Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
The day of the tournament preliminaries was upon them at last. Evaluating the items in order to carry out their plan, Hiroshi and the others sallied forth to Forre Arena.
「So that was the first day. What do you think？」
「Well, we already know who the top choices are, but how about the third match？」
「I personally can’t rule out that fifth game.」
A battle royale that quickly siphoned out its numbers. Eight matches took place simultaneously, and the workshop team gave their thoughts on their personal favorites.
The preliminary battle royale had around twenty participants per match with a total of around hundred participants duking it out at the same time. With normal arena sizes this would be impossible, but Forre’s gigantic arena’s total area could be shifted to the limit of something like five hundred cavalrymen versus five hundred other cavalrymen. The person who sculpted the arena a thousand years ago had the extra skill of carpentry, enabling them to make large scale monitors, arena structural functions, and plenty of overkill spec features.
Still, even with all these features, it was slightly painful for the management because they couldn’t change much about the number of spectator seats other than add standing room.
「Games three ‘n five are a lil different than what I’m into, so that’s a pass for me」
「What you’re into, huh. Then I guess I’ll ask, what are you into Hiro？」
「Well first lemme emphasize this only relates to the goal of our current plan.」
「No need to emphasize, my guy……」
「Nah, nah. I gotta emphasize here or else it’ll end up pourin’ unneeded fuel on Makoto-san.」
Makoto had a slightly let-down expression on her face at what Hiroshi said, while Tatsuya, Haruna, and Mio could find themselves completely agreeing with Hiroshi. Makoto’s attitude only went to show how justified Hiroshi’s concerns were.
「So, back on topic, from our plan, I’m thinkin’ veterans aren’t gonna be juicy enough」
「I sort of get what you’re going for here, but what’s the reasoning？」
「Half to show off, and the other half is cuz I feel some way about veterans relyin’ on my equipment to get by. Like, get yer own stuff, y’know?」
「I sort of agree, yet also feel like this is extremely biased……」
Haruna had a rather mixed expression on her face at Hiroshi’s reason. Sure, she got what he was saying, but affirming Hiroshi’s actions would also mean admitting that Azuma Workshop also fully relied on their equipment to get by. It would only become a super powerful boomerang that would come back to stab them through the head.
「Welp, first half is more of a joke. But I am gonna stick with the whole idea of given’ a helpin’ hand to younger, decently skilled newcomers who haven’t been blessed with opportunities or proper equipment. Just has a nice ring to it. Besides, if veterans wanna win they gotta do what all veterans do ‘n give us nice compensation fari ‘n square at the established price. Plus ya know them “favorites” are gonna be gettin’ some good quality equipment by their own means.」
「Well, I mean yeah, it’s not like I don’t agree…」
Makoto affirmed what Hiroshi said. As an actual problem, the top contenders all had powerful magic swords made from monster drops or high functioning equipment made by top dwarf smiths.
The majority of heroic tales were, as Hiroshi put it, about young rookies with potential but no results to back it up who either got their hands on some powerful item or succeeded in finding some amazing human connections and used those victories to their advantage to climb up the ranks despite any setbacks.
The equipment that Hiroshi was plotting to throw at these contestants had plenty of functionality to compete with these legendary items in the epics, so rather than helping veterans who were fully prepared from the start, it was much better to lend a hand to less experienced fighters who had to struggle a bit with the equipment while taking slow steps. It was precisely because Hiroshi was aiming for that kind of result that he used plenty of light enchantment multipliers to cover for amateur weaknesses and went to the trouble of adding hidden features.
「So right now we got a young person basically our age who’s maybe at most done some work outside town, mains the longsword, and looks like they’re progressing alright to the finals. All that’s left is to determine what kind of person they are.」
「Sensei, you care about their personality too？」
「Well yeah mate, what if they git all conceited just cuz they got some good equipment ‘n go over the edge ‘n die or become a bragger ‘n start causin’ friction in their community, that’s not gonna be any good right? Sure, they can git a lil carried away, but if they can’t take a critical look at themselves when they suffer for it then I aint’ gonna choose ‘em.」
「Very true……」
Highly agreeing with Hiroshi’s viewpoint, Mio decided she wouldn’t say anything further.
「So who’d you pick out？」
「The winner of the second, tenth, ‘n thirty first matches, I’d say. The twenty third round kid wasn’t too bad, but I kinda feel like we should try gals a different time, if ya get me…」
「Oh? But I personally think it would be kinda cool to have a girl become a hero, don’t you? That twenty third round girl did have a lot of cool moves that might get her quite the exciting future.」
「I can already see some unnecessary flags if we go that direction, so I wanna stick with the orthodox dude route this time around」
Hiroshi countered Makoto’s carefree opinion with his own. He was partially concerned and partially interested in his own idea he had chosen from the start. Makoto couldn’t deny the part about accidentally setting off another flag, so she decided to agree with Hiroshi while grimacing.
「Okay, okay. So how are you going to go about checking them out？」
「Well, therein lies the problem, mate. Could we try havin’ Bro ‘n Makoto-san try to chat ‘em up？」
「There you go again, asking the unreasonable. Welp, I’ll try and do what I can. You fine with that, Tatsuya？」
「Sure am」
Now that they had a rough idea of today’s remaining objectives,
「So that’s all we do today, but what about tomorrow and onward? There are still preliminaries.」
「Right, it was another battle royale tomorrow？」
「Yup. They’re going to apparently shred it down to sixteen people with the two matches after that.」
「Then we’ll look around some more tomorrow ‘n figure out some other person to reach out to」
「Alright」
They set the daily objective and course of action in a smooth manner. The candidates for the weapon would probably end up being six people, but only one of them would be the winner.
「So what are you going to do after this？」
「Right, so since I got permission ‘n all, I may as well set up the suspicious shop in the alleyway ‘n do my best to clear out storage」
「Right on. Haruna and Mio, what about you？」
「We’ll be applying for permission for setting up shop in two days. Apparently there’s still room.」
「And then stocking up alongside that」
「ＯＫ。Then I’ll see you two later.」
Deciding what they all would be doing, the group got straight to work. Hiroshi must have done quite the job getting customers, because the next day around noon, there were already quiet rumors floating around among a small minority of people that a certain dubious shop in the alleyway dealing in weapons had quite the treasure trove of bargains amidst the mass of its inferior goods.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「It’s here, then？」
As Hiroshi and the others were progressing with their little “game”, Rainy (fully restored) tracked down the road to Elza Main Temple, beginning the search. It had been a week since she was incapacitated from spy duties, the break taking effect when she accepted her recent funding.
（……Something’s clearly off about this area……）
After walking five minutes to the narrow path leading to the trail, Rainy noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere; a feeling of brutality that she couldn’t quite place. This sensation was probably new to Rainy because she had been in that environment for so long as an assassin. When she was summoned to the embassy this morning, they had given her (courtesy of Aearis) things like talismans and miasma counters, and at this moment they were displaying odd signals.
That was totally fine. She had anticipated this after all. The real problem was……
（Weird. Aearis-sama’s tools are displaying crazy readings, but the miasma leak is too small）
Rainy frowned at the disparity between the miasma counter digits and her own intuition. If the numbers were correct, then even an amateur like her should sense something, but even with the tense air, the presence of miasma was so faint she could hardly tell. Normally you’d doubt the machinery in this case, and normal priests would almost certainly do so.
Although amateurs or people thoroughly out of the loop wouldn’t get it, Rainy, who was a resident of the boundary of both worlds, was able to tell there was a clear abnormality in the air. In this case, she needed to doubt not the machinery, but her own intuition.
（……It’s probably a trap from there on……）
Setting her eyes on the area the miasma counter indicated with a severe warning sound, Rainy thought carefully about what she should do. She didn’t think any of the people out of contact would have disappeared in this area. But there was definitely something up here.
（The main source of this is probably further ahead, and there’s a high chance that something might occur here in order to lead to it）
That much was clear, but Rainy had an extremely bad feeling about what kind of trap this might be. Her intuition told her she wouldn’t be able to use the charms on hand. In that case, it would be logical to investigate just what this was, but she probably wouldn’t be coming back if she were to do this. Rainy just felt that to be true, paralyzed with horror.
（……I…had better come back later……）
After five minutes of inner conflict, Rainy decided to throw in the towel and head back. The next moment……
「Mm! I knew it！！」
The trees around her twisted into a dance, the ground turned into slush all at once, and tons of “hands” sprouted out.
「I’d better get back and report this！！」
Jumping high up before the sludge got to her feet and evading the tree branches attempting to grab her with a kick, Rainy yelled out. Cutting the branches off with her knife, Rainy desperately tried to escape while avoiding the ground as much as possible. She nearly got captured several times, her armor completely rupturing with unidentifiable attacks and her lower clothing ripped apart in several areas, a very immodest appearance, before escaping the forest.
You wouldn’t think this exhaustion came from simply running away. Her energy had probably been sucked out of her every time she had a close call. Rainy had at least managed to avoid losing the tools given to her, but returning to her base right now would be quite difficult. Besides, she should tell Hiroshi and the others first.
