Members
Every day, if only for a few hours, Lammis completes her grueling special training and steadily adjusts to this environment.
Her training consists of: errands in the settlement while carrying me, going to the bathroom in the inn alone at night, taking walks through the settlement with me on her back.
During the extreme regimen, there were several moments where it seemed like her spirit would break, but she overcame it all with her indomitable fortitude, and now she can freely move through the settlement as long as I’m on her back— Am I spoiling her too much?
Coincidentally, it seems there’s a new spooky rumor in the settlement that tells of a girl wandering the streets with a giant metal box on her back, one who exudes a sweet scent and cheerful music. But that’s beside the point.
“Hulemy, I’m all set! I don’t get scared anymore.”
She still gets startled enough to jump out of her boots when someone suddenly turns a corner, but she’s definitely making steady improvement compared to before.
“I see, I see. I’ve witnessed your efforts with my own two eyes. Let’s move on to the next step, shall we?”
“I don’t care what it is! Bring it on!” She beats her chest, full of confidence. It looks like she’s acquired quite a bit of confidence these last few days.
“There, that’s the spirit. In that case, next, you’ll be going for a walk through the settlement without Boxxo—”
“I can’t do that, ma’am! Please spare me!”
Hulemy isn’t even finished before Lammis’s posture quickly bends ninety degrees in a swift bow. What splendid resolve. She didn’t hesitate for a second. It looks like strolling about on her own is still too high of a hurdle.
“I think you’ll be fine, since you’ll always be with Boxxo during our search, but still. The question is whether you’ll be okay leaving the settlement.”
“I… I’ll be fine. Other people will be there, too. I won’t be alone.”
“Well, I guess so. Come to think of it, the captain said something about bringing the search-team members today.”
Oh, so we’ll finally be starting this search for the King of Souls in earnest. I wonder who else will be joining us aside from the usual Menagerie of Fools members. There are a lot of undead types here, so maybe it will be a monk or a priest. A nun would be good, too.
As far as I’m aware, the healing jobs in this world go to the people with Blessings that can heal wounds. The old lady who always comes to me early in the morning has such a Blessing, I’ve heard.
Apparently, there is wound-healing magic, too, so personally, I’m hoping for a kind, capable woman or a warrior-priest man.
“Oh, here you are. I brought our search team today.”
That voice must be Captain Kerioyl. He seems to have been looking for us while we were out and about for special training.
The two girls turn around, and I direct my view at the captain as well.
Behind the captain are the eating-contest participants: short-haired Shui the Inhaler as well as the four from the Band of Gluttons. The red-and-white twins are also here. Until this point, the members are the same as always, but there is someone else.
“I’m happy to see you again, Boxxo. And Lammis and Hulemy as well.”
Jet-black armor and a cool smile. Wait, Mishuel is coming with us, too? I’ve no protest in terms of his combat strength, but… Will his social anxiety be all right with this many people around?
“You all know Mishuel, right? He’ll be joining the Menagerie of Fools as a trial run. This is the Reclusive Black Flash we’re talking about, so we’d be happy to have him. But he wants to get a clear view of our team during this expedition first. Right, Mishuel?”
“Oh, no. I simply want to know that I won’t hold the rest of you back—and that I can cooperate with you all without an issue.”
He looks like he’s being modest, but he’s serious about the second half, a fact that only I know. He seems to be replying in a normal way right now, but I bet he’s sweating in nervousness in that armor.
He appears to be the only newcomer. Are there no cleric jobs in this world? That’s kind of a shame.
“All right, then let’s find a shop and I’ll explain the expedition and give an overview of what we’ll be doing,” says the captain.
Prompted by him, we all enter a nearby eating house.
It’s not lunchtime yet, so there are no other customers in the midsize store, and the only employee who seems to be here looks like she’s at a loss at our group’s sudden entrance.
“Sorry for the crowd. Can we rent the place out for a while?”
The captain flips a gold coin with his thumb and hands it to the waitress who came running up.
As soon as she sees it, her attitude does a one-eighty. She leads us to a large, round table in the back of the store, then goes to put some kind of signboard in front of the entrance door. It probably has something like RESERVED written on it.
Everyone takes their seats, placing me at the table as well, after taking out a chair.
“Get us whatever food and drinks you got. Ah, all right, the five of you need to stop giving me that greedy look. I get it. I’ll order a lot.”
With Shui and the Band of Gluttons staring at him through teary eyes, the captain makes a large order. With those five, our Engel’s coefficient shoots through the roof. I’d think we’d be welcome customers in any restaurant.
“Now then, you can eat while you listen. Our mission is to find the King of Souls and send him to his grave. Oh, and the vice captain is on another assignment for personal reasons.”
