The Healer Banished From The Party, In Fact, Is The Strongest - Chapter 42

Encounter With Senior Disciple

—Raust—

Seeing a man who put his hand on my shoulder and made a friendly declaration suddenly appeared, Narsena wide-eyed in surprise.

「……Onii-san?」

And then, along with those words, Narsena sent me a gaze that spoke clearly of what she was thinking about.
“I want an explanation of what’s happening.”

…Alas, I also wanted an explanation.

I didn’t have any male acquaintance with that voice based on my memory, needless to say, I didn’t have another companion beside Narsena.
In other words, I also had no clue.

Thinking normally, this man might be lying, but I couldn’t figure out his motive; why he lied in this situation, and in the first place, why he suddenly appeared.

Considering the current situation, this man who was trying to pull me away from Nancy might be on our side.
But then it would just mean an extra member in our party, Nancy and the other guild’s staffs wouldn’t give up with this.
That means, if he wants to help us, claiming to be our comrade is useless.

That was why, I looked back, wondering why I suddenly got called out by him.

「——Gh!」

…That was when I noticed the abnormality of the man that spoke to me.

The man had a quite burly body and a well-featured appearance.
Many adventurers with vanguard roles had a strong body, but this man had a body one size larger than that which would surely catch everyone’s eyes.
Even so, that was a trivial matter to me.

……What robed my attention was the intimidating feeling that came from the man.

That intimidating feeling reminded me of the world-class warrior who trained me, Ronaldo-san.
And I knew the intimidating feeling that came from this man had the same quality as the one the Ronaldo-san in my memory exuded.

「G-Guild’s agent……」

「………Huh?」

…Nancy’s remark was what returned my mind which had stopped working for a while, back.

Guild’s agent, they were the best out of the first-class adventurers and said to be the closest to the world-class adventurers.
Unlike exclusive adventurers, guild’s agents could be certified even without a party, and their treatment was incomparable to what exclusive adventurers got.
The general perception was guild’s agents were at a higher caste compared to exclusive adventurers.

I’m surprised an adventurer like him is in Labyrinth city’s guild.
But at the same time, I’m convinced, him being a guild’s agent would explain his strength.

「You’re a guild’s agent, your movement would be hindered if you become an exclusive adventurer.」

While I was surprised by the sudden development, I understood the man was trying to help me.

A guild’s agent was said to have the authority on the level of branch guild’s head.
Of course, in the Labyrinth city which had authority independent from the guild’s headquarter, they couldn’t use that authority.
Still, for a guild’s staff like Nancy, the fact they couldn’t talk back was the same.
Using his position, the man was glaring at Nancy and the other guild’s staffs to apply pressure on them.

“Don’t get involved with me anymore from hereon.”

「B-But, I am……」

But even after receiving the warning, Nancy still spoke.
It looked like she hadn’t given up on me yet, she opened her mouth.

「Is there any complaint?」

「Kh! N-No……」

However, her complaint was blocked with that one remark.
His voice contained his irritation, and Nancy who received that looked pale.
I realized that she could no longer talk back to the man.

…And, there was no other guild’s staff trying to speak to me after seeing Nancy.
Some people were sending a regrettable glance this way, but nobody was trying to meddle with us now that I was under the protection of this man.

「Well then, should we go?」

The man asked for our confirmation with a smile.

「Umm…」

Doubt could be seen on Narsena’s face.
There was no way Narsena didn’t realize she was being helped by the man.
Even so, she still couldn’t hide her doubt for the man who suddenly appeared.

「Narsena, let’s just follow him quietly for now.」

「Y-Yes.」

However, I stopped Narsena.
Now is not the time to listen to his purpose.
And so, as prompted by the man, we left the guild……

◇ ◆ ◇

「I have nothing to say, you must be confused I suddenly claimed to be your companion, sorry.」

The man who was a guild’s agent bowed his head and apologized once we reached a place out of public eyes after we left the guild.

「N-No no! Don’t worry about it!」

「That’s right!」

Seeing the man’s completely unimaginable behavior, Narsena and I were flustered.
We were desperately trying to tell him we didn’t mind.
To be honest, I had a little doubt about the guild’s agent that helped us.
But, I never wanted to get an apology from him.

「We should be saying thanks to you instead!」

「Thank you for saying that.」

Relieved, the man raised his head when I told him that.

