Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Raising the Lowest-Ranked Adventurer, the Heroic Girl – Wasn’t I Just a Substitute Old Man?

Volume 4 Chapter 30   Koosuke’s choice

The unexpected arrival of the young lady has immediately disrupted our plan, but we have no choice but to find a way to deal with it.

I pretend to hold my head and let out a sigh, while secretly operating the earpiece to transmit our conversation to Asada.

“I had a feeling you would come, but isn’t it too soon? You should have returned to the base a little longer to confirm and prepare.”

“Indeed, we are unprepared, and our magic power hasn’t fully recovered. However, we managed to surprise you with our timing.”

And what’s with that expression? It’s like a completely different person from earlier. Why does she have such a powerful look on her face?

“Did you forget that you were just defeated?”

“No, but my comrades reminded me. They referred to me as their hero. So, even though they said that, I cannot accept being here and losing so embarrassingly. It goes against my pride.”

Comrades, huh? The only ones remaining should be the two who are supposed to be guarding the treasure. Did she receive a message from them?

And it was because of these comrades’ words that you found the strength to stand up?… What kind of protagonist are you trying to be?

“Here I go!”

“…!?”

As I exchange glares with the young lady and contemplate such thoughts, she declares her intent and swiftly charges towards me with her spear, even before I have a chance to prepare my sword.

Startled by her change in behavior, I manage to barely react in time to deflect and dodge her initial attack.

However, the young lady’s assault doesn’t end with just one thrust. She continues to unleash a series of consecutive attacks.

Struggling to endure, I create shallow wounds and roll to evade her strikes. But suddenly, I sense a surge of magic energy from the opposite side of where the young lady stands, deep within the forest.

Then, flames surge forth, engulfing the young lady along with me.

A mage?! So, she didn’t just communicate but came directly to confront me!

“Sneakily using area-wide magic, how low can you get!”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who resorts to cowardice.”

“Hah, fair point!”

While I desire to find a way to deal with the approaching flames from behind, there’s no chance the young lady would simply let me escape. After a brief moment of hesitation, I realize there’s no choice but to take action. I jump backward and plunge into the midst of the flames.

Ugh… My defensive magical gear is activated, but it’s still quite hot.

However, something feels off. The flames seem weaker than I anticipated. Did they tone it down to avoid harming the young lady?

“Even when faced with an unavoidable surprise attack, you’re defending yourself admirably.”

“If I don’t defend, I’ll lose!”

Bantering like that, I continue to evade the young lady’s incoming attacks.

…Now, what should I do? Will it take enough time for Miyano and the others to arrive? Can I hold out until then? I’m currently depleting my magic power rapidly with the support and defensive magical gear. I’m not sure if I can last.

In that case, I’ll need to set up something somewhere…

“Tch! Can’t be helped… Here goes!”

Realizing that I might lose before reinforcements arrive, I decide to endure and brace myself. I release the defensive magical gear, leaving myself vulnerable, and catch the young lady’s spear with my unprotected abdomen.

“Huh!?”

However, if I were to do that, the spear thrusting forward would pierce through my abdomen. So, to be precise, I couldn’t really “catch” it. But well, I managed to stop the attack. It hurts like hell, though.

“Activate.”

I grab hold of the spear impaling my abdomen and forcefully take a step closer to the young lady, still impaled.

Then, I channel magic energy from the soles of my feet into the ground, causing golden chains to burst out, shining brightly. They entangle both me and the young lady, restraining us.

“Seems like I’ve been in this situation before…”

I recall a similar situation from a year ago during a match.

Back then, it was Kudo, and I wasn’t impaled through the abdomen, but being bound by chains at close range remains unchanged.

“Is this… the chain I heard about from Shun? I can’t… use magic?”

It seems that the young lady had heard about our battle from Kudo.

Back then, there were only outdated versions available, so even while restrained, I was able to use magic.

However, this time is different. The one I used now is a new model that seals the magic power of the restrained individual.

Well, this one is the result of further advancements in equipment, not the official version used by the police or anything like that.

By the way, the official version apparently includes a magic spell that forcibly puts the person to sleep, in addition to restraint and magic sealing.

“Yeah. This is an improved version of the one I used on him before. I managed to get my hands on it. It renders you immobile and unable to use magic for a certain period. Sorry about being restrained by a man at such a close distance.”

“Huh? Ah… Well… Are you alright?”

Finally noticing that she’s bound at a distance of less than a meter from me, the young lady’s demeanor changes.

She glances around a bit anxiously and then looks down at my abdomen, asking with concern.