（I shouldn’t go around the city looking like this……）
Although Rainy didn’t have much shame in that area, her instincts as a spy and an assassin convinced her it was a bad idea to walk around town in such a crude appearance. However, she did not currently have a cloak in her possession to hide this fact, which only left one option: thoroughly erase her presence and go along a route that no one usually went down to get to Hiroshi’s base. Thankfully, the base was closer to her relative location and on the outskirts of town, so there were plenty of those kinds of routes.
In order to report what she was obligated to, as well as to seek additional help from her beloved Deary, Rainy erased any traces of herself and carefully made her way back.
「Are you still continuing that project in a situation like this？」
After she lay the downed Rainy on the bed and sat down at the briefing table, that was the very first thing Haruna asked.
「Sure, we’re in a bit of a pinch, but there’s a lil problem that came up, mate」
「What problem？」
「I think we ain’t gonna make progress till the temple people, Elle ‘n Artiem come over here」
Haruna seemed half convinced, half dissatisfied at Hiroshi’s statement, and it showed in her eyes. On the other hand, Tatsuya and Makoto seemed to be against rushing in with this half baked information, slightly relieved at hearing that Aearis and Artiem needed to arrive first.
「Dark god fragments rampagin’ around, Crest Cave Mine’s a dungeon, flashy stuff like that is goin’ on, so I don’t think they’re havin’ that good of a time. So although I do think we needa hurry up, it’s just plain idiotic to go rushin’ into what we know’s a trap, y’all.」
「Well yeah, that’s true, but……」
「Plus from what Rainy tells me, it sounds likeElle ‘n Artiem’re gettin’ ready over there, so it’s a fool’s game to charge in ‘n make their efforts pointless.」
「……」
Even Hiroshi, who was usually the one to charge on in, admonished Haruna, who decided to just suppress her discontent.
「So when will Elle and Artiem be coming over here？」
「I don’t think y’all gonna know until ya hear from ‘em, but thinkin’ of the car’s speed ‘n all that, maybe earliest when the tournament ends?」
「That sounds about right」
Tatsuya immediately agreed as he considered the distance from Wulls to Forre. Even in the case of using transportation circles to cross the borders for shortcuts, they would take three days to arrive.
「Wazzup Haruna? Ya look like yer about to fall forward.」
「Yeah. This time you seem to be discontent with the idea of not moving to action.」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
With puzzled glances from Hiroshi and Makoto, Haruna took a deep breath to cool her head down before speaking honestly about her thoughts.
「I actually felt the blood rush to my head when I saw the state Rainy-san was in. I just never thought I cared that much for her, so it surprised me too.」
「Ah okay, I get it. It makes sense why ya’d feel emotional since ya helped her last week.」
「You think……」
Haruna felt a slight misgiving when Hiroshi said that. Was she always that emotional? But in actuality, she just didn’t realize how hospitable she was, even among all the members. Haruna was just the kind of human to have a certain amount of empathy for anyone like Rainy, stumbling into their base only once or twice.
With that being said, Haruna also had rather harsh feelings for people like Dentlis whom she never wanted to let into their base, so she was quite firm in her inspections. Despite this, however, Haruna also had a certain amount of motherly love in her to completely forgive anyone depending on their actions after making mistakes.
Therefore in Rainy’s case, it was pretty much guaranteed that Haruna would awaken those maternal instincts, but unfortunately, she did not seem to think she was that great of a person.
「Well I’m glad that Haruna-san thinks of Rainy as one of our own. But Mio, what’s with that look？」
「Well if you let me give my own two cents, I sort of expected Haru to go through one of those events that those R rated heroines from those anime not aired on tv go through」
「I don’t got a good feeling about this, but uhh…whatcha mean by that？」
「You know, those rules where heroine = strip？」
As soon as Mio said that rather unladylike statement, Tatsuya and Makoto’s gazes moved to Haruna’s upper body area, specifically the chest area. Flinching at the concentrated gazes, Haruna reflexively hugged her own shoulders to cover it.
「For a second there I was about to agree with you, but I think there’s something kind of wrong about rejoicing over the misfortune of a friend, y’know？」
「I think if we look at how badly messed up Rainy was, most people would expect such an event.」
Tatsuya was at a complete loss for words when he heard her oddly convincing opinion. He didn’t have any particular responsibility for Mio’s upbringing, but seeing her go down such a perverted path really made Tatsuya feel his incompetence.
「You do sound quite persuasive, but there’s a giant problem with expecting such an event.」
「How so？」
「The first thing is that there’s hardly any chance of Haruna being the only one targeted.」
「Then you and me can just avoid getting caught, right Makoto?」
「If it was that easy, Haruna would be able to avoid it too, y’know. Besides, even if she were captured, do you really think she would become the way Rainy is if she’s wearing orichalcum breastplate and behemoth leather armor over her spirit thread clothing？」
Mio couldn’t find a way to respond to Makoto’s sharp edge retort. Regular steel armor might be okay, but the current armor they all had was far higher in defense and resistance than any of the magic steel equipment you could find anywhere else. If the law of heroine ＝ strip applied here, all their lives would be in danger, so with the proper equipment on, there would be no ero scenes.
「……I didn’t consider that……」
「Yeah, how about you get enough common sense to realize that?」
Makoto quipped, exasperated at Mio for being so devastated. Yes, she had a hunch that they might be too late, but Mio was seriously acting up more frequently.
Then again, it wasn’t like Makoto was one to talk.
「Anyhow, looks like Mio lost that argument. More importantly, Haruna…」
「Yes？」
「The pose you’re in right now is a bit too risque.」
「Wha？」
Makoto gave Haruna (who still had her arms covering her chest) some unnecessary advice that didn’t fall far from what Mio said. In fact, when Haruna made that hugging pose, her chest’s ample size was only emphasized, even more erotic than puffing out her chest. Even Makoto, a person of the same gender, was induced into feeling a bit weird.
Haruna started out with a total lack of sex appeal (with rare moments of allure), but ever since awakening to her love for Hiroshi, Makoto felt that Haruna was getting more and more off the deep end. It is often said that girls are able to use magic the moment they love, but surely not to this extent. There are still limits to how quickly one can become a first rate magician.
「Well, that aside, considering how severe the situation would be if Rainy’s miasma attack turns her all weird, I think it’s a perfectly acceptable reason to wait for Elle and company.」
Laying out all the reasons for why they shouldn’t launch a charge attack, Makoto attempted to postpone their actions. Now that two inexcusable reasons were out there, those in support of charging in (Haruna and Mio) could not argue back.
「So let’s eat out ‘n enjoy the tourney as they make preparations.」
「……Okay. I’ll go ahead and maintain the food stall as we wait for them to get ready.」
Having cooled down a bit, Haruna decided to go the safe route. Rainy’s pitiful state ended up not being quite enough to halt their worthless plan.
Once the third preliminary round had ended, seventh class adventurer Jon Kotrey was faced with a weapon-related issue.
「I guess it won’t last till the main fight……」
In the current, not-so-spacious room he was borrowing, Jon stared at his weapon laying on the table with a harsh face as he groaned. His weapon had sustained great damage this match. Jon had already felt wear and tear recently, so he treated it carefully in order to save as much money as possible, but this effort did not seem to be bearing fruition.
It had been five years since he took his adventurer certification at thirteen, partially to make things easier for him and his family. This was his partner that he had saved up steady money for through odd jobs. Although it was a used, second-rate item, Jon had been through thick and thin with this longsword for nearly four years. No matter how perfectly he tried to maintain it, the sword was, all in all, not an especially great product. In a sense, it was extremely clear that this sword would not hold all the way to the end of a huge tournament held once every three years.
「See? I told you that you need to hurry up and get a new sword.」
Arisa Baagman (the healer/buffer of the party) said with an equally harsh face. With a slender physique, ample protrusion in the chest area, and long, chestnut-colored hair, she still wasn’t a match for Haruna or Mio, but was still a gorgeous woman who caught the attention of one-third of anyone she passed by in town. However, this expression of hers that made her look like she had just swallowed a bunch of sour tarts practically cut said glamor in half.
She was in fact concerned for her lover, Jon’s, well-being, telling him for the third time to buy a new weapon that wasn’t degrading like the longsword. Jon’s armor, on the other hand, thanks to his superior finesse, hadn’t taken many direct hits from enemies since he started out, so it wasn’t damaged enough to where he needed new armor.
「But good swords are expensive, and the cheap ones aren’t much different than what I have……」
「Still, remember what they say. Adventurers who skimp on equipment won’t last long, y’know？」
「Yeah, I understand that, but……」
Equipment upgrades, probably the greatest object of worry for adventurers. Of course you wouldn’t last long if you skimped, but neither was it a cheap prospect. After all, even amongst used weapons, the ones with better performance were possibly more expensive than even the cheap, newer, decent-performance varieties (which were already minimum 50,000 yen (Japan) /50 chrone (Farlane) /5,000 doma (Forre).
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
New weapons with proper functionality would cause the price to skyrocket, with standard performance longswords pricing 50,000 domas and top-grade longswords pricing 200,000 domas; quite the large profit. Although these would fall under the corporation equipment expenses category, these were no light costs for your average adventurer, working day in and day out to save up.
