The fish was become sashimi while blinking its eyes, alive. And while underwater, as well!
Sorriness filled SwordNoob’s eyes. ‘Looks like I can’t do this because it’s cruel.’
It had been a long time since he had properly shown off his swordsmanship skills. After that time when life and death had been separated by a second, he had never done his best. Even Royal Road was simply entertainment. It was so that he could try testing his still-honed swordsmanship, but he was sorry for the fish. SwordNoob almost never even hunted herbivores like rabbits, squirrels, or deer in the Versailles Continent, either.
‘Something I can’t even eat… there’s no need to take their lives pointlessly.’
Feeling sorry, SwordNoob wrapped the fish in bandages. They were still alive, due to his marvelous swordsmanship.
“Gasp!”
Then he rose to the top of the water and moved downstream. It wasn’t that he determined his destination, he was just wandering randomly.
There were people downstream the river. He heard a conversation of a middle-aged man raising a fishing pole and his wife.
“D-dear.”
“Hm?”
“We just… caught sashimi!”
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