Chapter 104 Brother’s entrance

Who was the person that rushed to us?

Of course, it’s my brother.

「Isn’t that Noir? Heeey, Nooir! Oh, my dear brother, you came to me!」

With a happy 「Ah-Ha-Ha-Ha~」 laugh brother runs up to us in a jolly manner. As I feebly raise my hands, brother hugs me with all his might.

「Wha, Stop it, brother!」

「Oh my brother, isn’t it fine. I haven’t forgotten you even for one second.」

「That’s is disgusting in its own way…」

「Ah Ha Ha!」

I push away my brother who was rubbing his cheek on me affectionately. Then, probably surprised, he stares in wonder.

「You’ve become quite strong.」

「I do my best every day in my own fashion. So power eventually followed.」

「I thought so. Actually, I received a letter from mother, in which it was written that you showed remarkable growth. However, Noir, you are not the only one who changed. The same goes for me as well.」

Putting hands on his hips, brother puffs his chest. I don’t see any change in his appearance. He was tall in the past as well, his hair color is the same brown as mine.

If I really had to point out something, then it would be his outfit that looked strangely knightish. Even though he is a merchant, he wore a mantle and was even armed.

「Do you need a sword at the commercial school?」

「How nice of you to ask! It’s not really necessary, but this outfit stands out more and girls stick better!」

Understandable answer. Well, brother was good with a sword and had enough skill and guts to exterminate weak monsters. He surely was stronger than your average merchant in training.

「However, Noir… Didn’t you bring along a lot of cute friends? Do you have any intentions of introducing me, oh, isn’t that Emma-chan! You’ve got quite large, no, big! I missed you.」

「That correction changed nothing… Hello, it’s been a long time, I didn’t particularly miss you at all.」

Emma was thrusting him away pretty hard, but brother didn’t hear any of it. Since everyone else is cute as well he is going frolic.

「And, brother, will you give us at least a tour around the town?」

When I say that, my brother’s attitude changes entirely. His tension has dropped considerably. And he also looked somewhat apologetic.

「Sorry, Noir. I sent the letter with the worst of timings. I immediately sent a follow-up letter, but looks like due to some mistake you didn’t receive it.」

After you send a letter since it goes to another country plenty of time will pass until it arrives.

In the second letter, it appears he wrote not to come to Hornest.

When he started to talk about the reason, the toll of the bell loudly resounded throughout the town.

*Gon Gon Gon Gon Gon* It wasn’t a trivial matter.

「This is bad, what will come this time… Let’s evacuate for now.」

As I heard, Hornest was a peaceful town that had nothing to do with wars or internal strife.

「Monsters? Or maybe bandits?」

「Monsters. Recently, they suddenly increased in numbers. I even considered taking refuge in another town.」

I heard the rumor that once per ten years or so, this town would get attacked by a large number of monsters. If this is that time, then it indeed was the worst timing.

I look in the direction of the bell. A dire situation was revealed. At least twenty or thirty enemies launched a surprise attack from the sky.

They are quite far away for me to see properly, but they must be attacking the people below.

「Noir, let’s take shelter at school for a while.」

So was he inviting me, but I didn’t feel like doing so. It will be a problem if we were to ignore this and massive damage was done to the city like it happened to Landan.

Luna-san and Layla-san also were brimming with enthusiasm for monster extermination.

「Laura-san, can you take shelter with my brother?」

「No, I will go to check it out as well. I want to see what kind of monster is that.」

Laura-san is actually good, if she is supported then there shouldn’t be any problem. We decided to head there all together.

「Are they serious? I can’t believe that Noir became strong enough to defeat tough monsters.」

With a laugh, Emma replies to agitated brother.

「Noir is secretly training at a hidden dungeon. Other than playing with girls he does other things as well, unlike you, Gillan-san.」

「So he is playing with girls.」

「I won’t deny it.」

I cannot deny it. Ops, it wasn’t time for such a conversation. I got my brother to return to the school, and we ran in the direction from which screams were coming.

