My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s - Chapter 169~Meeting Up~ Tsuda Tomoya POV

It seems that, I had woken up a few minutes after Satou-kun substituted in for me.

There was a violent and thunderous roar and a torrent of light.

The shaking ground was the worst thing to wake up to and having woken up, I was captivated by the battle unfolding in front of me.

Due to the battle just now, every time I moved my body, my muscles would scream in pain and I couldn’t move, but even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to join in.

「Holy Sword—-『Divine Punishment』」

From Satou-kun’s sword that he held above his head came a large pillar of light, blinding my eyes.

From that pillar of light, I felt a terrible power that had been compressed.

After leaving the castle, we had made remarkable progress in our levels due to our respective trainings and experiences in battle.

Even so, we couldn’t reach Satou-kun.

Perhaps it was characteristic of the hero occupation, but when we take one step forward, he takes ten or even twenty.

He had collapsed just now, but that was also because he was fighting while protecting Ueno-san and I.

And, Satou-kun grew stronger as he fought.

That’s why, with a bit of unreasonableness, I had Satou-kun recover.

「Haaaaaa!!!!」

After the pillar of light swung downwards, the monsters were all annihilated.

It would be correct to say that this holy sword skill did not kill, but annihilated.

That was an overwhelming difference in power.

Seeing Satou-kun who swung his sword downwards, I seem to have seen the back of Commander Saran who opened up a path of retreat for us at the Continent Dungeon.

This didn’t change my admiration for Asahina-kun, but I think that everyone, regardless of gender, admired Satou-kun.

「O–i!」

The monsters were exterminated by Satou-kun’s skill, and just when I thought that the forest had returned to its previous calmness, Nanase-kun’s voice resounded.

I was relieved by that voice of his that didn’t sound any different from normal.

Nanase-kun was with Zeal-san, so I didn’t think that they would be defeated by the monsters, but even so.

Nanase-kun could get along well with anyone, and he was someone who would even call out to me who was in the corner of the classroom, so if he died, I would be extremely sad.

「Nanase-kun, Zeal-san! Are you ok?」

The originally quiet Ueno-san raised her voice.

Judging from their appearance, the two people had no injuries, and we were relieved.

And just as Satou-kun was about to ask them what happened on their side, before he could do so, Nanase-kun shouted as if in a panic.

「We’re not injured! Rather than that, hurry up and get away from this place!」

Zeal-san picked up Ueno-san who couldn’t move, and Nanase-kun and Satou-kun who looked as if he had no idea what was going on supported me who was completely exhausted with their shoulders.

I wonder if something happened.

「Zeal-san said that, there was a possibility that the lord of this forest would react to Tsukasa’s attack just now. It seems that it was a monster that the previous hero avoided as well! It would be better to escape before he notices us.」

My jaw dropped at the explanation that was given as we were running.

When I looked beside me, Satou-kun too had the same look on his face.

「The lord of the forest?? There’s such a thing?」

「Yes, that’s why we’re rushing.」

And, when we were a hundred meters away from the place that we just in, the ground suddenly shook and we collapsed onto the ground.

「Is it an earthquake?」

「No, it’s the voice of a monster. It’s the lord of the forest I just mentioned.」

Zeal-san said this in a lowered voice.

According to him, it seems that the lord of the forest could shake the ground with a shout, and when he moved, there would be…cracks on the ground.

Nonetheless, it seems that he heard about it from Kurou-san, so it was highly credible.

「…it seems that it is not chasing after us. I should’ve told you about the lord of the forest before we came into the forest. I’m sorry.」

After traveling a bit further, Zeal-san came to a halt, put Ueno-san on top of a rock, and performed first aid on her injured foot.

It wasn’t an injury that would have any after-effects on her after it healed, but it seems that it was hard for her to walk.

「For now, let’s make meeting up with Asahina-kun and the others our highest priority. We need Hosoyama-san to treat Ueno-san’s leg.」

Satou-kun said this, but how were we supposed to meet up with them.

This forest was quite dense, and because we moved around, we didn’t even know where we currently were.

No matter where we looked, there were nothing but trees.

「Naa, everyone, look at this!」

Just as everyone was troubled, Ueno-san, who was sitting on top of a rick, pointed to a tree.

「Ahh! This is….」

–

「Asahina-kun, Waki-kun, Hosoyama-san. It’s great that everyone’s ok.」

The place where all eight people gathered at once again, was the slightly open area that we had split up.

When we arrived at that place, Asahina-kun and the others were already there, and had arranged the fruit that they had gathered, waiting for us.

The three people were all uninjured, and even if there were any, they would be tiny scratches, probably from the tree branches.

Everyone took out the food they found, and everything was distributed equally.

It seems that Hosoyama-san knew what was edible and what wasn’t, and had already tasted them for poison.

As a result, because both Zeal-san’s group and mine were caught up in a battle relatively early, we didn’t have as much as Asahina-kun and the others.

Catching fish in the river was extremely difficult, and fun.

Asahina-kun spoke as we ate.

「Even so, you guys did well to get here. You guys didn’t make any marks, did you? There are monsters within the forest as well, so we couldn’t burn smoke signals either, and I thought that the three of us might have to make camp tonight.」

Perhaps Asahina-kun was also glad we met back up, as he was more talkative than usual.

Ah, this fish, it tasted like sea bream and was delicious.

Even though it looked just like a carp.

We had seasoned the grilled fish with a bit of salt that we had on hand, but it was often said that hunger was the best seasoning.

I listened carefully as I tore through the fish.

Deciding our next plan of action was mostly done by Asahina-kun and Satou-kun.

Zeal-san would sometimes say a few words, but usually, he would not interject and would go along with our plan.

I had also become accustomed to hearing Asahina-kun speak, even though I rarely saw him talk in the classroom.

Perhaps it was unconscious, but Asahina-kun’s tone of voice was a bit similar to Oda-kun’s.

Which one of them was copying the other?

Or did they influence each other.