Chapter 2: The Ragni Hunting Feud

Chapter 2:
The Ragni Hunting Feud

 

—1—

 

AFTER TAKING A DAY off to rest, we went down to the Adventurers’ Guild in Manaloch.

Though we could probably have used another few days of relaxation, we needed to start making money. If I used Philia’s Sand of Dreams as a catalyst, I thought I might be able to make adamantine ore from a lower-grade material. But as we had learned on our first day in Manaloch, even those base ingredients were prohibitively expensive.

With the three of us working together, any job that the Guild offered would be a breeze. We’d have to work harder to keep our true power under wraps than we would to complete the actual mission. At least one high-level magic user was lurking around town, so the lower we kept our profile, the better.

The Adventurers’ Guild in Manaloch was way fancier than the one in Arroburg. The floor was polished marble, so reflective that we could see ourselves as we walked along the corridor. The type of people in the Guild were different too; I barely saw anyone who looked like a thug. It was probably because we were in Manaloch and there were quite a lot of magic users.

“We’re C-rank right now, we should be able to find something with decent pay,” I said while checking the adventurer registration card I’d received in Arroburg.

“It seems a waste of time accepting C-rank requests considering your actual strength,” muttered Pomera.

No argument from me, but guild rules were guild rules and C-rank jobs were easy money.

“Can Philia be an adventurer too?” said Philia, her eyes sparkling. She seemed to admire the adventurers walking through the hall. Then again, she seemed to be enthusiastic about everything.

“Sure. I’ll pay the registration fee and have them make you a registration card,” I said, patting her head.

She jumped up and down, tugging on my robe. “Yay! Thank you, Kanata! Philia’s so happy!”

The lady behind the reception counter seemed far less enthusiastic about the idea. She gave me a look of distinct disapproval.

“You want to register a little girl as an adventurer? What is she, ten years old?”

“Oh, does that break some sort of rule?” I asked.

“No… But it’s something that most reputable people wouldn’t even try in the first place. We get people coming in from time to time wanting to register children…but seriously, who does that?” The receptionist looked disgusted.

The registration system seemed to have a number of loopholes. For example, only C-rank adventurers could accept a C-rank request—but a C-rank adventurer might accept the request, then try to subcontract it out to a D-rank adventurer. I’d also heard of people buying monster parts from another adventurer who’d already completed a job. Then the buyer would turn them in and claim the credit. In practice, exploiting those loopholes was only punished when the guild was presented with undeniable evidence of wrongdoing.

That meant the guild workers had their hands full trying to keep things on the level. If they thought something seemed suspicious and decided to put a stop to it proactively, that was well within their rights.

“But Philia’s not a child! Philia’s five thousand years old!” said Philia, stamping her foot on the ground and chipping the marble surface a little.

“Philia, calm down! Please? Okay?” said Pomera. She had an idea what a full-blown tantrum might entail.

“Do you intend to take that kid on monster hunts with you?” The receptionist gave Philia an appraising stare, then turned her skeptical gaze back to me.

“Philia is a really strong child. Honest,” I said lamely. I was beginning to realize how bad this looked.

“I suppose there was the legendary hero, Rosa. They said she defeated a dragon at the age of ten. This kid doesn’t look like a legendary hero, though.”

Philia had been hanging her head in dejection, but she looked up, her face set to answer the challenge. I immediately put out an arm to hold her back.

“Philia-chan, no First Dragon!” I warned.

She looked at me for a moment, then smiled as she reached some internal compromise.

“Gravity—” she said, pointing her finger.

“No Gravity Bomb either!”

It was the perfect spell to show her true strength, but we couldn’t afford to lose our only source of income just because she wanted to make a point.

“K-Kanata, do you think you could do something…?” Pomera asked in terror, her face ashen.

What could I do? It was time to wing it and hope for the best.

“This girl, Philia-chan, is actually a fighter,” I started rambling. “But that doesn’t mean I’m planning on taking her into fights all the time. She is a prodigy, but she’s still young. But I told her she could register as an adventurer today, since she has the minimum strength necessary, and it’s sort of an important anniversary for her. She’s got a whole tragic backstory that I’m sure you don’t care about, but I would be happy to go into it, if you’d like to hear more. Otherwise, it would mean a whole lot to everyone here if you could find it in your heart to register her as a sort of charity case. As long as it doesn’t break the rules, of course…”

While I was talking, I slid the gold for her registration across the counter, along with a generous handful of coins as a…tip.

After counting the coins and a moment of silence, the receptionist smiled. The smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Well, if you put it like that, I suppose there’s nothing against the rules here. I just wanted to make sure you were certain.”

The receptionist quickly gathered up the gold coins and lightly clenched her fist in a gesture of victory.

Our problem was solved, but I now knew that the Guild wasn’t above simple bribery. Not a reassuring discovery, but I wasn’t in a place to argue.

A few minutes later, Philia had a registration card and a new copy of the orientation manual.

“Yaaay! Now Philia’s an adventurer too!” said Philia, striking a victory pose with her registration card. I let out a sigh of relief. At least the Guild hadn’t been destroyed by a First Dragon.

“Okay. Now that that’s out of the way, we would like to accept a request. Are there any good requests for C-rank adventurers?” I asked the receptionist.

“At the moment, the best paying request is open to all ranks,” she said. “We are asking everyone to prioritize this one. A monster stampede is ongoing in a forest near the city. Tons of black spiders. Just loads of them.”

“Black spiders?” That seemed familiar.

“The Adventurers’ Guild is asking all adventurers to prioritize neutralizing this monster stampede. These black spiders are of a species called ragno, and they’re creepy as heck. They have one large eye; collect that as proof of a kill. Compensation for each ragno eye is set at twenty-five thousand gold,” she continued.

They sounded like the same black spiders we’d fought while protecting the caravan.

But twenty-five thousand apiece? I suddenly wished I had gathered eyes from the ones that attacked us on the road. There had been close to fifty of them—that would have fallen just short of 1.5 million.

Dang.

Looked like the Guild was willing to open up their pocketbook for this one.

“The ragni are estimated to be around D-rank difficulty. We strongly recommend that any adventures below D-rank approach this request with great caution,” the receptionist rattled off. Apparently, that was the boilerplate cautionary disclaimer that all adventurers got.

But it made sense. When I’d used Status Check on a ragno during the defense of the caravan, I saw that it was level 24. That fell in line with what a D-rank adventurer ought to be able to handle in a one-on-one fight.

“One other thing, this case is highly anomalous.” The receptionist looked slightly apologetic. “We don’t often ascertain the cause of monster stampedes—and thus far, that is the case here as well—but the scale of this incursion is much larger than normal. There may be a high-ranking monster using the spiders as cover for whatever scheme it has planned. Even so, if we leave the ragni to their own icky devices, there are concerns that they will soon start invading the city. With that threat in mind, the Guild has decided to devote its resources to killing the ragni in lieu of further investigations. Any information you come across that would help explain this event will make you eligible for a bonus.”

A bonus would be nice—but if the Guild had limited resources, it meant that once we were in the field, we were on our own. I was sure we’d be fine, but I appreciated the advice to remain on guard.

The receptionist handed me a pamphlet that had an overview of the information on the request. There was a map of the area around the city, with spider icons stamped on areas where ragni had been sighted.

The area around the caravan attack had a red spider icon on it, which seemed to mean that a lot of ragni sightings had taken place there. A note recommended that only adventurers of B-rank or higher should visit those sites.

“What do you think, Pomera? It’s ideal from a money perspective, and it could help a lot of people.” I finished reading the pamphlet and handed it over to her.

“I think it’s good,” she said after she studied it for a few moments. “There doesn’t seem to be any other option, anyway.”

With my partner’s approval, I turned back to the receptionist. “Okay, we would like to accept the request for eradicating ragni.”

“Looks like a lot of other adventurers are planning to hunt ragni as well,” said Pomera after we accepted the request and moved away from reception. I followed her gaze across the room and noticed a pair of adventurers talking about the request.

“Ragni are pretty rare, but they’re nothing to be afraid of. Twenty-five thousand gold apiece is a good deal too.”

“Yeah, I’m glad this city has the money it does. It’s not that hard to make a whole month’s income in one blast. Just hit ’em with a spell with a wide area of effect.”

It looked like we’d have competition.

The Guild just wanted the threat taken care of as soon as possible, but I worried this setup might lead to some contentious encounters on our hunting trip. If that was the case, then we needed to get moving—the money was just too good. A repeat of the caravan incident could net us an easy million for a few minutes work.

Another familiar face was making an appearance at a reception desk.

“We are relieved that one of the few A-rank adventurers has stepped up and accepted the request,” said the other receptionist.

“Hmph, it’s disappointing that there aren’t many who can keep up with me here in the City of Magic. Perhaps I’ve simply grown too strong,” Alfred seemed just as pompous as before. By his side was the same swordswoman with short blue hair.

“One of the few A-rank adventurers…?” I muttered. Alfred’s level was only 76. Sure, he would probably be fine against the ragni, but level 76 was just embarrassing.

I’d already confirmed that most people were low level compared to me, but…ugh. I just wished that people would stop giving me a reason to think that Lovis had been something special.

“Good luck! I’m not sure this is something an employee of the Guild should say, but I’ve been a fan of yours for years! When I heard you were coming to Manaloch…I-I hoped we’d be able to meet!” said the receptionist while blushing.

“I hear that all the time…but I don’t consider anything I’ve done to be amazing. It’s just that I’ve got such poor competition, it’s hard not to look good,” said Alfred with an exaggerated shrug. Some of the adventurers nearby glared at him angrily.

If I’d learned anything from walking around Manaloch, it was that the residents were prideful to the point of arrogance. Alfred had just painted a great big target on his back.

“If you’re not sure that was something an employee of the Guild should say, then maybe you should just shut your mouth and do your job. Ever hear of professionalism?” said the swordswoman, clinging to Alfred’s arm. The two ladies glared daggers at one another.

