ch101-ch120 · 105-ch105

Chapter 105: You Can't Measure What's Bigger Than You Are

"Haruki-san."

Left behind on Floor 2 were Kasumi-san, me, and Umemoto, wrapped up round and round in his chain.

"Yes?"

What is it?

"There is absolutely no way that you are not cut out to be an adventurer, Haruki-san."

Ah—she's comforting me.

Thank you, Kasumi-san.

But somehow, that kindness stings instead...

"The truth is, that little brat took a full year to rise to Double, and then another full year after that to reach Triple."

'Little brat' being... Sword Saint-chan, of course.

That's right.

Blue Ocean didn't hit Triple at world-record speed the moment the dungeons opened, either.

Their leader, Ao-san, is the type to draft a careful strategy and move things forward without waste.

Even their Floor 40 clear, he said on his own video channel, was the fruit of two solid years of steady leveling and gear gathering.

"And you, Haruki-san, passed all of that in less than two weeks. A year is 52 weeks and a day—going by track record, you have already been producing results at better than fifty-two times the speed."

Well, I haven't reported any of it, so it's no official record.

And lately, overseas, there's this 'Triple in a Week Tour' thing going around—it's all the rage among the rich—so I'm not even the world's fastest.

There's even an off-the-charts rich guy who borrowed an entire military and made Quadruple.

But if you asked whether any of those people are actually strong—I doubt it.

So speed isn't anything to be proud of.

"That little brat appears to have looked down on me. To think she would set her sights on you, Haruki-san... Apparently she noticed how abnormal you are. For that alone, I'll grant her this much praise—it's just what I'd expect of a 【Sword Saint】."

'Little brat' again...

Seems Kasumi-san and Sword Saint-chan simply don't get along.

"So she moved on you to try to take your measure. But she couldn't measure you. Just as a thirty-centimeter ruler cannot measure a meter, that little brat's tiny ruler had no way of taking the measure of your size, Haruki-san. That is all there was to it."

"And yet the fact remains she put a sword to my throat and I couldn't do a thing..."

Come to think of it, the only unnatural movement was her hand going to her sword.

It was her way of announcing: I am about to attack you.

And yet...

I couldn't register it as an attack until the drawn sword had already stopped at my throat.

No—she simply made the motion of drawing, and the sword was already at my throat.

It was a perfectly natural, unguarded movement.

Perhaps there was no strain in it at all.

Even with Kasumi-san, I can always tell when she tenses up before an attack.

You put force into your body and swing your weapon.

I'd always thought that was simply how fighting worked. Apparently, it isn't.

So that is the blade of a 【Sword Saint】...

"What that little brat tried to measure was nothing more than your strength in a single instant. I know your true strength better than anyone. If that blade had been pointed at me, that little brat would not be in this world right now."

"That's going a bit far... I mean, Umemoto-san here is alive and well, isn't he?"

"Fufufu."

Ah—it was a joke, apparently.

Could it be she's angry at Sword Saint-chan for pointing a sword at me?

"There may still be a gap in technique, for now. But technique is something even I can teach. I will prove that you, Haruki-san, are more cut out to be an adventurer than that little brat."

Technique, huh...

I already know from the rich-guy stories that leveling up and learning powerful skills doesn't make you strong on its own.

'If you can't do anything without your skills activating, you're not cut out to be an adventurer.'

A remark that hits the mark dead-on.

The me of right now can only fight properly 'while charging.'

I feel like I can finally see the direction I need to go.

Sword Saint-chan's movements just now had nothing to do with skills.

Maybe they had nothing to do with stats, either.

If I could learn to move like that...

Dr. Amamiya did tell me to stop overusing my skills, too—so it would solve a whole pile of problems at once.

"I've disliked that little brat for a long time. I always told myself that someday I would snap her nose—no, her sword—clean in two. If you won't do it, Haruki-san, then I will."

...Apparently she's hated her for ages.

She is a 【Sword Saint】, after all.

︙

︙

After that, I sent Kasumi-san on ahead with Umemoto.

