We're standing in a wide area with grass that reaches our ankles and some scrubs here and there, we're still inside the canyon, but this is the place that provides the wildlife here with nutrients, making it even possible for monsters and animals to be here. According to Ken.
Why isn't he saying something? There are plenty of moments where Ken is speechless, but usually they're tied with anger or how he can't deal with Rine-chan's and Arako's antics.
Instead of saying something, he waves us to continue walking. Yet his face... I haven't seen him like that before. I've learned so many of his faces, so many facets of his personality I never dreamed about, like how he never doubts that he will return home, his courage born out of desperation, his craftiness, his pain...
I should still hate him, but I like him a bit. That's why he made me furious with his leashing out at me. Though this feeling of 'like' might be because of the cursed rings. I want to tell him, but he- It's not all about you! Yes, I want to know what made you tick out in the swamps, but-
I want to slap him. I also want to know what he heard, it's important for all of us! Talk to us for once without having someone pull it out from you! How can it be that you're able to notice all those obscure details of whatever bad may happen but are so oblivious to things right in front of you!
Don't you trust us?
...he doesn't. That's it, after all this time he doesn't trust us! Maybe Arako a bit, but did he ever put any trust in me or Rine-chan!? ...the only thing I can think of is that he trusted me to distract the giant rocky-bear... Oh, what a great sign of trust!
I grind my teeth. My eyes wander, looking at the other girls. Arako's ears are moving steadily, this could be a sign of caution? Rine-chan is slowly moving towards Ken, then she touches his arm. “Kenta. What happened?”
He puts his hand over his face, as if he wants to keep it in place. “I’m trying to convey it into words that won't end in disaster.”
“Bad news?”
“For me, at least.”
“Don't tell me... that they're after you!” Rine-chan is shocked and concerned, though it doesn't make any sense. They want you, Rine-chan, we already established it.
“...close enough.” Wait, what? “Phew, it'd be better to get more intel, yet if I'm caught... argh!”
“...” Rine-chan looks disheartened, most likely because she can't reach Ken and doesn't know what's torturing him. I can't do it either.
“Fuck it! I heard Teshizawa Terumi! Satisfied!?” ...who is he talking about?
“Who is it?” Rine-chan doesn't shy away from asking the obvious question.
“Kyou-san's friend.” ...again... why can't you remember her name! Teru-chan is my best friend, care a bit about her!
Oh god, my annoyance at this is suppressing any other emotion I have, it feels like a pond: The moment I want to reach out to the feeling of joy, I have first to go through a layer of slimy annoyance first.
Yet at the bottom of the pond, the emotions are also shame: frustration, insecurity, and bitterness...
―○●○―
I look at Kyou-san while saying my part. She looks pissed. Of course, because I have kept her friends being involved hidden, even if it was for a minute or two. She's Kyou-san, so it makes sense that she doesn't even give me enough time to find a proper way to explain all of the headache that's coming to us in a way that won't let her jump to conclusions.
“We know next to nothing except that I'm sure that I heard the shrimp. Let's assume the most likely scenario, that her, Inoue, and the other dirtbags are here.” Kyou-san looks at me as if I had pissed on an unstained wall. “Then they want to capture Rine and Kyou, bring them back to Feuerberg, and breaking my bones in the process won't hurt them either.”
“We could talk to them!?” Kyou-san suggested the option I was thinking of, but unwilling to suggest myself.
“Problem is, why are they here?”
“Because they were looking for us?”
“You misunderstand. Why are they here as in: How the heck did they get that far?” I mean, they suck. “We have gone through the fucking Spirit Swamps. If they were merely following us, they would be all dead inside them now.” Too bad that didn't happen. “So they must have known where we are or they have somehow attained [Spirit Magic].”
“Maybe they- no, they don't.” I know what you wanted to say. That they have found their way to Aroahenn and convinced an alfr to join them. Yet this is highly improbable. First, they couldn't know beforehand that we would pass the Spirit Swamps, we made that decision on short notice, so they had no reason to ask one for help. Second, because it would mean that they'd somehow brought an alfr to help them which can only be possible if they provide said alfr a constant supply of fun. Who would be crazy enough to do that!?
“So,” I continue my line of thought: “They had help. I can only think of two possibilities, Feuerberg or Correo, and I believe it's the latter.” Of course there are many, many possibilities, but from where I'm standing, these are the two who have the highest chance.
Feuerberg is a kingdom, so they have resources. Yet I'm sure that we already would have run into them if they have the means to follow us. Why holding back until now?
Therefore, Correo is more likely. It's too easy to imagine Fake's party hanging in a tavern like the morons they are, only to be preyed upon by Correo. I mean, that guy is suspicious as hell and the only reason why I followed his lead to Aroahenn was because I had no better option.
“If I'm right, then it opens up a lot of other crap. Like Yoshimura and Hoshibashi working alongside Fake's party. Why don't we add some mercenaries to the mix? Careful: Cougar.” I nonchalantly point at the green feline that's hiding in the grass. Like many animals in this world, there is something off from the ones I know from my world.
