TBAGM Vol. 2 Chapter 3 Part 3

Alright, how to raise the twins. Veiled Moonrise was critically short on gladiators; in fact, we only had two frontline fighters total, so we couldn’t even field the standard four-role composition.

If we had a proper vanguard, Nero wouldn’t have to agonize so much. Healers aside, with a gladiator or two, I could authorize Nero’s team to push into the lower floors.

We’d already advanced to the 23rd floor of the volcano dungeon. Beyond that, anything could happen. So for the past few weeks I’d halted progression, deciding we wouldn’t resume until we’d brought in a gladiator and a healer.

That was when I found these girls.

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[Name]	Rii (13)
[Title]	Oni’s Fang, E-rank Adventurer
[Stats]	Vitality: E/A  Magic: E/C Ambition: E/E Leadership: E/B  Intelligence: E/B
[Skills]	Communication: E/E Godspeed: E/E
[Inherent Trait]	Twin Star
[Profession]	Axewielder
[Attributes]	Agility: E/E  Endurance: E/E Strength: E/E
[Hidden Skill]	Twin Star: E/SS

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[Name]	Mii (13)
[Title]	Oni’s Fang, E-rank Adventurer
[Stats]	Vitality: E/A  Magic: E/C Ambition: E/E Leadership: E/B  Intelligence: E/B
[Skills]	Communication: E/E Destruction: E/E
[Inherent Trait]	Twin Star
[Profession]	Axewielder
[Attributes]	Agility: E/E Endurance: E/E Strength: E/E
[Hidden Skill]	Twin Star: E/SS

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I actually laughed when I saw these numbers.

No wonder nothing had ever gone right for them; across-the-board E’s was something I’d never seen before.

(These are the ones.)

When stats are this anomalous, there’s always a reason. Anomalies have causes. Their [Inherent Trait] slot being filled was already proof enough; most people don’t have one at all.

“Alright, let’s train your trait first.”

As soon as introductions were over, I took them to the training yard.

Usually, Ellis or Nero was using it, but Ellis had gone to practice with Greenpeak, and Nero was off getting new gear from Nick.

“W-We’ve never fought before.”

“That’s right… we’re absolute beginners!”

Their eyes dropped to the floor, confidence nowhere in sight.

With every visible metric inferior, who could blame them?

Giving Rii and Mii confidence, that’s my job as an advisor.

“It’s fine. First, take these and hit the dummy.”

I handed them wooden axes and turned them toward a practice target.

No one starts confident. You have to try something before anything can change.

“O-Okay.”

“Leave it to me!”

They took a running start, heaved the axes high, and swung in sync.

For the record, the target was metal. A wooden axe was never going to win.

““Auu—auu—auu—””

The rebound ran up their arms; they trembled as if shocked.

Watching the two of them move in perfect unison, I almost smiled.

“T-This is training?”

“I never want to ‘auu’ again!”

Cheeks puffed in protest; they clearly wanted no part of a repeat.

Of course, I wouldn’t make them repeat that mistake; I’d let it happen once to teach reality.

“Rii, you’re left-handed, right?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Mii, you’re right-handed.”

“That’s right!”

Obvious from how they gripped the axes.

In other words, everything was lining up for their trait.

“Then use your free hands, hold each other’s hand.”

“L-Like this?”

“It feels awkward!”

They did as told, clasping their free hands.

Not because I wanted to bask in their cuteness…well, maybe a little.

But now the signal flare for counterattack was ready anytime.

“Let’s begin. Time to awaken your Inherent Trait,【Twin Star】.”

My 【Appraisal】 can reveal inherent traits and hidden skills, but not their effects.

At first, I thought Ellis’s 【Water Ball】 was just water magic, after all.

By contrast, with a trait like Nero’s—where the name says it all—things often go smoothly from the start.

(Twin Star, huh…)

Rii and Mii’s 【Twin Star】 still held many unknowns, but I’d already grasped the gist.

(It’s definitely an amplification-type.)

There’s a children’s tale everyone reads: “The Children of the Twin Star.”

A child fated to be born with overwhelming power frightens even the gods, who split that power into two sisters, so begins the story.

In the end, the sisters join forces and bring peace to a senseless world. A classic, but surprisingly beloved.

I’d read it as a kid myself, and it helped me spot the parallels between those sisters and these two.

“Are you two ready?”

I looked at the twins, still holding hands, and asked.

“I-I think so.”

“What are we doing?”

At first, the Children of the Twin Star in the story had been unable to draw out their power at all.

