The Cabin

Everyone started introducing themselves after the C ranked party, the Iron God’s Breath, finished apologizing to Fran .

At first, I thought that they didn’t actually need to go as far as prostrating . However, the combination of the willingness with which they did it and the jock-like impression I got from them made me feel that to them, it wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary .

Their overbearing attitudes seemed to have entirely vanished . They instead had started to bow submissively over and over as if to make up for their mistakes . It seemed that Mordred’s statement, his proclamation that Fran was far stronger than he was, had left a pretty deep impression on them .

I was honestly surprised that one word from him had caused their attitudes to change so drastically . Most other adventurers would still doubt Fran’s strength because she looked the way she did . A bit of further consideration led me to realize their willingness to accept Fran’s strength came from their trust in Mordred . They seemed absolutely certain he’d never lie to them .

Although Mordred’s subordinates didn’t really question the authenticity of his words, I did . Fran was definitely stronger than him, but she was only reallywaystronger than him in her awakened state . The way I saw it, he was an accomplished Magic Warrior skilful enough to match even Colbert in single combat . He’d make for a dangerous opponent if we didn’t take him seriously .

「And these are my four party members . 」

「「「We look forward to workin’ with you . 」」」

「Nn . Same . Will also introduce again . C ranked adventurer . Fran . And Urushi . 」

「Woof!」

「Woah, that wolf just came out of nowhere!」

「I-It rose from the shadows!」

「Well then . He looks quite strong . 」

「Nn . Reliable . 」

Unlike his subordinates, Mordred remained calm even though Urushi, a decently powerful magic beast, had appeared seemingly out of nowhere . In fact, he even ended up smiling after affirming the wolf’s strength, as if to express he was glad to see another fighter amongst our ranks . I really did have to take my hat off to him . All the other adventurers had backed off and just stared at the Darkness Wolf from afar .

「I guess I might as well introduce everyone else . First up’ll be these guys . They’re Red Earth, a D ranked party . 」

「It’s good to be working with you . 」

「’Sup . 」

「Eyyyy . 」

Though the party’s leader seemed to be the formal, uptight kind, the same couldn’t be said for its two other members . They both gave off a much more laid back impression . I couldn’t help but notice that everyone in the party had green scales growing on their arms and faces, a feature that apparently clearly denoted them as serpentkin . I couldn’t help but feel that they were a bit weird, not because they had scales, but because they all seemed to be a part of the exact same demographic . Their well built frames were all about the same size be it in height or width . Likewise, they all wore twin swords and had similar-looking faces .

「Identical . 」

「Ahahahaha . That’s cause the three of us are brothers . We’ve been wandering the world and adventuring together for quite some time . It’s been a while since we last went home, so we decided to take this escort mission so we could head back for a bit . 」

Their appearances weren’t all they shared . All three of the serpentkin had been taught by their father, so they’d ended up with the exact same skillset . The uncanny resemblance they bore to one another led me to suspect that they were probably triplets . The only real way for me to tell them apart was to look at their hairstyles . I didn’t really think that to be too reliable, so I decided to appraise them each time we spoke to them going forward in order to make sure we knew which was which . For the record, the uptight leader was actually the oldest of the bunch .

Though Red Earth came off as a bit intimidating, I found that they were actually pretty decent people . They didn’t seem to hold any prejudice against Fran’s tribe .

「These last three belong to the Crystalline Defenders, an E ranked party . 」

「H-Hiya . 」

「Fancy seeing you again . 」

「Ahahaha…」

The last three adventurers were actually our acquaintances . In fact, they were still quite fresh in our minds because we’d only just sparred with them a few days ago . They were Miguel, the greatsword user, Liddick, the earnest spearman, and Naria, the female archer .

