Chapter 87.3

87 Part 3

He had completely recovered from the sciatica that once plagued him.

It couldn’t have been something like that.

Could it be that he had been affected by one of Karen’s lighting bolts?

Haruki shook his head.

In that case, his body should have sustained some kind of damage as well.

But there was no damage. That wasn’t the pain caused by a lightning strike.

It was as if his head wasn’t attached to his newly leveled-up body.

He was sure something was wrong.

Convinced of that, he began taking the dead Werewolf apart.

Then he looked for his next target.

Once again, Rare threw another potato stone to lure a Werewolf, and a new battle started.

This time he’d be more careful.

Conscious of the situation with his body, Haruki played it safe so as to not overdo it.

He parried the Werewolf’s attack, then cut its arm lightly.

Since he wasn’t at his strongest, he only managed to make a small cut.

— I feel no pain now, though…

Haruki was able to attack with his usual moves, probably because he moved his body carefully.

After making sure his body was okay, Haruki put his strength into his limbs and approached the werewolf.

The next attack would be done at full strength…

“–Gahh!!”

Once again, severe pain ran over Haruki’s body like a truck.

The werewolf’s claw approached Haruki’s neck, which was stiff in pain.

“–Ugh…”

He tried to dodge it, but the pain wouldn’t let him.

During that time, the claws continued to get closer and closer.

Just before its claws pierced into Haruki’s neck…

Esta jumped.

Spinning in mid-air, Esta repelled the Werewolf’s claws.

Using the momentum from blocking the attack, Esta bounced back to Haruki’s waist.

At the same time, Haruki stepped back.

*Vrrooooom!!*

*Ratatatat!!*

Matching Haruki’s actions, Karen and Rhea attack the Werewolf at the same time.

The Werewolf, who was shattered by the onslaught unleashed by those two, let out a sad cry as it died.

“Is something wrong, Karaboshi?”

She seemed to have realized something was off.

After the battle was over, Karen hurriedly sprinted towards Haruki.

Frustrated that he couldn’t move well, Haruki shook his head while looking down.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah…”

“Your movements seemed a bit strange, are you not feeling well?”

“… I don’t know.”

Did she think Haruki was injured?

Karen seemed worried as she held her staff close to her chest.

Behind Haruki’s back, Rhea tapped his shoulder lightly.

Her gentle tapping seemed to be her trying to say “Don’t overdo it.”

“Nothing happens if I move lightly, but whenever I put all my strength into it, it hurts a lot.”

“Are you sick? We need to find a doctor!”

Karen went pale and was taken aback.

*pat pat pat pat*

Rhea seemed to be putting a bit more strength into her patting.

“But I don’t feel any pain if I do anything else. Even if I went to see a doctor, I wouldn’t be able to explain what’s wrong with me.”

Going to see a doctor was hard.

Whenever someone had a cold or something like that, they could get rid of it with a town doctor, but otherwise they would have to go to a big city.

And even when they did go to a big city, hospitals there wouldn’t have as much equipment as they did before the Stampede.

Hospitals in Tokyo may be able to get the same level of examination as before.

But just barely.

Unlike Tokyo, Sapporo was a suburban city.

There was no way he could get a proper examination done there.

To make things worse, Haruki’s symptoms were too unclear.

He didn’t know what the source of the pain was, and light movements would cause no pain at all.

The only thing he knew was that whenever he tried to do something with all his strength, the pain would appear and it would hit him like a jolt of electricity.

Haruki couldn’t tell if there had been any other changes in his body.

Medical care wasn’t that perfect that it would be able to tell what kind of condition he had just with nothing more than a “somehow my body hurts sometimes”.

It was easy for Haruki to imagine a future in which he would not understand anything even if he took an appointment, had a medical examination, and took the time needed for tests and getting diagnosed.

With that in mind, it would be faster and more effective to simply rely on the medicine used by adventurers to improve or alleviate Haruki’s symptoms.

Though he was worried about unwanted side effects…

Having defeated a total of two Werewolves, Haruki decided to play it safe (or rather, Karen and Rhea made him do so), and left the dungeon.

Since Akane had been present in many adventures, she would probably have some idea about ​Haruki’s illness.

Expecting that, Haruki went to Akane’s shop.

Haruki told her symptoms to Akane, who was melting in the heat of the sun.

“Do you know of any medicine that can relieve these symptoms? If possible, I’d like something that improves my condition. But I don’t care if I have to take the worst painkillers.”

When Haruki started inquiring about medicine, Akane, who had been leaning sloppily against the counter listening, suddenly changed her complexion and stood up straight.

Contrary to the prefab’s heat, Akane’s expression was cold and somewhat serious.

“… Would you be willing to retire as an adventurer?”