Intermission - Barnes Siblings' Everyday Life
◎ Hyvern, Northern Territory, Ergos Forest
「Emily. Really, this is why I said to start attacking quickly.」
「Sorry, older brother.」
「Guruaaaaaa」
The sound of many trees creaking as they toppled echoed in the Ergos Forest.
The roar of something chasing after the voices of the spirited young man and woman also resounded. The owner of that roar was a kind of huge lizard called a Barua Lizard. It didn't have any particular special attack, but it had a massive body, high strength, and hard skin, which meant the boy and the girl were being pursued by a fairly powerful monster.
The Barua Lizard didn't seem to be as impeded by the many trees as they would have hoped, so the distance between them was gradually shrinking. After the boy looked back and confirmed the distance was narrowing, he called out to the girl.
「All right. I will stop its movement. So you properly bring it down.」
「Roger.」
The boy wanted to tut at the girl's cheerful voice completely lacking remorse, but he suppressed the emotion and took a small black ball out of his chest pocket.
「It's expensive, but take this!」
While saying that, the boy threw the black ball. Then the ball exploded at the tip of the Barua Lizard's nose. It was a magical tool that used a Fire spell.
「Gyaa!?」
The Barua Lizard immediately tumbled and writhed in pain at the sudden attack. The girl ran off with that gap, and the boy took two elongated throwing spears from his back and set up facing the Barua Lizard.
(If that charge crashes into me I'll be finished. This is the only way to stop it)
While thinking that, the boy took a stance to throw the spears. The Barua Lizard looked at him and was about to start running towards him while ignoring its wounded nose, but the boy's attack was slightly faster.
「Thunder God Spear!」
The boy forcefully threw the spears clad in lightning with the ability that his father taught him. The spears pierced the Barua Lizard's chest, and it screamed. But its screaming stopped at once, and its body didn't collapse as the lizard turned a gaze full of hostility towards the boy.
(The location was bad and the power was incomplete. So I'm still this much worse than my father?)
While thinking about his beloved father, the boy was ashamed of his lack of skill. But that was only for a moment. Right now he had to defeat the enemy in front of him. The boy took another spear from his back and prepared himself.
This was a dragonbone spear, a powerful weapon that was repaired after his grandfather once destroyed it. It was loaded with the unique dragon power Dragon Spirit, which allowed it to damage even incorporeal monsters.
It was excessively powerful for him, but his grandfather passed it down for when he started traveling as an adventurer. Since then, they hadn't met, but the boy looked up to his grandfather.
「Uoooooooo!!」
And the boy leapt towards the Barua Lizard and attacked. The continuous sharp thrusts caused the Barua Lizard to scream, but it immediately spun and swung its tail.
「Dangerous!」
The boy dodged it with a crouch, but he couldn't dodge the subsequent attack from its hind leg. He was barely able to prevent a direct hit with his spear, but the power of the kick blew the boy away, and his back hit a large tree behind him.
「Gua」
「Guruuaaaaaaa!!!」
The Barua Lizard saw that and started to run. Its mouth was opened wide. It probably intended to swallow him whole.
「Emily!」
The boy's desperate cry was responded to with an「I'm here,」and an arrow clad in Wind entered the Barua Lizard's mouth. It penetrated the monster's throat, and it was instantly killed.
「Terrifying as ever.」
The boy reflexively shivered while thinking about the girl 50 meters behind him. His younger sister Emily Barnes' sorcery bow was a weapon that increased the power of the spell it was loaded with, just like a Magic Swordsman's spell sword. From the start his sister had high magical power, but she decided to be a sorcery bow user instead of a magician in order to become a knight of Hyvern.
And the boy Lyle Barnes, Emily's older brother, used spears. His grandfather was an active adventurer famously known as the Fang Spear Soldier, and his father was a high-ranking knight working as one of Hyvern's generals. Lyle and Emily decided to become independent as adventurers after Emily graduated three years ago. This was a common practice for the militant upper classes on this continent.
Although they could have immediately joined the knight order after graduating from school, it was better to increase their power and gain achievements as adventurers until they were really considered adults at twenty before they joined the knight order. But they enjoyed their adventurer life, so they weren't in any rush to return home.
And so right now the siblings Lyle and Emily Barnes were in the middle of a quest in the Ergos Forest in northern Hyvern.
