Chapter 1: There Was Trouble on the Double, or So It Was Told

“Oh, okay. Cute gimmick. I get what this is. This is one of those ‘Hey, look at how NOT like your original world this is’ moments to drive the point home. Yep, doesn’t get much more not-my-original-world than this.”

Almost immediately after stepping through the gate of light that materialized beside the young girl who called herself God, Renya found himself in a forest somewhere. He was standing on well-trodden ground that appeared to be a road. Deep woods flanked the road on both sides, and there was nothing to see in either direction but trees. Above him was a clear sky, beautifully blue. Renya glanced up. If he still harbored any doubts about whether this was the same world in which he previously lived for 94 years, they were dispelled by the two suns glowing brightly overhead.

While the existence of two suns definitely shocked him, he found some relief from the fact that the sky was still blue. It was at least a familiar color. If this alternate world had decided to show up with a purple sky or something, he would have had to either accept a disturbing new reality or part ways with his sanity. He did not want to find out which would have happened first.

He looked at the trees surrounding him. He had no idea what any of them were, but then again, he was no connoisseur of trees. Judging from their basic appearance, however, they did not seem too different from the ones in his old world. It seemed that some of his common sense was still applicable here, and that made him feel better. The reset may have wiped his memories clean, but the skills and experiences ingrained in him were a good deal more resilient.

He was wearing a clean white shirt along with pants and simple leather shoes. Realizing that he had forgotten to ask about how dangerous this place was, he checked around and found that he was not armed in any way. Walking around in an unknown forest of a foreign world with nothing but the clothes on his back seemed like a bad idea. Just then, the word “Inventory” appeared in his field of view. He focused his gaze on it as though selecting it with a cursor, and a semi-transparent window appeared before him. It was the same kind as the one the young girl had used to show him the map. A fifteen-by-fifteen grid was displayed on the window. There were tiny little icons in some of the spaces. One of the icons looked like money, so he touched it with his finger. Immediately, information began to stream into his head.

《 Currency: 10 Gold Coins 》

Apparently, it really did mean money. Figuring that this was some sort of parting gift from God, he examined each of the other icons. In total, the items he found in his inventory window included: ten gold coins, twelve packets of emergency rations, six basic medicinal herbs, three bandages, one bamboo sword, one set of leather armor, and one water bottle — water included.

While the leather armor made sense, he could not for the life of him figure out why there was a bamboo sword. As he poked at the icon, a passage of explanatory text flashed across his mind.

《 Bamboo Sword: Class 10 (Artifact), “Indestructible” 》

He raised an eyebrow, wondering what “Artifact” meant. The answer appeared almost immediately.

《 Notification: Help Activated - Artifacts are lost relics. They refer to handicrafts of a quality unachievable by the hands of man. All such items are categorized as class 10 without exception. 》

Well, that’s convenient. I think I can get used to this, thought Renya to himself as he took a moment to appreciate his new body.

Apparently, the bamboo sword hailed from the land of God and, despite its conspicuous bamboo-ness, was of a correspondingly high level of quality. Following that line of logic, he tapped the icon of the leather armor, as well, wondering what godly wonders lay therein.

《Leather Armor: Class 2, Generic Item》

Well, then. So much for being utterly invincible. Feeling a tad disappointed that his armor was mere garden variety, Renya moved his hand to the top of the inventory window and double-tapped an icon there. Two indicators appeared: “Equip” and “Take Out.” He immediately selected Equip. The leather armor icon vanished from the inventory, and his body began to glow faintly. When the light faded, his torso was protected by a chest piece that appeared over his shirt, and arm guards were covering his arms from elbow to wrist. Apparently, they came as a set. His head and lower body remained unguarded, which he was not entirely satisfied with. As the saying goes, however, beggars can’t be choosers, so he put it out of his mind and equipped the bamboo sword as well.

The sword turned out to be exactly the same as he remembered. It was a little over a meter, a length known as “Sankyu.” The term meant three-nine, which referred to its length in traditional units of measurement — three shaku and nine sun. This put it on the longer side, and such a sword would normally be employed by taller people. Regardless, it remained light and easy to wield. Therefore the longer the better, in Renya’s opinion.

