by Ao Jyumonji
Merry was calm and self-possessed. “He’s big, and lovable.”
“...You chose him by size... W-Well, I can’t compete there... There’s nothing I can do to beat him there... Still, to think I would lose... And to stupid Moguzoooooo... Dammiiiiiiiit!”
“Too bad, huh, King of Hotness? Huh?”
“I told you, stop calling me King of Hotness, Tiny Tits! You’re just rubbing salt in the wound...”
Haruhiro was little shocked about losing to Moguzo, too. It seemed Merry cared about more than just a pretty face. Perhaps because she saw her own gorgeous face in the mirror every day, she wasn’t that concerned about other people’s faces. But, no, neither Haruhiro or Ranta had especially attractive faces, so that wasn’t the issue, either.
Haruhiro was the epitome of mediocrity when it came to his looks and abilities, but after this many days in a row of facing goblins, he had confidence in his goblin-fighting abilities, at least.
But still, don’t get cocky, Haruhiro reminded himelf. I’m not special like Renji, Manato, or Merry. When Manato was alive, he carried me like a baby. Now, I’m taking my first steps as a goblin slayer. If a mediocre guy like me gets careless, I’ll definitely fail. Even if I don’t get careless, it’s still dangerous. So, at the very least, I can’t let my guard down.
On good days, he could make over ten silver in a day, and even on bad days, he could make around two silver. Merry was living in a pretty good lodging house, apparently, but Haruhiro and the others were still living in the terrible but cheap volunteer soldier lodging house. They kept their spending on food to within twelve copper a day, investing the money they had managed to save towards the party as a whole.
One of the places those investments went was towards equipment. The other was towards skills.
In Haruhiro’s case, for defense he bought a second-hand chest protector and a bellyband, as well as hand and leg armor. They were all made with tanned leather, so they were light and wouldn’t encumber him. The boost to defense was little more than a placebo, but it was important that it made him feel safer.
For weapons, he could go to a sharpener to improve the edge on them, and he was already used to using the ones he had. So for the moment, he had no intent of buying new ones. If he had money, it was better spent on equipment for Moguzo.
Moguzo was trying to assemble the full set of plated armor he wanted. Normally, plated armor was made to order, but if they ordered it from an armor blacksmith, even at its cheapest, they would be looking at paying not just a few gold coins, but over ten. Of course, that was out of reach, so they’d find something cheap used, and have an armor blacksmith resize it. Even then, they were still in the realm of spending tens of silver on each of the parts.
Moguzo currently had the cuirass, backplate, spaulders, and vambraces, as well as half greaves, which covered just the front of the shins, and he wore all of this over a mail hauberk. For the helmet, he was still using his barbut. His sword was also still the bastard sword he received from his guild. It was getting damaged, and he needed to replace it soon or something bad would happen.
Ranta bought a chain mail shirt, wearing leather armor over top of it for some reason. His leather armor had the crest of Skullhell on it, and he seemed awfully proud of it. He’d fallen in love with a weird helmet that looked like an upside-down bucket, which was called a heaume, so he wore that, too. For weapons, he had found a nice-looking longsword in the market once and bought it on impulse, so Ranta was flat broke for a time.
What an idiot.
Yume had gotten a tanned leather coat and pants, and they looked pretty good on her. With a hooded cloak over top, she was starting to look like a serious hunter.
For Shihoru, the mage’s robe and hat she had been given by her guild were starting to come apart and get holes in them, so she had bought new ones. She still had the same staff. Apparently, unlike the other schools, the shadow magic Shihoru was mainly focused on, Darsh Magic, wasn’t affected by the qualities of the staff she used. In fact, she said she could use it even without a staff.
Shihoru had also learned a new spell, Sleepy Shade.
Haruhiro had learned the Sneaking and Swat skills from Barbara-sensei, while Moguzo had learned War Cry. Ranta had learned Avoid and Exhaust. Yume had learned Quick-eye, bringing up her accuracy with the bow, and with the Pit Rat skill, she had learned to swiftly dodge enemy blows.
Merry was already a priest whose power and experience was several levels above Haruhiro and the others, so the party’s abilities were definitely improving. The problem was, by how much?
