Today, a couple delinquent-looking guys were messing with me, not in Japan but in Do-Melta. I’d been wandering around Freida instead of adventuring when two scary-looking guys had stood before me and demanded money. They even had weapons with long blades on them, which wasn’t too uncommon in Do-Melta. I was in some serious danger.
“Hey, buddy. Mind lendin’ us some money?” said one of them.
“We’re so broke that we won’t even be able to eat tomorrow. Help us out, yeah?” said the other.
If that was true, they should’ve found a part-time day job instead of harassing me. I didn’t understand why they’d decided to turn to crime instead when they were just going to end up in jail cells or worse. I supposed it was because this was the easy route or they didn’t know how else to make money.
This was a rare experience though. I usually wasn’t the type to get targeted by these kinds of people, but I seemed to have caught their attention today for some reason. Maybe I looked wealthy to them. Oh, I’d mentioned I didn’t usually get targeted by people like them, but Kaoloon Walled City in Freida’s back alleys was a different story. Anyone and everyone who set foot in there got harassed by someone, so that didn’t count. As soon as someone tried to mess with me there, I immediately drove them back with magic. I’d already decided it was okay to shoot the folks there with lightning, so there were no problems there.
“Hey, punk, you deaf or something?”
“Speak up, pip-squeak!”
“Y-Yesh! I’m not listening! Not even a little bit!” I stammered.
“So you aren’t listening?!”
“No, I’m not! I shut out people like you, who extort others!” I replied.
“You think you’re funny?!” yelled one of the men.
“Argh! Don’t glare at me! And please don’t talk all menacingly like that!” I squealed in surprise and covered my face.
I’d never get used to these encounters no matter how high my level was. I was easily intimidated by loud voices and scary faces. I had no idea how to stop being so scared of everything. Maybe it was a skill I had to reincarnate into another world to gain.
“Hey,” a threatening voice suddenly said from behind the two.
It sounded like it’d come from a girl. Her voice was actually cute, but the tone was quite low, maybe because she was angry. She was directing pure, unadulterated malice in our direction, and it rivaled even Scrael’s when she was going in for the kill.
The men turned to her immediately.
“Wh-Wh-Who the hell are you?”
“Wh-What do ya want?”
They sounded rather pathetic with their voices trembling and cracking. Their legs were, like mine, shaking uncontrollably like a newborn calf’s. At least they managed to stay upright. Though, their reactions were understandable. Her malice was palpable like a gust of hot air blowing toward us. My skin was actually starting to sting. I had to brace myself, or I probably would’ve collapsed.
I looked between the two men to see who was standing there and realized it was Eldrid. She was a young girl with unruly long golden hair that curled up at the ends. She always wore expensive-looking armor, but today she was wearing formal knightly attire and carrying on her back a giant sword that could probably slay a dragon. She had flat dog ears and a fluffy tail above her butt, and she looked like the half-human, half-beast type often found in fantasy stories.
Eldrid glared at the two men with a look that could actually kill.
“What the hell do you two want with him? He’s with me,” she growled.
“Wh-What, isn’t it obvious?!” one of the men shot back.
“Y-You got a problem?” said the other. “We’re the infamous Authemir Family’s—”
“Yeah?” scowled Eldrid.
The two men had tried to put on a tough front, but she made them back down with a single glare.
“N-Never mind. It’s obvious,” said one of the men.
“D-Do you have a problem, miss?!”
They’d straightened their backs and become much more polite. Something in their DNA seemed to have told them to obey the powerful.
“No, I don’t have a damned problem. But...” said Eldrid as she exhaled, but her malice was only growing stronger.
The air grew tense, and it was getting harder to breathe even for me. I then realized Eldrid had drawn her sword. She’d been so fast that I hadn’t even been able to see her do it. I wasn’t sure if it was her speed, power, or some mysterious force, but something had extended forth from her sword and made a loud explosion. Level 48 people were scary.
“Just cutting you in half would be letting you off easy. How about I break you into tiny pieces and blow you away? Hmm?” she asked.
“Eek.”
Yes, that was me squealing. She was scaring me. If someone had threatened me like that, I could confidently say that I would’ve fainted immediately. I wasn’t ashamed to admit it.
Hearing the pathetic noise I’d made, Eldrid looked at me with a concerned expression and asked, “Wh-Why’d you get scared?”
“I mean, that was scary...and you caught me by surprise,” I said.
“I didn’t do much. Was it really that surprising?”
“It might not be much for you, but you can knock people out doing that. See?” I said and gestured toward the two men, who were standing on their feet completely unconscious.
“Huh? Oh, right,” she said.
I couldn’t really make fun of the two guys for losing consciousness. Malice was more of a metaphysical concept, but when wielded by someone who was level 48, it was like a directed nonlethal laser beam. It was no wonder they’d been knocked out after getting hit with the full force of the malice. It caused so much stress that it could probably cause cancer that would even spread around and get to stage four easily. I thought they actually deserved praise for not falling over.
Anyway, I said to Eldrid, “Thanks for the help. You really saved me.”
“I-It’s not like that. They just annoyed me. Besides, you’d be just fine even if I hadn’t stepped in,” she said.
“That’s true,” I admitted.
These guys who’d been messing with me were just some random thugs roaming around Freida. They would’ve been more problematic if they’d been Orange Divers who frequented the dungeon, but these guys were level 5 or so on average, level 7 at most. I didn’t even need any combat skills to beat them because the level difference alone was more than enough. I didn’t have to be made of rubber to deflect their attacks and be like “It won’t work!”
Eldrid made a face and asked, “So why were you scared?”
“They had scary faces, okay?” I answered. “I’ve always been a plebe in that sense.”
“You were so manly when you saved me from the Great Boar,” she mumbled, frowning discontentedly.
“Hmm? Did you say something?” I asked.
“N-Nothing! I didn’t say anything!”
Confused, I asked her again, but she didn’t answer. She’d spoken so quietly that I really hadn’t been able to hear her. I wondered if she’d said I was pathetic or something.
Sad.
“Anyway, it’s been a while since I ran into someone I know while I’m outside the guild,” I said, changing the subject. “The last time was at the potion exhibit a little while ago, I think.”
“What?! Kudo, you know other people?!” she asked.
“Huh? Well, yeah. I know I’m always solo, but of course I do.”
I was kind of shocked that she thought I was a loser with no friends.
Pain.
“Y-Yeah. Right. Of course... Sorry,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. I can’t blame you, really.”
I had somehow managed to get to know a lot of people and even had some friends. Over here, there were Miguel and Scrael, and back in Japan, there were Hiro, Kogano, and Okadome. I wasn’t totally alone.
“So, um...who did you meet? Was that person a guy or a girl?” asked Eldrid.
“A girl,” I replied.
“What?!” she suddenly shouted. Her tail was sticking straight up too.
“Y-Yeah...?” I said, wondering what was up with her.
“Are you two close?! Are you?!”
“Uh...I don’t think I’d consider us friends or anything,” I said. “I guess we’re just acquaintances because of our line of work.”
“Oh. Good,” she said, putting a hand to her chest in relief for some reason.
I’d only met Melmel twice. We were more like business associates, and she was also my senior as a potion-meister. Claiming that we were friends would’ve been presumptuous of me.
That aside, Eldrid seemed to be having some intense emotional swings today, and her expression grew serious. She moved her face closer to my clothes and body—and took a few whiffs.
“Excuse me,” I said.
She sniffed some more.
“Uh...”
Eldrid was acting like a dog again. My scent seemed to have caught her attention, and she was sniffing me all over as she wagged her tail.