Kansutoppu!

Once again we found ourselves in the Strange Plains. We had accepted a commission from the general store to collect some raw materials. I thought I had remembered how large the plains were, but as I looked at the vast lands stretched out before me, I couldn"t help but be stunned.

I thought about what would happen if you walked out so far you could only see the plains in any direction. They may have only been a Danger Level 6, but size of the area alone was enough to kill you.

We were after a flower that only bloomed on the plains. It was used for recovery potions and seemed like it was regarded as some kind of priceless treasure. The owner of the general store said she often sent adventurers out to collect them, but they never brought back as much as she wanted.

[ A Man-Eating Flower appeared! HP 44 ]

To make matters worse, many flowers we didn"t need bloomed there, too. I couldn"t figure out why Man-Eating Flowers would bloom in a place without any people. Every time one of those useless, monster flowers appeared, Roel burned it to a crisp.

[ Roel waved the Fire Rod! Man-Eating Flower took 233 damage! ]

[ Man-Eating Flower was defeated! HP 0/44 ]

"Roel, that"s amazing…"

Yesterday, when we got our new weapons from Kohzoh, he had told us that the Fire Rod was only capable of low-grade fire magic. Roel exploited their weakness to fire and mercilessly torched them, even though she still seemed a little uneasy in battle.

"It"s just because they"re weak against fire."

She said that, but when she was done with them not even their ashes remained. If I were to rate her magical ability, I would have said it was top cla.s.s.

By the time we had finally reached our destination, Roel was humming happily to herself. It was quite the scene, watching her burn a monster to death as she hummed. Then again, I wasn"t really in a position to say anything.

"There"s tons of flowers here. Let"s get a whole bunch," I said.

"Yeah, but we have to watch out for monsters!" Roel was gripping her Fire Rod and looking around as though she hoped a monster would appear any second.

It was strange to see an aggressive side of her, and I had fully intended to make fun of her for it.

"All right, you think this is enough? If we combine ours I think we have plenty," I said.

"Is that…?" Roel was looking off into the distance.

I followed her line of sight and saw what looked like three people fighting some kind of tiger in the distance. It kind of looked like those three sisters from the other day. The tiger didn"t look like anything else in the area, so it was likely a Floor Monster. If that were the case, those three were in trouble.

[ A Plains Runner appeared! HP 565 ]

Ai yelled as she swung her axe.

[ Ai attacked! Plains Runner easily evaded! ]

Ai"s axe was so heavy that she was unable to attack any of the large tiger"s weak spots fast enough to land a hit. The tiger lunged at Ai, bearing its fangs.

[ Mai used Double Shot! Plains Runner easily evaded! ]

Mai"s arrows missed the tiger and fell to the ground in front of it. Fortunately, the tiger had to stop its attack on Ai to dodge, but after taking one look at the arrows stuck in the ground, the tiger changed targets.

"Wh-what are we going to do!? There"s no way we can win against this thing!" Mai said. The tiger closed in on her quickly.

Just as the tiger was about to bite Mai"s head off, its body was split in two. Blood sprayed everywhere as the two halves fell to the ground.

[ Ryua used Sonic Ripper! Plains Runner took 224,028 damage! ]

[ Plains Runner was defeated! HP 0/565 ]

"Thank G.o.d I made it." Despite having quickly run toward them, I was still far from the tiger when I used my Sonic Ripper. I was very glad I didn"t miss. I watched as Mai seemed to lose all the strength in her limbs and tumble down onto her back, breathing heavily.

"Ryua! How in the world…" Ai said. She had run up to me, completely out of breath, and was looking at me like she had never been so glad to see anyone in her entire life. The youngest sister, Mi, must have been incredibly scared. She was sitting on the ground with her knees to her chest, her eyes wide and staring off into the distance.

"That was a Floor Monster, wasn"t it?" I said.

"Yes. If you weren"t here, I don"t know what we would"ve done…" Ai said.

"Jeez you"re strong, Ryua. What the heck…" Mai said as she eyed the two halves of the tiger.

"Did you three come here for a commission, too?" Roel said.

"That"s right. We accepted the one from the general store to gather some flowers," Ai said.

"No way, we"re doing the same thing. How"s it going? Are you done yet?" I said.

"It"s going ok... How did you two manage to get so many?" Ai was looking at our collection. "You guys really are amazing…"

They hadn"t seemed to have gathered many. I didn"t know if it was because of the tiger or what, but it looked like they were having a really hard time.

----------

After returning to the Guild and settling the commission with the attendant, we made our way to the three sisters" house. They had invited us over as thanks for saving them. They lived in an unusually large single-story brick house on a street lined with stores.

"Sorry we couldn"t do more, but…"

Ai had laid out a dessert of popol juice coated pancakes. The pancakes soaked up the incredibly sweet juice and were more delicious than I would have thought. I could tell from Roel"s face that she desperately wanted seconds, but she restrained herself.

"How did you get so strong, Ryua? I never would have pinned you as a C Rank," Mai said.

I wondered if I should tell them about all the training I had done in the Caverns of h.e.l.l, too. Torepo might have believed me, or at least she seemed to, but what about other people?

"I kinda thought since Mom was amazing with a bow, I would be too. It doesn"t seem like that worked out, though," Mai said.

"I also thought Dad"s axe skill would transfer to me, but it"s just too heavy for me to wield effectively," Ai said. They both laughed uncomfortably.