“Calm yourself, Sera,” said Alfred. “The frightened people of this city crave a hero to save them from the monsters. Since the local cowards have failed, it’s my duty to fulfill their request—even if it may seem trivial to an adventurer of my caliber.”

Alfred ran his fingers through his hair, his every motion calculated to bolster his persona. His eyes looked distant, then he let out a faraway sigh. It was like he rehearsed these moves in front of a mirror.

“Tell your employer to get the money ready, Guild girl. I will gather more eyes from the ragnos than any other adventurer,” declared Alfred loudly.

“So…he’s one of the cool kids,” I muttered. And it’s ragni not ragnos.

“Are you serious, Kanata?!” asked Pomera with a disgusted expression.

It was obvious that everything Alfred said and did was an act, but as I observed him, I started to understand why he was doing it. Sure, he was full of himself and putting on a front, but he had the strength to back up his arrogance. Well, at least in a relative sense—he was only level 76, after all.

But from the Guild’s perspective, he was a major player.

“K-Kanata, you admire that…buffoon?” asked Pomera as she regarded me with narrowed eyes.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I admire him…” I said, stumbling over my words.

Pomera stiffened in shock, but then she seemed to make up her mind and clenched her fists. “N-no matter what, I will stay with you!”

I guess Pomera didn’t think Alfred was very cool.

 

—2—

 

AFTER ACCEPTING the ragni request, we did the bare minimum of preparation. We bought some food and started walking to a nearby forest that was marked with a red symbol on the map. With luck, we’d be entering a target-rich environment.

“It’s a bit strange… I’ve never heard of a monster stampede that covers such a large area,” said Pomera as looked at the map while we walked.

“Is it a sign that something bad will happen?” I asked.

“Possibly. There’s no good way to know, but it’s really unusual.”

“We’ll be there soon, Kanata. I can sense the ragni nearby,” said Pomera. Now that she knew what to look for, her attunement to the spirit realm made her sensitive to the presence of beasts of all sorts.

I closed my eyes and focused my attention. Pomera was right; I could feel the same presence I’d detected when we were guarding the wagons. The ragni seemed to be underground…but I could also sense someone else approaching us.

A figure in a black coat appeared at the top of a nearby tree. Beneath the coat, they wore metal armor and their face was covered by a simple mask made to look like a goat. A sturdy metal staff shaped like a cross was strapped to their back. It was nearly as thick as my wrist, which was rare to see in a magic user’s staff. An orange braid of hair fell from one side of their goat mask.

“A-a woman…?” said Pomera timidly as she cautiously brandished her lighter staff at the tree.

Goat-mask person leapt from the tree and landed on the ground several paces ahead of us. Their armor was apparently quite heavy, because a spray of dirt kicked up as they touched down.

“You gotta be more careful, guys. Don’t you know this is a dangerous area?” Their voice was muffled behind the mask.

“Besides, these are my hunting grounds,” the masked person continued, without giving us an opportunity to respond. “I’d hate for you to get in the way and get hurt. So take the hint and pound sand. I’d rather not have to force the issue.”

“Who are you…?” I asked.

Adventurers that operated alone were rare. The staff marked them as a magic user, but magic users almost never wore armor that heavy. Even melee fighters tended to go for mobility over armor.

“I’m Rosemonde. Adventurer. A-rank type. If you don’t know me, pal, then you must not be from Manaloch. I don’t really care who you are, because you’re about to turn around and walk away.”

An A-rank adventurer, eh? That meant they were in the same league as Alfred. Knowing that, their extreme armor started to look like a cute gimmick to me.

“I appreciate your concern for our safety, but we know the danger. No need to worry about us,” I said.

“Are you seriously going to make me spell it out for you? You. Are. In. My. Way. For the last time: Leave. I don’t like other adventurers stealing my kills, and I can’t concentrate on fighting with kids like you scampering around.”

Rosemonde stretched their gauntlet-clad arm toward us, then clenched their fist. The joints in the armor slid together, letting out a metallic clang.

“I’d rather not fight when there’s no cash involved, but maybe a demonstration is in order.” Rosemonde took the massive staff in their hand. “If you keep hanging around, I’m gonna make you understand why they call me Annihilation Rosemonde. The choice is yours.”

I tensed as Rosemonde spoke. It didn’t look like they were willing to back down. The unnecessary threats were annoying, but a fight could lead to trouble even if we won. This was their home turf, after all.

Plenty of ragni in other places.

“All right, we’ll leave—” I started, but Philia swaggered forward with a big smile. She pointed her arm at Rosemonde. “Philia-chan, stop! Come back!”

If she tossed out another First Dragon, it would be a bloodbath.

“Philia can handle this man! Philia wants to be useful to Kanata,” she said sadly and hung her head.

“Man?! Is that brat seriously making fun of me?” said Rosemonde. They seemed angrier and took a step toward us.

“I-I’m sorry, we’re going,” I said with a bow.

“That person looks like a sorcerer-type magic user, Kanata,” said Pomera in a quiet voice.

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

I’d heard of sorcerers. They were magic users who specialized in area of effect attacks. Since I had used those spells to power level in the Mirror, I supposed that made me a sorcerer too.

But there wasn’t anything about Rosemonde that screamed sorcerer to me. The nickname “Annihilation Rosemonde” did sound like the sort of name a sorcerer would have, but I couldn’t guess their fighting style based on that alone.

“Well…you don’t really see head-to-toe armor on anyone but a sorcerer—not that I’ve ever seen one firsthand. And that mask looks more like it’s meant to protect against blasts, not swords and claws. I think the heavy armor might protect them from the backblast of their own spells.”

“Hah, that girl knows her stuff! But it’s kind of pathetic that you’ve never seen a real sorcerer before,” said Rosemonde with a snort of laughter.

“Who intentionally gets caught in the backblast of their spells?” I asked, bewildered. “That just sounds like poor planning and control. It’s easier to fight if you don’t overextend yourself and use magic within your limits…”

Lunaère had taught me all sorts of strategies for fighting other magic users, but she’d never once mentioned an absurd fighting style where you covered yourself in armor and blasted away with area of effect spells.

Besides, a robe capable of protecting against your particular school of magic should be plenty to guard you against any accidental backblast.

“K-Kanata, look…” said Pomera.

I’d thought I was speaking quietly enough that only Pomera could hear. Unfortunately, Rosemonde had been listening in, and she took my comment personally.

“That’s not what I meant! I’m sorry, I don’t know anything,” I said, bowing my head, but I was already too late.

“Oh no, you don’t get to run your mouth then slide out with a lame apology! Time to teach you some manners!”

Rosemonde stuck their cross-shaped staff into the ground and struck a fighting stance.

“Philia will take care of this!” said Philia, her face full of excitement, but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

“P-please just stay right there!” I said.

“You’ll be singing a different tune after today! Earth Magic Level 3: Earth Needle!”

A magic circle appeared, then Rosemonde swiped their staff sideways as if erasing the circle. A twenty-inch-long needle sprouted from the ground and launched in my direction. I stepped forward and lifted my hand in front of me.

“You donkey! You can’t stop Earth Needle with your bare hand!”

Before the needle struck me, it crumbled, the fragments scattering to the ground.

“Aw, jeez… You got an item that does that or something, kid?” Rosemonde let out a low groan.

Lunaère’s Robe deflected all low-level spells. That attack had never posed a threat to me.

“I apologize for what I said. It was very rude, and I don’t want to fight you. If you would please lower your weapon, we’ll just go.”

“Let me think about that… Nah. You insult me, eliminate my spell, then have the nerve to tell me to lower my weapon?! Sounds like a challenge to me, buddy. I have my status as an A-rank adventurer to protect!” shouted Rosemonde. “No more holding back! Time to raise some hell!”

Canceling out Rosemonde’s spell was a bad move, then? Should I use force to make them leave?

That would probably be a bad idea too. They were apparently well-known in Manaloch. I preferred to not make an enemy before we’d made any friends.

“Earth Magic Level 4: Clod Missile!”

A clump of earth launched from in front of Rosemonde in my direction. Just as it reached me, it was repelled by the robe, changing its trajectory so it struck the ground instead.

“I’ve got you now, sucker! That spell explodes!” cheered Rosemonde.

The clod hissed for a few seconds, then detonated. As the dirt cleared, I stood there unharmed.

What do I do? Is there a way to resolve this situation without it becoming a problem down the road?

“Okay. Okay. You’re not too bad! Fine. Let me show you what a sorcerer is really about! Earth Magic Level 5: Clod Bomb!”

A glowing red sphere appeared in front of Rosemonde. The dirt below peeled away from the ground and gathered around the light until it became a perfectly round lump of earth about the size of a basketball.

I might be immune to damage, but I should put some space between me and the girls.

“Fall back, you two,” I shouted, and Pomera jogged away with Philia in tow.

“Looks like you’re finally ready to fight! Come on, kid—get a little closer and let’s dance!” said Rosemonde.

“No. Look, I don’t want to—”

“This time I’ll blow you away with a direct hit! Avoid this!”

Rosemonde swung their staff and the sphere of dirt launched at me.

I reached out my arms and stopped the ball. Cracks appeared on the surface, red light leaking out for a moment before it exploded. The ground around me was blown away, leaving most of the grass torn up while only a small clump directly under my feet remained.

“…I-Is this some sort of prank?” said Rosemonde, flabbergasted and frozen in place as they lowered their staff.

Even Notts’s spells had all been below tenth level. Lunaère’s Robe had neutralized all of those, so I could probably assume that any spell an A-rank adventurer could toss at me was going to be completely useless. To put it bluntly, this fight was pointless. Rosemonde had no way of hurting me with magic. They had a better chance of just whacking me with that giant staff.

“Please just lower your weapon. I’d rather not counterattack,” I said.

