Chapter 94 "Especially You."

"You were brave today," the leader nodded, placing a hand on his companion's shoulder. After he slid a leather purse into the adventurer's pockets, he told him to go get that sword of his fixed at once. "Sure, you can go right now. Meet back up at the North Gate. Same village as always."

"Don't need help with the trading and all?"

"I don't."

"North Gate?"

"Tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

"See you then."

After a moment, the angry adventurer disappeared in the distance, happy to have received his share of today's hunt already.

My face slid upward, I looked into the charming babe's eyes and asked a question. "Do you know them, ma'am?" Her radiating smile said that she did in fact know them. She knew them, and these people were the friends I helped, too. Really, all I did was randomly bring enemies down on the battlefield, but now that I needed to be introduced to that party of adventurers, I sure felt like I had done right.

I simply asked for the sake of keeping appearances, as I probably wouldn't know who these guys were if not for the System and the quest. The charming babe knew these people and they had something to do with that one quest, right, hm. Needless to mention, but I decided I should stay here for a little while, in order to see what would come from my meeting with these guys.

As if reading my thoughts, or merely going on with the words he addressed the party, the leader spoke again, but this time, to everyone. "And it's the same for every one of you guys. Today… this whole war-and-hunting thing was a new experience. Us, the lil' newbies of the Guild," the leader scoffed, "worked hard enough. You all deserve a good and restful afternoon of occupying yourselves with whatever you want. Be it sleeping or anything, really."

In the cluster of adventurers all around us, going back and forth between destinations and living their own life, I couldn't make out the angry adventurer's silhouette anymore. That's what the leader meant. He'd been sent to rest, and it was a good thing for today. Walking the eight feet in between him and his party, the leader casually came closer to his group. "Yeah, you guys seriously do deserve a good day of rest, don't you?" he sighed.

"S-So do you… Leader…"

"So do I, right."

My adventurer babe smiled at them and nodded, before she voiced her own agreement, including me, too. "And so do you, little one!"

After the gigantic, friendly sack of fat, who was very timid, thanked his leader for the nth time, he was gently pat on the shoulder. The tank must have appreciated the gesture as his little lips timidly broke into a smile. After a non-awkward blank of fatigue and reflection, I asserted everyone was very tired after today's work.

Well, that wasn't true for me, though. This little hour of playing around on the battlefield didn't wear me out even one bit. But anyway, there was a blank, and I appreciated the party of weak humans' presence. The sluggish tank was still awkwardly smiling to himself—he was kind of cute for his smile, I'll have to say.

His long and large body, with the physical presence of at least three regular men, was probably the most bruised, but he was the one who smiled the most. Some bits of his leather armor was torn apart, with bits of rags here and there.

The tank seemed pretty tired to me, and I silently acknowledged the effort he had made today, thinking that if we ever faced each other on the battlefield, I'd be happy to send him away with my best salutations.

The tank's body was really huge, though, it was as chubby with fat as chunky with meat… but even with such a powerful body, he only somehow managed to give off the timid presence of a tiny creature, like some sort of overweight squirrel or something.

There was a thing I liked to do whenever I met someone new: I gauged them and decided on two things. Whether I liked them, and whether they were superior to me or not. That man was of the inferior kind and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

Then, there was the adventurer lady. Still behind my back, she was surprisingly close to me, for some reason, as she casually let her hands massage my shoulders and neck a little. I liked the sensation that left on my shoulders, and I couldn't help but nuzzle my head back toward her, like a cat or something, where my head pressed into her chest.

I inwardly decided I'd stay in order to see what would come of my "meeting" with these humans, and the way she kept me under herself was as if she understood the plan and let me be comfortable here. That, or maybe she was just as tired as her friends, and was simply using me as a support to prop herself up, maybe. Well, she was tired, too.

The leader was the same as them. Not dead, but tired. "You go to rest, too," he said to the tank after the latter nodded and there was a blank again. I stayed here to observe, but maybe I should partake in their slow discussion in order to move things along, right?

I could bring up some topics and have them talk to me, and I'd have been introduced to them at last. Thinking against it, for both a lack of conversation skills and topics to bring up, I decided it was best to wait still. From experience, waiting, in such a situation, was the best position to adopt. But jeez, what if they were so tired they couldn't even speak to me, or heck, notice my presence, even?

The tank nodded only once, timidly saying he would excuse himself. Turning to the adventurer lady, he gave her a nod, too. And just as I thought he'd be off, surprisingly, his eyes slowly climbed down, met mine, and performed the same little nod-bow he gave his companions. Excitedly, I nodded back at him, knowing he acknowledged my presence.

Only after the tank smiled at me did he take his leave. Then again, as the sack of fat's departure was as sluggish as ever, maybe a whole five minutes would go by before I didn't sense his presence anymore. Or well, seeing it from another angle, his presence was so weak that I promptly already all forgot about him.

And then, someone else's eyes were set on me as he smiled. It was the leader. Smiling back at him, he spoke again, telling my babe she should be resting, too. The girl said she would first swing by the healing facility. The leader thanked her for it and said she was a good friend. Somehow, their conversation managed to get back to talking about their guilt:

The leader blamed himself, obviously looking for comfort from his female friend (I felt out of place), and the adventurer lady, the healer of the party, said she was as guilty as her leader— "So, you kindly stop blaming yourself. We all do our best. Today won't ever happen again. That's what's important, in the end."

"..."

"Okay?"

"I can't have you worried about me, too," the leader dryly laughed.

"I do worry about you." After a silence, the charming babe proposed a simple plan: Goblins weren't so bad, in any case. The party would just have to do as it always did.

Namely, continue to stack up experience, as slowly and gently as possible, to take their time, keep going nice and easy, and one day, they would be strong enough. "...Right? You're tired, too, obviously… so tell me you won't blame yourself, or I might as well never let you go rest, you know."

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Such were emotions. In all the hustle and bustle, I was a silent witness of what emotional conversation was unfolding, and tilting my head to the side I was hoping to take in as much stimulation as humanly possible. Whatever jumbled mess of emotions was involved here, the monster wondered what they felt like. And the leader didn't seem willing to say the words. He wasn't willing to say that he couldn't blame himself, that he wasn't feeling horrible for how pathetic a leader he was, and that well, he didn't feel sad for being the weakest of all.

He wasn't willing to say the words, but he knew he had to, eventually. Unable to bear the gorgeous lady's anxious gaze, his eyes dropped down to the ground, where he lost himself in the wholesomeness of the green, perfectly-living grass around his feet, that, despite the thousands and thousands of hardened shoes treading upon its green coat, every single day, was still very living and accommodating to the many paths the humans dug in itself.

Seized by sudden anguish, the leader wished he could become like this fine lawn, but he dryly scoffed to himself when he realized where his thoughts had brought him. Still, he was a bit more hopeful, now that his heart had discovered the living—no, surviving grass so close, the veil of sadness obstructing the light from reaching his heart was lifted off, he beamed with happiness, and spoke at last.

"You know… in all the turmoil and struggle we found ourselves in, I'm grateful to at least have you guys as partners." He didn't say "friends," he said "partners." "Especially you."