I"m running out of chapters too quickly somebody make it stop! 2 hours.
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 25
"I"m asking the reason why you didn"t come even sooner! Gu..Ow!!"
Oh my~ I guess it"s no good even if I try to cover it up by apologizing. Though I say that, even under unexpected circ.u.mstances I fought the best I could, even that was close to my best effort though~ Of course if I were to go all out with my full strength then I could freeze everything all at once in ice or use attack spells on the level of {Heavy Catapult} cla.s.s with {Missile} and made it before even a single person was put in danger.
"It"s because my abilities are too low. I"m very sorry I wasn"t able to meet up to your expectations."
"Stop, Meri. Right now isn"t the time to be saying something like that! Greed-kun, I"m fine so quickly heal Meri! There"s a hole opened up in her stomach!"
Koritto tries to calm down his wife who"s suffered a serious injury and already can"t make normal decisions while saying. As far as I can tell your injuries are pretty bad as well though.
"Greed-kun! On Haruku-san! Quickly!"
Kamu shouts. She"s suffered a pretty serious injury and is in a dangerous condition but judging from her state she should still last a while longer. But, I"ve probably already dragged it out plenty. Rather~ someone say it. {Sun.Ray} must have never taken this much damage all at once before. Everyone is considerably panicked.
"I"m alright, look at Haruku-san."
Kimu holds her crushed right arm while saying.
"U..wu..It hurts..Hurry up and heal me!!"
"That..That"s right! Greed-kun! Listen to what the leader says!"
I ignore the yells of the Rindobel couple, Meiria and Koritto and crouched down to the side of Haruku who I just flipped over and while ignoring the shouts from the Rindobel couple on the other side I took about 20 seconds to use {Cure Critical} on Haruku. For the time being his Ruptured Organs should be considerably better. This time the Rindobel couple started a married couple fight.
"Then you use healing magic!"
"You can tell right! It"s impossible for me right now."
"Why!? I"m, seriously injured!"
"Even I"m heavily injured! There"s no way I could use something like magic!"
I ignore the Rindobel couple who"s quarreling and went to Misu before using {Cure Serious} on her, then turned around crouching down expressionless by Meiria"s side as she was raging and used {Cure}.
"Since it couldn"t be helped I used {Cure Serious} on Haruku-san, Meiria-san, Misu-san please endure with just {Cure}."
It was just then. The three suckers arrived.
"Oh!? What in the world is this!"
"Did anyone die!?"
"We finished up things on our end, Greed-kun."
"Rokko, Kevin, Jeru! You"re all safe right!? Any injuries?"
After checking Haruku"s condition Kamu looked up and raised her voice half in surprise and half in joy.
"It"s only obvious we"re safe. Something like an ogre if you just remain calm while you"re doing it we already knew things would be fine."
"That"s right~ I finished it off with my axe!"
"Kevin didn"t you only end up hitting just that last time. I attacked it way more times with my spear."
Behind them Gwine and Angela followed along. Since they were a bit of distance away they were difficult to notice but they have good timing. I used Identify and their MP was full. I meet glances with them and say.
"Gwine, I"m relying on you for healing! There"s five injured people!"
"Eh? But.."
Gwine might have just come along to check on things. Right now, since I"m a member of {Sun.Ray}, she might be thinking about healing the injured {Slaughterers}.
"I"m begging you! There"s even someone who"s life depends on it!"
Angela whispered something to Gwine in a small voice. I"m sure she"s just saying something like listen to what I say.
"I understand."
After saying that Gwine trotted over and first spent the expected 10 seconds or so to sue {Cure} on Haruku, then additionally Kimu, Meiria, Koritto, and Misu. During that time I asked Angela to once go and check on the {Slaughterers} and if everyone can move to bring them here or if not then bring back contact from them.
"I think that using {Cure} once more is probably my limit."
With slightly frightened eyes she asked me who to use it on one more time.
"On me."
"On me."
"Use it on her."
I ignore Meiria and Koritto while pointing at Kimu.
"Greed-kun, I don"t really want to have to say things like this but listen to what the leader says."
