A Talk About Trolling
The thief, Nameless, glanced around a little nervously. She had been terrified before they started, but once she actually did it, the whole thing turned out to be nothing special.
Was I… too fast?
She really had been scared, yet her companions might have seen it differently. If they thought she had only been pretending to be weak earlier just because she finished so quickly, that would be a problem.
She had gone and acted without thinking again, like an idiot. Allen kept pushing her, insisting she could do it, and before she knew it confidence had started to bloom…
“See? You did great!”
A voice praising her came from behind. Nameless turned her head slightly and found Allen standing there—the same Allen who had been pushing her forward.
“Told you you could do it.”
Nameless felt a little flustered. The look he was giving her was one the old Allen never would have worn.
The old Allen had been kind enough, yet somewhere inside him there had always been a flat, emotionless quality. He would listen carefully to anything you said, but you almost never saw him share in the joy or excitement of the moment.
Now, though, Allen was celebrating what she had accomplished as if it were his own success. Maybe it was because his own life had been on the line, but still—the old Allen never would have…
He never used to make a face that lively…
Just then Erinn walked up to him.
“Leaving everything to a girl and then standing there looking all happy about it~? What a real pervert~♡”
“…What’s wrong with giving a capable person a role that matches their ability?”
When Allen shot back like that, Erinn let out a mischievous little snicker.
“You sure talk a good game~ Pfft♡”
“…Anyway, thanks to you I can keep going too. Appreciate it, Thief.”
“Ah… yeah…”
Her reply was a bit awkward, yet Nameless managed to answer properly without the usual long hesitation. Starting with Allen’s praise, the rest of the party offered their own words one by one.
“Just like the loser said, we’ll have an easy time thanks to the thief. Thanks.”
“I knew the thief had real skill! You’re just a little short on confidence, that’s all!”
“Aria, weren’t you worrying just a moment ago?”
“Ahaha, that’s just natural worry for a comrade!”
Freya kindly checked whether she had been hurt.
“You’re not injured anywhere, are you?”
“U-uh… no…”
“That’s a relief, then. Come on—let’s go deal with the lizardmen.”
“……Yeah.”
For the first time in a long while Nameless felt the satisfaction of having accomplished something. She had even gained a little more faith in her own ability. She lifted her head slightly and looked at Allen.
You can do it.
You’re the only one who can.
That was what he had told her.
It wasn’t actually true. Nameless knew her party members’ abilities better than anyone.
If it had been Erinn, she would have smashed every trap and carved a path straight through. If it had been Ser-Aria, she would have loosed hundreds of arrows and neutralized every single one. Letisia could have strolled past without lifting a finger, using the power of her many spirits… and Freya was the same. In the face of the overwhelming divine power of a saintess chosen by a god, traps of any kind would have been nearly useless.
And yet Allen had deliberately told her she was the only one who could do it, just so she could have a chance to gain confidence. The only way to see it was that he had done it on purpose for someone with self-esteem as low as hers.
Being counted on by someone—having someone cheer for her this hard—was something she had not felt in a very long time. Nameless briefly pushed down the childhood memories that rose up and closed her eyes.
“All right, let’s move. The village is right ahead, so stay sharp.”
“Mm, okay!”
Allen urged the party forward, then looked back at Nameless.
“Thief, you really worked hard. From here on in the lizardman village, just do what we talked about.”
“……Yeah.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
When Allen took a step, Nameless followed. His broad back naturally filled her vision, and she simply stared at it for a moment.
Then, slowly, she smiled and murmured to herself.
“……Thank you.”
“There’s a lot of them.”
“There really are.”
“Wow~! Our loser has so many girlfriends~♡”
Who’s whose girlfriend, you brat.
After clearing the trap zone we arrived at the lizardman village, and there really were a ton of them. It lived up to the name “dungeon” without any shame.
They were packed in like a swarm of ants. They must have already noticed the traps going off and realized there were intruders, because they had formed ranks and were waiting for us to appear.
“Monkeys have invaded!!”
“Let’s thrash them!”
Other races—especially monsters—sometimes used that word when looking down on humans. It even showed up in the game text.
I never thought much of it when I only saw it as text, but hearing it in person was surprisingly irritating. Still, those bastards would only get to shout like that for a little while longer. The slaughter show put on by the monster girls was about to begin.
