Even Bugs Have Partners
Fifteen years of life. Live that long and you learn even a straw sandal has its match.
I bent my knees a little and looked down at a pair of ladybugs mating on a rock.
Even a bug crawling on the ground had someone to mate with.
And yet I had no one.
Why am I the only one…
What good was getting stronger when I didn't have a single girlfriend? When there wasn't a soul to warm my cold side at night? Even when my hair went white, I'd still be alone, wouldn't I?
While other people sat in rocking chairs reading fairy tales to their grandchildren, I'd be hobbling down the street with a cane, ending my life alone—
Whoooosh—!
"…Right. I came here to work."
I turned toward the sound of wind coming from deeper in the cave. Not a single ray of light leaked from the pitch-black interior. The moment I lit the dark with a magic tool standing in for a torch, the cave's residents reacted with extreme sensitivity to the light.
—Kiiiiiiik—!
I drew my sword without a care as the monster appeared before me: a Scorpion Spider. A spider's body with a scorpion's tail—the kind of powerful monster that could skewer most adventurers without breaking a sweat. But I could cut it.
And if I could cut it, there was nothing to fear.
"Life's pretty miserable, huh?"
A slash flew out and cleaved through the Scorpion Spider's carapace. Even a monster with tenacious vitality couldn't survive being cut clean in two.
It did, however, seem to have enough time left for a scream. The Scorpion Spider let out a piercing shriek as it died.
—Kieeeeeek—!
A scream so vast you could feel the dying monster's grudge in it. The moment that sound reverberated, the cave walls began to shake like mad.
Then, from deeper inside, dozens—hundreds—of Scorpion Spiders revealed themselves.
"Ah… so it had babies."
Spiders lay hundreds to thousands of eggs at a time. A monster with a spider's body was no different. Despite its massive bulk, it had produced dozens of offspring.
Those dozens of Scorpion Spiders would breed again, hatch more young… Leave them alone and they'd multiply in an instant into a catastrophic threat that would devour people.
But their danger level wasn't what concerned me.
"Even bugs have someone to mate with…"
And I had no one.
Did that make me less than a bug?
Maybe it did.
—Kararak.
Did someone less than a bug even have the right to kill these things?
I gripped my sword and sank into thought.
The Adventurer Guild.
Every day, countless adventurers came and went—to take on missions, or to report ones they'd completed. Because of that, the guild staff didn't remember many faces.
Aside from first-rate adventurers who'd reached Upper Class or higher, or promising talents who might get there someday, they didn't even bother remembering names.
But if you became one of that rare handful whose face the staff actually knew, the treatment you received from the guild rose to a level that couldn't be compared to before.
"—Ah, Evan!"
"…Rebecca."
"You're back? Did you complete the mission?"
Evan said nothing at the smiling face of the guild receptionist, Rebecca. He simply upended his backpack and dumped a heap of Scorpion Spider stingers onto the counter with a clatter.
Rebecca's expression slowly hardened as she watched the stingers pile up on the reception desk, but Evan didn't notice. He shook out the bag thoroughly, set every last stinger on the counter, then gave a light wave.
"I'm going to wash up, so please handle the settlement."
"Yeees… under… stood."
"I'll be off, then."
Rebecca watched Evan's back as he finished saying only what he needed to say and walked out of the guild, and she flinched slightly. Dozens of stingers. Every single one was a material laced with potent venom.
Two or three of those stingers would easily exceed her monthly salary—which meant what sat on that counter was several years of her annual pay.
I'm jealous. So that's what talent looks like.
Skill so outstanding it was hard to believe he'd only just become an adventurer. If you believed something like that could be earned through effort alone, you weren't just pure—you might need to check whether your brain had been bleached clean.
Evan had been chosen by the heavens for his talent, and he had cultivated it brilliantly. And that was something everyone envied.
If I had talent like that, I wouldn't be taking missions like this.
Whether it was a side effect of being blessed with such gifts, or simply the eccentric behavior geniuses were known for, Evan only ever took on the thankless, unprofitable missions no one else wanted.
This mission was the same. Scorpion Spiders—monsters with a spider's body and a scorpion's tail. Thanks to their tough chitinous carapace and venomous stingers, even most Upper Class adventurers couldn't easily clear them out. And for all that trouble, the only material you could harvest was the stinger.
Of course, by my standards this is still plenty expensive…
But that was only from the perspective of a commoner like her. From an adventurer's point of view, it was different. An Upper Class adventurer could make far more money with far less effort and risk.
There was no need to risk your life on dangerous, unprofitable work.
Work no one wanted to do, but someone had to. Evan Kalshooter volunteered for those jobs and those jobs alone. Thanks to that, his reputation within the guild climbed higher by the day.
