“Surely you’ve noticed it by now, right? To be succinct, you’re a liability. During the fight with Desmond of the Earth, what did you do?”

“…I fought with my sword.”

“No, your sword didn’t deal any noticeable damage to Desmond. In fact, Desmond was probably just completely ignoring you. You got caught up in some of the area of effect attacks, but there wasn’t a single strike actually aimed at you.”

That was certainly true. Desmond had definitely been ignoring me.

“You were judged to not be a threat. And yet you still failed to escape the area of effect attacks where you weren’t even the target. What’s worse, if you get hurt, Ruti will make me heal and protect you. For no reason other than that, I am forced to waste my spells.”

“That’s…”

“You’re not even just a liability. Your very existence is a weight holding Ruti back.”

“It’s not like I’m not trying my best to be helpful.”

“Trying your best? Are you an idiot?”

“What?!”

“Trying your best is an explanation for success, but it does not excuse being a liability. You think you can be forgiven for holding us back just because you’re trying your best? How selfish can you be?! You really aren’t a true member of the party!”

I was speechless.

Now might really be the time, I thought. The thing I had always been considering… This seemed like the moment for it.

“But I’m the second-in-command of the Bahamut Knights; if I return to them being labeled a liability, it would be a stain upon their honor…”

“Faced with a threat to the world, you would worry about the honor of the knights?”

“Tell the others… Tell them I went on my own to scout the situation with the demon lord’s army…and never came back. Can you tell them that for me?”

“I see. Very well, then. We can go with that story.”

“…Thanks.”

My head downward, I started to leave.

“Hey.” Ares stopped me. “Leave your equipment. We’re the ones who earned that.”

“…”

The treasure sword Thunderwaker, a mental-defense ring, a cloak of evasion, and more. I removed all my equipment. In exchange, I took a little bit of money for the road and a cheap bronze sword from Ares and departed.

Still, I had some lingering attachment. The next day, before leaving, I wanted to see my little sister’s face one last time. She had always been so fond of me, always calling me Big Brother.

Of course, she was way stronger than me by then, but still, when I thought of her going off by herself from then on, I got worried. Also…I kind of hoped she would be a little upset about me leaving. But…when I peeked stealthily through a window, I was greeted by the image of Ares with his arm around that same little sister’s shoulder.

“Oh…so that’s how it was…?”

She didn’t need me anymore. That was perfectly clear. Just like the Sage had said, I wasn’t a real comrade. Dammit. The thought of it is still hard to bear. I kept pitifully muttering to myself “I know you don’t need your big brother anymore, but I hope you still remember me from time to time” as I left town that morning.

From there, I changed my name to Red. I wandered, eventually settling in this forsaken land. Now I make a living as a boring adventurer who specializes in herb gathering.

* * *

“It was really rough back then.”

After ending up all alone like that, I bawled my eyes out for a bit. Being pushed out of the party left me too dejected to do anything else for a while. I half-heartedly beat up a group of thieves that was causing a fuss near the town where I was staying and stole their money. I spent the lot of it on booze. I’d never really been a drinker before, but I got blind drunk while trying to forget my problems. Unfortunately, that started to attract attention.

If anyone figured out my identity, it would surely be a big problem for the knight captain and the head of the territory who had done so much to support me. So I pulled myself up and ventured out to the frontier under the assumed identity of an adventurer named Red. There, I found a new dream for myself, a new way to live.

“I’m going to open an apothecary here in Zoltan and live a comfortable, easy, slow life! I don’t have any talent for battle, so I’m going to live peacefully from now on!”

I was still worried about my sister, but as I was far weaker than her, there wasn’t much I could do even if I fretted over her every day. I wasn’t even a real comrade, so I decided to leave the demon lord to them and just live for myself!

To that end, I started saving money from medicinal-herb-gathering jobs while drawing up a map of the distribution of medicinal herbs by season, in preparation for my future.

