A live catfish with its bandages almost fallen off had bitten their fishing pole’s bait and was coming up.
“The world is truly difficult.”
SwordNoob sat down under a large old tree.
His Sword Mastery skill was Advanced level 6 at 89%. With growth at an unbelievable speed, it was at a stage where Master level of Sword Mastery was not far. But what worth was there in raising his level and polishing his Sword Mastery skill?
“This is the vice of an old dog. Might there not be a middle-aged woman wandering around alone?”
Even trying to start a conversation with pretended friendliness with a woman he’d never seen before was awkward. A husband coming to take her away while he was observing and agonizing over whether it was fine to talk to her had happened to him a couple times, so he didn’t even have the will to try anymore.
When SwordNoob was condemning himself, a girl who looked to be in her late teens approached him.
“Mister, what are you doing here?”
“…”
SwordNoob didn’t reply and flicked his hand as if to shoo her away. Looking like a player, the human girl was considerably cute and pretty.
‘She’ll probably just ask me about the hunting ground.’
Normally he would answer her kindly. It wasn’t because he wanted to do something bad to the adorable and young girl, but so that he could give her at least a little help.
‘Zephyr also gave advice. It’s important to have lots of conversations with women.’
Actually, a girl starting a conversation with him only numbered a few times in SwordNoob’s life. He was big, so his appearance was one that women couldn’t easily approach. But more than that, his eyes and spirit were on a different level from normal people, so even gangsters avoided him.
Right now, he wanted to be alone because he felt like wanting to quit it all. However, the girl sat down in front of SwordNoob with no intention of leaving.
“Hey mister, are you alone?”
SwordNoob only slightly nodded his head. ‘Seeing as she’s intentionally asking on, is she a merchant who’s trying to sell something? Or does she want help? Guess I should give her a roughly useful weapon if I’ve got one left.’
The girl hesitated for a moment before asking again. “Would you like to hunt with us?”
At the words that differed from his expectations, SwordNoob was a little curious. “Are you inviting me to your party right now?”
Towards his disciples, he stuck to a short and stern way of talking. He tried not to alarm the girl, but his voice was even more low and grave because he didn’t have much experience with talking to the opposite sex.
Spurred on by his not-adverse reaction, the girl’s voice gained strength. “Let’s hunt together, okay?”
“Maybe. It’s a pain… if you’d like a hunting ground recommendation, I can do that much for you.”
“We came all the way here from Rosenheim Kingdom. It’s a little too much for us to hunt on our own, you see.”
“Huh.” In the end, SwordNoob couldn’t refuse this cute girl’s request and rose from his seat. ‘Alright. I’ve got nothing else to do, so it won’t be bad to hunt with them for a bit.’
Even if the girl had come acting friendly on purpose because she wanted help, he planned to let that much go.
SwordNoob asked without much thought, “Your other companions are?”
“There are two people, my mom and youngest aunt. Mom’s profession is Elementalist and Aunt’s profession is Summoner.”
Women often picked those professions because the spirits or summoned creatures were cute.
‘Elementalist, Summoner. And is this child a Magician? I guess it would be hard for the three of them to hunt.’
Even as they walked to the party, the girl kept chattering. “Dad is busy from work, so he can’t play with us. My youngest aunt still doesn’t have a boyfriend from graduating from college and studying abroad.” For some reason, the girl was describing the youngest aunt in detail. “She’s an accountant. She’s thirty-two this year, but she’s never dated ’cause she drowned herself in studying. She’s pretty, skinny, and also has a good personality. There’s a big age gap between her and my mom, so she also played with me like a sister since I was young.”
“I see.”
“But her standards are high, so… she went on a few blind dates, but she said she didn’t even see most men as men and left right away.”
“Her standards must be high.”
SwordNoob listened to her words impassively. Then they reached the location of the girl’s party. There was a calm-looking, middle-aged woman with a big dog-like spirit, and a lady with a graceful face in her early 30s.
The girl grinned as she said, “My aunt likes macho men. She also likes martial arts.”
“…!”
* * *