CH 24

RAW:

9: is this going to be the end of my combo? i’m already seeing the sanzu river!! 7 hit combo

Chapter 24 – The Circumstances of the 3 Sisters Part 5

【Violent Nectar Mother appeared!　HP:1211】

“T-th-that is…!”

Mai was pointing with a shaking finger towards the bee. It was much larger than any of the <Terror Bee>s we had seen so far. It had 8 wings and a stinger as long as its body. Putting this creature beside an adult male, it’s only a little larger. Even so, <Terror Bee>s have an aura that makes you feel like it can easily pierce beginner adventurers. (TL:  総合的なサイズは成人男性よりもわずかに下回る程度だがテラービーとは一線を画すオーラが新米冒険者に刺すように伝わってきた。)

“Even though we’ve been able to get the honey…why does it have to appear now? We should retreat.”

“What about Ryua-san and Mi!?”

“Ryua-chan and Mi-chan are fine! Let’s escape!”

Roel pulled Mai and Ai’s hand and started running. The wings of the queen bee began to reverberate through the forest as it chased them.

“It’s so loud! How did we not notice it!?”

“It’s too late for that now!”

Ai yelled at Mai, silencing her. The truth is, there’s not much they can do. The queen summoned <Terror Bee>s from the surrounding woods as it flew. They had to escape from the forest as fast as possible, and they were moving at full speed.

【The <Violent Nectar Mother> manipulated the <Terror Bee>s! The <Terror Bee>s flew in a row!】

They had formed into an ‘ ‘ shape and then charged the girls. (TL: テラービーの群れは八の字を描いたと思ったら順次並んで三人に向かってきた。)

【All the <Terror Bee>s attacked!】 【Roel received 14 damage! HP: 94/108】 【Ai received 21 damage! HP:10/31】 【Mai received 22 damage! HP:4/26】

【The <Violent Nectar Mother> summoned more <Terror Bee>s!】

The amount of bees doubled. They had already been outmatched before this, but now it’s just absurd. Ai didn’t know what to do. She was worried about her sister who was on the verge of death and doing her best even though their escape was blocked. The 3 of them were surrounded.

“Mai! Keep going!”

“O…nee-san…”

The bees were planning their next attack, leaving no time to use <Heal>, Tensing up, Ai stumbled and fell over. The queen bee moved in to capitalize on that blunder.

【The <Violent Nectar Mother> attacked!】

Roel jumped in front of Ai. The <Violent Nectar Mother>’s long stinger stabbed Roel.

【Roel received 91 damage! HP:3/108】

The stinger was sticking out of Roel’s back. The poison immediately spread and Roel collapsed.

“R-Roel-san!”

“YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

A loud war cry was hard from Ryua who was falling like a meteor from the sky. She brought her sword down on the queen.

/ / /

When the queen has stabbed Roel, I slashed at it as I fell. There wasn’t even a particle left of it, the queen had been utterly obliterated from the force of the strike. I had even left fissures from the strength of my attack, but I don’t care. Just as I returned, Roel was…

【Ryua Attacked! Critical hit! 】 【The <Violent Nectar Mother> received 1363391 damage!】 【The <Violent Nectar Mother> was defeated! HP:0/1211】

“ROEL!”

“I-I’m fi…ne…”

“I’ll use an antidote right away!”

“<Cure>…<Heal>…<Heal>…<Heal>…”

Mi had been riding on me up till now, but she had gotten off of me and was healing Roel. It seems she can use Cure, I wonder when that happened?

At any rate, I had been careless. If I had arrived sooner, would things have been different? Should I have just left the gathered honey and let the three of them escape? I was careless…even though I defeated the monster, I feel nothing but regret.

“Mi-chan, thank you…I’m better now.”

Roel was teetering was she stood up. Mi had a very worried expression on her face as she watched.

“Roel, sorry, I…wasn’t able to protect you…”

“Ryua-chan protected Mi-chan. That itself is already enough, you know.”

Those encouraging words didn’t resound within me at all. If I had more power than this, I could have saved Mi and returned faster…what I have isn’t enough. What can I do to get stronger than this?

“I’m sorry, we’re still very inexperienced…we only ended up troubling you. I don’t know what we could do to possibly apologize…”

Ai was really feeling down about the events that had unfolded and apologized to us.

“You too Mi! You really worried us…”

Mi was shaking her head and trembling. I wonder if that was her way of apologizing? Just as I thought, I need to get stronger. Not just me though, all of us. Since we already got the honey we needed for the quest, we quickly left the forest.

/ / /

“Thanks! With this I can make a lot of Royal Jellies!”

The girl from the tool shop, Cynthia,  had sparkles in her eyes as she looked at the honey she was holding like a child with a new toy.

“Ah, now that I think about it, are you alright? The floor monster appeared, didn’t it?”

“We were attacked but I defeated it,”

“Seriously?! Then, then, maybe you picked up that guy’s stinger?! Kozow-san would be really delighted, you know?”

“The bee vanished so I wasn’t able to.”

“Vani……….what?”

“Well, that’s fine” she said to finish the conversation. Cynthia once again went back to looking at the honey. It seems like she was only there to finish up her business with us, as she disappeared into the shop right away with the honey in tow. Royal jelly…just what kind of item is it?

