Kansutoppu!

Phantom Part 2

 ◆ Avangard Castle Town Alley ◆ 

The two blades did not pierce me. Much faster than that, the Sonic Spear struck one of them in the shoulder. The one who attacked me with the knife was dealt with, while the other one with the sword was grabbed by the blade with my bare hand and pulled towards me, who was lying down.

The person in black, was pulled in by an unexpected force, lost his balance and fell on top of me. There was no way I was going to miss that opportunity. I immediately flipped my body around and switched my position. The one who had been hit in the shoulder by the Sonic Spear was holding his hand and enduring the pain, but he didn’t resist anymore.

He seems to have completely admitted defeat. The guy on the ground with me had already thrown away his knife. Siegel and Gantetsu seized the one who had been shot in the shoulder and pulled off his black mask. I’m not going to do anything more. A man I didn’t know, that’s all I could think of, and if it had been as strong as Grubb’s, I might still have been amazed.

“…Are you an adventurer?”

Siegel asked, but the man who had been grabbed by both arms and restrained by the two men did not answer. The only thing he did was grimace and grind his teeth in disappointment. When I saw the blood flowing from his shoulder, I thought that Roel would help him recover, but she was just sitting there, exhausted.

As I was wondering what to do, Gantetsu pulled out a recovery potion from his tool bag. It managed to stop the bleeding, but the wound was still open. I was pretty sure I had been careful, but the wound was still potentially fatal. A high level adventurer like Laurel would be safe, but an ordinary adventurer would be in danger even with the current Sonic Spear I used. But there were situations where I couldn’t say that, and since my life was threatened, I hoped that they would endure at least a serious injury. No, they wouldn’t be able to endure a serious injury.

I also took off the mask of the guy beneath me. This guy was younger than the other guy, but he had short hair and looked like he belonged on the street.

“Why did you target me?”

“…I’m sorry.”

The adventurer apologized in a faint voice. Even if he apologized, if it hadn’t been for me, he would have died. No, he was probably intending to die, but if he wanted to apologize, he shouldn’t have done this in the first place.

I guess they decided that I, who was dizzy from alcohol, could be defeated, but with the strength of these people, I don’t think they could even cross the Kyzer Valley.

“I’m not sure about myself, but Ryua is rather famous among adventurers now, and there’s not a single dragon hunter over here who doesn’t know about her. I’m sure you’re new at this, right? At any rate, let me check your identities.”

The two adventurers silently held out their cards to Gantetsu.

[Mike Lv: 4 Class: Swordfighter Rank D]

[Yumon Lv: 3 Class: Thief Rank D]

“You’re not a newcomer. Well, I could sense it from the way you were moving earlier. Hey, you two. Why did you do this? Siegel is a kind man, so depending on the situation, he may forgive you.”

“Forgive them, but I was the one who was targeted…”

“Now, now, don’t worry about the details.”

“That’s…”

I was a little annoyed with the adventurer who stubbornly refused to talk. There was no way I was going to forgive them when they tried to kill me for no reason. Lars also misled us with his magic, but in the end he explained himself and apologized.

There’s no way that these adults can’t do what even a young child could do.

“Well, then, we’ll just have to turn you in to the kingdom guards as usual.”

“No, that’s…”

“Speak. I wouldn’t be the one to decide whether to forgive you or not.”

“A stranger asked me to do something for him. He said he’d give me 200,000 gold if I killed the girl who was affected by the alcohol… I got the money in advance.”

“Who is this guy?”

“I don’t know, his face was hidden by a hood…”

“So you took advantage of the offer of such an unidentified person? Well, 200,000 gold is not a lot of money for a D rank.”

“I got various jobs, but none of them were profitable and didn’t last long. I’ve been working as an adventurer for a while now, but lately, the level of every request is beyond my ability to handle. Even tomorrow’s food was uncertain. We had no choice but to do this…”

“That’s what being an adventurer is all about. Some people say they envy our freedom, but in reality, the risk is much greater. If you want to be an adventurer, you need to have the appropriate skills and determination.”

“Shut up! Successful people like you don’t understand! What more do you want me to do!”

“You’ve got it backwards…”

Grundom who suffered from the level cap and lost his way, those who were crushed by Grundom, those who lost their friends in the Kyzer Valley and felt helpless, retired from C rank and couldn’t move up to B rank, or from B rank and couldn’t move up to A rank. Just from what I’ve seen and heard, there have been so many setbacks. Each person has their own set of obstacles that they struggle with, and when they finally fail to overcome them, they withdraw.

The reason why I thought being an adventurer would be a good idea was because I had never run into such a wall before. Even Roel, who’s exhausted now, was in too much of a hurry to actually fight at first.

