Yo,  much delay, here at last.  The next one will be up much quicker,  not sure what’s done past the next chapter atm, I’ll poke at it all and update this weekend I get the chance.

~~Enjoy!

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Tl: SpecterZe

ED: Torianna

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Companion Chapter 1: Adventures of Cloud the slave.

 

My name is Cloud. A normal slave. When I became a slave, I had to give up on my dream of becoming an adventurer. The reason is simple: to decrease number of mouths to feed. In this country, that is relatively easy, but it’s still hard for those in poor villages.

When the master who picked me told me to fight against monsters, I thought, “It is impossible for young slaves like us to fight monsters.” A lot of people would use a slave as a decoy because they fear for their lives.

So, I was surprised by Master because he wouldn’t use us as decoys but as war potential. He also said he’s capable of drawing power, and so he lets us fight.

I enter his carriage while still not believing it. The moment Master touches my forehead, I feel as though my body is surprisingly filled with power. It is unbelievable, and it casts away all my doubt.

[T-This is…]

As I let my voice out unintentionally, Master just grins.

By the time everyone had entered the carriage, they understand the meaning of “fight against monsters” as Master had said. The current group of us is capable enough to fight the monsters now.

Our master is unexpectedly gentle. He flawlessly exterminated those thieves and used his power to increase the potential of slaves like us. But those aren’t only things he can do. I think Master just showed us a glimpse of his power.

I suddenly recall the time Master threatened us. It was scary. It made us collapse on the ground and wet ourselves. However, the other people like the senior slaves, Sakura-sama and Dora-sama, were just fine. I wonder why…

Anyway, Master gave us the power that lets us fight with monsters.

Master said he is going to give us a weapon, one by one. This treatment is too good for slaves like us. However, we didn’t quite know about this at that moment. It seemed he was satisfied with our choice. That was great…

I was surprised we could handle weapons so naturally. This was probably a high-quality sword that was sold over the counter. He told me it’s a one-handed iron sword.

He handled something like this generously. I was a little worried to receive this sword because Master’s sword looks unusual. However, I know this sword of mine is no match for his.

After that, we had a meal. And dessert… I don’t know what kind of profit Master wanted from us. He told us to become his war potential and gave us power, but from the look of it, Master is much, much stronger. He doesn’t even need us when we think about it.

Aside from that, we started our combat training. The eight of us (the new slaves) were divided into two groups of four. Adel, Coco and Roro are in the same party as me.

Adel is a little coward. His personality seems to be trouble for a fight. I mean, he is reluctant to do this, at first. However, fighting is less scary than facing Master’s wrath. By the way, his weapon of choice is spear with long a reach. It is possible for him to attack from safe distance away.

Coco is beautiful, blond, dog-type beast woman. Because everybody else isn’t familiar with Master yet, she is the only other person who talks to him as much as I do. It’s said that dog-type beast men and women will choose their master once and will do everything not to be thrown away by their master. She is an agile beast woman, and her weapon of choice are a set of two daggers.

Roro is a red-headed girl with braids on both sides of her head. She told me she fell in love with Master at first sight. I guess she approached him faster than Coco. I have no idea. Why? Her weapon of choice is a great sword. No matter how I look at it, I was surprised that Master gave the power to handle something that big to a girl younger than me.

By the way, my equipment is the afore-mentioned sword and a round shield. For an adventurer, this is the most basic. It is a style I honestly want to have.

I choose a simple breastplate and gauntlet for protection. Because there are many young people in Master’s party, those are part of their old equipment. However, there still isn’t enough for everyone, so we have to share some of them.

Because I have a shield, it doesn’t protect my legs, so I got a pair of heavy boots. I heard they help improve the center of gravity of shield users.

Master, Dora-sama and Sera-senpai will come along with us. The other party will go another way, looking for monsters. I was worried about the carriage, but Master said it’s fine to leave it like that. I wonder why he said that…

Our first encounter is with one goblin.

I’ve heard that, among monsters, goblins are weak, but they’re still a threat for normal people. There’s no way something that can attack with a weapon won’t be a threat. However, I’m now confident that we can defeat something at the level of a goblin.

[I’ll go ahead and stop its attack with my shield. Everyone, please attack when you have a chance! If you are going to be hit, use your weapons or protective gear to receive that hit!]

I say as I step forward. A club-wielding goblin notices us. I ready my shield and charge ahead.

*Clash*

The impact is harder than I thought it would be, but it isn’t enough to make me fall. Adel attacks its side with a spear while I was defending. However, his hit is too shallow and isn’t effective. After it was attacked by Adel, the goblin changes its target and turns to him.

Adel shrinks away from the goblin’s stare. He becomes frightened because he is being targeted.

This is bad. I step in between Adel and goblin, without thinking, and ready my shield. The goblin looks in my direction, irritated. The club is swung again, but this time, I pay more attention and soften the blow, breaking the goblin’s stance.

Coco slashes its foot with a dagger. Following this, Roro strikes at the goblin, who then falls to the ground, its life ended.

That was the end. I’m not alone. I have companions, and Master is watching over us from behind. I’m sure we will be fine if we encounter something dangerous.

Our first fight ended like this, without danger.

Master approaches us.

[Thank you for the good work, everyone. Adel, your timing was perfect, but you should drop at the waist and lower your spear head a little. Coco and Roro’s coordination is wonderful. And Cloud, you handled your shield well.]

