With puzzled glances from Hiroshi and Makoto, Haruna took a deep breath to cool her head down before speaking honestly about her thoughts.
ăI actually felt the blood rush to my head when I saw the state Rainy-san was in. I just never thought I cared that much for her, so it surprised me too.ă
ăAh okay, I get it. It makes sense why yaâd feel emotional since ya helped her last week.ă
Haruna felt a slight misgiving when Hiroshi said that. Was she always that emotional? But in actuality, she just didnât realize how hospitable she was, even among all the members. Haruna was just the kind of human to have a certain amount of empathy for anyone like Rainy, stumbling into their base only once or twice.
With that being said, Haruna also had rather harsh feelings for people like Dentlis whom she never wanted to let into their base, so she was quite firm in her inspections. Despite this, however, Haruna also had a certain amount of motherly love in her to completely forgive anyone depending on their actions after making mistakes.
Therefore in Rainyâs case, it was pretty much guaranteed that Haruna would awaken those maternal instincts, but unfortunately, she did not seem to think she was that great of a person.
ăWell Iâm glad that Haruna-san thinks of Rainy as one of our own. But Mio, whatâs with that lookïŒă
ăWell if you let me give my own two cents, I sort of expected Haru to go through one of those events that those R rated heroines from those anime not aired on tv go throughă
ăI donât got a good feeling about this, but uhhâŠwhatcha mean by thatïŒă
ăYou know, those rules where heroine = stripïŒă
As soon as Mio said that rather unladylike statement, Tatsuya and Makotoâs gazes moved to Harunaâs upper body area, specifically the chest area. Flinching at the concentrated gazes, Haruna reflexively hugged her own shoulders to cover it.
ăFor a second there I was about to agree with you, but I think thereâs something kind of wrong about rejoicing over the misfortune of a friend, yâknowïŒă
ăI think if we look at how badly messed up Rainy was, most people would expect such an event.ă
Tatsuya was at a complete loss for words when he heard her oddly convincing opinion. He didnât have any particular responsibility for Mioâs upbringing, but seeing her go down such a perverted path really made Tatsuya feel his incompetence.
ăYou do sound quite persuasive, but thereâs a giant problem with expecting such an event.ă
ăThe first thing is that thereâs hardly any chance of Haruna being the only one targeted.ă
ăThen you and me can just avoid getting caught, right Makoto?ă
ăIf it was that easy, Haruna would be able to avoid it too, yâknow. Besides, even if she were captured, do you really think she would become the way Rainy is if sheâs wearing orichalcum breastplate and behemoth leather armor over her spirit thread clothingïŒă
Mio couldnât find a way to respond to Makotoâs sharp edge retort. Regular steel armor might be okay, but the current armor they all had was far higher in defense and resistance than any of the magic steel equipment you could find anywhere else. If the law of heroine ïŒ strip applied here, all their lives would be in danger, so with the proper equipment on, there would be no ero scenes.
ăâŠâŠI didnât consider thatâŠâŠă
ăYeah, how about you get enough common sense to realize that?ă
Makoto quipped, exasperated at Mio for being so devastated. Yes, she had a hunch that they might be too late, but Mio was seriously acting up more frequently.
Then again, it wasnât like Makoto was one to talk.
ăAnyhow, looks like Mio lost that argument. More importantly, HarunaâŠă
ăThe pose youâre in right now is a bit too risque.ă
Makoto gave Haruna (who still had her arms covering her chest) some unnecessary advice that didnât fall far from what Mio said. In fact, when Haruna made that hugging pose, her chestâs ample size was only emphasized, even more erotic than puffing out her chest. Even Makoto, a person of the same gender, was induced into feeling a bit weird.
Haruna started out with a total lack of sex appeal (with rare moments of allure), but ever since awakening to her love for Hiroshi, Makoto felt that Haruna was getting more and more off the deep end. It is often said that girls are able to use magic the moment they love, but surely not to this extent. There are still limits to how quickly one can become a first rate magician.
ăWell, that aside, considering how severe the situation would be if Rainyâs miasma attack turns her all weird, I think itâs a perfectly acceptable reason to wait for Elle and company.ă
Laying out all the reasons for why they shouldnât launch a charge attack, Makoto attempted to postpone their actions. Now that two inexcusable reasons were out there, those in support of charging in (Haruna and Mio) could not argue back.
ăSo letâs eat out ân enjoy the tourney as they make preparations.ă
ăâŠâŠOkay. Iâll go ahead and maintain the food stall as we wait for them to get ready.ă
Having cooled down a bit, Haruna decided to go the safe route. Rainyâs pitiful state ended up not being quite enough to halt their worthless plan.
Once the third preliminary round had ended, seventh class adventurer Jon Kotrey was faced with a weapon-related issue.
ăI guess it wonât last till the main fightâŠâŠă
In the current, not-so-spacious room he was borrowing, Jon stared at his weapon laying on the table with a harsh face as he groaned. His weapon had sustained great damage this match. Jon had already felt wear and tear recently, so he treated it carefully in order to save as much money as possible, but this effort did not seem to be bearing fruition.
It had been five years since he took his adventurer certification at thirteen, partially to make things easier for him and his family. This was his partner that he had saved up steady money for through odd jobs. Although it was a used, second-rate item, Jon had been through thick and thin with this longsword for nearly four years. No matter how perfectly he tried to maintain it, the sword was, all in all, not an especially great product. In a sense, it was extremely clear that this sword would not hold all the way to the end of a huge tournament held once every three years.
ăSee? I told you that you need to hurry up and get a new sword.ă
Arisa Baagman (the healer/buffer of the party) said with an equally harsh face. With a slender physique, ample protrusion in the chest area, and long, chestnut-colored hair, she still wasnât a match for Haruna or Mio, but was still a gorgeous woman who caught the attention of one-third of anyone she passed by in town. However, this expression of hers that made her look like she had just swallowed a bunch of sour tarts practically cut said glamor in half.
She was in fact concerned for her lover, Jonâs, well-being, telling him for the third time to buy a new weapon that wasnât degrading like the longsword. Jonâs armor, on the other hand, thanks to his superior finesse, hadnât taken many direct hits from enemies since he started out, so it wasnât damaged enough to where he needed new armor.
ăBut good swords are expensive, and the cheap ones arenât much different than what I haveâŠâŠă
ăStill, remember what they say. Adventurers who skimp on equipment wonât last long, yâknowïŒă
ăYeah, I understand that, butâŠâŠă
Equipment upgrades, probably the greatest object of worry for adventurers. Of course you wouldnât last long if you skimped, but neither was it a cheap prospect. After all, even amongst used weapons, the ones with better performance were possibly more expensive than even the cheap, newer, decent-performance varieties (which were already minimum 50,000 yen (Japan) /50 chrone (Farlane) /5,000 doma (Forre).