“Ha ha ha…” Rosemonde readied their staff again with a dire chuckle. A magic circle appeared, centered on the tip of their staff. Another red sphere of light appeared.

“I’m surprised there’s a magic user who can back me into a corner like this. I’ll give you that, and I apologize for underestimating you. From here on out, my pride and my life are on the line!”

“What do you mean I’ve backed you into a corner?! We’re outside! There are no corners!” I shouted.

“I’ll show you my most powerful spell! Earth Magic Level 7: Ground Bomb!”

The earth peeled away in strips once more, and within moments a floating mass of dirt almost three feet in diameter hovered between us.

Rosemonde swung their staff down. The mass raced toward me an instant before red light exploded around us. The surface of the ground warped wherever the light touched it. Nearby trees folded over, blackened and burnt.

Once the blast ended, I could see Rosemonde kneeling ahead of me, their breathing heavy, their arm braced on the ground to hold them up. Parts of their coat and armor had been torn away in the blast. Half of the goat mask covering their face had broken off.

Underneath the armor and coat, Rosemonde’s body was surprisingly slender, and the face I could see was definitely that of a woman. The red makeup around her large tiger-like eyes was striking. She was beautiful, but her expression was like that of a wild beast.

Pomera had been right.

Her breathing was ragged from the pain of being caught in Ground Bomb’s blast. There was no way I could have dodged even if I’d wanted to, but I hadn’t really had to try. The robe simply neutralized any damage and I was unharmed.

“Wh-why…?” whined Rosemonde, completely unable to understand what was happening.

I was fairly certain Pomera and Philia were all right, but I turned back to check on them anyway.

Two giant white hands stretched up from the ground, their fingers interlaced as if holding something precious inside. On the back of one hand was a huge eye; a huge mouth was on the back of the other.

I gawked as the two arms released their intertwined fingers and quickly disappeared back into the earth, revealing my companions standing underneath. The hands must have been something Philia made to shield them from the blast.

“I-I haven’t lost yet! No one said magic was my only ability, pal!” said Rosemonde. She tossed aside her cross-shaped staff and rushed toward me. “I’ll tear you apart with my gauntlets’ claws!”

She stretched out her metal-clad arms. On the tips of her rigid, armor-covered fingers were wicked-looking talons.

“When the magic runs out, there’s always melee combat!” cried Rosemonde. “I’ve got you now!”

Catching Rosemonde’s gauntlet in one hand, I gently tossed her to the ground. As she landed, a puff of dust billowed into the air.

“R-really…?” said Rosemonde in distress as she lay spread-eagle on the ground. “This is ridiculous… I am Annihilation Rosemonde, an A-rank adventurer.”

Rosemonde pushed herself up with her arms until she was on her knees, then looked up at me.

“Come on, guy,” she said with a confused, pleading look. “What gives? Why didn’t my Ground Bomb have any effect? It’s a seventh-level spell for crying out loud.”

Seven was still less than ten.

If the highest spell an A-rank adventurer could use was either seventh or eighth level, then I was willing to bet the cutoff for an S-rank was tenth level. People had been afraid of Notts, but even he hadn’t been able to get above tenth level without some serious prep work.

“You probably don’t have any magic power left, do you?” I asked. “Can we just call this a draw and get on with our lives?”

“Hah! You’ve underestimated me!” Rosemonde forced herself to her feet but wobbled significantly. There was no way she could keep going. “I can’t let this end with an outsider disrespecting me. I’m a representative of all Manaloch magic users! It may not kill you, but let me show you my secret weapon!”

She turned her back and dashed to where she’d dropped her staff to pick it up. Then she quickly turned back to face me and let out a sigh of relief…perhaps because I hadn’t used the opening to attack.

“Don’t let your guard down, kid! It can mean the end of your life on the battlefield!” she said.

Maybe I should have hit her just to make her give up.

“K-Kanata! I think they’ll be here soon! That last explosion made them angry!” called Pomera to me.

“Huh…?” I turned back toward Pomera.

What she was talking about? Then realized I she had to mean the ragni who were underground. Rosemonde’s Ground Bomb had likely sent them into attack mode.

“Are you making fun of me again?! Don’t take your eyes off your opponent during a duel!” shouted Rosemonde, but the ground at her feet split open and dozens of black spiders poured out from below.

It was more than I’d expected, but I was sure that more would be coming soon.

“Wh-what the? Why are there this many?!” Rosemonde readied her large staff even as she whined, “And I’m nearly out of magic…”

Called it.

The ragni were the whole reason she was out here in the first place, but she’d just wasted all her MP trying to have a turf war with us. An A-rank adventurer should have known better. My opinion of the Guild’s rank system just kept getting lower and lower.

I used bare-handed strikes and kicks to take down ragni as they scurried across the ground. Not exactly the fastest way to kill them, but if I used the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh, then we weren’t going to be able to harvest their eyes. We needed that cash.

“Okay, champ. I hate to admit it, but we need to team up to squash some bugs. Earth Magic Level 5: Clod Bomb!” I wasn’t sure if that was the last of Rosemunde’s magic, but the blast took out five ragni in one blow.

A fresh wave appeared from the ground around her a moment later. She tried to kick them away, but more kept coming, and they started to crawl up her legs in an attempt to drag her underground.

“Argh, dammit!”

I tore the ragni around me to bits and rushed over to Rosemonde. She was a hothead, but I couldn’t just abandon her.

While I was trying to figure out how to save her, a pure white arm stretched up from the ground. There was a huge mouth on the back of the hand, so it was safe to say this was one of Philia’s summons. I wasn’t sure why she chose to make things look the way she did, but she certainly had a design aesthetic all her own.

“Hiya!” cried Philia, swinging her arm through the air. The monstrous white arm mimicked the motion and thrust toward Rosemonde. On the upside, all the ragni that were attacking her were either killed or scattered by the impact. On the downside, the sorcerer was also flung backward and crashed into a nearby tree.

“Gawaargh!” Rosemonde let out a pained squawk as she fell to the ground, convulsing in pain.

“Philia-chan?!” I said and turned back to Philia.

“Philia only punched a little, just a tiny bit! You believe Philia, right?” she explained, flapping her arms anxiously. The strange white arm flapped in time with her motions, squishing surrounding ragni as it flailed against the ground.

“Philia-chan… Just focus on finishing off those ones over there!” I pointed in a direction that I hoped would keep everyone else from being hit by a level 1800 homunculus.

At the same time, Rosemonde managed to shakily get to her feet. I was glad to see that she’d survived. Grip shaking, she picked up her staff and leveled it at the rampaging white arm. After spending a few moments watching it pound holes in the ground so it could drag ragni from their tunnels and crush them between its fingers, she opted to turn tail and run away as fast as she could.

“You m-m-monsters!” she cried as she sprinted down the road.

She’s really moving fast for someone who just had a near-death experience. At least this means we won’t have to fight about how to share the eyeballs.

I couldn’t say I was sad to see her go, but I worried about what she might say when she got back to town. She’d had a real up close and personal view of Philia’s…well, whatever Philia called the things she summoned. Thankfully, all Rosemonde had seen of my abilities was that I could cancel out magic spells and throw her to the ground. That wasn’t too bad. I quietly hoped that she was too stunned to understand that the giant white arm had anything to do with Philia.

“D-did Philia do something bad again? Should Philia…make that lady stay quiet?” asked Philia, raising her arm as a large white orb appeared over her head. It had eyes, a nose, a mouth, and ears, but they were all placed randomly around the orb. I had no idea what to call it, but it was just wrong.

Philia began to point her arm in the direction of Rosemonde’s retreat, but Pomera firmly grabbed it. “N-no! We don’t want to kill her!”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Philia was just going to scare her,” said Philia, dejectedly.

“Kanata! She’s so strong!” Pomera’s face was bright red with exertion, and her arms were trembling as they tried to shove the little girl’s hand back toward the ground.

Philia’s arm didn’t budge an inch.

 

—3—

 

I MADE A MAGIC CIRCLE, then pointed my finger and a flash of light blasted the area.

“Space-time Magic Level 10: Dimension Slash!”

The remaining ragni were split in two, bodily fluids oozing from the cuts. Not the most powerful spell I had in my arsenal, but it was plenty for taking out these small fry. It also had the benefit of cutting them in a way that avoided the eye, which we needed.

I moved toward Philia and Pomera, leaving the dead bodies of the ragni behind.

“A-amazing.” Pomera gave up trying to physically restrain Philia as she looked at all the spider corpses laying around the area.

“Sometimes it’s better to use a low-level spell,” I said.

“…A low-level spell?” Pomera seemed confused.

“Philia-chan, could you make that go away?” I said, pointing at the Picasso-esque orb floating in the air.

“Won’t Kanata be in trouble if the Rosemonde lady tells people?” asked Philia, still looking down the road in the direction of Manaloch.

“I think it’s probably okay.” I hoped it would be, anyway.

Philia shrugged and made the mystery orb disappear. Pomera looked incredibly relieved.

“By the way, what was that thing?” I asked.

“A Creepy Ball!” said Philia proudly.

Yes. Yes, it was.

“What does it do?” I asked.

“Oh! It gets squishy, and glurpy, and swirly, and then, um, it gets crazy, and then, uuuuh…” Philia resorted to hand gestures and strange poses when words failed her. I had no idea what she meant, but I got the impression that was for the best.

“Philia will show Pomera and Kanata next time!” she concluded.

I sincerely hope there is never a next time.

After that, the three of us threw ourselves wholeheartedly into taking out the next wave of ragni. I found that kicking the ones that were right next to me and using Dimension Slash to slice up the ones farther away seemed to work pretty well. Soon, spider pieces were scattered everywhere.

