Book 1: SS

Book 1: SS

Digital Versions Special SS

The Sudden Incident-Filled Journey of Teacher and Student

Aria. There is one thing that I want to say to you.

What, Viro?

Inside a forest at the side of highway, a man and a girl was sitting around a bonfire in their campground. The man said such thing to a girl who was slurping soup from a warped bronze bowl. He was drinking the same soup while making a grimace like he had bitten a sour grape before placing the bowl on the ground where he was sitting cross-legged.

Weed aint food!

That girl Aria encountered the adventurer Viro in a town of a barons territory. Now she accompanied him in order to help with a job that he accepted.

Viro had accepted a job of guarding a noble. His client gave him an additional request to bring a kid who could work. It became an absurdly suspicious job offer where he couldnt tell about the jobs detail or where it was located because of the sensitivity of the task, but even after hearing that Aria accepted because she thought that the skill of a self-proclaimed rank 4 scout like Viro was something necessary for her.

Even so it didnt change the fact how suspicious the job offer looked. It couldnt be helped that Aria was still vaguely looking at him with suspicion.

Are you listening? Wait, you got a really bad look in your eyes Aria.

I know.

Although Aria too wasnt that overly worried. Even from the perspective of a child, Viro looked like a hopelessly irresponsible and no good adult, but Aria too understood that Viro was unexpectedly good natured and wasnt a bad person.

This isnt weed. Hora grass contained nourishment that can even make great Kalf goat to survive just from eating that even in dry season. There is simply nobody else who will eat it other than goat because it has a lot of fiber and taste bitter.

Thats almost no different than weed!

By the way, there was a record from fifty years ago that in the war against the demon race, some soldiers mixed the grass with wheat porridge and ate it, so it wasnt inedible for human. Viro had beans and wheat grains stored in his space expanded bag, Aria thought that his diet would be unbalanced with just that and put in the grass without asking.

The street urchin Aria started giving such explanation while flipping the pages of a small book with a scholarly expression. Viro stared at her with a dubious gaze that seemed to say Whats with this kid while gulping down the remaining porridge in his bronze bowl in one go.

Viro was also an adult male. It was pointless to get irritated against a kid. He changed tack to the method of praising a kid to make them grow.

Aayou know, this ingredient is tasty. It feels like, its melting in your mouth.

Aa, thats, its the larva of black beetle that I found in the hollow of that tree over there

I dont wanna hear anymore than that!

The night grew late like that

Aria. I decided that Im going to train you intensely.

? Roger.

The next morning, Viro declared that while standing imposingly with his arms folded. Aria consented to him despite not really understanding what he meant.

In this continent, the culture of eating bug also existed, more or less. People normally ate insects at Melun Confederation at the north and at Carlfan Empire that was in a desert area, but in Claydale where the forests blessing was bountiful, eating bug wasnt common.nove(l)bi(n.)com

Viro explained to Aria about that, but Aria who had strange knowledge lectured about the validity of eating bug using difficult words like nutritional value and the like that the scholars at the capital would use. Viro thought that wasnt what he meant even while giving up in persuading her.

What he said just now came from the thinking that if he couldnt persuade her, then he would train her so hard that she wouldnt even have any energy leftover to cook. This decision was the result of the immaturity of Viro who got too worked up against a child. In addition Viro too needed to train Aria so that she would become useful when they arrived at their destination. Aria herself was also greedily seeking strength, so in the end both of them had no problem with this arrangement.

And so

Try hunting a goblin if it comes out.

Yes.

The adult Viro started asking for the unreasonable right off the bat. The kid Aria replied affirmatively to that without any objection.

It was a very strange scene, but in Viros thought, if it was only against something like goblin then he could just step in anytime to prevent the worst from happening. Aria herself was also thinking that she wanted to increase her real battle experience, so there was no discord between the perceptions of the two of them.

Goblin wasnt anything threatening in strength, but they had high reproductive power so they were famous monsters that quite often got witnessed at the countryside highway. But although they were said as weak, if they attacked with weapon or rock then sometimes the average people would lose their life.

But, in the first place they should find the bandits hideout first if they were going to dispatch a subjugation squad. If the hideout hadnt been found then the standard practice was making a request to the adventurers, but scout with some skill who could defeat ten or more bandits had mostly headed to the baron territory that was close to the monster habitat, so it seemed that the hideout hadnt been found yet.

