(134) Declaration by Jofre and others of their intention to partic.i.p.ate in battle

Translator: Tseirp

The sounds of shovels and pickaxes echoed in the valley.

The path that was blocked due to a mudslide. There, dozens of workers worked to remove the earth and rocks.

As the valley is originally a bedrock area, those rocks were all extremely large so the removal work faced difficulties as they could not remove them without breaking the rocks.

” … Isn’t it completely wrong … seriously, don’t mention gold, I don’t even see traces of a mine.”

At the beginning, Sutchino was eager for the prospects of finding gold but after the work progressed for one day, two days and three days, he was disgusted with the plain work. He also didn’t hear any exclamations from the surroundings from finding gold.

“Well, don’t say such things Sutchino. Isn’t it refreshing to work off a sweat like this?”

Using his wrist to wipe his forehead so that the sweat don’t flow into his eyes, Julio worked to shovel away earth and sand.

Doing so, n.o.body would be able to guess his former juvenile delinquent label. He looked like a good-natured youth no matter how you looked at him. Sutchino could only sigh at the transformation his childhood friend went through.

The Secret Society Ma.s.sacre he sat as President in was already disbanded.

Sutchino did so because he wanted to monopolize the money they earned in the previous battle.

However, Julio was different. Julio had completely been charmed by a man. And he decided to follow that man.

“It’s something I learned from my teacher in the past but everything has what’s called a critical point, if you hit that spot with a single strike, you would be able to crush anything. Look at this!”

The person who said that was the red-haired man Julio admires, Jofre.

He held a pickaxe up and closed his eyes.

Tension was born between Julio and Jofre.

Then ―

“This is my actual ability!”

He cried as he swung his pickaxe sideways towards a conspicuous rock.

In the end, due to the strange force applied to it, the handle of Jofre’s pickaxe broke and it became unusable.

“As expected of Jofre-aniki, breaking a pickaxe with a single strike is super powerful!”

Julio exclaimed excitedly. In his ears, he didn’t hear the ‘Hey there newbie, you broke another pickaxe!?’ ‘You won’t get off easily if you break another one okay!’ hoots from the surroundings.

“It’s nothing. To me, breaking a pickaxe is easier than snapping three arrows.”

He proudly boasted with an anecdote which Jofre couldn’t understand that was spread in this world by some j.a.panese person.

Then ―

“It’s here! The exalted one is here!”

“Open the path! Don’t be a nuisance to the exalted one!”

“Offerings! Prepare the offerings!”

The workers opened the path, the ones that appeared were Elise and Milky ― riding on top of Centaur.

“Centaur-sama, here are some harvested delicious wild gra.s.s. Please enjoy.”

After a worker said that, Centaur neighed once before beginning to eat the wild gra.s.s.

At that moment, Elise got off Centaur and rushed to Jofre.

“Jofreeee! I brought your bento! I’ve been wanting to see you for so long.”

“Oo Eliseeee! I’ve been wanting to see you for so long too! Thank you for doing this for me.”

Exchanging word that was unimaginable given that they only parted three hours ago, Elise and Jofre shared a hot embrace. Somebody dutifully tsukkomi-ed with ‘That bento is everybody’s share so don’t eat it on your own!’

During that time, Centaur was continually eating the wild gra.s.s and just as he was about to take the final bite … there was a rope bound to that bunch of wild gra.s.s and a worker threw it with all his might behind a huge boulder.

Then, Centaur chased after it ― naturally, towards the direction of the huge boulder ―

Centaur hit the boulder head-on. The boulder crumbled into pieces.

Among the jubilant cheers, Centaur ate the final bunch of wild gra.s.s as if nothing had happened.

“As expected of Centaur-sama.”

“Centaur-sama, we hope that you will aid us again.”

“We will prepare delicious wild gra.s.s.”

They lowered their heads to Centaur as the workers carried the fragmented rocks.

” … As expected of Jofre-aniki’s companion, even your slow donkey is not to be trifled with.”