I'd figured I would play the herald announcing everyone's return, but Blue Ocean had that covered, didn't they.

Sure enough, Floor 1 was in an uproar, so I slipped quietly through the 'Gate to Floor 1' in the shadow of Kasumi-san, who was soaking up every eye in the place.

The branch manager noticed me and glared—but far from saying a word, he waved his hand at me: shoo, shoo, keep it moving.

(No lecture! Woohoo! Huh? Is that beautiful woman over there...)

My joy lasted all of a moment—isn't that Kuwashima Miyuki, the 【Saint】?

She's casting healing magic on Kasumi-san.

I'd love to go make her acquaintance, but the branch manager is glaring.

Ah, and now healing magic for Umemoto, too...

(Curse you, Umemoto—)

Anyway, I need Hiramatsu-san to open the surface-side ticket gate before everyone else comes out.

Oh—and Shiraishi-san did give my head its 【Heal】, properly.

"The press at the entrance is a total madhouse—Blue Ocean dragged an even bigger crowd in behind them. You don't want to be inside the branch; you're better off at a café outside or somewhere."

So says Hiramatsu-san, flicking the ticket gate open for me.

Apparently, the area in front of the Chiba branch is already one big street festival.

I leave the branch through the back entrance Hiramatsu-san showed me—and a voice calls out.

"Oi, Haruki."

A rough way of talking.

Who is it?

"Kasumi-san's phone won't connect—is she all right? You're not even supposed to be able to get into the branch, so how come you're the one walking out?"

I turn around to find a short girl...

It's Mia-san, the one they call the Child Shopkeeper.

"Kasumi-san is fine. She only just got back, though—she looked busy. So I've decided to wait outside."

For now we settle on grabbing drinks at some shop or other, and off we go.

"Long as Kasumi-san's safe. Though really, it's less Kasumi-san—I came for you."

Ah. The rental spear...

"I'm sorry about the spear."

Striking first wins the battle.

I bow my head.

"The spear? Ah, that thing."

Huh?

"You're not angry? Then what are you here for?"

"Measurements, obviously. YOU called me out here, didn't you?! I came early since I couldn't get into HQ either, and then I couldn't get into Chiba, and Kasumi-san's phone wouldn't connect—I was worried sick, you know!"

It's already past seven in the evening, you know?

She came around noon and has been hanging around here ever since?

She's too good a person.

No, really—I've done her wrong.

Right—it was because going to HQ risked having 【Analyze・HP】 cast on me that I'd asked Kasumi-san to summon our ore-speaking Child Shopkeeper out here instead.

...【Analyze・HP】... Thank goodness I didn't go near the 【Saint】 earlier.

I was planning to have Kasumi-san introduce us later, but that's off the table now, huh...

"I was dead certain you'd come all this way to chew me out."

"Who'd trek out to Chiba just to yell at you? Besides, weapons are things that break. That spear was made at Kasumi-san's request, to keep a beginner safe. If you—the beginner—came out of it in one piece, then it did its job, didn't it? If you feel sorry toward the one who made it, that's good enough for me."

She really is a good person.

Kind, too.

A goddess, even?

Nothing like that ninja and his 'loli shuriken' nonsense. Unforgivable.

"And you didn't break it on purpose, right? Ah—what happened to the spearhead? If it had snapped, I could have fixed it. But it's just... cleanly gone, isn't it? Did it come off?"

Right—the head vanished as neatly as if it had been unscrewed, and the shaft was completely unharmed.

"Um... it seems it came off when I threw the spear."

"Hm? It came off when you threw it?"

Grrr.

"Yes. It had been coming loose for a while."

"Loose? Since before?"

Grrrr.

"I looked for it afterward, but I couldn't find it."

"You lost it?"

Grrrrr.

"Ha ha... really sorry about that. But I'm sure glad you're not angry."

Grrrrrrr.

Huh? Is the ground rumbling or something?

"YOU DAMN IDIOT—!"

I got chewed out beyond all reason.