Chapter 32 – Education Time

Education Time

Ratatata─!
The battle started with Hector’s sudden charge.
“Kuaaaah!!!!”
Hector’s loud battle cry breaks the silence that was flowing between us and the werewolves.
Hector’s greatsword gleaming under the moonlight.
Hector, who charged at the werewolves alone with his greatsword first, cut down one werewolf with his battle cry.

The werewolf howling in pain, its body deeply slashed by his sword.
… The creature immediately tried to bite Hector’s body with its sharp teeth, but Hector’s movement was a bit faster.
Thud. Hector, who stabbed his sword into the werewolf counterattacking him, immediately turned his head towards another werewolf.

“…Really!”
Eddie joined Hector with words mixed with irritation.
It seems he didn’t like Hector’s action of charging without properly forming a formation.
“What are you doing charging like that on your own?!”
“It’s my choice!”
Thud─!
Eddie made an air hole in the head of a werewolf approaching behind Hector with his long spear.

‘Clean.’
The huge body of the werewolf convulsed for a moment, then collapsed with a thud.
The werewolves realized we weren’t easy prey.
“”Grrrrrr!!!””
They quickly started to surround and encircle Hector and Eddie.
With the werewolves’ attention focused on the front line, the situation allowed me and Mari to provide support fire relatively easily.

Starting with the howl of the werewolf that seemed to be the leader, they all started to rush towards Eddie and Hector at once.

“Hector-san. Behind you!”
“I know!”
Since both of them can basically enhance their bodies with mana, they’re holding their own in physical fights even against elephant-sized werewolves, but they seem a bit overwhelmed.
I wasn’t just watching either.
“[Wind Cutter]”

I cut in half a werewolf attacking from their blind spot. Werewolf blood splatters and a short cut-off howl.
The pungent smell of blood reached my nose carried by the wind.
‘Ugh. The smell.’
Right at that moment, a werewolf leaping up to attack from behind Eddie.
Eddie doesn’t seem to have noticed. That’s dangerous.

Eddie is stabbing his spear into the head of a werewolf attacking from the front.
The huge shadow of a werewolf starts to loom over him.
“[Gravity]”
Kugugugu─!
I immediately pressed down with powerful gravity around the werewolf aiming for Eddie’s back.
The werewolf crashed to the ground as if a stone thrown into the sky had plummeted to the floor.

“Thank you! May-san!”
Eddie, who immediately stabbed his spear into the werewolf pinned to the ground by gravity, looked at me and expressed his gratitude.
‘Seems he has some leeway.’
Seeing as he has the leisure to express gratitude during battle.

“……Power of the glacier. Pierce through them. [Freezer]”
As Mari finished her incantation, brilliant glacial light burst from her hand, and huge ice shards shot rapidly towards the werewolves.
Swoosh─!
The ice magic scattering like snowflakes.
The trajectory of the finely controlled ice shards flexibly avoided Hector and Eddie confronting at the front and pierced through the creatures.

One by one. Another one.
The werewolves falling one by one, soon only one remained.
…The last werewolf, seeming to sense its impending death, turned its back and tried to flee hurriedly.
‘No chance.’
My wind blade aimed at the last one cleanly cut the werewolf’s body in half.
With blood splattering in the air and the werewolf’s death cry, the battle ended more easily than expected.

“Adventurers are amazing!!!!!!!”
“Woohoo!!!!!”
The merchant group people started cheering.
But unlike them filled with joy, the atmosphere on our side was quite different.
“Hector-san. What were you thinking charging in recklessly like that?”
Even Eddie, who usually laughed off most things, seemed angry about this incident.
The one who seemed to have a good personality started protesting to Hector in a strong tone.

“For mere werewolves? Pfft.”
Hector replied to Eddie with an irritating expression.
“That’s not the point. Your actions endangered others too. Hector-san’s actions.”
“Then you guys are just weak. Is that my fault?”
A level of shamelessness that makes even me, just listening, angry.

“…I’m going to sleep.”
Perhaps not wanting to get involved with him, Mari left a short comment and headed to the tent.
“Um… Adventurer-nim. Thank you. We’ll be going now.”
The other merchant group people seemed to notice the situation was turning unfavorable, so they left a brief thank you to me and started returning to their tents.

“Hey Eddie. You seem to have a lot of complaints about me… Want to fight?”
“How can you say that… Sigh. Nevermind, Hector-san.”
In the end, Eddie, fed up with Hector who wouldn’t listen to reason, turned his back on him.
A wise decision. You can’t try to have a conversation with a passing dog.
‘It’s even unfair to compare him to a dog.’
Sorry, dogs.

“Pfft. A wimp who doesn’t even have the guts to fight acts tough in front of a woman.”
Hector is happy thinking he’s won again. Stupid guy.

He seems to think Eddie is really avoiding him out of fear. He’s avoiding him because he’s disgusting.
“I’m sorry, May-san. I feel like I caused unnecessary conflict…”
“No. You did well.”
Eddie apologizing even for that. I feel like I’ve swallowed two sweet potatoes without water.

But since I can’t show that, I gave him words of encouragement.
“We have to endure. Even if we dislike him, he’s a party member. Let’s just endure until this mission is over.”
“Haha. I guess so. May-san, you’re so mature.”

Eddie said, scratching his head as if embarrassed.
…I didn’t bother to answer his words.
“Then. Have a good night, May-san.”
“You too, Eddie-san.”
After exchanging brief greetings in front of the tent, we headed to our respective tents.

