Overwhelming Talent
"I'm Rainia."
White hair, a pair of breasts each the size of her head, confidently bared abs, and a set of long ears twitching atop her crown. I'd been thoroughly captivated by her wild, animal allure—until those ears started moving on their own, and I stopped short.
"A beastman?"
"Yeah. That's right, a beastman. Got a problem with that?"
"No, I've just never seen one before. Are those real ears? Don't you have human ones?"
"Ha. This kid's a real piece of work."
Rainia let out a short, dry laugh as she looked down at me. But only for a moment. Then she heaved a long sigh and began looking me over from head to toe.
"The Guildmaster's really something. Asking me to look after a weakling like this."
"Weakling? I'm strong, though."
"Sure, sure. Whatever you say. Fresh-made adventurers always think they're tough."
"No, I mean it—I'm actually—"
"This brat just keeps talking back, doesn't he?"
And in the next instant, Rainia locked me in a headlock so fast I barely saw it coming. Those two enormous hills wrapped around my head and swallowed my face whole.
The soft-looking pair of breasts that had looked so inviting from the outside now sealed off my entire face, and I found myself briefly debating whether I ought to shove her off or man up and just endure it.
I'll stay like this.
When I offered no resistance at all, Rainia seemed to catch on to my little scheme. She slowly released her grip and stepped back a pace. I looked up at her with a face full of pure regret, and she scratched her cheek with a distinctly awkward expression.
"Hey. How old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"Fifteen, and you're already like this… Forget it. Like I said, I'm Rainia—leader of the White Wolf party."
"What about the rest of your party?"
"It's their rest day."
"Rest day?"
"You know. The thing that happens once a month."
I let out an ahh of understanding and nodded. The day once a month when women bleed from down below and writhe in agony.
But if the rest of her party was out on rest day, that raised one rather pointed question.
"Doesn't Miss Rainia do that?"
"You little—what exactly are you asking me?"
"Your period."
"This kid's actually insane, isn't he?"
"Ah—right, since Miss Rainia is a beastman, it wouldn't be a period. It'd be heat, wouldn't it?"
Rainia let out a hollow laugh.
"…You. You're something else, aren't you?"
"Thank you for the compliment."
"Why would he send me a kid like this… What is the Guildmaster thinking…"
Rainia wore a bitter little smile.
I just tilted my head, unable to make sense of it.
Guildmaster, what the hell are you thinking?
Looking at the fifteen-year-old brat standing in front of her—Evan—Rainia sighed inwardly. She didn't dare sigh out loud in front of the boy the Guildmaster had personally sent her way. If he went and snitched, she'd fall out of the Guildmaster's good graces, and that was a problem she couldn't afford.
As an Upper Class adventurer, Rainia and her party were valuable assets to the Guild—but not irreplaceable ones. Meaning she could not afford to get on the Guildmaster's bad side and still expect to make a living.
And on top of that, she was a beastman. Outside of adventuring, there weren't many paths open to her.
Even so—why a greenhorn like this?
She hadn't stopped by the Guild last night. Every single one of her party members had been on their monthly cycle, so the whole party had gone into rest mode.
Which meant she had completely missed the sight of Evan hunting down ultra-high-risk monsters that even she couldn't take on—and dragging their corpses back in.
Knowing none of that context, all Rainia saw was a parachute kid riding the Guildmaster's coattails. At best, a runaway young master from some noble house.
"Whoaaa… Miss Rainia. Your armor looks amazing."
"Amazing… Is that all you've got to say?"
"Yes? Why?"
Dressed in the gear she wore on actual missions, Rainia frowned at Evan—who didn't have so much as a scrap of leather armor on him.
Parachute or not, she couldn't just throw a complete beginner out in front of monsters with no equipment whatsoever.
She'd been planning to run him through a few easy hunts and call it a day, but she turned on her heel and headed for the blacksmith's instead.
"First things first—we're getting you geared up."
"Do I really need equipment?"
"Adventurers die to blind attacks flying in from god knows where. Stop complaining and follow me."
Just last night, Evan had swept through monsters with nothing but a single sword and not a scrap of armor—so he was a little put out. Still, he wasn't about to ignore the words of a senior adventurer.
Once they arrived at the forge, Rainia looked at him and asked, just in case.
