GrM - vol6.1

1.    One Quarter of One Day

“Huff... Hahh... Huff... Hahh...” Haruhiro ran. He dashed, panting.

He glanced behind him. —They’re there.

There. There. There.

Chasing after him.

They were wearing large white sheets with a single eyehole cut out of them. Well, it was something like a long poncho. They had a torso, a head, and two arms and legs. It would have been fair to say that their physique was remarkably similar to a human’s. Just, there was only one eye peeking out from their eyehole.

It was never just one of those white-sheeted things. There were always several of them.

He didn’t need to bother counting. He already knew the number. Six of them. Five carrying spears, and then another carrying a sword and shield. The spears were unremarkable aside from their white poles, but each sword had a slightly purplish luster to it, and each shield looked almost like a mirror.

Their swords had, for some reason, been given the name Lightning Sword Dolphin, and the shields were called Mirror Shields based on their appearance.

Someone had started calling them—well, no, not someone, it was those guys who’d started calling them it—cultists.

The spear bearers were standard cultists, all of which they had nicknamed Pansuke. The sword bearer was an elite cultist, for which they used the nickname Tori-san. Those names had stuck.

“Damn, I’m tired...” Haruhiro muttered.

Even as he grumbled, Haruhiro kept running without letting up. If he didn’t keep running at full-tilt, the Pansukes and Tori-san would catch him. If that happened, Haruhiro was a mere thief. He’d be ganged up on, and almost certainly killed in an instant. So, he had to run.

Run away, he thought. For now, just run. Run like mad. It’s the only option.

Beneath a sky with deep blue, a slightly reddish blue, purple, orange, yellow, red, and all the colors in between scattered across it, he raced as hard as he could through the white town.

—A town.

Yes. This was a town, or at the very least something of that variety. On either side of the roads paved with white stone, there were box-like buildings made, unsurprisingly, of white stone. No miraculous convergence of coincidences would ever have created something like this naturally. It was clear that someone, some intelligent beings, had created them.

“Augh! Enough!” Haruhiro shouted.

Sweat got into his right eye and stung. He got an urge to look back again, but he resisted it. Without doing anything unnecessary, he ran. With one eye closed, he ran.

“Hah... Hahh... Hah... Hah, hah...!”

It’s that corner. Turn there.

He practically dove left around the corner, then kept running down the slightly narrow path.

The footsteps of the cultists were closing in on him. His stomach hurt, as if it was being squeezed tight.

Haruhiro yelled as loudly as possible. Or rather, he couldn’t stop himself from shouting, and his voice came out on its own. His upper body was so upright that he felt like it might bend over backwards.

He pumped his arms. Pumped them as hard as he could.

Should I raise my thighs higher? Will that just tire me out more? Oh, I don’t know anymore. It hurts. I should never have gone along with it, this stupid plan.

“Crown Break!” Tada shouted.

They’re here. Finally. They came.

Without stopping, Haruhiro turned back to look. From a building off to

his right, a man wearing glasses and a priest’s uniform had leapt down, attacking the cultists. Tori-san, specifically. The man in priest’s clothes had a warhammer that looked stupidly heavy, and he swung it down with a satisfying thud on the cultist Tori-san’s head.

Tori-san was a pretty high-level swordsman, a cut above the Pansukes, but he hadn’t seen this coming at all. He took the full force of the blow.

Of course, he wasn’t fine after taking a blow to the head from that warhammer. The cultists ponchos were highly resistant to bladed attacks, and could absorb impacts to a certain degree, but that wasn’t going to be good enough here. Tori-san collapsed with his head caved in.

With their leader suddenly down, the Pansukes panicked.

“And here!” rang out a voice that sounded like exactly what you’d expect from a handsome guy.

The ambush wasn’t done yet.

A man who wore armor with a hexagram engraved on it jumped up into the air to follow the man in the priest uniform, Tada.

“Huh?” Haruhiro stopped despite himself. Why? Why did he have to jump up? Couldn’t he just drop down?

But Haruhiro knew the answer to that question. This was not a man you could apply reason to. He was well aware of that, but he was still appalled.

“This is where I stylishly finish this!”

Tokimune, the paladin who led the Tokkis, flashed his white teeth as he reached the apex of his jump, then plunged downwards.

They had managed to get the Pansukes flustered, but he’d wasted it. The Pansukes thrust out their spears towards Tokimune.

Aw, crap. That’s not good. He’s gonna get skewered, thought Haruhiro.

Only he didn’t.

“Dance like a panther!” Tokimune rotated his entire body along with his sword and shield, knocking the Pansukes’ spears aside. “And sting like a whale!”

Stepping on Pansuke A’s head, he kicked off and landed a roundhouse on Pansuke B, then landed on the ground and closed one eye.

“I settled that, huh,” Tokimune said, grinning.

“Well, you haven’t gotten run through yet, at least,” Haruhiro shot back, making a funny joke.

Tada, the man in the priest outfit, slammed his warhammer into Pansuke

C’s flank and sent him flying. “You didn’t nail anything!”

“Tch, tch, tch.” Tokimune calmly clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “The battle’s already settled, you know?”

“Heh!” A middle-aged guy wearing a ponytail, an eyepatch, and a tight- fitting leather jumpsuit, a cringe-worthy combination, leapt out from an alleyway to bury his single-edged sword in Pansuke D’s eye.

With hardly any delay, out followed a woman who, judging by her outfit, looked like a mage, but was gigantic in more ways than one and dual-wielded a staff and sword. Her nickname was Ms. Giantess. Mimori, also known as Mimorin, first struck Pansuke E in the side of the face with her staff, then without missing a beat stabbed her sword through his eye.

“Good luck, yeah! Kill them all!” A petite girl with blonde hair and blue eyes stuck her head out from the alley and cheered them on in a mix of Japanese and English.

Anna-san might peek out, but she wouldn’t get involved. She was essentially a cheerleader.

“Yahoo! Let me get in on this, too!” Kikkawa cried. The uncommonly easygoing warrior jumped off the roof, probably imitating Tokimune. It was fine up to the point where he danced in midair and struck a pose.

Well, no, it wasn’t fine. It was completely pointless.

The easygoing warrior Kikkawa tried to pounce on Pansuke A, the one whose face Tokimune had landed on and thrown off-balance. Or that was what he’d seemed to be going for, but while he was striking a pose, Tada grunted and swung his warhammer. It knocked Pansuke A flying until he slammed into the wall of the building, and Kikkawa’s bastard sword slashed through nothing but air.

“Ahaha, Tadacchi! You stole my kill!” Kikkawa cried. “Wahahahahahh!” Tokimune shouted.

Then a piece of trash jumped onto Pansuke B, which Tokimune had knocked down with his roundhouse kick but was still trying to get up.

“Mine, mine, mine!” That bloodthirsty piece-of-trash-to-end-all-pieces-of- trash kicked Pansuke B to the ground, then held him down and went in for the killing blow. “For Skullhell!”

“Out of the way.” Tada kicked the piece of trash out of his way, then mercilessly brought his warhammer down on Pansuke B’s head, splattering it all over the inside of his poncho.

“Noooooooooooooooooooo!” The piece of trash known as Ranta sat down and wailed.

Well, at least he’s not crying.

“What the hell?!” Ranta screamed. “I was gonna off that one! You stupid moron!”

“Huh?” Tada pressed his left index finger against his bloodstained warhammer. “A stupid moron? You calling me that?”

“...No, not you,” Ranta said. “I’m sorry. Seriously, seriously, sorry. I didn’t mean you, really. No... F-Forgive me!” The piece of trash quickly got down and performed a kowtow. “It was just the way it came out, you see!

Spur of the moment, and all that! I didn’t really mean it!”

“Well, good. This time, I’ll let it slide.” Tada shouldered his warhammer. “Next time, I kill you.”

“Y-Yes, siiiiir! Th-Th-Th-Thank you kindly!” Ranta stuttered.

Is he stupid? Haruhiro wondered, but he also wouldn’t put it past Tada to bludgeon Ranta with that warhammer without hesitation. Apologizing was probably the right call. Seriously, the Tokkis were off the charts in all sorts of ways.

“Wow...” Yume, who had been hiding nearby, came out with her eyes wide. “It’s already over. Sure was quick, huh.”

“It sure was.” Shihoru came out from behind Yume, glancing around. “No chance for us to show off...” The lanky Kuzaku came out from the

alley.

“It was too fast,” Merry said with a sigh. She was standing behind Kuzaku diagonally.

“Well, when we go to work, it’s just this easy, am I right?” Tokimune flashed his all-too-white teeth and gave them a thumbs up. “The real fight’s just getting started though, right, Haruhiro?”

“Right.” Haruhiro kicked Ranta in the backside. “Come on, get ready.” “Ow! Hey! You’re just a Haruhiro, how dare you kick—”

“Meow!” Yume nocked an arrow. “It’s coming!”

Noise. There was a loud noise coming their way. From the direction of the corner Haruhiro had just come around. Here it was.

Taller than Mimorin the Giantess, taller than 190-centimeter-tall Kuzaku. More than double their size, probably. It was nearly four meters tall. It had a lion-like head, but with only one eye.

“Bwahaha! Time for me to show my stuff!” Ranta picked up Tori-san’s Lightning Sword Dolphin. “Here I go! With my usual Super Stunning Strategy!”

“That name...” Shihoru looked thoroughly unimpressed with it. “Whoop!” The arrow Yume let loose shot towards the four-meter-class

white giant’s one eye, and—did not hit it, instead scratching the side of its face. “Ahhh! So close!”

Haruhiro took a deep breath, letting the stress out of his shoulders, then glanced to Tokimune. “Okay, let’s do the usual.”

“Haha!” Tokimune gave a friendly laugh and slapped Haruhiro on the back. “Okay, okay. Let’s do this like we always do.”

“Delm, hel, en,” Mimorin began to chant as she drew elemental sigils with her staff while still holding her drawn sword in her left hand. “Ig, arve.”

She was a former warrior, and it seemed she was still more used to fighting in close quarters, but she was a mage now. This was the most basic of basic spells in Arve Magic, Fireball. The elemental formed a ball of fire larger than a person’s fist, then sped towards the white giant. The white giant made no attempt to avoid it. The ball of fire struck the white giant in the chest, and... vanished.

“Don’t get stepped on!” Haruhiro shouted an order he realized everyone already knew even as he said it, then looked to Kuzaku. “Kuzaku, you’re up front. Also, Tokkis, form the front line, please.”

“We’re on it!” Tokimune banged on his shield with his right fist while still holding his sword in that hand. “Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, let’s make this flashy!”

“Righty-o!” Kikkawa called. “Heh... So be it!” Inui added.

“Yeah,” Tada shot back. “I’ll show you I’m the strongest.”

Tokimune went, followed by Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, and a silent Kuzaku. Haruhiro raised his hips up and down. He didn’t change position. Yume,

Shihoru, and Merry took up positions right behind Haruhiro. Anna-san and Mimorin came over next to him, too.

I’m sure I have sleepy eyes right now, he thought. His breathing wasn’t ragged, and he was feeling pretty calm, more or less.

Tokimune, Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, and Kuzaku had formed a horizontal line with as much space between them as possible. That said, this wasn’t exactly a

wide road. It was a little over three meters wide, maybe.

Should we have chosen a different road? Haruhiro wondered. But if they had, then it wouldn’t have worked as well for ambushing the cultists and taking them out quickly.

This time the cultists had formed a group with a white giant, so there were, broadly speaking, two options. Give up, or come up with a plan.

If it had just been Haruhiro and his group, they would have done the former. Ranta (the piece of trash) could have hollered all he wanted, but Haruhiro would have used all of his authority as leader to get the group to retreat.

But because, for better and for worse, they were working with the Tokkis, it wasn’t that easy for him anymore. If Haruhiro said, Hey, this is dangerous, let’s not do it, the Tokkis weren’t the type to listen to him and back down quietly.

In the end, they came up with a plan where Haruhiro would act as a decoy, running around to separate the cultists from the white giant. Once the cultists were finished off, then they’d sort out the giant.

Well, I’ve gotten used to it, Haruhiro thought. A month had passed since they’d found this new area, NA for short, and discovered the Dusk Realm.

A lot’s happened in that time, he thought. Too much, really. No, maybe not, I guess?

Has it? Yeah. It has.

At least, by Haruhiro’s standards, it had been a rather eventful month. It was no exaggeration to say that the Tokkis had been around half of the reason for that.

After all, they had found this place together. Actually, Haruhiro and his party had found the entrance first, but it was generally thought the band of jokers, the Tokkis, had discovered it, while the Goblin Slayers, Haruhiro and his crew, had just tagged along. But ever since then, many things had happened to make them all closer. That was why, because Haruhiro and the others had remained too worried to go on their own, the two groups had ended up going to explore the Dusk Realm regularly together without really having discussed it.

This and that had happened. Every day, sometimes multiple times in a day, there would be some incident or another. After all, the Tokkis were nuts.

Unless Haruhiro, the one with pretensions of having common sense, was

actually the one who was crazy? Were the Tokkis normal? He had worried a bit about that, but it was all quite ridiculous.

The Tokkis were crazy. Haruhiro was sane. Ranta aside, there was a nigh- unfillable trench between Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis. No, not nigh unfillable, completely unfillable. It couldn’t be done. No way, no how. Once he started thinking that way, it actually made things a little easier on him.

Though only a little.

If he knew it couldn’t be filled, he didn’t have to try. It was pointless to.

He tried not to think, Why are things like this? He always ended up thinking it anyway, but he didn’t let himself agonize over it. There was no helping it. It was just the kind of people they were. Once he accepted that, if he just understood it, he could anticipate what they were likely to do in a given situation. That way, he didn’t have to get upset or surprised every time they showed their insanity.

Other than that, they were certainly not incompetent, so he could use them well. In point of fact, while they were a little too biased towards offense, they were a real force to be reckoned with in combat. Tokimune and Tada, in particular, were first-rate attackers. Tokimune was a paladin, so that was fine for him, but even if he was a former warrior, Tada was supposed to be a priest...

Anyhow, if they could just get along with the Tokkis, they could do things together that Haruhiro’s party couldn’t do alone. It wouldn’t be impossible for them to get through situations that seemed deadly.

Also, and this was the most important point in a way, they could make money. Even splitting half their earnings with the Tokkis, Haruhiro and his group were earning far more efficiently than they ever could have if they’d worked for it slowly and steadily by themselves.

“Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart!” Shihoru cast Thunderstorm, and a bundle of lightning struck the white giant.

There was a pretty tremendous noise, and the white giant’s entire body convulsed. Its feet stopped. Of course, it would start walking again soon, and even if it was only walking, the white giant was huge. Its legs were long. It would close in on them with massive strides.

“Hey, hey, heeeey!” Tokimune beat his shield to provoke it. “Come on, come on, come onnnnn!”

“Go, go, go, go!” The white giant swung its fist down at Tokimune.

“Nimbly!” Tokimune leapt back and away. “Go, go!” The white giant swung its fist again. “Spin!” Tokimune danced out of the way.

“Go!” The white giant reached out with both arms to grab Tokimune. “Whee!” Tokimune did a backflip to get away.

“Rahh!” Tada immediately slammed the white giant’s arm with his warhammer.

“Go, go...” The white giant pulled back its arm, turning its one eye on Tada.

Tada, intentionally no doubt, leisurely rested his warhammer on his shoulder and flipped his middle finger at the white giant. He probably meant something like, Come get me, you piece of shit. It wasn’t clear if the white giant understood the gesture. That was uncertain, but the white giant bent its knees and lowered its hips. It was getting ready to jump.

“Get back!” Haruhiro shouted.

That probably could have gone without saying, but he shouted it out just to be sure.

“Yeah, everyone knows that! Skip it! You don’t have to say it!” I don’t want them thinking that stuff, or “We already know that, you idiot,” but... Even if Haruhiro was going to get called an idiot, he had to do it. That was Haruhiro’s stance.

“All right!” Tokimune called.

The frontliners, including Tokimune, Tada, Kikkawa, Inui, and Kuzaku all pulled back as one. At almost exactly the same time, the white giant made its big jump.

“Pharaoh?!” Kikkawa exclaimed bizarrely.

What’s a pharaoh? Haruhiro thought.

The white giant leapt seven, eight meters, then landed with an earthshaking crash. No one got crushed, but if they had been even a little late in backing away, there was a risk that they might have.

Now. Haruhiro didn’t even have to issue the order. “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta, who had been lurking in the alleyway,

lifted his Lightning Sword Dolphin aloft and charged at the white giant.

Ranta didn’t so much slash it as whack it with the sword. He was targeting the white giant’s right leg.

“Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!” Without giving it

pause for breath, Ranta struck, and struck, and struck.

Each time the white giant was hit with his Lightning Sword Dolphin, though only for a very short period, its giant, sculpture-like body would convulse.

This was it: the Super Stunning Strategy. What a terrible name.

The name aside, this tactic was highly effective, and by stopping its movement like this, it opened up a chance to fell the white giant. Only a chance, though. From here on, the battle would be decided by pure firepower... or destructive power, really.

“Tada-san!” Haruhiro called.

Tada licked his lips and charged forth. “Don’t tell me everything. Just let witnessing my power send you to heaven.”

No, I’m not going to heaven, Haruhiro wanted to mutter, but he restrained himself. If he took a comedic jab at every little thing the Tokkis said, he’d never last.

“Now, my killer attack—” Tada did a run-up before launching into a forward somersault and slamming his warhammer down on the white giant’s left knee with both hands. “Somersault Bomb!”

But man, Tada-san’s seriously amazing, thought Haruhiro.

Tada’s warhammer sank into the white giant’s left knee, sending lots of shards flying.

“Take that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and thaaaat!” Ranta hollered. He kept swinging his Lightning Sword Dolphin and stunning the white giant.

Tada took a single breath, adjusted the position of his glasses, then unhurriedly put some distance between himself and the white giant.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ranta shouted, looking at Tada while beating his Lightning Sword Dolphin against the white giant’s leg. “Hurry the hell up, man! This is pretty tough, dammit!

Gwahhhhhhhhhh!”

Tada cocked his head to the side, swinging his warhammer around. “Did you just curse at me?”

“No, sir, I did not! You’re hearing things, man! Just hearing things!

Nwahhhhhhhhh!”

“I am, huh? So, is that tough?”

“It’s super, super tough, man! Hurry up! Like, seriously, seriously, get

another hit in!”

“Like I care,” said Tada. “Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

“If it’s tough for you, that’s your problem, not mine.” “Heyyyyyyyyyy, you ass!”

“‘You ass’?” Tada repeated.

“Tada-san! Tada-sama! Tada the God!”

“I’m joking.” Tada smirked and then raced forward.

—Yeah, Haruhiro thought. I don’t get it. Tada’s jokes are always incomprehensible.

“Ahaha! That rocked! I love Taddachi’s surreal gags!” yelled Kikkawa.

Since the only one laughing is Kikkawa, and he has ridiculously high social skills, that probably means even the Tokkis don’t get Tada’s jokes, Haruhiro thought. That’s slightly reassuring. If they were the sort of people who burst out laughing at that, I’d never be able to put up with them.

“Kwahhhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhhhh! Kwahhhhh! Uwahhhh!” Ranta let out what sounded like his death screams, wringing out the last of his power to keep whaling on the white giant’s right leg.

“Now that I think about it—” Tada did a forward somersault and unleashed another Somersault Bomb. “—this killer attack isn’t killing it at all, is it?!”

This time he went for the right knee. There was a resounding crunch.

Tada glanced over to see that Ranta was still working hard, then followed up with another two or three hits.

“Yume!” Haruhiro shouted, to which she responded, “Meow!” and started to fire arrows.

It was the archery skill, Rapid Fire. With no gap in between, she would nock arrows to her composite bow, then fire. She fired, and fired.

Inui’s a hunter, too, and he has a bow, but I’ve never seen him use it—I think. That thought suddenly occurred to Haruhiro. Maybe I should ask him the next time I get a chance. “Aren’t you gonna use your bow?” No, maybe it should be, “Can’t you use your bow?” Of course, Inui might snap. But he might fight harder because of it. Would he? I dunno. I mean, it’s Inui.

Yume fired off six shots in rapid succession, two of which hit the white giant’s eye. It was a good result coming from Yume, who was a poor archer despite being a hunter.

“Gwah!” Ranta fell back, stumbling. “I’m at my limit!”

“Good job, Ranta! You have nice a butt hole, yeah!” Anna-san’s compliments were pretty effective. It was little wonder why the Tokkis kept her as their mascot and idol. Though you had to question why she’d compliment his butt hole, of all things.

“All right! Leave it to me!” Tokimune’s voice came from up above—

Wait, when did he get there?

He had been in the street until just moments ago, but now Tokimune was on top of the building ahead of Haruhiro and to the left.

“Hahhh!” Tokimune shouted. He leapt off the building with a cry.

Or rather, he leapt from it to something else. From the roof to the white giant’s shoulder.

Ranta had exhausted himself, and his Lightning Sword Dolphin’s stunning effect had worn off.

“Gu, go, ga, go!” The white giant tried flailing around.

Before it could, Tokimune buried his sword in its one eye. Tokimune didn’t just thrust it in, though, he twisted it around.

“There it is! Tokimune-san’s deadly skill, Saint Arpeggio!” Kikkawa cried.

Kikkawa was saying something, but if Haruhiro started wonder why it was an arpeggio, of all things, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, so he wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard the comment.

No, but seriously, why is it an arpeggio? Is it music now?

“Hah!” Tokimune immediately jumped away from the white giant, returning to the building.

Between Yume’s arrows and Tokimune’s Saint Arpeggio, or whatever it was called, the white giant had taken more damage to its one eye than it could handle.

“Pull back!” Haruhiro shouted as he backed away himself.

Yume and the other girls, Ranta, and everyone on the front line except for Tokimune put some distance between themselves and the white giant.

Tokimune alone was different. On top of the building, he was literally watching from on high.

“Go, go, go!” The white giant swung both of its arms around, unsteady on its feet. It likely wanted to attack Haruhiro and the others somehow, but it was blind. On top of that, both its knees were damaged. The white giant fell

into a building on the right hand side, opposite from where Tokimune was. The outer wall, while it didn’t collapse outright, took some damage.

“Go, go!” The white giant tried to steady itself, but it couldn’t brace its legs, so that wasn’t going so well for it. It looked like it might trip.

