Chapter 154: 139

It was a neither-here-nor-there time in the morning, so I went to my party member's place, thinking that I could discuss future plans with him.

When I showed up at the brothel, I found out that he was out, and when I asked about where he was, I was told that he went to Gladvain-sama's place.

I headed to the dormitory and found that my entire party was there.

「Otou-san」

「Hey there, what happened to your arm?」

I found Otou-san standing at the corner of the training ground. When I walked up to him, he immediately asked me about my arm.

My right arm was slung up in a triangular bandage, so it must look like I had broken a bone or something at first glance.

「It seems that I’ve injured my elbow. I'm letting it rest」

「Your elbow, huh? Recently, my knees have also been aching because of the cold」

「Your knees, you say」

Is it nerve damage from old age?

Come to think of it, I don't know Otou-san's exact age. He looks to be in his late thirties, but he's been an adventurer since before the founding of Lemuria, so he must be over forty at the very least.

Even with the magic of regeneration point, the body still gets injured and worn out. The fact that the average age of adventurers is so young is a testament to how grueling the work they do is.

「I'm getting old. Most of the adventurers in my batch have already retired. It's obvious, but a person's life is something that can be worn down. There's a difference between whittling it down unnecessarily and honing it to a sharp point though」

「You say that you're getting old, but you're still rather sharp, isn't it? Your age doesn't show in the slightest」

I don't see any signs of decline in Otou-san's bearing.

He appears much stronger than most young adventurers.

「I'm just putting up a front, you realize? A man should never complain about pain and suffering. But don't start acting weird about it, okay? It's fine when I say it myself, but it's annoying to hear it from others. Don't feel sorry for me. Instead, observe calmly. It's the leader's job to cut loose adventurers who have declined and become broken」

「That said, Otou-san, I can't picture you retiring at all」

If the things humans can imagine are what we encounter,

Then what we cannot picture are probably the things we aren't willing to deal with.

As he is now, there's no way Otou-san will quit being an adventurer before I do.

If that's the front he's putting on, then there's no problem.

「Rather than that, shouldn't you be keeping an eye on that?」

Before my eyes.

And the focus of everyone's attention was a petite elf and an equally petite reptilian beastkin.

The elf was clad in a martial artist's outfit. It was pretty revealing, so I didn't really want others to see.

I mean, she's my wife after all.

The beastkin was only in her underclothes, despite the cold.

But, well, this is how most female beastkin dress.

The two of them exchanged light jabs, then each took a step closer and unleashed a flurry of blows.

And they avoided all of them by paper-thin margins.

I was overwhelmed by the unexpected spectacle.

「Princess Rana may be the only elf on this entire continent who can fight this well bare-handed」

「Seriously?」

Is Rana going to become the first elven martial artist in the alternate world?

「Apparently, she's developed a whole new way of fighting that combines magic with martial arts」

「Ha……haha」

For some reason, a karate fighter with a boomerang on his back flashed across my mind.

After checking each other out with that barrage of blows, they opened up a bit of distance between them. Rana drew back her right fist exaggeratedly and unleashed what was clearly going to be a straight. The beastkin effortlessly threw a counter.

A cross-counter with her hips behind it.

But that was what Rana was after.

A counter to the counter.

Rana drove her knee into the beastkin's side. Using that knee as a fulcrum, she then sent the beastkin's body spinning around. As the beastkin fell to the ground, Rana swung her fist down like a karateka breaking tiles.

「Whoa」

I couldn't help but exclaim.

The beastkin had taken Rana's fist solidly in the face.

The reptilian beastkin is also a girl. And if I recall correctly, she's about the same age as Maria. I had thought that Rana was going to stop the punch short, so I was surprised that she struck her mercilessly like that.

「Otou-san, this is training, right?」

「Yeah, what of it?」

Rana followed up with a flurry of blows.

However, the lizard girl didn't seem to take much damage from them. She was taking the punches with a blank expression.

「The fists of an elf probably can't do much damage against Hitoto's skin and flesh」

「Ehh, no, but……」

Maybe you're right, but come on, women shouldn't be doing such things to each other, right?

「Could it be that you're looking down on them because they're women?」

「No way, I'm surrounded by strong women, remember?」

「Then what's your problem with it?」

「How can you calmly watch on as people you're close with are going “sutegoro”?」

「Sute-what?」

「It means fist-fighting」

「This is training though」

「R, right」

Someone, anyone, back me up on my delicate feelings please.

「This will decide the fight. No, if she can't settle it with this, then it's Princess Rana's loss」

As per Otou-san's commentary, Rana was gearing up to end the fight.

She sent Hitoto's body up into the air with an uppercut, then grabbed her by the neck with both hands and held her up.

What's she going to do from that position? was the question on my mind, but everyone else watching the fight seemed to know what was coming and were readying large shields. Otou-san had also held up a shield, so I ducked behind him.

Rana started chanting magic.

It’s an advanced flame magic that I’m quite familiar with. But can she invoke magic without a medium like a staff?

「Doragubeinnnnn!」

At Rana's cry, flames burst forth.

It was destructive magic unleashed at point-blank range. Or rather, she had caught herself in the flames completely as well.

Gladvain's kin and the father of adventurers didn't move an inch. I was the only one who had panicked.

When the short torrent of flames died down……

「………………」

……there were two collapsed figures.

For some reason, their hair was still intact, but their faces were stained with soot, and smoke was rising from their clothes.

Hey, isn't that just a suicide attack?

An older beastkin with a long beard walked up and checked on them.

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「Double K.O.!」

He declared.

A stir broke out among the spectators.

