Chapter 9 – A little progress and a pile of work

Translator/Editor: Mana

A few days had passed since I started practising ‘Enemy Search’, ‘Trap Detect’, and ‘Trap Dismantle’. Today was the first day I was accompanying Force on his morning jog.

As per Jin’s words, now that I knew the basics of ‘Trap Detect’ and ‘Enemy Search’, I should start on raising my stamina for dungeon runs. But even though I knew the basics now, I still couldn’t tell where monsters were located and kept getting caught in tons of traps. It was pretty pathetic…

“We’re going to run around the perimeter of the city, so make sure you keep up. You may get gobbled up by monsters if you get lost…”

Force was doing stretching exercises with a sleepy expression and terrible bed hair.

I felt a little irritated at his words. No matter how weak I was, I still had a little stamina… I carried luggage around for half a year, you know? I couldn’t win against Miya’s physical boost skill, but I might just be able to beat Force.

It didn’t even take 30 minutes for me to eat my words.

“Ahahahaha! Crap! This is hilarious!”

Force rolled on the ground, clutching at his stomach. Meanwhile, I had too much on my hands to be mad at Force’s mocking. I was busy desperately stretching my leg cramp.

“I’ve never seen anyone get attacked by a monster while down from a leg cramp before!”

Shut up. I seriously thought I would die.

Well, I can’t blame Force for laughing…

Immediately after we departed, I was able to keep up with Force… for about 10 minutes. The difference in our stamina clearly started to show, and I cramped my leg when I tried to push myself. It was bad timing, but a monster decided to appear at that exact moment, leaving Force to save me from my certain death.

“You’re so frail… Note…”

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I wanted to argue back, but he was totally right. The fact I couldn’t deny it made me more irritated.

“You won’t be popular with girls like that.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, damn it!”

“Wah! Note snapped!”

“What do you know about being popular with girls! You’re not exactly popular either, Force!”

“…Ugh! Alright. My bad. As the ‘Unpopular With Girls Alliance’, let’s get along!”

For some reason, I was forced into an awfully disgraceful alliance. This was the worst. Someone save me.

“What’s with that alliance? It’s not something I want to join at all…”

“If you don’t want to join it, then you better get popular with girls.” Force patted my shoulder with a pitying expression on his face. Honestly, I found him to be the most infuriating person ever. It was actually rather amazing.

“Fine then! I will definitely get a girlfriend before Force!”

“You said it!! Then how about whoever finds a lover first orders the other to do one thing they want?”

“Fine with me! Bring it!”

How did I go from a stamina-training jog to making a bet with Force that was more like the kind of promise a bickering teenage boy and girl would make when they were overly aware of each other?

This wasn’t going to end with me and Force dating, right? I really don’t want to end up in a situation where we’re laughing together as we say “I guess this means it’s a tie…”.

A few more days later. In the forest towards the north of Puriff.

Alone, I focused my mind.

“There are three in front. And I can feel one more behind me to the right and left.”

“Well done. Seems like you’ve grasped the feel for ‘Enemy Search’ now?”

I startled slightly at the voice that sounded from outside of my mind, and turned around. It was Jin, clothed in his usual black gear.

Like Jin said, I was getting a little more familiar with ‘Enemy Search’ now. Or rather, I was just applying what I learned from ‘Trap Detect’ to the ‘Enemy Search’ practice well.

‘Trap Detect’ is a similar art to ‘Enemy Search—recalling these words Jin had said, I completely pushed Jin’s presence out of my mind as I practised ‘Enemy Search’, making myself believe that I was in danger of being attacked by monsters before activating the art.

Doing so made my body to react with the sense of fear it remembered, allowing me to locate the monsters in a similar way to ‘Trap Detect’.

I was now able to sense monsters up to 100 metres away.

According to Jin, if I polished ‘Enemy Search’ further I would be able to easily grasp the presence of everything within the 1000 metre radius of ‘Mapping’, including the presence of harmless humans and animals.

When he put it that way, my ‘Enemy Search’ still had a long way to go. But at this rate, I may be able to reach the level Jin described within the six month time limit…

Satisfied with my progress, we headed further into the forest to continue my ‘Enemy Search’ practice.

Another several days later. Force, Neme, and I stood outside the large gate to the town of Puriff. Because she was woken up early, Neme was rubbing at her eyes sleepily.

“Err… from today, Note will be running while carrying Neme.”

“Eh?”

Neme was also shocked at Force’s sudden declaration. Her sleepy, half-lidded eyes were immediately wide open.

“You know how originally we said Note needed to raise his stamina so that he could run away from monsters in the dungeon when we need to retreat?”

“Well, yes…”

“About that. When our party retreats from battle, Jin always carries Neme because of how slow she is. Since her legs are like this, right? No matter how much she trains her stamina, she won’t run very fast…”

True, a little girl like Neme with legs that short would probably fall behind the other members.

“How rude! Neme’s legs are beautiful!” Neme was saying, but that’s not what we’re discussing right now. The conversation won’t progress like this, so be quiet.

Only recently have I been able to finally keep up with Force’s jogging pace, can I still do that while carrying a little girl? But despite my worries, Force had a point. Reluctantly, I crouched.

“Come on Neme, hurry up. Get on!”

But when I tried to give Neme a piggy-back, Force stopped me.

“Not like that. Like this!” he said, and threw Neme over his shoulder.

Eh, you have to carry her that way?!

“Do you think you’d have time to piggy-back someone in a situation where you’re running from monsters?”

He had a very good point.

I took Neme from Force and lifted her over my shoulder with both hands.

I’ve heard that children have high body temperatures, but Neme was oddly warm. Did it have anything to do with her small size?　Though she was apparently an adult…

With such thoughts circulating my head, I ran around the outside wall of the city with Force.

Some tens of minutes later. I was patting Neme’s back.

Force had already stopped running. Neme was on all fours on the ground as she—I won’t say anymore than that. For the sake of her honour.

“N-No more… I never want to ride on Note’s shoulder again…”

I honestly did feel apologetic.

In short, I was running with Neme over my shoulder, but since I wasn’t used to carrying people, it was an extremely bumpy ride… Furthermore, her stomach also had to suffer the impact of my shoulder several times…

Even if I don’t elaborate further, you get what I’m saying, right?

To put it indirectly, she met a rather pitiful end.

I wiped Neme’s mouth with the towel I had. Her eyes were filled to the brim with tears. I honestly was sorry. Once again, I learned a lesson on how had it is to run while carrying someone.

I expected it to be tough before we started running, but the reality of it exceeded my expectations by far. Not only was an extra 10 kilograms of weight added, but my centre of balance was thrown off, and Neme sometimes moved around, making it extremely hard to run.

Even now, Neme was in a state of surrender over how uncomfortable it was to ride on my shoulder.

Apparently, this doesn’t happen when Jin carries her.

I was once again made aware of how much I still lacked.