“Atta—” Haruhiro began to shout, then swallowed the word. Tada was already surging towards the white giant.

The white giant didn’t fully trip, but it fell to one knee. Tada leapt towards that knee with a forward somersault, then...

“Somersault Bomb!”

It was a single strike—no, a single blast. Having been hit by a second Somersault Bomb, its left knee was half-destroyed. It probably wouldn’t be getting back on its feet like that.

“Go!” The white giant reached out to grab Tada, but it didn’t even graze him.

“Yeah, that’s how awesome I am!” Tada shouted. While singing his own praises, he not only didn’t run, he landed a solid blow on the white giant’s right hand with his warhammer.

Having figured out Tada’s location based on that, the white giant reached out for him with its left hand. Tada knocked this one back with his warhammer, too.

“If you think you can beat me, try again in a million years!” Tada hollered.

“Nothing to do...” Kuzaku muttered.

Oh, are you sure about that? Haruhiro turned to look behind him. Things happened sometimes, so he could never let his guard down. And sure enough, from the other side of the road, a number of Pansukes were running this way with their spears ready.

“Enemy reinforcements!” he shouted. “Pansukes, three of them! Kuzaku, Kikkawa, Inui-san!”

“Gotcha!” Kuzaku called. “Okie-dokie!” Kikkawa yelled.

“Heh... What choice do I have?” Inui called back.

Kuzaku, Kikkawa, and Inui immediately broke off from the front line, running past Haruhiro and the girls in the back line to deal with the enemy reinforcements. Merry glanced over in that direction quickly, but immediately looked back to the white giant. The power of the God of Light,

Lumiaris, didn’t reach the Dusk Realm, so she couldn’t use light magic here. Even if all she could do was act as a bodyguard for Shihoru, Merry was staying focused.

That’s not what I’m worried about, Haruhiro thought. Merry is overly serious by nature. Because of that, once she’s done what she ought to, she tends to start thinking, “Is this good enough?” and “Isn’t there anything else I can do?” I need to watch out for that, and take care of her. Naturally, I mean that as a leader. Nothing more than that. There are no other feelings involved. None. Zero, okay? Zero.

“Now you give it one last push, yeah! Fight on! Yeah!” Anna-san gave some welcome encouragement.

“Delm, hel, en, rig, arve!” Mimorin chanted as she drew elemental sigils with her staff.

Fire Pillar. This was the strongest spell that the former warrior Mimorin had. A pillar of flame rose at the white giant’s feet. That said, it was smaller than Mimorin herself, and actually kind of cutesy. It was facing a massive white giant, so it wasn’t likely to have much of an effect.

If she’s aiming to become an Arve Magic user, shouldn’t she at least acquire the Blast spell? Haruhiro thought. It wasn’t something for a thief, and a member of another party at that, to give his opinion about, and Haruhiro had a somewhat complicated relationship with Mimorin, so while he thought that, he didn’t say it. Even if he found himself wanting to say it occasionally, he really couldn’t.

“Ohm, rel, ect, el, vel, darsh!” Shihoru used the Shadow Echo spell to launch three shadow elementals, which hit the white giant. The damage was trivial, no doubt, but her magic was purely meant as support here.

“...Whew.” Ranta came up beside Haruhiro and squatted. “Good work,” Haruhiro told him, looking around as he did.

While he did, he flexed his knees so that he was ready to move at any time. Thanks to that, at times like this, Haruhiro was in a slightly forward- leaning position, both arms hanging loosely at his sides, and looking around restlessly with sleepy eyes. If someone who didn’t know any better saw him, the way he looked, they’d probably think, Is that guy all right?

Haruhiro was aware that it wasn’t a good look, but this was also the optimal stance for him to be in, so there wasn’t much he could do about it. He’d given up on looking cool. For now, he had to focus on utility. Haruhiro

could never be Tokimune.

Speaking of Tokimune, he reached the new enemies before Kuzaku did. “The true art of killing in midair!”

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, then jumping down from there, he landed a splendid kick of Pansuke F’s head. Then, once he had knocked Pansuke F flying and landed, he swept Pansuke G’s spear away with his shield and thrust his sword through the cultist’s eyehole. Without missing a beat, he closed in on Pansuke H and whacked him with Bash and Double Thrust. Pansuke H managed to twist his body around and avoid a lethal blow through his eyehole, but he was overwhelmed and recoiling. When Kuzaku and the other two finally made it, the fight was already won.

Tokimune was strong. He was strong when he got carried away, and also strong when pushed into a corner. Basically, he was always strong. He had charisma, too, and a good personality.

If he had one shortcoming, it was perhaps that he was impulsive, arbitrary, and he would run off and do things all by himself. But that was a trend with all of the Tokkis.

When people are similar, they often are hostile to and reject those like them, but that didn’t happen with the Tokkis. Everyone seemed to be getting along and having fun, so they must have been doing something right.

“Go, go!” The white giant must have measured things out poorly or something, because it slammed into a building while moving at almost a crawl. No, it couldn’t see, so it couldn’t measure things at all.

“You clumsy oaf!” Tada hollered.

As if he had been waiting for just this moment, Tada landed a series of strikes on the white giant’s elbow and half-destroyed it. Now an enormous blow had been dealt to both the white giant’s left knee and elbow. Then, targeting the white giant’s right foot, Tada showered blows on its ankle, following it up by knocking its heel off. It had taken a blow to the right knee as well, so the white giant’s range of motion was fairly limited now.

Haruhiro nodded. “Ranta. One more time, it’s your turn.”

“Heh.” Ranta got up and shook his head back and forth, rotating his shoulders and taking a deep breath. “Fine, if you insist. I’ll do it!”

“Tada-san!” Haruhiro shouted.

When Haruhiro gave the signal, Tada backed down and Ranta stepped up to take his place.

Tada went into the alley. He probably meant to climb up onto the roof. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta hit the white giant with his Lightning

Sword Dolphin. He hit it. He hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it.

It looked like Tokimune and the others were done mopping up the enemy reinforcements. They were headed back this way.

Tada did a forward somersault off of the roof.

Still, I’m amazed he can do something that dangerous, thought Haruhiro.

At this point, it no longer surprised him, but it did impress him.

“Ultra! Somersault! Booooomb!” Tada’s warhammer thudded into the nape of the white giant’s neck with incredible force.

They had tried a lot of different things, but a white giant’s weak points seemed to be its one eye and the nape of its neck. Or rather, compared to its body as a whole, the skin there was a bit thinner. It wasn’t just that their necks were especially vulnerable to impacts; they seemed to have something analogous to the spinal cord in humans there, too. It was a hard area to target, but attacks that landed there were extremely effective.

“That’s enough, Ranta!” Haruhiro called.

“Yeah, I know, duh!” Ranta put some distance between himself and the white giant.

While Tada had fallen to the ground after unleashing his Somersault Bomb, he seemed to have landed well.

The white giant slumped over and fell on its front. At this point, Haruhiro didn’t need to urge anyone on.

“All right! Party time! Yeah?!” Anna-san called.

With that declaration by Anna-san, Mimorin was the first to begin climbing up the white giant’s back. Tokimune quickly caught up and got ahead of her, then Kikkawa and Inui followed. Kuzaku followed a little bit after them. Ranta and then Tada rushed up to the white giant and hit it.

Stabbed it.

Haruhiro felt himself wanting to join in, too, but he refrained. There was no need, and more cultists might show up. It was even possible another white giant might come this way.

Haruhiro, Yume, Shihoru, and Merry stayed on the sidelines of this merciless celebration, not taking part. They cheered them on along with Anna-san.

I have to keep a cool head at all times, Haruhiro thought. Of course, there will be times when I have to gamble with my life, too. When those times come, rather than calm thought, the only option is to entrust my body to instinct and wild frenzy, then count on agility to carry me through, I’m sure. But I don’t want to invite those sorts of situations, and to avoid them, I really do have to try and stay calm.

You’re boring, you know that, Ranta often said to him. Haruhiro didn’t think he was an interesting person. If he was being told he was boring, it was probably true.

My personality is plain. My face looks average. Middle of the middle, or lower, even. I’m not tall, either. I’m not especially shrewd, and I’m not someone who’s actually really talented but trying to keep my skills a secret, or anything like that. The best I can say is I’m middle-of-the-road. Well, I’m normal.

The thing is, I don’t mind my current self, a person who can say, “I’m fine with being normal,” and not look down on himself for it.

I’m normal, and I’m sure I’m going to keep being normal. I can’t become anyone special, and I’m not trying to. Though it’s not like I’m satisfied with the current state of things, either.

I’d say to take it step by step, but that’s asking for too much, so half-steps will be fine. Even if it’s only one quarter of one step, and even if we can’t make that much progress day to day, ten days from now, I want to have gotten just a little bit farther ahead.

Somehow, I get the sense that we’re managing that. That may be why I’m able to not hate myself.

I’m doing my best, right? What’s more, I have results to show for it, which means I’m being rewarded, right? Being rewarded for your effort is a blessing, isn’t it? That means I’m pretty fortunate, aren’t I? I can look up into the sky and report to Manato and Moguzo, who we’ll never see again, “We’re still working at it, guys.” Isn’t that amazing?

I think it is.

While watching over the merciless party with his sleepy eyes, Haruhiro looked around to ensure no new enemies were coming. No matter how advantageous their situation, even if the battle were more or less decided, something could suddenly happen to turn everything around. If that happened, it happened, and they just had to accept it and move on, but he

didn’t want to make that sort of decision if he didn’t have to.

The nape of the white giant’s neck and the back of its head were more or less destroyed, and it had already stopped moving. It seemed to be dead.

But in some ways, the hard part of dealing with a four-meter giant was yet to come. It was a time-intensive and bothersome task, but it paid off well.

At first, the white giants had been these huge, dangerous things that had just gotten in their way, and they had treated them as something to run away from as soon as they saw them. However, Shinohara of Clan Orion had discovered that the white giants had a number of organs inside them where an unknown metal was concentrated. Ever since someone had spread word of that discovery, the white giants had become a favored target for volunteer soldiers.

By the way, this wasn’t a recent development. It had happened close to a month ago.

“I got me some rainbow pyroxene!” Ranta shouted like an idiot, holding up an orb with a fifteen-centimeter diameter that shone with the rainbow of colors its name suggested.

As far as Haruhiro knew, these rainbow pyroxene organs that were unique to the white giants were usually fist-sized, so that one would be considered large.

“Yahoo! Me, too! Me, too! Me, too! I got one!” Kikkawa lifted another rainbow pyroxene up high, with one eye closed and his tongue stuck out. This second one was ten centimeters across, maybe. Still, that wasn’t small.

In the end, those were the only two rainbow pyroxenes they extracted from the white giant. However, when they stripped the cultists of their ponchos and searched them, they were able to find a number of accessories with small pieces of rainbow pyroxene embedded in them. These rainbow pyroxenes had been diligently ground and polished, so they had a high value for their small size.

“Well, I’d say we’ll make around six,” Tokimune said from atop the giant’s remains, his white teeth sparkling as he smiled.

While thinking, Wow, they’re brilliant, Haruhiro tilted his head to the side in thought. “Nah... I’d say about five, maybe?”

“That’s all, you think?” Tokimune asked. “Probably.”

Five gold. Split fifty-fifty with the Tokkis, Haruhiro and the party’s take would be two gold and fifty silver. Split six ways, that was a bit over 41

silver each. Not bad. Or rather, it was an incredible amount that they could never have imagined making a few months ago.

I shouldn’t get used to this, he thought. I have to assume making this much won’t be a given.

The white giant’s remains would have to be left where they were, but they at least dragged the cultists’ corpses to the side of the road before Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis moved on.

Soon, they passed by someone. Not a cultist, and not a white giant, but a human.

No, humans. Volunteer soldiers, to be precise.

“Oh.” The hunter that led the group gave off an unpleasant vibe. He wore a hide outfit, a cap with a feather in it, and had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung over his back. He was probably a little older than Haruhiro and the others. He had eyes like a fox and a crooked mouth. “It’s the Goblin Slayers and the comedians.”

“Hello, Kuzuoka-san.” Haruhiro bowed his head slightly.

Among all the senior volunteer soldiers, there were a few he was less than happy about having to address with a -san. This was one of them. They hadn’t had much in the way of interaction, but he did have a grudge against this man. When they had just arrived in Grimgar, Kuzuoka had scouted Moguzo to join his party, then stolen his money and abandoned him.

“Tch...” Ranta clicked his tongue with distaste.

Kuzuoka narrowed his eyes and tried to intimidate them with a “Huhhh...?”

There were a warrior, thief, mage, priest, and dread knight following Kuzuoka. One looked as if he wanted to say, Here we go again..., while another was impassive, and yet another seemed amused. Each of the five had their own reaction, but none of them were anything remotely friendly.

“Why, hello, hello, Kuzuoka-saaaan,” Kikkawa butted in, slapping Kuzuoka on the shoulder in that over-friendly manner of his. “It’s been, like, ages. You been doing all right, Kuzuoka-saaaan? Like, how’ve things been lately?”

“Damn it, don’t touch me, Crap-kawa!” Kuzuoka yelled.

“Huh? What’s this? I’m cute as crap? Man, I always thought I was.” “I didn’t say that, you dolt!”

“No, no, no, no need to be shy, Crap-oka-saaaan. Oops, got it wrong, it’s

Kuzuoka! Soz, soz! I’m gonna reflect on what I did!”

“There’s no way you’re reflecting on anything!” Kuzuoka screamed. “Yup! I’m not! Teehee!”

“You piss me off, you know that?” Kuzuoka snarled. “Move it, or die! I’ll kill you!”

“That’s not possible,” Tokimune said with a friendly smile. “I don’t know you all that well, but I do know you’re weaker than me. Want to try it and see?”

“I-I’m not gonna do it!” Kuzuoka pushed Kikkawa aside.

“We’re going!” he ordered his comrades, and they shuffled along. Even as he left, the way he kept muttering what sounded like insults at the group was very like Kuzuoka.

“That guy.” Ranta kicked the ground. “With his rotten personality, I’m amazed he manages to be a party leader. I can’t believe him.”

“Yeah...” Haruhiro rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re not one to talk, though...”

2.    My Love Is Always Like This

There was no sun that rose or set in the Dusk Realm, no mornings or nights. Compasses were worthless here, leaving no way to tell the cardinal directions. That was inconvenient, so Shinohara of Orion had come up with a proposal.

Looking out from the initial hill, off in the distance, there was a pillar- shaped object rising into the sky. It was of a size and shape that didn’t seem natural, and it had probably been created by someone. He suggested that, for the sake of convenience, that direction would be North. With no objections, everyone had accepted that idea.

East of the initial hill, a pair of adventurers called Lala and Nono had discovered a valley where plants grew, and a spring with clear water at the bottom of it. Incidentally, it had also been Lala and Nono who’d arrived five days after Haruhiro and the others to discover the hole that had appeared in the Grimble Mineshaft in the Wonder Hole.

On top of that, Lala and Nono had named those bat-like creatures “gremlins.” The name “ri-komo” wasn’t being used anymore. Even Haruhiro and the rest called them gremlins now.

Lala and Nono named the area where the gremlins were thought to lay their eggs the Egg Storage, and the area past there the Gremlin Flats.

Naturally, Haruhiro and the rest were using those names too at this point. Lala and Nono had a knack for business, and they had made money by inviting Orion, Iron Knuckle, and the other influential clans to the Dusk Realm and charging them to show them around.

Lala and Nono were apparently very diligent and meticulous. They searched every nook and cranny of the Gremlin Flats and discovered the entrance to another world, separate from the Dusk Realm, where it was

always dark and the dawn never came—the Night Realm.

The Night Realm was still more or less untouched. It was dark, after all, and there were rumors that volunteer soldiers may or may not have gone in there, never to return. It seemed to be a very dangerous place, and there were rumors that Lala and Nono were secretly continuing to investigate it.

On this day when those idle rumors were feeling like they might have some truth to them, the Dusk Realm was the number-one hunting ground for volunteer soldiers. It had become that way in almost no time whatsoever.

Haruhiro stood out in front of his tent, taking a sip of water from his canteen. He sighed. “It sure is amazing...”

In the area between the valley Lala and Nono discovered and to the east of the initial hill, there were not just ten, but tens of tents lined up.

Most of them belonged to volunteer soldiers who, like Haruhiro and the Tokkis, were staying in the Dusk Realm. The rest were for those that did business with volunteer soldiers—an itinerant cafeteria, an itinerant bar, a blacksmith, a bathhouse, a reseller, a branch of the Yorozu Deposit Company, and even... those sorts of people who sold “companionship.” These people had their tents set up near the valley, while the volunteer soldiers’ tents were set up around them, forming a sort of miniature village.

It was being called the Dusk Realm Volunteer Soldier Corps Settlement.

No, that was a lie. Almost no one called it such a fancy name. “The settlement” was what it was called for short.

Night never came here.

On the outside, it was probably the middle of the night now, but in a way, there was no time here, so it didn’t really feel like it. Anna-san had a mechanical clock, so Haruhiro and the others relied on it to wake up in the morning, be active during the day, and then sleep as much as possible at night.

Haruhiro really wanted to do that, but he was feeling a little bit of insomnia. That was why he was here alone, huddled outside the tent.

He could hear Ranta’s snoring.

No way I’m getting to sleep over that, he thought.

The voices of the volunteer soldiers at the itinerant bar were sounding awfully noisy.

I’m not going to be getting any sleep at all, he thought.

“The way that, y’know, it never gets dark here is getting to me,” Haruhiro

mumbled.

Is it making me nervous? he wondered. I’m not completely insensitive to these things like Ranta is, but I don’t think I’m excessively sensitive, either.

“I want to live alone... someday...” he murmured.

There’s just something intolerable about having people around at all times. It can get suffocating. Pretty often, actually. It’s a pretty big dream, but I want to rent a room all to myself.

“Ugh, I hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, hate this, I can’t take it anymore...” He buried his head in his arms and muttered to himself for a while. That helped him feel a little better.

Let’s be realistic. I mean, even if I were going to rent a room, we won’t be back in Alterna for a while. In the Lonesome Field Outpost and the settlement, we’re gonna be living in tents. When it comes to moving around, the fewer tents the better. The current arrangement, one for the guys, one for the girls, two total, is probably the best. I know that, so why do I occasionally have such an urge to be alone?

I can’t think of a reason.

Maybe it’s partly because I’m the leader, a role I’m fundamentally not suited for... actually, mostly because of that, I try to be considerate to the others.

That’s fine when we’re working. There’s a lot to think about, a lot to do, so I don’t focus on it so much. But when the day is over and I’m freed from my duties, it all weighs down on me, making it hard to breathe.

I don’t think I want to throw it all away. I don’t plan to run away from it, either.

Just, it’s hard.

I can’t throw anything away, and I have no intention to, but it’s rough. I’m doing more than I can handle, and I can’t help but feel inadequate. But still, I have to do it.

I can’t whine about it, either. I don’t want to worry my comrades, and I don’t want to rock the boat. It could affect our performance.

Anyway, I’m being considerate of their feelings. Both with my comrades, and the Tokkis. I have no other choice. That emotional labor is wearing me out.

I want to be alone.

“Well, I am, though,” he murmured. “Alone...”

That’s right. I got my wish. I am alone now. Haruhiro got up. I’ll go for a walk.

He left the tent and headed towards the valley. There was no day or night here, so there were customers at both the itinerant cafeteria and bar. There were volunteer soldiers wandering around, too, but Haruhiro moved stealthily to avoid their attention.

There was a large number of volunteer soldiers gathered here in the settlement. Still, it wasn’t like there were two or three hundred of them. He was at least acquainted with most of the volunteer soldiers, but they were his seniors, and Haruhiro and the others were generally the subject of ridicule. If one of them called out to him and he had to engage in pointless small talk, he was sure to have an unpleasant time. Besides, he wanted to be alone.

The members of Iron Knuckle were having a party at the itinerant bar.

They were what you’d call a clan, but for some reason they called themselves a family, and addressed each other as brothers. In the center of the group was a man with a buzz cut who wasn’t especially large, and had a baby face, but even at a distance gave off an intimidating aura, “Titan” Max. The man with a short goatee sitting next to him was his right-hand man, Aidan.

Apparently Max’s real name was Masafumi and Aidan’s was Eisuke, but anyone who spoke those names in front of either of them was guaranteed to end up seeing their own blood. It wasn’t just Max and Aidan; most of the brothers had nicknames they called each other by.

“We! Are! Iron! Knuckle! Yeahhhhh!” the brothers shouted.

Haruhiro heard that shout from them often. The brothers got very excited when they shouted it together with their throaty voices. He didn’t really get it, that sort of culture.

Iron Knuckle had been the next ones to storm into the Dusk Realm after Orion, and they had quickly demonstrated how fierce they were.

Orion was a reflection of Shinohara’s character, and its members were generally elegant, a sort of large-scale explorers’ club, but Max and his lot were completely different. They were bellicose to the core, a terrifying group of fighters.

They killed them. Every cultist they got their hands on, they killed. It was a massacre.

There were cultist towns scattered around the Dusk Realm. Before Orion

came, Haruhiro and the others had discovered two of them. However, they had never approached them, since there were cultists living there. That would have been clearly dangerous.

However, Iron Knuckle had charged into one of those towns like it didn’t matter. From what Haruhiro had heard, they had spent a full day, over 24 hours, staying in town and murdering cultists. In the end, the surviving cultists had left town, and Iron Knuckle had returned singing manly songs about their victory.

They had occupied the town. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say they had destroyed it.

In fact, it just so happened that these days, that was the town Haruhiro and the others sometimes used as their hunting ground.

After that, Iron Knuckle hadn’t continued to occupy the town; they’d set off on a journey of raids and slaughter. Did they spend their day’s earnings the day they got them? No, that wasn’t it. Anyway, the cultists had been returning to the town in small groups, but they only cleaned up the corpses of their fallen comrades and patrolled the area, showing no intention of living there for now.

Furthermore, the white giants were usually in the areas called cultist bases, or just bases, and not in the cultists’ towns. That had been true, from what the party had seen so far.

For starters, unlike cultists, white giants weren’t just anywhere and everywhere. It was only in the ruins of the temple of the giant gods that the Tokkis had fled into on their second day in the Dusk Realm, or in the basin to the southwest of the initial hill called the Great Cauldron of the Gods that there had been confirmed sightings of white giants.

