Your Skill's Name
Ten days had already slipped by since our reunion with my master.
We were currently riding a carriage out of Armain, heading west.
"...Ugh."
Sprawled across the carriage roof that had long since become my designated seat, I groaned.
"I'm bored...."
I was thrashing about in pure boredom at how uneventfully smooth the journey had been when—
"Hee-hing—!"
"Whoa!"
As if the horses had overheard me, they suddenly reared up on their front legs in a frenzy and came to a halt.
"What? What's going on?"
I leaned out toward the driver's seat and called to the coachman, who was frantically trying to calm the animals with a startled face.
"I-I don't know, miss. This has never happened before...."
The coachman only scratched his head, equally baffled.
I climbed down from the carriage to check on the horses, and that was when Huey and Lucy stepped out as well, stretching.
"Ah, looks like we're here."
"Huey?"
"Master says we can't take the carriage any farther from this point."
Curious, I turned my gaze toward the distance.
"Ah. There it is."
Far off, at a range my eyes could just barely make out, a dense forest of deep blue-green began.
"Ordinary animals get spooked long before they even get close."
Huey paid the coachman and told him he could head back. Then he added,
"From here, it'll take about another two weeks on foot."
"It's ridiculously huge, huh."
"Two weeks, though...."
The two of them looked at me in perfect sync, as if they'd planned it.
"What."
"No, I was just wondering if you'd be all right."
"Exactly. Only three days ago, you were still...."
"Hup— Shut up!"
At the deliberate reminder of something I'd been trying hard to forget, my face flared red. I covered it with both wings and shouted.
Three days ago, after all....
"The coachman's expression was a true work of art."
"...Khk."
I'd made an excuse about needing to relieve myself, gone off alone, secretly laid an egg, and then—like an idiot—brought the thing back and asked him to cook it.
"It's a physiological thing! A physiological phenomenon!"
I was more used to it now; I no longer climaxed in that humiliating way I had the first time. Aside from a faint hollow feeling after laying, it wasn't even a problem anymore—!
But still, talking about egg-laying was off-limits!
"Ren."
"What!"
"...Never mind."
"Kyaak!"
Lucy called my name in a tone that clearly said she had something important to tell me, then let out a huge sigh as if it were nothing after all. I screeched at her for a moment.
"Huff, huff...."
"...I'll stop, so please calm down."
In the end Lucy raised both hands in surrender.
"All done?"
Huey watched us and snorted with laughter.
"You just wait. I'll get you later."
"Out of nowhere!?"
"Laughter always comes with a price, Master."
I was already irritated, and that smug little grin of his only made it worse.
I stomped along, fuming, when Dana—who had been quiet for a while—suddenly spoke up in my head.
You're really having a blast, junior.
What now.
Nothing. Just jealous.
How lame.
Just in case you try to blame me later—not every member of our race turns into a pervert when they lay eggs, okay?
...What?
You're just especially sensitive. Anyway, bye!
She claimed she had never laid eggs in that perverted way I did. After days of silence, that was what she chose to say...?
...Hey.
I called her name over and over in sheer disbelief, but she never answered. From the start, her only goal had been to piss me off.
Hey, Dana.
No matter how many times I called, there was no reply.
"Kyaaaaaak—!"
"Jesus, you scared me."
"Why the sudden fit? You're terrifying."
I let out a full-throated scream of pure rage. Huey and Lucy edged away from me with faintly disgusted looks.
"Kyaak—!"
But that didn't matter. What mattered was venting this fury somehow.
"...She's lost it."
"We should go easier on her from now on."
"I can hear you—!"
I yelled at the two of them whispering just out of reach, then huffed,
"Ugh, I'm so pissed. Seriously."
Leaving Huey and Lucy behind, I stormed ahead on my own.
"Ren! Not that way!"
...You could've said that sooner.
Two days later.
"From here on, we'd better stay sharp."
Huey spoke with a faintly wistful look as we stepped into a forest so vast and dense it made the distant view look like a joke.
"This place is packed with monsters that make the ones outside look like house pets."
At the same time he pointed a finger upward, indicating something enormous and bird-shaped soaring high above.
"Everything here is huge."
Plants, animals—everything. It felt like we'd wandered into a world of giants.
After listening to Huey drone on about every possible precaution until I was sick of it, I finally asked,
"...How the hell did you get through this place alone?"
"Right? From the way you're talking, even a Gold-rank adventurer couldn't move solo."
I remembered Huey saying he'd crossed this forest by himself before. Lucy and I both pressed him.
