The Case of the Washed-Up F-Rank Adventurer Who Maxed Out His Agility by Relying on His Worthless ‘Flee’ Skill and Accidentally Became the Strongest in the World. He Can’t, However, Escape from the Yandere Beauties. - Chapter 47
Chapter 47: Interlude: Past Chapter 2 – A Few Reasons Why Mira Broke
About six months had passed since he—Mikami Shuzou—first appeared at the frontier guild.
For Mira Cattleas, those months weren’t particularly memorable. Honestly, she’d long since erased his existence from even the corners of her mind.
When you sat at the guild’s reception desk, new faces appeared every single day. Most of them became adventurers either chasing big dreams or backed into desperate corners.
And most of them quietly disappeared, crushed by harsh reality or dead. Mikami Shuzou was just one more newcomer among many, Mira thought.
In fact, he hadn’t betrayed her initial expectations. She hadn’t heard of him completing any major requests or making a name for himself. He hadn’t shot up through the ranks at a remarkable pace either. Even now, half a year after registering, his rank remained at the guild’s absolute bottom—permanently stuck at F-rank.
I knew I had him pegged from the start.
Mira murmured inwardly. Six months was plenty of time for anyone with even a little talent or resolve to reach E-rank. Some climbed to D-rank, even C-rank, in just a few months. Her mother Emma, she’d heard, had reached C-rank only half a year after becoming an adventurer.
The adventurer’s world, for better or worse, was pure meritocracy. Those without talent, those who neglected effort, those who lacked resolve—all were mercilessly weeded out. After a few months, half a year at most, people came face-to-face with their limits and gave up. Staying at F-rank forever made it nearly impossible to earn enough for a decent living.
Mikami-san will probably end up the same way.
Mira thought so vaguely. She couldn’t imagine that unreliable middle-aged man surviving long in this brutal world.
…I really am so jaded…
Mira felt a little exasperated with herself every time she had such thoughts. Only thirteen, yet she already viewed everything through such cynical eyes. But maybe that was unavoidable—she accepted it with something like resignation. Before Emma took her in, she’d been an orphan surviving in the royal capital’s back alleys. She’d learned betrayal and cruelty before kindness.
And it had been the same since coming to the guild. Adventurers who’d started out full of spirit would head out on a request one day and never come back. She’d witnessed that scene countless times. Had they run off? Been devoured by monsters? The truth was never clear. She’d tasted that sense of loss—someone close suddenly vanishing—over and over despite her young age.
Even if I get close to someone, they’ll just disappear anyway.
That’s what she’d come to think.
Then it’s better not to get close in the first place.
If you don’t expect anything, you can’t get hurt.
That was the survival strategy she’d developed to protect her heart.
So she kept her distance from adventurers. Didn’t get involved deeply. That was Mira’s fundamental stance.
That’s why she watched Mikami Shuzou with jaded eyes, expecting him to follow the same path as all the other adventurers who’d disappeared.
But Mira’s prediction was betrayed, little by little yet unmistakably. He didn’t vanish from the guild. On the contrary, he showed up almost daily, silently taking on bottom-tier requests that no one wanted, and reliably completing them.
Cleaning out drainage ditches, repairing the shabby walls surrounding the town, inspecting and cleaning underground waterways, gathering medicinal herbs in low-danger areas…
These jobs were far from glamorous adventure tales—grimy, monotonous, and paid next to nothing.
That’s why many F-rank adventurers half-assed such requests or abandoned them partway through.
But Mikami was different. His work was surprisingly sincere and thorough. No matter how trivial the request, he never cut corners and always filed proper completion reports. He never abandoned a job halfway through, not once.
Mira recalled words her mother Emma had repeated to her since childhood. In this frontier town, infrastructure maintenance that should have been the lord’s or kingdom’s responsibility was completely neglected.
So someone had to take on those unglamorous jobs to protect the town’s livelihood. Cleaning ditches, repairing walls, keeping waterways sanitary. The results weren’t immediately visible. But neglect them, and eventually the town would become unsanitary, a breeding ground for monster invasions, and people’s safe lives would be threatened.
The work Mikami took on was precisely that kind of work—”someone has to do it, but no one wants to.” And he did it without a single complaint, just silently, sincerely.
When she realized that fact, Mira’s view of the man called Mikami Shuzou began slowly changing.
His clothes were still those miserable rags… no, they actually seemed even more tattered than when they’d first met.
Given the nature of his work, the smell clinging to his body was, honestly, quite intense. As a young girl, Mira couldn’t completely suppress her physiological revulsion.
But Mira recalled her mother’s teachings and tried not to make the foolish mistake of judging people by appearance alone. His exterior might be bottom-tier, but his work ethic was nothing if not sincere.
Perhaps that change showed in Mira’s own attitude. Where she’d initially exchanged only the bare minimum of business-like words, before she knew it, they were having casual conversations across the counter.
“Mikami-san, is today’s request inspecting the underground waterway? Sounds rough again… The smell must be terrible.”
One day, when Mira called out to him, Mikami answered with his usual good-natured smile.
“Haha, yeah. But if someone doesn’t do it, rats and weird bugs start breeding. Plus, sometimes there’s interesting glowing moss growing on the walls.”
“Wow… finding enjoyment in a place like that, that’s so like you, Mikami-san… Hehe, you’re a bit odd.”
Mira couldn’t help but smile, and Mikami smiled back happily.
Another time, when he was delivering medicinal herbs:
“Let me check these. …Wow, that’s a huge amount again! And they’re all in excellent condition. Mikami-san, are you some kind of herb-gathering master?”
When Mira said this admiringly, Mikami scratched his head bashfully.
“Nah, it’s just about all I’ve done since becoming an adventurer… Oh, right. I found a flower blooming in an unusual color on the way back. If you’d like, Mira-chan—”
What he held out was a small blue flower, still wet with dew.
“Huh? F-for me…? A-are you sure? It’s beautiful… Thank you, Mikami-san.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected gift, Mira’s cheeks flushed faintly.
Before she realized it, Mira had begun having conversations mixed with personal feelings with this particular adventurer, Mikami Shuzou. For her—someone who’d always kept a line between herself and adventurers other than her mother, who’d tried not to get deeply involved because “they’ll just disappear anyway”—this was an extremely rare change, one that left even her a little bewildered.
Why am I always thinking about this person…?
He’s just an F-rank, some unremarkable middle-aged adventurer…
…If he disappears, I’ll just be sad again…
The thirteen-year-old girl couldn’t find the answer yet.
But one thing was certain: the man called Mikami Shuzou had begun occupying a small yet unmistakable place in her heart as something slightly different from her initial impression—a mysterious presence she hadn’t even noticed settling in.
