—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Are you not feeling well?”
“I just had trouble sleeping last night.”
“Oh dear. I thought you weren’t in good condition today. Should we postpone gathering for now?”
“No, it’s just a bit of fatigue. Our party is already late in forming compared to others, we can’t postpone from our first meeting.”
“But why did you have trouble sleeping?”
Luna smiled while holding her lunch tray.
He couldn’t exactly say ‘I dreamed about becoming a typical corrupt character trope, being someone who’s turning 30 the day after tomorrow. It was quite stylish though.’
Perhaps because of his close contact with an intense eighth-grade syndrome patient during night training, but the dream had been quite vivid.
Thanks to that, when he woke up, his body was quite tired, as if he had been talking in his sleep heavily.
“Everyone’s already here. Were we too late?”
“No, we just got here ourselves.”
Luna smiled at the people who had already arrived.
One kid with a sullen expression.
One woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties.
Three ordinary-looking male college students.
After Luna and I sat down, we took time to introduce ourselves.
“I’m Hanai Karina. Hero rank B. Class is Archer. I did archery in school, and was a normal office lady until I got caught up in this.”
“I’m Nogi Shun! Hero rank B. Class is Vanguard. Currently on leave from Toyo University’s second year. Though I haven’t learned much, I pride myself on my gaming experience! Front line, mid line, I’m confident in all of them! You can call me Shun!”
“I’m Saginoya Shusuke. Hero rank B. Class is Vanguard. Please take care of me.”
“Hirao Sojo. Hero rank B. Class is Mage. Rear support.”
Including the Japanese lunch kid, these were the four users we had selected.
Originally, with the Japanese lunch kid included, we had planned to include only one of either Nogi or Saginoya as a Vanguard resource for the party, but when the Japanese lunch kid heard about the party situation from Luna last night, he showed rare signs of distress.
“If either the Red Oni Nogi or Blue Oni Saginoya were to be left out…”
He had muttered to himself.
The latter part was too quiet to hear properly.
How had he already come up with nicknames for them when he’d never even seen them before?
Oni… that’s similar to our country’s dokkaebi, right?
They just looked like ordinary, game-loving innocent college students, wasn’t it a bit too grandiose of a name?
He was already pairing them up like twins with contrasting colors before they’d even met each other.
For someone who had growled about not wanting to join our party, now that he was in, he seemed to be projecting his self-determined settings onto the party members.
Unlike the fake madness I’d seen during school days, the authentic madness from the homeland seemed surprisingly adaptable to reality.
But if possible, could you not give me any nicknames?
I’m not exactly an old man, but I’ll be thirty the day after tomorrow. Something like that would be a bit burdensome for me.
Afterward, the Japanese lunch kid quite actively (though without looking at me) told Luna that both should be included.
It wasn’t bad that someone who had initially refused to join was now taking an active attitude toward party member composition.
Besides, he wasn’t asking to remove someone he disliked, it wasn’t like he was forcing anyone in, and he just wanted to include everyone that Luna and I had carefully selected, so there wasn’t any particular problem.
However, Luna hadn’t forgotten that I was the party leader, and she turned her gaze to me with a look that asked ‘What should we do?’
Hmm. Commendable.
As I’d thought from the beginning, she was quite skilled in conducting herself.
“If you really want them, let’s include them. Adding one more person won’t throw off our position balance, and even with the addition we’ll still have one person fewer compared to Saito’s side. However,”
He flinched at my words, though he didn’t turn his head.
“You’re making your request to the wrong person, kid. If you want to ask, you should ask me.”
“…”
“Isn’t that what you wanted? That… red and blue oni combination.”
The Japanese lunch kid glared at me with a dissatisfied expression before mumbling something barely audible.
“…”
“What? I can’t hear you properly.”
“Include… both Vanguards.”
Though he was still speaking informally, I was satisfied enough and smiled while patting his head.
The way he squawked about not touching his head was quite entertaining, like teasing a younger cousin.
‘Still, I don’t understand these kids’ sensibilities.’
I watched Nogi, who was speaking boisterously as if forcing himself to raise his tension, and Saginoya, who was quietly eating his meal without saying much after his initial introduction.
These guys are oni?
They just look like fledglings you could commonly see on any university campus.
‘Though I can understand why he distinguished them as red and blue.’
Lively, so fire type.
Quiet type, so ice type.
Easy to understand, which is nice.
I wonder if grass type or electric type will show up later?
‘If we’re talking about ice types, I guess the others would be similar. Actually, aren’t they all ice types except for Nogi?’
I looked at Hanai-san and Hirao, who were eating while ignoring the chattering Nogi.
Hanai-san appeared to be around the same age as Luna.
However, unlike the flashy Luna, she had a plain and extremely calm demeanor.
She mentioned doing archery, and she certainly seemed like someone with good concentration when doing things.
Hirao looked like a honor student with a slightly neurotic appearance.
Still, when first talking with him, unlike his neurotic exterior, there weren’t any particular difficulties in conversation.
