The seasons were changing from spring to summer and the sunlight was still strong despite it still being in the morning. In the midst of all this, an adventurer made his way through the city of Emoshion.

He wore leather armour that focused on mobility and a scabbard with a sword hung from his waist. From this perspective, he might be mistaken for an ordinary warrior who was slightly more timid than the rest. However someone looked up, they would have been surprised. That was because an Icebird, over 1m in size, was flying after him leisurely.

But of course, few people looked up and so few saw the Icebird flying in the sky.

A few city guards watched on, but as the Icebird had been registered by the guild, they had nothing to say and remained silent. There were also some who were lost in their thoughts as they saw the friendly Icebird, Shen, flying through the sky.

Anyhow, with his Icebird flying above him, Hendeka ran through the city towards his destination.

Even though it was lighter than most other armour, he was indeed an adventurer to be able to keep running in leather armour. Continuing to run through the city, he soon saw the building he was after before long. It was a store that had been recommended to him by the owner of the inn he was staying in, one of the many weapon stores in Emoshion.

「Please give me a bow!」

Hendeka shouted out as soon as he entered the store.

At his shout, several adventurers inside the store as well as the store manager, a middle-aged man in his 40’s, suddenly turned to look at Hendeka.

Before long, Hendeka realised that everyone was looking at him. With a red face, he approached the manager at the counter.

「Pardon me, but could you please give me a bow?」

「Yes? Oh, of course, this is our business after all……what’s your budget?」

「Um, that’s right. About 3 silver coins.」

「……At that price, you can’t really buy much, you know?」

「Yes, that’s fine. It’s okay for now as long as it will last for a single fight. Aside from the bow, I’d also like some arrows.」

「We’re a business, so selling more is always good. Give me a minute.」

Saying that, the store manager went behind the counter. Seeing him leave, Hendeka became aware that the other adventurers in the store were still looking at him. Remembering his earlier actions, his face went red with shame until the manager came back with a bow and arrows.

 

 

「……Now then. I embarrassed myself, but at least I managed to get a bow and some arrows. I have to get my feel back for the bow right away.」

「Kikyi!」

In a training area beneath the guild building, which was built in the middle of the port city, Hendeka muttered to himself as he held his bow and looked around. Next to him, Shen gave a cry as if to cheer him on.

「That said, this is a guild in a port city. I didn’t think that there would be an area for practising archery here.」

There might have been many reasons why bows would be an effective means of attacking pirates as well as monsters in the sea, but the guild in Emoshion had a specialised training area for bows. While it wasn’t any fancy, it still existed.

Drawing his bow and aiming at a target, which seemed to have been created using earth magic, Hendeka shot an arrow.

The arrow flew out with a whistle as it tore through the air, heading straight for the dirt dummy target……and hitting it’s right foot.

「Hmm, I haven’t used one in a long time so my skills have dulled.」

With a sigh, he notched another arrow and drew his bow again.

The sound of an arrow tearing through the air was heard again, but only the target’s left arm was hit.

Even though he had used a bow to hunt since he had been a kid, he still hadn’t touched a bow for years, so it was natural for his skills to have dulled. No, rather, it should be said that Hendeka had some talent for archery if he was still able to hit a target after using a bow for the first time in years.

After that, he continued drawing the bow he had bought and shot arrow after arrow. Before long, when all the arrows he had bought for just practising had been used up, the earthen target at the end of Hendeka’s line of sight had be filled with arrows. At a glance, it looked like a hedgehog with spikes all over its body.

Some arrows were stuck in the target’s head or in the centre of its body. However, Hendeka knew that those were almost accidental. Pulling them out of the dirt, he went back to his original position.

「Kyi, kikiki!」

Shen gave a cry to cheer on his master as other adventurers who were also practising their archery simply looked at Hendeka in admiration as he continued to practice.

 

 

「Is this the right kind of potion?」

「Yes, I don’t know how strong the Lemrace is, so I think it would be better to be safer. According to what Rei told us, the only thing we know so far is that it can use water spears? If we force transfer it onto land, it might still be able to use water magic or its own specific abilities, even if it is not at its full power. Still, it should definitely be less powerful than fighting it in the sea.」

Two adventurers walked along the street of Emoshion under the fine weather.

One of the was Egret, with his poleaxe on his back, while the other was Miroir, his partner.

Taking on the role of holding down the Lemrace in tomorrow’s battle, they were currently shopping for supplies that they might need in the fight.

「What else do we need?」

「It’s a sea monster right? Then it might use paralysis or poison, so we should get antidotes. Look, you’ve fought that giant turtle monster on beaches before, haven’t you?」

Thinking back at Miroir’s words, Egret soon remembered.

