The Leaders and the Led

by Ao Jyumonji

  “We’ve got lots of money, y’know!” Yume shot back.

  “Shut up, Yume! No matter how much money I get, it disappears in no time!”

  “...Because you waste it, right?” muttered Shihoru.

  “Shihoruuuu. I don’t want to hear that from someone who’s wasting her big boobs. I’ll grope you, dammit!”

  Shihoru inhaled sharply, then held her breasts with both of her arms, as if hiding them. “...You’re the worst.”

  “Ha ha ha ha,” Ranta laughed. “I’m not even offended!”

  “Ranta, man...” Haruhiro sighed.

  My head hurts. I don’t want to do anything, and I’d like nothing more than to just head back, but is that okay? Yeah, no—it’s not.

  “...Sorry,” Haruhiro said. “Let me rest for now. Somewhere away from here... If I can take a break, I think I’ll get at least a little better. Can we decide what to do after that?”

  “I guess that’s fine,” said Ranta. “We can do that. But, still.” Ranta pointed to him. “Let me say this, Haruhiro. This is all your fault. You’d better realize that. Because, for all your faults, you’re still our leader.”

  8. In an Unchanging World

  In the end, after that, they killed four goblins, stripped them of all their worldly possessions, then headed back to Alterna early because Haruhiro wasn’t looking so good.

  Well, we needed to go to the office to fill out the paperwork anyway, is what Yume and Shihoru said to try and comfort him, but Haruhiro was still frustrated. He couldn’t help but blame himself.

  Even so, beating himself up over it wasn’t going to help. He couldn’t erase his failure, but luckily he’d survived, so it gave him material to reflect on, and he could improve how he handled things in future. In fact, he had to improve.

  So, with their business taken care of, everyone headed off to Sherry’s Tavern, but when they started to review how things had gone that day, things got off to a stormy start.

  Ranta was the instigator.

  “—I told you from the beginning, didn’t I? I’ll do things my way,” he snapped. “I’m not geared towards being a tank anyway, so I’ll have to be my own special kind of tank, right? Tanks are the ones who stand up front, so I won’t see what’s going on behind me. I’ll have no clue what any of you guys are doing. So, it only makes sense that you should try to work with what I’m doing, right? Have I said anything wrong so far? Huh? I haven’t, have I? Basically, it’s weird for stupid Haruhiro to yammer on at me telling me to do this, or do that. Don’t order me around. Have everyone else work around me, dammit.”

  “...I get what you’re saying,” said Haruhiro.

  “If you get what I’m saying, then do it! That’s all! We’re done here, right?” Ranta snapped.

  “Nuh-uh, there’s no way that’s gonna be the end of it.” Yume stood up halfway and slammed her hands on the table. “Make everyone else work around you? Are you stupid?! There’s no way we can do that!”

  “If you can’t handle it, then quit! Just quit!” Ranta shouted.

  “That’s not somethin’ you get to decide, Ranta!” she shot back.

  “If you say you can’t go along with the party’s tactics, you can’t blame me if I tell you you’re useless!” Ranta bellowed.

  “Yume’s not leavin’! You leave, Ranta!”

  “If I leave, you’re the ones who’ll be in trouble! Because I’m the core of this party now!” Ranta shouted.

  “...I think that your basic assumption there is flawed,” said Shihoru.

  “Oh? You want to bring it, Shihoruuuu?” Ranta sneered. “You pretend to be quiet, but, really, all this time you’ve a been demonic beast hiding sharp fangs behind those secretly huge boobs of yours.”

  “I’m not hiding any fangs... and they aren’t huge, I’m just fat...” Shihoru murmured.

  “Then let’s see ’em,” Ranta smirked. “I’ll give them a thorough appraisal.”

  “There’s no way I’m showing you anything,” she said coolly.

  “Tch. Holding out on me, huh. You’re so boring, you know that. Ugh, what a bore.”

  “I have no intention of trying to amuse you, Ranta-kun,” she said coldly.

  “Yeah, I know,” he snapped. “I can figure out that much. Did you think those words would hurt me? My heart’s made out of steel, okay? That won’t even scratch it. Anyway, from here out, I am our tactics. I’m the center of everything. It all begins and ends with me. You get that? Well, you better. All of you have to study me. Become more familiar with me and change yourselves to suit me. If you do that, everything’ll work out.”

