Adventurer Town Delhurst, Adventurer’s Guild (Kyle POV)

When Aria and I arrived at the guild again amidst the whispers and stares of the other adventurers, we promptly ignored them and went up to the front counter to register as a party. Well, I was kind of distraught that their fear of Aria spread to me too, but on the bright side, at least everyone cleared out the moment we walked over so we didn’t have to wait in line.

A different receptionist was at the front counter again, and this time it was a young man with brown hair and a stoic expression on his face. I didn’t want any chance for a repeat of what happened last time and it seemed that no matter what I did, the receptionists all had some sort of problem with me anyway, so I just sat back and let Aria talk to the receptionist.

After talking with the receptionist for a while, Aria called me over to the counter while holding her guild card in her hand.

“Ky, show him your card.” (Aria)

I handed the receptionist my shiny new guild card, which was really just a thin piece of metal with my name, adventurer rank, and a small symbol carved into it that identified me as a member of the guild. The symbol itself was imprinted into the metal of the card, but the name was written on normally. My rank, however, would only appear after you injected mana into the guild card, which meant I couldn't use it... but on the bright side, at least the adventurer rank could be updated automatically without having to reissue a new card every time.

Aria handed hers over too and the receptionist channeled a little mana into both of them as a large glowing 'B' and 'F' appeared on Aria's card and my card respectively. He looked at them both for a bit before signing a form and handing our guild cards right back to us.

“Here you go. I’ll have your party officially registered in the records by tomorrow, but if you want to, you can start taking missions now. Just to double check though, are you sure you’re ok with this name for your party, Miss Irisveil?” (Receptionist)

The receptionist gave us a slightly confused look before Aria put away her guild card and answered back.

“Yes.” (Aria)

“Ok then.” (Receptionist)

The receptionist turned around and entered the office in the back as Aria and I walked over to one of the several large bulletin boards on the right side of the guild hall to pick out a quest.

“Alright, we should probably take one of the easier quests first so we can test what our limits are right now.” (Aria)

“Wait, hold up. Before we pick out a quest, what’s our party’s name? The receptionist’s reaction seemed awfully suspicious.” (Kyle)

“Oh, I couldn’t think of one when I was filling out the form, so I just wrote down ‘Party.’ It’s short, simple, and easy. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it before, but it’s starting to grow on me a little.” (Aria)

Aria gave me a proud smile as I sat there dumbfounded for a second before grabbing her by the shoulders with a serious expression on my face while staring straight into her eyes.

“Aria, are you sure you’re ok? I think we should go see a doctor. Your cuts and bruises might have healed, but it looks like I was careless and forgot about the possibility of severe brain damage when I was checking if you were alright. You could’ve hit your head on a rock while we were underwater or something along those lines.” (Kyle)

As I was checking Aria’s head for any bumps, she gave me an angry look before hoisting me up by the collar and gripping the handle of her sword.

“Damn, looks like she’s already too far gone. She can’t even tell the difference between an enemy and an ally anymore!” (Kyle)

“You got a problem with the name I chose? Come on, if you have a problem just say it!” (Aria)

“Nope, no problem at all. In fact, I think it’s a great name for our party. Your naming sense really highlights the, uh... main focus of our party.” (Kyle)

I struck a cutesy smile and tried to act as innocent as I could to escape from Aria’s grasp, but alas, it was to no avail.

After whacking me a couple times as the people in the guild hall ignored my cries for help, Aria finally let me go and turned back to one of the bulletin boards. After a moment of rummaging through the mess of papers pasted on the first bulletin board, she moved onto the second bulletin board, which was way less cluttered. Aria ran her finger over the few postings on the second board before pulling out one for the subjugation of a pack of storm wolves that has apparently been a nuisance for the merchants coming to Delhurst.

Now if you’re wondering what a storm wolf is, well, storm wolves are one of the stronger monsters native to this area that I read about while I was at the library. Apparently, they’re wolf monsters that can discharge electricity. The book said that they were extremely dangerous and that they should only be fought with proper preparation beforehand and a team of several people since they often live in packs.

