Epilogue: Internship in the Hero’s Company (part 4)

Between Amalia’s evacuation group and Vaska’s spider-extermination group, Amalia’s group was the one to depart first,

“You sure you won’t be lonely without us, Lieutenant?”

“It is you who become lonely, isn’t it? After all, today is the last day everyone would call me a Lieutenant.”

By joining the Hero’s Company, Amalia was automatically relieved from her usual military duty. And thus, her rank would be stripped until she came back to normal military service after her duties in the Hero’s Company were done.

“Nah, never. Just make sure to be careful out there, Lieutenant.”

“Thanks. But you know, do not mess with the timing.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

‘Why is Vaska and Boss looks so familiar?! This morning too, they bullied Rita together in the bedroom.’

Only both of them knew what Amalia meant by not messing up with the timing. She basically referred to what had happened five years ago when the High Priestess messed up with the artillery’s timing, resulting in a false accusation of the whole artillery brigade. After saying goodbyes to everyone, Amalia went to her own group and departed.

“Shall we prepare ourselves too?” Elnar asked Kyle, Vaska, and Rita.

“Yes, Mr. Elnar.”

Kyle replied to him while Vaska and Rita nodded. Vaska noticed that Rita was really happy with this group and she also stole some glances in Kyle’s direction. Unsurprisingly enough, Kyle did the same to Rita. Elnar could only sighed at those two’s antics.

They walked back to their shared living quarter. After arriving there, everyone went to their own rooms and they would meet in the shared quarter in ten minutes. But,

“Big Sis, why are you following me?”

“Vaska’s room is Rita’s room.”

“No, no, no. It is only in Blake’s house that my room is also yours.”

“No. Vaska is Rita’s little brother and little brother’s room is also his big sister’s.”

“What if Lord Kyle sees you in another man’s room, Big Sis? You even refused to go to his room, didn’t you?”

“But Rita is sca—scared. Rita’s friends said that if Rita goes to a man’s room, then Rita will have a baby but they said that it is scary.”

‘Seriously?! I need to interrogate your friends after this. I hope that they survive so I can send them to the afterlife myself, hahahaa.’ Vaska grinned in frustration.

Rita continued,

“But, but if Vaska holds Rita’s hand and accompanies Rita all time, then, then maybe Rita will go to Lo-Lord Kyle’s room.”

‘Kyle, help me!’

The moment Vaska thought about that, there was a knock on the door. Vaska had guessed who that was and his guess was correct; they were Kyle and Elnar. Kyle already donned his field uniform while Elnar already brought his elven-bow, a longbow made of the World-Tree decorated with gold. Vaska could saw the complex magic formulas engraved in Elnar’s bow. Fortunately, both Elnar and Kyle saw Rita’s going to Vaska’s room the same as when an elder sibling checked her younger brother.

“Let’s hunt the spiders.” Elnar said with a grin.

“Okayyyy~” Rita answered with her usual cheerful voice.

***

“So, what’s the plan, Lord Elnar?”

The four of them were currently inside the guarded mansion outside the castle. They would test Voran’s lure-and-destroy method on a further western part, a little closer to Amalia’s garrison.

“How did you do it yesterday?”

“Hmmm, we looked for a closed space first; a house, a shop, or a mansion would do. Then, Big Sis punched all the spiders there and we wrote the magic formulas before retreating.”

“Then, let’s do that. I believe that your barrier could defend all of us, right?”

“Leave the defense to me, Lord Elnar. Oh, maybe you can compete with Big Sis on clearing the buildings?”

Vaska suggested that Elnar should compete with Rita on clearing the buildings. Vaska knew that Rita admired the Hero’s Company and watching their members work should make her happy. Vaska glanced at Rita’s direction and yes, her eyes were literally shining.

“What do you say, Rita?”

“YES!”

Rita cheered and unconsciously clenched her fists. Then, she continued,

“Rita, Rita would be happy to!”

‘Glad that you are happy with this, Big Sis. Seems like I have nothing to worry anymore with you joining the Hero’s Company~’

***

With Kyle and Elnar’s assistance, both clearing the building and magic formula writing tasks were done significantly faster. As for Rita, she had lost to Elnar on her spider’s kill count.

“Not bad, Rita. But you are a hundred years too young to beat me!”

Elnar was teasing her with elf’s joke; elves could live until several hundred years. But unfortunately, Rita didn’t catch the joke. She had pouted since her kill count was one point less than Elnar’s.

“It is just because there are only around twenty spiders. If there are one hundred or one thousand more, Rita, Rita will win!”

“Hahahaa, Kyle, your girlfriend is throwing a tantrum!”

“A—any, anyway, can we get out of this building soon?”

