Their respective struggles (2)
Their respective struggles (2)
Several days had passed since hearing about Stachys's girlfriend.
Tomorrow was the day to go back into the dungeon.
And I had developed a new habit and hobby.
It was a hobby of wandering aimlessly outside and approaching anyone with pink hair.
After checking their eyes and seeing that their eyes were pink too, I would talk to them.
"Hello? The weather is nice."
"... Huh? Yes... The weather is... nice."
Most of them were flustered. I didn't care.
"I'm Rus."
And I held out my hand.
Most people would tell their name when I did this.
The other person would also timidly take my hand.
"I'm El..."
El? Reflexively, strength went into my hand.
"Ow!"
I was startled and relaxed my grip.
"Ah...! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do this."
"Ah.. No. It's fine. You're strong... I'm Alice."
It wasn't Elzain. Then it was just having a conversation of the day, an everyday conversation with that person.
I didn't really know why I developed this kind of hobby.
It was true that I wanted to see Elzain just once.
But even if I found her this way, I hadn't planned what to do.
Perhaps meeting her might be the end of my plan.
Of course, I had heard descriptions of what her appearance was like.
Pink hair, pink eyes, moderate breasts, moderate height.
But there is a big difference between seeing in reality and hearing about it.
That might be why I was doing this.
Just what kind of person my enemy was.
What kind of person she was to seduce Stachys.
Whether she was a decent person.
I was curious about these things.
And there was also the feeling of wondering if I might be able to meet Stachys while walking around like this.
Because when I asked Stachys to introduce his girlfriend, he had said absolutely not.
That it hadn't been long since they met and he wasn't ready to introduce her to his friends yet.
Perhaps my ugly heart had been caught.
I wanted to be with Stachys, even if it was just joining their date.
I hadn't planned it, but perhaps when meeting both of them together, I might unconsciously emphasize and boast about my ties with Stachys. No, I probably would.
The cry of myself, already a loser, saying, "I've known him longer than you."
But over the past few days, I had slowly come to admit it.
I was a step behind.
Even if I regretted it, that was a fact.
Even if I didn't admit it, the fact wouldn't change.
Countless first experiences would be taken away,
And perhaps the opportunity might never come to me again.
Stachys has a lover.
Still, I had to look ahead.
I didn't know how acting would constitute looking ahead,
But for now, just like this. Whenever I saw pink hair, I would talk to them.
Entering the dungeon tomorrow, I came into the request office to receive requests.
"Hello, Mr. Guide. Have you been well?"
"Mr. Stachys, you've come. I've been well."
The small-statured male guide welcomed me.
Ever since the King Boar incident, our bond had deepened a level further.
When I arrived, he took out a few documents.
"You're going to the dungeon, right?"
"Yes."
"Now, look at these."
And he handed three or four documents to me.
As I slowly looked through them, the guide spoke.
"Mr. Stachys, your complexion has improved a lot."
Keeping my eyes glued to the documents, I chuckled and replied.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Did something good happen?"
"Thanks to you, well."
"Pardon? What did I even do..."
I looked at him and raised one eyebrow, with a look that said, 'You know what I mean.'
And both of the guide's eyebrows flashed upward into an 'Ah~' expression.
"Thanks for the advice. It was definitely helpful."
A few days ago, I had learned from this guide on how to lie better.
Honestly, I thought that because of that, when the party members barged into my room, I was able to fabricate various lies.
"It was advice worth nothing, though."
"But that was a huge help to me."
"Haha, then I'm glad. This... I'll have to drink something expensive when I get treats later on, huh?"
The guide joked.
I smiled back.
"Please do. And, well. Today for sure, we're going to catch the Twiit Scorpion."
"Ah, is that so? Party 'Barefoot'..... Yes. Accepted. Just a moment."
He wrote something on the documents and then stood up from his seat.
Walking over to the box in the back, he took out a small bottle from inside.
A small but round bottle.
Handing the bottle to me, he said.
"Now, please fill this with the Twiit Scorpion's venom and bring it back."
Dungeon entry day.
Arriving at the gathering place, I was loosening up and swinging tonfas.
The feeling was strange. In a good way.
The weapon felt so light.
It was the exact opposite of last week.
If last week I had been ailing, sleepy, and feeling heavy all over,
Now my body felt like a feather.
As if putting down a weight attached to the body.
The guilt about the lies that had remained even a little bit flew away a bit more.
