Ch. 11
Chapter 11 - Erin's Request (2)
The plan for this battle was as follows.
For Erin and I to fight 'together' and achieve victory against the enemies.
To check each other's skills and to gain experience.
My reason for dragging her into this was absolutely not out of spite.
It was because my own thoughts had reached the conclusion that 'I must make her stronger.'
Of course, it wasn't that I intended to use her as a mercenary later on.
It meant that I absolutely wasn't doing this because I saw some kind of potential in her.
To be honest, I hadn't completely let go of my worries about the village.
And what I was most worried about was the 'future consequences'.
The worry about the retaliation those ruffians would enact when they returned next time.
That was the reason I intended to have Erin participate in the battle, at least to ease my mind.
It was to get her accustomed to fighting and to let her build combat experience.
It was an obvious thing to say, but if she had no talent, it could just become a temporary fix.
But even that was enough to lighten the burden on my mind.
And in the first place, before leaving the village, I had scanned the faces of the people.
Everyone except Erin was either old or had a physical ailment, making them incapable of combat.
In the end, the only person in the village capable of fighting was Erin.
Of course, that was just a supplementary reason.
The most important reason was 'for me to get used to combat'.
And above all, wouldn't it be nice to have one more reliable comrade while carrying out the quest?
“Wh-what?!”
Erin jumped in surprise and asked me back, but there was no reason for the thugs to stand by and watch while she was panicking.
“Die!!”
The man who seemed to be the Leader let out a roar and slammed his greatsword down where we were.
To test the performance of my equipment, I picked up Erin and dodged backward.
“Kyaak!
Fortunately, the +2 enhancement value wasn't just for show.
Thanks to it, I was able to leap back very quickly even while holding Erin.
“Tch!”
I heard the voice of the Leader bastard clicking his tongue, as if he had expected it to be a sure hit.
I felt a strange sense of pleasure at his reaction, but that was also brief.
It was true that my body felt lighter, perhaps thanks to the +2 armor.
But I couldn't win by just dodging all day.
Even if the armor helped with basic physical abilities, as long as my original physical ability remained that of an adult male, I couldn't become dramatically stronger.
It meant that if I only kept dodging, I was bound to get exhausted.
I put down the still-confused Erin, readjusted my grip on the Sledgehammer, and scanned all five of the thugs.
“You guys, if you get hit by this, you'll really die! This is your first and last warning!”
“This little brat!!”
My provocation worked successfully.
An enemy with a Hand axe, full of bravado, raised his blade and charged at me.
But that Hand axe couldn't penetrate my armor.
To be precise, it couldn't even graze my body.
Although he seemed to be the most like a grunt, his attack merely cut through the empty air.
I twisted my body to dodge sideways, and he was just left wide open in front of me.
If so, there was only one thing for me to do.
Without a moment's hesitation, I swung the Sledgehammer as I was.
The flustered thug tried to block it by raising his arm, but.
There was an old saying.
That bone cannot beat iron.
It can't?
Now, it does.
A crisp sound, kwajik, was heard.
“Kkeuaaaaaaaaaaak!!”
At the same time as his arm bent in a direction it couldn't possibly bend.
The thug flew sideways screaming a terrible scream and was slammed into the Tunnel wall.
Although the recoil was strong and that grunt was just a Grade 9 small fry, in the end, wasn't fighting and luck all about momentum?
I slammed the head of the hammer hard on the ground and shouted triumphantly.
“I don't warn twice!”
The shout of my warning echoed through the Tunnel.
The thugs who took the warning seriously seemed to decide not to target me, and started whispering to each other, holding a strategy meeting.
“Let's grab the kid and threaten him,”
“Yeah, that's better.”
I didn't know if those thugs were stupid, or if they were saying it loud enough for me to hear on purpose.
But I could roughly figure out what their plan was.
And up to that point, it was all according to the initial plan.
The next part was important.
I took out the last coin I hadn't yet taken out from the 'Emergency Firefighting Set'.
That coin was a coin that summoned a 'skill card'.
Without delaying, I flicked the coin.
A crisp ting sound rang out again, and the coin that fell to the floor emitted a pure white light and became a small card.
The name of this skill was 'Suppression Cannon: Small'.
Its effect, fitting for a firefighting set, was to fire a water cannon from the hand with the power of a fire hydrant.
The quest window had informed me how to use the skill card when I obtained the set, so there was no problem.
[ How to Use a Skill Card ]
If you wish to use it on yourself, hold the card for 5 seconds.
If you wish to use it on another person, throw the card at the target.
Upon successful use, the card will vanish, and the used card cannot be recovered.
But this time, the person using it was different.
Instead of holding the card for 5 seconds, I threw it straight at Erin, who was still just standing there motionless.
“Erin!”
“Yes, kyaak!?”
The card hit Erin's shoulder, and she flinched, startled.
But regardless, the card turned into fragments of light and disappeared.
It meant the skill card had been used successfully.
Erin, who kept fiddling with her shoulder as if she found the card strange.
But it was as if her Halberd was just a decoration.
Unlike me, who was wary of the enemy, she was standing completely defenseless, looking at me.
“S-Sir Kang Woon, what in the world was that….”
“I taught you a ‘skill’.”
“Wh-why!?”
She still seemed to have absolutely no will to fight.
