episode_0034

“Ah… Were you trying to take on this request?”

He quickly noticed that our gaze was directed to the request form and smiled awkwardly.

“Oh, no, it’s okay!”

I quickly blocked the conversation first, thinking that I might say something stupid like, “Do you want to do it together?”

Don’t recommend it!

“Ahem, hmmm… Oh, let’s go quickly, Cain.”

Lisa looked at me and then remembered what happened that time, her face turned bright red as she grabbed the hem of Cain’s clothes.

Yeah, seeing them hanging out together, I guess they’re a couple or something.

We don’t want to interfere with your relationship, so please take him away quickly.

“Ah… But they wanted to do this too… .”

“Wow, the first one to catch it is the owner.”

Yes! It’s cruel, but there’s nothing I can do about it!

“That’s right, Karin. Unfortunately, let’s look for another quest. For example, mushroom digging… Ah.”

“Oops.”

Come to think of it, this request was made by Lisa.

There was an awkward silence between us for a moment.

“… If you do that, I’ll give you a little more compensation.”

Lisa suggested this to us with a mixture of half regret and half desire to quickly take Cain away.

“That, that sounds good! How about it, Karin too?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah… But I just had a good idea. Asia, let’s just the four of us… .”

Lisa and I shouted at the same time at Karin’s words.

“Oh, no!”

“No!”

Karin said timidly, with a slightly embarrassed expression.

“Well, then… .”

But the problem wasn’t with her, it was with Cain.

“Oh, right! I think it would be more efficient if four of us did it together!”

No… Don’t you have any clue… .

Seeing Lisa sighing next to me, it seemed like something that happened often.

Yeah, this kind of character is originally like this… .

***

Eventually, the four of us ended up forming a makeshift party.

Lisa looked very dissatisfied, but as soon as Cain tried to comfort her, her expression relaxed and she smiled faintly.

What a simple woman… .

Seeing her being so easily fooled by men makes me feel uncertain about her future.

There’s no way a man like that would have just one woman, so I just hope they don’t get dumped.

This single-minded woman is dumped by the protagonist and ends up in an ambiguous position in the sequel, neither here nor there.

A lonely heroine who cannot be given to other supporting characters and has no other friends, so she can only appear years later as a person living alone!

“Then let’s go to the goblin village. As you know, goblins live in groups of several villages, so don’t get too close and just go around the outskirts and deal with them.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Karin nodded at Cain’s words.

Lisa and I looked at each other and discussed quietly underwater.

“Excuse me, I’m really sorry for asking you to do this… .”

“I know. I’m not interested in that kind of guy, so don’t worry. I’ll get Karin off of him too.”

“Really? You’re a good kid, aren’t you? … You’re not that kind of person, are you?”

No, what do you see people as!

“No!”

“Oh, right? Sorry, I misunderstood.”

No, but if I deny that, won’t you interpret it as me liking guys?

But I’m heterosexual… .

No, but you don’t like guys.

But since my body is now female, should I introduce myself as homosexual?

Suddenly my head started to feel confused.

“Asia? What are you doing?”

“Oh, no! Let’s go.”

I don’t know. My head hurts, so I’ll think about it later.

We bought some necessities for a while, then gathered outside the village again and set off into the forest.

This time I also brought some potions.

All preparations complete!

***

“Ah… That’s the situation… .”

“It’s okay. It’s all in the past anyway… I know not all people are like that.”

And 10 minutes later.

Karin was walking happily with Cain, and was freely revealing her personal history.

No, what if I tell you everything, including that I’m an elf and that I was imprisoned, Karin!

“… I’ll separate them.”

“I, I tried.”

Lisa muttered with a gloomy expression.

I really tried hard too. I really did!

What’s so fun about seeing Karin flirting with another man?

But it’s not something I can just suddenly barge in and forcefully separate from.

I was just hovering around, looking for an opportunity to get in their way, but the two of them seemed like a match made in heaven, perfectly suited to each other.

“Haa… It’s okay. Actually, this isn’t the first time.”

“I guess it’s pretty popular?”

Of course it couldn’t be otherwise.

That guy is a dirty, pheromone-dripping, dull-witted deceiver from an old cartoon.

Dragging pheromones… .

That’s not my story.

“You say you party with other women like that at least once a week. What pisses me off the most is that you don’t mean anything bad!”

Lisa seemed to have a lot going on, so she told me her story in a fluent manner.

“I know best that she doesn’t have any ulterior motives… but the other vixens keep trying to take advantage of our good Cain.”

“What is your relationship?”

“… My childhood friend. He was worried because I told him I was opening a store in this city, so he came up with me.”

Oh, childhood friend… .

It’s hard for a childhood friend to win, fighting!

But the store?

Wasn’t there already a magic shop here?

“Yeah, originally, opening a store like this was against business ethics, but… That owner, his reputation is really bad. Do you know anything about him?”

“… It’s a piece of shit.”

“Dog, dog? I see… .”

If she opens a store, I would welcome it.

You don’t have to look at that dirty man!

“Please tell me when you come to the store. I’ll visit often.”

“Really? Thank you! You’re such a good kid.”

Karin’s eyes sparkled with joy.

“I’m glad you’re not interested in Cain. I don’t think that woman is interested in you.”

Lisa glared at Karin.

No, I don’t think she’d be interested either… .

No, Karin?

As I was walking and becoming friends with Lisa, goblins appeared.

It looks like we’re slowly entering the field zone.

“Okay, take care of it, Asia!”

“… Huh?”

Come to think of it, I was the main character of this game.

That also means that I will be commanding the battle.