Dimension Slash was easier to use than I had expected, and I was surprised to find it super adjustable compared to bigger spells like Gravity Bomb. Instead of doing massive damage to the whole body of the target, its razor-thin magic blade made clean cuts that left materials intact for gathering after the fight. Since it wasn’t much use against the demons in the Warped Mirror of the Cursed Realm, I’d never given it much of a chance. After seeing how it exterminated entire waves of ragni, I started to change my mind.

Pomera raised her staff and pointed it at a gathering group of spiders. “Spirit Magic Level 5: Firefly!”

A sphere of bright red fire appeared and flew toward her target before exploding in flames. The spiders caught in the blast were charred and sent tumbling. Thankfully the blast was just weak enough that it wouldn’t destroy any of their eyes. They might be a little burned, but we could still turn them in.

For her part, Philia raised her hands and two pure-white arms rose from the ground.

“Aaaand, boom!”

Phila clapped her hands and the white arms mimicked her motions. Their palms swept together, scooping up dirt and ragni alike. More than ten ragni were squished between the hands, their bodily fluids spewing from between giant fingers. A squashed eyeball popped out and bounced across the ground. I hoped the rest were still recognizable.

Before long, only one of the nearly sixty ragni remained.

“Space-time Magic Level 4: Short Gate.”

I landed behind the ragno that was trying to run away and made a slashing motion with my finger. A Dimension Slash sliced it into two.

“Amazing, Kanata! It’s so neat to see you use space-time magic, since it’s your specialty!” said Pomera excitedly as she came over.

“I’d say my main focus is fire magic, even though I don’t get to use it much anymore. Lunaère-san specialized in space-time magic…maybe. She used it a lot, anyway.”

Come to think of it, I’d never seen her in a tight spot where she had to push herself to cast her most powerful spells. It was quite possible that space-time magic wasn’t her specialty. Maybe she just liked space-time magic because it was so convenient. She was probably actually best at death magic, since she had mentioned that being a lich naturally increased her power in it.

For the moment, space-time magic was a means to an end. It did a lot less collateral damage than fire magic and kept monster parts in one piece for harvesting. If I used fire magic to get rid of the ragni, there was a good chance I’d set the whole forest on fire. For a guy trying to keep his level under wraps, I didn’t think that would be a smart thing to do.

I guessed that meant Lunaère and I were two peas in a pod when it came to using magic that wasn’t our main focus.

“Huh…? R-really? So, this whole time you’ve been using magic that isn’t your primary strength…?” Pomera’s mouth hung open in shock, but then she shook her head and her expression returned to normal. “You’re full of surprises, Kanata. It never seems to end.”

“If I surprise you that much, just wait until you meet Lunaère-san…if you ever meet Lunaère-san, that is. You never know what kind of surprises she has up her sleeve,” I said.

Pomera’s eyes looked distant, like she was having an epiphany. I wasn’t sure that I liked whatever conclusions she was jumping to.

“You really care for Lunaère, don’t you, Kanata?” said Pomera, and I jumped slightly.

I was pretty sure that I’d convinced Pomera that Lunaère was an old lady. Even so, I wondered if she might have guessed the truth, based on how fondly I spoke of Lunaère. I was trying not to sound like I was talking about a girl I had a crush on.

“Y-yeah, I do. She’s kind of like family. Since, you know, she’s an old lady and all…” I said.

“I-I already know her age, you told me before. Now it sounds like you’re making an excuse…” Pomera looked at me suspiciously.

I said a little silent apology to Lunaère. I was stacking lies on top of lies. I didn’t know how many years it would be until I saw Lunaère again, but I was going to feel guilty the next time I looked her in the face.

“Anyway, we did it, Kanata! We’ll make a lot of money from this!” said Pomera, turning to the mountain of ragno corpses.

With sixty dead ragni at twenty-five grand an eyeball, we’d make roughly 1.3 million gold. That was easy money, and a good start toward funding our alchemy experiments.

“Maybe we’ll get those Blood Ethers of the Gods after all! We’ll be back to raising your level in the Cursed Mirror in no time,” I said with a smile.

Pomera did not smile. “Um… You really plan on starting that again?” she asked quietly. “I don’t really think we need to do that much.”

I got the impression that Pomera didn’t actually want to power level inside the Cursed Mirror anymore. I wanted to reassure her that she would definitely get used to it soon, but I didn’t want to ignore her feelings.

“Only if you want to, that is,” I said.

“Oh… Is that okay?”

I’d been brought to this world by Naiarotop and the other gods as some sort of sick entertainment. That fact alone made it obvious that I was going to be thrown into conflicts with other travelers, evil adventurers, and monsters. I was far from safe, no matter how high I raised my level.

I was pretty certain I was in the upper ranges of power for this world, but the mysterious stranger we’d run into in Manaloch was proof that I couldn’t relax. There would always be someone stronger than me in this world.

But Pomera’s situation was different. As soon as we parted ways, her current level would put her in a class of adventurers where she would be able to live in peace and safety forever.

“I’d be sad to see you go,” I said, “but you don’t have any obligation to stay with me. I would understand if you wanted to strike out on your own.”

“Huh? I-Is that what would happen?” asked Pomera.

“Look, I’m basically cursed. Chances are good that I’ll end up getting pulled into a lot of bad situations. At your current level, it’s really dangerous to hang around with me. Maybe things are fine right now, but it’s risky for us to be partners without getting you to a higher level so you can hold your own against whatever they decide to throw at me. But you don’t have to stay.”

I’d graduated from Lunaère’s intensive training. Considering that, I’d be happiest to get Pomera to around level 3,000—or around level 2,000 like Philia at the very least. Being at level 200 seemed like a dangerous place to be—just strong enough to attract a lot of attention, but not strong enough to hold her own.

“S-something must have happened in your past. I suppose I can understand.” Pomera gulped. She closed her eyes, like she wanted to think for just a moment. Then, decision made, she opened them wide again. She took my hand in her hands and squeezed tightly.

“Pomera-san?” I asked, taken off guard by her attitude.

“I want to get strong enough to be able to support you! If it’s not too much of an imposition, I want to stay by your side!”

“Do you mean you’ll go all in on leveling in the Cursed Mirror too?”

“Y-yes, of course. I-I’ll do my best,” said Pomera quietly.

I squeezed her hands back. “Thank you! I still don’t know enough about this world, and we’ve become so close, I didn’t want to see you go.”

“R-really?” Pomera blinked a few times, then pulled her arms back. Her cheeks turned bright red while she played with her hair in embarrassment. “You didn’t want to see me go? Hee hee… I’ll work really hard!”

“Philia wants to train in the mirror too!” said Philia, cutting in to the conversation.

Philia…but stronger?! That’s just frightening.

I shuddered at the thought. Though to be fair, we probably wouldn’t need to dope her up with elixirs or worry about the Ouroboros Ring. No matter how many times I’d killed her in Grand’s mansion, she’d just kept coming back stronger than before.

“Kanata? Philia can train too, right?” asked Philia, looking up at me with puppy-dog eyes.

“Uhhh…” I waffled, but Pomera jumped to my rescue.

“N-no, Philia, you shouldn’t do it! Really. It’s not very fun at all! Just be good and listen to Kanata!” said Pomera. Then she looked around at the scattered spider corpses that littered the forest around us. “Besides…now we need to gather up the ragno eyes, right? How should we do that?”

“We should probably try to gather them in one place. Seems like it’ll be a lot of work to do just that,” I said. A Gravity Bomb could have pulled them all to the center of the clearing, but it would destroy all the eyes in the process…not to mention the damage it would do the trees.

“Philia will do it!” said Philia as she moved in front of me and raised her arms.

The familiar white arms rose from the ground and started sweeping their palms across the forest floor like a waiter brushing crumbs from a table. In a matter of moments, all the dead ragni were in a neat pile at our feet.

“Philia’s amazing, right? Right?!” she said, giggling.

“Th-thank you, Philia-chan,” I said. She was amazing.

Pomera and I went to work with our knives, cutting out the eyes. Philia spawned more arms, smaller ones this time, and began an assembly line that plucked the eyes out of the dead spiders. She was much more efficient at the task than we were. After watching her remove ten eyes for every one we could collect, Pomera and I gave up and let her do the rest.

“Say Philia’s amazing!” She flapped her arms up and down, looking proud of herself. The eye-plucking arms flapped as well.

“Ph-Philia is amazing!” I definitely didn’t want her doing this in front of anyone in Manaloch.

The sight of the arms sprouting from the ground like weird, pale plants was uncanny. Even Pomera looked at a loss for words as she stared at the forest of waving limbs.

“A-anyway,” she said after taking a moment to compose herself, “I think we can assume these ragni are just a fraction of the total…”

“Is the scale of this stampede that abnormal?” I asked, and Pomera nodded.

“This would normally be impossible near a city—especially one with two active A-rank adventurers.”

Alfred and Rosemonde. Alfred was supposedly just visiting, but I’d heard that Manaloch was home to other A-rank adventurers. There was also an S-rank adventurer, but maybe that was just a rumor. In any case, it sounded like this was a serious problem that could only be solved by getting all the high-ranked adventurers to work together.

Was humanity doomed in Locklore? I now knew how weak A-rank adventurers really were, but this was a world where I’d run into Zolophilia not long after coming out of Cocytus. It seemed like the people lived in a constant state of peril where even the heroes who were their best hopes weren’t much help at all.

“Even Rosemonde had a hard time with these ragni…” I said.

Granted, she had used a significant amount of her magic when she attacked me and had already been damaged herself in that fight. But I still couldn’t imagine her taking on sixty ragni and emerging victorious. She might give them a run for their money, but then again…

“That’s why this is all so strange,” said Pomera. “Monster stampedes happen sometimes, but they’re really rare. Outbreaks of this size have been happening all around Manaloch. It’s just…weird.”

“The guild workers did say it was a special situation.”

That did explain why the reward for ragno eyes was so good. Manaloch was probably in a far more precarious situation than the authorities were letting on.

