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Chapter 140

“Hey, why don’t you two spar?”

Ellen looked confused at my suggestion.

“Me and her?”

Ellen and Cliffman, who had maintained a level of indifference towards each other, started talking because of me being the middleman. Ellen seemed open to sparring with Cliffman, while Cliffman himself looked visibly tense.

“...”

Lately, sparring with Cliffman had made me realize something. He didn’t talk to anyone, and he was even a bit awkward with me. It was strange since I was the same gender as him.

Now, his sparring partner was Ellen. A girl who was so pretty that she could easily claim the title of the city’s most beautiful girl.

Of course, someone with social anxiety was going to be even more nervous around a member of the opposite sex. Cliffman couldn’t even look at Ellen—who was standing in front of him—properly. It was awkward enough for him to spar with me, let alone Ellen. I wondered if he was so nervous that he might throw up or something.

‘Was this suggestion a mistake?’

Before they had even started, Cliffman was so tense that he was sweating profusely.

“Here I go.”

Whoosh!

Ellen charged ahead.

Smack!

“Ugh!”

Cliffman couldn’t even react to the training sword striking him on the top of his head.

Thud.

“...”

“...”

Ellen looked back and forth between me and Cliffman with her usual lack of expression. However, she wasn’t truly expressionless. In fact, she was incredibly flustered.

It reminded me of the first time I sparred with Ellen. Back then, I hadn’t been nervous; I simply lacked the skill and got hit.

Ellen was staring blankly at Cliffman, who had been subdued with a single strike.

“What should we do?” Ellen mumbled blankly, looking at me.

Despite the way she spoke, it was clear she was really flustered.

What was there to do?

“... Let’s go find the priest on duty.”

“... Okay.”

Ellen and I had to support Cliffman—who had fainted—one on each side, as we went to find the priest on duty.

***

Fortunately, Cliffman wasn’t severely injured. He regained consciousness after the priest cast a healing spell on him.

“...”

Cliffman’s face was beet red, perhaps because he was embarrassed about getting knocked out without being able to react. He couldn’t even open his mouth.

“Why couldn’t you block it?”

Ellen, having seen him in action before, knew that Cliffman was quite skilled. However, he had been so spaced out that he didn’t manage to block, dodge, or deflect her lightest first strike and took the hit squarely on the head. Ellen didn’t understand how he could have frozen up like that.

‘Hmm. I sure can’t speak for everyone, but I think there would definitely be more than a truckload of people who would be too nervous to even speak if there was someone like you in front of them. Regrettably, Cliffman is one of those people.’

“That, that is... That’s because...” Cliffman started to stammer, seemingly unable to admit he had been too nervous.

These were the official loners of Class A: Ellen and Cliffman. Both had their own ways of dealing with people, and both had serious flaws when it came to maintaining relationships.

“You did well against Reinhart, didn’t you?”

“U-Uh, that’s because...! That’s...”

“... Is that all you can say?”

“N-No, no! That’s not...! That, that isn’t what I...”

Watching the two with poor interpersonal skills trying to converse was truly a gong show.

***

Because Cliffman had fainted, the evening training had come to an abrupt and early end. Since he wasn’t seriously injured, we left the priest’s office and headed back to the dormitory.

“I’m going to have a snack. Are you going to eat something?” I asked Cliffman.

His face turned red, and he shook his head vigorously. “No, no! That’s okay! I’m full!”

This guy seemed about to cry, vomit, and faint if he had to spend any more time with Ellen that day.

Was his social awkwardness always this extreme? It seemed especially amplified around girls.

“I’ll be off, then!” Cliffman sprinted away at full speed and disappeared into his room.

“What a strange kid,” Ellen said.

How severe did someone’s weirdness have to be for even Ellen to consider them weird? Of course, Ellen seemed to immediately forget about Cliffman as we headed towards the dining hall.

“I want stew,” Ellen said to me.

“People don’t usually call that a snack, you know?”

“Stew. With beef.”

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

Ellen stared at me and nodded her head.

“Yeah.”

It was nice to have things back to normal. It really was.

But...

“Then why don’t you go ahead and make it? Hm?”

“I don’t know how.”

It seemed Ellen had realized that behaving the way she usually did was best after all. But whether she realized I wouldn’t get easily offended or not, I wasn’t sure.

‘Okay fine, I admit it. I like that we’re back to normal. It’s nice, indeed.’

“I don’t know how. Show me how to make it this time and I’ll make it next time.”

‘But why does it seem like she’s become even more shameless than usual?’

***

In the end, we made and ate beef stew in the middle of the night.

Omnomnom.

“I definitely spoiled you wrong.”

Eating like this has become a routine, since we’d grown tired of making and eating simple meals. Eating fried eggs or sausages constantly would naturally become monotonous.

So, we often cooked something more sophisticated, and Ellen, who remembered every single type of food she’d eaten, would sometimes just suddenly make demands out of the blue. “Make that thing you made last time,” or some such.

Of course, she didn’t do any of that while tiptoeing around my feelings the past few days, but as soon as things went back to normal, she became demanding again. She had learned a little by watching me cook, but apparently, food prepared by someone else always tasted better to her.

As the saying goes, ramen always tastes better when someone else cooks it.

“Where did you learn to cook something like this?” Ellen was curious enough to ask.

She might not have asked me this the day before, but since we’d decided not to mind each other’s feelings, she just said whatever came to mind now.

Where did I learn it?

Of course, I learned it from YouTube.

