by Ao Jyumonji
Chapter 1: Social Status, Talent, and a Slight Bitterness
“Ranta! Don’t wander off too far!” Haruhiro cautioned.
Even as he said that, he got in position behind a kobold foreman Moguzo was exchanging blows with and started to look for an opening.
Yeah, there are openings. Lots of them.
There was one a moment ago. Right then, too. We can do this. We can.
The foreman was shaking its tail and moving around a lot, but Haruhiro had a grasp of its quirks. When Moguzo attacked a certain way, he knew how it would defend, and then he had a good idea what it might do after that. He could finish this with Backstab or Spider, of that he was confident.
And yet, Haruhiro didn’t close in on the foreman. Because that wasn’t the point.
Haruhiro was after something else.
Will I see it? he was wondering. —That line.
That vague, hazy line that shone just a little.
If he could just see that.
“That line you saw is something anyone who’s gained some experience will have seen once or twice—or felt, rather. That might be the more correct way to describe it.” That was what Barbara-sensei from the thieves’ guild had said to him. “Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don’t. It’s not something you can see by focusing, after all.”
“That’s not a bad sign,” she had said, as well.
“However, don’t misunderstand. It’s nothing special,” she had made sure to point out.
It was a thing anyone who gained some experience would see once or twice. However, Haruhiro had seen that line a good number of times. Even the time he had taken down Death Spots—No, that time the line had been clearer, more defined. If he hadn’t been able to see that line, Haruhiro would never have been able to slay Death Spots. That giant kobold would have thrown Haruhiro off and chased down the rest of the party.
If that had happened, there could have been casualties. Someone might have died.
Haruhiro had—No, Haruhiro and the party had been saved by that line.
What if it had been pure coincidence that he had been able to see it? Just then, at the perfect time, he had happened to see it by chance. What if that was all it was?
It would mean fortune had been on his side then. Haruhiro had gotten lucky. Without that fluke, they might have all died.
I don’t want to think I just got lucky—do I...?
Haruhiro honestly didn’t know, but he knew for sure that being able to see that line would help him. He wanted to see it.
If possible, I want to have complete control over when I see it.
Whenever I want, however often I want, if I could see the line on those terms—Just maybe, I’d be kind of invincible...?
It’s not that I want to be invincible, that’s not it. But, if I can get stronger, if I can gain a power that’ll give me that decisive edge in battle when I need it...
“Thanks...!” Moguzo shouted.
While Haruhiro was thinking about the line, the line, and nothing but the line, Moguzo used Thanks Slash, or what was more properly known as Rage Blow, to hit the foreman with the most powerful diagonal slash he could muster. Moguzo’s blade buried itself 15 to 20 centimeters deep inside the foreman’s shoulder. The foreman’s chain mail armor didn’t do anything to stop it.
Moguzo’s dumb, brute strength is a thing to behold, Haruhiro thought. However, there’s more to it than that. It’s the sword.
His cleaving blade, The Chopper.
After discussing it as a group, ultimately they had gone with Ranta’s suggestion, and that was what it had been named.
It was only about 1.2 meters long, which wasn’t that long, but it was fairly thick. While it did have a hand guard, it gave off the impression of a gigantic carving knife.
That thing came from Death Spots. I’m impressed he can wield it so well.
“Hungh...!” Moguzo kicked the foreman to the ground. Without missing a beat, he slammed The Chopper down on the foreman’s head, smashing it open with a wet thud. “Next...!”
Somehow, I feel like I can rely on him.
While he was busy admiring Moguzo...
“Haru!” Merry shouted.
“Huh?! Wh-What...?!” he stammered.
“What do you mean, ‘What...?!’” Ranta demanded.
I don’t want to hear that from you, Ranta, but, well, I guess I kind of deserve it.
Haruhiro and the others had been frequenting the third level of the Cyrene Mines, a residential area for kobold workers, for their hunting and mainly targeting elder kobold foremen. The talismans the foremen carried, while they could be hit or miss, sometimes sold for a high price, and now that Death Spots was gone there wasn’t much danger on the third level. It was a good hunting ground for making a constant income.