「I thought it was the best way, but it’s true I was being pushy……」

Apparently, the man was worried about claiming to be our comrade more than I expected.
Certainly, I was a bit more sensitive to other adventurers’ aggressive solicitation that I was quite surprised when this man claimed to be our company.
However, I didn’t feel anything like that from the man.
On the contrary, I felt grateful for him.

「No, I’m really grateful that you pull us out from that place.」

「Thank you very much! At that time, I don’t think we could get away from the guild’s staffs by ourselves…」

And so, Narsena and I thanked him to dispel his concern.

「It’s good if that’s the case. But, you don’t need to thank me.」

Feeling shy, the man laughed.
However, the man didn’t accept our thanks.

「Isn’t it natural for a senior to help their fellow disciple?」

「……Eh?」

「……Huh?」

…The next moment, Narsena and I was struck dumb by the man’s remark.

For the man to go this far, I knew there must be a reason for it.
But, a senior from the same master was not someone I expected to show up.

But on the other hand, I now confirmed what I thought about before.
After all, the reason why he got this intimidating feeling similar to Ronaldo-san had become clear.
And then, when I understood that, a name came to my mind.
It was the name of the one Ronaldo-san claimed to be the most powerful disciple among many other disciples of his.

「Zieg……san?」

And then, the man, Zieg-san answered me who timidly asked for confirmation of his name with a smile on his face.

「Ahh, I guess, nice to meet you?」

That was my first encounter with my senior disciple, Zieg-san.

◇ ◆ ◇

Later, we and Zieg-san moved to a cafe in the city.
Even on the way there, he already explained a lot of things, including why he knew I was his junior.

This time, Zieg-san visited Labyrinth city with Master, it seemed he was listening to our name and feature on the way here.
Soon after that, Narsena and I became famous, and so Zieg-san knew us one-sidedly.

…By the way, regarding the question of why he came with Master, Zieg-san didn’t answer and just giving me a troubled smile.

It seemed to be something that shouldn’t be spread.
I thought that Master was doing something against Labyrinth city’s guild regarding Wolf of Calamity, but it must more important than what I thought.
This might make things more complicated if we offered to help.

「… If so, is there nothing we could do to help?」

Determined to do so, I muttered that in the cafe.

Actually, before arriving at the cafe, Narsena and I had a discussion, the conclusion was we had to thank Zieg-san.
That was why, currently, while drinking tea in the cafe, I was thinking about how to thank Zieg-san.

……However, other than Zieg-san’s job, which I just found out I couldn’t help with, there was no other idea popped into my head.
Today was the first time Zieg-san and I meet, there was too little information that could help me.

「Zieg-san, I want to thank you, but……」

After a bit more of thinking, I gave up on figuring it out on my own and spoke to Zieg-san.

「Yes! Feel free to ask anything…… well, we might not have time in a couple of days, but…」

And then, piggybacking after me, Narsena also offered help to Zieg-san.
Apparently, Narsena didn’t even think about it.

「No, just the thought is enough…… Though, having said that, I’m sorry, can I ask you for a favor? As an official request?」

In response to our offer, Zieg-san replied with an awkward expression.

「I would like to temporarily make a provisional party with both of you.」

「………What?」

「Provisional… party?」

The next moment, both Narsena and I were bewildered by Zieg-san’s request.
Provisional party, in other words, Zieg-san was saying he would like to challenge the same quest together.
However, for a person in his caliber, to want to challenge a quest with a provisional party, just what kind of quest it is.

「Ugh!」

However, when I recalled a certain quest, I understood the reason Zieg-san wanted to for a provisional party.

If it was that monster, it was no wonder Zieg-san would propose this just in case.
It was a super-high difficulty monster in the labyrinth lower-layer that Narsena and I wanted to subjugate.

「I want you to help me defeat the phoenix.」

Both Narsena and I gasped when Zieg-san mentioned the monster in his mind which overlapped with one in ours.

I will tell you why this chapter took so long, for now, an actual translation note:

The senior and junior used here is not senpai and kouhai, but anideshi and otoutoudeshi, if you’re familiar with kung-fu movie or shaolin movie, it’s the equivalent of first brother, second brother, etc, basically, they who share a family connection through the same master, you should understand the deeper meaning of it if you watch Ryuuou no Oshigoto
The “Master” in this chapter referring to Ronaldo, not Ralma, I will see if there is a good way to differentiate those two if it’s needed in the future
I’m using a quotation mark for other people thought on top of the italic, I don’t know if that’s how it’s done in english, but I figure I need to differentiate it a bit