Koritto said that warning me but I"ve never heard from anyone in {Sun.Ray} that you"re the official leader. Though judging from the atmosphere when they first came to negotiate with me and how they"re always giving out orders inside of the dungeon, it"s easy to guess that the couple is the leader. I wouldn"t put it into words because it"s way too difficult as an excuse though.
"Right now we"re not in the middle of combat and we just finished defeating the monsters of this room just a moment ago. I think this is a situation we can relax for the time being. First off, I thought it was only obvious to start off healing those who were seriously injured."
I said as if I was a bit surprised.
"Don"t say such selfish things!..Ouch! It"s troubling if you don"t follow our orders."
"That"s right! In the first place whether or not it"s a serious injury is something I the leader decide."
"In the first place, what did you just say to that Dog-people just now? If the {Slaughterers} can move then bring them, what are you selfishly deciding all on your own!!"
"Yeah, I agree completely. I"m grateful that you got her to heal us but would you please stop with the selfish behavior?"
I shrug my shoulders hearing that and reply.
"That is..I"m very sorry. I"ll drive the {Slaughterers} away if they come. Since there"s other people who can use healing spells, I just thought they might be useful but.."
"Say that first!"
"In that case it"s a different matter! Hurry and go call them! It"s not like you"re of any use remaining here either way so go and lower your head to the {Slaughterers} if you have to!"
Oh~ that"s convenient for me. The two of them are agitated and completely losing themselves after suffering somewhat serious injuries. I think the only reason they can shout that loud is because Gwine and I healed them but I"m sure they"ve already forgotten that.
"I understand."
I said that and turned around leaving Gwine as I ran towards the {Slaughterers}. Along the way I encountered Angela who was on her way back and brought her with me back to the {Slaughterers} as well. It seems that Miduchi"s consciousness isn"t returning. Well, if I go then it should be fine.
...............
This is something I heard from Gwine afterwards but it seems the situation had turned into this during the time I left, got the {Slaughterers} and came back.
"Hey now, what is it, what in the world happened?"
That sort of question came from the three suckers. Hearing that Kamu explained the circ.u.mstances the main group of {Sun.Ray} fell into.
It seems that after we left the main group of {Sun.Ray} departed a bit early. It seems the reason they left early was in order to approach carefully they decided to take their time remaining vigilant. However, it seems they couldn"t seem to approach the ogres. This is probably because the room boss ogres started to approach our direction. After a short while when they noticed the combat had started from my spell Koritto gave out the order to advance in a hurry.
It was inside of a deep forest but as expected the light from {Flame Arbalest} stood out. After they advanced Koritto started with firing off an attack spell. Following that it seems that Misu and Kamu used magic and bow to attack as well but they supposedly all missed other than Misu"s attack spells.
Even though they were supposed to match up the timing, since Koritto missed with his first attack it seems Meiria made some complaints. But, soon after that my warning reached them. Since only four ogres were heading towards the main group, {Sun.Ray} thought it would be easy for them so they put Meiria and Haruku as the front line, Kimu and Koritto would back them up with spears, and Kamu and Misu would provide support with bows, if possible then Misu would also use magic to back them up, they decided to attack with the formation we originally planned on.
That was good during the time hostilities opened up. Meiria and Haruku confidently met the enemies and Kimu still had composure as well. The reason being because only three of them came to the main group and one was just shouting gya~ in the back not approaching. However, the individuals they were against were all unexpectedly fast and things quickly changed over to a hard fight. But, they a.s.sumed that just the same as up until now they would start to get weaker right away so Meiria and Koritto called out while calmly dealing with them.
But, that quickly ended up meaningless. Haruku was defeated by one of the ogres. As expected it was difficult for Meiria alone to take on three ogres. Koritto gave out the order to retreat but it was when Kamu claimed they should save Haruku, since Meiria ended up paying attention to Kamu, she ended up taking a hit from an attack spell from the ogre that was in the back they had forgotten about up until then.