I wasn’t the only one who found it unpleasant; Erinn opened her mouth.
“Pfft, you can tell the intelligence level of lizards right away~♡ Guess they don’t even have the brains to tell humans from monkeys~?”
The expression on her face was different from when she teased me. The corners of her mouth were smiling, yet she clearly looked displeased. I wasn’t sure it was something worth getting that angry over, but…
“Puhaha! Erinn’s mad!”
“The lizardmen are in for a rough time.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“‘Monkey’ is the word Erinn hates hearing the most.”
Huh?
So she had some kind of connection to monkeys. Maybe she got teased about it when she was little?
…Though calling a flawless beauty like her a monkey for her looks would have been a stretch.
“…Don’t get worked up. Just stick to the plan. Don’t get too far from the rear line.”
“I already know. I’m not loser Allen—do you think I wouldn’t know that much~♡”
…Do you really know?
Erinn drew her sword. Even when she did nothing, that blade shone brilliantly all on its own—the Holy Sword, the very symbol of the Hero.
“You said you’d thrash us, yet you’re just standing there scared? Then I’ll come to you~?”
Hero Erinn activates Gale Sword
Mana boiled up through Erinn’s entire body.
Slash!!!
In the blink of an eye she dashed forward, and her sword took the head clean off the large lizardman warrior who had been standing at the front. The speed was incredible. The lizardmen panicked at the sudden appearance of Erinn right in front of them.
“Sh-she’s alone! Don’t be scared—fight!”
The lizardman who looked like a commander shouted, but the confusion did not clear easily.
The warrior at the front had not been the commander, yet considering his position and size he had clearly been one of the stronger fighters in the village. Watching a warrior like that die in a single stroke was bound to rattle them.
It was a perfect seizure of the initiative—something worth genuine admiration.
“Aria, cover the rear.”
“Mm, got it!”
Ser-Aria drew her bowstring taut. Just as we had discussed, she began taking out the lizardman archers and spearmen who were aiming at Erinn.
Saintess Freya activates Glorious Guard
And every arrow that came flying back toward Ser-Aria was blocked by Freya.
True to their reputation as members of the Hero’s party, they fought even better than I had expected.
Erinn tore through the lizardman village without taking a single scratch. Ser-Aria supported her with perfect sniping, and Freya guaranteed the safety of the rear line with a powerful barrier.
Except… the strange mistakes were frequent enough to make me wonder.
“Ah!”
Ser-Aria’s cry of dismay came at the same moment Erinn took a lizardman’s head. An arrow Ser-Aria had already loosed then buried itself uselessly in the chest of a body that no longer had a head.
“Aww, I shot the same one again!”
Ser-Aria scratched her head in disappointment.
Those were exactly the kinds of mistakes I had been talking about. Attacking something another party member could already handle produced inefficient results. Ser-Aria looked frustrated, but the real fault lay with Erinn.
With an archer this skilled right here, did she really need to cut that one down herself?
A moment earlier Erinn could have simply kept her eyes forward and ignored what was behind her. Ser-Aria had already been loosing an arrow in support. Instead Erinn deliberately took a step back, cut down the lizardman approaching from the rear, and only then looked forward again.
“Why is she moving so inefficiently?”
“What do you mean, Allen?”
I had muttered it almost to myself, but Freya must have heard. I glanced at her briefly, then looked back at Erinn.
“It’s not always like this, but… it feels like Erinn is going out of her way to handle things Aria could take care of. That’s why their targets keep overlapping.”
“Hmm, Erinn?”
Freya watched Erinn’s movements for a moment. Once again Ser-Aria loosed an arrow, and once again Erinn moved that way and cut the lizardman down.
“Ai! I missed again.”
Ser-Aria let out another sigh. Freya spoke after watching the scene.
“You’re right. The arrow was already in the air, yet Erinn still went out of her way to deal with that side.”
Did she not trust Ser-Aria’s support? Well, after watching someone drink that much, maybe she did wonder whether the girl could still cover properly.
Even so, it was not a good habit. Efficient combat only happened when you trusted your party members…
“Was she always like this?”
“I never paid much attention back then… so I’m not sure.”