* * *

You might find yourself wondering if perhaps there’s some kind of hidden super-cheat to the Guide blessing. Nope. There isn’t.

Blessings give both an initial skill and innate skills that are unlocked upon leveling up. There are also common skills that can be taken anytime.

A guide’s initial skill provides a starter blessing of level +30. An incredibly powerful ability. Blessing level 30 was around where your average knight might be when retiring from duty. I started at a level that someone else might spend his or her whole life trying to achieve. But I had no innate skills to choose. All there is to the ability is just being reasonably strong at the outset. Even if someone wanted to take advantage of that initial skill, there was no room for broad improvement.

A person without skills was significantly weaker than someone at the same level with skills. If you wanted to fight in order to raise your blessing level and earn skill points to get stronger, you wouldn’t be able to beat enemies that another person at the same level would be able to handily dispatch. That meant you’d have to defeat people with lower blessing levels than you, which was significantly less efficient.

Thinking about it, it was hardly a blessing at all. Even blessings like Warrior or Mage—with their abundance of skills—might’ve been better, despite being considered lower tier. At least they had room for growth.

So with my heart broken, I set my sight on a slow life and gradually earning money.

* * *

I headed into the mountains again to gather some more herbs today.

Since I have a high level but innate skills to acquire, I’ve assembled a decent collection of common skills. Thanks to the Survival skill, as long as I don’t go too deep into the woods while hiking, I won’t get lost. Plus, I can recognize the standard medicinal herbs one can gather. It’s just a common skill, though, so it only covers the spectrum of standard plants.

“Henbane is an antiseptic and hemostatic to stop bleeding, koku leaves are for antidotes, ryujin mushrooms are immune-system-boosting nutritional supplements, and rare white berries can be catalysts for magic potions.”

I hummed to myself as I diligently scavenged the herbs for the day. In Zoltan, with its abundance of water and pretty much nothing else, the mountains could be called a natural storehouse containing a bounty of medicinal herbs and fruits.

“Oh, green nuts. I can boil those for dinner when I make camp.”

Generally, herb gathering was a two-day, one-night trip. Because it took about half a day’s travel, it wasn’t very efficient to return the same day. I was used to camping from all the time I spent traveling anyway. I would find non-medicinal herbs and wild plants to cook while I was out.

“But it’s definitely a bit tiresome to camp out in the middle of the mountains.”

Monsters weren’t scared of fire. I slept with my sword next to me and a rope attached to a strung-up bell for a little peace of mind. There weren’t any particularly dangerous monsters around here, but it was still possible to get attacked in my sleep and suffer an unexpected injury.

“Ahhh, maybe I should make a little lodge here soon.”

The people living in the area hadn’t built a mountain cabin because they figured it would just get destroyed by a storm before long, but its construction wouldn’t have to be that great to withstand the wind and rain. It only needed to be sturdy enough that monsters would have to exert a bit of an effort to knock it down.

Lately, I’ve been coming here twice a week to gather medicinal herbs, so it would be way easier to just make it a four-day, three-night trip. But in order to stay in the mountains that long, I would need a place to put my bags and rest, which would mean I’d need a little hut or something.

“Well, I can deal with that after I’ve saved up a bit more money.”

I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of my future aspirations.

I woke up during the night. There was a gamey scent in the distance accompanied by the presence of a large animal.

I silently drew my sword close as I studied the interloper. Even though I didn’t have any special skills to enhance my senses like someone with a Thief or Hunter blessing, my Sense skill’s level was high, since there was nothing else to spend my skill points on.

It wouldn’t be enough for something like the demon lord’s elite ninja squad, but it was more than sufficient to perceive a monster dwelling in these mountains.

There didn’t seem to be any sign of it approaching soon, so I got out of my sleeping bag and silently climbed a tree. A crescent moon like a tightly drawn bow hung in the starry sky. Its pale light wasn’t bright enough for me to catch sight of the creature, however. After peering for a while, I heard a bell ring. A large beast’s face emerged from the darkness.