Their compatibility had been the worst possible match. That was how the gods had arranged things, so it could not be helped.

“While you keep holding hands, I want you to hit that dummy one more time with your axes. At the same time.”

As they fought together, the Children of the Twin Star’s compatibility gradually improved, until at last they grew to become one in body and soul.

These girls were similar to them. No, too similar.

“W-Will it tingle again?”

“That hurt!”

They clearly were not eager, still traumatized by what had happened earlier.

Exactly as expected.

Trials, trauma, unfair circumstances; overcoming those is what lets a person grow tenfold.

Letting them fail once on purpose had been the right call.

“It’s alright. Just one more time.”

“F-Fine…”

“This is the last time! I’ll go all out!”

Reluctantly, they accepted my request.

Their gazes left me and fixed on the dummy.

“Mii, do it seriously.”

“Rii, you better do it properly too!”

They egged each other on and squeezed their joined hands tight.

Then they broke into a run, building up speed.

“…! I knew it!”

I did not miss that moment, when their speed clearly multiplied several times over.

So focused on that single point ahead, they did not even notice my shout of delight.

““Haaaaaaah!””

With adorable battle cries, the two of them swung their wooden axes down on the dummy with all their strength.

To swing in earnest like that while still carrying the trauma from before, I could only respect their resolve.

Answering that resolve, their axes—

Thoom!

““Huh…?””

The two of them stared, dumbfounded, at what they had done.

Because the wooden axes had just crushed the metal training dummy.

“You exceeded my expectations! Both of you!”

“W-We did that?!”

“What is this?! There’s no way we could do something like that!”

When I praised them, they simply gaped at the scene, unable to accept it.

But my eyes had seen the result clearly.

“Rii, Mii. You aren’t failures. You’re just incomplete.”

I walked over to them and crouched down so our eyes were level. Their understanding of reality was finally starting to catch up.

“I need you two. So please, will you keep lending us your strength?”

I set my hands on their shoulders and bowed my head.

No one had ever asked them for anything before, I was sure. They were visibly flustered.

Even so, they soon calmed themselves, and bowed their heads to me in the same way.

“Please take care of us from now on. I’ll give everything I have to you, Mr. Lloyd.”

“Please take care of us! I’ll devote myself to serving you with everything I’ve got, Mr. Lloyd!”

†

While Lloyd was training Rii and Mii, over at “Greenpeak”…

“【Anti-Magic Area】!”

Mint and Ellis were engaged in an intense combat drill in the training yard.

The members of “Greenpeak” were desperately tracking their spells with their eyes, trying to learn and make the techniques their own.

“Fufufu! Ellis-chan, I wonder how you’re going to break out of this situation?”

Mint had invoked the interference-type high-tier spell 【Anti-Magic Area】, sealing off magic within the entire surrounding zone.

The speed of her formula deployment, her chant omission, and her abnormal prowess left the members staring in awe.

And then, as if to snatch those fans away from her, Ellis counterattacked.

“【Water Ball】!”

Ellis used 【Water Ball】 as if there were no impediment at all.

The massive sphere of water launched from her staff and hurtled toward Mint at tremendous speed.

“Eh? Eh—eeeeeeeeeeeh?!”

Mint had never imagined Ellis could release 【Water Ball】 inside the domain of 【Anti-Magic Area】, and she let out a half-scream of disbelief.

Because she had dropped her guard and not even raised a defensive barrier, the 【Water Ball】 struck her head-on.

“Oooooooh?!”

The members cried out in a mix of shock and delight at the completely unexpected scene.

“As expected of an A-rank adventurer!”

“So it really was true. Jumping straight from D-rank is insane.”

“But she just landed a hit on Lady Mint, you know? I’d be more shocked if she wasn’t A-rank after that.”

“How did she pull that off when 【Anti-Magic Area】 was active?”

She had just landed a blow on Mint, whom they practically worshipped. Ellis’s evaluation among the members skyrocketed in an instant.

Mint, who had been blasted backward, was rubbing her head, her eyes sparkling.

“Ow, ow… but Ellis-chan, you really are the best!”

“Th-Thank you very much.”

As Mint walked over with a beaming smile, Ellis could only give a wry grin.

Despite having been sent flying, Mint did not bear so much as a scratch. She had probably inscribed some kind of defensive spell on herself separately from her usual barriers.

“So how’d you do it?! My 【Anti-Magic Area】 is still up, you know?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t really know either. It just felt like I could do it, so I tried, and it worked.”

Ellis did not possess the knowledge needed to break through that situation.