  “I can’t see how it would,” Shihoru said.

  “Yume agrees with Shihoru!” Yume exclaimed. “How about you, Merry-chan?”

  “Huh—ah, I’m...” Merry seemed at a loss for words.

  “Merry-chan, you don’t wanna go along with Ranta, right?” Yume insisted. “After all, this is Ranta we’re talkin’ about.”

  “That’s...”

  “Hmph.” Ranta put his elbows on the table, resting his head on his palms and looking off to the side peevishly. “You can say whatever you want. But, remember. I’m saying all this after having thought about what’s best for the party, too. It’s not that I just want to do whatever I feel like, or anything like that, got it? If you all disagree with me, that’s fine. But, if you’re going to, then present an alternate plan. An alternative. If you’ve got something, let’s hear it. Well, Haruhiro?”

  “An alternate plan.” Haruhiro mumbled the words like an idiot, holding his porcelain mug in both of his hands. He had barely touched the mead inside it. “...Well, let’s see. An alternate plan—actually... If we make Ranta be the tank, it’s a fact that we’re going to have to accommodate him somewhat. Of course, Ranta would need to think about how he can be more tank-y and that sort of stuff. If we leave things as they are, I think we’re going to have a pretty hard time...”

  “You’re being pretty wishy-washy there, man!” Ranta said as he started to pick his nose. “It’s a bad joke if you think you can be leader like that. I mean, you did pretty terrible this afternoon, too.”

  “Yeah, that was my fault,” Haruhiro said. “I already apologized, didn’t I?”

  “Oho!” Ranta cried. “Are you getting angry at me? You’re getting angry at me when I should be angry at you, is that it? If you’re angry at me after what happened, you clearly haven’t learned your lesson, man.”

  “...Yes, I have.”

  “I dunno,” said Ranta. “I don’t see it. Not with that attitude.”

  “Cut it out!” Yume shouted, puffing up her cheeks in anger. “You can’t go pumpin’ the blood to your belly! You’ve gotta think about how other people feel!”

  “You moron! If you’re going to say something there, it should be ‘don’t rub salt in people’s wounds,’ obviously!” Ranta bellowed.

  “Huh...?”

  “Come on, how would I pump blood to my belly? That’s not even possible!” he shouted.

  “M-Maybe it’s possible! If you try real hard!” Yume cried.

  “Fine, do it! Do it right now! Do it right here! If you manage it, I’ll do a kowtow! I’ll do a naked dance and then kowtow for you! Hurry up and do it!” Ranta bellowed.

  “Hnnngh...” Yume’s face turned bright red and it looked like steam might come out her ears.

  An alternate plan... Haruhiro lifted his cup to his lips and was about to take a sip of his mead, then he stopped. An alternate plan. That’s right. I need to think of one. An alternate plan. I mean, I don’t really want to have Ranta calling the shots. But, in order to prevent that, I need to put forward a decent idea. I need to come up with fixed roles for each of my comrades. Like, at such-and-such a time, they do this, if such-and-such happens, they do that. I need to have that decided to some degree.

  When Moguzo had been with them, Haruhiro hadn’t needed to focus on the details so much. Haruhiro and the others had lost Manato, gained Merry, and then slowly built up their tact
ics through actual combat. They had all known what they needed to do. They’d remembered it with their bodies, not their heads. It had seeped into them.

  Now, most of what they had learned was of no use.

  Moguzo hadn’t just been a tank. Moguzo had drawn enemy attention, defended himself against their attacks, then pounded himself between them like a wedge, dealing the decisive blow. Moguzo had been the ultimate shield, but at the same time he had also been the ultimate spear. He had been pivotal to both their offense and defense.

  When it came to defensive or offensive power, Moguzo had clearly been number one. No one in the party was a match for him.

  In other words, Moguzo had been carrying the rest of them. Moguzo had handled so many jobs. It had been a heavy responsibility for him.

  Moguzo had taken all of that on without ever whining or complaining. And so, he had grown.