Pomera thought to herself for a moment. “This city has plenty of high-rank adventurers, and they should be doing regular exterminations. That means the ragni are multiplying faster than the adventurers can hunt them.”

That was a troubling thought. If that was really the case, all of Locklore would end up buried in spiders pretty soon. Gross.

“Maybe we should have been a bit more cautious,” I said. “We sort of jumped on this request because the reward was so good. We were fine this time, but…”

Pomera chuckled. “You would probably still be fine even if you weren’t careful.”

I was being serious, but Pomera waved her hand across the battleground to illustrate her point. I smiled awkwardly and took a swig of water from my waterskin.

Pomera jumped in surprise and quickly got to her feet.

“K-Kanata, something’s coming! Monsters…and there’s also a person! I think they’re running from the monsters!”

“I don’t think we need to worry that much. It’s probably just more ragni.” Even if I was wrong, the monsters probably posed no real threat to us.

“No! Kanata, there’s someone coming!” said Pomera, gesturing at Philia’s forest of arms. “We have to do something about those!”

“Gah!” I accidentally inhaled some of the water I was trying to drink. Pressing a hand to my throat, I threw my waterskin on the ground and turned to Philia. “Philia-chan! Get rid of them! Just for a bit! Please! I can’t explain, but it’ll be really bad if you don’t!”

Philia looked perplexed for a moment, but then she smiled and dismissed her forest of arms. They faded into light and the ragno corpses they were holding fell to the ground. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Out from the forest ran Rosemonde, still covered in wounds. Her armor seemed to have a few new cracks, and it looked like she’d run into trouble before making it back to Manaloch.

“Yo! Can I get a little help, guys?! I’m sure you can handle them!” screamed Rosemonde, her face pale. A group of ragni chased along behind her, including three enormous ragni that were almost six feet tall.

There are bigger versions?!

“Sh-she’s got some nerve…” huffed Pomera as she looked at Rosemonde.

I knew that luring a herd of monsters toward other adventurers could be considered a criminal offense, but this seemed to be an act of desperation rather than malice.

“Large ragni, hmm…” The Guild’s information guide didn’t include any information on the bigger spiders.

“Heeey, you jerks, draw the attention of the big ones! They’ll eat me if you don’t do something!” Rosemonde continued to scream and curse at us as she ran in a circle around the clearing, trying to stay ahead of the pack.

She’d had a serious change of attitude since we last saw her. Maybe that just went to show how dangerous the ragni were.

“Those big guys are no joke! Their shells are too thick and half-assed attacks won’t get through!” She sounded winded but was still trying to get us to take some of the heat off of her. “I might be able to handle one, but not this many! Get their attention somehow!”

Are the big ones specialized in defense?

“Aaagh!” Rosemonde tripped and stumbled as more spiders leapt out of the ground in a sneak attack. As she went down, the regular-sized ragni swarmed to cover her legs as the big ones closed in.

“Aw, gimme a break! You don’t want to eat me! I taste terrible!” she shouted.

I leapt between Rosemonde and one of the big spiders. I was ready to attack with my sword, since her life was on the line.

“Kanata!” shouted Pomera. “Don’t do that! I mean, I don’t think you need to use that—!”

I drew the sword and, in the same motion, sliced through the large ragno. The force from the attack shattered the surface of the ground and sent the smaller spiders flying. A number of trees nearby fell as the shock wave reached the edge of the forest.

The large ragno was sliced in half, turning into black sand as it fell.

“Ugh, overkill again…” I slid my sword back into its sheath. Next to me was Rosemonde, her mouth agape as she stared up at me.

“No way, kid… I couldn’t even scratch them,” she said.

“Uh…are you okay?” I asked.

“For real, I’d have been fine if I started the fight in good condition,” said Rosemonde adamantly.

“S-sure…”

Philia came over to my side. She raised her right hand and a white arm grew from the ground ahead of us. I would have preferred it if Rosemonde didn’t see that, but that cat was already out of the bag.

The single round eye on the back of the hand stared at Rosemonde for a moment, then winked. Philia looked very proud of herself. I had a feeling the extra touch was meant to be reassuring, but…it did not have the desired effect.

Rosemonde looked horrified, her eyes locked on the white arm.

“Hiya!” Philia let out a cute battle cry and closed her hand into a fist. The large hand crushed another large ragno, squirting juices everywhere. Having thick exoskeletons weren’t working out so well for them.

Rosemonde looked up in astonishment for a little while, but then suddenly started slapping herself in the face.

“Wh-what are you doing?! You’re already injured enough!” I yelled.

“Get it together, Rosemonde!” she muttered like she was talking to herself. “I am… I am Annihilation Rosemonde, an A-rank adventurer! These guys are just freaks!”

She was covered in ragno bites, but I was starting to think her head might have taken a few hits too.

Pomera brandished her staff at the remaining large ragno. “Spirit Magic Level 8: Laelaps’s Fang!”

A hound formed of lightning appeared before the white mage, sprinting toward her foe and leaving destruction in its wake. It overran the regular ragni in its path, trampling and burning them as it advanced. As it made contact with the large ragno at the back of the pack, the massive bug convulsed and smoldered before dropping to the ground in a smoking heap.

“That’s it for the big ones, Kanata! Let’s finish off the rest!” she said and began lobbing spells at the disorganized groups of ragni scuttling around in confusion.

Rosemonde stared at Pomera’s spell, her face blank.

“C-calm down. I could pull something like that off. Probably. I’m… I’m plenty strong …” Rosemonde dropped her head. She had been kneeling on the ground, but she shifted so she was sitting and pulled her knees to her chest. “I don’t know what’s real anymore…”

Apparently, Rosemunde was ready to reconcile with two overpowered adventurers, but three crossed the line.

“Both the guy and the kid are wicked strong, but…even that dumb-looking chick can pop out a level-eight spell like it’s nothing!”

“Rude!” snapped Pomera in between killing a few more ragni.

Rosemonde didn’t seem to notice that Pomera was offended. She just kept talking to herself. “On top of that, it was spirit magic. That’s hard to control! And… And she didn’t end up getting herself caught in it. Look at me, I put on this heavy, hard-to-move-in armor and work all by myself because I wanted to focus on this battle style…”

I wasn’t expecting to deal with someone’s existential crisis on top of these ragni.

After finishing off her share of spiders, Pomera used white magic to heal Rosemonde. The A-rank adventurer was still only half with it. Her wounds hadn’t been life-threatening, but she was covered in ragno bites wherever her armor had failed.

Philia and I got to work harvesting eyes. It was a grisly job and my arms were soon sticky with ragno goo. I began to worry that this wasn’t a wholesome activity for a kid like Philia.

“Kanata! This eyeball is super huge! It’s like ten eyeballs, but one!” Covered in blood, Philia lifted the dripping eye of one of the large ragni over her head.

Nah. She’s fine.

“I think…that’s all of the ragno eyes,” I said a while later as I finished harvesting the last one.

To start, we’d had around sixty ragno eyes. Rosemonde had drawn at least another forty to us. That gave us about one hundred all together.

There had been three large ragni. One had turned to sand, courtesy of the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh—I really needed to knock that off. Another had been burned pretty badly by Pomera’s spell, but the burnt eye was still intact. It would be proof of a kill, even if it was halfway to being charcoal. The eye from the large ragno that Philia had squished was in perfect shape, surprisingly enough.

“I think that should be about 2.5 million gold,” I said.

We could also expect some sort of additional compensation for the two large ragni. I wasn’t sure how much they’d be worth, but I was hoping they’d fetch at least a hundred thousand gold.

I was in high spirits. With this, we had enough money to freely conduct alchemy experiments. We could keep collecting eyes for the rest of the day, but this was probably enough for now. Besides, we could turn these in without drawing too much attention.

“Oh, by the way,” I said, “did you defeat any ragni, Rosemonde? We’ll help you go gather them up.”

“…Forget it. I just want to go home and go back to bed.”

“A-all right.”

Rosemonde looked deflated—literally. She looked smaller than when we’d first met. Part of it was probably because a lot of her armor had been torn off, but she slouched as we started to walk back to Manaloch.

Thankfully, she promised that she wouldn’t tell people about us in return for us keeping quiet about how our fight went. She didn’t think anyone would believe her, anyway.

Rosemonde was a hotheaded person, but I didn’t get the impression that she held a needless grudge. I didn’t think she’d sell us out, especially since we’d saved her life.

“Those big ragni… More trouble is coming to Manaloch,” muttered Rosemonde to herself. “I’ve gotta decide if I’m going to leave or stay and fight…”

 

—4—

 

WE PARTED WAYS outside the entrance to the Adventurers’ Guild. Rosemonde just wanted to go home, and we needed to turn in our bounties.

“I can already taste the Blood Ether of the Gods!” I said.

“Hee hee, it makes me happy to see you so excited,” said Pomera with a smile.

“We’ll start raising your level in the Cursed Mirror again once the ethers are done.”

“…Sure.” Oddly, Pomera stopped smiling.

“Philia wants to try some! Kanata, are the ethers yummy?” asked Philia.

“Well, they’re sort of odd, but, yeah, I guess I’d say they taste pretty nice.” At a few million gold each, they’d better taste nice.

“Really?! Philia wants to drink some and get super strong in the mirror!”

This was going to be a problem. I needed to come up with a way to let her down easy and avoid a tantrum.

“Eh… Don’t worry about it, Philia,” I said. “You can have a little sip, and we won’t even make you train in the mirror.”

“But Philia wants to train with Kanata and Pomera …” Her face fell into a dejected frown.

“W-well… We’ll talk about it later.”

“Yay! Philia can’t wait! Thank you, Kanata!”

Wh-what should I do? Maybe I just have to keep leveling myself to stay ahead of her…

I tried to get us back on track. “Well, let’s get these turned in for our reward.”

The Guild was shockingly rowdy that afternoon. It was nothing like the civilized atmosphere we had encountered earlier that day. Maybe the other adventurers had realized just how bad the situation with the ragni was.

