Trucker, Listening to the Past ③

＊＊＊＊＊《Five Years Ago: Nina’s Perspective》＊＊＊＊＊

Before heading to the bath, we stopped at a clothing store and bought some underwear for Shiny Blue. If she didn’t change her underwear after taking a bath, she wouldn’t feel truly refreshed. I also bought some clothes for everyday wear. I’ll get paid for this when she becomes an adventurer.

“Well, now I can finally take a bath.”

“Yeah. Let’s go quickly.”

“Ah.”

Shiny Blue is smiling the whole time. I didn’t know if she was happy about the bath or her new clothes. I casually ask her.

“Shiny Blue, can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“Where did you come from? You’re all dressed to the teeth by the looks of it.”

“…………”

Shiny Blue stopped. I couldn’t see her expression because she was walking in front of me.

“…A long way from here.”

“Far away? If it’s farther than Zenimouke, is it Olesanjo, the Kingdom of Heroes?”

“…”

“…Sorry, forget it.”

There were circumstances, no doubt.

Very expensive jewelry, perhaps, but a country farther away than Olesanjo, and she is tight-lipped when it comes to her homeland… Perhaps this girl was involved in a troublesome situation? So she has fled to Zenimouke,… not far off the mark.

I’m not going to get too deep into it. I’ll get involved when the time comes, and for now, as a senior adventurer, I’ll take care of the rookies.

“Shiny Blue, after we take a bath, let’s grab a bite to eat. I know a good place.”

“A good restaurant?”

“Yes, a good place to eat. You like sweets?”

“………Yes.”

After refreshing myself, I thought I’d buy her a cold juice.

Shiny Blue and I went to a public bathhouse on the outskirts of town.

It was a magnificent brick building with a spacious interior. There are a number of bars nearby where adventurers can wash off their sweat and have a drink after completing a mission. Of course, I often use them myself.

“Heh~…”

“Is this your first time in a place like this?”

“Yeah. It’s amazing.”

“You’ll soon see how great it is here, especially if you become an adventurer.”

That’s my first piece of advice as a senior. It’s a bit of an indescribable advice, though: “The bath after finishing a mission is a special experience.”

We both proceeded to the entrance of the women’s bath and paid coins at the reception desk. Then we went to the changing room and took off our clothes.

“Wow…”

“Put your clothes and gear in this locker. Don’t lose the key.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She put her clothes and gear in a wooden vertical locker and locked it. The key was hung by a string so that it could be placed around your neck. Well, there is no one in this town who steals gear.

Shiny Blue and I undressed. Shiny Blue then threw the rags she was wearing into the trash.

“Oh, come on, you’re just going to throw it away?”

“Forget it. I’ve got a new one. Besides, I don’t think I can wear that rag anymore.”

“I guess so…”

I glanced at the trash and became a little concerned.

Upon closer inspection, the rags that Shiny Blue was wearing were designed to look like a dress. Perhaps it was difficult to move around in, so it was altered and worn. The fact that the inside color was light blue suggests that it was originally a light blue dress.

But that is not important. First of all, we had to take a bath.

I went inside the bath with Shiny Blue. The bathrooms were designed with adventurers in mind, with more than 20 showers and one huge bathtub. The water never ran out, as the bathhouse staff constantly kept the water boiling.

“…”

“… Hmm, what happened?”

“… Nothing, I’m just getting used to it.”

“Hmm?”

Shiny Blue’s gaze is fixed on my chest. I see. Maybe she’s envious of me as a woman. It’s true that Shiny Blue’s is small, but at her age, she’s just getting started.

“Come on, get a good scrubbing.”

“Yeah. I haven’t had a bath in a long time~♪”

Shiny Blue started taking a shower and began washing her hair and body. I checked on her and washed off my sweat, too. After all, bathing in hot water is comfortable.

After cleansing my body, I soak in the bathtub. Soaking in the bathtub up to my shoulders and exhaling… this moment felt so good.

“Haa~……It feels good.”

“Yes, … it does.”

The two of us enjoyed the bath for a while.

After the bath, we got dressed and went outside.

We had a light meal at my favorite cafe and were now enjoying an after-dinner tea. I asked Shiny Blue a question from my perspective.

“Shiny Blue, why do you want to be an adventurer?”

“Why would I want to be an adventurer? To live.”

“To live… Then you don’t have to be an adventurer, do you? Being an adventurer is a demanding job that always puts your life in danger. And there are plenty of adventurers who don’t make any money.”

“Correction then. It’s for survival and to … become stronger.”

“Oh…”

“I’m weak, so I have to be strong enough to survive on my own. Otherwise…”

“Hmm?”

“Otherwise, he…”

“He?”

Shiny Blue turned her head and gritted her teeth. I didn’t know what’s going on, but I wondered if she’s frustrated.

“It’s nothing… But more importantly, it’s time for us to go to the Adventurers’ Guild.”

“…Yeah, sure.”

