arc03 · 072-ep66

Episode 66: 『Braver』 (1)

Well then—today it's a meal with the 『Braver』 crowd, first thing in the morning.

Officially, they wanted to do something—anything—to make it up to me, but I didn't have anything in particular to ask for, so we settled on this: they treat me to a meal, I hear them out, and that's that. Whether that satisfies them is their business; at least as far as I'm concerned, this much is plenty.

So I explained as much to Mio too, and skipped breakfast.

I'd figured I'd hand the weapons I'd gotten in the dungeon over to her in exchange, but she asked me to keep them stored at my place for the time being, so I just chucked them off in a corner somewhere. Fair enough, honestly—storing them at the home of Mio, who isn't even an adventurer, would be dicey. My place is turning into half a warehouse at this point. As long as I've got somewhere to sleep and somewhere to eat, it's plenty—so it doesn't matter, I guess. Doesn't matter at all. And the materials I stockpiled over Golden Week are going to Aizawa, so it should open up a little space, I suppose.

◇

9 a.m.

Right on schedule, I made my way to the guild and up to reception.

Sakurai-san was waiting for me, so we exchanged a quick greeting and she walked me straight to the café's private room.

"'Braver' is already waiting inside the room. They all seem genuinely sorry, so I don't expect anything to happen—but please do stay alert, just in case. If anything comes up, contact me right away on the 【Comm Stone】."

With that, Sakurai-san headed back to reception.

And here I'd figured Sakurai-san would be sitting in with us. Right—so I'm meeting them on my own. Well, it's just a meal and a talk. Fine by me.

Knock knock.

"Oh—come on in."

I knocked, got an answer, and stepped inside.

"'Sup. Thanks for having me today."

"……We should be the ones saying that. Thanks for coming."

They all started to rise and bow together, so I held up a hand to stop them and gestured for everyone to sit back down.

"No, no—you've apologized plenty already. You're treating me to a meal today, right? And you'll tell me your side of the story, right? Then we're square."

"Honestly, looking back on that day again, we were unbelievably rude to you and put you through a whole lot of trouble. Letting it all go over a single free meal feels, um, how do I put it…… a little uncomfortable……"

"Not my problem. That's on you, isn't it? As far as I'm concerned, this is plenty—so please just accept that."

"O-okay. Got it."

Yuya—their leader—gave me that much for an answer.

For all I know they feel like this hardly counts as making amends—but if they blew it up any bigger, it'd become a pain on my end too.

For starters, we all took our seats and opened things up with proper self-introductions.

Two of them I already knew by name, but I didn't know Taishi's family name, and the last two were complete unknowns.

And so, the five names I learned were————

Tatsumi Yuya

Natsume Mimi

Osako Taishi

Mamiya Akihiko

Sakai Suzuna

That's who's who.

Yuya and Taishi are the vanguard, Mimi and Akihiko the rear guard, and Suzuna's the healer, from what I hear. Having a healer is a big deal. Our club advisor had it too, but with Recovery Magic in the party, your stability as a party is on a whole different level. Going by their roles, 『Braver』 looks like a pretty textbook golden lineup.

"Alright, let's get eating first. So—am I clear to order whatever I like off this?"

"Of course! Even if it runs tens of thousands of yen, it's fine—order whatever you want!"

Mimi chirps. She's the mood-maker of the group, I'd guess.

Come to think of it, she was the one who gave us the proper rundown last time, too.

I look over the menu and place my order on the tablet set into the table. Still haven't had breakfast, and figured I'd be eating while we talked, so I ordered big. It's a pretty large round table, so it should all fit.

The food will take a little while, so while we wait, I ask Taishi why he did what he did.

◇

"So, um—part of it's that I've always been the type whose blood boils fast…… but when it hit me that our dream might get crushed, I just couldn't sit still anymore……"

"Dream?"

"Yeah. The five of us have been saying it since way back—we'd be the first of anyone to join a famous clan and become the strongest party there is."

"The strongest party, huh……"

"We're nowhere near it yet, but someday we'd stand as adventurers who represent Japan—that's what we kept in our chests, doing our best all this time. So, um, I couldn't bring myself to believe your record, Takeru…… I even wondered if the guild was condoning fraud……"

"……I see. Because you've worked this hard yourselves, you couldn't trust how fast my rank climbed, or the rumors going around. And on top of that, you started to wonder if the guild was in on it too."

"Pretty much."

"Still, making a scene at the guild reception like that was not the way to go about it. But sure—I get the reason now."

"Fair. I know that much. I'm truly sorry."

It was mostly just extra detail on what I'd heard the other day, but this talk made one thing very clear: just how seriously they're aiming for the top.

And having heard that, let me say my piece.

"I'm aiming to be the strongest adventurer too, you know."

"……You too?"

"It's not some teary-eyed promise-made-with-each-other story like you guys have…… but ever since I was little—elementary school, middle school—I made not one friend and just kept training, the whole way."

"That's……"

"I swear it on myself—I never cheated. Not once."

"……Yeah, figured as much. The mock battle told me that much. And seeing how you carried yourself with Akechi-san of 『Steel Wings』 really drove it home."

"Is that so?"

He seems a bit put off by a loner like me…… but I'll take it that my name's already been cleared.

What made him think that, though?

"Akechi-san didn't spare us so much as a glance. My guess is that to a man like him, we're just 'young'—the level of kids you can find anywhere. But you're different. You were different. The kind of strength that leaves Taishi unable even to react, a match over in an instant—you built that up in a single month as an adventurer. You don't need to be Akechi-san to see how abnormal that is."

Yuya speaks with real frustration in his voice.

I see—so that match got the point across after all.

"But that doesn't automatically mean you're all weak. Weird thing for me to say, I know—but I'm certain there's no mistaking that 『Braver』 is a strong and promising party."

"Haha. It really is a weird thing to hear. Getting comforted by the younger guy we caused trouble for. No—my apologies. Feeling the difference in our league all over again."

"I'd guess there's not actually much of a league between us at all. I don't think I have any special talent—that's exactly why I just keep killing monsters in the dungeon and grinding without end. Pardon me for asking, but…… how often are you all diving?"

Not just Yuya—everyone here seems convinced I'm just some born genius or something. That's wrong. Sure, I've got the reincarnation advantage, but I never had talent worth the name. The only places I clearly come out ahead of other people are my trained body and my running speed—maybe. Both the combat sports and the kendo I did in elementary school put me right around any other kid my age. It's true that what I wanted wasn't competition—it was being an adventurer—so I quit both quickly and switched to training on my own. But that's all there is to it.

"……We're in the dungeon three or more times a week. On weekends, if nothing's come up, we dive and make it an overnight expedition; on weekdays we go when we can and grind levels in the shallow layers. Usually two to three hours a dive."

Honestly, even next to adventurers in general, that's real effort for students.

But————

"I see. Yeah—I think this is where the difference is. I'm in the dungeon exploring every single day, and time-wise I'd say I average ten hours per dive at minimum. On top of that, I'm always diving with pushing deeper in mind…… That's probably where the gap opened up."

"————Huh?"