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Chapter 29

【The Hero Party Side】 Emmy: How The Small Things That Felt Off Are More Apparent The Mundane My Every Day Life Is. But Even So, I’m Not Alone.

 

I wake up to the bright sunlight shining through the window.

We changed our inn to a higher rank one so the bed and blankets are substantially softer and more comfortable than the ones we had at our previous inn. Ahh… just a little more…… five more seconds— no, just five more minutes…… no, wait, as I thought, just give me one more hou——

 

「Wake up.」

 

「Uwaa!?」

 

The weight from the blanket is suddenly gone, and at the same time, the coldness of the outside air is coming at me.

Ahhhhhh…… my fluffy blanket~…….

 

「Just how much longer are you planning to sleep?」

 

「Eh, huh? What time is it?」

 

「It’s nine and a half. The time for breakfast is almost over you know?」

 

E-Eeehhhh!? It’s that late already!?

Or rather, I just noticed now as my drowsiness is gradually fading away but… does that mean everyone else got up before me?!

Moreover, that also means they ate first without me!?

 

「Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?」

 

「Oh, I did. You said you wanted to sleep for five more minutes, but you’re still sleeping when I came back an hour later.」

 

Ahh… I have no memory of it, but I can somehow vividly picture it in my mind.

 

「S-Sorry…」

 

「I actually tried to wake you up for another two or three times, but you didn’t wake up at all, which surprised me. …Don’t you usually wake up early?」

 

Jannet’s question blows my drowsiness completely.

 

……Right, last night we all went to bed together and when everyone else was asleep, but in the middle of the night, I woke up alone, and…..

 

……and then, Katie-san was there, and……

 

「…As I thought, the injury you got yesterday was pretty serious, so maybe you’re mentally exhausted.」

 

「Ah! …Erm, uh, ah… yeah, I think so. But I’m okay now.」

 

「That’s good then.」

 

Janet walked away from my bed after saying this.

Then, as she put her hand on the door, she turned to me as if she suddenly remembered something.

 

「I forgot.」

 

「Hm?」

 

Jannet said while tilting her head with her usual emotionless expression.

 

「Good morning, Emmy.」

 

「Ah! Good morning too, Jannet!」

 

「Nn」

 

After hearing my reply, she left the room with a satisfied look on her face (though actually, it’s hard to tell from her expressionless face).

 

「….Haa~ Somehow, it feels like Jannet is becoming more reliable and cuter these days.」

 

「Good morning~!」

 

「Ou!」

 

「My, good morning!」

 

Vince and Katie-san were already eating in the cafeteria.

 

「Make one for me too please!」

 

「Alright, coming up!」

 

I received a tray from the stout Obaa-san in the cafeteria, and when I saw the large plate of bread, meat, and cheese on the tray, I couldn’t help but smile broadly.

Yep, eating good food is nice after all~

 

I sat not next to Katie-san… not next to Vince… but next to Janet.

Jannet slightly tilted her curiously, but she didn’t ask me any question in particular.

 

…… Just a little, I’m still afraid to look at Katie in the face.

 

I just don’t understand that person.

Who in the world she really is and why she has approached us?

…… Still, after just one day together yesterday, I know one thing for sure.

 

Without Katie-san, our party won’t be able to operate properly without any problems in our current situation.

 

This one point is clear.

 

「……Ah, I’ve finished my plate.」

 

As I ate in silence, while thinking about such a thing, the food on my plate was gone before I knew it.

 

「My my~ I don’t mind giving you my portion if you like.」

 

Hearing my mutterings, Katie-san handed me her tray with half of the food still on it.

While still a bit nervous, I spoke to her.

 

「Is it really okay?」

 

「Yes~! You have to make sure that your body is always fit as a vanguard, right?」

 

「The-Then, I’ll gladly accept your offer.」

 

I take the plate from Katie and eat the meat.

And while I was doing that, she was staring at me with those golden eyes and putting her chin on her hands with a smile on her face.

 

……Yeah, I think it’s better if I don’t think too much about it.

It’s just that she’s a bit scary when she’s muttering to herself, but Katie-san is still a wonderful person when she’s talking with everyone like this.

It would be rude for me to refuse her offer just because of that.

 

「The food was delicious, thank you.」

 

「Yes, you’re welcome! Jannet-san only ate a little and gave the rest to Vince-san, so I was hoping to share mine with someone as well!」

 

Katie-san giggled as she told me about it.

 

…Well, there’s nothing wrong with that but…

Why, even though both Jannet and Katie-san eat so little, they have those… huge assets!? Just what’s up with that!?

 

Ughh… this world is so unfair…

 

When we went out to the guild after that, there was some kind of commotion inside.

So Vince calls out to one of the people there.

 

「Hey, looks like there’s a commotion in here, but… what’s going on?」

 

「Oh, about that, there was a talk that something amazing just arrived at the Dwarf blacksmith first thing this morning.」

 

「Something amazing, you said?」

 

If it’s the Dwarf blacksmith, then it must be related to materials.

 

「Yeah, hear this and be surprised, it was the Fire Dragon Scales!」

 

「Dragon!?」

 

Dragon!

It stood at the highest rank of monsters and was said to be found around the lower floors!

Only the people from the Legends have ever seen it. Even other people of high rank don’t divulge much information when they dive to the lower floors.

 

Just as everyone is an ally, we are all also rivals. No one gives information for free.