In the Old City of Damuro, there was a place they called the smithy. It was half-collapsed, but with what looked to be a furnace and anvil, that roofless building still had a number of traces suggesting it had once been a smithy.
In that building, there was now a group of five goblins.
They had come to the smithy a number of times before now, even taking a break and eating lunch there. Up until this point, they had never spotted a single goblin.
It seemed there was a great disparity between the goblins of the New City and the ones that made the Old City their home. Goblins from the New City that lost power struggles or were otherwise ostracized would be forced to come to the Old City, apparently.
These goblins must have been newcomers that drifted here from the New City that way.
Newcomers would first choose a place, and if they were a large group, they would try to establish their territory. The five new goblins had likely chosen the smithy as their base of operations.
After scouting, Haruhiro returned to the spot a little ways away from the smithy where the others were waiting.
“Let’s try it,” he proposed. “There are five of them. The one in chain mail’s got a crossbow. The rest are all in leather armor, one with a spear, one with a short sword and buckler, one with a hand ax, and one with a sword. The crossbow gob is probably the boss, and the four other gobs follow its orders. They’re strong enemies, but it will be a good test.”
“Sounds interesting.” Ranta licked his lips and grabbed the bucket helmet, the heaume, that sat beside him. “Let’s do this thing. I’m just about to cross 41 vices. Once I get there, I can summon my demon Zodiac-kun at noon. Heheheh...”
Yume showered Ranta with a cold look. “What will Zodiac-kun be able to do for us this time? Right now, all he does is whisper in the enemy’s ears occasionally, gettin’ in their way.”
“Don’t let this shock you, okay? Now, the even more powered-up Zodiac-kun will, incredibly, pull the enemy’s arms or legs once in a while, disrupting them for us! —When it feels like it.”
Shihoru looked exasperated. “...In the end, it’s all on its whim.”
“Oh, and, one more thing. It only does the leg-and-arm-pulling thing starting in the evening. Until evening, well, you know. It’ll do the whisper attack, tell me if there are enemies, and tell demon jokes. —When it feels like it.”
Merry gave a nasal laugh. “That’s way too capricious.”
“Oh, shove it.” Ranta put on the heaume and was now dressed bucket-style. “What do any of you know about Zodiac-kun? You don’t have to understand. I can be the only one who understands Zodiac-kun. Heh. Dread knights are lonely. Or aloof, rather?”
“I-I’ll...” Moguzo gave a big nod. “...pull as many of them to me as I can. Two, definitely. If it comes down to it, I’ll intimidate them with War Cry.”
Shihoru hugged her staff, tucking in her chin. “I’ll start by putting one of them to sleep with magic.”
“Yeah,” Haruhiro nodded. “Okay then, Shihoru will put the crossbow gob to sleep. It will make a big difference whether you hit it the first time or not.”
“...I know. Leave it to me.”
“When Yume’s done takin’ her preemptive shot, she’ll do her best to take one of them in melee combat.”
“I’ll keep getting behind them, and if a chance comes along, I’ll finish one. Merry, you—” Haruhiro glanced over and Merry
gave a silent nod.
It felt like she spoke even less now than before, but if he asked her something, she’d answer, and she did what she was supposed to and did it well. While her style wasn’t like what Hayashi had described, Merry must have learned from her big... much too big... mistake and changed the way she did things. She never went too easy on them, but Merry was a priest they could trust.
Now, if she would just smile once every few days, it would be perfect.
“This is a dry run.” Haruhiro looked to each of his comrades, stretching out his right hand. Ranta, Moguzo, Yume, and Shihoru placed their right hands on top of Haruhiro’s. Then Merry did the same. They weren’t that far from the smithy, so Haruhiro spoke quietly.
“Fighto,” he said in a whisper, and they all responded as one.
“Ippatsu.”
Haruhiro lead the way, bringing Yume and Shihoru with him. Ranta, Merry, and Moguzo followed after.
Lowering his hips, loosening his knees, Haruhiro used Sneaking to move without making footsteps. Not being thieves, Yume and Shihoru couldn’t hope to imitate him, but they could follow in his footsteps, stepping where he stepped. Even that made a great change.
