“Want a piggyback ride? I’ve got some other stuff to take care of today, so I’d like to finish up here as soon as we can,” I said.
“Hey, knock it off! I can walk by myself!”
“Suit yourself. But if you slow us down even a little, you’re getting a ride, like it or not.”
After hearing my threat, Ralph began walking as quickly as he could manage, using his sword as a makeshift staff. After a few dozen minutes, though, sweat began to bead on his forehead. I could tell the pace was taking its toll on him.
Hester was watching him carefully too, a look of concern on her face. I started to feel bad about how I’d pressed him to hurry up earlier.
“You’re slowing us down. Time to make good on my threat—you’re getting on my back now.”
“I’m fine. I can pick up the pace,” Ralph protested.
“Seriously, just get on already. I can’t bear to watch you like this. If you can’t learn how to cooperate, then you can forget about forming a party.”
That seemed to be enough to convince him, because Ralph finally gave up and reluctantly climbed onto my back.
After carrying that orc, who’d weighed several times as much as I did, carrying Ralph felt like no big deal at all.
With Ralph on my back, we picked up the pace significantly. Before long, we made it to the woods in the southwest.
“Sorry for making you give me a piggyback ride,” muttered Ralph.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m only a spectator from here on out, so it was no big deal. Now, hurry up and slay that goblin.”
“All right.”
I couldn’t help but wonder how they were going to pull this off when Hester couldn’t use any magic, and Ralph could barely even walk.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they had planned, and honestly, I was kind of excited to find out.
“Let’s do this the same as we always do, okay, Ralph?”
“Right. Leave it to me.”
Once they’d agreed on a plan of attack, they slowly began to get into position.
Instead of advancing side by side, Hester went out a bit ahead, with Ralph following at a distance of several meters.
I trailed behind them too, hanging back several more meters after Ralph.
Once we’d settled into our weird formation, the three of us slowly and carefully made our way into the forest.
After about thirty minutes, Hester must have spotted a goblin, because she gestured to Ralph and stooped down.
Ralph, for his part, unsheathed his sword and stood exactly where he was.
Hester began to approach the goblin slowly in a crouch. Then she took a branch she’d been carrying and hurled it with as much force as she could muster at the little monster’s head before immediately turning around and running away.
The goblin looked around and, once he’d deduced that he was only up against a single girl, began to chase after Hester, cackling wickedly.
Hester ran past Ralph, bringing the goblin right to him, and as the goblin kept chasing after her, Ralph set the monster in his sights.
That must have been all the advantage he needed, because he managed to slash a deep cut into the goblin’s chest, and when the goblin tried to fight back, he landed the finishing blow and laid the creature to rest.
“What do you think, Chris? I know it wasn’t the coolest way to finish off a goblin, but we defeated it comfortably, at least,” said Hester.
“You figured out a way to make the most of Ralph’s skill set even with his slowed mobility, huh? You did slay that goblin pretty comfortably, so... All right. Let’s form a party.”
“Yay! We did it, Ralph!”
“I mean... Now that we can slay goblins, I dunno that we really need to team up with h—”
“Ugh, there you go again! Listen, do you want to spend your whole life hunting goblins as a rookie adventurer?”
After a long, long pause, Ralph huffed. “I was just kidding, okay?! Looking forward to having you on the team, Chris.”
Ralph made his way back to us, and after a bit of back-and-forth, we made it official: From here on, we were a party.
It seemed pretty safe to say that ours was a party formed out of pragmatism rather than friendship or fondness for each other.
Ralph and Hester weren’t at all useful to me just yet, but I knew they’d probably be assets one day. I might have been ahead of them for now, but in terms of potential, the two of them were leagues ahead of me.
Eventually, I’d have to focus completely on fighting Claus, but for now, I figured it wouldn’t be so bad to lend them a helping hand.
“Let’s do our best to help each other,” I said. “Well, I’m gonna head back now. Let’s talk more later tonight back at the hotel.”
“Sure. See you tonight,” replied Hester.
Now that we’d officially formed a party, I briefly thought about helping them take out more goblins while I was here...but I had other things to do—more important things.
Plus, being a member of a party meant added responsibilities. I figured everyone would be better off if I focused on taking care of the stuff that only I could do.
So, I left them in the woods and headed back to Realzahd.
Once I got back, I ate eight of the remaining fifteen plant samples and went to the church for another ability assessment.
