#033 Achievements
#033 Achievements
Time flowed quickly.
It had already been a week since we arrived in Normance.
"Rosemas. I will be heading into the forest for a while, then."
"Please give them my regards. And you, Fergus...?"
"Me? I've got to keep working the forge here. If you ever need a sword or a weapon, come by anytime. I'll give you 5.8% off the regular price."
Marzohis, who had never thought much of Lucius, went off somewhere, while Fergus unexpectedly focused solely on her blacksmithing and paid Rosemas little attention.
"I'm counting on you, Rosemas. I'll mostly be doing rear support from behind, so effectively the two of you will be teaming up. Understood?"
"Yes!!"
"...."
The three of us formed a team and began living together.
"Rosemas, what's your adventurer rank?"
"For now, C Rank."
"But your skill is B Rank?"
"...Well, something like that."
I had also heard roughly about what happened with the orcs.
A woman whose experience fell short of her skill.
That was Rosemas's current level.
"So, Master, does that mean Rosemas takes the requests and we resolve them?"
"They said no because that would be piggybacking. To form a team and challenge higher ranks, you need the track record to match."
"Track record again...."
"How important do you think track record is? In this society, if your record is poor, you get cut without mercy."
Rosemas, registered as a C Rank adventurer two ranks above us, was known as the senior leading our team, but the Adventurers' Guild still only issued us E Rank work.
"I'm sorry. With the way things are these days."
"The way things are?"
"Yes. A Holy Sword that had slumbered for 500 years in the Holy Sword Village appeared, or so they say. The goblin villages heading toward this area were all wiped out by an unidentified being, or so they say. All the orcs near the northern lake died, and the culprit is apparently someone of considerable skill. Things are a bit... unsettled."
"I understand."
I had no particular complaints.
The Adventurers' Guild was busy because an orc village, a B Rank difficulty, had been swept away overnight, and as a result the guild staff were reacting quite sensitively.
"Would you mind starting slowly with E Rank work for now?"
"Of course."
Rather than getting thrashed for recklessly taking on missions above our rank, we decided to quietly build up a decent track record and train hard.
Dawn, simple exercise.
Morning, visit the Adventurers' Guild after breakfast.
Late morning, resolve requests.
Afternoon, finish the remaining requests or sparring practice.
Evening, physical conditioning.
A simple but varied daily routine repeated over the past few days, and we steadily accumulated a track record.
However.
"Ah, Arthur! Would you like to have dinner together tonight...?"
"What about you, Master?"
"I've got no interest, so you two go eat."
"Still, please come with us. How could we leave you alone and go by ourselves? Come on."
"......."
Or things like that.
"Sharing a room has gotten a bit awkward. Hey, Arthur. I need to sleep alone, so you share a room with Rosemas."
"What? How can a man and a woman sleep in the same room?"
"...What did you say?"
"...Arthur?"
"Is it that Rosemas is uncomfortable?"
"It's not so much that Rosemas is uncomfortable—it's that I can't sleep well with a woman next to me."
"...Then what about me, a man?"
"A man is uncomfortable too, but... well, I don't particularly mind you. For now, I want to use a room by myself. Since money's tight, share a room with Rosemas. Rosemas, that's fine, right?"
"......Fine, I'll... use it.... Grr."
Or things like that.
"Master, please help me with physical conditioning."
"Go to your room and do it yourself."
"It's far more effective if you help me."
"Can't you see I'm reading a book right now?"
"I'll do push-ups, so please read your book on top of me."
"Couldn't you just put Rosemas on top?"
"I-I'll get on top! Ugh, ugh... Eek?!"
"......If you can't keep your balance without falling, it's pointless. Master."
"...Hah. One hour only."
Or things like that.
"Hah. Lucius, go train by yourself for a bit. Rosemas and I need to talk."
Screech, thud.
"Rosemas, try a little harder."
"...I am trying."
"Trying alone isn't enough. Keep making approaches. Okay?"
"...And whose fault is it that it's not working?"
"Hey. Are you saying it's my fault right now? You're hilarious."
"Tsk."
Her track record as an adventurer was high, but her romantic track record was a total bust.
"Keep trying. Who knows? The day might come when Lucius kisses you."
"......."
"Just from thinking about it, you're already filming a human-elf lifespan melodrama in your head."
"H-how did you know...?"
"It's obvious. You're hoping to hear something like, 'I've grown this old, yet you remain as beautiful as ever,' with a young elf sitting beside a white-haired Arthur, aren't you?"
"......Hnngh."
"Just thinking about it has you dying of happiness. Hey, for that to happen, you'd need to get married first, wouldn't you!!"
"M-marriage...! Ahh, marriage with Lucius...!"
The combination of Rosemas, who couldn't seal the deal even when handed to her, and Lucius, who put up an iron wall, irritated me greatly, but still, their relationship had developed significantly compared to when they first met.
"Arthur. Why can't I call you Lucius?"
"...Lucius is like a surname. If I called you by your surname, would it be acceptable to call you Tervation?"
"That's not it, but... didn't you say last time that both Arthur and Lucius are names?"
"I meant it's a surname that's like a given name, so it doesn't particularly matter."
"Hmm...."
"Hah."
Admittedly, their progress was only a single step on the vast road from the dawn of civilization to the modern human world of advanced magic and goddess-mandated revealing clothes, but it was still progress.