Now that it had broken this much, Jon absolutely had to trade in for a new one, but he couldn’t even trade in parts from how broken it was. It was too late to regret not trading it in, but both inferior and new products were not cheap by any means. Jon was at his wit’s end. No trading in parts like before; he had to buy it all together without any reduced price.
「Anyhow, Kate is currently going around looking for bargains, so once she gets back we’re going shopping.」
「Oh yeah, I was wondering when she’d get back. Guess she already began. But do you really think there are bargains just floating around？」
「Well actually, rumor has it that there’s a shady shop dealing in tons of defective goods, many of which are quite the bargain.」
「And she’s looking for that？」
Arisa nodded at Jon’s question. They were talking about Kate Owens, a mage/thief girl who appeared pure at first glance but was still part of Jon and Arisa’s group, with her own odd disposition. The three of them had formed their party after promotion to class 9. Regardless of who else entered/ left the party, the three of them were always together.
Then again, Kate’s night inclinations (which they had discovered two years ago) were a real pain in the head for Arisa. Other than that, she was for better or worse a virtuous girl who you would never suspect of being a thief, and they’d never think of replacing her with anyone else, so these two contrasts were quite the Achilles heel for Arisa.
Also, Jon being in that sort of relationship with Arisa and Kate was fine with both of them. Being one step away from a meathead, he couldn’t refuse the advances of any woman. But Arisa and Kate agreed that was preferable to going out at night and using money.
The three of them so happened to be Farlanians from the city near the border of Forre, Gardeit. As to why they were no longer in Gardeit, the reason was quite simple: not only was the city practically sandwiched between both countries; it also closed off during winter due to snow, causing the absolute amount of work to decrease and the busy season differing too greatly, causing life there to be a hassle. They were in Stiren, not Wulls, simply because Stiren was closer.
「Well, Kate is good at finding things like those, which is all well and good……」
「But you do realize she’s also more capable than you at negotiating, right? She’s really only bad at dealing with conspiracies and whatnot.」
「Although that is a bit troubling in its own way……」
「Hey, still better than you.」
True to her unusually nice thief persona, Kate, much like Azuma Workshop, had a very low ability in regards to gathering information from the “other side”. She insisted she was a thief, but the term “scout” was more aptly put. Also, you would think Kate’s voluptuous body (totally opposite from her innocent face) with all its curves would be a great bargaining chip for information, but she apparently hated that sort of behavior, a clean freak of sorts. Jon and Arisa were also reluctant to use the female body for such purposes, so they thankfully didn’t press Kate on that regard.
At any rate, Jon and friends were well aware that they couldn’t handle such nefarious things, so neither him nor Arisa saw any need to have Kate get over said weakness, leaving it be.
「Jon, Arisa, are you back？」
「Oho, and speaking of her…」
As they were discussing Kate, the person herself had returned. Judging by her cheery tone, she had probably found the street stall in question.
「How did it go？」
「Right on the mark！」
Kate declared confidently in a cheery tone, puffing out her splendid chest (only slightly inferior to Haruna). In sync with this mannerism, her platinum-colored wavy hair fluttered. This hint of joy present on her face only served to accent this pure, clean, pretty image of hers. Most people would probably say that Arisa and Kate were completely opposite roles based off their appearance and vibe. Kate also had a slightly small stature for someone from Farlane, which only served to heighten that image.
For better or for worse, the two of them were contrastive. Unpopular males would probably look at Jon getting along with the two girls and be green with envy, but unfortunately, day and night, the girls were the ones taking the initiative. If they felt like it, the girls could totally not let Jon have a say in anything.
「How’s the price？」
「At first glance, they were at suspiciously cheap prices. In this case, averaging about 10,000 doma.」
「……Is that…really okay？」
「They had this really hard-to-discern camouflage, but more than half of the weapons were probably above average.」
Jon and Arisa instinctively grimaced at the word “camouflage”. They weren’t so sure they could trust a shop that did such things.
「Camouflage, eh……」
「This…is just my personal opinion, but I think the person running that shop is giving rookies like us a chance. Otherwise they wouldn’t bother erecting that repel barrier.」
As Jon began to have a cold look in his eyes, Kate hurriedly cut in with a follow-up. At first glance, it was true that the shop’s atmosphere, the owner, and the items on sale were questionable, but for all the trouble they went to, the shop didn’t have many products that were actually defective. If they were truly trying to clean out their defective stocks with a treasure trove as bait, there would have to be a lot more defective items.
Then again, before any of that, it was rather strange that the shop owner went to the trouble of preventing people from coming to the shop with a barrier if they actually wanted to clean it out.
「Repel barrier, eh……」
「Yeah, this is just…seriously weird.」
「I think it’s going to be fine. So Arisa, Jon, let’s go」
True, she couldn’t deny there were many peculiar points, but Kate had actually been there and felt this could be their chance; she just couldn’t explain it in person, hence why she did her best to persuade them to come along.
「All right Kate, if you say so……」
「We can always just decide whether to buy or not once we get there……」
Prodded by Kate’s zeal, Jon and Arisa got off their backsides, promptly bringing along a larger amount of funds just in case as they followed Kate, who led the way with light steps.
Unfortunately for her, the thief Kate did not happen to notice the person watching their group.
In a certain alleyway…
『Sensei, the targets are on their way』
『Gotcha』
Hearing back from Mio, Hiroshi excitedly switched out the product lineup. She had contacted him right when a male customer (with no discernment) had picked a dud item and went off, so it was pretty good timing. Then again, this so-called “dud” was higher than a class 3 and lower than the norm, which was still good enough to avoid any complaints price-wise.
Furthermore, Hiroshi was constantly shifting out the lineup each time a customer arrived. The probability of hitting a success increased with every novice, while veterans had a higher chance of getting a dud. The man this time around was certainly not a youth, so the dud probability (with larger duds included) had been raised to seventy percent, and he had made a spectacular miss.
『They’ll be here any moment』
『I see ‘em in the distance. It’s business time, mate.』
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Sensing other people within the magic blockade as soon as Mio reported in, Hiroshi upped the suspicious meter. Dressing up as a dodgy looking old man and changing his voice to fit the role was quite the impressive facade. This time someone who was of interest had arrived, so the product lineup was now at 100% guessing. If these individuals could get through the dubiousness of it all and recognize the big hit item (which had slightly less camouflage than the others), it was their victory.
「Is this the place, Kate？」
「You can almost tell how intentional the shade is here……」
Shortly after preparations were complete, the young targets had arrived at the shop. Needless to say, these young folks were John and the other two girls. This was quite the sight to see, but Hiroshi was actually happy to see this.
If this guy could already deal with more than one carnivorous woman, that would decrease the chances of Hiroshi being hounded would decrease. Normally these were Hiroshi’s mortal enemies, and without a man they liked, their attacks would only increase in intensity. Thankfully, this world was quite magnanimous in allowing one person to have multiple partners, so the more men out there like him would mean less risk for beings like Hiroshi.
「Hey lady, are those two the ones with the purse strings？」
「Mm, yes. More accurately, we really need to get a new sword for this guy.」
「Well, I thought someone’d be showin’ up about now, ‘n I have out some of my finest goods, so feel free to pick out somethin’. Everything’s 10,000 doma, mate.」
Hiroshi offered these items all at well-past exceptional prices. Jon had a really suspicious look on his face, and Arisa wasn’t looking especially pleasant either.
「I don’t think you’d be able to tell just by starin’. Go on ahead ‘n feel ‘em in yer hands.」
「It’s not…cursed or anything, right？」
「Everything here’s stuff my student made, so rest assured they ain’t got enough skill to make cursed swords.」
Explaining one reason why the price was so low, Hiroshi tried to relax his customers. Jon, who seemed to have accepted the reason to an extent, began earnestly surveying the goods to see if there was truly a bargain to find.
「You said you have a student, so I assume you’re a blacksmith？」
「Well, somethin’ along those lines, yup.」
Hiroshi responded to Kate’s sudden question with a shady smile on his face to accompany his tone of voice. The unpleasant part of all of this was just how he wasn’t telling a lie but also wasn’t anywhere close to the truth.
「Hey, I’ll throw in a hint, how ‘bout that. There’s one l’il sucker in the bunch that’s a bit touched up and tougher than the rest.」
「……Uhh, yeah, hold up there old man. Who the heck are you？」
Now that Hiroshi had offered an unnecessary hint, Jon the main target was beyond serious. He glared at Hiroshi with a scary face.
「Who am I? Whatcha mean, boi？」
「Stop playing the fool. There are enchantments on every sword I see here. These aren’t things you can just sell for 10,000 doma.」
「Well yeah, of course yer gonna find one or two enchantments. Without ‘em you’d be stuck with class three items, at least from my point of view.」
Jon frowned at the term “class three”. These swords, even without all the enchantments, were slightly better quality than regular swords. If these were truly class three weapons, then most of what was in Stiren was equal to a pile of scrap. Jon knew he wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, but he certainly wasn’t so ignorant that he couldn’t at least point that out.
「Well hey, even if this old man’s a lil bit shady, these are some good prices for y’all youngsters, so why worry ‘bout it?」
「……I really don’t like that answer, but whatever……」
While a bit put-off at all of this, Jon tried to look on the brighter side of things and took a few swords into his hands to examine them. When he had taken the fourth longsword out from the row of eight, his facial expression changed.