Even so, this was a stronghold of the kobolds, a hostile race, so it wasn’t without danger. Actually, if they let their guards down, they would pay for it.
Moguzo had taken down the foreman, leaving only two followers. Ranta was taking on Follower A, while Yume and Merry were clobbering Follower B. With the scary foreman taken care of, it was easy to think this would be an easy win, but it was the way of the world to betray such expectations.
Because here another foreman came, three little minions in tow, energetically running towards them.
“Six...” Haruhiro whispered, having done some quick mental math, but then Moguzo bellowed “Thanks...!” and slammed The Chopper into Follower B, the one Yume and Merry had been facing.
“—Ah. Five,” Haruhiro said.
“Why, you...!” Ranta shouted.
Ranta and Follower A had locked blades—Or so it seemed, but then Ranta knocked the follower back with a loud clang.
That was his newly learned dark fighting skill, Reject. When an enemy gets in close, he uses his sword to push them back and gain some distance. It’s a rather plain skill. Considering Ranta’s personality, I’m amazed he decided to learn it. Though, if he follows Reject up with another skill, it leads to good combos.
“Anger!” Ranta shouted.
Once Follower A was pushed out of range, Ranta stepped in, stabbing at its gullet.
I’m disappointed in myself. Just now, for a brief moment, Haruhiro had thought Ranta was cool.
Ranta hasn’t just learned a new skill; because he’s not able to use his beloved bucket helmet anymore, he went and bought a visored helmet called a bascinet. He bought it used and it was darkened with tarnish, but he was probably thinking something stupid like that that just made it a better fit for a dark knight like him. Though, as a matter of fact, it does make him look kind of dark knight-y, and maybe just a little cool.
“—Wait, it’s four now!” Haruhiro hastened to give orders. He was technically the leader, after all. “Moguzo, take the foreman! Ranta, one of the followers is yours! Take it out as quick as you can! For the other two, Yume and I will manage them for now...!”
With a shout, Moguzo charged the foreman, crossing blades with it. He used Wind to make it back down, then pushed, pushed, and pushed some more.
“Hatred...!” Ranta leapt at Follower C. It dodged his first slash, but with one blow coming after the next, he was still pushing it back.
Follower D charged straight at Yume, but when it swung its shovel down at her, Yume let out a cat-like cry and did a low backwards somersault to avoid it.
That was Weasel Somersault, which she just learned. It’s a machete fighting skill. I don’t feel like it’s directly related to fighting with a machete, though.
As Follower D was looking surprised, Yume closed in on it. She executed a combo with Brush C
learer and Diagonal Cross. Follower D was faltering.
“I can do something, too!” Haruhiro called.
Haruhiro didn’t particularly want to show off, though, and taking on enemies in straight up fights wasn’t a thief’s specialty. Follower E came at him swinging its shovel. With not just the blade but the handle being made of metal, it was a sturdy shovel that could function in combat just as well as it could digging holes. Haruhiro knocked it aside with his dagger.
Swat.
Swat.
Swat.
Swat was primarily a defensive skill, but when the opportunity arose, it could be used like this, too.
When Follower E went for a big swing with its shovel, Haruhiro dodged it, deliberately choosing not to use Swat this time. Follower E must have sensed the danger, because it quickly pulled back its shovel, using more compact swings from then on. It was focusing on speed over power.
“Ngh...!”
Haruhiro used Swat. A strong hit, meant to push the shovel away from Follower E’s body.
As a result, it created an opening.
Haruhiro got in close, seizing Follower E’s right arm with his left hand and his own right arm. Follower E yelped as he bent its elbow to an extreme, then he swept the legs out from under it, knocking it over.
It was a fighting skill Barbara-sensei had taught him—or, rather, like she always did, beat into him—Arrest.
