A measure of peace returned after those tumultuous days.
Of course, it probably wouldn’t last very long...
Still, it was better than nothing.
With the intensity of my work having risen, moments of peace like this were incredibly precious to me.
During this precious time, since I had a bit of leeway, I tried predicting my future.
I had recently cleared an intermediate dungeon.
If I’d kept working as a mercenary, intermediate dungeons wouldn’t have had much to do with me,
but from the moment I became part of the Hero’s Party, the chances of me encountering them as often as my own living room shot way up.
And later on, I’d set foot not only in intermediate dungeons, but high-grade dungeons, and beyond those, even the highest-grade dungeons.
‘Mm...’
I hadn’t even thought about it for long, only that much, yet the future already looked plenty bleak.
No one knew how fast I would grow.
My talent might be exceptional, but it might also just be the mediocre talent of some ordinary nobody.
The people who had told me I had talent up until now,
the people who had told me to become their disciple,
none of them had ever said exactly what level my talent was at.
I had no objective standard to judge by.
Being accepted into the Hero’s Party meant my brilliant talent had been recognized?
That was true, but I hadn’t entered the Hero’s Party through the normal route.
So there was more than enough possibility that one day, I might no longer be able to stand alongside them.
Even if party members complemented one another... that, too, would eventually reach its limit.
“Phew...”
Look at this.
I’d clearly thought this was peace, but my head was already starting to get complicated.
Of course, it wasn’t because I suddenly had to go to a dungeon or some other mission had come up. This was peace I’d broken all on my own, but still,
“Ah, fuck it. I don’t know.”
I dragged a hand down my face and simply closed my eyes.
Intending to erase every thought from my head.
Tick. Tock.
Thanks to that, a brief silence flowed through the room.
Had peace returned once again?
......
Like hell it had.
Peace, my ass. After thinking about my future just now, I couldn’t afford to sit still like this.
If I were some rich unemployed bum, maybe.
But I was a mercenary who had formally joined the Hero’s Party.
If I was going to be like this, then I shouldn’t be here at all.
Of course, in the case of the Hero’s Party, it wasn’t as if I was here because I wanted to be.
The main purpose had been support for the mercenary corps, after all.
But whatever the reason, if I’d ended up standing in this position, I had to shoulder the responsibility that came with it.
And to do that, I had to swing my sword even one more time right now.
In truth, that wasn’t the only reason.
I became a mercenary to help someone.
From the lowest places, within the lives of ordinary people, I wanted to help them.
And to do that, I needed strength.
I needed ability.
If I didn’t even have room to breathe myself, helping others was impossible.
On top of that, after coming to the Hero’s Party, I needed to become even stronger than before to match the situation here.
If I wasn’t strong, the party members would be in danger,
and if the Hero’s Party lost because of me, that would directly affect people’s everyday lives.
Because thoughts like these were buried in my subconscious, I couldn’t rest even when I wanted to.
My head wanted to rest, but my body was honest... Ah, wait, is that not it?
Anyway,
‘Yeah. Who am I to be resting?’
“Hup!”
I pulled my legs toward my upper body, then used the recoil to kick off the bed and spring up.
I said that I wanted to train and practice even on my days off in order to keep pace with the Hero’s Party,
and a servant who heard my request guided me to a practice ground prepared separately for the Hero’s Party alone.
***
Yeah. The benefits really were good.
First of all, it was nice that there was no one there because it was a practice ground exclusively for the Hero’s Party,
but the equipment and facilities placed there were all of high quality.
Of course, I had my personal sword, so I had no reason to use those things.
Sching.
I drew the sword I had obtained on Mount Tusnis.
‘This feels a bit... strange?’
I didn’t know if it was because I’d slept and woken up, or because my condition or state of mind had changed,
but when I held the sword, it somehow didn’t feel like a sword.
No, of course, what I was holding was a sword, so saying it didn’t feel like a sword probably sounded like nonsense,
but someone like me, who had handled weapons a fair amount, could sense even the slightest difference if something changed in the weapon they used.