The quest was labeled an A-rank quest with a recommendation to have at least three A-rank party members or six B-rank party members to have a good chance, and there was a skull mark on the sheet along with a written warning that the size of the storm wolf pack has been reported to have exceeded twenty members.

“Alright, this seems like an easy one. It says here that the den is nearby too, so we can just go there and wipe them out. We might even make it back to town in time for dinner if we’re fast enough.” (Aria)

Aria turned around and started walking towards the receptionist before I ran up and grabbed the sheet of paper from her hands.

“Exactly how is this an easy one!? This is an A-rank quest meant for an elite party, the sheet even has a literal skull mark that’s warning us about the size of the pack and you want to go straight in there alone to slaughter them all!? Aria are you sure you can read? Because if you look at our guild cards, it clearly states that you are a B-rank adventurer, and I’m an F-rank adventurer. At this rate, it looks like I actually will have to drag you to a doctor.” (Kyle)

Aria grabbed the paper back from me, pushed me out of her way, and started walking towards the receptionist’s desk again.

“It’s just killing a couple storm wolves. And just because I’m B-rank doesn’t mean I’m weak enough to only do B-rank quests. Ranks aren’t an absolute indicator of your strength, and I’ve already picked this one out, so I’m going to take this quest, whether or not you decide to come.” (Aria)

Aria went up to the receptionist again to tell him we were taking the quest as I sighed and followed her with a defeated face while muttering to myself.

“I think I’m starting to see why her reputation is so bad... Well, at the very least, we can probably run away if things go wrong...” (Kyle)

Edge of Civilization, Zolran Mountain Range, Storm Wolf Den (Kyle POV)

It was about 2 PM when Aria and I finally arrived at the area around the wolf den. We had just finished our lunch in a nice scenic area nearby a little while ago, and we were now hiding in the bushes near a small stream a few dozen feet away from the wolf den. As we popped our heads out to spy on them, we counted twelve wolves around the entrance to the den, while it looked like the rest of the wolves were inside. I reached into my backpack and pulled out some bait I prepared for the wolves back in town before whispering to Aria.

“Alright, so I’ll try and lure a few wolves over here, you just wait in the bushes and ambush them when they’re distracted. Try and kill them as quickly as possible, because once we lure them over the first time we’ll have to find a new hiding place before the rest of the pack comes.” (Kyle)

“That’ll take way too long. I’ll just go in and kill all the wolves at once. You can guard the entrance and tell me if any other monsters come. Ready?” (Aria)

Aria immediately stood up from the bushes, attracting the attention of the wolves outside the den before sprinting towards the entrance.

“Hey! What are you doing!?” (Kyle)

I stood up from the bushes as well to try and stop her, but it was too late. Aria was about halfway to the entrance of the cave already when a few storm wolves lunged at her. Their light purple fur began to crackle with similarly colored purple electricity before Aria grabbed her greatsword and performed a few large swings. As she was swinging her greatsword around, she channeled her mana to activate a few sword techniques which made the greatsword faintly glow with a hazy white light whenever the blade made contact with a wolf. After several seconds, the only things left outside the entrance to the den were some wolf carcasses and Aria.

Hmm? What’s a sword technique you ask? Well, you see, in this world the existence of magic, and more specifically, body strengthening magic, has allowed warriors to focus more on martial techniques fueled by mana rather than training basic physical strength and pure skill with a weapon.

Since magic can give someone enhanced strength and speed or simulate supernatural phenomena, naturally, the same can be done with weapons and martial techniques. Martial techniques are basically pseudo-enchantments activated by channeling mana into a weapon in a specific way to give them special effects, and usually, they make the weapon glow with a hazy light. Higher level techniques can even imitate the effects of spells, and channeling elemental mana into a sword to do things like having it freeze stuff on contact, giving it an electric current, or shooting out Getsuga Tenshou ripoffs made of flames were quite common among advanced swordsmen. But while it required a decent amount of mana to imitate spells like that, just simple techniques like making the weapon harder, sharper, or faster could be done almost instantly without much mana.