「Ahh, that tough one. I had a hard time killing it. As soon as it got dangerous for itself, it would pull its limbs inside its shell and spray poison everywhere.」

「Yes, that’s the one. That time those fisherman asked us to fight C rank monster and didn’t pay us much. Similar to that monster, the Lemrace might also use poison. We should be prepared to deal with that.」

「……Speaking of which, don’t the fishermen around here have any issues with monsters?」

「I guess they’re fine? Now that there a lot of adventurers in the city, due to the Lemrace, if anything happened, subjugation requests would be put out. And in the first place, fishermen are able to deal with some monsters themselves. It’s rare for something like that 2m turtle monster to come close to shore……otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to survive as fishermen in the first place.」

「That’s true.」

Egret’s shoulders fell after hearing Miroir’s explanation. To Egret, the more chances to fight, the better it was. Even if they were already going to be fighting a monster like the Lemrace tomorrow.

As the two of them talked, looking into weapon and accessory shops along the way, Egret frowned unpleasantly.

「Egret?」

As soon as Miroir noticed Egret’s strange behaviour, she saw him look towards a narrow alleyway on the side of the road……to be exact, he was looking towards 5 men standing beside the alleyway.

The men didn’t seem to care even though Egret noticed that they were watching them. Even when Egret looked straight at them, they didn’t make any particular moves……rather, they just looked back provocatively.

Egret and Miroir didn’t know, but those were five adventurers who were part of the group that had fought off the horde of Goblins on the highway the day before. They were also from the same party that had used gold to buy a ship that ended up being sunk by the Lemrace as they tried to use Rei as a decoy. However, it had been less than five days since Egret and Miroir had arrived at Emoshion, so they didn’t know anything about these adventurers. Similarly, unfortunately for them, the men also didn’t know that the people they were trying to pick a fight with were B rank adventurers.

「Hah, seriously……don’t take too long.」

While chasing after Egret, who was moving towards the men, Miroir touched the whip at her waist, ready to swing it at any time.

「You’ve been watching us for a while, aren’t you going to do anything?」

At Egret’s question, a bearded man who seemed to be the leader of the group spoke with a crude smile.

「Ahh, there’s something we’d like to tell you. Why don’t you come over to this alley for a minute?」

「Sure, why not. It will save us both a lot of trouble.」

An ordinary man might have been frightened by the rough presence the adventurers had around them. Even low ranked adventurers might have felt the same. However, Egret loved to fight, and at the same time, didn’t think too deeply about things, leading his partner to call him a muscle brain. Because of that, while it was clearly an invitation with bad intentions, he followed after the men with a fierce smile.

Walking along, they soon reached a dead end. The bearded leader turned to face him while the rest of the adventurers started to surround them to prevent them from escaping.

「So, now that we’re all set, let’s hear it. What did you want to tell me?」

「What, it’s a simple story. I want you to call out that little brat of an adventurer Rei. Call him here. Oh, without his tamed Griffon of course.」

「Hmm, could it be that you’re jealous that he’s the only person able to continue making money right now?」

「……Shut up. Now that our ship was sunk, we’re running out of time. I’m certain that Rei is hiding something. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter, call him here.」

「Hey, you know, what do you plan to do after getting him to come here? Rei is a C rank adventurer with a title you know? There’s no way you’d be able to handle someone like that, don’t you think?」

「Hah, as if he’d be a problem if he didn’t have his Griffon!」

Rei hadn’t made his name through his own strength, but because of his Griffon, Set. Anyone who saw Rei might misjudge him due to his short height and delicate body that wasn’t very warrior like as well as his robe, which made him look like an apprentice mage. However, even those that misjudged him would soon realise their assumptions were wrong after seeing Rei fight.

(……No, that’s not true. These guys just seem to think their own convenient imagination is the truth. In fact, if they saw that big scythe that Rei uses, I don’t think they would be feeling as comfortable.)

Miroir’s assessment of the adventurers surrounding her and Egret dropped by several notches as she called out to Egret.

「Go ahead and do it. However, we don’t want to make too much noise, so leave it at fractures.」

「Sure!」

With a fierce smile on his face, Egret didn’t extend his hand out to the poleaxe on his back……but clenched his fist and threw a straight punch instead.

A few minutes later, city residents spotted a few adventurers were seen stumbling out of the back alley with several fractured bones.

 

 

「Set!」

「Guru~!」

At Rei’s call, Set flapped his wings and tilted his body.

A moment later, the tip of a water spear flew past where Set had just been.

However, the Lemrace seemed to have predicted that and nearly 10 more water spears appeared, attacking Set from all sides, as if to surround him.

「Flying Slash-!」

With Rei’s shout, he swung the Death Scythe and sliced apart several water spears attempting to surround Set.

「GURURURURU~!」

Not missing the gap in the net of attacks, Set flapped his wings greatly and broke through.

「Phew, when I see it do the same thing over and over again, I wonder if it doesn’t have that many ways to attack or if it’s just stupid……I still don’t know what is causing it to focus its attacks against Set.」

Rei muttered to himself as he watched a ship leave the port before he turned his attention back to the surroundings.

「I’ve turned down any requests for tomorrow just in case. As long as I can make it through today……it should be fine.」

Rei muttered to himself again as he watched 10 more water spears appear.

Thus, everyone’s day of preparation passed for the decisive battle tomorrow.

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