Chapter 59: Sun’s Determination

Dressed up in good quality white servant clothes, Sun was nervously holding the bow that she had received from Bahana. The same day that she was appointed to be a servant of the Darkness God Corps, the group was ordered to investigate a report of demon beasts ravaging around the countryside.

Sun’s equipment was enchanted to a similar level of the ones that Yuusuke wore. Although the equipment greatly enhanced her abilities, the girl relied much more on Yuusuke’s skills than on the quality of the equipment.

“You are saying that, but without your customized equipment your abilities could not even be considered average.”
“That’s true…”

“… I agree…”
“Eh? Eh? Why are you speaking like that, Yuusuke-san?”

Yuusuke became somewhat down, drawing letters from a different world as his feet. Sun, absentminded from the stress, frantically tried to calm her friend, who was performing yet another strange ritual.

“Captain, I am sorry to interrupt your happy time (flirting), but our preparations are done.“
“You call this flirting? I am feeling depressed here!” retorted Yuusuke as he boarded the carriage, followed by Sun.

“Well, you also have to trust your equipment. At least I think that it is part of your own ability.” (Fonke)
“Even if you are borrowing the power, it does not change the fact that you are being useful to the captain,” said Vermeer in a quiet yet persuasive voice.
“If this power makes me more useful to the Captain, I will gladly accept it,” added Shaheed in a somewhat louder voice.
“You are right… I will do my best to be useful to Yuusuke-san.” (Sun)
“Not to “Everyone”, but only to “Yuusuke” that’s so like you, Sun.” (Fonke)
“Eh?! Ah… uhm, I’m sorry! I will try my best for everyone.” (Sun)
“You are making her nervous, Fonke!”

Although Sun was just a personally appointed servant of the Darkness Gad Corps, she had already received a lot of attention from the other members and the atmosphere in the party once again was lively. Just like that the group left the palace and went on their way towards the south eastern region of Fonclanc.

***

The next day, late in the afternoon the Darkness God Corps arrived at the southeastern relay town. On their way, the party stopped at Rufk and announced Sun’s enlistment to Zeshald, Bahana, and the rest of the villagers. The merry atmosphere that lasted for the entire trip got slightly ruined a little bit after the party’s arrival at the town.

“Somehow I have a bad feeling about this town.”
“There sure are a lot of mercenaries around here… I don’t think you need that many to fight off the demon beasts.”
“You wouldn’t say that if the beasts actually attacked.”
“I don’t want to believe it, but a lot of them look like bandits to me.”

The party started their mission by intending to confirm the details that were mentioned in the trade association branch office’s request. Currently they had arrived in front of this branch office.
The travelling mood that had set in amongst the members of the corps had immediately vanished. Although their looks did not change, the air around them changed completely. Noticing that, Sun couldn’t help but tense up herself.

“Welcome, please come in. I am the appointed chief of this association branch.”
“Yuusuke, of the Darkness God Corps. Could you tell me everything about the request regarding the evil beasts?”

At first, the head of the branch office was worried that, instead of the requested knights, he was sent a bunch of weaklings. However, he quickly noticed that the young captain of this squad had black hair and was clad in a black uniform that resembled that of the palace knights. He even had an armed artless with him for some reason. Thinking about the group that seemed like a ragtag bunch of random people the name of the Darkness God Corps appeared in his mind. When the captain himself confirmed that, the chief warmly welcomed them.

In a meeting room of the branch office lodging house, the chief updated Yuusuke’s party on the situation. Until their arrival, the chief had used the mercenaries that the association had hired for him to perform a certain investigation.
A few days ago that adventurer group had sent an assistance request and no communication had been had with them since.

“The adventurers that we had hired were also specialized in destroying the demon beasts…”
“Hmm, I think that there’s a possibility to declare a state of emergency, or, rather, we are in one already.”

Since he had lost an expert group of adventurers at a site that was quite close to the town, the chief, fearing that the town might be in danger, had hastily tried to assemble a rescue force for the missing adventurers from the remaining fighters, tasked with defending the town. However, it soon became apparent that they lacked skilled wind arts users and it was too dangerous to send a group comprised only of fighters on a mission where communication was essential.

