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Volume 1 Chapter 17-1: *Spoiler*

「Why did you come back?」
「Don’t look down on me. Why wouldn’t I come back to help my benefactor once my wards escaped safely? Even though things are like this, I am a Fourth Floor Explorer and I won’t be a hindrance.」

Frey-san said with a chuckle as she pounded her half-plate covered chest.

Now that we were escorting injured people it was honestly quite good to get one more person who could fight. Leaving aside my impression of her employer, I didn’t have any bad feelings towards Frey-san.

「Don’t worry about favors or owing anyone, I don’t mind.」
「….I see. Then it’s down to my feelings. I’ll help you.」
「Soujirou, we don’t have the leeway to be messing around ja.」

Since she’d already taken the time to come back there was no choice but to take her with us on the escape.

「Got it. Then we’ll be in your care until we escape Frey-san.」

‘I’ll be fine up front’ Hotaru-san said, so both me and Frey-san fell back to the rear.

The two of us walked in the rear while maintaining caution. According to Hotaru-san we would have to fight at least once before we escape so it would be best to confirm Frey-san’s fighting method.

Positioning during fights would be adjusted based on what weapons and magic she could use. If we weren’t aware of each other’s style then we could possibly get in the way.

As we walked I started the conversation and Frey-san understood the necessity of it and we began chatting about our preferred combat method.

「Basically we have Sistina move up front as the tank because she has high defensive power. Then Hotaru-san attacks since she has the greatest combat ability amongst us.」
「I saw a bit of your fight with the Flame Fang and seeing Hotaru-dono fight against the two Tower Fangs was quite amazing.」

She seemed to have a dreamy look in her eye as she recalled the fight back then. Hotaru-san’s abilities were very refined, fast, and powerful so I could understand the charm. It was no wonder that it could enthrall Frey-san like that.

「Then I am the sub-attacker. I use 2 weapons so be careful when moving around me.」
「I see so that’s why you carry a long and short sword.」
「That’s right. Also keep in mind that I don’t have battle specialized skills so my attack power won’t be especially high.」
「Hm? Wait a second. You don’t have combat skills? There’s no way that a person who can move that fast and swing a bastard sword with one hand doesn’t have any combat skills….」

Frey-san said with a shocked expression, but was it really that surprising? In that case maybe it was a mistake to reveal that.

Well, even so…I don’t have what I don’t have. No matter how she investigated this information wouldn’t reveal that I wasn’t from this world and there was no way for anything to be proven so it shouldn’t be an issue.

Even without abilities I could train my body and my skill with weapons.

In fact it’d be far worse if it was discovered that Hotaru-san was a sword, so I had to make absolutely sure I never let it slip.

「Well I’ve been trained by Hotaru-san so…」

Though I say that it’s only been around a week since I arrived in this world. It’s better not to bring that up anyways…

「I-I see. That’s amazing learning that combat style and skills like that.」

Frey-san said with a cramped smile. However, I saw her gaze move lower on my body unnaturally.

「You see something interesting between my thighs?」
「Wha!?…D-don’t say something so dumb! That’s not what I’m looking at!」

Hahaha…she’s panicking and her face is blushed as red as her hair. She seems to be quite innocent about things like this.

「I-I was just thinking that your weapons are unusual Fujinomiya-dono.」

Sakura-chan is? Ohh I haven’t seen any Katanas around so she might not know about them. Weapons in this world are so important that they can double as identification. There must be a good number of people on the lookout for rare and collectible weapons.

It might be best to avoid using katanas in public so I can avoid getting into incidents. It’s impossible to do so right now since fighting in the Tower was a fight for survival.

「Oh yeah, what kind of weapons do you use Frey-san?」
「Hm? Me? I use these.」

She said and took out two short swords around the length of her forearms.

「Two short swords…You’re a twin sword user?」
「Fufu, that’s half right. I take these two swords and hold them like this…」

She twirled the swords in her hands before tossing them and catching them backhanded.

「Ah! Claws are…」

I couldn’t help but comment. After gripping her swords in reverse sharp claws emerged from the back of Frey-san’s fists.

So that means Frey-san’s 『Beast Warrior』 class was….

「A class that combines weapons and hand-to-hand fighting?」
「As expected you could tell. My job as a Beast Warrior is a fighter class that can only be obtained by demi-humans.」

Ah crap. I’d better keep the information I get from appraisal to myself. I’d rather not get accused of invasion of privacy.

「Now Fujinomiya-dono, I’ve shown my weapons and class so could you tell me about yours?」

She’s latched onto that a bit. I didn’t even ask her about her class, she just told me about it anyways…but I already knew it in the first place. Furthermore, my job and weapon are not something I can be completely open about, I shouldn’t say too much.

「My job is in the class of Weapon Crafting. This weapon is called a 『Katana』 and it was left lying in my parent’s warehouse where we used to live in a small village in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know too much about it. My parent’s were also weapon craftsmen so they might have gotten it somewhere or other. Even if I wanted to ask where they got it from, they are already dead and our home is already vacated. There’s nothing much left of it.」
「I-I see…Fujinomiya-dono has gone through various troubles as well I see.」

At the very least I hadn’t told any big lies. It was true that I had found the weapon in my parents’ home, I can’t meet my parents anymore, and I can no longer return home.