Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 6 - Chapter 1

1. One Quarter of One Day

“Huff... Hahh... Huff... Hahh...”

Haruhiro ran. He dashed, panting.

He glanced behind him. —They’re there.

There.

There.

There.

Chasing after him.

They were wearing large white sheets with a single eyehole cut out of them. Well, it was something like a long poncho. They had a torso, a head, and two arms and legs. It would have been fair to say that their physique was remarkably similar to a human’s. Just, there was only one eye peeking out from their eyehole.

It was never just one of those white-sheeted things. There were always several of them.

He didn’t need to bother counting. He already knew the number. Six of them. Five carrying spears, and then another carrying a sword and shield. The spears were unremarkable aside from their white poles, but each sword had a slightly purplish luster to it, and each shield looked almost like a mirror. Their swords had, for some reason, been given the name Lightning Sword Dolphin, and the shields were called Mirror Shields based on their appearance.

Someone had started calling them—well, no, not someone, it was those guys who’d started calling them it—cultists.

The spear bearers were standard cultists, all of which they had nicknamed Pansuke. The sword bearer was an elite cultist, for which they used the nickname Tori-san. Those names had stuck.

“Damn, I’m tired...” Haruhiro muttered.

Even as he grumbled, Haruhiro kept running without letting up. If he didn’t keep running at full-tilt, the Pansukes and Tori-san would catch him. If that happened, Haruhiro was a mere thief. He’d be ganged up on, and almost certainly killed in an instant. So, he had to run.

Run away, he thought. For now, just run. Run like mad. It’s the only option.

Beneath a sky with deep blue, a slightly reddish blue, purple, orange, yellow, red, and all the colors in between scattered across it, he raced as hard as he could through the white town.

—A town.

Yes. This was a town, or at the very least something of that variety. On either side of the roads paved with white stone, there were box-like buildings made, unsurprisingly, of white stone. No miraculous convergence of coincidences would ever have created something like this naturally. It was clear that someone, some intelligent beings, had created them.

“Augh! Enough!” Haruhiro shouted.

Sweat got into his right eye and stung. He got an urge to look back again, but he resisted it. Without doing anything unnecessary, he ran. With one eye closed, he ran.

“Hah... Hahh... Hah... Hah, hah...!”

It’s that corner. Turn there.

He practically dove left around the corner, then kept running down the slightly narrow path.

The footsteps of the cultists were closing in on him. His stomach hurt, as if it was being squeezed tight.

Haruhiro yelled as loudly as possible. Or rather, he couldn’t stop himself from shouting, and his voice came out on its own. His upper body was so upright that he felt like it might bend over backwards.

He pumped his arms. Pumped them as hard as he could.

Should I raise my thighs higher? Will that just tire me out more? Oh, I don’t know anymore. It hurts. I should never have gone along with it, this stupid plan.

“Crown Break!” Tada shouted.

They’re here. Finally. They came.

Without stopping, Haruhiro turned back to look. From a building off to his right, a man wearing glasses and a priest’s uniform had leapt down, attacking the cultists. Tori-san, specifically. The man in priest’s clothes had a warhammer that looked stupidly heavy, and he swung it down with a satisfying thud on the cultist Tori-san’s head.

Tori-san was a pretty high-level swordsman, a cut above the Pansukes, but he hadn’t seen this coming at all. He took the full force of the blow.

Of course, he wasn’t fine after taking a blow to the head from that warhammer. The cultists ponchos were highly resistant to bladed attacks, and could absorb impacts to a certain degree, but that wasn’t going to be good enough here. Tori-san collapsed with his head caved in.

With their leader suddenly down, the Pansukes panicked.

“And here!” rang out a voice that sounded like exactly what you’d expect from a handsome guy.

The ambush wasn’t done yet.

A man who wore armor with a hexagram engraved on it jumped up into the air to follow the man in the priest uniform, Tada.

“Huh?” Haruhiro stopped despite himself. Why? Why did he have to jump up? Couldn’t he just drop down?

But Haruhiro knew the answer to that question. This was not a man you could apply reason to. He was well aware of that, but he was still appalled.

“This is where I stylishly finish this!”

Tokimune, the paladin who led the Tokkis, flashed his white teeth as he reached the apex of his jump, then plunged downwards.

They had managed to get the Pansukes flustered, but he’d wasted it. The Pansukes thrust out their spears towards Tokimune.

Aw, crap. That’s not good. He’s gonna get skewered, thought Haruhiro. Only he didn’t.

“Dance like a panther!” Tokimune rotated his entire body along with his sword and shield, knocking the Pansukes’ spears aside. “And sting like a whale!”

Stepping on Pansuke A’s head, he kicked off and landed a roundhouse on Pansuke B, then landed on the ground and closed one eye.

