The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Pochi gigantified and carried Ricky, who was stuck in his gigantified form himself, while I put my staff away in the Storeroom in order to carry both Barun and Betty at once.

Since we had headed out with Barun, one of the Six Braves, I hadn’t been able to sneakily set up a Teleportation Spell Circle near Regalia like I usually would.

By the time the sun inclined to the west, at the point where we could see Regalia in the distance, the three finally woke up.

Barun instantly jumped off me out of embarrassment, while Betty instantly… slapped my butt.

That. Hurt.

Ricky seemed to be doing fine, too. There was an old horoscopic belief that went along the lines of ‘dog women and monkey men get along well,’ but like his boss, Ricky instantly jumped off Pochi.

“-And so the Shi’shichou appeared in front of me, and then soon left without a trace.”

When I was done talking, Betty groaned at my explanation of what had happened.

“Hmph, I wanted to get a long look at it too, you know. I mean, it’s a legend and everything…”

“Haven’t you had enough of THAT? I wish to never see it again, personally. I was quite curious at first, but after all that, I’d say nothing good can come from being involved with those Heavenly Beasts.”

Barun, appalled at Betty’s attitude, spoke in opposition to her.

“Ahahahahaa, that bad, huh? What about you, Asley? Since you got to actually interact with it, what’s your opinion on it?”

“Same as yours, more or less. That, and I realized I must get stronger. Much stronger…”

In response to my statement of intention, Barun turned away from Betty to me.

“Yeah, no, that’s something humans can never achieve. I mean, our levels don’t go over a hundred, right? It’d be wise for us humans to know our limits, I say.”

“And that’s what the boy says. So?”

“Hahaha, you never know until you try.”

“No, I definitely do. You’d be the fool among fools to actively risk your life over things like this. Anyway, we’re done here, right? I’ll just excuse myself now. C’mon, Ricky!”

“Yes, Boss.”

Ricky hopped onto Barun shoulder.

“…We’ll see you later.”

Was it just me, or did his parting words have a reluctant feel to them?

Barun of the Six Braves… I’m sure he’s got a lot of things going on with his life, too.

With Barun running off into the distance, the rest of us also picked up our pace.

Betty kept an eye on him as he faded out of sight and proceeded to say,

“…If we don’t get that strong, then… we’ll never survive what we’ll eventually have coming at us, huh.”

The meaning behind her words was plain and simple.

Monsters all over the world will be getting a power boost come the resurrection of the Devil King. That had happened before, and the Shi’shichou had lived through it. No matter how I thought about it, the wall me must cross this time was just too high. I wonder what Betty’s take on this is.

“…Well, we’ve got a big long-term goal to strive for now!”

Betty, ever the wide-eyed optimist, winked to assert that optimism of hers.

She didn’t seem to be putting up a tough act, but it did feel like she was being somewhat non-committal with her declaration.

With her spending a good chunk of her time in battle, she had naturally become quite sensitive to such an obvious difference in power.

Betty didn’t seem to have gotten better even when we were back in the city, either. We first headed to the guild to collect our reward, then straight back to the inn, at which she immediately said she needed some rest and retreated to her room.

Seeing her off, Pochi and I then also went into our room.

Once I rested my head on the Pochi pillow, Pochi spoke up, seeming quite worried for Betty.

“Betty must have taken quite a blow to her ego, sir.”

“Of course she has. That thing is just way too powerful, you know. It’s too far of a goal, long-term or not. Even one of the Six Braves, the supposed best warriors of the Nation, ended up like THAT. I know there’s a big difference in Barun and Charlie’s skills, but… in front of that violet phoenix, they might as well be nothing. I would’ve freaked out real hard if I hadn’t gotten to know and train under Tūs, honestly.”

“But do you think Tūs can win against it, sir?”

“Hmm… I can’t really measure his power by my standards, you see. You could say that it’s the same case for the Shi’shichou, but I THINK he can pull something off, at the very least.”

“Goes to say how strong he is, sir. What about you, Master? Do you think you can win?”

“Hell no.”

“You’re THAT sure?!”

“With how I am now, of course I’m sure. After seeing its level, I knew that I’m gonna need the Limit Breakthrough more than ever. I mean, it’s level 240, you know? Two hundred. And Forty.”

“More than twice the cap… I see. I can’t remember if I asked, but did you ever find that thing? The… Philosopher’s Stone, was it?”

“I don’t know if it’s the actual thing, but I’ve found a crystal encasing a Holy Warrior’s body. It didn’t seem to fit the description I’d gotten from Tūs, though. Maybe what he meant was different from what I’d inferred from him. The crystal’s in my Storeroom now, and I’m saving it for when it might be important, so I’ve got to take good care of it… Anyway, what about you, Pochi? What do you think about what little you’ve seen?”

