An A-Ranked Adventurer’s “Slow-living”

My name is Zoak. I have lived in a dark world since I was a child.

Robbery, assassination, escort of key figures, intelligence. I had no parents since I was born, and that was the only way to survive in a filthy slum.

I don't know the meaning of living besides fighting. I don't know about family, friendship, love, and the happiness of every person.

Before I knew them, my world was full of blood and my values had turned into distorted ones.

I lived that way and couldn't live a normal life, and even as I grew up, I struggled repeatedly in the dark world.

I have a vivid memory of doing the work behind the scenes.

It was a job to assassinate a certain nobleman when living in the royal capital. An assassination that I have been to many times. It was the most personal job I had been doing since I was a child.

I was confident that nobody would be escorted, even if the escort came on a business trip, including secret technology that no one would notice. So again, I thought it would end easily as usual.

However, my expectation was disappointed, and as soon as I entered the noble mansion, a black-haired man was standing.

The man's name is Aldred. Recently he was a famous A-rank adventurer in the kingdom.

But it is a strong man in the table world. It may be a story when dealing with a demon.

PvP in the back world doesn't have that much skill. No matter how strong you are against monsters, it is one step inferior to humans.

Going so high, I tried to crush the disabled as before, but it wasn't easy.

A man named Aldred had extraordinary sword arms and physical abilities not only in opponents but also in interpersonal battles with monsters.

They are all better than this, only the experience of interpersonal battles that I have won. It's all about making full use of it and making a blade with Aldred.

No matter how fast I sharpen my sword, Aldred swings the sword much faster and sharper. This is where you aim for the key points with feints, but play them without any upset. Then, using the feint just in return, he will aim at the key points such as the wrist, neck and side. I desperately avoided them and shook the blade.

Rolling down the passages of a dark mansion, kicking walls and using tools.

Nevertheless, each time the sword was tied, the opponent became accustomed to it, and the opponent's sword gradually became more likely to grasp this body.

Clothes are torn, skin is cut and blood flows. Nevertheless, I was hooked, waving my sword, and continued fighting with a loose darkness.

Originally, it was a situation in which it was time to give up work and withdraw.

It was fun to be able to connect with the opponent who surpassed my skill.

The pain of slashing the skin, the feeling of slashing, the dull pains of beating and kicking, and the time to be aware of death were fun and inevitable.

One eye was cut by Aldred's blade and I was laughing while wetting the blood.

An unprecedented time of struggle, the pain given by pain is unforgettable. It made me realize that only that time was alive.

I want to enjoy this more fun time. I want to add more blades.

However, my wish was not fulfilled and I was forced to withdraw by a savage intruder.

If Aldred cut the blade and cut it, he wouldn't be killed by anyone else.

But this may have been good. Because next time you can fight Aldred in even better condition.

With that in mind, it may be the correct answer to withdraw here.

After being rejected by Aldred and failing to do his back work, I decided to work hard for the next rematch.

Next time, let's cut the sword without delay. The next step is to be able to fight at a much higher height.

He struggled with Aldo's battles over and over again.

It was a very fulfilling time in my life.

What would Aldred do if I waved my sword? How will Aldred cope with new tools? Is this feint caught? Where is it advantageous to fight? It was fun just to think so.

While I was studying like that, Aldred seemed to be subdue the dragon and was praised by the people as a hero.

While he was studying, he had reached a much higher level.

While it's getting stronger, it has gone further. I was glad to see the guy who stepped away, two steps and three steps, even if he followed one step.

That's why he beat me.

This is where you get excited when you do not beat Aldred.

And, after a long study, I tried to fight Aldred again.

But there I saw a man with an incomprehensible face that I couldn't seem to be my rival.

A man named Aldred seemed to have lost his ambition while the royal city was crowded with dragon killing feasts. A sharp gaze like a bare sword is powerless and muddy and unreliable. He was lonely wandering down the streets of the royal capital with a ghostly step.

"... Hey Aldred"

“…………”

I approach Aldred and call out while feeling uncomfortable. However, he did not notice this, and passed by as if nothing had happened.

"Hey Aldred"

"……What?"

I hurriedly put my hand on Aldred's shoulder. Aldread looks at this lazily.

His dark eyes did not seem to be looking at something in front of him, hollow. Her eyes were as if she had lost something important.

Aldred then looked at him for a while and muttered as he remembered.

"... Oh, that assassin at that time, for me?"

"No, no more."

Aldred says so much of a transformation.

"……Really"

Aldred either lost interest in it or walked with a weak step.

You can't compare it to a noble mansion standing proudly in front of me.