We paid our bill and left the cafe. The Adventurers’ Guild was just around the corner.

I arrived at the Zenimouke Adventurers’ Guild with Shiny Blue and immediately went inside to register her as an adventurer. Shiny Blue received a brown dog tag, which she happily placed around her neck.

“Now you are an adventurer. It would be good to start out with simple quests around town, gathering medicinal herbs, and so on.”

“I don’t like that. I want to be strong.”

“…”

I thought she would say that. She had no sense of reality at all. If she continued like this, she would probably end up dying in the first monster extermination quest. That’s not a good way to sleep, and I won’t get back the money I lent her.

“I ask you, then, by the looks of things, you’ve never even held a sword, have you? How are you going to defeat a monster?”

“Of course I know how. You just slash and slash and slash and slash.”

“……… Haaa?”

“What’s with the sigh?”

“No… you’re pretty stupid.”

“Huh!?”

It’s funny that you’ve come this far, on the contrary. It can’t be helped. First, let’s give this idiot a lesson in reality.

“All right. If you insist that much, let’s have you show me.”

“What?”

“Your ability. Come on.”

I took Shiny Blue and looked at the request board. There were several request forms posted there, the most common of which were for cleaning up the town, organizing warehouses, and many other requests that were typical of the commercial kingdom.

In the process, I peeled off a piece of paper requesting the defeat of a monster called “Bulldog” that appears around Zenimouke and confronted Shiny Blue.

“What is this?”

“It’s a request to take down a monster. I heard that the “Bulldog” that appears around Zenimouke a lot these days is attacking carriages on the road and is causing trouble. I’ll take it, and I’d like your help.”

“Heh…”

The Bulldog is one of the weakest of the common species of monsters. They attack carriages that do not have hired guards, and it is not difficult for ordinary people to defeat them if they are numerous. So there is nothing more appropriate as a request that a novice adventurer often receives. But that is only if you have some knowledge of combat skills.

“I’ll take … no, I’ll be your support. Your reward is 80%, mine is 20%.”

“… Sounds fun. That’s fine.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

The request was accepted at the reception desk and made the first request for Shiny Blue.

Bulldogs appeared in the vicinity of Zenimouke. If we scatter bait, they will come in less than 15 minutes. This time, the request would be accomplished by killing ten bulldogs.

“Fufufu, I can make this sword draw blood as soon as I can.”

“… What are you talking about?”

“Nothing to worry about.”

I don’t know. This one may be even dumber than I thought.

We bought some bait for monsters in town and arrived along the road around Zenimouke.

“We’re going to spread the bait. Be ready to fight anytime.”

“Ready when you are.”

What is this confidence when she has no experience in fighting monsters? She lacks fear, or rather, she is a fierce brute … hmmm, interesting.

I spread the monster meat, which has a strong smell, and pull out the beloved spear I carried on my back.

“Bulldogs are sensitive to smell. They’ll be here soon.”

“I’m ready.”

“Ho…”

Shiny Blue’s expression tightened. Apparently not being a real idiot, she was a little nervous in front of monsters, or maybe she was just a little less talkative.

Then, caught in the scent, Bulldogs arrived.

“…”

“Here it comes…”

It looks like an adult dog of about one meter, but its fangs are long and its claws are sharp. It is carnivorous and ferocious, but its movements are surprisingly slow, which is not a problem if you observe and deal with it properly. Simply put, it’s a dumb monster.

“There are four of them, and I’m going to draw three of them away, so you’re going to have to take one out by yourself.”

“I’ll be back.”

“Eh… Oh, hey!?”

Shiny Blue jumped out with two swords at the ready.

“Are you stupid!!”

I shouted as I ran forward. Even though they are small fry, they are still monsters. And Shiny Blue had never been in a fight before.

“Yaaaaaaa!!”

Shiny Blue cried out, and the four of them, each having noticed her presence, let out a roar and started running at the same time.

The distance between them was less than five meters, and if this continued, Shiny Blue would be attacked by all four of them at the same time.

“Hah!”

<“Guaaaa!!”>

<“Goo!!”>

She cut down the first one that jumped at her with her right sword, then twisted her body and reaped the one under her feet with her left sword. Immediately, she readjusted her stance and slashed at the other two at the same time.

“What a fool!?”

Two seconds passed.

In two seconds, she knew where all the bulldogs were and sliced through them with the minimum of movement. This was no amateur move.

“Phew, I made it.”

“…”

Four bulldogs were lying at Shiny Blue’s feet.

“You’ve been in combat before, haven’t you?”

“Huh? I told you I have no combat experience.”

“Don’t lie to me. Your movements are refined. Your body movements are not those of an amateur… Why did you lie to me?”

“I’m not lying. And these canines were easy to read because they were slow and their movements were simple, so it was easy to take them down. And these swords are good too, easy to use.”

“That’s not all there is to it. What in the world are you…?”

“Whatever, I can handle monsters like this on my own, right?”

