Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

e in a while.

I don’t know much, but they suit you.
They really suit you, want to buy it? I’m sorry I can’t give it to you as a present.
If you drop two zeros from the price, I can buy you a present.
Even if I want to I can’t use the money that’s there for emergencies.

As I walked around the city, I looked out for any hints that Sytry’s slime had caused an uproar, but I didn’t see anything in particular.
There were murmurs here and there about the disturbance on the northern highway, but the stray Phantoms had been manifesting since before I lost the slime so as you’d expect it was irrelevant.

“Hey hey, Cry-chan, what’s wrong? For a little while you’ve seemed a bit down.”

I hadn’t intended to show anything on the surface, but Liz suddenly called out to me.
I’m sorry, all I do is worry everyone.

“Liz, what if… just asking hypothetically, if Zebrudia was about to be destroyed… what would you do?”

An extremely theoretical question.
If such a thing actually happened and I was the cause, I wouldn’t be able to say that much.

It was so out of the blue it should have been taken as a joke, but Liz answered the tedious question immediately without a break in her smile.

“Run away together?”

…No no no, we can’t do that.

“, a southern country would be nice I think…I want to see the ocean…I’ve never been.”

Even though we were talking about the country being destroyed, she was surprisingly forward facing.
Seeing her eyes sparkle as she was lost in thought made me feel a little more cheerful.

Do what you can.
And if that’s hopeless, maybe it would be good to run away together like Liz said.
Ocean.
The ocean, huh.
Not bad.

“It’s all water so you won’t be able to run you know?”

“Eh-, you won’t know unless you try right?”

You should know even without trying.
Please don’t transcend the laws of physics.

Liz was speaking in a light manner, as if talking about going on a trip.

“It seems like there are Shrines even at the bottom of the sea, I think it’d definitely be pretty.
We’d have to do something about the breathing problem though.
I wonder if going into the sky would be good too… It’s convenient living in the Capital, but how many years have passed since we’ve been here-“

While returning ‘Uh-huh, yep’ as I listened, Liz’s expression suddenly became severe.
The body that was sticking close to me was separated before I knew, both shopping bags she had been holding fell to the ground with a thud.
At that time a few meters away my childhood friend was pinning a man to the ground.
His arms were pulled behind him and his back was tread on, perfectly sealing his movement.
The opponent was a man with a moustache.
He was about the same height as me.
He was featureless and gave a plain impression, and he wasn’t attired like a hunter.

The man let out a groan in pain.
If I wasn’t looking to the side at that moment, I wouldn’t even know when the man had been beaten and thrown down.

I was surprised for a moment, and then I rushed over.
For a hunter to turn their hand on an ordinary person was strictly forbidden.
Even worse if the hunter was one sidedly attacking.

Liz was a violent person, but these days she hadn’t been striking out at ordinary people.
Just when you thought she had mellowed out, this happened.

“!? W-What are you doing, Liz-chan?”

’

Why, when you were just in such a good mood?

Seeing me turn pale, she turned her gaze towards the man at her feet.
The arm she was gripping creaked.
The people around us quickly left with their cheeks twitching.
It was only a matter of time before the force for public order arrived.

Liz gave a look of disgust, then stepped down on his head rubbing it into the ground.
The man quickly stopped struggling and froze up.

“You, just now, Liz-chan and us, you were watching.”

…so what? Are you going to just attack everyone that meets your eyes?

In the first place, Liz stood out.
If it was people looking, I understood it.
What’s the difference between other gazes and this guy?

The man attacked under such a miserable pretext groaned.
I gripped Liz’s arm from behind and pulled it away.

“Ok come on, lets separate from each other first.”

“…”

Liz separated.
While the man coughed violently, his body rolled over, and looked up at us with a pale expression.

He didn’t have any scars on his face, and his body wasn’t trained like a hunter.
A commonplace regular build of a middle age man.
He held no weapons, an ordinary virtuous citizen.
It was completely a crime.

The Capital favoured hunters, but it wasn’t sweet on them to the point it would permit violence against ordinary people.

I offered out my hand, to help the man get back on his feet.

“E-Excuse us.
This child, her emotions are unstable.
You don’t have any injuries?”