When I was running around a millennium ago, it was the general consensus that early on, while martial techniques were lacking in raw power and versatility compared to magic, they made up for it through lower mana costs and not needing a chant. But when you reached higher levels of power, the strengths and weakness of both magic and martial techniques kind of just blended together.

Magic at higher levels still had long chants to cast and took tons of mana, but with practice and experience, mages could train to omit large portions of chants or even cast magic completely chantlessly, along with making the mana costs more efficient. And as for martial techniques, the more skilled you were at controlling your mana, the stronger the techniques were that you could learn and use.

For example, skilled swordsmen were not only capable of using powerful elemental sword techniques, but also simultaneously using multiple lower level sword techniques, which gave them the versatility that they lacked compared to mages, and those who reached the peak of their unique understanding in the sword, could even alter their souls to be able to use sword truths, the highest level of sword techniques. Sword truths also required a long chant like magic, but they could bend reality to align with an aspect of the user’s understanding of the sword by manipulating the natural laws of Aias. Martial truths were slow and couldn’t be activated simultaneously with other martial techniques, but in exchange, they were just as powerful and impactful in a fight as the highest level spells.

Now, if you’re wondering why I know about all these things regarding high-level magic and swordsmanship... well, if you ever got blasted with as many top-level spells and martial truths as I did, you’d probably start learning things about them as well. And anyway, I used to be a pretty strong swordsman myself. After all, when I was summoned, my options were pretty limited to begin with, and because I was unable to use magic, I was basically forced to learn swordsmanship.

Unfortunately, my skills with the sword are limited to the absolute basics. Since I didn’t have mana when I was summoned, I wasn’t able to use sword techniques at all, so the only thing I could do was hone my pure skill and physical strength. Even after I got mana, I could only ever use one type of magic, and I couldn’t convert mana to a specific element for higher level sword techniques, so I was only able to use the most basic sword techniques, and it was halfway through my journey that I reached my unique understanding of the sword and gained the ability to use my sword truth since the natural laws of Aias only needed pure, non-elemental mana as a catalyst. So, to this day, my entire swordsmanship repertoire has only ever consisted of slashing, stabbing, blocking, the most basic sword techniques, and my sword truth.

Well, nowadays, I can’t even use those simple sword techniques or my sword truth anymore since I’m manaless again, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m honestly sick of the constant fighting and killing I had to experience every day back then. I really don’t care if I’m weak again and I don’t care if I can never use mana again, I kinda just want to live an easy life and find people I enjoy being around. If every day can be a day surrounded by the laughter of people I care about, that’s good enough for me.

Anyway, that’s enough of a tangent. I don’t know how far civilization has advanced in terms of combat or what the average strength of a swordsman is now, but watching Aria literally tear through these storm wolves with ease has made me realize just how strong she really is. Aria is definitely at least on the level of a borderline swordmaster from when I was running around.

I haven’t wielded a sword for over a millennium, but I could tell just by watching how Aria used her sword that she was incredibly skilled. Maybe she’s currently a little inexperienced compared to the top swordsmen, but her basics are extremely solid, with almost no excessive movements, and the faint white glow of her sword that flashes only when making contact with a wolf shows that her intricate control of mana and timing was just barely below the level of a swordmaster.

It would be a completely different story if she was at this level as an old woman who had spent her entire life training in swordsmanship, but from what I’ve heard about her from the residents in Delhurst, and just from looking at Aria herself, she’s only around twenty years old. If the average strength of a swordsman is still around the same level as it was back then, then Aria is definitely a one of a kind genius in swordsmanship.

A moment passed before I came back to my senses, and I started to run after Aria as she dispatched the storm wolves outside with ease, but by the time I reached the entrance to the wolf den, she had already entered.

The sound of electricity crackling, and the death cries of wolves resonated from the inside of the cave, but after a moment the sound started to die down and I saw a large storm wolf with a light wound rush towards the entrance. It had a slightly darker purple for its fur color compared to the other wolves, and it was crackling with a large amount of lightning as it ran straight at me. I started to panic as I heard Aria yell out to me from inside the cave.

