Bloodline (2)
Ren had naturally expected fierce opposition from her parents. But the reality was completely different.
"I see. It looks like you've reached that age after all."
Her mother, elegantly covering her mouth with a fan, nodded thoughtfully before readily giving her permission to join the hero's party. She even prepared gifts for the journey.
"Um, Mother, this outfit..."
"It's what your ancestor wore when she traveled with the hero. It may look like there's not much fabric, but it's surprisingly packed with all sorts of protective blessings. It'll be safer than armor. Go ahead and wear it."
"But... this exposes my navel, and my hips are practically bare..."
"Wear it. Or don't, if you don't want to."
That firm tone, and the subtle warmth hidden beneath it, left no room for refusal. Standing in front of the mirror in that outfit, Ren examined herself from every angle with flushed cheeks.
Her hair, grown long like a proper young lady's, would probably get in the way during fights. Ren drew a dagger from the holster on her thigh, took a deep breath, and sliced off the flowing locks at shoulder level.
"My lady! This is an act of terrorism against humanity's cultural heritage!"
Soria, who had entered the room right after, made a huge fuss at the sight of the severed hair.
"It was too noticeable. Something easier to move in is better, right?"
"If you'd just told me, I would've cut it more carefully from the start! Why would you commit such violence..."
"Still, doesn't this give off a boyish charm? It looks healthy."
"My lady would look beautiful no matter what hairstyle you choose, so that argument doesn't work on me."
Forcibly seating Ren in front of the mirror to trim the ends, Soria grumbled nonstop. Ren scratched her cheek and endured the scolding.
"You must be careful. Don't let bad people trick you. Especially watch out for men. Don't fall for their pitiful acts. You're so kind, my lady, that you tend to let things slide too easily."
On the day of her departure, Soria accompanied her all the way to the hill outside the village. She grabbed Ren's hand and gave her one last serious warning.
Be careful of men. Don't fall for their pitiful acts. You're too kind and let things slide too easily.
And Soria's advice proved useful starting the very next day.
"Oh, so you're the thief who decided to join us! You're even more beautiful than I imagined. So, how many kids should we have? Two sound good?"
"H-huh?"
The moment she introduced herself to the hero, he grabbed the hand she'd offered for a handshake and immediately hit her with that line.
"Um, two kids? I... I haven't really thought about that..."
"Two is too few after all, huh? Five would be better so we can start a whole orchestra!"
"There he goes again."
The hero, who had been smiling way too brightly, got smacked in the back of the head by a rock and collapsed. It was Karin. After knocking him out cold with a perfect pitching form that would make professional pitchers cry, she dusted off her hands with a refreshed expression and walked over to Ren.
"The second he saw me, he said the exact same shit. Just ignore him. The guy's got a few screws loose. Don't entertain him at all. He'll never stop clinging if you do."
"But... he's still a comrade. Is it really okay to hit him with a rock like that?"
"It's fine. His only redeeming quality is that uselessly tough body of his. Or what, do you actually want to have his kids?"
When Karin snapped at her, Ren scratched her cheek and quickly denied it.
"Hmm... he doesn't seem like a bad person, but... I don't have any thoughts like that."
"Then don't give him an inch. Knock him down immediately. That bastard's so ridiculously positive that just pushing him away a little won't make him back off. Be careful. Don't let him trick you with that pitiful act and let things slide."
It was the exact same thing Soria had said. Karin shook her head so hard her twin tails swung wildly, as if the very thought disgusted her.
Thanks to keeping both Soria and Karin's warnings firmly in mind, Ren managed to avoid several situations where she might have accidentally indulged the hero's nonsense.
*
But when it came to the next man they met, Soria's advice wasn't particularly helpful.
"I don't want achievements or rewards. I just have my own reasons for needing to kill the Demon King. If you let me join, I'll handle all the trivial stuff—meals, watch duty, whatever."
The Red Mage who suddenly joined their party one day introduced himself as Jain. He was frighteningly foul-mouthed. Having met plenty of rough types as a member of a thief clan, even Ren had never encountered anyone quite as vulgar as him.
She'd also witnessed him cornering Karin and spewing shameless sexual harassment. The intimidated Ren thought to herself:
Is he a bad person?
At first, she tried to keep her distance. She didn't believe his claim that he'd handle all the chores either.
But once he joined the party, he carried out tasks with surprising reliability, as if he'd always been a member. He kept his promise to handle the menial work with genuine diligence.
Before Jain joined, meal duty had mostly fallen to Ren. Embarrassingly enough, that Red Mage was a much better cook than she was. She found herself genuinely impressed several times at how he could produce such delicious food in such harsh conditions.
Gradually, her impression of Jain began to change.
In the evenings, once camp was set up and everyone gathered around the bonfire to chat, Jain would stay behind by himself, cleaning up, preparing the next day's meals, or repairing weapons. Watching him work in silence, never joining the conversation, somehow looked incredibly pitiful.
It's not like he's acting pitiful... He's never once complained. He offered to do it himself. But still...
She tried to look away, remembering Soria's warning, but she couldn't help feeling concerned.
Finally, one evening, Ren cautiously approached Jain while he was quietly preparing dinner.
"What are you doing?"
Jain, who had been standing with his back to her, answered curtly as she asked from behind with her hands clasped behind her back.
"Food."
Then he turned his gaze back to the cutting board. Did he want to end the conversation there? Ren was quite flustered. She leaned in to get a better look at his expression and asked again.