“Gathering mercenaries was difficult?”
“It’s because of Gazzetta being a hot topic right now. Everyone capable of gathering intelligence had already been hired.”

It seemed that the supply could not meet the demand and that every capable wind arts user was already hired by another people.

The official mission description for the Darkness God Corps was to investigate the damage on the evil beasts so no one expected that it would become a rescue mission. However the situation seemed dangerous and Yuusuke could not just turn around and leave like that.

“Understood. Given that we’re to investigate that place, tell me everything about the mercenaries that you had employed.”

After consulting with Vermeer, Yuusuke decided to search for the missing adventurers. Depending on the situation he decided to employ the mercenaries from the town to help him. However, because they might get ambushed at any time during the mission, he also needed to consider Sun’s position.

“With that decided, please use the rooms over there and rest for today. I am expecting great results from the Darkness God Corps.”

***

That night, everyone gathered in Yuusuke’s room to prepare for the mission and discuss the fine details of the plan. Fonke raised his hand during the discussion where everybody stated their opinion and talked about the best possible plan.

“Before that, can I ask one thing Captain?”
“Hmm, what is it Fonke?”
“Are you the God of Calamity?”
“You are being noisy.”

Fonke joked about the Darkness God Corps being involved in one dangerous situation after another. Aisha strictly cut him off, declaring that this was not a time for his jokes.

The discussion started off in a heat, with everyone discussing on who will take on the role of the investigators. When everyone’s roles were decided, the last remaining question was Sun’s position in case that they were forced to fight.

“If we get ambushed by bandits, an archer that has no experience in shooting humans will only hinder us.”
“They are not difficult to aim at… Do you have some hunting experience or bow training?”
“I have only shot at fake birds together with Violet-sama…”
“Maybe it’s better for you to return to the city and train in using the bow…”

There was no problems with her handling of the bow or accuracy, but the lack of combat experience was huge. Equipment had boosted her abilities sufficiently for her to wield significant power, yet the way that she used this power depended solely on her.

The subject of this discussion herself knew that she was a blunder on this emergency mission, but she did not want to be sent back to the city and spoke.

“It’s alright! I’ll try my best!”
“…Sun.”
“Well, I think it will turn out alright if the person herself has that much spirit.”
“I can’t deny that our group is short on offense.”
“We have already seen how scary an artless can be if one wields a weapon.”

Vermeer and the other members accepted Sun’s willful declaration. Sun accepted everyone’s expectations and encouragement with her straight eyes, only a slight blush betraying her shyness.

“Well then, are you ready to come with us tomorrow?”
“Yes!”

Thus, for the mission tomorrow, Sun was assigned to be an archer for the group, a very unusual task amongst the knight corps of the palace.

***

Shinha was browsing through some documents with a serious expression on his face in the former Divine Parliament building in the former Nossentes Capital of Patrucia Nost. Described in these documents, that Ayukas had found in the research laboratory, were the Nossentes experiments with the evil beasts.

“This…is this also Divine Parliament’s doing?”
“No, think that the researchers had done that on their own in an attempt to procure better financing. Do you think that the Parliament would have been oblivious about it?”
“Still, did the guys themselves understood what they were doing here?”
“No matter the age, it is easy for the researchers to get lost in their research and lose any reason. It’s just like the divine art users of the current age that have no memory of the rich history of the White Tribe and the fall of the [Colored] that the Evil God before Wizard had brought on (ref to Ch 27).”
“Judging from what Yuusuke usually does, it seems that he is not related to the earlier Evil Gods.”
“…is he different?”
“We certainly took advantage of the existence of the Evil God to take down the Divine Parliament, but…”

The documents described, in fine detail, the results of the research of an organization that had continued its work for a long time behind the scene. That said, these experiments were very dangerous to the common divine arts users.

“Basically, they have recreated something more than 2400 years old.”

At that time, a large population of the [Colored] had suddenly diminished. It was around the time that the black Evil God (beast) had descended and gave the White Tribe its chance at prosperity. This is the return that the village shaman had prospected.

“…as a King of Gazetta, you should be feeling happy right now.”