The task Ban brought was an extension of the Goblin settlement incident.

    Not as dangerous as that time, but more stomach-churning than then.

    That was to recover the victims’ bodies and return.

    Although we burned the goblins’ houses and totems last time, we couldn’t clean up the mess of scattered bodies.

    “Are we delivering these to the bereaved families?”

    As I was suppressing nausea and sorting the fragmented bodies and bones, Ban countered as if asking what on earth that meant.

    “These? To the bereaved families? Do you not have a human heart?”

    “What…?”

    “It’s better not to show bodies like these. What we have to do is recover them so they are no longer desecrated, and have them cremated or buried through the Adventurer’s Guild.”

    Ban seriously blamed me and recovered the bodies while wearing gloves.

    Maggots were teeming, and all sorts of insects, including gnats, were swarming.

    Even if I didn’t want to understand what “no longer desecrated” meant, I came to understand it.

    “…Then what should we tell these people’s families?”

    “That’s not our part; the Guild has to find those people and deliver the news.”

    Ban sighed, approached me, and checked the bodies I had recovered.

    “Hey, you need to shake these insects off properly.”

    “Understood…”

    “Ellie.”

    “Yes?”

    When I replied, tilting my head, Ban remained silent for a moment before speaking.

    “Why do you think I care about you so much?”

    Ban muttered while examining a detached finger, whose owner was unknown.

    It was a very sudden question, but Ban’s voice wasn’t as lighthearted as usual, making me feel I had to choose my words carefully when answering.

    “…Thinking about it, Ban has been kind to me so far, but has only ever told me bad things.”

    For instance, even when I went down into the trap to detach the goblin’s nose, he made what wasn’t quite a threat, but didn’t need to be said.

    He told me many stories about adventurers, and most of those stories were only negative ones.

    “Do you want me to quit being an adventurer?”

    “…That’s your freedom. I’m not some great person who can tell others what to do.”

    But-, Ban continued.

    “It’s just that it’s regrettable that at a young age, you insist on having a job where you live hand-to-mouth and might die any day.”

    As expected, Ban seemed not to like the adventurer profession itself very much.

    Even though his own job was that of an adventurer.

    “Now that I think about it, it was strange. From the moment you beckoned me over, someone clearly looking incapable of physical strength, and then asked if I knew how to use strength.”

    It was strange from the moment he said that even after seeing my physique.

    I thought he either had very poor eyesight or was someone without prejudice.

    It seemed he called me over because I, looking young, claimed to be an adventurer.

    “But Ban, isn’t it pushing it a bit to say you were just worried and cared about me?”

    “…What.”

    “You took an ignorant young adventurer and threw them in as bait in a goblin settlement subjugation operation where they could’ve easily died. And that was with an 8:2 contract.”

    Separate from Ban not being an evil person, from that perspective, words like what he was saying now were a little funny to just listen to seriously.

    “…I, uh, told you, didn’t I? That I’m not some great person who can tell you what to do with your choices, and of course, it was me who brought up the goblin subjugation, but honestly, I thought you’d get scared and run away.”

    Ban had such an awkward expression that I unknowingly clicked my tongue.

    “Were you expecting me to get scared just by bringing up goblins in the first place?”

    “Yeah…”

    “Why?”

    “Because I did.”

    “You’re a coward.”

    The idea that Ban, who was around 190cm tall and a muscular build, had been scared didn’t quite resonate with me.

    Perhaps noticing my doubts, Ban muttered in a timid voice that didn’t match his build.

    “Well, because I was young back then.”

    “How old were you?”

    “It was soon after I became an adventurer, so it was nearly 10 years ago.”

    Since he said he’s in his mid-twenties now, would he have been in his mid-teens 10 years ago?

    Then it was understandable that he would be scared at the thought of facing monsters.

    Anyway.

    “Stop dragging it out and say what you have to say. The intro is too long.”

    “Shall I?”

    I didn’t know why on earth he was dragging out his words like this to say something, but since I would just be indifferent no matter what he said, I nodded my head, and Ban, observing my reaction, threw out a blunt statement.

    “You, you have no talent. If you want to live even a little longer, you should quit being an adventurer.”

    “Can you recognize talent too?”

    “Because I have no talent, I’m good at recognizing people who have no talent.”

    No talent, huh.

    I think I understood what he meant.

    “Ban, you’re regretting it.”

    “I always regret it. But now, I’ve become the kind of person who can only do this kind of work, too late to find something else.”

    Ban shrugged his shoulders, and I glanced at him with a sideways look.

