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Chapter 24: Painful PressureThe third stage of my training appears to be something difficult to clear again.
A survival challenge together with Tameiki-san. I was rather happy about this at first, but somehow, for this stage of the training, Tameiki-san will only act as a burden to me.
That's because my task for the third stage of the training is to protect Tameiki-san during the survival.
During this, Tameiki-san won't use her ability at all; she offed her ability completely.
And I have to protect this Tameiki-san who is now reduced to a frail young woman.
Won't this actually be quite difficult to complete?
When Tameiki-san feels sluggish, that's when she normally sustains the gravity of the Earth.
But now she already offed her ability and she feels kind of listless. I looked at her and, without thinking, I let out a sigh.
My body felt tired due to the daily training, and another survival during which I'll have to protect Tameiki-san is just too much for me.
I was actually certain that she would be the one to protect me, but I was such a fool.
As expected, this is something Tameiki-san devised. It is definitely not decent.
"The survival will last for nine days.
I will be nothing but a burden to you, so make sure you protect me."
"A burden you say? Just how much of a burden do you plan to become?"
"If you don't provide me with food, I'll make sure to die of starvation and if a magical beast attacks me, I'll let it eat me without resisting at all.
I'll do everything in my power to become a hindrance to you."
Errr……What the hell is she thinking!?
Is she a baby or something?
Tameiki-san ignored my dumbfounded expression and continued.
"During this survival, you'll also have to think about me and not only about yourself.
Because of the increased scope of the weight on your mind, your powers of concentration, your reflexes and your dynamic vision should improve."
"Eeh…..Isn't there a different way of doing this?"
In this case, I'd rather have Tameiki-san continue to do nothing but torment me.
This is in itself quite harsh, but if Tameiki-san said she'll be a burden to me, she'll definitely act accordingly…….
I'm not confident I can overcome this.
"Because you're risking your life, I will also risk my own life and accompany you on your training; it is the only logical thing to do, right?"
What logical thing?
I originally started this training in order not to die, and I feel like this dangerous training that might end up with me dead is mistaking the insignificant for the essential…….
Is there even a meaning to it?
…….Anyway, Tameiki-san would never listen to such a complaint; and so, we already arrived at the northern part of the sea of trees.
According to my illustrated encyclopedia, ferocious magical beasts gather close to the banks of the northern lake.
That's why I installed the tent a little bit away from the lake's shore.
It was a four person, rather big tent. It was the only tent I found in the camp house.
I was afraid that Tameiki-san wouldn't allow me to take a tent for it would be too much of a luxury, but in exchange for me carrying all the luggage, she let me take anything I wanted.
I took everything that I had with me the last time, lots of canned food, an empty pet bottle, a tent and a sleeping bag.
On the way to the northern sea of trees, I had to carry a bulky luggage weighting about twenty kilograms, but it couldn't have been helped.
Maybe it was luck or maybe I evaded them too well, but we haven't encountered any magical beasts along the way.
I won't have to be bothered about food for a while. With this much canned food, we should be fine for about five days.
I have a few ideas as well about the survival this time.
The food is all right. I can get water from a spring not too far away from our tent.
And with my scouting abilities, I can easily sense any approaching magical beasts.
In short, we can confine ourselves inside the tent for five days.
And so, I left Tameiki-san inside the tent and went to get water from the nearby spring.
I left the tent holding my worn-out backpack in one hand, the same backpack that aided me during the first ten days of survival.
I found the water spring on our way here, so I could easily reach it.
Because I know all the locations of magical beasts, I didn't run into any of them.
After I filled the empty pet bottle with fresh water, I returned to the tent.
All that's left for us now is to stay inside for five days.
I'll spend five carefree days, chatting with Tameiki-san inside the tent and eating the canned food.
I am not that foolishly earnest to risk my life at every step of this training.
This is a survival in the first place.
Survive. Yes, continue living.
It's not like Tameiki-san gave me any other specific tasks, so I'll scheme as much as it's necessary in order to complete this training with ease.
I want to get stronger. I still feel this way.
However, this time Tameiki-san made a mistake.
It was a failure to let me carry a tent.
It appeared like a highly difficult and hellish training at first, but this time I managed to clear it quite easily.
Thinking about these things, I returned to the tent only to find Tameiki-san eating the canned food.
"What are you doing!?"
"I was hungry so I started eating."
Tameiki-san said, and I saw about five or six empty cans scattered around her.
You're kidding, right? If she continues to eat like this, they won't even last for three days.
I glared at Tameiki-san.
She raised an eyebrow and brought the contents of another can to her mouth.
This person…….she's forcing herself to eat…….
Damn it, she's doing this in order to inconvenience me. It seems that she won't let this training become too easy for me.
"Please stop, you'll grow fat!"
"Don't compare me with your average woman. I move a lot."
Tameiki-san's hand didn't stop.
This woman…..! She's eating all the food that I brought with me at great pains!
I'll tell her…….!
It's not like I can't fire back at her…….!
I can still say to her spiteful things.
"Go ahead and grow chubby, you good-for-nothing fatty!"
Tameiki-san reacted quick-wittedly to my reckless remark.
I immediately tried to escape, but, sadly, I was caught.
She caught one of my legs and I tumbled down inside the tent; she then stood on top of me.
"I'm sorry, forgive me, I got carried away."
When it came to this, I had nothing else to do but apologize to her. I completely forgot that even without her ability, Tameiki-san is normally quite strong.
"I am not a fatty."
A bang resounded inside my head.
She's quite strong.
__________
Well, I decided to think that we were already out of food. That's because Tameiki-san will definitely eat everything I brought with me.
Also, it appears that Tameiki-san won't wait patiently inside the tent either.
Using various reasons like wanting to breathe in the outside air or wanting to drink fresh water or wanting to bathe in the sunlight, she constantly slips out of the tent.
Some way or another, she's planning to earnestly be a huge pain in the ass for me.
Whenever Tameiki-san goes outside the tent, I must be extremely vigilant.
A little while ago we encountered one magical beast, and at that time Tameiki-san really didn't do anything.
If I didn't panic and drove it away with sounds, about this time Tameiki-san would be digested inside the stomach of that magical beast.
Seeing that, I finally understood that she was seriously trying to be a burden to me.
I thought that she would at least do the minimum to preserve her own life, but without doing even that, she's putting her life on the line in order to hinder me.
During this survival, the enemy is not the magical beats baring their fangs in the darkness of the forest, but Tameiki-san herself.
How much longer can I protect myself while keeping vigilant of Tameiki-san?
It seems that this is my task.
Only a little bit of time passed since I've started this stage of my training, and I realized how much of a burden I was to Roll.
Even though the training was designed this way, I finally understood the position of the protector.
Keeping awareness of someone other the myself is something quite difficult to do.
At present, the training isn't posing any problems.
I properly pay attention to my surroundings and I promptly drive away any magical beast that might be getting close to us, so that Tameiki-san isn't put in any danger.
I have to brace myself and do this for nine days straight, but this much is still within the scope of my abilities.
As long as Tameiki-san won't try something herself, I can handle this.
But I was too naïve to think this way.
Tameiki-san collapsed.
There's an insect called Poisoned Butterfly.
If you breathe in its poisonous scales, you'll develop a fever at once and you'll die in about one day; it is a very troublesome insect.
This thing got me once too.
And Tameiki-san inhaled the poisonous scales of such a Poisoned Butterfly.
Translation: Nana