Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~ - Volume 4 - Chapter SS

Side Story: Tino Shade’s First Steps

To those of us in Grieving Souls, Tino Shade was somewhat special.

We first arrived in the capital when we were around fifteen years old. You see, that was the age at which we were considered adults. We decided that should mark the beginning of our careers as hunters.

However, in the holy land of treasure hunting, there were plenty of hunters yet to reach adulthood. It was part of the capital’s culture. There were people who had been raised for treasure hunting and began training before we even dreamed of it. We had trained for just a bit in our hometown before coming to the capital. When we arrived we found we had rivals both older and younger than us.

At first, we barely had enough breathing room to spare a thought for anyone but ourselves. Everyone else in our party was desperately trying to get stronger and I was struggling more than ever to avoid mortal peril.

Tino was the first young hunter to make our acquaintance. I don’t remember our first meeting very well, but I think we rescued her from some unwanted challengers. Back then, Liz and the others were always quick to resort to violence, so they were always getting involved in scuffles.

Initially, Tino was just an acquaintance we’d run into on occasion. We would sometimes bump into her after our adventures and sometimes we’d tell her tales of our escapades. I remember being surprised when she suddenly declared she wanted to become a hunter.

I tried to stop her. I tried really hard to stop her. To me, she represented normalcy. But her mind was set. So she asked me how to become an excellent hunter.

Let me be frank. I didn’t think for a minute that she had what it took to flourish as a hunter. But I had a responsibility. Just like we had been inspired by stories told by hunters passing through our hometown, she had been inspired by us. It was our fault she wanted to become a hunter.

I made Tino into Liz’s apprentice so she would get stronger, so Liz might develop some social skills, and hopefully to make Tino give up before she got herself killed. There’s nothing harder than trying to be a hunter when you aren’t cut out for it. Liz clearly wasn’t the teaching type. She only knew how to get stronger by constantly being the first to shrug off her wounds and leap into danger.

You might think it cold of me, but I expected Tino to throw in the towel immediately. Instead, she survived Liz’s brutal training. She quickly outpaced me and became an active solo hunter.

At some point, I gave up on convincing Tino to quit. If I was going to stick to being a hunter despite my incompetence, it wouldn’t make any sense if I tried to convince someone with talent to resign.

Sitting in the carriage, I realized how long ago that was. Five years had gone by faster than Liz could hurl a stone, but it all felt so distant.

As we rode along, I looked at the peaceful face of my sleeping junior hunter.

“You’ve really gotten strong, Tino,” I whispered. “I can’t believe you used to be Small Tino.”

The mask no doubt enabled her to take on Arnold, but her strength still made a difference; I couldn’t have fought Arnold, even with the mask.

Then Sitri said something quite unexpected.

“Indeed. Hmm, however, if that’s as far as she can get in spite of all your training, I can’t help but think she might be better off quitting.”

“Huh?”

Her head still in my lap, Tino twitched.

***

She’s right, Master, Tino thought as she pretended to sleep.

It was an early memory, one she didn’t care to remember. It was back when she was still Small Tino.

“Huh? You want me to train Tino? But, Krai Baby, you know I don’t know anything about, um, restraint?” Liz said.

Tino adored her master (though at the time, they had only just established their clan so he wasn’t called Master back then). He has saved her dozens of times and his name always came to mind when asked if she looked up to any hunters. She took every chance she could to tell people about him and she wanted to see him every day.

He was god, but a fierce and demanding god. At the time, Lizzy hadn’t been excited at the thought of receiving an apprentice. At the time, Tino was still being held back by the nervousness and expectations that came with entering a new world.

“No need to hold back,” Master said with his usual harmless smile. “Tino’s determination is genuine. Just make sure she doesn’t die.”

“I’m not really qualified to be teaching people, y’know?”

“I think there’s lots to be gained through teaching.”

“Hmmm. But I think she really might die if I don’t hold back. Like, Tino doesn’t even have that much mana material.”

Tino used to picture treasure hunters as being both fun yet strict and her experiences had generally agreed with this notion. But her master took only a day to obliterate those naiveties.

“Well, then why not just train her in treasure vaults? That way she can also absorb mana material,” he said as though he had just hit upon something brilliant.

“That’s brilliant...”

In retrospect, Tino was certain that Lizzy was mildly shocked when she said that. She also realized that was only the beginning of her days packed with both struggles and joys.

Master was god; he did not belong to the likes of mankind. No man could fathom the heart of god. Since being put under Lizzy’s tutelage, Tino always felt like she might die at any moment. Hunters were built differently than normal human beings. Liz’s teaching methods were a tad off-kilter but Tino would take a while to realize this.

