We’re on our second day in the mountains. While getting to the mountains was quick, everything slowed down there as it became harder and harder to keep tracking the princess. Not only does she leave fewer traces in this terrain, but this area is also quite inhabited. I’m talking about monsters, of course.

“Kyou-san, heal!”

“Yes, yes, I can see it!”

While defending against three human-sized furry-things, like long-haired bears, I have a hard time not falling off one of the many cliffs. This terrain is the reason why I can’t evade that well, which leads me to tank more attacks than usual.

These creatures are called bearingtons and their blows are quite powerful. Even though they are slow, they have long claws and are nimble climbers. I have a grave disadvantage terrain-wise. Normally, I would just use the superior reach of my spear. However, one misstep and I’ll fall down a cliff and might break my neck! I have to stay on the safe side and can’t use my full physical play.

This means I get covered in blows, strike back, and defeat them with endurance, a real battle of attrition. But it hurts! Even healing magic won’t let all cuts disappear instantly, they merely close and will heal completely in time.

“Hah!” I push one bearington from a cliff, this is the only strategy I can muster, even though I know it’ll be back in a minute. Damn dexterous climbers! Yet it gives me that bit of extra time. I sure wish I could relocate the battlefield, but I have some ‘extra luggage’ to take care of.

It takes like forever, but finally I’m the last one standing. “Phew, I hate these things.” Nonetheless, I cut them up for meat and fur. “At least they’re tasty.”

Kyou-san looks pissed: “Figure a way out to control your damage intake! This doesn’t work out in the long run!”

“Sorry?! Why don’t you try being in the front for a change!?”

“I do what I’m supposed to do! You’re level 39, shouldn’t you out-level them!?”

“I don’t know? They are tough, and I can’t isolate them, because you’re just standing there!”

“If I wouldn’t, you’d die!”

“Do you think I don’t know!?” Getting hurt all the time is pretty unnerving! I don’t have a better strategy, however. Kyou-san is frail after all and needs this sort of protection. Therefore extra luggage. “Phew… just let us keep going.” I’m sick of this, but arguing won’t help.

I guess we’re both a bit strained. For the last two days we’ve done a lot of climbing and fighting enemies, which aren’t even that strong objectively speaking, but very annoying due to their terrain-advantage. Additionally, the only clues we have about the princess are the carcasses she leaves. We already heard that the princess is a powerhouse, but seeing all these dead mobs on the way makes me feel a bit uncomfortable about meeting her.

We are trying to get to one of the summits to get a clear view, maybe even see a campfire at night. I didn’t imagine mountain-climbing would be like this before. We had to turn back several times because of paths leading only to dead-ends. We lack the proper equipment and knowledge to climb most cliffs, and if there is a chasm, we might need hours to get around it.

In the Vulkan-mountains there were trails, so we didn’t need to actually climb much, especially since the ss’rak carried us through most of the rough terrain. In this mountain-range we have to do all of this on our own.

We walk for half an hour in silence, then my [Perception]-ability-enhanced senses finally catches something: “I hear people talking a bit in front… Sounds familiar…”

“Maybe our classmates?”

“Did they already catch up?”

“Already? We lost a lot of time since we’re practically lost here!”

“Hm… I’ll scout ahead.” I use the [Sneak]-skill and [Hide Smell]-skill, just to be sure.

In fact, a hundred meters (330 feet) further are some faceless people. They have to be my classmates! I move up a bit and use [Camouflage]. My skin, hair, and clothes take the color of the rocks around me. It’ll be tough to see me now. At least until I move, but now it’s time to listen.

“We are lost, right?”

“We can climb down any time.”

“The [Track]-skill is quite unreliable, right?”

“It makes tracks easily visible and helps to discern them, but there are very few here.”

Three of my classmates, all girls, are sitting around, having their backpacks, which are their [Inventories], next to them. They are taking a break. If Kyou-san and I continue, we will run into them.

So they’re like us, regularly finding and losing the princess’ tracks. The fact that they’re here only cements that we’re basically lost and most likely moving in circles.

Wait, what do I hear? It’s a group of bearingtons, and they are approaching. Since I hide my smell they’ll definitely attack the group of girls. What should I do?

I know: wait. It doesn’t look like the girls are hearing them and therefore a group of four bearingtons nimbly climbs up the cliff below and attacks the girls. “Bearingtons!”

“Attack!”

In unison, all three of them face off the bearingtons and since they are actually working as a team, they don’t have half as much problem as I’d have, despite my probably much higher level. Dammit, teamwork!

Well, time to do the deed. I use the [Sneak]-skill to get to the backpacks of the girls—who are too distracted by the bearingtons—and throw all of them down the nearest cliff. You can still see them, but it might take a while to get them back. Then I return to my hiding place.