“Phew….”
Mari was already lying down.
She’s sleeping soundly, making slightly cute breathing sounds.
‘I’m mature? No way.’

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I had with Airi in the carriage during the previous request.
I’m not sure how we got to that topic, but I asked Airi how to deal with conflicts between adventurers.

To my question about what happens when fights break out between adventurers on the same request, Airi answered like this:
“…Basically, fighting between adventurers is against the rules.”
“Then what do you do when conflicts arise between adventurers?”
“In that case, you can either ask the Adventurers’ Guild to mediate or…”
At that time, Airi whispered to me with a face full of laughter:
“…Just beat them up without getting caught. So they can’t even think of tattling.”

I deliberately stayed awake until everyone fell asleep.
For education time.

———

A night with moonlight settling down.
The grass spread out on the plain faintly sparkles, and a cool breeze gently touches my body and disperses.
‘Ah. It’s a good day for education.’
Leaving Mari deeply asleep behind, I left the tent, looked around at the surroundings for a moment, then quietly headed towards the carriage where Hector was.

“ZzZ….”
The merchant group member on night watch was sleeping so deeply that he wouldn’t notice if someone kidnapped him.
…Thanks to the sleep magic I cast.
‘It would be troublesome if there were witnesses…’
The smell of werewolf blood carried by the wind.
It was clear that no one would notice if Hector’s blood mixed in a little with this bloody smell.

The carriages located not far from the tents.

The carriage where Hector was sleeping was the rearmost one among them.

Step, step.
I deliberately didn’t muffle my footsteps. It doesn’t matter if he notices.
When I arrived in front of Hector’s carriage, perhaps sensing my presence, Hector opened the carriage door while rubbing his half-closed eyes.

“Shit. I said I’m not doing night wat… Huh?”

Hector’s cursing words were cut off midway. Because our eyes met.
“What. You. Did you come for a hug?”
“…Come out.”
“I’m fucking sleepy, you bitch. Giving orders. Think I won’t hit you because you’re a woman?”

Hector gets out of the carriage and starts approaching me.
As he, a head taller than me, comes up threateningly close, I naturally had to raise my head to meet his eyes.
‘…At times like this, being short is a bit regrettable.’
His characteristic slit eyes were now so distorted that you could barely see his pupils, making me doubt if he could even see in front of him.

To him, I gave a final warning that wasn’t really a warning.
“I’ll say this one last time. Apologize to the party members.”
“Puhahahahahahaha!!!! I was wondering what you were going to say. Apologize?!”
The reason I expressed it as a warning that wasn’t really a warning was because I firmly believed Hector wouldn’t listen to my words.

“Don’t tell me, you let that girly guy do you on… Kuaaak!!!”
Smack─!
A right-hand straight that flew in a clean trajectory accurately hit Hector’s jaw.
‘It’s been a while since I hit someone with my fist.’
It’s a fist enhanced with strength magic. He probably never thought he’d be hit by a woman.

People with such confidence that pierces the sky need to be broken in their field of expertise. Magic lacks impact.
Thud. Hector staggered and sat down on the ground.
“What are you doing. Come at me.”
I beckoned him to come with a flick of my finger.
“You, you son of a bitch!!!!”
The education began.

——

“Ugh…..”
I woke up from sleep due to a sudden pain in the middle of the night. I think I was having a good dream, it’s a bit disappointing.
‘Did it graze me then? It stings…’
When I briefly shone a light artifact on the stinging part, I noticed a red, swollen wound.

It seems the part that was slightly scratched while fighting the werewolves before bed has worsened.
‘I think I had some medicinal herbs good for wounds in the luggage I brought……’
Health potions are expensive. I’m already in a situation where I’m skipping breakfast because I don’t have money these days, so it’s impossible to have such a luxury item.

It seems it will worsen if left alone, so I got up with my tired body and left the tent.
“Where did I put it…? Here it is.”
I found my belongings that I had roughly spread out on the cloth to secure the tent.
“Ouch…”

The stinging pain that came as I roughly crushed the well-wrapped medicinal herbs with my hand and applied them to the wound.
…I felt like I might cry a little, but I endured it, roughly secured it with a bandage, and stood up again.
‘I should buy at least a low-grade potion when I get this reward… Huh? The entrance is open?’

Just as I was about to return to the tent after finishing treatment,
I noticed that the entrance to the tent where Mari-nim and May-san would be sleeping was slightly open.
“…You’ll catch a cold.”
The night air is even chillier than expected.
I quietly approached the tent to close the door lest they catch a cold.

“Huh?”
The interior of the tent that I unintentionally saw.
Inside the tent gently lit by moonlight, only Mari-nim was there, with May-san nowhere to be seen.
‘I guess she went to the bathroom.’
If I happen to run into her, it would be a major incident. If May-san’s expression turns to disgust, I might die.

She’s one of the most beautiful people I’ve seen in my life, countable on my fingers.
Isn’t it natural for a man to not want to be disliked by such a woman?
‘…Except for Hector, I guess.’

Thinking that I never want to get involved with him again, I turned my head towards the carriage where he would be sleeping to spit once.
‘Huh? A human shadow?’
At first, I thought it was the merchant group person on night watch, but he’s sleeping soundly, even snoring.

Then who’s that person over there? Hector? But there are two people.
I slowly walked towards that shadow out of rising curiosity… and soon witnessed a shocking situation.
‘Maybe… am I still dreaming?’
The thought that I might still be dreaming flashed through my mind.

That’s because what I witnessed was May-san literally beating Hector to dust.