The party returned home, two of their members in a gloomy mood. Then the next day, Eunice did not respond to Tsutomu when he tried talking to her, so he instead focused on Barbara’s training while they were exploring the thirty-ninth layer.
Barbara was showing great signs of improvement, perhaps thanks to the practical experience gained from dealing with ten Skeletons at once yesterday. The number of Skeletons she could reliably take on had increased by one, and she was becoming more stable even without buffing effects. As long as she did not get hit by critical attacks, she would not have any difficulty with the Skeletons; she herself knew that, resulting in her maneuvers getting better, too.
[At this rate, we might be fine throwing in some Skeleton Archers in a day or two after this.]
Since their eventual training targets were the Orcs, which naturally had archers among their groups, the party needed to get used to long-ranged attacks as well. While watching the Skeletons being blown away by Barbara’s blows with her buckler, Tsutomu thought about the next methods with which to train her.
Eunice, on the other hand, was constantly grumbling to herself in annoyance; she had been trying to do the same things as Tsutomu had shown, but since there was no way one could do everything right off the bat, she kept on failing and failing. Tsutomu had advised her to focus on healing and supporting the Tank at first, but ended up leaving her to her own devices after being asked by her to leave her alone for three days.
Barbara took on the ten Skeletons while enduring the pain in her joints, while Diniel frequently sighed as her body’s senses were altered repeatedly by her <<haste>> effect running out and being applied again.</haste>
[Diniel’s the type of few words, I see. She might even pass as a Japanese person on that front.]
From Tsutomu’s experience, the act of simply walking away without a word was the most common reaction from Japanese players when encountering Healers with bad personalities. There were also those who would kindly teach them the ropes and others who would hurl profanity at them, of course, but most of the time, people would simply leave the party and find another elsewhere to avoid the hassle of a conflict.
In this case, however, there was no way to immediately break up the party, so Diniel could only keep silent while putting up with her displeasure. The situation was, needless to say, not good — not the kind of good silence where everyone involved acted naturally in sync with one another. This was the kind of silence where everyone had complaints and suggestions for improvement, but could not bring themselves to say them out loud.
Tsutomu kept on watching the three while he twirled his white staff around in his hands… and then saw Diniel starting to act up.
She began to dodge Eunice’s <<haste>> shots, deliberately letting them pass her by as she kept on shooting the Skeletons down. After the first several times, Eunice realized the meaning behind Diniel’s behavior; now she was insistent on landing the <<haste>> shots on Diniel.</haste></haste>
In fact, she was so focused on getting <<haste>> to hit that she had forgotten to support Barbara; now the latter’s <
Eunice kept on practicing with Leon and the team until late into the night, but all she managed to understand was the overwhelming difference between Tsutomu and herself. By the time she was back to the Clan House, it was already pitch black out; she cleaned herself, changed into her pajamas, and went back to her room.
She had to admit that she was inferior to ‘that guy.’ That Garm, Camille, and Amy were not fully responsible for his team’s victories over the Fire Dragon. That her assessment of him had been wrong.
Feeling as if she was getting all that implicitly beaten in, she shook the staff in her hand in frustration, then proceeded to throw it at the wall with all her might.
The staff fell to the floor with a hollow rattle. Eunice heaved a deep sigh and went to pick it back up.
[…I’ll admit, he’s better than me. For now.]
Eunice then wiped her red, swollen eyes with her sleeve, jumped into her cutely-decorated double bed, and almost immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, Eunice woke up with a refreshed look on her face. She quickly got ready and ate breakfast in the Clan House’s Dining Hall, then waited at the entrance for Tsutomu’s arrival.
She had been trying to imitate Tsutomu’s moves for herself, an effort which had gone largely unsuccessful. Now she felt that, if she kept stubbornly going at it like this, she would not ever be able to do it. She had resolved to bow to him, to ask him to teach her, and as such decided to do so first thing in the morning.
But time ticked on, and even when it passed nine o’clock, Tsutomu did not show up. Up to now, he had always arrived much earlier, looking over some documents in the reception room by the time it was half-past eight. Eunice had her arms crossed and was thumping one foot in frustration when Barbara and Diniel spotted her on their way out.
“Oh, there you are, Eunice. I’ve been looking for you.”
“…Did something happen?”
“No, nothing — it’s just that we’ll be doing some training today as well, you see… do you have other plans?”
“I don’t. Of course I’ll go with you… but that guy isn’t here, and I’ve been waiting since early morning! Why even train today, of all days, anyway? I swear, he’s the worst…”
Seeing Eunice wagging her tail as if to show her annoyance, Barbara put her fingers on her temples, reluctant to explain what should have been obvious to the former. Diniel, standing next to them, heaved a sigh and said,
“Tsutomu did tell us yesterday that he won’t be here today, though. Didn’t you hear him?”
“Huh…”
Having been so desperate to learn all the skills yesterday, Eunice had completely missed Tsutomu’s announcement. Diniel sighed again, exasperated. Eunice now realized that it had been a complete waste to have waited at the entrance so early in the morning. Her face flushed with shame, poked the ground hard with her staff as if she was throwing a tantrum.
“Why’s he taking the day off now, of all times? Isn’t he here on Golden Tune’s request!? He can’t just take time off like that! What’s his explanation for that, anyway!?”
“Well, it’s not like I know, either…”
“…Oh yeah, I think he said something about being called over by the Guild Master, and that he’ll be away for two days. Can’t blame him, I guess. He did get permission from Leon yesterday, after all.”
Barbara tried to pacify the red-faced Eunice as the latter screamed at the top of her lungs, while Diniel simply covered her own ears. Ten minutes later, after the scene died down, the three headed to the Guild to begin today’s training.