After the battle, the three of them return and their reaction is just gold: “Ah! Our backpacks! Where are they!?”

“I found them! How could they fell off the cliff? Was it a monster? What kind of monster would do something like that!?” Me.

“Ah! We can’t just leave it! Our whole equipment is there!”

“Mari, you should climb down!”

“It’s impossible! We need to find a way down!”

“No… please no!”

“But we have no choice… let’s go.”

This was refreshing. With a feeling of fulfillment in my chest, I return to Kyou-san. “Why are you smirking like that?”

“No reason.”

“Creepy.”

―○●○―

The journey continues. “She might have been here. These mobs were cut recently. Maybe two hours ago.” If these cut up cow-sized caterpillar-monsters are the work of the princess, she has an elegant and efficient way of wielding her blade.

“Are the tracks going upwards?”

“No… down the dale. Since we found them again, I suppose princess had the same idea as us and wanted to climb up for a better view, but why would she now go into a dale…”

“Look, Ken! There is a cave down there.”

She’s right. Kyou-san points to a cave-entrance in the dale, which is big enough for horses. Yet why would she… “Right, she’s searching for bandits and demonic threats up here, so a cave like that might be interesting for her.”

“But how can we climb down?”

“Phew… Jumping is out of the question, but if we search for a path, we might lose her again. But we have an advantage, she most likely doesn’t.”

“Which is?”

“[Inventory]. I stored a lot of rope when I was soloing. Time to use it.”

After finding a big rock as an anchor point, we tie three of our ropes together, enough to reach a platform far down the cliff we’re standing on. It’s good that we have our [Attributes], which are far better than our ‘real’ abilities as students.

However, climbing down about 40 meters (about 130 feet) of rope isn’t as easy as we thought at first. You can actually fall quite deep if you mess it up! Yet our bodies just do what we want them to do, even after some muscles begin to ache, which makes this whole process just long and a bit scary.

Sadly we need to leave the rope behind, but this is an investment. From here on it’s much easier to reach the dale and we rush to the cave. Maybe we can pick the rope up again later.

We arrive at the cave’s mouth, but something is strange. We could hear barking, full of pain! I nod to Kyou-san and go in first, only to see carnage.

One person vs. a small army of some strange, small, dog-like humans. Are these kobolds? They’re wielding a wide array of weapons, including stone spears, rusty swords, tattered axes, and bone clubs.

Their enemy is a single blonde girl. Her hair just reaches her shoulders and is held back by a black hairband. Above a black suit, she wears hardened leather armor pieces, covering her chest, arms, and legs. She also wields a long, slender blade.

Her eyes are like embers, and she might be about the same height as me. Even though she doesn’t appear to be muscular, she moves with powerful, yet elegant movements.

By the way, she’s murdering these kobolds all by herself. Seriously, she just chopped up a kobolds hand, caught the junk-axe within, threw it in the same motion into the opposite direction—splitting the head of another kobold into two—while she thrust her sword through the body of a third one.

Everything which enters the reach of her sword is about three times dead. It’s so fast and merciless, it’s actually beautiful.

“I can’t believe it…” Kyou-san mutters. As I suddenly stopped moving, she took a glance by herself and is about as shocked as me. “I feel almost sorry for those guys. See, they try their hardest, I can imagine them screaming ‘For the tribe’ or something stupid like that, but this is…”

“This isn’t a battle. It’s a one-sided massacre.” This blonde whirlwind even evades thrown spears and other missiles, like sling bullets.

I’ve made a decision: I change my class to [Pikeman] and run toward this bloody scene. Then I use [Speedthrust] to kill a kobold from behind! “I’m here to help you!”

The girl gives me first a look and then a beaming smile: “Great!” Her voice is clear and cheerful, while her hands kill two other kobolds in that exact moment: “Please look after my back!”

“Don’t forget me!” Kyou-san enters the fray, passing through the frightened but determined kobolds. “I’m a [Priest], so I can heal everyone!”

“A priest! Now we are invincible!” She looks like she just got well-needed reinforcement. Even though Kyou-san and I only want to get on her good side, since we’re afraid of her!

Only a few minutes later, everything is over. Even without our interference, the battle would’ve ended only about twenty seconds later, I guess. I just got a few kills and Kyou-san did actually nothing. I really did my best to kill as many as possible to increase our XP, but the blonde girl is just too fast at murdering things!

She easily placed 2nd in my list of things I’m most afraid of, only trumped by Muaotef who’s a fucking dragon! This girl doesn’t deal in DPS (damage per second), but in KPS (kills per second)!

“I'd like to thank you for helping me.” The girl bows politely. “I was in deep trouble. I stumbled about these kobolds when I was searching for bandits. However, as they trouble the people as well, I asked them if they could stop that and then it became like this… Ah, where are my manners? My name is Katarine von Stolzherz. What are your names, if I may ask? You don’t seem to be from around here.”