Even with the inefficiency, the overall battle was fine. The lizardmen crumbled under the combined assault of Erinn and Ser-Aria, and eventually the village leaders appeared.
Lizardman shamans. True to a race that lived like a primitive tribe, their leaders were the ones who controlled the shamanic arts.
They were not shamans in name only. They began chanting bizarre, unintelligible words, and a strange power settled over the lizardman warriors.
Lizardman Shaman activates Strength Enhancement!
It looked like a buff skill from the shamans. The other shamans were chanting similar spells, so the effects could probably stack.
“Thief—your turn.”
“…Yeah.”
It was better to move before they received even stronger buffs. Maybe the earlier success had given her a bit more confidence; the thief moved without the hesitation she had shown before.
She darted forward in a flash and flung throwing knives at the shamans’ heads. Two daggers sank cleanly into two of the lizardman shamans’ skulls—but the third was the problem.
Clang!!
“…?”
“……Huh?”
In that instant both I, who had been watching, and the thief who had thrown the knives, froze in shock. Erinn had deflected the last throwing knife with her sword.
What the hell is that girl doing?
Now she was performing the stunt of blocking her own team’s attacks. I was about to say something out of sheer disbelief when Erinn realized her mistake and spoke.
“Ah, sorry~! Something came flying from behind so I thought it was an enemy~!”
“N-no… I’m the one who’s sorry…”
After saying that, Erinn went right back to carving up lizardmen.
What is going on?
She couldn’t possibly be unable to tell the difference between the thief’s throwing knives and enemy attacks. Yet Letisia and Freya spoke as if they were used to it.
“…Ah, she does that sometimes.”
“Erinn is extremely sensitive to anything flying from behind… If it comes from a completely different direction she might ignore it, but anything heading toward her she blocks. I don’t think she’s doing it on purpose. This is the first time you’ve really watched a fight, Allen, so you wouldn’t have known.”
“…Yeah.”
Sensitive to throwing weapons… was that because of the trait Sixth Sense? But that should have made it even easier for her to recognize a party member’s attack. And she wasn’t the only one who had that trait.
…Overall, their teamwork just doesn’t click.
Maybe because each individual’s stats were so overwhelmingly high, they showed a surprising lack of familiarity with party play. Especially that little mesugaki.
Up to this point their raw individual power would still let them clean everything up. The real problem would start with the boss room. Thinking about the Lizard Lord and any Demon King’s Army boss monsters that might appear afterward, this kind of inefficient fighting was guaranteed to produce casualties.
I need to talk to them about this.
Once we finished clearing the village and took a short rest, I would have to bring the issue up.
The thief threw more knives. This time she aimed so the path would not cross Erinn’s, and Erinn did not block any of them.
“Gyaaaah!!”
“Elder!”
“You little bitch!!”
After planting a dagger squarely between a shaman’s eyes, the thief casually slipped past the warriors’ blades and returned inside Freya’s barrier. With the three shamans neutralized, the buffs on the lizardmen began to fade with time.
“Letisia, you could step in now if you want.”
“It’s fine. Even if I did, there wouldn’t be much left for me to do.”
That was true. It was exactly why I had told Letisia to wait from the beginning. The monster Hero over there and the archer over here were going to handle everything on their own anyway.
Even if lizardmen were terrifying monsters by ordinary standards, in front of fighters this exceptional they were nothing more than trash mobs.
If the shamans’ buffs had stacked it might have gotten a little tricky, but thanks to the thief taking them out so quickly we didn’t even have to worry about that.
Soon Erinn finished wiping out the last of the lizardmen, sheathed her sword on her back, and turned toward us.
“Loser~♡ Did you enjoy the show~? Hiding behind the girls with that sturdy body of yours and watching without doing a thing~♡”
“…Erinn.”
“What is it, loser♡”
“We need to talk. Everyone rest for now. It’s getting late anyway—we’ll enter the boss room tomorrow.”
“I was planning to finish everything today and head back. Don’t tell me you’re scared~?”
“No. The conversation’s going to take a while.”
“Conversation? What kind of conversation~? What useless topic are you trying to waste our time on this time♡”
To Erinn, who was snickering, I spoke clearly.
“Let’s talk about your trolling.”
“……Huh?”