She never had the spare time to think, begrudge, or have regrets. It was a miracle that she had survived her sparring sessions. Grieving Souls had a superb healer by the name of Ansem, so they considered any wound or injury to be just another thing in need of mending. In fact, some of them found it convenient that more injuries provided Ansem more chances to practice his skills.

Every day, her master would say in a kind voice: “Treasure hunting isn’t all fun and games. There are safer and more pleasant paths open to you. Feel free to quit this whenever you want.”

Surely, he had said that out of pity. If she had given in to temptation and nodded, she would probably be living peacefully, not as a hunter.

With all that said, she just wanted one thing: for her master to not be so hard on her.

Keeping her eyes shut tight, Tino listened to Siddy and her master.

“Huh? Did I do something?” he said.

Siddy remained silent.

“No, no, it’s Liz who’s been training her. I haven’t done anything!”

Lizzy’s training had been brutal, but Tino believed her mentor had at least been taking steps to ensure she wouldn’t die. It wasn’t fun, not by any stretch of the imagination, and that didn’t change with time. Even still, Tino was grateful to her mentor and never once resented her. Probably.

As an average person who hadn’t been very active, Lizzy’s training was transformational for Tino. The mana material she absorbed and her training gave her a body optimal for a Thief. She also had all the essential knowledge drilled into her head. Any mistakes during practical training would invite more pain and bruises.

Day and night, she was dedicated to becoming a hunter. Sometimes Lizzy wasn’t around, but that just meant Tino would practice on her own those days. Playing hooky was unthinkable.

After half of a year, that changed.

One day, after finishing her training, her master came to talk to her. He always did this.

“Huh? You don’t take breaks, Tino?” he said. “That won’t do. Training hard is good, but it’s also important to take it easy. It’s a matter of having both highs and lows. You should rest at least once a week.”

Tino could distinctly recall the confusion she felt when he said that. How could she become a good hunter by taking breaks?

Looking back, the endless training had nearly broken her. By going so far, she had shown her master how resolute she was, which simply ushered in another phase of her training. Now, real combat was mixed into her regiment. This wasn’t training that involved real combat, it was plain and simple combat.

If she had started as Small Tino, she had now ascended to Medium Tino. She would spend less time training, but she didn’t anticipate her days becoming any easier. Her master probably just saw diminishing returns after training so many hours a day.

He had said it was also important to take it easy and he lived up to that by adding color to her gray life. Indeed, color. He clearly had good intentions, but any outside observer would see it as mean-spirited.

Hope is what deepens despair. Tension can be noticed because we know what it is to relax. The color added to Tino’s life both soothed her body and soul while also teaching her what’s necessary to being a hunter. Her master loved to get people’s hopes up before crushing them. It was probably his way of helping them grow. Tino didn’t mind if he raised her hopes to the sky, but that wasn’t the way of god.

It happened on her first day off, an unforgettable day. She didn’t know what to do with her first break in so long, but her master invited her out for sweets. Feeling like she was in a dream, she went along with him. Then she was kidnapped.

Tino later learned that the culprit was a fearsome criminal who had been raising hell all across the capital. She had been devoted to her training, but only for six months, and she wasn’t even an adult yet; she had no hope of winning against a pro. If Siddy hadn’t trailed them, something terrible might have happened to Tino.

Sure, she was wrong to let her guard down, she should have been on alert, but who would anticipate being kidnapped during a date? However, that was only the prelude of her long journey to greatness. Medium Tino learned the important lesson that complacency kills.

Lizzy had told her this any number of times during training, but true wariness can only be learned through experience. Tino would find herself attacked, ambushed, and poisoned. Of course, sometimes nothing at all happened. This is what her master meant by the importance of “highs and lows” and he made his point perfectly.

When it comes to memories, quality trumps quantity. Most traumas will disappear; humans wouldn’t be able to survive otherwise. However, fun memories aren’t so quick to fade because they can motivate humans to overcome hardship. Thus, Tino continued to accept just about any invitation she received from her master. She held on to the hope that a fond memory would be made.

Lizzy, by the way, apparently believed that even struggles and hardships would become good memories once you got used to them. Tino didn’t care to find out if that was true.

“Tino’s a good student, she’s obedient, and there wasn’t much I could teach her.”

“Well, Krai, that’s true.”

Siddy had overcome her exasperation and was simply agreeing with Krai. She was currying favor with him. If Lizzy were present, she might’ve said something but she was standing guard outside.

However, her master was right, in a sense. He hadn’t taught Tino very much. He wasn’t the type to instruct with words, but instead make his points through actions.

