I left the room after the discussion with Bordow and saw that Fiona was waiting outside . She seemed a little restless, which was quite the departure from her usually cheerful disposition . She was sitting in a chair with an uneasy expression, but quickly got up when she noticed us .

“Asagi, Daniela!”

“Hey, it’s been a while . ”

“It really has! We were both so busy, and we had no time to meet… Wait, nevermind that . Is it true that you killed a wyvern? Are you hurt?”

She began to pat me down as if looking for injuries . I pointed to my right thigh and she tapped it lightly . I nodded to show that there was no pain, and she finally moved away with relief .

“Well, this was just from a broken blade catching me in the leg . I wasn’t hit all that much from the wyvern . ”

“Amazing… It is like you came out unscathed . ”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration . ”

That made me sound like some kind of superhero . I walked with Daniela and Fiona and explained the story again . I was out camping and encountered a wyvern . It wasn’t the longest story, and I finished when we reached the entrance .

Entrance… Rex and several other adventurers were gathered near the counter . They looked familiar . They were his other party members . Looking at them again, I got the impression that they were very high level . A strong party . And yet, once Danny, their s.h.i.+eld-bearer had gone down, the party had crumbled… The field of battle could be very unpredictable . You really should have a healer with you . Seriously .

“Asagi!”

Rex called me over . I waved at him with one hand and the other members all waved back .

“Ah, I just wanted to thank you . You really helped us back there . ”

Said the greatsword-wielder who had been the one to carry Danny during their escape . I accepted his offered hand and shook it .

“I’m glad to see you are well . How is your s.h.i.+eld-bearer doing?”

“There’s no need to worry about him . We pooled our money together to put him up in the best hospital in the city . He’s resting nice and easy now, but he’ll be out before you know it . ”

“That’s good . Do they accept visitors? I would like to go and see him . ”

“Aye, I hoped you would . He said he wanted to thank you . He’ll surely be happy if you visited . ”

It was great that he was doing well . I will have to go check up on him later .

After that, I talked with the archer and the other swordsman as well . They both wanted to thank me, which was a little embarra.s.sing . It was just not something that I was used to… But I didn’t hate it either .

After a while, the subject of the reward was brought up .

“The total sum of the reward comes out as one hundred and forty gold pieces and a few silvers . This will be shared between us all . And there is no room for argument on this matter . ”

“The total sum of the reward comes out as one hundred and forty gold pieces and a few silvers . This will be shared between us all . And there is no room for argument on this matter . ”

Rex declared . I had no complaints, and so I nodded .

“Asagi, here is your share . Please count it . ”

He says as he hands me a leather pouch . It seemed a little heavy to me…and I was surprised when I opened it . This didn’t seem right . It was clearly almost half of it .

“Hey, this…”

“I split it . No arguments . ”

He says, and they all laugh . It seemed that they were all in agreement about this . I suppose that for them, words were not enough to express their grat.i.tude . And so I humbly gave in and put the pouch in my bag .

“Alright, I get it . Thanks . ”

“Aye, this is how it should be!”

Rex wraps an arm around my shoulder and laughs happily . Ah, yes . I felt like a real adventurer now . It was something I had longed for ever since coming to this world . There were some who laughed and called me Black Rabbit, but there were great adventurers like Gardo and Ness as well . Adventurers who embodied real freedom . I wondered if I would be able to be like them one day .

“Well, we’re off to the bar now . What about you two?”

“Hmm…I was thinking about going to an armor shop after visiting Danny . What about you, Daniela?”

I asked her .

“I do enjoy a bar . However, we should visit this Danny first . ”

Oh well, we were supposed to go to the armor shop tomorrow anyway . Also, there was something that I had noticed recently, which is that Daniela was usually hungry whenever she appeared restless . It was especially obvious when she became anxious and her eyes constantly s.h.i.+fted . Which seemed to happen a lot . What an unfortunate beauty .

And so we parted ways with Rex and headed for the hospital that Danny was staying at .

At first, Danny had been taken to the central guardhouse infirmary, as it was an emergency . He had been given emergency treatment there before being transferred to the biggest hospital in Spiris . Apparently, the high-pressure breath that had destroyed his armor left a nasty wound . Danny showed us the wound that had required the attention of a group of the finest physicians to heal . There was a giant burn-like scar that covered most of his stomach . It was incredible that he had survived this…

“It is thanks to you and the others that I am alive . That I am here right now . I cannot thank you enough . ”

“You’ve already thanked me enough . You better cover yourself before you catch a cold . ”

That didn’t stop him from thanking me repeatedly after that, but I was happy to have been able to see what kind of person he was . It would have made me a little sad if the man I had helped was a jerk . We said goodbye to him and left the hospital .

As we were walking towards the bar where Rex and the others were waiting, Daniela began to talk .

“Asagi, you must try to be less reckless . ”

“Asagi, you must try to be less reckless . ”

“I know that I should have considered you more… I’ll be careful in the future . ”

“We are a party . I will be alone once again if you die . Listening to Bordow and seeing Danny’s wound today has made me think . What would I do if you were no longer here?”

She stared at the ground as she talked . It was true, one misstep could have meant my death . There had been a part of me that had hesitated about jumping into that danger . But hearing Rex’s voice had changed all of that . It wasn’t worth a life . But it was my skill that I had been weighing on the balance . I hadn’t considered that my own life was there as well . Perhaps there was an arrogance in me at the moment, telling me that ‘I could beat . ’ That was what Daniela was talking about . The proof was that I had tried to hide the skill from Bordow .

“If you insist on throwing your own life away to help others, I might have to break those legs to stop you . Understand this . You are important . ”

“Daniela…”

It almost felt like a confession of sorts, but Daniela’s expression was the peak of seriousness . Likely, her ears were only reddening because she had imagined something horrible .

“I understand . I’ll think more before acting from now on . After all, apparently this body isn’t really mine alone anymore?”

“I, I did not mean it like that!”

Daniela became a little frantic as she pulled out her trusty mask from a pocket . That was too bad . The tips of her ears had become so red .

We were walking side by side . This was a path that we had once walked alone on . But we were walking together now . Having a trustworthy friend by your side was something that could not be compared to that night when I was alone . I thought of what I could do to this dependable and dear friend who supported me as we walked to the bar .