Why Are You Asking Me?
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because your part in this is too large."
"......"
"And you're the strongest one here. So the decision has to be yours."
The other two senior barbarians watched Yujun in silence, tacitly agreeing with Janiz.
"I want to help."
"Why?"
"No particular reason."
The reason, of course, was the experience he would gain from putting the Tyragoses down. There was nothing to lose by raising his level and stats before he officially entered the tribal tournament, and the Tyragoses were hardly difficult opponents anymore. He could hardly say that outright, though.
"We're short on time. We'd better hurry."
Janiz broke into a run first. Seeing the other barbarians move, Yujun kicked off the ground as well. In a pure footrace, catching Janiz was genuinely difficult.
Let's be careful. I can't afford to get careless. My stats are low right now, and my gear isn't anything special. One bad hit and I could be dead.
He had a GX-tier Swordsmanship trait, but it was not an ability that would shield him from every threat. If he didn't watch himself, even a cheat of a power like that would be useless — which was why he had never intended to take the lead in the first place.
The Poison Dagger Tribe.
This potential assessment had produced two prospects of the very highest grade — something without precedent. The two barbarians granted that supreme potential, Remian and Corshas, had always burned with a fierce rivalry and had competed without end. Perhaps because of that, they were far stronger than either their age or their potential would suggest. This time, though, they were hitting a wall hard.
"Six Tyragoses is a bit much, isn't it!"
"Aaaagh!"
A barbarian of high-grade potential was torn to shreds on a Tyragos's arm.
"We got cocky for nothing."
Remian and Corshas, both bearers of the highest potential, had asked that only a single senior barbarian be assigned to guide them, and the chieftain had granted the request. Now they were paying the full price of that arrogance. In truth, even if more seniors had come along, the outcome probably wouldn't have changed. Facing multiple Tyragoses was a calamity they simply had no way to answer.
The senior barbarian was fighting the beasts for his life, but these were warriors who had never been taught how to handle more than one Tyragos at a time. Struck in the abdomen by a tail, he clutched his stomach and staggered back. He was plainly out of the fight.
"Kyaruk."
"Kyaak! Kak!"
Tyragoses were generally known to attack one another on sight, but the ones here did no such thing. They moved in perfect concert, as if they had lived together for a long time. In the end the senior barbarian was crushed beneath a Tyragos's foot. His head and upper body were pulverized, and at that grotesque sight Corshas's brow furrowed before she could stop it.
"What do we do? Can we run?"
"Run? And the tribe's honor? You think you can live with yourself after fleeing like a coward?"
"Honor, the tournament — none of it matters more than staying alive. We're barbarians who received the highest potential. Surviving this is what's best for the tribe. Don't you get that yet?"
"I'd rather die than do that."
Remian and Corshas could not easily reconcile their views. The other three barbarians could only stand there at a loss — and that was when several more barbarians appeared.
Seeing the tattoos carved into their shoulders, the Poison Dagger barbarians' eyes went wide.
"Ledordang?"
"Why are they..."
Before their confusion could even settle, one Tyragos vanished in an instant. Gone without a trace, in the most literal sense. While the Poison Dagger barbarians stood stunned by the bizarre sight, another Tyragos vanished as well. Four remained.
Yujun didn't pause. He locked onto the next target.
"W-wait..."
Janiz had been closing in, meaning to strike the weak point on a Tyragos's back. Then he saw Yujun cut one down from the front, and his mouth fell open.
"Wh-what? There was a weak point in the front, too?"
He could hardly think otherwise. A Tyragos's hide was incredibly tough — tough enough that the grassland barbarians had long since judged that no famous blade in existence could cut through that raw hide. And yet, this.
Shin Yujun, the Ledordang Tribe's prospect and a prodigy the likes of which they had never seen, had simply faced a Tyragos head-on and erased it in a single stroke. It was so unreal it felt like a dream. No one could look away. Everyone present was the same.
Until Yujun cut down the last Tyragos, not one of them had so much as laid a blade on the beasts. The Ledordang barbarians, who had charged in with tremendous momentum, could only blink. What had just happened? It took them quite a while to grasp it. In less than ten seconds, six Tyragoses had disappeared without a trace. Of course they were left dumbstruck.
"......"
"Shin Yujun."
Janiz called to him in a low voice.
"Yes."
"What kind of magic did you use?"
"Magic?"
"A Tyragos's hide can never be cut with a sword."
"No. There's no such thing as never."
"......"
"You must never have seen a truly fine sword. There's one called the Planet Destroyer's Sword — just set that blade against a Tyragos and it would separate bone from flesh."
He exaggerated a little on purpose. The part about cutting them with a mere touch, though, was no exaggeration.
"...Have you seen that sword yourself?"
"Yes."
"The one you're holding now... isn't it, I take it."
"It isn't in my possession at the moment."
"Then my question hasn't been answered at all. How in the world did you erase those Tyragoses? I thought last time was a coincidence, but when the same thing happens six times over, it is absolutely not a coincidence."
"I'm telling you, there's no such thing as absolutely."
