WeTried Translations
Translator: Nemui
Editor: Nemui
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Reincarnated as the Villain's Heir
Chapter 36: Those Who Can Recognize Their Weakness Are Strong
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When we entered the cave, there was no sign of monsters at all.
There should have been plenty of Steel Bats and other weak monsters here too.
When I glanced at the surface of the cave wall, it was strangely smooth.
It had been scraped down because a worm passed through.
In other words, there was a chance that a worm almost the same size as this cave passage was deeper inside.
Depending on the worm species, what should we do if it was an upper species that we could not handle?
If that happened, it happened.
"They can move in darkness without any problem. We need to be careful here... Lilisha?"
"Ah, ah..."
Lilisha was trembling hard.
So that setting did exist after all. She was extremely bad with dark places.
Being locked in a dark basement during childhood had traumatized her.
I remembered people calling it an unexpected side to the proud young lady character.
Of course, I knew this and had deliberately chosen Lilisha to bring with me.
Lilisha was a high-spec character, but this could be called her only weakness.
In battle, she was extremely weak to darkness states, and she would weaken inside caves.
In that condition, there would be no point in clearing her.
Lilisha was using fire magic as a torch, but her trembling had not stopped.
"Lilisha, give me your hand."
"Huh? Why...?"
"You are scared, right? I will hold your hand."
"Wh-who would ever hold hands with you..."
Contrary to her words, Lilisha had not moved a single step for a while now.
This was going nowhere, so I forcefully took Lilisha's hand.
"W-wait, what are you doing?"
"Time is precious. If even this is no good, stay outside. I will take care of everything."
"Do not make fun of me... I-I can..."
"Then prove it. You are going to become strong, right?"
Lilisha swallowed.
Then she began moving forward one step at a time, with her hand on the wall, slowly.
For now, I would match this pace.
As we proceeded through the cave, there was a fork in the path.
I stroked the wall again to check.
The left side, where the surface was smooth, was probably where the worm had come from.
"I-I will walk in front. You cannot see ahead, can you?"
"Do not force yourself. Thanks to dark magic, I can see even in dark places."
"I see..."
"Actually, if I could not, I would not have made it this far. More importantly, leave the fighting to me."
"I cannot do that!"
Even as she said that, she could not move forward very well.
Lilisha thought I would mock her, but I did not feel that way at all.
"It is fine to act tough, but fighting in that state would be difficult, right?"
"It would not be difficult! Are you really making fun of me?!"
"I am not making fun of you. If anything, you are trying to overcome your weakness. That alone makes you strong."
"...Huh?"
Lilisha's face, lit by the torch of fire magic, looked blank.
So she really had thought I would make fun of her.
"The weaker someone is, the more they avert their eyes from their weaknesses. They refuse to look at reality. But you are trying to move forward. That already makes you a strong person."
"Is... that so?"
"If you were truly weak, you would have run away before entering the cave. Be proud. You are strong."
Lilisha said nothing.
She was always ridiculously competitive, so hearing this from me might have been humiliating.
But this was how I truly felt.
"I respect that about you. That is why I wanted to protect you."
"You wanted... to protect me...?!"
Just as Lilisha became flustered, a voice came from deeper inside.
"Uoooooh! I messed uuuup!"
That voice was Gareo.
I had a very bad feeling about this. What did he do?
"Yooooou first-year pair! Run! This place is a worm nest!"
"We already know that. So, what did you bring..."
As expected, the one who appeared was Gareo.
The problem was the large number of worms behind him.
They were not very large individuals, but those were Earth Worms.
They were monsters that should not be in a first-year field, specializing in earth attribute attacks.
And if I remembered right, they were hard even for worms.
"Th-they came!"
"Lilisha, I will handle this. You watch our rear."
"Y-yes!"
Even if I told her to run, she probably would not listen.
If so, giving her a role, even as a formality, would preserve her pride.
And as for Gareo, I had assumed he would run past us and escape, but he turned his back and stood firm.
Hey, is this guy serious?
"First-years! Leave this to me and run! It is dangerous here!"
Wait. What are you doing?
I do not need you to save me.
Actually, those numbers are worse for you.
Gareo attacked the approaching Earth Worms.
"Earth Fang!"
Gareo's body was covered in rock armor, and claws equipped both of his hands.
This was Gareo's combat style. His best attribute was earth, and his best weapon was claws.
He specialized in close combat, and while he could not use tricks, he was simply excellent as an attacker.
"Daaaah! Hard! Damn, they are hard!"
Well, the problem was that earth attribute attacks had a hard time damaging Earth Worms.
Even so, he refused to retreat. Was that his pride as an upperclassman?
In the face of those numbers, he not only did not flinch, but tried to protect us.
"Do not overdo it, Senior Gareo. I will handle it."
"Shut up! First-years should hurry up and run! Wait, did you call me senior?"
I swung the magic sword at the Earth Worms, and the ones I tore apart split in two.
They tried to attack again with the remaining head halves, but it was useless.
The cut Earth Worms were wrapped in darkness and vanished one after another.
"Huh...?"
"Phew. That about does it."
"F-first-year... Did you just do that?"
"Who else is here, Senior Gareo? Well, you were pretty cool too."
"Y-you called me senior again, did you? Haha! You finally acknowledged me! Hahaha!"
When I praised him, Gareo seemed pleased and laughed in a good mood.
It was possible he was confused by all the things that had happened, but he was not bad at heart.
I had been thinking I would use him as bait if necessary, but I would reconsider that a little.
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