“Ky! The big one slipped past me, stop it from escaping!” (Aria)

“Stop it!? What exactly am I supposed to stop it with!?” (Kyle)

In my panic, I lightly tossed the bait I was holding straight at the wolf to try and make it stop, but the only thing it did was hit the wolf in the face then fall to the floor with a plop. In fact, the wolf got even angrier and started running towards me specifically as I froze.

Welp, I gave it my best shot. Sorry Aria, looks like you’ll be solo again after this mission...

The wolf lunged into the air to pounce on me and my eyes widened as I turned around to run away while screaming. When the wolf finally reached me, it’s jaw clamped down on my skull as its electrical discharge also reached its peak and purple lightning continuously pulsed throughout my whole body.

“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…huh?” (Kyle)

My legs finally stopped as my mad dash away from the cave came to an end, and instead I was standing there in the bushes with a bewildered look on my face, a large wolf dangling off my head by its mouth, and a tingly sensation running through my body along with some streaks of purple lightning jumping out from my skin every now and then. After standing there in utter confusion for a second, I promptly came back to my senses, pried the wolf off my head, and held it in my hands as the purple lightning began to die down on the wolf’s fur. The wolf started trying to claw at me and growl as I held it in my hands like it was a newspaper I was reading before Aria came out of the den with her sword covered in blood and yelled out to me.

“Ky, where are you!? I heard screaming!” (Aria)

“Ah. Don't worry, I’m fine.” (Kyle)

I held the still growling wolf over my head and ran over to her as she looked over at me with a baffled expression on her face.

“Uh...what are you doing?” (Aria)

“What? I caught the wolf just like you said.” (Kyle)

I put the wolf down on the ground and held it in place as it yelped in fear and tried its best to escape.

“Alright, quick, I’ll hold it down, try and kill it cleanly in one swing.” (Kyle)

Aria stood there watching me with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

“No, I can see that you caught it. I meant how are you holding it?” (Aria)

“Are you blind? Look, I’m just grabbing it from the sides.” (Kyle)

“But aren’t you getting shocked? I can see the electricity.” (Aria)

“Huh? Well, there’s a bit of a tingly feeling right now, but I can bear it. Just kinda tickles. Anyway, you should kill it soon, the blood’s starting to make it slippery and I don’t know if I can hold it down much longer.” (Kyle)

Aria finally swung her sword and activated another sword skill to decapitate the wolf while she kept staring at me with a perplexed look on her face before I took out a rag to wipe the blood off my hands.

“Whew, that was close. It was struggling pretty hard. But man, you were right, these things were actually a lot weaker than I thought. I was originally scared of them since I‘ve never seen them before and the monster guide at the library said they were dangerous, but it looks like they’re just slightly bigger wolves with some electricity running through them… What? What’s wrong?” (Kyle)

Aria had been staring at me for a while, and as the relieved look on my face morphed into a concerned one, she slowly walked over and poked me in the arm.

The moment her finger came close to my body, a small bolt of purple lightning jumped from my arm to her finger and shocked her as she immediately jumped back with a shriek.

“How is that just a tingly feeling!? Are you sure your nerves haven’t been fried off!?” (Aria)

“Eh? Stop overreacting, it’s just a small current. Can’t be that bad. Look.” (Kyle)

I walked over to the small stream nearby and dipped my hand into the water.

I expected just a bit of static electricity to spread out into the river, but instead, thunder rang out instantly as huge bolts of purple lightning ran across the surface of the water and a small explosion splashed water all over me.

I got up, stood there for a moment in silence, then turned around to Aria while trembling with a scared smile on my face and tears in my eyes as a couple of charred fish floated up to the surface of the water.

“...H-Help... Get me to a doctor! I think I’m gonna explode!” (Kyle)

I took a single step forward and extended my hand shakily towards Aria before she immediately started running for her life in the opposite direction.