Kyle, still embarrassed, tried to dodge the topic by suggesting that they should move out from the building soon because he wanted to detonate the explosion spell. Rita nodded at his suggestion while Vaska and Elnar chuckled. Nevertheless, all of them agreed to get out of the building.

“Your barrier can do anything, huh?”

Elnar commented on Vaska’s barrier. The four of them were currently walked in the air using Vaska’s barrier as footholds. But it wasn’t a leisure walk either because spiders kept launching their fireballs at them. Nevertheless, Vaska’s other barriers took care of them while Elnar’s arrows pierced their bodies. Rita’s expression became sourer because unlike Elnar, she didn’t have any long-range attack technique.

“You praised me too highly, Mr. Elnar. My barrier could only do these, hahahaa!”

“You know Vaska, you look like Spledorf when you casted your barriers?”

“Don’t say that, Lord Elnar. Vaska will become a meanie if you praise him too much. Just like yesterday when Rita praised him about his explosion magic formula, it turned out that he made a very big one.”

Rita commented on Elnar’s remarks.

“I will tend to your suggestion then, Mrs. Kyle.”

“HAHAHAA! Nice assist, Lord Elnar!”

The three of them joked all the way to a higher building facing the building where Kyle had written the explosion magic formula. Between the three of them, only Kyle couldn’t throw any jokes because he was too unfamiliar with battlefield conditions. His mind literally went, “How in heaven can these three joke around when the spiders are launching fireballs in their direction?!”

Around five minutes later, the three of them arrived at their vantage point, an intact chimney. They took some rest first because Kyle seemed to be out of breath.

“You okay, Lo—, Ky-Kyle?”

“Yes, somehow.”

Nevertheless, Kyle was breathing heavily. Rita decided to sat beside him until his complexion became better. Just like usual, Vaska and Elnar blended with the air.

“I am ready.”

“We thought that there would be any kissing scene, but alas.”

Elnar answered Kyle with a little bit of disappointment. Then, Elnar continued,

“I don’t think that there would be any spiders that climb this chimney but Rita, be ready to defend this position in case something happens. Vaska, this arrow is specially made by Kyle. My attack will be very devastating and thus, better to prepare your barrier to block the shockwave.”

“Understood, Lord Elnar.”

“Okayyyy~”

“Ready when you are Kyle. I will fire my attack approximately three minutes after the explosions.”

Kyle nodded. Then, he nervously activated his remote explosion and shouted,

“Explosion in five seconds!”

Everyone gulped and held their breaths.

Four...

Three..

Two.

One

BOOM!!

Kyle successfully detonated his explosion spell using remote activation. The explosion was not as big as Vaska’s but soon afterwards, the spiders were coming to the explosion’s site.

“Nicely done, Kyle!”

“Y-yes!” Kyle slumped and sighed in relief.

Then, they waited and waited until more spiders came. Rita literally looked at them with shining eyes. She tried to comment about the spiders to Vaska but she kept herself from doing so because Kyle became paler after watching thousands of spiders gathered. Thus, all of them waited in silence.

“It’s my turn then.”

Elnar grinned. He nocked his specialized arrow to his elven-bow. His form was perfect. It was as if it came out from the paintings. Elnar concentrated on his aim; the middle of those gathered spiders’ formation. He took a deep breath and smirked,

Whishhhhhhhhh

BOOM!

Elnar’s arrow landed right at the center of those spiders and exploded. The explosion was slightly bigger than Kyle’s spell. The explosion also spread fires to all directions, completely burning those spiders to ashes. Vaska took a note that even the metal-looking spider skins could be obliterated by enough firepower.

“Hahaha, Voran’s idea is not bad at all! I think that some thousands of them were blasted just by a single arrow!”

‘That’s the point of artillery tactics!’ Vaska proudly nodded to himself.

Kyle answered him,

“I agree, Mr. Elnar. With this tactic, we can liberate Regalion with ease.”

“Ri—Rita also agrees.”

“Big Sis, why don’t you try hugging Lord Kyle? For appreciation or something.”

“But, but, but Rita is sweat—?!”

Before Rita could finish her sentence, Kyle hugged her first. Rita tried to resist at first but she ended up hugging him back while patting his back. Unfortunately, Elnar ruined their situation,

“I am happy to see both of you but didn’t we just forget something important?”

Rita and Kyle suddenly looked at Elnar. As for Vaska, he already knew what that was all about. Elnar continued,

“Because our simulation here is successful, we are going to move further west to assist Ray’s evacuation unit using the same tactic. So, the running is not over Kyle, hahahaa!”

Hearing Elnar’s reminder, Kyle’s face became as pale as a paper. As for Rita, she was clearly happy because she would have another chance to compete with Elnar on exterminating the spiders. Vaska sighed but his face showed a worried expression; Amalia’s safety.