「Hey old man. Is this one the same price as the rest？」
「Right on the money sonny」
「Then I’ll go with this one.」
Jon said as he held out the weapon. Just as Hiroshi had intended, it was the magically modified weapon he had dubbed “Defender Sword”.
「Right on the mark, boyo. Now, in respect of yer sharp eyes, I’ll throw in a lil somethin’ extra for 5,000 more. How ‘bout it?」
「Extra? Like what？」
「A ring that heals its wearer’s wounds ‘n stamina as long as ya put mana into it. Put a bunch in at once and ya get effects lastin’ up to fifteen seconds. And I threw in just a lil defense boost ‘n life boost for free.」
「……No, I’m pretty sure that isn’t something you sell just for 5,000……」
Arisa interjected in an exasperated tone at the word “for free”. She was completely confident that this so-called “extra” could be resold for enough money to retire and live comfortably.
「Yer free to use it how ya like, but it’s personalized to its owner. I don’t think yer gonna have an easy time sellin’ it, y’know？」
「……No, we’re grateful for your kindness. We won’t do that.」
「But I bet ya thought about it, didn’tcha？」
The suspicious shopowner responded, almost as if seeing right through her, and Arisa covered her reddened face instinctively.
「So it’s a total of 15,000, yeah？」
「Yup, that’s it.」
Ignoring Arisa and her embarrassment at being exposed for her shallowness, Jon jumped to purchasing. After paying up, he lightly swung the sword and checked the balance.
「……I think this sword could get me pretty far into the tournament.」
「Well ain’t that nice. Break a leg out there, mate.」
「Yeah. Also, maybe this is indulging too much, but……」
At that point he cut off, turning to look at the two girls staring his way before speaking up again.
「Are there any weapons suitable for these two? The ones they have here are fine, but now that I’ve seen this sword, I sorta want a bit more, you know……」
「Aight. Before I do that, can I have a look at that there sword dangling from yer waist？」
「This old thing? Its blade is done for and it wasn’t even a good weapon in the first place.」
Jon said as he handed the sword to the shopkeeper, not missing a beat. He seemed to now only see Hiroshi as a strange person rather than a bad one.
「……Aight, I think I get the picture.」
「Not very impressive, right？」
「Maybe, but what I do gather is that yer someone who takes good care of yer partners.」
Listening to Hiroshi, the girls had oddly happy looks on their faces. In fact, Jon’s sword was always well taken care of, with hardly a scratch on it. You wouldn’t be able to tell it was a second-rate sword that he had used for two years. Yes, it was old and probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer no matter what you did, but if Jon hadn’t fought so fiercely in this tournament, it could very well have lasted around two more years. If Jon had not been the owner, it would very likely have broken from use long ago.
Then again, Hiroshi had actually understood this from what he saw in the battle royale preliminaries, but watching was one thing and actually touching was another thing. Hiroshi always wanted to be up close for appraising these sorts of things.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Hold on a sec. Imma check storage.」
After returning Jon’s “partner”, Hiroshi pretended to peek into his bag as he secretively began transmission. These were second hand goods no longer in use, and Hiroshi wanted to check before selling them on his own decision.
『Haruna-san, Bro』
『What is it？』
『Something happen？』
『I needa ask ya somethin’ about the rapier Haruna-san used in Farlane ‘n the makeshift staff Bro uaed. Is it cool with y’all if I sell ’em off？』
Hiroshi could feel the air of confusion on the other side of the transmission in response to his sudden question. They didn’t seem to get why he wanted to sell.
『Well this is sudden. Why’s that？』
『Cuz the guy said he wanted somethin’ for his buddies too. I took a likin’ to these folks, so I just wanna get ’em weapons with decent functionality. How bout it？』
Not responding right away, the two of them went momentarily silent. They must have had their own conversation in the background.
『I’m cool with it, man. It’s not like I was super attached or anything.』
『I’m fine with it too, as long as they take good care of it. Although I would like to keep it by my side, not using it would be unfair to the weapon.』
Hearing their answers, Hiroshi made his conclusion.
『Gotcha. Then imma sell the good weapons to these young’uns with a promising future at a suitable price. I think these folks’ll treat ‘em with care.』
In fact, Hiroshi secretly thought his own team might be worse at handling weapons. Sure, their weapons had auto-regeneration, but even they had to tend to them, which was prone to result in fatal treatment due to this being an opportunity to train their low-proficiency extra skills. In addition to that, they had many an occasion of fighting opponents that couldn’t be defeated by treating their weapons gently or protecting with their skill, which only added to the consumption of resources.
Now, they weren’t being reckless with their weapons on purpose, and were doing their best to thoroughly repair when need be, but overall Azuma Workshop seemed to break things beyond repair more than make things sometimes.
「Kay, these’re second-hand goods but I found two ones that’re just right for ya.」
Getting permission from Haruna and Tatsuya, Hiroshi was finally able to take out the rapier and staff, pretending to have finally found them. Of course, he had not forgotten to enchant the weapons with auto-repair while this was happening. Arisa scowled momentarily when she heard the word “second-hand”, but then realized what Hiroshi had in his hands and widened her eyes.
「Hey, you, the girl with the chestnut-colored hair. Ya use rapiers, daggers, etc for yer weapon of choice, right mate? ‘N then you, the girl with the platinum-blonde hair. Yer a mage, so ya want a magic staff, right？」
「……This is what you call second-hand? What on earth happened to its owner……？」
「We found owners more fittin’ of the weapons. Still, the previous owners did warn me to only give ‘em to people who’ll take good care of ‘em.」
Arisa straightened her posture at the words “take good care of ‘em”. It was slightly inferior to what Jon had found, but there was no mistaking it: this rapier was more than just enough; it was incredible. Without enchantments it was far superior. These sorts of weapons were always the kind you got once in a lifetime. Arisa was scared to even imagine what kind of qualities this new rapier would have.
「Both weapons are 10,000 doma. We do have ‘em made to not break, but make sure ya don’t treat ‘em too roughly.」
「Yeah, I know. We’d never get into situations beyond our control that would require the use of crazy weapons like these anyway.」
「Yup yup. Even if an adventurer’s job is to adventure, there’s a mighty fine line between actin’ responsible ‘n actin’ reckless.」
The three adventurers nodded with serious faces at Hiroshi’s words. New faces like them usually got carried away when receiving such rare weapons for groundbreaking prices. Still, even if they were not necessarily veterans, Jon’s team had a good amount of experience. They were not about to make things more difficult than necessary. Now that they had overcome recklessness and could distinguish between adventure and foolery, Hiroshi didn’t need to tell them to be wary of pride.
「Then in respect of yer partner, here’s the last freebie. Lemme see」
「……Alright」
Jon reluctantly handed their “partners” over to Hiroshi. He wondered if it was like this for the previous owners of the weapons Arisa and Kate bought.
But in reality, Tatsuya didn’t feel all that attached to his makeshift staff, and Haruna didn’t care all that much when she shifted weapons.
「Now then, here’s the last job for ya partner.」
Hiroshi said, lightly prodding the lost portion with his fingers. The next moment, a rift opened up in the sword and the blade was smashed up without a trace left. And then…
「The sword……？」
「Yeah, ya see, weapons that ya use for long periods of time can be real good catalysts for strong enchantments.」
Jon looked at his new partner with bewildered eyes as Hiroshi spoke. Now the camouflage was entirely undone, and his skills and experience were now clearly far inferior to this weapon.
「It’s the same for ours……」
「I could actually see this weapon being the one in control here……」
The standards were now also raised on Arisa and Kate’s weapons simultaneously. This was far past a joke at this point. Kate in particular seemed like she’d be thrown about by her support weapon without even being able to adjust to it and use magic.
「I also personalized ‘em, so these’re all yers. The last enchantment also gits stronger the more ya use it with care, so that’s another reason to be careful.」
「Yes, I wouldn’t treat it any different either way.」
「Adventurers always take good care of their partners. That’s just how it is right？」
「We’re not that stupid, or at least we’d like to think that.」
Jon and the others declared with serious faces at Hiroshi. These weapons, an extravagant bargain, were too strong for them. The group swore that they would one day become worthy of owning these weapons that outranked them, acknowledged by anyone who saw them.
Jon and his team would later on charge through the ranks of this year’s tournament with great vigor, clutching out a close match in finals with opponents several ranks above them, overcoming all challenges with skill, their new weapons, and teamwork, before leaving their names among the top five adventurers in Forre. This first step would be widely discussed afterward, but behind all of it was a story not well known (nor should it be). What was this story? Well…
「Well that was one heck of a bet, y’all……」
「Hey blockhead, there was literally no point lowering the price if you just went and bet it in football pools！！」
「But y’know, I never thought they’d get first place.」
「Wait, Hiroshi-kun, how much did you pay？」
「Oh yeah, I bet all the earnings from runnin’ the odd shop during the prelims」
「Whoa……」
This was the difficult-to-explain backstory surrounding Jon’s team’s victory: Hiroshi had thrown all of his shop earnings in Jon’s favor (Jon didn’t have many people betting for him) and hoisted a large amount of money from the other football pool participants, having set them up.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
The day of the tournament preliminaries was upon them at last. Evaluating the items in order to carry out their plan, Hiroshi and the others sallied forth to Forre Arena.