However, ever since Iron Knuckle had crushed one of the cultists’ bases, the white giants had begun to wander around. Sometimes, they were even seen acting in concert with the cultists.

For that reason, it was now easy to catch a limited number of cultists and white giants in the base that Iron Knuckle had destroyed, making it a convenient hunting ground for volunteer soldiers. Among volunteer soldiers, it was called “the first.”

Did that come from it being the first base destroyed by humans, or from it being the first hunting ground? Or both, perhaps? Haruhiro didn’t really know.

“Well, we’ve got a lot to thank Iron Knuckle for, that’s for sure...” he murmured.

They were terrible people, yeah. It wasn’t going to be easy to wipe away that feeling completely. But as Haruhiro and the others were living off the spoils of their work, that meant they were just as terrible, and they were also petty. They were in no position to criticize.

That aside, Haruhiro put his skills as a thief to use, reaching the edge of the valley without attracting anyone’s attention. He savored the small feeling of accomplishment.

I’m such a small-timer, he thought. But I’m fine with that. Being small- time. It’s great. I want to be a small-timer forever. Honestly, what I don’t want is to be a small-time leader, and it really hurts that I have no choice in the matter.

When this place had first been found, it had been verdant and green, but now it was much more desolate. The trees had all been cut down, not a single one left. There were some bushes left here and there. That was about it.

The spring in the bottom of the valley was being used as a water source.

Haruhiro’s canteen contained water from this spring that had been boiled. The water looked clear and clean, but if you drank it straight, it was guaranteed to give you the runs. Intensely, too. The volunteer soldiers didn’t hold back in their use of water, so there was the risk of the spring running dry, but it seemed fine for now.

When he looked into the spring, for some reason, it calmed his heart.

Doing this let him get back to a level state of mind. He was such a simple, cheap person. He was happy to be a simple, cheap person. If Haruhiro had been a refined and complicated person, he would no doubt have worried himself sick over more things.

He had started to feel like he could get to sleep, so Haruhiro decided to turn back to the tent. “This is all I amount to, really...”

As he walked, he laughed to himself. Day in and day out, he thought the same sorts of things over and over, wracking his brains over them, and then he would notice he just didn’t care anymore. He would start to get into the mindset of, Well, I’ll work hard again tomorrow.

“You could say I’m not making any real progress... but still, it’s not so bad. I’m no one important, so I have to question if it’s that easy to make progress...”

The party as a whole is making steady progress, and managing to turn a profit, so it’s fine, right? he thought. Yeah. It’s fine. I should just accept that. That’s what I’ll do.

My sweet tent is just around the corner now. Not that there’s anything sweet about it.

Hey, wait.

Someone came out of the tent. No, not someone—it could only be Ranta or Kuzaku.

It’s Kuzaku, Haruhiro noticed. He’s as tall as ever, even if his posture isn’t that good. Not a surprise, really. Height doesn’t change that easily. That’s obvious.

If that had been all, it wouldn’t have mattered—Oh, what’s this, he woke up, hmm?—but another person came out of the neighboring tent, so it was a big deal.

Well, no, not a big deal, but Kuzaku came out of the guys’ tent, and Merry came out of the girls’ tent at almost exactly the same time. Could that really be a coincidence? Maybe it was an inevitability? It was hard to say.

“...I can’t ask them...” Haruhiro ducked into the shadow of a nearby tent.

He had immediately hidden himself, though he hadn’t intended to.

Is there anything wrong with hiding? Not really, no. But still. I really shouldn’t.

He stuck his face out halfway, watching the two of them.

Why do I have to do this? It’s like I’m peeping. It’s not good. It really isn’t. But still. I have to admit, I’m kinda curious. Of course I am. I mean, I’m the leader, right? Maybe that doesn’t matter? No, but it’s happening inside the party, isn’t it? You can’t say it’s absolutely none of my business, right? I dunno. Maybe it isn’t?

They were saying something. Merry was looking downwards a little. I wonder what the hell they’re talking about. Damn it. I can’t hear. “Oh...” Haruhiro finally let out a strange groan.

Kuzaku had grabbed Merry’s arm—no, her sleeve. He pulled on it and they walked off. Merry didn’t resist. Still looking down, she followed him.

Ohh. So she’s going. She’s going to go. Off together. Ohh. I see. So that’s how it is...

“I saw it,” Haruhiro murmured.

Well, whatever.

That’s right.

I’m A-OK with it, you know?

It’s not like I haven’t seen this coming for a while. Yeah. I did, okay? It was practically a sure thing. How far have they gone? That I’m not sure of, and I have no intention of finding out, because I don’t want to find out, but I’m damn sure that something has happened between them, at least. I’m sure a fair bit has happened. So, please, just go ahead.

Do whatever you want! Yeah!

Like it’s any of my business!

I mean, if anything, I’d be rooting for you, okay?! I will, you know?! If you’d say something, that is!

If you’d just be honest and tell me...

I kind of think they should come out and announce it, you know...

“Hahhhh...” Haruhiro let out a deep sigh, sitting down on the ground and holding his chest. He felt like he could cry.

It’s a shock.

Why? Why am I so shocked by it? Because they’re being secretive? Tell me! Say something! Don’t you trust me?! Is that it? I don’t think it’s quite that. Even if I’d rather they didn’t hide it, it’s not exactly the easiest thing to announce. It’s not like I can’t see it that way.

”Actually, the two of us are going out!”

Just suddenly saying that wouldn’t be like Kuzaku, and it wouldn’t be like Merry, either. Y’know, it’s just not in their personalities. Besides, their relationship may be slowly growing deeper, there may not be any clear line, or a definite form that it’s taken. Maybe they both feel bad about keeping quiet about it to their comrades, but they just can’t bring themselves to say anything. They may not know how to say it themselves. There could be all sorts of things going on. There must be.

Besides they have, what—feelings? For each other? So, they’re mutually attracted?

“Urghhhh...”

There’s a pain in my chest. This is agony. What is this? —Well, anyway, if they’re going to be in, what, love? Something like that? A romantic relationship? Mutual love? That’s between the two of them, and they’re free to do it.

They’re absolutely free to do it. No one has any right to get in their way.

Anyone who gets in the way of love deserves to be kicked to death by a horse!

That was what Haruhiro thought. He really did think that from the bottom of his heart.

So, why?

Is that really the reason they’re doing this?

It was hard to accept it, and he didn’t want to accept it, and he felt like it was best not to, but in the end, that was probably what was going on here.

No matter what he said, Haruhiro had rather liked Merry. In a plain and simple way—a truly plain and simple way, a way so plain and simple that it suited him—he’d had a one-sided crush on her.

Naturally, I never really thought, even the slightest bit, that I could make Merry like me back. I had no expectation of that. I can say that definitively. That was why I never wanted to think that I was in love with Merry. I tried not to think about it. I mean, it feels so empty and meaningless.

Even so, he had probably loved her.

If he ran a thought experiment like this, he could see it.

Take Yume or Shihoru, his comrades like Merry, for example. Imagine Yume or Shihoru had gotten together with someone in the party. When that happened, would he feel this pain in his chest? Would it hurt like this?

Probably not.

Shihoru and Ranta—if it were a pairing like that, it would be a pretty big surprise. But he’d just be really surprised, and he might worry about what would happen in the future, but it would surely end at that. The same with Yume and Ranta. If it were Yume and Kuzaku, or Shihoru and Kuzaku, it would be unexpected, but Oh, I see, I hope you find happiness, try not to break up, okay? It’d be a pain to deal with the fallout, would be about his reaction to it.

It was only because it was Merry.

Whether it was Kuzaku she hooked up with, or anyone else, Haruhiro would probably always have been in shock. Because he had been pretty seriously in love with Merry.

“I see... So that’s what it was...” Haruhiro looked vacantly up into the many-colored sky.

A hole opened up in his chest which had been weighed down and tormented by pain for a while now. Because it was a hole, there was nothing

there, just the wind blowing through.

Haruhiro’s heart was broken.

Or rather, it had been broken for a while now.

3.    With All My Heart

—And? So what if it had been? Did that mean anything? It didn’t. There was nothing he could do about it.

Haruhiro’s emotions had nothing to do with the way they all lived day to day. His feelings had no influence on that.

He had settled those feelings now, or comes to terms with them, you could say. In fact, all his frustration had evaporated at this point. He didn’t even care what was going on between Merry and Kuzaku anymore.

Well, it hadn’t gotten quite to the point where he could think, I wish them both the best, but, Sure, fine, do whatever you want. Oh, by the way, you may think you’re keeping it quiet, but I know—

Maybe?

Yeah, honestly, he couldn’t think that either.

They thought it was a secret, but he knew. What could he do to resolve that gap? Should he try to resolve it at all? He wasn’t sure.

It was awkward.

So, when the idea of Let’s go back to Alterna for a little while came up, it was a huge help.

He had saved up a good amount of money, so it was about time for him to learn at least one new skill, and he wanted to do some shopping, too.

Also, he wanted to face himself properly. Or rather, he wanted some time.

Sorting out his feelings, and all that stuff, it wasn’t that easy!

Over the course of about two days, they traveled from the Dusk Realm Settlement, passing through the Lonesome Field Outpost, then crossing the Quickwind Plains, to Alterna.

They parted there for a time. Haruhiro went to the thieves’ guild, where he spent seven days learning Stealth, the ultimate thieving skill. He had debated

whether to take the skill Air Throw from the art of fighting and killing instead, but as the party’s plain and boring leader who doubled as its scout, what he really wanted was the full set of skills that would let him conceal his presence and not be detected by others.

He paid 20 gold to the guild for it. That wasn’t cheap—it was expensive, actually—but if he didn’t learn it properly, he would be missing out. Besides, Haruhiro’s mentor Barbara was super strict, so there was no chance of her letting him cut corners.

“I thought I was going to die...” Haruhiro moaned.

This time, without any joking or exaggeration, he had been told to die. To become a corpse.

Stealth was composed of what could broadly be categorized into three techniques:

The first, to eliminate your presence—Hide.

The second, to move with your presence eliminated—Swing.

The third, to utilize all of your senses to detect the presences of others— Sense.

When he’d begun with Hide, the first stage, Barbara had ordered Haruhiro, Die! and then mercilessly punished him when he couldn’t do it well enough. She’d broken two, maybe three bones, then forced him to train at using Hide in that state.

There was this one person with a shady background, a former thief who had now become a priest. When someone was injured at the thieves’ guild, he would come to heal them, but it was still questionable whether she should be driving her students to the point of nearly passing out in extreme agony. It was just cruel.

As Barbara-sensei told it, if she didn’t break him in under these extreme conditions, he wouldn’t learn properly. She was doing this all for him. He ought to be crying tears of gratitude.

As a matter of fact, it was a trial he couldn’t get through without shedding tears. He could see how what Barbara was saying had some truth to it.

However, if he had made one misstep, Haruhiro might have died. It was scary.

Having borne through it had paid off, though. The basics of Stealth had now thoroughly seeped into Haruhiro’s head and body and would never leave them. Now, even when he was just idly wandering through Alterna in the

evening, he would catch himself using Hide, Swing, and Sense without intending to. It was a little creepy, if he did say so himself.

You’ve got an aptitude for this, Barbara had said, offering him a rare compliment. You must really be suited to this line of work.

“Well...” Haruhiro smiled a little as he melded into the crowds of the marketplace. “I was glad to hear that, yeah...”

Even though it’s for being a thief, you know? he thought. It goes without saying, but a thief is someone who steals things. A robber.

Apparently, the thieves’ guild had its origins in a secret society of thieves, Black Widow, who’d worked behind the scenes in the Kingdom of Arabakia. When Arabakia had advanced into the frontier, Black Widow had offered to assist the Royal Army in exchange for the release of their imprisoned comrades. This offer had been accepted, and some of those former prisoners who’d been sent to certain death as scouts in the frontier had gone on to create the thieves’ guild.

Quite the heroic tale, really, Haruhiro thought. Is it because of those origins that the thieves’ guild’s training is so rough? Or is Barbara-sensei just a sadist?

Whichever the case might be, a thief was still a thief. Some of them misused the skills they had acquired in the thieves’ guild to indulge in a life of endless larceny. Haruhiro hadn’t thought much about it before becoming a thief, or rather, he hadn’t thought about it at all, but when he said, I’m a thief, it made more than a few people furrow their brows. Especially those living normal lives in Alterna.

That’s just prejudice, he might try to explain. Most of the thieves in the thieves’ guild are volunteer soldiers, and they don’t steal anything. But the art of thieving still had skills like Picking, Burglary, and even Pickpocket, all of which had practical applications. If one were so inclined, a thief could turn to robbery at any time. It was hard to blame people for being wary.

“It’s not a respected trade, I guess,” Haruhiro murmured.

He liked skulking around and doing reconnaissance. It suited him, to the point that he thought it was his calling.

But a thief, huh...

“Maybe they should have changed the name...”

When the guild was formed, they wouldn’t have had to call themselves thieves. They should have gone with something else. Or did our predecessors

who founded the thieves’ guild take pride in the fact that they were thieves? No, but is that something you’d take pride in?

“The thieves’ guild has no code, so someone could even start up another guild... No, not that I’d do that, of course,” he murmured. “Won’t someone else do it for me?”

If someone did, Haruhiro would join that guild in a second.

I’d be a bit sad to break off my master-and-apprentice relationship with Barbara-sensei, maybe? Maybe not? I mean, Sensei’s scary.

Well, it wasn’t as if he was seriously considering it. It didn’t really matter that much.

Ranta had said he’d be spending six days learning a dark fighting skill, Missing. Shihoru had said she’d be spending five days on Shadow Pond, which belonged to her main focus, Darsh Magic, and then two days trying to learn the Kanon Magic spell Ice Globe. Yume had seemed to have something in mind, and she’d planned to spend a total of seven days on skills like Hunting, Tracking, Pit Trap, and Bear Trap.

Because Merry couldn’t use light magic in the Dusk Realm, she had chosen to spend five days learning the self-defense skill Revenge, while Kuzaku had decided to spend six days learning the defensive swordsmanship techniques Guard and Tug of War.

Haruhiro, Shihoru, and Yume had spent seven days on training, Ranta and Kuzaku six, and Merry five. As for the Tokkis, Anna-san and Tada had finally learned Sacrament. The others had each worked hard on their own training, then used their leftover time to do whatever. Tomorrow everyone would be meeting back up.

Ranta was probably in Celestial Alley around now, womanizing. Haruhiro didn’t know much about it, but Alterna had brothels... Was that what you’d call them? Places where you paid money for women to be with you, and there was no shortage of people who patronized them.

In fact, Ranta had invited him to come along once. When he’d refused, Ranta had snapped at him. He’d apparently lacked the guts to go alone, and had been trying to drag Haruhiro with him. If he’d wanted to go, he should have just held his head high and done it. However, Ranta just hadn’t been able to push himself to take that step, and he no doubt still hadn’t gone. He was probably at a bar with girls who would pour his drinks for him, drowning his sorrows, or out hitting on girls or something.

Merry and Kuzaku were—

Well, you know? They’re probably off somewhere together. Of course they would be! They seem to be going out, I mean. I wonder if they’re doing it. Not that I mind. Please, build a wonderful family for yourselves. Am I getting ahead of myself? Well, it could happen eventually. I feel like that could be a good thing...? Maybe...?

The bell began to toll. It was the bell for six o’clock in the evening. The time-keeping bell in Alterna started ringing every two hours at six o’clock in the morning. At six o’clock in the evening, it would toll seven times to inform people of the coming of night, then it would go to sleep until the next day. Shops in the marketplace would begin to close, while Celestial Alley would become more lively.

Haruhiro stopped in front of the Yorozu Deposit Company. “Hey.” “You late, yeah!” Anna-san said, puffing her cheeks up angrily and

jumping. “Maybe not, yeah?! Because you not actually late, yeah?! But, for date, the man has to come early?! Yeah!”

Haruhiro bowed his head. “I’m sorry.” “You not acting with straightness, yeah?!” “...You mean sincerity.”

“With sincerity, yeah!”

“Oh, I get it,” Haruhiro said. She meant being straight with her, huh? I mean, I thought she was talking about the other kind of straightness. How embarrassing.

Haruhiro hesitantly looked up at the tall girl who towered over Anna-san. “...Hey.”

“Yeah.” Mimorin smiled—maybe? Her expression never changed much, so it was hard to tell. “I’ve wanted to see you.”

Her words were direct enough there was no way to misunderstand. She was so direct that it made his stomach hurt.

“...I see,” he murmured.

“You, Haruhiro?” she demanded. “Huh, me?”

“Did you want to see me, too?” “Um...”

Haruhiro hung his head. It made him want to give a diplomatic response.

If he did, that would have been easier. For the moment, at least. But he

couldn’t do that.

Haruhiro raised his face, looking Mimorin in the eyes. “Maybe not so much.”

“Gasp,” she said.

“Saying that in a deadpan voice doesn’t help...” “I’m very hurt. My heart is broken.”

“There, there, yeah.” Anna-san rubbed Mimorin’s back, or rather her butt. He could see the tears welling up in Mimorin’s eyes, and even Haruhiro had to be taken aback by that.

“No, hold on—h-huh? Where’s Kikkawa? He was supposed to be here today, too...”

“There were circumferences?” Anna-san said, continuing to rub Mimorin’s butt as she shrugged. “Oh! No. Circumstances? That why Kikkawa not here, yeah.”

“With Kikkawa, there would have been four of us, and we could have had a productive time getting to know one another. That was why I said okay to this...”

“In life, there is ups, there is downs! Yeah?” Anna-san said. “I don’t get it...”

“Bullshit, you need to understand a maiden’s heart, darn it! Yeah!”

“It’s fine.” Mimorin wiped the tears from her eyes using both of her index fingers. “This isn’t enough to discourage me.”

Be discouraged, please...

Haruhiro did think that, but it wasn’t like he wanted to break Mimorin’s heart. If possible, he didn’t want her to be hurt.

She might be in someone else’s party, but they were like allies, so he wanted to get along. At the very least, he didn’t want it to be a strained atmosphere. He didn’t want anything special, just for things to feel normal between them. However, Mimorin didn’t feel the same way for some reason, and he had repeatedly received invitations to go out with her through Anna- san.

At first, it had been for one-on-one meetings with Mimorin. Well, basically something like a date. It had been clear Anna-san was trying to get him to just go with the flow and hook up with her, so he’d politely declined.

That still hadn’t made Mimorin give up, and Anna-san had probably gotten upset by it, too, so he’d been asked on dates over and over. Ultimately,

even Tokimune had asked him to Please, go on a date with her, just once.

If he’d kept on stubbornly refusing, he’d figured he might rub people the wrong way, but Haruhiro could be pretty stubborn. He had given conditions.

A one-on-one meeting was out of the question. Because, as he had already clearly told her, Haruhiro wasn’t interested. If someone else was present, and it was strictly as friends, Haruhiro didn’t hate Mimorin or anything, so he wouldn’t have a problem with that. That was how it came to be that Mimorin, Anna-san, plus one other person would occasionally go out for food with Haruhiro, or they’d go on walks together.

This time, because they were back in Alterna for the first time in a while, the suggestion had been that the four of them—Mimorin, Anna-san, Haruhiro, and Kikkawa—would go to a decent restaurant to get dinner together. There had been no reason for him to say no, so he’d accepted.

Honestly, he’d still felt a little hesitant. But he couldn’t deny they were starting to feel a little bit vaguely like friends, so maybe they could get through this fine? That was what he’d thought.

Maybe he’d been being naïve. He’d fallen right into their trap. He wasn’t pleased.

He wasn’t angry either, though. Getting angry would only make him tired. “Well, anyway, shall we get something to eat?” Haruhiro asked.

“I’ll eat.” Mimorin gave a powerful nod.

Whoa, thought Haruhiro. Mimorin’s eyes are sparkling. Is she that happy? When someone else is that happy, it’s hard not to be happy about it. But,

well, I don’t dislike her, you know? As a person. I do think she’s pretty weird, though. She’s too tall, which means I have to look up at her and my neck hurts, but that’s not a major problem.

The three of them headed towards a place Anna-san said she’d picked out.

Surprisingly, the cook, who was also the proprietor, was an elf man. This restaurant was popular for its spicy meat and wide variety of vegetable dishes.

It was a long, narrow restaurant, and crowded, too, but they managed to get inside somehow. There was a small table in the back with four-legged chairs around it. Anna-san and Mimorin sat on one side, while Haruhiro sat across from them. The ordering was done by Anna-san, who really liked to be in charge on occasions like this.

The herbal beer went down easier than normal beer. Every dish gave off a

wonderful aroma that stimulated the appetite, and the flavor was quite good, too.

During the meal, Mimorin said nothing. Anna-san was talkative, though she always was. Also, Mimorin sat up straight, barely making any noise. The way she ate was very neat.

Anna-san’s eating was pretty rough. To be perfectly frank, her manners were atrocious. The truth was, Haruhiro couldn’t stand people who were always dropping their food, knocking things flying, and chewing loudly. He didn’t tell her off or frown at her, but he did wish she could do something about it.

On that point, he had a favorable view of Mimorin. Honestly, he didn’t hate her as a person.

“So?” Anna-san, who seemed to have gotten a little tipsy, fixed her gaze on him, then let out a belch that smelled strongly of herbs. “What unearth you not like about Mimorin? You are just a stupid Haruhiro. What the hell, cherry boy!”

“What on Earth, you mean...” Haruhiro glanced over to gauge Mimorin’s expression.

Their eyes met. She was staring at him hard.

“Wait, that’s what we’re talking about? I’m ready to say let’s just be friends, really...”

“You may be fine with it, but Mimorin is not fine, yeah!” Anna shouted. “Figure that out, dummy! Understand?”

“No understand,” he said flatly. “Why not?! Dead or death?!”

“If those are my options, I’m dead either way...”

“No witty comebacks! You answer!” Anna-san banged on the table. “What wrong with Mimorin, yeah?! If you not have good reasons, I not forgive you, yeah?!”

“Anna-san, c-calm down,” Haruhiro muttered. “How can I calm down, huh?!”

“Well, at least keep it quiet...”

“Why, you, why you so calm?! Fuck, you piss me off!” “I don’t know what to say to you there.”

