Akatsuki Translations

The copper-ranked adventurer Gagaru and his party were stagnating in their careers.

There was no clear reason or cause for this. It might have been better if there had been. There was no reason for their stagnation and degradation. They had simply been defeated by difficulties, lost their ambition, neglected training, taken the easy way out, and learned to be satisfied by looking down on and trampling others. In short, they were just troublesome adventurers who bullied young adventurers with long careers but little else, the kind you could find anywhere.

Today too, they had been scrounging for magic stones and getting drunk on cheap liquor with their earnings. When the rumored new adventurer who had quickly surpassed their position appeared before them, it was inevitable that they would try to provoke him.

“We just want to give you some guidance. We heard you’re the amazing new adventurer everyone’s talking about,” Gagaru said.

This was their usual method – surrounding their target when they were alone and forcibly taking them to the training grounds. They would torment and beat up young, promising adventurers who had been praised and become overconfident, reducing them to tears and defeat. They reveled in utterly destroying their target’s self-esteem. It was the best feeling for them.

Today’s target looked even younger than usual, like a child. But they felt no guilt at all. Only sadistic desires welled up. The child was staring intently at his weapon. Seeing this, Gagaru laughed.

“Dissatisfied with the weapon? Sorry about that. We don’t have practice weapons for dragonfang spears here,” he lied.

This was a lie. This was the Proudia Adventurers’ Guild. While dragonfang spears were rare weapons, it wasn’t true that there were no practice spears modeled after them. They just wanted to force an unfamiliar weapon on him. The wooden sword was old and fragile, retrieved from a trash can meant for disposal. It would likely break easily if swung with an adventurer’s strength. Of course, they had no intention of replacing it if it broke during the fight.

“You’re not going to say this is unfair, are you?” one of Gagaru’s companions taunted.

“You’ve been defeating wanted monsters one after another, right? Show us your skills,” another jeered.

His comrades laughed loudly, egging him on.

Young new adventurers were usually hot-blooded and self-conscious. As monster hunting goes well, the physical enhancement from gaining magical power further encourages this. Because things they couldn’t do yesterday become easy to do today, they misunderstand. They think they’re invincible. That’s why they’re weak to provocation.

If they could get him to charge into their encirclement on his own, the rest would be fun. Gagaru inwardly licked his lips in anticipation.

“…Can I ask one thing?” Ur finally spoke, still staring at the wooden sword.

“Huh?”

“Who’s your leader?” he asked.

“Huh? That’s me, what about it—”

In the next instant, the wooden sword flew towards Gagaru’s head, striking him directly on the crown. With the impact, he lost consciousness.

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“Gagaru!?”

Keimie, one of his companions, was shocked at the sight of their leader suddenly being knocked down. Around him, the rotten wooden sword had shattered and scattered. Ur was still far away. This meant he had thrown the wooden sword at Gagaru.

“What do you think you’re doing!? We haven’t even started—”

As Keimie tried to voice her protest, in the next moment, Ur turned his back. Before she could understand what was happening, Ur had started running.

For a moment, Keimie was dumbfounded.

He was running away. Turning tail and fleeing from them.

“D-Don’t fuck with us!!!”

Keimie started running. The other three also began chasing after him, shouting angrily. A chase had begun. The small and nimble Ur freely ran around the wide grounds, confounding Keimie and the rest.

“Hahaha! Hey Keimie, what are you doing? Right, go right!”

“Come on, run properly!”

The foolish adventurers watching jeered at them being outrun. These ill-behaved individuals had no allies. Keimie, though irritated, quickened her pace. Compared to her companions in heavy equipment, Keimie was fast, and soon she caught up to Ur’s back.

“The chase is over!!”

Without realizing that she had left her companions behind due to the speed difference, she tried to strike Ur’s back with her wooden sword. But just before that moment, Ur turned around and instead reached out towards her.

“Huh?”

His hand extended to Keimie’s neck, breaking her momentum and slamming her to the ground. Her back hit hard.

“Gyah!?”

She dropped her sword. Ur picked it up and simultaneously straddled Keimie who was now on the ground. As Keimie tried to escape, his fist repeatedly struck her stomach, precisely targeting the side where the armor was thinner.

“Higyah!?”

Letting out a frog-like cry, she lost all strength in her body. Despite being an adventurer by profession, long stagnation and degradation had made her weak to pain. More than anger or anything else, the desire to avoid pain dominated her body, stopping her resistance.

Seizing this moment of relaxation, Ur forcibly made her stand up, quickly moved behind her, and grabbed her neck from behind again.

“Wh-What!? What!!?”

“Move and I’ll break it.”

“Eep.”

With strong force applied, Keimie went limp again. Ur, still holding her neck, thrust her in front of the men who were approaching, having fallen behind.

“Y-Y-You…!?”

Using Keimie as a shield, Ur calmly pointed his sword at them.

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“…That’s brutal!?”

“Wahaha! He’s terrible!! The worst!!”

“Nah, I like his no-holds-barred style! Go for it!!”

The spectators were fired up. From the beginning, there had been no fair play in this fight. Many approved of Ur’s dirty tactics. After all, the concept of fair play was far removed from most adventurers. For those who lived by the rule of survival of the fittest, in this fight, the victor would be just.

The only ones crying foul were the cowards directly on the receiving end of it.

“…Was it you who taught him this, Diz?” Ikaza asked, observing their fight from the spectator seats.

Diz shook her head. “I did teach him throwing techniques though.”

《Nii-tan was always like that, 》 said Akane, sitting in cat form on Diz’s lap.

《Nii-tan was weak, but good at fighting. But now it’s even more so. 》

“Indeed. He’s become especially refined lately, I think,” Shizuku added.

“The magic fragments he obtains are powerful, so his physical abilities exceed the average, but it’s hard to say he’s mastering them… however—”

In reality, even from Ikaza’s perspective, Ur wasn’t exceptionally outstanding as an adventurer. Gagaru and his group, having been adventurers for a long time, had accumulated magical power and had considerable skill. Above all, they were used to this kind of “welcoming”. In a fair 5-vs-1 fight, Ur would certainly lose.

But what was the actual situation? Ur had taken down one with a surprise attack, isolated a second from her companions and incapacitated her, and then used her as a shield to confound the remaining three. He was cornering them psychologically with what should have been an unwieldy human shield if used properly, and taking them down one by one.

He knows how to win.

This was a power entirely separate from physical ability. It was difficult to dismiss it as a specific talent or sense. It was something more primitive and comprehensive. He—

“He’s strong in a bout,” Diz accurately described his power.

Soon after, Ur defeated the last of Gagaru’s group and claimed victory.