"That's...."
"Ah, hang on. Something's coming from over there."
Right then I felt a presence approaching from far off— a fairly large one.
"Perfect timing."
Unlike usual, Huey took a deep breath and looked in the direction I indicated.
"If possible, stick close to me until we reach the village."
Then an aura began to leak from Huey—unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar.
"Hoo."
"This is...."
"Master. Are you all right?"
It was faint, but unmistakably the same presence I'd felt when he released the seal on his heart.
"This much is fine."
The moment he said it, the approaching presence spun around at high speed and fled.
"...What just happened?"
"There's something inside me that the creatures of this forest never forget."
Outside it would only register as a somewhat vicious beast, but here it was more than enough to be useful.
"Still, if they spot us they'll definitely charge."
When that happens, he said, we'd have to fight or run.
"So you are useful sometimes."
"To think Master can do something besides cook...!"
"Can I just hit you both once?"
Huey asked, a vein standing out on his forehead.
"Feeling confident, Master?"
"Go ahead. You haven't landed a single hit on me in training yet, so if you think you can—"
Lucy and I were both the type who never turned down a challenge. I locked eyes with Huey and gave my wings a little twitch.
"...Tch."
And so, while we were completely neglecting our surroundings and busy teasing Huey—
Rustle.
As if it had been suppressing its presence the entire time, the sound of something pushing through the dense undergrowth suddenly came from right behind us.
"Oh."
"We've been caught."
"Of all things, why that one again...."
A massive bulk easily three meters tall. A body that looked like a bear and a wolf had been mashed together, black fur faintly tinged red and steaming.
Pssshhh—!
I'd heard the description from Huey once before.
...Honestly, I'd been so bored I'd been fighting sleep and hadn't really listened.
"It's called a Firebear. A bit fast, a bit tough, and it occasionally breathes fire, but basically it's just a bear."
No matter how I looked at it, it was not "just a bear."
"Kuoohhh—!"
"When its fur turns completely red, fire comes out of its mouth, so watch out."
"How is that a bear in any way!"
While I was arguing with Huey's deadpan explanation—
"Haaaah!"
Kwaaang!
"Krk!"
Lucy dove straight into the Firebear's charge and swung her coffin, shoving it back.
But the beast tanked the blow and came at her again. Lucy reset her stance to swing once more—
Faster than that, though, I saw crimson flames gathering at the corners of its mouth.
"Move!"
I shouted at Lucy, kicked off the ground, and launched myself, stretching my leg toward the Firebear's jaw.
Kwaak!
My claws clamped shut around its snout.
Puhak—!
Flames burst out between the tightly sealed jaws.
"Kurk...!"
"Tough bastard!"
Even with fire exploding inside its body, the Firebear's eyes flashed as it swung a forepaw at my leg. I kicked off its snout, launching myself into the air.
"Lucy!"
I spread my wings and soared upward, calling her name just as she thrust one leg forward and swung the coffin at the beast's jaw with everything she had.
"I was going to do it even without you tell—ing me!"
Kwaang!
Unlike before, she put her full strength into it. With a thunderous crash the Firebear's head snapped backward.
Right after—
"Both of you, get clear!"
Pajik!
Huey's voice cut through the crackle of lightning. I quietly beat my wings and turned my eyes toward him.
—Thousand Thunder!
Holding talismans marked with different seals in each hand, Huey formed a complex mudra and unleashed an aura incomparable to anything he'd shown before.
Immediately after—
Kwarrrung—!
As if a rain of lightning had begun to fall, an enormous volume of thunderbolts poured from the sky and slammed into the Firebear.
A short while later—
"Wow. You roasted it completely black."
"...Is this really okay?"
Looking at the surroundings, where the only trace of the Firebear was black ash drifting on the wind, I questioned the unusually excessive attack for Huey.
"You can't eat that thing. No usable materials either."
Wiping away sweat, Huey answered as if confirming it had been overkill.
"And you have to go this hard or they won't think twice about coming back."
So he'd had a reason after all.
That aside....
"I've been thinking this for a while now."
"Hm?"
"You're the type who shouts skill names, huh."
The kind you see a lot among mage-class jobs. Something about self-suggestion being important, or whatever.
"...Hold on."
"No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. That type's pretty common."
"Pff."
I hated the ones who yelled out every little skill name—too noisy—but for the big ones, sometimes it mattered. Yeah.
"Hey, Ren!"
Still, I'd prefer he kept a little distance when there were other people around.
It's embarrassing.
"I said it's not—!"
