by Ao Jyumonji
Ranta scoffed. “It’s just her having an awful personality. She’s sick man, sick. What she’s got is chronic congenital maliciousness syndrome. There’s no treating that.”
“But we need a priest, don’t we?”
“Here’s a thought, Haruhiro. You be the priest. Okay! Goodbye, Merry! Problem solved! Yeah! Man, am I smart. Awesome. Nice idea!”
Honestly, Haruhiro did consider it an option, but only as a last resort. He felt the thief’s job suited him, skulking around on his own to scout ahead and always looking to attack the enemy from behind. He wanted to continue to grow as a thief. Besides, after talking with Yume yesterday, he had realized something.
“Ranta.”
“Yeah?”
“It was me, you, and Moguzo who decided to add Merry to the party, right?”
“And that decision was a huge mistake, which is why I’m saying we should just kick her out already.”
“We added her to the party, so Merry’s one of us now.”
Ranta seemed to be looking for a comeback to that, but he shut his mouth and stared at the ground awkwardly.
“Listen, I get it.” Haruhiro grasped his right wrist with his left hand. “It’s not easy to suddenly treat someone like an equal member of the group. And Merry’s not doing herself any favors with the way she acts. Still, if we’re ganging up on her five-on-one all the time, she won’t be able to fit in, even if she wants to. Merry is not just a machine that walks around and dispenses healing magic for us.”
“...That’s right, huh,” said Yume, bringing a finger to her chin. “Merry is cold to Yume and everyone, but maybe Yume and everyone have been being cold to Merry, too.”
“Yeah...” Moguzo nodded slowly. “That could be it.”
“M-Maybe,” Shihoru said, mumbling without confidence, “she could actually be a good person... L-Like she’s a tsundere, or something?”
“Hell no!” Ranta looked the other way. “Not a chance. I wouldn’t even give you ten thousand to one odds on that. She’s a nasty woman and rotten to the core. No matter what you say, my opinion won’t change. We should cut ties with her. Stupid Haruhiro can be our priest.”
“If I were our priest, no matter what happened, I wouldn’t heal you, Ranta. I mean, you’re a dread knight. The dark god Skullhell and the god of light Lumiaris are enemies, right? I’m not enough of a softie that I’d go healing my enemies.”
“Tch. You’re disqualified as a priest! Disqualified! Moguzo can... No, we’d be in trouble without a warrior. Fine, Yume! You do it!”
“Yume wants her wolf dog, so she’s not givin’ up being a hunter.”
“Ugh... You self-centered girl! Then Shihoru! How about you?!”
“...I don’t think I’d make a very good healer. I’m sure if someone got hurt, I’d start to panic before I could heal them.”
“You’re useless! All of you! Completely useless! This is hopeless! This is a group of people who are naturals at being useless! If that’s how it’s gonna be—” Ranta cleared his throat. “...If that’s how it’s gonna be, there’s only one option. Even that woman is better than nothing. Let’s just pray that she actually is a tsundere... Though, if she were a tsundere, obviously, the one she’d go dere for is me, you know? That’s kind of... not so bad, I guess?”
“O-Obviously, she wouldn’t go dere for Ranta, I think...”
“Oh, shut up, Moguzo! Moguzo?! Did Moguzo just hit me with a witty retort?! Hey, seriously?! I can’t believe this!”
That was that: a policy had now been set. They would treat Merry like one of them, and she would become their comrade.
They could discuss more later. If they didn’t clear this hurdle first, Haruhiro and his party wouldn’t be able to move forward.
Still, it didn’t seem like they would have an easy road ahead of them.
Merry stood waiting for them at the north gate, as per usual.
Figuring everything started with a proper greeting, Haruhiro tried an energetic, “Good morning!”
All Haruhiro had done was greet her. That was all he’d done, so why did she have to glare icy daggers at him?
Right now, Haruhiro felt like she was mocking him, sneering at him. He was sure she was thinking Go die in a fire or Get lost, scumbag, at him.
After tormenting Haruhiro with her absolute-zero stare, she returned a curt “Good morning” and added, “Hurry up and go. I’ll follow you.”
Things continued along that note.
