Masked Maid No. 2 vs Harvey
Masked Maid No. 2—Meat—slowly approached the man and extended her right hand.
She was going with operation Handshake. Seeing this, Harvey responded to the handshake.
However, this was a poor decision.
Masked Maid No. 2 suddenly grasped his hand and used her single hand to throw him toward the ground with all she had.
Clank, clank, clank.
The knight’s armor rattled as it hit the ground.
Continuing, Masked Maid No. 2 raised her right hand and threw Harvey, a fully-armored man, over to her other side and slammed him back into the ground. It was like slamming a leather bag filled with nuts on a table. Then like taking a fish’s tail and slamming it onto the a s.h.i.+p’s floor. Then like throwing an onion. Sometimes she’d be spicy and swing him in a circle.
Clank, bang, clank, bang.
Seeing such a small body throw a fully-armored adult like it was nothing was quite the spectacle.
Even if I’d given her a supporter with orichalc.u.m in it… well, I guess this was the strongest blunt weapon, [The Ground]… Oh, the sword the knight had at his waist just went flying. And there goes his visor. Wait, are those the whites of his eyes? Oi.
I guess being thrown against the ground so many times would have that effect.
“No. 2, please stop there. He’s dying.”
“I thought this much would be alright… alright.”
After tossing the now-unconscious Harvey aside like an abandoned doll, he didn’t move.
… He’s still alive, right? I mean, I haven’t gotten any DP from him, so I guess?
Still though, [I thought this much would be alright]… she was holding back? The f*ck is a little girl doing throwing around a fully armored knight like a ragdoll and still holding back?
“… Wh-What just happened!?”
“Err… I guess I won?”
“Y-Yeah. I-I suppose so. I can’t not admit that…”
Oh, that was easy. I figured he’d say something about how she went with a surprise attack, but I guess he’s not such a bad kid.
Let’s leave him suddenly wanting to duel like that up to his youth.
“Really, what was that. She’s child a child… a female dwarf? No, those dog ears definitely point to her being a beastkin. She should be as old as she looks, but…”
“She’s my subordinate, Masked Maid No. 2.”
Cid ran over to Harvey and placed his hand to his neck.
“… He has a pulse.”
“That’s good. It would’ve been a bit awkward if we killed someone right after meeting you.”
“Sorry. But we had to duel… I was wanting to duel with a hero of the Dragon suppression, though.”
Hmm. Were there some circ.u.mstances?
“What, there shouldn’t be a problem, then. These two were in my party for that. You could even call this one here our captain.”
“… So you’re saying that… that’s the [Black Watchdog], Meat Kuroino…!?”
Whoops! Masked Maid No. 2’s ident.i.ty was found out. I only really wanted to hide No. 1’s ident.i.ty, but still. Also, that nickname. Meat seemed happy about it.
“What’s with the clothing?”
“She’s Masked Maid No. 2.”
“O-Okay…? So, could I refer to her as Kuroinu-dono?”
I glanced over to Meat. Her tail said that yeah, she didn’t mind.
Well, I guess I have her permission?
“Sure.”
“My thanks.—Hear me, everyone! This maid is one of the Dragon suppression’s heroes, the [Black Watchdog], Meat Kuroinu-dono! Her martial prowess is by no means exaggerated! Praise to the victor!”
With that, Cid incited onlookers to raise their opinion of Meat even further. Shouts of joy came from our onlookers.
Meat’s ears twitched. Yeah, she was enjoying her nickname. Even with her mask on, her tail made that much obvious.
… Huh? Doesn’t that mean that the amount of information I get from Meat’s facial expression is no different between when she has that unmoving mask on and when she doesn’t?
“… By the way, could you please explain what’s up with you wanting to duel us so suddenly?”
“Mm. I’ll explain later. Kehma-dono, could I introduce you to my villagers?”
“Eh, sure.”
“My thanks.—Hear me! This is the [Black Watchdog]’s master, the Village Chief of Golen, the [Dragon Tamer], Kehma Golen-dono! He who is the winner of this duel wishes to be our ally! Rejoice, everyone, for Golen is mighty!”
Eh? I have a nickname? I’m not a tamer though?
Even so, when he said my name, the shouts of joy returned after a few beats of silence. I figured something annoying was going to happen, but it looks like we’re welcome here. If it’s going to be like this, I get the feeling we’re going to get along well.
＊
Later on, we were guided to Drago’s Village Chief’s estate. The same as all of the other buildings, it was white.
By the way, there were tons of partially-built houses on the way.
“Alright. I’d like to first apologize for my rudeness about that duel. My apologies, Kehma-dono.”
“It’s all good, I’m used to it. I have two or three battle maniacs among the people I know, so it’s no big deal.”
Aidi, Wataru, and s.h.i.+kina… yeah. 1
“Haah… even so, I’m confident in my skills… but ya took me out before I could do anythin’… you’re strong, girl.”
“Nn. I’m the [Black Watchdog].”
It looks like the two champions were in agreement with each other.
One of them was dispirited, but they were sharing something in common as fighters. Meat was still wearing that mask of hers… how long was she planning on keeping it on?
“So, why’d you suddenly want a duel?”
“That’s… well, I wanted to clarify that Draco’s position was below that of Golen’s. I believe that Kehma-dono should understand just by me saying that.”
“I see…?”
Yeah, I don’t. More like I’m in the dark on that, actually. Could someone hand me a flashlight?
“I’d like for us to get along without having to say things like above or below, actually.”
“It’s fine. Draco is starting late and we have no dungeon. In the end, of the various things that caused Golen to succeed, all that we have is the will to succeed. If we treated each other as equals here, I’d forget that.”
Ah, I get it. So that’s it? The whole let’s grow up quickly to match our rival feeling, huh? So that’s why they want us, their target, to be placed on a pedestal.
“That’s how it is. My apologies for placing you on a pedestal.”
“It’s fine, it made our Village Sub-Chief feel like someone lit a fire under his a.s.s, so that’s great. Let’s go with the rival thing.”
Wozuma was full of motivation, so maybe we could turn this rivalry into a good thing.
“Alright, let’s get along well. There won’t be any issues so long as we can trade equally. We’re rivals, no need to rip each other off as enemies.”
“I promise to let the Pavueran merchants do what they want to make fair trades.”
Cid and I shook on it.
… This isn’t a bad deal, right?