With the excited Natasha on my back, we get to the foot of the hill. I let her down when we arrive.
"Miro, wait for a bit," she says.
She crouches down and starts… gathering stones. And then she returns back to me with five stones and gives them to me.
"Miro, I want to show you something cool. Go to the top of the hill and then throw all five stones to the air. I can shoot them all accurately at once," she says.
Does she mean that she can shoot five arrows at once instead of just three? I take a look at her bow and it's different than last year. I have better one but this is better than the one she had before.
This one is bigger and I think I see some arrows have been modified. She took my advice well.
Let's trust her. I'm sure if she's this excited she won't make a mistake of shooting me.
"So I just need to go up there and throw them all at once? When?" I ask.
"Anytime you want!"
And so I get to the top of the hill. It's not far and not that high but it's still high. Shooting an arrow from the foot of the hill all the way up here should be difficult for ordinary people.
The stones are all small as well. It will be difficult for her to see them from distance.
But she's talented. I told her that many times and she's not someone arrogant who think that her current skills are enough. She's someone who seeks improvement. So I'm sure she can do it.
We're facing each other now. Although it's far, I can see her standing with a bow but her arrows are still not being held. So she must have practiced quick reload.
If I drop the stones instead of throwing it in the air, will she be able to shoot in time? Let's hope that's the case.
…
…
We stood in silence for thirty minutes. I made her wait on purpose to see if she has the patience to wait until her target makes their move. But she's not moving at all while she's still focusing on me. That's good.
Then I throw the stones in the air. I made sure that the stones are higher than my height so Natasha won't hit me if she's too focused on the stone.
Then with a quick movement, Natasha grabs four arrows and shoots them all at once. Just four because the fifth one is still in my hand. The fifth and so on because I gathered more stones without her noticing while going up the hill.
After she shot all four stones accurately, I throw five at once this time. And she quickly shoots all five at once. I thought that she would only prepare to shoot only one but she's prepared to shoot all the stones I throw. She hits them all.
Then I throw just one. She hits it again. But after that I cover my right hand with my left. Then using my right thumb, I flick stones one by one to be her targets.
Even when I hide when I will throw the stones, she still manages to shoot them all accurately. She's good. Really good.
This is what a talent can do to those who also put a lot of effort. I'm happy with the result.
I spread my arms in joy and I can see Natasha down there is happy as well. And that's when I drop the last stone from my left hand to the ground.
She reacted a bit late but still manages to shoot an arrow in the end. But she misses the stone.
I look at her and she seems perplexed. She didn't expect I would drop the stone and she had to shoot it.
The miss was close. The arrow hits the ground next to the stone that fell. That's really good.
"You have improved a lot. Shame on what happened with the last stone but that's a lot of improvement," I say.
"Yeah. But now I'm pissed that I missed! I thought today it would be perfect! I knew you would do something unexpected but it pisses me off that I missed the last one!"
I guess she already expected that I would do something different than what she asked me before. She just told me to throw five stones but I threw more than that. But it's still amazing to see her able to do this.
"I suppose you have been helping your father a lot now with your skill?" I ask.
"Yeah. I'm now even a B-rank adventurer after killing many monsters. Many high-rank adventurers want to invite me to their party but I refused them all. I only want to help my father for now. I have a party now hired by my father. And even though they're all lower in rank than me, I can trust them to be in my party," she says.
I guess she had a good party. She's excited in telling me one of her stories.
"So, how long will you stay? I know you're going to leave again soon," Natasha asks.
"Soon. I'm going to take a break for a while from what I'm doing and then I will leave," I say.
This is the last destination before I need to go to the academy next year. But there will be gap until then so maybe I will return back home and wait until the entrance exam.
We just walk back to the city leisurely and talk about things that happened for the past year. Mostly it was her talking.
She was shocked to hear that I'm also a B-rank adventurer knowing that I had no desire to reach that rank. She laughed when I said I killed an Ogre King in front of the guildmaster over there accidentally.
She wasn't shocked that I killed an Ogre King. She just laughed that I reached B-rank because of something stupid and ran away from that place because other adventurers were showing their jealousy at me. Though it was also time for me to leave back then.
Taking a break from my journey feels good. I was so busy after all.
I wasn't just looking for items and clearing dungeons. I was also looking for demons. But because this is before the main story, I couldn't find them where they should be in the future. I can only wait until then or it's getting closer to the arc where they appear.
If possible I want to make everyone to be aware of the demons' existence right away. That will hopefully motivate people to get stronger so they can fight the demons. But I couldn't find any chance to do it at all. I don't even know where I can find the demons at this time.
If only there's something I can use to check if someone is a demon or not, that would be great. But even in the game, most of the demons can only be detected after they made their appearance. So assassinating them before they appear was impossible. Even those who are disguised themselves as humans can't be detected.
There are two types of demons if I consider how they come to be. First is that they were born as demons. The other is that they were another living being, could be animals, monsters, trees, and humans, and they were turned into demons either willingly or forcibly.
I know some humans that will turn into demons in the future. I know where some of them are. But I don't know if they're already demons or still humans. That's why I don't dare to look for them or go after them at this point of time. If I do, and I end up killing them, I'll just be a criminal instead.
I'm just going to look for some that are demons from they were born. But I couldn't find them at all. No wonder it took a while until they appeared in the game. They're good in hiding.
I can't do anything. I can't prevent some tragedies from happening. At least they haven't happened yet. But can I still prevent them in the future? I don't know.
But I have made my decision. I am more important than other people. People I care and I are more important than anyone else. So even if I can't prevent tragedies from happening, it will be fine as long as I'm still alive. I have hardened my heart to make that decision since the time I learned what world I got reincarnated into.
There's at least one person I have to meet. She's not the protagonist but she's someone I have to meet. I don't know where she is in this world. I just know that she's from a small city somewhere.
The only clue I have about her is that she will get accepted in the academy at the same year as the protagonist. I can't find her at all in my journey.
I have stopped at many cities, big or small, but I couldn't find her at all. My only chance is to meet her in the academy.
And now, it's time for the last destination. There's no great item in the place I'm going. It's just a place where I can test my power. I want to see how strong I am before the main story starts.
And that's today. After resting for a while, I will finally go there. Let's see how it goes.