I felt that this was the right thing to do.
With this kind of physical condition, wouldn't it be possible to challenge even B-rank?
Couldn't I now escape the C and D sections where every Tom, Dick, and Harry were, and promote to a B-rank party?
I thought that I needed to see the progress of today's flow.
There was one more strange thing besides the body.
It was that the party kids were late.
Having loosened up, I sat and waited for them.
Strictly speaking, they weren't late past the promised time,
But the three of them, who originally should have already arrived and been waiting, were nowhere to be seen.
They were kids who were diligent and always came super early.
After waiting a long time and wondering if something had happened, Vien approached from afar.
Even though it hadn't even been a few days, it felt like seeing Vien after a long time.
Remaining seated, I waved at Vien.
"Vien, you're here? It hasn't even been long, but it feels like it's been a while."
"... It has been a while."
A blunt answer came back.
Yeah, this was Vien.
"What about the others? Do you happen to know anything? They aren't late, but they're later than usual, aren't they?"
"... I don't know."
Vien answered once more as if annoyed.
She slowly walked over to me and sat right next to me.
I looked down at her, wondering what was up with Vien.
She didn't say anything.
I imagined what it would have been like if the non-existent Elzain saw this situation.
A boyfriend sitting tightly next to a woman for no reason.
Hmm.... That wouldn't be good.
I simply stepped one pace away.
Vien, who had no reaction until now, glanced at me when I moved away.
I felt sorry, feeling like I was giving pressure to someone who had done it without any thoughts.
Then Vien yawned, got up, and went to sit on a rock right next to us.
It had been a while since I saw her yawning.
"Vien, sleepy? Couldn't you rest well?"
Glancing at me again, she answered.
"Yeah. I'm sleepy, Stachys. Come here and lend me your shoulder."
"Huh?"
"So I can sleep until the kids get here."
When I just looked at her without answering, she added one more word.
"... Please. I'm sleepy."
The vibe was a bit different from usual.
Whenever she asked like that, my heart always grew weak.
Because whenever she came out strong every day and then acted weak for once, I thought about how much she must have needed it.
But I finished thinking in my head.
It was nothing special, but when small things gathered, it would lead to demanding big things.
I should reduce these kinds of things from now on.
"No, Vien."
At my answer, she frowned.
"I'm sleepy. Then you want me to sleep using a hard rock as a pillow?"
"I have a girlfriend now. Just lie down over there and sleep."
"You can just do it. It's not like it has any special meaning!"
"Still, no."
"..."
Vien's eye corners, which had been frowning more, lost strength and drooped down.
Then she turned her back on me, lay down on the rock, curled up, and tried to sleep.
She looked like a slightly wounded animal.
This time, Lily noona was walking over from far away.
Her eyes looked hollower than Vien's. Why are they all like this?
"Noona, didn't you sleep?"
"Stachys. It's been a while. And I slept well, you know?"
You didn't look like it. I couldn't bring my mouth to say it.
And before I spoke, she asked me first.
"Stachys, have you tried on the clothes I bought you back then?"
"... Ah, those clothes?"
I hadn't worn them. There was no timing for me to wear pretty, dressed-up clothes that were only suitable for going to meet a girlfriend.
All I did was rest at home or walk around dressed roughly.
There was no way I, who hadn't actually met a girlfriend, would have tried them on.
"No. I haven't worn them yet. There hasn't been an opportunity."
"You haven't met your girlfriend since receiving the clothes?"
"No, it's not that... Still, expensive clothes like that should be worn on special days."
".... A special day? I gifted them so you'd wear them normally too..."
"I wanted to cherish them a bit. Since it's an expensive gift."
After a long silence, Lily noona slowly nodded her head.
"Still... if the clothes are still inside the box, take them out. They can get wrinkled, you know?"
"Yes. I'll do that."
Lily noona glanced once at Vien, who was lying on the rock trying to sleep, and then sat anywhere nearby to start meditating.
And last, Rus was seen from far away.
Now everyone was gathered.
As soon as Rus arrived, I gathered the party members and said.
"Now, kids. Today it's the Twiit Scorpion. And seeing our condition today, I'm thinking of challenging B-rank...."
.
.
.
Several hours had passed since entering the Twiit Scorpion's territory.
The first awaited response came.
Doodudududu
The ground trembled.
Everyone instantly finished preparing for battle.