「Let's see. Barubaru Dragonfly wings, Rinba Butterfly scales, and with this Barua Lizard's stomach we should be done with the request, right?」
Emily asked while checking the contents of her rucksack.
「That's right. But this stomach smells awful.」
「Ah, don't get within 3 meters of me with that, older brother.」
「You're awful.」
「After all, if the smell sticks to me I might be disliked by Naoki, right?」
「That guy wouldn't dislike you because of something like that.」
「But I'm still worried about even a little bit of the smell remaining. Shira only uses Mildina's perfume when Naoki is with us. She's obviously aiming for him.」
The older brother wryly smiled as his sister puffed out her cheeks. Although he understood she had many rivals, his sister only ever thinking and talking about Naoki made him jealous as an older brother.
「Oh well. I wonder what that guy is doing right now.」
「Well. There's no way he's not coming back because the Queen fell in love with him, right?」
Lyle laughed at his sister's worry.
「You're too worried. She is 40 years old and has a child. Although I've heard she's very beautiful.」
「Oo, my older brother is a lecher.」
「There was nothing lecherous about what I said! Hey now.」
Lyle raised his voice after Emily's reproachful words, but her imagination was working too hard for her to worry about it.
「Naoki is cool, so he might be liked by a woman with a child. The prince might already be calling Naoki Papa, don't you think?」
(I doubt it, but I can't say no for certain)
He had that feeling after seeing how female innkeepers acted around Naoki. It seemed Naoki's mature atmosphere made him popular with older women. Him actually being young just made them want to take care of him.
「Besides, he might have been seduced. Couldn't he have been caught by an evil woman? Ah jeez, I should have gone with him.」
His younger sister shouted「Kii!」as Lyle quickly put the material away to stop her from talking about unrelated matters, and they were thus prepared to return.
She and Lyle had been in a party with the subject of their conversation, Naoki, until a little while ago. After they met two years ago they had continually been together, and he was strong and gentle, although harsh at times, and Lyle considered him both a close friend and a rival, even though he thought「I can't win」whenever he competed with him. His younger sister Emily also fell deeply in love with Naoki and Lyle thought「Just go out already,」but the two people guessed that Naoki had a lover already from his atmosphere. Emily seemed to be hesitating because she felt that she wasn't as important to Naoki as that rival.
Although it seemed that Naoki was somehow blown from his hometown and dropped into Hyvern two years ago. It seemed he was always looking for a way to return, but he rarely left Hyvern, and although he readily explained his circumstances to the Barnes siblings, they didn't really understand. Then one and a half months ago, Naoki left on a journey to the Minshiana Kingdom while saying「I might have found an acquaintance.」
Lyle and Emily intended to go with him, but Naoki insisted on going alone because it was a personal matter. It seemed like he insisted because there was the possibility of being separated from the country for a long time and he didn't want to keep them too far from their parents, but both Lyle and Emily regretted not going with him. They were sloppy without Naoki. In fact, that wasn't just on an emotional level, but they could also only do requests one rank lower than before, and it felt like the other guild groups didn't think they were sufficiently capable without Naoki.
「I hope that Naoki returns soon.」
Naoki said that he would come back once his purpose was accomplished. But a month and a half had already passed without him returning. It might be rough going, and it was also possible he was wrapped up in some kind of trouble.
「Me too.」
Lyle agreed with Emily's words.
「But looking at how things have been going, we might have been depending too much on Naoki.」
When the two of them tried to do quests it felt almost impossible. It became a burden without Naoki. That meant that Naoki had been assisting with that burden so far.
「Yeah. That may be so.」
Emily agreed.
「We must do what we can do until he comes back.」
「Yeah. Let's surprise Naoki once he returns.」
The siblings smiled as they said similar things.
Then the two sorted the monster materials they had obtained and put their respective luggage on their backs before starting their return journey.
◎ Olboa City, Adventurers Guild Adjacent Tavern
「Hmm. Was the Barua Lizard's skin worth more than the quest reward?」
「It's because you shot through just the right place. The condition was good, so Fram-san was also pleased.」
Fram was the name of the Adventurers Guild receptionist in Olboa City. After Lyle's words, Emily said「You were obviously drooling over her」and Lyle replied「Are you serious?」It seemed he was self-aware, so there was no point in arguing.
