Since Haruel’s fan club in the adventurer guild weren’t any help with just their wish, Ruu and I resume our information gathering using our own feet.

  The place we’re heading now is… AH.

  「If it’s according to the rumors, we should just do that. Haruel!」


  「Waa, Eiji-kun! What’s the matter, are you unable to hold yourself back from seeing my face?」


  「As if~, it’s definitely nothing like that.」


  And then, Ruu started snickering on my side.

  Haruel then tilted her head with a curious face.

  「Well, it’s nothing important though. The truth is that we were looking at the habits of the tsujigiri guy. Therefore――」


  So I told her about the result of our investigation until now(the so-called result isn’t a result though).

  Haruel nods deeply and then places both of her hands on my shoulder.

  「It’s a hard to believe that you came to the same conclusion as me. Who do you think I am. There are a lot of fighters and my fans too. I’ve no need to be protected from this kind of person. I’ll always be the lively me. LET’S WORK HARD TOGETHER!」


  Ruu and I grab the hand that was presented by Haruel.

  Thus, the three of us decided to form a united front against the common enemy.

  「I see, understood. Both the school and adventurer guild are hopeless, right. If that is the case, the dependable side is already decided.」


  Haruel is walking toward somewhere while bringing Ruu and me along. When we ask her, she happily gives particular type of riddle with:「Fufufu, where do you think we’re going now?」.

  Though Ruu’s giving this or that answer, it gets shot down with “buubuu” by Haruel as the wrong answer. I say, “You guys truly are carefree aren’t you”, despite the possibility of the culprit aiming at Haruel.

  「The correct answer is, THIS PLACE. Let’s hear the story from them」


  Haruel then stopped her feet followed by the two behind.

  This place is one of the plazas in the city and Haruel was greeting the performers. She’s greeting people like poets, singers, puppeteers, and traveling performers; her aim was to collect information.

  And then, that aim was a bullseye.

  The traveling troubadour was holding the exact information about the tsujigiri guy.

  According to that information, it seems that recently a group of bandits was destroyed around this vicinity. According to them, the culprit was a swordsman.

  That swordsman seemed interested to kill strong guys and then continued to challenge the head of the bandits when he heard that the head of the bandits was strong.

  It was extremely bizzare to hear that he destroyed a band of bandits alone.

  As I thought, it seems he really is a dangerous guy.

  「But, we can’t make a conclusion from that information yet.」


  「Yeah. It’s smell fishy but, maybe there’s another line to him―― Let’s go to the place where Jackrosa got attacked.」


  And then, we head toward the side of the river which I’ve visited several times for the sake of gaining final evidence. Jackrosa might have been training those days, so there might be something on this place.

  We arrived at the river area and then split to search.

  While thinking “Won’t there be something under this“, I lift a stone.

  But, what I found is just a little crab who ran away in panic from under the shade; it seems I didn’t find anything.

  「Nil isn’t it, Eiji-kun.」


  Haruel came and called me. I nod at her.

  「Right, as expected, it couldn’t be found so easily. But well, even if we found the identity of the culprit, we have no knowledge of where he is now; in the end, it’s all for naught.」


  「That’s the problem, you know. But, we can be more vigilant if we know his face beforehand; it’s not all for naught. Even my fans maybe unable to protect me.」


  「Rather, isn’t it already hopeless if Haruel can’t protect your own self? We can limit the number of suspects if we know what his aim is.」


  「That point is completely fine; I’m training myself too, you see.」


  Haruel’s smiling happily.

  But, I noticed that there’s faint trace of anxiety in her eyes.

  That’s natural, even people who were as powerful as Kean and Jackrosa were beaten by the culprit, there’s no guarantee that Haruel will be safe.

  「Indeed. But, I’ll also do my best to protect Haruel from that guy too. As one of your fans.」


  Right after that, Haruel’s staring at me with bewildered eyes and then nodded with “uhn”.

  「Thank you, Eiji-kun. Now you’ll come and see me fight in the arena, right. If I see you, I feel that I can do my best with just that.」


  「Yeah, since it’ll be more heated from now on.」


  It’s finally the best 8, just the best moments.