That night I didn't think I was the one who exchanged blades with me.

Stunningly looking back at Aldred's back, anger began to sprout from within my chest.

Do not be silly. I wasn't working hard to beat a man with such a strange face.

Now you can enjoy a deeper time of death than that night. I finally found my purpose of life ...!

While vomiting words of various anger that grew in a long time in my chest, it was doubtful that the next came up.

Why on earth? What exactly was in the spirit of Aldred who killed the dragon?

I find out why Aldred is sorry.

He said he was seriously injured against the dragon.

Wrong. From what I saw, Aldred's body was normal.

He said that the high rewards made it no longer worthwhile to continue working as an adventurer.

Wrong. In that case, they should have been living a general life long ago as an A-rank adventurer. There is no way to take the quest to kill the dragon. And he hears that he is greedy for strength and shows no interest in money.

There were many other speculations, but none seemed right. It's unlikely that I'll ask a party member who knows that information for sure, and be alert and tell me.

I could never tell why Aldred looked like that.

Nevertheless, I thought that the man would return to its original state over time.

Eventually, when he recovers, he will regain his sword and return to a man with the same ambition as before.

I believed so.

But my trust is betrayed.

The information I heard after seeing Aldret in the Imperial City was that the A-rank adventurer party "Kurogin" was dissolved and that its leader, Aldred, was missing.

What I felt after hearing that was not anger, but a disappointing feeling of disappointment.

I don't know what happened to Aldred, but he has lost his thirst for greed.

I saw that man was just that craving for strength and I lived as usual.

However, when I returned to the background work and exchanged blades many times, I felt tremendous emptiness and longing.

No, his sword is not so late. These things seem to have stopped compared to him. He avoids such attacks as a matter of course. Not only swords but also whole bodies were used as weapons to assemble attacks.

All assassinations were requested, and the job was expected to collide with awkward influential people, but no one was stronger than Aldred, and no one could excite me.

There was no one to make the battle feel like death that night.

The emptiness that cannot find it, even though you have found your purpose as a person. When I realized I couldn't stand it, I was searching for Aldred.

After all, there is only Aldred who can satisfy himself. Remembering that night's fight, I believe you have the skills you have today.

Earl Clark-Raymond came to talk to me as he looked for Aldred.

Instead of giving Aldred's general information, he wanted Aldred to return to the kingdom.

The man, Clark, would have sought to heighten authority by bringing back Aldred, whose kingdom was sought after, or by incorporating himself into the camp. It's a ridiculous greed of a common nobleman.

However, from me, Aldred's subtle information was available, and if he could fight, he had to nod.

Then I search around the west according to the information of the aristocrat. Luckily finds and tracks a female wizard of the same party as Aldred at that stop, at the west end of the Silpheed Kingdom. I came to a rural village called Nordende.

To see Aldred and his sword again. In order to wrestle with such a bloody fling up. I hope that miserable figure has recovered a little.

My expectation is betrayed again.

Aldred was completely off the battle track. She makes a woman in a rural village and wields a hoe instead of a sword. The sight I saw with my eyes was incredible.

An adventurer boasting that strength is a farmer in the countryside?

In the midst of a shock similar to dizziness, I try to approach with at least dismissal as if to cling to hope. If you're an old guy, you'll definitely notice when you get closer.

Aldred didn't notice it, though.

Talking to a woman or a villager without noticing my sign.

Seeing that much of the depravity, I feel uncomfortable at last if I kill myself too much with anger.

When I see him, I make a decision.

I need something that makes him serious.

At first you only have to fight against each other. Even if he doesn't hold his sword for a long time, he should be able to fight. Even though I could beat him down, I thought it would be fine because I needed to make a break in myself. But that is no use.

Anyway, if you cut it, you'd better be serious.

I think how to make those who have thrown their swords serious.

And he came up with the method immediately.

You can abduct the woman Aldo loves and take it hostage. Then he's dead crazy. At the same time, the female witch who is a friend cannot openly reach out.

I thought so, and just waited for them to expose themselves.

There, Aldred and the female wizard left the house.

Only Aldred is left at home. I'm convinced, and they walk away to his home, aiming for a less popular timing.

"Yes!"

When I walked to the door and knocked, the Aldred woman came out without warning.

Isn't it like opening the door without confirming the opponent, and asking to stab the blade as it is and push it in?

"... Um, who are you?"

Aldred's woman is looking up, looking scared somewhere, probably because I don't recognize my face.

Ask this woman to play a role in making him serious.

"Are you an Aldred woman?"

"--eh?"