A New Journey For One Person, One Cat—and One More Person

The word Grail spat out—expulsion.

It meant erasing my existence from the party, no, from Grail’s life.

Me, who had been with him since childhood—

“What do you…… mean…… Grail……?”

I said that in disbelief.

I had sensed for a while that Grail found me annoying. Even so, we had known each other for more than ten years, and though I was still nowhere near Grail’s level, I had contributed to the party normally. I had not had the slightest premonition that Grail would make a decisive decision toward me.

And yet.

Grail twisted the corner of his mouth.

“It means exactly what it sounds like! You’re fired from the party!”

“……Why……?”

“Why? You don’t get it, Ios with the trash skill? What use is your Schrödinger’s Cat? It just makes us laugh and that’s the end of it, right, you guys!?”

The other members—the scout and the priest—laughed along with Grail. Only the female mage Misha pressed her lips tightly together and watched the situation.

Unable to endure it, I talked back.

“It’s true, I’m…… still nowhere near you, Grail, but—I should have contributed to the party too!”

“Yeah. I think so too.”

A different voice suddenly cut in.

It was Misha.

Misha was an eighteen-year-old woman, the same age as me. She wore a triangular hat, and purple hair with distinctive curly natural waves peeked out from beneath it.

“Grail, you’re using yourself as the standard. I don’t think Ios is inferior or anything. Shouldn’t you wait until Ios learns the Swordsmanship skill?”

As Misha said, Swordsmanship was a skill that existed in the warrior skill tree. I would be able to acquire Swordsmanship someday too.

In other words, Grail was in a state where he had “acquired it early.”

“Hah! Yeah, sure. That might not be bad either! But how long will it take this useless bastard to learn Swordsmanship!?”

At least several years in the future—it was something that would happen after endlessly raising my level.

Grail’s early acquisition was a considerably powerful advantage.

“It took us a year, and we can finally see our promotion to E-rank! That’s not bad, but at this kind of speed, I can’t be satisfied! I want to go much, much farther ahead!”

Adventurers had seven ranks: F, E, D, C, B, A, and S. We were just about to rise from F-rank, the “chicks,” to E-rank, the “underlings.” D-rank, the “barely full-fledged,” was still far away.

“Listen, Misha! Aside from that trash over there, everyone has excellent skills! If we get the right members, we can still go much further!”

Misha talked back without backing down.

“That makes no sense! There’s still one slot left in the party! Wouldn’t it be fine to bring in someone new while keeping Ios!?”

It was true that there were five of us. Up to six people could participate in a party.

A party was not just a “group in name only” that merely stayed together. It was a “connected group” registered through a ceremony.

It was a magical, intangible connection—

And registration through it was limited to six people.

Party registration was an essential procedure, because experience points could not be distributed without it.

“Sorry, but one slot isn’t enough.”

Grail answered while grinning.

“Two slots. Actually, there’s talk of an excellent pair joining the party. Ios needs to leave.”

“Wait.”

Misha answered in a displeased voice.

“Why are you pushing something that important forward on your own! The proper thing would be to talk it through with everyone in the party!”

“Talk it through? Why? You all want to rank up quickly too, don’t you? We can do that if we fire that parasite. It’s not a losing deal, right?”

“It’s not about losing or not. I—!”

“That’s enough, Misha. Thank you.”

I stopped Misha, who was doing her best for my sake.

Just that feeling alone made me happy.

My childhood friend had abandoned me, but—

At the very least, there was one person who had been on my side.

I spoke to Grail.

“……You’re not changing your mind, are you?”

“Of course not. I’ve known you were a useless good-for-nothing since our school days, but I kept supporting you because you were my childhood friend. But that was a mistake. I should’ve cut off someone like you long ago. You should be grateful I stayed with you until now, you know?”

I had my pride too.

After being told that much—I had no intention of asking him to let me stay as a companion.

“Got it. If that’s your answer, then I’ll part ways with you here.”

“Want me to at least take you back up to the surface?”

This was a dungeon.

We were still in the shallow floors, but for a low-level person like me, there were many dangers.

Even so—

To Grail, who said that with a grin, I answered flatly.

“I don’t need it.”

As I left, Nyankoromochi meowed, “Myaa,” and followed after me.

---

The dungeon we had been diving into was near the town.

After I returned from the dungeon alone, I headed straight to the inn where I had been staying.

It was the same inn as Grail and the others, so my true feelings were that I wanted to leave right away, but it was already night, and both my body and heart were exhausted, so I decided to do it tomorrow.

What had happened today pierced my heart.

I did not feel like doing anything.

I looked at myself reflected on the other side of the mirror.

A man of medium height and medium build with short-cut black hair was looking at me with black eyes and a haggard face. It was quite awful.

