CHAPTER 3 – HERO PARTY

 

「I was just asked to go to Etale for some business! Is this destiny!? I had no choice but to join the party!?」(TN: She’s talking about how fate caused her to join the party traveling to Etale)

「It’s not fate and there’s no party.
I don’t know you in the first place.
Don’t talk to me because I’m a stranger.」

「You’re funny! No other eyes are so muddy! Let’s join the party!」

　Letty laughs with a smile and sticks a party application form with the contract details in my face.

　I was urged to tear this paper into shreds.

　This is the worst.
Why is this happening now?

　I haven’t had any luck since I was invited into a party by this woman.
I feel like I’m always being watched from that point on, and I couldn’t accept requests, so I lost 3 kilos because of my poor way of life… What happened…?

　Letty looks up with hopeful eyes while grasping the application form.

　The adventurers around me were looking at me and saying something like, 「Maybe that’s the 【attack】 hero?」 「Copper plating… Why is the hero in a D-rank…」.

「Letty, maybe she’ll explain it?」

　As I was just a stranger, one of the two near Letty- perhaps Letty’s party, a girl with fiery red eyes and long hair, started speaking in a dignified and powerful voice.

Letty:「Yes! He’s insanely strong!」

「Hmm… he doesn’t look all that strong.」

　The girl, who had her glittering red hair that was tied up with a hair clip, and had long ears characteristic of an elf, looked at me and said so.

Jirei:「Mmm, I’m sure my eyes are cloudy, I don’t have any dignity or strong aura, and I don’t seem to be motivated, but I’m strong!」

「You’re stupid, right?」

　This guy who wants to praise you.
Am I so cloudy? This has been the default since I was born… (TN: I believe that “cloudy” in this sentence means that he looks jaded/disillusioned.
I’m not 100% sure, because I couldn’t find any other references to it online)

「… He doesn’t look strong.」

　As I was seriously considering plastic surgery, another girl with clear light blue hair and eyes muttered in a lazy voice.

She is about 15 to 16 years old and wears a white robe, so she’s probably a white magician specializing in recovery magic.
I can’t see her well because I hide my face with a hood, but I found that her face was well-shaped.

　The girl looks dull and has cold eyes, I don’t know what I’m thinking, but I don’t feel motivated to accept the request anymore.
Somehow she looks like me and I feel a sense of intimacy.

「By the way, what’s your name? Letty keeps talking, but you haven’t said what your name is.」

Letty:「-!? By the way, I don’t even know…」

「Why don’t you know …」

　The red-haired girl sighed, and Letty laughed cheerfully without thinking.

　I was a little lost, but decided to introduce myself.

「It’s Jirei Laro.
My adventurer rank is D, my special skill is to be able to sleep immediately anywhere, and my favorite thing is to sleep.
This request has a limited number of people, but I ask for your help.」

　Anyway, even if I use a pseudonym, it will be immediately noticed, so I said my real name.
Even if you look me up in the guild, you will only get information about a black-haired D-class adventurer, so it’s probably okay.

「I’m Retinoa Innocent! I’m a hero of 【attack】, and my favorite is sweets! I don’t like vegetables in general!」

　Shaking her pink hair, Letty says that vigorously.
Letty is apparently about 12 years old.
Her spirit and appearance are young.

「… Eve Durkis.」

　Next, a girl with light blue hair and eyes- Eve -said plainly.

She said only the minimum necessary information and turned away in a lazy manner.

　It was extremely rude, but I didn’t feel any discomfort.
Rather, the feeling of familiarity increased.
This girl looks like he wants to go home right now.
I want to go home now too.

「I’m Lina Antetman.
Adventurer rank is A, I’m a magician … I’m working as a member of Letty’s party now.」

　Finally, a red-haired elf-eared girl- Lina -introduces herself.

　Adventurer rank A? She looks to be about… 17 years old.

Since elves are difficult to age from their appearance, it is not known how old they are actually.

　Still, it is impossible to reach A-rank without talent and constant effort.
She has considerable talent.

　Or rather, it may be more worrisome.
No, it couldn’t be possible…

「………Antetman, is it the Antetman of 【Crimson】…?」

　I mutter in a whisper so that they can’t hear it.

「-! …… Oh, you know about that?」

　However, it seemed to be heard by Lina, and she was surprised for a moment, before turning her face to me like a child who found an interesting toy.

「… only a little.
I asked a guy who is researching on the hero’s holy mark.」

「…Research?」

　Although I was impatient, I managed to keep my composure and made a poker face and lied.
(TN: he means he lied about how he knew the Anteman name)

　Lina turns her expression into a bored one.

　……Dangerous, dangerous.
That was close.

　Antetman of【Crimson】.
The name is probably one you wouldn’t know unless you’re studying the Holy Mark in detail.