“…”

I don’t understand. What is this girl?

“Haa… okay. Let’s just get this over with.”

“Okay.”

In the end, I had nothing to do.

I killed 20 bulldogs and collected 20 fangs, the proof of defeat. Originally, there were ten of them, but it was because Shiny Blue, who was in a good mood, killed all the bulldogs that appeared.

As it turned out, Shiny Blue apparently wasn’t lying. Her body language and swordsmanship are all based on her sense of style. This girl has a gift for fighting.

To tell the truth, after three years of training, she will be stronger than I am.

On the way back to the Zenimouke Adventurers Guild, I talked with Shiny Blue.

“After all, I was just watching, wasn’t I?”

“Pfft, how’s my strength?”

“Oh, I’m amazed.”

Shiny Blue smiled as she swayed her azure hair.

I wanted to see where this girl was headed.

“Shiny Blue.”

“Wait, let me speak first.”

Shiny Blue held out her right hand in front of me to stop me from speaking.

“You know, Niramana …, thank you for teaching me so much.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.”

“So, that… there’s a lot I don’t know yet, and my rank is the lowest…, I’d feel more comfortable with a veteran helping me learn more…”

She’s simmering. Or is she embarrassed?

“I’d like you to partner up with… me if you want. Hahaha…”

She blushed and scratched her cheeks as she said this. How adorable, isn’t it?

“Fu… lowest F class invites me, a ‘seven-colored adventurer of Arcobaleno’?”

“Th-that doesn’t matter!!”

“Yes, it does.”

I held out my right hand. Shiny Blue looked at my hand and my face alternately.

“I’m going to train you. You have talent, but you are still naive.”

“Eh, ah… fu, huh. I’ll get stronger soon!!”

I shook hands with Shiny Blue. Now we are master and apprentice from this day forward. I’m going to teach her the skills I have and make her the strongest adventurer of all.

“First, you need to take care of your weapons. Blood grease ruins blades, so take care of them right away.”

“Eh~… I’m starving.”

“No. Remember what the master says…”

“M-Master? What is with that? I invited you!”

Well, it looks like I’m going to be busy from now on.

＊＊＊＊＊《Present・Kota’s Perspective》＊＊＊＊＊

“And that’s all I’m going to say about the encounter.”

“Ho~…”

“Heh…”

“I see… Shiny had an outstanding fighting instinct.”

We drank our refills of tea and listened to Nina’s story. Shiny is apparently a genius in combat. What kind of a knight is she, a beautiful and strong girl? If she were captured by orcs, she would probably tell them to kill her.

“After that, I spent five years training Shiny Blue. Fighting dangerous species, diving in dungeons, traveling around the country in search of valuable materials… heh, it was a lot of fun.”

“But you fired Shiny, didn’t you?”

Kirie easily asked another… question that she shouldn’t have asked.

“Well, you know. One of her faults is that she has no regard for herself. It is not self-sacrifice, but she will give up even her own safety for the sake of others. For example, she went alone to gather materials for a special medicine to save a plague-stricken village, or she jumped out against the Venom Dragon, a foe with no chance of victory… If this continued, she would surely have died… That’s why I revoked her adventurer’s license.”

“B-but… you were with her all the way… And Shiny was proud of her work as an adventurer, wasn’t she?”

“No, her goal was to become strong. The reason for becoming an adventurer is to earn a living plus to become stronger.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”

“If she really wanted to go back, she wouldn’t have backed down when I fired her. I don’t think she would say she wants to go back to being an adventurer as long as she works for this company.”

Indeed. Shiny scouted out adventurers as soon as she was fired. At first she was screaming about being fired as an adventurer, but she soon calmed down. After that, she never said she wanted to be an adventurer again or that she had any regrets.

” She’s got something going on, I don’t know what.”

“Haa… what is it?”

“Come on… I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find out anything about it in the last five years.”

“Well…, from what I’ve been able to gather so far, it looks like there may be something in Shiny’s past. “

“Shiny’s past… is curious.”

Both Kirie and Mireina seem to be concerned about it. Well, I’m curious too.

Then I heard a thumping sound of someone running down the stairs.

“Hey! It’s past lunchtime!”

“Oh, shoot.”

Shiny came downstairs in a hurry. It was true that she had rested more than 30 minutes longer than usual. This was not good.

“Already!! Let’s go for the afternoon delivery!!”

“Oh… were you sleeping?”

“Uh, shut up.”

“You’re drooling.”

“What!?”

Shiny blushed and wiped her face. I thought it was kind of cute.

” I’m going to go now. See you later, Shiny Blue.”

“Hmph, get out of here.”

“Let me do that. Thanks for the food.”

Nina left, leaving Mireina and the others to clean up and me and Shiny to get ready for the delivery.

Shiny opened the garage and got into the truck.

“Come on, we’ll catch up on our delay.”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

Shiny’s past huh… Well, I don’t think I need to worry about it.