「Well, maybe it's a good thing that my feelings were transmitted.」
「Dream on.」
The sister's evaluation of her brother was harsh. His looks weren't bad, but parts of her older brother still stunk of a kid, and Emily thought his type wasn't popular with women. Of course, her standard was Naoki.
「But we also need to replenish the Magic Steel arrows, so I think it's lucky we made a lot of money here.」
「Yeah. My equipment is also gradually getting worn out, so it will soon be time to change.」
Lyle and Emily were talking about such things while they headed for the Adventurers Guild adjacent tavern, and adventurers were talking noisily as they entered.
「I wonder what the commotion's about?」
「Isn't it the Grand Tournament? I heard that it finally happened.」
Lyle answered Emily's question. Lyle headed for an open table.
Emily asked what they were talking about, and as expected the adventurers were talking about the Grand Tournament. About how there were fewer veterans, about how they should have entered, topics were swapping one after the other, including the story of the ever-victorious summoning master Karti being defeated by the Ogre Killing Princess.
「Hmm.」
「Any interesting stories?」
Lyle had previously gone to sit at a table and asked that when he saw that Emily looked very interested.
「Ah, it seems the rumored Ogre Killing Princess appeared in the Grand Tournament.」
「Seriously? Or rather, she really exists.」
The Ogre Killing Princess was a newbie adventurer that had quickly become the topic of conversations. She killed Ogres in one kick, massacred a bandit group, beat the guardian beast to death, the violent subjects were inexhaustible, but the other stories like her digging a hole and a hot bath appearing or roaring around on a horse in a cavern were even more difficult to understand.
「Mm, I wonder if grandpa is with her?」
「If the rumors are true.」
The Barnes siblings couldn't treat the Ogre Killing Princess as somebody else's problem, since it was rumored that their grandfather, the Fang Spear Soldier Jinrai Barnes, was also a member of the White Party that she was leading. Although recently there were also rumors spreading that he was leading a harem party full of girls, but they thought that was a hoax that was being spread because of somebody's grudge. Even though they knew their grandfather was seeking strong people, they didn't think he would travel with such a brutal person.
「What kind of person is she supposed to be?」
「Apparently she's an outrageous monster woman. Look out, you'll have to polish a door~wasn't it something like that?」
Lyle jumped after Emily's words and looked around to confirm that nobody had reacted before he whispered to her.
「Hey, don't just casually say that. Those Outer guys are seriously sensitive about that.」
「I know, I know.」
She said, then muttered「Being scared of that…」and Lyle frowned and said「Good grief.」
「Hey!」
The abrupt voice made the siblings jump, and they both turned towards the source.
「What is it?」
It was York, an adventurer they were friendly with. He felt like the two people's surprised reactions were somewhat odd.
「Don't startle us.」
「Since your face is just that scary.」
York was visibly upset by the two people's words. Looking tough was advantageous for an adventurer, but it was also a burden on the gentle York.
「Don't say such hurtful things. Even though I brought a story about Naoki at great pains.」
「Is that true?」「Really?」
The siblings simultaneously leaned forward after York's words. York was surprised by that reaction, but he started talking about what he knew.
「Ye, yeah. I heard he participated in the Grand Tournament.」
Lyle had a「Seriously?」expression after those words. The three of them had planned to participate in the Grand Tournament this year as well, but it had been postponed. Since the worries about a war between Minshiana and Soldard continued, they couldn't help but give up because the competition timing was unknowable.
「What the heck. Even though I would have come if he had invited me.」
York looked like he wanted to say that that was absurd. Communication technology hadn't developed to that extent in this world. There was the Flying Dragon Service and a few ways to communicate with magic, but there weren't private means accessible to Lyle that would have been able to inform him about the opening of the tournament.
「Maybe he won the championship?」
Emily asked with a slightly excited expression, but York shook his head.
「No, it seems that he lost on the second day of the final selection.」
After York said that, the siblings' shoulders dropped. After seeing the discouraged siblings, York followed up by starting「But.」
「Well, it looks like his opponent finished in second place. That foe also easily beat the Axe Devil. The story is that Naoki put up a fierce struggle against that opponent.」
Lyle raised his face after those words.
「Is that so? Well then, it couldn't be helped.」
The Axe Devil was an adventurer that was active around the Jagar Republic, but he was also a frequent participant of the Resurrect Grand Tournament. Lyle had also seen his axe skills, but he had no idea how he could defend against that brutal axe handling. A strong warrior that could lightly defeat that level of opponent would certainly be a difficult foe for Naoki.