A crowd of people surrounded the reception area and in the center was a head of majestic blond hair. Looked like the cool kids had beaten us back.

“Oh look, it’s Alfred. You’re his biggest fan, right, Kanata?” Pomera looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“I-I think there’s been a misunderstanding…” I tried to explain my reasoning, “I’m just really interested in his persona. He’s putting on a show of being all big and mighty because he’s a traveling adventurer and…”

“S-so what if he’s an A-rank adventurer?” huffed Pomera. “I could be an A-rank adventurer too. I bet Rosemonde’s a better adventurer than he is.”

“Well, he’s about to turn in his bounties. We’ll know if he can back up his bravado in a few minutes.”

There were a lot of jeers coming from the adventurers around Alfred. Most of the male adventurers seemed like they wanted to take him down a peg—probably because he’d called them all cowards before he left to go hunting that morning. I didn’t know how things worked between feuding adventurers, but that had been a clear declaration of war.

Alfred looked around, let out a heavy sigh, and held the back of his hand to his forehead.

“Does there have to be such a commotion every time I kill a monster?” he said theatrically. “My, oh my, is this the state of adventuring in Manaloch? Why don’t you lot try focusing on your own efforts instead of other people’s?”

The temperature in the Guild dropped a few degrees and the room went silent.

“K-Kanata, this seems kind of…hostile,” whispered Pomera.

“Focusing on your own efforts instead of other people’s…? Hm, there may be some truth to that…” I muttered, nodding slightly a couple of times in agreement. He had a point—why were people obsessed with what he was about to turn in instead of getting out there and doing their best?

Pomera gave me a disgusted look. “You do have some weird obsession with him, don’t you, Kanata?”

“N-no, I just think that what he’s saying isn’t wrong…”

“It doesn’t make him any less of a heel.”

I stood at the back of the crowd and craned my neck to watch. Minding our own business aside, I still wanted to see what this guy was about to turn in. Besides, I liked people-watching, and maybe this would give me some more insight into how things worked in Locklore. It helped that I wasn’t the only person staring.

“Let’s go, Kanata. There’s another receptionist free, thanks to that jerk Alfred drawing all the attention.” Pomera grabbed me by the robe and started pulling me toward the other desk.

“F-fine, okay. Just one minute.”

“Watch while we’re walking.” Pomera let out a heavy sigh.

Alfred made a grand show of looking around and let out a loud snort.

“Is this a guild, or a circus?” he asked, upending his magic bag on the desk and a large amount of ragno eyes tumbled out. The Guild was filled with gasps.

“A-amazing… Guess his A-rank isn’t just for show.”

“Tsk, if he’s acting like that was nothing, why doesn’t he have more of them?”

It was a sizable pile, but I knew we had more.

“Such a fuss over nothing,” said Alfred. “I was simply lucky. Just as I exited the city, I found a large group of ragnos. I hardly broke a sweat, and I’d have even more eyes if they’d crossed my path. Here are the remains of all the normal ragnos I killed this morning.”

“G-good job, Alfred! I’ll get your money right away!” The receptionist seemed ecstatic.

Pomera pulled on my arm to keep us moving toward the other desk.

“Are you satisfied now, Kanata? Come on, let’s go.”

“Uh… Yeah.”

Just as the crowd was about to disperse, Alfred cleared his throat loudly. I stopped, my eyes glued back on him.

“My dear Guild girl…don’t get ahead of yourself,” he said. “I only said that that was all of the normal ragnos I’d killed.”

“It’s ragni,” I heard Pomera mutter under her breath.

“Uh… You have something else?” asked the receptionist attending to Alfred.

Alfred huffed and closed his eyes, placing a finger on his nose like he was annoyed by something. Yes, he was a heel, but the theatrics drew me in. I was transfixed.

“He should have started off with that,” said Pomera, glaring in frustration at Alfred.

“What’s wrong? Why do you hate Alfred so much?” I asked.

“I’m sick of his attitude. Doesn’t he bother you?”

To be honest, I wasn’t bothered by anything Alfred did. It was kind of like watching a pro wrestler performing in character.

Alfred stuck his hand into his magic bag and rummaged around.

“I suspected that there might be something causing this abnormal surge in ragno activity,” he said. “I hunted down the creeping evil and defeated it, as was my duty. The city of Manaloch is safe once more.”

The Guild exploded with cries at Alfred’s words. What could he have found? Had there been some sort of artifact that was drawing the ragni close to the city? Had some sort of monster been leading them? I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Alfred’s hand as it fished around in his magic bag.

“Kanata, I’ve never seen you rummage through your magic bag like that. It just produces what you’re looking for right away, right? He’s obviously just putting on a big show.” Pomera tugged on my arm and pointed at Alfred like she was tattling on a classmate.

“J-just hang on a second. I want to see what this is!” I said, brushing her hand off as I focused on Alfred.

With all eyes in the Guild on Alfred, he pulled a large ragno eye from his bag.

What?! That’s it?!

“Behold, the eye of a massive ragno. I have slain the leader of the ragnos swarming the region around Manaloch. It was a far more dangerous monster than a normal ragno, but it was no match for me.”

The crowd let out cries of admiration and started clapping, showering Alfred in words of praise. I just squinted and stared at the large eye.

“We’ve got two of those,” I said.

Would’ve been three, if I hadn’t used the Heroic Sword of Gilgamesh.

Including Alfred’s eye, that meant at least four of the big guys had been killed. Those large spiders weren’t leaders or anything like that. They were just bigger versions of the same mindless regular ragni.

“Yep,” said Pomera looking smug.

“Let’s go turn these in,” I said and Pomera nodded wordlessly. We walked over to the receptionist with no one in line, but he was so absorbed in watching Alfred that he wouldn’t look at us.

“Hi there! We accepted the request for hunting ragni and we’d like to collect our reward,” I said.

“Ugh, could you wait a minute? They’re talking about how the leader of the ragni was just defeated…” complained the receptionist as he turned and put a box on the counter to collect our monster parts.

“Here you go,” I said and turned my magic bag upside down. I shook the bag and ragno eyes came tumbling out, overflowing the box to roll across the desk. The Guild employee’s boredom turned into astonishment as he watched the eyes pour out endlessly and realized what was going on.

I hadn’t wanted to stand out too much, but I did want to establish that we were A-rank material. With three of us in the party, this was within the believable limits.

“Th-this is so many!” stuttered the guild worker.

Finally, the two large eyes plopped on top of the pile and the guild worker’s jaw dropped. They glanced over at Alfred, then looked back at the eyes I’d dumped out.

“Ahem. And these are…?” they said, pointing at the large eyes.

“I think there’s probably a lot more of those still out there,” I said.

I had thought of leaving those large eyes out, since the 2.5 million from the hundred normal ragno eyes would be plenty, but I couldn’t let Alfred’s false claim take root. If the authorities decided that he’d really killed the ragno leader, then the situation could get even worse in short order.

Spectators that had been clustered around Alfred began to take notice.

“Hey, these guys are pretty amazing too!”

“Dang! That’s a lot of eyes!”

“What’s this, you lot are still here?” said Alfred as he noticed the voices starting to rise around him. “Why aren’t you out improving yourselves instead of idolizing me? Only fools get swept away by that kind of… Huh?”

Alfred realized the crowd was paying attention to someone else. Looking around for what was drawing them away, his eyes fell on me. I gave him The Nod.

His brow furrowed into a shocked glare.

M-maybe I overplayed that. His heel act is closer to reality than I thought…

The guild worker was still staring at our pile of eyes, his face paling.

“P-please wait here a moment. The management needs to be made aware of this! We’ve got big problems around Manaloch.”

“You think so?” I asked.

I had been worried that that the city might not have the resources to deal with the problem, and I had been hoping I was wrong. Lunaère had said there were times in Locklore’s history when large countries were suddenly destroyed by monster-related disasters. Manaloch was a snooty town full of snooty individuals, but they didn’t deserve that.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but the Guild leaders said that if we found evidence of multiple stronger versions of the ragni, then the city could be at risk…” said the guild worker quietly, fear in his eyes.

I wasn’t surprised that the administration had been on the lookout, but I was unsettled that they’d kept it this quiet for this long. Hopefully they had a plan.

“Sorry,” said the guild worker. “I shouldn’t spread rumors, so forget what I said. Anyway, I need to make sure that management knows about this as soon as possible. I’ll make sure you get a bonus for the large eyes, of course. I’ll be back with the gold in a few moments.”

He bowed and hurried into the back.

“Hey! Just who the hell are you guys, anyway?” shouted someone in the crowd. “You’re not from this city. There’s no way you could have been here the whole time. Are you travelers like Alfred?”

“Uh, yeah. We’re adventurers from Arroburg…” I said.

Another man stepped to the front of the crowd. He wore a black, pointed hat, and had dark circles beneath his eyes. It took a moment, but I realized he was the man who’d tried to talk to Pomera right after we arrived with the caravan.

The man tilted his hat and shouted back at the crowd, “None of you heard of the Evil Priest Notts, the humanoid dragon that terrorized Arroburg? Well, this lady here is Saint Pomera. She single-handedly healed the people of Arroburg and destroyed the manor where Notts was hiding.”

“Wha…?” Pomera’s eyes grew wide.

The Guild descended into an uproar, with some voices claiming that was impossible, and others saying they’d heard the news.

“On top of that,” continued the man with the pointed hat, “she can use a spirit in the shape of a massive dragon. I saw it with my own eyes. It’s definitely true. She’s the real deal—she can use healing magic, use attack magic, and she can even use summoning magic to boot!”

“Is this…Philia’s fault?” Philia asked quietly, pointing to herself.

“I also heard that when she was rushing around healing those injured by Notts, she healed an elderly person’s eyes. For the first time in fifty years, they opened their eyes and saw the world…” said the man.