They moved from the shadow of a broken building into the shadow of the remains of a building. Following a wall that seemed ready to crumble any second, they stuck close to a mountain of rubble. Sleepy Shadow had a range of roughly twelve meters. It would reach from here.
The smithy only had two walls, which were full of holes left standing. The others had almost fully collapsed. From where they now stood, they had visual confirmation of four of the five goblins, so they could choose their targets as they pleased.
When Haruhiro gave the signal with his hands, Yume and Shihoru poked their faces out from the rubble.
Yume readied her bow and nocked an arrow, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Her eyes opened. She had activated Quick-eye. Apparently, using special eye exercises and self-hypnosis improved her ability to see at a distance, even improving her kinetic vision on top of that. That was the true nature of the Quick-eye skill.
Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff and began chanting in a low voice.
“...Ohm, rel, ect, krom, darsh.”
A black, mist-like elemental flew forth from the tip of her staff. It wasn’t as fast as Shadow Beat, so if the enemy detected it, it would be pretty easy to avoid.
It’s going. It should be good. It’s going. It’s gone.
The shadow elemental attacked the crossbow gob’s face, forcing its way into the gob’s nose, ears, and mouth. The crossbow gob started to stagger. The spear gob, who had been sitting against the wall, noticed and went to jump up. That was when Yume let her arrow fly.
The arrow buried itself in the spear gob’s shoulder. The spear gob, previously standing, fell back on its rump. Haruhiro shouted out.
“—Moguzo! Ranta!”
Moguzo and Ranta bellowed loudly and charged at the smithy. The crossbow gob collapsed on the ground.
It was sleeping. It was deeper than normal sleep, but if someone pinched or kicked it hard, it would still wake up. They needed to clear out the other gobs to keep them from shaking the crossbow gob awake.
Haruhiro and Yume chased after them, as did Moguzo and Ranta.
Moguzo bellowed, “Thanks!” to intimidate the hand ax gob with his Rage Blow that they called the Thanks Slash, and Ranta stabbed at the sword gob with Anger. He missed, though.
Moguzo paid no heed to the off-balance hand ax gob, attacking the buckler gob instead. When the buckler gob backed away, blocking the bastard sword with its buckler, Moguzo swiftly turned back to the hand ax gob, slashing at it.
Moguzo intended to take on both the hand ax gob and buckler gob by himself. Ranta was trading blows with the sword gob. Yume charged towards the spear gob that she had already wounded with an arrow.
Haruhiro glanced back to Shihoru and Merry quickly. Merry was surveying the battle situation with a frighteningly serious look in her eyes, her priest’s staff at the ready. If any enemy were to approach Shihoru, she would be there to intercept them. As a mage, Shihoru was practically defenseless, so it was reassuring to have Merry protecting her. Not that I intend to make Merry go to the trouble.
“I’ll take it down!” Haruhiro shouted. He once again checked the positions of his comrades and the gobs. Which one? Choose a target. That one. The hand ax gob.
Neither walking or running, Haruhiro kept his posture low, moving across the ground as if he were sliding. It was the same idea as Sneaking. Soon, he had gotten behing the hand ax gob. That was the moment it happened.
His vision zoomed in on the ax gob’s scrawny back and he saw something like a light. It was only something that was like light. It probably wasn’t an actual light. Regardless, it drew a colorless line, indicating a point in the ax gob’s back.
What that was, Haruhiro had no idea. It didn’t happen every time, or even frequently, but recently, once on a rare occasion, without any reasoning behind it, he would think, Right there.
Haruhiro moved his dagger along the line that had suddenly appeared, and just as suddenly disappeared. The blade went in incredibly easily, and the blade brushed against something.
Right here, thought Haruhiro. By the time he thought that, he had already pierced through it.
When he pulled out the dagger, the hand ax gob gave a short groan and collapsed. It was already dead.
Having lost what could be called its partner, the buckler gob stood on the balls of its feet, taking one... no, a half step back. Immediately, Moguzo cried out and struck the buckler with all his might, knocking it away, and then continuing to charge at the plain gob, who was no longer the buckler gob. The gob flailed around with its short sword, but there was no need to bother dodging.
