Chapter 9: Visiting the Grave

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Translator: Soafp

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“Nonoa Joins as Accountant”

I checked that line, written in red, over and over.

From my previous experience, red text always indicated a “requirement” for defeating the Demon King. Yet, for some reason, my confidence wavered this time.

The skill “Accounting.”

No matter how I thought about it, it didn't seem essential for defeating the Demon King.

“No… maybe…”

The one possibility that came to mind was financial.

With her joining, our fund efficiency would drastically improve, allowing us to make more donations to the church, which in turn would advance Lena's skill development faster than ever before. And that wouldn't be possible without Nonoa.

In other words, it would be difficult for me to learn financial management from her myself.

If that prediction were correct, then she would indeed be an important person.

However… if her joining were truly essential, then the red text should have appeared even if I tried to refuse her, stating something like “Refused Nonoa's joining.”

Well, in that case, “didn't form a party” would also apply. Meaning “not doing something” is harder to reflect in the Guide.

A skill that's useless at crucial times. Because of that… nearly two hundred years passed… Well, it's no use complaining.

Anyway, thinking about it now won't help. I figured I'd see once she joined how things would go.

Thus, Nonoa, whose joining turned out to be essential for the Demon King's defeat, troubled me for several cycles.

She still died on the first quest.

I tried various approaches: lowering the difficulty of the quests she took, giving her better equipment. But it was no use.

Whenever she faced a quest, Nonoa would die.

The solution came in the tenth cycle after I realized her joining was necessary.

I decided, without overthinking, to make the first month simply a “training period and evaluation of Nonoa's Accounting skill.”

Because she died so quickly in the previous nine cycles, her Accounting skill hardly had a chance to be seen. I wanted to properly observe it.

And that turned out to be a huge success.

That time, Nonoa survived for about two years.

By observing over multiple cycles, I discovered that the “time of the first quest” seemed to be the causal flag leading to Nonoa's death.

And it became clear that immediately after joining, and then on a yearly cycle, were particularly dangerous periods.

For the periods immediately after joining and the yearly cycle, I had already completed all countermeasures.

As for five years later, I would probably die alongside her, so it was unavoidable.

For other times, she could still die easily during combat, so it remained too precarious to take my eyes off her… but it was somewhat better.

After Nonoa joined and began surviving slightly longer, a major change occurred in the Guide.

Blue-text “Non essential” entries began appearing one after another.

Until then, blue text was only used for the joining of Phalan or Nick.

But after Nonoa joined, more and more entries in blue text began appearing even for routine activities.

Which quests we took, what experiences we had—these things began appearing one after another.

I judged this as indicating that the party members were now complete.

Presumably, the party chosen to defeat the Demon King would consist of me, Lena, Nonoa, and one other member listed in blue text.

There may be others recorded in blue text that I don't know of, but considering my combat style and having partners skilled with spear or bow who were easy to talk to, it seemed optimal to recruit either Phalan or Nick.

And one more major change: the party's finances stabilized dramatically.

Of course, Nonoa's Accounting skill contributed, but more importantly, having her as a specialized member made the difference.

Because I had to run the party while simultaneously searching for blue-text causal events, I required efficiency in party operations.

Nonoa supplemented actions that would normally be skipped.

She handled tedious tasks like negotiating with the guild, clients, or shops without cutting corners.

Thanks to that, we could increase quest rewards and negotiate lower prices for adventure supplies.

I once tried to negotiate myself by mimicking her, but rarely succeeded.

It was clear that her skill and expertise made the negotiations work.

As a result, we no longer struggled financially, and the mental burden decreased significantly.

Since Nonoa joined my party, naturally I had more opportunities to talk with her.

During one of these conversations, I realized I had yet to confirm something:

Why did she want to join my party, despite having an “Accounting” skill that was not combat-oriented?

Her answer was unexpected.

“I wanted to repay a debt… whether or not I'd actually be useful.”

When I asked her for details, she revealed she was from the village where her father had spent his last days.

“At that time, I was just a child, but I still remember. There was a large tree at the village entrance… have you heard of it?”

“Yeah.”

Of course I knew. It was a famous story.

I had even heard it from my master several times.

That great tree still stood proudly, unchanged, even as dark clouds blocked the sunlight.

People called it the “World Tree” or “Tree of Hope,” venerating it as a symbol of resistance against the Demon King's army.

That must have annoyed the Demon King. He personally went to that village to break the tree.

It can be said that the Demon King's plan succeeded.

With the tree gone and the Sword Saint fallen, humanity lost both sources of hope at the same time.

“The villagers still thank the Sword Saint as a savior,” she said.

“That's good to hear,” I replied.

“So, I helped at my family's inn, but when I heard from the guests that the son of the Sword Saint—you—had set out to defeat the Demon King, I couldn't sit still. Maybe it's because of my Accounting skill? I don't like just receiving things without giving anything back. I could never repay what your father gave me, but…”

“….”

“If you had refused my joining, I could have joined another party and shown that I can be useful as an adventurer. I thought that might change your mind… but I was surprised that you let me join so easily.”

…It felt like a strange twist of fate.

A life saved by my father had now connected to me, supporting my quest to defeat the Demon King.

My father hadn't died in vain—he had passed something on to me.

It made me genuinely happy to confirm that.

I had once visited her home village.

There didn't seem to be any blue-text causal events in the surrounding area, so it was a one-time visit.

There, the villagers expressed gratitude to my father, praising him repeatedly.

At the village entrance, the broken trunk of the great tree remained, jagged like a splintered stump.

“Look, Erius,” Nonoa said, pointing.

Where she pointed, a small, yet certain sprout had grown from the tree.

Weak but stretching toward the sky, it was striving to grow.

“I found this when leaving the village. When I saw it, I thought…”

“…Yeah, I understand.”

She didn't bother to explain further. Probably she sensed I was thinking the same thing.

That's right.

Even when hope is broken by despair, a small spark can always sprout.

If hope is small, you nurture it.

For me, in this long cycle of repetitions, it was my one and only visit to my father's grave.

It was enough to make me vow once again, “I will see this through.”