“Stop! Get away from me! You’ll kill me too before I can get you to a doctor!” (Aria)

Adventurer Town Delhurst, Calden Inn, Tavern Lobby (Aria POV)

The dazzling purple sunset stretched endlessly across the horizon as I stared blankly out the window. A moment of peace passed by as I sat at the wooden tavern table and silently watched the colors cover the skyline before taking another sip of my ale. After placing my cup down onto the table, my eyes slowly closed and the corners of my mouth edged upwards into a gentle smile as I began to reminisce about the past.

Over a year has passed since I met Ky and it’s finally fall again. The weather has cooled down recently, so the lethargic feeling of summer has started to fade too. And well, as for me, I’m currently sitting in the tavern waiting for Ky to finish making dinner. But honestly, it all feels a little surreal to me.

l still remember the hilarious disaster that was our first mission. After what happened at the wolf den, he chased me around all day, and when he finally caught up to me, there were still sparks of purple lightning leaking out from him, so I had him roll around in the mud and jump into a nearby river again. He finally managed to discharge the rest of the electricity after that, but when he came back to me completely drenched with an exhausted look on his face, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. I don’t know why I found that image of him so funny, but I think it was the first time in years that I laughed so hard.

It was only after sunset that we finally returned to the wolf den to collect the monster cores from the storm wolves, so we ended up camping out, and honestly, the entire quest was a bit of a wreck because of Ky... but in the end, I have to admit, it was kind of fun eating dinner outside and talking by the campfire while we watched the stars light up the night sky.

I opened my eyes and took another sip of my ale before my memories brought me back to another unforgettable scene as I closed my eyes again.

It was the first time we went to go observe the dragon. Ky was silent the whole time we were watching it, but on our way back to Delhurst, he finally asked me why we were watching it. I couldn’t tell him about the Emperor’s test because it was a secret, but the promise with Max was too embarrassing to tell him about, so I just made up a lie.

Ky saw through it instantly though.

So when I finally told him that I needed to kill the dragon for a secret mission so I could reinstate my family as nobles and return to the capital to get married, I was honestly scared. Scared that he would think I was crazy. Scared that he would leave me and I would be alone again.

But, in the end, he just laughed and promised me he would help me no matter how dumb my reasons were... because I was his friend. I only faintly remember what happened after that, but I’m sure that I cried my eyes out when he said that he was my friend.

I think that after being alone for so long, I forgot just what it was like to go on an adventure with another person.

When I was a solo adventurer, missions were just a drag to me. They were just something I had to do because I needed the guild’s data on the dragon. I would go out by myself, complete my mission, and come back to town emotionlessly.

In the back on my head, I always knew the loneliness was there, but I never really minded it because I had already grown used to it. After all, it’s been there since forever.

Even back when I was a kid, every day was just swordsmanship training and learning about the world with my father. My only escape from the loneliness was when occasionally Max and his father would come over to visit. Max and I would always sneak out to play whenever he visited, and every time, we just ran around town for a few hours. Those were the only memories of my childhood where I ever had fun with a friend, but now it’s different.

I finally found someone.

Someone who would talk to me every day.

Someone who would stay by my side, even through all the ups and downs.

Someone who would always support me no matter what.

I finally found another friend.

Maybe I was just starved for companionship this whole time, but honestly, it feels like this past year has been a dream. This is the first time in my life I’ve been so happy.

I can wake up in the morning every day with a smile on my face, eat delicious food three times a day, and go adventuring with Ky.

So he might be weak, he might be manaless, he might be lazy, and he might even be weird sometimes, but Ky’s still my one and only friend.

I took a deep breath as I finally came back to my senses. There were faint noises coming from the tavern kitchen and when I looked over, I saw Ky come out holding a cake in his hands. Our eyes met and I gave him a dazed smile as he called out to the owner, who just returned from the storage room.

“Boss, why did you give her ale again?... You know she gets emotional when she’s drunk, and her tolerance for alcohol is non-existent! Look at her, she’s barely on her second cup and she’s already out of it.” (Kyle)

The owner laughed heartily as he walked over to the table with a few more cups of ale.