It feels good to pull it off, but it sure isn’t showy.
Haruhiro stomped on the fallen Follower E’s jaw, dislocating it. Kobolds had a dog-like head, giving them a lot of bite strength, but their jaws themselves weren’t especially sturdy. They were especially weak against strikes that came from the side. Follower E passed out, or was in a state close to it.
“Ohm, rel, ect, palam, darsh!” A shadow elemental that looked like a mass of black seaweed launched from the tip of Shihoru’s staff, flying forward in a spiral. “Yume!”
“Yikes!” Yume cried, crouching down as the shadow elemental soared over her head and collided with Follower D. The shadow elemental worked its way into Follower D’s body through its nose and ears. As soon as it did, Follower D stood there, staring into space.
The confusing shadow, Shadow Complex.
Despite saying she wanted more attack power, the new Darsh Magic spell Shihoru had learned was one that affected the target’s brain and caused a state of confusion. It was similar to the one that lulled them into a deep state of sleep, Sleepy Shadow, but Shadow Complex would also work on enemies that were prepared for it or were in a state of heightened emotions. It was the sort of choice he would expect from Shihoru, and it was useful in its own way.
Despite Yume being right in front of it, Follower D threw its shovel away and clutched its head.
“Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow!” Yume unleashed a flurry of blows on Follower D. It seemed Follower D noticed, but it was much too late for it to do anything. By that point, it was slashed up so badly there was no way it could have turned things around.
“Why, you...!” Ranta using Reject to push his opponent back and Anger to finish it, taking down Follower C with the combo he’d been using a lot lately.
“Ungh...!”
Is Moguzo struggling against the foreman? No. That’s not it.
Just now, the foreman’s sword had hit Moguzo’s left arm, but he must have intentionally allowed it to. Moguzo had bought some reasonably priced arm and waist guards used and then paid an armorsmith to resize them for him. He had also learned one heavy armor fighting skill.
The foreman’s sword bounced off of the armor on Moguzo’s left arm with a clang. It hadn’t been deflected in the normal way, though.
Steel Guard.
Not being a warrior, Haruhiro didn’t really understand it, but it was a skill that knocked away enemy attacks using defensive gear and particular methods of applying power.
Incidentally, Haruhiro and the others currently had their athletic ability, their resistances, and their natural healing boosted by Merry’s new light magic spell, Protection. Maybe it had something to do with the symbol of the god of light Lumiaris being a hexagram, but its effect covered up to six people for a period of thirty minutes. When the spell was cast, a hexagram of light would appear on their left wrists, their bodies would feel noticeably lighter, and they would be in top form.
Thanks in part to that, Moguzo was able to pull off his next move with panache.
Of course, he used that one: “Thanks...!”
It was the one that had become a fixed feature of all their fights, with both power and stability, the Thanks Slash.
With the foreman’s sword deflected and it knocked off its balance, Moguzo slammed The Chopper down on its shoulder. It was nearly identical to when he had killed the first foreman.
Moguzo may not look it, but he’s pretty skillful, and he doesn’t try to act cool or come up with little tricks like Ranta. He’s straightforward in a good way, you could say. He sticks to basics, and as he repeats the same actions he perfects them in his own way—If I praise him that much, I may be overstating it, but Moguzo’s Thanks Slash is definitely turning into a killer move.
Of course, there are his strength, his polished technique, and the quality of his weapon, among other things, that go into it, I’m sure, but, anyway, his timing is good. The Thanks Slash always shows up at the ideal moment. It makes me want to applaud. Maybe I will.
While Haruhiro was wondering whether to or not, Ranta came up behind Follower D, which Yume had been working on cornering, and brutally took it down.
“Yeah! Got my vice...! Mwahahahaha...!”
“Augh! What’re you doin’? Yume coulda handled that one by herself!” she complained.
“What? You wanted to kill it yourself? Hah! You may have tiny tits, but you’re a bloodthirsty wolf, you know that? Are you going to convert and start worshiping Lord Skullhell like me now? Hmm?”
