Chapter 40.1

Let’s Escape The Disasterous Situation!

Haruki took off his mask in order to conceal himself as he blocked Lars’s great sword.

Even one hit would have resulted in a fatal wound, and the attack made Haruki’s right hand feel numb.

His teeth ground loudly.

And his knees bent slightly from the weight of the attack.

The reason that Haruki had been able to block the attack at all, was not because he was physically superior to Lars.

It was because the ground had shaken right before the attack.

Had the sudden shaking not surprised Lars enough for him to weaken the force behind his swing, Haruki would not have been able to stop it.

This wasn’t all of his power.

And yet the weight of the great sword caused a chill to go down Haruki’s spine.

Next, Haruki pointed his dagger at the neck of Shikama, who had just moved.

It was just a light press, but Shikama’s legs stopped completely.

“Haria! Kill him!!”

The arrow moved in a straight line towards Karen and Oiso’s backs.

However…

“Rhea.”

A potato stone shot from over Haruki’s shoulder and hit the arrow out of the air.

The power of Rhea’s throw easily caused the arrow to shatter into pieces.

“…Good.”

Once he had confirmed that Karen and Oiso were out of the gate, Haruki sighed in relief.

Of course, he continued to use Rhea to ensure that the others did not move.

If they tried, a potato stone would shoot at their feet, accompanied by an odd sound.

In fact, Lars was currently dancing strangely.

“…Where the hell is he?”

“Damn it! Something starts shooting at my feet if I try to move!”

“Show yourself, you bastard!!”

…Uh, I’m right in front of you?

Haruki looked depressed as he waved to them.

However, it was no use at all.

It was no different if he raised his voice.

They could not hear.

Even Oiso had been able to hear him…

Perhaps their detection skill was at 0?

As for traps, there was nothing here but pitfalls. And there weren’t that many either.

As long as they used the shield-bearer to keep the boss in one place during fights, pitfalls weren’t really something they needed to worry about a lot.

As the team was well-balanced, they could use brute force to a certain extent without being in danger.

So perhaps they had no need for the detection skill up until now.

Haruki put the mask back on, deactivating Conceal.

“Ho-how long were you there!?”

He had been there all along.

All along!

…Damn it.

His knees almost bent due to how shocked he was.

“It’s you again! How many times are you going to get in our way!!”

“I believe this is the first time?”

“Don’t pretend like you’re not scared! Masatsugu isn’t here this time!”

“That’s true. So?”

While they were provoking him, Haruki remained calm and still.

‘You hurt my friends.’

‘You call yourselves Adventurers?’

‘You’re all trash!’

He could think of several ways to answer them.

But in spite of those emotional words, Haruki’s heart was calm.

It almost made him doubt his own humanity.

However…

“Are you ready for what’s going to come?”

The words held more hostility than Haruki had intended.

Shikama and the others seemed to shrink back.

“Wha-what are you saying? We-we were just joking. We weren’t really going to kill you. Right?”

“Yeah. Don’t take things so seriously, Air.”

“I see. So, you weren’t serious.”

Even after hearing this, Haruki found that his emotions remained completely unaffected.

“So, you weren’t serious, but you still wounded Karen?”

“That…that was an accident. Really, I didn’t mean to hurt her that much!”

“And you also kicked her in the jaw when she was about to wake up. What about that?”

“Yeah. That was also an accident. We-we went too far, and I’m sorry about that. Really, I am. Okay? You’ll forgive us, won’t you?”

“…”

The words that Masatsugu had said to him, ‘you should avoid coming to Chikaho for a while.’ Haruki had never forgotten them.

Of course, he had known that it was possible that they’d be here. And he had gathered information about them online.

However, he wanted to believe that Masatsugu would have disciplined them properly.

He wanted to believe in the righteousness of Adventurers.

These were licensed Adventurers. Surely there was something that remained deep inside of them.

Surely they still believed that the power gained in the dungeon was to be used to help people…

And so Haruki was horribly disappointed that they were still being targeted.

“I see. So, was writing all of those comments on my blog also a joke?”

“…Wh-what are you talking about?”

“There were 10 comments insulting me. And 6 unique visitors. That means 3 more people than my regular readers. That’s the same number as your team, isn’t it?”

“…”

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice? Or did you not know that unique visitors were even a thing?”

“…So, your blog gets so few views…”