"It's a figure of speech! Are you not going to tell me?"
Figuring Janiz would dig until the end if he said nothing, Yujun stepped close and spoke as if whispering in his ear.
"You remember that training method I mentioned earlier? Do exactly that, and you'll be able to awaken true power. It won't happen just because you keep at it for a few days. Years. You have to keep at it for years."
"......"
Only then did he manage to shut Janiz's mouth.
"Thank you."
"You saved our lives."
The Poison Dagger barbarians approached and spoke. Rivalry or not between their tribe and the Ledordang, they did not cling to their pride. Janiz barely pulled himself together and stood before them.
"Was there only one senior barbarian?"
"Th-that's right."
"Foolish."
"I admit it."
"You were on your way to the tribal tournament, weren't you. What do you intend to do now?"
"We'll still compete."
Remian answered Janiz.
"And the body?"
"We'll bury it roughly and collect it on the way back."
"...You're treating a warrior who died in sacrifice rather poorly."
"Even so, we can't throw away the chance to raise our tribe's honor."
"Then... would you perhaps take us with you?"
"Why?"
"We... don't know the way."
The remaining Poison Dagger barbarians were all still minors. They had never competed in a tribal tournament, and this was their first time wandering beyond the tribe. Lose the road on an unfamiliar path, and they might arrive late. That was why they had asked.
Janiz looked to Yujun as a matter of course. Yujun sighed.
"I'm deciding again?"
"Yes."
"I don't mind if they come with us."
"Then it's settled."
By Yujun's standards, they weren't much of a threat anyway, and they didn't seem particularly wicked either.
One good thing about being out here. I don't have to worry about the Demon God Worshippers.
The Ledordang barbarians didn't look displeased, either. If anything, they were grinning. With this, they had properly shown their rivals just how exceptional the Ledordang Tribe was.
The road toward the Golden Lion Tribe was quiet. Even Janiz, who had been talking nonstop, kept his mouth firmly shut — perhaps conscious of the Poison Dagger party — and those barbarians were visibly deflated. Amid all that, Remian and Corshas kept stealing glances at Yujun.
No. Remian at least had the sense to peek in secret. Corshas stared outright. Unable to hold back, she opened her mouth.
"You. Are you competing in the tribal tournament, too?"
She was looking straight at Yujun as she spoke. He nodded.
"A senior barbarian?"
"No. Those three walking in the back are the senior barbarians. I'm competing this time."
"What...?"
Corshas had never imagined Yujun was a barbarian who hadn't even held his coming-of-age ceremony, and she stopped in her tracks. Yujun kept walking briskly regardless. She hurried after him and, before he knew it, was stuck right at his side. Doing her best to ignore the irritation on his face, she kept talking.
"You're really not of age? Truly?"
"Yeah. Or do I look that old to you?"
"No. The opposite. Your face looks about twelve."
"......"
Set beside the heavy-featured barbarians, he was certainly baby-faced. But twelve was taking it a bit far, wasn't it?
"How is your skin that pale? Does the sunlight just avoid your face?"
"......"
"Is it the sword that's good? May I touch that sword once?"
"......"
"Do you have a fiancée, by any chance? If not, how about a betrothal with me? I may not look it, but I'm a barbarian who received the highest potential. If you and I had a child, there'd be no need to doubt our child's talent."
Corshas said it without so much as minding how the words came out. A truly unrestrained barbarian. Yujun wasn't answering, and yet she kept throwing questions at him with a delighted face. Then he glanced aside and found Remian glaring at him as if he meant to kill him. With a frame past six foot seven, the look was fairly murderous.
What's his problem?
Even his hands were trembling. He wore the face of a man meeting his mortal enemy, and when Yujun tilted his head, Corshas's eyes lit up.
"Did you just nod? You did, didn't you? You also think more than ten children would be good. I'm glad we think alike."
"What are you even saying."
Corshas stood even taller than Yujun, who was already six foot two. She did not register as the opposite sex. Not even slightly. A moment ago he had been insisting there was no such thing as absolute. He was revising that opinion.
"Once this tribal tournament is over, I'll ask my father to push for a betrothal."
At Corshas's words, the sound of Remian grinding his teeth carried all the way over.
Plain as day, he likes her. My eye for this is a hundred-dan. There's no missing it.
Yujun smiled faintly at a thought that would have sent Manuela into a rage if she had heard it. Taking that smile as a green light, Corshas broke into a grin so wide her gums showed.
"Heh... to think I'd find my match in the Ledordang Tribe. I never dreamed it."
"No. Your match is close by."
"Hm? Well, you're right beside me, aren't you. Come to think of it, we never learned each other's names. I'm Corshas. What's yours?"
"Shin Yujun."
"Shin Yujun? Unusual... no, a fine name!"
"What's his name?"
"Who do you mean?"
"The one glaring at me."
"Remian. He received the highest potential, same as me."
"Remian likes you. Go get betrothed to him or something. I've already got someone."
He didn't. But he had to say he did, whether he did or not. Corshas was absolutely not his type.