“I settled that, huh,” Tokimune said, grinning.

“Well, you haven’t gotten run through yet, at least,” Haruhiro shot back, making a funny joke.

Tada, the man in the priest outfit, slammed his warhammer into Pansuke C’s flank and sent him flying. “You didn’t nail anything!”

“Tch, tch, tch.” Tokimune calmly clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “The battle’s already settled, you know?”

“Heh!” A middle-aged guy wearing a ponytail, an eyepatch, and a tight-fitting leather jumpsuit, a cringe-worthy combination, leapt out from an alleyway to bury his single-edged sword in Pansuke D’s eye.

With hardly any delay, out followed a woman who, judging by her outfit, looked like a mage, but was gigantic in more ways than one and dual-wielded a staff and sword. Her nickname was Ms. Giantess. Mimori, also known as Mimorin, first struck Pansuke E in the side of the face with her staff, then without missing a beat stabbed her sword through his eye.

“Good luck, yeah! Kill them all!” A petite girl with blonde hair and blue eyes stuck her head out from the alley and cheered them on in a mix of Japanese and English.

Anna-san might peek out, but she wouldn’t get involved. She was essentially a cheerleader.

“Yahoo! Let me get in on this, too!” Kikkawa cried. The uncommonly easygoing warrior jumped off the roof, probably imitating Tokimune. It was fine up to the point where he danced in midair and struck a pose.

Well, no, it wasn’t fine. It was completely pointless.

The easygoing warrior Kikkawa tried to pounce on Pansuke A, the one whose face Tokimune had landed on and thrown off-balance. Or that was what he’d seemed to be going for, but while he was striking a pose, Tada grunted and swung his warhammer. It knocked Pansuke A flying until he slammed into the wall of the building, and Kikkawa’s bastard sword slashed through nothing but air.

“Ahaha, Tadacchi! You stole my kill!” Kikkawa cried.

“Wahahahahahh!” Tokimune shouted.

Then a piece of trash jumped onto Pansuke B, which Tokimune had knocked down with his roundhouse kick but was still trying to get up.

“Mine, mine, mine!” That bloodthirsty piece-of-trash-to-end-all-pieces-of-trash kicked Pansuke B to the ground, then held him down and went in for the killing blow. “For Skullhell!”

“Out of the way.” Tada kicked the piece of trash out of his way, then mercilessly brought his warhammer down on Pansuke B’s head, splattering it all over the inside of his poncho.

“Noooooooooooooooooooo!” The piece of trash known as Ranta sat down and wailed.

Well, at least he’s not crying.

“What the hell?!” Ranta screamed. “I was gonna off that one! You stupid moron!”

“Huh?” Tada pressed his left index finger against his bloodstained warhammer. “A stupid moron? You calling me that?”

“...No, not you,” Ranta said. “I’m sorry. Seriously, seriously, sorry. I didn’t mean you, really. No... F-Forgive me!” The piece of trash quickly got down and performed a kowtow. “It was just the way it came out, you see! Spur of the moment, and all that! I didn’t really mean it!”

“Well, good. This time, I’ll let it slide.” Tada shouldered his warhammer. “Next time, I kill you.”

“Y-Yes, siiiiir! Th-Th-Th-Thank you kindly!” Ranta stuttered.

Is he stupid? Haruhiro wondered, but he also wouldn’t put it past Tada to bludgeon Ranta with that warhammer without hesitation. Apologizing was probably the right call. Seriously, the Tokkis were off the charts in all sorts of ways.

“Wow...” Yume, who had been hiding nearby, came out with her eyes wide. “It’s already over. Sure was quick, huh.”

“It sure was.” Shihoru came out from behind Yume, glancing around.

“No chance for us to show off...” The lanky Kuzaku came out from the alley.

“It was too fast,” Merry said with a sigh. She was standing behind Kuzaku diagonally.

“Well, when we go to work, it’s just this easy, am I right?” Tokimune flashed his all-too-white teeth and gave them a thumbs up. “The real fight’s just getting started though, right, Haruhiro?”

“Right.” Haruhiro kicked Ranta in the backside. “Come on, get ready.”

“Ow! Hey! You’re just a Haruhiro, how dare you kick—”

“Meow!” Yume nocked an arrow. “It’s coming!”

Noise. There was a loud noise coming their way. From the direction of the corner Haruhiro had just come around. Here it was.

Taller than Mimorin the Giantess, taller than 190-centimeter-tall Kuzaku. More than double their size, probably. It was nearly four meters tall. It had a lion-like head, but with only one eye.

“Bwahaha! Time for me to show my stuff!” Ranta picked up Tori-san’s Lightning Sword Dolphin. “Here I go! With my usual Super Stunning Strategy!”

