On the cart, jostled, I was suffering from an awful body-fatigue.
I’d probably look pale.
I was watching the scenery outside, thinking only of how soon we’d get to Darion.
The bad roads ended; the shaking got smaller — but the cart bed still rocked badly.
The build was solid, and being Guild property, it was well-maintained.
”…Don’t really want to ride in a cart for a while.”
Whether because of the fatigue, the return was worse than the trip out.
The one watching me with exasperation was Aria.
Everyone was tired, but I was the worst.
“Novem’s on the other cart for healing duty, so she pushed your care onto me — but you really look like hell. Pull it together a little, would you.”
I came back at her.
The fatigue was bad enough I had no cleverness on hand.
“On the way out, you were worse. You looked like you were going to throw up several times.”
“Th-that was the shaking! I’ve gotten used to it now, so it’s fine!”
Aria looked embarrassed. The only one of us with energy left, Larf, gave a wry smile.
“You two get along well.”
Aria and I answered him in unison.
“We don’t.”
“We don’t!”
Envying her energy, I looked over at Rondo, who was beside Rachel as she lay down.
He himself looked rough, but was tending to Rachel.
Watching, the Fourth nagged—.
“Lyle. Can you not show a little more grace? You have to treasure women. — Actually, take that attitude with Novem-chan and the next ancestor meeting will be a tribunal.”
The Fourth, with his women obsession, had a point — but I really was tired. A new flavor of tired.
No bandwidth.
The cart driver was the support staffer, not Zelphy.
Zelphy was driving the cart with the injured.
Novem was nursing the five and putting up a brave front despite her own fatigue.
Rondo, tired-faced, smiled and said:
“Maybe… this is the one. For me.”
The one? — I was wondering, and the Second filled in.
“Lyle, before Growth, this kind of vague-rough-fatigue is sometimes the precursor. Especially after a big haul of experience. In those cases, the body’s changing more than during day-to-day Growth, so you feel uncommonly tired.”
Meaning, at last, the signs of Growth were showing up in me.
I’d want to be happy, but I had no bandwidth for that right now.
Larf looked a touch regretful.
“I should’ve come too. Could’ve felt some Growth coming on too. — Though, all of you hitting the precursor at once is unusual.”
People being individuals, individual differences in Growth happened.
And yet every member who’d gone in was showing precursors.
Rondo was tired, but kept the smile. Feeling Growth coming probably made him happy.
“Back in Darion, we’ll have to rest a while. — And, Lyle-kun, you let us take the reward share, so we’d like to thank you in some form.”
The Innermost Hall—.
We’d handed Rondo’s team the rare metal — the mana-infused iron — from there.
Zelphy took the dead adventurer’s valuables as her own reward, and we took payment for handing over the rare metal.
The Guild’s emergency request, plus the survey-result report — added up to not-small money.
We’d considered having weapons made from the rare metal, but currently it wasn’t needed.
Aria and I had Gems. Skill-bearing weapons could interfere with our Gems and become hard to use.
Once she got used to it, Aria could probably make it work, but for me the Jewel was too strong — currently impossible.
I’d thought of having a staff made for Novem, but she’d declined, so we’d settled on us taking the cash.
“Well… once this fatigue lifts, please.”
My best attempt at a response. Rondo gave a wry smile.
“Right.”
Larf, by contrast, was happily picturing what weapon to commission and what Skills to load.
(Hurry up, Darion.)
Irritated at the swaying cart, I lay down for the rest of the trip.
Aria spread a blanket over me.
When I didn’t thank her, I heard the Fourth click his tongue.
“Tch!!”
◇
Back in Darion, we headed for the Guild to report the details.
Not everyone needed to talk, so once we’d been paid, we headed home.
The leader of this run, Zelphy, would handle the Guild reporting.
On the second floor, leaning on Larf, I returned greetings from the adventurers calling out to us as we came in.
“Took your revenge, then! Well done, kids!”
“The youngsters got the job done.”
“Now we can relax a bit.”