A quest of this difficulty level was something that Viro could clear by himself, but the knight was reluctant to pay the fee to hire a rank 4 adventurer, so while talking about the information of this area, the knight would also send glances at Viro while making small talks like Its really a pinch. What a problem this is.

None of the information he obtained was interesting and they were insufficient to make Viro took action, but he kept it in mind thinking that perhaps he could use it as Arias training and left the knights manor.

.

It should be time for Aria to finish shopping soon wasnt it? It was a large village, but in the end it was just a village, so this place wasnt selling things like potion or weapon. Aria only went to buy dried vegetables and salt, so there was no way there would be any problem, but Viro got a bad premonition and walked toward the direction of the inn with a fast pace. There as expected, there was some kind of commotion occurring.

The morning of farmer was early. Sometimes there would be also be farmer who finished the manual labor quickly and left the other works like weeding and the like to the children while they went to drink alcohol. When Viro observed the situation, just as he thought, there was a man there who seemed to be drunk already even though it wasnt evening yet.

Ha?

It seemed there was a drunkard acting violent, but the one who standing in front of a young waitress who got picked on to protect her was a familiar faceor rather, that was definitely Aria.

Viro had warned her to not get involved with trouble, but here she had already poked her nose into something troublesome. He was exasperated with her, even so he wondered if this could also serve as training for her? Thinking that he decided to remain as a spectator, but he changed his mind once more when he saw Arias face.

Although the drunkard had no combat skill, his status seemed to be high from doing manual labor every day, so his combat strength surpassed Aria. Normally he would think that this man would serve as a good test for his capable favorite pupil (candidate), but the small Aria showed not a slightest fear even when facing against such large man. Her gaze toward the man was as though she was looking at a goblin. Seeing those eyes, Viro hurriedly cut in between the two because at this rate blood might get spilled.

You there, wait a second. A large man like you threatening a woman and a kid like this, thats unsightly yeah.

Viro rushed in while acting cool. His speech caused the onlookers around them to watch dumbfounded. Aria who should be the one receiving help was looking at him like he was looking at a goblin.

To be honest, the biggest reason for Viro to interfere with this commotion was because the waitress was a beauty. She looked like she was at her early twenty perhaps? She was a beauty with a little strong look that was just how Viro preferred it. It was rare to find a woman like this in a countryside village. If things went well, then perhaps he would be able to make a good memory tonight. Such thought crossed his mind briefly.

Speaking from the result, a drunkard who didnt even have any combat skill had no way of defeating a rank 4 adventurer. Viro easily beat the man unconscious and entrusted him to a nearby villager before returning to the waitress. There he saw beauty sporting a bright smile and a slight blush on her cheeks.

Thank you very much.

The beautiful waitress said that and shook the hand of Aria who was dressed as a male while blushing from her handsome guy action. Viro watched that going on with a dumbfounded look. It was then the beautiful waitress finally noticed him and gave him a wide business smile.

Allow me to thank you too as the father of this child. Ill treat both of you with the delicious cooking of my husband in our inn, so please come.

.

Im still 35 years old.

I had heard that before.

Viro had been complaining the whole time since they left the village. It was unknown whether it was being called a father that bothered him or because he was dejected that the woman how he thought as a waitress was actually a newlywed proprietress. Aria simply replied to him dispassionately without agreeing or disagreeing and also without getting angry or anything. If other people saw this, perhaps they would see a master and disciple with good relationship in a sense. Many people would surely get such misunderstanding.

From a childs perspective, this man was really a hopeless adult, but from Arias perspective, this didnt lower her evaluation of Viro.

He wasnt looking down at her just because she was a kid or a female which was something that an adult tended to do. Viro was interacting with her as a fellow human from equal standpoint. It made Aria respected him.

But telling him that might make him get carried away and acted annoying, so Aria kept it a secret in her heart and lightly patted the shoulder of Viro who was walking trudgingly.

A humans life seems short but long. One day the right person will definitely appear for you.

O-ou

For some reason Viro even recalled things that he didnt want to recall, but considering the information that he heard from the village and the grit that Aria showed him, and then from other things like the battle against the goblins that she showed him just now, it made him say something that would be too reckless if he said it to a normal child.

The villages chief told me that there are bandits appearing around here. Tonight were going to hunt those bandits for your training!

.

Like that the trip that was full with recklessness where the impromptu master and student were destroying each other common senses continued before Aria arrived at the territory of Margrave Dandall where she would have a fateful encounter.