Book 5: Volume 5 Chapter 9, Lessons: Riku’s Adventure Time 3

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

Watching the party press on with an odd stiffness, Schrein let out a sigh.

 

“Haah… Are you all really alright?”

 

Riku’s party members flinched and turned to look at her.

 

“Listen. I told you earlier, didn’t I? Chatting is fine. You’ve been doing it this whole time. The problem just now was that you’d completely forgotten to keep a healthy level of tension.”

 

The party was too tense, their bodies too rigid. Ironically, that meant they would be slower to react if a monster appeared.

 

The one saving grace was that Riku, their leader, was behaving as he always did. As long as that held, there would be no delay in his instructions.

 

Schrein shot him a look that was half exasperation, half worry.

 

“Ah… Well, I understand why you’re concerned, but could you go a little easier on them, Mother Schrein? These guys have never been scolded this much by anyone before, so they’re unusually on edge.”

 

Riku said it with a wry smile, and Schrein sighed again, this time with genuine exasperation.

 

“Meaning what, exactly? That even though you’re all supposedly the top young talent around, you didn’t even realize what you were doing wrong?”

 

“Well… to put it simply, I guess so.”

 

Riku answered her blunt question while gazing off into the distance.

 

His party was made up of gifted youths. They had been deliberately assembled, but perhaps because their abilities were so evenly matched, they never clashed and worked together well. They pushed one another to improve, and their skills grew rapidly. As a result, they had lived up to expectations as the top young talent.

 

That, however, was exactly the problem.

 

Because they had always handled everything on their own, they had never worked alongside a party stronger than themselves. And since some of them were still students, they had never taken on long-term escort requests. They had watched Wahid’s group fight while raising their rank, but that group was so far beyond them that all they could think was amazing.

 

Ordinarily, adventurers learned on the job while being chewed out by their seniors. That experience was entirely missing from theirs.

 

In short, Riku’s party members weren’t used to being scolded.

 

Riku, who held a management position, was used to being told off constantly by the women around him, Kousuke included. For the others, though, this was the first time anyone had seriously reprimanded them.

 

Reading all of this from Riku’s expression, Schrein sighed once more.

 

“…I was really looking forward to my first adventure in so long, but it seems I’ve been cleverly used.”

 

“Hahaha. No, not at all. I never expected things to go like this right from the start.”

 

Riku truly hadn’t anticipated that his companions would be so preoccupied with Kokoro’s behavior, or that they would keep talking about it for so long. It was only because of that that the party’s ‘weakness’ had been laid bare in front of Schrein; he had never planned to use her for that purpose.

 

“Well, never mind… Kokoro, you don’t need to worry about it. Just keep acting the way you always do.”

 

“Huh!? Oh, y-yes!”

 

Kokoro, realizing she had been throwing the party off, had been thinking about holding herself back a little, but Schrein saw through her easily. Told to carry on as before, Kokoro had no grounds to object.

 

Schrein had another motive as well.

 

“Just so you know, this is part of your training too, Kokoro. Sylvia asked me to look after you.”

 

“Oh, that’s right!”

 

Kokoro, who had completely forgotten, finally remembered.

 

“I’m going to be deliberately hard on you, and I’ll be reporting to Sylvia on whether you can perform at your usual level in an atmosphere like this.”

 

“Y-yes!”

 

“…That’s all well and good, but somehow I feel like I’ve just turned into a mean old woman.”

 

As Schrein grumbled, Riku couldn’t resist adding a comment he really didn’t need to make.

 

“Not ‘feel like.’ You completely ha— Ow!”

 

Seeing Riku silenced by a fist, that most universal of languages, the others finally broke into smiles.

 

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After that exchange, the group regained their usual mood and set out in search of their original objective: the monster they had been tasked with defeating.

 

Along the way, Kokoro’s peculiar talent was on full display. Most of what she turned up were medicinal herbs she could actually use, no doubt thanks to her extensive knowledge. Anything she didn’t recognize, even something rare, she simply ignored.

 

“Oh! Found it!”

 

In the middle of all this, Ansel spotted the target.

 

Schrein had actually noticed it some time earlier but had deliberately kept quiet. Pointing it out would have been easy, but she knew it wouldn’t do them any good.

 

“Alright! Let’s do this like always!”

 

“””””Yeah!”””””

 

At Riku’s call, everyone readied themselves. Riku then glanced at Schrein.

 

“Oh, Mother Schrein, please just watch.”

 

“I know. I have to guard Kokoro, after all.”

 

Schrein, who had intended to do exactly that from the start, nodded from beside the anxious-looking Kokoro. This wasn’t Kokoro’s first monster hunt, but for someone who wasn’t an adventurer battling monsters day in and day out, it was still unfamiliar territory.

 

The battle began. As Schrein watched, she muttered to herself.

 

“…This is no good. I can’t help wanting to step in.”

 

“Um… in the middle of a fight…”

 

“I know. I train new recruits myself sometimes.”

 

Schrein had never trained adventurers like this, but she had given orders mid-combat many times while training her fellow Vampires. She knew all too well that a careless order could lead to disaster.

 

“Besides, they don’t seem to be lacking anything in terms of combat.”

 

From where Schrein stood, their movements were fine, at least for fighting on this floor. There were occasional gaps in their coordination, but they covered for one another properly afterward. Whether they were actually aware of those gaps was another matter, but she knew now wasn’t the time to say anything.

 

“More importantly, Kokoro, you need to get more used to fighting.”

 

“Huh?! Oh, um…”

 

Kokoro, not expecting the remark to be aimed at her, was caught off guard, and her expression quickly clouded. She knew perfectly well that she lacked combat experience and that her body went stiff in battle.

 

“In fights like this, priests and shrine maidens like you are supposed to tend to injured comrades. Once you’ve been in real combat, you’ll understand what happens when you can’t move, won’t you?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“Well, I imagine Sylvia knew this would happen.”

 

At those words, Kokoro lifted her downcast eyes and looked at Schrein in surprise.

 

“What’s so surprising? Even I noticed. There’s no way your Mother wouldn’t have, right?”

 

“Is that so…?”

 

“Haha. No need to look so down. Everything has a first time. You’ll get used to it from here on.”

 

With that, Schrein patted her head, and Kokoro nodded, her cheeks faintly flushed.