As he held it in his hand and regarded it, the question came back to him: why a bamboo sword of all things? In response, a message appeared in his mind again.

《 Notification: Help Activated - I actually wanted to give you some kind of short sword, but all the weapons around here are class 10 and the angels refused to let me grab one. I figured that since you had kendo experience in your previous life, you’d feel right at home with a bamboo sword, so I sent you one instead. —From God 》

After reading the explanation from the help function that apparently moonlighted as some sort of messenger service, Renya felt a little less miffed by the piece of bamboo in his hand. There was, after all, some thought put into it. He had to give her credit for that. It did not explain why there was a bamboo sword in the land of God, but that question was likely to remain unanswered in the foreseeable future, so he pushed it out of his mind and started thinking about what his next step should be.

As soon as he set foot into this world, he had basically completed the girl’s request already. Oh, wait, “God’s” request. He insisted on putting air quotes around that word in his head. All that remained, in a manner of speaking, was to chill for a couple of decades and wander around, disseminating these so-called Resources that were somewhere in his body. His goal was a long stretch of an empty highway away, and he had cruise control. With that in mind, he figured he might as well enjoy these few decades ahead of him. To that end, he was going to have to procure the things necessary for a nice and easy life.

“First, I need to find civilization. Everything starts from there.”

He had no idea whereabouts he was in relation to the map he was shown before coming here, but since he was standing on a road, as long as he kept walking along it in one direction, he would doubtlessly find a town sooner or later. The only issue was which direction he should head in. Even if he heavily rationed his supplies, they would last him a few days at most. The worst was that he only had one bottle of water. That meant every drop of it had to be used as drinking water, which left nothing for other tasks such as certain hygienic practices of the hands, face, and body. As a Japanese expat, said hygienic practices were of paramount importance. He had, therefore, a serious problem.

“Ugh, I guess I’ll have to just deal with it. Damn it, why’d she have to drop me in the middle of nowhere? That freaking loli, I swear…” muttered Renya under his breath. Despite being aware that she probably chose somewhere uninhabited so no one saw him appear, he could not help but curse at her. As he uttered a string of frustrated expletives, the emptiness of swearing out loud in the middle of a forest with no one around to hear slowly caught up with him and he stopped. He took a small branch lying at the side of the road and propped it up on the ground.

“Not the most original idea, but whatever. Let’s see which way you fall,” he said as he surrendered his decision to God. Then, he remembered who God was and reconsidered. The thought of relying on that little girl irked him, so he instead decided to leave his choice up to random chance.

“All right, let’s see what random chance has in store for me,” he said as he let go of the stick. As it began to fall, the surrounding silence was broken by the faint sound of a human voice. He turned toward its direction. The stick fell the other way.

“God damn it, I hate random chance…” mumbled Renya as he stared as the stick, perfectly aligned with the road but pointing in the exact opposite direction of the sound. If he kept to his original plan, he would have to follow the stick, but the sound he heard was unmistakably a person’s scream. He probably had little time to hesitate, but hesitate he did. On the one hand, there was the stick. On the other, the source of a scream and likely some sort of trouble. Ignoring the scream and heading off in the other direction felt like running away. However, he’d just arrived in this world and was a stranger to everyone around, so he had no obligation to act, either. After chewing on the choice for a little while, he ran off in the direction of the scream. Asking himself why he did, he found that he had no answer. The best he could come up with was that a voice meant a person, and a person — hostile or not — meant the chance to ask for directions to a town. At worst, he could just ignore whatever was happening and walk away. With his mind set, he quickened his steps toward the source of the voice, bamboo sword held firmly in his left hand.

The speed at which he ran surprised him. Thanks to the girl, physically, his body was indeed young and fresh and devoid of any old memories. Mentally, though, it was still inhabited by a 94-year-old soul who kicked the bucket after racking up a whole lot of checkmarks on its list. Somewhere in that soul was the distinct impression that his legs had not felt so light when he was alive. The pleasure of such an experience alone might be worth the price of admission. Feeling rather glad he took God up on her offer, Renya kept up his brisk run. He gave an appreciative nod toward his body, which had not even broken a sweat, and trained his eyes on the fast-approaching source of the scream.