  “Moguzo was...” When Haruhiro spoke his name, the rest of his comrades fell silent. “He was really amazing. But, still. Moguzo was amazing to begin with, so I don’t think he got stronger the regular way. No, I mean, of course I think he had an aptitude for what he did, but I don’t think that was all there was to it. There’s no way he wasn’t scared, but he was always the closest to the front, fighting insane enemies. And yet, Moguzo never ran away. I think he probably did it for us. As he kept doing that, Moguzo got stronger. I relied on Moguzo too much.”

  I should have noticed, Haruhiro thought. Much sooner. I absolutely needed to notice it.

  It’s like Ranta said. It’s a bad joke to think I can be leader like this.

  “I needed to lower the burden on Moguzo,” Haruhiro said sadly. “There must have been things I could have done. It’s too late now, though. From here on, we need to take the huge burden that Moguzo was carrying and divide it between all of us. Each of us will need the ability to do more things. I don’t think our current strength is going to be enough.”

  “I...” Shihoru said, biting her lip once before nodding. “I think I need to learn at least one powerful spell...”

  “Hmm.” Yume leaned forward, resting her chin on the table. “Yume, well, it’s gonna be hard, but she’s gotta work on her attack power. She wants a wolf dog, too, though...”

  Ranta spat out a contemptuous “Ha!” and crossed his arms. “You can say that all you want, but listen. People can’t do what they can’t do. They’ve gotta stick to what they can. A lot of dread knight skills are movement skills or attack skills meant to be used after moving, so if I stay put, I can’t show my true value. It’s not like I can change jobs from dread knight to warrior, either. Now that I’ve sworn myself to Skullhell, I have to stay a dread knight until the day I die.”

  “Changing jobs, huh...” Haruhiro brought a finger to his lips, glancing over to Yume.

  “Meow? Is there something Yume can do?” she asked.

  “No...” he murmured.

  Yume’s surprisingly strong, he thought. If she tried arm wrestling, she could probably put up a good fight even against men. She has guts, too. Even though she’s a hunter, she swings her machete around and crosses blades with our enemies far more often than she uses a bow and arrow. If I could just have her leave the hunters’ guild and become a warrior—No, I guess I can’t. Yume’s attached to being a hunter, and she has her goal of getting a wolf dog, too. I think it would be wrong to force her to change just because it’s convenient for the party. Besides, having seen how Moguzo fought, I’d feel kind of bad making a girl go through that. No, not kind of bad—very bad.

  She’d be scared, wouldn’t she?

  It’s no good. I can’t do that. I mean, if one of us were going to become a warrior and be the tank... Shihoru is obviously not warrior material, Merry we need to have as our priest, and Ranta can’t change classes, which leaves...

  “...Me?” Haruhiro said in a whisper, trying to imagine it, just in case. He imagined himself decked out in heavy armor with a helmet, swinging around The Chopper.

  Wow, that looks weak, he thought.

  Haruhiro himself would never want to rely on that lanky, weak-willed wussy to be the party tank.

  —Weak-willed wussy, he thought. That’s right, Choco died, didn’t she?

  No, forget about that. I don’t have time now to dwell on it. I need to focus on us.

  It all came down to the tank. Without a proper tank, they didn’t stand a chance. The two roles every party needed were a tank and a healer. Taking that argument to an extreme conclusion, so long as the tank and healer were solid, the rest could do whatever they wanted.

  As things stood, if someone was going to be the tank, it would have to be Ranta, who had always been the most heavily equipped after Moguzo. It was hard to imagine it now, but if he grew into the role with experience, that would be fine.

  But, what are the chances of that? Haruhiro thought. Could it work...?

  When they had lost Manato, they had brought a new healer into the party. Merry.

  Was that the only option?

  Haruhiro had, of course, considered the possibility. It had been in the back of his mind. But he hadn’t wanted to think about it.

  Haruhiro looked at Ranta, Yume, Shihoru, and finally Merry’s faces. Each of the four wore a different expression, and each of them seemed to be deep in thought. They had probably all more or less considered the idea. But they didn’t bring it up. None of them did.

  “Um, hey,” Merry said, raising her right hand a little. “Can I talk? There’s something I want to tell all of you. It’s something I think I need to talk about.”

