"—you! I can't take this anymore! You have to cooperate too, you know!? You freaking useless garbage!"

"Meh. I'm tired. Wake me up if you need some restraining to the monsters."

So noisy. Had she not know of the importance of a one's energy? I'm sure I have helped plenty enough anyway so what's she blabbering about?

"The heck!? You only casted like 3 spells and all of it is just ice magic that can barely root the goblins! What if we've encountered a group of them!? I won't be able to take them all!"

"Ah, don't you remember of how much I used that day? A pretty hefty cost. Takes a toll on the body so please let me rest."

"You've been saying that for the past 6 days! Enough is enough!"

"But, you know that you're my slave right? I can order you whatever I want. So just diligently follow your orders so your body won't have to unwillingly do it, no?"

"Eh! Such a cruel man like you! To make a girl do all the work...! Don't you have any dignity as a man or is your tool down there got cut off!?"

*Snor*

"Are you serious!?"

I wonder... what are those floating things that I see every time I look at the sky?

♠6 days before♠

"Ugh... My tummy hurts..."

Seems like she's awake.

"Take some medicine and rest for a while. Eat the left over steak if you can."

"Huh...?"

Half-closed eyes, she looks at the surroundings then finally sets her eyes on the medicine on the table right beside the bed.

"...What's this...? Where are we?"

"In an inn. Can't have you being sick, now can't I?"

Glaring at me with suspicion, she returned her gaze at the medicine. Taking a table spoon of the syrup-like medicine and gulping it down into her throat immediately and quickly drinking the water as to not prolong the bad taste of the medicine yet still had left a bitter after taste.

She stuck her tongue in reflex, making an interesting expression all the while.

Soon after that, she took the steak that I left for her on the table and took a large bite, ignoring the sour taste of it.

Kyle had been sleeping for at the very least, 15 hours now and it's a bit worrying. Primarily because I would most likely get accused of having to have poisoned her or something.

To be frank, I sort of missed talking to her while she was sleeping and since she had woken up, I think I'm already sick of talking to her already.

But I guess, I need to get used to it.

"Thinking of something useless again?"

After recovering from the bitter taste by eating the steak, she accused me of such thing. Like always.

"Maybe. Lie and sleep for a bit. I don't want you to be throwing up everywhere we go to."

"I don't need sleep. I'm feeling better now. But for you to watch over me like this is certainly new. Also why are we here and what about your ex comrades and that Sam guy?"

What does she think of me? Some sort of guy who would get bored of a toy from having a repairable damage?

Although calling her a toy is a bit too much. Might call her insultive cat than anything else.

"Of course I will. I can't just leave you alone, you know? I'll need you in the future anyway. Troy and Sara left off a few hours ago, saying that they have something to take care off, whatever that means. But don't worry about the reward, I got it. Totalling about 77 silver coins worth is our funds now."

"Hm... So you've come to realise my true use then? Well then, let us work together in the future. Well anyway. At least we got some use in that little duel you guys did."

A gleeful expression you've just made. Shame that it will disappear soon.

"Hm. You said that you have a hard time hitting moving targets, correct?"

"Yeah."

"So if I restrict their movement then can you perhaps hit them then?"

"Duh. Of course I can do that much."

And with that, a loophole has been realised. Even still, it's pretty obvious anyway.

"Feeling better right? Then why don't we have a quest and stretch our legs a bit?"

"Sounds fun. You’re speaking like someone with responsibility now. Have you changed somehow during that duel? Sorry but I can't seem to remember the events in that duel though so please tell me about it later."

Hm~

♦3 days after♦

"Hey Isaac, I know you're tired and all but could you at least help me out a bit here? Just stopping their movement and me doing all the work very inefficient, you know? How about after stopping their movement, you go take out some of the ones you've used your spell too."

"Sorry, but I can't afford to use anymore unnecessary spells from now on. I've explained to you that in currently have a mana exhaustion right now right?"

"Yeah. You say that but you can obviously walk normally. Plus, don't mana exhaustion only last for like 12 hours? At the most a day and a half and clearly, it had been 3 days after that duel."

"Yeah... But I've used so much on that day. You can find Troy and Sara and they'll tell you just how vast my spell was so for me to get an ordinary mana exhaustion from that is illogical."

"Huh...? Are you stupid or something? I've talked to certain medical experts around the kingdom and they all say that mana exhaustion always only last for at most, half a—"

"H-hey! Stop talking or you might get attacked by the wolves while your back is turned."

"Ugh..."

Phew... That was a close one.

Truth be told, I'm not experiencing mana exhaustion right now or before. I only suffered from painful headaches that day. That's all.