He could faintly make out a number of darker-skinned men in leather armor off in the distance. They stood in a circle surrounding two women. One had blond hair and wore a robe like that of a nun. Beside her was the other one, who stood with her back toward the first woman in a protective stance. The second woman had her long black hair in a ponytail and was brandishing a long sword. She was not fully armored, but wore metal plates over the vital points of her body. Seeing their relative positions to the men, Renya immediately decided that walking away was not an option.

There was a part of him that honestly wanted to stand by and watch how things played out. It would be a morally questionable choice, but no one could fault him for being a bystander right now, and it was not the kind of situation one often had a chance to see. Given the circumstances, he figured it was a reasonable thought to have. He was, after all, a 94-year-old zombie in some ways. Surely, he could afford to be a little more degenerate. Something about acting his age and such.

The group of people he was racing toward quickly noticed him, as well. At first, the men were cautious, but their expressions soon turned mocking as they dropped their guard. The women’s expressions, which originally lit up with a glimmer of hope, also shifted to disappointment. Suddenly, it felt awkward for him to jump in now, but it felt equally awkward to stop, turn around, and run back the other way. With no better choice available, he continued his approach.

Even Renya could figure out the gist of what they were thinking from their expressions. The men had their guard up for a moment, thinking a new enemy might have appeared. When they got a good look at Renya, they probably decided immediately that he was not a threat. For the women, it must have looked like help had arrived, but upon closer inspection, they realized that he was unlikely to be of much help at all. It was probably the crude leather armor and the bamboo sword. They were a little lacking in the intimidation factor. Renya comforted himself with that thought.

Turning his attention back to more pressing matters, he stopped a short distance away from the group of people and coughed lightly before speaking.

“Okay um… Do you, uh, understand what I’m saying?” asked Renya hesitantly.

“What do you want?” replied one of the men. “And what’s with that getup? Are you a deserter? Just ran away from a battlefield or something?”

Renya’s concern was whether or not he could actually communicate in this world. He remembered gaining a bunch of skills when he was with the girl and one of them was something about foreign world language, but when faced with the sudden need for actual conversation, it was still a little nerve-wracking.

Since he obviously did not know the first thing about languages in this world, if he could not use the skill, he would have a very hard time keeping up a conversation. When he worriedly posed the question, however, not only did the other party understand him, but he was also surprised to learn that he himself had no idea what he was saying. The words that came out of his mouth sounded completely foreign to him. Despite that, he could speak perfectly well, and people apparently understood what he said.

On the contrary, when he tried to vocalize a word from a language in his old world, he found that he simply could not. It was quite the astounding discovery, but that was how the foreign world language skill worked. He had yet to make up his mind as to whether this was a good thing, but for the time being, he was glad that he would not have any problems communicating.

“Hey, you. What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” asked one of the men. A round of laughter followed as they took his silent contemplation for fear. To them, he must have barged into the scene, realized what he was up against, and metaphorically wet his pants.

“Oh, uh, yeah. About that. Just chill for a sec.”

Paying absolutely no mind to the mocking laughter, he observed the two women who were surrounded. Both of them would have been peerless beauties in his original world. The robed woman’s long blond hair fell in soft waves and her big blue eyes curled down at the corners in a way that lent them the slightest hint of listlessness. Her dark robe covered the whole of her body. Back in his old world, it would have borne a sharp resemblance to the kind of clothing worn by people whose professional title tended to be “Sister.” Its unassuming nature, however, was negated by the fact that it was barely able to contain the contents it clothed. Endowed with qualities describable only by such terms as “boing” and “yowza,” the body inside seemed to decry its unfair treatment, pushing against the fettering fabric and demanding to unleash its wonders upon the waiting eyes of all the men in the world. No matter how much Renya tried, he could not help but think the woman somehow mistakenly put on a robe that was a good size or two too small for her.