“The vice captain gets scared easily, after all,” remarks Shui.
“I bet I know. She’s too embarrassed to let the captain see her being scared.”
“Are you serious, White? I had no idea the vice captain had such a cute side to her.”
The Fools’s whispering among themselves immediately elucidates the reason for the vice captain’s absence. Same as Lammis, in other words. Strong-minded people tend to be weaker to ghost stories, after all.
Still, without the calm-and-collected adviser here, I’m starting to worry about this expedition. Who’s going to manage us?
“Incidentally,” continues the captain, “I asked for the Band of Gluttons to help because the atmosphere here won’t affect them, and they’re skilled at reconnaissance.”
“I don’t really get it, but I hear humans are scared of dark places, corpse fiends, skeleton fiends, and soul fiends,” says Pell. “We don’t know what that feels like.”
“The corpse fiends smell bad, though,” puts in Mikenne. “Like rotten meat. It makes me lose my appetite.”
Pell nods at Mikenne’s remark and scowls. I guess humans and beast people naturally find different things scary. Thinking about it that way, the Band of Gluttons are an appropriate choice.
Plus, they have good ears and noses. And the speed to make a quick getaway. You could call them fairly valuable assets.
“We’ll be searching over a wide area, and it will be dark around us,” says the captain. “Their low-light vision will be invaluable.”
If I recall correctly, Tasmanian devils are nocturnal… Yeah, maybe they’re ideal for this.
“And I dragged Shui, Red, and White along against their wills.”
“You’re a tyrant!” cries Shui. “I’m weak to scary things, too!”
“I’m not particularly good with them, either!”
“Yeah, me either!”
As his team members continue complaining incessantly, Captain Kerioyl gives them a satisfied grin and flatly says, “You don’t have the right to refuse.”
The members, not to be outdone, shower him with insults, and the conversation turns into an ugly argument. We’re used to them being at odds, so Lammis and the others don’t bother trying to stop them. Instead, they keep quiet and eat their food.
Mishuel doesn’t seem to understand the situation, but he also doesn’t seem to have the courage to interrupt. He’s frozen in place, a forced smile plastered on his face.
After a while, the Fools seem to exhaust their vocabularies, and breathing heavily, they sit down deep in their chairs.
“Anyway, back to the subject. Most of the enemies in the Dead’s Lament stratum are corpse fiends, skeleton fiends, flame scolls, and soul fiends. Would you mind explaining what they are, Hulemy?”
“Sure, leave it to me. We fought a lot of flame scolls in the Labyrinth stratum, so I don’t need to go over those. Wait, Mishuel, do you need an explanation on them?”
“No, I’m fine. Please, continue.”
“All right. First up are corpse fiends. As the name implies, they’re dead humans who can move around. For some, what little flesh they do have left is completely rotten, but others don’t look that different from living humans. They’re typically slow but powerful. Be sure not to let one grapple with or bite you.”
In other words, we’re dealing with zombies. In horror movies, if you get bitten, the disease always spreads. She didn’t mention anything like that, though, so we shouldn’t have to worry about it.
“Skeleton fiends are moving skeleton types. All their skin has fallen off, and some researchers suggest they’re the end result of corpse fiends, but I subscribe to a different— Er, that’s not important. They’re fast-moving but not very strong. They’re basically the complete opposite of corpse fiends.”
Yeah, skeletons are pretty weak. I remember a certain movie where skeleton enemies got destroyed easily. Hulemy’s voice isn’t nervous; she talks as though they’re small fries.
“Last are the soul fiends. Their bodies are transparent, and direct attacks won’t work on them. They may seem like trouble, but they’re weak to light. You can destroy them easily by shining any strong light on them. They won’t even come near you if you have a lantern. Holy magic items and magic do the trick as well.”
Is that right? They won’t be coming after me, then. I should probably turn my brightness up to its maximum setting at night.
“Well, those are the monsters that appear frequently, but stronger versions of them, as well as other monsters, have been spotted here before—though not many. Don’t let your guards down.”
“Thanks for the explanation. With you here, we thankfully don’t have to spend too much time gathering intel. We plan on leaving first thing tomorrow morning. I want everyone ready by then. At first, we’ll spend half a day searching and go back to the settlement. Then we repeat the process. Won’t need many supplies in that case, after all.”
We’ll be doing day trips at first? When I think of Lammis, that seems like a good plan. Monsters are stronger at night, and getting information on our enemies would be best on day trips.
As I think it over, I look to my side and see Lammis, her fingers digging into my body, nodding again and again like a malfunctioning machine.
Is…is she going to be okay tomorrow?