Well, it's not like I have any obligation to tell her.

So for the past few days, we've been doing easy quests to earn a little bit of money. 50 to 70 silver per quest mind you.

Well, I shouldn't say "we" though as the most of the credit hours to Kyle here after all. I'm just the one who stops their movement so that she can hit them. Actually, aren't I contributing enough? Of course I am. So I guess using we isn't that much of a lie then.

Mostly, these quests are just extermination quests and the left over bodies of the animals and monsters that we've killed aren't really needed so we just feed it to my dragon.

And with, he isn't thin anymore to the point that the bones are apparent!

And as always, we are in the plains. The plains are close to a small village outside the kingdom but affiliated with the kingdom nonetheless so they had the right to request for a quest if needed.

Well, all their quest is for beginners so it's a good thing for us. After all, I've only started adventuring legitimately for a week and half. I think Kyle is like that too.

And speaking of Kyle, looks like she’s done finishing all the wolves. And like that, we were notified that we finished the quest and are needed to claim the reward at the adventurers’ guild.

"Nice job for today. We did it quite quickly. Let's head home for now and rest."

Kyle panting lightly from having to fire continues shots of arrow for 30 minutes, for some reason, has such a dissatisfied look on her face...

"By we, you mean just me, right? After all, I had done almost all of the work again this time."

"Oh? But you wouldn't be able to do most of the job if it weren't for me. After all you seem to lack the intuition of judging the speed and distance of the target."

"But at least help a little. Sooner or later, I'm going to get tired of this."

Hm?

♣ Present♣

"For Christ's sake, help me out!"

"Who the heck is Christ? Also, I stopped their movement, didn't I? I'm sure you can hit them with that much."

"You freaking useless magician! The ice thawed! Obviously they can get free from that!"

"Oh! Did you know that there are cases where goblins rape people? Specifically women and weirdly enough, children too?"

"W-what!? Are you telling me to get raped by these goblins!? Is that why you told me this!?"

"They can't do that, don't worry. They're lesser goblins that can hardly carry sticks. I'm sure you can do it. Even without my help."

"You know why this is requested, smart*ss!? It's because this lesser goblins has large numbers! So you think I can handle that!? 60 lesser goblins on my own!? 60 lesser goblins can raid a small village, you know!?"

"*Yawn* hey my child, would you like to eat the meat of those goblins that big sister here killed?"

"Isaac!!!"

Noisy... I'm not talking to you, you know?

"Mruuuu! Mruuuu!"

Ho ho~ his voice is back! Ha! So feeding him random stuff from dead monsters and animals we've killed is actually the way to go! At first, I thought that he might get infection from the raw meat so that's why I had only gave him cooked food in the past with far lesser quantity. To think that dragons eat anything is certainly something to be learned.

To why I didn't know that in the first place is because nobody knew since dragons are so rare and all.

"Eek! They're close! Help me!"

Ah...

When I actually paid attention to her situation, I see why she's being so desperate for help...

The lesser goblins are like toddlers in both height and strength. Although with numbers, they pose a threat. And in our situation, these goblins isn't like toddlers in my eyes but instead are ants. If you were to look at this scene from a higher vantage point, the lesser goblins would look like tiny green ants swarming towards a point in a ground and that point would be Kyle.

Ha... I guess I have no choice...

Although taking out these number of goblins will take a large amount of mana so...

Hm? Looks like Kyle is running straight towards me.

"Isaac!!! You useless magician! Do something! Like the thing that you did a week ago in that duel! Do it again to these goblins! Their grip is dry and rough! It's making me uncomfortable! Waaah!!!"

My... Talk about running like a freaking cheetah. Can't believe she can run that fast...

Woah, woah! You're too fast! Don't leap towards me you idiot!!!

"Do something to them or I might get raped!"

"Alright! Fine! Don't hold me too hard, it hurts...!"

Ha... I initially thought that this quest would just be simply waiting for a few groups of goblins coming out of the forest but I didn't expect a freaking nest worth of them would come out...

And thus, I created water below them and froze it to stop their tracks. They struggle to get out of the ice but tried in vain. Next, from the icy ground came shards of sharp ice, shooting from the bottom. Screeching of pain from the goblins makes one's ear bleed. Like scratching fingernails on a chalkboard, the sound resonated surely a couple hundred meters away.

Eventually, these ear tearing scream died down as the last one of those troublesome lesser goblins had let out their last screams before falling into deep slumber. And what I mean by deep slumber is that they died. Died a horrible death because they forced me to cast some hefty costing spells.

Now that that's down, Kyle had let go of me and let out a heavy sigh.