The other beauty stood in front, shielding the first woman against their enemy. Her dark eyes had a slight upward tilt that accentuated her sharp gaze. Long black hair, elegant and lustrous, was tied back relatively high up on her head. Her figure was not as voluminous as the woman behind her, but no less pleasing. Curves and lines ran up and down her body in a most appealing fashion, emboldened by her black shirt, long red pants that bloomed like a skirt, and her metallic chestplate, shoulder guard, and arm guards.

Next, he shifted his gaze to the men. Immediately, he shifted it back.

He quietly mumbled something about boring and a waste of his time, but took note of the dark skin they shared, as well as how their leather armor resembled his in design but looked better in quality. Also, it was strange that none of them seemed to be armed. They were all empty-handed. Although there were six of them, he began to think that maybe the black-haired woman would be fine on her own, considering she had a weapon. The woman’s next words, surprisingly, proved him wrong.

“I don’t know who you are, but run! These guys are too much!”

“Huh? Really?”

“These people are warriors from the Mercenary Kingdom! Forget about us! Just run!” yelled the woman with a look on her face that implied her brief exclamation should be more than enough to get the point across. It was, of course, not enough, because Renya had not the slightest idea about anything that could be considered common sense in this world.

“Hey, chump, we’re busy people, and I doubt we’d make half a coin even if we stripped you naked. I figure I’d be willing to let you off the hook if you hightail it out of here right now.”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t mind doing that, but there’s this nagging thing called a conscience that keeps telling me I’d be a horrible person if I did. You know what I mean?”

Only two types of people would jump into an unfamiliar situation to help out a complete stranger: a protagonist in a story or a total hero. The noun in the second case is synonymous with idiot.

“Oh, wait, I guess the adjective in the second case could also be perverted,” said Renya as he mumbled his thoughts out loud.

“The hell are you talking about? What, are you jealous? I’ll let you have a go if you want in. After we’re all done, of course.”

A round of laughter broke out among the men. The pair of women shot him looks of pure revulsion. That was slightly upsetting. Right when he was about to grimace at the treatment he was receiving, the men spoke the words that sealed their fate.

“First of all, what’d you even think you could do with a little stick like that? I’d just grab it and it’d be all over.”

“—What?”

Until that moment, Renya had a distinctly oh-what-a-bother-whatever-shall-I-do kind of expression. It was gone in an instant, replaced by a murderous glare. He was not sure himself why it happened, but a sudden urge welled up within him — the urge to make the man regret every last word he just said.

“Want to say that to me again, punk?”

“The hell are you… What, your dinky little stick? I said I’d just grab it and it’d be all over for you.”

All of a sudden, Renya’s voice changed. He growled in a deep, icy tone. Despite that, the man still thought they had the advantage in numbers and repeated his provocation. Wordlessly, Renya thrust out the bamboo sword with his left hand, brandishing the point at the man.

“What do you think you’re doing, kid?”

“Letting you grab it. The curb stomping will come after that, so clench your cheeks.”

Renya’s frigid declaration was met with a roar of laughter.

“Are you freaking serious? Oh, man, you’re a riot, kid. Hey, this dumbass here said he’d give us a beating with his stick! And he’d let us grab it first!”

“The poor kid probably lost his mind.”

“What an idiot! Well, let’s have some fun! Here, I’ll grab your little stick for you! Then, maybe you’ll learn to regret how stupid you are!”

The man carelessly grabbed the tip with his right hand.

“Well? I grabbed it. What now?”

It was likely that he intended to pull on the bamboo sword, thereby forcing Renya toward him and following up with an attack. He did not expect what Renya did next. As soon as he grabbed the tip, Renya placed both hands on the hilt and quickly twisted it. The shape of a bamboo sword was such that the hilt was slightly thicker than the tip. With one side holding the thick end, and the other holding the thin, it was obvious who had the advantage. Unless there was an overwhelming difference in strength, the thick end would win every time. The torque applied by Renya to the hilt transferred instantly to the tip, forcing it to spin, as well. Immediately after, he pulled the sword out of the man’s hand. In truth, all he did was a simple twist-and-pull action, but that was also all it took for the man to be suddenly grasping thin air.

