I Want to Raise This Child

That day when I first set foot in my exclusive classroom or training hall that had just finished its final interior touches.

“Oh, this is better than I thought?”

“…This seems a bit excessive.”

Different evaluations spilled from Odd’s and my mouth.

If you think about it, we were saying the same thing in that we both assessed that the quality of the facility couldn’t be better.

It’s just that in my eyes, that level seemed too extravagant.

After all, this was a facility solely for me.

Most of the Lunatic Guild members, except for a very few, don’t even know about the existence of this excessively good facility.

I’m not sure why, but the kind of classes I receive will also be kept hidden, so they won’t know for quite a long time.

“This is truly meticulous care. In my time, I just learned while rolling around in the mud.”

See? Even Odd, a barbarian who had lived only in snowy mountains for a while, could tell at a glance that this was an amazing facility.

In other words, the cost and manpower put into preparing such a facility must have been quite tremendous.

It seemed like too much waste for me alone to use such a good facility.

Honestly, it was burdensome too.

However, we had already come too far to turn back now.

“…I could never repay this even if I worked my whole life.”

With my debt of gratitude toward Asha increasing by one level.

No, by two or three levels, I had no choice but to attend Odd’s classes.

However, contrary to what I had thought, theoretical classes predominated over practical ones.

The reason being…

“You have the ability, but you don’t know how to use it properly.”

In other words, unlike my cheat-level hardware, my software was nothing special.

First of all, it was a completely different case from normal hunters who prioritized physical training or ability training to become stronger.

No matter how much memory and experience I had from my first playthrough, learning how to directly fight monsters that rushed right up to my face, rather than from behind a monitor, was a different matter.

I couldn’t refute the statement that I was nothing more or less than a novice who had coincidentally obtained a good special ability.

Well, maybe because my mind wasn’t rigid yet, I could keep up with Odd’s pace to some extent.

Honestly, when Odd’s classes first started, I was surprised at how manageable they were, contrary to what I had prepared myself for.

But… unfortunately, I was even more surprised when I reached my limit less than a month later.

“I’ll ask again. When a [Poison Mole] attacks your companions from underground, what should you do first to protect them?”

“Th-that’s, well…”

The last time I could smoothly answer Odd’s questions was exactly nine days after classes began.

Even though I already knew most of the characteristics and habits of monsters in <Another World>, I didn’t particularly know how to respond as a ‘tank’.

It wasn’t unrelated to the fact that in my first playthrough, I was far from being a tank.

Even if the difficulty of the classes had increased in an arithmetic sequence, I would have thought, ah, I must be stupider than I thought. But what kind of difficulty increases in a geometric sequence?

At first, he simply asked about the role of a tank according to the party composition, but now he was asking about detailed responses according to monster types.

Even going several steps further, asking how to receive attacks based on the monsters’ attack patterns, how to hold the shield to minimize damage.

At times, it was so extreme he would ask about the optimal position as a tank according to the time, weather, and surrounding terrain.

This crude teaching method, which literally hammered all possible cases into my head, was not motivating me but rather depriving me of motivation.

Wow, where did you sell your sense of pacing, teacher? This isn’t a class; it’s just torture…!

“Then, let me explain from the beginning. Because Poison Moles tend to target people with high magical power first—”

“Ugh…”

At some point, I was about to have to withdraw almost everything from my goal of being ‘a good child who does well without much attention,’ leaving only the last four characters.

Literally asking until I knew, this amazing…

No, due to Odd’s grotesque persistence, I eventually had to memorize what I had learned from him with my body rather than my head for a while.

In other words, endless repetition of note-taking.

As I filled dozens of pages with only words that came out of Odd’s mouth, I ended up remembering them even if I didn’t want to.

By this point, I was suspicious that Odd was experimenting on me.

Such an unethical experiment on how much the brain can be overworked before a person breaks.

However, even if Odd was really experimenting on me, I had no choice.

