The Healer Banished From The Party, In Fact, Is The Strongest - Chapter 54

 Chapter 54 – v2c15 – Unsatisfying Fight

「…Why are you here?」

I couldn’t hide my surprise from the sudden appearance of a first-class party that brandishing their weapons.
I understood, of course, that the party in front of me, called War God’s Great Sword, was hostile to us who climbed the rank at a stroke.
But, the party knew the difference in our ability, and so they didn’t do anything more than harassing me and Narsena.

That was why, for them to come attacking right after the phoenix subjugation was a completely unexpected situation for me.

「Do they don’t know about it yet?」

Seeing me whose surprise was apparent, the warrior that seemed to be their leader smiled triumphantly.

「Ohh we know alright, that your party is parasitizing the party of the guild’s agent. This swindler! Let me show you the real first-class party!」

「I see……」

The warrior’s words let me understood the answer to my question, I was almost sighing.

Actually, I and Narsena have been pretending to Zieg-san’s party members since the phoenix subjugation.
But in the end, that’s untrue.
Our decision to join Zieg-san’s party was to limit the solicitation from other parties and the guild staff trying to make us into exclusive adventurers.

However, for War God’s Great Sword who didn’t know about this, they seemed to think that we have been colluding for a long time.
In other words, they probably believed that the mutated hydra we defeated was a credit stolen from Zieg-san, and our abilities weren’t a big deal.
And so, like hammering down the sticking up nail, they came to beat down the newcomer.

Understanding that, I couldn’t hide my exasperation at their shallow judgment.
In any case, it wasn’t strange if we got invited into the party of the guild’s agent after we defeated a mutated hydra.
And yet, for the first thing that came to their mind to be collusion and they immediately took action after that just show how narrow their field of vision was.
It was a seriously annoying misunderstanding.

But right now, this attack wasn’t an annoyance to me.

While strengthening my body with magic power and ki in preparation for the fight, I moved my mouth a little.
This is a good opportunity to test my strength.

「Tch-! You can only afford to stay composed now! Oy, let’s do this! This will only count as a personal struggle by the guild as long as we don’t kill him! Beat him up boys!」

The leader-like warrior who seemed to be frustrated by my lack of expression other than surprise shouted at his party members.
In response to that shout, the members of War God’s Great Sword who had their weapon out in advance entered battle stance, the atmosphere in this place turned tense at once.

There are five opponents.
Two warriors, one martial artist, one healer, and one magician.
No wonder they’re being called a first-class party, the killing intent they emitted is much more intense compared to the Wolf of Calamity that I had fought before.
Also, given they’re aiming for the time when I’m not with Narsena, it’s obvious they’re also not careless.
If it’s the yesterday me, then even if I don’t end up losing, it would still take a long time to settle this with them as the opponent.

That’s why, I should be able to see my growth from this fight.
Thinking so for a moment, the corner of my mouth raised a little.

「Haaa!」

The next moment, I started running toward War God’s Great Sword.
「F-Fast!」

The moment I took a step toward War God’s Great Sword with my strengthened body, I closed the distance in an instant
One of their warriors, while being startled, still managed to react to my movement.

「Ghaa!」

However, he could only go as far as raising his sword a little.
Without pulling my dagger, I strike his chin, the warrior fell with his eyes rolled back.

「Wha-!」

Due to the sudden event, the movement of War God’s Great Sword’s stopped for an instant.
It was too big of a gap to expose in the middle of battle.

「Hiie-!」
Before their other vanguard could react, I closed my distance toward the mage.
The mage who saw me approaching, with dread in his eyes, desperately trying to fall back.
Without changing his state, while it looked miserable, that was an optimal move for a magician, I was impressed by the action he took.

「Gobo-!」

But that didn’t stop me, I hit the magician in the solar plexus.
The blow stopped his breathing and he writhed on the ground.

「Fuck you!」

Utilizing the gap from when I hit the magician, the martial artist that finally able to move attacked me.

A shiver ran on my spine against the approaching fist.
With the martial artist’s ability, it didn’t matter how much I strengthened my body or how many layers my armor had.
If I took the blow from this martial artist, even the current me would be out of commission.

However, the fist that was much slower than Narsena’s and lacking sharpness never hit me.
The martial artist aimed at my upper chest and I dodged by ducking.
And then, as his fist passed overhead, I hit his chin with my elbow.

「Sh,it…」

After getting hit with my elbow, the martial artist didn’t immediately fall, but instead went a few steps back.
That was his limit.
The martial artist moaned that words before falling to the ground.

Only the leader and the healer left.

「Hi-Hi-《Heal》《Heal》.」

「F-Fuck!」

………I turned around while thinking so, but the moment Ward God’s Great Sword entered my sight, I realized that the fight was over.

Of the War God’s Great Sword, their youngest member, the healer was trying to heal his fellow members, but he had completely lost his composure and only cast the least effective 《Heal》.
……Even though I left him until the end as a handicap, it didn’t mean anything.

Compared to the healer, the leader, the swordsman was still looking better.
Maybe he thought about attacking me after I dodged the martial artist’s fist, he had his greatsword pointed at me.
However, his face was pale.
It was clear to anyone that the sight of his companion being defeated in an instant singlehandedly by me broke his fighting spirit.

「Hahh~…」

「Kh!」

At the sight of War God’s Great Sword losing their will to fight, what I felt wasn’t achievement after the fight was over, nor the joy of being the victor, it was a disappointment at my enemies.
The body-strengthening I used in this battle wasn’t all that strong.
I planned to strengthen it slowly after getting my body accustomed to it.
The fight was over before that.

Because of this, I felt a strong dissatisfaction with War God’s Great Sword.
Certainly, they were shaken by my movement that they couldn’t do their usual coordination.
Still, for the fight to be settled this fast, weren’t they too weak?