“That name...” Shihoru looked thoroughly unimpressed with it.

“Whoop!” The arrow Yume let loose shot towards the four-meter-class white giant’s one eye, and—did not hit it, instead scratching the side of its face. “Ahhh! So close!”

Haruhiro took a deep breath, letting the stress out of his shoulders, then glanced to Tokimune. “Okay, let’s do the usual.”

“Haha!” Tokimune gave a friendly laugh and slapped Haruhiro on the back. “Okay, okay. Let’s do this like we always do.”

“Delm, hel, en,” Mimorin began to chant as she drew elemental sigils with her staff while still holding her drawn sword in her left hand. “Ig, arve.”

She was a former warrior, and it seemed she was still more used to fighting in close quarters, but she was a mage now. This was the most basic of basic spells in Arve Magic, Fireball. The elemental formed a ball of fire larger than a person’s fist, then sped towards the white giant. The white giant made no attempt to avoid it. The ball of fire struck the white giant in the chest, and... vanished.

“Don’t get stepped on!” Haruhiro shouted an order he realized everyone already knew even as he said it, then looked to Kuzaku. “Kuzaku, you’re up front. Also, Tokkis, form the front line, please.”

“We’re on it!” Tokimune banged on his shield with his right fist while still holding his sword in that hand. “Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, let’s make this flashy!”

“Righty-o!” Kikkawa called.

“Heh... So be it!” Inui added.

“Yeah,” Tada shot back. “I’ll show you I’m the strongest.”

Tokimune went, followed by Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, and a silent Kuzaku.

Haruhiro raised his hips up and down. He didn’t change position. Yume, Shihoru, and Merry took up positions right behind Haruhiro. Anna-san and Mimorin came over next to him, too.

I’m sure I have sleepy eyes right now, he thought. His breathing wasn’t ragged, and he was feeling pretty calm, more or less.

Tokimune, Kikkawa, Inui, Tada, and Kuzaku had formed a horizontal line with as much space between them as possible. That said, this wasn’t exactly a wide road. It was a little over three meters wide, maybe.

Should we have chosen a different road? Haruhiro wondered. But if they had, then it wouldn’t have worked as well for ambushing the cultists and taking them out quickly.

This time the cultists had formed a group with a white giant, so there were, broadly speaking, two options. Give up, or come up with a plan.

If it had just been Haruhiro and his group, they would have done the former. Ranta (the piece of trash) could have hollered all he wanted, but Haruhiro would have used all of his authority as leader to get the group to retreat.

But because, for better and for worse, they were working with the Tokkis, it wasn’t that easy for him anymore. If Haruhiro said, Hey, this is dangerous, let’s not do it, the Tokkis weren’t the type to listen to him and back down quietly.

In the end, they came up with a plan where Haruhiro would act as a decoy, running around to separate the cultists from the white giant. Once the cultists were finished off, then they’d sort out the giant.

Well, I’ve gotten used to it, Haruhiro thought. A month had passed since they’d found this new area, NA for short, and discovered the Dusk Realm.

A lot’s happened in that time, he thought. Too much, really. No, maybe not, I guess?

Has it? Yeah. It has.

At least, by Haruhiro’s standards, it had been a rather eventful month. It was no exaggeration to say that the Tokkis had been around half of the reason for that.

After all, they had found this place together. Actually, Haruhiro and his party had found the entrance first, but it was generally thought the band of jokers, the Tokkis, had discovered it, while the Goblin Slayers, Haruhiro and his crew, had just tagged along. But ever since then, many things had happened to make them all closer. That was why, because Haruhiro and the others had remained too worried to go on their own, the two groups had ended up going to explore the Dusk Realm regularly together without really having discussed it.

This and that had happened. Every day, sometimes multiple times in a day, there would be some incident or another. After all, the Tokkis were nuts.

Unless Haruhiro, the one with pretensions of having common sense, was actually the one who was crazy? Were the Tokkis normal? He had worried a bit about that, but it was all quite ridiculous.

The Tokkis were crazy. Haruhiro was sane. Ranta aside, there was a nigh-unfillable trench between Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis. No, not nigh unfillable, completely unfillable. It couldn’t be done. No way, no how. Once he started thinking that way, it actually made things a little easier on him. Though only a little.

If he knew it couldn’t be filled, he didn’t have to try. It was pointless to.

He tried not to think, Why are things like this? He always ended up thinking it anyway, but he didn’t let himself agonize over it. There was no helping it. It was just the kind of people they were. Once he accepted that, if he just understood it, he could anticipate what they were likely to do in a given situation. That way, he didn’t have to get upset or surprised every time they showed their insanity.