“Huh?”

Judging by his response, the man was probably fairly confident in his strength. As a result, when he lost his grip on the sword, he simply failed to comprehend what had happened. He was never given the chance to, either.

Renya was not nearly nice enough to wait for reality to work its way into the man’s head. With his bamboo sword pulled back, he took a lunging step forward and thrust it back out at the man’s neck. With the weight of his entire body focused into a pinpoint stab, the tip of his sword sank deeply into the baffled man’s throat before lifting him off his feet and sending him hurtling backwards through the air. While the gawking onlookers stood in place trying to wrap their heads around what just happened, Renya deftly reverted to Seigan-no-kamae — a neutral stance — and uttered a low growl.

“This is not a stick. It is a sword. What it’s made of is irrelevant.”

“You damn ki—”

The man probably meant to say “kid,” but before he could finish, he took a thrust to the pit of his stomach and crumpled onto the ground into a pool of his own spit.

They had no clue. None of them understood what it meant to be within striking distance of Renya. They were in his hurt zone.

Renya dashed to and fro between the men, all of whom seemed too shocked to react. With blistering speed, the bamboo sword in his hand screeched through the air again and again, allowing its targets no chance to defend, let alone retaliate. It cracked brows, crushed throats, bruised stomachs, and broke noses. Thrust after devastating thrust slammed into various vital spots on the men. It took little time before they all fell to the ground, eyes rolled back in their heads.

“I doubt they were listening, though. Whatever,” said Renya as he broke Zanshin — the state of readiness one returns to after each strike — and lowered his stance. In one smooth motion, he returned his bamboo sword to the left side of his waist.

“This might look harmless, but it’s still a weapon, and it’s definitely lethal. There’s a reason thrusts are banned until you reach a certain age.”

Be it kendo or kenjutsu, the most lethal technique in both their repertoires was the thrust. Even the katana, which was known to dull after cutting down two or three people, could be used to stab dozens with its point remaining perfectly sharp. A thrust performed with a bamboo sword, while undeniably less powerful, still carried the risk of killing the opponent in a kendo match.

“Were you expecting me to swing this at you like a club? Look at it. It’s not even sharp. And it’s so light. Which idiot would take something like this and attempt to smack people with its broad side? Come on, man. Think before you mock.” Renya did not expect his unconscious pupils to hear him, but he could not resist the urge to vent.

His thrusts were, in actuality, not simple thrusts. He applied a slight twist to them to improve their penetrating power. In addition, while he was oblivious to the fact, the Indestructible property on his weapon functioned to destroy any destructible objects in its path. When said destructible objects happened to be vital points on a man’s body, the effects were mortally devastating regardless of how well-trained the man was.

With profound apathy, Renya realized that he probably just murdered a few people. The thought elicited absolutely no emotional response.

“…Well, there’s a part of me that is degenerate. Funny how it’s always these kinds of things.”

Six men lay on the ground as six unmoving bodies. With a resigned shrug, he glanced down at them as he mused over the oddness of his own thoughts.

***

Renya examined the men on the ground again. He did not want to deal with the possibility of being attacked when he looked away because one of them was only pretending to be dead. Closer inspection confirmed that they were indeed unconscious, and none of them looked likely to wake up any time soon. His first victim, along with one of the middle ones, took a stab to the throat and had his neck broken. Those two were definitely gone for good. He did not feel particularly guilty, but he did fret a little.

“I wonder if this world recognizes the concept of right of self-defense?”

“Um…”

He heard a hesitant voice and turned around to find both the robed woman and the armored woman approaching him. From up close, he got a better look at them and revised his opinion of their age. While undoubtedly beautiful, they were better referred to as girls instead of ladies. The girl in armor was overtly cautious of him whereas the robed girl bowed to him deeply.

“Thank you very much for helping us.”

“It’s fine. It looks like you didn’t even need the help, anyway,” replied Renya as he glanced at the armored girl. When he’d joined the fray, she told him to run. In that sense, it was possible she felt she could somehow manage on her own. The “these guys are too much” part of her sentence could have meant either “for me” or “for you.”