Some clapped. We got a small taste of conquering-hero homecoming.
“This kind of thing isn’t bad. Darion’s good side.”
When Larf said that, I asked if other Guilds were different.
“Are other Guilds different?”
“Depends on the place. Local temperament, regional flavor… but yeah, this kind of feel isn’t bad. If I could make it work here, I’d want to stay.”
By his tone, he’d be leaving Darion eventually.
Lonely thought — but I’d be leaving Darion too, eventually.
Looking around, the regular faces at the counter had changed.
The pretty receptionist was gone.
The middle-aged clerk was teaching a young male clerk various things.
(The mood is off. Some of the young adventurers have funny faces.)
Zelphy handed Hawkins the dead adventurer’s Guild card and came over to us.
“Quite the racket. Well, in Darion that’s unusual, I guess… we’re disbanding for now. Lyle, you lot — if the fatigue doesn’t lift, take two or three days. Working in your current state is just dangerous.”
I didn’t want to work in this state either, so I nodded.
Novem the same.
Only Aria didn’t look at Zelphy — head down.
Rondo’s group thanked Zelphy.
“It was good experience. We survived. Call us again if you’d like.”
Despite being tired, Rondo was bright. Zelphy nodded.
“Hope it doesn’t happen again, frankly. But — I’ll remember you.”
The three left the Guild.
“Right, you lot, go. You look terrible.”
After Larf, I went home with Novem’s shoulder under mine.
◇
A private room at the Guild.
Hawkins sat across from Zelphy at a desk.
With Hawkins’s bulk in the room, it felt narrower and the table smaller than usual.
”…Good work. I’ll report this matter up the Guild chain.”
His debrief done, Hawkins picked up the papers, tapped them vertically on the table twice to align them.
“Honestly tired. No good parts, just the ugly. Truly want no more of it.”
A wry smile from Hawkins.
Zelphy had said she wanted the dead adventurer’s valuables as her reward, so he understood the gist.
”…Do you know his house?”
The dead adventurer’s house, he asked.
“I know. Wife and two kids. — Really hate this part… don’t really want to do this kind of thing.”
Knowing she had the family composition, Hawkins’s face turned slightly sad.
“Are you going to take on that role on purpose? Without telling Lyle-kun and the others, on top of it?”
“I’m doing the instructor job. This part’s outside the rate.”
Hawkins could imagine what she’d do with the valuables she’d asked for as her reward.
A dead adventurer’s belongings usually went to the adventurer who’d led the search or to a comrade.
But for an adventurer who’d been recognized by those around him, an adventurer who owed him would sometimes deliver them to the family.
“How about telling them. For the road ahead, it matters.”
Not in the mood. Zelphy looked away.
“My job is making those kids real adventurers. Taught them the work, and this run covered travel, camping, dungeons. That’s enough.”
The basics taught.
No problem.
That was Zelphy’s stance.
Exasperated, Hawkins had no complaint about her work as instructor.
She was doing the work.
Doing the rate’s worth of work, so the Guild couldn’t pry into details.
“That’s you. No reward this time — working free.”
She’d given the reward to Lyle and the rare metal to Rondo’s group.
She’d taken the dead adventurer’s valuables, but planned to return those to the family.
Free work.
For an adventurer, you could call it failing the job.
”…You can say that to a woman about to retire. I’m done after this. I have a fiancé. Don’t want to die at the end like that bastard did.”
Zelphy’s last work was instructing Lyle and the others.
She’d had some success as an adventurer, was acknowledged by the lord.
She’d worked the middle between the Guild and the lord well.
Aria’s situation had thrown that off badly.
“You overreached with the Aria business. Pushed her on Lyle-kun… but the truth is, if Lyle struggled, you’d planned to take her back, didn’t you?”
A long sigh.
“Haa… honestly… if he failed to handle Aria, I was going to come in with if you’re going to help her, see it through to the end! — lecture him into the floor. Thought he was a sheltered rich kid, but he just plows past any difficulty. He’s going way up — further up than me.”
