Side Story 3: Colette’s Tribulations

The day after being summoned as Heroes, Kanzaki Touya, Shiga Setsuna, Mizuoka Nana, and Kuromiya Miyabi immediately began their training under the guidance of Colette, the Oracle, and Cliff, the captain of the Holy Order of Knights.

“This is a dungeon?”

The petite Nana was looking up at a white tower that soared into the sky like a skyscraper. This tower, the Training Grounds of the Guardians, which seemed tall enough to reach the clouds, was a dungeon located on the grounds of the Palace of Deramis, and had been used in the training of Heroes for ages.

“If it’s a dungeon, does that mean there are monsters and all inside? Are you sure it’s safe to have it so close to the palace?”

“Please don’t be concerned. The monsters that dwell within this dungeon mimic inorganic things like statues, and will not come out. In addition, they are passive by default, and will react only when killing intent is directed at them.”

There was a worried expression on Setsuna’s face, but in her hand was a sword that looked awfully similar to a Japanese katana. In spite of everything she had said, to a certain degree, it seemed like her initial reluctance had given way to a bit of motivation.

“Even so, that’s one really tall tower. How many floors does it have?”

“It has a total of fifty floors. On the lower floors, only Level 1 monsters will come out, but that number increases as you go up, all the way to Level 30 at the top floors. Heroes, your aim is to reach the very top and defeat the boss who awaits you there!”

Colette gestured grandly to the summit of the tower. After having received another prophecy from Melfina, she was practically overflowing with desire to fulfill the task that she had been given.

“Dungeon! Monster! Let’s go. We’ll leave right now. Adventure awaits us!”

“Miyabi, hold on. The briefing is not over yet.”

Reacting quickly to Miyabi’s sudden dash for the dungeon, Cliff managed to grab the back of her collar before she got too far. Then he slowly dragged her back to where Colette and the others were gathered.

“Miyabi, we welcome your enthusiasm. But this is important information regarding what you’ll encounter, so you’ll want to hear it.”

“All right; make it quick, please.”

“Ahem. I shall continue. We will have the four of you enter as a party. Setsuna-san, do you remember the benefits of being in a party?”

“Party? Umm, it becomes possible to visibly see the HP and MP of party members. And it becomes possible to share XP gained from defeating monsters. Is that right?”

“Correct. I see that the party has already been set up. Do you all see blue and green bars above each other’s heads? Green is HP and blue is MP.”

The Heroes looked at each other, then nodded in acknowledgment.

“If you feel that the bars are blocking your view, you simply have to will them away. Personally, I prefer them to be hidden. Our telepathic connection lets me know everyone’s statuses anyway.”

“Telepathic connection?”

“Oh, sorry, I was talking to myself. Don’t mind that. Ahem, so, zero HP means death, so be very careful to never let that happen. MP falling to zero does not lead to death, but could make you feel very sick or sap all your strength. Symptoms do vary from person to person.”

“S-So we can actually die...”

“How about revival magic? Like in computer games.”

“C-Campewtergeims...? I’m afraid I do not know what that is, but what I do know is that even Rank S White Magic cannot bring back someone who has died. All of you are special individuals who have been hand-picked by Melfina-sama, the Goddess of Reincarnation. I beseech you to always value your own lives above all else.”

Colette peered worriedly at each of the Heroes’ faces. If any of them were to die before defeating the Demon Lord, she would be unable to summon any more Heroes. In her eyes — no, in the eyes of the world — these four were irreplaceable beacons of hope on whose shoulders the fate of the entire world now rested.

“No problem! Everyone, do your best to avoid any dangerous situations. Let’s do this carefully!”

“If you ask me, you’re the one most likely to jump into trouble, Touya...”

“His name as a troublemaker is deserved.”

“Guys, Kanzaki-kun can’t just ignore people in trouble, so it can’t be helped.”

“As long as you all remain careful...” With yesterday’s incident still fresh in her mind, Colette could not help but feel slightly concerned. “Oh, and I’d like to offer a clarification regarding the experience-sharing I mentioned earlier. The person who deals the final blow actually gets the bulk of the XP, after which the remaining XP is distributed among the other party members based on how much they contributed to the fight.”

“So we’re going to have to be mindful about who to give the finishing blow to, then.”

“Touya and Setsuna use swords, but Nana and I will be in the back. Might be tough.”

“Oh, that’s right. Which means Miyabi-chan and I will also have to get hits in.”

