Chapter 33: Arrangements before the Departure

Author’s Note:

We’ve reached 59th place of the daily rankings before I knew it!

Getting within the top 300 was my original goal……

So this is thanks to everyone’s support!

Let’s aim for the top 50s next!

Or rather, I’ll do my best to keep the story from suddenly becoming dull!

It’s the day of the Hobgoblin subjugation.

We ended up going over to old man Gallus’ smithy in order to receive the sheath we ordered.

「Hey, I’ve been waiting. Come and take a look!」

『Ooh, this is my sheath, huh!』

Handed over from old man Gallus was a stylish black leather scabbard. It’s a bit plain, but because the tailoring is good it doesn’t look too shabby.

「Nn, Teacher.」

『Mhm. Then, right away……』

I’m excitedly sheathed into the scabbard as Fran raises the scabbard up to just below my eye-level.

*supo*

『Oーh……』

It’s very calming. It’s roughly the same feeling I got when I fit into the pedestal. Rather, it might have been that the pedestal was designed to be sheath-like to give me peace of mind.

『Aーhh……』

I let out a voice as if I’m in paradise — the kind that one would let out when they take a dip in a hot bath. This really is good… I didn’t know that swords would have such a strong desire to be sheathed, even though I am one.

Moreover, thanks to the skill of old man Gallus it’s a perfect fit. It’s like I’m tucked into my own personal futon, giving me peace of mind. If it’s like this, then I want to be in a sheath all the time… It’s just that relaxing.

『Old man Gallus. You’re the best. Seriously.』

「Gahaha! It’s good that you like it!」

「Teacher, happy.」

『Yeah, this is a great sheath~』

「It’s not just a regular sheath, you know?」

Gallus had an impish smile on his face as he took the sheath in his hand.

「Rather than just making some dull old scabbard, I installed a couple of tricks, you see.」

『What?! Is that true, Lon**rk[1]?!』

「Lon**rk? Who’s that?」

『Ah, excuse me. I was a bit too excited.』

Still, there’re tricks in the sheath? Looking at it, I don’t see anything…

「See these metal fittings here?」

「Mhm.」

「Well, when you remove them like this –」

*paka*

「Opens lengthwise.」

「Ou. Even without using the young miss’ hands, you’ll easily be able to get out of the sheath by using Telekinesis.」

『Hmm? That’s pretty good. It’d also make it easy to get back into the sheath.』

Controlling the metal fittings using Telekinesis, moving in and out of the sheath can be accomplished in no time.

「Convenient.」

「Right? It was a bit tough to find a good way to implement it while keeping its strength, you know?」

Even though he’s a Blacksmith, his leatherworking is first class. As expected from someone with Blacksmithing at the highest level possible.

『Then, may I gratefully accept?』

「Ou. Go for it.」

「Nn.」

Now to go to the meeting place. It seems that everyone who’ll be participating in the subjugation will be gathered in front of the gate. Because the Goblins haven’t started pouring out of the Dungeon just yet, it seems like it’ll be possible to exterminate them without causing any damage to the surroundings.

『I wonder how much damage we’ll be able to do with this many Adventurers…』

There’re about 50 people gathered.

「Not very strong.」

『Donna is the strongest, it seems.』

Donna is Rank C, and is famous as an instructor who trains beginners. There’re other Adventurers of Rank C gathered, but there didn’t seem to be any objections with Donna being the leader.

「Oi, what’s a child doing here?!」

For Fran, however, there seems to be an objection. Well, to a group of Adventurers with their tension rising by the second, having a young girl mix in would undoubtedly thin out the energy in the air, so of course there would be fellows who become irritated.

「What’re you even doing, carrying a sword around like that?」

The source of the voice in this case is — Aren’t you a child as well?! Well, that’s what I’m led to believe judging by the slender youth’s appearance. He’s wearing tidy, fully intact armor, so there’s a clear air of inexperience.

Because G Rank Adventurers shouldn’t be able to participate, he should be F Rank or above…… But he has the appearance of someone who wouldn’t even be able to beat a Goblin. His Status is a little higher than a Goblin’s, but it’s only a slight difference.

Maybe, rather than ranking up through combat, he did things like delivery quests and such, and was allowed to Rank up after doing nothing but baggage-carrying requests. With Sword Arts Lv1, he’s by far the weakest Adventurer I’ve seen so far. To call upon even people like this… There really must not be enough people.

「Exterminating Goblins.」

「Hey, this is an important fight to defend Aressa. Children like you will only get in the way! Only Adventurers with ranks above F can participate anyways, so kids should just go home!」

He makes an unpleasant face as he says so. In response: Fran, who works at her own pace, casually ignores the young man and simply stands absentmindedly.

