Airi's Prologue

The time had finally come for Airi's prologue to begin.

If this had been the game, I would have started teaching her basic combat tips today. But after living together for two months, I'd already drilled those fundamentals into her plenty. After all, what else was I supposed to teach her for two whole months? Cooking?

That said, I couldn't exactly drag her to the training grounds right now, swing a controller around, and shout, "Execute basic attack!" into the headset mic. If I started spouting nonsense like that, people would clearly think I'd lost my mind. And if I actually did something that insane, Airi would definitely fire off a messenger pigeon to her father the second she decided I'd gone crazy.

The protagonist of Part 1 might not reply to her letters, but he reads every single one she sends. So the moment any parental complaint reached him, my head and body would be saying their final goodbyes with a kiss. That's why I'd spent all this time teaching her everything Werner knew about swordsmanship, magic, and archery. Well, only the absolute basics, but still.

Even so, they say even a rotten fish is still a fish. As the child of a talent monster, her learning speed was impressive. The problem was her impatient personality. She kept tripping and tumbling over herself.

"Master, aren't we training today?"

"I've taught you nearly all the basics there are to teach."

"Wow! So we're going out to play, right?"

"No. It's time to experience real combat."

I'd simply moved the schedule up a bit from the actual playthrough timeline. There probably wouldn't be any major problems. Probably.

I opened the door to the adventurers' guild. An unpleasant mix of sweat and cheap booze immediately assaulted my nose. It was the same smell that always greeted me here.

"Hey there, handsome mage oppa. Is that girl next to you your daughter?"

"Hey, I'm still in my twenties."

"If you're standing right in front of the stairs to thirty, you're thirty."

"I swear I'm gonna flip this place upside down and quit this damn job."

I traded silly banter with the female receptionist at the counter. That's when Airi, standing beside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me, puffed out her cheeks and tugged hard on my arm.

"Master! What exactly do you think you're doing right now?!"

"Sorry... It's been a while, so..."

Her impatient nature wouldn't even tolerate the time it took for people to joke around. This personality was clearly inherited from her father. The protagonist of Part 1 had been just as hot-tempered, after all. Though he never puffed his cheeks like this.

I headed over to the request board and scanned for something suitable. That's when I spotted the quests the protagonist had completed in Chapter 1.

All three requests were ones Airi had taken in order to buy replacement plates after she'd broken the ones Werner cherished. So they'd been up for a few days before she accepted them. Still, there was nothing better for improving her skills, so I tore off all three request forms and brought them to the counter.

"Oh my. What brings you to take on jobs like these? Did you get hurt somewhere?"

"Shut it. These aren't for me. They're for the little brat next to me."

"In that case, we'll need to finish registering the young lady first."

I'd completely forgotten that you had to get certified by the adventurers' guild before taking on requests. Living with an idiot must have made me catch the idiot virus. Her bright and cheerful attitude was only cute for the first day or two.

The clerk at the counter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brought out a crystal orb and instructed Airi to place her hand on it. When Airi laid her delicate white hand on the orb, her information floated up above it.

"Pfft!"

Everything else was decent for a beginner, but her intelligence stat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was so bad I couldn't help but laugh. An E basically meant you should just give up on that particular area entirely.

"Stop laughing!"

"Kid, even if you slapped a rock on this thing it'd probably give you a D. If you're getting an E... pfft, hahaha...!"

The developers had tried to emphasize her ditzy charm, but to most people she just came across as an airhead. Not that I minded that part of her, though.

"Then you try it too, Master! Since you're an evil villain who bullies a girl like me, your personality stat is definitely going to be an F!"

"You idiot, they don't even display personality stats. And there is no F. That E next to your intelligence is the absolute lowest rank."

When I placed my hand on the crystal orb, it glowed even brighter than when Airi had touched it and displayed my information.

"Behold. This is the wall that your master represents. An insurmountable wall."

"Yes, I've now clearly learned that personality and skill are completely separate things."

"You may worship this master's greatness."

"Hmph! My dad is even more amazing..."

I clamped my hand over Airi's mouth before she could blurt out any more nonsense. Only then did she seem to realize she'd almost made a fatal slip, so I removed my hand.

In the original story, Werner had died because Airi publicly revealed that she was the daughter of the protagonist from Dragnity Fantasy 1. Still, the fact that her father was stronger than me right now probably wasn't an exaggeration.

"If we measured your dad on this thing, wouldn't every single stat come out as SSS?"

"Hahaha, as if my dad would be like that."

It was true. I'd seen it so many times it made me sick. Which was exactly why leaking that information to the outside world was dangerous. Whether I got murdered by Airi's father or died because she revealed who her real dad was, I had zero interest in dying either way.

"There we go, Miss Airi Les. Your registration is complete. All the requests you brought have also been officially accepted. Good luck!"

"Wow, thank you so much!"

"And Werner, it must be tough teaching your disciple."

"Haha, are you worried about me, Jena? But I'm afraid I can't accept your confession."

"Werner, go eat shit."

