“Cliff, what’s your Skill Aptitude?”
“Eh, it’s Rank E, but…”
“Pfft… and you had the nerve to say you were going on a Demon Lord subjugation journey?”
“Y-yes…”
One week into the journey, Kaine and the others continued their daily routine of bringing monsters to the brink of death and then delivering them to Licht. During that time, Kaine and Erna were constantly being hit on (and naturally refused), Cliff was constantly being insulted, and everyone was stressed out. Licht was the only one who mistakenly thought that traveling was fun. Of course, there are enjoyable aspects to traveling. However, simply defeating pre-arranged monsters to level up, and then enjoying luxury hotels and dinners at night… it’s not that easy. As a result, Licht would learn a painful lesson…
“Hey, apparently a Fire Dragon has appeared in the next town!”
Fire Dragons are a slightly weaker type of dragon, ranking in the upper tier of Rank B. However, no one with a sound mind would consider suddenly hunting a monster two ranks higher than the Rank D monsters they had been hunting (and even then, relying on others).
But even if I object, he’ll probably just say, “If you disobey…” so it’s pointless to argue… If it comes down to it, we can just defeat it ourselves… In the end, we decided to go to the next town to defeat the Fire Dragon.
As soon as we arrived in the next town, Licht immediately booked a luxury hotel and went to gamble.
Whenever he goes gambling, he always says, “I’m sure to win,” but after losing about five Gold Coins, he starts begging, “Give me more money!” I’m beyond annoyed and just dumbfounded. He seriously has no intention of subjugating the Demon Lord.
As expected, he lost badly. I wish he would understand that the money he lost could have supported a comfortable life for a year.
Watching him makes me want to punch him, so I try to stay away as much as possible. After a full day of playing, I thought we would finally go to subjugate the Fire Dragon the next day, but unbelievably, he spent the second day playing as well. Three days, four days passed, and almost a week later, he finally said this:
“What? You haven’t subjugated the Fire Dragon yet? Fine, I’ll subjugate it myself.”
I felt a surge of murderous intent. He’s the one who said he would go subjugate it, and then he does this. Anyway, we prepared our equipment and items and headed to subjugate the Fire Dragon. The Fire Dragon lives deep in the coal mine and attacks using the terrain, making it troublesome. However, we have Cliff with us.
“The plan… well, it’s not much of a plan, but how about we gradually increase the concentration of carbon dioxide from the entrance of the coal mine using Cliff’s Air Manipulation to defeat it? I feel bad for Cliff, but we’ll protect him during that time.”
Then, Licht gets angry.
“Is that any way to defeat it! If you have a Sword at your waist, you should use it to take your opponent’s life like a man… Cliff? Don’t you have such a noble spirit?”
What’s he talking about, the guy who tried to force himself on a girl… Cliff looks troubled.
“Hmph! Fine, I’m disappointed in you all. I’ll defeat the Fire Dragon alone!”
Licht heads deeper into the coal mine. He’ll die if he goes on like this, so we follow him.
As the information suggested, the Fire Dragon was in the depths. It had a large body, and the space was hot due to the Fire Dragon’s influence. Licht drew his Sword and charged at the Fire Dragon to attack. However, he was too slow. At this rate, he couldn’t even defeat a Rank D monster, let alone a Rank B one. The blade couldn’t penetrate the Fire Dragon’s tough scales, and Licht was sent flying.
“Uwaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
The Fire Dragon tried to finish off the immobile Licht, breathing fire from its mouth. However, the flames didn’t hit Licht and went wide. Cliff had used his Air Manipulation ability to increase the refractive index of light in the air. Unlike in water, light hardly refracts in the air, but it still refracts slightly. All he had to do was amplify that, and the target’s position would appear shifted, creating a surprisingly powerful effect. Cliff’s Skill truly has a high degree of versatility.
In the meantime, Cliff seemed to have completed his attack preparations.
“Completion: Air Cannon!”
He solidified the air in the atmosphere to create a launchpad, filled it with an excessive amount of air, and launched a ball of air. It was invisible and had tremendous power. The only drawback was the long charge time.
The Fire Dragon died from Cliff’s attack, but Licht didn’t seem pleased.
“Y-you did something unnecessary! I could have defeated it alone, but you wanted to stand out, so you acted so selfishly… You’re kicked out of the party!”
His accusations were outrageous. I had been holding back until now, but just as I was about to punch Licht, Elena stepped forward and said,
“Oh, I agree with that. Cliff-san doesn’t belong in a party like this.”
“Oh! So the Hero-dono thinks so too!”
Erna!? What’s going on…
“Cliff-san doesn’t belong in a party with someone who indulges in laziness every day, tries to navigate the world without considering other people’s feelings, and can’t even say thank you after having their life saved. And I don’t want to be here either. I’m leaving the party.”
Ah… I see, that’s what’s happening. I’ll go along with it too.
“Then I guess I’ll quit too. The Hero Party is just Licht-sama now!”
“W-wait, you guys…”
Thus, the Hero Party was effectively disbanded, with everyone except Licht being expelled.
That night, Kaine, Cliff, and Erna gathered.
“This time… not as the Hero, but as just friends, would you like to form a party with me?”
“Of course!”
“That’s what I was planning.”
We were about to start our journey as a new party…
Of course, this isn’t the end of the “they got what they deserved” story.