In order to not let anymore victims than that appear {Sun.Ray} decided to stand their ground and fight desperately. It seems they were also hoping for me come running and rescue them as well. Shortly after I appeared and defeated the ogre that uses attack spells, then soon after arrived at the main group. However, it was then that Misu ended up falling over after being hit by a club that was thrown, Koritto ended up grappling with an ogre as well, and Kimu ended up having to take on two ogres alone.
It was obvious that if I hadn"t quite literally came flying to make it in time then Kimu would have died. I finished off the two ogres that Kimu was taking on and it was then that the ogre who was focused on Koritto ended up taking an attack to the head from the woman from the {Slaughterers} and died instantly, all of the ogres that the main group was against were wiped out.
Hearing that the three suckers said that they took on one of them and in the end were able to defeat it without reinforcements from the {Slaughterers}, also, it seems they even started bragging about how they circled around and even rescued the {Slaughterers} who were in the middle of combat as well. Obviously, Meiria criticized those three.
It seems she even said that they didn"t just ignore the {Slaughterers} and come to rescue them right away was betrayal of {Sun.Ray}. However, if you think about the timing of the series of events it"s certainly true that the {Slaughterers} were in combat before {Sun.Ray} ambushed the ogres and even if they were to have ignored them the {Slaughterers} could have won without a problem but in the worst case if the ogres defeated the {Slaughterers} the ones who would be pincer-ed would be {Sun.Ray}.
Furthermore, I supposedly noticed that one step ahead and immediately ran to rescue the {Slaughterers}. During that occasion I even told them to return and group up with everyone. The three suckers didn"t know that it was the {Slaughterers} in combat at that point and since they thought it might possibly be a dispute between ogres they followed after me. Of course, it"s also because they were ordered to escort me.
They couldn"t catch up to me at all as I took off running at a tremendous speed and when they finally arrived on the spot the combat had almost completely finished. Leaving just one person to look after the injured {Slaughterers} I forcefully added the ones who could move to our forces and immediately headed to the South (6 o"clock) where the room boss was. Just as reported there were 11 ogres there. It seems the ogres were moving to the North(the direction of 1 or 12 o"clock where the {Slaughterers} were fighting) from the center of the room.
Just as planned I finished off two with magic then cut another one down in no time at all, and after finishing off the one that was even further in I headed towards the main group. How would it have even been possible to go and rescue them any faster than that, the three suckers went on talking like that. However, even then Meiria tried to insist that it"s only obvious for them to put priority on rescuing the leader of the party who is the brains and gives out the orders, but it was then that they pointed out the magic only came flying after the the decoys had already started close combat even though it was originally planned to attack them at the same time.
There Koritto noticed the disadvantage in their claim so he started saying that if something unexpected happens you should return and report it first. I can"t say anything to that either. However, even if the three suckers would have returned there the {Slaughterers} had already entered combat and they said they couldn"t even tell if that combat had developed in a way that was an advantage or was an unfavorable situation. In the first place, they had no confidence on whether or not it was even the {Slaughterers} in combat.
Even if the {Slaughterers} were carrying out combat in their favor, they might have ended up starting combat with the room boss first and it was possible our prey could be stolen. Even if it was unfavorable while the winning ogres might not have grouped up with the room boss it would have still ended up a situation where ogres were alive and right nearby and in that case it"s possible they might have intruded during combat with the room boss. It"s the same even if it wasn"t the {Slaughterers} who were in combat and just a dispute between ogres or ogres and goblins. Even if they were to return they insisted that they should have at least confirmed that far.
On top of that, it may have been thanks to my intrusion that the {Slaughterers} won, then not only did I forcefully push the role of decoy on them, I even deprived them of their right to the magic stones of the ogres in the room, so they claimed I ended up creating a development that was favorable for {Sun.Ray}. We ended up with more forces than originally planned and furthermore there was no need to pay any compensation to those increased forces. There"s rarely anything as convenient as that. In the first place, we accomplished our roles as decoys plenty, is what they said.
When we returned it was just as the conversation reached that point.
.................