Irina Myrdil was the receptionist at the adventurers' guild in Bechem, the city where we currently lived, and she was also Werner's friend. I remembered her being quite a beautiful female character who had been pretty popular.

Let me recall some of the posts I'd seen...

There were a lot of worthless posts, but to summarize: Irina was incredibly popular for an early-game NPC, and there was a massive amount of fan art of her. Plenty of people preferred her over Airi, who was constantly called a walking disaster.

"Anyway, what should we do first?"

"We should start with the closest one that takes the least time."

We decided to head to the tavern where the client had reported the delinquents causing trouble. After walking for about an hour, we arrived in a slum with terrible public safety. The eyes of the slum dwellers all turned toward us. Most of the stares seemed to be aimed at Airi, whose face was quite pretty. Or maybe there were some guys with a thing for handsome faces who were eyeing Werner.

"Don't leave my side, Airi."

Airi seemed to dislike the sticky gazes directed at her as well. She tightly gripped the hem of my robe and followed along, looking exactly like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a child clutching her father's clothes.

Thinking back on the setting, Werner had been seventeen when he took in five-year-old Airi, so he really was no different from a father to her.

"Your father suddenly comes to mind."

"Huh? Suddenly?"

"He just showed up out of nowhere, said 'I'm leaving this child with you,' and disappeared immediately."

"Is that how it happened?"

That was how I remembered the setting. The protagonist of Dragnity Fantasy 1 had been torn to shreds by the community for doing this one thing after showing up to leave a five-year-old with seventeen-year-old Werner. And because of it, Werner had been endlessly teased about taking on responsibility without any of the pleasure. It was a setting that benefited neither side.

While walking and thinking about responsibility without pleasure, we soon arrived at the tavern that had filed the complaint. Even from outside, we could hear loud shouting and sounds of fighting. I quietly opened the door and stepped inside. It was an absolute mess.

Half the tables were smashed to pieces, and a chair hanging from the ceiling could maybe be passed off as interior design or the tavern's concept. But the guys throwing punches and causing chaos, along with the ones groping women and doing vulgar things, were definitely not part of the decor. They were just trash making everyone frown. The tavern owner had been pushed to the point of filing a request, so no further explanation was needed.

"You handle this, Airi. I'll watch."

Since she'd been the one to accept the request, I left the work to her. Airi usually only spewed weird nonsense at me, but deep down she was timid. Still, she gathered her courage and approached the man causing the most trouble.

Airi placed her hand on the man's shoulder and said,

"Um, could you please quiet down a little..."

"Oh... what's this? You the new waitress here to pour drinks? C'mere, c'mere."

The delinquent was completely drunk and out of his mind. He grabbed the wrist of Airi, who'd come to stop him, and yanked her toward himself. Airi was pretty strong, so the fact that he could do this meant he must pack a decent punch.

Anyway, if something happened to her, I'd get murdered by her father.

"Master! This uncle keeps grabbing me and won't let go!"

With no choice, I walked over to them. The delinquent holding Airi looked me up and down.

"Judging by your clothes, you look like you've got money. But I called dibs on this lady first, so if you don't want to see something ugly, get lost."

"Hey kid, do you like the potatoes on that plate over there?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

The delinquent bastard shoved Airi's arm away and tried to swing a fist at me. Thanks to Werner's natural dynamic vision, it looked so slow it was practically a joke.

I lightly dodged the punch and slammed the guy's head straight into a metal plate full of snacks.

"You weren't eating the snacks, so I'm feeding them to you myself. Drinking on an empty stomach is bad for your stomach, you know."

"You... you son of a..."

"You know what? Spring potatoes are seriously delicious!"

I grabbed his hair again, lifted him up, and slammed him back down into the plate. I repeated the motion over and over until the metal plate was soaked with red sauce.

By now the entire tavern had gone silent. Every eye in the place was locked onto us. The gazes weren't exactly filled with fear. They were closer to pure hostility. A few had already drawn their weapons, preparing to kill us.

It wasn't particularly scary, but dealing with them one by one while also worrying about Airi would be annoying. She had some skill, so she probably wouldn't die, but if she got even a single scratch, I'd be the one who ended up dead.

"O tree, grow forth."

With a simple incantation, tree roots burst from the ground and bound the delinquents who had been glaring at us. It was basic binding magic with no lethal power, but it would be difficult for them to break free.

"I really hate repeating myself, so I'll only say this once."

"Whether you come for revenge or cause trouble in this tavern again and make me come back..."

"The next time we meet, I won't be as gentle as I am right now."

Damn it. This was something Airi was supposed to do, but I ended up handling it instead. I was supposed to be teaching her through real combat, but this made things difficult. Trying to teach real combat without letting her get hurt... wouldn't it honestly be easier to fight a hundred dragons at once and win?

"Master! That was so cool just now! Teach me how to summon those tree roots too!"

"That's a technique idiots can't use. Give up."

Here I was, feeling like my insides were burning up and I was about to die, and she was getting all excited and begging me. It was infuriating.