Other than that, they were certainly not incompetent, so he could use them well. In point of fact, while they were a little too biased towards offense, they were a real force to be reckoned with in combat. Tokimune and Tada, in particular, were first-rate attackers. Tokimune was a paladin, so that was fine for him, but even if he was a former warrior, Tada was supposed to be a priest...

Anyhow, if they could just get along with the Tokkis, they could do things together that Haruhiro’s party couldn’t do alone. It wouldn’t be impossible for them to get through situations that seemed deadly.

Also, and this was the most important point in a way, they could make money. Even splitting half their earnings with the Tokkis, Haruhiro and his group were earning far more efficiently than they ever could have if they’d worked for it slowly and steadily by themselves.

“Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart!” Shihoru cast Thunderstorm, and a bundle of lightning struck the white giant.

There was a pretty tremendous noise, and the white giant’s entire body convulsed. Its feet stopped. Of course, it would start walking again soon, and even if it was only walking, the white giant was huge. Its legs were long. It would close in on them with massive strides.

“Hey, hey, heeeey!” Tokimune beat his shield to provoke it. “Come on, come on, come onnnnn!”

“Go, go, go, go!” The white giant swung its fist down at Tokimune.

“Nimbly!” Tokimune leapt back and away.

“Go, go!” The white giant swung its fist again.

“Spin!” Tokimune danced out of the way.

“Go!” The white giant reached out with both arms to grab Tokimune.

“Whee!” Tokimune did a backflip to get away.

“Rahh!” Tada immediately slammed the white giant’s arm with his warhammer.

“Go, go...” The white giant pulled back its arm, turning its one eye on Tada.

Tada, intentionally no doubt, leisurely rested his warhammer on his shoulder and flipped his middle finger at the white giant. He probably meant something like, Come get me, you piece of shit. It wasn’t clear if the white giant understood the gesture. That was uncertain, but the white giant bent its knees and lowered its hips. It was getting ready to jump.

“Get back!” Haruhiro shouted.

That probably could have gone without saying, but he shouted it out just to be sure.

“Yeah, everyone knows that! Skip it! You don’t have to say it!” I don’t want them thinking that stuff, or “We already know that, you idiot,” but... Even if Haruhiro was going to get called an idiot, he had to do it. That was Haruhiro’s stance.

“All right!” Tokimune called.

The frontliners, including Tokimune, Tada, Kikkawa, Inui, and Kuzaku all pulled back as one. At almost exactly the same time, the white giant made its big jump.

“Pharaoh?!” Kikkawa exclaimed bizarrely.

What’s a pharaoh? Haruhiro thought.

The white giant leapt seven, eight meters, then landed with an earthshaking crash. No one got crushed, but if they had been even a little late in backing away, there was a risk that they might have.

Now. Haruhiro didn’t even have to issue the order.

“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta, who had been lurking in the alleyway, lifted his Lightning Sword Dolphin aloft and charged at the white giant.

Ranta didn’t so much slash it as whack it with the sword. He was targeting the white giant’s right leg.

“Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!” Without giving it pause for breath, Ranta struck, and struck, and struck.

Each time the white giant was hit with his Lightning Sword Dolphin, though only for a very short period, its giant, sculpture-like body would convulse.

This was it: the Super Stunning Strategy. What a terrible name.

The name aside, this tactic was highly effective, and by stopping its movement like this, it opened up a chance to fell the white giant. Only a chance, though. From here on, the battle would be decided by pure firepower... or destructive power, really.

“Tada-san!” Haruhiro called.

Tada licked his lips and charged forth. “Don’t tell me everything. Just let witnessing my power send you to heaven.”

No, I’m not going to heaven, Haruhiro wanted to mutter, but he restrained himself. If he took a comedic jab at every little thing the Tokkis said, he’d never last.

“Now, my killer attack—” Tada did a run-up before launching into a forward somersault and slamming his warhammer down on the white giant’s left knee with both hands. “Somersault Bomb!”

But man, Tada-san’s seriously amazing, thought Haruhiro.

Tada’s warhammer sank into the white giant’s left knee, sending lots of shards flying.

“Take that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and thaaaat!” Ranta hollered. He kept swinging his Lightning Sword Dolphin and stunning the white giant.

Tada took a single breath, adjusted the position of his glasses, then unhurriedly put some distance between himself and the white giant.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ranta shouted, looking at Tada while beating his Lightning Sword Dolphin against the white giant’s leg. “Hurry the hell up, man! This is pretty tough, dammit! Gwahhhhhhhhhh!”

Tada cocked his head to the side, swinging his warhammer around. “Did you just curse at me?”

“No, sir, I did not! You’re hearing things, man! Just hearing things! Nwahhhhhhhhh!”