“What are you talking about, boy? This is a celebration, and what kind of celebration doesn’t have ale? Anyway, I let you two rent out the tavern for tonight so it’s not like there’s anyone else here. What’s wrong with getting a little drunk?” (Owner)

The inn owner continued laughing and Ky sighed before bringing the cake over and putting it down on the table next to the food and ale in front of me.

“Fine, I guess I’ll let it slide this one time since it’s a party. Looks like she’s already drunk anyway.” (Kyle)

After talking with us for a few minutes, the owner left us alone and Ky sat down with a cup of ale in his hand too. He cleared his throat to get my attention before fidgeting around with an embarrassed look on his face.

“Well, this is kind of embarrassing with only the two of us here, but congratulations Aria. As of today, you’re an official A-rank adventurer.” (Kyle)

“Y-Yeah!” (Aria)

I had a goofy smile on my face as I raised my cup of ale to meet Ky’s in a toast before we both chugged down our drinks.

Adventurer Town Delhurst, Calden Inn, Tavern Lobby (Kyle POV)

It’s about midnight right now, and me and Aria are alone in the tavern lobby. The moment the party started, we devoured dinner and the cake I made then drank our hearts out. Aria passed out on the table a while ago after drinking so much and as for me, well, it’s harder for me to get drunk because of my special physique, so I’m only a little buzzed.

After cleaning up the mess we made, I nudged Aria gently to try and wake her up, but all I got in response was some sleep talking and another goofy smile. I sighed and picked her up off the table as she unconsciously wrapped her arms around my neck.

“...mhmm....Ky…”(Aria)

I quietly carried her up the stairs to her room before trying to lay her down on her bed, but even though I brought her all this way, she wasn’t letting go of me. After a few moments, I finally managed to pry off her arms and place her on the bed. She curled up a little from the cold bed sheets and I was about to leave when I faintly heard her voice.

“... stop… don’t leave…alone...” (Aria)

I think she was having a nightmare, but honestly, I don’t blame her. After all, we just decided a few days ago that we’re going to be fighting the dragon when winter starts this year. And even though we’ve spent the last couple months preparing for this, she’s probably drowning in anxiety.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I still remember when she told me her ridiculous reason for killing the dragon. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the serious look in her eyes as she spilled the beans, and it made me think about the request a certain lazy goddess gave me to ‘spread love around.’

So in the end, I decided to support her quest for love as much as I could. And while I would like to say that it was a selfless act of altruism, honestly it was more for my heart’s sake, than it was for the sake of Eliza’s request or Aria’s marriage.

Aria’s an important person to me. She’s my one and only friend, and I could tell from the day I met her that she was the same as I was before, alone. Seeing her struggle against her loneliness reminded me of myself, and I would like to think that there’s some part of me that doesn’t want to see another person go through what I did.

Even for me, just interacting with her every day reminds me that I’m not alone anymore either… But change will always come in the end... one day, I’ll have to leave her, and she’ll live out the rest of her life without me.

Aria will go on and find happiness without me, she’ll forget about me, and, eventually, she’ll die without me.

It’ll only be after she passes, that I might meet her again, but not as Kyle, her friend. Instead, it’ll be as Kyle, the True God of Death. So if anything, for now, I want to support her. I don’t want her to be chained down by the isolation like I was. I want her to live for herself... and one day, I want to meet her on the other side so she can tell me that she lived a happy life without any regrets.

Maybe it’s selfish of me to say this, but I want her to be happy, so that I can say that, although I’ve killed countless people, at the very, very least, these blood-stained hands have saved one person too.

I opened my eyes and exhaled slowly as I draped a blanket over Aria before sitting down beside her bed and holding her hand in mine. I stared at the moonlight shining in through the gaps in the curtains and took another breath before speaking softly.

“... Everything’s ok... I’m still here… you’re not alone anymore...” (Kyle)

Aria’s sleep talking died down after I sat there gripping her hand gently for a few minutes and her breathing became steady again, but when I tried to let go of her hand, she had a death grip on mine. So I sat there for a while, and I don’t know whether it was the soft sound of her breathing or the alcohol in my system that made me so drowsy, but in the end, I quietly dozed off while holding Aria’s hand.