The restaurant grew quieter as Anna-san got more and more heated up.

This was really awkward.

Haruhiro loudly cleared his throat, rubbing his forehead. He didn’t want to have this talk, but if he didn’t give a serious answer, Anna-san wasn’t going to stop.

“Well... I dunno,” Haruhiro said. “It’s not... what is it? It’s not that there’s something wrong with her, or that I dislike her, or anything like that, you know.”

“Then,” Mimorin asked, leaning in, “what?”

“Hmm...” Haruhiro closed his eyes, rubbing them with both his hands. “I’m not confident I can explain it all that well. I get the feeling... I lack the experience.”

“It’s the same for me,” said Mimorin. “And for Anna-san, too, yeah?!”

“...I-I see. Erm, so, it’s, like, you know? It’s not a logical thing, right?

This kind of stuff isn’t. I mean, obviously, yeah? There’re things like liking the person’s face, or them having been kind to you, that sort of stuff. The reasons people, basically, fall in love, and such? The triggers. In some cases, there may be one, but is that all there is to it? Maybe not............................................................... ”

“I love you, Haruhiro,” said Mimorin. “You’re right, there’s no logic behind it.”

“No, listen—”

He almost said, Thank you, but he forced himself to stop. There was no question that he was feeling inconvenienced by it. If he thanked her, that would be a lie.

“Yeah,” Haruhiro said. “Somehow, well, yeah... Like, right, erm, it’s not

what’s not good about you, it’s that I just don’t have those sorts of feelings for you whatsoever, you know. It’s bad of me to say that so bluntly. No, maybe it isn’t?”

“Of course you are bad, yeah?! Ohhh, Mimoriiiin, Mimoriiiin. ”

Anna-san lost her mind, trying to hug Mimorin around the shoulders— but, given their relative sizes, she couldn’t possibly hug her. It was an impossible challenge.

Give it your best shot, Anna-san, Haruhiro thought. Mimorin is still crying. But man, she sure looks like she’s in anguish. When I look at her, it makes my chest hurt. That doesn’t mean I’m going to give in to emotion, though.

Anna-san started to tear up, too, and when she glared at him with her

teary, reddened eyes, he honestly wanted to run away. “Haruhiro is heartless! Such a cold-hearted man, yeah?!”

“Oh, sure,” he said. “I can’t blame you for calling me that.” “You corn seed?!”

“Huh? Corn seed...? Oh, I concede?” Haruhiro asked.

“That! That’s the word, yeah?! How did you know?! That amazing!” “Well, I’ll have to admit, I’m amazed I got it myself, but—”

“That doesn’t matter, yeah!” Anna-san yelled. “Of course it doesn’t...”

“No,” Mimorin said with a sniffle. “Haruhiro isn’t cold-hearted.” “What?!” Anna-san shouted.

“Haruhiro isn’t cold,” said Mimorin. “He’s just not a liar.” “Nghhh.” Anna groaned, holding her head. “Not a liar? But...”

You’re starting to act like a middle-aged man there, Anna-san, thought Haruhiro.

“He just doesn’t say things that would leave a false impression.” Mimorin bit her lip hard. “He doesn’t give me, whom he doesn’t love, any hope.”

“Gwahhhhhhhhhhh.” Anna-san started pulling out her hair, forcing herself to speak with a voice that sounded like she might start coughing up blood. “Mimoriiiiiiiiiin, you not have to say all that, yeah?!”

“I understand it.” “Buuuut—”

“I love that about him, too.” “Ohhhhhhhh!”

“I love you.” Mimorin stared at Haruhiro as the tears streamed down her face. “So, please, let me keep you as a pet. No, wrong one. Go out with me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I expected that response.”

Haruhiro went on hesitantly. “Well, you know... even if the whole pet thing is kind of weird, I can see you’re serious about this, and, well, I can understand, but... while I comprehend it, in my own way, still... but that’s what makes it all the worse... like, you know? I can’t just say whatever...”

“You idiot!” Anna-san shouted, pointing her finger at Haruhiro. “Are you stupid?! You at the age when you want to do it all the time! Day and night, you think about it! That’s you, young! Why not just go out with her and do it? You can, can’t you? You’re in mating season! Yeah!”

“You’re getting a little lewd there, Anna-san,” said Haruhiro.

“Shut up, yeah! You look! Mimorin’s boobies! Boing! She have very good body! She does, yeah?! You not want to sink your teeth into that?!”

“No, I’m not going to be doing that,” said Haruhiro. “I’m not Ranta. Well, he’s all talk, too, so I doubt he’d actually do anything.”

“Mimorin is head over eels for you!” “You mean head over heels...”

“With her endless sexniques, she serve you endlessly, no doubt about it!” “...Sexniques?”

“Sexual techniques are sexniques, yeah?! Special technique! You know?!” “Yeah... Kind of. But you’re saying it kind of loud...”

“What’s more, she is a virgin! Virgin! Not even had her first kiss yet!” “That’s true.” For some reason, Mimorin confirmed this with straight

face.

Was that an important point, maybe? Haruhiro didn’t really get it, but there was one thing that seemed off to him if it was true.

“Huh? ...Then what about this special... technique?” “I’ll study.” Mimorin nodded again. “It’s fine.”

“Just leave it to Anna-san, yeah?!” Anna-san thumped one hand on her ample, though not so ample as Mimorin’s, bosom. “Anna-san take her by the hand and teach her each and every technique there is, yeah!”

“You have a lot of experience... then?” Haruhiro asked hesitantly. “Don’t be silly, pervert boy! I’m obviously a fresh virgin, yeah?!” “No, but then—”

“Heh heh,” Anna-san put on a bold smile and pinched her own earlobe. “Anna-san knows so much about sex. I’m the kind of girl who comes along once in a century, you know? It will be easy.”

“...I see.”

“In my imagination, I make more than a million guys climax, you know?” “Maybe you’re fantasizing a little too much.”

“It was obviously a joke, yeah?! Because Anna-san’s a pure, proper, holy virgin!”

“Okay, fine. Whatever...”

Haruhiro took a sip of his herbal beer and looked downwards. The inside of the restaurant wasn’t silent like it had been a moment ago, but Haruhiro and the others were still drawing attention, and more than a few customers were listening in. Anna-san sure liked her dirty jokes. Haruhiro didn’t especially hate them or anything, but he didn’t like them all that much, either.

“So, how about it?!” Anna-san took a long swig of her herbal beer, then let out a satisfied sigh. “For now, you try going out with her? Try it? Not a bad deal, yeah? Because, with her nice body, you drown in dirty desire every day?”

“Yeah, no, I’ll pass.”

“Fuck you!” Anna-san flipped him the bird.

No matter what they said, he wasn’t going to cave in on this. Especially because they were his allies—but even if they weren’t, he’d have felt the same. He wasn’t keen on going out with someone he had no romantic feelings for. Or rather, Haruhiro felt it was impossible for him to do that.

Even if she paid him, he’d feel that way. No, if he was offered money, that might make it even worse.

Maybe I’m just being stubborn? he thought. I can’t deny the possibility, but the point is that that’s just how I am.

“Is there any...” Mimorin started, then the tears started running again and she wiped them with her hand. “I’m sorry. For crying.”

“...No,” he murmured. He didn’t know why, but that made his heart skip a beat. Now why might that be? Why had his heart skipped a beat? Haruhiro himself didn’t know at all. “Y-You don’t need to apologize. Erm, it would help if you’d stop crying. It’s not like I want to make you cry. I don’t want you to cry...”

“This is a first for me,” said Mimorin. “I’m so sad, it hurts.” “...Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault, Haruhiro. I just went and fell in love with you on my own.”

“Er, well, yeah, that’s true, but...”

“Can I continue with my question?” Mimorin asked. “Oh, go ahead.”

“Is there any possibility?” “...Of what?”

“Even if you can’t do it now. Someday...”

“Um, you mean at some point in the future?” he asked. “Yes.”

“Hrm...”

Haruhiro wanted to writhe and squirm, but he desperately restrained himself.

I’m not sure. That’s a really tough one. I’m stumped.

He felt that, maybe, telling her No, at no point in the future would it ever be possible might be the kind thing to do here. It was wrong for her to fall in love with someone like Haruhiro in the first place. Time wasn’t infinite. Even now, it was ticking by. It wasn’t as if he didn’t think she should give up on him and find someone else—but, you know?

Was that something for Haruhiro to decide? Mimorin, in her own way, had found something appealing in Haruhiro. As a result, she had fallen in love with him. Did Haruhiro have any right to deny those feelings?

Having worked alongside the Tokkis, he had gotten a sense for what Mimorin was like. True, she was strange. She was a mage, but she couldn’t ditch the habits she’d picked up as a warrior. It scared him when he saw her running up front and waving her sword around. However, she was strong, and she was good with a sword, too. She also cared deeply for her comrades.

Occasionally, she was adorable.

He didn’t really hate her as a person. If anything, he actually liked her.

The way she came straight at him and did nothing but push her affection on him was what he had a problem with. If not for that, honestly, he would have had no issues with her.

He even had a positive view of Mimorin’s personality. At the very least, he liked her enough that he wanted to respect her thoughts and feelings.

Haruhiro didn’t know what to do about Mimorin’s affection and thought, If only we were just friends, that would be easier, but even so... wasn’t it wrong for Haruhiro to try to change her values or feelings to get rid of her bothersome feelings for him? After all, Haruhiro was only thinking about his own convenience.

Besides, if he were to tell her there was no possibility of them ever getting together, sure, he could say that, but wasn’t it a lie? No one knew what tomorrow might bring. It was questionable whether they’d even still be alive.

Despite that, might it be best to tell that lie?

Or should he be honest to a fault?

What was right? What should he do for Mimorin? For Mimorin? Was Haruhiro really thinking of Mimorin? Wasn’t he just pretending to care for her? Wasn’t he being a hypocrite?

“Can I give it to you straight?” Haruhiro asked at last. “Well, I’m going to. I don’t know what’s possible. I don’t know the future. That’s not just me; it’s the same for anybody. Just, right now, honestly, I think you’re an interesting person. It’s fun to watch you, and I don’t mind talking at all, but I can’t consider a romantic relationship. I really do feel like, ‘Can’t we just be friends?’ I can’t do anything more than that right now. Maybe, some years from now, I might decide I do like you that way, but I don’t want to think about that. It’s not reliable. Even if I started feeling that way, you might already have a boyfriend by then, and there would be nothing I could do about it. It’s a matter of timing, you know. I can only speak for now, sorry. I have my hands full just worrying about the present.”

Mimorin stared intently into Haruhiro’s eyes, listening closely. It wasn’t that Haruhiro didn’t find that intimidating, but he did his best not to look away. When he finished, all of his strength left him.

I must have really sleepy eyes right now, he thought. He wasn’t sleepy, but he was exhausted.

“I understand,” Mimorin said, her whole face twitching. She narrowed her eyes, raising both corners of her lips in what was probably a smile.

She understood. Thank goodness. Haruhiro closed his eyes and let out a sigh. That’s a load off my shoulders.

You know, my body’s not that big, and my belly isn’t either, so there’s a limit to how much I can carry. I can only carry so many responsibilities. I lead the party, and I do my job as a thief. That’s the limit for me. I don’t have the time to think or do anything about other stuff.

That’s right. Like romance. I don’t have time for it. The same goes for Merry. If I’d had the room to do so, I’d have said something. Yeah. Maybe not. No way. It wouldn’t have happened. Never. I couldn’t have done it.

It’s something to be grateful for, he realized. Despite his inadequacies, Mimorin had fallen in love with him. This kind of good fortune probably didn’t come along often. It might never come again. This could be the last time. Rejecting it might be a terrible waste.

But what else could he do? It was true he didn’t feel that way for her now.

He really couldn’t lie about that. He didn’t want to deceive himself, or to deceive Mimorin. He couldn’t.

“Well, there you have it,” he said. “But I love you.”

“...Come again?” he asked.

When he opened his eyes, Mimorin was staring at Haruhiro. Without a speck of doubt in them, her eyes were serious and filled with sincerity.

“Right now, I love you. I love Haruhiro. Is that wrong?”

“Whew...” Anna-san whistled, shrugging to the point that her shoulders touched her head. “Mimorin sure is stubborn. Like a rock, yeah? No, like steel, maybe?”

Haruhiro looked down at the ground and scratched the back of his head.

No... Is it wrong? I’m not the one to ask. It’s not a matter of it being wrong or not. I have no right to tell her not to. That’s Mimorin’s choice. I have to respect that.

In the end, saying, Thank you for understanding. Well, let’s be friends, then would be just a convenient way of handling it for Haruhiro. Whether Mimorin accepted it or not was up to her.

In the same way, whether Haruhiro accepted Mimorin’s feelings or not was up to him, but Haruhiro couldn’t change Mimorin’s feelings. Mimorin’s feelings belonged to Mimorin alone.

“It’s not wrong,” he said.

4.    Paths Diverging Beneath a Different Sky

When everyone met back up, they went shopping. Kuzaku bought a new shield and helmet to replace the ones that had taken a considerable beating. Merry bought a staff with more attack power. As for Ranta’s Betrayer Mk. II

—a name that, of course, stupid Ranta had given his new sword—he haggled the price down as low as it would go. For the rest of the group, they just bought their daily necessities.

It was way more fun than they had been expecting. They could get their hands on a lot of stuff at the Lonesome Field Outpost, and they hadn’t been left wanting for much, but Alterna had the better selection of goods. It was no contest. Just looking around at all of the stuff got them excited.

Even for Haruhiro, who was always being criticized for being boring, a downer, a wet blanket, and miserly... the experience of browsing the stock here was overwhelming, and there were times he felt like he might end up buying all sorts of things he didn’t really need, but he desperately restrained himself.

When they left Alterna, they missed it a little.

They traveled west across the Quickwind Plains. Along the way, they camped out once, traveling roughly 35 kilometers on foot to reach the Lonesome Field Outpost at around two o’clock in the afternoon. If they entered the Dusk Realm and reached the settlement today, they would be able to start work as soon as tomorrow morning. Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis had intended to do exactly that, but...

In the Lonesome Field Outpost, they ran into Shinohara. “Hey, Haruhiro,” the man said. “Tokimune, too.”

Shinohara hadn’t changed a bit since the first time Haruhiro had met him.

He had a gentle-looking face, an easygoing demeanor, and he wore a white cape. The cape had a crest with seven stars in an x-shape. The mark of Clan Orion.

Haruhiro had noticed other men and women wearing Orion’s white capes scattered around the Lonesome Field Outpost. Shinohara wasn’t alone; he had the short-haired, narrow-eyed warrior Hayashi with him, as well as a bespectacled man with a crew cut.

Hayashi nodded to Merry, who returned the gesture with a slight nod and a smile. Hayashi looked surprised.

“...Wait, huh?” Haruhiro was startled, but pleased to see Merry able to greet her old comrade with a smile. He suppressed the cynical thought, Yeah, and I’ll bet that’s thanks to him, too, huh, rubbing his cheek with his fingertip. “Shinohara, are you guys pulling out of the Dusk Realm?”

“The truth is, we’re not sure,” the man said.

“Huh?! Huh?! Huhhhh?!” Kikkawa’s eyes went wide. He jumped into the air and waved his arms around. “What, what? Did something happen? Was there a pening-hap?!”

“What’s a pening-hap?” the guy with the crew cut and glasses asked. “Wow, you’re gonna call me on that?! Really?! Like, totally?!” Kikkawa

yelled.

“Kikkawa, you annoying, yeah!” Anna-san slapped Kikkawa upside the head.

“Erm, well...” Haruhiro thought it was a pain, but that he ought to explain, at least. “A pening-hap is a happening... It’s like he’s scrambled the word, I guess...”

“Ohh.” The crew cut guy suddenly started chuckling. “I get it, I get it.”

He thinks it’s... funny? It’s really not.

“And?” Tokimune asked, flashing his white teeth. “Did something happen, Sheeno?”

“‘Sheeno’?” Shihoru repeated under her breath dubiously.

“Because he’s Shinohara!” Ranta (the piece of crap) shouted. “That’s why he’s Sheeno, huh!”

“Give him a -san, at least. He needs a -san,” Haruhiro told them off, appalled.

Ranta (the piece of trash), who kissed up to the powerful and crushed the weak, quickly got down and did a kowtow. “I’m sorry! I got carried away!

No, y’know, it was just the way we talk, or the spur of the moment, you could say! Like the way you talk about famous people without honorifics!”

“I’m not bothered by it.” It was the mature response you would have expected from Shinohara.

“Heh...” Inui’s one eye shone ominously—well, not that he actually had just one eye, he was just hiding the other one with his eyepatch. “He’s just Shinohara, but he gets to be called Sheeno, huh...”

Whoa, Inui, you’re being even ruder than Ranta, you know? Haruhiro thought.

“I’ve never heard it before,” Mimorin said, blinking.

Huh? She’s never heard that nickname before?

“I just came up with it now,” Tokimune said with a wink and a thumbs- up. “It’s the perfect nickname for him, am I right?”

“There’s no denying it, yeah?!” Anna-san gave him a beaming smile and returned his thumbs-up.

“It’s cuter than Shinoharadon and Shinoharacchom, at least,” Yume added nonsensically, crossing her arms and nodding to herself.

“What?” Tada frowned. “Are you all stupid? Every last one of you?

Shinoharaiden is better.”

Kuzaku and Merry looked to one another with awkward smiles, then quickly looked away.

What, what, what? Why’re you looking away? Go ahead, I don’t mind. Why not just go off in your own little world together? You’re not gonna? Hmm. Oh, I see. Not like I care.

“I’m fine with anything, really,” Shinohara said. Even after all this nonsense, he was an adult, and he was laughing along happily with a smile that wasn’t forced. “Now, as for the answer to your question... Yes, something happened. To cut to the chase, the Dusk Realm is becoming less appealing.”

“Allow me to provide the rest of the explanation,” the man with the crew cut and glasses butted in.

Wait, who is this guy? I’ve seen him before—I have, right? I don’t know his name, though.

While Haruhiro was tilting his head and looking at the guy questioningly, the guy with the crew cut turned in Haruhiro’s direction and grinned. “My apologies for the late introduction. I am Kimura of Orion.”

“...Oh.” Haruhiro reflexively bowed. “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

“I know who you are,” said Kimura. “You are Mr. Haruhiro. The one there is Mr. Ranta. Ms. Yume. Ms. Merry. Ms. Shihoru. Mr. Kuzaku. Mr. Tokimune and Mr. Tada, Mr. Inui, Anna-san, Ms. Mimori, and Mr. Kikkawa. Am I correct?”

He sure likes addressing people with Ms. And Mr., but he still addressed Anna-san with a -san, like he ought to. This Kimura guy is no ordinary customer, I guess, Haruhiro thought.

“Kimura-san and Shinohara-san are bosom buddies,” Hayashi explained. “Possum buddies?” Yume asked.

Yume, that’s wrong.

“Moron, it’s boobie buddies, obviously!” yelled a piece of trash.

Ranta, that’s wrong, too.

“Chest friends, huh... Heh...” Inui was wrong, too.

“They’re syrupy friends, yeah?!” Anna-san’s was way out there. “Whoa?! Like, they get into all sort of juicy and sticky situations

together?!” Kikkawa shrieked.

What was Kikkawa getting so excited for? “Gyudon is juicy,” Mimorin nodded.

There is one of those, though. A gyudon place. In Alterna. But there’s no beef in it, for some reason.

“Bosom buddies...” Merry seemed to be thinking about it deeply. “What’s that mean?”

“Oh, um...” Kuzaku didn’t seem to know either.

Bosom buddies, huh. Yeah, that’s a bit tough to define. You don’t really use the term often. I’m not surprised they wouldn’t know it.

Incidentally, Haruhiro had heard it before, and he could sort of guess at the meaning. Probably, it meant they were close, or something like that, right? Close confidants, that sort of thing? Shinohara and Kimura were? They made a bit of an odd couple.

“Heh heh heh.” Kimura let out a mysterious laugh that caused his shoulder to shake. “Me, Shinohara’s bosom buddy? You exaggerate. We’re simply friends. Of course there’s none of that BL stuff going on between us. Isn’t that right, Shinohara?”

“Yeah.” Shinohara’s response was still completely friendly. “If there were

BL-stuff going on between Kimura and me, that’d just be gross.” “Uwah ha ha ha!” Kimura laughed so hard, he had to grasp his belly. “BL is short for ‘boys’ love,’” Hayashi was quick to explain.

“I know that much already, dummy!” Anna-san shouted at him.

What a chaotic mess, Haruhiro thought to himself. This conversation is going nowhere...

No, it would be more correct to say it had been going nowhere. After a good long laugh, Kimura efficiently and logically explained what had happened.

It was thought to have started five days ago when Iron Knuckle had attacked another cultist base and massacred the cultists there.

The assault itself had been a success, but two days later, which was to say three days ago, there had been a change in the Dusk Realm.

Incredibly, a giant god, a humanoid creature so massive it seemed to touch the heavens, had come and begun to chase after humans wherever it found them.

There had been sighting of the giant god off in the distance before.

Haruhiro and the others had seen it a number of times themselves. However, the giant god had never approached them, and it had seemed to be a fair distance away from the initial hill.

They had heard that far to the southwest of the initial hill there was a basin, the Great Cauldron of the Gods, and the giant god wandered around in that area. They had also heard that the ones who’d discovered the Great Cauldron of the Gods and given it its name were Lala and Nono.

The giant god was so huge that it felt like it couldn’t be real, and it was clear that messing with it would be dangerous. That was why, naturally, no one had been dumb enough to try, and even if it saw people, nothing really came of it. It was seen as essentially harmless.

However, that had suddenly changed—apparently.

It was “apparently” because no one had actually fought the giant god yet.

That was why they couldn’t decide if it seriously wanted a fight or not.

It was hard to imagine anyone was reckless enough, or rather, stupid enough to challenge a creature that huge to a fight. The moment they realized, Oh, crap, it’s here, anyone would run away. Once they got a certain distance away, it wouldn’t pursue, but what the exact distance was wasn’t clear. If they had to be on guard against it at all times, that made hunting for

cultists and giants all the more exhausting.

Oh, this is getting bad, they had decided, so Orion had temporarily withdrawn from the Dusk Realm.