「So that was the first day. What do you think？」
「Well, we already know who the top choices are, but how about the third match？」
「I personally can’t rule out that fifth game.」
A battle royale that quickly siphoned out its numbers. Eight matches took place simultaneously, and the workshop team gave their thoughts on their personal favorites.
The preliminary battle royale had around twenty participants per match with a total of around hundred participants duking it out at the same time. With normal arena sizes this would be impossible, but Forre’s gigantic arena’s total area could be shifted to the limit of something like five hundred cavalrymen versus five hundred other cavalrymen. The person who sculpted the arena a thousand years ago had the extra skill of carpentry, enabling them to make large scale monitors, arena structural functions, and plenty of overkill spec features.
Still, even with all these features, it was slightly painful for the management because they couldn’t change much about the number of spectator seats other than add standing room.
「Games three ‘n five are a lil different than what I’m into, so that’s a pass for me」
「What you’re into, huh. Then I guess I’ll ask, what are you into Hiro？」
「Well first lemme emphasize this only relates to the goal of our current plan.」
「No need to emphasize, my guy……」
「Nah, nah. I gotta emphasize here or else it’ll end up pourin’ unneeded fuel on Makoto-san.」
Makoto had a slightly let-down expression on her face at what Hiroshi said, while Tatsuya, Haruna, and Mio could find themselves completely agreeing with Hiroshi. Makoto’s attitude only went to show how justified Hiroshi’s concerns were.
「So, back on topic, from our plan, I’m thinkin’ veterans aren’t gonna be juicy enough」
「I sort of get what you’re going for here, but what’s the reasoning？」
「Half to show off, and the other half is cuz I feel some way about veterans relyin’ on my equipment to get by. Like, get yer own stuff, y’know?」
「I sort of agree, yet also feel like this is extremely biased……」
Haruna had a rather mixed expression on her face at Hiroshi’s reason. Sure, she got what he was saying, but affirming Hiroshi’s actions would also mean admitting that Azuma Workshop also fully relied on their equipment to get by. It would only become a super powerful boomerang that would come back to stab them through the head.
「Welp, first half is more of a joke. But I am gonna stick with the whole idea of given’ a helpin’ hand to younger, decently skilled newcomers who haven’t been blessed with opportunities or proper equipment. Just has a nice ring to it. Besides, if veterans wanna win they gotta do what all veterans do ‘n give us nice compensation fari ‘n square at the established price. Plus ya know them “favorites” are gonna be gettin’ some good quality equipment by their own means.」
「Well, I mean yeah, it’s not like I don’t agree…」
Makoto affirmed what Hiroshi said. As an actual problem, the top contenders all had powerful magic swords made from monster drops or high functioning equipment made by top dwarf smiths.
The majority of heroic tales were, as Hiroshi put it, about young rookies with potential but no results to back it up who either got their hands on some powerful item or succeeded in finding some amazing human connections and used those victories to their advantage to climb up the ranks despite any setbacks.
The equipment that Hiroshi was plotting to throw at these contestants had plenty of functionality to compete with these legendary items in the epics, so rather than helping veterans who were fully prepared from the start, it was much better to lend a hand to less experienced fighters who had to struggle a bit with the equipment while taking slow steps. It was precisely because Hiroshi was aiming for that kind of result that he used plenty of light enchantment multipliers to cover for amateur weaknesses and went to the trouble of adding hidden features.
「So right now we got a young person basically our age who’s maybe at most done some work outside town, mains the longsword, and looks like they’re progressing alright to the finals. All that’s left is to determine what kind of person they are.」
「Sensei, you care about their personality too？」
「Well yeah mate, what if they git all conceited just cuz they got some good equipment ‘n go over the edge ‘n die or become a bragger ‘n start causin’ friction in their community, that’s not gonna be any good right? Sure, they can git a lil carried away, but if they can’t take a critical look at themselves when they suffer for it then I aint’ gonna choose ‘em.」
「Very true……」
Highly agreeing with Hiroshi’s viewpoint, Mio decided she wouldn’t say anything further.
「So who’d you pick out？」
「The winner of the second, tenth, ‘n thirty first matches, I’d say. The twenty third round kid wasn’t too bad, but I kinda feel like we should try gals a different time, if ya get me…」
「Oh? But I personally think it would be kinda cool to have a girl become a hero, don’t you? That twenty third round girl did have a lot of cool moves that might get her quite the exciting future.」
「I can already see some unnecessary flags if we go that direction, so I wanna stick with the orthodox dude route this time around」
Hiroshi countered Makoto’s carefree opinion with his own. He was partially concerned and partially interested in his own idea he had chosen from the start. Makoto couldn’t deny the part about accidentally setting off another flag, so she decided to agree with Hiroshi while grimacing.
「Okay, okay. So how are you going to go about checking them out？」
「Well, therein lies the problem, mate. Could we try havin’ Bro ‘n Makoto-san try to chat ‘em up？」
「There you go again, asking the unreasonable. Welp, I’ll try and do what I can. You fine with that, Tatsuya？」
「Sure am」
Now that they had a rough idea of today’s remaining objectives,
「So that’s all we do today, but what about tomorrow and onward? There are still preliminaries.」
「Right, it was another battle royale tomorrow？」
「Yup. They’re going to apparently shred it down to sixteen people with the two matches after that.」
「Then we’ll look around some more tomorrow ‘n figure out some other person to reach out to」
「Alright」
They set the daily objective and course of action in a smooth manner. The candidates for the weapon would probably end up being six people, but only one of them would be the winner.
「So what are you going to do after this？」
「Right, so since I got permission ‘n all, I may as well set up the suspicious shop in the alleyway ‘n do my best to clear out storage」
「Right on. Haruna and Mio, what about you？」
「We’ll be applying for permission for setting up shop in two days. Apparently there’s still room.」
「And then stocking up alongside that」
「ＯＫ。Then I’ll see you two later.」
Deciding what they all would be doing, the group got straight to work. Hiroshi must have done quite the job getting customers, because the next day around noon, there were already quiet rumors floating around among a small minority of people that a certain dubious shop in the alleyway dealing in weapons had quite the treasure trove of bargains amidst the mass of its inferior goods.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「It’s here, then？」
As Hiroshi and the others were progressing with their little “game”, Rainy (fully restored) tracked down the road to Elza Main Temple, beginning the search. It had been a week since she was incapacitated from spy duties, the break taking effect when she accepted her recent funding.
（……Something’s clearly off about this area……）
After walking five minutes to the narrow path leading to the trail, Rainy noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere; a feeling of brutality that she couldn’t quite place. This sensation was probably new to Rainy because she had been in that environment for so long as an assassin. When she was summoned to the embassy this morning, they had given her (courtesy of Aearis) things like talismans and miasma counters, and at this moment they were displaying odd signals.
That was totally fine. She had anticipated this after all. The real problem was……
（Weird. Aearis-sama’s tools are displaying crazy readings, but the miasma leak is too small）
Rainy frowned at the disparity between the miasma counter digits and her own intuition. If the numbers were correct, then even an amateur like her should sense something, but even with the tense air, the presence of miasma was so faint she could hardly tell. Normally you’d doubt the machinery in this case, and normal priests would almost certainly do so.
Although amateurs or people thoroughly out of the loop wouldn’t get it, Rainy, who was a resident of the boundary of both worlds, was able to tell there was a clear abnormality in the air. In this case, she needed to doubt not the machinery, but her own intuition.
（……It’s probably a trap from there on……）
Setting her eyes on the area the miasma counter indicated with a severe warning sound, Rainy thought carefully about what she should do. She didn’t think any of the people out of contact would have disappeared in this area. But there was definitely something up here.
（The main source of this is probably further ahead, and there’s a high chance that something might occur here in order to lead to it）
That much was clear, but Rainy had an extremely bad feeling about what kind of trap this might be. Her intuition told her she wouldn’t be able to use the charms on hand. In that case, it would be logical to investigate just what this was, but she probably wouldn’t be coming back if she were to do this. Rainy just felt that to be true, paralyzed with horror.
（……I…had better come back later……）
After five minutes of inner conflict, Rainy decided to throw in the towel and head back. The next moment……
「Mm! I knew it！！」
The trees around her twisted into a dance, the ground turned into slush all at once, and tons of “hands” sprouted out.
「I’d better get back and report this！！」
Jumping high up before the sludge got to her feet and evading the tree branches attempting to grab her with a kick, Rainy yelled out. Cutting the branches off with her knife, Rainy desperately tried to escape while avoiding the ground as much as possible. She nearly got captured several times, her armor completely rupturing with unidentifiable attacks and her lower clothing ripped apart in several areas, a very immodest appearance, before escaping the forest.
You wouldn’t think this exhaustion came from simply running away. Her energy had probably been sucked out of her every time she had a close call. Rainy had at least managed to avoid losing the tools given to her, but returning to her base right now would be quite difficult. Besides, she should tell Hiroshi and the others first.