“I am, huh? So, is that tough?”

“It’s super, super tough, man! Hurry up! Like, seriously, seriously, get another hit in!”

“Like I care,” said Tada.

“Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

“If it’s tough for you, that’s your problem, not mine.”

“Heyyyyyyyyyy, you ass!”

“‘You ass’?” Tada repeated.

“Tada-san! Tada-sama! Tada the God!”

“I’m joking.” Tada smirked and then raced forward.

—Yeah, Haruhiro thought. I don’t get it. Tada’s jokes are always incomprehensible.

“Ahaha! That rocked! I love Taddachi’s surreal gags!” yelled Kikkawa.

Since the only one laughing is Kikkawa, and he has ridiculously high social skills, that probably means even the Tokkis don’t get Tada’s jokes, Haruhiro thought. That’s slightly reassuring. If they were the sort of people who burst out laughing at that, I’d never be able to put up with them.

“Kwahhhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhh! Kwahhhhh! Kwahhhhh! Uwahhhh!” Ranta let out what sounded like his death screams, wringing out the last of his power to keep whaling on the white giant’s right leg.

“Now that I think about it—” Tada did a forward somersault and unleashed another Somersault Bomb. “—this killer attack isn’t killing it at all, is it?!”

This time he went for the right knee. There was a resounding crunch.

Tada glanced over to see that Ranta was still working hard, then followed up with another two or three hits.

“Yume!” Haruhiro shouted, to which she responded, “Meow!” and started to fire arrows.

It was the archery skill, Rapid Fire. With no gap in between, she would nock arrows to her composite bow, then fire. She fired, and fired.

Inui’s a hunter, too, and he has a bow, but I’ve never seen him use it—I think. That thought suddenly occurred to Haruhiro. Maybe I should ask him the next time I get a chance. “Aren’t you gonna use your bow?” No, maybe it should be, “Can’t you use your bow?” Of course, Inui might snap. But he might fight harder because of it. Would he? I dunno. I mean, it’s Inui.

Yume fired off six shots in rapid succession, two of which hit the white giant’s eye. It was a good result coming from Yume, who was a poor archer despite being a hunter.

“Gwah!” Ranta fell back, stumbling. “I’m at my limit!”

“Good job, Ranta! You have nice a butt hole, yeah!” Anna-san’s compliments were pretty effective. It was little wonder why the Tokkis kept her as their mascot and idol. Though you had to question why she’d compliment his butt hole, of all things.

“All right! Leave it to me!” Tokimune’s voice came from up above—

Wait, when did he get there?

He had been in the street until just moments ago, but now Tokimune was on top of the building ahead of Haruhiro and to the left.

“Hahhh!” Tokimune shouted. He leapt off the building with a cry.

Or rather, he leapt from it to something else. From the roof to the white giant’s shoulder.

Ranta had exhausted himself, and his Lightning Sword Dolphin’s stunning effect had worn off.

“Gu, go, ga, go!” The white giant tried flailing around.

Before it could, Tokimune buried his sword in its one eye. Tokimune didn’t just thrust it in, though, he twisted it around.

“There it is! Tokimune-san’s deadly skill, Saint Arpeggio!” Kikkawa cried.

Kikkawa was saying something, but if Haruhiro started wonder why it was an arpeggio, of all things, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, so he wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard the comment.

No, but seriously, why is it an arpeggio? Is it music now?

“Hah!” Tokimune immediately jumped away from the white giant, returning to the building.

Between Yume’s arrows and Tokimune’s Saint Arpeggio, or whatever it was called, the white giant had taken more damage to its one eye than it could handle.

“Pull back!” Haruhiro shouted as he backed away himself.

Yume and the other girls, Ranta, and everyone on the front line except for Tokimune put some distance between themselves and the white giant. Tokimune alone was different. On top of the building, he was literally watching from on high.

“Go, go, go!” The white giant swung both of its arms around, unsteady on its feet. It likely wanted to attack Haruhiro and the others somehow, but it was blind. On top of that, both its knees were damaged. The white giant fell into a building on the right hand side, opposite from where Tokimune was. The outer wall, while it didn’t collapse outright, took some damage.

“Go, go!” The white giant tried to steady itself, but it couldn’t brace its legs, so that wasn’t going so well for it. It looked like it might trip.

“Atta—” Haruhiro began to shout, then swallowed the word. Tada was already surging towards the white giant.

The white giant didn’t fully trip, but it fell to one knee. Tada leapt towards that knee with a forward somersault, then...

“Somersault Bomb!”

It was a single strike—no, a single blast. Having been hit by a second Somersault Bomb, its left knee was half-destroyed. It probably wouldn’t be getting back on its feet like that.

“Go!” The white giant reached out to grab Tada, but it didn’t even graze him.

