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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14: THE SECOND ULTIMATE SPECIES

It’s been a week since I met Kanade.

Things have been going well for us ever since then.

Doing requests with Kanade, eating together with Kanade, and sleeping in the same room as Kanade…….

It’s just that Kanade doesn’t like to have separate rooms and faced with that I had no other choice but to stay in the same room as her for the foreseeable future.

But be that as it may……

I had no problems with any of it.

When I was at the Hero’s Party, every day was just so crazy busy that you often did not have time to sit for a moment and relax.

Not only was I in charge of exploring and surveilling the surrounding area, carrying our stuff, and doing other tasks as a Beast Tamer, but I was also in charge of preparing everyone’s meals all by myself.

I was also on guard duty throughout the night, and I was in charge of waking everyone up in the morning.

When I think about it now, I was probably being used by them, the rest of the Party taking advantage of my kindness.

But that was no longer the case here.

I can do what I want to do now, and besides……

For Kanade’s sake, I feel like I should be taking more initiative from now on.

It’s all thanks to Kanade, I’m really grateful to her for that.

I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had that encounter with her.

That’s how I was able to enjoy my free and easy-going life as an Adventurer, but……

Little did I know that a certain incident was soon to occur.

And little did I know that it would be the kind of incident that would, in a way, end up affecting my entire life.

***

「The Stride Bridge Watchdog?」

As usual, I was at the Adventurers’ Guild, looking for a possible request to undertake.

Natalie-san, the receptionist I had become friends with over the past week, was sighing deeply, so I spoke to her to see what was going on.

It was then that I heard an interesting story.

「Yes, that’s right. For a few days now, some rogue has taken up residence on the Stride Bridge to the south of town and has been running amok ever since, playing games with people as they pass by, one after the other.」

It seemed to be a matter that was deeply troubling for Natalie-san, and she looked to be extremely tired.

By the way, perhaps because we got to know each other to some extent, her tone was a bit more casual and unreserved when she was talking to me.

I’m glad to know that someone was acting this way to me because I came to know them a little bit better.

…… But could it be that she might have had some ulterior motives to her behavior?

「Who would even do such a thing to begin with? Bandits again? Or some sort of other bad person?」

「Well, this is actually the hard part to explain, believe it or not……」

At Kanade’s question who was standing right next to me, Natalie-san made a gesture of pressing her fingertips to her temples.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that this situation was giving her quite a headache.

「It seems that when that person happens to meet someone of competent level of strength, they will start a fight with you without regard to anything else or the surroundings…… The only good thing about this situation is that so far there have been no casualties. So they like to fight, but not to the death or anything like that. Thanks to that…… It hasn’t really escalated into THAT much of a serious situation.」

「Hmm, that sounds really strange, indeed. Why would they do something like that?」

「That’s actually the part that we are finding hard to understand. They’re not robbing anyone of their money or goods, nor are they targeting anyone in particular. It would be one thing if they were harassing some particular merchants’ group or something like that, but that’s not the case here, either…… Anyway, they seem to be randomly attacking people passing the bridge. And apparently the spectators are off limits to them…… but that doesn’t make the situation feel any better or safer. Not to mention that the number of people using the Stride Bridge has dropped dramatically ever since then. If this continues, there will be serious traffic paralysis on that trade route.」

「Hmm, I see……」

Yes, that certainly sounds like a serious problem.

The Stride Bridge is one of the bridges that connect the Horizon region, which is located in the central continent, to the southern continent.

If an incident happens there and people get farther away from the city, logistics will be disrupted, not to mention the blow that the overall economy would suffer.

Right now, it doesn’t seem to be causing much damage since the incident happened just recently, but……

If left unchecked, the damages would be impossible to ignore or mitigate.

「So, why are you telling us all this?」

「Oh, I’m so glad you asked!」

Natalie-san giggled and leaned over the reception counter, doing so with a tremendous amount of momentum.

I wonder…… is her usual persona that she was showing to everyone during work just a facade?

But on the other hand, it’s nice to see a new side of someone as you grow closer and closer to them..

「This time around, the Adventurers’ Guild has been entrusted with solving this case!　So there you have it…… How about that? Would you like to take this request from us?」

「Huh? Who? Us?」

「Nyah?」

It all happened so suddenly that I couldn’t help it but to feel greatly confused.

From what I’ve just heard, it’s a very important matter.

Is it okay for us, who are still E-rank Adventurers, to accept such a request……?

「This time around it’s called a Special Request and there are no Rank-based restrictions to it. It’s also possible for more than one Adventurer to take on this task. The first one to accomplish the request will get the reward, though. You know, first-come, first-served.」

「Do you think it’s appropriate to do something like that?」

At first, we issued it as a request for a higher level of difficulty, but a lot of people got beaten and sent back to us, and we couldn’t solve the problem at all…… But at the same time, we can’t just sit back and do nothing. So something had to be done.」.