I don't expect animals to attack us, still, this is a hunting ground. For animals and monsters, as rocky as the canyon is, these green spaces are a valuable source for nutrients. Several birds of prey are here as well, no wonder that I have hardly seen any before.
Why hasn't the boss-rocky-bear declared this his hunting ground though? I sure hope it's not because there is something even more dangerous here... I take a look at the sky and choose another bird: “[Share Senses]!” As my vision blurs, forming a very bad picture of what the hawk is seeing, I try to figure out how this area looks like from above...
“Ken! You can't just stop talking!”
“Actually, I can. Yet I'm still looking for options. So far I only have facing them or evading them, though I have no idea how... Rine, do you want to return to Feuerberg?”
“-what?” Rine is baffled as I ask her directly. “Erm...” I cease my spell and look at her, she's looking at the ground. “I... I don't know. I... I like being with you. I like seeing new places...” Suddenly, she looks up. “No. I want to help you. With the curse.”
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“You know that 'helping us' would also include all of us going to Feuerberg, have that curse-expert look at us again, let your father pay for all expenses and after the curse is lifted, we would go back to our former lives.” I would continue my demon-king-slaying campaign, Kyou-san would be with her shitty friends, and Ara-san would most likely return to Aroahenn.
“...I don't want that. Sorry, but... that's how I feel... ah, I'm so selfish!” She begins tearing up, then bawling. Geez, even crying is cute with you.
“Well, my opinion: I don't want to play into Correo's hand. He's working with the demons... most likely. So we need to find out whether he's with them or not.”
“Ken, when I talk to Masahiko-kun and Teru-chan, they'll understand,” Kyou-san suggests.
“The same kind of understanding that would make them leave you behind in the first place?” Shit, this was unnecessary, but now I said that. Kyou-san looks shocked and I can see her eyes moistening as well. Out of anger.
I scratch my head, this isn't going well. She should know that her friends are a bunch of jerks, but... well, she's also a bitch... at times... OK, now I feel even worse, especially as I try to figure out why I feel like keeping her... I mean, there should be no reason!
Now I turn to the woman who I haven't brought to tears yet, Ara-san. “What do you think?” I need an intelligent comment on this one.
“I’d like to meet Momo's friends. They're heroes, so if we capture them, we can force them to open their statuses, you translate everything and I note it down.”
“...I'm not against it?”
“This way we can also separate them from any malevolent influence, talk to them and then we may find a compromise that won't lead us leaving Katarine-san. It's the perfect consensus for all concerned parties.”
Well, except Fake and his party, but hey, not everyone can be happy, right? Yet there is a problem: “You know that they will most likely have company, right?”
“For this, I have a plan.”
“Stop it! Both of you!” Kyou-san interferes before I become victim of Ara-san's very dangerous pulls to the alfr-side again. “Whatever you're thinking of doing, Arako, it can't be good. And you, don't agree so easily to every whim she has!”
“Do you have any better ideas? I mean, we could lure them into a monster-house again, this time we'll just make sure it's intended and that we're outside. It'll be easy enough to find a monster nest here, I guess?”
“No!”
“Phew... just denying every idea isn't very constructive.”
“Why are you looking so smug while only providing nonsense?!”
Argh, this feels so... I can't even describe that feeling! I hate Inoue and his posse and I don't want Kyou-san to go back to them! I mean, look at her, giving me all that bull while having no ideas on her own, she's just throwing a tantrum!
“...phew... the mice have won us some time, so let's use it. Can they follow our tracks?”
“Yes, Teru-chan has [Scout] as a class.”
“Precious... Well, I guess we need to work with it. The bird I hijacked showed me that this whole area has open spaces with wildlife separated by crevice-mazes. It's obviously what the main-path is, it's wide and open. Ara-san, for my idea I'll need your spells.”
“I will not participate in any scheme that may cause the death of heroes.”
“It won't.” I hate these guys, but I'm above killing them. Though they may wish that they were dead.
We enter the next crevice and I start looking at the walls again. “Look if you see something suspicious in the walls. And also how brittle they are,” I add while touching a wall.
“What is your plan?”
“We have already established that there are several cliffs here that may cave in. If we can make a cave-in behind us, then it'll be quite the obstacle. Yet there is another benefit.”
“Which is?”
“They have scouts. If we can find them and cause a cave-in behind them, we'll split them into at least two groups. While splitting us will only be temporary, thanks to [Spouse Location], they'll have big problems even finding each other. Especially as they can't communicate over long distances, different from us.” We have a [Shared Inventory], after all, and if long-distance communication would be common in this world, things like the Crusader-hunt would have played out entirely differently.
“Ken... what is your plan after you have split them?”
“Playing by ear. I know next to nothing.” Kyou-san doesn't like my answer, but the plan itself is a good shot. Also, I've learned that running away isn't the best option...
After finding the perfect ambush site, we hide ourselves. Ara-san and my senses are on high alert, ready to cause the cave-in that would trap the scouts with us.