I took out the weapon from my waist and held it in both hands,
Rus took her shield and sword,
Lily noona and Vien stood behind us.
"Lily noona! Find it!"
At my shout, Lily noona's eyes flashed blue.
And she looked at the ground.
Soon, as if finding something, she moved busily here and there.
"Left... No, Stachys! Right!! 3 seconds!"
As soon as her words were heard, my body reacted.
I threw my body and swung the tonfa at the exact moment of 3 seconds.
And struck the scorpion that popped out from the ground.
To be precise, its pincer that came out first.
In an instant, a battle of strength broke out between me and the Twiit Scorpion.
Generally, the Twiit Scorpion pops out of the ground, shoots up into the sky, and then burrows back into the ground the moment it falls, so its attack flow must be cut off.
Subjugation is only possible by cutting the flow once to stop the monster on the ground.
Due to my attack, the Twiit Scorpion could not fly up and froze right in that state.
Its upper body was exposed, but its lower body was still buried beneath the ground.
"...?"
And one fact learned upon clashing bodies.
Truly, my body was overflowing with power.
It wasn't just my mood.
The situation proved it.
In the past, when challenging with this kind of strategy, if I struck the Twiit Scorpion rising from the ground, I would be pushed back in the subsequent strength contest, but now I didn't have to do that at all.
Instead, the thought came that I could push it back even further.
-'How on earth is this...'
But hesitation was brief. I put more force into the weapon and pressed down on the Twiit Scorpion.
-..Kudeuk
A strange liquid flowed out as the hard pincer's shell cracked and shattered.
I was surprised that such a hard outer shell broke so easily, but it was an opportunity.
Rus.
Without even speaking, the moment I thought it in my head, Rus popped out and stabbed the gap in the cracked pincer.
"... Why is this already broken..?!"
Rus asked in a flustered voice.
Her sword penetrated through the pincer and then cut off one of the scorpion's pincers in a large circle.
The venomous tail is still in the ground, one pincer is severed, and momentum is broken—now is the time to pour in attacks.
An opportunity had arrived early on, unexpectedly.
"Everyone! Attack!"
Vien chanted a spell to cast buffs before Lily noona completed her attack magic.
And soon Lily noona's attack struck the Twiit Scorpion's torso.
When Lily noona's magic ended, I and Rus pounded its torso, retreating in time with noona's next attack magic and going back in to beat it repeatedly.
"Kreuuk...Kyiik..."
Along with its final death rattle, strength left the scorpion's body.
Thus, the first Twiit Scorpion hunt was finished.
Facing the dead scorpion from such an easily caught first prey, we stopped.
Because no one understood the current situation.
The Twiit Scorpion, one of the strongest C-rank monsters to a certain extent, collapsed powerlessly.
And above all, what made this situation possible was the fact that I, who had attacked to cut off the flow of the popping-out Twiit Scorpion, not only cut off the flow but slammed the scorpion down into the ground and kept it from coming out.
Rus broke the silence.
"Chis-yah... What happened?"
I was the same in being curious.
Does resting make this much of a difference?
"I... I'm not really sure either..."
"Must have eaten a lot of delicious food with your girlfriend, huh?"
Vien said bluntly.
But my head was complicated.
I had only meant to test the waters today, but if it's like this... if it's like this, is a B-rank challenge really possible?
"... Huh? Was it good? Stachys."
I was happy, but thinking about the future, I was also worried.
They say C-ranks challenging B-rank are easily wiped out.
But wouldn't all C-rank parties do it because they had confidence that they could do it?
Could I have confidence?
A mistake in this judgment is death.
There was plenty of time to worry, but catching the Twiit Scorpion in this kind of fashion made the sense of reality hit hard, which is why I was worrying now.
"Was it good because you ate a lot of delicious food with your girlfriend..?"
To me, whose head was spinning fiercely, Vien kept talking.
"I asked if it was good!!"
Answering them back was an old habit, so eventually without going through my head, my mouth answered haphazardly.
"Uh... Uh... Girlfriend... Uh... It was delicious."
"Huh??"
"Pardon??"
"What did you say, Chis-yah?gy?? Wait, Chis-yah??"
The loudest voice among the ones I heard today pulled me out of my worries.
Hm?
Ah, what on earth did I say?
How embarrassing.
"Ah, ahahaha. Slip of the tongue. I said I ate a lot of delicious food."