Unfairly Fired From the Healer's Guild After Five Years of Dedicated Service

Episode 32 – Deserted

TL Note: Double release today, enjoy!

The next morning, I didn’t want to be late since it would cause a lot of trouble, so as soon as I finished my preparations, I headed towards the Adventurer’s Guild. The morning air was brisk and I was starting to feel a bit chilly as I waited for [White Feiler] to show up. But as I expected, there was no sign of them.

Eventually, more and more people started to enter the Adventurer’s Guild, and I was getting tired of waiting for them, when finally the four people in white bandanas appeared at the entrance. Since they were so late for two days in a row, I felt like speaking up about it. But when I considered the fact that we still had to spend the next four days together, I decided to put up with it.

“Good morning. I’ll be in your care today, thanks in advance.” (Lewin)

“Fuaaa….yeah. Let’s go then.”

About half a day had passed since we left Grezesta, but we hadn’t reached Mount Cornello yet. The sun was already setting, dying the vast scenery before us in a dark vermillion hue. And that was because they were chatting nonstop as they plodded along at a ridiculously slow speed. I suggested twice that we should increase our walking speed, but both times all I had received in response was an empty, offhanded reply that made it sound like they totally weren’t listening at all. After all, their speed refused to change one bit, not even when dusk fell. It was not until night had fallen that we finally arrived at Mount Cornello.

“Oi, what do you want us to do from here?”

“If possible, I wanted to make camp halfway up the mountain. But since it’s already dark out, we should just make camp here at the base of the mountain and sleep.” (Lewin)

“You heard him. What are you guys gonna do?”

It was dangerous to move at night. I thought of Smash, who gave me that advice at the time with a sour expression, and decided to make this proposal to be on the safe side.

“We can go. It’s just Mount Cornello, right?”

In the end, they were still D-rank adventurers, so they had decent skills in battle. One after the other, they were comfortably slaughtering all the monsters that approached and attacked us. Unlike how Smash and Dion fought, there was not a shred of teamwork whatsoever between the four of them. Their fighting style was more like Ahmed’s, where all four of them fought individually. The power behind their movements and might behind each strike was far from Ahmed’s level, but to my untrained eyes, they seemed to be fighting in a stable manner.

“With Mount Cornello’s level of monsters, I’ve got plenty of breathing room.”

“For us D-rankers, these small fry monsters ain’t even sh*t, bro.”

Climbing the mountain as they fought off monsters, they kept exchanging back and forth banter. They were lazy during the daytime, but it seemed that their bodies were finally warming up. If all went well, we would be able to arrive at the middle of Mount Cornello smoothly. All five of us were probably of the same mind on that point, when I suddenly started picking up on a horrific presence in front of us.

“Everyone! There’s something there!” (Lewin)

The moment they heard my voice, everyone from [White Feiler] also became aware of that presence, and their faces immediately stiffened. We stopped in place, halting our progress, and then the four of them up front began to retreat backwards.

“Oi oi… what the hell is an Angry Wolf doing at the foot of the mountain? I never heard of this sh*t before!”

“Because of its ongoing turf war with the Anchor Bear, it shouldn’t be able to descend from the summit of the mountain! What in the world is going on?”

“Yo… we’re gonna die.”

While saying such pessimistic words, the members of [White Feiler] were slowly receding from their positions as they fell back, compromising the location where I was following them from. At that moment, my gaze met with the stiff gaze of the party leader’s. It was dark and I couldn’t see clearly, but I could feel my mouth go completely dry as chills ran through my whole body.

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“RETREAT! Leave him as a decoy and run away!!” (White Feiler Leader)

That terrible premonition of mine proved right, and the leader of [White Feiler] gave the order to use me as a decoy so they could run away. The other three people were stunned with visible bewilderment at their leader’s words.

“Don’t worry, you guys! That lad won’t be able to escape from the Angry Wolf anyway. In order for us to live, I’m gonna have you be the decoy for us, kiddo!!” (White Feiler Leader)

“…Yeah, you’re right! Let’s get out of here!!”

From there, everything happened too fast. As if they were of the same mind, the four of them turned tail and ran for their lives from the Angry Wolf. They were tearing it down the mountain at a speed that I would absolutely never be able to catch up to and were soon off the scenes entirely.

I requested for an escort, but in the end I was used as the decoy…? In the midst of a totally ridiculous, incomprehensible situation, a jumble of emotions was tumbling around inside me. My mind was panicking, but I was desperately trying to calm myself down.

The massive canine form of the Angry Wolf stopped chasing after the four of them who were running off into the distance, and suddenly turned to focus on me instead. It began circling me slowly, prowling in a dangerous manner. How was I supposed to overcome this life or death crisis? My mind was operating at maximum speed, trying desperately to find a solution to back myself out of this corner. There had to be a way to defeat this Angry Wolf…