The Former Child Prodigy, About To Be Banished From Home, Decided To Become An Adventurer

I had lived a life full of shame.

How much shame, you ask—

“Big brother, I am banishing you from this house.”

Enough that, while I was sitting on the sofa at home reading a comedy novel, my sixteen-year-old little sister suddenly said that to me.

A person living a decent life did not normally end up in a situation like this.

I scratched my head and opened my mouth.

“If I get banished, you know, your big brother won’t be able to survive?”

“If you say you’ll work, I’ll postpone the banishment.”

“Mmm, if I feel like it—”

“Could you maybe feel like it?”

My little sister said that with a beaming smile.

I was aware that smile had clearly been put on through my sister’s own effort. I was also aware it was the look of someone suppressing her anger.

Apparently, this was one of those situations where death awaited if I chose the wrong option.

It was fairly unreasonable, but—no, not really that unreasonable. My sister’s anger was only natural.

After all, ever since I graduated from school at eighteen, I had spent the last two years lazing around at home.

In other words, I was unemployed.

After graduating at the top of my class from the prestigious Fosenberg Academy in the imperial capital, the glorious center of the Glade Empire, I took advantage of the fact that our parents were dead and never got a job anywhere.

And that was how I ended up where I was now.

I could not really complain about being scolded.

As for how it had come to this—

Ever since I was a child, I had simply lacked all motivation.

—You’re the kind of child who could do it if you tried—no, one who can do it even without trying! You’d be even more amazing if you worked hard!

Even though so many people had placed those expectations on me—

Not once had I ever gotten serious.

Not even a single time, truly.

I was the kind of person who simply could not work hard. The hardworking component inside my body—Ganbarin—had been zero from birth.

Yes, zero.

Was there really anything worth working that hard for? Wasn’t it already bad the moment you had to work hard? Why not just drift through life? Why not take it easy?

With that kind of outlook on life—

There was no way I could ever handle being an “employee,” where effort was demanded of me.

Even just hearing rumors of something called “overtime” was enough to make my skin crawl.

Huh? Why work that hard? Can’t it wait until tomorrow?

That was what I always ended up thinking.

It was always written on my report cards.

“Ilvis-kun is excellent, but lacks cooperativeness.”

I felt like I probably was not meant to enter society.

And so I spent my days loafing around at home without getting a job.

However, after continuing that lifestyle for two years, even my iron-like state of mind had begun to undergo a subtle change.

I had no Ganbarin, but I did have just a tiny bit of Conscientium, so even my rarely wounded conscience had started showing a worried expression that seemed to say, “Are you really okay with this?”

And as if to exploit that gap in my heart—

My little sister had launched this all-out offensive.

A great deal of agitation ran through me.

“Arisa, are you mad?”

“Nope, I’m not mad?”

Arisa said cheerfully with a bright smile.

She was obviously angry.

Having lived with my little sister until she turned sixteen, I could say that with certainty.

Arisa was a girl with pink hair that reached her shoulders. The reason her hair color differed from my black hair was because we were half-siblings. As for her face, though it felt odd for her older brother to say it, it would be fair to call her beautiful.

But despite that, her personality was the complete opposite of mine. She was serious and diligence incarnate. After graduating from school at fifteen, she had gotten a job and was earning a salary.

From her perspective, I must have been nothing less than an incomprehensible creature who ate food and contributed nothing.

Yes, big brother was obviously the one in the wrong here.

“Arisa, you’re kind of scary right now, you know? Let’s calm down, okay? For now, let me finish reading this comedy novel—”

“Big brother, today I’ve made what they call a resolute determination, okay?”

A resolute determination—resolve never to retreat.

“Little sister, you know some difficult words…”

“It’s already been two years, okay? It’s about time you got a job, big brother.”

“…Well, I don’t know. I don’t have any Ganbarin, you know. I think your ability to work hard came from inheriting my share of Ganbarin. So, Arisa, you should just do my share too—”

“Big. Bro. Ther?”

As she said that, Arisa grabbed both my shoulders with both hands—clamp, clamp.

It was the very moment control over my life and death was taken from me.

Her genuine killing intent came pressing into me through both shoulders.

Okay, yes, I was fooling around. Sorry.

“…O-okay. Let’s have a calm discussion…!”

Apparently, the situation had long since passed the phase where I could laugh it off with a joke.

Magnanimously, Arisa accepted that and released my shoulders.

Welcome back, control over my life and death.

Arisa and I sat facing each other across the table.

“Big brother, are you aware of it?”

Suddenly, polite language. An interrogative tone. My little sister was in full combat stance.

“You know, big brother, if you actually tried, you could—”

“Say no more, Arisa.”

I cut off Arisa’s words.

“I’ll work.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll work.”

“…H-huh, huh, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

Arisa let out a scream and leaned back.

“R-really!?”

“Yeah.”