“A spear is surprisingly thin. Being pierced doesn’t mean death. Adjusting the angle a bit to avoid vital organs is not that difficult. Especially when you thrust so gracefully, like a perfect model. It wasn’t that challenging.”

“It can’t be that easy. Normally, people wouldn’t be able to do such things.”

“If you put your mind to it, you can do it. It hurts, and I won’t die immediately, that’s all. But if possible, I’d rather not do it.”

It’s seriously painful and uncomfortable being impaled, but I won’t die.

In the first place, humans can survive being stabbed in the abdomen quite well.

Dying from being stabbed in the abdomen is usually caused by bleeding or organ failure resulting from damage to vital organs.

While there are cases of people dying from the pain of being stabbed or fainting and never waking up, as an adventurer accustomed to pain to some extent, it’s not that big of a deal for me.

So as long as I don’t damage any organs and there’s no bleeding, being an Awakened individual with a stronger constitution than an average person, I can survive for about thirty minutes with relative ease. Well, maybe not that easy. It really hurts.

But it’s true that I can survive.

“However, even in this situation, if you keep irritating me like this, it will be you who collapses first, you know?”

Thinking that I just have to wait until Miyano and the others arrive, the young lady approached me again with a serious atmosphere.

However, it’s not much of a problem.

“Oh, yeah. With this restraint, the person who’s restrained has their magic power absorbed and becomes unable to use it, while at the same time, magic is activated to protect them from external attacks. Originally designed for the police, I guess they needed a silencing effect.”

“So, don’t self-destruct.”

“You can if you want, but it won’t do any good.”

Actually, even though it’s said that magic is sealed, this equipment is not recommended for engaging high-level opponents, so if the young lady goes all out and starts rampaging while being attacked from the outside, I think it will break.

In that case… what should I do?

[[Igami-san!]]

While contemplating what to do if the young lady starts rampaging, Miyano and Asada arrived after a few minutes.

It shouldn’t have been enough time yet, but they came faster than I expected.

“Hey! There’s a spear stuck in your stomach!”

“Faster than I expected.”

“Forget about that! Are you okay? Why did this happen?”

“My organs shouldn’t be too damaged, and even if I’m on the verge of death, the Healing Barrier will activate, so I’ll be fine. And don’t worry about this chain; I did it myself.”

I said there was no problem, but Miyano and Asada still looked at me with concern.

But right now, there are more important things to think about, right?

“More importantly, what do we do about this… There’s about fifteen minutes left in the match.”

I shifted my gaze to my arm, still gripping the spear. The remaining time for the match was only about fifteen to twenty minutes.

“But if we defeat her, it’ll be over, right?”

“Kuh!”

As Asada said that and prepared her weapon, the young lady struggled as a last-ditch effort, but the chains remained unbroken.

Oh, wait. I can faintly hear an unpleasant sound coming from the chains. At this rate, she’ll break free from the restraints in a matter of minutes.

Well, before that happens, I’ll probably have to endure Miyano and Asada’s attacks.

However, I couldn’t help but feel a vague unease in this situation.

…What is it? Is it enough to just watch without doing anything?

Without understanding why I felt that way, I couldn’t bring myself to stop Asada.

But suddenly, a large ball of fire flew towards Miyano and Asada from behind.

This is it. The same magic that was cast when I was fighting the young lady.

It seems like the other person, who hadn’t revealed themselves since attacking me initially, unleashed it now.

However…

(Screams!)

Even though I blocked it with my magical device, the magic felt less powerful than before. It seems pointless for Miyano and the others to face it now.

“So, it’s really just you.”

Miyano defeated one of the young lady’s team members who had been hiding, and the Healing Barrier was activated.

After confirming that, Asada readied her weapon and approached the young lady once again.

“I can’t afford to lose like this!”

But it didn’t end there.

“Grrr!”

“Igami!”

“Igami-san!”

To everyone’s surprise, the young lady forcefully broke free from the chains’ restraints. She forcefully removed the spear that had been stuck in my abdomen and pushed me away. In an unexpected turn of events, I ended up joining Miyano and the others.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Asada called out to me as I fell, but in that moment, Miyano stood in front of me.

However, Miyano wasn’t the only one standing before me.

Both Miyano and the young lady stood side by side, weapons raised.

“Even if it’s three against one, I won’t lose. I will definitely show you that I can win.”

Having forcefully broken free from the chains’ restraints, the young lady must be running low on remaining magic power and feeling exhausted.

However, I could sense her sincere determination to “win no matter what” from her presence.

That’s why I…

“I won’t fight, and she won’t fight either. So, young lady, go ahead and fight with Miyano alone.”

While grabbing Asada’s arm as she rushed towards me, I spoke those words.