（I shouldn’t go around the city looking like this……）
Although Rainy didn’t have much shame in that area, her instincts as a spy and an assassin convinced her it was a bad idea to walk around town in such a crude appearance. However, she did not currently have a cloak in her possession to hide this fact, which only left one option: thoroughly erase her presence and go along a route that no one usually went down to get to Hiroshi’s base. Thankfully, the base was closer to her relative location and on the outskirts of town, so there were plenty of those kinds of routes.
In order to report what she was obligated to, as well as to seek additional help from her beloved Deary, Rainy erased any traces of herself and carefully made her way back.
「Are you still continuing that project in a situation like this？」
After she lay the downed Rainy on the bed and sat down at the briefing table, that was the very first thing Haruna asked.
「Sure, we’re in a bit of a pinch, but there’s a lil problem that came up, mate」
「What problem？」
「I think we ain’t gonna make progress till the temple people, Elle ‘n Artiem come over here」
Haruna seemed half convinced, half dissatisfied at Hiroshi’s statement, and it showed in her eyes. On the other hand, Tatsuya and Makoto seemed to be against rushing in with this half baked information, slightly relieved at hearing that Aearis and Artiem needed to arrive first.
「Dark god fragments rampagin’ around, Crest Cave Mine’s a dungeon, flashy stuff like that is goin’ on, so I don’t think they’re havin’ that good of a time. So although I do think we needa hurry up, it’s just plain idiotic to go rushin’ into what we know’s a trap, y’all.」
「Well yeah, that’s true, but……」
「Plus from what Rainy tells me, it sounds likeElle ‘n Artiem’re gettin’ ready over there, so it’s a fool’s game to charge in ‘n make their efforts pointless.」
「……」
Even Hiroshi, who was usually the one to charge on in, admonished Haruna, who decided to just suppress her discontent.
「So when will Elle and Artiem be coming over here？」
「I don’t think y’all gonna know until ya hear from ‘em, but thinkin’ of the car’s speed ‘n all that, maybe earliest when the tournament ends?」
「That sounds about right」
Tatsuya immediately agreed as he considered the distance from Wulls to Forre. Even in the case of using transportation circles to cross the borders for shortcuts, they would take three days to arrive.
「Wazzup Haruna? Ya look like yer about to fall forward.」
「Yeah. This time you seem to be discontent with the idea of not moving to action.」
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
With puzzled glances from Hiroshi and Makoto, Haruna took a deep breath to cool her head down before speaking honestly about her thoughts.
「I actually felt the blood rush to my head when I saw the state Rainy-san was in. I just never thought I cared that much for her, so it surprised me too.」
「Ah okay, I get it. It makes sense why ya’d feel emotional since ya helped her last week.」
「You think……」
Haruna felt a slight misgiving when Hiroshi said that. Was she always that emotional? But in actuality, she just didn’t realize how hospitable she was, even among all the members. Haruna was just the kind of human to have a certain amount of empathy for anyone like Rainy, stumbling into their base only once or twice.
With that being said, Haruna also had rather harsh feelings for people like Dentlis whom she never wanted to let into their base, so she was quite firm in her inspections. Despite this, however, Haruna also had a certain amount of motherly love in her to completely forgive anyone depending on their actions after making mistakes.
Therefore in Rainy’s case, it was pretty much guaranteed that Haruna would awaken those maternal instincts, but unfortunately, she did not seem to think she was that great of a person.
「Well I’m glad that Haruna-san thinks of Rainy as one of our own. But Mio, what’s with that look？」
「Well if you let me give my own two cents, I sort of expected Haru to go through one of those events that those R rated heroines from those anime not aired on tv go through」
「I don’t got a good feeling about this, but uhh…whatcha mean by that？」
「You know, those rules where heroine = strip？」
As soon as Mio said that rather unladylike statement, Tatsuya and Makoto’s gazes moved to Haruna’s upper body area, specifically the chest area. Flinching at the concentrated gazes, Haruna reflexively hugged her own shoulders to cover it.
「For a second there I was about to agree with you, but I think there’s something kind of wrong about rejoicing over the misfortune of a friend, y’know？」
「I think if we look at how badly messed up Rainy was, most people would expect such an event.」
Tatsuya was at a complete loss for words when he heard her oddly convincing opinion. He didn’t have any particular responsibility for Mio’s upbringing, but seeing her go down such a perverted path really made Tatsuya feel his incompetence.
「You do sound quite persuasive, but there’s a giant problem with expecting such an event.」
「How so？」
「The first thing is that there’s hardly any chance of Haruna being the only one targeted.」
「Then you and me can just avoid getting caught, right Makoto?」
「If it was that easy, Haruna would be able to avoid it too, y’know. Besides, even if she were captured, do you really think she would become the way Rainy is if she’s wearing orichalcum breastplate and behemoth leather armor over her spirit thread clothing？」
Mio couldn’t find a way to respond to Makoto’s sharp edge retort. Regular steel armor might be okay, but the current armor they all had was far higher in defense and resistance than any of the magic steel equipment you could find anywhere else. If the law of heroine ＝ strip applied here, all their lives would be in danger, so with the proper equipment on, there would be no ero scenes.
「……I didn’t consider that……」
「Yeah, how about you get enough common sense to realize that?」
Makoto quipped, exasperated at Mio for being so devastated. Yes, she had a hunch that they might be too late, but Mio was seriously acting up more frequently.
Then again, it wasn’t like Makoto was one to talk.
「Anyhow, looks like Mio lost that argument. More importantly, Haruna…」
「Yes？」
「The pose you’re in right now is a bit too risque.」
「Wha？」
Makoto gave Haruna (who still had her arms covering her chest) some unnecessary advice that didn’t fall far from what Mio said. In fact, when Haruna made that hugging pose, her chest’s ample size was only emphasized, even more erotic than puffing out her chest. Even Makoto, a person of the same gender, was induced into feeling a bit weird.
Haruna started out with a total lack of sex appeal (with rare moments of allure), but ever since awakening to her love for Hiroshi, Makoto felt that Haruna was getting more and more off the deep end. It is often said that girls are able to use magic the moment they love, but surely not to this extent. There are still limits to how quickly one can become a first rate magician.
「Well, that aside, considering how severe the situation would be if Rainy’s miasma attack turns her all weird, I think it’s a perfectly acceptable reason to wait for Elle and company.」
Laying out all the reasons for why they shouldn’t launch a charge attack, Makoto attempted to postpone their actions. Now that two inexcusable reasons were out there, those in support of charging in (Haruna and Mio) could not argue back.
「So let’s eat out ‘n enjoy the tourney as they make preparations.」
「……Okay. I’ll go ahead and maintain the food stall as we wait for them to get ready.」
Having cooled down a bit, Haruna decided to go the safe route. Rainy’s pitiful state ended up not being quite enough to halt their worthless plan.
Once the third preliminary round had ended, seventh class adventurer Jon Kotrey was faced with a weapon-related issue.
「I guess it won’t last till the main fight……」
In the current, not-so-spacious room he was borrowing, Jon stared at his weapon laying on the table with a harsh face as he groaned. His weapon had sustained great damage this match. Jon had already felt wear and tear recently, so he treated it carefully in order to save as much money as possible, but this effort did not seem to be bearing fruition.
It had been five years since he took his adventurer certification at thirteen, partially to make things easier for him and his family. This was his partner that he had saved up steady money for through odd jobs. Although it was a used, second-rate item, Jon had been through thick and thin with this longsword for nearly four years. No matter how perfectly he tried to maintain it, the sword was, all in all, not an especially great product. In a sense, it was extremely clear that this sword would not hold all the way to the end of a huge tournament held once every three years.
「See? I told you that you need to hurry up and get a new sword.」
Arisa Baagman (the healer/buffer of the party) said with an equally harsh face. With a slender physique, ample protrusion in the chest area, and long, chestnut-colored hair, she still wasn’t a match for Haruna or Mio, but was still a gorgeous woman who caught the attention of one-third of anyone she passed by in town. However, this expression of hers that made her look like she had just swallowed a bunch of sour tarts practically cut said glamor in half.
She was in fact concerned for her lover, Jon’s, well-being, telling him for the third time to buy a new weapon that wasn’t degrading like the longsword. Jon’s armor, on the other hand, thanks to his superior finesse, hadn’t taken many direct hits from enemies since he started out, so it wasn’t damaged enough to where he needed new armor.
「But good swords are expensive, and the cheap ones aren’t much different than what I have……」
「Still, remember what they say. Adventurers who skimp on equipment won’t last long, y’know？」
「Yeah, I understand that, but……」
Equipment upgrades, probably the greatest object of worry for adventurers. Of course you wouldn’t last long if you skimped, but neither was it a cheap prospect. After all, even amongst used weapons, the ones with better performance were possibly more expensive than even the cheap, newer, decent-performance varieties (which were already minimum 50,000 yen (Japan) /50 chrone (Farlane) /5,000 doma (Forre).
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
New weapons with proper functionality would cause the price to skyrocket, with standard performance longswords pricing 50,000 domas and top-grade longswords pricing 200,000 domas; quite the large profit. Although these would fall under the corporation equipment expenses category, these were no light costs for your average adventurer, working day in and day out to save up.