「But Naoki is probably feeling depressed, don't you think?」
Emily said while looking anxious.
「That guy is really a sore loser.」
Lyle agreed with his sister's words. Naoki was gifted, but he was also a hard worker that didn't rest on his laurels. If there was a wall he couldn't overcome, he would work hard to surpass that limit. But if he felt depressed he felt depressed, so he would probably be withdrawn for a while.
「I'll have to comfort him once he returns.」
「That's right.」
Lyle only lightly agreed with his sister's worried words for Naoki. He wondered if it might be better to leave it alone until he brought it up himself, but he had a hunch that Naoki would stay silent rather than open his heart and speak about it.
「Mm. Older brother, if Naoki is returning, wouldn't it be better for us to return to the capital at once?」
「Yeah. Though it's a bit scary meeting with father.」
Lyle nodded and responded to Emily's opinion.
「You're already going?」
York seemed to be lonely as he said that, but he also understood that Lyle and Emily's feelings wouldn't change. York understood that the three were only a complete set when they were all together. The siblings replied「Sorry」「Yeah, that's right,」and York had an it can't be helped expression.
「Well, please say hello for me once you meet that guy.」
The siblings said「Of course」「Leave it to us」after he spoke, and he watched them dash out of the tavern even though they only recently arrived.
After he could no longer see their retreating figures, York said「Ah!」to himself.
「Come to think of it, I forgot to tell them that Naoki might be traveling with the Ogre Killing Princess.」
Although York thought it was probably just a rumor, and he didn't feel like going after them just for that, so he immediately returned to a seat while saying「Well, it should be fine?」He had a job coming up soon. He didn't have very long to relax.
Thus, the siblings Lyle and Emily Barnes decided to head to Hyvern's capital. But they didn't know yet. What might happen when they reunited with Naoki?
The two people had no way of knowing at that time that they might reunite with their grandfather, meet the Ogre Killing Princess, that their grandfather and father might meet, or that they might get caught up in a quarrel between their grandmother and grandfather.
◎ Hyvern, Northern Territory, Ergos Forest
「Emily. Really, this is why I said to start attacking quickly.」
「Sorry, older brother.」
「Guruaaaaaa」
The sound of many trees creaking as they toppled echoed in the Ergos Forest.
The roar of something chasing after the voices of the spirited young man and woman also resounded. The owner of that roar was a kind of huge lizard called a Barua Lizard. It didn't have any particular special attack, but it had a massive body, high strength, and hard skin, which meant the boy and the girl were being pursued by a fairly powerful monster.
The Barua Lizard didn't seem to be as impeded by the many trees as they would have hoped, so the distance between them was gradually shrinking. After the boy looked back and confirmed the distance was narrowing, he called out to the girl.
「All right. I will stop its movement. So you properly bring it down.」
「Roger.」
The boy wanted to tut at the girl's cheerful voice completely lacking remorse, but he suppressed the emotion and took a small black ball out of his chest pocket.
「It's expensive, but take this!」
While saying that, the boy threw the black ball. Then the ball exploded at the tip of the Barua Lizard's nose. It was a magical tool that used a Fire spell.
「Gyaa!?」
The Barua Lizard immediately tumbled and writhed in pain at the sudden attack. The girl ran off with that gap, and the boy took two elongated throwing spears from his back and set up facing the Barua Lizard.
(If that charge crashes into me I'll be finished. This is the only way to stop it)
While thinking that, the boy took a stance to throw the spears. The Barua Lizard looked at him and was about to start running towards him while ignoring its wounded nose, but the boy's attack was slightly faster.
「Thunder God Spear!」
The boy forcefully threw the spears clad in lightning with the ability that his father taught him. The spears pierced the Barua Lizard's chest, and it screamed. But its screaming stopped at once, and its body didn't collapse as the lizard turned a gaze full of hostility towards the boy.
(The location was bad and the power was incomplete. So I'm still this much worse than my father?)
While thinking about his beloved father, the boy was ashamed of his lack of skill. But that was only for a moment. Right now he had to defeat the enemy in front of him. The boy took another spear from his back and prepared himself.
This was a dragonbone spear, a powerful weapon that was repaired after his grandfather once destroyed it. It was loaded with the unique dragon power Dragon Spirit, which allowed it to damage even incorporeal monsters.
