Chapter 51

I joined the mutual aid society, which made me return to the academy later than planned, but I came here to practice archery.

The archery training facility at the royal academy, in addition to a long, indoor training facility similar to a batting center at an armory, has an obstacle course that mimics a forest and mountainous area, which looks like it cost a fortune.

It truly feels like the best institution.

When I first saw this academy, I thought it was taking up an unnecessarily vast space in this capital, but now I understand.

However, at least for the past two days, no other students have been using the archery range besides me.

In this world of magic, and for students who are almost certain to join the royal knights, as Stella said, bows are not very popular.

I decided to start by thoroughly practicing the basic movements in the simple batting center-style facility.

There are two types of arrows, and I can use them freely.

Simple wooden arrows, just sharpened at the tip.

Iron-tipped arrows with high penetration power.

I take out arrows from a quiver that holds 20, nock them, and draw the bow.

Each arrow has a slight quirk.

I adjust my aim based on the slight differences in the feel of the arrow before releasing it.

This is not something you think about with your head, but rather a matter of sensation.

First, I focus on improving the form of my movements.

Out of ten arrows, not even one hits as I intend.

Next, I work on improving my speed, aiming to nock and release arrows as quickly as possible.

All the arrows hit near the center of the target, but in this training, there are almost no arrows that feel like they hit as intended.

I spend one hour with wooden arrows and one hour with iron arrows, totaling two hours of archery. While my magic power is not a problem, my arms become very sore.

The sensation of releasing an arrow changes depending on the fatigue in my arm muscles.

I haven't started yet, but shooting while moving or from different elevations will likely feel different.

The bow is deep.

Incredibly deep and incredibly enjoyable.

Feeling a pleasant fatigue in my arms, I looked forward to the explorer activities for the weekend and went to sleep earlier than usual.

◆

The next day.

Allen was at a construction site in the lower town of the capital.

Originally, he had planned to do explorer activities with Al and Coco over the weekend.

However, according to what he heard when the two visited his room last night, they had been ranked D.

During their interview at headquarters, they had offered to start training from the G class, but they were lectured by a vice president who was different from the intimidating Satowa and were registered as D class without any chance to appeal.

"Odilon, the guy I met, was super scary and didn't take us seriously at all. How did you get them to accept you into the G class, Allen?"

"I was lucky and got a kind person who handled my case. I asked politely, and they accepted me. It was just good luck."

Saying this, he encouraged the dejected Al and Coco, but they looked at him with suspicious faces.

Well, it's only natural that registering as G rank is unreasonable, and it was good for them too.

Since G and D ranks can take on different levels of requests, we decided to act separately until I could take on D rank requests by reaching E rank.

"Ren, you and Amour are to help with the building demolition site today. The project is behind schedule, and they're desperate for help. They're short on manpower."

When I went to Apple's house at 8 in the morning, I received these instructions from Oyaji.

On the way, Amour told me that this kind of demolition work is not very popular in the current capital.

As Rio had said, the supply of medicinal materials was not meeting the demand, and the buyback prices had skyrocketed. This had drawn low-level explorers to that area, making it difficult to gather people for other jobs.

In particular, for contracts like this one, which were signed long ago, it was not easy to raise labor costs just because there were not enough people, and the physical strain also deterred freelance low-level explorers.

Thus, mutual aid societies like Apple's house, which have long-standing relationships with construction companies, were trying to keep the work going by providing explorers.

"Damn, why do we have to be assigned to such a low-paying job? The other day, the Round Peace guys found a small cluster of Yuke grass and made a lot of money. Damn, if we don't collect it soon, the collection sites will get further away, and the efficiency will drop."

"Really, our luck is bad... We won't get another collection request for three weeks. Who knows if the high prices will last that long... The president should just cut ties with these struggling construction companies while he has the chance!"

The explorers working on a daily basis, of course, were not happy.

Since their income is based on daily wages, it's natural for them to want to take on more profitable jobs.

Moreover, they did not fully understand the reasons behind the high prices of medicinal materials.

If they had the correct information, they would know that the prices would not drop anytime soon, but their anxiety remained.

"How much we earn today" is their primary motivation and top priority.

The two members of the mutual aid society "Gold Rat" arrived at the demolition site just in time for the start of their shift, their irritation mounting.

"Hey, look... Apple's Amour is here with some unknown kid."

One of the men noticed Allen and Amour.

"Heh. I heard that a lot of the working-age people left because they were fed up with that old-fashioned guy. Looks like they've fallen so low that they're bringing in some upstart kid."

"Perfect. Let's push all the boring work onto them and have a little fun scaring them for stress relief."

◆

"What are you doing, you guys! The next load is piling up!"

Today, there were two of us from Apple's house: me and Amour's brother. Two other explorers, who looked to be around 18, were also helping out.

"Damn, just because they're F rank, they think they can boss us around and push all the tough jobs onto us."

We were currently doing a job called "clearing out."

The job involved manually loading the materials that the construction company's magic machinery had demolished onto vehicles.

I was keeping up with the pace set by Amour's brother, so for me, it was just a regular job, not particularly tough. However, Amour's brother, who had not fully mastered the body strengthening magic, was finding it quite difficult.

"Brother, is this kind of thing common?"

I asked Amour's brother.

The job itself was not a problem, but their obvious attempts to belittle us were really getting on my nerves.

If I got the go-ahead from my brother, I would beat them up and show them who's in charge.

If it were my sister, she would have already made their faces unrecognizable.

"No, usually it's not this blatant. The client is watching, and if they're not satisfied, it affects the guild's evaluation... Apple's house is in a bit of a bind right now. A lot of the higher-ups have left, and they're being looked down upon by others."

I was surprised by this.

The Apple family, which seemed to be firmly on the outlaw side, was being looked down upon.

"...Brother... Mom taught me that if we're about to be crushed, we should have the resolve to crush everything in return. Should I change the faces of those slackers so they can't tell who's who...?"

They were just standing there, laughing and sprinkling water to prevent dust, doing almost nothing.

"...For a noble, you sure had a tough parent... If we start a fight, we lose. It's better to endure and quickly reach F rank. I'm almost there, and my dad has strictly told me to avoid conflicts with others."

I see.

I was wondering why Amour's brother was putting up with this, but it was because Oyaji had told him to.

And he was about to rank up soon.

To save face for my brother, I decided to endure for today.

But then, those slackers said something like this:

"Hey, don't just load such a big piece of debris! You brats! Working with useless kids like you will affect our evaluation!"

Slacker A raised his hammer and swung it down with all his might at the larger piece of debris that Amour's brother and I were about to lift.

We let go of the debris in a panic, but a piece of the shattered debris hit my brother's forehead, and blood started to flow.

Seeing this, I thought they had crossed the line.

Despite this, Slacker B said something even worse:

"Tch, looks like Apple can't even manage safety these days... You guys, go tell the client, 'We learned a lot from the seniors today. Despite that, we were careless and got injured, causing trouble for the seniors. We're sorry.'"

"...Don't mess with us, you bastards! Doing something like this—"

My gentle brother was still trying to warn them verbally.

But I judged it a waste of time and gripped the hammer.

Seeing this, Slacker A tried to say something, but I swung the hammer down with full body strengthening magic at his feet.

Dust flew up.

The debris at his feet was shattered into pieces.

The slackers were in shock, their mouths opening and closing.

Amour's brother was also gaping.

Was he trying to send me a message?

...I see. He can't be too aggressive before his rank-up, so he's giving me the go-ahead. It must be.

"You bastards... Do you think you can look down on the Apple family?"