I glanced at Pomera and she shook her head vigorously. Now this guy was just making stuff up.

“Absurd!”

“I heard that too!”

Insults were flung around the Guild. The situation was getting out of hand.

“Don’t go spreading rumors!” shouted Pomera to the man in the black hat, her face red.

“Out of my way,” came a voice that cut easily through the rest.

I turned to look and saw the crowd part to make a path. Alfred walked briskly down the open space, right toward us. There were deep furrows in his brow as he glared at us.

I was a bit nervous. I forced myself to stand up straighter and meet the challenge.

His level was nothing special, and his haul of ragno eyes was quite a bit smaller than ours—but Alfred played the adventurer game. If this was the life that I was destined to live in Locklore, then I could learn from his example. I just wasn’t yet sure if his was a good example or a bad one.

“Hey, you,” he said.

“Can I help you?” I replied.

“Not you! Get away from me!” he shouted. “I’m talking to the girl, not her flunky!”

“S-sorry!”

The cool-guy act seemed to have evaporated.

“Excuse me?!” Pomera decided that she’d had enough of Alfred’s nonsense. With a scowl, she gripped her staff tightly and took a step toward the guy, who was nearly twice her height. “Apologize to Kanata this instant!”

“Pah! It’s you who should apologize for spreading baseless claims about your deeds! It’s an insult to the hard work of our fellow adventurers! Is your ego really that fragile?”

“I wasn’t the one who said those things!” Pomera was snarling now, and pointed at Pointy Hat. “If you have a problem with the rumors, take it up with him!”

“I’m not concerned with the stories about Notts! I’m talking about the ragnos! Who sold you those eyes? You couldn’t have defeated that many on your own. And then you had the gall to parade them about next to me! It’s shameful!” Alfred’s face turned crimson as he shouted.

“You’re just embarrassed by your puny haul! That’s not my fault! You strut about, all full of yourself…and you only managed to kill forty ragni! What’s shameful is the scene you’re causing! And Kanata is not a flunky! Apologize to him right now!”

“C-calm down, Pomera-san. To be honest, I don’t care.” She was a lot stronger now that she had trained in the Mirror, and it was taking some serious effort to hold her back. I’d never seen her this angry before.

“That’s big talk coming from a C-rank brat!” Alfred flared his nostrils and bared his teeth in rage.

The swordswoman with short hair appeared behind Alfred. I vaguely remembered her name was Sera. She wrapped her arms around him and tried to pull him back.

“S-stop it, sir! Everyone’s watching! I am so sorry. He sometimes has these fits!” she said.

“Sera, let go! Are you trying to embarrass me?!”

Wh-what is with this guy…?

“You’re managing that just fine on your own! Please, let’s just leave!”

“Quiet! What part of ‘let go’ don’t you understand?!” Alfred swung his arm and knocked Sera back.

Sera crashed to the ground with a pained “oof!” Alfred shot her a glare, then immediately turned back to Pomera.

“Fine. So be it. If you insist that you actually hunted those…” He motioned to the pile of spider eyes on the counter, “Then you can provide me with proof.”

He drew his sword and lightly slashed the air. Shouts ran through the crowd.

“I have no intention of backing down when you’ve offended my honor. Come outside with me, Saint Pomera. I will show you for the fraud you truly are.”

My opinion of Alfred was dropping fast. Pomera frowned as she and Alfred glared at each other.

She turned back to me and said through bared teeth, “Do you mind, Kanata?”

She wasn’t asking me if I minded her beating the snot out of Alfred. She was asking if I minded blowing our cover of being regular C-rank adventurers. It seemed like all our effort to not stand out kept getting undone by emerging situations.

Well, I figured it shouldn’t be a problem as long as people believed she was only slightly stronger than Alfred. From a money standpoint, it might even be good because it could help us move up a rank or two at the Guild. Still, if it could be avoided, I would prefer if the outcome let us slide back under the radar.

I waved for Pomera to come closer. She leaned in and I whispered:

“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, just hold back a bit. But wouldn’t it be better to just apologize and be done with it?”

“I can hear you,” came a voice.

I looked over and saw Alfred’s head right next to Pomera’s. He was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Gah!” I reflexively pulled back. I hadn’t expected him to eavesdrop so blatantly.

Alfred swung his sword. The blade sliced through the reception counter and into the Guild’s polished floor, a white whisp of smoke rising from the heat of the friction. The crowd gasped.

“He’s telling you to hold back?! You dare insult me further?!” asked Alfred.

“I accept your duel,” said Pomera, and Alfred’s mouth twisted into a cruel smile. “I don’t care if you refuse to believe those ridiculous things about me. Or the ragni—I only hunted them for the money, anyway.” She raised a warning finger. “But first, I have one condition for our duel.”

“A condition?”

“If I win, I want you to apologize to Kanata. You know nothing about him! Kanata is the first person to ever allow me to be an equal member of a party!”

“Fine, I’ll accept whatever conditions you have. I don’t intend to lose. Let’s go.” Alfred walked outside and Pomera followed, seething.

“P-Pomera-san, I’m glad you get so angry in my defense… But really, it’d be best if you didn’t fight him.” I said, trying to follow along. Philia passed me and skipped along Pomera’s side.

“Philia wants to fight with Pomera too!” she said, her eyes sparkling.

“N-no, Philia-chan! This is Pomera’s fight.” I took her gently by the arm.

Alfred needed to be humbled, not buried.

 

—5—

 

THE CROWD FORMED a circle in front of the Guild. Alfred and Pomera faced each other in the center, and I ended up being just another face in the crowd.

How the hell did this happen?

They were standing about fifteen feet apart. Alfred could close that distance with just a couple steps.

“You’re a magic user, so I’ll step back to give you a little more space to fight,” said Alfred. “There’s no point in winning if I’ve got an unfair advantage.”

“I’m fine,” said Pomera, “I’d rather not listen to your weak excuses afterward.”

“Foolish girl.”

This was the first time I’d ever heard Pomera trash talk, and it was a little jarring. Anyway, she was almost three times Alfred’s level. No matter what happened, I couldn’t see Pomera losing this fight.

“Good luck, Pomera! Good luck!” shouted Philia, waving with a smile of enjoyment.

Alfred’s companion, Sera, took on the role of signaling the start of the duel, but she didn’t look happy about it. She normally admired Alfred, but at the moment, she seemed really put out.

“The duel will be decided when one person admits defeat or becomes incapacitated. Begin!” Sera dropped her hand.

As soon as she did, Alfred dashed toward Pomera, closing the distance. He drew his sword, aiming to cut Pomera’s staff with the slash.

“Spirit Magic Level 6: Fox Fire!” Pomera fell back while raising her staff and making a magic circle. A flaming sphere about the size of a human head appeared in the air in front of her.

Fox Fire borrowed a ball of flame from one of the fox spirits residing within the spirit world. It had some limited intelligence and would automatically move to shield the caster.

It seemed like she was trying to defeat Alfred without steamrolling him or tossing out any high-level, high-power spells. I felt a little relieved.

Alfred leapt sideways in an attempt to avoid the Fox Fire and struck at Pomera with his sword. The ball of flame kept itself between them, and the white mage moved to make sure she was always hidden behind the orb.

“How annoying. I guess you aren’t just a weakling,” said Alfred.

“Spirit Magic Level 3: Sylph Sword!” Pomera stepped from behind Fox Fire to point her staff at Alfred. A blade of air slashed toward him, and he barely had time to raise his sword to parry it away.

Alfred lunged back toward Pomera, but the Fox Fire slipped gracefully between them. Pomera hopped around the opposite side of the orb to level her staff again.

“Sylph Sword!”

“Gah!”

This time, he was too close to parry. His knees dragged across the cobblestones as the impact forced him to the ground.

Alfred glared at Pomera, or at least he tried. The Fox Fire bobbed left and right, keeping itself in line with his stare. Frustration showed on his face as he tried to figure out how to get around the spell.

“This is way less exciting than I thought it’d be,” came a voice from the crowd, followed by others of similar opinion.

Smart move, Pomera! She’s actually trying to make this as boring as possible.

If she wanted to, Pomera could have turned Alfred to ash with a single high-level spell, but word of that would spread like…well, like wildfire. Instead, she was thinning out the crowd by keeping things slow-paced and unsatisfying.

“He can’t even land an attack on her. Even I could get close,” said an onlooker.

“Guess Alfred really isn’t that big of a deal. Other adventurers killed loads of ragni too. Not like the spiders were hard to find…” said another.

Alfred bared his teeth and glared at the crowd. Then he pointed at Pomera, who still stood behind the Fox Fire.

“Stop cowering behind your spell! This is a duel! Fight me head-on!” he shouted.

What did he expect? Pomera was a magic user and he was a melee fighter. If the two of them dueled, this was always the kind of fight he would get.

Although, perhaps his frustration was justified. Even Pomera was starting to look a little bored.

He tried to dash toward her again, but was once more warded off by the bobbing motion of the Fox Fire and took another cut from her Sylph Sword.

“This is impossible…” grumbled Alfred, his sword at the ready.

Pomera was really dialing down her magic power usage to make this look legit, but her reaction time was still incredibly fast by comparison. Even if Alfred found a way through her defense, she could let loose a counterattack, then recover while he withdrew. Alfred didn’t stand a chance, but he was incapable of understanding why.

As the crowd watched Alfred frantically chase after Pomera, they started to jeer and shout insults.

“Are you saying you’re used to fighting monsters, but this is your first time fighting a magic user?”

“You should’ve never come to the City of Magic if you can’t get around a few spells!”

M-maybe Pomera should finish this quickly. It looks like they’re starting to get back into it…

Alfred’s face reddened and his nostrils flared.

