Once the match was over, the gazes of everyone who had been watching—students and instructors alike—were split into two distinct camps.
"Ryoma! That was incredible!"
"What kind of training do you do to get that good?"
"Not bad at all! Guess we can't afford to slack off either!"
"If I start practicing with a bow now, how long will it take before I can use it in a real fight?"
One group consisted of people like Gazel and Beck who greeted me with friendly, admiring attitudes. Even after the commentary had concluded, they crowded around to call out to me or ask questions.
The other group watched me from a distance, and I couldn't help but feel they were intentionally avoiding me. When Roche gave the order to dismiss after thanking the participants, they scurried away as if they were fleeing. No matter how I looked at it, the cause had to be the nature of the match itself.
"Did I do something wrong? I felt like they were... afraid of me," I said, consulting Roche after I finished answering the students' questions.
"...I think it's partly because you were scary," Roche admitted.
So I really had been that frightening? I thought I looked relatively weak—strong enough that Beck and the others had initially underestimated me.
"Your strength is undeniable now. And while you might have just been focused, your demeanor changed too suddenly. To be honest, you seemed almost inhuman... like you were lacking in emotion. I caught myself wondering if this is how a prey animal feels when it's being sized up by a natural predator."
I sighed. Ever since I had taken on this young form, I had finally managed to reach a point where people weren't afraid of me as often. Now this happened. I had never really considered the impression I gave off during combat, so I found the feedback troubling.
"Don't dwell on it too much. It was a shock, so everyone is probably just a bit bewildered. I'm sure some of them will settle down once a bit of time passes," Roche said, offering a few words of comfort.
"...To change the subject, I asked you before why you became an adventurer, didn't I? To follow up on that, do you have a specific goal as an adventurer?"
I thought he might be trying to distract me, but his tone was serious, so I straightened my posture and told him the truth: my current goal was to travel to the Shulls Great Forest.
"Of all the places you could pick..." Roche muttered, nodding as if everything finally made sense. At the same time, he clutched his head. Was there something wrong with my goal?
When I asked, he prefaced his answer by saying it was just his own speculation, but he believed the Guild Master wanted me to form a party. He suggested that Wogan had likely introduced me to this instructor job with that specific hope in mind.
"A party... Wait, is it alright for you to tell me that?"
"The Guild Master's intentions are just my own guess. I haven't been sworn to secrecy; I'm just sharing my thoughts. Listen, the higher you go in rank, the more dangerous an adventurer's work becomes. That's especially true for your goal, the Shulls Great Forest. The C-Rank requirement to operate there is the absolute minimum. For a C-Rank adventurer to step into that place alone is usually a suicidal act. Do you understand?"
Using a fallen branch, he drew two concentric circles on the ground.
"You might know this already if you’re from that area, or perhaps your perspective is different... but consider what I'm about to say as the general reality for everyone else. First, the further you go into the Shulls Great Forest, the stronger the monsters become. If this circle is the Great Forest, a C-Rank working alone can only operate near the outer edge at best—the shallowest parts. Once you step deeper inside, B-Rank and A-Rank monsters appear as a matter of course. The heart of the forest is a region that simply cannot be pioneered.
"I don't know where your hometown was, Ryoma, but based on what I've heard, I don't think it was in the shallows. It sounds like you were quite far in. Constant, consecutive battles are inevitable. Furthermore, the Great Forest is called 'Great' for a reason. It's vast. Even if there were no monsters at all, you couldn't traverse it in a day or two. Even if you use the Relay Points and have Space Magic, surviving that alone is a brutal prospect."
He was earnestly trying to warn me of the dangers of solo travel.
"To be honest, neither I nor the Guild Master have the right to stop you. As I've said many times during the morning assemblies, being an adventurer is a job defined by personal responsibility. Once you reach the required rank, whether you go or not—and who you go with—is your choice."
That was likely why the Guild Master had involved me in this camp, and why Roche was speaking to me now. However...
"...I'm sorry. I just can't quite imagine myself forming a permanent party with anyone."
I had formed temporary parties with Jeff and Miya several times, and I had worked with Beck and his group before the Founding Festival. Neither of those instances had been a problem. But doing it every time? Staying with them forever? The idea just didn't sit right with me. No matter how much I turned it over in my mind, I couldn't shake an unshakeable sense of dissonance.
"Then it doesn't have to be right now. Honestly, for someone like you, I doubt the shallow areas would be a problem. Your fighting style today was magnificent; I felt your strength firsthand. However, remember that because you're that capable, you're prone to certain risks.
"I've lived this long because I had companions. There were many times when they stopped me when I was about to make a mistake or miss the right moment to retreat. It might be difficult to find companions who can keep up with your level of ability, Ryoma, but please, think about it at least once before you head into the Great Forest."