Now that it had broken this much, Jon absolutely had to trade in for a new one, but he couldn’t even trade in parts from how broken it was. It was too late to regret not trading it in, but both inferior and new products were not cheap by any means. Jon was at his wit’s end. No trading in parts like before; he had to buy it all together without any reduced price.
「Anyhow, Kate is currently going around looking for bargains, so once she gets back we’re going shopping.」
「Oh yeah, I was wondering when she’d get back. Guess she already began. But do you really think there are bargains just floating around？」
「Well actually, rumor has it that there’s a shady shop dealing in tons of defective goods, many of which are quite the bargain.」
「And she’s looking for that？」
Arisa nodded at Jon’s question. They were talking about Kate Owens, a mage/thief girl who appeared pure at first glance but was still part of Jon and Arisa’s group, with her own odd disposition. The three of them had formed their party after promotion to class 9. Regardless of who else entered/ left the party, the three of them were always together.
Then again, Kate’s night inclinations (which they had discovered two years ago) were a real pain in the head for Arisa. Other than that, she was for better or worse a virtuous girl who you would never suspect of being a thief, and they’d never think of replacing her with anyone else, so these two contrasts were quite the Achilles heel for Arisa.
Also, Jon being in that sort of relationship with Arisa and Kate was fine with both of them. Being one step away from a meathead, he couldn’t refuse the advances of any woman. But Arisa and Kate agreed that was preferable to going out at night and using money.
The three of them so happened to be Farlanians from the city near the border of Forre, Gardeit. As to why they were no longer in Gardeit, the reason was quite simple: not only was the city practically sandwiched between both countries; it also closed off during winter due to snow, causing the absolute amount of work to decrease and the busy season differing too greatly, causing life there to be a hassle. They were in Stiren, not Wulls, simply because Stiren was closer.
「Well, Kate is good at finding things like those, which is all well and good……」
「But you do realize she’s also more capable than you at negotiating, right? She’s really only bad at dealing with conspiracies and whatnot.」
「Although that is a bit troubling in its own way……」
「Hey, still better than you.」
True to her unusually nice thief persona, Kate, much like Azuma Workshop, had a very low ability in regards to gathering information from the “other side”. She insisted she was a thief, but the term “scout” was more aptly put. Also, you would think Kate’s voluptuous body (totally opposite from her innocent face) with all its curves would be a great bargaining chip for information, but she apparently hated that sort of behavior, a clean freak of sorts. Jon and Arisa were also reluctant to use the female body for such purposes, so they thankfully didn’t press Kate on that regard.
At any rate, Jon and friends were well aware that they couldn’t handle such nefarious things, so neither him nor Arisa saw any need to have Kate get over said weakness, leaving it be.
「Jon, Arisa, are you back？」
「Oho, and speaking of her…」
As they were discussing Kate, the person herself had returned. Judging by her cheery tone, she had probably found the street stall in question.
「How did it go？」
「Right on the mark！」
Kate declared confidently in a cheery tone, puffing out her splendid chest (only slightly inferior to Haruna). In sync with this mannerism, her platinum-colored wavy hair fluttered. This hint of joy present on her face only served to accent this pure, clean, pretty image of hers. Most people would probably say that Arisa and Kate were completely opposite roles based off their appearance and vibe. Kate also had a slightly small stature for someone from Farlane, which only served to heighten that image.
For better or for worse, the two of them were contrastive. Unpopular males would probably look at Jon getting along with the two girls and be green with envy, but unfortunately, day and night, the girls were the ones taking the initiative. If they felt like it, the girls could totally not let Jon have a say in anything.
「How’s the price？」
「At first glance, they were at suspiciously cheap prices. In this case, averaging about 10,000 doma.」
「……Is that…really okay？」
「They had this really hard-to-discern camouflage, but more than half of the weapons were probably above average.」
Jon and Arisa instinctively grimaced at the word “camouflage”. They weren’t so sure they could trust a shop that did such things.
「Camouflage, eh……」
「This…is just my personal opinion, but I think the person running that shop is giving rookies like us a chance. Otherwise they wouldn’t bother erecting that repel barrier.」
As Jon began to have a cold look in his eyes, Kate hurriedly cut in with a follow-up. At first glance, it was true that the shop’s atmosphere, the owner, and the items on sale were questionable, but for all the trouble they went to, the shop didn’t have many products that were actually defective. If they were truly trying to clean out their defective stocks with a treasure trove as bait, there would have to be a lot more defective items.
Then again, before any of that, it was rather strange that the shop owner went to the trouble of preventing people from coming to the shop with a barrier if they actually wanted to clean it out.
「Repel barrier, eh……」
「Yeah, this is just…seriously weird.」
「I think it’s going to be fine. So Arisa, Jon, let’s go」
True, she couldn’t deny there were many peculiar points, but Kate had actually been there and felt this could be their chance; she just couldn’t explain it in person, hence why she did her best to persuade them to come along.
「All right Kate, if you say so……」
「We can always just decide whether to buy or not once we get there……」
Prodded by Kate’s zeal, Jon and Arisa got off their backsides, promptly bringing along a larger amount of funds just in case as they followed Kate, who led the way with light steps.
Unfortunately for her, the thief Kate did not happen to notice the person watching their group.
In a certain alleyway…
『Sensei, the targets are on their way』
『Gotcha』
Hearing back from Mio, Hiroshi excitedly switched out the product lineup. She had contacted him right when a male customer (with no discernment) had picked a dud item and went off, so it was pretty good timing. Then again, this so-called “dud” was higher than a class 3 and lower than the norm, which was still good enough to avoid any complaints price-wise.
Furthermore, Hiroshi was constantly shifting out the lineup each time a customer arrived. The probability of hitting a success increased with every novice, while veterans had a higher chance of getting a dud. The man this time around was certainly not a youth, so the dud probability (with larger duds included) had been raised to seventy percent, and he had made a spectacular miss.
『They’ll be here any moment』
『I see ‘em in the distance. It’s business time, mate.』
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
Sensing other people within the magic blockade as soon as Mio reported in, Hiroshi upped the suspicious meter. Dressing up as a dodgy looking old man and changing his voice to fit the role was quite the impressive facade. This time someone who was of interest had arrived, so the product lineup was now at 100% guessing. If these individuals could get through the dubiousness of it all and recognize the big hit item (which had slightly less camouflage than the others), it was their victory.
「Is this the place, Kate？」
「You can almost tell how intentional the shade is here……」
Shortly after preparations were complete, the young targets had arrived at the shop. Needless to say, these young folks were John and the other two girls. This was quite the sight to see, but Hiroshi was actually happy to see this.
If this guy could already deal with more than one carnivorous woman, that would decrease the chances of Hiroshi being hounded would decrease. Normally these were Hiroshi’s mortal enemies, and without a man they liked, their attacks would only increase in intensity. Thankfully, this world was quite magnanimous in allowing one person to have multiple partners, so the more men out there like him would mean less risk for beings like Hiroshi.
「Hey lady, are those two the ones with the purse strings？」
「Mm, yes. More accurately, we really need to get a new sword for this guy.」
「Well, I thought someone’d be showin’ up about now, ‘n I have out some of my finest goods, so feel free to pick out somethin’. Everything’s 10,000 doma, mate.」
Hiroshi offered these items all at well-past exceptional prices. Jon had a really suspicious look on his face, and Arisa wasn’t looking especially pleasant either.
「I don’t think you’d be able to tell just by starin’. Go on ahead ‘n feel ‘em in yer hands.」
「It’s not…cursed or anything, right？」
「Everything here’s stuff my student made, so rest assured they ain’t got enough skill to make cursed swords.」
Explaining one reason why the price was so low, Hiroshi tried to relax his customers. Jon, who seemed to have accepted the reason to an extent, began earnestly surveying the goods to see if there was truly a bargain to find.
「You said you have a student, so I assume you’re a blacksmith？」
「Well, somethin’ along those lines, yup.」
Hiroshi responded to Kate’s sudden question with a shady smile on his face to accompany his tone of voice. The unpleasant part of all of this was just how he wasn’t telling a lie but also wasn’t anywhere close to the truth.
「Hey, I’ll throw in a hint, how ‘bout that. There’s one l’il sucker in the bunch that’s a bit touched up and tougher than the rest.」
「……Uhh, yeah, hold up there old man. Who the heck are you？」
Now that Hiroshi had offered an unnecessary hint, Jon the main target was beyond serious. He glared at Hiroshi with a scary face.
「Who am I? Whatcha mean, boi？」
「Stop playing the fool. There are enchantments on every sword I see here. These aren’t things you can just sell for 10,000 doma.」
「Well yeah, of course yer gonna find one or two enchantments. Without ‘em you’d be stuck with class three items, at least from my point of view.」
Jon frowned at the term “class three”. These swords, even without all the enchantments, were slightly better quality than regular swords. If these were truly class three weapons, then most of what was in Stiren was equal to a pile of scrap. Jon knew he wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, but he certainly wasn’t so ignorant that he couldn’t at least point that out.
「Well hey, even if this old man’s a lil bit shady, these are some good prices for y’all youngsters, so why worry ‘bout it?」
「……I really don’t like that answer, but whatever……」
While a bit put-off at all of this, Jon tried to look on the brighter side of things and took a few swords into his hands to examine them. When he had taken the fourth longsword out from the row of eight, his facial expression changed.
