Volume 4 Chapter 10.6

Volume 4 Chapter 10.6

Editor: Weasalopes

「Hold on a sec. Imma check storage.」

After returning Jon’s “partner”, Hiroshi pretended to peek into his bag as he secretively began transmission. These were second hand goods no longer in use, and Hiroshi wanted to check before selling them on his own decision.

『Haruna-san, Bro』

『What is it？』

『Something happen？』

『I needa ask ya somethin’ about the rapier Haruna-san used in Farlane ‘n the makeshift staff Bro uaed. Is it cool with y’all if I sell ’em off？』

Hiroshi could feel the air of confusion on the other side of the transmission in response to his sudden question. They didn’t seem to get why he wanted to sell.

『Well this is sudden. Why’s that？』

『Cuz the guy said he wanted somethin’ for his buddies too. I took a likin’ to these folks, so I just wanna get ’em weapons with decent functionality. How bout it？』

Not responding right away, the two of them went momentarily silent. They must have had their own conversation in the background.

『I’m cool with it, man. It’s not like I was super attached or anything.』

『I’m fine with it too, as long as they take good care of it. Although I would like to keep it by my side, not using it would be unfair to the weapon.』

Hearing their answers, Hiroshi made his conclusion.

『Gotcha. Then imma sell the good weapons to these young’uns with a promising future at a suitable price. I think these folks’ll treat ‘em with care.』

In fact, Hiroshi secretly thought his own team might be worse at handling weapons. Sure, their weapons had auto-regeneration, but even they had to tend to them, which was prone to result in fatal treatment due to this being an opportunity to train their low-proficiency extra skills. In addition to that, they had many an occasion of fighting opponents that couldn’t be defeated by treating their weapons gently or protecting with their skill, which only added to the consumption of resources.

Now, they weren’t being reckless with their weapons on purpose, and were doing their best to thoroughly repair when need be, but overall Azuma Workshop seemed to break things beyond repair more than make things sometimes.

「Kay, these’re second-hand goods but I found two ones that’re just right for ya.」

Getting permission from Haruna and Tatsuya, Hiroshi was finally able to take out the rapier and staff, pretending to have finally found them. Of course, he had not forgotten to enchant the weapons with auto-repair while this was happening. Arisa scowled momentarily when she heard the word 'second-hand”, but then realized what Hiroshi had in his hands and widened her eyes.

「Hey, you, the girl with the chestnut-colored hair. Ya use rapiers, daggers, etc for yer weapon of choice, right mate? ‘N then you, the girl with the platinum-blonde hair. Yer a mage, so ya want a magic staff, right？」

「……This is what you call second-hand? What on earth happened to its owner……？」

「We found owners more fittin’ of the weapons. Still, the previous owners did warn me to only give ‘em to people who’ll take good care of ‘em.」

Arisa straightened her posture at the words “take good care of ‘em”. It was slightly inferior to what Jon had found, but there was no mistaking it: this rapier was more than just enough; it was incredible. Without enchantments it was far superior. These sorts of weapons were always the kind you got once in a lifetime. Arisa was scared to even imagine what kind of qualities this new rapier would have.

「Both weapons are 10,000 doma. We do have ‘em made to not break, but make sure ya don’t treat ‘em too roughly.」

「Yeah, I know. We’d never get into situations beyond our control that would require the use of crazy weapons like these anyway.」

「Yup yup. Even if an adventurer’s job is to adventure, there’s a mighty fine line between actin’ responsible ‘n actin’ reckless.」

The three adventurers nodded with serious faces at Hiroshi’s words. New faces like them usually got carried away when receiving such rare weapons for groundbreaking prices. Still, even if they were not necessarily veterans, Jon’s team had a good amount of experience. They were not about to make things more difficult than necessary. Now that they had overcome recklessness and could distinguish between adventure and foolery, Hiroshi didn’t need to tell them to be wary of pride.

「Then in respect of yer partner, here’s the last freebie. Lemme see」

「……Alright」

Jon reluctantly handed their “partners” over to Hiroshi. He wondered if it was like this for the previous owners of the weapons Arisa and Kate bought.

But in reality, Tatsuya didn’t feel all that attached to his makeshift staff, and Haruna didn’t care all that much when she shifted weapons.

「Now then, here’s the last job for ya partner.」

Hiroshi said, lightly prodding the lost portion with his fingers. The next moment, a rift opened up in the sword and the blade was smashed up without a trace left. And then…

「The sword……？」

「Yeah, ya see, weapons that ya use for long periods of time can be real good catalysts for strong enchantments.」

Jon looked at his new partner with bewildered eyes as Hiroshi spoke. Now the camouflage was entirely undone, and his skills and experience were now clearly far inferior to this weapon.

「It’s the same for ours……」

「I could actually see this weapon being the one in control here……」

The standards were now also raised on Arisa and Kate’s weapons simultaneously. This was far past a joke at this point. Kate in particular seemed like she’d be thrown about by her support weapon without even being able to adjust to it and use magic.

「I also personalized ‘em, so these’re all yers. The last enchantment also gits stronger the more ya use it with care, so that’s another reason to be careful.」

「Yes, I wouldn’t treat it any different either way.」

「Adventurers always take good care of their partners. That’s just how it is right？」

「We’re not that stupid, or at least we’d like to think that.」

Jon and the others declared with serious faces at Hiroshi. These weapons, an extravagant bargain, were too strong for them. The group swore that they would one day become worthy of owning these weapons that outranked them, acknowledged by anyone who saw them.

Jon and his team would later on charge through the ranks of this year’s tournament with great vigor, clutching out a close match in finals with opponents several ranks above them, overcoming all challenges with skill, their new weapons, and teamwork, before leaving their names among the top five adventurers in Forre. This first step would be widely discussed afterward, but behind all of it was a story not well known (nor should it be). What was this story? Well…

「Well that was one heck of a bet, y’all……」

「Hey blockhead, there was literally no point lowering the price if you just went and bet it in football pools！！」

「But y’know, I never thought they’d get first place.」

「Wait, Hiroshi-kun, how much did you pay？」

「Oh yeah, I bet all the earnings from runnin’ the odd shop during the prelims」

「Whoa……」

This was the difficult-to-explain backstory surrounding Jon’s team’s victory: Hiroshi had thrown all of his shop earnings in Jon’s favor (Jon didn’t have many people betting for him) and hoisted a large amount of money from the other football pool participants, having set them up.