No one threatened me with a knife to take Odd as a teacher, to put it bluntly.

Come to think of it, despite Asha’s countless dissuasions, it was I who ultimately said I would take lessons from Odd.

“Then, when you encounter a Forest Turtle deep in a mountain forest, what should you—”

“InThecaseOfForestTurtlesSinceTheSpinesProtrudingFromTheirShellsAreThreateningFirstYouShouldCheckWhereTheirGazeIsDirectedWhileMaintainingDistance…”

Even by my own standards, I became a bit broken, but after memorizing the class content until then, I somehow managed to keep up with Odd’s pace again.

Yes, when I was once again able to answer Odd’s questions smoothly, I thought things would gradually get better and more familiar.

Even Odd couldn’t possibly provide lessons any harder than this.

But… that wasn’t the case.

I had underestimated this person who had been an instructor for a special forces unit.

“From today, we’ll also be conducting practical exercises.”

“WhenYouDiscoverAContaminatedSeaWormYouShouldFirstCheckIfThereIsAnAcridSmellAround… What? W-what did you just say?”

“I said I’ll check if your body knows what your head knows.”

And so, smack.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was rolling and rolling thanks to the hologram system of the training hall, which even implemented physical impacts.

The problem was that holograms are still holograms, so even after dealing damage to me, they didn’t fall into a state of confusion but instead sharply targeted the openings I showed.

Apparently, inanimate objects like holograms are not subject to [The Lesser of Two Evils].

Fortunately, thanks to my nearly infinite stamina stat, I didn’t tire so easily… but can that really be called fortunate?

“If you react that slowly, your companions are already all dead! Again!”

“The Ice Snake’s real attack is not from the front but from the side! Are you planning to escape the dungeon alone?”

“You shouldn’t block everything completely; you should have deflected some of it. I’m sure I told you there’s no way out when the ground itself collapses.”

The saying that if your head is good, your body suffers less, and if your body is good, your head suffers less didn’t seem to apply to me.

Even though there was some difficulty adjustment considering that I was still a child, it was overwhelming.

It was especially burdensome given that I consistently failed to cross the passing line by just a hair’s breadth.

It was also around that time I learned that even with a regeneration stat close to infinite, it couldn’t cover simple muscle pain.

I could barely move only after applying specially manufactured patches for hunters all over and wrapping pressure bandages around my joints.

Odd, of course, wasn’t worried much, saying it was the process of my body’s rapid growth.

Only guild members or staff who happened to encounter me at the guild headquarters would look at me with concern.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t even let out a slight groan because…

“Hmm. Did they do this much at the Academy too?”

“No, usually not to this extent.”

If by any chance I stopped taking lessons from Odd, the only option left for me would be the Academy.

With many tasks still remaining to be done at the Lunatic Guild headquarters, if I were dragged to the Academy before completing all of them, it would definitely be a bad ending regardless of the reason.

Even if not for achieving achievements, there were several incidents I needed to intervene in and get involved with for a better future.

And so, on a day when even tightening the white pressure bandages wrapped around both my ankles had become normal for me.

“…Huh?”

Unlike usual, the crowd concentrated on one side caught my eye.

Among the murmuring people, I eventually discovered a familiar face that I seemed to be seeing after quite a long time.

At this, I shifted my steps, which had been heading toward the back door of the guild headquarters, to the opposite direction.

Thus, as I was approaching Asha, taking one step at a time through the people gathered in the headquarters lobby.

“Uh… Huh?”

Before Asha could recognize me, I unconsciously stopped in my tracks upon encountering bright yellow eyes.

Simultaneously, step.

The woman who had been talking with Asha until just now, dressed in pure white clothes that gave off some kind of sacred atmosphere, began walking toward me.

Not long after, the noble footsteps finally approached right in front of me.

However, from her elegantly opened mouth came words I could never have imagined.

“I want to raise this child.”

Sure enough, seeing Asha’s face contorting by the second, cold sweat naturally began to seep out.