The situation might change, so it wasn’t permanent. They’d decided to leave just one party behind while Shinohara and the others went and made money elsewhere for the time being.

“Iron Knuckle, again?!” Ranta shouted loudly. “Those assholes! Don’t they think about how their actions affect everyone else?! It’s a pain in the ass, that’s what it is, dammit!”

“You’re one to talk,” Haruhiro muttered.

“Huhhh?! What’d you say about me, Parupiroooo?!”

“Ah...” Shihoru pointed off into the distance. “Someone from Iron Knuckle...”

“I’m sowwy!” Ranta immediately jumped into the air and did a kowtow. “I didn’t mean it just now. Seriously, seriously, it wasn’t me, our Haruhiro was saying it before, so...!”

“There he goes, subtly shoving the blame off on me... subtly, though,” Haruhiro muttered.

“Whaaaa?!” Ranta screamed. “They’re not there?! No Iron Knuckles!

Shihoru, you tricked me! You secret, saggy titty bomber!” “Don’t call me weird names!”

“Shut up, saggy tits! For your crime, I sentence you to publicly change your clothes!”

“Heh...” Inui wore a smile of irredeemable evil on his old man face. “I, too, would like to burn that scene into my memory... However, I alone should be the one to see it!”

“Nobody’s going to be seeing anything.” Shihoru wrapped her arms around her body defensively, glaring at Inui like she would something filthy.

“You sure are a lively bunch.” Shinohara was all smiles.

“They’re just annoying.” Tada adjusted the position of his glasses with his index finger. “What a bunch of dung beetles.”

The dung beetle insult was a bit much, but Haruhiro couldn’t have agreed more.

“The giant god, huh...” Tokimune looked to Haruhiro. “What do you want to do?”

Was there anything they even could do?

Considering the nature of the volunteer soldier trade, there was no way they could get by without taking any risks. That said, for Haruhiro’s part, he wanted to avoid every avoidable risk as much as he possibly could. They were, technically, the discoverers of the Dusk Realm, so it was disappointing to have to do so, but it might be best to consider other options.

That was his opinion, and he said as much.

Now, as for the response he got, here’s how things turned out.

“Whewwwww!” Up on top of that initial hill, Ranta let out a strange cry, his eyes wide.

It was the time of day when normally the sun would be setting, but here in the Dusk Realm, there was no morning and no night. It was always the same, the many-colored sky that spread out as far as the eye could say.

Beneath that indescribable, otherworldly dusk sky, a supermassive, lanky giant god was taking a leisurely stroll.

“How far away do you figure that thing is?” Kuzaku asked with a sigh. “It’s hard to get a sense for distance.”

“Hrmm.” Anna-san was riding on Tokimune’s shoulders. “I say eighty kilometers? Around that?”

“Can’t be that far,” Haruhiro couldn’t help but point out.

“Five kilometers... maybe, y’think?” Yume squinted at the giant god. “Ten kilometers, maybe? Twenty, maybe? Yume’s havin’ a hard time figurin’ it out, too. Whoooo. It’s small, but it’s real big, huh!”

“That’s contradictory, but it sure does feel that way,” Shihoru said with a nod, standing next to Yume.

Yeah, seriously.

Taking Yume’s theory and assuming that it was a maximum of twenty kilometers away, that was pretty far off. If it was twenty kilometers off in that direction, even an extra-large, two-hundred-meter-tall giant would be a speck in the distance. Even that giant god wasn’t so large that they had to look up at it from where they were.

But it was huge. That wasn’t a size any living creature should be. It was a mountain. Not just a hill, it was a mountain.

He recalled the first time they had seen the giant god. It had been when they were returning from rescuing the Tokkis after they’d tried to steal a march on them.

At that time, Haruhiro had thought it was awfully large, given that it had to be several hundred meters away from them.

Several hundred meters?

Hardly. That time, it easily had to have been at least this far away. No, farther.

It was like Kuzaku said. The giant god was so big, it messed with your sense of distance.

“It’s pretty fast, huh,” Tada muttered.

“It’s got some loooong legs...” Kikkawa sounded impressed for some reason. “Like, way too long. Its movements are surprisingly sharp, too. Wow, wow...”

The giant god was south of the initial hill, moving east to west. Its movements didn’t look all that sharp to Haruhiro, but they could make out the movements of its legs even from here, so it was by no means slow.

“Ah!” Mimorin sucked in her breath, pointing to the southeast. “There’s something there.”

“What is that?” Merry had a grim look on her face. Kuzaku was looking sideways at her.

“That looks like a big one, too.” Tokimune licked his lips. “Well, yeah,” Haruhiro said. I’m sure it is.

Haruhiro rubbed his belly. His stomach hurt a little.

This goes for all the Tokkis, but why does he sound like he’s having so much fun? Why is he so blatantly excited?

I know. That’s the kind of people they are. I know that, but I still get fed up with it. I’m used to that, though, y’know? I mean, we have Ranta.

Yeah. It was thanks to Ranta that he’d been able to get along with the Tokkis so far. That was definitely part of how he had managed it. If he hadn’t already been used to Ranta, even communicating with the Tokkis would have been difficult.

The Ranta effect sure was something. If people had a bad side, they had to have a good side, too. There could be no shadows without light.

However, he could also flip the theory around, and say that because he was too used to Ranta, they had ended up working with the Tokkis, and that was getting them into real trouble.

He could conclude that, in the end, Ranta was a plague upon the party.

And, really, he had always been something incredibly close to a plague upon

them.

The big thing they saw out there, it was white and writhing. It might not be as big as the giant god, but it was pretty big. What on Earth was it? It wasn’t humanoid. He could say that much for certain.

Is it an octopus... or something like that? Although I’ve never been to the ocean in Grimgar, I know what kind of creature an octopus is. It’s... not really like an octopus. But, somehow, I can tell it’s got a bunch of tentacle- like things, and it’s like its moving them around to walk—No, maybe it’s like a mass of tentacles?

From this distance, it was hard to say. It was much closer than the giant god. Two kilometers, three maybe. Or perhaps only one.

“It’s cute...” Mimorin was staring passionately in its direction.

Haruhiro, Shihoru, Yume, Merry, Kuzaku, and even Ranta were shocked, but the Tokkis looked completely unfazed.

This is the problem with Mimorin...

“Um...” Haruhiro hesitantly raised his hand. Tokimune looked to him with a “Hm?”

Now that they’d seen that thing—no, those things—with their own eyes, surely even the Tokkis would agree with Haruhiro. Or rather, they’d have the same opinion as him.

“Why don’t we head back?” he said. “Those things are bad news. No matter how you look at it.”

“You moron!” Ranta rounded on him. “You call yourself a man, saying stuff like that? Do you really have a pair of balls?! I’m asking if you’ve got a pair of balls hanging between your legs, you sissy!”

“Does that have anything to do with it?” Haruhiro asked. “Whether I’m a man or a woman?”

“Of course it does! It does, doesn’t it, Tokimune-san?!”

“I dunno.” Tokimune cocked his head to the side. “Maybe not?”

“It sure doesn’t!” Ranta was quick to change his mind. “Ha ha ha! There’s no way it would matter, would it? That’s why I said so, Panpirorin! It doesn’t matter if you’re male, or female, or if you have balls! You really are a piece of crap who doesn’t understand a thing, aren’t you?”

“Balls, balls, balls, shut up already, yeah!” Anna-san snapped at Ranta from up on top of Tokimune’s head. “You too vulgar, yeah?! We have many untainted ladies here!”

“You’re the last one I want telling me I’m vulgar! Even I’m not as bad as you!”

“Do you know?! Ouch! No, wait, what you mean?! You tiny-dicked, smegma bastard!”

“Um, anyway, moving on...” Haruhiro said, wiping Anna-san’s spittle from his face. “Can we go back? If we go now, we can make it back to the Lonesome Field Outpost today. We can decide what we’ll do from tomorrow on once we’re there...”

“Huh?” Tokimune blinked. “Why?”

“Hey, Haruhiro.” Tada put his hand on Haruhiro’s forehead. “Doesn’t seem like you’ve got a fever.”

“I don’t.” Haruhiro brushed Tada’s hand away. “If anyone here has a fever, I have to say it’s you people...” he muttered under his breath, despite not intending to.

“Heh...” For some reason, Inui burst out laughing. “Heh heh heh heh... Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Hold on, he’s roaring with laughter. What’s wrong with this guy? Is he even human? Maybe he isn’t? He’s scaring me.

He’s really scaring me.

“Listen, Haruhiro,” Tokimune said, putting a hand on Haruhiro’s shoulder while Anna-san was still riding on his own. “I’ve got a surprisingly high opinion of you. If I say it’s surprising, does it come off as rude, maybe?”

“Nah, it’s fine. Call it surprising or whatever.”

“Well, anyway, you’re plain, and you’ve got basically no passion or spirit, but you’re calm, and you’ve got reasonably good decision-making skills, so it’s reassuring to have you as an ally. That’s because you’ve got something that we lack.”

“Flattery’s not going to get you anything from me, you know...” “You’re kidding, right?” Tokimune asked.

“No, I’m serious.”

“Well, I don’t hate that about you.” “You don’t, huh.”

I am happy to hear that, though, you know? As much as anyone would be.

He might not look it, but Haruhiro was happy in his own Haruhiro way.

Probably. Though, that had nothing to do with the matter at hand. “So, what about it?” he asked.

“I rate your skills highly, and I like you, but sometimes, I think, ‘Huh?’”

You guys don’t just make me think “Huh?” sometimes, you make me think it all the time. If he told them that straight-up, it would probably just be a headache, so Haruhiro kept his mouth shut.

Tokimune flashed him a glimpse of those shiny white teeth. “Our goal is already decided, right? So what do you mean, we’re turning back? I’m not sure I understand.”

“Our goal?” Haruhiro repeated. “Yeah.”

“What’s that?”

“A goal is something that you aim for and try to accomplish as part of your work, right?”

“No, I know that. I understand what the word ‘goal’ means.” “Well, what do you want to know?” Tokimune asked. “What this goal you think is already decided is...”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Tokimune gestured with his chin. “We’re taking that thing out, right?”

“...Whaaaaa?” Haruhiro staggered.

What is this guy saying? Well, it did seem like something he’d say. But still, there’s no way that’s happening. He’s crazy, totally crazy. What kind of thought process could possibly bring him to that conclusion?

Shihoru, Merry, and Kuzaku were all shuddering. Yume was just sort of staring blankly; she didn’t seem to have any clue what was going on. Ranta, being the hopeless moron that he was, actually looked excited. The Tokkis were utterly unperturbed. Kikkawa was doing a little dance with Ranta.

Have they mistaken this for some kind of festival? They’re hopeless. I mean, come on... when he says “that thing,” he means that thing, right?

Either the giant god or the bizarre creature, right?

No matter how he thought about it, or didn’t think about it, it was impossible, right? That much was self-evident, wasn’t it? This was the sort of thing that was part of the collective understanding that all humans had, something every person was aware of, wasn’t it? It was, right? Yeah, it was.

Haruhiro was right. He couldn’t be wrong. So, what now? At last, the time had come. It was here.

He’d suspected it would come eventually. Not that he had wanted it to. He had hoped it wouldn’t.

The Tokkis were a bunch of weirdos and they were a real mess, but they were fun people to be with. If you were to ask him if it was because he could use them, to be way too frank, yes, that was one aspect of it. None of the Tokkis were particularly mercenary. They weren’t the calculating sort who hung around with people or helped them because they had something to gain. That didn’t mean he could trust them implicitly, but the Tokkis would probably never stab Haruhiro in the back again. They weren’t the type of people who would deviate from whatever code of honor they held. Still, there might come a day where they parted ways.

Haruhiro had worried it might come.

He was ready to accept that the Tokkis might drag them into situations that caused them some pain. These were the Tokkis, after all. If he didn’t accept at least that much, the alliance wasn’t going to work.

But that only applied to pain they could recover from. There were limits.

If they were going to take on those things, he had to be ready for more than just pain. Major damage, casualties, losses—He had to be prepared for death.

If they spontaneously found themselves in a situation where fighting them was the only option, that would be one thing. However, deliberately throwing themselves into that sort of peril was absolutely reckless.

If they discussed it as a party, others might disagree. That’s why he wouldn’t do that. This was going to be entirely Haruhiro’s choice. He’d already decided. They were going to split up with the Tokkis.

He wouldn’t say something naïve like, Let’s work together again, if the chance comes up. That would be selfish reasoning, meaning, You can count us out when it’s dangerous, but if it’s not dangerous, we’re okay with joining in. Sometimes working with them and sometimes not wasn’t something Haruhiro wanted to engage in.

He looked Tokimune in the eye. I’m sorry, he was about to say—

Suddenly, beneath his clothes, that thing he kept in constant contact with him started to vibrate. “Whoa...”

In shock, Haruhiro completely forgot what he had been about to do. What was it again, anyway? Right, before that, he had to deal with this first.

That thing was hanging from his neck on a chain like a pendant. When he stuffed his hand down his collar and pulled it out, the lower end was shining green. It was an object like a black, flat stone. But this was no ordinary stone.

“What’s that?” Tokimune raised an eyebrow. “Uh, um, this is...”

While Haruhiro was deciding whether to explain or not, the thing—the receiver—began to vibrate and produce sound. Not just sound, a voice.

“Members of the Day Breakers, are you listening? This is Soma.” “Haeeee?!” Anna-san let out a bizarre cry of surprise from up on

Tokimune’s shoulders, her eyes popping out of her skull.

“Did he say ‘Soma’?” Tada adjusted the position of his glasses.

“By Soma, he means the Soma, right?!” Kikkawa looked ready to start dancing with glee at any second.

“Somatic...” Mimorin mumbled something irrelevant.

“Heh...” For some reason, Inui drew his sword and showed off a practice swing.

Haruhiro looked to Ranta, Shihoru, Yume, Merry, and Kuzaku.

They hadn’t told the Tokkis that they were a sad stain on the membership list of the Day Breakers. Ranta had wanted to boast about it, but Haruhiro had made him keep quiet.

I dunno. Honestly, it’s still hard to believe. We have the receiver as proof, so there’s no way it was a dream. Still, I just can’t quite see us as members of the Soma’s Day Breakers. It just doesn’t feel real. I mean, Soma’s never contacted us. I don’t know much about the Day Breakers, either. Even if you ask me to believe it, isn’t it kind of hard to?

It was hard.

“We plan to return to the Lonesome Field Outpost tomorrow night,” said Soma’s voice.

Still, when he heard Soma’s voice like this, he could believe it. He had to. “I repeat. We plan to return to the Lonesome Field Outpost tomorrow

night. If you can make it there, please come. I want to see you occasionally. Lilia, did you want to say anything?”

“Wh-Why are you asking me?!” her voice cried. “Just thought I would. Can’t you?”

“It’s not that I can’t, just...!” “I see. You can’t, huh.”

“I-I can! Please, hand me the sender.” “Sure,” Soma said.

This was followed by the sound of Lilia clearing her throat. “I-I have

nothing in particular to say, but for many of you, it has been a long time since we’ve met. Look forward to it—No, I do not look forward to it, but you are free to feel as you will. Do as you please. That is all.”

The receiver stopped vibrating and the green light vanished.

Haruhiro sighed, looking to gauge Tokimune’s reaction. Tokimune was deep in thought. What on Earth was he thinking? Haruhiro couldn’t imagine.

“Erm... A-About this...” Haruhiro fumbled for words. “Well, what can I say...?”

“If we’re doing it anyway, why not invite Soma along?” Tokimune asked. “Huh?”

“To hunt the giant god.” “...Come again?”

“Soma’d probably be up for it if we invited him along,” said Tokimune. “Wha? Huh? Wait, hold on... You and Soma-san know each—Huh...?” “We enlisted around the same time, and, yeah, you could say we know

each other, I guess. We’ve gone for drinks a number of times.” “No, but...” Haruhiro was at a loss for words.

But what? What is it? Like, what should I do?

What’s going to happen here?

5.    My Natural Self

Whatever the case might be, Haruhiro had been wanting to meet with Soma. Well, he also felt like he didn’t want to see him, but that was because he didn’t feel he was worthy to, and he did still want to meet with him.

Soma, renowned as the mightiest of all volunteer soldiers; Kemuri, who was generous and powerful; Lilia, the beautiful elven sword dancer; Shima, the insanely sexy shaman everyone called “Big Sis”; Pingo, the creepy necromancer called the “Devil Child” for his childlike appearance; and Zenmai, the flesh golem that he created—none of them were normal. Each one gave off an exceptional aura, and they were, in fact, way ahead of the rest.

Even from a distance, they were a sight to behold. To put it in somewhat grandiose terms, Soma and his crew were living, walking legends. This wasn’t just a chance to see these people. It might be a chance to talk to them.

No, not “might be.” It was. After all, Haruhiro and the others were in the Day Breakers, too.

That said, he needed to think about it calmly.

That was what he told himself, but oh, man, they could meet Soma and the others. Oh, man, seriously, what should they do? What should they talk about? How should they greet him? What if he’d forgotten them? Yeah, that probably wouldn’t have happened, but still, you never knew. Despite all appearances to the contrary, when they interacted with him directly, Soma had been a bit of an airhead. He might have completely forgotten Haruhiro and the others.

These were the sorts of thoughts that raced through Haruhiro’s head.

Tokimune was planning to hunt the giant god and wanted to get Soma and his group mixed up in the action. That was something Haruhiro couldn’t just

ignore. He needed to do something, but first they needed to head back to the Lonesome Field Outpost. They could talk about whether or not that was a good idea during the time it took for Soma to get there.

He was gonna do that. He totally was. He was, okay? Really, he meant it.

And so, having made it back to the Lonesome Field Outpost, they decided they should get something to eat in the back streets.

While Haruhiro was standing in line for one of the stalls, thinking, Okay, I’m gonna say something, I’ll bring it up, definitely, an unfamiliar man spoke to him.

“You’re Haruhiro-kun, right?” “...Yes, why?”

He definitely didn’t know this old guy. The guy looked to be around forty or so, maybe. He was nothing if not an old man from Haruhiro’s perspective, but he seemed pretty incredible.

For starters, he was well-built. He must have stood over 180 centimeters tall. He wasn’t just tall, though. He was broad and thick, too.

He had a gentle face, with wrinkles from smiling that reached his eyes, and his calm, low voice gave off a favorable impression, but somehow, he was threatening. Judging by his armor and the shield he carried, he was a paladin.

The old guy had company.

One of his companions was short and slender, a man who, unsurprisingly, was also in his forties. He looked like an artist of some sort and was wearing a priest’s outfit.

Next, there was a mage who looked to be in her thirties. She was older than Haruhiro, but not the kind of person he’d have felt right calling ma’am. She was incredibly beautiful.

The woman standing next to that incredible beauty was huge. She reminded him of Kajiko of the Wild Angels, only she was way older than Kajiko. She must have been in her thirties, too. She wore a massive sword slung over her back. She was a warrior, no doubt.

The remaining two were—Haruhiro opened his eyes wide despite himself.

They weren’t human.

The two of them were both men, but otherwise they were contrasting figures.

One had a short, barrel-like body. Not fat, though. He was a mass of muscle. No, a mass of muscle and beard and body hair, to be fully accurate. Much larger than his hairy, boulder-like body was the powerful-looking and terrifying ax he carried.

He was a dwarf.

The other was the opposite of a dwarf. He was slender. He was similar in height to Haruhiro, maybe a little taller. He looked like a beautiful and fair- skinned young boy. He was very pale, and the color of his hair and eyes seemed not so much bright as thin. He had a somewhat sharp look in his eyes, looking stubborn. He carried a bow and quiver, so maybe he was an archer.

The thing to take note of was his ears. Long and pointed.

He was an elf.

“Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!” Kikkawa suddenly let out a strange cry. “An older paladin, a priest, a mage, a female warrior, and a dwarf, could you possibly be hiiiim?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakira-san, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?!”

“Wait! Akira,” Ranta whispered and then immediately got down and kowtowed. “I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I’m very sorry! How clumsy of me! I accidentally called you just plain ‘Akira’! I’m so, so sorry, Akira-san! Please, please, overlook this mistake!”

“What a funny boy,” said the thirty-something beauty with a laugh.

Ranta’s cheeks turned a little red. “Heh heh. I’m a funny boy. Heh heh heh.”

“Akira-san...” Haruhiro covered his mouth with his hands. “Wait, you don’t mean that Akira-san?”

Soma and his group were living, walking legends. Naturally, as walking

legends, they walked around places. That meant that, although they were

legendary, they actually existed, and if you were lucky, you might pass by them somewhere. In fact, before Haruhiro and his party had ended up joining the Day Breakers by chance, they had once had Kemuri treat them to a round of drinks at Sherry’s Tavern.

But Akira-san was different.

Any volunteer soldier who didn’t know Akira-san’s name had to have been living under a rock. He was that famous, but Akira-san was far more distant than Soma and his group.

From what Haruhiro had heard, before Soma and his group had made their name, Akira-san and his party had long been seen as the strongest volunteer soldiers.

When Soma and his party had appeared, Akira-san had recognized their skills and praised them as the strongest. That was what had cemented their reputation.

That said, it had done nothing to diminish Akira-san’s dignity.

For instance, there were some volunteer soldiers who boasted, “I could take Soma in a one-on-one fight and win.” In other words, there were volunteer soldiers who thought themselves his equals, whether they said it aloud or not. Influential clans like Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers felt especially competitive towards Soma. So while many volunteer soldiers praised Soma as the strongest, his position as such was by no means absolute.

That was the difference between him and Akira-san. No volunteer soldier would compare themselves to Akira-san. It would be presumptuous for them to even think about whether they were stronger or weaker than Akira-san.

To put it in extreme terms, it would be like comparing your height against a mountain. It was natural for humans to be shorter than the mountains, and strange to even attempt to make the comparison. Akira-san wasn’t so much on another level as in another class altogether.

Akira-san had laughed, saying, “I’m getting old,” and then casually pushed the title of strongest off onto Soma and his party. Then, one day, he had set off on a journey with his comrades, never to be seen again. That was the sort of unverifiable story, practically a legend, that Haruhiro had heard about him.

Now they were saying this man was Akira-san? This old man? “Ah...” Tokimune blinked. “Man, it really is Akira-san.”

