CH 111

Chapter 111 – Glasses boy laughs after hearing Lisse’s true thoughts

“Well, that’s how it is.” Roda stood up, “Think carefully about what you’re going to do. You have a few days to decide, so I’ll see you later-”

“Roda.” I interrupted him before he could leave, “Can I go back to the village now?”

“Eh?” Lisse, Roda and Zant said in unison.

Eh?

Why were they so surprised? Their surprise was such that it even surprised me.

“Did you even hear anything I said!?” Roda, who was unusually upset, approached me.

“I heard you.” I replied.

“Lies! Why didn’t you take any time to think, then!?” He asked.

Well, I thought enough? I mean… “The educational policy of the Tower of Bryne, you said it was about training assassins, right?

“To put it simply, it’s a place where you improve your interpersonal combat skills, isn’t it?

“I know that’s not what I’m looking for, so I’d rather go to the village.” I explained.

Roda told me that I’d compete together with rival assassins and grow with them.

But I don’t want techniques tailored towards killing people.

My goal is to become stronger. This hasn’t changed since I entered the assassin school.

It’s not that I’m not interested in reaching the peak of what I can be as a hunter, but I am not particularly interested in becoming an assassin.

Because I have no intention of killing anyone.

Because I would never use the hunting techniques that my master taught me to kill someone.

“Oh, so that’s it? Then you should have no problems there.” Zant, who had been silent until now, spoke, “As you’ve already heard, we don’t get many assassination jobs these days. We’re out of work.

“Therefore, there is no point in raising a perfect assassin.

“In the first place, if our goal was to teach you to kill humans, then Lisse wouldn’t even be here, as her Gift isn’t particularly suited to this kind of job.”

“The Shadow Hunter Sword?” I asked.

It’s true that her Gift, which is highly effective against Demon Beasts, wouldn’t be particularly useful for an assassin. At least not for killing people.

“The Tower of Bryne no longer trains people to become assassins, but instead trains you to learn how to take the reins of your own lives.

“In fact, part of the curriculum is to have the trainees hunt a giant Demon Beast.

“In other words, a lot of what you’ll learn there has an overlap with what you’ll learn as a hunter.

“Though well, a better comparison would be that the skills you’ll be taught there overlap with what an adventurer wants.

“You may have your own goals here, but don’t forget about our own goals as well.

“We don’t want our skills as assassins to be lost to time. We want to pass them on, so we brought you all here.

“And if possible, we would like it if you could use our skills for the country.

“Also, if you really don’t like it, you can always come back, you know? So why don’t you try checking it out at least.

“Or at the very minimum, think about it for a bit longer. We aren’t leaving right at this moment.” Zant told me.

Oh, I see…

“What’s the giant Demon Beast hunt like?” I asked.

“It changes every year, so who knows?” Zant replied.

… Putting aside the other things, I am very interested in hunting a giant Demon Beast.

And so, after that conversation, today’s training begun.

******

I was sweating profusely. After running and pushing my body for a long time, it was already evening.

I was about to start a new run of the road, but Zant called me and told me to go upstairs.

So, I left the underground training room, and just outside the backdoor of Goertz, was Lisse, who was just as worn out as me.

“I need to talk to you.” She told me.

Oh, really?

“Can’t it wait until we get back? I asked.

I was drenched in sweat and my body was covered with dust from the several times I fell from the road. I really wanted to take a bath already.

“Sorichika might come, so we won’t be alone… Or rather, she came yesterday too. You didn’t come home, so she ended up looking really lonely.” Lisse replied.

Ah, I did something bad.

My master is easy to tease, but she also gets easily frustrated if I, her apprentice, treat her coldly.

Coming to think about it, our relationship is quite strange. We were master and student, but we’re now something different.

We are not really family, but sometimes I feel like our bond is even stronger than that of family.

“Anyways, more importantly than Sorichika coming. I want to talk about me.” Lisse told me.

I inwardly sighed.

“Can I go home?” I asked.

“No. Listen. You may think that this doesn’t matter, but there is something important that I need to talk to you about.” Lisse replied.

Important? A really important topic?

“First of all… You really are stronger than me, aren’t you?” She asked.

It seems like Roda’s words have stayed in her mind.

He said it clearly. That I was stronger than Lisse.

“We’re just strong in different ways. There’s no way I can win against you in a fight with swords, for one.” I replied.

“But if we’re talking about killing one another, then you will surely win.” Lisse stated.

That’s true.

Because Lisse, at least for now, only knows how to fight with a sword.

If I had to fight her, I would choose a method that stopped her from fighting with her sword, and win from there.

