An A-Ranked Adventurer’s - Chapter 0

I was an orphan, one of the many children who was left behind at a church, with no knowledge of the names or faces of my parents; just another orphan in poverty that could be found on any street corner.

Since the church operated on a small budget from people’s donations, it was difficult to feed all the orphans who were abandoned there.

Even though I worked hard every day, I did not ever get a decent meal. A day with hard bread and plain soup were considered a luxury. At bad times, there would be nothing to eat for days.

I hated to live like that every day, so I decided to put my life at stake to make some money.

At first, I was using a stone-shaved wooden rod that couldn’t even be called a sword to fight against the monsters outside of the city.

I knew that there weren’t many monsters a child could defeat, but I thought it was still better than working at a broke church. Since I could obtain raw materials and meat by defeating the monsters, not only could I turn their materials into money by selling them, I could also cook their meat and eat them. I thought that was the way I was going to survive.

If you register at the adventurer’s guild, you could receive quests to kill many different types of monsters. The moment I found out that I could be earning even more, I registered in the guild on that very same day.

Imitating and stealing the techniques of skilled adventurers, sometimes by asking them to teach me, I started subjugating monsters one by one starting from goblins and worked my way up.

I started to team up with other people who knew about me and were doing the same things as I was, and we hunted monsters together with our lives at stake.

Monsters with high capabilities could be dealt with more efficiently if they were hunted by people in a party.

There were causalities at times, but it couldn’t be helped. In this harsh world, it was natural for those who lacked strength and luck to perish.

I hunted monsters over and over again as I became an adult, then I finally became the kingdom’s best A-ranked adventurer.

Power is everything when it comes to survival.

If you have power, you can make money, you can eat good things, and sleep in soft beds.

I polished my skills in the pursuit of power as I carried out quests with my companions. At this age of 27 years old, I defeated a dragon, a monster of the strongest species, thus gaining enormous wealth and fame.

Then, I suddenly realized.

I don’t starve anymore. I am strong and wealthy; I no longer have trouble surviving.

There’s no need to hunt monsters anymore.

There’s no need to fight battles with my life on the line.

When all those thoughts came to mind, I lost all my energy and my goal in life.

Although I found it pointless for me to hunt monsters now, they were still filling this world with danger.

I was asked to subdue atrocious monsters many times, but I couldn’t fight while I was in such a state of mind, so I declined the quests.

I’m already 27 years old. That’s already past the age of my body’s physical peak; my abilities and reactions are starting to go downwards. I couldn’t continue this merciless adventurer lifestyle without a goal in life as my emotional support.

It’s about time I retire from being an adventurer.

If so, how should I live my life from this point on?

Should I stay in the kingdom’s capital like this and build a luxurious home and live carefreely? No, that’s not right.

Become an instructor in the adventurer’s guild and nurture the younger generations? Although I have abilities and techniques to some extent, it would be strange for a man who no longer wants to fight monsters to teach others how to engage in mortal combat. I would feel sorry for the people getting taught by me.

Peerage, knights, royalty escorts of frontier regions with a lot of monsters…? There were many other choices out there, but they were all occupations that involved fighting.

Since I was not tight on money, recently there have been some strange people coming up to me trying to leech off me. Because of that, I was getting sick of living in the capital.

Man, I want to distance myself from life and death battles and leisurely live a normal life somewhere.

At the moment I thought that, a scene of a place suitable for that came up in my mind.

I thought of a small village with flowers of vivid colors everywhere that changes their colors according to the season. There are farms and fields, beautiful rivers, and big mountains surrounded it. The village was quite blessed by nature, there were many delicious foods. Their population was low, it was a quiet place where everyone was self-sufficient and lived in peace.

If I’m not mistaken, that place was called Nordende. That’s right, I went there one time for a quest before I met my companions, it was a village of another country.

I had only been there once, but maybe it’s because of the beautiful multi-colored field of flowers there that I could still remember the place in my mind.

Back at that time, I finished the quest quickly and I was looking at the flowers all day long.

….It might not be a bad idea to settle down at Nordende.

I might not be able to get married there because I’m way past the prime marriageable age, but living in a small house, plowing the fields and hunting, such a peaceful life-style might not be too bad. Moreover, I could see the field of beautiful flowers every day.

It was also during spring on my last visit there. The radiant colors of flowers in pink, red, orange, yellow, and white will be in full bloom.

My heart started pounding as I thought of how I could see that scene once again. I was not able to get motivated ever since the dragon subjugation, but now I feel alive again.