She really intended to push all the village's problems onto me and Maletta.
“Why, you ask? You have to fight! They said they're going to grab you and threaten me!”
I got so heated at her attitude that I yelled without realizing it.
Also, the guys who had been quietly testing the waters, perhaps thinking our discord was an opportunity, assumed a combat stance again.
Erin became scared out of her wits by my reprimand and the enemies' attitude.
She trembled and desperately pleaded with me, but I had no intention of listening to her ridiculous request any longer.
“N-no! I, I don't know how to fight! I can't fight!”
“Then what's that weapon! Is it a decoration?”
“Th-this is…!”
“You said with your own mouth that you'd be of help!”
Of course, she could ask for a favor.
Even if she had nothing to offer in return, she could ask for help with the feeling of clutching at straws.
But if that was the case, shouldn't she show at least a minimum of sincerity?
But instead, she was going to just stand quietly in the back and be protected.
She would pass the difficult things to me and Maletta and run away.
She no longer looked admirable to me.
Erin was just another selfish person of her age.
I didn't want to say that innocence and selfishness were the same concept.
Wasn't my own life on the line right now?
“Strike all at once!”
“Damn it!”
If it were up to me, I would have wanted to leave her be whether she got caught or not, but since a quest had been triggered, I couldn't risk the penalty.
“Keok!”
After embracing Erin, I broke through the encirclement of the thugs who were closing in with well-coordinated teamwork, using my body.
Fortunately, perhaps because the thugs were off-guard due to our conversation, I was able to escape the encirclement easily.
But as I said before, not only could I not win by running away forever.
If Erin remained in this state, she would either die or run away.
It was obvious that I would fail the quest.
I was confident I could win if I fought alone.
But I had no intention of fighting alone.
So while fleeing with her in my arms, I urgently opened my mouth to persuade her.
“Snap out of it, this is your village's problem in the first place! Not mine!”
“S-Sir Kang Woon, you're much stronger than me! J-just now too!”
“Strong or not! Then next time, if the same crisis strikes again, are you just going to ask for help?”
“But!”
But Erin still wouldn't come to her senses and was pushing the responsibility onto me.
Even just to avoid the quest failure penalty, I needed to change Erin's mental state.
“Don't think there will always be someone to help you in a crisis, you idiot!”
“B-but… but…!”
“Ah, this is so frustrating!!”
I put Erin down as if throwing her, took refuge behind Maletta, and spoke to her in a low voice.
I don't need any additional rewards anymore.
You won't be able to leave this Tunnel unless you persuade me or are persuaded by me.
***
“Maletta, can you block those bastards?”
“Captain, then the reward is….”
“Don't worry about the reward.”
“…I understand.”
Maletta, who hadn't interfered as I had asked, nodded and answered in a low voice.
And then she took out her scythe and blocked the four enemies who were charging at us in a single move.
“Kuk, what is this. This power…!”
“Leader! No matter how I think about it, these guys are strange!!”
I heard the flustered voices of the enemies from behind, but that wasn't important right now.
I grabbed Erin by the collar and lifted her up.
In her, who was just being powerlessly dragged up, I still couldn't find any will.
“Euk, keuk…!”
“Do we look like good-natured pushovers who go around helping people for no reward in your eyes?”
“B-but… how can someone like me…!”
She shook her head, on the verge of tears.
She had already dropped the Halberd she brought and was just trembling.
At that sight, anger surged within me.
I was different from you.
To forge my own destiny until the very end, I tossed coins with my own hands.
After doing it for decades until it finally worked, I survived and am here.
But aren't you just standing still, making excuses about your age or background?
I do quests to survive, not to become a pushover.
“Or are you just a scammer who planned to use us and take all the credit in the village?”
“N-no! That's not it!”
Spitting out my surging anger, I pulled the hand that was gripping her collar.
Erin's face, now right in front of mine, was pale with terror, but I had no intention of stopping until I got the answer I wanted.
“Then fight.”
It's a simple matter.
You just have to pick up a weapon and resist the absurdity.
You just have to search your pockets and toss even a coin.
Because in the end, you just have to do it until it works.
Conversely.
If you don't do it, in the end, you can't do anything.
“Don't push it onto us, fight with your own hands.”
“Euk, eugh….”
“Why are you scared! I said you just have to do it until it works, you frustrating fool! Don't run away!”
After letting go of the sniffling Erin, who couldn't even answer anymore, and letting her fall.
I readjusted my grip on the Sledgehammer and turned my back to walk away.
Maletta, as if she had heard the whole conversation, glanced at me from time to time while blocking the offensive.
And as I approached her, she asked as if she had been waiting.
“Should I kill them, Captain?”
“It's fine, I'll finish it.”
Since Maletta had intervened, the reward was already out of the question.
If I was thinking about complete safety, it was right for Maletta to take care of it.
But I wanted to show her.
I wanted to show her that I, too, wouldn't push the battle onto Maletta, just as I had said.
So I shook my head.
Maletta, too, after a final exchange, stepped back again.
The thugs, who hadn't been able to land any effective hits on us, seemed to have noticed that the situation was turning strange.
They were stealthily preparing to flee.
“Hey, you guys.”
“Wh-what….”
But now that things had come to this, I had no intention of letting them go either.
Because in the first place, they were the ones who picked the fight, not us.
“Don't resent me even if you die.”