So it begins... Me getting insulted again, I mean.

"If you would just have helped me and not laze around like some koala with no strength to even move a finger then things should have been better."

Didn't I helped in this one? Like did most of the work?

"What do you mean by better? Aren't you not doing your best? If you could just shoot the ones I've stopped then things would have definitely turned for the better. And from the looks of it, you've just complained the whole time."

Really... To accuse me of being no help at all. Hadn't I been the one stopping their movement because she can't hit them if they're moving?

"Yeah, sure. Maybe if I did my best, it would end better but for you to be the one saying that. Even if you're the one stopping their movement, having an incredibly large amount of targets, I can't simple take them all down, now can't I? And as for you, to be so cheap with your spells like mana is made of gold or something...! You're freaking useless in quests!"

I could feel her grip getting tense without even looking at it.

"... Useless? Have you forgotten of what I just did just now? I annihilated them in one fell swoop. The kind of combination of spells isn't all easy to cast as you might think."

She grinded her teeth so hard that I can imagine hearing her teeth scraping with each other.

Ugh... Freaking annoying... For her be complaining even though I had helped plentily. Isn't she being selfish?

"... But then again, this wouldn't have happened if you just helped me like a real teammate would. I had imagined myself from coming into this world to be doing incredibly quests with teammates whom I can call as a family. To fight side by side, helping each other out and having a great synergy. Like my friends in the games I've played... But this!? This is not what I signed up for!"

"Huh!? So now you’re saying that weird stuff again? Have you eaten that mushroom again for you to think of yourself as some summoned hero or something? Let me get something straight. From one, do you really think that we can get a great synergy from you being an incompetent archer? For you to not even hit moving targets is an incredible handicap. The best synergy we could get is by me freezing them and you hitting them. Simple isn't it? Yet you can't seem to do your part."

"Even so! Since you're my comrade, shouldn't you take my handicap into account and come up with a strategy or something so that we could somehow complement each other’s style of attack? You're a magician, right? Since you are a magician, shouldn't you be the one to be the smarter end around here?"

"So you're telling me that I should be the one to be adapting to your incompetence? And aren't you an archer? Shouldn't an archer have great observational skills?"

"Yes! And it's not like you're the only one adapting. I too have to adapt to your lazy crap and I have to beg for your help every darn time that I need one when you should've done it yourself without any one telling you! Rather than me not doing my part, maybe it's actually you!"

"Pfft! I can't just go on and cast unnecessary spells, it's a waste of freaking mana! And me being lazy? Why don't you look at yourself? Since you are an archer, of course you have a great observational skills but look on what you use that skill for most of the time. You just bring up every mistake that I had done and insult me for it. What an effective use for such a skill like that. Very useful."

"Oh? But look who's the idiot whom should've the brains here but always does such idiotic things that would've been prevented so easily if you were to just think things through, you know!? And you saying that I only use my skill to insult you? Have you forgotten that dungeon quest I mostly did? Didn't I just saved our lives from falling into a pit of lave simply because I have such a good observation skill? Or did your brain just melted and had forgotten about it?"

This piece of...!

"You're ungrateful, you know that? If it wasn't for me, we would be soaking wet from all the rain in these last couple of days and haven't I been the one taking responsibility for the both of us? Actually, you should be glad that I didn't use your slave contract all that much. If I wanted it, I could've done cruel things to you right now."

She's ticking me off...!

"...Ah... so you think of yourself as someone greater than me? You think you're greater than me just because you have just mastered all of the basic spell and can do something like what you did last week...? I may not be at that level of strength but do know this... I have been caring for myself my entire life! Don't you think for a second that I'm depending on you on this! I only joined you because that higher being had told me that I needed you but from knowing you... I don't need you and your sh*t of an attitude towards your own teammates! With or without your help... I'll kill that bastard myself!!!"

Her face as red as a tomato. She said her thoughts with clear heavy emotions and as well as tears of frustration dripped down her cheeks. And like that, she left off and hurried to the direction of the kingdom.

So she's leaving me, huh? Not like she's any help even. Even without her, I would still be doing the same thing anyway. Doing all the work again in the end so what use is she?

I'll just find more competent comrades then! I don't need her!

Fine leave! Not like your useful yourself!

An archer who can't even hit a moving target? What joke! I'll be surprised as heck if there's even a party that would let her join in! But for me! I have mastered all of the basic spells in existence and can recreate almost every spell! Only idiots wouldn't let me join their party!

Hahahaha!

Haha...

Ha...

I don't need her... It's not like we've met that very long anyway.

So why do I feel melancholic then? No, it's different.

This is loneliness.