/
After a pleasant but uneasy dinner, the next day dawned. We left town as planned and came to the plains a little ways off the road. The reason, of course, was for Toby to show Tia what he was good at 
. and to show us what he was capable of.
“My basic fighting style is this.”
Toby pointed to three small bags on his waist. He pulled out a round ball each the size of a thumbnail, and held it in the palm of his hand to show us.
“Ah, a magic ball”
“What’s that?”
I knew, but Tia, who didn’t know, looked alternately at the balls in his palms and at Toby’s face. Toby then slowly picked up one of them and slammed it down to the ground as hard as he could.
“Uwaa, what’s all that smoke? Ah, but isn’t it chemically strong?”
“Hahaha, This is a “smoke ball” that blocks the enemy’s vision and hides our presence. It looks like smoke, but it’s not like smoke from burning something, so you don’t have to worry about inhaling it.”
“Eh, I see. It’s true, if I stick my hand in, I can’t see 
, it disappeared.”
Tia was moving her hand in and out of the produced smoke, but after the 10 seconds or so of effect time, the smoke disappeared without a trace. Since it was generated by magic, no trace of it is left anywhere.
“The next one is a “flash ball”. Hitting it on the ground produces a very dazzling light. If you look directly at it, it will hurt your eyes, so be careful. Here we go
 Eiii! ”
Toby slammed it down, and poof, a flower of light bloomed in its place. Even knowing about it in advance, the brightness of the light was exceptional.
“Ah, my eyes are tingling! This is intense.” Tia exclaimed,
“If you use it in front of an opponent who is chasing you, it can be quite effective. However, as you can see, it only glows for a moment, so if you miss the timing, it will be completely wasted. And the last one is this ‘acoustic ball’. It makes a loud noise, so be careful.”
When Toby slammed the ball into the ground three times, the hard sound of metal hitting metal echoed around the area. Even with my ears covered, I could still feel the impact as if a thin stake had been driven into my head.
“Ah, no! This is no good! Ughh, my ears
”
“Oi, are you okay, Tia?”
“I-I’m sorry! Are you okay!?”
“Niyuuuuu,

, I’m somehow okay,

, but this is pretty hard on someone with good hearing. Unlike the light earlier, we can’t completely block it even if we knew it was coming.”
Tia, clutching her long ears tightly, said with slight tears in her eyes. Ah, Tia certainly had good ears. This must have been quite painful for her.
“I guess. The most common reason to use this is because it is effective not only against humans, but also against beasts and demons. There are also some very stinky stink balls, but those are a bit 
”
“Stop! You don’t have to do that!”
“I know. I’ve just left town and I don’t want to get stinky.”
I have to agree with Tia, who looked seriously disgusted. The reason why rotten balls, which were overwhelmingly effective against those with a sense of smell, were not very popular was because the person who used them also smelled bad no matter how he or she used them.
“I understand. And one more thing, this will be my trump card. 
”
“Eh, I can’t have you tell me about that?”
“It doesn’t matter. Even if you know it, you can’t deal with it.”
Smiling at Tia’s words, Toby lifted his foot to show us his shoes. The shoe had a metal ring around the instep, and two small metal protrusions could be seen where it met the sole.
“This is a magic tool. If I put magic power into it like this and then step into it after activating it, I can 
”
Toby stepped down to the ground and then lifted his foot. Then the grass grew out of each of the two small dents in the ground and wrapped around in the center to form a small circle.
“Generating plants!? No, I don’t think he can do that
 Are you planting seeds in the ground and making them grow rapidly? ”
“Wow, that’s true. Yes, there is a special seed planted in this sharp point, and every time I step in this way, the grass grows out of the trail and becomes a trap to trap your foot.”
With that said, Toby took a few steps, and each time he moved, a circle of grass formed from his footprints. What a strange sight, but despite appearances, it was quite a nasty trick.
“If they don’t know anything about it, we can just let them fall, and if they know we have this, we can slow them down by forcing them to pay extra attention to their feet.”
Even as we speak, the grass that grew in the first place was rapidly shriveling up and dying. This one seemed to crumble to the ground as a rotting weed in about 30 seconds. If it could last that long, it would be enough to hold them back.
“Basically, my fighting style is to use a combination of these things to get away from the enemy. I’m not a big fan of head-on combat, to be honest. What do you think about this
?”
“It’s hard to completely prevent you from destroying their sight and hearing or slowing their gait, even if they know you’re going to use those kinds of moves. In addition, it is a reasonable strategy to take advantage of an opening and defeat them or run away.”
“That’s right. I think it would be rather scary if I got hit with this at first sight. However, relying on magic tools for any means is a bit scary. And isn’t it hard to deal with attacks from a distance with practically nothing but a “smoke ball”? If you’re attacked from an unobstructed area, even if you fire a lot of smoke balls, you’ll probably get reamed out by bows or magic, right?” I asked,
“Ughh!? Yeahh, I know, but it is still difficult to be 
 fully prepared in all situations.”
“Well, of course it is.”
It was one thing to be aware of one’s weaknesses and another thing to be able to compensate for them well. At the very least, it would be difficult for even the heroes in the stories to be able to handle every situation on their own. That’s why even heroes formed parties.
“In that case, why don’t you hire us? With me in the vanguard, a swordsman, and Tia in the rearguard, a spirit user, I think we can handle a pretty wide range of situations.”
“Hmmm


 By the way, how much would you charge?”
“Yeah. If you’re not including expenses, how about two silver coins per person on a daily basis?”
Toby got on board, and I pretended to think lightly before telling him so. If it was too cheap, he’d be suspicious, and if it was too expensive, he won’t hire us, but considering the class of the inn where we stayed yesterday and the skill we actually showed him, this should make him think it’s “cheap enough”. 

 How about it?
“Assuming that, four silver coins a day, right? But if we want to go all the way to Eckurir, I can’t do it with what I have on hand, right now. Um, would you mind if I respond to you when we get to the next town? I’ve got some things going on there.”
“Hmm? It doesn’t matter. We don’t have anything urgent on our end. Right?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Don’t worry, we won’t run away, it’s all good!”
“Thank you very much. Well, let’s go to the next town for now.”
Although we did not officially join the team, we still had hope. We continued on our way to the next town 
 and arrived there without incident. Once through the town gates, Toby patted his chest in relief and smiled.
“Ah, thank goodness. We arrived without a hitch.”
“

, Yeah.”
Contrary to Toby, who seemed to be in a good mood, I was a little impatient inside. I had been expecting an attack by Palm and the others, so the fact that nothing happened was unexpected.
(Don’t tell me you’re thinking that by not daring to attack him, you’ll make him need less of an escort and then draw us away from him?)
That’s the last thing we wanted to do, and the last thing Toby wanted to do. Toby would spare the money to hire us if the threat was too distant, and we couldn’t force him to let us come along if he refused.
At the very least, a powerful magic beast
 Is it a demon here? It would be a little different if they attacked, but there was no such thing along the highway, and there were no bandits attacking a small group of armed merchants, let alone merchants in carriages.
At that time, I started to think about appealing for a sense of crisis from a different direction
. and somehow getting him to hire us.
“Oh ho ho ho ho! How about some delicious delicious bourgeoisyaki?”
(T/N: basically grilled meat just some isekai food)
“Recommended by Ojou-sama.”
In one of the town’s streets, a pair of people I clearly recognized were, for some reason, setting up a stall selling grilled skewers.
(T/N: You can already guess, I finished the Crossbell games Trails from zero and azure)