Chapter 88 – Glasses boy talks about how jokes can hurt people


 

A follow-up report arrived on the next day.

“Roda left a message.
He said you’ll be leaving tomorrow, early in the morning.
He’ll come pick you up by then.” The old man, Zant, notified me while I ran on the road.

I don’t have a training schedule right now, since my training with Sorichika has ended, so I have been running on the road since the morning.

“Are you done already, by the way?” I asked Zant.

“Yeah.
Lisse already left.” He replied.

Seems like Zant trained Lisse as usual and already finished beating her up.

Zant is quite strong, and apparently his main profession isn’t even that of a swordsman, so he is quite terrifying.

Anyways, if they already finished, then it should be evening by now.

It’s inconvenient that I can’t know the time while within this underground training room.

I was too absorbed in running, so I lost track of time.
Had I been left alone, I might have kept on running throughout the whole night.

I took a deep breath, “Alright… I’ll be going up too, then.” wiped out the sweat in my face, then started making plans for the future.

The hunting preparations are mostly complete.

When I hunted the Chalk Chicken a month ago, I had made some preparations, but I hardly used any of them, so they’re still there.

The next hunting spot is also in the nearby mountain, so if I estimate that the hunt will take two or three days at most, then I might not need much preserved food.

If we’ll be there for just a few days, then I should be able to survive with what I collect in the forest.

That’s why, I don’t have to force myself to carry too much luggage.

“Be careful out there.” Zant told me.


Of course, I will be.
I’m determined to not face the Obsidian Wolf head on, for I’ll definitely be killed if I’m hit even once.

… Ah, right.

I gotta remove the Physical Reinforcement.

******

“Ah.” Lisse said.

Oh.

I practiced plenty today, so I went straight to the bath after I was done with training.

When I came out of the bath, I ran into Lisse.

Mine and Lisse’s life cycles are pretty similar, but this is, surprisingly, the first time that this happened.

“You left the bath now? What about dinner?” Lisse asked me.

Wait, was I in charge of making dinner today?

Now that my training with Sorichika is over, my life cycle will also change… Well, we haven’t negotiated anything about that, so cooking is still my job, I suppose.

“I’ll make it after we get back home.” I told Lisse.

It’s a fairly simple meal anyways, so if I buy bread and start making it as soon as I get home, it shouldn’t take long to get it done.

“Oh, right, there’s something I want to ask you.
Are you familiar with any good restaurants in town, Eil? Preferably one with something unique in it.” Lisse asked.

A good restaurant?

“I don’t know of any, but the gelato was quite delicious.” I replied.

I mean, that’s the only meal that was somewhat unique within this town.

Well, that, and the meat rolls, but those aren’t sold on restaurants, they’re sold on stalls.


“Gelato? What’s that like?” Lisse asked.

I don’t understand it well enough to explain, so I gave her a simple answer, “It’s an ice-based sweet.” then pointed her towards the restaurant that sold it.

“Got it.
Then wait a minute.” Lisse told me, then turned back towards the bath.

“Okay.
I’ll go home first.” I replied.

“Listen to me! I said wait, okay!? Wait for me! Absolutely, wait, alright!?” Lisse exclaimed, then went inside the women’s bath.

I really want to go home already, but she’ll definitely complain if I do, so I guess I’ll wait for a bit.

I wonder if Sorichika ate already…

Will I be in the mountain by this time tomorrow? Or will I be back by then?

The Obsidian Wolf is a Demon Beast that heroes face… If possible, I’d like to spend the rest of my life without ever meeting it.

Ah, I don’t want to die.
I really don’t want to die.

… Okay, this should be enough waiting.
Let’s go home.

I had just taken the first step when Lisse came back, “Oh, hey! I told you to wait! Just where are you going!?” She exclaimed.

She was faster than I expected.
She said wait a minute, and she really meant just a minute, after all.

“I waited for a while, so I figured that much was enough.” I told her.

