Chapter 18: Let’s Quickly Settle the Duel in Town

"Finally made it into town..."

I muttered in a voice far too loud for a soliloquy.

"Yabe-sama, are you alright? You don’t look tired, do you?"

"Irina. I was just sitting quietly inside the backpack, so normally I shouldn’t be tired at all... but right now I’m completely exhausted. Mostly mentally."

Even Captain Hiyoko was giving a bitter smile on Irina’s shoulder.

"In that case, let’s head straight to the Adventurers’ Guild, sell the magic beasts, and get some money."

I fully agreed with Irina’s unusually constructive suggestion. Without money, we couldn’t go shopping, let alone stay at an inn!

That said, Irina’s airheadedness had me sighing a hundred times in a row. If I wasn’t in a hurry, I’d want to interrogate her for a good hour.

...Oops, I accidentally let the "good hour" bit slip out again.

It reminded me of the old world, when I and my few fellow light novel-loving friends would read LNs together. The line I just recalled came from the insanely popular series Fairy Tail Chronicle by Mr. Hani〇sei. The story itself was great, but the phrase "I want to interrogate you for a good hour" became an absolute inside-joke hit among us. We used it constantly.

"Hey, let’s go eat already!" "Just wait a good hour."

"Where are you? Everyone’s here!" "Sorry, I’m running late. Wait a good hour."

"Sorry! I forgot to bring the new LN volume!" "What the hell are you doing?! Want me to interrogate you for a good hour?!"

...Looking back now, we were clearly using it wrong. Yeah. We were basically running on vibes and momentum back then. In the end, none of us actually knew how many minutes "a good hour" was supposed to be. Minor details.

By the way, before "a good hour" became popular, our go-to phrase was the female pirate captain’s line from Ten〇 no Shiro La〇yuta: "Get ready in 40 seconds!" Whenever someone said "wait a bit," we’d fire back with "Get ready in 40 seconds!" ...Yeah, 40 seconds is a pretty unreasonable demand.

"...Yabe-sama? Yabe-sama!"

"Huh? Oh, what’s up, Irina?"

"What do you mean ’what’s up’?! I was talking to you and you didn’t react at all, so I started worrying something was wrong with you!"

Irina was emphasizing how unusually worried she was.

"I see. Sorry. I was lost in thought for a bit."

"...As long as there’s no problem, that’s fine. By the way, what was that technique you used to defeat those three adventurers earlier? If you don’t mind, could you teach me?"

"Fufu... You want to know?"

"Well, I do want to know, but... the gate guards dodged the issue earlier, but there might be times when I get pressed for answers. I was thinking about how I should explain it then..."

She had a point. If someone interrogated me for a good hour, I’d end up spilling everything. Can we drop it now?

"The one who grabbed your wrist first got hit with . It’s an electric shock created by static electricity."

"Static electricity...? Never heard of it."

"Electric shock... basically lightning."

"Ohhh! I’ve heard there are spirit arts that can control lightning... So Yabe-sama is also well-versed in spirit magic! That’s incredible! Only a handful of people in the royal capital can wield spirit magic!"

Looks like I’m getting treated as a spirit again. Might as well just roll with it. I am friends with the four great spirits, after all.

"During the dry winter months, haven’t you ever touched metal and gotten a little zap that numbs you?"

"Ah! It didn’t happen to me much, but my brother who trained hard as a knight said it happened occasionally. It’s called ’fairy mischief.’"

So that’s what they call it in this world.

"I just made that ’zap!’ way, way stronger."

"Wow! That sounds really painful!"

Irina laughed happily. If I powered it up more, "painful" wouldn’t even begin to cover it. Even Logan called it "Sasucolle"-level power.

"The condition is contact. Well, as long as my tentacle can touch them, I can deliver the shock, so you don’t have to touch them directly, Irina."

"Then if I point my hand at someone I want to shock and shout !, you’ll fire it for me?"

Irina asked with sparkling eyes. Is she mistaking me for some convenient magic item? I’m a little worried...

"Yeah, pretty much. But don’t spam it. There’s a limit to the distance I can reach, and some distances I can’t."

Since I have to extend an extremely thin tentacle that’s nearly invisible, going too far is tough. It’s also probably affected by the surrounding environment. To keep it hidden, I have to make it incredibly thin and fine. Inside a building it might be okay, but outside it would be heavily impacted by wind. If the tentacle I fired got blown back by a headwind and touched Irina instead... Bzzzzt! Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of gag-manga development I’d expect. Or maybe the current trend is more Ababababa!?

"And the part where you shot through the three of them between the eyes?"

"That’s . Of course, I don’t actually have fingers!"

"What kind of technique is that?"