That was why what I was feeling now wasn’t something I could simply brush off with, “I’ll think about it later~.”
If it kept bothering me every time I swung the sword, how could I just leave it alone?
‘Well... won’t I get used to it if I swing it a lot?’
Normally, if a sword felt strange, the correct answer would be to change swords,
but I liked my current sword far too much to switch so easily.
For one thing, aura flowed through it extremely well,
and even though I’d handled it pretty roughly when fighting Abraxas recently, the blade hadn’t chipped or anything.
Most decisively... for some reason, I was just drawn to this sword.
“One... two......”
And so, in order to adjust my body to the sword again, I took various stances and swung it.
Including basic movements like horizontal cuts, vertical cuts, and thrusts,
as well as diagonal upward slashes and 360-degree spinning cuts.
I simply tried to swing the sword from as many different angles as possible.
***
“Phew... phew...”
Drip. Drip.
Drops of sweat repeatedly clung to the ends of my hair, then fell.
The clothes I was wearing had already lost their original color and turned darker than usual.
I didn’t know how many hours had passed.
By feel, maybe three hours?
Thud.
I sprawled out on the floor in the shape of a star.
There probably wouldn’t be anyone else using the place anyway, and I doubted there’d be any problem if I just lay here like this, so I closed my eyes and felt the wind blowing past.
If it were an ordinary practice ground, it would probably be indoors or cramped, making it hard to feel a wind like this,
but this place, set aside separately for the Hero’s Party, had a far larger site than I’d expected.
Because of that, all the spaces were spacious, the sky was wide open above, and the ventilation was excellent.
From what I heard, this place had originally been used for generations by members of the marquis’s family.
Ah, not that it wasn’t used anymore.
Even now, the marquis’s daughter used this place, but while we were staying at the marquis’s castle, she would be out on a mission, so it just happened to be empty and available for us to use.
The reason the site was so large and the facilities were so good was that it had originally been used by members of the Roten family, including the marquis’s daughter.
‘Should I take a look around while I catch my breath?’
With a site this large, there couldn’t only be a space for swords.
I was also curious to learn more about what kind of facilities high-ranking nobles used.
“Hup... cha-cha-cha......”
I forced myself up with difficulty, then leisurely wandered around here and there.
As for the structure... well, it didn’t deviate much from what I’d imagined.
No, to be precise, I suppose it would be more accurate to say, “There weren’t any bizarre facilities.”
There were simply separate practice grounds prepared for each type of weapon.
The only ones that were somewhat different were the archery range, the rock climbing and obstacle running area, and the swimming pool.
Among those, my gaze was drawn most strongly to the archery range.
That was where I was standing now, too.
It wasn’t because I was usually interested in bows or liked bows... nothing like that drew me to the archery range.
The only reason I was standing here now was because of the way Eladrien had used her bow in Abraxas’s nest.
No matter how far away they were, no matter how small the target was,
she had fired arrows in rapid succession and driven back the Abraxases.
On top of that, she had even shown a technique where she used aura to split a single arrow into several.
I knew, of course, that bows also had ranks starting from Runner all the way up to Master, but this was the first time I’d personally seen someone who had reached Expert in the field of archery.
For some reason, most martial artists above ordinary Expert level were swordsmen.
Because of that, what she showed me this time had been extremely fresh and shocking.
Creeeak.
I picked up one of the bows lying around at random and slowly drew the string.
Tang!
The bowstring, which had been shaking unsteadily, snapped loose all at once and trembled as if in utter disgust.
“Wow, f—... This might be harder than a sword?”
When I’d only watched, pulling a bowstring had looked like it wouldn’t be that difficult.
After all, anyone who used a bow pulled the bowstring as if it were nothing.
But when I tried pulling it myself, the saying that if someone made something look easy, it meant they were damn good at it, hit me immediately.
“This is hard...”
Just as I was looking down at the bow and muttering,
“You’re making it harder by pulling it like that.”