I see.

As for the Adventurers’ Guild, I guess they want to solve that problem no matter what, no matter who is going to do it or using what methods.

According to the story, a lot of Adventurers have been beaten by the Watchdog, so they must also be under a whole lot of pressure.

「But still…… I don’t think that I have what it takes to do it……」

「Oh, yes, yes you can do it! I’m sure of it! And honestly speaking? I’m secretly hoping that you are going to be the one to do it, you know?」

「I-Is that so?」

「The Cat Spirit Tribe’s Kanade-chan and the Beast Tamer Rain-san, is there the strongest possible combo that you could think of!? You also need to act on that momentum that you have going on for you if you want to maximize your profits, wouldn’t you agree?」

「…… Hmm, what do you think, Kanade?」

「Unyah?」

Kanade looked at me in surprise.

Have you ever listened to the conversation at all?

「Well, um…… There are people out there doing bad things, aren’t there?」

「Yes, that’s right.」

「Then I’d like to do something about them, if we can! No doing bad deeds on my watch!」

That kind of opinion was so very Kanade-like.

「Oh, but I will respect your opinion on the subject as well, alright, Rein?」

「In that case, Natalie-san…… Can you tell us what the reward for this quest is going to be?」

「Now then, listen and be amazed! It’s the whole five gold coins!」

「Alright, we shall take it.」

***

There’s a part of me that was caught up in the reward, but I also really want to help if there are people in need.

Besides, I’ve heard that there have been no deaths so far, so there’s no need for me to worry about Kanade getting hurt or anything like that.

Well, it’s also possible that they just haven’t happened to appear until now, so we can’t be too lenient about this, but……

Just like that, Kanade and I set out for the Stride Bridge.

「Oh wow! Oh wow! That’s a really big bridge!　Rein, Rein! Look! Look just how big it is!」

Kanade was frolicking like a child in front of the bridge.

But it was not all that hard to understand where her excitement was coming from.

Between the central continent and the southern continent lies a huge canyon.

The exact depth of that canyon…… is actually unknown.

There were scholars who tried to measure it, but everyone gave up because of its tremendous depth.

Not to mention that it was as wide as an entire city.

That’s how huge the cracks in the earth are, and they were really tremendous.

The bridge over such a place was also huge, so much that it could be mistaken for a castle or a fortress.

The massive bridge was made up of a series of intricate iron pillars that were further reinforced by magic.

Not only was it sturdy, but it was also wide enough to serve as a keystone for traffic.

It was wide enough for four large carriages or the entire merchant fleet to run parallel to each other without any issues.

「It’s amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it before!」

「Huh?　I’ve heard that the Cat Spirit Tribe’s home is on the Eastern Continent according to rumors…….didn’t the bridge go through it as well?　The Eastern Continent is also separated by a canyon, right?」

「Really? But even so, I didn’t come through it?　There’s also a toll that you have to pay for crossing it.」

「So how did you get to the Central Continent, then?」

「Nyah! I ran really hard, jumped super hard, and jumped over one side of the ravine to the next!」

…… Talk about one hell of a stunt to pull off.

Jumping over that huge canyon and speaking about it as if it was nothing in particular……

Once again, I was reminded of the amazing and unreasonable abilities of the Ultimate Species.

「It’s such a big bridge and there’s no one here. Isn’t that really strange?」

「Maybe they’re all afraid of this Watchdog thing?」

「Let’s give the bastards what they deserve for obstructing the traffic!」

「Yeah, let’s do just that.」

Just like that, together with Kanade we started to cross the bridge.

「Actually…… What does that Watchdog person even look like?」

「I don’t know … there’s no real testimony left regarding that subject.」

Since there were no deaths, the Guild should have been able to get at least some sort of a testimony on the perpetrator.

But it would seem that the Adventurers who had returned from the bridge were all dejected and in no condition to talk properly about what happened.

So we were going in blind against an enemy whose identity was still unknown to us.

Honestly, it was making me feel rather nervous.

「We don’t know what might happen here, so let’s keep our guard up. We don’t want to be taken by surprise.」

「Nya!」

We then proceeded forward with caution.

How long have we been walking like that now? Half an hour? Maybe even more?

When we got to the middle point of the bridge……

…… It was the moment when we finally came across it.

「Rein, look!」

「Huh? What is it!?」

A roar that echoed across the sky.

Wings so huge that they could cover the sun.

A body that cut the wind and ran through the sky with ease.

It was………

A Dragon!?

Dragon. One of the most powerful species in existence, has landed right in front of us.