I want to go there right now.

With that thought, I called up the other members of the party “Black Silver” and gathered at an inn.

I was getting all kinds of different looks in the guild lately so I couldn’t relax at all.

「Today, our party is going to disband」

「…I see 」

「Well, I thought this was going to happen」

Elliot answered with a solemn expression on his face, while Kiel muttered with his arms crossed behind his head.

These two looked at me as if everything had come together for them. They should have seen this coming as well.

Well, this kind of thing happens regardless of me being the cause of it or not. It’s not like humans can go on fighting forever.

Also, they are at a considerable age already as well. Since we have been questing together all this time, they are now all over the age of 20. Now that we have money, there’s no need to continue the dangerous career of being an adventurer. There are many other options for people at our stage of life.

「Are we really disbanding?! 」

Kurune got up vigorously and yelled.

「Well, the leader says he wants to quit. You are still 22 years old. But for us guys, we are approaching our 30s. Isn’t it about time we quit the merciless occupation called an adventurer? Elliot even has a woman he loves. Even if the leader didn’t say to disband, wasn’t he going to quit anyway?」

「That’s right. I don’t want to make her worry about me」

Elliot answered in surprise following up with what Kiel said.

I had been expecting that Elliot was going to quit as well.

「B-But.. 」

Kurune looked down with strong lingering affections.

It’s sad for companions who acted together for many years to depart from each other. I can’t say I don’t feel the same.

「Whaat? It’s not like we’re dead, we can always meet again at any time! 」

With those cheerful words, Kiel blew the depressing mood away.

「That’s right. I will be serving in the royal capital’s order of knights, so you’ll be always welcomed if you ever come to the capital」

Because of that, Elliot’s expression also changed to a soft one.

Kiel has always been like that. He has always been the backbone of the party, making us feel at ease and sometimes even pushing us forward.

「Hmm? Elliot is still going to work? Aren’t you already swimming in money? 」

「I feel restless if I stop working. My lover’s father is also the leader of the knights so I can’t afford to refuse… 」

We are all surprised to see Elliot muttering while showing a bitter smile.

「I knew you had a woman, but I did not think she was going to be a noble.. 」

Speaking of the leader of the knights, he is a militant type of nobleman. So that means Elliot is being adopted by his wife’s family. In that case, there was no way for him to refuse.

「Everyone has their own path to follow huh… 」

Kurune muttered as she wiped the tears that were dropping from her eyes.

She seemed to have come to an understanding.

「How nice~ Elliot is going to be a noble huh~」

Kiel said as he rocked back on his chair, making squeaky noises.

「What about you, Kiel? 」

「Oh, me? I will travel across the countries with the big lump of cash we got from subjugating the dragon. Eating delicious food freely here and there with women in my arms, I’m going to live like a king」

Kiel seemed happy that Elliot asked as he responded with a bright smile.

What he just said was very natural human-like behaviors. Even so, I have not even considered doing those things; I guess it’s just not what I’m into.

「But still, you haven’t changed at all」

「I still look like myself, Don’t I? 」

「You’re right about that」

Everyone laughed at Kiel’s never-changing way of talking.

「I… 」

「No one is going to care about what you’re going to do, Kurune」

When Kurune tried to say something, Kiel interrupted her.

「Why?! Let me say it! 」

Kiel made Kurune angry by teasing her. It’s how their conversations usually go, and it puts a smile on my face.

「I will become a teacher in the academy of magic because I was asked to be one」

「Hehh~ so a teacher, huh…? 」

Kiel said it with an expression that also represented how we all felt.

「Eh? I’m becoming a teacher in “That” famous magic academy you know? It’s okay to show a little reaction like you did with Elliot 」

「No, even if you say that, I don’t know anything about the magic academy that nobles go to」

Kiel replied like it’s whatever as Kurune looked at me and Elliot like she couldn’t believe what just happened.

「Sorry, I am a novice in that stuff as well」

「I know nothing other than the sword either」

「Hah…….. 」(*Sigh*)

It’s goes without saying that I don’t even need to be asked. It’s impossible for an orphan who took up the sword to become an adventurer to know about some magic academy that nobles go to.

「So what about you, leader? What are you going to do? 」

After Kurune finished sighing, she looked at me and asked.

Kiel and Elliot also focused their gaze this way as if they were also wondering.

「Me? I will live in Nordende」

「「「…Where?! 」」」