“I’ve met you before,” said Akira-san, or the old man who supposedly

was him, flashing Tokimune a wonderful smile. “Tokimune-kun. Tada-kun and Inui-kun. I believe it’s my first time meeting those young men and women.”

“Hey,” Tada said. And then the guy who looked like he had common sense at first glance, but was more arrogant than anyone, bowed his head.

“Heh.” Inui... grinned. “It’s an honor...”

“I’m K-K-Kikkawa, man! It’s a meet pleasure to you... No, that’s not it!

It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Me A-Anna-san, yeah! You can call me Anna, too, though, okay?” “I’m... Mimori.”

Oh, wow. Haruhiro was stunned. The Tokkis were acting all meek and quiet.

In contrast, Shihoru, Yume, Merry, Kuzaku, and even Ranta, who was on the ground kowtowing, were all stiff and nervous. Yume wasn’t the type to let someone’s name bother her, but she must have sensed something from Akira-san and his group.

It wasn’t oppressive by any means, but it was something.

Like, They sure are adults, or something like that? Although Akira-san was probably old enough to be their father, so they were clearly the children here. But it wasn’t just the age difference. It was experience. It was their weight, breadth, and depth as individuals. There was just too great a gap between them in all of those things. They could sense that clearly, but without having it feel like it was being rubbed in.

Akira-san was natural. That just made him more incredible.

“It’s a bit embarrassing to give my name at this point, but...” Akira-san said, extending his right hand, “I’m Akira.”

“Oh... uh... yeah.” Haruhiro wiped his right hand on his cloak, wiped it, and wiped it again, and then took Akira-san’s hand. “N-N-N-N-N-Nice to meet you. I-I-I-I’m Haruhiro.”

“It’s a pleasure,” said Akira-san, shaking his hand.

A handshake. I’m shaking hands with the Akira-san. His hand is big, warm, dry, powerful, and gentle. I could probably brag about this, huh? To whom is the question, though.

No, hold on.

There are other questions here, too.

“Wait, huh? Why would someone like you be looking for someone like

me?” Haruhiro asked.

“I heard about you from Soma,” Akira-san explained like it was no big deal.

“From Soma-san?”

“Yeah. You all came here to meet with Soma, too, right?” “Huh? Oh, yes, well... You’re right. Huh? Us ‘too’—Wait...” “I’m Gogh.” The short man in a priest’s outfit produced a black,

rectangular stone from his pocket. “It’s inconvenient that this is about all we have as proof of membership, isn’t it?”

“That’s...” Shihoru gasped.

“It’s a receiver!” Yume cried, clapping her hands to her cheeks. “Then, that means...?” Kuzaku looked to Merry.

“It can’t be—” Merry held her chest and tried to calm herself.

“Yeah,” the female warrior said, clearly having a good time. “It means we’re comrades. Oh, by the way, I’m Kayo. Gogh is my honey.”

“Your honey...” Haruhiro felt dizzy enough to faint, for some reason. “Yeah, kinda.” Gogh may have felt a bit embarrassed, because he looked

off in the opposite direction. “It’s true, Kayo’s my wife. And this here is our son.”

“I’m Taro,” the elf boy brusquely introduced himself.

“Wait, but...” Ranta rudely looked back and forth from Gogh and Kayo to Taro.

“As you’ve already inferred, we’re not related by blood.” Taro glared at Ranta. “But Mom and Dad are my real parents. Did you want to say something about it?”

“Nope! Not a thing! No, no, no, no!” Ranta laughed, shaking his hands back and forth. “Wouldn’t dream of it! Geheheh! Nothing I’d want to say, you know? I mean, blood ties don’t matter anyway! If anyone wants to obsess over that stuff, I’ll kick their asses myself! Gahahaha! B-By the way, um... What is the name of the lady over there?”

“Me?” The beauty pointed to herself. “Did you want to know something about me?”

“No, um, well, like, if you’re available, maybe...”

“I’m an old woman compared to you,” the beauty said. “I’m thirty-seven.” “Thirty-seven?!” Ranta shouted in disbelief. “You don’t look it! Not at

all! No way! That’s the biggest shock in my whole life! Besides, who cares

how old you are?! You’re above and beyond something like that!” “Thanks. I’m Miho.”

“Miho-saaaan! M-M-Marry meeee!”

“I’m sorry,” Miho said, placing a hand on Akira-san’s arm. “I intend to devote my life to this guy here.”

“Gwarrrrrrghhhh! My love, struck down in an instaaaaaaaaaant!” “Are these people going to be any use?” the dwarf snorted. “I can’t

imagine Soma choosing them.”

That’s fair, Haruhiro thought. Especially Ranta. I mean, Ranta, I don’t think I’ve been this embarrassed by you in a long time. I wish I could kill you and then die myself.

“Branken.” Akira-san gave the dwarf a look of rebuke before turning a friendly gaze—or at least, one that felt that way—to Haruhiro. “I had been looking forward to meeting all of you. After all, I knew Rock and Io and their groups before they joined, but you guys, I only first heard about through Soma.”

“Yeah, I imagine you wouldn’t have met us,” said Haruhiro. “Um, I dunno what to say, but we haven’t been volunteer soldiers long, and we have no accomplishments to speak of...”

“You took down Death Spots, didn’t you?” asked Akira-san. “I hear you performed well at the offensive on Deadhead Watching Keep, too.”

“W-Well, yeah, we did!” Ranta puffed up his chest with pride. “Young up-and-comers! That’s us, I’d say! No denying we’ve got a real future ahead of us!”

“Man...” Haruhiro wanted to give Ranta a good, hard punch, but he couldn’t muster up the energy to do it.

“Hmm.” Tokimune looked back and forth from Akira-san to Haruhiro. “The Day Breakers, huh. I was surprised to hear Haruhiro was with them, but you are too, Akira-san? I feel like I heard from Kikkawa that the Rocks and Io’s party joined up with him, though.”

“They’re, like, totally the strongest!” Kikkawa was shaking his head around like he couldn’t restrain himself any longer. “Awesome! The legends, the original legends—Typhoon, the Rocks, and Io-sama’s team! It’s, like, a dream team, or something?! No, like, a real dream?! Like, dream, dreamier, dreamiest?!”

“Oh. Right.” Tada walked up, looking at Akira-san with appraising eyes.

“Hey, bud. Er, Akira-san.”

Whoa, there. Haruhiro was startled. Did you just call him “bud”? Huh? What happened to meek and quiet mode? Kikkawa seems to be getting back into his groove, too. Whaaaaa...?

“You know about the Dusk Realm?” Tada didn’t even make an attempt at being polite.

“We haven’t been there yet.” Akira-san didn’t seem to mind. “But we’ve heard of it.”

“There’s this crazy monster there,” said Tada. “Like, so crazy it’s even got me excited. It’s a giant god.”

“Oh?”

“We’re planning to invite Soma and the others along, but do you want a piece of the action, too?” asked Tada.

He’s inviting them. He’s totally inviting them.

Haruhiro pinched the bridge of his nose. He was starting to cry.

What? What the hell, Tada? Don’t pull this kind of crap. This is Akira- san, okay? You’re asking the Akira-san if he wants a piece of the action, like some two-bit hoodlum. If you want to invite him, there’ve gotta be better ways. Like, in how you say it. Besides, it’s not okay. You wouldn’t invite him, not normally. Well, Tada’s never been normal. I knew that, but still. Isn’t he a bit too abnormal?

“Let me think about it,” said Akira-san.

Man. You’re such a nice guy, Akira-san. The way you’re being considerate to him. You don’t even get upset at someone as brazenly arrogant as Tada. You’ve got such character. It’s wonderful. Haruhiro was moved.

“Huh?” Tada snapped.

So, why’s Tada got a vein pulsing on his temple? Isn’t that weird? Has he gone nuts, maybe? He’s clearly not normal, right? I mean, it’s totally weird, right? It’s not something to snap over, is it? He’s got nothing to be mad about, right?

“What’s with that response?” Tada snarled. “Like you’re trying to dodge the question. Me, I hate it when people do that. Are you interested or not? Be clear about it.”

Oh, that’s his issue? Haruhiro thought. I get what he’s saying. I get it, but he doesn’t need to snap over it.

Haruhiro, his party, and even the other Tokkis were looking on in

disbelief. As for Gogh, Kayo, Miho, Branken, and Taro’s reactions, he was too scared to check.

“Hmm.” Akira-san’s face stiffened. Or rather, he had a serious expression.

At last, Akira-san nodded slightly.

Did he just bow his head?

“I’m sorry. You’re right, that response I just gave you was close to being a mere formality.”

“Yeah.” Tada mussed his own hair. “So, what’s your response?” “It sounds interesting, but I can’t decide on the spot.”

“Why’s that?” Tada demanded.

“There are two reasons. First, I have no information on this giant god.” “That’s what makes this interesting, isn’t it?” Tada shot back.

“You have a point there.” Akira-san wore a strangely childish, mischievous, and surprisingly nasty smile. “Here’s the other one. We’re meeting Soma tomorrow.”

“That’s just a matter of going to the Dusk Realm afterwards, you know.” “If we end up going, that’s how it’ll be,” said Akira-san. “You said you

mean to invite Soma, right?” “Yeah.”

“Then let me talk to Soma about it, too.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better outcome,” Tada said.

“I can’t reply immediately.” Akira-san was still smiling. “But I’m inclined to go. You seem like you’d be fun to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with.”

“I’ll guarantee that.” Tada grinned and thrust his fist out. “I only know you from rumors, but I know myself pretty well.”

Akira-san bumped fists with Tada. “Let’s make sure we bring Soma, too.

Fighting alongside him is stupidly fun.”

“Ha ha ha.” Tada clapped Akira-san on the shoulder. “Ohoh!” Ranta jumped up.

“Yahooey!” Kikkawa jumped into the air, too, and let out a bizarre cry. “It getting exciting now, yeah!” Anna-san made V-signs with her hands

and spun in circles.

Mimorin was staring down at Branken for some reason. She probably thought he was cute.

“We did it, huh, Haruhiro?” Tokimune flashed his white teeth and poked Haruhiro in the side.

Haruhiro said nothing. For now, he just wanted to crouch down. He wanted to sit down. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to sleep for a long time.

You can’t give an immediate reply? No matter what you say, if you’re saying you’ll bring Soma along, Akira-san, you’re already set on going, aren’t you? I don’t like it...

I don’t like it...

I just don’t get people who aren’t normal, and I don’t like it...

6.    Priorities in Life

Haruhiro’s favorite kanji was the one for “ground.” He didn’t like absolutely everything about it, but he liked most of the words and expressions it showed up in. “To have one’s feet firmly on the ground,” for instance.

He was more of a “ground” person than a “sky” person. He would rather be an insect crawling on the ground than a bird soaring through the sky. He didn’t particularly like insects—he hated them, actually—but for all that people said, “You’re gross,” or “You’re annoying,” or “Don’t come out,” or “I hope you go extinct,” or insulted them, insects kept on stubbornly surviving. He respected them for that. That was why you could say this job perfectly suited Haruhiro.

Beneath the many-colored sky of the Dusk Realm, Haruhiro held a shovel tightly. This goes without saying, but a shovel is a tool for digging holes and scooping dirt. He had been able to procure them at the Lonesome Field Outpost.

Haruhiro thought it suited him perfectly. He was a man who looked good with a shovel. That was cool. No, maybe it wasn’t. He didn’t need to be cool.

“Delm, hel, en—” Mimorin chanted as she used her staff to draw elemental sigils. “Balk, zel, arve.”

When she did, the ground was blasted away and dirt and sand scattered all over, leaving a hole about 1.5 meters in diameter.

The was the Arve Magic spell, Blast. Maybe because she had just learned it, it wasn’t as powerful as they had hoped. That had to do with the mage’s basic skill, as well as her mastery, which was different for each school of magic.

“Mimorin, one more shot, go! Yeah!” Anna-san hollered.

With Anna-san egging her on, Mimorin let out a strange grunt of

“Mnngh,” then began casting her magic again. “Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Dungh.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Zongh.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Bokongh.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Bugoom.

“Delm, hel, en...” Halfway through the incantation, Mimorin bent over and rested her weight against her staff which she thrust into the ground. “...Tired.”

“You worked hard!” Tokimune winked and flashed her a smile before lifting up a shovel. “Okay, let’s dig!”

The five holes Mimorin had opened in the ground with Blast were spaced ten meters apart in all directions. Haruhiro, his party, and all of the Tokkis except for Mimorin and Anna-san, so ten people in total, each took a shovel and began work on expanding the holes. They widened and connected the five holes, creating one much larger hole.

What were they doing, you ask? Don’t you get it? “Zwoooooooooooreeeeeeeeee!” Ranta yelled.

“...Ranta,” said Haruhiro. “You’re too noisy. Can’t you just shut up and work?”

“No can do! If I shut up, my spirit will break down out of boredom!” “Let it break...” Kuzaku muttered while swinging his shovel. “What’d you say?! Kuzacky, why youuuu?!” Ranta screamed.

“You really are noisy,” Merry said coldly, brushing her hair back behind her ear.

“Oh, I’m being nooooisy. Soooorry, okay? It’s fiiiine. I’m used to being criticized like that. Me, I don’t care oooone bit what you say about me. Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk, hyuk.”

“You’re the worst,” Shihoru spat at him.

“Yayyyy! I’m the worst! I’m the worst kind of human ever!

Bugabugaboo!”

“Stupid Ranta! How about you stop runnin’ your mouth and start movin’ your hands, huh?” Yume snapped.

“I am moving my hands. Look at them go! Lookie, lookie, lookie!”

In fact, the more Ranta talked, the faster his shovel moved. It was pretty— no, very—creepy. Ranta was harmful and his actions were toxic.

Should I tell him off? Haruhiro thought it over for about three seconds.

Nah. Leave him.

This was (worthless) (stupid) Ranta (the piece of crap). He’d argue back no matter what Haruhiro said. It would have the opposite effect. Following the most important principle in handling Ranta, he ignored him.

I have enough trouble already just with the digging, Haruhiro told himself.

It was heavy labor, but little by little, the hole was steadily expanding. It grew on him as he did it. Personally, he didn’t mind work like this.

But why are we doing this anyway?

“Yeah, you know what...” Tada threw down his shovel and picked up his warhammer, which he had left sitting nearby. “Chipping away at this is gonna take forever. Let’s speed things up.”

“Whoa, man!” Kikkawa cried. “Tadacchi, you’re gonna go for it?!”

What, Kikkawa, are you trying to kiss up to him? Haruhiro thought. Well, he always seemed like the type.

“Heh...” Inui sat down. “I’m bored.”

“You no say you bored, yeah!” Anna-san smacked Inui upside the head.

Not that it matters, but Anna-san really doesn’t participate when there’s physical labor involved, does she? Haruhiro noted.

“Here goes!” Tada did a run up and then a somersault. “Somersault Bomb...!”

Boom... Tada’s warhammer exploded and left a huge dent in the ground. “Looks like it’ll need more than that, huh,” Tokimune said teasingly. “Tch...” Tada clicked his tongue and got ready for another Somersault

Bomb. “I’ll give it as many as it takes! Somersault Bomb!”

Fine, just do whatever you want, Haruhiro thought. But what are we doing this for...?

Why?

He understood, of course. He wouldn’t be digging if he didn’t know the reason. Digging suited Haruhiro’s personality, but he didn’t like it enough to make a hobby of it.

Just after six o’clock on the day after they’d first met Akira-san, Gogh, Kayo, Miho, Branken, and Taro, Haruhiro and the others had met up with Soma at the Lonesome Field Outpost.

It had been a bit hectic then. Soma was something of a star, after all, and not only with the volunteer soldiers. When the back street merchants, and even the frontier army soldiers spotted Soma, Hey, that’s Soma, man, Soma. It really is Soma. Isn’t that Soma? It’s Soma! Whoa, Soma in the flesh...

That’s kind of how things went.

Then there was Akira-san and his group on top of that, so it was a real mess. It was like a little—no, that’s a lie, a huge—festival was created on the spot.

It was decided they’d go for food and some drinks in the back streets, but Haruhiro and the party were all so tense, they couldn’t say much of anything. Even though it was so loud with all of the onlookers, even Ranta was as quiet as could be.

Meanwhile, Soma and Akira-san’s groups were both, with some exceptions, friendly and welcoming, so everyone got used to it eventually. Where’ve you been? What’ve you been up to? They got to the point where they would have been able to ask those questions.

Until the Tokkis barged in, that was. “Hey, Soma.” Tokimune was easygoing. “Yo.” Tada was brusque.

“Heh...” Inui made no sense.

“Here’s Anna-san, yeah!” Anna-san was her usual Anna-san self. “Hey.” Mimorin waved one hand.

“H-Heya, heya, heeeeya!” Kikkawa was the only one whose voice cracked a little.

When the Tokkis came in making a racket, Akira-san looked amused. He said, “Oh, yeah, come to think of it—” and brought up that topic. “I hear there’s something interesting going on in the Dusk Realm that Haruhiro-kun, Tokimune-kun, and their group found a little while back.”

Soma chewed his meat for a while, then swallowed. “Something interesting?” he responded. “I’d like to hear what it is.”

“How about it?” Akira-san asked. “Why don’t we all go check it out together?”

“Let’s.”

to.

“That was fast...” Haruhiro murmured under his breath without meaning

“Hm?” Soma’s eyes opened wide with surprise and he looked at Haruhiro.

“What was fast?”

“Nothing,” Haruhiro said, flustered. “Uh, let’s see, how fast you decided, how instantly...”

“It’s a real problem,” Lilia said with a look of exasperation on her nonetheless all-too-beautiful face. “I know I always say this, but please, consider your current position and act with prudence, Soma. You are too impulsive at times.”

“Ooh, she’s mad.” Shima gave a sexy little laugh.

“Well, yeah.” Kemuri rubbed his cheek. He had been clean-shaven the last time they’d met, but now his beard had grown a fair bit. It matched his dreadlocks well. “Still, that does work in our favor sometimes.”

“It’s because he’s an idiot,” Pingo said, narrowing his eyes in a way that didn’t suit his childlike face. “Uheheh... Poor thought resembles rest, and so an idiot’s thoughts seem to be at rest... In the end, he’s an idiot, so it’s pointless for him to think. There’s no medicine to cure stupidity...”

“I wish there was a cure.” Soma looked down, as if in thought, then his head snapped back up with a sudden realization. “I’m an idiot?”

“Did you think you weren’t?” Pingo asked. “Uheheheh...”

“Pingo.” Lilia gave him the side-eye. “You’re going too far. We elves have a saying: Be courteous even among close friends, and—”

“Well, I don’t see the harm, Lilia,” Soma said placatingly.

Lilia’s cheeks burned crimson with anger. “Who do you think I’m saying this for?!”

“Who?”

“Huh...? Th-That’s, um... B-Basically...”

The way Lilia fidgeted around was incredibly cute. It was a salve for sore eyes, but it didn’t comfort Haruhiro’s heart. That was because Tokimune’s scheme had succeeded. Just succeeded? No, it had found an unbelievably great success. Soma, Akira-san, and the Day Breakers were all going to invade the Dusk Realm, it seemed.

The rumors raced around the Lonesome Field Outpost, spreading at an incredible speed.

Me, too! Me, too! People hastened to join.

Incredibly, by the end of that night, messengers from “One-on-One” Max of Iron Knuckle, and “Red Devil” Ducky of the Berserkers arrived. On the next morning as they were preparing to depart, Shinohara of Orion came to meet with Soma directly.

Now that things had become such a big deal, Nah, I think we’re gonna sit this one out— was something Haruhiro didn’t have the guts to say. After all, Soma of the Day Breakers was saying he was going to do it. Haruhiro was part of the Day Breakers, the clan Soma had founded. Even if they were at the very bottom, they were comrades.

He couldn’t say it. Couldn’t say, No way. We can’t do it. It would be pathetic, embarrassing, and he would disappoint Soma and the others. He didn’t want them to look down on him.

Ignoring the Tokkis for the moment, if Soma’s party, Akira-san’s party, Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, and Orion were all taking part, it might not be that dangerous for them, after all. It was hard to deny that this thought had begun to take root in Haruhiro’s mind.

Well, I’m curious, too. It would be a lie to say I’m not.

When not only the current and former strongest volunteer soldiers, but also a number of famous clans gathered, what would happen? How would they fight? What sort of scenes would unfold there? Just how much higher of a level were all of them on?

Yeah, I want to see that. If we could just watch, honestly, I’d give anything to see it. It’d be a waste not to.

However, Haruhiro and the others just so happened to be in the Day Breakers. They couldn’t get away with just watching. They’d need to do something. He couldn’t ask for them to be left out because they were pitifully weak, no matter how much he might have wanted to.

But what can we do?

At ten o’clock in the morning, a total of twenty-four people entered the Dusk Realm: eighteen members of the Day Breakers (Soma’s party, Akira- san’s party, and Haruhiro’s party), plus the Tokkis.

While standing on the initial hill and looking to the giant god and that mysterious, massive white creature, Haruhiro thought about the situation.

No, he had been thinking for a while now.

Before long, Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, and Orion would catch up with

them. When that happened, these guys might start the fight right away.

One of the hunting skills Yume had acquired had given him the hint he needed.

Pit Trap.

“U-Um.” Haruhiro worked up his courage, as if he were about to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu. Uh, what’s a kiyomizu again? he wondered, as he said, “H-How about we lay a trap? Would that be a good idea... maybe? I think it might be... Like, instead of just fighting them straight-up, we should use everything we can...”

The plan that Haruhiro had needed to work up enough courage to jump off the stage at Kiyomizu to be able to suggest brought on a debate.

Just a debate, though. Like, if they were going to set a trap, what kind should it be? Or, what was their estimate on the giant god’s size, and how large would it need to be to accommodate that?

Soma’s and Akira-san’s parties in particular—though Zenmai the golem was an exception to this—had a spirited exchange of opinions on the topic.

They’re so different from us, Haruhiro painfully realized.

No one acted like it didn’t concern them. Not one of them acted like it wasn’t their problem, or like they weren’t good at thinking and it was a hassle, so they’d leave it to the others to decide. Though some would make jokes, mock the others’ ideas, or criticize them harshly, the debate never got bogged down, and things proceeded at a brisk pace.

Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis were left on the sidelines. He didn’t know how the Tokkis and Ranta felt about that. But Haruhiro was, presumptuous as it was to be, frustrated.