A few minutes of running while trying not to bump into the panicking people. We finally arrived directly below the enemies.

It was a park, but there is still a lot of mothers with children that were left behind.

An enemy was an opponent that should be called a birdman. They had a human-like face, but their skin was purple and hands were wings. Their legs had three toes, with which they caught people, soared with them into the sky and then dropped them to deal damage.

Some became unable to move from that.

「Harpies. Half-human and half-bird, they are clever. Sometimes requests for them come to our guild, but they are of a different kind. Those are purple harpies.」

I appraise one of them and confirm that Laura-san’s information was precise.

Name: Purple Harpy

Level: 35

Skills: Strong Grip

They weren’t a big deal in terms of power, however, since flying enemies can soar through the skies it was annoying.

And their number was a bit high. At such moments, a person like Luna-san can truly shine.

With the pull of the trigger of her magic gun, the hole opens in the skull of the harpy that was attacking a person. The person that was about to be killed gives his thanks.

「Don’t worry about it. Because my gun is to protect people. Let’s go!」

As always, she is so cool. As I recall, Luna-san was helping people as she carried the will of her mother.

As I was relatively good at ranged attacks, I join as her support. The other three guide to safety people that were late to run away.

Well, there are about fifty purple harpies. By default, they stay in an elevated position and hardly come down.

I shoot【Stone Bullet】. It has plenty of speed, but it was avoided because of the distance. The same with【Ice Needle】and so on. 【Purple Lightning】doesn’t reach because it has an effective distance of only three meters.

I tried throwing, but it also doesn’t work since it gets noticed. Hmm, am I useless…?

Completely different from Luna-san next to me, who kept attacking with her magic gun.

Even though we both use projectile attacks, the speed is different. Her bullets hit the enemy properly.

So I decided to acquire new skills.

I would like to attack them with a bang from where they won’t expect it. How about this?

【Thunderbolt】 400 LP

Dropping lightning sounds powerful and should be hard for them to avoid. Create without hesitation. Since people already evacuated from the park I decide to use this.

Thunderous roar! And lightning bolt!

It is very powerful… I missed though.

You have to be kidding? With【Edit】I investigate what might that mean.

＜Drops lightning bolt by expending magic power. However, it does not always hit the place aimed at. Furthermore, it can not be used in places where the sky is not visible such as indoors. It can not be used from too far away. ＞

It isn’t bad. But I understood the reason why it didn’t go well. By this explanation, it will only hit once in a few times. If in the worst case, it’s once in ten times, then it will leave me full of openings and will soon deplete my magic power as well.

Therefore, if I change『Does not always hit the place aimed at』to『Does always hit the place aimed at』 …It required 500 additional LP.

Even more expensive than the skill itself?! But I do have enough LP and it should help to clear up the enemies.

I resolve myself to enhance it, and then immediately activate.

「Giieuh?!」

A high-pitched shriek resounded, and a purple harpy falls headfirst to solid ground. The skill worked perfectly. With my and Luna-san’s skills combined we unexpectedly easily defeated the enemy.

With the sword, I go around finishing off the enemies lying on the ground. Since about half of them were still breathing, I learned that I should not let my guard down.

「Umu, looks like that’s all of them.」

「Magic guns are strong after all. The aim is also precise.」

「Noir-dono was great as well. When did you learn the thunderbolt?」

「I learned it during the battle. Thanks to that my LP has decreased a lot.」

「You can evolve even in the midst of the battle. You also have a quick wit, Noir-dono, you have the potential to become the strongest one day.」

「You are praising me too much. Though it makes me happy. But it’s strange …」

「I think so as well.」

None of the guards have arrived. Such disturbance should have reached their ears. Although we wrapped things up relatively quickly, it wouldn’t be strange if at least one or two of them arrived.

Does it mean that there are other monsters around and they are too preoccupied to come here? We decide to chase after Emma and others.