Chapter 33: Performance

Time passed quickly.

It had already been a week since I arrived in Norman.

“Mr. Rosemas. Then I will go to the forest for a while.”

“Please say hello. Mr. Fergus…?”

“I will continue to work as a blacksmith here. If you need a sword or a weapon, come by anytime. I will give you 5.8% less than the regular price.”

Marjohis, who had been displeased with Lucius, left somewhere, and Fergus, unexpectedly, focused only on his blacksmith work and did not pay much attention to Rosemas.

“Take care of me, Rosemas. I will mostly be supporting from behind, so we will basically be a team. Do you understand?”

“Yes!!”

“…”

The three of us began to live as a team.

“Rosemas, what is your adventurer rank?”

“For now, you are a C rank.”

“But your skill is a B rank?”

“…For now, that’s it.”

I had heard a little about what happened when I was an orc. A woman who lacked experience compared to her skill. That was Rosemas’ current level.

“Then, Master, is it okay for Rosemas to take on the request and for us to handle it?”

“They said it wasn’t allowed because it was being carried around. If you want to form a team and challenge for a higher place, you need to have a certain level of achievements.”

“Another achievement?…”

“How important are achievements? This society is such that if your achievements are low, you get cut without a fight.”

Rosemas, who was registered as a C-rank adventurer, two levels higher than us, was known as our senior who led our team, but the Adventurer’s Guild still only gave us E-ranks.

“I’m sorry. It’s just the timing.”

“Timing?”

“Yes. The holy sword that had been asleep for 500 years appeared in the Holy Sword Village, or the goblin villages heading to this area were all slaughtered by an unidentified being, or all the orcs near the lake to the north died but they turned out to be quite skilled. It’s a little, turbulent.”

“I understand.”

I have no complaints.

Suddenly, the B-class difficulty orc village was swept away overnight, and the Adventurer’s Guild was busy, and the Guild’s staff reacted quite sensitively.

“First, would you please proceed slowly with E-class?”

“Of course.”

Rather than fussing over a mission higher than my grade and getting scolded, I decided to train hard and build up my achievements.

Dawn, light exercise. Morning, visit the Adventurer’s Guild after eating. Morning, resolve a request. Afternoon, resolve the rest of the request or practice sparring. Evening, physical training.

This simple but colorful routine of life was repeated for the past few days, and we steadily built up our achievements.

However.

“Oh, Arthur! Do you want to eat dinner like today…?”

“What about the Master?”

“I don’t have any plans, so you guys eat by yourselves.”

“Still, let’s go together. How can we leave the Master alone and go by ourselves? Come on.”

Or something.

“Sharing a room is becoming a bit inconvenient? Hey, Arthur. I have to sleep alone, so you share a room with Rosemas.”

“Huh? How can a man and a woman sleep in the same room?”

“… What?”

“… Arthur?”

“Is Rosemas uncomfortable?”

“It’s not that Rosemas is uncomfortable, it’s just that I have trouble sleeping when a woman is next to me.”

“… What about me, a man?”

“It’s uncomfortable for men too, but…well, it doesn’t really matter to you. I want to have a room alone for now. It’s a waste of money, so share a room with Rosemas. Is that okay, Rosemas?”

“…Okay, I’ll do it….Snap.”

Or something like “Master, please work on your stamina.”

“Go to your room and do it yourself.”

“It’ll be more effective if Master helps you.”

“Can’t you see I’m reading a book right now?”

“I’m going to do push-ups, so read the book on top of me.”

“Can’t you just lift Rosemas up?”

“I, I’ll go up! Ugh, ugh…Gyaak?!”

“…..It’s meaningless if you can’t keep your balance without falling, Master.”

“…Haa. Only an hour.”

Or something.

“Ugh. Lucius, train alone for a bit. Rosemas and I will have a chat.”

Squeak, thud.

“Rosemas, try harder.”

“…I’m trying.”

“It can’t be done with just trying. Keep approaching, okay?”

“Whose fault is it?”

“Hey. Are you saying it’s because of me? You’re really funny right now.”

…Ugh.

Although his achievements as an adventurer were high, his love life was abysmal.

“Keep trying. Do you know? The day will come when Lucius and you will kiss.”

“……”

“Just thinking about it, I’m already filming a story about the longevity of humans and elves.”

“Huh, how did you know…?”

“Of course. A young elf sitting next to an old, white-haired Arthur, doesn’t want to hear comments like, ‘Even though I’m this old, you’re still beautiful’?”

“…Ugh.”

“I’m dying just thinking about it. Dude, for that to happen, shouldn’t we get married first!!”

“H- getting married….. Ah, marrying Lucius…!”

The combination of the undead Rosemas and the impenetrable Lucius really annoyed me, but their relationship had developed a lot since when we first met.

“Arthur. Why can’t I call you Lucius?”

“…Lucius is like a last name. When I call you Rosemas, can I call you Tervation?”

“That’s not it, but… didn’t you say last time that both Arthur and Lucius were first names?”

“I was saying that it didn’t really matter since they were both last names.”

“Hmm…”

“Haa.”