「Oh, you guys already knew each other?」

「Kind of . She crushed us in a spar just a few days ago . 」

「Right, you guys were the guildmaster’s apprentices, huh? Man, I’m jealous . I would’ve loved me a chance to spar with the Black Lightning Princess . Well, I’m glad you know her . Makes things more convenient . 」

Though the Crystalline Defenders barely counted as our acquaintances, I still preferred having them over someone we didn’t know for the sole reason that they’d already come to understand that Fran was strong .

「Here, why?」

「Well, the truth is, sparring with you taught us just how weak we really were . 」

「Everyone talked a bit, and we realized that we were starting to get sloppy because of how big our party was . Having nine whole people just ended up making us feel too relaxed . 」

「We decided to split into three smaller parties so we could start training ourselves again from the ground up . 」

Apparently, they hadn’t actually wasted the lessons they’d learned from fighting Fran . They’d realized that something was wrong and immediately acted on it .

「Okay . Good luck . 」

「Thank you . 」

「We’ll do our best!」

「Thank you very much for both the instruction and words of encouragement!」

The captain’s first mate pulled Fran and Mordred aside for a quick discussion after all everyone introduced themselves because he’d recognized them as teh two most influential members of the group . The other adventurers didn’t seemed to mind, as they’d left after stating that they’d go along with whatever the pair decided .

「We should probably figure out how we’re going to handle the chain of command . Any ideas on your end? Me, I don’t mind either way . Feel free to take over if you want . 」

Mordred was the type of guy that valued ability, or more specifically, strength in combat, over all else . He was more than willing to yield his position to Fran, but honestly, both Fran and I lacked the skill set necessary to fill it . The lava mage was much better suited to the job . Hence, we ended up rejecting his proposal .

「Bad at giving orders . 」

「Alright, go on . 」

「You take command . Want to be treated as autonomous unit . 」

Fran had basically said that she wanted to just be able to do whatever she wanted in response to the situation at hand . In other words, her proposition was a selfish one that allowed her to retain her freedom while also casting away all the troublesome responsibilities that came with taking charge .

「That’s fine with me, but can you make sure you check with me when you’re going to start acting on your own?」

「Nn . Will be prudent . 」

「You’re stronger than me, so I’ll try not to give you orders if I can, but I still will if we get into the kind of emergency that calls for it . 」

「Of course . 」

「…Alright . 」

Mordred heaved a heavy sigh, but ended up agreeing to go along with our idea nonetheless . It seemed that we were going to be fortunate enough to do as we wished for the most part .

「It looks like the two of you have wrapped up your meeting, so, Fran, why don’t I show you to your room?」

「Nn . 」

「I’m sorry in advance, but, it’s going to have to be just a bit on the smaller side . 」

「No problem . Just need bed . 」

「I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that . There’s no way we could possible treat youthatpoorly . 」

One of the sailors led Fran to her quarters . The room she was assigned to was a private room meant for the ship’s stronger fighters; its close proximity to the deck made it easy for her to get to wherever she needed as quickly as possible in the case of an emergency .

「This’ll be your room . 」

「Nn . Looks good . 」

「Good to hear . I’m glad you like it . 」

The sailor seemed to think Fran was complimenting the room just for the sake of it, as he seemed a bit ashamed of it throughout the conversation, but she and I honestly both really liked it .

It was a bit on the smaller side, but that was literally my only complaint . It was a private room with a clean bed, some drawers, a closet, and a decent looking desk . There was even a magic lamp suspended from the ceiling . It was way better than the cheap inns we usually stayed in .

Though, with all that said and out of the way, the one thing that really iced the cake was the round window decorating the room’s outside wall . It was exactly the kind of window you’d expect to see on a seafaring vessel . A single ray of light streamed in from it and illuminated the room’s otherwise dim interior . That was all it did, but, that alone was enough to really emphasize that we were in a ship’s cabin .

Fran seemed to like the room’s ambient atmosphere, as she herself down on the bed and started to swing her legs back and forth . The expression that decorated her face was clearly one of excitement .

「I like this room . 」

『Yeah, me too . 』

She laid down and started rolling back and forth on the bed until she eventually tired herself out .