Two as One Princesses

only reason their party disbanded?』
『Understood.』
『Thank you.
I really appreciate it.』

「Why did his party split up?」
「I believe that you’ve seen it firsthand but it seems to be from Brass-kun’s reckless way of fighting and due to them having an issue with their allocation of the rewards.」
「I see.」

『So in that case, we should only form a temporary party that would only work together to complete requests.
It would be nice if, after the request, the guild also makes sure that the other party doesn’t come in contact with us more than necessary.
And then, we should ask the guild to have him agree with dividing our rewards equally.
Finally, how about having them recognise that we will not be helping him to get stronger or try to reform him?』
『Sure, I think that that’s good.』

I’m not sure about what the guild really wants from us, but what they asked from us was only if we can cooperate in times of emergencies.
Even if they actually want us to incite his personal growth, we don’t have any reason to take care of him to that extent.
When I told them what Ciel said almost practically as she told it to me, Celia-san showed a slightly dejected smile before saying「Then please do your best.」and bowing her head.
Carol-san even muttered「Doubtful that you’re really 10 years old.」as she stared at me, but Ciel was the one that thought of this.
That’s why it actually is something a 10 year old would say, so no problems here.

Hehe~ My Ciel is pretty amazing, isn’t she? Just kidding.

「Also, I have one more request, or rather, one more question.」
「There’s still something, I see.」
「I just wanted to ask, even if we form the party, is it fine to treat it just as usual? 」
「Well of course.
After all, this is simply a test.」
「Then in that case, it’s alright.」

With that, our first party work was decided like it was some sort of free trial.

◇

After that decision, we were led to a place, and what awaited us there was a boy considerably taller than me who seemed to look somewhere between a teenager and a young adult.
His hair was brown with hints of red, and his eyes were green in color.
He had a solid masculine build as well.
He looks like the regular dream-chasing youngster, I guess.
Well, I suppose I’m also still a youngster too, but anyway.

He should be Brass-kun, but please stop staring at me.
I’m sure he’s thinking Why do I need to play babysitter? or something right now.
After all, judging from how I look, he probably thinks that I’m just a G-rank hunter, and he likely won’t believe us even if we tell him that I’m at D-rank.
That’s what I get from his expression.

「So, I just need to take care of this shrimp here, right?」
「If that’s your definition of forming a party, then sure.
Naturally, you don’t have any right to refuse.
Since you’ve kept repeatedly failing your requests lately, if you refuse now or can’t work together as a party, you’ll be demoted to F-rank.」
「Hmph.」

Hearing Carol-san’s words, Brass-kun hatefully glared at me.
No matter how you look at it, that was entirely his own fault.
Taking over from Carol-san, Celia-san begins the explanation.

「If you form a party with her, then we can allow you to accept high difficulty E-rank requests.
And as your party was arranged by the guild, regardless of any reason, your rewards will always be divided equally.
Unlike a regular party, in cases where there is trouble between the two of you while you two aren’t working on a request, it will be treated as a conflict between hunters instead, so please keep that in mind.」
「And if she’s weighing me down?」
「Well, since the two of you are hunters, in the end it’s self-responsibility.」
「Then fine, got it.」

He probably meant that he’ll abandon us if the situation calls for it.
Well we’re thinking of doing the same, so I don’t really mind that in particular.
Still, doesn’t he understand that doing something unbefitting of a party member would get him demoted?

「Then I’ll take this request.
Don’t drag me down.
Shrimp.」
「A Kobold subjugation request, is that okay?」
「You just listen to what the Greater Swordsman’s saying, shrimp.」

After saying so, Brass-kun went to the reception desk and then left the guild.
Before following him, I shot a glance towards Carol-san’s and Celia-san’s direction, and there I saw them looking at me with a troubled look on their faces.
How can I say this, Brass-kun is much more unapproachable than I imagined.
But looking closely, he’s walking somewhat unsteadily.
They did say that he’s been failing his requests repeatedly, he might have no money at all.
His clothes also seem worn out and I can see a lot of scratches on him.
Maybe he’s also unsteady because of hunger, or so.

I can’t believe that he even thought of accepting that kobold subjugation request in that state.
Kobolds are E-rank, so I don’t consider them strong but since the bipedal dog-looking kobolds always act in groups consisting of 5-6 of them, they’re more annoying compared to goblins.
Although it’s common to see mobs with Goblin Leaders leading more than 10 of them, goblins generally move independently and one would only encounter at most three of them at the same time.
So considering that he had a close fight with just a Goblin Leader, I don’t really think that he can handle several kobolds at the same time.

In the first place, we haven’t even introduced ourselves to each other yet.
I’m amazed that he actually just accepted a request like that.
I know who he is, but he probably doesn’t even know who I am.
Well, since detection is showing the same results as usual, I’ll just let Brass-kun do as he wants and ask Ciel to focus on supporting him.
Though until the battle starts, I’ll still be the one mainly in control.

(This chapter is provided to you by Re:Library)

(If you are reading this from other sites, that means this content is stolen.
Please support us by visiting our site.)

Hiya~! Mwahwahwahwa! He’s back! Also, we’re back to the main story and AinCiel! Also, the last chapter was objectively interesting but subjectively not fun, lol.
Particularly the comments, they were fun~

Well, there were already some foreshadowing on the party event but it was probably hard to guess which half of the disbanded newbie party she would be dealing with.
On one hand, the slightly vanilla group of three.
On the other, it is he, Brass the Greater Swordsman! And now we see.
And now we know.

Still, other stories would usually go with the less troublesome? party members.
Here the guild seems to be attempting to reform Brass with an external stimuli that just happened to be in line for a cooperative aptitude test.
Though seemingly not very cooperative with their plans.

I’m sorry for another ‘what I like about Ain’ rant but what I like about Ain is that she is, to some extent, the same with the regular Japanese reincarnator protagonist, but she literally had a character development breaking and remolding her current character quite early in the story on as she was barely prepared to face most of what the duke threw at her and her being unable to stop whatever it is would instantly mean danger to Ciel as well.
Most characters would show their willpower by overcoming what despair lies on their own, but Ain practically broke the moment she realised that she was a baby and just gained her willpower after realising that she’s not the only one being harmed when she is harmed.
This results to her prioritizing Ciel and their freedom above all else.
This makes her limit her human relations as more connections mean more relationships to cut off when they inevitably decide to leave the town.
If they weren’t trying to run away, Ain probably have been quick to decide to help the party instead regardless of the usual cliche trouble.
She would probably show more interest on the newbie party.
And she would probably feel more offended about how Brass is talking to them.
But right now she doesn’t care much about what isn’t Ciel.
Still, this is all speculation.
Likely just my opinion.
Though it’s a bit long.