Moguzo’s armor deflected the sword. He pushed the gob down, hefted his bastard sword high, and with a “Hungh!” he brought it down on the gob’s skull.
It split open.
Three left to go.
“Tch! Exhaust!” Ranta clicked his tongue, leaping backwards at an incredible speed.
Exhaust was a skill that used special movements to instantaneously open a wide gap between the user and their opponent. The sword gob chased after Ranta, as if being sucked in. That had been Ranta’s trap. Breaking into a smirk as he backed away, he thrust his sharp longsword forward.
“—Avoid!”
The sword gob couldn’t stop its momentum to avoid the blow.
Its throat.
Ranta’s longsword impaled the sword gob’s throat. Ranta gave his longsword a twist, kicking the goblin to the ground. “Bwahahahahahaha!” he laughed loudly. Shihoru’s chanting was half drowned out by that loud... no, that stupid laugh.
“—Ohm, rel, ect, vel, darsh!” It was Shadow Beat. The elemental was launched from the tip of Shihoru’s staff, slamming into the spear gob.
As the hyper-vibrations caused the spear gob’s entire body to shudder, Yume closed in. First her machete knocked away its spear and, without missing a beat, she said, “Hah!” and slashed at the base of its neck. Unable to dodge fully, the spear gob shrieked as it took a deep cut to the shoulder. At that point, the battle had already been decided.
“Thanks...!” Moguzo stepped in powerfully, slamming the Thanks Slash into the spear gob.
“...We can do it. Like this,” Haruhiro nodded. “Time to carry out the plan.”
“Finally, huh,” Ranta walked over to the sleeping crossbow gob, swinging down his longsword. Would there ever come a day when that theatrically cruel smile suited him? “Well, whatever. This is the end. Not just for these gobs. —For those guys, too.”
21. Paper-thin Innocence
But things were never that easy.
Haruhiro, who had gone to scout out that place full of spirit, couldn’t help but gulp. Then, “...You’re kidding me, right?” he whispered. He hadn’t anticipated this at all. “—There are more of them now...?”
On the second floor, which
was more like an open balcony of that broken-down, two-floor building made out of stone, sat a goblin in plate armor trying to look important. On the first floor, wearing a helmet and chain mail, was a member of a larger subspecies of goblin, a hobgoblin.
This much he had expected. The problem wasn’t inside the building, it was the two goblins outside, both in chain mail and helmets. They each carried a shield and spear with another sword at their waist. They looked like guards.
The plate armor gob wasn’t sitting on the floor, it was kneeling on top of a chair. That chair hadn’t been there before. It must have gone to procure it from somewhere.
He dreaded to think it, but could the plate armor gob be increasing the number of minions it had, scheming to expand its power? He wouldn’t know unless he asked. Well, no, even if he asked, he wouldn’t be able to find out, but if that was what was happening, it meant trouble.
Haruhiro went back to his comrades to report in. “—So, we aren’t looking at two enemies. It’s four now. Also, this is only my prediction, but there may be more of them soon.”
“Four of them...” Merry furrowed her brow, casting her eyes down.
Yume puffed out her cheeks with a “Murrgh,” while Shihoru hung her head and sighed. Moguzo lightly tapped the top of his barbut.
“What, what?” Ranta scoffed. “Are you all getting scared now, guys? You’re hopeless. As servants to the great Ranta, you should be ashamed.”
“Since when were we your...” Haruhiro started to say, but stopped himself. “Whatever, doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. Don’t stop things halfway. You’re supposed to push back there. Come up with a witty retort. You’re no fun. You’re just Haruhiro, so don’t take away the one thing I live for.”
Haruhiro ignored Ranta, looking to Moguzo, Yume, Shihoru, and Merry in turn. “Now, if we assume that I’m right and there will be more of them coming, we need to make a decision. Not right here and now, maybe, but in the near future. Do we give up, or do we strike quickly? As for me, I don’t want to give up. Besides, as we are now, I’m sure we can handle four of them.”