  Haruhiro glanced to Ranta, Yume, and Shihoru. What could it be?

  He felt a pain in his chest. He had a bad feeling about this. Merry was the priest, and she seemed to feel responsible for Moguzo’s death. Maybe she was going to leave the party.

  “S-Sure,” he said, his voice trembling. “Of course. What is it?”

  “I’ve done something I can never fix.” Merry’s beautiful face was frozen solid. Only her lips moved, stringing the words together in a low voice. “Back there, I let the effect of Protection wear off. I needed to recast it, but I completely forgot. In an intense battle like that, it’s little things like that which mean the difference between life and death. If I had kept Protection in effect, Moguzo might not have died. No. I’m sure he wouldn’t have. It’s my fault that Moguzo’s dead. I let him die.”

  “But that’s wrong!” Ranta punched the table. “You’re dead wrong! Don’t try to say it’s all your fault. Actually, it’s not just your fault! It’s mine, too. He was my partner, but I couldn’t fight shoulder to shoulder with him. I was weak!”

  “I’m not wrong,” Merry said, shaking her head slightly. “No matter how I look at it, letting Protection expire was a basic and inexcusably clumsy mistake, and Moguzo died because of it. I’ve let three of my comrades die before this. I never wanted to let one die again. Now, I have. I have no right to be a priest. How could I think anything else?”

  “Merry-chan...” Yume said with tears in her eyes. “You can’t... You can’t go sayin’ that! It’s not about havin’ the right, or whatever! Yume doesn’t see it like that...”

  “I can understand,” Shihoru said, crossing her arms tightly and resting them on the table. “I get how you feel, Merry... It may be presumptuous for me to say that, but... I’m always feeling the same way. Wondering whether it’s okay for me to be here. Wondering if I’m any use to the rest of you... wondering if I have the right to be here...”

  “You don’t,” Ranta said with a smirk. “There’s no way you would. You have no right. We were a group of misfits to begin with. From the beginning, none of us had any right to do anything. So what? Like we care. It’s not our problem. We’ll do it whether we have the right to or not. Isn’t that how we’ve made it this far?”

  “Ranta’s right,” Haruhiro said, looking at Merry.

  Merry dropped her gaze to the table, seeming unwilling to meet his eyes.

  She’s so distant, Haruhiro thought. Merry�
��s right here, but she’s so far away.

  “You have no right to be a priest, and you don’t need one,” said Haruhiro. “You’re our comrade. That’s good enough for us.”

  “Thank you.” Merry’s lips loosened a little. It was too slight to call it a smile. Even so, Merry had tried to smile for them. “—But I’d like some time. I realized something when we went to Damuro. The way I am now, I can’t move forward with all of you. I’m scared. Too scared. I have no confidence. It doesn’t have to be long. Ten days—even seven would be fine, but give me some time.”

  “Sounds fine to me,” Ranta said, shrugging, his elbows on the table. “I wanted to learn new skills anyway. Well, if I’ve got ten days, I bet I can power up a lot. Though, once the ultimate Ranta’s been born, there may not be anything left for the rest of you to do. Heh heh heh.”

  “Yume ’s thinkin’ maybe she’ll learn some skills from her master, too,” Yume agreed. “She’s got the money and all.”

  “I think I’ll challenge myself to learn one of the other magics, something other than Darsh Magic’s shadow magic...” Shihoru murmured.

  “Okay.” Haruhiro closed his eyes.

  Time.

  It was time. More than anything, what they needed was time. Haruhiro and the others had never been strong enough to rush forward without stopping.

  He opened his eyes.

  The scenery before him hadn’t changed in the slightest, to the point that it was cruel.

  In this unchanging world, Haruhiro and the others would need to change themselves, little by little.

  “Let’s meet in front of the north gate, ten days from now at eight o’clock,” he said.

  9. The Coming of the Angels

  Sometimes people say they feel “out of their element.”

  That was exactly how Shihoru felt right now.

  Close to Flower Garden Street, there was a restaurant called Maraika’s. It wasn’t like there was a sign out front, but the place was run by Maraika-san, so that was what people called it.