s sword was pushed back by Moguzo’s bastard sword, drifting to the side.
“Hungh!” Moguzo immediately followed up with a strike from another angle, burying his bastard sword in the elder’s flank. The elder tried to counterattack, but before it could, Moguzo kicked it to the ground, and when the elder landed on its backside, Moguzo brought his bastard sword down on its head.
“Yeah!” Haruhiro pumped his arm a bit in celebration. There was just one kobold left.
Ranta pulled back with Exhaust again, probably hoping to lure the kobold in. However, it obviously saw through it. The kobold didn’t move up.
When it didn’t, Ranta leapt forward to unleash his Hatred. But the kobold had expected that, too, and it sidestepped him to the right. That meant the kobold had managed to circle around to the side of Ranta. Barking, it swung down its sword.
“Whoa...?!” Throwing himself to the ground, Ranta narrowly evaded the kobold’s attack. A close call.
“Ranta...!” Haruhiro was about to race forward.
“Don’t come!” Ranta shouted, rising to one knee and deflecting the kobold’s sword. “I’ve still got this! I’m gonna take this guy down! I’ve gotta kill him with my own two hands and earn my vice!”
“...What, weren’t you doing it to give us more tactical breadth?”
“It’s both! Exhaust...!” Ranta zoomed backwards from his half-crouching position. “—Whoa?! That was a new Exhaust! Maybe, did I just discover an original skill of my own?!”
“It didn’t look any different than usual,” Yume said coldly.
“...Yeah,” Shihoru agreed.
“That’s right,” Merry concurred.
“Ha ha ha...” Even Moguzo’s laughter sounded dry.
“You goddamn maggots!” Ranta shouted.
While throwing some hateful invective their way, Ranta went to attack the kobold.
Let’s just leave him to it, Haruhiro thought. Well, until it looks like he’s going to die, at least.
7. Leave It To Sensei
Elder talismans were nice.
They were earrings, nose rings, and occasionally necklaces, too. Regardless of which type they were, they almost always had a jewel in them worth more than 5 silver. There was even a time when a single gem sold for 40 silver.
The second level of the Cyrene Mines was home to the low workers, but the third level was home to a slightly higher class known as kobold workers.
The elders on the third level seemed to be their supervisors, and so they were called foremen. Foremen traveled with two to three followers in tow, and while these followers were built like the workers, they were properly armed. Haruhiro and the party were targeting these foremen and their followers.
How strong these groups were depended on the foreman. The foreman’s strength was an important factor, but how capable it was at commanding its followers could affect the feel of the battle greatly.
When the foreman came right up front, things would be surprisingly easy. However, when the foreman drew back, siccing its followers on them, things could get pretty hard.
Like humans, they generally focused on doing something about the enemies in front of them. It wasn’t that this was a trait of theirs, or anything complicated like that. If you have an enemy in front of you, but you look around for other enemies, what happens? Well, you get killed. That’s why they had no other choice but to do things that way. For reasons of practicality, they had no choice but to focus on defeating the enemies in front of them.
That said, sometimes their priorities could change.
For instance, if an ally was in trouble, it was possible they would choose to expose themselves to the enemy they were facing to go save them.
Also, they could be ordered to do so.
Haruhiro couldn’t give unreasonable orders to his comrades, but a foreman could. Even if a follower was fighting Moguzo or Ranta, the foreman might gesture and bark for them to go after Shihoru or Merry instead.
When that happened, whether it was out of bravery, obedience, or even a dog-like adherence to the pack hierarchy, they would follow the foreman’s orders at great risk to their own lives.
If they got past Moguzo and Ranta, the others would be in real trouble. In particular, Shihoru, as the party mage, couldn’t fight in melee combat, so everyone had to cover her. Whenever that happened, they broke formation, and the battle bogged down.
However, if they could just eliminate the foreman, its followers were no match for them. As far as Haruhiro was concerned, all they needed to do was focus their strategy on taking down or otherwise neutralizing the foreman as quickly as possible.
At the moment, there was always one foreman and two or three followers. The fact that there was no variation in their enemies’ composition was working in their favor.
The hunting here was simple, but good.
It felt good that they had the fourth and fifth levels to look forward to, as well. When the appropriate time came, they would naturally start to consider taking the next step up, a thought which gave their morale a boost.
After ten days of coming to the third level of the Cyrene Mines, they had built up some money, so they decided they would each learn some new skills or magic. They wanted to broaden their options in battle, and being able to do more things gave them a firm sense that they were growing.
Haruhiro decided to pay 40 silver coins to Barbara-sensei and learn the Spider technique under her.
