Chapter 54

I left the room after the discussion with Bordow and saw that Fiona was waiting outside. She seemed a little restless, which was quite the departure from her usually cheerful disposition. She was sitting in a chair with an uneasy expression, but quickly got up when she noticed us.

“Asagi, Daniela!”

“Hey, it’s been a while.”

“It really has! We were both so busy, and we had no time to meet… Wait, nevermind that. Is it true that you killed a wyvern? Are you hurt?”

She began to pat me down as if looking for injuries. I pointed to my right thigh and she tapped it lightly. I nodded to show that there was no pain, and she finally moved away with relief.

“Well, this was just from a broken blade catching me in the leg. I wasn’t hit all that much from the wyvern.”

“Amazing… It is like you came out unscathed.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

That made me sound like some kind of superhero. I walked with Daniela and Fiona and explained the story again. I was out camping and encountered a wyvern. It wasn’t the longest story, and I finished when we reached the entrance.

Entrance… Rex and several other adventurers were gathered near the counter. They looked familiar. They were his other party members. Looking at them again, I got the impression that they were very high level. A strong party. And yet, once Danny, their shield-bearer had gone down, the party had crumbled… The field of battle could be very unpredictable. You really should have a healer with you. Seriously.

“Asagi!”

Rex called me over. I waved at him with one hand and the other members all waved back.

“Ah, I just wanted to thank you. You really helped us back there.”

Said the greatsword-wielder who had been the one to carry Danny during their escape. I accepted his offered hand and shook it.

“I’m glad to see you are well. How is your shield-bearer doing?”

“There’s no need to worry about him. We pooled our money together to put him up in the best hospital in the city. He’s resting nice and easy now, but he’ll be out before you know it.”

“That’s good. Do they accept visitors? I would like to go and see him.”

“Aye, I hoped you would. He said he wanted to thank you. He’ll surely be happy if you visited.”

It was great that he was doing well. I will have to go check up on him later.

After that, I talked with the archer and the other swordsman as well. They both wanted to thank me, which was a little embarrassing. It was just not something that I was used to… But I didn’t hate it either.

After a while, the subject of the reward was brought up.

“The total sum of the reward comes out as one hundred and forty gold pieces and a few silvers. This will be shared between us all. And there is no room for argument on this matter.”

Rex declared. I had no complaints, and so I nodded.

“Asagi, here is your share. Please count it.”

He says as he hands me a leather pouch. It seemed a little heavy to me…and I was surprised when I opened it. This didn’t seem right. It was clearly almost half of it.

“Hey, this…”

“I split it. No arguments.”

He says, and they all laugh. It seemed that they were all in agreement about this. I suppose that for them, words were not enough to express their gratitude. And so I humbly gave in and put the pouch in my bag.

“Alright, I get it. Thanks.”

“Aye, this is how it should be!”

Rex wraps an arm around my shoulder and laughs happily. Ah, yes. I felt like a real adventurer now. It was something I had longed for ever since coming to this world. There were some who laughed and called me Black Rabbit, but there were great adventurers like Gardo and Ness as well. Adventurers who embodied real freedom. I wondered if I would be able to be like them one day.

“Well, we’re off to the bar now. What about you two?”

“Hmm…I was thinking about going to an armor shop after visiting Danny. What about you, Daniela?”

I asked her.

“I do enjoy a bar. However, we should visit this Danny first.”

Oh well, we were supposed to go to the armor shop tomorrow anyway. Also, there was something that I had noticed recently, which is that Daniela was usually hungry whenever she appeared restless. It was especially obvious when she became anxious and her eyes constantly shifted. Which seemed to happen a lot. What an unfortunate beauty.

And so we parted ways with Rex and headed for the hospital that Danny was staying at.

At first, Danny had been taken to the central guardhouse infirmary, as it was an emergency. He had been given emergency treatment there before being transferred to the biggest hospital in Spiris. Apparently, the high-pressure breath that had destroyed his armor left a nasty wound. Danny showed us the wound that had required the attention of a group of the finest physicians to heal. There was a giant burn-like scar that covered most of his stomach. It was incredible that he had survived this…

“It is thanks to you and the others that I am alive. That I am here right now. I cannot thank you enough.”

“You’ve already thanked me enough. You better cover yourself before you catch a cold.”

That didn’t stop him from thanking me repeatedly after that, but I was happy to have been able to see what kind of person he was. It would have made me a little sad if the man I had helped was a jerk. We said goodbye to him and left the hospital.

As we were walking towards the bar where Rex and the others were waiting, Daniela began to talk.

“Asagi, you must try to be less reckless.”

“I know that I should have considered you more… I’ll be careful in the future.”

“We are a party. I will be alone once again if you die. Listening to Bordow and seeing Danny’s wound today has made me think. What would I do if you were no longer here?”

She stared at the ground as she talked. It was true, one misstep could have meant my death. There had been a part of me that had hesitated about jumping into that danger. But hearing Rex’s voice had changed all of that. It wasn’t worth a life. But it was my skill that I had been weighing on the balance. I hadn’t considered that my own life was there as well. Perhaps there was an arrogance in me at the moment, telling me that ‘I could beat.’ That was what Daniela was talking about. The proof was that I had tried to hide the skill from Bordow.

“If you insist on throwing your own life away to help others, I might have to break those legs to stop you. Understand this. You are important.”

“Daniela…”

It almost felt like a confession of sorts, but Daniela’s expression was the peak of seriousness. Likely, her ears were only reddening because she had imagined something horrible.

“I understand. I’ll think more before acting from now on. After all, apparently this body isn’t really mine alone anymore?”

“I, I did not mean it like that!”

Daniela became a little frantic as she pulled out her trusty mask from a pocket. That was too bad. The tips of her ears had become so red.

We were walking side by side. This was a path that we had once walked alone on. But we were walking together now. Having a trustworthy friend by your side was something that could not be compared to that night when I was alone. I thought of what I could do to this dependable and dear friend who supported me as we walked to the bar.