Even so, on the road to the Old City of Damuro, Yume and Shihoru made a valiant effort, trying to talk to Merry several times. About where she lived, what she’d had for breakfast and dinner, how long it had been since she’d become a volunteer soldier.
No matter how you looked at it, they were harmless questions, but Merry never gave a straight answer. Answers like “Who knows?” and “Food” were on the not-so-bad end, but once she snapped, “What does it matter?” Yume and Shihoru couldn’t bring themselves to keep talking.
She’s a difficult opponent. Well, no, she’s not an opponent. She’s our ally. She’s one of us.
Even if they couldn’t get a conversation going, they at least wanted to improve their teamwork. In the morning, they got lucky and encountered a group of three goblins, so they prepared for a difficult battle. If they could come together to pull through a somewhat difficult fight, they might be able to see some way forward.
“—Moguzo, Ranta, each of you take one! Yume and I will take the other! Shihoru and Merry, back up Ranta and Moguzo!”
He tried subtly asking Merry for backup, but even as Shihoru’s Shadow Beat and Magic Missile struck the enemy, Merry just stood there. When Ranta took a light cut to his left arm, she ignored him even as he cried out in exaggerated pain, and when Moguzo got scared after a shallow cut sliced his temple open, she shouted, “Don’t back down after something that trivial! You’re a warrior, aren’t you?!” and that was it.
“Dammit, don’t act so high and mighty! You aren’t doing anything!” Ranta forcibly kicked the goblin away from himself, then stepped into the space that opened up, closing the distance and thrusting his longsword out straight. “—Anger...!”
The goblin squealed as the sword burst through its neck. It thrashed around for a little while, then eventually fell silent. The sword skills used by dread knights, the Dark Arts of Battle, avoided close combat, preferring to strike from outside the enemy’s range with hit-and-away tactics.
What he did there didn’t feel quite like that, but all’s well that ends well. Now we’re down to only two enemies. No—
With a roar, Moguzo moved from locking blades with the enemy to making it stagger backwards with Wind, then quickly followed up by slamming his blade into it. “Hungh...!”
Its skull split, the goblin crumpled, leaving only one left.
“Marc em parc...!” Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff, chanting a spell, and a fist-sized bead of light slammed into the goblin’s chest.
“Gyah...!” it cried.
The bead of light from a Magic Missile spell packed around the same force as being punched by an adult. The goblin was thrown off balance for only a moment, but that created an opening. Yume closed in on the goblin, trying to cut it down with her machete.
“—Brush Clearer...!”
The goblin was taken by surprise, but nimbly managed to jump back and to the side to avoid it. Its back was now facing Haruhiro.
Now, Haruhiro thought, and his body moved into action on its own.
Without taking a breath, he executed a Backstab. The dagger pierced the goblin’s back, as if settling into a place it had always belonged, then burst through its belly.
That’s definitely how it feels when I pull it off!
The goblin trembled violently as the strength drained from its body. As Haruhiro lowered the tip of his dagger and pushed it into the goblin with his shoulder, the blade slid free. The goblin fell face-first to the ground, unmoving.
“Gwahahahaha!” Ranta cackled
loudly as he cut a claw from the goblin’s corpse. “Our teamwork was utter crap, but with my strike leading the way, we won big! That’s just how awesome I am! It’s become so predictable, it’s boring! But, come on, my hand hurts! Merry! Heal it!”
Merry completely ignored Ranta, walking briskly over to Moguzo.
“Sit.”
“...Okay.” Ordered to sit like he was a dog, Moguzo lowered his hips to the ground.
Merry touched his forehead, the back of his head, and then finally his temple. When Moguzo grimaced, she said something in a quiet voice, but Haruhiro couldn’t pick up what it was. Merry made the sign of the hexagram and chanted a prayer. “O Light, may Lumiaris’ divine protection be upon you... Cure.”
“...If we wait until the battle’s over, she’s relatively willing to heal us, huh,” Haruhiro muttered to himself as he collected the goblin pouches. Inside were two silver coins and two pretty stones, as well as a smattering of fangs, gears, and other small things. Depending on the price of the stones, they were looking at about four silver.