The classes that Miyabi and Nana had chosen were Mage and Tamer, respectively. Miyabi was feeling uneasy about her max MP at Level 1, whereas Nana had yet to Tame a single monster. Compared to Touya and Setsuna, whose main fighting styles were going to be close-quarters combat, delivering the final blow seemed like a much taller order for the pair in the back.

“There is no need to overstretch yourselves to clinch the final blow when you are at such a low level. If I had to guess, the default minimum shared XP should be able to carry you to Level 5 with ease. By then, you’ll have earned enough skill points to acquire a method of attack or two.”

“All right, so Touya and I will handle things for the most part until you two get to Level 5.”

“Leave it all to us!”

“Oh...”

The sight of Touya grinning with his sparkly white teeth and reliable-looking thumbs-up caused Nana to gasp with infatuation. To her eyes, there even seemed to be a backlight outlining his silhouette.

Cliff coughed apologetically, interrupting what appeared to be the beginning of a scene out of a YA novel. “I’m really sorry to say this when you guys are all fired up, but the Oracle and I will be doing most of the fighting. All you need to do is take turns dealing the final blow.”

“What? Colette and Captain Cliff are coming along?”

“Of course we are!” Colette cut in. “Although you are all Heroes, you are still Level 1. Having been entrusted with your fates by Melfina-sama herself, we will do everything in our power to ensure your protection!”

Saddled with such an important responsibility by Goddess Melfina, Colette was as overprotective as she could be.

“Captain Cliff I understand, but can you really fight, Colette? For us to be protected by a frail and dainty girl —”

“Come on out, Mystic Cougar.”

Cutting Touya off, Colette called out the name of one of her Followers. A magic circle appeared on the ground, and from within the bright white light that it emitted, a mountain lion emerged, roaring at the top of its lungs. By the time the light had faded away, Touya and the rest found themselves face to face with a stone statue in the shape of a cougar, which seemed to be sizing them up.

“Auugh!”

The abrupt appearance of the big cat right beside him caused Touya to fall onto his butt in surprise. Colette gracefully mounted the back of the creature in side saddle fashion, the edges of her mouth lifted in a faint smile of pride.

“My class is Summoner, and this lion is one of my Followers. We will be working together to help with your leveling. Please rest assured, even an average Rank A monster will not be able to beat us!”

“Uh...wouldn’t it be faster to just send Colette to go defeat the Demon Lord?”

“Unfortunately, neither Cliff nor I are powerful enough to do that. There is also another reason, which we’ll get into later on. What we should be focusing on right now is getting all of you leveled up!”

“The Oracle is correct. Let’s get started.”

Cliff and Colette headed briskly for the dungeon. The four Heroes exchanged looks, then broke into a trot behind them.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Oh man, I’m so tired.”

“Me too.”

After their first day of dungeon crawling and leveling, the Heroes had returned to the Palace of Deramis. Upon arrival, the two girls who had been in humanities clubs and the guy from the go-home club promptly sank into the super soft sofas.

“Nana and Miyabi, you’re too out of shape. If you had been doing just a little bit of exercise regularly, this wouldn’t have tired you out so much!”

“Please don’t compare us to you, seeing as you make it to the kendo national tournament every year, Setsuna-chan.”

“Studying, I might have a chance. But physical tests, spare me, please.”

“Oh come on, you two, don’t start grumbling so early on.”

“Don’t be so hard on them, Setsuna. Even I’m completely spent.”

Touya, who looked like he could not even muster the strength to stand, spoke up in support of the two girls. Clearly, all of them besides Setsuna were thoroughly exhausted. As Setsuna finally took a seat, accepting the fact that there was nothing else to be done at the moment, Colette entered the room, bearing a tray loaded with a teapot and cups filled with black tea.

“Everyone, thank you for working so hard today. There is still some time before dinner. Please feel free to rest up until then.”

“Nice, thanks.”

Nana accepted a cup, then took a deep whiff of the sweet, full fragrance of the tea.

“Thanks to our efforts today, Touya and Setsuna are now both Level 7, and Nana and Miyabi are now Level 5. As for the dungeon itself, you have reached the sixth floor. All in all, a rather strong start, I’d say.”

“Well, yeah, but that was only because you and Captain Cliff brought all the monsters to a near-death state before letting us close. Are you sure that’s the best way to do it?”

“Pfft, there is still time before the Demon Lord’s resurrection, so there is no need to rush. Someday, we might indeed arrange opportunities for the four of you to fight by yourselves so that you can gain some confidence. But that will only be after some serious sword lessons with Cliff.”

“Good luck, you two!” Miyabi’s uncharacteristically lively encouragement for something that clearly wouldn’t be her problem caused Nana to smile wryly.

