I always had a larger build, and everyone always told me I was brilliant. I was always proud of the fact that I carried both courage and the skills to back it up. I had been blessed with the people around me too. Their eyes always filled with confidence, and I was extremely glad that those people viewed me—Abel—as a man deserving to be one of our next leaders.
Wim, alone, didn’t fit in with the rest of my life.
“AAC, BBB, DAAC. Um… That makes twenty-three against fifty? Which is two against one, but…no. I can’t say for certain yet.” It was break time, but he was mumbling to himself, sometimes scratching his head or spasming.
Some time had passed since he arrived at Nachtlibelle, but he still never failed to amaze me. This large-scale investigation was going so much quicker than our last one, it wasn’t even worth comparing. What kind of walking buff was this? He said it was a simple speed buff, but this was already in the territory of a completely novel method of travel. Was it really possible to cast support magic on so many of us at once for such a long period of time?
So far, he had even found a way to keep us from encountering any large monsters since our journey’s beginning, and had drawn his map with utmost care and meticulous detail. He had showed it to me earlier, and when I saw it, I was flabbergasted at just how differently two people could see the world. It was so good, I was sure it would sell for multiple times what our maps typically went for.
Knowing he was constantly and scrupulously forming hypotheses and testing them, the fact he could predict enemies and traps with terrifying accuracy made his theories awfully convincing.
“What do I do? This is bad. So, so bad. Should I disassemble the enchantment again? No, I don’t have much MP left. Bl-bleeegh.”
Despite all his strengths, Wim himself was so lacking in confidence, he was barfing from nerves.
He would mumble to himself, cast some buffs, then hurl. He sure was a busy man, but he seemed to be having fun. I was only a tank, but even I was too exhausted to speak. Watching him panic with so much energy was enough to wear on my confidence.
He wasn’t a bad person—in fact, he seemed like a perfectly fine guy. Though considering Heidemarie had brought him here, I should have known he’d be quite the oddball.
After seeing his skills for myself, however, I was quite comforted to have him as an ally.
“Here’s some water, Wim. You need to make sure you stay hydrated.”
“Oh. Thanks, Abel. Sorry, I lost myself for a little while there. I mean, I’m sorry. Was I being too loud?”
“No, not at all. I’m used to it, and I should be thanking you. It’s probably hard for you to believe it, since this is your first time accompanying us on a large-scale survey, but we’re progressing amazingly quicker than last time. You’ve really helped us out.”
“No, not at all! You’ve really helped me out, too, so thanks. Heh, heh, heh!” His reaction was so innocent…though also somewhat suspicious.
“Wim.”
“Oh, Hans!”
“The commander’s calling for you. You think we’re about to come into an open space, right?”
“Yes. To be precise—”
“Save it for her.”
I bowed at the two, watching Hans practically drag Wim away. He had gained the complete trust of all our leaders, but that was perhaps only natural. The results he had shown us over the last few months were deserving of their trust, and Wim never placed undeserved faith in himself, either. He always had backup plans ready in case anything unexpected happened. He saw things from a similar perspective as the leaders, which probably made chatting with him easier.
I glanced at where Wim had been sitting, and recalled the buff he had once cast on me, and the bliss of being able to keep up the secret defensive ability Reflection. I often remembered that moment, and hoped to be assigned to the same squad as Wim on every labyrinth dive.
What if we could both be leaders together in the future?
He had already completely corrupted me, huh?