He was also surprised to find himself frustrated. After all, Haruhiro was just an underling here. He knew he was the lowest of the low. It was only natural that they would be inferior to Soma and Akira-san’s parties, and it was a given that they’d be completely different.

He was frustrated? Huh? What was he getting so serious for? What a laugh. If he was an underling, he ought to sit in the corner like one, nodding along with whatever he was told, and at least stay out of the incredible people’s way. He really felt that way. Because they were different. They were made of different stuff. He could struggle all he wanted, but there was no way his party could ever be like Soma’s and Akira-san’s.

Right?

Yeah... That was right.

Could he not accept that? Did that mean he hadn’t given up yet, maybe? It wasn’t as if his own group didn’t have some potential. At the very least, they didn’t have absolutely zero. Was that what he was thinking? Was this the drive for advancement of someone who was the plainest of the plain? His sense of responsibility as their leader?

Whatever it was, he was definitely frustrated, and he didn’t want to stay that way. Haruhiro did everything he could to involve himself in the discussion. He didn’t manage to say much of anything, but they did decide to set traps.

It was decided that Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis would dig one pit trap, and Iron Knuckle, the Berserkers, and Orion, who arrived at the initial hill one after another at around ten o’clock in the morning, would also each dig one. The locations were decided on by consensus.

In the time it took for the traps to be completed, Soma, Akira-san, and their parties would act as bait and lead the giant god and white creature on a chase while observing them.

From Iron Knuckle, a total of eighteen members under the command of “One-on-One” Max and Aidan would participate. The Berserkers had a total membership of over thirty, but seventeen of them came under the command of “Red Devil” Ducky and his second-in-command, Saga.

Orion also had over thirty members. Of them, four parties, for a total of twenty-four people including Shinohara, Kimura, and Hayashi gathered.

The Day Breakers had eighteen, including Soma’s, Akira-san’s, and Haruhiro’s parties.

The Tokkis had six.

On top of that, there were five parties with no clan affiliation, or whose clan was spread out, for a total twenty-five people. That included the duo of Lala and Nono.

Incredibly, Tokimune’s random idea had spawned a massive operation involving one hundred and eight people.

And so, Haruhiro was swinging his shovel and diligently digging.

Incidentally, Lala and Nono had shrewdly joined the diversion team, and the twenty-three volunteer soldiers who weren’t digging were on standby in the settlement, which had become pretty desolate with more than half of the

merchants clearing out.

“But still...” Haruhiro wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked at the hole. “This isn’t as easy as I thought...”

Thanks to Mimorin’s Blast magic, they had managed to at least make a hole that was around ten meters across. However, the depth was a meter and a half at best. Even if a person fell in, all it was going to do was make them sprain an ankle or land on their rump. It wouldn’t do anything to the giant god.

“Who knew digging a hole could be this difficult?” Haruhiro muttered.

It looked like Ranta and the Tokkis were no longer in the mood to joke around. They were digging quietly.

No, not Ranta. He was rubbing his backside, crouching down, wandering around, and generally slacking off. Even Anna-san, the cheerleader, was doing the unfamiliar work of digging, but not that piece of trash.

“I’ll do it.” Mimorin, who had been kneeling and meditating with her eyes closed, stood up. So Haruhiro and the others got out of the hole for a moment.

“Mimorin, focus on one spot,” Haruhiro called.

Mimorin nodded and began to chant as she drew elemental sigils with her staff. “Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Boom. Mimorin slammed a Blast into the middle of the hole.

“Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve. Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve. Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve. Delm, hel, en, balk, zel, arve.”

Five shots, pretty much sequentially. Like Haruhiro had told her to, Mimorin was triggering all of her Blasts in practically the same spot. Thanks to that, that section caved in and got pretty deep.

Mimorin stumbled, supporting herself with her staff to stop herself from falling. For Mimorin, who wasn’t good with magic despite being a mage, it seemed firing off five sequential blasts was hard on her.

“If I could use Blast, too...” Shihoru looked down and mumbled. “Instead of Ice Globe, I should have gone all the way and picked up Arve Magic...”

“Heh...” Inui blew her a kiss. “If you’d like, I wouldn’t mind being your Blast.”

“No thanks,” Shihoru replied immediately and firmly. “You being my Blast? That makes no sense. It’s creepy, too...”

“Meoooow!” Yume stretched. “Well, time to get back to diggin’.”

“Hold on, are we ever gonna finish this?” Ranta whined. Despite having done the least of anyone there, that piece of trash was losing heart.

“My back hurts...” Kuzaku sighed and put a hand on his lower back. “You okay?” Merry glanced over to him.

“Oh. Uh, yeah. I’m fine.” “Okay, then.”

Without intending to, Haruhiro composed a haiku in his head.

Oh, to be so close,

What an incredible thing That must be.

- Haruhiro

Only he botched the syllable count.

No, this was no good. His heart felt like it was rotting away inside him. How could Haruhiro act like this when he was the one who’d suggested the idea?

“L-Let’s do our best, guys,” he said. It ended up being a weak, listless call to action.

“Yeahhhh...” Kikkawa’s response was just as unenthusiastic. “I really not good at this stuff, yeah...” Anna-san said.

“Anna-san, you take a rest.” Tokimune flashed his white teeth and told her that with considerably less energy than usual.

“It’s weird.” Tada, on the other hand, seemed to be angry. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Why am I digging a hole?”

Yeah, that’s my fault. Haruhiro wanted to apologize, but what good would come from him bowing his head? It might help with the guilt, maybe? Then what? What came after that? They couldn’t very well stop digging the pit trap now. If they were going to do it, they had to go all the way.

Haruhiro resolved himself to continue, and stabbed his shovel into the earth. He went at it with all his energy, digging out a line.

The line eventually connected to itself, forming a circle with around a twenty-five-meter diameter. The current hole fit completely inside it.

“The enemy’s ridiculously huge, and clearly way too strong! I don’t think we can possibly prepare enough for this! L-Let’s dig!” Haruhiro called. “Dig that pit trap! I’m digging! I want you all to dig, too! It could come in handy...

maybe, no, definitely, I think! S-So, um...”

“Dig.” Mimorin dropped her staff and picked up a shovel. “I’ll dig.” “Yume’s gonna give it her all, too!” Yume breathed heavily through her

nose as she tore into the earth.

Shihoru bit her lip. “Depending how I use them, Shadow Echo and Thunder Storm might help...”

Merry was silently swinging her shovel.

“Well, my body’s pretty tough, after all.” Kuzaku was steadily digging a hole.

“Bah! If I have to!” Ranta shouldered his shovel with an insolent attitude. “Aww, yeah!” Kikkawa yelled. You could always count on Kikkawa at a

time like this. “I’m on fire, fire, fire! I’m burn, burn, burning up!

“I’ll just have to be patient until it’s time to fight.” Tada adjusted his glasses with his left index finger. “Until then, I guess I’ll dig to help whet my appetite.”

“Heh...” Inui opened his one eye that wasn’t covered by an eyepatch wide. “Until the fated time comes for I, the one they call the Black Wings...!”

He made as little sense as ever.

“Let’s be patient and keep at it.” Tokimune gave them all a thumbs up. “Digging the hole is important, but if we exhaust ourselves doing it, it defeats the purpose.”

“Yeah. You’re right.” Haruhiro hung his head.

Balance. It’s important to keep a sense of balance, he thought.

When he thought about it, because he was the one who had proposed making a trap, he couldn’t deny he had been fixated on the thought that, no matter what, he had to make a great pit trap.

What was the most important thing here? He couldn’t lose sight of that.

Right. What was the most important thing?

To defeat the giant god. That was it.

Is it? he wondered.

Was that actually what was most important for Haruhiro and the others? “Huh? You know, I’m having a hard time seeing it that way...” he

murmured.

7.    Disposition

But, well, you know?

It wasn’t as if Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis did nothing but dig a hole for three days and three nights. There were no nights in the Dusk Realm, so saying it that way was strange... maybe? Yeah? Anyway, in those three days, less than half of those seventy-two hours were spent digging the hole. It was twenty-four hours, at best. The rest they spent sleeping.

No, no, that wasn’t true. Naturally, they did take breaks, and did sleep, and even took turns going back to the settlement to bathe, but they did other stuff, too.

Taro wandered by and suggested they come see the giant god and hydra themselves. Incidentally, the hydra was that writhing white creature. Taro’s father, Gogh, had given it that name.

“It’s a good name.” The young boy of unparalleled beauty, Taro, whispered to himself, his face bursting with an unrestrainable happiness. “The hydra. It’s cool. Dad’s awesome. He sure is my dad.”

Following Taro, who had a deep respect and love for his father, and probably his mother, too, Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis approached the giant god and the hydra.

Both the giant god and hydra were constantly on the move, chasing after the decoy teams, so ultimately, the closest they could get was about fifty meters away. Even that was more than dangerous enough for them.

The giant god, in particular, was of a size that could only be said to transcend human understanding, and when Taro told them it was estimated to be 300 meters tall, they could only say, Oh, okay then. Is that all?

Haruhiro was around 170 centimeters tall, so 300 meters was roughly

176.5 times that. Even compared to Kuzaku’s 190 centimeters, it was still

156.25 times his size. There wasn’t even any point in comparing.

Defeat that thing? No way. Impossible. What kind of joke was that? There was nothing they could do. There was no way it was gonna work.

That was why, according to Taro, the decoy parties were thinking it might be a little much to handle on this outing.

Well, duh.

Like, what did they mean, “On this outing”? Was there going to be another one? Were they going to take it on next time? Were they stupid? Or just incredible? Did people who were so incredible just experience things differently?

Whatever the case, it was good news for Haruhiro that the giant god was getting crossed off the target list.

I mean, just think about it. Haruhiro’s feet were 25.5 centimeters long. If he multiplied that by 176.5 times, he got 4,500.75 centimeters. That was over 45 meters.

That thing wouldn’t fall into a pit trap that was 30 meters across. As for the depth, with its massive, 300-meter-tall body, even if they were being fairly conservative, they would want around two hundred meters.

Not possible.

Even setting aside the pit trap, it was impossible.

For a start, while it was true that the giant god looked humanoid when seen from a distance, and it walked like one, too, it was closer to a moving, pure-white megastructure. It was insane to think of killing that thing in the first place. At the very least, they should talk about “destroying” it instead.

Also, if they were going to destroy it, Haruhiro had to humbly think it was going to require heavy weaponry of some sort. Like siege weaponry, maybe? Though, even if they were able to collect enough of it, the enemy was hardly going to sit there quietly while it was destroyed. No, it would probably attack, and that wasn’t going to be simple to deal with. This was purely Haruhiro’s view, but wasn’t it kind of impossible?

Now, as for the hydra...

It must have been because they had seen the incredible spectacle of the giant god first before going to see the hydra. That must have been it. Because when Haruhiro looked at it, his first impression was, “Huh? Is that all?”

At a glance, it was maybe the size of a two-story building. No, maybe a little bigger. Also, it was long.

The hydra was a many-headed creature that looked like a mass of white snakes up to two to three meters thick.

It had nine heads, resembling snakes, but surprisingly without eyes. The creatures of the Dusk Realm all seemed to have one eye, so he would have expected one per head, but that wasn’t the case. Maybe that meant they weren’t in fact heads, but were actually tentacles after all.

The hydra moved by twisting a number of those tentacles around. It seemed four tentacles were used for moving. The remaining five were writhing in the air as if searching for something. They might actually have been feelers of some sort.

“We can take that thing easily,” Tada said with a laughing snort.

I don’t know about easily, but it feels more manageable than the giant god, and—No, no, no, no, no... Haruhiro shook his head. Hold on, hold on. I say that, but it’s still crazy huge, okay? If I got hit by one of those tentacles, I’m confident I’d die instantly.

The hydra was around fifty meters ahead of Haruhiro and the others, traveling west, but wasn’t that kind of close? Had they gotten too close? Right now, the five tentacles it didn’t use for moving weren’t pointing at them. In other words, the hydra either didn’t notice Haruhiro and the others behind it, or it didn’t care.

But what if it did notice? What would happen then? Wouldn’t that be bad? “Um, shouldn’t we get farther away...?” Haruhiro ventured.

Taro looked back to him while continuing to walk. “It’s fine. This distance is safe. Probably.”

“‘Probably’?”

“‘Nothing in this world is 100% certain.’ My dad told me that.” “Well, that might be true, but...”

“No, not ‘might,’” said Taro confidently. “Dad’s words are absolute.”

Huh? Wasn’t nothing supposed to be 100% certain?

How mad would this pretty boy get if Haruhiro poked at the holes in his logic like that? That’d be something to see. No, he didn’t want to see it, and didn’t want to get him mad. That sounded scary.

Incidentally, Haruhiro and the others were pursuing the hydra at a little more than a jog. Tokimune was carrying Anna-san on his back because he said it would probably be hard for her to keep up, but Haruhiro had to think he was a little too easy on her, even if she was their mascot.

“Who’s acting as the decoy?” Ranta asked.

Maybe Taro didn’t hear, because he didn’t answer.

“Hey, who is it? Hey? Who’s the decoy? Hey? Hey? Hey? Hey, why’re you so quiet? I’m talking to you, you know? Heeeey. Hey, hey, heeeey. Can you hear me? I’m asking you, can you hear me? Hey!”

“I hear you.” Taro didn’t even spare a glance in Ranta’s direction. “But I don’t care to answer. My mom told me, ‘Life’s too short to waste time talking to morons.’”

“What, I’m an moron?!” Ranta yelled.

“Yeah, you’re a moron.” Haruhiro couldn’t help but agree. “You’re a moron, all right,” Yume concurred.

“Worse than a moron...” Shihoru looked like she had her own opinion about just how much of a moron Ranta was.

“It’s true that it would be a waste,” Merry said coldly.

“Well...” Kuzaku, who had refrained from saying anything, might have still felt the need to hold back.

“Ahaha!” Kikkawa clapped Ranta on the shoulder. “Well, I love how much of a moron you are! One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, right?!”

“Shove off!” Ranta yelled. “You’re annoying, Kikkawa! I’m not trash! If they want to throw me out like trash, I’ll throw them out first!”

“We wouldn’t mind that, you know?” Haruhiro said.

Ranta panicked. “You—you—you moron! That’s not what you’re supposed to say! You’re supposed to be, like, ‘Don’t say that!’ and tell me off! Tell me I’m not supposed to talk about throwing people away or being thrown away!”

“Ranta!” Tokimune flashed him a nice smile with his pearly white teeth. “You’re so high-maintenance!”

“Tokimune-san?! You know, that didn’t feel like a compliment to me!” “It not compliment, yeah?!” Anna-san gave him the middle finger from up

on Tokimune’s back. “What kind of warty boar’s ass did you come out of, you rotten dick?!”

“Heh...” Inui gave an evil smile. “Fall to ruin, you dog of the end...” “Dog?” Mimorin looked around.

I don’t see any dogs here... Haruhiro agreed.

“Who is the decoy?” Tada asked, as if nothing had happened.

This time, Taro gave him a proper answer. “The hydra is primarily being

led around by Pingo’s golem Zenmai. The giant god was Lala and Nono, I think. It was those two. Since they came here on horse-dragons.”

Horse-dragons were small dragons that walked upright on their hind legs. If a dragonet was raised from an egg, it could be trained to carry a human like a horse. Having seen them at the Lonesome Field Outpost from time to time, at first Haruhiro had thought he’d like to try riding one someday. However, when he’d learned that horse-dragons had their wings removed at a young age to make them suitable for riding, he had quickly lost any desire to.

“I see.” Tada nodded and stopped walking with a sudden jolt. “Heeeey, you stupid hydra! Look at me! Yeah, me! I’m here! Right here!”

Were humans able to shout that loudly? Just how was he managing to make that loud voice? Wasn’t he transcending the limits of the human body?

Haruhiro stopped in horror. Everyone else did the same. Even Tokimune and the other Tokkis were aghast.

“Wai—” Taro stopped, his eyes wide. “What are you...?”

“Come at me! Heyyyy!” Tada pointed his warhammer at the hydra. “I said, come at me, you wimp! Are you feeling cowardly?! Did you realize you can’t beat me?! You’re just an oversized weakling!”

That was when it happened.

The hydra didn’t stop. Rather, with its size, it might not have been able to come to a sudden stop. However, its speed clearly slowed.

One of its tentacles, the head-like section on the end of it, turned to face them.

Finally, the hydra stopped moving forward.

A second, then a third tentacle moved, and their eyeless heads turned towards Haruhiro and company.

“Heh...” Tada shouldered his warhammer, adjusting the position of his glasses with his left index finger. “Finally noticed me, huh. Took you long enough. Way too long.”

Tada, Haruhiro thought. What do you mean, “Heh”? Tada!

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Even if he said it out loud, it would have no effect. Haruhiro realized that much. It wasn’t uncommon for even basic conversations with Tada to break down. Well, what could he do then?

“Oh, for the love of...!” Haruhiro sputtered. He’d do this. Haruhiro grabbed Tada by the collar of his priest outfit.

“—Gweh!” Tada squealed.

Maybe he was choking him, but Haruhiro didn’t care. It was Tada, after all. He’d survive.

“Everyone, run!” Haruhiro shouted.

He took off in a mad dash. Fortunately, the Tokkis followed him because it seemed amusing, so they were all able to start fleeing without a hitch. The biggest worry was the hydra’s actions.

If it came after them, would they be able to get away? What would happen if it caught them? Would they have to fight? Or rather, would they have to die? It was unbelievably terrifying just to think about it, but the hydra didn’t come towards them.

Had they gotten lucky? No, the decoy Zenmai must have done something to successfully provoke it. They had a lot to thank Zenmai for.

Once they had put 200 meters between the hydra and them, Haruhiro let go of Tada. He was sweating terribly. That had been scary.

“Man!” Tada held his throat, closing in on Haruhiro. “That hurt, you know, Haruhiro!”

He butted their foreheads together, but Haruhiro somehow held his ground. He only said, “Ow!”

Tada’s eyes were bloodshot. He was damn scary. But if Haruhiro backed down now, that seemed more likely to get him killed. He didn’t understand Tada, and doubted he ever would, but that was the sense he got.

“R-Reflect on what you just did!” Haruhiro shouted. “That was dangerous, you know?! I don’t even want to know what you were thinking, and I won’t ask, but please, cut that crap out, seriously!”

“Shut up! You’re the one who oughta reflect!” “I wasn’t wrong, so I won’t!”

“What’d you say?!”

“I won’t reflect on it! Y-You ought to!”

Ohh, was it okay to go this far? Was it dangerous? He didn’t know. But if he didn’t push back against the pressure Tada was putting on him, he’d probably be taken lightly. In order to push back, he probably needed to put up a strong front.

“You reflect, Tada!” Haruhiro screamed. “You can’t put your comrades in danger on an impulse like that!”

“Ha ha!” Tada laughed as he ground their foreheads together again.

Haruhiro didn’t back down. He couldn’t. He couldn’t retreat. With all he’d said, if he backed down and apologized, he’d look like a total fool. He was close to crying, but he wouldn’t cry.

“A novice like you, trying to tell me...!” Tada moved his head back and forth. Their foreheads rubbed together.

Someone save me, Haruhiro pleaded silently. Someone stop him. Like Tokimune.

However, the moment he looked away from Tada to seek salvation from one of the others, the contest would be decided. That was the sense he got.

“E-Even if I am a novice...”

“Even if you’re a novice, then what?!” Tada screamed.

“...I can tell what’s right and wrong better than you can!” Haruhiro finished. “If you’re going to be like a child who can’t tell the difference, I’ll have to put you on a leash and lead you around!”

“Oh, ho.” Tada suddenly drew back, adjusting the position of his glasses with his left index finger.

Haruhiro nearly fell forward. “Not bad.”

...Did he just grin? He seems happy? Haruhiro was stunned. I don’t get him...

But I’m saved—I think? he thought uncertainly. At the very least, it doesn’t look like I’m about to get beaten to death. No, if I let my guard down, he might come at me with his hammer, maybe? Just to be safe, maybe I shouldn’t let my guard down?

“Haruhiro.” Tokimune flashed his white teeth and gave him a thumbs up. “Nice fight.”

Oh, shut up, Haruhiro thought, but he was too timid to get angry. “Thanks,” he said, bowing his head a little.

“Pft...” Taro burst out laughing, then covered his face with both hands. “Heheheheheh! Ahahahahaha! You’re weird! You’re all so weird!

Bwahahahahahahaha! Gwahahahahahahahah!”

He was laughing. Laughing like crazy. Laughing so hard, it looked like he was gonna keel over. The sight of the elven pretty boy doubled over with laughter was unexpected, and it took Haruhiro aback.

Taro stayed that way for a while, then suddenly cleared his throat and put

on a serious expression. But his face had turned red. Even his long ears were red. He might have been embarrassed.

“Dad once said, ‘Laughter is the best medicine,’” Taro said solemnly.

Well, okay then, Haruhiro thought. What a strange elf.

Regardless, in between events like that one, Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis took seventy-two hours to dig a hole that was around thirty meters across, and roughly three meters deep. They set up a number of support beams inside the hole, put nets that came from the merchants remaining in the settlement over top, and then camouflaged it with grass to make it more like a real pit trap.

It was easy to tell from up close, so it could hardly be called a perfect job. Still, if they lured a giant creature like the hydra on top of it, maybe it might fall in? Possibly? Honestly, there was no way to know until they tried.

They had agreed in advance to gather back at the initial hill once they had a finished pit trap. The initial hill was to the west of the settlement.

Haruhiro and the others had built their structures around five kilometers south of the settlement. It was going to be along the way, so they had decided to stop at the settlement. They had finally become accustomed to their work as volunteer soldiers, so no one asked for luxuries like a proper bath, but they did want fresh water to drink.

Even before they reached the settlement, everyone thought something was strange. To put it more clearly, they had a bad feeling about it.

The giant god was visible far off to the west. If it was moving, that was not really a problem.

The thing was, it wasn’t. It was standing still.

Just before they reached the settlement, Anna-san idly said, “That... direction of initial, yeah...?”

Yeah, Haruhiro thought.

It was pretty noisy inside the settlement. While most of the merchants had packed up and left, there were still seventy to eighty volunteer soldiers gathered there, after all.