“You should wait until I return!” She exclaimed.

I do think she’s right, but it doesn’t matter much, does it?

“Is there anything else? I don’t think there’s a reason for us to go home together, as we’ll be meeting up once we get home anyways.
We’ll also have dinner together, so we’ll have time to talk.” I told her.

“Eh? Ah, well… I guess you have a point.” She muttered.

Did she not think that far? So there wasn’t anything she needed me for?


… Well, it’s true that we’re going back to the same place, so it’s understandable that one would naturally want to go home together if the chance arises.

“In any case, I wanted to talk about tomorrow.
I thought it was a good opportunity, since this is the only time we’ll have to prepare, right?” Lisse told me.

Talk about tomorrow? Hold on a second, “You have anything planned for tomorrow?” I asked her.

“Eh? Yeah? Like, the stuff Roda talked about, you know?” She replied.

“The Obsidian Wolf?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

Wait, for real? “You’re going with me?” I asked.

“Oh, right.
We didn’t talk about it yet.

“It wasn’t part of the plan at first, but Zant persuaded me to go, because I won’t have many opportunities to see a big game getting hunted.

“He made me promise that I wouldn’t interfere in any way, and this was enough for Roda, so he allowed me to accompany him.” Lisse explained.

Oh, I see… Lisse has a Gift that is focused on hunting Demon Beasts, so she’ll most likely be participating in this kind of thing in the future.
Roda is certainly aware of that.

The experience you can gain from the subjugation of a rare Demon Beast is tremendous and is also quite difficult to obtain, so I can understand why Zant would like her to see it, even if she can’t participate.

If you think carefully about it, Lisse is someone who has much more of a reason to be participating in the hunt for the Obsidian Wolf than I have.
She has much more to gain from this than me.

“Why are we going together…? I thought we would be separated…” I muttered.

“Why do you look disappointed!? Hey, why!?” Lisse exclaimed.

Regardless of the reason, my motivation for this was really low already, and it now seemed to have completely disappeared.

While we were talking like that in front of the bathhouse, two women came out of the women’s bath.

They were both young, somewhere around their twenties, probably.


Considering their presence and the way they move though, they’re probably strong adventurers.

One of them was a fair-skinned woman who shone under the dark sky, and the other was a strongly tanned woman, who seemed to melt into the darkness.

“Ah, the girl from earlier.” The tanned woman looked at Lisse.

“Ooh.
Thanks for earlier.” The fair-skinned one said.

They seem to know each other… I really should have gone home first.

“Oh?” The fair-skinned woman then stared at me, “Did you have an appointment with your lover?”

“Eh? Him? No, that’s not-” Lisse started saying.

In response to those outrageous words, I reflexively punched Lisse on the side, “Don’t make this kind of joke! Ugh!”

“Why are you so angry and gave such a strong refusal!? She was just joking!” Lisse shouted, even if she was surely in pain after the punch on her side.

“Sometimes jokes can hurt people! It’s painful-!” As I shouted that, I got punched in the face.

Damn… As expected of a swordsman who is good at close combat.
That speed was completely unavoidable.

“Tell me who was the one hurt by the joke! How come this is the first time I ever see you get emotional!? What is wrong with you!?” Lisse exclaimed.

Then, the tanned woman intervened, holding Lisse in place and saying, “I understand how you feel, but violence is no good…”

Then the fair-skinned woman looked at me with an awkward expression, “I’m sorry.
It seems like what I said has troubled you…”

“It did indeed! There are things that shouldn’t be said!” I replied.

It’s really been a long time since I’ve been this angry! I’m confident that I can let most things slip by with ease, but I never thought I’d be told that Lisse and I were lovers! My uncontrollable anger exploded!

“What does that even mean!? Let go of me! I wanna punch him one more time!” Lisse told the tanned woman.

And like this, the time kept ticking towards tomorrow, while further fueling the anxiety about what was yet to come.

 

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