"Thank you very much."
I couldn't give him an answer on what I would decide, but I truly appreciated his concern.
"Don't mention it. This is just part of my job as a senior. Besides, I don't want to see a talented youngster throw his life away. Especially not the person who saved my life. If I were a bit younger, I might have even offered to go with you... but these days, I'd probably be nothing but a burden."
"Is that really true?"
Roche rotated his shoulder and sighed.
"I once made it to the verge of an A-Rank Promotion, but now I'm at the point where a Goblin Knight can catch me off guard and nearly kill me. You saw the state I was in when you treated me, right?"
I remembered that day... but wait, Roche was a former B-Rank?
"I believe you said you were C-Rank during the initial introductions."
"My entire party collectively dropped our rank from B to C. Not many people do it, but if you have a valid reason, a demotion is just a matter of paperwork. In my case, I was reckless and got injured so many times when I was young that my body is starting to break down. Especially in the last few years, my stamina has been dropping with age. I can manage for short bursts, but I can't handle the constant, back-to-back battles required in a place like the Great Forest anymore.
"We were conflicted because we were up for A-Rank, but my companions helped me realize that it’s dangerous to do this job with a half-hearted conviction. I decided to give up on the promotion entirely. We talked it over and decided that lowering our rank was a good way to cast aside our lingering regrets... Wait, why am I even telling you all this?"
Roche scratched his cheek, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Anyway, that's why we decided to spend our remaining time training the next generation and saving up for retirement."
I see. So that was another path an adventurer could take. It felt a bit bittersweet.
"Come to think of it, Roche, are you well-acquainted with the Shulls Great Forest?"
"I wouldn't say 'well-acquainted' exactly, but I've been there a few times."
He was an experienced veteran of the area.
"If you don't mind, could you tell me more about it?"
"I don't mind, but weren't you raised there?"
"The thing is, I had almost no interaction with the villagers. When my grandparents were alive, they always acted as intermediaries between me and the village. I left the area almost immediately after they passed away."
"I see. Well, I suppose I can understand that. If I were a parent, I wouldn't want my kid getting used to the atmosphere around there, either..."
I tilted my head. What did he mean by that?
"Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to speak ill of your hometown, Ryoma."
"No, I don't have any particular attachment to the place beyond my memories of my grandparents, so I don't mind. I'm just curious about what you mean. Please, tell me how people from the outside perceive it."
"Is that so? ...Then to put it simply, inside the Great Forest, 'Might is Right.' Because it's such a dangerous land, strength is everything. Strong adventurers are idolized. That's true to some extent everywhere, but in the Great Forest, that mentality is taken to the extreme. For example..."
Roche pointed toward the campsite.
"Everyone is camping over there, but what do you think would happen if this area were teeming with dangerous monsters instead of just poisonous insects?"
"Thinking logically, the instructors would have to focus entirely on protecting the students."
"Exactly. And in that situation, what would happen if we instructors simply abandoned the students?"
...I didn't want to think about it, but it would be a massacre.
"In the Relay Points where adventurers operate, there are merchants and craftsmen who buy materials, sell supplies, and maintain equipment. An adventurer's life would be impossible without them. They are the ones who support us. In exchange for that support, adventurers are supposed to defend the base and handle the threats outside."
Roche sighed, his voice trailing off. "So, the relationship is supposed to be equal, but..."
"Over time, the power dynamic between the 'protectors' and the 'protected' has become warped. The strong are seen as superior, and the weak are viewed as people who can't even survive without being protected. The last time my party went was about ten years ago, but that atmosphere permeated everything. If you stay there too long, you end up getting dyed by that mindset."
"And once that happens?"
"The kind of tyranny people turn a blind eye to in the Great Forest will draw immediate scorn elsewhere. They struggle once they leave. I've heard stories of people who end up going back to the forest because they can't function in normal society anymore. Also... because there's a culture of overlooking anything as long as a person is strong, it tends to attract adventurers with terrible reputations."
Whether they were poorly behaved, borderline criminals, or people blacklisted by other guilds—as long as they had the skill and did the job, they were accepted. Apparently, there was a cultural divide in the Shulls Great Forest that was vastly different from the rest of the world.
"That's why, while I might go there for work, I'd never want to raise a child there. Honestly, when I heard you were from that region, I was surprised. You must have had a very decent, wonderful family."
"Thank you very much."
The mood after the match had been a bit disappointing, but thanks to that, I had been able to receive invaluable advice and hear about Roche's experiences. I wasn't sure if I could truly live up to the expectations of Roche and the Guild Master, but I decided that once I got back, I would at least research everything I could about parties.