Her official name is Sharu Antetman.
The 5th generation herowho was given the holy mark of 【Crimson】 and was a genius who subdued the Demon King at the young age of 17 years old.

　However, few people know the heroic name.
Because… it’s not recorded.

　There was no mention of the name Sharu Antetman.
Instead, it was the name of another hero.

　Apart from that, this is not something that has been hijacked.
Rather the opposite- because she gave credit to another hero.
(TN: if it isn’t clear, they mean that she gave credit to another hero of her own will)

　She couldn’t be a hero.
It was deeply related to her family line.

　That’s because the Antetman family was an assassin clan.

　It is also a group of royal assassins.

　There is no way that the Antetman family, who lived in the shadows and pretended to be ordinary people, could reveal their faces.

　This is because if one person stands out in front of the world, the family line will also be noticed by the Imozuru ceremony.
(TN: “Imozuru” means sweet potato vines, so I’m guessing what they’re talking about right here is some kind of royal ceremony that involves sweet potatoes?)

　For this reason, her name did not remain in the description, only the Antetman of 【Crimson】, a fallen hero who did not leave any results in the Holy Seal Encyclopedia.

　The surname Antetman is rare, but it is a name that is sometimes found in the general public.

　……This is the secret about the Antetman family.
It is a super secret secret, and only a limited number of people know it even in the royal family.
It’s so dangerous information that you’ll be killed if you know it.

　The reason why I know such information is… the answer is simple and I heard it directly.
Directly from Sharu Antetman who defeated the Demon King of the 5th period.

　After all, Sharu was sent to me as an assassin when I was challenging a superior monster for training.

　It seems that she was driven out because she wanted to subdue the demons who destroyed the ecosystem, but I think it is unreasonable to try to kill her when she hasn’t done anything wrong.

　One night, I woke up to an attempted murder, repelled the knife that was swung down in front of me, and reflexively hit Sharu, who was supposed to be over 500 years old but still looked like a young girl.

I thought it was a real robbery at the time.
It couldn’t be helped.

　When I tried to stop the stab, Sharu,who leaked sobs while desperately begging for her life confessed with fervor.

(TN: it’s not said, but there’s a flashback to Sharu’s memory here)

　I really wanted to be a candy store owner, but my dad and mom didn’t allow me.

　I really wanted to be a hero, not an assassin.

　I want to live in peace, but my brothers are bloody and scary.

　Other than that, the royal family is not allowed to talk about the situation, and I want to be free to marry a nice person and spend some time with them.

I was crying in front of others, I was truly pathetic.

I was a girl who looks about 15 years old with her face in covered in tears, drool, and blood.
I was such a mess, I must have looked pitiful.

　After Sharu’s crying subsided, I took out a candy ball in my pocket, and handed it to her.

　At first, she thought it was a jewel, so she was playing around with it and looking at it.

　When she was urged to eat it, she put it in her mouth, and at first was surprised, and then looked very happy.

　Apparently, she had never eaten sweets before, and she wanted to become a candy store owner because she had seen it in a story and longed for it.

Sharu rolled the candy in her cheeks like a squirrel and was happy to enjoy her first sweetness.
I can still remember her desperate face when it melted and disappeared.

　After that, I sheltered Sharu, who had failed to assassinate the hero and had nowhere to go.
For a while, I taught her how to live alone, and Sharu became a full-fledged apprentice of a candy maker before I left.
I didn’t want to leave… but, well, there were many reasons why I had to.

(TN: end of flashback)

　Anyway, I found out that the red-haired elf-eared girl in front of me was a member of the Antetman family.

　According to Sharu, the Antetmans are highly competitive and prefer to fight the strong.
It would be terrible to get entangled with such annoying people.

――I decided not to get involved with Lina Antetman as much as possible.
It’ll be okay if I don’t get involved, maybe.

TN: Okay, I don’t know if you guys understood, but the flashback was about a girl named Sharu, who is from the same family as Lina.
I had a bit of trouble differentiating them, seeing as how they both have long red hair and wear hair clips.
However, while Sharu wears her hair down with a rabbit clip, Lina wears her hair up in “twin tails” (pigtails) and her hair clip doesn’t have a description.
I’m sorry if this and my misuse of pronouns made anybody confused, but I fixed it!

Oh my goodness! I was honestly never expecting this many views on this story.
I’m really excited, but also really nervous at the same time.
What if my translations are wrong? What if I made a typo? What if you guys don’t like the story? Anyways, I hope everyone liked this chapter and it wasn’t too confusing! It was hard trying to figure out who was talking where and when they did the flashback.
Also, do you guys want me to start putting in names when there are a lot of people talking so that you know who’s who?

On a side note, this is the schedule I currently have for posting this story:

Monday-Wednesday-Friday at 12:00 P.M.
EST.
If school gets hectic though, I may only be able to post every Monday and Friday.
So! I hope you guys like the story!