I'm Not the Final Boss' Lover Chapter 104

“My thoughts are the same. They're still so young…” I gazed with pity at the three rookies who were still showing signs of adolescence.

I thought Vegan would nod in agreement to my remark, but to my surprise, he frowned and clicked his tongue. “The way I see it, you're the same as them, Vice-captain. You're hardly any older than Sister Julieta.”

I had forgotten this for a while, but he was right. Thinking about it, Julieta was twenty-one, while I was twenty-four. But twenty-four was this body's physical age, while my actual age was greater than that. And since I had even leaped back in time once, it was quite odd to be treated as an ordinary twenty-four-year-old. Besides… “Julieta's a slightly different case from me.”

I had forced Julieta to join the expedition corps. As someone who aimed to become a priest, she would have eventually joined up anyway. However, the risk involved in joining as a healer was different from joining as a melee attacker. Given Julieta's talent, though, I couldn't bear not making her an attacker. Could this be what Mayer felt when he forced me into the Dark Knights? I didn't expect to end up empathizing with his situation like this and clicked my tongue softly. “Besides… If you put it that way, there's not a big difference in age between me and the captain, you know?”

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“The way I see it, the captain's young, too. I think he was fifteen when we first met. I remember how he was back then, clear as day. And here, Reverend August too…”

“Let us end the chatter here. It appears fellspawn have come again.” August interjected as soon as he became the subject.

I worried if the children would do well this time too, but I was anxious for nothing. They quickly found their places and defeated the fellspawn in no time.

“Wow… I don't know if kids these days are just excellent, or if you taught them well, Vice-captain… There's not a bit of waste in their movements,” Vegan exclaimed. He and August were practically doing nothing. While they had followed for safety purposes, there wasn't much for them to do in this dungeon. In fact, it was good that those two were staying out of the battles for the moment. It helped the three rookies monopolize the experience points. Of course, I did my best casting buffs since I had to gain at least some experience as well.

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Seeing that the children were more capable than he had expected, Vegan devoted himself to giving them some tips. With hands behind his back, he began, “Goblins live in groups and are never alone. They always move in packs. Normally, they number between five and seven, but there have been cases where members encountered thirty-strong hordes inside special dungeons. Therefore, you must never neglect detection. And among goblins…”

The man rambled on endlessly as if he were filming an entertainment show. At some point, the kids gave up replying to him, but he didn't seem to mind. Vegan kept right on despite getting no response. It was to the degree that I could sense an obsessive compulsion from his behavior. “There's a dungeon where a goblin king appears, and you've got to be very careful here. The goblin king is surrounded by spellcasting goblin shamans.”

“Fellspawn can use magic?” Sevi, who had been listening perfunctorily, asked in surprise.

“That's right. They use dark element magic, hence why you've got to receive Reverend August's blessing before you face them.”

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Truthfully, I didn't know Vegan could be so talkative, and I didn't seem to be alone in thinking that. August murmured, “I think I see why Brother Axion took Brother Vegan to the Red Wolves.”

“Hahah! Am I so competent? Now that's an honor.”

“If you can call chatting an ability, then I suppose yes… And here I was thinking Brother Axion was a man of many words. Birds of a feather, they say. You are quite talkative yourself, Brother Vegan. You truly surprised me. Is everyone in the Red Wolves like this?” August did not even raise a brow as he shot at Vegan, tone scathing.

The Red Wolves did seem like an unusually talkative bunch. Although at the time I was first heading to Nochtentoria Castle, their chattering was a big help to me. I was about to speak up, feeling the need to take Vegan's side, when he chortled and said, “Haha. They are lively, but I'm particularly chatty. The mood maker of the Red Wolves, that's who I am. We keep chit-chatting like this and end up finishing a dungeon in no time.”

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August's words were hardly a compliment… but since Vegan chortled and took them as one, there was nothing more to say. Seeing that his words weren't getting through, the priest lost the confidence to win and backed down. In the end, we had to keep on listening to Vegan's rambling like a radio you couldn't turn off.

Chapter end