Chapter 12: [Short Story] S Class

Shizuko POV

"Ceres-kun, that's great."

"Well, I can handle this much."

Having said that, Ceres-kun put the Ogre King and 30 other ogres into the storage bag.

Really, his smile is really cute and adorable.

"Ceres-kun, you are so strong!"

S-class is a category for extraordinary people.

They exceed A-levels and have no common sense other than that.

In other words, even if a person is a little beyond A level, and even if 50 A-levels can't match him/her, he/she's an S-level.

Well, the member of my former party are all S-class, but still, they are not this extraordinary.

Surely, we can take down the Ogre King one-on-one, but if there are 30 other Ogres, even with all four of us together, there's a good chance we'll all be wiped out.

However, he alone can do it...

Is he really weaker than Zect?

"I had to earn money solo, so I've been hunting a lot..."

"Ceres-kun, why did you have to worry about money when you belonged to the hero party?"

"Even though I'm in a party, I don't get support money because I'm not a member of any of the four jobs, so I have to support myself."

"So, while you joined Zect and the others in their battle to defeat the Demon King, you were also hunting for other commissions to earn your own living... is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah, I had no choice."

I wonder if he did it because my three friends and I asked him to care for our son or daughter.

And from what I've heard, it must have been very hard working to do all the chores on top of doing two jobs simultaneously.

"I'm sorry... it's because we asked you to do it, right?"

"You don't have to apologize, Shizuko-san... Because I'm the one who decided that I wanted to go along with them as a friend, not as a father."

"That's very kind of you to say so. Still, I'm sorry, and thank you."

"It's okay. I just went along with them because I like you."

"So I have a question for Ceres-kun? What's the biggest thing you've ever hunted?"

Well, he must've hunted something pretty big if he could destroy a pack of Ogre Kings.

"Is it a dragon? Well, wyverns, earth dragons, rock dragons, water dragons... maybe these are the biggest ones."

"Um... are you weaker than Zect and the others if you can hunt such big ones?"

"I honestly don't know. Besides, I didn't join the four of them, and I was hunting small fry from afar to get rid of them, so I don't know, but I'm sure they're stronger than me since they're a member of the hero party."

"I see, but if you have hunted dragons, why haven't you qualified as a 'Dragon Slayer'?"

"I didn't have time to get a medal or a title because I was traveling from a trip to a trip with a hero party."

"I'm sorry... let's ask about that next time."

"Yes, that's right."

I heard that some of the heroes were so weak that they couldn't hunt the dragon species.

Considering that, I don't think there's that much difference between Ceres-kun and Zect.

Because Ceres-kun is much stronger than the S-class.