Chapter 70

“Hello, everyone. We’ll be in your care today.”

“…Hello,” the three Explorers gave an utterly unenthusiastic reply.

These people were among the lowest-evaluated members of Ealdred Crow. Lacking in both ability and motivation, they were on the list of those who would be suggested to leave the Clan, come the next evaluation.

No matter how good Ealdred Crow’s informants were, they still would end up recruiting untalented individuals from time to time. These members, failing to keep up with the rest of the Clan soon after they had joined up, and ignoring the office staffs’ efforts to persuade them, have become apathetic to their situation and neglected their efforts.

Only this current request was what kept them in the Clan, but soon enough, they would be asked again to leave. Their faces were painted with emotions of resignation. Stephanie, confused at the sight of them, turned to ask Tsutomu,

“Mister Tsutomu? These people are…?”

“The party members appointed for us by Rook, yes. Today’s afternoon training will involve teaming up with them and start exploring from layer twenty-one, aiming for layer twenty-nine. It sure would be nice if we were able to vanquish the Layer Boss in a single run, wouldn’t it?”

“That is quite…”

…Impossible from the outset, was what Stephanie would have said, had she not swallowed her words back down first. She could already tell from a distance just how unmotivated they were — one among them was a Dualblader, a Job so versatile that it was considered a blessing from God, yet this individual was deprived of any enthusiasm, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. The other two were a Paladin and a Dark Knight, both of whom had made excuses with their unfortunate Job type, and had never exerted any effort in their work.

They lacked motivation. The one thing that was practically accounted for in everything. The office workers were the ones in charge of the Explorers’ performance quota; if one at least showed some motivation, even if they failed to fulfill their quotas, the workers may have permitted a discussion for some reduction or alteration. The informants were kind enough to provide information to those who took the initiative to ask, too, and all the others in the myriad support roles were always there to help.

Yet, they neglected to work hard, instead simply basking in the sense of security and accomplishment that came with joining the major clan called Ealdred Crow. They had not realized that this was no finish line, but merely the beginning of everything; the longer they slacked off, the gap between them and their peers grew wider and wider. Once they had realized the difference, they had become so shocked that they gave up even trying.

All three members were still under level thirty — not even at the cap of forty permitted to those who had reached the Swamp, and they had only skimmed over the materials on the three-role composition that Ealdred Crow had given them. With three of such excess baggage in tow, it would be quite impossible for even a major Clan’s Leader to claim victory over a Layer Boss.

“Well, let’s go get our party registered, then. Stephanie, you’ll be the leader, and also the Healer — act as you see fit. Can you take over from this moment on?”

“…Yes,” Stephanie agreed to Tsutomu’s orders, refraining from verbally questioning whether it would be a good idea to train with such low-quality personnel. She held blind respect for him, and knew that he would never propose such a project without thinking things through.

Stephanie had first known of Tsutomu from one of Solit Company’s newspapers, and afterwards an informant had recommended him to her via some detailed notes that summarized his Monitor footage, which had greatly piqued her interest. Once she had gotten to take a look herself, she had been surprised by how Tsutomu acted when partied up with Garm and Camille. Long-ranged healing. A defender that never died. But what had surprised her most was how a White Mage was the one who stood out.

At the time, While Mages were expected to only cast support skills at the start of a fight and then hide themselves for the rest of the time. But Tsutomu was different — at first, Stephanie had scoffed at this prominence, thinking he had been abusing his reputation at the ‘Lucky Boy’ to do whatever he pleased, but once she had gotten to watch a broadcast, she had immediately realized how incorrect that was.

Even when looked at from the outside perspective, the party members, Garm and Camille, were full of energy — they were having fun. The sight had prompted Stephanie to wonder if that was how a party would look if the members were left to their own devices.

From that point on, Stephanie would go from time to time to look at the Monitors on which Tsutomu was shown, eventually witnessing the battle against the Fire Dragon and getting quite fascinated by Tsutomu’s strategies. She wanted to be like that, too — to support the party, survive to the end, and share the joy of Dungeon exploration with everyone else. She had begun to feel a strong desire for a change in the mundane status quo. And then, once the second Fire Dragon battle rolled around, Stephanie had been completely captivated by Tsutomu.