……Thinking normally, there was no way these adventurers could handle my strengthened attack which could injure even the super-high difficulty monsters even if they’re hanging around the labyrinth lower-layer, I didn’t notice that, however.

My interest in thinking about them had been lost.

「…They will be angry if I don’t hurry..」

The only thing in my mind was the feeling that I needed to go to the city quickly.
Being urged by the feeling, I turned my back toward War God’s Great Sword and walked away.

There was no need to settle this anymore.

「Fucking-!」

The leader of War God’s Great Sword was furious at my attitude.

「L-Leader! Let’s just let him go…」

「Shut up!」

「Ghack!」

He hit the healer that was trying to stop him and then took a step toward me.
…However, that was as far as he could do by leaving his body up to anger.

「Hiee!」

The moment I put my hand on my dagger, the face of their leader turned pale, as if the anger from before was just a lie.
In the end, it seemed like he was trying to regain his fighting spirit with anger, but it wasn’t like he didn’t understand the difference in our ability.
He didn’t have any energy left to resist.

「Look after your companion by yourself.」

After determining that, I said so and then left the place.
The conclusion was faster than expected, but it was still cutting it close.
I will get scolded if I don’t hurry.

「The lot in the guild,…lie……」

The words that the leader of War God’s Great Sword muttered at the end never reached my ears as I started to run……

◇ ◆ ◇

After leaving the vacant lot, I arrived at my destination in the city about ten minutes later.

「Nii-channn! Too lateeee!」

「Yeah! Late!」

It was a little later than the promised time, I was surrounded by the kids who were waiting for me, they were booing at me.
It looked like they were looking forward to it from how angry they were.

「Sorry. Look I will start right away, so will you forgive me?」

「It can’t be helped then! But just this one time!」

「One time!」

But as soon as I apologized, the kids let me go.
Then, after I sat down as I was prompted, the kids turned their expectant eyes toward me.
In this way, while feeling a little weird that their attention gathered on me, I opened my mouth as the kids rushed me.

「Alright then, let’s continue the story before.」

What the kids, mainly boys, wanted to hear about was the phoenix and the mutated hydra subjugation.
For some time now, the kids had been asking about the story of my adventures.
It was a strange feeling to talk about this to other people, but I didn’t hate this feeling.
So, when I had time, I was requested to tell my story to the kids.

「Alright, that’s it for today.」

It didn’t take long, and I ended my story as usual.
…But somehow, the reaction of the kids was different today.
If it was like the usual, after I ended the story, the kids would grumble, but today, the were strangely quiet.
Their reaction made me tilted my head while wondering whether they ate something strange.
However, I was only able to keep my composure until the next words the kids were saying.

「…T-That, today, Nii-chan, can you teach us about the sword?」

「Me too!」

「-!」

Hearing that, I lost my words.
Their words, it was the development I was concerned about.
Namely, the development where the kids wanted to become adventurers.

Certainly, you could potentially become a hero by being an adventurer, it was a job most dreamed to become.
However, becoming an adventurer wasn’t easy enough that you had a leeway to dream about becoming a hero.
……I’ve lived as a bottom-feeder for a long time, I understood that more than anyone.

That was why I talked about the severity of it so they wouldn’t easily dream to become adventurers when they heard my story.
But, seeing many kids wanted me to teach them about the swords, I felt a little regret that I might have failed to convey that.

「…It’s not like I particularly want to become adventurer, this is not because of that.」

「……Huh?」

However, my regret was groundless.

「I know how tough becoming an adventurer is, and I don’t want to make mom worry.」

The boy who was the leader of the children, the one that asked me to teach them about the sword, said so with seriously grown-up eyes.
And hearing that, I now remember.

The kids living in this city together with adventurers would never dream to become an adventurer.
The reason the boys wanted to be strong wasn’t that shallow.

「Still, we want to be stronger, like Nii-chan and the people who helped the city by selling the raw material, we want to be as strong as those people. Enough that, one day, we could protect our family.」

The motivation for the boys to become stronger was a strong determination born from their yearning.

Right, seeing the boy told me that while looking a bit shy, I felt ashamed of my thoughtlessness.
Looking at them again, they still looked too young to think like that.

「This brat! Stop it!」

「Heh-! Who will listen to that!」

I could see one of the adventurers that were prostrated before me and ordered to sell raw material in the city chasing after a kid in the distance.
He was probably those adventurers that sold raw material and saved the city the boy mentioned.
Apparently, while my concern went somewhere else, the adventurers and the city folks had grown accustomed to each other.

My expression relaxed when I saw the face of that adventurer was softer than what I remember.
In the first place, my request for those adventurers to sell raw material to the city folks was to help them.
But looking at the current situation, it seemed to be the best decision even for the adventurers.

「Whoa!」

Feeling somewhat amused by the discovery, I stroked the head of the boy, surprising him, and then I opened my mouth.

「Alright, I will teach you guys about the sword when I’m free. Also, when I’m not around, feel free to ask other adventurers instead.」

「Eh, is that okay?」

「They probably will at least hear your request, good luck.」

After telling them my one-sided idea, I said my farewell and then walked back toward the inn.

I’m not good with them, and I haven’t talked much with other adventurers.
But it might be alright to have a proper talk with them some other time.

「Welcome back, Onii-san.」

「Narsena?」

My thoughts interrupted when I saw Narsena in front of the inn.

「I’m sorry if I surprise you…」

I didn’t know why Narsena was in front of the inn, but seeing me surprised, Narsena apologetically apologize.
But the next moment, Narsena opened her mouth with a serious expression.

「But, there is something we need to talk about.」