She griped that she had almost nothing left to teach.
Hawkins humored her.
“Indeed. I’ve watched many adventurers; Lyle and the others will go up. Maybe up enough to be country-famous.”
He’d joked. Zelphy laughed.
She didn’t quite buy that far.
“Now that’s funny. If so, I get to be the woman who taught one of the nation’s top adventurers. Quite the credential.”
Then the topic shifted to the pretty receptionist.
“By the way, boss. What happened to the beauty?”
Zelphy’s eyes went hard.
”…Before you left, you pulled strings, didn’t you? The lord sent down an order to explain. In Darion, the Guild is below the lord. Told to explain, we have to explain.”
Hawkins remembered the pale face of the pretty receptionist.
And her father was leaving Darion’s Guild branch.
Officially, he was being made branch master of a new Guild. A promotion.
But the location was a pioneer-village-yet-to-be.
In essence, banishment from Darion.
“Lord works fast. Reassuring as a citizen.”
Zelphy belonged to the Adventurers’ Guild.
But she was also a Darion resident.
For someone planning retirement, which side carried more upside? Obvious — the lord.
And the Guild wasn’t going to intervene.
“That said, I’ve got a rough stretch coming.”
Hawkins griped now. Zelphy was grinning.
“That’s nothing but good. We had our share of trouble. The Guild can have a little for itself.”
“Honestly,” Hawkins muttered, picked the papers up carefully, stood, and left the room—.
◇
Two days after getting back. Morning.
I felt clean.
“What a refreshing morning… like I’ve been reborn. So this is Growth!”
I stood up on the bed and spread both arms toward the ceiling.
Ceiling close — I could see the stains clearly, but I didn’t care.
I jumped down from the bed, landed in a half-crouch, slowly rose.
A sense like my perception had widened — I’d grown larger.
“I feel it… mana, more than ever! Different from the me who had to just barely stretch it! I’m… I’ve been reborn!!”
Shouting in my room felt great.
I wanted to run.
That I’d been a wreck up to last night now felt like a lie.
“Even the sky — I could fly… probably no? No — I can! Nothing scares me! I can beat Ceres! Yeah — I’d like to beat her…”
When I remembered Ceres, the bravado wilted.
I shook my head, forgot Ceres, and just wanted to yell.
“I’VE GROOOOWN!!”
Thump-thump-thump. The door burst open.
Aria, red-faced, on the verge of tears.
“What’s wrong, Aria? Why that face… did something sad happen? You can talk to me anytime!”
I spread my arms. She covered her face in both hands.
Ears bright red, she shouted.
“Stop making more noise! I’m remembering my own past version of this!”
Her own past version. I tilted my head.
Then I got it.
“Right. You did something the first time you Grew? Don’t sweat small stuff. I can’t even fathom why I worried about that pile of nothing before now. I want to slap my old self silly!”
I pumped my fist in front of me, conjured the image of slapping past-me, and raised my right arm high.
”…No. I was not like this. I was much more normal.”
Aria sat down where she was, shaking her head. I laughed loud and consoled her.
“No energy in you, Aria! Right — let’s go visit Rondo and the others today! We owe them thanks for the other day. And we’ll throw a feast on the reward! My treat!”
High-as-a-kite me, watched by Aria with focus-less eyes.
The light was out in her eyes. I felt shy.
“Don’t stare like that… I’ll get embarrassed.”
I struck a hair-sweep pose. Aria stood, silent, and walked out.
◇
“Don’t stare like that, I’ll get embarrassed.”
The Third struck a hair-sweep cool-pose. The ancestors around the round table cracked up.
I planted my face on the table and pounded it with both hands.
Next, the Third punched out his fist bare-handed.
“I want to slap my old self silly!”
The ancestors lost it again.
The First held his stomach laughing, legs kicking.
“This is the hardest I’ve laughed since I got here! My stomach hurts!!”
The Second covered his mouth, trembling in tiny waves.