    He started working as an adventurer 10 years ago.

    And 10 years later, Ban’s rank was Bronze.

    I had heard that adventurers usually needed to be Silver rank to be properly recognized/treated.

    If that was true, it meant Ban wasn’t getting proper recognition/treatment even after 10 years.

    The reason was obvious. It was because he had no talent.

    He was frustrated because he had no talent, and because of that, he only stayed in place.

    He disliked himself for that, and so he was projecting himself onto me and urging me to quit being an adventurer.

    Was it for me? Or for himself?

    I didn’t quite know, but my answer was decided.

    “I won’t regret it. I know I have no talent, but I like the job of being an adventurer.”

    “Is that so.”

    I covered up the label of being from the slums by calling myself an adventurer.

    Just by doing this, there was no reason for me to quit being an adventurer.

    “Okay then, I won’t say anything unnecessary anymore.”

    Ban sighed as if feeling both relieved and disappointed by my answer, and began tidying the bodies again.

    “If you happen to see any identity tags or personal belongings they had while alive, collect them separately.”

    “Okay.”

    Since there was no way these bodies could be shown to the bereaved families.

    We could only substitute by washing the personal effects clean and returning them.

    “…It’s almost over.”

    “9 people, the damage was worse than I thought.”

    I thought there were only 8 – 5 female heads stuck in totems and 3 male heads lying around.

    With a skull found in the corner, the total number of victims was confirmed to be 9.

    “We should have subjugated them earlier.”

    “Nothing can be done by saying that now. First, let’s gather the bodies by individual and put them in the bags we brought.”

    “Okay…”

    Before placing the bodies in the bags, Ban and I lightly observed a moment of silence for the bodies.

    I didn’t know, but Ban told me we had to do this.

    I thought it was a medieval-style world where human lives were worth less than insects, a place like that.

    Contrary to what I thought, the treatment of the dead was better than I expected.

    “Let’s go.”

    “Okay…”

    Carrying the bags containing the bodies, I returned with Ban.

    After a simple funeral was held, the reward I received was 1 silver coin.

    Perhaps because it wasn’t dealing with creatures like goblins, but the cleanup afterwards, they didn’t give as much money as a reward as before.

    Like that, I parted with Ban and returned to the inn once more.

    I trained with my sword for about 2 hours, washed, and fell asleep.

    The next day, my whole body was stiff, but I managed to wake up on time.

    Besides the blisters on my soles, my toenails had turned black. They would probably fall off on their own before long.

    I had overdone it in the past few days, and my body was a mess.

    But I shouldn’t rest.

    That’s what I thought, and instead of going to the Guild today, I trained with my sword for 9 hours.

    That was the entirety of my day.

    Another day dawned.

    I went to the Guild and took on a light request.

    It was a request that followed from the basement warehouse rat extermination I handled last time.

    The content was that since all the rats were handled, they wanted to clean the basement warehouse, and the request fee was higher than expected, so I couldn’t refuse.

    A whopping 2 silver coins.

    When I confidently went and said I would clean, they lent me cleaning tools.

    As it was a warehouse attached to a mansion, it was monstrously large, but after struggling for two nights straight, I was finally able to finish it.

    Returning to the inn, I slept and woke up, and a whole day had disappeared.

    I was stunned, but since a day had flown by, the situation wasn’t good for just sitting around and resting, so I headed straight for the Guild.

    As I entered the Guild, Ban welcomed me and said he had another subjugation request and would be gone far away for a while.

    I didn’t know why he was telling me that, but I waved my hand and told him to have a good trip.

    The grim-faced man who lent me gold coins, and the unpleasant woman who called me brazen, were also with him.

    Thinking the Guild would be quiet for a while, I took a herb gathering request and climbed the mountain.

    I filled a bag full of herbs and received 50 copper coins.

    Four days passed like that, and Ban didn’t return.

    Literally, it seemed he had gone ‘far away’.

    I began to get used to adventurer work.

    No one approached me first like Ban did, emitting an unpleasant aura.

    Thanks to that, I didn’t get into troublesome situations, but I felt a little lonely.

    Thanks to doing requests without rest until now, I was less worried about money for the time being, so I decided to focus only on sword training today.

    Another three days passed.

    The grim-faced man returned alone, having lost one arm.

    What on earth happened.

    It was very easy to figure out.

    I overheard the grim-faced man’s report.

    He said the monster subjugation was successful, but they encountered a bandit group on the way back, and Ban and Cheshire died.

    I wasn’t sad enough to weep, but I had a bitter taste in my mouth.

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