You can find everything with a search on the internet nowadays.

“What are you talking about, kid? I bought a cookbook. Where else would I learn it?”

I wasn’t just saying this to cover anything up. Since I couldn’t recall everything from the YouTube videos I watched, I’d actually bought a cookbook to confirm if what I remembered was correct. Moreover, I also discovered many new recipes, and beef stew was a dish I had genuinely learned to make from the book.

Ellen seemed slightly surprised when I mentioned the cookbook.

“Why? Are you moved? It’s not like I bought it for you.”

‘Ah. Damn it.’

That was a classic tsundere[1]line if I ever heard one.

I wanted to turn back time if I could.

It had indeed been purchased for my use, but then again, If I was alone, I wouldn’t bother making this kind of food in the first place... Which meant that I had actually bought it to make food for her! She was in fact the only one I’d do this for!

“I didn’t say anything,” Ellen said.

“... Can I hit you really hard right now?”

“If you can.”

That was her way of saying she would not let me hit her, ever. Ellen continued to scoop up her stew diligently, clearly unfazed.

Now that she seemed to have reverted to her usual state of mind, there was something I had been wanting to ask her.

“Hey. Why did you want to go to the Dark Land?”

Though she’d agreed not to go because I told her not to, I was intrigued to know the initial reason for why she’d wanted to venture there in the first place. It couldn’t have been for money. If money was the goal, selling the teleportation scroll provided by the Temple would have been more profitable.

“Real-life experience.”

“... Real-life experience?”

“Yeah. I realized it the last time. Nothing beats actual combat experience.”

Ellen’s confidence wasn’t sky-high, but losing to Loyar seemed to have taught her a lot. She had come to a fresh realization that she had never truly experienced real combat before.

Of course, it wasn’t about feeling nervous or intimidated in battle. However, the sensation of death looming close at hand could only be found in actual combat. While she had been shocked by her defeat, it seemed to have provided her ample motivation.

Although not much time had passed since then, her skills appeared to have improved considerably. This kid was not just terrifying in terms of strength, but more so in terms of the pace at which she became stronger.

“Even so, while needing real-life experience is one thing, seeking out actual combat is another, isn’t it? And what’s the point of risking danger to become stronger? The Great War is over.”

I was grinding my teeth and training intensely because I knew the “gate incident” was going to happen. Considering the future situations that would arise, it would be beneficial if Ellen grew stronger. However, she had no urgent reason to rush into danger like that. What if she got herself killed in the Dark Land trying to gain “real-life experience”?

“There are plenty of reasons to become stronger, not just because of something like the Great War.”

That was all Ellen said, but I could easily read her underlying meaning. She no longer wanted to feel powerless in situations where strength was necessary.

Ultimately, there was nothing wrong with becoming stronger.

“Besides the Demon King’s castle, I’ve heard that the Dark Land is full of dungeons and hidden treasures.”

I hadn’t known exactly how adventurers made a living, but since the Dark Land wasn’t completely pacified yet, it seemed they were exploring the region for valuables.

Ellen seemed interested in finding powerful magical items that might be hidden there. I hadn’t written anything about this in the original novel, so I was completely in the dark.

There was a part about Ludwig exploring dungeons in the novel, but those dungeons were in the human world, not the Dark Land. In any case, I did not focus much on adventurers. Hence, I didn’t really know what they did. Their primary targets seemed to be treasures in The Dark Land, and Ellen was quite interested in them as well.

“... Isn’t Lament enough?”

Despite it all, there was nothing quite like the divine sword, Lament. It was like those aura blades from old fantasy novels, with sharpness as a passive ability—a downright overpowered sword.

“Loyar is just so stupidly strong that she was able to block it with her bare hands. It’s not that you or Lament were weak.’

“It wouldn’t hurt to have more, would it?”

Ellen’s desire for power seemed to have even extended to material greed.

She wanted to discover the treasures of the Dark Land, and what exactly those might be, she did not know. Of course, the treasure was secondary; her primary purpose in visiting the Dark Land was to get real-life experience and grow stronger. In case of emergency, she could always escape using a Teleport scroll.

“Anyway, I won’t go.”

I had asked her not to go without providing a reason, and it seemed Ellen had decided not to worry about it, since she had already agreed not to go.

Was she being obedient, or not?

The Dark Land... That place was an unknown region, even to me. Despite the fact that I was from there, I didn’t know anything about it.

This world contained many powerful magical items that I hadn’t put into the novel. Prominent examples included Sarkegar’s ring and the Flame of Fire that I possessed.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

On second thought, going to The Dark Land might not be such a bad idea after all.

“Let’s go together.”

“...?”

It would be dangerous to let her go alone, but it would definitely be less dangerous if I went with her.

I had finally decided what I was going to do during the break.

As I was making plans in my head, Ellen shook her head firmly. “No. You’re not good at fighting.”

‘Ah. Right. We are on totally different levels in terms of skills. I forgot.’

Still, I could help in various ways that she didn’t know about.

Then again, what she’d said was so true that I couldn’t really argue with her. Yes, it was incredibly true...

‘But you! Hey! Isn’t that putting it too harshly?’

“... That was offensive.”

“... Sorry. But it’s the truth.”

‘Such a mean girl.’

Here I was, thinking about how much I cared for her, and this was how she responded.

‘Sigh.’

I suddenly felt like going for a drink.

1. A character archetype in Japanese media characterized by initially being cold, hostile, or aloof before gradually showing a warmer, more affectionate side. ☜