511 - - Episode 509 Mr. Tom

The boy who came out of the village with the white raven turned out to be seriously ill. Moreover, the boy was the victim of a chant I had made as a prank. I would not have minded if he had suffered without my knowledge, but to see the result of the distortion of the boy's life right in front of my eyes, it is very painful.

"Bind me, wind!"

I chant, and the roughbirds are bound to the wind.

An uncle and a boy run up to the roughbirds and stab them with spears in their hands. Roughbirds fall down screaming.

They are chanting a shortened chant for these two, but even if it's short, it's still quite embarrassing.

"Yuta-san, you defeated him!

A boy, Julio, comes running up to me with a smile. He looks like a child who has received a present.

An uncle comes running up behind him with a slightly apologetic look on his face. His name is Tom. He seems to be still feeling sorry for being power-levelled, and his expression does not clear up.

He is also a very reserved person, isn't he? He has been an adventurer until he was 40 years old, and this kind of personality must be very rare.　I'm not sure I'm cut out to be an adventurer. .......

"Congratulations. But we still have a lot of killing to do, so let's find our next kill. Be alert to your surroundings and follow Tom's instructions. Tom, please."

"Yes, sir!　Tom, thank you very much!"

"...... ha, yes. Now, let's be very careful and keep a good lookout. Please follow me and don't make a sound.

Tom-san nodded his head, his face slightly drawn, in response to Julio's energetic request. I guess he wanted to warn Julio-kun, who was full of energy and answered in a loud voice, not to make a sound. But I'm pretty sure he didn't get it.

Since I'm the one taking care of him, I'll give him a warning the next time he makes loud noises.

"Yuta. Are you sure you want to proceed so leisurely?　If you want to raise the level of Julio and the others, shouldn't you go further and let them defeat stronger demons?"

As I watched them move on, Sylphy suggested that I take the easier way out. She seems to be getting tired of this monotonous leveling up, since she is giving off a slightly troublesome vibe.

(I know what you mean, but it's a good opportunity for you to learn Tom's prudent behavior, so I'll keep going for a while.)

I don't know how the average adventurer generally searches, so now I think I was lucky to be working with Tom.

Gina's party is a team specializing in spirit magic, insured by the Great Spirit, and in the case of Julio, who cannot be brought up that way, Tom's careful actions will be good food for thought.

"So you're going to force Tom to educate Julio. I know you were reluctant when Richey asked you to do this, but I'm glad you didn't say no."

(...... yeah)

It seems Sylphy has read my mind perfectly.

But, as she said, I'm glad I didn't refuse.

In the discussion with Mr. Julio, I ended up taking care of him.

I couldn't refuse to do so, because Sylphy wanted me to, and because of my guilt toward Julio and Mr. Richey's request.

I thought that was the end of it, but Richelie asked me if she could take care of one more person and introduced me to Tom.

He looked familiar to me, but I didn't understand why I should take care of him now, so I said no. Then Mr. Richey explained the reason.

Tom was a contractor of the spirit of life, which only two people were allowed to make a contract with in my training course for spiritualists.

I thought that it was no wonder I had seen them before, but the two who had contracted with the Spirit of Life seemed to be very popular, so I asked him why he was talking about me taking care of them.

Tom-san, to my surprise, had turned down the invitation from the A-rank party, Wings of the Labyrinth. Moreover, he said that he was afraid to work with them because they were too dazzling. .......

At this point, Sylphy laughed a lot.

Even after he refused the invitation from Wings of the Labyrinth, Tom received invitations from various parties.

However, he is not able to decide which party to join because some of them are too aggressive, too muscular, too young, too bad-natured, or too many female members.

He was so overwhelmed that the last thing he did was to cry to the ...... guild.　

As a result, Tom ended up working in the guild's healing room until he found a party he wanted to join.

However, Tom's level is not so high, and he soon reached the limit of spirit magic.

In such a difficult situation, I, the duck, the spiritist, came to the party.

The guild was considering following up with Tom-san, but since he came along just in time, and since he was going to raise Julio-kun, they decided to ask him to join us.

Why would he do that?　I thought that Tom was a good person, but in the end, I decided to accept him for a limited period of time.

As a result, things seem to be going somewhat well, so I guess it's a good thing.

**** I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, but I'm glad.

"Yuta-san, may I have a moment of your time?"