  And then, when there are only stronger persons left.

  I need to pay careful attention, in both ways.

  Moreover, while I continue searching and deciding so in my heart, I check my own skill. It’s for the sake of meeting that dangerous guy.

  The skill that will continuously raise one’s own natural healing power, 【Regeneration】.

  The skill to continuously raise one’s own magic defense,【Magic Defense Up】.

  Both were skills which I became able to use recently by learning it from the Paladin class. Most of Paladin’s skills are just like this one; it’s to simply raise endurance.

  And then, another one is 【Locked Stage】.

  When I try to use this skill, the surroundings suddenly become darker.

  There’s a dome shaped translucent wall of 10 metres radius with me as the center.

  This is a composite skill of dancer and parasite. This was the first composite skill of parasite, but, it does exist huh. Since there were almost none in the past, I used to think parasite as an isolated class.

  It seems the effect is something similiar to making a room.

  It’s something similar to barrier which makes one unable to exit or enter; the good point about this skill is that it can strengthen the invoked skill learnt by using parasite while inside this room.

  It doesn’t seem to be of any use, but it’s good.

  Well, I have learnt many things, so it’ll be alright even if something happens, I guess.

  I can’t make sure that I’m not only careless but―― Just when I am thinking about it.

  A monster suddenly attacks from inside the river.

  It’s a dark green fishman whose body is covered with fins and scale. It has sharp and pointed nails and is posing a hunched posture, seemingly charging up it’s power.

  「Something just appeared!」


  「A MONSTER!? AT THIS KIND OF PLACE!?」


  One of the three fishman shoots out jet-like water spray from its toes.

  Though I barely dodged its attack at the last moment, it grazed on my clothes and left a faint hollow on the nearby rock.

  Was it water cutter just now?

  It is said that when water is put on high pressure, it can even become a bullet or a blade.

  「But, if it’s only that!」


  At the same as it is coming at me, Haruel and Ruu also begin their charge. We slayed them in one strike while parrying their nails, and the corpse of three fishman slowly sink into the river.

  「What were those monsters just now?」


  When I muttered, Haruel replied, 「That’s a zombie sahagin. It’s an aquatic type of undead monster; I know about it since I’ve fought it before, but this is the first time I see it appearing in this kind of place.」


  「Hee, zombie sahagin, huh. Such a thing exists, huh.」


  When I hear the details from Haruel, it seems that this monster rarely appears in this river, but it seems that’s not the case.

  There’s that tsujigiri guy and now this monster, could it be that we came to Prowkai at such a brilliant timing?

  How unlucky. You might call it lucky in a certain meaning.

  There are so many weird guys out there.

  ――It was at that time. I suddenly recalled.

  When one thinks about a strange guy, there was one in this area, that strange swordsman.

  it seems he likes fighting and is really skilled at that or so but it is just too heartless to come to a conclusion with only that.

  Even so, when we met again in the arena, I felt a dangerous vibe from him when he said something like, “A battle without blood flowing is just child’s play“.

  ….Nevertheless, it is nothing but my guess.

  After all, there’s a possibility of being a false charge if I’m fixated on him with only that much.

  But, I should be extra careful when I meet him again. There’s nothing lost by preparing for that.

  After thinking that way, I tell Ruu and Haruel about that information for the time being, and then we go back to the city.

  Nevertheless, we spent too much time and were unable to find the final clue; and the finals of the tournament has started.

  Both Risaharuna and Haruel safely cleared their first match and entered the next match.

  It seems that nothing unusual happened till the semifinal where the champion could be seen.

  Maybe it was my mistake for thinking too much that the tsujigiri guy will indiscriminately attack the fighters.

  Maybe he already finished with his target and it was a fighter only by chance.

  Anyway, I head toward the coliseum to cheer for the semi final while thinking about having such needless anxiety.

  The people who were gathered in the plaza in front of the coliseum look like they have already forgotten about such things before the intensity of the battle.

  It’s such rare event after all, so it can’t be helped that I, who was too worried about it, am also enjoying the mood.

  While thinking so, I entered the coliseum with such fervent enthusiasm.