Thanks to Bel"s treatment Miduchi regained consciousness and opened her eyes as well. Bel ended up healing Zulu"s injuries as well and for the time being it seemed like there would be no problem even if left alone. Miduchi still had over 100 MP remaining.
"Basutoral, Angela, keep a close lookout to make sure no one comes, one minute is fine."
After I said that I used {Cure All} on Zulu consecutively and completely healed him. Just in case I used an extra {Cure All} on Zenom and Toris and their injuries were completely healed. Miduchi"s injuries I had already completely healed so now that her consciousness has returned, there"s no problem. Ah, it seems there"s still some dull pain but that should disappear pretty soon as well. However, I need them to be able to use magic. I guess I"ll use {Cure All} a couple more times.
"Toris, Bel, I"m sure you already understand but the plan is already suspended. I"ll save the details for later. Right now it"s necessary to recover as much as possible. I"m sure Bel doesn"t have much mana remaining but look after Zenom and the others. Toris and Ralpha you come along with Miduchi and I. Other than the situation that you were saved by me when you were ambushed don"t say anything unnecessary. Toris you alone thing carefully about the things you need to say. Since you"re the leader. After that Miduchi you don"t need to use healing magic until I say. Ah, after that, make sure that you all spend plenty of time casting it. There"s no time. Everyone else gather the magic stones from all of the ogres and bring them along. Then, let"s go."
Accompanied by the three of them I returned to where {Sun.Ray} was.
.............
"You"re slow!..Ouch!"
Meiria raised a shrilling voice while criticizing me.
"I"m very sorry. Toris, Ralpha, please heal her."
"Eh? Weren"t you defeated?"
"You were defeated as well right?"
"You can already use magic?"
The three suckers each said.
"The remaining magician used healing magic on us. Since she has an extremely high amount of mana. It"s already fine. We can even use magic."
Toris replied as if it was nothing at all. Toris and Ralpha obeyed my words without showing any dissatisfaction in their expressions, after crouching on Meiria"s side Toris used {Cure Serious} and Ralpha used {Cure Light} to heal her. The pain should have softened quite a bit. Following that just as he requested they used healing magic on Koritto as well.
After that, I told Toris to use {Cure} on the other injured people.
As expected with that they should have gotten quite a bit better.
"Haruku-san, if he has that many healing spells used on him then he should already be fine right?"
"How about Misu?"
"Kimu, is there still quite a bit of pain?"
"I"m already fine, let"s go to the temple when we return."
The three suckers and Kamu were calling out to each of the injured.
"That"s right! We have the charms! Didn"t we hand out charms to everyone! It"s fine even if you put off healing for later."
"Yeah, particularly Haruku he should have two of them. It"s not like he"ll die right away, it"s only obvious that you start healing from the leader."
While the Rindobel couple was each saying that Kamu let out a sigh and said.
"The charms are certainly something wonderful but they can"t be used unless we go to the temple. If we don"t make it in time aren"t they completely meaningless..In actual fact last even Yuriel had a charm on her."
Everyone focused their attention on Kamu. Since it"s not urgent situation like just before and there"s no particularly pressing matter now, there"s no problem with disputing that itself. However, while it could be explained away in the continuing disorder right after combat finished but right now it"s completely taken on the shape of conflicting opinions.
"..Ffu...It still hurts quite a bit...Let me say it as well."
Haruku started talking.
"Koritto-san, Meiria-san. You two, were those sorts of people I see..Honestly speaking if Greed-kun hadn"t use healing magic on me there then I might have died. Though I left them in the room on the 6th floor but it"s certainly true that I have two charms. Since I luckily have never even needed to use them once until now.."
He had Rokko hold his upper body up and when Haruku somehow managed to speak that far he started coughing. But, he quickly continued his words.
"Thanks to the {Slaughterers} just now I was somehow able to recover to the point where there"s no need to worry. As expected I still haven"t completely recovered but..even then I was able to escape the dilemma. I heard all of the conversation from just now. In the first place, if you two can yell that loud then there"s already no need to worry right.."
He started coughing again for a bit. I secretly exchanged glances with Miduchi.
