Well, whether you’d notice or not seems like a different matter. I mean, it’s the room right next door, you know?
“Well, you seemed to be avoiding attention, so I didn’t follow you inside the building.”
“I was being fairly careful about my surroundings, but I didn’t notice you.”
Jenniferlin was genuinely impressed.
It wasn’t particularly problematic if others saw her, but perhaps because she had snuck out stealthily early in the morning, she found herself strangely wary of her surroundings.
Thinking that she had been seen made her feel a little embarrassed.
“Next time, be mindful of the rooftops too.”
“Sorry, I don’t understand the common sense of your stupid country.”
Her embarrassment didn’t last long.
She couldn’t comprehend Shin, who, in response to her words, said with a serious face that rooftops were important.
The worst part was that he wasn’t being sarcastic.
Oh well, that’s just how Shin Longdagger is.
“So, will you agree to the exchange? My friend.”
As Jenniferlin forcefully steered the conversation back from the common sense of the ‘stupid country’, Shin made a reluctant sound and expression.
Alright, time for a follow-up attack.
“If something about this bothers you, think of it this way. What? I’m not trying to obscure things; this is also my true feeling, so it’s not a lie.”
“Go ahead,” Shin prompted with just his gaze.
“Basically, Shin. You could say I want a memento. A memento of this journey, walking with a friend for the first time. If that memento is the Sword my friend carries, that would be truly wonderful; nothing could be better. When I hang the Sword on a rack after the journey ends, I want to think this: ‘Ah, what a fun journey that was.’ It’s simply that I want a keepsake to help me think that. Shin, are
The sarcasm didn’t come, but it definitely wasn’t because she was charmed by Shin’s smile.
Jenniferlin couldn’t admit that much, so she lowered her gaze to her feet. The road heading north wasn’t well-maintained; she had to watch her step carefully.
Neither of them noticed Try watching them, looking terribly dazzled.
＊
The mortality rate for young adventurers is surprisingly high.
If someone who could only use domestic magic became an adventurer just because they had a bit of confidence in their physical strength, the outcome was a natural consequence.
The Adventurers Guild wasn’t incompetent, but it wasn’t kind enough to nurture rookie adventurers like a mother bird.
They did things like providing books for acquiring knowledge, making those far-from-cheap books freely available, and connecting rookies with veteran adventurers who had the un-adventurer-like thought of raising young ones.
In the end, they didn’t do anything more than that.
Of course, there were considerations regarding royalty and nobility, but it was also true that, ultimately, the Adventurers Guild itself had grown complacent in the position that as long as they did the bare minimum, the number of adventurers would increase indefinitely.
But even so, the fact that becoming a high-Rank adventurer allowed one to earn money that commoners couldn’t easily make looked truly appealing to those who prided themselves on violence.
Try Flohs was exactly that kind of person.
He was someone incapable of possessing what you might call ordinary decency.
He hated tedious effort, and he absolutely detested a life where every day was just the same.
It didn’t take Try long to decide that while he wanted money, wearing down his life for it as if it were natural was impossible for him.
He resolved to live in the world of violence, staking his own life, at seventeen; perhaps due to talent, by the time he turned eighteen, he had reached Adventurer Rank 2.
Try considers himself lucky.
He met a good mentor, and he also met good friends.
Above all, he’d been an adventurer for one year and hadn’t died.
Try was crude and uneducated; perhaps due to his innate disposition, he was optimistic and irresponsible.
And yet, the reason he had a strange knack for being liked by people was likely because his fundamental nature wasn’t dark.
He’d had many near-death experiences, but Try thought it was good that he became an adventurer.
Since this was all he had, Try genuinely felt glad he could become this.
Perhaps it was precisely because he was the type of person who thought that way, the type who could convince himself of it, that he hadn’t noticed.
Try thought of his friend, who had been his complete opposite.
The ground he stepped on was hard.
The two walking behind him felt terribly nostalgic.
＊
＊＊＊Author’s Afterword＊＊＊
This turned out to be more of a short novella than a short story, so I’m posting it in parts.
Work is a bit busy, so I’m thinking of posting the continuation around the end of this week, if possible.