“Hey, Merry! You’re done with Moguzo! Heal me next!”
“Yours is just a scratch.”
“No, it’s not! Look, it’s bleeding! Even if it’s stopping now, it is!”
“Try putting some spit on it. Also, don’t address me without an honorific. You’re going to make my anger boil over.”
“Eek!”
—was about how it went, with her being unwilling to heal Ranta very often. However, Ranta tended to make a big deal out of every little thing, so he would make a big fuss even over minor injuries.
Manato might have looked like he was being generous, but he had actually been pretty nervous. He hadn’t been able to feel at ease unless all of them were in perfect condition, so he’d treated every injury right away. Maybe that had been unnecessary. When Haruhiro reflected on it, he realized Manato may haven taken it too far. When it came to Ranta, he felt Manato had been too soft on him.
After clearing away the goblin corpses, Haruhiro came right out and asked.
“Is it an issue with how you do things, maybe? Like, Merry, do you have some sort of method you’ve settled on for how you work as a healer, or something?”
“Huh?” she snapped.
That was a pretty scary “Huh?” there. I wish you would stop doing that. Haruhiro somehow managed to stop himself from faltering, and roused himself to keep going. “...Well, I was thinking, maybe there are different types, as far as priests go... or something. Because, well, I don’t know about all that. I don’t have much experience.”
Merry was about to say something, but then, maybe deciding it was too much effort, she sighed. Then, she crossed her arms and looked away to the side.
“Who knows.”
There it was. Her “Who knows.” Haruhiro got upset.
“C-Could you explain it to me? I’m a thief, so I don’t know about priests, but if I just keep thinking, ‘I don’t get it, I don’t get it,’ I’m never going to get it, and I don’t think that’s okay, so—”
“That’s just your opinion. I think it’s fine as is.”
“It’s not fine at...!” Haruhiro hurriedly took a deep breath.
Not good. I nearly snapped there. That was close. I need to calm down. She makes me so mad, though. What is with her? Why does she have to be so hard-headed?
“...I’ll respect your privacy, and won’t try to delve too deep. But our roles in combat, the flow, there are those things to consider. I want to talk more about those things as a group.”
“If you don’t like my work, why not just come out and say it? I’ll leave right now.”
“That’s not it. I just want to—”
“Then we have no problem here.”
“...Right.”
Someone, please tell me. Is there some way to communicate properly with Merry? Maybe there isn’t. It sure doesn’t feel like there is.
After that, Yume and Shihoru determinedly continued trying to talk with Merry, and got crushed every time. Haruhiro tried to start a discussion with her a number of times, but she wouldn’t even respond.
By evening, they had take seven goblins down. Their earnings were two silver, five copper a person, which was kind of okay, if they chose to think of it that way. However, Haruhiro couldn’t help but compare himself with Renji, who had thrown a gold coin their way as if he wouldn’t miss it, and he ground his teeth as he felt a tinge of pain.
Merry left as soon as she received her share, so the five of them ate and then went to Sherry’s Tavern.
“There are a whole lotta folks here, huh? Yume doesn’t want to drink alcohol, so Yume will have juice instead.”
“...Me too, I don’t want alcohol. It’s very lively in here...”
This was Yume and Shihoru’s first time in a tavern, so they were very busy staring at and being nervous about things.
Ranta acted like a regular, saying, “Hey, girls. Calm down. Okay? It’s just a tavern, nothing out of the ordinary. Come on now, seriously,” but the two of them probably weren’t listening to a word he said.
Soon the waitress came over, and they each ordered drinks and paid her. Haruhiro chose to get lemonade instead of beer today. It was a drink made by adding lemon and honey to naturally carbonated water from the Tenryu Mountains, and he was quite fond of it.
“—The problem is with Merry, really,” Haruhiro started.
Yume replied, “Yeah,” with a nod. “Yume and Shihoru tried talkin’ to her a lot, you know, but she wouldn’t give us the time of year.”
Shihoru quickly corrected her: “Yume, you mean ‘time of day,’ not year.” But Yume just blinked in confusion.
“It is? Yume, she was suretain that it was year. So that’s it. It was ‘time of date,’ huh.”