It was excessively powerful for him, but his grandfather passed it down for when he started traveling as an adventurer. Since then, they hadn't met, but the boy looked up to his grandfather.
「Uoooooooo!!」
And the boy leapt towards the Barua Lizard and attacked. The continuous sharp thrusts caused the Barua Lizard to scream, but it immediately spun and swung its tail.
「Dangerous!」
The boy dodged it with a crouch, but he couldn't dodge the subsequent attack from its hind leg. He was barely able to prevent a direct hit with his spear, but the power of the kick blew the boy away, and his back hit a large tree behind him.
「Gua」
「Guruuaaaaaaa!!!」
The Barua Lizard saw that and started to run. Its mouth was opened wide. It probably intended to swallow him whole.
「Emily!」
The boy's desperate cry was responded to with an「I'm here,」and an arrow clad in Wind entered the Barua Lizard's mouth. It penetrated the monster's throat, and it was instantly killed.
「Terrifying as ever.」
The boy reflexively shivered while thinking about the girl 50 meters behind him. His younger sister Emily Barnes' sorcery bow was a weapon that increased the power of the spell it was loaded with, just like a Magic Swordsman's spell sword. From the start his sister had high magical power, but she decided to be a sorcery bow user instead of a magician in order to become a knight of Hyvern.
And the boy Lyle Barnes, Emily's older brother, used spears. His grandfather was an active adventurer famously known as the Fang Spear Soldier, and his father was a high-ranking knight working as one of Hyvern's generals. Lyle and Emily decided to become independent as adventurers after Emily graduated three years ago. This was a common practice for the militant upper classes on this continent.
Although they could have immediately joined the knight order after graduating from school, it was better to increase their power and gain achievements as adventurers until they were really considered adults at twenty before they joined the knight order. But they enjoyed their adventurer life, so they weren't in any rush to return home.
And so right now the siblings Lyle and Emily Barnes were in the middle of a quest in the Ergos Forest in northern Hyvern.
「Let's see. Barubaru Dragonfly wings, Rinba Butterfly scales, and with this Barua Lizard's stomach we should be done with the request, right?」
Emily asked while checking the contents of her rucksack.
「That's right. But this stomach smells awful.」
「Ah, don't get within 3 meters of me with that, older brother.」
「You're awful.」
「After all, if the smell sticks to me I might be disliked by Naoki, right?」
「That guy wouldn't dislike you because of something like that.」
「But I'm still worried about even a little bit of the smell remaining. Shira only uses Mildina's perfume when Naoki is with us. She's obviously aiming for him.」
The older brother wryly smiled as his sister puffed out her cheeks. Although he understood she had many rivals, his sister only ever thinking and talking about Naoki made him jealous as an older brother.
「Oh well. I wonder what that guy is doing right now.」
「Well. There's no way he's not coming back because the Queen fell in love with him, right?」
Lyle laughed at his sister's worry.
「You're too worried. She is 40 years old and has a child. Although I've heard she's very beautiful.」
「Oo, my older brother is a lecher.」
「There was nothing lecherous about what I said! Hey now.」
Lyle raised his voice after Emily's reproachful words, but her imagination was working too hard for her to worry about it.
「Naoki is cool, so he might be liked by a woman with a child. The prince might already be calling Naoki Papa, don't you think?」
(I doubt it, but I can't say no for certain)
He had that feeling after seeing how female innkeepers acted around Naoki. It seemed Naoki's mature atmosphere made him popular with older women. Him actually being young just made them want to take care of him.
「Besides, he might have been seduced. Couldn't he have been caught by an evil woman? Ah jeez, I should have gone with him.」
His younger sister shouted「Kii!」as Lyle quickly put the material away to stop her from talking about unrelated matters, and they were thus prepared to return.
She and Lyle had been in a party with the subject of their conversation, Naoki, until a little while ago. After they met two years ago they had continually been together, and he was strong and gentle, although harsh at times, and Lyle considered him both a close friend and a rival, even though he thought「I can't win」whenever he competed with him. His younger sister Emily also fell deeply in love with Naoki and Lyle thought「Just go out already,」but the two people guessed that Naoki had a lover already from his atmosphere. Emily seemed to be hesitating because she felt that she wasn't as important to Naoki as that rival.