「Hey old man. Is this one the same price as the rest？」
「Right on the money sonny」
「Then I’ll go with this one.」
Jon said as he held out the weapon. Just as Hiroshi had intended, it was the magically modified weapon he had dubbed “Defender Sword”.
「Right on the mark, boyo. Now, in respect of yer sharp eyes, I’ll throw in a lil somethin’ extra for 5,000 more. How ‘bout it?」
「Extra? Like what？」
「A ring that heals its wearer’s wounds ‘n stamina as long as ya put mana into it. Put a bunch in at once and ya get effects lastin’ up to fifteen seconds. And I threw in just a lil defense boost ‘n life boost for free.」
「……No, I’m pretty sure that isn’t something you sell just for 5,000……」
Arisa interjected in an exasperated tone at the word “for free”. She was completely confident that this so-called “extra” could be resold for enough money to retire and live comfortably.
「Yer free to use it how ya like, but it’s personalized to its owner. I don’t think yer gonna have an easy time sellin’ it, y’know？」
「……No, we’re grateful for your kindness. We won’t do that.」
「But I bet ya thought about it, didn’tcha？」
The suspicious shopowner responded, almost as if seeing right through her, and Arisa covered her reddened face instinctively.
「So it’s a total of 15,000, yeah？」
「Yup, that’s it.」
Ignoring Arisa and her embarrassment at being exposed for her shallowness, Jon jumped to purchasing. After paying up, he lightly swung the sword and checked the balance.
「……I think this sword could get me pretty far into the tournament.」
「Well ain’t that nice. Break a leg out there, mate.」
「Yeah. Also, maybe this is indulging too much, but……」
At that point he cut off, turning to look at the two girls staring his way before speaking up again.
「Are there any weapons suitable for these two? The ones they have here are fine, but now that I’ve seen this sword, I sorta want a bit more, you know……」
「Aight. Before I do that, can I have a look at that there sword dangling from yer waist？」
「This old thing? Its blade is done for and it wasn’t even a good weapon in the first place.」
Jon said as he handed the sword to the shopkeeper, not missing a beat. He seemed to now only see Hiroshi as a strange person rather than a bad one.
「……Aight, I think I get the picture.」
「Not very impressive, right？」
「Maybe, but what I do gather is that yer someone who takes good care of yer partners.」
Listening to Hiroshi, the girls had oddly happy looks on their faces. In fact, Jon’s sword was always well taken care of, with hardly a scratch on it. You wouldn’t be able to tell it was a second-rate sword that he had used for two years. Yes, it was old and probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer no matter what you did, but if Jon hadn’t fought so fiercely in this tournament, it could very well have lasted around two more years. If Jon had not been the owner, it would very likely have broken from use long ago.
Then again, Hiroshi had actually understood this from what he saw in the battle royale preliminaries, but watching was one thing and actually touching was another thing. Hiroshi always wanted to be up close for appraising these sorts of things.
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「Hold on a sec. Imma check storage.」
After returning Jon’s “partner”, Hiroshi pretended to peek into his bag as he secretively began transmission. These were second hand goods no longer in use, and Hiroshi wanted to check before selling them on his own decision.
『Haruna-san, Bro』
『What is it？』
『Something happen？』
『I needa ask ya somethin’ about the rapier Haruna-san used in Farlane ‘n the makeshift staff Bro uaed. Is it cool with y’all if I sell ’em off？』
Hiroshi could feel the air of confusion on the other side of the transmission in response to his sudden question. They didn’t seem to get why he wanted to sell.
『Well this is sudden. Why’s that？』
『Cuz the guy said he wanted somethin’ for his buddies too. I took a likin’ to these folks, so I just wanna get ’em weapons with decent functionality. How bout it？』
Not responding right away, the two of them went momentarily silent. They must have had their own conversation in the background.
『I’m cool with it, man. It’s not like I was super attached or anything.』
『I’m fine with it too, as long as they take good care of it. Although I would like to keep it by my side, not using it would be unfair to the weapon.』
Hearing their answers, Hiroshi made his conclusion.
『Gotcha. Then imma sell the good weapons to these young’uns with a promising future at a suitable price. I think these folks’ll treat ‘em with care.』
In fact, Hiroshi secretly thought his own team might be worse at handling weapons. Sure, their weapons had auto-regeneration, but even they had to tend to them, which was prone to result in fatal treatment due to this being an opportunity to train their low-proficiency extra skills. In addition to that, they had many an occasion of fighting opponents that couldn’t be defeated by treating their weapons gently or protecting with their skill, which only added to the consumption of resources.
Now, they weren’t being reckless with their weapons on purpose, and were doing their best to thoroughly repair when need be, but overall Azuma Workshop seemed to break things beyond repair more than make things sometimes.
「Kay, these’re second-hand goods but I found two ones that’re just right for ya.」
Getting permission from Haruna and Tatsuya, Hiroshi was finally able to take out the rapier and staff, pretending to have finally found them. Of course, he had not forgotten to enchant the weapons with auto-repair while this was happening. Arisa scowled momentarily when she heard the word “second-hand”, but then realized what Hiroshi had in his hands and widened her eyes.
「Hey, you, the girl with the chestnut-colored hair. Ya use rapiers, daggers, etc for yer weapon of choice, right mate? ‘N then you, the girl with the platinum-blonde hair. Yer a mage, so ya want a magic staff, right？」
「……This is what you call second-hand? What on earth happened to its owner……？」
「We found owners more fittin’ of the weapons. Still, the previous owners did warn me to only give ‘em to people who’ll take good care of ‘em.」
Arisa straightened her posture at the words “take good care of ‘em”. It was slightly inferior to what Jon had found, but there was no mistaking it: this rapier was more than just enough; it was incredible. Without enchantments it was far superior. These sorts of weapons were always the kind you got once in a lifetime. Arisa was scared to even imagine what kind of qualities this new rapier would have.
「Both weapons are 10,000 doma. We do have ‘em made to not break, but make sure ya don’t treat ‘em too roughly.」
「Yeah, I know. We’d never get into situations beyond our control that would require the use of crazy weapons like these anyway.」
「Yup yup. Even if an adventurer’s job is to adventure, there’s a mighty fine line between actin’ responsible ‘n actin’ reckless.」
The three adventurers nodded with serious faces at Hiroshi’s words. New faces like them usually got carried away when receiving such rare weapons for groundbreaking prices. Still, even if they were not necessarily veterans, Jon’s team had a good amount of experience. They were not about to make things more difficult than necessary. Now that they had overcome recklessness and could distinguish between adventure and foolery, Hiroshi didn’t need to tell them to be wary of pride.
「Then in respect of yer partner, here’s the last freebie. Lemme see」
「……Alright」
Jon reluctantly handed their “partners” over to Hiroshi. He wondered if it was like this for the previous owners of the weapons Arisa and Kate bought.
But in reality, Tatsuya didn’t feel all that attached to his makeshift staff, and Haruna didn’t care all that much when she shifted weapons.
「Now then, here’s the last job for ya partner.」
Hiroshi said, lightly prodding the lost portion with his fingers. The next moment, a rift opened up in the sword and the blade was smashed up without a trace left. And then…
「The sword……？」
「Yeah, ya see, weapons that ya use for long periods of time can be real good catalysts for strong enchantments.」
Jon looked at his new partner with bewildered eyes as Hiroshi spoke. Now the camouflage was entirely undone, and his skills and experience were now clearly far inferior to this weapon.
「It’s the same for ours……」
「I could actually see this weapon being the one in control here……」
The standards were now also raised on Arisa and Kate’s weapons simultaneously. This was far past a joke at this point. Kate in particular seemed like she’d be thrown about by her support weapon without even being able to adjust to it and use magic.
「I also personalized ‘em, so these’re all yers. The last enchantment also gits stronger the more ya use it with care, so that’s another reason to be careful.」
「Yes, I wouldn’t treat it any different either way.」
「Adventurers always take good care of their partners. That’s just how it is right？」
「We’re not that stupid, or at least we’d like to think that.」
Jon and the others declared with serious faces at Hiroshi. These weapons, an extravagant bargain, were too strong for them. The group swore that they would one day become worthy of owning these weapons that outranked them, acknowledged by anyone who saw them.
Jon and his team would later on charge through the ranks of this year’s tournament with great vigor, clutching out a close match in finals with opponents several ranks above them, overcoming all challenges with skill, their new weapons, and teamwork, before leaving their names among the top five adventurers in Forre. This first step would be widely discussed afterward, but behind all of it was a story not well known (nor should it be). What was this story? Well…
「Well that was one heck of a bet, y’all……」
「Hey blockhead, there was literally no point lowering the price if you just went and bet it in football pools！！」
「But y’know, I never thought they’d get first place.」
「Wait, Hiroshi-kun, how much did you pay？」
「Oh yeah, I bet all the earnings from runnin’ the odd shop during the prelims」
「Whoa……」
This was the difficult-to-explain backstory surrounding Jon’s team’s victory: Hiroshi had thrown all of his shop earnings in Jon’s favor (Jon didn’t have many people betting for him) and hoisted a large amount of money from the other football pool participants, having set them up.
