Chapter 20: Moryu grass③

“Liv…?”

Oops, I accidentally called her by name without any honorifics.

Liv-san.

She’s a member of Torquetum, a female-only party, and a Grade III Explorer.

Her short, peach-white hair is neatly trimmed.

She has sleepy red eyes and a beautiful face.

Undeniably, she’s a stunning girl.

However, her outfit is far from fantasy-like—a spacey white bodysuit.

She wears a black jacket, trousers, and carries a sleek black blade.

It feels out of place.

Maybe it’s because I have memories of my past life that I feel this way.

It doesn’t seem to be a big deal to others—perhaps they just think it’s strange foreign gear.

Dozens of goblins continued to emerge from the cave and the surrounding bushes,

despite the mountain of corpses Liv-san had already created.

The goblins surrounded her but didn’t attack immediately.

The reason was obvious: Liv-san is a woman.

For reproduction, they wouldn’t kill her but try to capture her.

No matter how many died, as long as they could capture her, it would suffice.

There’s something terrifying about the sheer force of numbers.

One goblin is a small fry. Ten are an enemy.

A hundred are a formidable foe.

“…Annoying…”

Liv-san murmured irritably, gripping her blade at her side.

What is she planning?

“…Sora no Kata…Subaru…Myre Blade!”

The blade glowed red as it was drawn.

In an instant, the surrounding goblins were cut down by the red trail of her strike.

Amazing. It happened so quickly.

And the cuts were so clean that there was hardly any blood.

Now that I think about it, even the mountain of corpses had an unusually small amount of blood.

She must have cauterized the wounds.

I remember from my past life that burning wounds can stop bleeding.

I saw it on some survival TV show.

“…Hey, kid…”

Liv-san noticed me. Of course, she did—I wasn’t hiding.

Even if I had been, I feel like she would have found me anyway.

“Ah, um… long time no see,”

I stammered a reply.

“…Why… are you here…?”

She asked.

That’s my line—or rather, her question makes perfect sense.

“I have some business here.”

“…Business… at a goblin nest…?”

“Well, yes. What about you, Liv-san?”

“…A request… Goblin nest extermination…”

“Alone?”

“…Pakira is reading… Lupinus is… negotiating…”

Pakira. Lupinus. Those must be the names of her party members. So, she’s solo this time.

Still, I didn’t know there was an extermination request for the goblin nest.

Could the client be the witch?

Maybe she couldn’t find any explorers willing to take the job and ended up assigning it to me.

And then someone finally accepted the request, but she forgot to cancel with me.

That sounds entirely plausible for that witch.

“…I need to gather something from inside the nest.”

“…A hired hand’s job…?”

“Huh? Ah, well… something like that…”

I nodded. She seemed to have misunderstood me as a hired hand.

It’s not unreasonable to think that way.

Rather than deny it and make her suspicious, I decided to go along with it.

“…Are you going inside the nest?”

“Yes. I can’t gather what I need without going in.”

“…The nest is dangerous… You could ask Liv for help… That’s an option.”

“How much?”

“…500.”

Cheap. This isn’t a child’s errand.

Even if it’s just a side request during an extermination, it’s still too cheap.

Is she trying to keep it within what I could afford?

That’s kind of her.

But I shook my head.

“No, I’ll decline.”

“…Why?”

“It’s my principle: outsourcing a request is… disrespectful.”

Having someone else take on a request I was entrusted with—

subcontracting or delegating like that.

Some explorers might do that, but I won’t.

It’s part of my sense of responsibility, something ingrained from my past life.

“…That makes sense… But that way of thinking… is very much an explorer’s mindset.

Are you an explorer, kid?”

“No, I’m not. I’m only 13.”

“…Who is the client…?”

For some reason, Liv asked this question with a hint of anger.

[Threat Detection] showed her aura faintly glowing red.

“I… can’t say.”

“…This place is very dangerous… A child has no business being here…”

“You’re right, but…”

Damn it. She’s speaking out of kindness.

She thinks I’m a child and weak, and she’s not wrong.

And I finally understood the reason she asked about the client.

And why she was so angry.

She wasn’t mad at me.

She was angry at the client who gave me such a dangerous task in such a perilous place.

But it’s probably the same client for both of us.

So, if the witch gets scolded, it can’t be helped.

Ugh, what should I do?

I don’t want to reveal that I’m capable of fighting.

Especially not to Torquetum, who I’ve secretly helped in the past.

But at the same time, I don’t want to rely on her either.

“…Do you absolutely need to?”

“Huh?”

“…Do you absolutely want to go into the goblin nest…?”

Seeing my indecision,

Liv looked at me with her straightforward gaze.

“Yes, I need to go in.”

“…If that’s the case… I’ll protect you…”

“No, that’s a bit much…”

I was flustered.

Would she really protect me while annihilating the goblins?

It might be the most practical method, but it would put a huge burden on Liv-san.

“…It’s fine… I’ll definitely protect you…”

Liv-san smiled.

It was a reassuring smile, meant to ease my worries.

Was I wearing an anxious expression?

Still, I couldn’t help but ask.

“Why go that far?”

“…If you die… it would be a problem…”

“Why?”

“…Because I don’t want you to die…”

“But why? We’re not connected in any way.”

“…Whether we’re connected or not… doesn’t matter…”

Liv tilted her head slightly, looking confused, and continued:

“…I just… don’t want you to die… Even if you ask why, I don’t know how to explain…

Not wanting someone to die… isn’t that normal? Or… if Liv and her party were gravely injured, on the verge of death…And you had the ability to save us… would you choose not to?”

“Th-that’s… I would… but—Liv-san…”

That question left me with no choice. I decided to explain.

“What…?”

“I have a Relic called [Crisis Detection]. With this Relic, I can sense goblin ambushes and traps inside the cave.”

After a question like that, I couldn’t avoid it.

Revealing one of my Relics shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“…I understand… I’ll trust you…”

Liv-san gave a small nod.

“Th-thank you. I appreciate it.”

“…Alright. Let’s go then…”

And so, I entered the goblin nest with Liv-san.

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