Read Novel Full Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Invitation
Feeling good from the successes at Peixa forest, I bought 3 people’s worth of meat skewers from a street stall, and headed back to the inn.
Entering the room, I saw Ralf and Esta sitting and talking to each other and upon seeing my face, Ralf, angrily approached me.
“Oi! No communication, nothing, and disappearing for almost a week! Are you crazy!!?”
“…….? But I did tell Esta though?”
” Yes I did hear it from her, but you didn’t even talk about this even once with me!? Actually, if she hadn’t woken up, you were definitely going to leave without saying anything weren’t you!?”
“But I did come back, so chill. And I’m tired so let me sit down first.”
I pushed Ralf’s face away and sat down on the floor.
“So, where the hell did you go anyway?…….You’re not gonna suddenly leave this inn are you!?”
“Not telling. Anyway, eat something and calm down okay.”
Taking my portion, I threw the bag of meat skewers to Ralf. He must have not eaten properly today cause his eyes instantly lit up and began devouring on the skewers having already forgotten his anger.
“thank you for this Chris-san.”
“Don’t mind it. Once you start earning properly as adventurers, you can treat me back one day okay?”
“SHO? BERE DID U GHO!?”
“Swallow before talking. It’s vulgar.”
“So? Where did you go?”
Was he that interested, I tried to turn the topic with the skewers but he’s back to questioning. Well it’d be a pain to fully explain and I want to quickly move to examining the plants so I’d rather he left me alone but then again, if I didn’t he’s the type that’ll keep bugging me forever.
“It’s a place called Peixa forest. I told you about it before right? Where I hid; I went there.”
“ehh a forest?….well I guess that’s fine. So, did you spend another week there again? Why?”
“Just something I was curious about. That aside, what about you two and your adventurer work? How’s it going?”
I tried to avert the topic by asking about their progress, but the happily eating faces quickly turned dark and clouded.
I may have made the mistake of turning this conversation to an even worse direction.
“It’s completely useless. We are just about managing to kill 5 goblins to make one silver everyday, but with the rent here being 4 copper, and food taking the remaining 6; we are literally on the edge. If either of us got injured and became unable to kill 5 goblins, we’ll go hungry that day.”
“I see. Sounds rough. Well, keep working hard.”
“…………Say, won’t you par——–“
“No chance. Impossible. I don’t have the time.”
“Oi! I didn’t even finish my sentence!”
Considering his expression and panic from the mere thought that I might have disappeared, I can very easily guess what he was suggesting; and so I refused in advance.
[Please make a party with us.] Probably that.
“Please make a party with us”.
I ended up snorting on hearing the exact line, word to word. My reaction must have made him angry but he gripped his fists and simply endured.
“My reply is the same. I can’t. I do not have the time for it.”
“Don’t lie! You can easily live even without working for a whole week and even have enough to treat us both to skewers! Please help us!”
“That’s because I worked hard before that to prepare. And if you’re gonna use that tone after I just treated you to food, maybe I should take it all back.”
“………..th-that’s, I’m sorry.”
They really couldn’t afford that, and Ralf became meek once again.
As they said, they can only make one silver coin after an entire day of goblin hunting. Having to split that between two people; even a slight discrepancy would send their live spiralling downwards.
And living together with them, it’s not like I don’t sympathize……..but I really don’t have the time to be going around helping other people.
If there was a merit in it for me, I would have considered it.
“Say, what was the result of [Heaven’s blessing] for you two?”
“What? There’s no way I’d tell that to others. Like I said, you don’t reveal that to others so easily.”
“It’s fine isn’t it? After all I did tell mine to you two. Besides, if I really wanted to hurt you I could kill you both while you were asleep whenever I wanted.”
“My job was [Magician] and skill [Mana restoration].”
“Oi ! Esta!!”
“It’s fine if it’s Chris-san.”
Oh, so Esta was a [Magician].
One of the basic combat jobs, and the rarest among them as well.
But, even if the suitable job comes up as [magician], it’s still pretty difficult to actually become one from what I understand.
You first must learn to control mana, then to learn how to chant spells perfectly you must go to a proper magic school or acquire a grimoire and learn to do so by yourself.
For grimoires, you also have to know how to read ancient texts sometimes and while you could find them in the market, they are far more expensive than normal books like the one I have.