“You’re quite a lot serious than you usually are, sir~~”

“Hey, I’ve got to get things done, too.”

“Hmm, if you say so. I’m leaving all the planning to you, Master. So just let me play along whatever you come up with, all right?”

“Welp, looks like we’re all gonna die.”

“Ahahaha… I only know how to go straight ahead, sir. I’ll leave the creepy wiggly juking to you, Master.”

Pochi said all that so nonchalantly.

As roundabout as that was, she was probably telling me that ‘it’s all up to me’. Looks like I’ll actually have to give it my best from here on out.

Pochi seemed to be quite exhausted by all that had happened today, so almost immediately as the conversation ended, she started snoring.

“…Whew.”

…The Shi’shichou, one of the Heavenly Beasts, huh… It sure was an outrageous creature.

It was as if we had been shown the sheer difference of us and it as lifeforms, but then there was Tūs – technically one of us – also standing on that seemingly unreachable peak.

Nothing’s going to change for me from this point on. I’ll keep studying, studying, and even more studying.

Now then, there’s a lot of things to get done in the span of one month from now. Pochi and I will have to obtain as many titles as possible during this time.

I’ll also have to use my alchemy skills and craft Artifacts to prepare for even stronger monsters.

And I mustn’t forget to invent new spells and improve the ones I already have. For this in particular reason, I’ll probably need some help from ‘that person’.

At the end of the day, what we need to achieve is the ability to hunt down high-leveled monsters.

For everyone’s sake, I’ll try to earn as much money as possible, and also study up as much as I can on monsters’ trends and nature.

Hmm… now I’m getting sleepy, too.

Wonder what job we’ll be taking tomorrow…

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

The next day, Betty was back to her usual self, as if she had swallowed everything down with just a single night’s sleep.

Then, at the Adventurers’ Guild, we surprised the Guild staff with the astounding amount of work we completed: three Rank S, albeit minor ones – and also seven A-rankers, and two B-rankers. To be honest, I felt like I was being dragged along by Betty almost the entire time.

It seemed that she was more energetic today than she had ever been before.

We’d made quite a lot of money today, even after deducting inn rent and other expenses.

To be specific, it was a whopping 1,017,780 Gold. Everyone’s in for a treat when we get back to the Agency.

Once we had taken down our last requested monster of the day, Betty, Pochi, and I had all agreed to return to Beilanea immediately.

Before then, I used the Telepathic Call magecraft to inform Gaston of our leave, and also initiated my first call with Fuyu. It seemed that Fuyu had already tested the Telepathic Call with Gaston beforehand, so she wasn’t so spooked when I had called, but was still surprised by the fact that I could use magecraft. I had also given her the Teleportation formula that linked to the Circle in my room, so that she could come over to the Pochisley Agency whenever she had the free time to.

I was quite surprised by how ecstatic Fuyu had sounded, but it was all good as long as she appreciated it.

~~Six O’clock in the Afternoon, First Day of the Fourth Month, Ninety-Fourth Year of the War Demon Calendar~~

In the woods southeast to Regalia, I invoked the Time-Limit Termination formula onto the Teleportation Spell Circle, then activated the latter. In an instant, we were transferred to my room back in Beilanea.

However, we were welcomed by quite a bizarre situation that just happened to take place at the perfect timing of our arrival.

What I heard coming from the other side of the door was a throaty, fussy voice of a dog.

And there was also a girl, in a gray hooded robe, sleeping on my bed.

Pochi and Betty, being transferred a few moments after I had been, looked to see what was up – the former at my side, and the latter over my shoulder.

And then,

“M-Master…!”

“Asley~~?”

“What have you done?! The town security is going to be out for your neck again, sir!”

“She’s a bit too young, don’t you think? I never knew you were into this kinda thing. Man~~”

“Hell no, I’m not! Anyone with half a brain would know that I don’t know anything about this!”

I swear, all these joking false accusations I get are starting to become unfunny.

So, this girl… She looks to be about the same age as Natsu and Fuyu. Why was she sleeping here, of all places?

Could she be a kid the Pochisley Agency had helped out while I was away?

“Jeez, gimme a break… Hmm? Wait, this kid… I think might’ve seen her before…?”

“What a coincidence, sir! That’s what I thought, too!”

“Oh, yeah? I don’t think I remember her from anywhere, though?”

If Betty doesn’t know her, then… when and where did we meet, again? Hmm, I think I might have an idea… C’mon, it’s on the tip on my tongue here…

“Ah.”

“Ah-!”

“Hmm?”

…Wait, what?

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