This assessment ended the same way the last one had; none of my stats had increased. That meant that either two of the remaining seven plant specimens had performance-enhancing properties, or that drying out the samples had ruined their efficacy. But I couldn’t be sure yet which it was.
Statistically speaking, the most likely possibility was the latter one. But I didn’t want all of the money and effort I’d expended so far to end up being for nothing, like a bubble popping and disappearing forever. So, all I could do was pray that there would be some effect from eating the final seven species.
After my visit to the church, I decided it’d be nice to do something special to commemorate the formation of our new party. I headed to the commercial district and bought a bunch of gourmet food, then I went back to the hotel. I recorded the day’s findings as I waited for the other two to return.
“We’re back, Chris,” said Hester.
“Yeah, and check it out: This time, we brought back some meat skewers!”
It seemed like we’d had the same idea, because they’d brought back a celebratory dinner to share too—and meat skewers, of all things.
The two of them seemed pretty excited about the meat skewers, but the stuff I’d brought for us to share was going to make them look like a handful of beans in comparison.
I hesitated about whether or not I should reveal what I’d bought, but in the end, I decided I might as well. The food wouldn’t be as good cold, and there weren’t enough skewers to fill us all up anyway.
“Welcome back. I bought some stuff for us to share too. I figured we ought to celebrate forming our new party,” I said.
“Wait, seriously? You’re telling me we didn’t even need to buy these?” Ralph whined. “Well, whatever... Guess it never hurts to have more meat skewers, right?”
“Actually, I didn’t buy meat skewers this time.”
“Huh...? Oh, wow! Hester, check this out! Now, this is proper meat! He brought pork buns from Buns Deluxe! He even got some sashimi from Maruela and seasoned rice from Maruha Diner! I can’t believe you bought all this, Chris!”
I’d never seen Ralph look so happy before.
It wasn’t all that surprising, though. From the delight I’d seen on his face before when he was eating meat skewers, I realized he was probably just as much a foodie as I was.
“I had a feeling a Realzahd local like you would recognize these,” I said.
“Duh! You hit up the most popular spots on the main street! It’s like a mouthwatering buffet!”
“This is amazing! I feel kinda bad that we only bought meat skewers now, though.”
“Yeah... You sure you’re happy to share, when this is all we have to contribute?” Ralph asked.
“Don’t worry. I actually wasn’t expecting you guys to bring back anything, so it’s not a problem. Anyway, how about we talk through the details of our new party while we eat?”
As the three of us chowed down on our spread, we hashed out the expectations going forward.
The most important thing to pin down was our goals.
I already knew what my goal was, but I needed to ask Ralph and Hester what theirs were—otherwise, we might have some conflicts arise in the future.
“Let’s start by deciding on our goal as a party,” I said. “We can’t just pick something vague like ‘for the three of us to adventure together.’ We need something concrete and specific.”
“A goal...? Well, how about ‘to eat lots of good food’?” suggested Ralph.
“We’re already doing that, aren’t we? Let’s pick something a little more pragmatic.”
“I want to learn magic, so I guess my goal is to save up the money I need for that. That’s just a personal goal, though. Is that okay?”
“Personal goals are fine. What are you going to do when you become a proper mage, though? Will you leave the party?”
“No... I’ve never really thought through the specifics, so it’s hard to say what I’d do. I certainly don’t plan on leaving, though.”
“I still don’t know what you’re getting at,” Ralph said. “Why don’t you tell us your goal, since you’re the one demanding we come up with something?”
“Fair enough. My goal is to get revenge on my brother. If possible, I’d like to accomplish that with the help of a party.”
The minute those words left my mouth, Ralph and Hester stopped eating. A silence fell upon us.
I’d kind of figured my statement might have that effect, honestly. I mean, revenge was a pretty heavy topic. That’s why I’d wanted to save my goal for last, but... Oh well.
“Wait, what? Revenge? You mean, you want to kill someone? Is that gonna be our party goal? ’Cause if it is, then you’re on your own!”
“If I could do it on my own, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” I said.
“B-But...your own brother?”
“Yeah. There’s just one little problem: I think he might be one of the strongest people alive.”
“What do you mean by that?” Hester finally spoke up. “To be honest, I’m a little lost here too.”
The questions came pouring in. The two of them couldn’t hide their discomfort.
This was supposed to be a celebration of our new party, but it was starting to feel like a wake.
“I mentioned before that I was living in the woods for a while before I came to Realzahd, remember?”
“Yeah. That was when you were eating every plant you could get your hands on just to survive, right?”
“Exactly. Let me tell you how I wound up there.”