[I’m sure he has something in mind. Something beyond my imagination.]

While making a blind affirmation for Tsutomu in her mind, she registered the party at the reception desk and entered the Magic Circle to transfer to the twenty-first layer.

And so began the exploration of the Dungeon’s Swamp… which went just as bad as Stephanie had predicted. The Dualblader attacked without deliberation, and the two Tanks did not even know how to activate <<combat cry="">>.</combat>

Naturally, all that resulted in the monsters’ aggro piling up on Stephanie once she cast a few of her skills, forcing her to use <

“Huh…?”

“Because if you do, you won’t be any different from an Attacker, so I suppose the instruction needs some rephrasing — act as you see fit, as a Healer,” Tsutomu said before simply turning away, resuming his distant post of watching over the party.

Stephanie saw him off, dumbfounded… and brought to her limit of stress tolerance.

All of the week spent, and all the party achieved was to reach the twenty-second layer. After today’s exploration concluded and the party members went their separate ways, Stephanie stopped Tsutomu as he was about to leave.

“Mister Tsutomu.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Could it be that… you are an impostor?”

“Huh? No, I’m as Tsutomu as Tsutomu gets.”

“……”

Stephanie gripped tightly the edge of her curly hair, asserting how much she did not want to hear what she had just heard. As Tsutomu watched on in silence, Stephanie proceeded to mutter to him,

“…So tell me, what were you thinking?”

“Come again?”

“What were you thinking!? What is the point of this training exercise!? I don’t understand! What could it possibly achieve!?”

Stephanie suddenly ruffled her hair and screamed, as if she was losing her sanity. Her and Tsutomu being near the Guild’s entrance, the other people in the vicinity promptly backed away and started whispering among themselves.

“Is this really YOUR training, Mister Tsutomu!? The REAL you, and not some impostor!?”

“I am the real me, yes. Also, I’d really appreciated it if you spoke a little more quietly.”

“Your training program for the mornings was great! But the afternoons — something’s clearly not right! What could it possibly achieve!? With that trash party!? I wasn’t even training my support skills at all!!”

“You think? Now, there are times when a Healer needs to provide support even in such situations. That’s what this part of your training is for.”

“…Even for the Ealdred Crow’s main party?”

“Hmm, I don’t think they would find themselves in such situations very often, but it’s still a yes.”

“Of course they wouldn’t! They’re nowhere nearly as incompetent at those trash! It’s not even a comparison!!”

As Stephanie kept running her mouth, Tsutomu stood by calmly.

“Things are sure to get more difficult from here on out — layer sixty-five, layer seventy, whatever. Parties are especially prone to breaking formation of layers they’ve never been to before — you should know that already.”

“That’s…”

“Oh, and also, I suppose I should apologize — I was expecting you to complain about that party after a day or two, but it seemed like you were taking them so well, so I… might have forgotten to turn things down before it got out of hand. I’m sorry that I didn’t notice how much you were on edge before.”

Tsutomu had already known full well that the appointed party was awful, after all, but contrary to his expectations, Stephanie had been surprisingly patient, not giving up on using support skills until five days in. Tsutomu had thought then that things might be alright like this, and as such had not said anything.

Stephanie kept on shouting at Tsutomu as he bowed down, and then once she calmed down and realized what she had been doing, she lowered her head as well.

“I-I see… I can understand that, now that we’re on the same page! Apologies for my sudden rudeness!”

“Thank you, and again, I’m sorry. Might I assume that you are on board with this training program now?”

With Tsutomu’s face in a perpetual smile, Stephanie could not bring herself to say anything back. In truth, she wanted not to be a Healer for this kind of party ever again, and she was already hearing her inner devil whispering to her to abandon her training. Moreover, it was quite likely that the main party was now using a replacement Healer, who must have been showing off their abilities during her absence. All in all, immediately returning to the main party seemed the more tempting option.

“Y-yes. I– I am.”

But Stephanie managed to shake off her inner devil’s whispers, and replied to Tsutomu, albeit on the verge of tears. Satisfied with her reply, Tsutomu took her out for a delicious dinner.