Chapter 177: Starting the First Job and Cheerful Companions

"I am, ah, Hi... Hiiro, A... Astaru. Nice to meet you."

Anyway I said the name I thought of.

"Hiiro... huh. A good name."

Beata praised me.

Uu, sense of guilt...

"Th-then explanation of the job..."

I tried to prompt the explanation as if to deceive myself but here I suddenly noticed.

Have I not already become doing the job?

But Beata knowing nothing of my state of mind tries to explain.

"That’s right. Then our job is..."

"Wait! I will explain!"

Cutting Beata’s talk Heinz entered.

"Ahem, our job is extermination of Giant Rats that occurred in the underground drainage ditch."

After clearing his throat once Heinz explained.

But I have already heard that.

"..."

"..."

I stayed silent trying to hear the rest but Heinz also fell silent.

"And?"

"?"

When I prompted the rest Heinz floated a question mark above his head and tilted his head.

...A man’s natural airheadedness is just irritating.

"Ah, so that. Because it is underground it is of course pitch black. But none of us can use magic to light a light. So we called out to Hiiro."

Beata explained the reason they invited me.

Here several questions float.

"Flashlight... there isn’t. Wouldn’t a lantern or torch be fine?"

"Rantan? ...I don’t understand but a torch is no good. According to the client lighting a fire there has a possibility of exploding so it is dangerous. A horn lantern is no good for the same reason."

I do not know what a horn lantern is but it is probably a light using fire.

Humu, methane gas perhaps?

Certainly that is no good.

But...

"If we go to such a place won’t we suffocate?"

"That is fine. Il can use magic to purify the air apparently."

When I looked at the elf Il she nodded koku.

"Aa, no one has an item granted with Illumination magic."

Beata added explanation.

"Truly useless. Since you are a noble you have money to buy that much right?"

"I refused support from home! You too, doesn’t the academy have that much?"

"A mere student cannot bring that! If I bring it without permission I will be expelled!"

"「Gununununu...」"

Again the two’s glaring contest started.

Ovnil and Il pretended not to know.

Rita just smiled.

Beata put her hand to her forehead and hung her head.

Are these guys okay?

"Enough already!"

Beata yelled at the two.

"Didn’t we say we would definitely succeed because this is our first job! So what is this!"

"「Uu...」"

Heinz and Fine were surprised at Beata’s angry voice then hung their heads.

"Fuu. Sorry, I lost my composure."

"Ah, no, I don’t mind..."

I understand Beata’s feelings.

But first job huh.

Hearing that I have no choice but to cooperate perhaps.

...

"Ah! Here, here!"

Rita who was looking at the map apparently received from the client with a difficult face suddenly started running, stopped in front of a small brick hut beside the road, and pointed there.

It is a place about ten minutes walking the main street toward the castle from that shop near the city castle gate.

Heinz and the others after that returned to their own rooms once to put on equipment.

The second and third floors of that shop apparently have several rooms that can be stayed in and they are renting two of them.

In that time I ate the boar dish that had gone cold.

The cold boar meat was hard no matter what.

Around the time I wrestled with that dish and won a hard victory they returned.

Heinz as befitting being in the vanguard was wearing metal armor.

Same as Muriel, overlapping chain mail and half plate mail but of course the chest is not open.

He wore a broadsword at his waist and a small round shield was attached to the gauntlet of his left hand.

Ovnil wore full plate mail and carried a battle axe on his back.

Do all dwarves wear full plate?

Beata also overlapping chain mail and half plate same as Muriel and Heinz.

She carried a spear as tall as her height on her back.

Rita wore hard leather armor and attached a dagger at her waist.

And she carried a somewhat large rucksack on her back.

Fine wore a blue robe reaching her knees and gripped a wooden staff in her right hand.

A typical witch.

Rita wore a light green short tunic same as Sophia and trousers of a lighter color than that and hung a short wooden bow at her left waist.

She carried a quiver containing twenty or thirty arrows on her back.

I am lightly equipped to a fault.

Only a short tunic without armor, just wearing a broadsword at my waist.

Since I just have to devote myself to lighting magic and it takes time I did not return to get equipment.

When they finished arranging their equipment we immediately headed to the site but...

"I will open it."

Heinz came out in front of Rita and put his hand on the handle of the hut door.

"Goku"

Heinz swallowed saliva.

The other five also swallowed saliva.

Bright midday with good weather.

Behind us many people coming and going on the main street were looking at us seven in full equipment in front of the hut with puzzled faces.

Seven...

I see, I am included too.

Embarrassing...

Suddenly Heinz opened the door.

Everyone except me and Heinz closed their eyes and prepared.

Time passed 1 second, 2 seconds like that.

What are these guys doing?

"Fuu, there were no traps."

Heinz let out a sigh and muttered.

Hearing that the five also let out sighs of relief.

...Isn’t something strange?

"No, there is almost never setting traps on a sewer door in the city."

I retorted without thinking.

"If Giant Rats open the door and come out it will bring danger to everyone will it not."

Beata explained to me with a serious expression.

The five also nodded un un looking convinced.

"No, then setting traps would be inside. In the first place rats do not open doors. Or rather did you not ask the client about that?"

I retorted further while amazed.

"「「「「「「...」」」」」」"

A gust of wind blew between us.

...

"Then Hiiro, I leave it to you."

Right after entering the hut there were descending stairs.

Because there is no light when we close the door we entered it becomes pitch black.

"Got it."

Asked by Heinz I chanted the spell while drawing a magic circle in the air with my left hand holding the dagger I borrowed from Heinz.

In combat I hold a weapon with my right hand so I decided to draw magic circles with my left hand.

"Illumination"

When I finished chanting the spell a pale blue light lit on the dagger.

"「「「「「「Oo」」」」」」"

The six raised their voices in unison.

"With this we can complete our first job."

Beata teared up as if overcome with emotion.

No no we have not even entered the workplace yet.

I firmly suppressed the feeling of wanting to retort to the six who acted as if the job was already finished and only retorted in my heart.

Relying on that light we descended the stairs in the order Heinz and Ovnil, Fine and Il, me, Beata and Rita.

When we descended to the bottom there was an iron door with a padlock.

Heinz took out a key he must have received from the client and opened the padlock.

"Now, let’s enter!"

Heinz tried to open the door carelessly.

"Wait!"

I hurriedly stopped Heinz.

"What’s wrong? If we do not enter here we cannot do the job right."

Heinz said tilting his head to me.

"Prepare your weapons then open it."

Saying that I drew the broadsword and prepared.

It has giant in the name but after all they are rats.

The opponent is a large number of small rats I suppose.

Normally burning them to death with fire magic would be best but there is danger of explosion.

I do not know how far a large sword will work but it is better than bare hands.

"What are you saying. Was it not Hiiro who said there are no traps in the city sewer?"

But Heinz laughed off my opinion and opened the door.

There was a rat about the size of a medium dog.

Not just one.

It is hard to see in the dark but red lights were densely packed all the way to the depths.

Heinz closed the door silently as is.

Then slowly turning around he nodded.

The other five also nodded.

When everyone equipped their weapons Heinz gripped the door handle again.

He took deep breaths once, twice.

Then he turned around once more.

Everyone nodded.

This time I also nodded.

Fine started chanting a spell.

Heinz confirming that opened the door.