With time, it would surely be resolved.
I tried to create as much time for the two of them to be together as possible, while gathering information in Normance.
Materials on the Demon King.
Materials on Zepar's organization.
And materials on this world.
I borrowed and devoured books from the Adventurers' Guild, studying history and trends so as not to fall behind the times.
Thanks to that, I learned many things, but my biggest discovery was the name of Zepar's organization.
`Acedia`.
- The remnants of the Demon King Army who follow `Belphegor`, the Demon King who fell 500 years ago.
According to what was written in the book, it didn't say the leader was Zepar, but the organization called Acedia was active across the continent, carrying on its legacy.
They were quite insolent bastards, but they operated in the shadows in various places—the empire's downfall, witch hunts, and more—earning infamy as the continent's worst organization.
Missions related to Acedia were at minimum B Rank.
To access information about Acedia at the Adventurers' Guild—the place where the most information was gathered—you had to be a B Rank adventurer.
In other words, we needed a track record.
It couldn't simply be looked up, and it wasn't material that could be investigated in Normance either.
Then, as expected, there was only one path.
`Building a track record.`
We had to raise our adventurer rank, build a track record, and climb higher.
If I could have confirmed the materials through a proxy, I would have hired a B Rank, but that was truly, regrettably impossible.
So we needed to build a track record.
The E Rank missions might have been too trivial for us, but each one would become a cornerstone of our climb to higher adventurer ranks.
Therefore.
"Hey! Why is catching skeletons taking so long?!"
"Guh, I'm fighting with all I've got!"
"Aah! Lucius! Hey, witch! How is Lucius supposed to handle that alone?!"
"He can handle it alone, that's why! If you can't even deal with this much, when will you ever get stronger?! Huh? I said don't block the enemy's attacks—deflect them!"
"That's easier said than—whoaah!!"
Today as well.
Our party was doing its best to steadily build a track record.
* * *
A forest near Normance.
There are rumors of skeletons appearing in a public cemetery. Confirm and eliminate them.
Although we had a C Rank among us, we chose a mission that even E Ranks could handle, and to resolve it we came to a public cemetery somewhat distant from Normance.
The reason we deliberately chose the cemetery skeletons out of all the missions?
`Because it might be connected to that bastard Zepar.`
It was a leap in logic—since Demonfolk did it, it must be related to the Demon King—but I came to the cemetery hoping we might get lucky and stumble onto something.
And we were able to defeat the enemies in the public cemetery, albeit with some difficulty.
As much as possible, without damaging the remains.
"Work finished?"
"Not yet, Master."
"Then go dig up the graves with a shovel. We have to rebury them."
The skeletons that had emerged in the cemetery had come from the graves there.
We didn't know who had raised them, but as he reburied the dead, Lucius seemed lost in thought.
"Why?"
"...The village."
"......Mm."
I understood Lucius's thoughts.
"Our village... did everyone really die?"
The Holy Sword Village, annihilated.
The news that a Hero who drew the Holy Sword had appeared had reached Normance as well.
Along with the news that a Holy Sword that hadn't been drawn in 500 years had been pulled, came the news that when people went there, everyone had been massacred.
The Holy Sword Village had been wiped out.
According to rumor, the remnants of the Demon King Army, Acedia, had come and attacked the village, but the truth was unknown.
We weren't going to return to the village, and even if we went back now, the traces would already be gone.
"It's only natural that it bothers you. But my answer is that you don't need to dwell on it."
"......."
"You did your best for the villagers, and that village was a place with a lot of problems. I understand being sad, but...."
Lucius's expression gradually twisted.
"...is what I was about to say."
"...Pardon?"
"As an outsider, I only have bad memories of that place, but for you it's different. Even if the ending was bad, it's where you grew up."
I clasped my hands together.
"I don't believe in gods, but I can offer a prayer to soothe their spirits. Rest in peace."
When I closed my eyes and prayed, Lucius seemed to follow along in silent tribute.
`This is best.`
Rather than awkwardly trying to comfort him by butting in, rather than putting up a complete iron wall, I just needed to empathize with his words and grieve together with him once.
"Let's visit sometime later when we have time. It is your hometown, after all."
"...No, that's all right. It's just...."
Lucius fiddled with his ring.
"......If I wanted to use the Holy Sword for revenge, would that be wrong?"
"No?"
"...What?"
"What, did you think I'd say revenge is wrong so don't do it? Or did you think I'd say you shouldn't use the Holy Sword for something like that? Not at all."
I raised my staff toward Lucius and lightly tapped him on the head with it.
"If you find the person who killed the people of your hometown, get revenge right away. Use the Holy Sword and smash them to pieces."
"......."
"Remember that."
I cleared my throat and spoke clearly.
"How you use the Holy Sword is your freedom. You can kill with it, you can threaten with it, you can use it as a tool for fame and success."
"Master!"
"Guiding that toward a more righteous path is my role. Arthur Lucius."
I placed my staff over Lucius's ring.
"Do whatever you want. In exchange, you just have to grant me one favor later."
As long as I could crush that bastard Zepar, I didn't care whether he sold the Holy Sword or whatever else he did.
"After everything is over, you just have to kill one person with the Holy Sword for me. Simple, right?"