“-…”

The man didn’t take my hand, and let out a small scream as he broke into a run.
…Looks like he didn’t suffer any injuries.
Good, that’s good… that wasn’t good.

I didn’t know what the trigger is.
It makes me anxious you know.
Liz scowled as she watched the man run away.
What are you unhappy about?

What? What is it? What rubbed you the wrong way? You’ve been such a good girl lately though?

Anyway lets get out of here before any people come.
I faced her again.
Seeing me in a hurry Liz thought a little, and tilted her head to the side in puzzlement.

“Hmm? Are you maybe………setting him free?”

What’s this kid saying.
There was nothing to set free, because there was nothing wrong.
So what was the harm to me? They were looking because you were wearing such a conspicuous Relic.

“Liz, I need to do some scolding later.”

“…Geez-, you’re too good at acting! I didn’t notice at all… next time I’ll pay better attention ok?”

Her good humour returned.
I said I would scold her, but she gripped my arm, and didn’t seem to reflect at all.

With Liz clinging to me in an extremely good mood, we briskly left the scene of the crime.

You should pay attention so you don’t randomly attack people… Before Liz trains Tino, I want her to learn from Tino some good sense .

§　§　§

’

He ran with all his strength.
Running to the limit his breathing allowed.
No one stood in front of the man to block him.

Zebrudia was like the mans backyard.
Tourists and merchants travelled the main streets, but he knew the back streets that ordinary civilians hated to go to.

But he had no extra time to think about that right now.

Keep escaping as if a small carnivorous beast was chasing you.
That chilling gaze was in his mind while he suffered from insufficient oxygen.

The man only stopped after running with all his power to the opposite side of a gloomy building.

There were no pursuers.
If it was that girl then he should have been caught long ago.
No, he shouldn’t have been able to shake off her restrictions from the start.
The vice like force in those thin arms limited all of his movement, giving the illusion that his whole body had been bound.

Weak sunlight shone through the cracks in the building, and shone on his hazy vision.

“Haa, haa,…-….what, was that…”

Out of breath, he pressed down on his arms and withstood the uncontrollable tremors.

He definitely hadn’t let out any signs in his behaviour.
His opponents were a level 8 and level 6 hunter.
The man had been taking great care.

The two had stood out a lot, and walked down streets with lots of pedestrians.
Even if he meant to cause harm, there was no way to distinguish between his gaze and the others.

His appearance didn’t stand out, he wasn’t a hunter.
He conducted himself naturally, and it wasn’t like he had stared at them abnormally.
He hadn’t held any murderous intentions, the purpose this time was just wait and see.
He was always careful to keep in their blind spot and not come into view.

In fact, until he had been thrown to the ground, he really didn’t believe that his shadowing would be discovered.

His arm that had been tightly restricted still ached in pain.
He held it and got his breathing back under control.

He wanted to think it was coincidence, but clearly 『Severed Shadow』 had noticed his gaze.
What he needed to consider was why 『Infinite Variety』 had let him go.

He couldn’t imagine why you would let someone that was tailing you go free.
The main thing was if they were going to let him go, there was no point in restraining him.
Apologetic words had been said, but it was obvious they weren’t genuine.

He hadn’t planned to give up any information if he was interrogated, but what meaning was there in not even doing that much.

Was it ― a warning? Shit, how much did he know?

He didn’t let out his voice, he just grit his teeth.

There hadn’t been any information leaks.
Their plans were perfect.
Even though the White Wolves Den had been enhanced, the abnormalities were discovered much earlier than they should have been.
Even if it was invaded by misfortunate hunters, the shrines difficulty would still rise.
They wouldn’t be able to leave alive.
But in reality, it was difficult to continue the experiment because too many people had gathered.

The cause hadn’t been found yet, but if the experiment continued on people would begin to suspect.

The reputation of 『Strange Grief』 was well known.
He had been cautious, and up until now there was nothing so he had become complacent.
For someone to come and make a big move was unexpected.

Recalling the young man’s face as he apologised, his eyes widened and he began to tremble.

The sun had set by the time the man recomposed himself.

The White Wolves Den was already a lost cause.
It had been perfectly seen through.
They didn’t have enough people.
He needed to tell them that the plan must be modified.
No one watched as the man unsteadily walked away.