The armored girl, who apparently realized what he was thinking about, also lowered her head slightly, though she retained a tone of caution in her voice.

“I’m also grateful for your aid. I doubt I could have done much on my own.”

“…Really? I mean, sure, there were six of them, but they were all empty-handed, weren’t they?”

It seemed unlikely to Renya that the odds would be skewed so much in favor of the men. The armored girl, however, looked up at him in surprise.

“Do you not know about the warriors from the Mercenary Kingdom? These people specialize in unarmed combat. They’re master brawlers who can defeat armed soldiers with nothing but their bare hands.”

Renya took another look at the men sprawled on the ground around them. At that moment, the girl’s claim was not very convincing. The men were certainly well-built, but he had a hard time believing they could go toe to toe with properly trained soldiers. Especially when it was their hands against real weapons. Regardless, considering a local just said they could, it was likely that they fought with some sort of special technique. He continued to stare at the men, puzzled by their strange obsession for unarmed combat. The sight of him gaping calmed the armored girl, who relaxed her posture slightly.

“You’re an odd one, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you for not letting your guard down. I’m, uh… What do you call it again? Oh, right, I’m a Wanderer,” he said, recalling the advice of the girl. Supposedly, once he said that, people would understand. Surprise faded from the expressions of the two girls, replaced by a look of curiosity.

“I see. A Wanderer. I’ve heard about people like you before, but this is my first time meeting one in person.”

“I guess it makes sense that a Wanderer wouldn’t know about the Mercenary Kingdom.”

“Glad to hear it makes sense for you,” he said, relieved by the ease with which they accepted his explanation, as well as the fact that the girl’s advice rang true. “I’m Kunugi Renya.”

The two girls hurried lowered their heads as well and introduced themselves.

“Pardon me. My name is Rona Chevalier. I’m an apprentice priest.”

“I’m Shion Femme-Fatale, an apprentice swordsman. May I call you Sir Kunugi?”

“Uh… Actually, Renya is my first name. Also, you can drop the Sir. Renya’s fine.”

The two girls turned to each other, their expressions serious, and began whispering among themselves.

“Ren-nya? Re-nya? R-Ren… ya?”

“Okay, in any case, how about we go somewhere else? Four of these guys are still alive, and there’s no telling when they might wake up,” said Renya as he put a stop to their spluttering. The two girls nodded at his suggestion.

“True. Let’s get out of the forest first.”

“What about them?” Renya pointed his thumb at the six men on the ground. The two dead ones notwithstanding, it seemed unreasonable to just ditch them in the forest.

“Left as-is in this forest, they’ll be dead within ten minutes,” said Rona without batting an eye.

“We’re currently at the west edge of the Eastern continent. This place is known as the Miasmal Forest, and it’s teeming with monsters. We’re not very deep in yet, but even here, there are actually lots of things like plants that eat people. You just don’t see them.”

That made the forest seem terrifying to Renya, but the two girls spoke as if it was the most boring thing in the world. Without so much as a glance at the men on the ground, they walked off. Renya was about to follow them, but he paused, feeling a little uncomfortable about leaving people here to die. Then, it occurred to him that one wrong step might have ended with him lying there in place of the men. With that thought in mind, he placed his palms together and wished them smooth passage to the afterlife before running off after the two girls.

“Renya, would you mind if I asked how long it’s been since you came here as a Wanderer?” asked Rona, who walked at the front of the party.

“Just now, basically.”

“You managed all that when you only just arrived? That’s very impressive.”

Renya had no idea what it was that impressed her. He raised an eyebrow as he followed slightly behind the girls. Seeing the puzzled look on his face, Shion joined in.

“Normally, Wanderers are disoriented when they first arrive. Ro’s impressed by how quickly you managed to floor a bunch of trained soldiers despite only just arriving.”

“Ro?”

“That’s how I’m known by people who are close to me,” answered Rona with a chuckle.

“I see. So, Rona, why were the two of you in a place like that to begin with?” asked Renya, making sure to avoid her nickname. Surely, he was not included in the category of “those close to her.” Rona, however, seemed taken aback by his question.