“Even the sky — you could fly. PFFT!”
— Don’t snort at me! — I was thinking, and the Fourth took off his glasses to wipe tears from laughing too hard.
“Talk to me anytime — well, that’s a thing you should be saying day-to-day, anyway.”
The Fifth watched me with a warm-blooded look.
“Relax. Everyone goes through it. First Growth, you get drunk on it. — Look, Novem just quietly watched. That’s what family normally does.”
I shouted.
“I WANT TO SLAP THAT VERSION OF ME SILLY!!”
The Sixth piled on.
“No, but seriously, that level of commotion is a rare sight. Lyle, you might have a talent for making people laugh.”
Said while laughing — no persuasive force at all.
And making people laugh and being laughed at — different things.
The ancestors were ribbing me. My grandfather, the Seventh, was straining not to laugh.
“Y-yes. Everyone experiences it. No shame in it, Lyle… PFFFT!!”
I gave the unable-to-hold-it Seventh a cold look and went straight to asking why I’d been called in.
“So — why am I here today? If it’s only to mock me, I’m going home.”
Irritated. The others, still laughing, held me back.
The Fourth recovered first.
“Wait, wait. It’s an important talk. — Only, your latest Growth had too much impact… no, I can’t, I’m laughing again.”
The Fourth covered his mouth. I tore at my hair with both hands.
Why had I done that?
Why had I said those things?
I’d regret it forever.
The Third, smiling, picked up the thread.
“Lyle’s Skill — unlike ours, it’s the always-on type, right?”
“Right.”
I leveled a flat look at him. He shrugged and continued.
“That’s one cause of your high mana drain — once it manifests, it’s always burning mana. The effect is large, but the mana available to you is more constrained than before.”
For post-Growth me, mana was sufficient to bear the cost. But the leash was still there.
The Third continued.
“Also — we’ve been thinking about your status. And — what the Second’s saying is—”
The Second picked up.
“You’re a type that needs absurd amounts of experience. The precursor fatigue being severe is part of it — the rebound is a big Growth jump. You stockpile a lot of experience, then Grow in a burst… and frankly, you’re extreme. Assume you need many times the experience of others.”
I doubted my ears.
Big Growth jumps, but more experience required.
More than double.
“Can anything be done about that? My Skill is in effect, after all.”
The Second shook his head.
“Even with Skill multipliers, in your current state, that’s 20 to 30 percent. For the next Growth, you’ll need even more experience than this run.”
”…Which means?”
“Plan with leaving Darion in mind. In Darion the next Growth could be years away. Easily a decade if it goes badly.”
The Second’s gaze was serious. Not a lying face.
He was telling me to move on, seriously.
“I’m still inside the instructor contract.”
The Third.
“Three months. Once we’ve been taught everything that thoroughly, we leave Darion. Darion may be livable, but Lyle, are you planning to live out your life here? I don’t think you’d manage.”
The Fifth filled in.
“The Darion lord wants you out. Live here, and you sit under the lord’s influence. That doesn’t necessarily serve you. If the time came, that lord would cut you loose immediately. …For both your sakes, you’d better leave.”
To Bentler — Darion’s lord — I was a bomb whose home, House Walt, might do anything.
Just having me around was a headache.
“When the instructor period ends, I leave Darion. As long as I decide the next destination by then?”
Everyone nodded, serious.
The First, last.
“And — I have something to talk to you about. Come here tomorrow. It’ll take time, so set aside the time.”
The First’s expression was serious. I nodded.
The room’s mood had shifted to quiet too.
The Fourth, as usual, closed the meeting.
“Let’s wrap up. — Even so, the First and Lyle have really warmed up to each other.”
Compared to the start, an unthinkable state.
The First had told me to my face: I don’t like you.
I hadn’t expected it to turn out this way myself.
Probably the First hadn’t either.
“Well — I should acknowledge him. Lyle showed me his strength. He saved Aria-chan, too — I’m just answering in kind.”
The First’s words snagged on something, oddly.