“That’s incredibly fine control of spirit magic!” I heard someone beside me say with admiration. “She’s been able to maintain a sixth-level spell for quite some time, and she manages to maneuver the spell as if it were part of her own body. Spirit magic is incredibly difficult to control. Extraordinary… Her battle senses are excellent. She must have plenty of real-world fighting experience. Why, it’s almost like she can predict every attack he makes, even from short-range. Even I can’t do that. What horrors has she faced to acquire these skills at such a young age?”

Well, there’s this Mirror, and…

I looked over and saw Pointy Hat, nodding deeply while he thought aloud to himself and admired her fighting skill. At least he didn’t know her level—or I hoped he didn’t.

“What are you talking about? That pompous guy is just slow,” said another onlooker.

“Untrue! He’s a first-rate swordsman who’s refined the fundamentals to an artform. But he sees that he can’t get through her defenses, so he’s breaking those skills down and adding in irregular motion to avoid her attacks. That’s proof that he’s used to fighting other people, and I cannot find any flaws in his approach. In a straight fight, as well as in monster hunting, Alfred would most likely even beat Annihilation Rosemonde. But Saint Pomera has him outclassed…”

Pointy Hat talked at great length, but I was the only one listening. That was kind of sad, considering he was probably the only person in the crowd who had any idea what was going on.

I averted my eyes and pretended I hadn’t heard.

“Sylph Sword!”

“Gah!” Alfred took a hit that sent him flying backward and rolling across the ground. He scrambled to get back to his feet and ready his sword, but Pomera had the drop on him. For a few short moments, he was completely defenseless; she could have easily finished him off with another Sylph Sword, but she chose not to.

“I-Impossible…” Alfred gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, then took a few slow breaths and released the tension from his body. “I was wrong. You are a powerful combatant.”

Alfred accepted defeat much more gracefully than I expected. He must have decided it wasn’t worth embarrassing himself further. Or perhaps his goal from the beginning had been to test Pomera, and the duel was just a means to that end. Maybe that childish outburst had been an act as well.

Alfred stood upright and brushed the dirt from his clothes. Pomera was staring at him, her staff at the ready. As his hostile motions ceased, she slowly lowered it and dismissed her Fox Fire.

Sera heaved a sigh of relief.

“Allow me to apologize. That was excellent use of magic,” said Alfred as he sheathed his sword and walked toward Pomera, offering his hand.

The crowd began to disperse now that the two of them had managed to come to a peaceful conclusion. I hoped we’d be able to avoid any hard feelings after this.

“I-I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have gotten so angry… But I’d actually like you to apologize to Kanata, not me,” said Pomera, looking down in embarrassment once she saw Alfred switch to a more mature attitude.

Alfred looked confused once he drew closer to her. “What’s wrong, Saint Pomera?”

“It’s just…I’m not used to shaking hands…”

Alfred’s mouth turned up in a villainous grin. “No. I mean, what’s wrong with you, that you would drop your guard during a fight? The duel is decided only when one of us loses consciousness or admits defeat. I have admitted nothing of the sort!”

Pomera looked bewildered.

“N-no way…” I muttered as a cold chill ran up my spine.

Alfred had complimented her skill. He’d apologized for underestimating her. He’d even sheathed his sword and offered a handshake.

He had never admitted defeat.

It was about as pedantic as you could get, but Alfred seemed like he was going to insist on the technicality.

“Now I’ve closed the gap!” he said, drawing his sword directly in front of Pomera, who was still in shock. “I would never lose to a brat like you in public! In the end, all that matters is that I have won!”

What a scumbag!

Pomera only seemed to realize what was happening as Alfred brandished his sword. But there was no way Pomera would get a spell off in time, and her Fox Fire shield had already been dismissed. This was a contest of pure melee strength.

“Ha ha ha! No matter how powerful your magic, you can’t do anything once your opponent closes in! If this were a real fight, I would be the one left aliv—agh!”

Pomera let out a cute shriek and bonked him with her staff.

Alfred’s sword was flung aside, and the staff followed through to smash into his face. The strike sent him flying backward through the front row of the onlookers with enough remaining momentum to leave a perfectly human-shaped hole in the side of the Guild.

The tip of Pomera’s staff broke and pieces went flying everywhere. She stood wide-eyed, staring after him.

“…D-did he survive that?” I asked quietly in the silence that followed.

Pomera’s level was three times that of Alfred’s, but she was a magic user. With luck, one of her melee hits wouldn’t kill him outright.

“Pomera wins!” said Philia, her innocent clapping the only sound echoing through the silence.

 

—6—

 

WITH THE DUEL OVER, Pomera used white magic to heal the onlookers who’d been hit when Alfred went flying.

“White Magic Level 4: Heal,” she said, and a white light encased the person standing in front of her. “S-sorry.”

“Oooh, I feel better than I did before I was injured! Thank you!” said the person.

“N-no… It’s my fault anyway…” Pomera’s face was incredibly conflicted every time she was thanked.

Someone had found some adhesives that we’d used to tie her staff back together, but that was just a temporary measure. Once we got our compensation for the ragni, I planned to buy her a new one.

Much to Pomera’s chagrin, the crowd was doting on her. With every comment or congratulation, her face grew gloomier, and she seemed to shrink as she pulled her shoulders in.

“She beat that blowhard like a drum!”

“What happened during the fight? I was watching, but I still have no idea what was going on. It looked like Alfred went flying after a hit from her staff.”

“Hey, didn’t you see the magic flow? It was a wind attack from one of her items!”

In the end, that was the explanation the crowd settled on. It made sense; there was no way a magic user could have bested Alfred in melee combat, and therefore, her final attack must have come from an item.

“Good job, Pomera-san,” I said.

“Pomera’s amazing! she’s so strong!” said Philia, flexing at Pomera to drive the point home. “Philia wants to fight Alfred too!”

I wanted her to give it a rest. That would have been a nightmare—I could just imagine a hand emerging from the ground the moment the duel started and squashing Alfred into the pavement. He didn’t know how lucky he was that he’d challenged someone who could show a little restraint.

“I’m sorry, Kanata,” said Pomera. “I should have listened to you and just gotten out of the situation instead of getting caught up in arguing with him.”

“I-It’s okay. I think we can work our way around this. Probably.”

Poor Pomera-san. She always seems to get caught up in other people’s drama.

Things might get dangerous for her in the future if we didn’t raise her level quickly in the Cursed Mirror. She needed to reach at least level 1,000. Alfred might have been the first jerk to take her on, but he wouldn’t be the last.

“Anyway, thanks for getting angry in my defense. I tried not to let what he said get to me. But to be honest, it made me pretty happy to see you stand up for me,” I said.

“Oh! Hee hee…” Pomera blushed as she looked up at me. “I’ll keep trying to pay you back for everything you’ve done for me.”

“In this particular area, I wouldn’t worry too much…”

Just then, I heard the sound of slow clapping coming closer. Pointy Hat guy had found us.

“Amazing, Saint Pomera! It was so cunning to hide your true fighting style. Even I was fooled until the last moment.”

Pomera gave me a confused look, and I just shrugged.

“It’s incredible to think that your high-level spirit magic and white magic aren’t your main focus,” continued Pointy Hat. “They’re simply smokescreens so you can take an enemy by surprise with your knowledge of martial arts. I should have realized it when I noticed you were so comfortable fighting at close range against a sword user. Simply fascinating!”

“…Huh?” said Pomera.

“There’s no point in feigning ignorance now. You used the momentum of Alfred’s sword swing to turn the energy of his own strike against him. You very skillfully made it seem like a crude, wide swing with your staff, but the move was so finely tuned it could have passed through the eye of a needle.”

I did my best to maintain a neutral expression. His analysis was so close, but so very far away from the truth.

“Pomera’s amazing! Pomera can do amazing things!” Philia bounced around and giggled.

Yes, but not how this guy thinks she can…

“U-uh…” Pomera started to say something, but Pointy Hat held up a hand to stop her.

“Ah, your secret is safe with me. I will report what I’ve seen to the guildmaster, but I didn’t come over to give you the third degree. This crowd won’t be able to figure out what happened during the fight. I just wanted to come over and pay my respects. Well then, I bid you good day…”

Pomera seemed like she had a lot she wanted to say, but her mouth closed tightly.

Pointy Hat grinned, turned away, and said, “Ha ha! It almost looked like pure feat of strength from a desperate and reckless attack. But that would be impossible. I have no idea how high your level would have to be for something like that to knock out an A-rank adventurer.”

I broke into a cold sweat, but Pointy Hat didn’t turn back.

H-how much does that guy know?

As I was starting to think we should head back into the Guild to get our compensation for the ragni, another conversation caught my ear.

“She’s good at both long- and close-range battle, and she’s first-rate when it comes to white magic… Do you think she’s as good as our S-rank adventurer, Kotone…?”

“Nah! Kotone’s in a whole different league. You’ve just never seen her go all out.”

Kotone…? Could she be from Japan too?

Her name didn’t sound like the names I usually heard in this country. Maybe she was another traveler from a different world.

Someone like me.

I took a moment to let that settle in. It wasn’t the only possibility. Lovis had an underling called Yozakura, and she’d worn a kimono and carried a katana. Lovis had said she came from another country.

My thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling from behind.

“Uh, sorry to have to ask this…but could you cast some white magic? I’ll pay your normal price, of course.” Sera looked apologetically at Pomera.

She was carrying Alfred, whose body was covered in blood. His eyes were rolled back into his head and he was still out cold.

“White Magic Level 4: Heal!” Pomera looked over Alfred’s unconscious form with a mix of pity and disgust. “There you go. That’s everything I can do. He should get plenty of rest after this…”

“Thank you! And I really am sorry for the trouble …” Sera said with a few bows of her head.

“I-It’s all right…” Pomera smiled uncomfortably back.

Alfred should have apologized too, but I wondered if he would even remember what happened when he finally woke up. If he did remember, I doubted he’d ever come after Pomera again.

Come to think of it, I’ll be surprised if he stays in Manaloch for much longer.