“Right? I felt that it was different from the other horses the moment I saw it.”

Jofre said proudly but Sutchino retorted bitterly in his heart ‘You felt that it was different from the other horses because it is a donkey’.

Then, while hiding from the workers carrying the rocks, he headed to the bushes beside the valley.

Just as he was about to skip out of work, he heard voices coming from the bushes.

He thought that they were people who were slacking off like him but when he listened carefully,

“It’s dreadful nya dreadful nya!”

He heard cute voices. Due to the unique way of speech, he immediately thought that they were Cat Siths. They may be a rare race but they can occasionally be seen even in Ferruit. They are a moderate race that fundamentally doesn’t like to fight.

“It’s dreadful nya, the King has pa.s.sed away nya.”

“I heard nya! We should quickly return to the village nya. The fight to decide the new King will begin soon nya.”

“Before that, we need to gather five fighters nya! Let’s gather Adventurers from the Adventurer’s Guild nya! We’ll splurge on the rewards to gather them nya!”

“Nya, you are aiming for the King’s position nya?”

“If you’re a man then you must aim for the top once in your life nya.”

“So cool nya! I also want to try saying a line like that nya.”

“Then you give it a try too nya.”

“Is it okay nya? Then I’ll try. If you’re a man ―”

“Oi!”

Interrupting the Cat Sith’s words, Sutchino appeared in front of the Cat Siths.

“Nya, human, when did you begin eavesdropping from nya?”

“Rather than that, tell me. What do you plan to do by gathering Adventurers? Will it turn lucrative?”

※※※

That night, Sutchino gathered Jofre, Elise, Julio and Milky and revealed it to them.

That soon, a fight to decide on a new King would begin.

He doesn’t know about the fight contents but by gathering five fighters and a Cat Sith to enter the match, winning it would allow them to become the new King of the Cat Siths.

“Why don’t we partic.i.p.ate too? We have just nice five people here. Julio and I may just be there to fill the numbers but you all should know Milky’s ability. Furthermore, there’s Jofre-san and Elise-san. There’s no blind spot. I will reply the Cat Sith tomorrow.”

“No no, Sutchino. We’re currently entrusted with the extremely important task of removing earth?”

Julio was the first to disagree. To him who usually didn’t work, the work this time round was tough but it was the trigger that made him discover the joys of labor. He was the exact opposite of Sutchino.

“No, isn’t it fine? It seems interesting and it can be where this Hero Jofre shows his skills.”

“Kyaa, Jofre is so cool! That’s right, I’ll make bento and bring it there.”

“That’s true, please make egg omelet for me. Elise’s egg omelet is the best after all.”

“As expected of Jofre-aniki! I will follow aniki and burn the image of that brave warrior into my eyes!”

Saying the complete opposite of what he was saying just now, Julio decided to follow Jofre.

“Ah, but instead of Sutchino and I, shouldn’t you invite Jo-aniki and Haru-anego instead?”

“No, we’ll go with the five here! I’m here after all, you can rely on me.”

Casting a sideway glance to Jofre laughing joyfully, Sutchino finally spoke to Milky.

Milky replied with a ‘Nn, sure.’ and announced that she would join without much enthusiasm.

Thus, the members were gathered but,

“By the way Julio. You call Jo-san and Haru-san aniki and anego but why is that?”

Sutchino inadvertently asked Julio that.

Then, Julio answered with a ‘Why are you asking something so obvious?’ expression.

“He is Jofre-aniki’s companion. As Jofre-aniki’s younger brother, I naturally have to address them politely.”

” … Nothing, if you are fine with it then it doesn’t matter …”

Sutchino thought to himself.

(Is it possible that Julio that idiot has not realized that Jo-san and Haru-san are the Ichinojo and Haurvatat who captured his respected Uncle Narube?)

That’s not possible, thought Sutchino as he shook his head. But, if it was true, at the very least he should keep quiet about it until this battle ends.

(Since I will be the one who obtains the King’s treasure.)