“Okay, let’s do this right away, Old Cat,” she said.
Skill training was done in a room in the thieves’ guild in Alterna’s West Town called the “Poisoning Room.” It sounded more dangerous and terrifying than was probably necessary, but most rooms in the thieves’ guild had names like that.
Incidentally, the Poisoning Room was fairly big, but it had no windows. The only light came from a chandelier with candles that could be raised and lowered from the ceiling. It wasn’t a bright room by any stretch of the imagi
nation. Even in the middle of the day, if the candles weren’t lit, it was pitch black. It was a creepy room.
Barbara-sensei was wearing highly-revealing clothes, like always, and today she had a black scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. Her long hair hid one of her eyes as well, making her look kind of scary.
“...Okay,” Haruhiro said. “Thank you for your instruction.”
“You seem awfully stiff,” Barbara-sensei told him. “The only part of you that should be stiff right now is your crotch.”
“Uh, no, I’m not stiff there, eith—”
Before he could finish getting the words out, Barbara-sensei was behind him. When he tried to turn to face her, she put him in a full nelson. Was that what it was called?
Barbara-sensei did more than just pin both his arms; she also wrapped her legs around his.
I can’t move! he thought.
On top of that, Barbara-sensei had her knife at Haruhiro’s throat.
“Spider... is a skill where you pin your opponent from behind in an instant, then deliver a fatal blow. If I were doing this for real, I’d have slit your throat wide open. Even if I hadn’t had my knife, snapping your neck would have done it. If I hadn’t wanted to kill you, just neutralize you—” Barbara moved the point of her knife down from Haruhiro’s neck, stopping it at his crotch. “—I could cut here. It’s quite effective on men, I assure you.”
“...I’m sure it is. Uh, um... Could you get away from me now, maybe...?”
“Hm? Oh, right, you’ve never known a woman. You’re not used to this, huh? So, if I were to do this...” Barbara blew in his ear.
“Wha?!” Haruhiro tried to throw his head back, but Barbara was holding him still, so he couldn’t. “—L-Leave my ear alone, okay?!”
“I just blew in it a little, that’s all.”
“I’m kind of weak there, you could say...” he mumbled.
“You’re hopeless. Okay, then—”
“Huh?”
Haruhiro had no idea what had happened. His body flew through the air, spinning once, then he landed on his back, knocking the wind out of him.
Barbara-sensei looked down at Haruhiro. “Once I have you grappled like that, there are all sorts of things I can do. First, you’re going to thoroughly experience my Spider. We’ll go until I have you coughing up blood.”
“...Are you sure I won’t die?”
“If you die, you’ll never know, so why worry? Well, I wouldn’t want No-Life King’s curse to bring you back as a zombie, so I’ll have you cremated at least. Don’t worry.”
What if I really do get killed? Haruhiro thought. I dunno what other mentors are like, but Barbara-sensei’s been like this from day one. But, technically, she hasn’t killed me off yet, and I’ve learned the skills she teaches me. I can trust her... I think.
A moment later, he thought, —Is this okay? Really?
After three hours of experiencing the many variations of Barbara-sensei’s Spider, Haruhiro couldn’t even stand.
“What’s wrong? You’re acting slovenly, Old Cat.”
“...I’m sorry,” he managed.
“If you can’t get up anymore, there’s no helping it. Let’s take a break.” After saying that, Barbara-sensei sat on Haruhiro’s belly.
“Oof.”
“Deal with it. Even when you rest, you should be training. Sit-ups. Do sit-ups. Or maybe you’d like to do some training on how to endure torture?”
“I’m going to die, seriously.”
“Now, now, I’m holding back, aren’t I? So far, I’ve only killed a handful of people in training, I’ll have you know.”
“You’ve actually killed people, then...?”
“It was a joke. Why would I kill my precious source of income? Now then, it’s about to get heavier.”
“Urkh...”
Barbara-sensei lifted one leg, and the amount of weight on Haruhiro increased accordingly. At this point, he needed to strain his stomach muscles a fair bit just to bear it.
“Now, let’s double it,” Barbara-sensei said.
“Oh...!”
This time, she raised both legs. Barbara’s full weight pressed down on Haruhiro’s belly.
How is this a break? I can’t rest like this.
“Well, let’s make small talk,” she said.
“I... can’t...”
“Just do it, idiot.”
It’s an unreasonable demand, but that’s nothing new. Besides, if I don’t do as Barbara-sensei demands, things will only get worse for me.
“U-Um, let’s see... S-Small talk...”
“A short story would do, too.”
“I-I don’t have anything like that.”