“Miyabi and Nana, you two will be having magic lessons with me in the meantime.”

Amidst the slightly awkward silence that followed, Touya spoke up as if suddenly having remembered something. “Oh, by the way, the goddess in our dream gave us all some...‘Unique Skills,’ I think she called them? Should we try using those in battle?”

“Umm, I did ask Captain Cliff about it, but we were pretty occupied with just getting through the dungeon today...and my Animal Communication skill is pretty much what it sounds like, so I’m not sure if it’s effective on stone statue monsters or not.”

“It has ‘Animal’ in the name, so...doubtful. Still, could try tomorrow.”

“Guess I should. If we could only encounter a cute monster, then I’d have nothing to complain about!”

Nana clenched her fists to express her motivation. The Taming skill that she possessed enabled her to domesticate monsters. However, her low rank afforded her limited slots, so she was rather determined to find a cute, fluffy one to Tame. Unfortunately for her, they would only be challenging inorganic monsters within this dungeon.

“Touya’s Unique Skill is especially powerful. Serge Flore-sama, the Hero who defeated the previous Demon Lord, also possessed this skill.”

“Really? For what it’s worth, I’ve read the skill description, but I don’t really feel like it’s changed anything for me.”

“Ahaha, with Kanzaki-kun normally being the way he is...”

“Umm, well, Touya’s special disposition aside, this is a skill that could make you almost invincible, depending on the circumstances. Being able to use it properly in battle means something very different from the norm, though, so please train without relying on it for now. In terms of direct usage in battle, Setsuna’s Iron Cutting Authority is extremely powerful. I suppose the only drawback would be its high MP cost.”

“I know, right? It practically empties my MP with even minimal use, so I’m going to have to be really careful about when I use it.”

Setsuna’s katana made a soft clink as she drew it slightly. The well-polished blade reflected her face.

“Setsuna-chan, you’ve already tried using your Unique Skill?”

“I tested it beforehand. It’s always best to try out things like this ahead of time whenever possible.”

“I saw it. Setsuna was, like, ‘Iron Cutting Authority!’ and —”

“Miyabi, please don’t reenact it! Now that I’m thinking about it with a cool head, why did I say the skill name out loud? Oh my gosh, so embarrassing...”

Although her face was expressionless the entire time, Miyabi somehow looked very lively as she pretended to be Setsuna swinging her sword. Setsuna, on the other hand, was as red as a tomato.

◇ ◇ ◇

A week after their training began, the Heroes of Deramis were still making good progress through the Training Grounds of the Guardians, under the close guidance of Colette and Cliff.

One evening, Colette was sitting in the exclusive bath of the Palace of Deramis, once again praying to Goddess Melfina. True to her identity as the Oracle, she would refocus herself by praying whenever she had spare time. The fact that she had been doing this from a young age was part of why she continued the practice, but more than anything else, it was her almost unnatural religious piety that drove her to do so.

“Melfina-sama...”

Splash.

The sound of a single drop of water echoed through the room. Illuminated solely by moonlight and adorned by Colette’s pure and innocent figure, the bath, located on one of the upper floors of the palace, seemed to be wrapped in a mysterious and fantastical aura. A beautiful girl and a beautiful background being all that are necessary for a beautiful piece of art has always been an immutable law of nature.

“Melfina-sama, please rest assured that I will dedicate all I have to nurturing the Heroes into fine —”

“Hm-hm-hmm! Man, am I tired. For some reason, I couldn’t fall asleep, so might as well take a dip to rest up before tomo—”

“......”

“......”

Abruptly, Touya (who had nonchalantly strolled into the bath while wearing absolutely nothing) and Colette found themselves staring at each other. As one’s face turned bright red, the other grew pale. In the romantic comedy manga sense, an extraordinarily lucky man accidentally walking in on a beautiful girl in the middle of her bath was another immutable law of nature.

“?!?!?!”

“Ah, um, I’m sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!”

After yet another lucky lecher occurrence, Touya dashed off like the wind. Colette did not even have time to scream.

“Oh, Melfina-sama...this past week, my underwear has been seen five times, and counting what just happened, my naked self has been seen four times. Thanks to Cliff’s quick reflexes, we’ve managed to avoid any direct contact as of yet, but...is this truly a trial like I originally thought? Of course, if it is your wish, I would gladly offer up this body of mine. So may this humble servant hear your divine voice once again...”

It was not clear whether it was resignation or supplication in that prayer, but it would be another year before Colette would get to hear Melfina’s voice again. The Oracle’s tribulations were still only at the very beginning of the prelude. With strong mental fortitude, today, too, she would continue doing her very best.