Mi came out of where she was hiding and slowly waddled up to us. "...Thank you." She immediately retreated back behind her sisters" seats.

I couldn"t help but think that such a young kid shouldn"t be an adventurer. Wasn"t she being subjected to all sorts of horrifying memories? Though I guess I had to have been younger than she was when I first entered the Caverns. Back then I… Actually, I couldn"t really remember. I knew I had to have entered the Caverns, but I didn"t remember the details.

"That was delicious! Thanks so much!" Roel said.

"You"re welcome. It"s the least we could do after you saved our lives," Ai said.

"We didn"t save you to be rewarded, so don"t worry about it. But hey, how come you guys became…" I was cut off by a man suddenly bellowing from outside. The sisters" expressions froze.

"You still haven"t paid this month"s tariff!"

"Ai…" Mai turned to her sister with a stricken look on her face.

Ai remained calm, or at least she pretended to be. She sat still for a moment before she made her way to open the door. Outside was a middle-aged man with a white beard in the shape of a writing brush, surrounded by men dressed in armor. The men next to Brush Beard looked on with expressionless faces. They had thin swords holstered at their sides, the blades so thin I thought they might break if I touched them. I really wanted to know more about them, but now wasn"t the time.

"Come now, come now, it"s time to pay up!"

"...Here," Ai said.

"Oh, ho, ho, thank you, thank… Hmm? What"s this? You"re short."

"We"ll definitely pay the rest."

"It"s called a tariff, isn"t it? I fully understand that you"re lives are difficult. But a tariff is a promise, and you have to keep your promises."

"I"m sorry."

"It"s left over from your parents, after all. You should really take it more seriously… Well, that"s all right. We can"t make you give something you don"t have."

The small, middle-aged man fixed the sisters with a creepy gaze while patting Ai and Mai on the head.

"Well, if that"s the case... you"ll have to pay with your bodies."

"N-no way…!" Ai said.

"If not you, then how about your younger sister?"

"Please! We"ll get your money somehow! Please, just this one time!"

"Hmm, how many times have I heard "just this one time," I wonder?"

Ai got down on her knees and lowered her head to the ground, pleading with him. Mai and Mi stood in silence.

"No matter how you look at it, this goes against everything I value as a business owner. A deadline is a deadline. If you can"t keep a deadline, then I don"t trust you. I don"t think I"m saying anything that shouldn"t otherwise be obvious, right?"

"No, you"re right…"

"But, I"m not a demon. This time I"ll give you five days. Until then." Brush Beard and his menacing guard turned around and left.

"W-will five days be enough?" Mai said.

"It will have to be."

"Were those people from the Gametz Firm? You guys didn"t…" The color had left Roel"s face. I wondered what the Gametz Firm could be.

"We did. Well, our parents did, at least. They racked up a lot of debt. The monthly payments aren"t too high for us to manage at least, so we"re thankful for that," Ai hurried to clarify.

"Is that why you three decided to become adventurers?" Roel said.

"Yeah. When we lost our parents, we had to stick together to survive. But it"s not going as well as we thought. We thought of trying to find normal jobs somewhere, but no one wanted to hire us. So, we figured why not try to be adventurers?"

They didn"t have parents, either. I understood how hard it was to be alone as a child, too. Not having someone to rely on or believe in wasn"t easy.

"But taking on that tiger was too much. I mean, you said it was a Floor Monster, right? When I saw it even I was surprised," I said.

"We were only taking the commission with the biggest reward. We didn"t think we would run into something like that... Sorry for the trouble it caused," Ai said.

"I just turned Level 3 today so I thought I might be able to handle it," Mai said.

Level 3 was definitely too low for an area that was Danger Level 6. If they kept this up they were going to end up getting themselves killed. If that happened just because of that tariff hanging over their heads, I would never forgive that Brush Beard.

"How much do you owe?" Roel said.

"About two million gold…" Ai said.

"Two million!" I had to quickly support Roel who looked like she might faint.

Two million gold. We weren"t able to help them with that much. It was crazy they owed so much.

"If you give them the money, they leave you alone, right?" I said.

"Yeah, as long as we are able to pay it each month," Ai said.

"Roel, I feel really bad for them."

"Me too… I wish there were something we could do. Oh! How about partying with us? That works, right Ryua?" Roel looked at me excitedly.

"Y-yeah?" I said.

"I"ll support you as best as I can. Will you let us help?" Roel said.

"B-but," I said.

Of course. It was so simple I hadn"t even thought of it. We could boost their confidence by helping them out. Then they"d be able to earn enough on their own to make the payments. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

"Sure, we"ll do all we can to help," I said.

"It"s okay for them to help, isn"t it, Ai? It doesn"t seem like we can keep this up, anyway…"

She hesitated. "Okay. Really you two, thank you."

"No problem!" Roel said.

I wasn"t sure why she seemed so reluctant to accept, but now we were a party. I began thinking about what kind of commissions we should go for.

----------Bestiary----------

[ Plains Runner - HP 565 ]

A large tiger-like monster that has white fur with a black striped pattern.

It is able to chase its prey with speeds up to 300 kilometers an hour.

It"s jaw has the strength to tear a human in half in an instant.

There are only two known ways to escape: offer any food you have to it and run, or run faster than anyone else around you.