“Oh? And I just told you my nickname, too. Was that on purpose?”

“I’m not shameless enough to start calling a woman I just met by her nickname.”

“Absolutely.” Shion nodded. “That’s just basic courtesy.”

Rona, meanwhile, seemed somewhat disappointed. Her eyes innocent, she looked at Renya with such an air of naiveté that he began to question whether it was really a good idea for a pair of girls like them to be wandering around a place like this.

“I almost never get to hear a man call me that, you know?”

“I’d prefer to not die.”

Renya’s quip was lost on Rona, who gave him a perplexed look. Shion, however, nodded in approval and mentioned, “He’s a smart one.”

The two appeared to be very good friends. That much was obvious from Shion’s nickname for Rona. In addition, Renya thought that Shion also acted as a guardian of sorts for Rona. Throughout their time walking, Rona did most of the talking. Shion merely threw in a remark here or there and made no effort to strike up a conversation herself. Based on this, Renya figured that Rona was probably the kind of person who could benefit from being a little more wary of others. She saw that Renya helped them and immediately assumed that meant he was trustworthy.

Shion, in comparison, was more cautious. Despite his help, she still harbored enough doubts about him to keep her guard up. From there, it was easy to deduce their relative roles. One was the protector, and the other the protected. Getting too familiar with the latter would probably earn him a swift and painful rebuke from the former. That was why Renya chose to maintain some distance.

“We belong to the Adventurers Guild in the Principality of Triden. We’re here on a mission from the guild to investigate and eliminate a horde of goblins,” said Shion. It was the first time she’d initiated a conversation. Presumably, she became more at ease once she saw that Renya knew not to push his luck on the social front. “There’s been reports from a settlement outside the forest that goblin attacks have been getting worse.”

Renya took a moment to mentally review what she just said. He heard a number of unfamiliar words. The Principality of Triden was probably the name of a country somewhere. Specifically, it was probably the name of the country the two girls lived in. He drew a blank for the Adventurers Guild, but he knew that guilds were associations created by people of similar professions who gathered there and supported each other. If he applied that definition directly, then the Adventurers Guild would be an association made by professional adventurers with the goal of supporting each other. This guild, in turn, hired them for a mission. He also had no idea what a goblin was, but the Almighty Help Function (literally, considering its origin) jumped in to save the day, conveniently displaying explanatory information before his eyes.

《 Notification: Help Activated - Goblins are humanoid monsters with greenish skin and an unsightly appearance. They stand about one meter tall, are entirely hairless, and live in hordes of about twenty individuals or so. They possess no culture to speak of. Female goblins occur extremely rarely, and they normally procreate through crossbreeding with other species. Being incredibly fecund, they are capable of producing offspring with all other humanoid species except elves. They are omnivorous and capable of consuming even rotten matter. Occasionally, individuals with superior ability are born, and these can go on to lead large hordes that number in the hundreds. This is, of course, all common sense if you’ve played games before. —From God 》

The excerpt was fine until he read the last sentence, at which point he mentally dialed the Smack-o-Meter up another notch. He was keeping track for when he saw her again.

“Okay, correct me if I’m wrong, but goblins are monsters that live in groups, right?”

“That’s right. They’re individually weak, but in numbers, they can be a handful.”

“And you’re going to go investigate and eliminate them? With the just two of you?” asked Renya. The numbers alone made the idea seem ill-advised, and that did not even take into account the rather alarming tendency of these monsters to abduct the females of other species. No one should be asking a party of two girls to go on a mission like that. His question, however, prompted a hesitant response.

“Originally,” said Shion with brows furrowed, “we were supposed to be a party of eight.”

Renya did some simple number crunching in his head. Eight minus two equals six. That meant six people were unaccounted for. He just so happened to have incapacitated six people not too long ago. That was probably not coincidence.

“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. Those people we were with just now? They were the ones we took up the mission with.”

Renya recalled being told by Shion that all six of them were warriors from the Mercenary Kingdom. In other words, the guys were probably buddies, and the pair of girls joined their team. Then came the dark forest, the lack of any potential witnesses, and the whole “six of us and two of them” situation, not to mention the two of them happened to be rather attractive. It was easy to see how a bunch of birdbrains would come to the conclusion that it was time to party.