“Yeah, that’s how awesome I am!” Tada shouted. While singing his own praises, he not only didn’t run, he landed a solid blow on the white giant’s right hand with his warhammer.

Having figured out Tada’s location based on that, the white giant reached out for him with its left hand. Tada knocked this one back with his warhammer, too.

“If you think you can beat me, try again in a million years!” Tada hollered.

“Nothing to do...” Kuzaku muttered.

Oh, are you sure about that? Haruhiro turned to look behind him. Things happened sometimes, so he could never let his guard down. And sure enough, from the other side of the road, a number of Pansukes were running this way with their spears ready.

“Enemy reinforcements!” he shouted. “Pansukes, three of them! Kuzaku, Kikkawa, Inui-san!”

“Gotcha!” Kuzaku called.

“Okie-dokie!” Kikkawa yelled.

“Heh... What choice do I have?” Inui called back.

Kuzaku, Kikkawa, and Inui immediately broke off from the front line, running past Haruhiro and the girls in the back line to deal with the enemy reinforcements. Merry glanced over in that direction quickly, but immediately looked back to the white giant. The power of the God of Light, Lumiaris, didn’t reach the Dusk Realm, so she couldn’t use light magic here. Even if all she could do was act as a bodyguard for Shihoru, Merry was staying focused.

That’s not what I’m worried about, Haruhiro thought. Merry is overly serious by nature. Because of that, once she’s done what she ought to, she tends to start thinking, “Is this good enough?” and “Isn’t there anything else I can do?” I need to watch out for that, and take care of her. Naturally, I mean that as a leader. Nothing more than that. There are no other feelings involved. None. Zero, okay? Zero.

“Now you give it one last push, yeah! Fight on! Yeah!” Anna-san gave some welcome encouragement.

“Delm, hel, en, rig, arve!” Mimorin chanted as she drew elemental sigils with her staff.

Fire Pillar. This was the strongest spell that the former warrior Mimorin had. A pillar of flame rose at the white giant’s feet. That said, it was smaller than Mimorin herself, and actually kind of cutesy. It was facing a massive white giant, so it wasn’t likely to have much of an effect.

If she’s aiming to become an Arve Magic user, shouldn’t she at least acquire the Blast spell? Haruhiro thought. It wasn’t something for a thief, and a member of another party at that, to give his opinion about, and Haruhiro had a somewhat complicated relationship with Mimorin, so while he thought that, he didn’t say it. Even if he found himself wanting to say it occasionally, he really couldn’t.

“Ohm, rel, ect, el, vel, darsh!” Shihoru used the Shadow Echo spell to launch three shadow elementals, which hit the white giant. The damage was trivial, no doubt, but her magic was purely meant as support here.

“...Whew.” Ranta came up beside Haruhiro and squatted.

“Good work,” Haruhiro told him, looking around as he did.

While he did, he flexed his knees so that he was ready to move at any time. Thanks to that, at times like this, Haruhiro was in a slightly forward-leaning position, both arms hanging loosely at his sides, and looking around restlessly with sleepy eyes. If someone who didn’t know any better saw him, the way he looked, they’d probably think, Is that guy all right?

Haruhiro was aware that it wasn’t a good look, but this was also the optimal stance for him to be in, so there wasn’t much he could do about it. He’d given up on looking cool. For now, he had to focus on utility. Haruhiro could never be Tokimune.

Speaking of Tokimune, he reached the new enemies before Kuzaku did. “The true art of killing in midair!”

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, then jumping down from there, he landed a splendid kick of Pansuke F’s head. Then, once he had knocked Pansuke F flying and landed, he swept Pansuke G’s spear away with his shield and thrust his sword through the cultist’s eyehole. Without missing a beat, he closed in on Pansuke H and whacked him with Bash and Double Thrust. Pansuke H managed to twist his body around and avoid a lethal blow through his eyehole, but he was overwhelmed and recoiling. When Kuzaku and the other two finally made it, the fight was already won.

Tokimune was strong. He was strong when he got carried away, and also strong when pushed into a corner. Basically, he was always strong. He had charisma, too, and a good personality.

If he had one shortcoming, it was perhaps that he was impulsive, arbitrary, and he would run off and do things all by himself. But that was a trend with all of the Tokkis.

When people are similar, they often are hostile to and reject those like them, but that didn’t happen with the Tokkis. Everyone seemed to be getting along and having fun, so they must have been doing something right.

“Go, go!” The white giant must have measured things out poorly or something, because it slammed into a building while moving at almost a crawl. No, it couldn’t see, so it couldn’t measure things at all.

“You clumsy oaf!” Tada hollered.