And to go to a school, you either need to be a top level noble or receive a higher class magic related job. Among the basic combat jobs, [magician] is often considered the worst option for common people.
“[Magician] eh………much better than my [Farmer] but that’s still an unlucky draw.”
“It is. But I haven’t given up. I began thieving to save money to buy a grimoire in the first place. So I haven’t given up on becoming one.”
“——I see, so that’s why you asked if I could read back at [Shichifukuya].”
“Yo-You still remember that..”
“It did make me curious after all.”
“I’m sorry. And not to ask for another favor of you but……..if by some chance I find a grimoire, will you please teach me how to read?”
“Yeah, sure. I don’t mind.”
“Really! Thank you very much!”
While an unfortunate job some might say, if she did learn how to use magic somehow, her actual potential would now be far off from other high rank jobs.
She could have an explosive growth in the future.
“So, what about you Ralf?”
“I said I’m not telling.”
“Ralf’s job was [Holy Knight], his skills were [divine strike], [divine blessing] and [guardian’s roar].”
“Oii, why the hell are you blabbering it all to him! Esta!!”
“[Holy Knight]…….? What the hell is a [Holy Knight] doing here??”
That was a high-rank job. The moment he got that, he should have been taken in under the imperial army that work directly under the King; and his life should have been set there and then.
Even if he didn’t join the army, the top Clans of adventurers would have recruited him instead; hell even without those, he would be able to attract stronger people around him.
No matter how you think about it, a [Holy knight] working as a petty thief, living in the poor alleyways was a near impossibility.
“Ralf, when he was young, had an accident and got a major injury to his thigh. Even now he can’t move properly due to that.”
“……..Now things are finally starting to make sense. So that’s why Esta was the one who did the actual thieving and Ralf stayed back as backup. And when he was about to pull his sword, his balance and posture looked completely off because he was protecting his thighs.”
“Shit! Esta why the hell did you have to tell him everything!?”
“Considering the jobs you two have, it really is an incredible coincidence of misfortunes to end up with a duo that can’t even kill 5 goblins in an entire day.”
“I have already accepted that I was born with shit luck. Abandoned at birth, we are both the same hence why we two stick together.”
Ralf’s muttered, weakly.
Even I could understand how much struggle it must have been to not even be able to move your legs properly in this harsh world because of an injury received as a child.
Until I was 16, I had everything in life. And was taught everything I needed; sword, maths, and language.
I’m hardly in any position to be lecturing them but——
“If we could heal Ralf’s legs, everything would change no?”
“Yeah sure but when I had it checked by the city’s doctor I was told that a full recovery was impossible.”
“And so you gave up after that so easily?”
“Of course I didn’t at first!! I have searching for a way to heal my legs even before I ever underwent the [Heaven’s Blessing]………but I found nothing!!”
“And how did a mere kid, with no parents, no money, no education or connections so easily decide that it was impossible, I don’t get it.”
“Wh-what…….”
“Fine, at least we know that both of you have the potential at least. And maybe it’s stupid of me to do this purely based on the result of both of your [Heaven’s Blessing] but for the time being, I wont mind making a party with you two.”
Still shook from my words, Ralf continued to look bitter.
On the contrary, Esta’s face brightened with happiness.
“That said, as you are now, I have no intention of working together. Like I said before, I have things to do as well. If you cant even kill a couple of goblins, you’re not worth my time.”
“……..which is it damn it.”
“At the very least, get strong enough to easily kill goblins and then I’ll make a party with you two.”
“But we can’t! That was the entire reason we came to you for help in the first place!! This is putting the cart——“
“We understand! Me and Ralf will definitely get strong enough to consistently and comfortable kill goblins!”
“Oi Esta!!”
“Then its settled. Once you’ve achieved that, we’ll talk in detail about this.”
I sympathize them both. I really do. But I’m not going to coddle them either.
I’m nothing more than a newly started bronze adventurer. I need to put all my time and effort into getting strong enough to beat Kalus.
But, I felt something in those two. A sliver of potential perhaps.
I felt it was worth it to make a party with them and gamble on that potential.
………..Of course that too, is to surpass Klaus.
I turned my back on the two and began working on my own stuff. I’ve only just returned, but I have a lot to do.
To regain the time lost on all the talking, I began with classifying the dried plants first and foremost.