「She came close this time」

「No, she was completely on top in terms of fighting techniques」

「No no, she still lacks offensive power. She focused too much on technique and not enough on power」

「That's why she's using magic to boost the damage she deals. That's something we would never have thought of doing」

She shouldn't be hitting herself with it as well though.

「Hmmm. Even with this fire-resistant shield, the heat still gets through……」

「Suppose she were to perfect using magic while fighting bare-handed………」

「Our dormitory could get blown away」

That's what you're worried about, huh?

「Coming through, I'm here to retrieve my sister~」

Ea appeared, pushing her way through the crowd. She threw Rana over her shoulder and headed to the back. Hitoto was also retrieved by the other beastkin.

「Alright, next!」

Without a moment's delay, the two kin who were next faced off and began fighting.

Through the gaps in the crowd, I could see Rana being treated.

「Don't you want to go talk to her?」

「Oh, umm, no, I'm fine」

I turned down Otou-san's suggestion. In the first place, I had no idea what to say to her.

Is she always doing this kind of training?

It's so intense.

It's bad for my heart.

To be honest, I want to stop her.

But she's gaining useful skills and experience. There are things that can only be discovered when one is strong. If I could, I'd protect her forever, but that's just not possible.

I suppose it's a small price to pay if shedding sweat and blood is all it takes to be able to move forward.

I swallowed my words and accepted the situation.

I'll watch over her silently until she says she doesn't want to continue.

「By the way, that sword you've got there……」

Otou-san tapped the Rmir steel sword with the scabbard of his katana.

「It's on loan to me while my own are being repaired. The dwarf who made the katanas is currently at my home. Otou-san, you should also go get your Arahabaki checked by him」

「Alright. Wait, you guys are living in that place in the city walls, right?」

「That's right. Did you hear about that from Lanseal?」

「Yeah, she told me about it really happily. Well, I'm a little conflicted about it, I suppose」

Otou-san had a frown on his face. I could guess what was on his mind.

A lot must have happened in that place in the past.

It must be one of those memories of youth that grow bittersweet after becoming an adult.

「Living there with Verxina......and Lemuria. What's more, that Lemuria also brought other women there………………two of them, in fact. I was still young and hadn't yet sorted out my feelings about those kinds of things. So, you know, I lost it. I attacked Lemuria in his sleep and plunged my sword into his pillow」

「I see. I completely understand」

I also did something very similar recently.

「Luckily, he dodged and ran away, and I was held back by Alma and Verxina, who got very angry with me. It was the first and last time in my life that I've ever been angry with someone for that long. I don't even want to be reminded of it」

「That's, well……」

I think he half deserved it.

It would have been great if you had properly stabbed him though.

「Enough with the boring story. I'll stop by your home later」

「Okay. So, about our next adventure……」

「When will it be?」

「………………When do you think?」

「Is your arm in such bad shape?」

「It's a little, well, kinda bad」

I don't even know how long it will take to heal completely……

「Get it healed up properly before it becomes a recurring injury. Or figure out a way to work around it」

「Understood」

Figuring out a way to work around the injury, huh?

Sounds like something athletes have to do. My sister too, her leg………hmm? ………………Huh?

What was that?

I lost my line of thought.

「But now that I think about it, we may have gone a little too fast. The speed at which this party clears floors is abnormal. We've become intermediate adventurers in the fastest time on record, and if we go on like this, we'll become advanced adventurers in the fastest time as well. Perhaps it's a good idea to slow the pace down a little」

「Yeah, the envy, huh?」

The more things go well for us, the more people get envious of us. There are many adventurers who will pick fights with people based on trivial reasons and conjecture.

It might be prudent to make more allies by taking random requests.

「Here」

Otou-san handed me a scroll. Seeing the wax seal on it, I frowned.

It had a design of a bull and a fox facing each other. It was Lemuria's coat of arms, which meant that this scroll was a royal order.

「Can I throw this away?」

「It's a request your person-in-charge left with me. She asked me to give it to you when you seemed free」

「It's from Evetta-san?」

Then I couldn't disregard it. I spread it open with one hand and took a look at its contents, but……

「Flame religion, development of a new dish for their soup kitchen?」

On top of that, it contained specific requirements for the dish.

「Pasta-like noodles in a salty broth, with simple but flavorful ingredients」

「I, too, would like to eat that again」

「In other words………I’m supposed to make ramen?」

The referenced karate fighter with a boomerang on his back is Sho Hayate, a character from Savage Reign(風雲黙示録), a futuristic-themed competitive weapons fighting game released by SNK in 1995. He’s a young Japanese man who aims to prove the strength of Fu'un-Ken(風雲拳): a special style of fighting that combines martial arts with the mastery of the boomerang. Also, this pose was a popular meme during that time(example of one such meme on the right).

So, a generally light and humorous chapter, right? Sad to say, there’s no such thing with this author lol. What Souya commented on is very true. The two of them should have had their hair and clothes burned off at the very least. That very anime-like scene of them just having blackened faces and smoking clothes is not logical. At all. Most would have probably forgotten, but the magic of this world is also a mystery. They had tried to bring magic back to the modern world but it doesn’t work there, remember? It’ll be much later in the story, but keep in mind discrepancies like these and you’ll understand it better later on.

And…this one is a rare one that confuses me a little. You see, the reptilian beastkin back in volume 2 is Hihito(ヒヒト) but the one here is Hitoto(ヒトト), so…mistake, or someone else?(by the way, I translated based on the assumption it’s the same person)

Yes, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s time for some food again. And believe it or not, the author actually took the time to foreshadow this and the potential problems too. I’m sure you can find it if you re-read the last vol. XD However, you’ve likely noticed if you‘ve been keeping an eye out for it, but Souya’s attitude towards cooking has changed quite a lot since the early days. How will he approach this request now? Stay tuned!

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