283: The Hardship of Two People

“Nii-sama, wake up, please.”

“…… Good morning, can you move away?”

I was shaken awake. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sophie sitting on top of the sleeping bag. I couldn’t get out of the sleeping bag.

“Okay.”

I said, and Sophie moved out of my way. Sophie was about to wake up Elira and Carina next, so I got out of the tent as fast as I could.

“Um…are you okay?”

“…… I’m fine.”

I went outside to see Shana, who was sitting there with a very tired look on her face. I sat down next to her.

“What have you been doing?”

“I slashed it five times and then magically killed it.”

“Just the two of you?”

“Just me.”

Apparently, Sophie was more of a Spartan than I was. Sophie, like me, had her barrier shining so that she would stand out. So Shana was defeating all the monsters that were coming in large numbers by herself.

“My level went up by ten just this night.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Yeah…”

If you only look at the results, you may be happy, but what she was doing looks very tough…

“Do you want to take some time off?”

“Yes, I do…”

Saying that, Shana rested her head on my shoulder.

And soon after, I heard the sound of a sleepy breathing.

“How tired did Sophie make you…”

I didn’t expect her to fall asleep so soon. Also, why didn’t she just rest in the tent like normal? I thought about carrying her back to the tent, but I didn’t want to wake her up.

“Nii-sama!”

“Shh!”

Sophie, who had woken up Elira and Carina, came to me. I put my index finger to my mouth and said this, and immediately she noticed Shana sleeping beside me.

“I’m going to prepare breakfast. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

“Thank you.”

I whispered to Sophie. Sophie also wanted to give Shana a rest.

“Nii-sama.”

“You’re done.”

Sophie came to tell us that breakfast was ready about an hour after Shana had gone to bed. Sophie had done some tidying up of the tent before the breakfast was ready, so she could let Shana rest for an hour.

“Shana, wake up.”

“Good morning, Shana.”

“Good morning. Did you get some rest?”

“Perfectly.”

Then the five of us ate bread and soup for breakfast.

“What are we going to do today?”

“Today, I think we should continue hunting monsters in places that are not that deep, just like we did yesterday.”

“Then let’s do that. Is there anyone who disagrees?”

There was no one who disagreed. Today, just like yesterday, we will continue to hunt monsters in the shallow areas of the forest.

“Do you dare to make a sound?”

“…… Shall we do so?”

After two hours of hunting, we have only encountered 10 monsters. If we continue to hunt like this, it is indeed inefficient. So I dared to make a sound to lure the monsters.

“Thunder Clap.”

I used the spirit magic I created with Zeal. The sound of thunder is a magic that only produces a loud sound of thunder. It does no damage at all. If you are hit at close range, your ears will be damaged.

Thud, thud, thud!

“There’s a lot of them coming.”

“Yes. Nii-sama, me and Elira are only assisting. The main combatants are Shana and Carina, so please do your best, both of you.”

“Nn.”

“Yes!”

It’s easy for strong monsters to react to sounds and come to you immediately. The weak monsters may be frightened by the sound and hide.

The three of us are responsible for making sure that Shana and Carina are ready for a one-on-one battle with the monsters. We would temporarily take care of any monster that might get in the way of that, and when Shana and Carina’s one-on-one battle was over, we would take our turns.

“I’m going.”

“Here I go…”

And then the hunt for monsters from the lure began.

“Haa…haa…haa…”

“Huh….huh…”

“Good job.”

They had been fighting for about two hours, and together they must have killed more than sixty of them. They were both exhausted, especially Carina, who was on the verge of hyperventilating.

“The two of you should take a break for a while. Then we’ll move around a bit and use the thunderclap again, and this time Elira will do it.”

I waited until the two of them had calmed down before moving on.

This time, Elira fought alone, I assisted her, and Sophie was Shana and Carina’s escort.

The next time, Sophie fought alone, I assisted her, and Elira escorted the two.

The two of us took less than three hours combined.

The reason I was the consecutive assistant was because I was good at leaving the monsters unharmed. Plus, it was just right for me to practice parrying an attack.

“I’ll be next.”

“Do you need help, Onii-sama?”

“You don’t need help, do you?”

“Eh?”

I was happy that my turn had finally come, huh? Isn’t there something wrong with the flow?

“Of course, I would immediately reach out to you if you were in danger, but you can defeat nearby monsters with your sword and distant monsters with magic, so I don’t think you need any assistance.”

“Haa…I understand.”

I felt like I had to do something hard if Sophie told me that much. Also, I would be able to gain more experience without assistance.

Thus, I was the only one to fight the monsters without assistance.

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