Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Thank You for the Meal
“Ah… I don’t want to get up.”
I blinked my eyes and complained to myself.
What am I supposed to do about this unnecessarily huge room?
After training ended, even walking all the way to the bed with every bit of strength drained from my body felt like torture.
When I get the chance, I should move the bed right next to the door.
This hellish training had already been going on for half a month.
I’d never gone through a harder time in my life.
Well, it was effective.
So it did feel rewarding in its own way.
But physically, it was way too exhausting.
In those fifteen days, I’d only had one day of rest.
Other than that, the only breaks I got were when I lost consciousness.
I’d gotten beaten so much during training that I even gained a new skill.
Physical Damage Resistance.
What am I, a slime?
But honestly, the skill hadn’t helped much in training.
The moment Melraim, Yuna, and Pow found out I had it,
they just started hitting me harder.
So in the end,
it still hurt just the same.
Knock knock.
A knock came at the door.
Then Melraim’s voice followed.
“May I come in?”
To me, that voice sounded like the Grim Reaper.
But I couldn’t complain.
They were all making time for me.
No matter how hard it was, I couldn’t act spoiled when everyone was working this hard for my sake.
…Though they seemed to be enjoying it a little.
Anyway, I answered.
“Yeah, come in.”
Melraim entered without hesitation.
I forced myself up.
Then I smiled.
“So, should we head to the garden right away?”
Melraim shook her head.
“No. There will be no more training.”
“What?! Uh… why?”
I almost cheered.
Melraim stared at me and answered.
“Until now, you lacked even the fundamentals, so training alone was enough. But from here on, growth will slow without real combat.”
“Ah… then should we take on a quest?”
Melraim shook her head.
“There’s no need to take the long way around.”
“Then?”
“Let’s head straight to a dungeon. You need to kill a boss.”
That was sudden.
“No… shouldn’t I practice a little more first…?”
Melraim shook her head again.
“The carriage has already been rented.”
“A carriage?”
“Yes. Our destination is Baron Ingta’s territory. While you were training, we weren’t idle. We visited the Adventurers’ Guild regularly and searched for the location of an easy dungeon.”
They went that far for me.
Now I felt bad.
But if they’d done all this and I failed—
that would feel even worse.
“Still, wouldn’t more practice be better?”
“Either way, Tanya needs prey soon. It’s about time she hunted some monsters again, so this works out.”
Ah…
Tanya’s killing urges could be eased, at least somewhat, by killing monsters.
Not completely.
But enough to hold her over.
Once, I’d asked Tanya,
“If that’s the case, why not just keep hunting monsters forever?”
And Tanya had answered,
“You can’t survive on snacks alone!”
I still had no idea how her whole system worked.
I looked at Melraim.
“But do we really need to rent a carriage? That’s expensive.”
“Yuna complained that she hated camping. If we want to arrive by tonight, this was the only way. None of us own horses.”
“Ah. Well, even if we had one, I wouldn’t know how to ride.”
Melraim gave me a look of pure disappointment.
“What exactly have you been doing all your life?”
Well, if I couldn’t afford a horse, why would I learn to ride one?
…
Following Melraim to the edge of the city, I found Yuna and Tanya already waiting.
Tanya was inspecting the carriage from every angle.
She was even sniffing it.
Yuna seemed amused and copied her, taking a sniff herself—
only to recoil and frown.
Did she expect it to smell nice or something?
I walked over and greeted them.
“Good morning.”
Tanya and Yuna answered.
“That’s right! Good morning!”
“Yeah. Morning.”
That’s right?
That was a new kind of greeting.
Well, whatever.
At least they looked energetic.
I walked toward the driver’s seat to greet the coachman too.
“Hello.”
The moment our eyes met, the coachman smiled.
“So you’ve arrived. It’s an honor to carry the heroes of Kite County.”
The coachman was a large, bearded man, speaking politely.
Heroes…
That was embarrassing.
I hadn’t done enough to deserve humility, let alone praise.
So all I could do was laugh awkwardly.
“Haha…”
And with that, we boarded the carriage.
Before departure, the coachman slid open the front window and spoke.
“If there are no problems, we should arrive by evening. Rest well. And if you get hungry, just let me know.”
“Ah, thank you.”
After I answered, he closed the window and started moving.
The carriage rolled forward.
Honestly, I’d thought it was just a cart with a roof.
But it was surprisingly comfortable.
The shaking was minimal,
and my backside didn’t hurt at all.
Impressed, I asked,
“This is really nice… who picked it?”
Yuna answered.
“Tanya and I chose it last night.”
“At night? While Pow and I were training?”
Yuna nodded.
At times like this, she was really reliable.
Whether it was food or lodging,
Yuna always picked the expensive options—
but they were always good.
…Wait.
Tanya went too?
I looked at Tanya.
Because of what Melraim said, I’d been worried.
But strangely enough,
she looked incredibly happy.
“Tanya, did something good happen?”
“Hm? No, nothing.”
Yuna suddenly leaned forward.
“Right?! Doesn’t Tanya feel weird today?”