Of course, we’re Asians in a country full of western-like people. Well, these people often had a tinge of fantasy-like elements in their appearance. For example, the princess has eyes which are orange-yellow, just like ember. Her father had these eyes, too. “My name is Katsuragi Kenta. A summoned hero.”

Kyou-san gives me an angry look, but we can’t hide that! We look totally different from the other people. “My name is Momokawa Kyou. Also a hero.”

Surprisingly, the princess takes both of our hands in hers: “This is the first time I meet you, heroes! It’s an honor!” Even though her glove-covered hands are full of blood, her eyes are sparkling and she acts like innocence itself. How can someone be a machine of murder while keeping this kind of purity!?

Ah, she’s faking it. Must be. Well, then I fake it as well. “It’s an honor for us, too, princess.”

“Oh! How do you know?” Princess looks deeply shocked.

“You just told us your name, and even though we’re from another world, we have lived here long enough to at least know that.”

“Oh, I see. Yet I’m not a princess at the moment… well, I am, but I… don’t act as one, right now. Please call me Kati!”

“A nickname? Ka… Kach… Phew…” This is hard to pronounce with a Japanese tongue. It sounds like Kachi.

Fortunately, Kyou-san has an idea. “How about Rine-chan? It’s less obvious if you go undercover.”

“Undercover? This sounds cool!” Ah, her demeanor just slipped! Also, her eyes glimmer dangerously. “I mean, it sounds exciting… wait… cool, since we’re now friends! Yes, we’re friends, and friends don’t need to be overly polite to each other! Great! I have new friends! I’m Rine!”

“You can call me Kyou, Rine-chan. And this one you don’t need to remember.”

“Hey! Kenta! Katsuragi Kenta!”

“Hehe. You’re teasing Kenta, right Kyou? Since you both are close!” Kyou-san is looking at Rine like she just stole her favorite doll and threw it in a pile of shit.

Rine’s smile vanishes from existence and she’s looking at me full of concern while mumbling her words carefully: “Is it just me or did Kyou look at me like I stole her favorite doll and threw it into a pile of dung?”

Are Kyou-san’s looks so expressive that everyone can translate them precisely!? Are they their own form of language!?

“Sorry, Rine-chan.”, Kyou-san’s smile returns: “Ken and I have a bit of a strange relationship, so it was just a bit weird calling us close. But to put it simply: Yes, we’re friends, too.”

I jerk a few times upon hearing these words. I’m about to vomit. I’m sure, Kyou-san’s mouth is tasting like shit right now, but it’s all for our elaborate scheme: Becoming friends with Rine so we can take an opportunity to deliver her back because we’re too afraid to try the direct approach!

“I’m glad!” Rine’s smile returns as if she takes these sickening words to heart.

―○●○―

“Let’s take a break!” Rine acts like she’s overjoyed.

We are… less so. Since Rine is dead-set on finding bandits or demons within the mountains. We backtracked a bit, climbed up our ropes, recovered them, and walked on these endless mountain-trails for two hours! Including several mob-attacks! Yet most of the kills were claimed by the princess who doesn’t even get any XP for this! Frustrating!

I have to keep my cool, this is all for our goals. “Well… I’ll make a fire.” Since we have an [Inventory], we can collect firewood easily on the way. Kyou-san already took out her cooking supplies since she’s a [Cook]. It’s her usual job.

“Rine-chan, could you please look for water? Maybe a stream or such? If you don’t find anything, it’s not too bad. About fifteen minutes sounds right before coming back!”

“Of course!” With gleaming expression, Rine begins her search. Now we’re finally alone.

After confirming Rine was not in hearing range anymore, I begin: “Before we discuss anything, I would like to squeeze a lap-pillow here.”

“*Sigh* Then let me be first.” We’re still grinding WP, so I sit on my knees. Kyou-san lays her head on my lap while sighing. “It’s hard to do these things when that girl is around.”

“Right. How can we even explain the one-hour-hand-holding-session?”

“…doing these things with you is disgusting in itself, but at least nobody is watching, usually.”

“Thank you?” One day I might grow accustomed to this verbal abuse. Or snap and do something I might regret later. Might. “But how should we handle her? Tying her up in her sleep seems to be a lot more reasonable now. Safety first!”

“I could try the sleeping-drug, but it'll be hard to move her while we are in the mountains. We’re attacked too regularly by monsters.”

“Right… But there isn’t much choice, right? Unless we want to wait until we catch a bandit or two who we can deliver to the fortress. This might take too long.” There are also still our classmates to consider, and our own safety, of course, since this girl may stir up more trouble in progress than Kyou-san and I can handle. “Well, for starters, we act like her posse until we find an opportunity. For now, she thinks we help her since we got a serious case of ‘helping people’.”