“…Bad luck, huh?” Renya offered his rapport.

“Yes!” Shion nodded emphatically. “Just, the worst.”

Birdbrained as they were, however, Renya had to admit there was a simple-minded logic to their actions, and he knew where they were coming from. Seen from up close, the two girls were definitely headturners. On top of that, one had the tough, sinewy appeal, while the other was all about volume. So much so that there was a distinct sense of weight to their motion. In fact, he was behind her as they walked, and he could still see them bouncing up, down, and all around. Surely, any guy who saw that would have his mind planted firmly in the gutter all day. Whether that should translate to physical action, however, was another story.

That last thought of his caught him by surprise, for it was far less degenerate than he expected. Nevertheless, he turned toward Shion, making sure his eyes were kept firmly on parts of her body that were entirely wholesome, and asked, “So, where are we headed right now?”

“We were using the settlers’ village as a makeshift home base, so we’re heading back there for now,” answered Rona.

“We’d rather go back to Triden, but it’s two days until the next horse wagon, and another two days once we get on,” Shion added.

Renya nodded along in agreement. As he thought, there was no way the two of them were going to wipe out an entire goblin horde on their own. He was not, however, expecting their next words.

“Renya,” said Shion, “you can stay at the village and wait for the next ride to come.”

“While eliminating them is now out of the question, we can’t head back until we’ve at least investigated,” said Rona.

“Whoa, okay, hold up. Aren’t the two of you in way over your heads on this one?”

Renya looked at the priestly robe draped over Rona, its design wholly unsuitable for large amounts of physical movement. Shion was better off, wearing at least something meant for combat. The metal plates that comprised it, however, seemed unfit for the discreet activity of investigation.

“Maybe we are. But if we go back with nothing to show for our efforts, it’ll hurt us down the line.”

“Once they stop taking you seriously, you’re done. That’s adventuring for you.”

Renya pointed out that the guild should carry some of the blame for setting them up with a team in which six of the eight members turned out to be backstabbers, but Shion shook her head.

“The guild definitely did a poor job of vetting, but we’ll have to wait two days to report that.”

“If more goblin attacks happen in that time, it’s the villagers who’ll suffer.”

“I guess that’s true…”

Renya was still not convinced. In his opinion, none of that would matter if they ended up dying. In fact, dying might still be preferable to becoming unwilling accomplices in causing a rise in the local goblin population. Their mind, however, was made up, and he had no choice but to give up protesting.

“In that case, how about I give you a hand?” asked Renya, figuring it would weigh on his conscience to ditch them knowing their chances of success were slim to none. The two of them proceeded to discuss his offer with each other in whispers. After a short span, Shion turned toward him.

“Are you sure? We’d be glad to get help, but you don’t belong to the guild, so you won’t receive any rewards.”

“I don’t mind. In case you’re feeling particularly generous, though, I’d appreciate it if you taught me a few things about how this world works.”

“You’re putting your life on the line, and that’s all you’re asking for? Don’t you think you’re getting the short end of the stick?” asked Shion, caution returning to her narrowed eyes.

Renya sighed. Admittedly, her previous experience with male teammates was not exactly smooth sailing, so she had reason to be wary of him. He still felt she was a being a tad too self-conscious, though.

“I think it’s up to me to decide which end of the stick I’m getting, no?”

“Well, yeah, I guess.”

“See, the thing with information is that it’s an afterthought to those who have it, but it’s priceless to those who don’t,” he added in a slightly exaggerated attempt to support his own reasoning. Shion scrunched up her face, evidently unconvinced. Rona, however, gave a lighthearted chuckle.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Renya’s a good person.”

With her friend smiling cheerfully beside her, Shion gave Renya a look that said she was willing to play along for the time being.

“Man,” grumbled Renya, “and I’m honestly trying to be helpful here.” Left alone to his thoughts, he looked up at the sky and wondered why it was so difficult to earn a bit of trust these days.