"You got money?"
"Yes. A little."
"A little won't buy you anything decent. Roughly how much…"
Rainia checked the contents of the wallet Evan handed over—and clamped her mouth shut. The thing was stuffed with hundred-Elso bills. Full plate armor of the kind knights wore ran about ten thousand Elso, give or take. Money was not going to be a problem.
That was not the kind of cash a Novice should be carrying around. Narrowing her eyes, Rainia fixed Evan with a hard stare. Her runaway-young-master theory had just gotten a whole lot stronger.
In reality, it was simply a partial advance on the reward from the request he'd completed the night before—but Rainia had no way of knowing that.
"With this much, buy something decent. Once you start earning more, you can commission armor tailored to you."
"Something decent, huh… Any recommendations?"
"Plate armor. Always go for solid hunks of metal."
As anyone could tell from the full suit of armor she herself was wearing, Rainia was a devout believer in plate. A broke Novice might have to settle for leather and be grateful—but if you had money, you did not cheap out on defense. That was her creed.
Evan, however, did not share that philosophy. Steel armor. It looked uncomfortable to wear, and it didn't even look all that protective. After all, wasn't he the kind of fighter who could slice through steel and stone like they were nothing?
If he himself could cut through steel, there was no way he was putting his faith in plate armor from some neighborhood forge.
Now, if it were enchanted armor forged by some legendary archmage out of a fairy tale, or a divine relic handed down by the gods—that might be a different story.
"Then I'll take this."
"I told you to get plate armor."
"It looks stuffy. I don't want it."
"Is this kid out of his mind…?"
Letting Rainia's colorful cursing sail in one ear and out the other, Evan bought a set of leather armor—and then remembered that the edge on his sword had gone dull. Sure enough, a quick draw from the scabbard confirmed the blade was in pretty rough shape.
He could still swing it without any real trouble, but since he was already at the forge, he picked up a new longsword as well. Fully outfitted from head to toe in brand-new gear, he stepped back out of the blacksmith's.
"…Is it really that great?"
"Hm? Well, I bought new stuff. Of course it feels good, right?"
"I give up. Live or die, it's on you…"
Watching Evan chatter away without a care in the world, Rainia muttered a grim little prophecy about his future. A rich, reckless greenhorn. He might not die today—but that streak wouldn't last long.
Adventuring was dangerous work. Even if you hired Upper Class adventurers as bodyguards with all the money in the world, one wrong move and you were dead. In a real fight, anything could happen.
They arrived at the grasslands where Novices typically trained—home to relatively weak monsters. Rainia looked at Evan and carefully opened her mouth.
"The monsters out here don't attack first, and they're not that dangerous. Go hunt some. I'll be watching from behind."
"You're not going to help?"
"If it looks dangerous, I'll save you. I'm not going to just let you die. —You've been going on about how strong you are, right? Show me, then. Let's see how good you actually are."
"Yeees—."
At Rainia's words, Evan drew his sword and strode forward. Right up until the moment he confidently pulled that blade and stepped out, Rainia watched him the way you'd watch a child left alone by the water's edge.
And when he cut a monster clean in half with a single stroke, a faint sound of admiration slipped out of her.
Oh. Not bad…
His swordsmanship was solid. So he wasn't just some greenhorn mouthing off on the Guildmaster's coattails after all. Rainia settled in to quietly watch how far he could go.
Evan carved through monsters one stroke at a time, pushing steadily deeper inland. The farther in he went, the stronger the monsters that appeared—but his pace never slowed.
Rainia's outbursts, on the other hand, only grew more frequent.
"That's a Unicorn Wolf. Be careful. Even a mid-tier adventurer would—"
He cut it down.
"A Night Killer?! Physical attacks don't work on those—!"
He cut it down.
"…A D-Devil Bear. Run, E—"
He even cut down a monster that Rainia herself couldn't beat.
The deeper they went, the fewer words Rainia had left.
And when the hunt was finally over and they made their way back, Rainia opened her mouth with a hollow look on her face.
"You… you're actually strong."
"I told you I was."
Faced with Evan's overwhelming talent, Rainia's common sense crumbled with almost insulting ease.
One week. For the next week, Rainia found herself fretting over whether she might simply be crushed under the weight of that overwhelming talent.