Tino naturally became stronger from her hellish training and fierce battles. By this point, the name Grieving Souls had become well-known. Being their disciple incited other hunters her age to pick fights with her, but she never lost. Without noticing it, she had become stronger than any other hunter her age. It made sense; who else had been tempered by god?

Tino ended up becoming a bit full of herself. All that training had made it pleasant to utilize her strength. It wasn’t talent but layers of effort that brought her to this point so she couldn’t help but develop an ego. She wasn’t going to compare herself to her master and her mentor as they were both far beyond her.

Then one day, her master had a proposal for her.

“Would you come with us to the next treasure vault?”

This had never happened before. At the time, her master had been quickly clearing higher and higher-level vaults. Uncertain, Tino asked him why she was being invited.

“You’ve gotten stronger, I think it might be time for you to join us,” he said.

How sweet those words sounded. Tino agreed, not that she ever had a choice in the first place.

As she expected, she was put through hell. The treasure vault was one capable of giving even Grieving Souls a run for their money. There was nothing Tino could do. The other hunters were busy fighting and didn’t plan on protecting her. She ended up devoting all her energy to running around like a cockroach.

Thanks to this experience, Tino learned just how powerless she still was and that there was no meaning in comparing herself to weaker hunters. But even Tino couldn’t stop herself from complaining after this ordeal. Her master seemed deeply apologetic.

“Sorry, I was certain you would be able to handle that treasure vault. I guess I miscalculated,” he said.

Her master was a god, and he was a fierce one.

“But I was really off the mark this time,” Krai said meaningfully. “I thought of her as being a fledgling, but she’s really a proper hunter.”

Tino somehow found herself a bit embarrassed by this.

“Well, she is an adult now. But don’t think you can lay a hand on her, she’s mine.”

Tino only just barely fought back the urge to speak up and object to belonging to Siddy.

She wasn’t really interested in Tino, her sights were on Krai. She wasn’t worried about Tino being taken, she was worried about Tino taking Krai. But that was a minor difference as far as Siddy was concerned. She was wary of Tino, and Siddy was not someone you wanted as an enemy.

She was put through all sorts of trouble and it only became worse after she began delving into treasure vaults.

She had been poisoned, struck by lightning, set ablaze, and had her limbs cut off. Tino learned the durability of the human body. She learned how to resist pain and overcome fear. She became Grand Tino. Her master might have still seen her as Medium Tino, or maybe he even still saw her as Small Tino, but she wanted to believe she was now Grand Tino.

Her training was still strenuous and she still had close brushes with death, but now she knew that wasn’t enough. To join Grieving Souls, she couldn’t just satisfy her training regiment, she had to advance. She had put herself in peril. She was certain, the key difference between her and Lizzy was the number of gauntlets they had survived. Her master, the god that he was, had given Tino Trials to overcome. But Lizzy walked alongside that god.

Tino had to think. Evolve Greed hadn’t just given her a temporary boost, it showed her what was possible for her. Super Tino was the future that awaited her. Super Tino would be the fruit of her efforts. This meant that her effort and determination still weren’t enough. How deep the world of treasure hunting was!

When Tino first decided to become a hunter, she only felt a faint admiration for the profession. Even after all the trials and tribulations she had been through, that admiration hadn’t faded one bit.

One day, she would be the best hunter. Then she would walk alongside her master as an equal. She would do anything to achieve that goal. She couldn’t let herself falter.

By the way, what did “Small Tino” and “Super Tino” and those other names even mean? 

Tino fortified her resolve as she continued to feign sleep. She felt a hand brush against her hair, making her heart skip a beat. Then her master said something alarming.

“Oh, maybe it’s time she learned the Stifled Shadow? She might be able to win against Arnold if she used that.”

Tino froze. The Stifled Shadow was the name of a combat technique created by a famous Thief. It let one move so fast as to not even leave a shadow behind. The trade-off was that it was difficult and risky. Very few people knew it.

Lizzy held the title of the same name because she’d learned the technique from her mentor. The Stifled Shadow was such a difficult move that just learning it warranted a title. But it was also a move in which failure resulted in a ruptured heart. Overuse could also result in death.

“She could die,” Siddy said after a brief silence.

“You’re exaggerating. Tino should be fine. She might be in danger if something like this happens again. And, uh, maybe Ansem could manage something if we keep him nearby?”

Master, that’s too much, Tino thought. That’s absurd. Even Ansem can’t heal a ruptured heart.

Oblivious to Tino’s silent terror, Siddy clapped her hands.

“Very well. If you think it’s fine, I suppose we can give it a shot. Don’t worry, it might be a shame to lose her, but I won’t let T’s death be for nothing.”

Siddy, please try a bit harder.

Resigned to her fate, Tino opened her eyes and slowly sat up.