That startled me.
“Huh? Uh… yeah.”
“I asked her too, but she kept dodging the question! She’s been in a really good mood since last night.”
Tanya smiled awkwardly,
like she was hiding something.
She could act perfectly fine when she wanted to.
So why was she making it this obvious?
Yuna stared at Tanya’s face and said,
“Do you think she got a boyfriend?”
“No way…”
“What? Tanya’s super popular.”
That much I knew.
She was pretty and had a good personality.
But Yuna didn’t seem to realize that she and Melraim were also extremely popular among the adventurers of Kite County.
Still—
Tanya’s profession was widely known.
And just being an assassin made her dangerous enough.
No one knew about the random murderous urges.
But even so,
approaching her just because she was cheerful and pretty?
That sounded insane.
…Or maybe not.
Thinking about it again,
it sounded believable.
Men were like that.
Yuna and I kept observing Tanya while discussing the boyfriend theory.
But Tanya just kept smiling and shaking her head.
“It’s not that.”
Then Melraim gave her opinion too.
“No. If that were the case, her expression wouldn’t be getting brighter as we move farther away from Kite County.”
Yuna nodded.
“I guess that’s true…”
But even Melraim seemed bothered by Tanya’s unusual mood.
After watching her for a while, Melraim asked,
“You do seem to be hiding something. Judging by your face, it’s something good. More like anticipation. Are you excited about exploring the dungeon?”
Ah.
That made sense.
She did say she needed to kill something soon.
The boss monster would be mine,
but Tanya would get to hunt the regular monsters.
But apparently that wasn’t it.
Tanya shook her head and smiled.
“That’s not it… but you’ll find out soon.”
“I see. Then that’s enough.”
Melraim lost interest.
Yuna kept making guesses,
but after getting every answer wrong,
she eventually gave up.
…
A long time had passed since we got on the carriage.
Someone once said the greatest enemy of travel was boredom.
For the first time,
I agreed.
Sitting still made me restless.
And I was getting hungry.
Then—
knock knock.
A sound came from the front.
The coachman was knocking.
The one who answered was Tanya,
far too enthusiastically.
“Yes!”
Her mood just kept getting better.
Could this be some kind of pre-killing excitement?
The front window opened.
“Would you like to eat soon? There’s a good resting spot nearby.”
“Sounds good!”
Tanya really must have been hungry.
But wait…
what were we eating?
Were we hunting something here?
I asked Yuna.
“Come to think of it, did you bring food?”
I hadn’t brought anything.
“The coachman brought food too. It’s included in the fee.”
“Really? That’s nice.”
“Right?”
Soon, the carriage stopped.
The four of us got out,
and the coachman climbed down and tied up the horses.
But…
how was this a good resting spot?
Trees blocked the view,
and the ground wasn’t good for resting either.
Just as I was wondering that,
the coachman pointed ahead.
“We need to go a little deeper inside. Follow me.”
Ah.
A hidden spot?
The coachman led the way.
We followed.
I thought it would be close,
but we kept going deeper than expected.
The trees were still thick.
It looked like we had a long way to go.
Then, behind me,
Melraim suddenly laughed.
“So that’s what this was.”
What?
Yuna and I turned toward her.
But beside Melraim was something even stranger.
Tanya’s face.
She wasn’t just happy anymore.
She looked excited.
What’s wrong with her?
Melraim asked Tanya,
“Do you need help?”
Tanya looked like a small animal afraid its prey would be stolen.
“Huh…? Melraim, are you going to do it too?”
Melraim answered awkwardly.
“No… I won’t interfere.”
Tanya’s face brightened again.
At that moment,
the coachman suddenly started running.
What?
While running desperately, he shouted,
“You didn’t think you could mess with us and get away with it, did you?!”
Once the coachman had made some distance,
people began appearing from all around us.
And judging by the weapons in their hands,
they definitely weren’t here to say hello.
Yuna clicked her tongue.
“Tch… bandit leftovers.”
Ah.
So that was why Tanya had been in such a good mood.
Wait—
how did she know?
She’d been happy even before we left.
More importantly,
my weapon was still back in the carriage.
Though honestly,
I wasn’t worried.
Yuna summoned six skeletons.
Then she pointed at me and said,
“Protect me and him.”
After saying that, Yuna crouched down,
closed her eyes,
and covered her ears.
Tanya put on a cruel smile and looked at me.
“Then I’m starting? It’s okay, right?!”
“Uh… yeah.”
Tanya pulled a dagger from her clothes—
and vanished.
The next moment,
screams erupted from every direction.
“Aaaagh!”
“Stop—! Aaaah! It hurts! It hurts!”
The green ground began turning red.
I didn’t know how many there were,
but there were clearly more than it looked like.
The dirt couldn’t absorb all the blood fast enough.
It was flowing everywhere.
Ugh.
The smell of blood.
Yuna smelled it too.
She tried covering her nose,
but she didn’t have enough hands.
Maybe I should’ve covered my ears too.
Thankfully—
if that was the right word—
it didn’t take long for the horrifying screams all around us to stop.