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Stealth Kid Goes to Cotton-elka – Part 04

“So there you have it,” Hikaru said, now back at the hotel. “Were you listening?”

Lavia slowly appeared in an empty spot—the power of Stealth.

Until now, Lavia just stayed at the hotel, but today she went to the guild to practice her Stealth Skill. Her Soul Board was currently as follows:

【Soul Board】Lavia
Age: 14 | Rank: 11 | 0

【Magical Power】
【Mana Capacity】11
【Magic Principle】2
【Elemental Affinity】
【Fire】5

【Agility】
【Stealth】
【Life Cloaking】
【Mana Cloaking】
【Imperceptibility 】3

The points she gained from raising her Soul Rank were allocated to unlocking Agility and Stealth, and the rest poured into Imperceptibility. Life Cloaking and Mana Cloaking were Skills that specifically countered Life Detection and Mana Detection, respectively. So Hikaru chose Imperceptibility to deceive the eyes of the common populace.

In fact, no one noticed Lavia. Not many people had Detection Skills, but Hikaru had one point each on both Life and Mana Detection, which allowed him to know where Lavia was. Ideally, he would have wanted 1 point each as well on her Cloaking Skills.

“I-I was,” Lavia replied. “No one actually noticed me. It was kinda lonely, even.”

“Stealth is solitude. Anyway, don’t you feel a lot safer now?”

Lavia nodded.

“…”

“What’s wrong?” Hikaru asked.

“Nothing…”

She looked somewhat dispirited, but there was something Hikaru wanted to talk about first.

“So, about the situation in the Forest of Deception?” he asked. “What are your thoughts?”

“…”

“Lavia?”

She was clearly acting strange. Words like dungeon and monster were her favorites.

“What do you want to do?” Lavia asked. “Help them?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure. To be honest, I don’t really want to play with fire. But I also don’t like the idea of the person I saved just charging straight to their death. I risked my abilities getting exposed saving her.”

Hikaru recalled the time he saved Paula. Paula and her friends were surrounded by a horde of Goblins, but he defeated the Goblin boss to force their retreat. At that time, he managed to come up with a good explanation to fool Freya, but he doubted the same trick would work again in the future.

Paula, for the sake of her home, decided to return to their village, where the monsters were advancing. Her death would leave a bad taste in Hikaru’s mouth.

“I’m thinking of at least taking Paula and her friends somewhere safe,” Hikaru added.

“I knew it…”

“Hmm?”

Lavia was wearing a grim look. She even seemed desperate.

“D-Do you like girls like Paula?!”

“…What?”

“S-Sure, I said I’d give you everything, b-but I need to be mentally prepared. I-I’m not saying you’re not allowed to like other women. Um, Paula is pretty, so I understand…”

“She’s not really my type.”

“…Huh?” Lavia looked puzzled.

Hikaru finally understood. She was anxious. Lavia obtained everything the world had to offer through Hikaru, and right now, she was fully dependent on him.

“I-I, uhh…” Lavia stammered.

“Rest assured. I love you. I like Paula purely as a person. I would say the same thing even if she was a man.”

“Aaaaahhh…”

Realizing that she had the wrong idea, Lavia covered her red face and crouched down.

I gotta say, I didn’t expect her to say she’d be okay with another girl so long as she was mentally prepared for it. I guess it’s because she was born to a family of nobles, where men can have multiple wives. Not that I have any plans for that.

Hikaru crouched down beside Lavia and rubbed her back.

Also, Paula is out of the question.

There was just something off about her. She wasn’t exactly normal.

---

“Achoo!” Paula sneezed.

“Are you okay?” Priscilla asked.

They were in a post town located along the road connecting Pond and the fortress city of Leather Elka. The inn they were staying at was quite cold in the winter, complete with gaps in the windows and doors.

Since they had only been gone from the village for about half a year, they hadn’t completed that many commissions for the Adventurers’ Guild, which meant they didn’t have money. They didn’t expect to be forced to return to their hometown like this. They had to pay for the carriage too.

“I-I’m fine,” Paula replied. “I don’t think it’s a cold.”

“Well, this room is dusty. Let’s just go to bed.”

“Okay.”

The three girls crawled inside the bed, which was actually just a sheet over a straw mat. Still, it was far better than sleeping on the ground.

“We’re going off the highway tomorrow,” Paula said.

The road connecting Pond and Leather Elka was well-maintained and wide enough for horse-drawn carriages to pass by each other, but the road to Cotton Elka was narrow, and there were no carriages available. They didn’t have enough money to rent one either. From here onward, they would have to continue on foot.

“When we left…” Pia trailed off.

They left the village to become full-fledged adventurers. They believed they could become one. They were going to earn money to send back to the village.

