Chapter 88

Normally, once you reached the level of a Mana user, you could handle a full-grown troll on your own, and even a Novice wouldn’t be pushed back too badly as long as they had proper equipment.

On top of that, troll blood was highly valued as a magical reagent, so if you managed to take one down, you could earn a pretty hefty side profit. To the point that there were even parties in the labyrinth that hunted nothing but trolls.

Breed slowly raised his hand.

“Let’s do it, friends. With our strength, doesn’t this seem worth challenging?”

The man beside him frowned deeply.

“Rewards my ass. You know if you die, it’s all meaningless, right?”

“It’s doable. Pruuk can handle the adult male, and Tipola and I will take the adult female. Two or three juveniles should be manageable for the rest of the group.”

“Well… that’s true, but….”

“More importantly, we’ve got that, uh… mage with us, right? Everyone saw it last night. Those insane bolts of lightning. If they step in just once when things get dicey, I don’t think we’ll be the ones getting wrecked.”

At his confident tone, the atmosphere slowly tilted toward pushing ahead with the quest. Even the usually stoic orc nodded along in agreement.

Seeing that, Breed nodded as well, then turned to me and bowed his head slightly, his expression more troubled than before. His attitude was noticeably more respectful than earlier.

“…We’ll make sure your share is properly accounted for. Could you lend us your strength just once, like last night?”

“Hm…”

Honestly, he didn’t need to lower himself this much. At low ranks, mages were definitely rarer than Steel Body users, but even so, a Novice mage was generally treated as equivalent to a 2nd-level caster.

For him to bow like that meant he was convinced I had something beyond that.

‘Well, to be fair, last night’s magic was obviously way beyond 2nd-level standards.’

I gave a small nod.

“Well, I’m a party member too. If there’s work to be done, I’ll do my part.”

“Thank you! Then—”

Right then, Tipola raised her wolf ears sharply and put the brakes on Breed’s plan.

“Hold on. Everything else sounds fine, but how exactly are you planning to stop a troll’s regeneration? Pruuk might manage since he’s a Mana User, but the rest of us can’t channel mana into our weapons. To deal proper damage, we’d need artifact-grade gear.”

“Hm… what about using fire?”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we heat our weapons and sear it to stop regeneration, are you?”

“Would that not work? I heard from a troll-hunting party that it’s fairly effective.”

“For how many seconds? What happens when it cools down? You think the troll’s just going to sit there and watch while we reheat our weapons?”

As everyone watched the exchange in silence, Clio suddenly shot her hand up.

“Then just ask the mage! Mage! You can enchant weapons, right!? You use fire and lightning, don’t you? Both of those are super effective against trolls.”

I shook my head.

“That’s 3rd-level stuff. I can’t do that.”

“There you go again, pretending to be 2nd-level (that’s how it came out). Says the person who can use Chain Lightning.”

I mean, I really was 2nd-level, and that Chain Lightning was a knockoff. I hadn’t even been a mage for two months yet—don’t expect the impossible from me.

“Anyway. I can’t do it.”

“Uh, then I guess that won’t work…”

I turned the question back on her.

“Then instead of elemental enchantment, what about blessings? Something like Striking or Holy Weapon. Against trolls, wouldn’t those work just as well?”

“Oh, absolutely. More than enough. If we’re talking pure damage output, those are probably even better. The problem is, there’s no priest to cast them.”

“There is one.”

“…Where?”

“Me.”

For a moment, silence hung over the group. Then laughter burst out.

“Hahaha. Mage, you’ve got jokes.”

“Even a normal guy like me knows mages can’t be priests.”

“At least tell us you beat a Steel Body user to death with your bare hands.”

“That’s something I do as naturally as breathing.”

“…What?”

Instead of explaining, I decided to show them.

“Enough talk. The sword.”

“Huh? Ah—y-yes. H-here.”

Startled by my forceful tone, Tipola offered her greatsword as if she’d dropped something.

I brushed a hand over the blade, old but clearly well cared for, and recited the blessing.

“Striking.”

Woooong…

A soft, pale gold glow—distinctive of the Lumina Church—spread across the silver blade.

“…!”

“…!!”

“No, how is this even—?”

The party stared blankly at the golden light clinging to the sword, utterly speechless.

.
.
.

“Th-then we’ll proceed with the quest.”

At Tipola’s words, everyone nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. With both a mage and a priest in the party (even if they were technically the same person), they seemed to think taking on four or five trolls would be trivial.

“Then the only remaining problem is… someone who isn’t here,” Tipola continued. “How do we get Pruuk to go along with our decision?”

Breed picked up where she left off.

“Normally, persuading him wouldn’t be that hard. That man… as everyone knows, he’s easily swayed.”

“So as long as we butter him up a bit, he’ll move however we want.”

“I wouldn’t put it that bluntly… but yeah, something like that. The issue is now—”

“He clashed with the mage this morning and got properly sulky.”

Breed nodded.

“Right. So whatever we say, there’s a good chance he’ll react like a contrarian just to spite us.”

The expressions of those who knew his shitty personality darkened slightly.

“Haa. That fucked-up bastard really needs to take the adult male troll for this to go smoothly…”

Honestly, dealing with mere trolls didn’t require his help at all. I could just kill them all myself.

But today, I was both a mage and a priest. And the first rule of enjoying roleplay was simple: never break character.

Just then, someone spoke up carefully.

“Um… maybe if the mage apologized a little and bowed his head, Pruuk might—”

What was that guy’s name again… Jo? Jojo? Jjo? Something like that…

“Tch. Should I just kill him?”