“...Not suretain, certain. Also, it’s not ‘time of date,’ it’s ‘time of day.’”
“Huh? Yume got it wrong again? Yume keeps makin’ mistakes like that, huh.”
“This is our only choice,” Ranta said, drawing a finger across his neck. “This. We ought to hurry up and do this to that woman. This, got it? This.”
It seemed Ranta really liked making that decapitating gesture. Maybe he thought it looked cool. If he did, he was even more mistaken than Yume.
“Ah...” Moguzo said, gazing in the direction of the door.
Speak of the devil, as they say, Haruhiro thought.
It was Merry. Merry had come to the tavern.
It was brief, but Merry glanced in their direction. They were almost certain that she had seen them. She pretended not to have, though. Merry went deep inside, to an open seat at the counter, and sat there.
“Wha—” Ranta slammed the table. “The hell! What’s with her attitude?! We’re in the same party, for god’s sake! Normally, you’d at least give a little nod in our direction!”
“The thing about Merry-chan is,” Yume arched her eyebrows and pouted angrily, “normal isn’t really somethin’ that applies with her, you know. What she did just now stung Yume’s heart a little bit, though.”
Shihoru kept rubbing her lips together. “...B-But, we didn’t wave to her or anything, either. I think both sides are to blame... maybe.”
“Ahh,” Haruhiro scratched his neck. “Yeah, sorta. Like, we expected her to ignore us, and we braced ourselves for it. So, lo and behold? Something like that. Maybe it’s not good for us to do that, either.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Why do we need to go out of our way to worry about her feelings?”
“See, Ranta, you actin’ like this is why us girls all hate you,” Yume said.
“Oh, shut up! I don’t want to hear a girl with tiny tits acting like she can speak for all women!”
“Don’t call them tiny!”
“Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Tiiiiiiny!”
“Murrrgh,” Yume moaned.
“...Ranta, no matter where you go, you never stop being terrible,” Haruhiro said.
“It’s none of your business,
Haruhiro! Like I care about the expression on a girl’s face! The only parts I look at are their boobs, their butts, their legs, and their upper arms!”
Shihoru looked at Ranta as if she were looking at garbage. “...You sicken me. As a person.”
“H-Harsh!” Even Ranta must have realized this was bad. “I don’t only look at the boobs, butt, legs, and upper arms. I don’t care about their expression, but their face is important, too! Because even if you’ve got a hot body, if your face is all gross, yeah, I’m not touching that! Huh? That’s strange, I feel like I’m getting glared even harder now. Why?”
“Someone just...” Moguzo pointed at Merry. “...started talking to Merry.”
“Oh.” Haruhiro blinked. “...You’re right.”
It wasn’t anything to be surprised about, but it was unexpected. What’s more, the man who was chatting to Merry with a smile was someone Haruhiro knew.
That said, they had only spoken once. That gentle face. The armor and cape. That sword. His generally whitish attire.
“—Huh, that’s Shinohara from Orion.”
“Orion?” Ranta cocked his head to the side. “Whoa, you’re serious. If we’re talking Orion, they’re a pretty famous clan. And, wait, Shinohara... If I remember, he’s the master of Orion.” Well, not like it matters. Who cares what that woman does. Oh! Drinks’re here. Let’s have a toast. A toast. Cheers!”
“Ch-Cheers,” Moguzo responded. He was the only one who did.
Haruhiro clacked his wooden mug together with just Moguzo, Yume, and Shihoru’s, and then took a sip of lemonade. It was sweet, sour, and delicious.
“Hey, hey, Haru-kun.” Yume tugged at his sleeve. “What’s a clan?”
“Ah, clans are—” Haruhiro didn’t know much about clans himself, but they were groups or teams that volunteer soldiers would put together in pursuit of some goal.
Most parties were five or six people, and he had heard that was because a priest’s all-important Protection, which was a buffing spell, targeted a maximum of six people. However, there were powerful enemies that six people alone couldn’t hope to defeat, as well as dangerous enemy territories they couldn’t enter with only six people. There were scenarios which required multiple parties to coordinate with each other, and the clan framework had apparently been created in order to facilitate that.