The fact that monsters were multiplying in the dungeon could only be described as bad luck. But even without that happening, would they have been able to become full-fledged adventurers?

With the magic lamps turned off, the room was dark. Feeble light was streaming in through the crude frosted glass. The girls fell asleep with worry in their mind.

---

Paula woke up early. She slept well for some reason; she thought that perhaps she was adapting to the life of an adventurer. After leaving the inn, they had breakfast of bread and soup at a food stand. The bread was tough, and the soup was too salty, but they had to eat as much as they could to keep their strength up. After buying some packed food, the girls left the post town.

Carriages overtook them on the highway. Three female adventurers in a group was apparently unusual; a lot of people called to them, mostly just to flirt, men who only wanted to hook up with random women.

They reached the fork leading to Cotton Elka in the late afternoon and were relieved to find no one else heading in that direction. It was disheartening to be completely alone, but at least no one would be eyeing them lasciviously.

The girls missed this road so much, even though they were just in Cotton Elka a few months ago. The only people who came to the village were peddlers, once a month, and the tax collector, once a year. The road was rough, but not too bad enough to walk on.

“Hostile to the left,” Priscilla warned. “Probably a monster.”

Although constantly in a daze, she was the daughter of hunters; she was skilled at spotting animals.

Pia took the huge shield she was carrying on her back in her hand and brandished the mace that hung from her waist. It wasn’t that she was a clergy forbidden to use blades; she was simply not accustomed to using bladed weapons, and maintenance was expensive. So she opted for a mace as a weapon.

Paula also had a mace. But in her case, it was just for self-defense. Her role was to use Healing Magic on Pia and Priscilla if they got injured.

“Enemy spotted. Three Forest Rats.”

The Forest Rat was a large rodent, about 60 centimeters long. Branches and grass were attached to their long body hair, which allowed it to blend into the forest. Despite their camouflage, they were ferocious omnivores. It pounced at a human as soon as it spotted one.

“We’ll take them down one at a time.”

“Right.”

“O-Okay.”

Paula’s hands trembled. They had fought monsters several times before, but she still couldn’t get used to it.

Forest Rats darted across the uneven ground. The three creatures jumped simultaneously at Pia, who took position in front.

“Hmph… Ah!”

Pia missed her swing. The Forest Rat in front of her bared its sharp teeth, then flew off to the side. Priscilla had shot it with an arrow.

“Ugh.”

“Pia!”

But the other two were biting Pia’s arms and legs. She swung her arms around, but they wouldn’t let go.

“Hold still.”

Priscilla fired more arrows, hitting the one on Pia’s arm. Pia then swung her mace down on the other rat on her leg, crushing its skull.

“Pia, are you okay?!”

“Ow…”

Pia held out her arms, tears in her eyes. The Forest Rat was dead, but it was still hanging on to her arm. Paula carefully removed the creature.

“Ouch!”

“S-Sorry.”

Blood spurted out of Pia’s arm. Priscilla dealt with the other one on her leg, but the result was the same.

Paula immediately recited an incantation. “O’ God who art in heaven, in your name I ask for a miracle. In my right hand is the gift of life, in my left the blessing of death. Bless us who live in this world. My mana I offer…”

Paula’s body glowed a faint gold, and a wave of mana surged from her hand to Pia’s arm.

“Hngh…”

Pia was feeling an itchy sensation. Her wound frothed, then slowly closed up, leaving only a pink scar that should vanish in a few days.

Paula also used magic that neutralized poison just in case. Forest Rats were unsanitary creatures. In fact, one of the first things that newbie adventurers were told was never to eat their meat unless you wanted a stomachache.

In short, the Forest Rat was a monster that could not be hunted for its meat, nor could its parts be used as raw materials for anything.

Paula and her friends continued on their way, coming across monsters from time to time. They didn’t encounter any when they were on the highway. Unfortunately, unfrequented roads meant there were no one around to kill them.

“I owe you two,” Pia said as they were setting up camp for the night. The wounds all over her body had closed.

“What are you saying?” Paula said. “You drew those monsters’ attention.”

“Paula’s right,” Priscilla agreed. “I could take a good aim because of you.”

“R-Really?”

Pia was surprised by the unexpected recognition. She had been feeling ashamed that all she did was stand there and get injured, while Priscilla killed most of the monsters with her arrows.

“Yes. So hold your head up high,” Paula said. “We’re now full-fledged adventurers.”

“Yeah… you’re absolutely right!”

“Yup.”

Pia and Priscilla nodded.

Afterwards, the girls decided to take turns being on lookout duty. They should arrive at a lumberjack’s hut by noon tomorrow. There was a fork there, one road leading to Cotton-elka and the other to a neighboring village. Paula remembered the two boys that joined their party.

What were they doing now?