Estimated reading time: 6–7 minutes
Chapter 10
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It’s been a year since Angie went to Ryūgūin.
During this year, I have conquered four more dungeons, mostly solo.
I think I’m on a roll.
According to the report at the royal castle, there are six dungeons left.
If I can keep up this pace without any issues, it’s calculated that my wish to return home can be granted in at least a year and a half.
Several things have changed over the past year.
The most notable is the further change in party composition.
The following is the party composition during dungeon conquest:
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Vanguard: Me
Middleguard: None
Rearguard: None
Heroguard: Ryūgūin, Mika (Hero’s dedicated healer and barrier master), Angelica (Hero’s dedicated barrier master)
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「What’s a Heroguard?」
I think it’s perfectly natural for me to ask this out of pure curiosity when I saw this plan.
Those of you who thought, 「There’s nothing but things to point out here.」
You’re absolutely right.
It means there’s someone with the wrong sensibilities by my side.
「It’s a position dedicated to the Hero. It’s behind the rearguard, behind the double barriers that Mika and I set up.」
That’s crazy!
How can you say such nonsense with a straight face?
I won’t go into the fact that I’m the only combat force here.
「That’s way too far back!」
No middleguard, no rearguard.
「We can’t always lend you a hand whenever you need it, you know? Isn’t it rare for everything to be in place all the time?
If you don’t try even when you don’t have everything, nothing will ever start or go well. Well, this is the teaching of my favorite CEO-type Utuber, though.」
These were the precious words from Ryūgūin and the others.
To be honest, I only feel murderous intent.
As I endure it with gritted teeth,
「As expected of the Hero.」
「The Hero has deep insight, after all.」
The sight of the Hero-loving robot (Mika) and Tar-eye (Angie) nodding in agreement beside me evokes a sense of sorrow.
That’s right, they’re not normal.
A normal person wouldn’t make such a proposal.
But they seriously wrote down this party composition on paper and handed it to me.
I don’t mind the composition itself.
Dive into the dungeon and defeat monsters.
What I have to do is always simple.
They can play around with words like party compositions that no longer make sense.
However, my heart is strangely stirring.
Mika’s gentle kindness and Angelica’s dazzling strength of will—I didn’t feel that from them now.
That fact weighed heavily on my heart.
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It was around the time when we arrived at a new town, aiming to conquer the seventh dungeon.
By then, we no longer ate meals together as a party, and I rented lodging in a different place from them.
I alone was more than enough combat power.
That’s why my meeting with her, who wasn’t seeking combat power, was a coincidence.
When I was looking for a slightly late lunch at a food stall,
「Excuse me, may I have a moment?」
I was called out to from behind.
That was my first encounter with her—Eris Gladius.
○○○
When I first saw her, I thought she was out of place.
The space around her alone seemed strangely clear.
Integrity. Nobleness. Neither of these words seemed sufficient to describe her.
「Are you all right? Are you not feeling well?」
Straight golden hair reaching her waist, ice-blue eyes.
A beautiful girl wearing a battle dress and circlet that I could tell at a glance were imbued with some kind of magic.
She slightly furrowed her brows in concern at me, who was taken aback by her beauty.
「No, I’m fine. More importantly, did you call out to me?」
「Yes. Could you possibly be the Hero?」
「You’ve got the wrong person.」
「Then, that sword at your waist is…?」
At my waist was the Holy Sword.
It became mine after I snatched it from Ryūgūin.
「No, this was given to me. I’m the Holy Knight Yamada. I’m technically a member of the Hero’s party.」
「You’re the Yamada Ichiro…!!」
She hesitated for a moment,
「I apologize for my rudeness, but I have a request.」
She bowed her head.
「Would you be willing to cross swords with me once?」
○○○
She was a girl who had been expected to become the wielder of the Holy Sword in the future.
A girl who had never played like a child since she was young, befriended only by training, and strictly disciplined herself.
All for the sake of becoming a sword saint.
All to become worthy of the Holy Sword.
That was Eris Gladius.
The name Gladius sounded familiar, and it turned out she was the daughter of the Knight Commander who had trained me at Arcana Castle.
Apparently, Eris had heard about me from the Knight Commander many times.
He called me a fierce warrior who had endured hellish ordeals.
He called me a monster who had grown from a complete amateur to the strongest swordsman, defeating the Knight Commander, in just one month.
He said I had conquered the notorious Mirror Dungeon.
It seemed the Knight Commander had been bragging about me to his daughter, and her eyes sparkled with respect and admiration for me.
However, apart from respect and admiration, she had her own complex feelings.
She had finally become a sword saint and was recognized as a swordsman worthy of the Holy Sword after dedicating her entire life to it. And then, a Hero who had never even held a sword before, let alone trained, appeared out of nowhere and snatched away the Holy Sword.
Integrity. Honesty. Diligence.
It was not hard to imagine that even she, who upheld these virtues, had conflicted feelings.
I understood how she felt.
She challenged me to a duel in order to give up on the Holy Sword.
《Give up.》
Those words felt unfit for Eris’ dignified presence.
That’s why, in order to repay my debt to the Knight Commander and to give her a push, I said,
「All right, let’s do it.」
I decided to accept her challenge.
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