As if he had been waiting for just this moment, Tada landed a series of strikes on the white giant’s elbow and half-destroyed it. Now an enormous blow had been dealt to both the white giant’s left knee and elbow. Then, targeting the white giant’s right foot, Tada showered blows on its ankle, following it up by knocking its heel off. It had taken a blow to the right knee as well, so the white giant’s range of motion was fairly limited now.

Haruhiro nodded. “Ranta. One more time, it’s your turn.”

“Heh.” Ranta got up and shook his head back and forth, rotating his shoulders and taking a deep breath. “Fine, if you insist. I’ll do it!”

“Tada-san!” Haruhiro shouted.

When Haruhiro gave the signal, Tada backed down and Ranta stepped up to take his place.

Tada went into the alley. He probably meant to climb up onto the roof.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Ranta hit the white giant with his Lightning Sword Dolphin. He hit it. He hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it.

It looked like Tokimune and the others were done mopping up the enemy reinforcements. They were headed back this way.

Tada did a forward somersault off of the roof.

Still, I’m amazed he can do something that dangerous, thought Haruhiro. At this point, it no longer surprised him, but it did impress him.

“Ultra! Somersault! Booooomb!” Tada’s warhammer thudded into the nape of the white giant’s neck with incredible force.

They had tried a lot of different things, but a white giant’s weak points seemed to be its one eye and the nape of its neck. Or rather, compared to its body as a whole, the skin there was a bit thinner. It wasn’t just that their necks were especially vulnerable to impacts; they seemed to have something analogous to the spinal cord in humans there, too. It was a hard area to target, but attacks that landed there were extremely effective.

“That’s enough, Ranta!” Haruhiro called.

“Yeah, I know, duh!” Ranta put some distance between himself and the white giant.

While Tada had fallen to the ground after unleashing his Somersault Bomb, he seemed to have landed well.

The white giant slumped over and fell on its front. At this point, Haruhiro didn’t need to urge anyone on.

“All right! Party time! Yeah?!” Anna-san called.

With that declaration by Anna-san, Mimorin was the first to begin climbing up the white giant’s back. Tokimune quickly caught up and got ahead of her, then Kikkawa and Inui followed. Kuzaku followed a little bit after them. Ranta and then Tada rushed up to the white giant and hit it. Stabbed it.

Haruhiro felt himself wanting to join in, too, but he refrained. There was no need, and more cultists might show up. It was even possible another white giant might come this way.

Haruhiro, Yume, Shihoru, and Merry stayed on the sidelines of this merciless celebration, not taking part. They cheered them on along with Anna-san.

I have to keep a cool head at all times, Haruhiro thought. Of course, there will be times when I have to gamble with my life, too. When those times come, rather than calm thought, the only option is to entrust my body to instinct and wild frenzy, then count on agility to carry me through, I’m sure. But I don’t want to invite those sorts of situations, and to avoid them, I really do have to try and stay calm.

You’re boring, you know that, Ranta often said to him. Haruhiro didn’t think he was an interesting person. If he was being told he was boring, it was probably true.

My personality is plain. My face looks average. Middle of the middle, or lower, even. I’m not tall, either. I’m not especially shrewd, and I’m not someone who’s actually really talented but trying to keep my skills a secret, or anything like that. The best I can say is I’m middle-of-the-road. Well, I’m normal.

The thing is, I don’t mind my current self, a person who can say, “I’m fine with being normal,” and not look down on himself for it.

I’m normal, and I’m sure I’m going to keep being normal. I can’t become anyone special, and I’m not trying to. Though it’s not like I’m satisfied with the current state of things, either.

I’d say to take it step by step, but that’s asking for too much, so half-steps will be fine. Even if it’s only one quarter of one step, and even if we can’t make that much progress day to day, ten days from now, I want to have gotten just a little bit farther ahead.

Somehow, I get the sense that we’re managing that.

That may be why I’m able to not hate myself.

I’m doing my best, right? What’s more, I have results to show for it, which means I’m being rewarded, right? Being rewarded for your effort is a blessing, isn’t it? That means I’m pretty fortunate, aren’t I? I can look up into the sky and report to Manato and Moguzo, who we’ll never see again, “We’re still working at it, guys.” Isn’t that amazing?

I think it is.

While watching over the merciless party with his sleepy eyes, Haruhiro looked around to ensure no new enemies were coming. No matter how advantageous their situation, even if the battle were more or less decided, something could suddenly happen to turn everything around. If that happened, it happened, and they just had to accept it and move on, but he didn’t want to make that sort of decision if he didn’t have to.

The nape of the white giant’s neck and the back of its head were more or less destroyed, and it had already stopped moving. It seemed to be dead.

But in some ways, the hard part of dealing with a four-meter giant was yet to come. It was a time-intensive and bothersome task, but it paid off well.