"I still have plenty of mana remaining. I"ll use a healing spell. Please relax and lay back."
Miduchi advanced forward and crouched by Haruku"s side while saying.
"Ye..Yeah, sorry about that. I"m saved......oo!! This is amazing."
After Miduchi used {Cure All} on Haruku she immediately went to Meiria"s side and used {Cure All} on her as well.
"......Eh....Ah.."
On Koritto beside her as well.
"......O...Mu.."
On Misu as well.
"......No way....It"s unbelievable.."
On Kimu as well.
"......Aaah!!....This is the same as with the charm?"
"As expected I"m about at my limit. But, with this I think you should already be close to completely healed. In a short while almost all of the pain should disappear as well."
After she said that she lined up besides Toris and Ralpha with an expression as though she was exhausted from concentrating. Well, she won"t come over to my side.
"This, is it {Cure All}?"
Misu asked Miduchi. Miduchi silently nodded. Seeing that Kamu and the three suckers were completely surprised.
"Huh?"
"What was that?"
"You"re lying right.."
"Thanks, that is, you used quite a bit of mana right?"
"If it"s like this then something like the charm is unnecessary.."
"So..So the {Slaughterers} had this sort of amazing~ sorcerer."
"Hey~ Kalstalan-san. Let me join the {Slaughterers}."
"Wha..Me..Me too!"
"Oooh, me too!"
"Just before I finished off that ogre! I"m more useful!"
Now then, from here on a bit of acting is necessary. Make sure you do it well. Thinking that it was just when I was about to exchange glances with Toris.
"You"re loud! Shut up. First off just like with Kamu you should start by thanking them. You..Kalstalan-san was it? I"m sorry about that. I was really saved. Thanks."
When Haruku thanked the four {Slaughterers} starting with Miduchi then Misu and Kimu each started thanking them as well.
"It"s fine. And then, in the first place if you hadn"t saved us when we fell into a dilemma then we might have died as well after all.."
Toris looked at me while saying that. After that he continued lowering his head to me.
"Al-san. I was mistaken. You"re a person that we need. The reason the harmony in the party was disturbed was originally because of these two fighting. Due to the events this time these two have greatly reflected and I"m sure that jsut the same as me they realized that we need you. This time, the only reason we {Slaughterers} are still alive was because Al-san came along and took command."
Eh~~ are you seriously saying that here? I guess it"s fine though. If you"re going to do it then I wish you would have at least saved it for a slightly more dramatic scene...
"We need you. Last month, please forgive us for abusing Al-san"s kindness and looking down on you. Please return to us. Look!"
Toris put his hand on the back of Ralpha and Miduchi"s heads while forcing them to lower their heads to me. Gwine is lowering her head as well. Don"t do that here..Do it on the surface. This is troubling...
"I don"t want to hear that sort of talk right now. Save it for later."
I coldly declare and then look at the Rindobel couple, Koritto and Meiria. They"re the only ones who haven"t thanked the {Slaughterers}. Toris is making an expression like he failed. Well, that expression isn"t all that unnatural right now.
"Wha?"
"What is it? That look?"
The two of them looked at me with looks of discontent.
I immediately returned my glance to Haruku and started talking to him.
"Haruku-san, there"s something that I thought was a bit strange."
"What is it?"
"This winter, when I was still acting as the leader why you come and ask to join the {Slaughterers}?"
I said while looking at Haruku quietly. He made an expression that could be taken as self-derision. At the same time a change appeared in the expressions of the Rindobel couple.
"Haruku!"
Koritto raised his voice.
"Let"s stop already. We"ve been together for five years but now that a person who can use the real {Cure All} has appeared it"s already impossible right. Raizakku, Kemi, Misa, Rinkosu, Maraiyu, Fedo, Jakki, Dagurun..everyone was used conveniently by you two and died. How much did you suck out of them...Greed-kun, the matter this winter was.."
"What do you intend to say!?"
"Shut your mouth!"
The Rindobel couple suddenly stood up and tried to charge at Haruku.