Omake 4

After the last battle, which certainly left them worn out much more than before, the group of adventurers under Drest's guidance went back to their guild house. Although they were looking a lot worse than ever, their expression was anything but disappointed as they came home with a much more loot than before. And thanks a few field commanders – Nobu, Maia, and Shoko – the use of mana and health potion was lessened quite a bit, making their last battle much profitable than their last battle with the group of goblins. And just as Nobu asked him, Drest only brought about a couple of wolves pack for them to fight. In the end of the day, it was a successful first day training.

The only one left was Drest and Maia, who want to thank him personally as he had helped her twice, although the second one was not for her personally, but to her, it was still enough to make her want to thank him personally. This is, of course, caused her to gain many strange glances from the other adventurers, especially from female ones. And since the female ones took more than a half of the total number, it was quite an embarrassing situation for the ash gray haired samurai. To her dismay, the black haired swashbuckler only tilted his head slightly, clearly didn't understand the meaning of the glances they gained from the others. This has made the female samurai felt a mixed feeling, but she pushed that thought aside at the moment and just went with him to sit on a nearby stone not far from their previous makeshift base of operation.

"I want to thank you again, Drest-san," said Maia as she sat beside him.

"There's no need for that, Maia-dono. I am merely answering your guild's request. It is an honor to help a fellow adventurer. Although, I have to admit that I'm quite surprised that you are in the very guild I'm assisting."

"It is all thanks to Dolce-san's help that I can be here in the guild. Oh yes, could you give him my thanks? I never really said it to him."

"I see. It will be my pleasure, Maia-dono. I also want to thank him too. For recommending you to join such a good guild." He smiled at her. "A guild which is filled with a lot of promising adventurers. I'm truly impressed."

"They are, aren't they?"

"Ah, I also have to thank you for helping me, Maia-dono." His sudden statement has taken the female samurai by surprise. Noticing her expression, Drest continued. "You help me in lifting everyone's spirit back then. My words alone would not be sufficient to accomplish that. I'm very grateful, Maia-dono." He bowed to her slightly.

"P-Please don't do that. I didn't do much." She waved her hand around as she felt a bit awkward seeing him doing that. "All I did was just to push them a bit. I know very well that your words have changed their mind from the start. But they were a bit afraid to take the first step. All I do was just to give them a slight push."

"Didn't you realize that the push you give was exactly the thing they need? Even if it was just a little push, it was a very valuable push, Maia-dono. As expected of the one being chosen by them as one of the representative of the group."

"Eh? Chosen representative?"

"Yes, together with Nobu-dono and Shoko-dono. I'm actually quite surprised to see you being chosen although you have joined them only recently. I'm impressed, Maia-dono."

"Oh, that one." Maia let out a wry smile. "That's just them being silly," she continued as she played with the loose end of her hakama.

"Hmm? Silly? How can that be?" He tilted his head as he looked at her. Being asked like that, Maia wasn't able to immediately come up with a proper answer.

"I mean, they're just…" She paused for a while. "They're just being considerate of me."

"Pardon, Maia-dono?" Drest couldn't hear the last part of her sentence due to it being mumbled under her breath. She then shook her head at him.

"No, nothing at all, Drest-san. Please don't mind it."

"If you say so, Maia-dono." Although still being confused at her strange reaction, Drest chose not to push on the matter further as the girl seemed to be rather hesitant to talk about it. He will respect her wish for that. "Aren't you tired, Maia-dono? I mean, it is your first big battle. Or is that not your first battle?"

"No, I'm fine. That was not my first battle but that was my first battle together with a lot of my guild mates." She then smiled at him. "It was fun and exciting."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed that, Maia-dono." He nodded at her.

"And you're absolutely right, Drest-san. I'm not alone in here. I have a lot of friend." He nodded at her comment with a smile on his face, happy that his words have made the girl cheerful. "And I also realized that I shouldn't try to shoulder the whole burden by myself."

"Correct, Maia-dono."

"To carry it together with all my friend means that I trust then. If I try to shoulder it by myself, it can also be said that I don't trust my comrade."

"Yes, yes. That would mean that…" Drest paused a bit. He was unable to say the rest of the statement as if his tongue was tied down by a heavy weight. He also felt a sudden tightening in his chest and throat.

"Isn't that, right, Drest-san?"

"Y-Yes, correct, Maia-dono." He stuttered his response. Fortunately, she didn't notice that. "I agree with you."

"You've taught me a lot, Drest-san." She beamed a smile once again at him and then stood up. "Well then, I guess I should get back to the other. I can't wait to see our senior's face when we report out success today."

"Yes. They would be very proud." Drest also stood up and remain next to her.

"I hope they would. Well then, I'll be off, Drest-san." She then bowed at him. "I'll see you tomorrow." After saying that, the girl ran toward the direction of the city, leaving the swashbuckler alone.

For a brief few seconds, he just stood there with his smile looking at her. After she was out of his view, his smile broke and his expression darkened. He clutched his shirt as he muttered something.

"Did I…really…fail to trust my comrade?" Of course, no one was there to answer his question. Only the sound of wind and the rustling of the leaves were there as the reply to his question.

Episode IV : Sister Guild - End

This is the end of the 4th episode. Once again, I want to thank everyone for reading so far and sorry for the very, very, very late update. I seems to lost my inspiration. Please give me a review so I can improve my writing and maybe even find my inspiration and drive to write more. I'll see you all again in the 5th episode.