Side Story: Graham, the Beastman Adventurer's Melancholy
"My name is Graham. I'm from the leopard clan. My adventurer rank is C."
I was a little nervous as I greeted the two young supporters in front of me.
Marie of the cat clan, a fellow party member, seemed to be well-liked by them because of her usual charm.
And Takeo, a member of the tiger clan, greeted the two with a simple but very refreshing smile because of his vivacious personality.
Am I the only one who's nervous?
I'm confused.
Actually, it's good to ask these two people to be supporters, but we don't have enough party members.
Due to a sudden request, the party of two rear guards who would always participate was unable to join.
I wonder if I should give up this time or invite another party......
Honestly, it's a shame to let go of these two supporters. These two are popular supporters who have made a name for themselves over the past year. I hear that they can fight and the support is perfect. And since they can use [Spatial Magic], I asked them to help us.
This time, our target is a carnivorous monster.
In the past year, the number of goblins has been increasing, and the number of carnivorous monsters has been decreasing. Therefore, the price per beast is high. This time, we intend to go deep into the forest and target orcs.
However, without a rear guard, it would be dangerous to go deeper into the forest. As the leader of the party, I don't want to take any risks
I decided to call out to the two of them.
"Light, Rain. I’m sorry. Due to our inability to secure a rear guard position, I'm going to give up and disband this time."
"I understand. I'm sorry, but I look forward to working with you again."
The two of them bowed their heads, looking really disappointed.
It was at that time.
"Are you having trouble? If you are in need of a party member, we can help you."
If I remember correctly, the human who called out to me was a mage named Garuts.
I've only heard that it's a D-rank party that came from the royal capital recently.
"We were also looking for someone who would work in the vanguard position. We heard you talking earlier, so we called out to you.''
Frankly, I was torn.
It's a good thing, but Garuts's party doesn't have a good reputation. Just the other day, I heard that their party came back from being hit by goblins. I am concerned that their party is now without a vanguard.
"Don't you guys have your own vanguard?"
"Yeah. But we are on a separate request right now. I was looking for a request in the meantime, but I couldn't find any requests only for the rear guard position, so I was troubled."
I thought about it for a while and came up with an answer.
"I understood. Thank you for your cooperation."
"Thank you, too."
"Light. I found someone who can help us. Can we pretend that we never talked about disbanding earlier?"
"Yes. It's fine."
Light, who was watching the situation, immediately replied.
The party was thus assembled, albeit impromptu, so we applied for the request at the reception desk, reported the party members, told them of our plans, and departed.
Garuts's party consists of three mages.
On this side, Marie is a scout, Takeo is a shield, and I'm a swordsman.
Then there are the supporters, Light and Rain.
I was worried about how to arrange them, but I decided to proceed with Marie and I serving as the vanguard, Garuts and the others in the middle guard, and Takeo in the rear guard and the supporters' escort.
Light and Rain said they didn't need an escort, but it's good manners for adventurers to escort their supporters.
I informed them of this and declined their offer.
As we proceeded through the forest, we encountered goblins early on, but there were not many of them. Marie and I were able to take care of them on our own.
"Hey. Supporter! Quickly deal with the goblin's magic stones."
Garuts was calling out to Light.
"No, we don't need goblin magic stones."
When I said that, Garuts answered with a slightly bitter look on his face.
"We are also receiving requests from goblins, so if possible, please let us collect the magic stones as well."
I see... they wanted to use us to accomplish their request. Coming here and understanding their purpose is a bit of a headache.
While I was thinking about this, Light and Rain were collecting the magic stones.
Garuts received the goblin's magic stone from Light as if to take it away.
After that, every time there was a battle with a goblin, he acted arrogant towards Light and Rain, so I couldn't help but get angry.
"Don't be so arrogant to our supporters. Otherwise, we won't hunt goblins anymore."
"Arrogant is outrageous. As a supporter, all they have to do is do chores."
"Then I won't hunt goblins anymore."
"Yes. It's fine. We can easily defeat goblins here as well, so we'll take care of the rest on our own."
How dare you...
After that, Garuts and his companions actually hunt goblins on their own, but it takes too long to defeat them with their poor magic. They called us.
We had no choice, so Marie and I took out a few of them.
Garuts was giving orders to Light again, but I interrupted him.
"Light. We'll take the ones we killed."
"Hey! What are you talking about! Are you trying to steal someone else's prize!"
"You guys have been stealing from us for a while now. I told you to change your attitude. You guys refused. At that point, we have no obligation to cooperate with your request."
"Tch... I understand. I understand! I'll change my attitude. That would be fine!"
Light and Rain, who were watching this series of exchanges, looked troubled.
Tftc
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter
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