 

Of course, this is also something I learned from Jannet!

There is no way I could come up with such a smart-sounding thing!

Haa… what am I doing, beating myself up this early in the morning…

 

Then, Katie-san, who had been listening to the conversation silently, suddenly stepped forward.

 

「Is that really true? Has it been confirmed?」

 

「Hm? O-ohh, y-yeah… amazing…」

 

「That information! IS.THAT.TRUE!?」

 

「Woah! y-yeah, o-of course! The dwarves themselves, who were usually so taciturn and seemed not interested in anything but making things, were all screaming and yelling in excitement because of it after all.」

 

「Fumu… then it might be true. Nothing can fool the Dwarves’ eyes when it comes to materials, as they can easily detect a fake by looking at the magic emitted from the materials.」

 

Katie-san looked back at Vince and nodded.

 

「There will probably be a limited supply of these materials, so we must definitely get them. If it’s armor made from the Fire Dragon materials, then it will have a flame resistance effect to it. No matter what top-quality equipment you will get in the future, I doubt the day when you need to choose to let go of this armor will ever arrive.」

 

「That surely sounds amazing, we have to make sure all of us get one. But the budget…」

 

……Hmmm, that’s true. Just by the sound of it, that armor doesn’t sound like something we could afford with our current budget.

 

「If that’s the case, then there’s only one thing we can do!」

 

Katie-san then stick her body against Vince’s from the front.

 

「Let’s work hard until we can get it!」

 

Vince stared at Katie-san, but his gaze didn’t meet hers.

 

……There’s no way he’s going to say no to that.

Katie-san, a natural party crasher sure knows how to use her weapons well.

As I thought, could it be that she’s doing this not because of her nature, but intentionally?

 

Well, I said all that, but not only money, I also need to raise my level as well, so this is actually a good opportunity to accomplish both.

Let’s do our best today to make up for yesterday!

 

It’s not often that we explore a dungeon the next day after returning from one.

But it’s not like I feel tired or anything, and I’ve never been once before, so I think I’ll be fine.

 

We soon arrive at the middle level and start searching for monsters and defeat them one after another.

As usual, I’m in charge of blocking the Blood Taurus’ attack, while letting everyone behind me doing the attack.

And if there’s a chance, I also launch a counterattack. Of course, raising my level this way is really slow, but my role is still important for the entireity of our party.

So I must do my best.

 

Then, at one point, two Blood Taurus appeared on the intersection.

One rushed toward me, while the other toward Vince.

 

Here, I heard Katie-san’s shouting voice.

 

「Emmy-san! Try to cover Vince-san!」

 

「Huh? Ah, okay!」

 

Katie-san spooked the monster heading towards me with her earth and water magic.

I used this chance to get in front of Vince and raised my shield up.

 

「Good, just like that! Please get closer!」

 

「Ehh!? Uh, umm…」

 

But wouldn’t that instead limit Vince’s movement, putting him in danger?

Her instructions didn’t make any sense, but again, it’s coming from the knowledgeable Katie-san, so I’ll do what I can.

 

I take the Blood Tauros attack with my shield.

There’s a loud thud as I feel the impact from its club transmitted on my arm.

 

……Yep, nothing’s strange, all normal.

Well, I guess that’s to be expected since I just blocked it normally.

 

「……Is it not yet?」

 

I heard something strange from the back as Jannet cast healing magic on me and Vince fires his offensive magic at the monster.

 

Then, the monster in front of us collapsed, so I immediately moved away from Vince.

Vince and I stared at each other and tilted our heads.

 

「That was normal.」

 

「…? Well, yeah.」

 

I felt weird stares from him again, so I immediately ran in front of Katie-san after a brief exchange with Vince.

She skillfully prevented the monster from coming closer to her by raising an ankle foothold in the middle. And when it get too close, she shoots Flame Magic at it’s face.

She’s really good at fighting monster above her level.

 

「I’m going in!」

 

「Ah, yes. Thank you very much.」

 

It doesn’t take long before the other monster was defeated.

 

Katie-san glanced at me, then at Vince and muttered in a whisper that I couldn’t even tell her mouth was moving.

 

「——Is it not enough? Not yet? But surely, someday… sooner or later… they will definitely…」

 

…… Again.

Katie-san muttered about things that difficult to understand as always.

 

Regardless, with this, our exploration today has ended without a hitch.

 

After eating lots of meat for dinner, it was time to return to the inn and go to bed.

 

This time, Katie-san is sleeping soundly and not moving in any way or start spouting strange things.

I stare at her, and just as I am about to get myself into bed… a voice calls out from behind me.

 

「…Emmy.」

 

I turned around and saw Jannet looking at me, just as she had this morning.

Her eyes somewhat have a will behind it.

 

「Come here.」

 

I followed Jannet as she lead me to a corner in the inn where there’s no people.

There, Janet turned around, stared at me, and opened her mouth.

 

「Has there been something bothering you?」

 

「…..!」

 

——Ah.

I really can’t compete with this girl.

 

Jannet must have realized for a while now that there’s been something weighing on my mind.

As expected of the smartest girl among us four childhood friends.

 

…… Right now, she’s the person I can trust the most.

Besides, I think this is a great opportunity to talk about it.

 

The door to our room is still closed. And there seems to be no sign of anyone awake anywhere to listen to our conversation.

 

So I told Jannet what’s been on my mind.

 

「You see, actually, it’s about Katie-san…」