Today's power leveling was over, and I was having a relaxing cup of coffee by the fire in front of the labyrinth overnight set, which I hadn't used in a while, when Tom-san came to talk to me.

He looked very serious and a little scary.

"Yes, yes, are you all right?　Please sit down."

I offer him a seat in front of the fire, and since he is probably not used to drinking coffee, I give him a normal cup of tea.

"So, what's wrong?"

I took a sip of the tea and, after a moment to calm down, I approached Tom and he began to talk apologetically.

"I know it's strange for an old man like me to ask young Yuta-san for advice like this, but ...... do you think I'm suited to be an adventurer?"

A heavy topic was suddenly thrown in. Why are you asking me such a heavy question?　Because I was a master for about three days?　Please don't do that.

However, it is hard to say something appropriate when he is so serious. Being an adventurer is a life-threatening occupation, isn't it?

"......Well, to be honest, I don't think I'm suited for it. The reason is that spirits of life tend to prefer gentle people. Tom, you didn't fit in with adventurers either, did you?"

I said it right on the nose.

"Ha-ha-ha, I knew it. I had a feeling like that myself. ......"

After saying these words, Tom started to talk about his life.

I wish you would stop.

Perhaps attracted by his serious expression, Tom-san's contracted spirit, the spirit of life, was trying hard to comfort him, which made me so relaxed that it was hard for me to make a serious expression.

A fluffy baby sheep trying hard to rub against the Lord is a foul thing, I think. I want to give them lots of sweet treats.

......Tom's story is summed up by the fact that he knows he is not a good adventurer. But he wants to have a proper adventure as an adventurer after all the hard work he has done so far.

He also worries about his lack of offensive power.

Vita says that the Spirit of Life has some nasty attacks, but ...... it won't suit either the baby sheep or Tom.

It is possible to contract more than one spirit, so we can introduce a spirit with a strong attack power,...... but I don't like the idea of having multiple spirits contracted by someone who can't see them, because I don't think some spirits will be treated inappropriately.

"......My opinion is that it's just hard to try to force people to do something they are not suited for, even if there is nothing you can do about it.　If you want to be adventurous, Tom, I think you should specialize in support instead of seeking offensive capabilities."

"Support?"

Tom-san is a bit nervous. Probably, his previous party was so weak that he had to fight hard all the time, so the idea of exclusive support for the party did not come to his mind.

I think the adventurers who invited Tom to join the party thought of him as a full-time healer.

"Yes, support. I have taught them three life spirit techniques. Healing injuries... Restoring abnormalities... Restoring strength... Just having someone who can do that with you is a great help to adventurers.

The cost of potions, if any, is prohibitive, and the ability to heal is the envy of injury-prone adventurers.

This is why there is a fierce competition for recruits, but I don't think Tom is aware of this.

"Besides, you will gain strength and power as your level increases from now on. I think there are other things we can do besides recovery.

Tom-san starts to worry a lot when he hears my story. What did I tell him that bothered me so much?

"Tom-san, you should think about it when you calm down and take a good rest today. Tomorrow and the day after that will be hard."

"...... it was. It was a labyrinth. ......Thank you Yuta for your help. I will think carefully about the future.

Tom returns to the simple base with a deep bow. I wonder if my best but flimsy answer helped in any way.

"Yuta."

"Hmm?"

"My hunch is that Tom is going to take an interesting turn. I'm looking forward to it."

Stop it, Sylphy. Don't smile and say dangerous things.

What?　I answered seriously, didn't I?　There's nothing to amuse Sylphy, is there?　Hey, Sylphy, don't just say it and disappear.

...... powerleveling is only two days away.

Bell and Gina and the others have Dine and Dolly as escorts, and I've given Gina and the others plenty of food from the stall tour, so they'll probably be fine except that I'll miss them.

The problem is that white raven.

Sure enough, the Belles were interested in the white raven, and he started to give them a bad influence with his yami, shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings, so I immediately quarantined him.

I am proud of my judgment at that time.

But ...... that quarantine method told Julio to think about the chanting he uses.

It was a good decision considering the possibility that Bell and the others might be contaminated, but that white raven looked like he had found his purpose in life here, so I'm very worried.

...... I'm going to teach that chant to Julio, aren't I?

......I'm going to bed.