“Nuh-uh, no way. Yume’s a hunter. And Yume loves her white god Elhit-chan, too. Yume just thinks, since she was facin’ that kobbie in solar combat, she shoulda kept it that way to the end! Also, don’t call my boobs tiny!”
“—Yume, you mean solo combat.” Haruhiro tried to correct her because he couldn’t bear not to, but, as per usual, he was completely ignored.
“It just goes to show, girls with tiny tits can’t do anything! If you don’t like that, make ’em bigger!” Ranta mocked.
“You say that, but Yume, she doesn’t know how to make her breasts get bigger!”
“Huh?! You do this...” Ranta mimed squeezing his own chest.
Shihoru looked at Ranta with disdain, such incredible disdain. “...That’s sexual harassment.”
Merry sighed a little. “You’re terrible.”
“Damn straight!” Ranta said, standing tall. “I’m fine with being a harasser! And fine with being terrible! Keep it coming! Don’t think you’ll make me back down with just that! If that’s what you’re going to call me, I’m gonna become the terrible king of sexual harassers!”
“Murrgh,” Yume mimed squeezing her own breasts, or, rather, actually squeezed them. “If Yume squeezes ’em, her breasts’ll grow bigger? If that’s all it takes, it’s not so hard, huh?”
“Bwuh!” Moguzo spewed out whatever was in his mouth.
“Y-Yume...” Shihoru grabbed Yume by the arm, stopping her. “I-I don’t think you should do that in front of other people...”
“Huh? Does it work better if Yume does it when no one’s around?”
“No, uh... That’s not the problem...”
Ranta laughed derisively. “Your pitifully tiny tits ain’t big enough to squeeze anyway, so you don’t need to worry about it. Gwahaha!”
“Augh! Ranta, you dummy!” Yume wailed.
“I’m no dummy! I’m the terrible king of sexual harassers! Freshly crowned! Revere me!”
“Don’t get so stubborn...” Haruhiro muttered.
Haruhiro started checking over the kobold bodies. Their equipment and other stuff woul
dn’t sell for enough to be worth the extra weight, so he was fine with just collecting the talismans.
When he crouched down next to a follower and began to carefully remove an earring, Ranta came running over. He quickly tore a golden nose ring off of a follower that was right next to the one Haruhiro was working on.
Come on, that crudeness is what people don’t like about you. Well, that and a whole lot of other things. Actually, they dislike pretty much everything about you.
“Huh? What’s your problem?” Ranta glared at Haruhiro. “You got something to complain about?”
“...Not really.”
“Well, I do.”
“Huh?”
“About you, Haruhiro,” Ranta flipped the golden nose ring with his thumb, catching it in the palm of his hand. “Man, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“Misunderstanding? Huh...? What’re you on about?”
“In other words, it’s like this. I hope you don’t want to be a hero or something like that, do you?”
“A hero?” Haruhiro asked.
Since it was coming from Ranta, he had to just be spouting nonsense. That was what Haruhiro thought at first. However, once he mulled over the words, he felt a weight quickly building in his stomach.
A hero.
I’m no hero.
I’ve never even thought I want to become one. I haven’t—but...
I really don’t want to be a hero, not in the least. It’s just...
Just—What exactly?
“Earlier...” Ranta said, lowering his voice. He was trying not to be heard. Could he possibly have been trying to be considerate somehow? Even though this was Ranta? “...the way you were moving was weird, man.”
“...No, it wasn’t.”
“No, seriously. It was strange. If I were to go further, I’d say you were the only one acting strange. It was like you were going at a slower pace, I could say. Maybe that’s not it. That’s not quite how I’d describe it. Or maybe it is. Well, either way, doesn’t matter. I know what you were up to. You were trying to take them down with one blow, weren’t you?”
Haruhiro just shrugged a little, giving no answer. He did his best not to show any change of expression, but he was sweating inside. Because Ranta was dead on.