“What a boring man you are. This is why women won’t sleep with you.”
“I-I can’t... deny that.”
“You’ve got women in your party, I’m sure. How many?”
“Th-Three.”
“Make at least one of them yours,” Barbara-sensei told him. “Though gobbling all of them up is the way to go.”
“No, I couldn’t do that.”
“Because it would cause trouble in the party if that stuff was going on?”
“I-I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any experience...”
“A little trouble makes things fun. Ah, I remember those days. When I was in your position, I tried hooking up with my party leader. Then, I started two-timing on him with the guy who was our mage. Then, I had a fling with the leader of another party after he confessed his love to me, and when everyone found out, the party fell apart... so many memories.”
“...I don’t know that it fell apart so much as you broke it up.”
“It feels like youth, doesn’t it?” Barbara-sensei reminisced.
“It feels like blind passion, too...”
“Nice one,” she said.
“Urgh!”
Barbara-sensei kept both legs raised, grinding her butt against him. It was unbearably painful. Though if he were to thrash around and try to throw her off, there was no telling what she might do, so he had to bear it.
Still, Sensei’s sense of balance is pretty amazing, he admitted to himself.
“This is the only time to do it,” she told him. “You’re sixteen, aren’t you? When you’re sixteen, there are men, and there are women. Really, this is the only time that’s true. Once this time goes by, it never comes back. If there’s a girl who interests you, you’d better do something about it now, or someone else might snatch her up. I say might, but if there’s a woman you want to do it with, there are other men thinking the same thing, so she’s going to get snatched up. If you start regretting it after seeing her and some other guy fondling one another, it’ll be too late.”
“W-Well, I don’t have anyone,” Haruhiro said. “I don’t have a girl I’m interested in.”
“You really don’t?” Barbara-sensei asked.
“...Huh?”
“Old Cat. You tend to try to play it safe. You don’t want to rock the boat with your party, so you’re unconsciously setting those feelings aside, aren’t you?”
“Th-That’s not...”
“From my experience, men fall for the women who are close to them. Probably that’s just how men are. Though women can be the same way.”
The women close to me.
Yume.
Shihoru.
And Merry.
—I don’t dislike any of them.
With Yume, I do think her goofiness is kind of cute, sometimes. And we did hug that one time. But that was just because of the situation. Sure, I can still feel it now, or remember how it felt, but if I ask myself whether I have those sorts of feelings for her, I don’t think so... Probably.
Shihoru... She actually has rather big breasts, it seems. Since that was the first thing that came to mind about her, Haruhiro started to worry that he was some sort of savage. I’m pretty awful, aren’t I?
Besides, it’d be awkward with Shihoru. She seemed to be... in love with Manato, after all. No, it
’s not just that she seemed to be, I can pretty much be sure she was. For me to do something with Shihoru—Yeah, no. I couldn’t even consider it.
Well, what about Merry, then? As for Merry... she’s off-limits in another way, I think. I mean, Merry is just too beautiful, And she’s got a great figure, too.
For Haruhiro, who was the plainest of the plain, she was a little—no, very—unapproachable. She’s a comrade, so I need to close the distance between us a little, though, he realized.
Before, when we asked who in the party was her type, Merry answered Moguzo. She’s probably not too hung up on looks, herself. However, if Moguzo was her type, then did Haruhiro have no chance? Well, not that my chances matter. I’ve never felt that way about Merry. I haven’t... right?
I do wish she would smile more. If I can, I want to make Merry smile more. Given how beautiful she is, if I could see Merry with a broad grin on her face, I’m sure she’d look stunning. It’d be a heartwarming sight.
But, that’s not love, it’s something else—Right...?
“...Um, Sensei?” he asked.
“What, Old Cat?”
“I’d like some advice, or to ask you something, rather.”
“Of course it’s about women, right?”
“No, it isn’t...”
“Oh, ho. Dodging the subject, are you? You good-for-nothing.”
“I don’t have time for it. I don’t have the time to think about that stuff. I’ve got bigger worries. Honestly...”
Changing the subject, Haruhiro spoke to Barbara-sensei about the line he saw sometimes.
The lower half of Barbara-sensei’s face was hidden by her scarf, so it was hard to read her expression. But, somehow, it felt like she was listening seriously. As he was talking, she rested the legs she had lifted up back on the floor.
“—I see. That’s not a bad sign,” she said.
“A sign...?”
“However, don’t misunderstand. It’s nothing special.”
“No, I don’t know what there is to misunderstand. I mean, I don’t have any clue what it is...”
“You sure are a dull one,” she said. “In the end, you’re just an old cat.”