Although it seemed that Naoki was somehow blown from his hometown and dropped into Hyvern two years ago. It seemed he was always looking for a way to return, but he rarely left Hyvern, and although he readily explained his circumstances to the Barnes siblings, they didn't really understand. Then one and a half months ago, Naoki left on a journey to the Minshiana Kingdom while saying「I might have found an acquaintance.」
Lyle and Emily intended to go with him, but Naoki insisted on going alone because it was a personal matter. It seemed like he insisted because there was the possibility of being separated from the country for a long time and he didn't want to keep them too far from their parents, but both Lyle and Emily regretted not going with him. They were sloppy without Naoki. In fact, that wasn't just on an emotional level, but they could also only do requests one rank lower than before, and it felt like the other guild groups didn't think they were sufficiently capable without Naoki.
「I hope that Naoki returns soon.」
Naoki said that he would come back once his purpose was accomplished. But a month and a half had already passed without him returning. It might be rough going, and it was also possible he was wrapped up in some kind of trouble.
「Me too.」
Lyle agreed with Emily's words.
「But looking at how things have been going, we might have been depending too much on Naoki.」
When the two of them tried to do quests it felt almost impossible. It became a burden without Naoki. That meant that Naoki had been assisting with that burden so far.
「Yeah. That may be so.」
Emily agreed.
「We must do what we can do until he comes back.」
「Yeah. Let's surprise Naoki once he returns.」
The siblings smiled as they said similar things.
Then the two sorted the monster materials they had obtained and put their respective luggage on their backs before starting their return journey.
◎ Olboa City, Adventurers Guild Adjacent Tavern
「Hmm. Was the Barua Lizard's skin worth more than the quest reward?」
「It's because you shot through just the right place. The condition was good, so Fram-san was also pleased.」
Fram was the name of the Adventurers Guild receptionist in Olboa City. After Lyle's words, Emily said「You were obviously drooling over her」and Lyle replied「Are you serious?」It seemed he was self-aware, so there was no point in arguing.
「Well, maybe it's a good thing that my feelings were transmitted.」
「Dream on.」
The sister's evaluation of her brother was harsh. His looks weren't bad, but parts of her older brother still stunk of a kid, and Emily thought his type wasn't popular with women. Of course, her standard was Naoki.
「But we also need to replenish the Magic Steel arrows, so I think it's lucky we made a lot of money here.」
「Yeah. My equipment is also gradually getting worn out, so it will soon be time to change.」
Lyle and Emily were talking about such things while they headed for the Adventurers Guild adjacent tavern, and adventurers were talking noisily as they entered.
「I wonder what the commotion's about?」
「Isn't it the Grand Tournament? I heard that it finally happened.」
Lyle answered Emily's question. Lyle headed for an open table.
Emily asked what they were talking about, and as expected the adventurers were talking about the Grand Tournament. About how there were fewer veterans, about how they should have entered, topics were swapping one after the other, including the story of the ever-victorious summoning master Karti being defeated by the Ogre Killing Princess.
「Hmm.」
「Any interesting stories?」
Lyle had previously gone to sit at a table and asked that when he saw that Emily looked very interested.
「Ah, it seems the rumored Ogre Killing Princess appeared in the Grand Tournament.」
「Seriously? Or rather, she really exists.」
The Ogre Killing Princess was a newbie adventurer that had quickly become the topic of conversations. She killed Ogres in one kick, massacred a bandit group, beat the guardian beast to death, the violent subjects were inexhaustible, but the other stories like her digging a hole and a hot bath appearing or roaring around on a horse in a cavern were even more difficult to understand.
「Mm, I wonder if grandpa is with her?」
「If the rumors are true.」
The Barnes siblings couldn't treat the Ogre Killing Princess as somebody else's problem, since it was rumored that their grandfather, the Fang Spear Soldier Jinrai Barnes, was also a member of the White Party that she was leading. Although recently there were also rumors spreading that he was leading a harem party full of girls, but they thought that was a hoax that was being spread because of somebody's grudge. Even though they knew their grandfather was seeking strong people, they didn't think he would travel with such a brutal person.
「What kind of person is she supposed to be?」
「Apparently she's an outrageous monster woman. Look out, you'll have to polish a door~wasn't it something like that?」
Lyle jumped after Emily's words and looked around to confirm that nobody had reacted before he whispered to her.