/ / /

The inside of the guild was noisy. It seems that Siegel was seriously injured and was found collapsed alongside some trash. He was in a state where you could easily mistake him for dead, but it seems he was faintly breathing.

“For someone to be able to give Seigel such a beating…” “The Heal Station was concentrating on his medical care but even now he still won’t wake up…” “That guy…that guy ran out of luck.”

It was stirring inside the guild. The murmurs started to focus on the main topic. (TL: その呟きの主に視線が集まる。)

“The legendary <Master Swordsman Zangiri>…has revived.”

Clattering and shaking, an adventurer entered. I thought that he was older than Gantetsu, that old man was carrying his own weapon, while he trembling as he was talking. He looks older than Gantetsu, and with his weapon in his hand he trembled as he walked.

“Gametts Firm has a bodyguard. It’s…Zangiri himself! That’s right, Zangiri did this!”

“O-old man calm down…”

A female wizard was attempting to calm him down but Oldman didn’t stop.

“That guy killed over 100,000 people when he was alive! He’s been revived to kill again!”

“Zangiri died over 70 years ago! You should know that! Get a hold of yourself!”

Some of the adventurers were becoming agitated at Oldman, and several people stepped up to kick him out of the guild.

“Roel, the Seigel guy is………”

“Yeah……..I can’t believe it. But Seigel-san…I wonder why he fought that person?”

“It’s probably the bodyguard of that person from Gametts Firm…”

Mai suddenly muttered. There was another man beside Brushbeard back then. He had a changing weapon hanging from his back, and he definitely had a different status and atmosphere than the rest of them.

“B-but if we pay the quota then we don’t have to worry, right?”

It seems Mai was trying to shake off the fear with that. It’s not like I don’t understand why she’s scared. Someone that dangerous working for the company you owe money to…you wouldn’t be able to rest easily.

“Now then, let’s brighten the mood. Let’s measure our levels!”

Ai wiped out the gloomy mood that had been hanging over us.

“Mine is just going to overflow anyways…”

It seems I’m starting to become timid…when did this happen? I don’t know what my actual level is, and watching everyone rejoicing about their <Level Up> leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But seeing Roel happy about her <Level Up> also makes me happy.

“Wa,wa! Mi what did you do?! Your level became 12 in one go?!”

Level 8 is when you learn cure, so it makes sense now…but how did she level so much? Oh right. I remember now. Mi was in my party when I defeated the floor monster in the forest. She was there when it died. That would explain it.

“What what wha~t?! My level is 9!”

Mai was surprised by the result. I wonder how much of that is from the Bee floor monster.

“It’s one of the ‘7 Mysteries of Adventurers’ right? When in a party, all of them can become stronger at the same time.”

“With just a strong adventurer and a strong opponent, everyone just suddenly got super strong huh?”

“Certainly that’s a good way to level, but the risk is really big. Only your level and body become strong with that method. Yes, you may get new skills and such, but you don’t get the battle experience. There’s no point in growing without that.”

After Mai and Ai, Aude broke in our conversation. Seems like he’s here again.

“If you fight a strong opponent, the risk of dying will increase. What you’re doing by levelling like that is just risking your life later on, you know? Though who would take such a leech in the first place?”

“That’s not right. You can always gain battle experience later on.” (TL:  「その通りですね。うまい話なんて早々ありません」)

“Isn’t it?”

Aude was acting exalted as he was talking against Ai who was striking back. (TL:  得意げに語るオードに相槌をうつアイ。) Even though Aude is a beginner like us, he knows a lot of stuff huh?

“Since Seigel-san taught you about that yesterday, right?”

As he was made fun of by a male adventurer, Aude made a face like he was being punished for doing something bad.

/ / /

Most of the reward was given to the 3 sisters. They were way too reserved and modest, and we got into a dispute that got old really quickly. It was a really tiring day. As we went home looking forward to the rest, Roel became curious about the Siegel incident from earlier and suggested that we should visit him.

Seigel was laying down on a bed covered in bandages with a strange tube sticking out. If we didn’t know we were looking at Siegel, I wouldn’t have recognized him with this appearance.

“So cruel…”

Roel muttered. Looking a this appearance, it’s a miracle he survived.

“Oji-san, you did this for us…”

There was a kid we didn’t know crying on the side. Both of his parents were deep in thought while looking at Siegel, and didn’t move the whole time.

“This world is hell…!”

The boy’s father moaned and cried.

Gametts Firm. Zangiri.

For Siegel to end up like this…what reason did he have to fight such a losing battle? Gametts Firm…for them to drive people into a corner like this, I should just personally….

“…chan! Ryua-chan!”

“Ah, yes?”

“Why are you making such a scary face? No way, Ryua-chan…”

“Let’s leave.”

Before Roel caught up with me I was already at the exit of the Heal Station.

==========================================

Monster Book

【<Violent Nectar Mother> HP:1211】

The Queen of the <Terror Bee>s. It will rarely show its face, and as long as you don’t touch its nest it’s rather harmless. However, if you do mess with the nest, the Queen’s fury will befall you without mercy. The honey from this bee is one of the raw materials for high grade recovery medicine. Its stinger is also a priceless material for weapons, but only veteran adventurers can get it.

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