He gave us compliments.

[That’s right, Roro. What do you feel about taking its life?]

[Nothing at all.]

[I see. Please let others deal the killing blows in the future. Lastly, Roro, you dealt the killing blow, so you strip it off.]

[Yes.]

Roro cuts the goblin’s chest area with a knife. Because it was recommended that she lie it face down, there’s not much blood on her.

Not all monsters have monster stones, but the goblin is sure to have one. Many animals have monster stones near their heart. It still feels unpleasant to cut a humanoid-type enemy, even if it is a monster. However, that kind of feeling should vanish after we’ve been slaves for a while.

Roro doesn’t care about it, at all.

[I got it.]

[It is yours now, and it’s proof of your first battle.]

[Yes.]

Roro puts that monster stone in her bag. Since blood doesn’t go near monster stones, it is rarely soaked with blood — even after the monster was cut open. It can be put into the bag like that. Even it was near the heart, it’s still a mystery.

Master leads us to a second goblin. How did he know the monster’s whereabouts? It might because of some kind of power that he didn’t share with us. He is really amazing.

[It’s my turn for a kill! Please help me straggle them!]

[Understood!]

[Here goes!]

It’s my turn to finish him off. Coco and Roro manage to straggle the goblins whose attacks are blocked by shields. To finish one off, I need to aim at a vital point. I cut one of the goblins’ necks with my sword, badly injuring him.

Yeah, I don’t feel anything. It seems that a slave’s life has changed me.

Come to think of it, when Master told us to show our slave crests, everybody did so without hesitation. Although there is a bit of shame for those of us who are older than ten, we don’t care at all.

Oh yeah. Roro was the first one who did that, primarily because she had gone to see Master at that moment.

The monster stone is stripped off safely, and we have four-on-one combat several times after that. We have to fight multiple enemies many times. We were guided to a group of two goblins. One of them has a sword. That kind of goblin is called a goblin swordsman.

Isn’t that suddenly too difficult?

It was nothing at all. Adel seems used to it because he sneaks away from my side and attacks a goblin. Coco attacks swiftly and retreats several times, and Roro doesn’t miss the chance Coco created, either.

Because Master gave us both good and bad feedback after the battles are over, it is easy for us to fix the mistakes in next combat.

This training continues while the degree of difficulty gradually increases. When we were used to the fighting, we got a chance to test it as something else suddenly appeared.

A Goblin General! The highest rank of the goblin types. I’ve heard that it is the most dangerous one of all, but that was in the past.

In this fight, our enemies are a Goblin General and five goblins. This is the first time that the enemy has outnumbered us. It is considerably harder for us to fight.

I take the lead as usual and block the Goblin General’s sword.

[Ugh!]

I was blown away and tossed to the ground with a single blow.

Wrong!  The Goblin General is totally different from the other goblins we have been fighting until now. My legs are trembling. Both impact and fear knock me off my feet.

Everybody couldn’t react when they saw my condition. My shield was blown off, and I couldn’t hold the line.

It is impossible.

[Everyone, retreat from here! We can’t defeat it right now.]

We should escape. This isn’t an enemy we can handle.

[Pass.]

Master stepped in front of me before I knew it.

[It isn’t an enemy you can defeat right now. You made a good decision to retreat.]

That’s right. Master is right. He planned to give our party battle experience.

He stands in front of me and confronts the Goblin General.

[Gugyaa!]

The Goblin General attacks.

[Look out!]

Roro shouts.

But we realize it is a needless worry because the Goblin General’s head fell to the ground before it could swing its sword…

[Wh-What was that…?]

I know Master did something. We all know it. No, I’m the only one who knows it. Coco, who has the high dynamic vision of beast man, is confused. It seems she doesn’t know what had happened. It is because he swung his sword so fast that we couldn’t see it.

The surrounding goblins all have the same fate. I thought Master was strong, but I didn’t think he was at this level. If he can defeat a Goblin General so easily, he’s probably a B-rank or perhaps an A-rank…

[Drink this.]

Master took a potion from somewhere and gave it to me.

[Th-Thank you very much.]


I gratefully accept it because the damage I received was quite severe.

Huh? Is the effect of this potion worse than I thought? I still feel dull. After I frowned a bit, he took another potion from somewhere and gave it to me again.

[This, too.]

[O-Okay…]

I down that potion at once. …Wow! Unlike the previous potion, my body is filled with power after drinking the second one. I want to ask about the potion that made me recover the state I was before I was hurt, but I don’t. Primarily because Master’s expression is quite complicated.

Because I learned how to read people’s expressions after I became slave, that face warned me not to say anything unnecessary.

We didn’t encounter anything as menacing as the Goblin General after that, so our fighting continued smoothly.

The story we hear during dinner is unbelievable. He wants to make a clan and become S-ranked adventurers. I never dreamed of being an S-ranked adventurer at all. Of course, in my old dream, it would’ve been a miracle for me to reach an A-rank.

But Master’s face tells me that it is a fact. I have a mysterious feeling that Master could make that happen.

But then, Master tells me that he will stop at a C-rank. I guess Master dislikes trouble… According to him, an S-rank comes with trouble.. My master seems to be out of the norm in various ways.

My name is Cloud. A typical slave who is owned by an unexpected master.

~fin