“Eek!”

“Ah—my mistake. My thoughts and words came out reversed. So, what did you say just now?”

“I-I said that filthy dog bastard should immediately perform a full prostration as an apology to the mage!”

Hm. I liked how fast they switched stances. I’d let it slide this once.

Setting that aside.

As various ideas were thrown around about how to persuade Pruuk, none of them really stuck. Eventually, Shia raised her hand, looking fed up.

“Honestly. Why are you all overthinking this?”

“Hm? You’ve got a good idea?”

“If he’s a contrarian, then just treat him like one.”

I understood Shia’s meaning immediately.

“Ah. I see. That’s clever.”

“Exactly. You should loudly take the position of abandoning the quest first. Then, just to spite you, won’t he foam at the mouth trying to push it through?”

“…You’re a genius.”

.
.
.

So, following Shia’s instructions, I stood in front of the wagon where the anthrobeast bastard was holed up and started loudly arguing with the party.

In an arrogant tone, I berated them.

“Didn’t you hear there are trolls out there? Let’s just ditch this quest and head back.”

“If you’d just help a little, Mage—”

“No! I said no! Why should I take that kind of risk!?”

“But it’s trolls. Trolls. If we kill them, we’ll make a ton of money.”

“Do I look like some penniless bum to you? I’m a mage, you know? I’ve got money. I don’t need chump change like that.”

“What about contribution points—”

“Tch. What good are contribution points if you’re dead?”

At that, Tipola stepped forward as the party’s representative and raised her voice.

“Mage! Think of the villagers! If we just leave like this, what are those poor people supposed to do!?”

“…That’s the guild’s problem. Do I really need to care about that too?”

“I’m disappointed in you, Mage! Pruuk may be stupid, ugly, filthy, smelly, sheds fur everywhere, drools when he talks, and keeps biting his tongue like a slob, but unlike you, he doesn’t turn away from what needs to be done! He’s brave! He has the makings of a hero who doesn’t abandon the helpless! But you’re the opposite! You’re smart, handsome, clean, smell nice, well-built, eloquent, and well-mannered—but you lack the one thing an adventurer needs most: courage! Coward! Egoist! Craven! Anyway, after this quest, want to come over to my place for pasta!?”

I lowered my voice and whispered to her.

‘Isn’t that a bit too much ad-libbing?’

‘It’s fine. That idiot’s so stupid that when too much information hits him at once, he only understands the parts that sound good to him.’

‘…And what was that pasta part?’

‘What do you think? Literally pasta. You’ve helped us a lot, so after this is over, I’ll treat you to dinner at my place. You can even stay the night if you want. Oh, by the way, my house only has one bedroom.’

‘……’

As I momentarily lost all words, she finished her line with a smiling squint of her eyes.

“Anyway! Pruuk is different from you! I believe in Pruuk!”

“Ha! You think that guy’s any different from me!? Courage!? Hero!? Don’t make me laugh! He’s exactly the same! I guarantee the moment he hears ‘troll,’ he’ll say we should drop everything and run!”

That was when it happened. The wagon door burst open with a bang, and a booze-soaked mutt came charging out.

“I-I-I am Pruuk!! A-a-a brave hero!! I-I-I’m different from that c-c-cowardly mage!! F-for the villagers, I’ll h-h-hunt the t-t-trolls!!!”

“Ooooooh!!”

The nine people who had been opposing me(?) erupted into applause all at once.

Even Shia joined in, giggling as she clapped her tiny hands enthusiastically.

“As expected of Pruuk! I knew it!!!”

“Oh! Pruuk! My Pruuk!!”

Fueled by the praise and applause coming from all sides, he drew his blade dramatically.

“L-l-let’s go! L-let’s g-go and d-d-defeat the monsters! This H-H-Hero Pruuk will l-l-lead you all!!”

“Oooooooo!!”

Watching the hero-drunk idiot march boldly out of the village, Shia and I exchanged glances.

‘Idiot.’

‘Mm. An idiot indeed.’

Having expected things to go this way, the party had already finished all preparations, and no one bothered stopping Pruuk as he half-staggered toward the mountains.

Even drunk, his level wasn’t going anywhere, so there was little chance he’d be taken down by goblins or kobolds.

And just as expected, once goblins and kobolds began appearing near the entrance of Mount Camp (the monster-infested mountain bordering Cops Village), Pruuk started putting on a one-man slaughter.

“I-I-I am! H-H-Hero Pruuk!!”

Slash!

Kyaaak!

“C-c-cowardly kobolds d-d-dare—!!”

Shkak!!

Kyaaaang!!

After massacring a group of around thirty goblins and kobolds, Pruuk suddenly spun around to face the party members who had been watching from behind.

“H-h-how was that!?”

Excluding Shia and me, the rest of the party burst into applause without missing a beat.

“Good job! Good job! Good job~”

“W-wow. Pruuk is amazing.”

“Waaah. Pruuk is so cool.”

“Pruuk’s using footwork techniques~”

Still far from sobering up, he bared his teeth in a wide grin and laughed boisterously at the hollow praise.

“I-I-I am the D-D-Demon King Slayer!! Uwah, uahahaha! E-even the D-D-Demon King would j-just d-d-drop dead in f-f-front of me!!”

I couldn’t help letting out a snort at his needlessly grandiose boasting.

“…Hey. He says he’s a Demon King Slayer. You ever die to him?”

Shia, perched on my shoulders, snickered softly.

“Who knows? Perhaps one of those kobolds he just killed was named ‘Demon King.’ Maybe they exchanged names before fighting—dog against dog.”