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to the Cave of the Abyss and had just left the village. Would I have gone astray like these people? Recently, I started to think a little about what I would have done if I hadn’t done this.

“Ryua, what do you want to do with these guys?”

“Nothing. I’ll forgive them if they promise not to do it again.”

“What, you two?”

The expression on both of their pale faces softened.

“Oh, thank you! Thank you!”

“Good for you. Originally, we could have been killed you in retaliation. If you learn from this, you should stay in Maizon tonight. I don’t think you’ll be able to pay the rent anyway, right? When you wake up, I will look after you from tomorrow.”

“What? Eh?”

I couldn’t help but react with, “What?”. Gantetsu suddenly said something I didn’t understand.

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to give them all a lecture. Be thankful that it’s coming directly from the A-ranked Gantetsu-sama.”

“But we don’t have that kind of talent…”

“Don’t give up without trying. Don’t worry, there are people who can eat and live well even at C rank. If you train yourself, it won’t be so difficult to get safe requests. I guarantee it.”

“Why are you so…?”

“I couldn’t even beat a cave rabbit once when I started.”

Seriously?

“I can’t tell you how many times my senior adventurers told me to quit because I had no talent. Thanks to that, I couldn’t even join any party. I spent my days struggling with rabbits. Even though they are almost the weakest monster, even adults can be fatally injured by them if they are not careful. I was risking my life.”

“…Why did you go to all that trouble?”

“Because I’m too stupid to get a real job. But I didn’t want to be used as a pawn in civil engineering. So I thought to myself that this is the only way to go. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but even though I’m ranked A, I’m not very good. After all, it took me half a year to be able to beat the cave rabbit. I’m actually not very good at fighting. That’s why I don’t get many requests to go on subjugation. Thanks to that, my level is still in the 30s, even at my age! Hahahaha!”

I was surprised. Gantetsu, who looks so strong, had such a hard time in the beginning. I also had a hard time with cave rabbits at first. I cried a lot, and I was covered in scratches. I felt a certain kinship with Gantetsu.

“Well, stay in Mazon today, and come to the Adventurer’s Guild tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’ll teach you the ropes nicely.”

“Oh, thank you… thank you so much…”

Gantetsu grabbed their tearful arms and forcefully walked towards Maizon. I’ve got a lot on my mind, but I have a few questions I’d like to ask the two of them, like about the people in the hood.

“Mmmm…Ryua-chan, no…no…no…”

And I’m supposed to carry this sleeping Roel. What a mess, rolling over on the ground like this.

 ◆ Back Alleys of Avangard Castle Town ◆ 

I waited on the roof of a building in the alley and looked down. I thought it was great that I could see in the dark at times like this. There, I saw the guy who had asked Mike and Yumon to kill me standing quietly in the alleyway. As they had said, he was dressed in a hood and robe, and it was hard to tell if he was a man or a woman just by looking at his back.

This was the location they had specified for the delivery of the goods if they were successful, but in Siegel’s opinion, it was more than just a mess. First, it was impossible for for them to ask two D-ranked people to kill me, even if I was drunk. Then, they need proof of the kill. The person who made the request should have either confirmed it in person or instructed the other party to bring some kind of proof, but according to Mike and Yumon, they didn’t say anything about that either.

Siegel said that the ringleader was most likely an amateur who was not familiar with the adventurer situation. But if that was the case, I couldn’t understand why they would even try to kill me.

“I’ll expose them for what they did.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I jumped down behind the guy. I then quickly knocked him to the ground. The other guy didn’t even seem to realize what had happened to him all of a sudden. I didn’t want him to panic and start screaming, so I covered his mouth with my hand.

I turned him from his slumped position to his back and got on top of him to prevent him from escaping. As I did so, the hood naturally flipped up, revealing his face.

“Hiiii….i, only life…”

It was a middle-aged man who looked like a nobody. His hair was a little gray, and there was the characteristic smell of a middle-aged man in the air. Of course, I had never met him before. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. On the contrary, my questions grew deeper.

“You asked Mike and Yumon to kill me, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I underestimated you, thinking you were just a kid…I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything. I’ll even give you the money I was going to give those two. I’ll give you my life.

“Why did you try to kill me?”

“Well, because…”

“‘Cause if you don’t tell me, I might kill you.”

“I didn’t do it! It was an order from above! I was just following orders! I don’t have anything against you at all!”

“The top? Orders from whom?”

“I don’t know… I’m just following what’s written on a piece of paper strapped to a bird…”

I don’t understand. In summary, it seems that this person was following the orders of someone he didn’t know and tried to kill me, so what was this all about?

“Why are you following orders from someone like that, Uncle?”