That development was only a step from the beginning of civilization to the development of magic and the civilization of modern humans who wear exposed clothes at the command of the goddess, but it was still sufficient development. It will surely be resolved with time.

I tried to make time for the two of them to be together as much as possible, and gathered information in Normans.

Information about the Demon King. Information about Zephyr’s organization. And information about this world.

I borrowed books from the Adventurer’s Guild and read them, keeping up with the times and looking into history and trends.

Thanks to this, I was able to learn many things, but the most rewarding thing was the name of Zepha’s organization.

“Acedia.

The remnants of the Demon King’s army that followed the fallen Demon King ‘Bel Phegor 500 years ago.

According to the book, although the leader is not Zepha, an organization called Acedia is active throughout the continent and continues to exist.

They are quite arrogant, but they are notorious as the worst organization on the continent, having been active in various places such as the fall of the empire and witch hunts.

Missions related to Acedia are at least B-rank.

In order to view information about Acedia in the Adventurer’s Guild, where information is relatively gathered the most, you need to be a B-rank adventurer.

In other words, you need achievements.

You can’t just look it up, and it’s information that you can’t research in Normans either.

So there’s only one way.

Accumulate achievements.

You need to raise your rank as an adventurer, accumulate achievements, and go up to a higher rank.

If you could check the information on behalf of someone, you would have hired a B-rank, but that was really, unfortunately, impossible.

So accumulate achievements.

Even though these may be trivial E-rank missions for us to do, each of these missions will become the cornerstone for us to become high-ranking adventurers.

So.

“Hey! Why is it taking so long to kill a skeleton?”

“Ugh, I’m fighting hard!”

“Gyaak!

Lucius!

Hey, witch!

How can Lucius handle that alone?!”

“Because I can do it alone!

If you can’t even handle something like that, when will you get stronger?! Huh?

Don’t block the enemy’s attacks and just let them pass!”

“That’s easier said than done, ugh!!”

Today too.

Our party is doing its best to build up its achievements.

***

A forest near Normans.

There are rumors of skeletons appearing in the cemetery, so check and eliminate them.

Although there are C-ranks, we chose an E-rank mission, and we came to the cemetery, which is somewhat far from Normans, to solve it.

Why did you choose the skeletons in the cemetery out of all the missions?

“It might have something to do with that Zephaar guy.”

Since it was something done by the demons, it was a leap of faith that it would be related to the Demon King, but I came to the graveyard with the thought that I might get caught.

And we managed to defeat the enemies in the graveyard with some difficulty.

As much as possible, without damaging the remains.

“Are you done?”

“No, Master.”

“Then go and dig up the gravestone with a shovel. We should bury them again.”

The skeletons that popped out of the graveyard were those that came out of the gravestone. It was unknown who resurrected them, but Lucius seemed lost in thought as he reburied the dead.

“Why?”

“…The village.”

“…..Hmm.”

Lucius’ thoughts made sense.

“Is our village really all dead?”

The village of the Holy Sword, destroyed. The news that the warrior who pulled out the Holy Sword had appeared reached Normans as well.

Along with the news that the Holy Sword, which had not been pulled out for 500 years, had been pulled out, there was also news that everyone there had been slaughtered.

The village of the Holy Sword was annihilated. Rumor has it that the remnants of the Demon King’s army, Acedia, came and attacked the village, but the truth is unknown.

We’re not going back to the village, and even if we did, there would already be no trace of it.

“It’s natural to be concerned. But my answer is that you don’t have to be concerned.”

“…..”

“You did your best for the villagers, and that village was a place with many problems. I understand that you’re sad, but…”

Lucius’s expression gradually distorted.

“I almost did.”

“Huh?”

“For me, an outsider, it’s a place with only bad memories, but it’s different for you. Even if the ending wasn’t good, it’s where you grew up and lived.”

I put my hands together.

“I don’t believe in God, but I can pray to appease their souls. Rest in peace.”

As I closed my eyes and prayed, Lucius seemed to follow suit.

“This is the best. Rather than comforting him for being too talkative, or building a wall around him, you should sympathize with his words and grieve together.

Let’s visit sometime later when you have time. After all, that’s your hometown.”

“… No, that’s okay. It’s just that…”

Lucius fiddled with his ring.

“……If you want to use the Holy Sword to seek revenge, is that wrong?”

“No?”

“…Huh?”

“What, did you think I was going to tell you that revenge is wrong and you shouldn’t do it? Or that you shouldn’t use the Holy Sword in such a place? Not at all.”

I raised my staff toward Lucius and lightly tapped his head.

“Find the person who killed your villagers, and take revenge on them right away. You’ll use the Holy Sword to completely destroy them.”

“……”

“Remember.”

I cleared my throat and spoke clearly.

“How you use the Holy Sword is up to you. You can kill, threaten, or use it as a tool for personal advancement.”

“Master!”

“It’s my job to lead you to a more correct path. Arthur Lucius.”

I placed my staff on Lucius’s ring.

“Do whatever you want. In return, just do me one favor later.”

As long as I can get that bastard Zepar under control, I don’t care if you sell the Holy Sword or whatever.

“After everything’s over, just kill someone with the Holy Sword. Easy, right?”