Even Captain Hiyoko looked interested and was waiting for my explanation.

I’d thrown out a wholehearted self-deprecating joke, but no one bothered to retort... A little sad, honestly.

" is a technique where you flick a small, hard object like a stone or bean with your finger to hit the opponent. In my case, I shape my tentacle into a tube, adjust it to the bullet, and fire small stones I’ve collected and stored in my sub-space compression storage."

I’d diligently picked up and stored those pebbles while I had free time by the spring. After practicing quite a bit, I got good at shooting them easily. While hidden in Irina’s backpack I can’t go wild, but I can still secretly extend a tentacle from the bag to fire. If I have time, I could even extend the tentacle tube long like a rifle barrel and snipe from a distance carefully.

If I did it myself, I could probably scatter shots in all directions too.

As we walked down the main street, a large building came into view ahead.

"Yabe-sama, that’s the Adventurers’ Guild."

The big building she pointed at was right in front of us. So that really was the guild.

At that moment—

"Hold it right there, you bastard!!!"

Ah~, I had a feeling this was coming.

Judging by the furious tone, this wasn’t the "sorry for the trouble" pattern. This was the "my buddies got wrecked and my reputation is destroyed" pattern.

Who? Obviously the remaining two members of that D-rank party . Their party leader-type wasn’t there earlier, so the one yelling is probably him.

"You’re the bitch who took out our guys?!"

A bald, muscle-bound daruma of a man holding a huge axe in his right hand came running. If you stripped him and put him in red trunks, he’d be a pro wrestler. Next to him, a leather-armor-wearing thief-type guy was running while whining "B-Big Bro~!" The thief was slower than the bald muscle daruma — did he even have any value?

"W-what the?!?"

Irina’s eyes were spinning. Yeah, that makes sense. You don’t see a bald daruma like that every day.

"How dare you mess with our guys! Duel! Right now! Prepare yourself!"

He thrust his axe forward and started making a scene. Looks like Irina’s getting a duel.

『Ask if they’re really doing the duel right here.』 "Are we really doing this duel right here and now?"

"Yeah! Right here, right now! I’ll beat you to a pulp!"

『Is there any benefit to accepting the duel?』 "W-wait, is there any benefit to accepting this duel?"

"Benefit?! Don’t screw with me! If you win, I’ll give you all my possessions! There’s at least five gold coins in there!"

He pulled out what looked like a wallet and slammed it onto the ground.

Ah~, so after three of their guys got beaten by a single girl, they need to save face in front of the other adventurers, huh?

『What are the rules of the duel? Is it okay to kill?』 "What are the rules? K-kill... Eh?!"

"You just said you’d kill me, you bastard! The rule is we fight until one of us is down! Let’s go!!"

The man raised his axe. I don’t remember agreeing to this duel, though.

"Kyaa!"

Irina froze in fear. Can’t be helped.

Time to use my secret move.

『Equip! Armored Slime!』 "Hyoeh?!"

From the gap in the backpack, I extended thin tentacles that formed rings around both her wrists and ankles. I then turned the ultra-thin slime body up to her elbows and knees into armor coating.

The man swung his axe down at her. I used the tentacles to make Irina dodge.

"Wah!"

Irina looked startled.

『Irina, you can relax your body. I’ll move your limbs for you.』 "W-what?! Yabe-sama is binding my arms and legs... and violating me!" 『...I can stop controlling your limbs if you want?』 "Ah! Yabe-sama, don’t abandon me!"

Can’t be helped. Well, we’ve come this far together. I’m not abandoning her.

『Alright, let’s turn Irina into an S-rank adventurer.』 "Eeeeh?!" 『Here we go! Slime-style Combat Art Ultimate Secret Technique: Victor Bringer!』 "Hwawah!"

The man swung his axe again after it was dodged. That thing would clearly kill her if it hit. He’s seriously trying to kill her. Guess I don’t need to hold back?

I dodged the large downward swing and instantly closed the distance.

『!』 "L-Lightning Bolt!"

I made her thrust out her right hand and touch his chest.

Then—electric shock! A strike strong enough that I’d apologize if it killed him.

"Gobaaaaah!"

The man convulsed with smoke rising from him and collapsed. Come to think of it, I never even learned his name.

"A-Aniiiiki!"

All I ever heard from this thief was "Big Bro."

"What the hell are you two doing in the middle of the street?!"

Ah, the guards came running again. I saw them at the town gate too. Déjà vu?

"What’s all this noise in front of the guild?!"

From the Adventurers’ Guild, an elegant white-bearded dandy of an old man wearing a mantle came striding toward us.

...Huh? Is this going to be one of those annoying template patterns? I thought I came up with strategies to avoid them. Why is this happening?