「Hey, did you hear me?」

「 ? 」

「Tsk. Come on, this isn’t a playground for children. Go play Adventurer over there.」

Most likely, this young man is feeling anxious about the upcoming fight against the Hobgoblins. Well, there statuses will be far superior to his, no doubt. And so, after getting all worked up, his mind is in a strange place. Because of this, he’s started to quarrel with someone who should be his ally.

The reactions of the Adventurers around us vary. To the scene of young people making noise, some are amused, and some are indifferent and ignore the scene. From the side, the scene of children making noise must be quite out of place.

「Nn.」

「Damn it, stop moving out of the way!」

Fran casually avoids the arms of the young man who lets out an irritated shout. Because he only seems to be getting angrier, shouldn’t someone stop him? So I thought, but the surrounding Adventurers don’t look like they’ll step in.

No, there were some who were going to intervene with a shout, but they were stopped by the other Adventurers.

「Oi, leave it alone!」

「Why should I–」

「That one is–」

「The rumor is–」

「Seriously–」

It seems that the tale of the Goblin subjugation from earlier spread throughout the Adventurers in the Guild. However, a guy who turns a deaf ear to the information circulating in the surroundings comes out. It’s here, an Adventurer that will scold the young lad is here!

「Oi, brats! You’ve been noisy for a while now, get it?! Because you’re in the way, get out of here! You can carry our luggage later!」

「I-I’m not a baggage carrier! I’m a fully fledged F Rank Adventurer!」

「As if! At best, you’re an F Rank Adventurer who’s fresh out of Rank G!」

「Regardless, I’m Rank F; therefor, I have the qualifications to participate!」

「Also Rank F.」

「 ? 」

The youth, who looked down on Fran, shows a surprised look. It seems that the fact she’s an official Adventurer caught him off guard.

「Gyahahahahaha! You? An F Rank? If a small fry like you is F Rank, then I’m an A Rank!」

It seems that this guy knows his limits enough not to say S Rank.

「Oi, oi. Are those guys seriously F Rank? Adventurers Ranks sure are easy to advance, huh…」

「Well, they’re just scavengers in the end.」

「I registered just to link my experience in my last job, but it seems like I’ll have an easier time advancing than I thought!」

Are these guys former mercenaries? According to what I’ve heard, there was a war in a neighboring country that ended earlier than expected. Because of that, mercenaries sprung up in vast quantities.

Although, looking at their Status, they don’t amount to much. Even though it’s like that, how can they brag so much?

「Heheheh. You, don’t you have something good theーre?」

「Ohh? That’s a pretty good sword…」

「Hand it over for a little.」

They have sharp eyes to hone in on me. Well, any points they gained were lost when they put their hand forward, though. The deduction mainly came from their lack of risk management abilities.

The young man who was involved with Fran only a moment ago felt a sudden chill and jumped back with goosebumps. It was a wise reaction. He must have sensed the bloodlust that Fran’s giving off. In comparison, the mercenaries continue to reach their arms towards me with vulgar faces.

「Nn–」

「You guys, that’s enough!」

Right before Fran makes her move, Donna steps in between her and the mercenaries… And scolds them.

「Seriously, you damn fools! Don’t cause an unnecessary uproar right before we head out!」

「No, we weren’t……」

As expected, they’re still able to sense the overpowering sense of intimidation given off by Donna. Their faces became stiff.

「No excuses; I saw all of it. Sill, we need to be at our best to exterminate the Goblins! That’s why, I’ll overlook it this time.」

In the meantime, Fran looses interest in the men and withdraws her bloodlust before walking away. I judged that it would be better not to stand out any more than this, so I instructed her to do so. The Adventurer from before, however, makes a complaint about Fran behind us.

「You — Instructor Donnadorondo just came and helped you, aren’t you going to give your thanks?!」

「Gahahaha! That’s only natural, seeing that the young lady isn’t the one I helped!」

「Ha?」

「I couldn’t have our fighting potential decreased right before we left, after all.」

「 ??? 」

Only Donna knows just how dangerous Fran is. Still, even Fran knows how bad it would be to reduce our forces right before the battle in the heat of the moment. Probably. Well, even if she went overboard, we’d be able to work it out with recovery magic one way or another.

『There might be a couple of aftereffects, though…』

「?」

『It’s nothing. Let’s do our best exterminating Goblins as usual.』

「Nn. Of course.」

[1] Definitely a reference to Lonberk from Dragon Quest. I know, because the censor moves in the next line, revealing the previously-missing character to finish off the name. (ロンベ〇ク & ロン〇ルク = ロンベルク)