At first, the white giants had been these huge, dangerous things that had just gotten in their way, and they had treated them as something to run away from as soon as they saw them. However, Shinohara of Clan Orion had discovered that the white giants had a number of organs inside them where an unknown metal was concentrated. Ever since someone had spread word of that discovery, the white giants had become a favored target for volunteer soldiers.

By the way, this wasn’t a recent development. It had happened close to a month ago.

“I got me some rainbow pyroxene!” Ranta shouted like an idiot, holding up an orb with a fifteen-centimeter diameter that shone with the rainbow of colors its name suggested.

As far as Haruhiro knew, these rainbow pyroxene organs that were unique to the white giants were usually fist-sized, so that one would be considered large.

“Yahoo! Me, too! Me, too! Me, too! I got one!” Kikkawa lifted another rainbow pyroxene up high, with one eye closed and his tongue stuck out. This second one was ten centimeters across, maybe. Still, that wasn’t small.

In the end, those were the only two rainbow pyroxenes they extracted from the white giant. However, when they stripped the cultists of their ponchos and searched them, they were able to find a number of accessories with small pieces of rainbow pyroxene embedded in them. These rainbow pyroxenes had been diligently ground and polished, so they had a high value for their small size.

“Well, I’d say we’ll make around six,” Tokimune said from atop the giant’s remains, his white teeth sparkling as he smiled.

While thinking, Wow, they’re brilliant, Haruhiro tilted his head to the side in thought. “Nah... I’d say about five, maybe?”

“That’s all, you think?” Tokimune asked.

“Probably.”

Five gold. Split fifty-fifty with the Tokkis, Haruhiro and the party’s take would be two gold and fifty silver. Split six ways, that was a bit over 41 silver each. Not bad. Or rather, it was an incredible amount that they could never have imagined making a few months ago.

I shouldn’t get used to this, he thought. I have to assume making this much won’t be a given.

The white giant’s remains would have to be left where they were, but they at least dragged the cultists’ corpses to the side of the road before Haruhiro’s party and the Tokkis moved on.

Soon, they passed by someone. Not a cultist, and not a white giant, but a human.

No, humans. Volunteer soldiers, to be precise.

“Oh.” The hunter that led the group gave off an unpleasant vibe. He wore a hide outfit, a cap with a feather in it, and had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung over his back. He was probably a little older than Haruhiro and the others. He had eyes like a fox and a crooked mouth. “It’s the Goblin Slayers and the comedians.”

“Hello, Kuzuoka-san.” Haruhiro bowed his head slightly.

Among all the senior volunteer soldiers, there were a few he was less than happy about having to address with a -san. This was one of them. They hadn’t had much in the way of interaction, but he did have a grudge against this man. When they had just arrived in Grimgar, Kuzuoka had scouted Moguzo to join his party, then stolen his money and abandoned him.

“Tch...” Ranta clicked his tongue with distaste.

Kuzuoka narrowed his eyes and tried to intimidate them with a “Huhhh...?”

There were a warrior, thief, mage, priest, and dread knight following Kuzuoka. One looked as if he wanted to say, Here we go again..., while another was impassive, and yet another seemed amused. Each of the five had their own reaction, but none of them were anything remotely friendly.

“Why, hello, hello, Kuzuoka-saaaan,” Kikkawa butted in, slapping Kuzuoka on the shoulder in that over-friendly manner of his. “It’s been, like, ages. You been doing all right, Kuzuoka-saaaan? Like, how’ve things been lately?”

“Damn it, don’t touch me, Crap-kawa!” Kuzuoka yelled.

“Huh? What’s this? I’m cute as crap? Man, I always thought I was.”

“I didn’t say that, you dolt!”

“No, no, no, no need to be shy, Crap-oka-saaaan. Oops, got it wrong, it’s Kuzuoka! Soz, soz! I’m gonna reflect on what I did!”

“There’s no way you’re reflecting on anything!” Kuzuoka screamed.

“Yup! I’m not! Teehee!”

“You piss me off, you know that?” Kuzuoka snarled. “Move it, or die! I’ll kill you!”

“That’s not possible,” Tokimune said with a friendly smile. “I don’t know you all that well, but I do know you’re weaker than me. Want to try it and see?”

“I-I’m not gonna do it!” Kuzuoka pushed Kikkawa aside.

“We’re going!” he ordered his comrades, and they shuffled along. Even as he left, the way he kept muttering what sounded like insults at the group was very like Kuzuoka.

“That guy.” Ranta kicked the ground. “With his rotten personality, I’m amazed he manages to be a party leader. I can’t believe him.”

“Yeah...” Haruhiro rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re not one to talk, though...”