The problem is, even after half an hour, nobody came... Anxiety is building up... what's wrong? Do they know what we're planning!?
What's their plan?
―○●○―
This is the real stuff. Masahiko looks at the grass and the scrubs, at how different the leaves are from what he knows. There are even some unknown flowers here that blooms in vermilion and scarlet. He can see a green cougar running away with a red hare in its teeth, this is wilderness!
The last time he was so far away from any settlements was when he was in the Mauerfelsen-mountains, looking for the runaway crown princess. Now he's looking for her again, though she's only a secondary concern.
After a heartwarming sight, he returns to the problem at hand. Teruko is screaming into a conversation that's too loud to begin with: “WE'RE WASTING TIME! WE WOULD ALREADY HAVE THEM IF YOU WOULD STOP BICKERING, YOU MORONS!”
Now that Katsuragi-kun has noticed that someone is following him, all the impatience of Daichi and Teruko had started to burst out, while Eri isn't approving of Yoshimura-kun's plan. Katsuo is siding with nobody and Masahiko tries to mediate.
Daichi and Teruko want to charge ahead, crushing any other scheme and take out Katsuragi directly. They think that being quick is the key and are confident in the big party they have formed. The only reason why they didn't do that yet is because they doubt that they can deal with them on their own, Masahiko is glad that they're still cautious enough to admit that.
Yoshimura-kun wants to take a more careful approach as he thinks that Katsuragi-kun will counter any rash moves. His plan involves more recon and to whittle down Katsuragi-kun's resources over the course of days while not showing any weaknesses to him. Hoshibashi-kun sides with him. This is the exact opposite approach to what he preached before while catching up, maybe because he's concerned about Teruko's encounter with Katsuragi.
Eri wants to do a smart move to turn everything over, but she can't think of one. Katsuo is in thought, while Correo sat down and is following the conversation without saying a word.
Masahiko admits to himself that he can't help in reaching a compromise. He decides to take matters into his own hands, draws a sword, and cuts a line into the ground. Dust and dirt jumps forth. “Would you mind?” He says with a shy smile and calm voice, cutting softly into the screaming, so the rest becomes silent. “Sorry to say it, Daichi and Teruko, but an aggro tactic only works in early stages. Aggro means putting up pressure and disturbing the opponent while he's still building up. Yet we have lost that moment and the fight with the goliath cost us time and endurance. We don't have any reserves.” Masahiko used to have a laid-back approach with this chase because he wanted to save his power for the real deal, yet it was spent too early to get through that huge monster. “Yoshimura-kun, your ideas are very well founded, but if we take too much time, they might leave the canyon and I want to confront them here.” This may be the last time before outsiders who will complicate the matter are included. “On the other side of this canyon is another inn and soon after a city. I don't want to involve other people if possible, and if we let them have rest stops, they can regain their strength as well.” Correo told Masahiko about what lies beyond this canyon, as Masahiko loves to hear the stories of the merchant and the places that he visited. “Eri, we can't think of a plan because we have too little information. So in the end, it comes down to this: How brave are we? Are we willing to go into it blind, confident in ourselves and our friends? Or will we falter, because the odds are unknown? I'm honest here: I'm scared. I mean, last time I met Katsuragi-kun, he shot me in the back. It took a while to recuperate. He also attacked Teruko just an hour before and he seems to be terrifyingly strong. And from what we know of Katarine-hime, she might be even stronger.
“Yet I think that shying away is the worst option. Charging blindly is the second worst option. So I will bet on us. On all of us. Katsuragi-kun is smart. He's the second-smartest boy in class. He may have his deficits, but we should never forget that. It's easy to think less about someone because you don't like that person, but it doesn't make it right.
“I know, I may not always be the best leader, and I admit that Yoshimura-kun is a good tactician. I want to believe in us, so I also believe in Yoshimura-kun's judgment. Yet I also believe that we're stronger together, so Yoshimura-kun: Instead of thinking of Katsuragi-kun, think of what we are good at. On our strengths, not Katsuragi-kun's weaknesses. I think this is the key.”
After saying his thoughts, Masahiko feels calmer. This is an important moment and he wants to do it right. For better or worse, Katsuragi-kun knows that they're here yet may not yet know who they are. So it's understandable that he'll use violence first and ask questions later.
Yoshimura-kun thinks that hiding their identity is an advantage. Masahiko isn't sure if he agrees. Maybe because he still thinks that fighting is the least favored option, yet he also fears that it'll be unavoidable at this point.
While Masahiko regrets this development, Yoshimura-kun starts to think hard about what to do. “We have a slight advantage in numbers... Correo-san, do you know your way around here?”
“Sorry, but this canyon wasn't interesting enough. Even back then, people only traversed it, so I didn't bother to explore it.”
“...alright, then how likely is it that they know how to- no, our strengths, right?” Yoshimura-kun looks around, at each of his companions. “I have a strategy. It's riskier than I prefer, but if we can implement it properly, we have some room for mistakes and uncertainties. Partner, you and Yamauchi-kun will be the spine.”