No, if they had only been gathered there, it wouldn’t have been this noisy. “What was that, jerk?! You wanna fight?!” “One-on-One” Max of Iron

Knuckle was closing in on a man with blazing red hair as if he might try to grab him at any moment.

There were men forming a wall around the two of them, jeering and

shouting, and that was why it was so noisy.

“Do I want to fight?!” The red-haired man who wasn’t just tall but had a big eyes, a big nose, and a big mouth, too, shouted at Max and didn’t back down a bit. “You’re damn right I want to fight, Tiny!”

“Who’re you calling tiny?! I’m not tiny, you’re just stupidly big!” Max yelled.

“Don’t blame others for your being tiny, Tiny!”

“‘Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny’—is that all you can say, Fatty?!”

“What about me are you calling fat, Tiny?! I keep my body fat percentage in the single digits, so don’t underestimate my body, you tiny little shit!”

“How the hell are you keeping your body fat percentage down?! Don’t act like you’re hot stuff just because you dye your hair red, you big loaf!”

“The word you’re looking for is ‘oaf,’ you ignoramus!”

“Don’t try to pick grits with the way I speak, you red-haired ass! You wanna get burned?!”

“What the hell is picking grits?! And if you think you can burn me, then burn me, you ape!”

“Who’re you calling an ape, you ape?!”

“Nobody who’s called me an ape is still alive now! Not that anyone ever has, though, okay?!”

“I’ll call you it as many times as I want! You ape, ape, ape, ape, ape, aaaape, ape!”

“Why, you...!”

Red Hair’s fists roared through the air. Max... didn’t dodge. That was probably intentional. Without avoiding the blow, he lowered his waist and took the hit with his left cheek.

Max shook for a moment, but he held through it. “Your wimpy punches don’t hurt or even itch!”

“Oh, yeah?!” Red Hair battered Max’s knees with a low kick this time. “Then how’s this?!”

“Ugwahhhh!”

What a kick. It was bold and powerful, yet sharp. It looked almost like both of Max’s legs were broken. Yet still, Max was standing. With a smile, too.

“Gyahyahyahya! That won’t work on me!”

“You’re putting on a strong front!” Red Hair punched Max in the face

once, then again, and again harder. “It’s your one strong point, you little ape! Take this!”

“It doesn’t! Hurt! Dammit! Not! At all! Gwahrah!”

“Kuh?!” Red Hair pulled back the boulder-like fists he was pummeling Max with.

His head. He’d punched Max in the head. No, had Max let him punch his head? The skull could be pretty hard. If it hit at the right angle, it could even deflect a steel sword. Still, Max was covered in blood at this point.

Doesn’t that hurt? Has he completely lost it? That was all that Haruhiro could think.

Max immediately grappled Red Hair. Grabbed him by the lower extremities. He immediately pushed him down. He mounted him, raining punches down on Red Hair from above.

“Oorah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah!”

Red Hair was defending his face with both arms—or so it looked, but Max’s violent rush of attacks was incredible.

There’s no way he can fight back like that... The moment Haruhiro thought that, Red Hair thrust his right fist up from below.

If it had struck his chin, Max would surely have gone down. It would, without a doubt, have knocked him unconscious.

But Max twisted aside, dodging it by a hair’s breadth—and that wasn’t all. Without missing a beat, he seized Red Hair’s arm. He contorted himself around, going to put the joint in a lock.

However, Red Hair reacted quickly, too. He stood up, pulling Max up with him, who was clinging to his arm.

“Uwahahahaha!” Red Hair immediately swung his arm down, trying to slam Max into the ground.

Haruhiro imagined a scene of him being splattered, but that didn’t happen.

Before he could be crushed, Max let go of Red Hair’s right arm. With a flexibility and nimbleness that made him look like an invertebrate, he spun around once and got back up.

“That’s not gonna work on me, Ducky! It’s the second time, after all!”

“I figured it wouldn’t! I still can’t forget how it felt smashing you up that time! I want another taste of it!”

“Well, isn’t that a coincidence? I dream of that time I beat the shit out of you sometimes, too!”

“Uwahahaha!”

Red Hair suddenly came out of his fighting stance and offered Max his right hand. Max grinned and slapped Red Hair’s right hand with his own.

The men around them all erupted into applause. “Max! Maaaax!”

“Ducky’s the best!” “Max is strong!”

“You moron, Ducky’s clearly stronger, you know?!” “If they went at it for real, Ducky’s the one who’d die!” “Shut up, you anus!”

“Now you said it, you stupid berserker!”

Some of the men were insulting each other, but they didn’t seem like they were ready to kill each other. It would have been a bit much to say they were getting along great, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

“‘Anus’?” Yume tilted her head to the side.

“It’s just an insult, probably,” Haruhiro said, trying to keep as calm as possible. “Anyway, you shouldn’t say that word.”

“Anuuuus?” Yume looked at him, mystified. “Why?”

“No, it’s fine, I guess,” Haruhiro muttered. “Not really, though...”

“Now listen, Yume,” Ranta said with a sigh, putting his hand on Yume’s shoulder. “Let me tell you about the anus. It’s, well, hard to explain in words, so I’ll point out where it is. You know how you’ve got an ass, right? Well, inside your ass is—”

“...Filthy,” Shihoru muttered to herself. “Clever!” Kikkawa pointed to Shihoru.

Shihoru shrunk into herself. “I... I wasn’t trying to make a joke.”

“‘One-on-One’ Max and ‘Red Devil’ Ducky, huh.” Tada pushed up his glasses with his left index finger. “Yeah, they’re no match for me.”

“Those two are always going at it.” Tokimune looked at the two of them like a proud father might. “I guess it’s like they say—the more you fight, the better you get along.”

“I can’t understand that...” Merry shook her head.

“They were drawing blood...” Kuzaku seemed a bit weirded out, too. “Heh...” Inui said.

I wish Inui would stay quiet, thought Haruhiro.

“To think they would begin that ritual without me.. ” Inui continued.

Because nothing he says makes a lick of sense.

“Oh, stupid fuckers! There other things to do first, yeah?!” Anna-san jumped up with her cheeks puffed up. “Other things? Why, shit? What was it? What?”

Honestly, what was it they ought to be doing first, huh? Haruhiro closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Perhaps he had always been the patient type. Either way, he felt like he had built up an impressive level of tolerance.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Shinohara approaching with a group of men and women in white capes. When compared to Max of Iron Knuckle and Ducky of the Berserkers, people it didn’t seem like he would ever understand, Shinohara seemed like a savior. He even had a halo of light around him. Was that an illusion?

Well, of course it was an illusion. There was no way he’d have an actual halo of light around him.

“Urkh. ” Mimorin grimaced a little and narrowed her eyes.

Was he too brilliant for her? No way.. could Mimorin see that halo of

light, too?

Haruhiro blinked to confirm it for himself. No, not even Shinohara, great as he was, gave off a halo of light. That was obvious.

“Hey, Haruhiro, Tokimune,” Shinohara greeted them. “It looks like we’ve gotten into a bad situation, huh.”

“Hello,” Haruhiro nodded, looking at Shinohara with upturned eyes, “A bad situation? What do you mean by—”

“Allow myself, Kimura of Orion, to explain,” the bespectacled man with the crew cut butted in.

This guy again.

“We noticed that the giant god had stopped moving roughly two hours ago. Our pit trap was already complete, so we decided to pinpoint the giant god’s current location. Not exactly a difficult task. If you approach the giant god, its location becomes readily apparent. And so, we saw it. The giant god towering over the initial hill. Oh, how awful! For that is our only way home! Now, while we may not be completely unable to return, to do so would be incredibly difficult!”

Wh-What did you say? Haruhiro almost said in a completely monotone voice, but he stopped himself. He wasn’t that surprised.

He was depressed that his worst prediction, the one he hadn’t wanted to think about, had come true. But that was all. That was all it was.

From the looks of Shihoru, Merry, and Kuzaku, this had killed any enthusiasm they had.

Yume seemed to be deep in thought. It looked like she’d come to a conclusion. “...Ah! If we can’t go back, does that mean we’ve got no way of goin’ home?!”

“He already said that! Are you a moron?!” Ranta shouted at her. “Yume’s no moron,” she defended. “People who call people morons,

they’re the real morons, y’know.”

“Well, following your logic, are the people who call people geniuses the real geniuses, too?!” Ranta hollered.

“Hmm. Probably, don’tcha think?”

“You genius! You genius! Yume, you’re a real beautiful genius!”

“Oh? Really? Ranta, so that’s how you’ve been feelin’ about Yume,” she beamed. “It’s kinda embarrassin’.”

“Y-You dummy! That’s not what I meant! It’s not like that, okay?!” “Your face is all red...” Shihoru gave Ranta the side-eye, shivering with

disgust. “So gross...”

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Whose face is all red, damn it?! And what do you mean, gross?!”

“Hmm.” Kimura neatly adjusted the position of his glasses, looking back and forth from Ranta to Yume. “I apologize if this is a delicate question, but are you two in a deeply romantic relationship? In short, are you boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“Wh-Whaa?!” Ranta flipped out so bad he did a little dance. “Wh-Wh- Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you saying, you idiot?! D-D-D-D-Don’t make me

laugh!”

“Nuh uh.” Yume swiftly denied it. “You’re wrong.”

“Y-Y-Y-Y-Yeah! Y-Y-Y-Y-You’re wrong! D-D-D-D-Don’t misunderstand! I’d never settle for her! I mean, look at her tiny tits!”

“Don’t call them tiny!”

“What’s wrong with tiny tits?!” Kimura was suddenly very angry. “Flat is sublime! Mankind has yet to invent anything that can transcend the flat chest! By no means!”

“Kimura, calm down.” Shinohara looked somewhat troubled as he patted Kimura on the shoulder.

“Oh, pardon me.” Kimura laughed. “I lost my composure there. However, allow me to clear up any misunderstandings. While it is my personal philosophy that flat chests are the pinnacle of all things, I do understand that they are not the only things of value. Naturally, I can get off to huge breasts, too! In fact, I am flexible enough to adapt to any bust size!”

“You’re passionate!” Kikkawa pumped his arm. “You’ve got passion, Kimuracchi! I get it, I so get it! I’m the same way, man! I’m good with any size, yeah!”

“Yeah!”

Kimura and Kikkawa exchanged a firm handshake. It seemed that a passionate friendship had formed between them.

Even Orion had weirdos like this, huh. Somehow, that was a deeply moving discovery.

“Um, yeah...” Anna-san shrugged her shoulders and look at them with disappointment. “Every time you open your mouth, you say boobies, boobies, boobies! That? That called sexual harassment, yeah! What if Anna-san and other ladies start talking about dick size in front of you? Think how that would send you to heaven, you tiny-dick losers!”

Merry furrowed her brow. “Hayashi? What’s wrong?”

Looking over, Merry’s former comrade Hayashi was crouched over. “...No. It’s nothing. Nothing’s wrong. Really, nothing...”

“Oh, my God!” Anna-san covered her mouth. “Are you real tiny dick?

Nothing to worry about, yeah? Theories say even if it small, it still function

no problem...”

“Theories say,” Mimorin said with no expression. Why was she repeating it?

Hayashi was on the verge of tears at this point. The poor guy. But it would have been awkward to go comfort him. It wasn’t as if Haruhiro was so small he needed to be pitied. He couldn’t offer support, or really say much of anything in this situation. Maybe none of the guys could, and they just had to keep quiet?

“Hmph...” Tada licked his lips. “Basically, we’re gonna have to fight. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

That was Tada-san for you. No social graces whatsoever. For Tada, it didn’t matter to him, and he probably just didn’t care. That was why he ignored it. It was a very Tada way of doing things. In this case, Haruhiro was grateful for it.

No? Am I grateful? Huh? “We have to fight”? Hold on.

“What do you mean—” Haruhiro forgot what he was about to ask. More precisely, the fact that he was even trying to say something at all slipped right out of his mind.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

Something echoed past.

A sound? No, it was more a vibration than a sound. Though, if I recall, sound is a vibration, so I guess it was the same as a sound. What kind of sound? Haruhiro wasn’t sure, but it was loud. His whole body shook as if it had become one large eardrum. His very being was shaken by the sound.

With no time for surprise, he was at the sound’s mercy. This was a first- time experience for him. Where was the sound coming from? Where did it come from, and how far did it go? He wasn’t sure how vast the Dusk Realm was, but it couldn’t be that small. Had it reached the very ends of it?

Haruhiro saw the sound. It shook the world and distorted it. The distortions were visible to the eye.

Haruhiro clutched his chest. His heart was racing like crazy. The sound passed in a few moments, at most. However, his heart was still shaking. It was different from his pulse. Was it numb? It felt something like that.

He looked around. No one was totally fine. Everyone had been hit by that sound just now. Shihoru was sitting on the ground, clutching her head.

“Are you okay?” Merry held Shihoru as she helped her to her feet.

Shihoru nodded, but it seemed she couldn’t get any words out. There were tears in her eyes.

“What... do you think... that was, just now?” Haruhiro tried asking Shinohara, but then he thought Shinohara would be just as much of a loss for an answer as he was.

As he expected, Shinohara shook his head. He had a sharper look in his eyes than usual. “Dunno... but I doubt it’s a good sign.”

“You think?” Tokimune let out a deep breath, then flashed his white teeth. “I couldn’t be more excited, though.”

Ah... This isn’t gonna end well, Haruhiro thought. I can say from experience, nothing good ever happens when Tokimune says that. This is the worst. I don’t like this anymore. How did things end up like this? Whose fault is it? What the hell? Stop, please. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

Haruhiro unleashed every complaint he could think of inside his head, and then bottled them all up.

I want to run away. I can’t, though.

I’m ready for this—but that’s something I can’t say. It’s not possible. But I have to brace myself. No matter what happens, all I can do is cope with it. No matter what happens?

Just what’s going to happen here? I don’t know.

As if I possibly could.

Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers had each gathered into their respective groups to talk about it. Orion was doing the same. Those who weren’t in a clan, or had come to the Dusk Realm as an individual party, not as part of their clan, were grouping together, too, out of uncertainty. Somehow, though Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis hadn’t really decided to do this, the flow of things led them to join Orion’s group.

They discussed a great number of things.

Where’s Soma’s party? Where are Akira-san and his party? What was that sound just now? What should we do? What can we do for the time being? We should go home. Even if we were to return home, the problem is there’s no easy way to do that. Well, what should we do then? We should get out of here. Why would we move away from the settlement? Whatever we do, we need to decide on a general direction to take. It’s better if we don’t split up.

Best if we stick together. No, maybe it would actually be better to split up and

not focus ourselves in one place? If everyone is clustered together, there’s the risk we’ll all be wiped out. Wiped out? What do you mean, wiped out? We don’t know yet, right? It could be that nothing will happen. Where are Soma and his group? We were originally going to gather at the initial hill. Now we can’t; that’s why Orion came to the settlement. It’s probably the same for the others. So, where are Soma and his group? Akira-san and his group? What do we do? What should we do? What’s the right course of action?

It more or less just went in circles. They couldn’t find any answers. Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers weren’t moving, either.

Eventually, Shinohara and Kimura got into a discussion. It looked like the two of them would decide what to do for Orion.

There were volunteer soldiers scattered around, arguing over this or that.

It was noisy. Not just that—there was a restlessness in the air.

Haruhiro had to say something. Had to talk to his comrades. Because Haruhiro was the leader. He had to decide. That was how he felt, but he couldn’t think straight. Nothing came to mind.

This was no good. He couldn’t let things stay this way. Honestly, that was the only thing Haruhiro knew. He didn’t want to look his comrades in the eye, so he hung his head.

No good. This is no good. It’s seriously no good. He felt ill. I can’t breathe properly. It hurts. Hadn’t I braced myself for the worst? How pathetic. Yeah, that’s right. I’m a pathetic person. I know. I can’t be decisive even if I want to. I mean, that’s not what I am.

“Listen,” Kuzaku said. “Me, I’m going to follow you. No matter what happens, I’m with you, Haruhiro. I thought I should say that, at least.”

“M-Me, too,” Shihoru raised her hand a little. “Haruhiro-kun, you’ve saved me so many times. I wanted to say that...”

“It’s gotta be Haru-kun, y’know,” Yume said with a giggle.

“I’m sure,” Merry smiled. “If you hadn’t been there, Haru, something terrible would have happened. I mean that in so many ways. I’m here now thanks to you.”

It all resonated.

In so many ways.

Merry’s words in particular.

That’s what it’s like, huh?

It wasn’t quite the right way to put it, but he felt like something precious

had been snatched away from him.

If only he had realized sooner. That he truly loved Merry.

Still, even if he had realized it, this was Haruhiro. Surely he couldn’t have done anything. In other words, it would have been the same.

Yes. The same. Things had turned out this way because they needed to. “Heh.” Ranta snorted derisively. “You guys are so cheesy. Did you want

to trigger your death flags that badly? You’re morons. Seriously, seriously.”

It was actually reassuring. If Ranta didn’t act like Ranta, it would have thrown Haruhiro off-balance.

Haruhiro spun his shoulders around. Worked out the tension. What good was being on edge going to do him? That wasn’t the sort of situation this was.

“They won’t die, man.” Haruhiro’s eyes probably looked sleepy right now. Of course, he wasn’t tired. “I won’t let anyone else die.”

The moment he said it, he started to think things like, Well, that’s the hope, I’ll work myself practically to death to keep everyone alive, that’s what I’m saying, it’s an expression of intent, I don’t know if it’s possible or not, but—

This was Haruhiro. He couldn’t suddenly change who he was. However, pretending to have changed—that, to some degree, he could do.

“Ducky, we’re going!” “One-on-One” Max led Iron Knuckle into action.

It looked like they’d be heading for the initial hill.

“Do what you want! The Berserkers are staying on standby!” “Red Devil” Ducky shouted back. It looked like the Berserkers planned to stay in the settlement.

Max and Ducky had different builds, but they were the same type. Because they were the leaders, or bosses, rather, Iron Knuckle and the Berserkers gave off a similar aura. They were aggressive and showy.

Iron Knuckle used blue and black, while the Berserkers used red as their signifying colors, and each of the members had those colors displayed on their equipment. It looked like they had clan symbols, too. Iron Knuckle’s was a clenched fist, while the Berserkers used a skull with a cross sword and ax. However, though they were similar, Iron Knuckle were cheerful and mischievous, giving off what could be taken as a more youthful vibe. The Berserkers had what could charitably have been called a sense of dignity, or less charitably called cunning.

Iron Knuckle were going offensive, the Berserkers were defensive.

Shinohara and Kimura were still talking it over. What would the Tokkis do? Haruhiro looked to Tokimune to gauge his reaction.

Huh? Is something weird? he thought suddenly. By weird, I mean—this is...

This sound.

Haruhiro looked to the east. Then, to the south.

It’s coming. Getting closer. A white giant. Footsteps, huh. That’s right.

This rumbling... It’s white giant footsteps. No, but this... But wait, huh? These white giants, the number of them...

It’s not just one or two, is it? About how many? I don’t know. Maybe they’re still far off?

They’re coming from over there, and over there, too?

I can’t quite count. It’s too many to. I don’t have time to sit here and count.

“Th-There’s a swarm of white giants!” Haruhiro’s voice sounded like it might crack.

“Whoa...” Even Tokimune was shocked. “They’re coming from all over, huh.”

Tada laughed, spinning his warhammer around. “That’s how I like it.” “Heh...” Inui spread his arms wide. “Wind of ruin, blow with wild

abandon!”

“You no say bad omen things, yeah?!” Anna-san punched Inui.

“I’ll ard-gu Anna-san with my fe-li!” Kikkawa pointed to himself with his thumb.

“Ard-gu and fe-li...” Haruhiro muttered despite himself. They were probably some of Kikkawa’s signature scrambled words, but he couldn’t even figure out what they meant anymore.

“Kwahh,” Mimorin let out a strange sound as she drew her sword. “Looks like we’ve gotta fight, damn it.” Ranta lowered the visor on his

helmet.

“But even if we’re gonna fight...” Kuzaku adjusted his helmet and readied his shield. “...can we, really?”

Yume, Shihoru, and Merry were all silent. Their expressions were stiff and grim. Even Yume was grimacing.

Haruhiro honestly wanted to flee. But the question was, where to? Yeah, it

didn’t look like there was anywhere. Because the giant god was at the initial hill.

Could the giant god have made that incredible sound? That was the kind of thing he was thinking. Then it turned out like this? They say let sleeping gods lie, but maybe we volunteer soldiers angered the gods of this Dusk Realm?

It didn’t matter. At the very least, it wasn’t anything to think about now. “Hey, Shinohara!” Ducky shouted, waving to them. “Help us out here for

now! Splitting up isn’t a smart plan!”

“Let’s call back Iron Knuckle, too.” Shinohara nodded. “This is a time when we need to pull together, clan differences aside! Orion will do as it always does!”

“Listen, don’t you dare get scared and turn your backs on the enemy!” Ducky roared. “If you turn tail, expect to get killed! Face forward until you die!”

“What’s that red-haired guy stating the obvious for?” Tada laughed mockingly.

Was that guy not afraid?

Haruhiro was afraid. He could feel his knees and the bottom of his stomach quivering.

Iron Knuckle turned around and came back, led by Max.

“They’re here, they’re here, they’re here!” Tokimune banged on his shield with his sword.

Oh, I don’t want to look— But Haruhiro had to look. The white giants. They’re still a ways off to the south. The white giants to the east are pretty close. From what I can see, there are around ten, maybe? There could be more behind them.

While there were differences between individual white giants, they could be categorized into roughly three size categories. The four-meter class, the six-meter class, and the eight-meter class. Those in the eight-meter class were rare, and Haruhiro had never seen one before.

There were two of what looked to be those eight-meter class white giants.

One was six-meter class, and the rest were four-meter class.

Haruhiro wasn’t brave and decisive, or stout-hearted, or clear-thinking, or calm. The best he could manage was to act out the role of the dauntless leader. He needed to play that role somehow.

Shihoru. Yume. Ranta. Merry. Kuzaku. He looked to each of their faces. I have comrades, and I don’t want any of them to die. That’s why we need to overcome this together.

“If you’re sleepy, just go to sleep, leader,” Ranta laughed.

“How many times do I have to tell you? I was born with these eyes.” Haruhiro thumped one fist against his chest. “—Okay. Let’s get this job done. Sleep can wait until after that.”