I waved her off. “Nah. I thought you girls were just a bunch of cheeky brats, but you’re a lot smarter than you look.”
“Excuse me?!” Chisha pursed her lips.
“That being said, let me give you three a piece of advice.”
While it was true these girls knew more about adventuring than we did, and were using that information effectively, the fact remained that they were all quite young. Too young to be going into battle.
“You’re still kids; there’s no need to rush things. You don’t have to become adventurers right now. You can wait a few years until—”
“No, it has to be now!” Ai shouted.
I stiffened up in surprise, then turned to her and saw that she was looking up at me with a grave expression on her face.
“Wh-What do you mean? Even if you don’t rush, eventually—”
“You don’t get it! We—”
Chisha held out a hand to calm Ai down, then started explaining. “Listen up. This equipment rental program is only going to keep working for another month at most.”
I gave her a confused look. “Huh? But didn’t you say it was a good system? Why would it...”
“Because it’s such a good system.” Chisha said, decisively cutting down my argument. “As it is, half of the items are already booked out for a month in advance. And adventurers are only going to keep on pouring into Freelea. Everyone wants to know what their growth rates look like and what class they should be, and this is the only place you can learn any of that. And I don’t know how they’re going to change the rental system when demand gets too high, but I guarantee you we won’t be able to borrow equipment this good anymore.”
She had a point. In the few months we’d been gone, the city had already transformed completely. There would undoubtedly be even more people here in a month’s time, and the more people there were vying for the same equipment, the less likely it was that any one person would be able to get it. That much was obvious.
“But I’m sure in another year or two, even if Freelea gets a huge influx of adventurers, the Guild will have managed to—”
“Oh, don’t tell me you already forgot what the goddess said, old geezer! If the legends are true, that means monsters are going to start getting stronger now, right?” Mia exclaimed.
“Oh yeah...”
Mia had seemed like quite the airhead to me, so I was surprised she’d made such an insightful comment. She was right though—from what the goddess had said, just as her blessing let humanity grow stronger faster, the Evil God’s power strengthened his minions, the monsters. Even the weakest monsters would be beyond a starting adventurer’s ability to defeat if they grew much stronger, which would make it impossible for beginner’s to defeat them and develop their skills.
Ai stepped forward, put her hands on her hips, and said, “There’s no way I’m going to end up a powerless wimp who can only cower when monsters come to attack my city! That’s why we need to get stronger now! So that we can decide our own fate!” Her eyes gleamed with determination. “That’s why we’re in such a rush. Right now is the only time when a great hero like Rex is in our city and the whole world doesn’t know about it yet. This is our one chance to get stronger before it’s too late.”
I had no argument against that, and despite her frivolous tone, it was clear from Ai’s expression that she’d spent a lot of time thinking about her choices, steeling her resolve for the hardships to come.
These girls really are something else...
Though I’d accepted they were more than just cheeky brats, I’d still been underestimating them far too much.
I scratched my head awkwardly and said, “Chisha.”
“Yeah?”
I bashfully averted my gaze. “I’m sorry—I had the wrong idea about you. You three are truly splendid adventurers.”
Chisha gave me a surprised look, then smiled. “You need to be ten times hotter if you want to say such clichéd lines, you geezer.”
Never mind, they’re just a bunch of cheeky brats after all!
❈❈❈
“Whooo! It feels like it’s been ages since I saw the sun!” I said as I stretched a few hours. We’d just left the Guild, and I was basking in the waning sunlight.
“God, you even act like an old geezer.”
“Shut it! I’m not that old!” I paused, suddenly remembering something. “Oh yeah, I should hand these over to you guys before I forget.”
I pulled out all the trap equipment that was a part of Rex’s List and had turned out to actually be really valuable, then held it out to Ai.
“Y-You’re really giving all of these to us?!” she asked, surprisingly meek all of a sudden.
“Yeah. I get how valuable this stuff is now, but we’re all too high level to make good use of it. Besides, you girls really did teach us a lot.”
Ai still looked a bit hesitant, but then Chisha piped up.
“It’s fine, these old geezers are head over heels in love with us—that’s why they’re giving us so much good stuff. It’d be rude not to accept their gifts.”
“I-I see, they’re in love with us... F-Fine, I guess we can take it then!”
It seemed Chisha’s words had convinced Ai to accept the equipment. Her words were more fiction than fact, but when she gave me a knowing wink, I decided it would just cause more trouble than it was worth to argue with her.
God, these girls have us wrapped around their little fingers. They’re far craftier than they look. Honestly, even though when we were newbies people had high hopes for us, these girls have way more potential than we ever did.
Feeling oddly proud of these girls, I turned to Chisha. But before I could say anything, someone screamed, “Ant attack!” Their voice carried rather far down the street.
“What’s going on? Is someone drunk?” Geeko asked, wrinkling his nose.
I wasn’t so sure myself, but that scream had sounded far too panicked to have been coming from a mere drunkard.
“Tch! We’ll go see what’s going on! Chisha, you guys—”
As I turned around, my words died in my throat. Chisha was giving me a puzzled look, completely oblivious to the fact that there was something burrowing out from the ground behind her.
Is that a Killer Ant?!
By chance, it happened to be the very same monster we’d read about in the dungeon guide. If you included its feelers, the ant was a full one meter in length. It opened its mandibles wide and launched itself at Chisha.
“Watch out!” I pushed Chisha out of the way, taking its bite head-on. “Ngh!”
“Old geezer!” Chisha shouted.
I smiled back at her. “Hah! An ant like this can’t even scratch me!”
I lifted up the leg the ant had bitten me and then brought it down, hard. There was a loud squish as I crushed it under my heel, and the ant disintegrated into particles of light.
“W-Wow...” Ai’s eyes widened as she watched me kill the ant in one hit.
“Please, these trash monsters are nothing to us. You might not know this, but we’re—”
“The A-rank adventuring party, the Hounds, right?” Chisha asked, interrupting me.
“Wait, you knew?”
“I’ve researched the names and reputations of all the famous adventurers in the area,” she replied nonchalantly.
The fact that she tried to negotiate with us despite knowing we were A-rank adventurers means she has real guts, I realized.
“Wh-Whaaat?! I didn’t know that! That means you old geezers are amazing!” Mia exclaimed.
“H-Hmph! I-I guess b-b-b-being A-rank is pretty impressive!” Ai said, trying to put on a tough facade and failing spectacularly.
It was enough to bring a smile to my face, but sadly the situation was too dire for levity.