Naturally, I thought Cain would be the one leading, but I ended up leading three party members other than myself.

And the results were amazing.

Wow, this is the power of a full party?

I was impressed.

To think that we could defeat the goblins without causing any damage!

“Since there are a lot of people, the battle is much easier. At this rate, even if we split into four, there will be more left over.”

Cain also nodded his head in satisfaction and delight.

This guy is the biggest contributor.

Almost one turn, one kill…!

“Shall we go further?”

“Okay! Let’s go!”

We happily roamed around the outskirts, hunting goblins.

Anyway, this game is a random encounter game! You don’t have to worry about the forest ecosystem or the risk of extinction!

I must hunt as many goblins as possible while conditions permit and receive a generous reward.

Oh my god, can a quest be this easy?

It’s going smoothly… too smoothly!

Can things go this smoothly?

We were currently making double income from hunting monsters and from quests.

This is a true adventurer…!

“Whew… I really caught this much, but I don’t even get tired. Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, it’s okay!”

When Cain asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead, Lisa ran over and answered.

If it had a tail, it would probably be wagging its tail vigorously.

“Yeah, that’s good. What about Asia and Karin?”

“Yeah, I’m fine too.”

“… Okay, it’s okay.”

Lisa’s smile suddenly dropped as his attention turned directly to us.

It’s a truly pitiful one-way street.

“Um… This is just a suggestion, you know.”

Cain thought deeply about something and then spoke carefully.

“How about going a little further in?”

“… inside?”

Something doesn’t look good.

“Yeah. If you look closely at the request form, you’ll see that Goblin Warriors and Goblin Wizards give more rewards. Since only regular Goblins appear here… .”

In other words, let’s aim for a stronger guy.

It seems like our party’s power would be more than enough to do it, but… .

“Is it really necessary to take the risk?”

I disagree.

Why?

This feels weird!

Given the circumstances, it’s clear that if you go in, something will happen.

“Huh? I think I’m okay.”

“Isn’t it okay?”

But only I could see the uncertain future that lay ahead.

Karin and Lisa agreed with Cain’s opinion without much thought.

“Ah… Asia is not that great after all? Hmm… .”

In the end, everyone agrees except me.

If this happens, only I will feel uncomfortable… .

“… Instead, let’s get out right away if it becomes even a little dangerous.”

“Of course.”

Eventually I changed my mind and agreed to at least put in some safeguards.

… Are you sure it’ll be okay?

***

“Kirruk! Kir Kirrr!”

Kwakwang!

A bolt from the blue struck me.

“Kkiyaaak! Huh… Ahhh… .”

It goes without saying that getting struck by lightning usually kills you.

However, since this magic was Lightning, a type of beginner magic, it wasn’t painful enough to kill you.

It feels like the pain of static electricity has been magnified by about 10 times?

It doesn’t hurt enough to kill me, but it hurts a lot.

“Asia!”

“Heeheet… Okay, it’s okay… .”

I said that, my body shaking from the aftershock of the electric shock.

I can’t hold the sword for a moment.

I know this message without even seeing it.

It’s a debuff that prevents you from participating in battle for one turn.

Now is the time for an enemy that slowly inflicts debuffs to appear.

“Wow… You did a great job, Asia!”

Karin shouted lines that only Japanese characters would say and cut off the goblin wizard’s head with a sharp dagger.

Oh, this game is Japanese, isn’t it?

I really hope that later on, they don’t release kunoichi characters that don’t match the background at all.

“Krrr… .”

The last remaining goblin wizard disappeared into the light.

“Whew… Asia, it’s okay… Ahem.”

As the battle ended, Cain, who had been running towards me out of concern, glanced away.

“… It’s okay.”

I took out a repair potion, covering my nipples that were sticking out from between my torn armor.

If it were just women, I would have just endured it out of pity, but with a man in the party, I couldn’t spare the repair potion.

“Cain… If you want to see me like that, I will… .”

“What? Lisa’s clothes are torn too? If it’s a repair potion, I have it!”

“… No.”

Lisa’s desperate sex appeal is shattered by traditional clichés!

Come on, Lisa!

Anyway, the goblin warriors and goblin wizards were strong, but not so strong that they couldn’t be dealt with.

If it had been too weak or too strong, I would have been suspicious, but since the difficulty level was just right for our level, I was slowly starting to dispel my doubts.

Was it just a normal leveling section?

“Huh?”

Suddenly, as I was looking at their disappeared traces, something sparkled and shined inside them.

“Kari… No, Cain. Look at that. There’s something there.”

I was reluctant to touch it myself, so I tried calling Karin, but ended up changing the person to Cain.

Well, we can’t let Karin do something dangerous.

Cain himself went over and checked the fallen object.

“Isn’t this… an arrowhead?”

What Cain brought was an arrowhead.

The arrowhead is made of a fairly sharp metal.

“… Aren’t they selling arrows around here?”

The problem was, as Lisa said, that there was no place around that sold arrows.

The bow is for sale. It’s also available at the weapon shop.

I don’t know if this is a convenience for the game or a manufacturing flaw, but in this game, they sell bows but not arrows.

Of course, arrows are rarely used as consumable items in these types of games, but then how do archers shoot their bows?

We don’t know the answer to this question yet because we haven’t met Archer yet.

“Yeah. Why do the goblins have this?”

The three of them, excluding me, began to worry with serious expressions on their faces.

What, why are you worrying about this?

“The goblins must have made it.”

“What?”

Cain was startled by my words.

Oh well, I guess I don’t know since I’m not the real main character.

I declared, crossing my arms arrogantly.

“These are arrows produced by the goblins themselves!”