"Then... can I help? I feel bad just eating without doing anything every day."
"No need. Go back."
"Are you... upset? Because we've been dumping all the work on you and not paying attention?"
"What?"
"I mean, you said you'd do it, but making you do everything... that's pretty harsh, right? Everyone's been a bit too much, haven't they?"
"Huh? What the hell is that sound like some ghost choking on birdseed and chugging indigestion medicine?"
Jain scratched his head over his headband as he spoke.
The reason Jain had volunteered to handle all the chores wasn't just for negotiation purposes—it was for achievement grinding. To clear all the production-type achievements, he couldn't afford to miss even these trivial tasks.
But he couldn't explain that. Talking about the game system would interfere with causality, potentially changing the scenario from what he knew. For Jain, this was the best he could say.
"I'm doing it for my own sake, so stop meddling and go get some sleep."
It was a firm rejection. Though he truly meant it for the sake of his achievements, to Ren it looked exactly like he was sulking and pushing her away.
Feeling guilty, she smiled brightly and grabbed a kitchen knife.
"Then I'll make one request for my own sake too."
"What is it."
"Could you teach me how to cook? That braised pork knuckle you made yesterday was delicious. I want to learn from you, so let me practice while helping."
It was essentially a roundabout way of saying she wanted to help. Faced with such insistence, Jain's icy expression finally softened. He set down his knife and said,
"You've got a really good personality."
"What? I'm doing it for my own sake."
"Don't get cocky."
When Ren shrugged and imitated his tone, he actually let out a small chuckle. Good, he seems a lot less tense now. Ren breathed a sigh of relief in her heart and smiled sweetly.
"Alright. Then let's change the menu and make that braised trotter from yesterday again. I'll only show you once, so watch carefully."
Jain handed her the cutting board and ingredient pouch, then gripped his knife with a stern warning. Ren nodded with a serious expression.
"First of all, this isn't a restaurant. This is a field situation. What's the most important thing in field cooking?"
"I don't know, Chef!"
"Efficiency. We can't freely gather ingredients, so we need to use them efficiently. That's why we'll be cooking with the leftovers from yesterday. Got it?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Good. First, take the apple left over from yesterday and cut it into eight slices."
"Done!"
"Then take the brown sauce left over from yesterday and stir-fry it in the pan."
"This sauce, right? Done!"
"Good. Now take the leftover wyvern foreleg from yesterday and put it in the pan with the apple."
"Leftover from yesterday... what?"
Ren, who had been faithfully following Jain's instructions, suddenly froze with a stiff face.
"Wyvern foreleg? Why on earth would we have something like that?"
She'd heard the "leftover" modifier but pretended not to because she desperately wanted to deny it. But reality was cruel.
"What, wasn't it in that sack? Here."
Jain casually pulled something from the sack and tossed it to her. Ren caught it reflexively, her face turning deathly pale.
In her hands was a gray foreleg covered in patches of fur and scales. She didn't know if it was actually a wyvern's, but it was unmistakably a monster's foreleg.
"W-w-what is this?!"
"Wyvern foreleg. You said it was delicious."
"T-that wasn't pork knuckle, it was wyvern leg?! Wait, I was wondering where you even got pig trotters from in the first place!"
"Wow, I didn't expect you to be such a picky eater. That stuff's good for you, you know."
"No, you can't eat monsters!"
"Why not?"
Jain skillfully stir-fried the wyvern foreleg in the pan, then turned off the heat and asked with genuine confusion.
At a loss for words, Ren stammered out a question in response.
"No, why are you making such weird food?!"
"Why? Well..."
Jain stroked his chin as he carefully chose his words.
The reason he specifically chose to cook and eat high-ranking monsters was, of course, for achievement grinding. This shitty game, Bravely New World, had a system called "linked achievements." Clearing a higher-difficulty achievement would automatically clear all the lower-difficulty ones that were its prerequisites.
For example, hunting and cooking an Orc Lord would automatically count as having cleared the achievements for eating Orc Warrior, Orc Paladin, and Orc Archer meat as well.
There was an achievement called "The Oldest Funeral" that granted bonus damage against any monster whose meat you'd eaten. It was quite useful, so Jain had been cooking and eating monsters all this time to clear it.
In the game, it was basically standard practice for veterans. Since he couldn't explain any of this, Jain decided to keep it short and blunt.
"Because it's delicious."
"You can't just eat anything because it tastes good!"
"Why not? You said it was delicious and that you wanted to learn from me."
Ren stared at him, completely speechless and dumbfounded. His face looked like he genuinely didn't understand what the problem was.
His abnormal strength, his behavior—everything suggested he must have come from an extremely unusual background. Maybe he'd grown up in an extremely deprived environment. To him, hunting and eating monsters might have been completely normal.
Thinking that, Ren almost lowered her head out of habit. It was an old tic of hers—imagining the other person's circumstances on her own and then yielding her own opinion. That habit was about to kick in again.
With a smug smile, Jain turned back to the frying pan to continue his cooking lecture.
"Alright, next we'll pour in the leftover kobold eyeball sauce from yesterday..."
"That's going too far no matter what!"
But this time, she couldn't hold back. Ren shouted, her face bright red as she pointed accusingly.
"F-from now on, we're preparing meals together! I'll be watching so you can't put in any more of that weird stuff!"
From that day forward, Ren officially joined the party's irregular meal rotation. Her role was to occasionally come supervise Jain and help with the cooking.