“Well.”

At this point, Uncle laughed coldly. It was a lie that he was shaking like a small animal. It was as if he wanted me to kill me if he could.

“Oh, look at you, aren’t you the father of the flower shop? You know, the one a little off of Central Avenue?”

“…You know it?”

Siegel, who had been hiding, appeared and quickly looked at the uncle’s face. I was the only one who could catch him, so Siegel was keeping watch from the shadows.

“One of the girls I’m dating goes there a lot. She really likes your place.”

“I see…”

“200,000 gold, that’s a lot of money. Are you making that much money?”

“If I succeed, I’ll get more money from the top. Selling flowers will be a fool’s errand.”

“That’s too bad. It’s a pity, because she really liked your flowers. It’s a shame. I don’t know how you take care of them to make them bloom like that. I wondered how you could make them bloom like that. You love them so much, don’t you?

Then the uncle didn’t say a word. Soon after, the soldiers rushed in and took him away. There were still many things I wanted to know. But Siegel’s voice sounded a little depressed because he knew that the man would not talk even if he was questioned, and that it was not our job to find out.

I was the one who was targeted, and he said he would tell me if he found out anything, but I wondered if I could trust him. I wasn’t convinced, but it was the least I could do.

I went back to my room and immediately jumped into bed. Next to me, Roel was sleeping quietly. I wonder if the alcohol has worn off. Speaking of alcohol, I wonder if the uncle actually mixed that. No, there was no way a florist uncle could have done that. So maybe it was just a mistake.

While I was thinking about all this, I fell asleep before I knew it.

 ◆ Avangard Castle Town Central Street ◆ 

“I can’t believe the king called us here so soon!”

“I was so surprised when I opened the door and suddenly there was a soldier standing there.”

“But it’s a request from His Majesty! I was a little excited to hear that.”

In the morning sun, we’re heading towards Avangard Castle. Maizon is much closer to the castle than the inn we stayed at during the Avangard Festival. Even so, if I ran with Roel on my back, I could get there in less than a minute, but I couldn’t do that in front of all these soldiers.

Maybe it was because it was morning, but there were so many people that we almost bumped into each other. It was not as busy as during the festival, but the town was still overflowing with people.

“Hey, what kind of request is it?”

“I don’t know. But I’m sure Ryua-san will have no problem with any request. If there was a request that the blitz girl who fought off even the Demon King’s army couldn’t handle, then no matter how formidable the person was, they would be helpless.”

“The, the Blitz Girl?”

“Ah, I beg your pardon…”

I didn’t understand why they referred to me by that name. I don’t even know if I’m cool or not. I don’t know if I’m cool or not, but I think they’re making fun of me.

“Blitz Girl! I like that!”

“No, I don’t think it’s something to be envious of…”

It’s not something to be so bright-eyed about. I remembered that the people above A rank were called strange names, such as Angel of Mercy and Battlefield Poet. Shinbu told me that they call him “Fancy Kill”. Why?

Gantetsu used to call himself a strong fighter. That’s still cooler. Maybe I should go with that.

“Aliases are nice, aren’t they? I admire them too. But there are adventurers who are given strange nicknames, and I pity them. As I recall, greyman-san is called “gold armed”. I don’t know how to explain it. No matter how you interpret it, it doesn’t sound very honorable, does it?”

“But I guess that fits…”

“Hahaha, some soldiers say it looks good on him.”

“Hmm, blitz girl, huh? I wonder if she’s good-looking. What else, if anything, do you have in mind?”

“How about phantom, then?”

Someone whispered clearly in my ear. I quickly turn around, but there’s only a stream of people. There were several people who had just passed me. I wonder if one of them whispered it. Who and for what purpose? For some reason, this reminds me of the man at the flower shop yesterday. I wonder what happened to him after that.

“Ryua-chan, what’s wrong?”

“Did someone do something to you?”

“Well, someone just said phantom…”

“Huh, I didn’t hear anything, but…”

The soldier and Roel are both puzzled.

“Oh, Ryua-chan, what’s that on the ground?”

A piece of paper fell at my feet. It was a messy piece of paper, as if it had been torn from a book or something. Maybe someone had thrown it away. It looked like trash, but it bothered me strangely.

Roel looked at the piece of paper and made a frown.

“What’s this?”

“Huh, um…”

“The phantom has risen, the phantom will always be watching you, the phantom will always kill try to kill you.”

The soldier guy gives us a quick reading of it. Then, after whispering, “What the hell is this?”, he dumped it on the side of the road again. It had been completely devoid of wind until now, but suddenly, a breeze blew and carried the piece of paper far away. It was as if it had finished its role and was being disposed of.