Early DAR Vol. 1 Idle Talk 1 (Patreon)

Note: This part has not been TLCed yet, and might slightly differ from the public version.  If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write it in the comment. Thanks.    

Note 2: This is translated from WN, the LN doesn't include this story. I think it was interesting so here you go

Translator: Dario

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Kristoff Report 1 (Summary of the first half of Vol. 1)

This is a record of Kristoff’s recollections.

*This is a summary of the story from Kristoff’s point of view. As such, its focus might not be the main story and could include episodes not featured in the main story. It also does not include information Kristoff could not know at the point of the story.

* [Idiot] [Dumb leader] [Leader] all refer to Dietrich.

X Month X Day

The whole Amadan county is in an uproar. As it turns out, a party from this city was nominated Hero Party yesterday. “Hero Party” is the highest title for adventurers in this country, and a party is chosen every year.

In stark contrast with the festive mood, I was dragging my feet back to the inn. My shoulders were dropping, I felt about to cry. All because of that idiot. Because I had to pay for the mess he caused.

The compensation I had to pay because that idiot got drunk and rampaged in the Adventurers’ Guild was very steep. The travel fees I somehow managed to obtain as an extraordinary budget are now no more. It hit zero so cleanly it was like the adventurers’ guild knew how much was in our wallets. I suppose we should be lucky that at least we didn’t have to borrow money.

I arrived back at the inn and, inside the room, I shared with the idiot; he was waiting for me, prostrating in front of the door. I pretended not to notice, entered the room with good momentum and *accidentally* kicked him. Then the preaching started.

When I was still a brat, I was in the group of ruffians our dumb leader commanded. Even now, my position is a lot lower than his. No matter the hierarchy, however, idiots must be educated. And if you do it you have to go full power.

Our dumb leader knows he messed up, so he doesn’t protest and acts as if he regrets what he did. I sort of respect this honest side of his, but if he really regrets them I would like that he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes again and again.

I started preaching and, from the next room over, Cornelia joined me, as she shared the same sentiments towards the idiot.

Month X Day X

Free from the preaching purgatory of the day before, the leader is in high spirits from the early morning. No trace of regret anymore. This mental strength is a sign that he never dwells on the past? I ended up thinking that makes him reliable...I guess I’m being gradually brainwashed.

This day we went to the guild first thing in the morning, to check the new requests up in the bulletin board. We cannot go on living with nothing in our wallets, so we went to the guild as early as we could, to find the best requests.

We decided to take one: escorting an “All-Rounder boy” in a magic beast forest to gather materials. The request was just to escort one person in a magic beast forest, but in comparison, the reward was really high.

It’s all because of this country’s customs. All-Rounders are the bottom rung of the ladder in the world of adventurers, apprentices not recognized as full-fledged professionals. They can potentially do any job in the future and help out in various workplaces, so they are called All-Rounders. They’re actually seen as parasites sucking on the party’s tit, so to speak, so they’re treated pretty poorly.

To escort such an “inferior” person and treat them as an employer would be shameful for this country’s adventurers. That was the reason behind the expensive reward.

We are from another country and don’t see things in the same way, so that means little to us. Being foreigners, we were never treated too well here, and now because of our dumb leader the guild and the adventurers like us even less. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. Even if we take “shameful” requests, nothing changes for us.

The request comes from a trustworthy merchant we know, so we all agreed to take it. It was a real savior in our penniless state.

We then went to meet our employer. The merchant Coralde was, as always, very unlike other merchants in this country. Here even merchants tend to look down on foreigners, but he didn’t.

The All-Rounder boy, whom we would be supposed to escort, seemed a pretty honest boy. He looked timid towards us at first. But we knew him already, actually. That was one more reason why we took the request.

The first time we met the boy was during a mission that happened some time before when magic beasts spilled out of a dungeon. That time, our leader pushed himself to the limit to protect us and was severely wounded. I remember I couldn’t stop the cold sweats at that time. Thinking that our leader was going to die, me, Cornelia and even the usually expressionless Bernhart all turned pale.

That time, the All-Rounder boy used recovery potions and healed the leader. The leader owes him his life, basically.

The boy’s name is Roa: when he saved us he had servant beasts with him, so we thought he was a tamer. Later, when we learned that he was an All-Rounder in a party called “Crack of Dawn”, we sure were surprised.

When we went looking for requests in the morning, everyone in the guild was gossiping about him. He had been kicked out of Crack of Dawn and immediately hired by Coralde, so there was no way people wouldn’t talk about it. How can an All-Rounder get sniped up like that by a first-rate merchant?

We were already curious about him and his current position was even more interesting, so it was pretty natural to take the request. It looked like he didn’t remember about us at all, though.

When we met Roa, our leader used his special “Act like a serious adult” skill and made him cry. Not because he bullied him, though. He gave some relief to Roa’s heart, despaired after being kicked out of the party, and explained our way of thinking in order to trust each other.

Our leader has the mental age of a toddler sometimes, but he’s good at reassuring people and inspiring trust. I call him dumb or idiot at times, but he has had my trust since we were kids, that’s for sure. He succeeded in made Roa cry and trust him in the end.

It’s a mystery that despite being so good at making people trust him, when it comes to romance he’s as bad as they come. I guess he feels too much pressure when he talks to women?

Month X Day X

We departed for a magic beast forest called “Aldon forest”. Leaving the day after accepting the request felt a little sudden, but that’s par for the course in terms of requests for adventurers. In case of requests for single adventurer parties they even left on the same day sometimes, so our case was pretty normal.

Our dumb leader proved once again he was worthy of that moniker before the departure, but that was normal too. No problem. He got scolded by Chuck, the Coralde company coachman, though. Mr. Chuck, please keep up the good work! Since it was the first time Chuck scolded him, the idiot was depressed for a while, but he was back to normal by lunch.

I sure wish he learned from his mistakes sometimes.

We had lunch at a rest stop by the road. That time Roa, because of his All-Rounder habits or something, ran off without eating anything, so we had to put him in submission to stop him. After listening to his story we all ate together, then helped with the gathering and the coachmen’s job, as he wished.

Our leader messed up once again, so we used it to get Roa to feel a little better about himself. The dumb leader’s idiocy can be of use….rarely.

While they went gathering materials, Cornelia and Bernhart tested Roa’s abilities. They both concluded that Roa simply wasn’t taught properly, but did not lack potential as an adventurer. He could probably become a pretty good user of both swords and magic.

He had normal potential as an adventurer, practiced alchemy and was good in all sorts of chores, so he could really be called “All-Rounder”, in the positive sense of the word.

In the end, he had just been used and abused by Crack of Dawn, which never treated him properly. When the party obtained a good position, they threw him out just like that.

The leader figured it out too and was seriously angry. I have to say I respect him for getting so angry on behalf of others.

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Author’s Thoughts

So little by little I started writing summaries for the volumes. In the end, it turned out to be a diary of Kristoff’s grievances (mainly because of Dietrich)...

I hope it feels like he’s having fun, even if he complains a lot internally, but after re-reading it I’m a bit worried.