The moment Mint invoked 【Anti-Magic Area】, she had resigned herself to defeat.

What had really happened was that, as a last-ditch struggle, she forced herself to cast 【Water Ball】, and it simply activated.

“You’re a genius or what! Uuugh, this kinda hurts my pride.”

The reason Ellis had been able to use magic was that her 【Water Ball】 was actually treated as a skill.

Because it was judged as a skill rather than standard magic, she could invoke it even inside 【Anti-Magic Area】.

Neither she nor Mint, who lacked 【Appraisal】, had any way of knowing that.

“But a bet’s a bet, right? You’re going to listen to my problem now.”

Their sparring match had been wagered on a condition.

If Mint won, Ellis would have to bring Lloyd here.

If Ellis won, Mint would listen to her concerns.

Ellis had won the three-round match fair and square.

“Okay. Then let’s head to a different room. Everyone, keep practicing your spells on your own!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The two of them moved to an empty side room.

There, for several dozen minutes, Mint listened to Ellis’s worries.

“…so that’s what’s been bothering me.”

Ellis finished, her expression earnest.

Mint answered her with exactly what came to mind.

“Yeah, you’re dumb, huh?”

“Eh?! You mean me?!”

Receiving a reaction she had not even considered, Ellis froze in shock.

She had spoken so seriously, only to mutter under her breath in dismay.

“For starters, that ‘certain guy’ is obviously Lloyd, right?”

“Guh…”

Mint’s words hit dead center, and Ellis let out a strangled cry as if she had taken damage.

Ellis’s problem was, in short, a romance issue.

To Ellis, Mint was extremely cute, older, and reliable; a perfect person to confide in about love.

And her instincts were apparently spot-on, because—

“Fufu, let your big sister here give you some truly excellent advice!”

Mint, delighted to be relied on, puffed herself up with enthusiasm.

Up to now, she had often been relied on for magic matters.

But this was the first time a girl close to her in age had come to her for romantic advice.

“Really?!”

“Yup! So first, there are more girls gathering around Lloyd, right?”

Ellis’s first worry was the growing number of girls in the guild.

It was not that she disliked girls, nor that she resented having new companions.

She was simply afraid someone might steal Lloyd away.

“But they’re all pretty young, aren’t they?”

“That’s true…”

Aside from Ellis, the other girls were ten or thirteen.

Serina and Rei were not the sort who would make a move on Lloyd.

Which meant that, realistically, the only one he could see as a romantic partner was Ellis.

Even so, the unease would not leave her face.

“I just… feel like Lord Lloyd might prefer younger girls.”

“You’re saying he’s a lolicon? He didn’t really give me that vibe, though.”

What Ellis feared was that Lloyd might be a lolicon.

Knowing him, she understood that the new recruits he had just introduced—like Elna—were probably girls with enormous talent who had simply been buried in unfair environments.

Even so, every person Lloyd had personally scouted so far had been a young girl.

You could hardly blame Ellis for being suspicious.

“Well, if you’re going to go that far, I can cast a spell that makes you younger, you know?”

“There’s a spell like that?!”

“Yup. The effect only lasts for half a day, though.”

The spell Mint intended to use was not true rejuvenation. Strictly speaking, it was a spell that shrank whatever it targeted.

She had tweaked that spell slightly for use in disguises. Of course, aside from Ellis, there was no other mage capable of modifying spells; even Mint herself could only manage it with intermediate-tier magic.

And that spell was precisely what Ellis wanted most right now.

She practically lunged forward and bowed her head to Mint.

“C-Could you please cast that spell on me?”

“Sure. 【Small】.”

Mint drew her staff and invoked the spell toward Ellis.

And sure enough, Ellis’s height steadily dwindled.

“Whoaaa.”

She shrank by what had to be several dozen centimeters. Her once perfectly sized clothes now hung loosely on her. She looked about the same age as Rii and Mii.

From the perspective of a young girl, there was nothing especially strange about her new size.

“Thank you so much, Mint!”

“No problem. Go on, hurry up and show Lloyd.”

“Yes! I’ll bring Lord Lloyd here next time!”

Eager to show him even a second sooner, Ellis snatched up the excess fabric of her now-baggy clothes and dashed out of the room.

“‘Lady Mint! Lady Mint!’”

“‘Hm? What is it?’”

No sooner had Ellis left than a 【Telepathy】 message arrived from one of the members.

She did not normally permit its use outside of emergencies, which meant something serious had to be happening.

“‘The guild master of Azure Sea Whitecap, Loren, is in front of the guild!’”

 †