I’d essentially set things up to make the situation advantageous to me. That’s all there is to it.

“If I had heard this last month, I would have felt nothing but frustration.

“Well, I’m still a bit frustrated at it anyways, but it’s not the only feeling.” Lisse said.

I stayed silent and waited for her to continue.

“… I’m also a bit proud.

“Because my friend and rival, Eil, is stronger than me…

“Well, that’s basically how I feel right now, somewhat.” Lisse finished explaining her feelings.

I remained silent.

“… Say something already! It’s embarrassing to just be stared at after telling you all that!” Lisse exclaimed.

Eh? Well… It’s just…

“F… Fri… end…?” I muttered.

“Why are you talking in such a broken way as if you heard the word ‘friend’ for the first time ever!?” Lisse exclaimed.

No, I did hear it before, but this was just… Surprising. Her words truly surprised me.

I mean… Lisse thought of me as a friend? That was truly astonishing.

But me… Well, I shouldn’t say how I feel about it. I don’t want to get hit.

“So, what did you want to get to, after all?” I asked her.

Let’s try urging her to reach a conclusion, before she reaches a boiling point and hits me.

At this moment, Lisse stared at me with a truly serious expression. The kind of gaze she only shows during training.

Under the twilight sky, she stared at me with indigo eyes that felt akin to the bottom of a deep lake.

“I want you to be my rival for a while longer. I want you to go with me to the Tower of Bryne.” She stated.

Ugh… She really said it straight and plainly, huh?

“Alright then. Let’s take a bath and go home now.” I replied.

In response to my words, Lisse stayed silent for a second, before sighing and smiling a bit, “… Well, I guess Eil will be Eil in the end. I suppose this can’t be helped.

“Think about it at least, alright?”

Then, she started walking away, but after a few steps, she stopped and turned around, staring at me again, “Oh, one more thing. This one probably matters more to you.”

“Haven’t we talked enough already?” I asked.

“Just listen, alright? You’re surely gonna be more interested in this one than you were about my feelings.” Lisse said.

Eeh…? I wanna go take a bath already.

“That demon god statue. Sorichika really wants it.” Lisse told me.

… Eh?

… Eeeh!?

The image of the cute evil goddess, which I had completely forgotten about, flashed through my mind.

After successfully getting rid of it by giving it to Lisse, I did everything I could to erase it from my memory, so I hadn’t thought about it at all in recent days.

But I never expected to hear about new developments involving it.

“R-really!? That evil god statue!?” I asked.

“Really… Though it’s a bit disappointing that you reacted this much to this topic, but barely reacted to my honest feelings…” Lisse sighed.

No, hold on. It doesn’t really matter which is more important between Lisse and the statue. It’s just that anything related to that statue needs to be prioritized above all else. That’s all there is to it, alright?

Or rather, if possible, I would have liked it if the statue was broken under the guise of an accident, or maybe lost and forgotten somehow.

Yet Lisse had been taking care of it properly until now… That’s how it is, apparently.

“Why? Does she like it? What does she want with it? Is she going to use it as a medium to summon evil gods, demons or evil spirits?” I asked.

“No. She said she wanted it because it is cute.” Lisse replied.

Eh? That evil thing!?

“In the first place, it seems like the reason to why she comes to my room every night is because she wants to see that evil statue.

“You clean up and go to your room as soon as you finish eating, so you never see it, but Sorichika always comes to my room after dinner. Even if I refuse her, she still goes inside anyways.” Lisse told me.

… I can hardly believe that, somewhere in this world, exists a person who shares the same standards of cuteness as the genius demonic sculptor, Florentine…

… Well, I suppose it makes sense if it’s Sorichika that we’re talking about. She is quite odd, after all.

“So, is it alright?” Lisse asked.

“What? What is alright? What about it?” I asked back.

“Why do you look upset? Or rather, I should be the one upset when my true feelings mattered this little to you… Well, whatever, enough of that topic.

“Is it okay if I give it to Sorichika? I promised that I wouldn’t sell it nor throw it away, but you didn’t say I couldn’t give it to someone, right? So, is it alright?” Lisse asked me.

“… Give it away quickly. Immediately.” I told her.

“G-got it.

“… And you said it in a commanding tone, huh?” Lisse replied.

The both of us stayed silent for a small while.

Then we started giggling.

I had desperately tried to forget about this statue and keep it out of my sight, but now, this one big problem that had been bothering me for a long time, has finally been solved.

How could I possibly not laugh at all this?

It’s impossible. I just can’t. I can’t help laughing right now.