「Hey, don't just casually say that. Those Outer guys are seriously sensitive about that.」
「I know, I know.」
She said, then muttered「Being scared of that…」and Lyle frowned and said「Good grief.」
「Hey!」
The abrupt voice made the siblings jump, and they both turned towards the source.
「What is it?」
It was York, an adventurer they were friendly with. He felt like the two people's surprised reactions were somewhat odd.
「Don't startle us.」
「Since your face is just that scary.」
York was visibly upset by the two people's words. Looking tough was advantageous for an adventurer, but it was also a burden on the gentle York.
「Don't say such hurtful things. Even though I brought a story about Naoki at great pains.」
「Is that true?」「Really?」
The siblings simultaneously leaned forward after York's words. York was surprised by that reaction, but he started talking about what he knew.
「Ye, yeah. I heard he participated in the Grand Tournament.」
Lyle had a「Seriously?」expression after those words. The three of them had planned to participate in the Grand Tournament this year as well, but it had been postponed. Since the worries about a war between Minshiana and Soldard continued, they couldn't help but give up because the competition timing was unknowable.
「What the heck. Even though I would have come if he had invited me.」
York looked like he wanted to say that that was absurd. Communication technology hadn't developed to that extent in this world. There was the Flying Dragon Service and a few ways to communicate with magic, but there weren't private means accessible to Lyle that would have been able to inform him about the opening of the tournament.
「Maybe he won the championship?」
Emily asked with a slightly excited expression, but York shook his head.
「No, it seems that he lost on the second day of the final selection.」
After York said that, the siblings' shoulders dropped. After seeing the discouraged siblings, York followed up by starting「But.」
「Well, it looks like his opponent finished in second place. That foe also easily beat the Axe Devil. The story is that Naoki put up a fierce struggle against that opponent.」
Lyle raised his face after those words.
「Is that so? Well then, it couldn't be helped.」
The Axe Devil was an adventurer that was active around the Jagar Republic, but he was also a frequent participant of the Resurrect Grand Tournament. Lyle had also seen his axe skills, but he had no idea how he could defend against that brutal axe handling. A strong warrior that could lightly defeat that level of opponent would certainly be a difficult foe for Naoki.
「But Naoki is probably feeling depressed, don't you think?」
Emily said while looking anxious.
「That guy is really a sore loser.」
Lyle agreed with his sister's words. Naoki was gifted, but he was also a hard worker that didn't rest on his laurels. If there was a wall he couldn't overcome, he would work hard to surpass that limit. But if he felt depressed he felt depressed, so he would probably be withdrawn for a while.
「I'll have to comfort him once he returns.」
「That's right.」
Lyle only lightly agreed with his sister's worried words for Naoki. He wondered if it might be better to leave it alone until he brought it up himself, but he had a hunch that Naoki would stay silent rather than open his heart and speak about it.
「Mm. Older brother, if Naoki is returning, wouldn't it be better for us to return to the capital at once?」
「Yeah. Though it's a bit scary meeting with father.」
Lyle nodded and responded to Emily's opinion.
「You're already going?」
York seemed to be lonely as he said that, but he also understood that Lyle and Emily's feelings wouldn't change. York understood that the three were only a complete set when they were all together. The siblings replied「Sorry」「Yeah, that's right,」and York had an it can't be helped expression.
「Well, please say hello for me once you meet that guy.」
The siblings said「Of course」「Leave it to us」after he spoke, and he watched them dash out of the tavern even though they only recently arrived.
After he could no longer see their retreating figures, York said「Ah!」to himself.
「Come to think of it, I forgot to tell them that Naoki might be traveling with the Ogre Killing Princess.」
Although York thought it was probably just a rumor, and he didn't feel like going after them just for that, so he immediately returned to a seat while saying「Well, it should be fine?」He had a job coming up soon. He didn't have very long to relax.
Thus, the siblings Lyle and Emily Barnes decided to head to Hyvern's capital. But they didn't know yet. What might happen when they reunited with Naoki?
The two people had no way of knowing at that time that they might reunite with their grandfather, meet the Ogre Killing Princess, that their grandfather and father might meet, or that they might get caught up in a quarrel between their grandmother and grandfather.
Thx for the chapter.
ReplyDeleteIts early, but happy new year~
the little sister have potential yandere
ReplyDeletedunno what will happen if she meets kazane
DeleteThanks for the new chapter!
ReplyDelete