‘Well, their first impressions aren’t bad at least.’
Perhaps because they were carefully selected talents who had shown decent appearances even in this chaotic situation, the meal time wasn’t bad, with everyone asking questions about each other and maintaining a good atmosphere.
As the saying goes about picking talent from the masses, while there were particularly noticeable S-rank and A-rank users, during the training period everyone had been more or less scoring each other.
Even though they were B-rank, perhaps because they were people who had stood out in their own way, it felt like they subtly knew about each other already.
“Phew- What a relief,” Nogi, who had been noisy throughout the meal, said as he put down his chopsticks.
“What is?”
Since he was someone with excellent sociability and had already asked to speak casually, I replied informally.
“Honestly, I was getting nervous because the more capable people were gradually forming parties among themselves. Available spots were disappearing… Honestly, at this rate, we might have ended up in the loser grou-”
“Nogi-kun.”
Luna cut off Nogi’s words with a gentle smile.
“You should watch what you say. You shouldn’t say such things carelessly. Understood?”
“Yesh~. I’ll be mowe caweful.”
Nogi responded to Luna’s words with a creepy expression, grinning with his philtrum stretched out.
But Luna cutting off Nogi’s words was definitely the right thing to do.
This was an open dining hall, and at this point, bringing up sensitive terms like ‘loser group’ could get us tangled up in troublesome situations.
After clearing his throat a few times, Nogi explained again.
“So… I might have ended up making a party or… joining some ambiguous party, but when I got invited to this party, I felt like I’d been saved. Plus, to think Kudo-kun would be here too. I’m totally lucky.”
At Nogi’s beaming words, the other three who had joined this time quietly expressed their agreement.
Loser group.
From the job selection phase, there was Saito’s ‘Tempest’ and three other parties that had formed quickly from the start.
And except for 1-2 parties, they were essentially being evaluated as outside the effective fighting force among users at this point.
The elite prospects and the quite decent prospects had already formed parties with other decent users they got along with.
Now at just day 8, with only about 5 parties formed, the pool of usable talent had been depleted.
Even the most socially unaware users would naturally realize over time that the current situation wasn’t normal.
Even in a normal game that you just play casually, you’d want your team to be competent, let alone in a game where your life was at stake – it was natural to want party members to be excellent.
And the loser group referred to the outsiders who couldn’t join the upper parties that had been formed from the start with only outstanding talents.
In such a situation, the party invitation from Luna and me was essentially the last ticket these 4 could get to reach an upper party.
And even now, users who hadn’t been able to join anywhere were in a situation where they were glancing sideways at the meals of other upper parties, including our party.
There was no need to let those anxious people hear sensitive words, which was why Luna had warned Nogi.
“Nogi-kun should be thankful to Kudo-kun, right?”
“Huh?”
“Originally, when Kudo-kun joined, we were going to recruit only one Vanguard. But because Kudo-kun desperately wanted it, we decided to take both of you.”
“Ohh! Is that so! Kudo-kun! You’re my lifesaver! I love you!”
“Eek!”
“…Hm? Something…”
The Japanese lunch kid, who had been nibbling on bread instead of rice, was startled when Nogi suddenly threw himself at him, and responded by driving his elbow straight into Nogi’s chin, whose expression had become strange.
Crack-!
“Gack-!?”
Clang-! Clang-!
“Don’t touch me!”
“Kudo-kun. Calm down!”
Luna tried to calm down the Japanese lunch kid, who was breathing heavily with a bright red face and slight tears in his eyes, after she had cleanly knocked Nogi unconscious with a textbook elbow to his chin.
Only Hanai quietly cleaned up the dining utensils that had fallen to the floor.
…What a mess.
◈ ◈ ◈
“…My chin still hurts…”
“It’s your own fault, Nogi-kun. I told you that Kudo-kun is in a sensitive period right now, so you need to treat him delicately.”
“Yes~. I’ll be careful, Luna-neesan. But somehow I feel like I’m forgetting something. What could it be…? It’s on the tip of my tongue.”
Leaving Nogi to groan and mutter “Almost remember it, almost…” to himself, we talked about today’s training.
“Starting today, they say the training method will change again.”
“The sparring that was added a few days ago was already hard enough, how much harder will the additional training be… I hate this…”
“Still, it’s training, how different could it be? Does anyone know about what training is being added today?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Well, knowing wouldn’t change anything, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
◈ ◈ ◈
“Today, you’ll be facing goblins one-on-one.”
As soon as the users gathered at the training ground, Gregory and the other instructors said with smiles.
Kekek-! Kyahik-!
Clank-! Clank-!
Ingan-! Kihik-! Open up-!
Kak-! Kak!
Behind the instructors and lined-up knights were goblins in iron cages, screaming and thrashing while shaking the bars.
Bloodshot eyes, dripping saliva, and the madness and killing intent emanating from living creatures.
Looking at the iron cages containing goblins, who usually serve as the weakest monsters in fantasy settings, more than half of the users in the training ground froze in place.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