“I would actually feel bad for tricking her if it weren’t for that reward and the curse-removal.”

“I won’t. She’s just a fake.”

“No, Ken. She’s actually that naive.” Where does that come from? Kyou-san and I know Rine only for few hours. “Maybe she even thinks of us as her first real friends. She wouldn’t survive one day at school without being bullied.”

“Wouldn’t she just break everybody’s bones, then?”

“You have no idea of bullying, right?”

“Only on one end.”

“Ken, you weren’t bullied!”

“I know. Only kinda.”

“No, it’s… just forget it, it’s a waste of time to explain it to you.” Kyou-san turns her head and sinks deeper into my lap. “This makes me sick.” If she nestled her head a bit above, this would be arousing. In actuality, her face is just above my knees to get the least lap possible.

“Well, Rine is able to take care of herself with brutal violence. So-”

“Just forget it! I’m sorry I said something like that! Doing it in your presence was unbelievably stupid of me, so leave it at that!”

“Ah…” She overpowers me verbally in succession, which makes it impossible for me to make a comeback without losing more ground. That’s our socially adept and manipulating class president, alright.

After ten minutes of lap-pillowing we finish our camp preparations, and a tad later, Rine returns: “Sorry, I couldn’t find any water.”

“No problem, Rine-chan. I’m about to cook, so could you help me?”

“Cooking? Gladly!” She looks genuinely happy. I, on the other hand, am about to hurl.

Kyou-san put an iron plate on a frame above the embers of the fire and take out bearington-meat. “I already stewed it and minced it. Since Rine-chan and I became friends, I’ll make steaks today!”

I’m about to complain that Kyou-san has only tried to seriously cook… never! But it’s all part of the befriend-plan, so I can’t make a fuss here.

“Please cut the vegetables, Rine-chan.”

“Leave it to me!”

Rine takes a knife and the way she holds it makes me feel uncomfortable. Kyou-san is looking after the meat, so she can’t see that Rine’s gripping the bulb and the knife like a preschooler. “Wait-”

My warning comes too late, Rine cuts into her finger. “…” Tears are welling into her eyes. “Don’t worry… well, worry about the turnip. I’m sorry. I got my blood on it.”

Kyou-san hastily leaves the meat to look at Rine’s hands. She takes it into her own. “Wait, I’ll heal it right away.”

“No, I’m the one who’s at fault. I can heal it myself.” She winces when Kyou-san fastens her grip.

“You won’t!” She casts the [Heal]-spell and the cut closed, even though it was still there.

“…Kyou… thank you…”

“Don’t worry.”

“…may I ask you something?”

“Yes?”

“Why didn’t you remove your ring for cooking?”

What!? Wait, of course Kyou-san wouldn’t cook with gloves on! How did Rine notice though?

Kyou-san remains cool. “I can’t remove it.”

“…I see, even though I don’t. I make no sense again, right?”

“It’s OK, Rine-chan.”

Strange, wouldn’t everyone think about a wedding ring here? Or are people here not wed with rings? … Should I even care?

After that incident, Kyou-san finishes the cooking on her own. Now we’re eating from wooden bowls, steaks with some grilled vegetables. It’s delicious. Not that I will ever say it.

“It’s good, Kyou! It’s on a par with the cooks at the castle!”

“Well, I do have the [Cook]-class, so it’s natural.”

“[Cook]-class?”

“It’s a hero-thing.”

“Ah, the one where you can pick up skills which normally takes a long time to learn. Like fighting and making Kenta all bulky! So cooking, too? That’s great, I’m jealous!”

No, Rine, I’m jealous of your capacity of killing everything you see without the need of changing class! If I were as strong as you, Muaotef’s chasm wouldn’t be a challenge… except for Muaotef himself. Somehow I can’t picture how even Rine would be able to fight him. Strange, I didn’t see Muaotef do anything, but…

“Why are you shivering, Kenta?”

Suddenly, Rine’s face is right before my eyes. “Woah! Too close!”

“Huh?” Rine cocks her head.

“Back away!”

“Oh. Sorry.” She does as I say. Now I have space to breathe. “Are you alright?”

“It’s nothing. Just a bad memory.” Why isn’t this fear declining?

Kyou-san gives me a knowing glance, but I can see her tremble slightly as well. If this ‘aura of fear’ of Muaotef is really a skill, it’s still working. We were willing to do anything to stay alive when he was before us. We couldn’t even muster the slightest dishonesty, we were basically helpless. I hate thinking back on it.

I try my best not to dwell on it, though it makes the rest of the meal taste dry and stale.

Character-design Katarine von Stolzherz aka Rine