"Why the long face?"
"Lucy…"
"What, is being his handler too much pressure? Want me to switch with you?"
At her coworker's offer to take over as Evan's dedicated staff, Rebecca shook her head. Her worry wasn't that kind of worry.
"…I just feel like we're using him somehow."
"Using him? How?"
"Handing him missions nobody else will take. Doesn't it make him look a little like a sucker?"
"Isn't he doing it because he wants to?"
"Still."
"Come on, he doesn't even complain. We didn't force him—he volunteered. There's no problem, okay?"
Her coworker kept pressing her to switch assignments as she said it. Rebecca let the words go in one ear and out the other, her face clouding with worry as she thought of Evan.
She fretted that someone so young, who kept taking on nothing but dangerous missions, might one day find himself in real danger.
It felt almost like she'd gained a little brother. In truth, it was similar.
Isn't there something I can do for him?
Unfortunately, there was nothing Rebecca could do. All she could manage was to be as considerate as possible so he wouldn't be inconvenienced. That was everything.
Compared to what he did for them, it was far too little—and so Rebecca only kept piling up guilt toward Evan deep in her heart.
Two weeks had passed. Maybe because I'd been taking requests nearly every day, most of the troublesome missions piled up at the guild had been cleared out. Every problem that needed urgent solving was gone.
At the same time, I'd been promoted to Lower Class. The Novice tag was off. Rebecca had told me she was already preparing to push me straight up to Highest Class, and that the guild headquarters in the royal capital was processing the promotion—just wait a little longer.
It wasn't as though they were pretending I hadn't completed the missions. They'd only asked me to wait a bit, and I wasn't so impatient that I couldn't manage that. Especially since I held a fair amount of goodwill toward the guildmaster here.
There aren't many people as generous as the guildmaster, after all.
Thanks to that, I found myself enjoying my first real break since coming up to the city. Not a vacation because I wanted to rest—a vacation because there was nothing left to do.
I'd never had time like this before, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. I'd become an adventurer and made a lot of money, but I was still a country bumpkin who didn't know a thing.
"…No idea."
What did other people do with free time? If you didn't know something, you went and asked someone who might. With that thought, I threw on some clothes and headed for the Adventurer Guild.
I remembered Rebecca telling me to come by if I needed anything, even if it wasn't about a mission.
I went straight to the guild and found Rebecca looking thoroughly worn out from work.
"—Rebecca!"
"Ah, Evan? I thought today was your day off… Is something the matter?"
"No, I just don't know what to do on a day off. I came to ask you something…"
The exhaustion vanished from Rebecca's face at once, replaced by a bright, beaming smile. I was admiring how professional she was when a stir rose from the guild entrance.
It was the kind of commotion you'd expect if a noble had walked in. I glanced over and saw a woman entering the guild, her long straight hair tied back in a half-up. She walked with her eyes closed, tapping a cane—she was blind.
But that disability did nothing to diminish her beauty. If anything, it only deepened the air of mystery around her. She tapped her cane along without hesitation until she reached the reception desk.
"—Excuse me. Is this the Adventurer Guild?"
"Y-yes, yes. Welcome. What brings you to the Adventurer Guild…?"
"I'd like to place a request. I need an escort to guide me to the northern city—"
She reached out naturally to steady herself against the reception desk, only to place her hand on my body instead. She flinched and stepped back. I caught her so she wouldn't fall and asked in a worried voice,
"Are you all right?"
"…What—how long have you been standing there?"
"I was already talking here first."
"You were… already here?"
She stared fixedly in my direction, as if she couldn't believe it. Her face was locked on me as though she could actually see. I shrugged and looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca shook her head as well, equally baffled.
Silence settled over the guild. Only the blind woman let out a low hum of thought.
Seolhyang, who had come to the guild, was deeply shaken by Evan's words.
I had no idea he was there… He was standing there the whole time?
Until her hand touched Evan's body, she hadn't sensed a single sign that he was standing there. Not even with the supersensory awareness she'd developed to compensate for her lost sight.
That's impossible. Did I misread it…?
Seolhyang swallowed hard and carefully asked, without letting go of her tension,
"May I ask your name?"
"It's Evan."
"Evan. What rank of adventurer are you, Evan? Surely a high one, yes? Highest Class, perhaps…"
"I'm Lower Class."
"…Lower Class?"
Seolhyang blinked in disbelief, then composed her expression once more. She couldn't believe he was Lower Class—but if he truly was—
"Then I should be able to hire you with the money I have. Evan. Would you be my escort?"
"W-wait, Evan is still—"
"I'll do it."
Evan accepted Seolhyang's request on the spot.
As a rule, you never refuse a beautiful woman's request.
No matter what that request might be.