I lay down on the bed facing upward. I placed the bag I had taken out of my backpack on my stomach and muttered quietly.

“Schrödinger’s Cat.”

The instant I said it, the bag swelled up.

“Myaa.”

While saying that, Nyankoromochi came out.

Something warm and soft was sitting on my chest. That sensation soothed my frayed heart.

I muttered while stroking Nyankoromochi’s back.

Its fluffy fur felt good.

Ahh…… It really felt good……

“I’ve been working hard, right?”

“Myaa.”

I felt like it must have been encouraging me. I decided to think that.

Nyankoromochi moved its front paws and tapped my chest.

“What? Are you telling me to repay you for encouraging me? You’re such a mercenary little thing.”

While lying on the bed, I reached for the backpack I had placed beside it. I took out dried meat by touch alone.

“Here.”

When I placed it in front of Nyankoromochi, it ate happily.

“Hey, you won’t abandon me, will you?”

“Myaa.”

Nyankoromochi answered carelessly while eating the dried meat.

……Well, as long as I kept giving it dried meat, it would probably follow me.

Early in the morning, I left the inn.

The light of the sun that had not risen long ago felt pleasant on my skin. It felt as if the dark feelings inside my chest were being purified.

……Though I wished they really would be purified.

“I guess this is a new beginning.”

“Myaa myaa.”

Nyankoromochi at my feet responded to my monologue.

Having a living creature with me was unexpectedly reassuring. Even if it was a freeloader and could not speak human language.

“I’ll be counting on you from now on too.”

“Mya!”

Nyankoromochi raised its nose a little and meowed as if to say, leave it to me.

One person and one cat.

“Now then, I guess this is the first step of my restart.”

Just as I was about to start walking—

“Waaaaaaait just a seconddddddddddddddddd!”

A familiar woman’s loud voice resounded through the morning street corner.

Startled, I turned my eyes that way, and a woman wearing a triangular hat on her head was standing there, leaning on a staff.

She stood there while breathing wheezily from her mouth.

“……Misha. Why are you here?”

“Hah, hah, hah! I left Grail’s party!”

Cough! Cough! Misha suddenly coughed.

“They tried really hard to stop me, so it took time…… Ahh, I’m sleepy…… And I ran here at full speed, so I feel like I’m going to die……! But I’m glad I made it!”

“……Made it?”

“Ios, I was thinking I’d follow you!”

Misha raised her thumb and smiled brightly.

—!?

“But, well—wouldn’t it be better for you to stay with Grail and the others? Your rank will go up soon too……”

At my words, Misha made a face that said, What are you talking about?

“Grail has a bad personality, doesn’t he?”

She said it as if it were obvious.

Well…… If she had seen how Grail treated me, it would not be strange for her to have that impression……

“And his breath stinks.”

“Did his breath stink……?”

“Well, you know, it’s about the vibe, the vibe. Right?”

Misha laughed frivolously. It was a terrible way to put it.

“To be honest, I really don’t understand firing Ios. You’ve been working hard, haven’t you!”

And then she continued like this.

“Whenever I’m attacked by monsters, you always rush over first, don’t you? If I’m going to team up with someone, I want a companion with that kind of kindness!”

Misha rattled on, not caring that I was dumbfounded.

“If I stuck with some bossy alpha monkey like Grail, I’d regret it forever! If I’m going to travel together with someone, it should be you, since I owe you! It’s my style not to abandon you after you got driven out!”

I had lost my words.

I had thought no one was watching me. I had worried that they thought I was a man who was not even half as useful as Grail.

But I was wrong.

There were people who were watching. There were people who would reach out a hand when I was in trouble. The days I had built up had not been meaningless.

To think she would recognize the value of someone like me.

Hahaha……

No good. I was starting to feel like crying a little.

“What, what? You’re making a slightly gloomy face, you know? Could it be that you’re feeling deeply moved? Super grateful to Miss Misha?”

She grinned and tried to peek at my lowered face.

I thought about bluffing and saying, No! But—

“Yeah. Thank you.”

I said that.

Misha looked at me with a blank face for an instant,

“Hehehe! Not bad! Being thanked like that!”

She laughed.

“Then, I’ll be counting on you! Partner!”

“Yeah…… Same here.”

We exchanged a handshake.

I had thought it would be a journey of one person and one cat, but it seemed one more person would be added. That fact brightened my feelings more than I had expected.

“Mee-mya!”

Nyankoromochi at our feet let out a happy cry.

Noticing that voice, Misha lowered her gaze to Nyankoromochi.

“Hey, can I fluff it?”

“……Yeah, I don’t mind?”

“Fluff, fluff!”

As soon as she said that, Misha clung to Nyankoromochi and rubbed her cheek against it.

……Surely she had not followed me because she wanted to be with Nyankoromochi instead of me—right?