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Chapter 28 Part 1

What You Can Do, What Others Expected From You, and The Results Of Your Action That Comes Around

 

With Sybilla’s decision to 『go home』, our exploration today comes to an end.

 

On our way back, Sybilla led the way through the dungeon and we defeated several Living Armors that wielded melee weapons and other monsters to earn experience points along the way.

As expected, there are no more troublesome monsters like the Cavalry Living Armor guarding the boss room around.

And just as Sybilla said, 『With this, we’ve completely mapped out the second floor』, the stairs to the first floor appeared in front of us.

…It seems she really memorized the entire layout of the second layer. I know I’ve said it already, but her memory is really something else, huh.

I wonder if it’s something that you can obtain somehow by training. What an envious ability.

 

Come to think of it, Emmy often lost her things, but I remember that even Jannet is surprisingly bad with directions and often gets lost.

I thought that was weird, but Gemma Baa-san, who had encountered a lot of people, said this.

 

『Certainly, there are smart women who can think about a lot of things and do multiple tasks at the same time. But sometimes there are also many who are too smart and their thoughts get too jumbled up like threads that get tangled up, which makes them bad with direction and often get lost.』

 

I remember that I understood right away when she used the expression 『like threads that get tangled up』.

…Well, Janet was always at her own pace when we found her after she got lost.

She didn’t seem particularly anxious and walked nonchalantly toward us when we found her.

How should I put it, it’s like she’s too mature, or too composed for a girl her age.

 

I think Jannet has always been watching over us.

 

With that in mind, Sybilla who’s never got lost once isn’t as smart… is definitely not the case.

This girl must be a special case.

She has a good head on her shoulders. But she can be sort of clumsy, or an airhead sometimes. Well, I guess not sometimes, but more like, almost every time.

 

「…You just thought of something rude, didn’t you?」

 

「You sure have good instincts, but you’re not asking that because you want to be told something rude, are you?」

 

「Isn’t that just the same as you’re admitting you had rude thoughts?!」

 

We started climbing the stairs to the first floor while having such banter.

 

After climbing these stairs, we will arrive at the first floor. It’s a floor which is full of Black Goblins.

But everything should be fine from here on out.

 

「——Is not what you’re thinking, right?」

 

「Again so suddenly… What is it this time?」

 

「Your defense magic, it’s weakening so you should recast it.」

 

…When this girl says something like this, there must be a reason.

 

「…Got it, 《Wind Barrier》」

(《Wind Barrier》)

 

After confirming the transparent membrane covering both of us had thickened, I climbed the first floor with Sybilla.

 

And then, after arriving at the end of the stairs above, there’s… nothing.

 

「Nothing happened, huh. And here I thought that  『a poisoned arrow would greet us as we ascended the stairs』, or something like that would happen.」

 

「Don’t imagine such a terrifying thing… you’re being overly cautious, you know?」

 

「It’s not that I’m being overly cautious. From anticipating dangers, preparing light armor, and using magic to cut the enemy’s escape route… it’s just that I decided to do everything I could think of to the best of my ability. That’s because——」

 

Sybilla muttered as she stepped over the arrow of the black goblin I had killed on our way in. 

 

「——one of the Twilight Sorcerers die from that kind of thing in the past.」

 

A bright sunset greeted us as we emerged from the dungeon.

We bathed under the sunlight that shone on our skin and felt the warmth permeating throughout our bodies.

 

「Hnnghh~~! As I thought, it’s the best when the sun is still bright outside, isn’t it? I guess it’s true that the sun is really indispensable for human beings.」

 

「……Is it really alright for the Twilight Goddess to be saying that?」

 

「Twilight doesn’t mean all darkness, you know? It’s the time when the moon is just about to rise after the sun goes down. It doesn’t mean that I hated the sun.」

 

「That’s the first I’ve heard of it…」

 

I see, so that means…

 

「……The time when we had a banquet, eating meat with everyone yesterday was around the time of Twilight, huh?」

 

「Yep, that’s right~ It’s the time when my divine power is at its highest. You’re currently the only believer who has taken the Twilight Oath, so my power is still weak, but since your abilities alone were so great, I’ve already retained a little bit of my divine power.」

 

Come to think of it, right after I became 【Twilight Sorcerer】, Sybilla’s feathers got darker, didn’t they?

 

「That wing of yours, how many believers do you need to take the oath for it to fully manifest?」

 

「A lot of them… is what I’d like to say, but I can’t go public about this, so…… that’s right, I’ll just say that if there are five people who are at least as powerful as you, Russell, I think I will be able to retain most of my divinity somehow, but to be honest, even if I turn the Saintess from the past into my believer, I don’t think I would be as powerful as when I have you as my believer.」

 

「Even if you said that about me, it just doesn’t feel real to me yet……」

 

「……Right, well, I’ll teach you more about it. Let’s talk as we walk.」

 

Looks like Sybilla has something to teach me more about how should I think about my magic power.

Her face looks serious.

In times like this, I should listen carefully and learn.

 

「First of all, a high level of ability is an absolute must. And then on top of that, we have two types, 『Someone with an excellent magical ability that they earned through hard work』 and 『Someone with an excellent magical ability that they already have even without hard work』, between these two, even if they have basically the same amount of magic power, I’d say the latter is more talented.」

 

「…That’s one cruel example, don’t you think?…」

 

「You’re right, but let me say this bluntly. That latter type, I was talking about you. What’s important is that in these cases, people tend to choose to go with the former.」

 

「…They choose to go with the former?」

 

「Let’s try to use another example instead of magical ability, like muscle strength, or swordsmanship.」

 

If it’s swordsmanship then I get it.

I mean, anyone would be happy to use and show off the abilities they have acquired through their hard training.

To put it simply, it’s because 『acquiring ability through hard work and training』 takes a long time.

 

「But more often than not, the ability you excelled in without having to work hard to obtain is what others are looking for. To put it in other words, it’s like choosing between 『someone who barely solves the problem even after working hard to do it』 or 『someone who can easily solve the problem without breaking a sweat』.」

 

……Oh, I think I get it now.

If you just barely solve the problem even after you worked hard to do it, that means you’re not suitable for it, or in other words, you’re just not good enough for the task.