I heard a familiar woman’s voice from behind me.
I reflexively tried to turn around to see her face, but
tap.
before I could, she grabbed my arm from behind,
“Here, like this...”
and began correcting my posture.
After she adjusted me a few times, it definitely became a bit easier to draw the bow.
However,
my emotions were more tense and uncomfortable than ever.
“U-um, Miss Eladrien? I think you could just explain it in words...?”
“If I explain it in words, it’ll be hard for you to understand right away. It’s faster if I fix it myself.”
N-no.
She was right, but...
To shoot a bow, your right shoulder naturally has to move backward.
So your chest is touching my elbow right now, you know?
What is this, some new kind of flirting??
There’s no way she doesn’t know, right?
On top of that, should I say there was a faint scent of the forest? There was this strangely pleasant fragrance, so it was impossible not to be conscious of it in several ways.
“Don’t I smell right now...? I was sweating like crazy until just now.”
I attempted a second escape in order to get out of this situation.
However,
“I don’t particularly care. I know you’re being considerate, but before I’m a woman, I’m a martial artist. The others are the same. There’s no one among us who’d hate you for smelling a bit like sweat. It’s not as if we’re noble young ladies who only drink tea, right?”
My attempt ended in failure so easily it was almost ridiculous.
And so, I let go of everything and spent time as if I’d been trapped in the Room of Spirit and Time.
“Haa... haa......”
Only after finally being released from her did I let out the breath I had been struggling to hold in.
Whether Eladrien knew my feelings and situation or not, she was just saying that I had more talent than she’d expected.
“So... what brings you all the way here?”
“Well, I was bored, so I thought I’d shoot some arrows, but there was someone here already. And when I looked, you were obviously a beginner. You know how it is, right? Veterans can’t hold back when they see newbies.”
“I do know...”
I nodded and flopped down on the spot.
I needed a moment to calm my heart.
“Good. Rest a bit. This won’t take long.”
Leaving me behind her, she quietly drew the bow.
Creeeeak!
Unlike when I had drawn the bowstring, it was pulled back incredibly smoothly.
Pshwing!
Before I knew it, an arrow of wind had been nocked on the string, and the moment it was released, it traced a gentle curve as if set free and struck a distant target.
“Oh...”
As expected.
‘Someone who specializes in bows really is different.’
I was watching her with that pure admiration when,
swish.
“Huh...?”
The wind suddenly blew, sweeping her long golden hair to the side.
Then,
“Huuuh...???”
Her wide-open back was exposed plainly before my eyes.
I hadn’t known because I’d never noticed before, but it seemed her clothes were backless.
The front also exposed her abdominal area, and if the back was like this too...
‘Just what kind of clothes does she wear on a daily basis?’
There were humans who wore clothes like this too,
but this was seriously the first time I’d seen someone who always dressed that way like Eladrien.
She’d been wearing those clothes from the moment we first met until now.
‘Is it elven culture...?’
When I was practicing alone, I’d thought it was a relief that my thoughts seemed to have calmed down quite a bit,
but after Miss Eladrien arrived, I felt as if I’d gone right back to square one.
“Phew... That was refreshing.”
While I was thinking all sorts of things, she finished shooting and slowly walked toward me.
At the slight swaying of her hair as she walked, I ended up thinking of her back again.
On top of that, maybe because I’d just become conscious of this sort of thing, when I looked at her from the front, my gaze kept going to her swaying chest without me realizing it.
‘Fuck...’
As a man, this couldn’t be helped.
I wasn’t going to stare openly,
but from now on, every time I saw her, I felt like I’d often remember this sight.
Anyway,
she approached me and said,
“Do you want to wash up and eat together? I’m first in line.”
“Ah...”
If you’re in front of me right now, I feel like instinctive desire might take precedence over rational thought, but
“Sure.”
Since I didn’t really have any excuse to refuse, I had no choice but to accept her offer.
It definitely wasn’t because I wanted to see those various sides of her again or anything like that.
.......
I said it wasn’t.