Holding Each Other Up

Darakerus hated Fret.

He'd hated him from the moment they met.

To be more precise, Darakerus hated people of Fret's type.

The kind who seemed smart and acted all high and mighty.

The kind who could see something that someone as dim-witted as himself couldn't, and then looked down on him for it.

He absolutely loathed people like that.

Even so, there were some things about him Darakerus could relate to.

It was the complex about his little brother that seeped out of every corner of Fret's words and deeds.

......Darakerus, too, “has a younger brother.”

On paper, though, perhaps it would be better to say he “once had one.”

Darakerus had been removed from the family register before reaching adulthood and cast out of his home.

In truth...... he had been the eldest son and heir of a territorial lord in a land far removed from the commercial city of Zenalini.

Darakerus's nature hadn't changed since he was a child.

He was lazy and narrow-minded, never planned anything, and behaved badly.

As a child, he had been given the education fitting for a local lord's heir...... but this unserious man never appreciated it, and threw nearly all the time set aside for his lessons down the drain.

He'd nap in class or run away from his lessons.

The only things he actually acquired were the ability to read and write, simple arithmetic, and how to use low-level magic.

As the heir to a local lord, he was undoubtedly lacking in ability.

On the other hand, his brother, two years his junior, was excellent.

He was serious, diligent, and intelligent.

Plus, he was handsome and possessed a vast amount of magic power.

The brother's abilities quickly soared far beyond Darakerus's, and everyone praised him to the skies.

Watching this, the young Darakerus became sullen and rebellious.

His behavior grew even worse.

Those around him thought even less of him.

As a result, he was cast out of his birth home, leading to his current life as a bottom-rung adventurer.

The details won't be drawn out here.

All that's there is a life of sliding downhill through his own doing...... nothing but a foolish life.

So, what is described here is.

“J, just living miserably, as my little brother's kamase!! And then, it's over......!!”

The sound of Darakerus's heart, as it leapt at Fret's anguished cry.

Dokiri.

It beat so hard it hurt.

Darakerus lacked empathy.

He had no interest in others.

He had no social skills.

But the cry from the soul of this snide, unpleasant, foul-mouthed...... short man standing before him, who had, just a little, something in common with him.

His regret, at a fate of ‘live miserably, and then it's over’.

Reached something hidden in the deepest depths of Darakerus's soul, where the sludge had piled up!

“Gu...... haah......”

Darakerus stood up before he could even think.

He drove his heavy body on, though it screamed with exhaustion, hunger and spent magic power, and somehow won out against gravity.

Staggering, one step, two steps.

He went up to the snide man.

Looking over, he saw this short man trying to shoot the hideout-turned-monster with his magic gun.

Despite his poor eyesight.

Suddenly, he noticed the short man's glasses lying nearby.

He grabbed the lenses without ceremony and picked them up.

And then...... he hooked them over the short man's ears.

From above.

Darakerus was tall, after all.

“......Shoot.”

Fret whirled around in surprise, and Darakerus kept it short.

“Hurry, up.”

His body, was spent.

To be honest, even speaking was a chore now.

If he could, he wanted this whole mess, over and done with fast.

And yet.

“Ku......!!”

Fret just wouldn't shoot.

Right after his glasses went on, he had pointed the muzzle at the hideout, at some glowing part of it, but.

He didn't shoot.

His hands were shaking, and he couldn't steady his aim.

“What're you...... never fired one?”

“What do you expect!! I'm a merchant!!”

Darakerus sighed, and Fret yelled back at him.

“Oh...... now you're soundin' like yourself.”

Darakerus snorted at Fret's high-and-mighty yelling, reached around him from behind, and took a firm grip on the arms holding the magic gun.

“There. No shakin'.”

“......You wretch, have you fired a magic gun before!?”

“Somethin' that fancy, I ain't even touched one. I'm a bottom-rung adventurer......”

But, still.

Darakerus's large hand.

His support.

Were holding Fret's trembling firmly in check.

“......I'm shooting!!”

“Yeah.”

Fret took a big, deep breath, and then.

“......Shooting!!”

“Yeah.”

Aligning the magic gun's sights with Hidden Inheritor's magic power reservoir.

He held his breath.

“Eh, it'll work out somehow.”

That murmur of Darakerus's reached Fret's ears as he focused to the extreme.

Right at that moment.

“75 POINTS!!!”

Emi shouted.

And the drill Hidden Inheritor thrust out...... was knocked aside by her fist without a sound, and plunged into the ground.

Clearly deeper than before.

So deep that even the machine's horsepower couldn't easily pull it out!

In that instant, Hidden Inheritor was pinned in place.

Obvious to anyone who saw it...... it was an opening, and a big one.

PAAN!!

That instant, with a dry crack, Fret's magic power flew out as a bullet!

【One-Line Commentary】

Short notes at the end of each chapter, explaining terms and such from the story.

This author meant to give every chapter of Arc 30 a one-line commentary, but has run out of material at this point.

They often list the arc numbers where the terms appear, so I'd be happy if anyone with real time to kill went back and reread them.

Now, this arc too has only 1 chapter left.

Please stay with us to the end!