“…You don’t mean this is one of those lies just to get through the moment?”

“It’s not.”

What an incredibly low level of trust.

“I’ve decided to work.”

I said it in complete seriousness.

It was about time, probably. …I wanted to avoid causing Arisa any more trouble than I already had.

Arisa pressed at the corners of her eyes.

“Amazing… I said it expecting nothing… and you’re really going to turn over a new leaf…!”

Drip drip drip drip.

Tears fell onto the table.

She was actually crying!?

…Had she really been worrying about it that much…? She was still young, and I myself had not been taking it all that seriously.

I had better get serious about this.

“Now then, what kind of job should I do…?”

“If it’s you, big brother, couldn’t you do anything?”

“…Anything seems impossible, doesn’t it?”

“Didn’t people used to call you a child prodigy?”

As Arisa said, I really had once been called a child prodigy.

There had not been a single student at school better than me.

Even though I had never studied or trained at all, my test scores were perfect, and I had also been the best with a sword.

“That’s an embarrassing thing to say, so please don’t say it anymore.”

I shook my head. It had nothing to do with the current me. To take pride in those words now would be like clinging to past glory.

Isn’t there a saying, after all?

—Your grades in school are useless in society.

…In that case, then…

“It might be better not to base my job search on ‘ability’ or ‘what I can do.’”

“Why?”

“Because, to begin with, I’m a hopelessly lazy person. Even if I declare that I’ll work, that part won’t change. At my core, I’m a fundamentally no-good man.”

“You just said that about yourself.”

“Praise me for having an accurate self-evaluation.”

I seemed to remember the job-hunting manual I had read in my graduation year, How to Create a Self-PR That Will Impress Interviewers, saying that self-analysis was extremely important.

As a result, the self-PR I painstakingly created after thoroughly analyzing myself was—

I do not want to work!

Absolutely, I do not want to work!

That was it.

…So, after thinking for a bit, I continued.

“If that’s the case, then a normal job is impossible. I don’t want to work overtime, and to begin with, working five days a week is too much for me.”

That was the moment ninety-nine percent of my options vanished.

Wait, didn’t that mean there was nowhere left that would hire me?

But Arisa did not get discouraged.

“There’s a job that would be perfect for a big brother like you.”

“There is?”

“Yeah. How about becoming an adventurer?”

“An adventurer!”

I had never even imagined it, but it was true that my heart leaped. Clad head to toe in armor, fighting dragons and the like with a steel sword. It was the sort of job every boy probably considered at least once in his life.

It sounded more interesting than an ordinary job.

Also, just as Arisa had said, my grades in both swordsmanship and magic had been exceptionally good. I had always been first in the year, so I had no sense of weakness about either.

…Of course, classes and real combat had to be different. But what mattered was whether I could think, “It feels like I could do it if I tried.”

Arisa opened her mouth.

“You know, adventurers are self-employed, so they can work however they like.”

“Oh!”

In other words, I could work only when I felt like working!

This truly was work-style reform!

That was a wonderful option for me. To be blunt, as long as I could survive, a bare minimum amount of money would be enough.

Since I already had a house, one million gold a year would probably be plenty.

Once I earned that much, I could just laze around the rest of the time. …Heh heh heh! Nice!

“Alright, I’ll start with becoming an adventurer!”

After saying that, I suddenly remembered something.

The other day, when I had gone out shopping, someone had handed me a flyer.

At the time I had had no interest in it, so I had wanted to throw it away immediately, but unfortunately there had been nowhere to toss it, so I had put it in my bag and brought it home.

Then I forgot to throw it away—

“Hold on a second, Arisa.”

With that, I went back to my room and brought out a single flyer.

“What do you think about this?”

I held the flyer I had brought out toward Arisa.

This was what was written on it.

“The imperial capital’s largest clan, Black Dragon’s Fang, is now recruiting new members! Even inexperienced adventurers are welcome—we provide attentive and thorough guidance. We want to cherish and develop you not as manpower, but as treasured talent! We’re a homey clan with open communication. *Practical skills test required.”

A clan was a gathering organization for adventurers. A party was a group that gathered several adventurers together, while a clan was a group that gathered multiple parties together.

“That’s a massive major one.”

Arisa murmured while looking at the flyer.

“You’re aiming for this place?”

“Well, might as well, since I’ve got the chance. I’ll probably fail anyway, but maybe it’ll at least be good practice.”

Besides, if I managed to get in by luck, Arisa would surely feel more at ease too.

My big brother belongs to the biggest clan in the imperial capital! She would definitely brag like that.

Heh heh heh… A dramatic comeback from a useless older brother sounds nice too!

It was also convenient that the exam was tomorrow.

Things like this were all about fate. If I felt a sense of fate, it was not a bad idea to jump right in.

“I’ll go take it tomorrow.”

Arisa gave me a big nod.

“You’ve got nothing to lose by trying! Do your best, big brother!”