Your Handwriting is Worse Than I Thought

"Your handwriting is worse than I thought."

"So you made a bet with Manguls?!" Reina's voice filled the entire room. Thanks to that, I had no choice but to cover one ear as I answered.

"Yes."

"Why do you always come back after causing some kind of trouble?!" Reina started clutching her head and screaming.

"When did I ever?" I didn't really have any memory of causing trouble.

"With my grandfather, with the guild, and now even with Manguls?! Are you messing with me?!"

"What's the big deal?" I said, genuinely not understanding why she was so worked up.

"You..." Reina glared at me with narrowed eyes.

"Even if we set aside the thing with old man Dante, the rest wasn't my fault. They picked the fight first. I just accepted it."

I hadn't done anything wrong.

"Yeah, that's true." Reina nodded with her arms crossed. It seemed she understood it wasn't my fault after all.

"But, you know..." Reina's eyes suddenly flashed. "It was obvious they were looking for a fight and you happily took the bait!! Right?! Am I wrong, you bastard?!"

Whoops. She'd seen right through me.

"You could've just let it slide once!! You've only been here three days!!"

"Huh? It's only been three days?"

"Agh!!" It felt like I'd been here a lot longer. How strange.

It took quite a while before Reina finally calmed down.

"Haa... haa..." She was still taking deep breaths, probably trying to settle herself.

"Huu..." After letting out a long sigh, she looked at me.

"So you do have a plan, right?"

"......"

"Right...?" Reina's voice trembled.

A plan, huh... I hadn't really thought about it that deeply. I was simply confident that I'd win if I went all the way.

So I told her honestly. Lying is a bad thing, after all.

"I don't really have one."

"......"

The room fell silent. Reina looked like she wanted to say something, but she swallowed it down by gulping the water in front of her.

I felt a little wronged. Sure, it was true, but saying he was worse than Reina seemed a bit much.

At that moment, Reina, who had been sighing repeatedly, lifted her head.

"Do you know how to capture monsters?"

I already knew that from the viewers. When I nodded, Reina pulled a notebook from her bag.

"Good, at least you know the basics."

She naturally spread the notebook open on the desk. Her hands moved with familiar ease as she flipped past pages filled with dense writing until she reached a blank one. Then, using the feather pen she'd taken out along with the notebook, she began drawing and explaining slowly.

"Still, I'll go over the fundamentals again. You need two items to capture a monster: a trap and a net. You use the trap to immobilize the monster's movements and the net to capture it alive. Those are the two steps."

Reina drew a line with a scratch.

"The prerequisite for that is draining ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the monster's stamina first. The fresher they are, the higher the chance they'll break free from the trap or net."

She drew a circle in the notebook.

"The bet with Manguls was about how pristine the captured monster's condition would be, right?"

I nodded at her question.

"Yes."

"It's not going to be easy." Tap tap. Reina tapped the notebook with the pen for a moment before looking at me seriously.

"I'm not doubting your skills. In fact, when it comes to pure combat, you're probably way ahead of Manguls. But..."

"But...?"

"Unlike you, Manguls is a veteran who's captured countless monsters. His actual monster-capturing ability is supposedly the best in this outpost."

"He's probably better than you in the technical aspects ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of capturing and equipment. No, he'll definitely be better."

After thinking for a moment, Reina started writing something else in the notebook.

"I'll support you as much as I can with the capturing equipment. I'll let the lab director know too. So you just focus on deciding which monster you'll go after. Check this."

She tore out the page from the notebook and handed it to me. Glancing at it, I saw a list of monster names.

"Try to pick a ground type if possible. Flying types are twice as hard to capture."

Flying types, huh... I'd never caught one before, so it actually sparked my interest.

"By the way, senior."

"What, did you already decide? Don't pick randomly, think seriously about it."

"Your handwriting is worse than I thought."

"Hey!!"

After receiving the capturing equipment from Reina, I headed back to the Border Forest. While following the guide bug that was flying ahead in search of monster traces, a viewer sent a question through chat.

"Yes."

Was it really that bad? I recalled the situation when I received the equipment.

"Have you decided what to catch?"

"Yes."

"What is it? I'll give you extra supplies suited for it."

"Azureus."

"Okay, Azureus... wait, what?" Reina's hand froze as she was taking out the items. Her eyes started blinking rapidly. It was the face of someone who couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

I repeated it for her.

"I'm going to catch an Azureus."

"......"

Her mouth opened and closed. Her eyelids twitched. She looked like she had a lot to say, but in the end she just stared at me without saying a word. Yeah, even thinking about that expression now, it was pretty funny.

"Is it that hard?"

"It is my first time."

Most people thought I would fail. It was my first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time capturing a monster, and I'd picked the most difficult flying type.

Thanks to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that, the chat was flooded with messages like 'The streamer is overreaching' and 'You should switch to a ground type while you still can.' But they were missing one important fact.

It was my first time here.

In the past. To be exact, in the world I used to live in, what I was best at was killing monsters. But there was one other thing I was good at: capturing them.

At my comrades' request, I'd captured hundreds, thousands of monsters. To win against the monsters, we needed to understand their ecology, so I did that for years. This much was nothing to worry about.

"Since I made the decision, I won't be changing it."

I left the viewers arguing among themselves and continued following the guide bug. If anyone crossed the line, Nyua would ban them herself.

Before I knew it, the surroundings were filled with giant trees. It was a quiet forest where even sunlight barely reached. Then...

Whoosh!

From far away came the sound of enormous wingbeats. They were heading straight toward me. I slowly drew my greatsword and looked up at the sky.

"To all the people who said I'd fail earlier. Are you still here?" I spoke to the viewers without taking my eyes off the sky.

The sound of wingbeats grew closer.

"You can look forward to this."

Whoosh!! A shadow fell over the sky. Thud!! Something massive descended as if falling from above.

White scales. Wings covered in membrane. A pure white creature resembling a wyvern was staring straight at me.

Azureus. It looked exactly like the one in Reina's notebook.

"KRRRRRRAAAAAHH-!!!!"

With a roar that sounded like it was accepting the mission, the creature charged at me.

Thud!