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The Rising of Tanaka – 74 part 1

Pasifista

Legendary Beast

　It was late at night, when everyone had fallen asleep. The Thridiots trio was assembled in the wasteland a short distance from Nanashi town.

「How unusual for you to be up at this hour.」

「What in the world are you up to, Tanaka-dono?」

Tanaka was floating a fearless smile, refusing to surrender to sleepiness.

「Hmm, it seems that the people of the town are in trouble, you see. So there’s no way I, the one rumored to be the definite elected leader of the town, could afford to do nothing about it, right? And on top of that, as even Echigoya-san persistently bowed his head to me, I have no choice but to do something that does his action justice.」

Tanaka said, ‘Echigoya-san being overly reliant on me is truly handful. Even though I don’t really want to stand out that much,’ with an exaggerated air, as he performed first-class good grief.

「That’s why, as the number one reliable man, I’m going to solve everyone’s food problem first.」

In order to gain respect from the two of them, Tanaka-san pointed to himself with his thumb and sharply struck a pose. The way he continued to frequently strive to make himself look like a great man in order to gain their loyalty, as always he was a man who never forgot the heart of a little man.

「I see-degozaru.」

「But, there’s no particular need for us to be here, right?」

「Silence!」

Perhaps having the excitement gotten the better of him. Tanaka dismissed Kaku-san’s doubt in a slightly raspy voice.

「Failure is no longer an option now! This town, beset with so many problems, no longer has such a leeway. Moreover, the situation is that none of them has the power to solve these problems. If we don’t solve at least the food problem here, people will despair and the town may collapse, you know?!」

Tanaka clenched his fists tightly as he gave such a heartfelt speech. It wasn’t like one couldn’t vaguely sense Tanaka-san’s love, as he was concerned with the people, from his murky eyes.

「It’s not that I don’t understand why the two of you, who are fully aware of my ability, think that it’s the right choice to leave this matter to me. As there’s no way the powerful, cool, and popular me would ever fail, and that’s exactly right! However! Just as I told you two previously, we’re in a situation where failure is absolutely not an option! Have you forgotten the vow we made in the Peach Orchard to ‘help the strong and discourage the weak’ before we departed our hometown?! As a member of Team Tanaka, how could you not have the readiness to face any eventuality here?! It’d be troubling if you don’t have more awareness and sense of responsibility as members of Team Tanaka!」

Barrage of machine gun talk that seemed as though blocking out any words of denial. As far as Tanaka-san was concerned, what he wanted to defend desperately the most was the ‘Powerful, cool and popular’ part.

「… I get it. Indeed, after being hailed as a VIP muscle by the elves these days, I might have gotten slightly carried away. My bad.」

「The same for me, as I’ve been appointed as the master of the close combat group, I seem to have gotten too ahead of myself-degozaru.」

The two of them reflected on themselves, swept away by Tanaka’s momentum. Reflecting was good and all, but both of you, were you sure you would leave Tanaka’s remarks alone just like that? In various ways, it wasn’t as though there was nothing wrong with them, but was that just a misconception?

「Hmm, everyone makes mistakes. The important part is what you do after you realize it. You’re going to accompany me, aren’t you?」

「I’m no match against you. I’m going to continue relying on you from now on, leader.」

「I hereby vow once again-degozaru. I will always stand with you against all kind of trials-degozaru.」

The three of them bumped their fists together and reaffirmed their unshakable camaraderie. For sure there was no man among them who was breaking out in cold sweat in thought, ‘Staying alone in such darkness is too high of a difficulty!’

「Well then, now that we’ve come to it, let’s get started. The two of you wait in the back… Be sure to keep an eye on me, alright?! Be sure to, alright?! If you leave without telling me, I’ll cry, alright?!」

Suppressing his anxiety, Tanaka faced the dark wasteland with a stern face.

「First is to build a vessel!」

He then swiftly struck a cool pose with his cape noticeably fluttering.

It was safe to say that 90% of the work had been completed with this, but the readers who had questions at this point were quite astute. It was so unlike Tanaka for not using such a large undertaking to make himself popular. That question could indeed be said to be a fair one. However, Tanaka needed to hurry.

Currently, hero Mikoto included, powerful people were gathered at Nanashi town. Normally, there was no way for such a number of prominent people to gather in such a remote area.

It was true that as Nanashi town was located in the northern part of the continent, the environment was harsh. And as the emergence of dangerous monsters was not an uncommon occurrence there, they had indeed been looking for considerably powerful people. However, it was by no means a job that needed to be undertaken by the top rankers of the guild.

If you were an A-ranked class warrior, you would probably seek for a tougher battlefield befitting your power. Or perhaps, the path of gaining wealth and fame through getting acquainted with influential people was not impossible either. There were other paths as well, but one thing for sure was, the works with half-baked difficulty in this town were not suitable for them.

In spite of Tanaka’s expectations of ‘Why are the rumored powerful people never going away? Just get out of here already! However, except for Hero-chan, his obstacles did not seem to disappear at all. In contrast to Echigoya, who was pleased to see the piled up requests being completed in the blink of an eye, Tanaka’s impatience only grew larger.

Please don’t say you were disappointed in Tanaka-san for not doing anything here. As the intelligent Tanaka-san had been steadily progressing in his preparations for any opportunity that might come his way.