by Yuu Tanaka
“—”
That blast of energy, and Unleash Potential, had taken this man’s speech.
Are you inside of me?
He nodded.
Are you the voice I heard on the first day of my reincarnation?
He nodded.
I knew it. Now, there was something I absolutely needed to ask.
Who are you?
The question had been on my mind since I got here.
He heaved a sigh and shook his head. Explaining himself was going to be difficult.
Will we meet again?
The man pointed up, and I followed his gaze. The ceiling had disappeared, and the moon was hanging above me.
The moon…?
Why now?
I recalled that our first conversation was on my first day of reincarnation, before the episode with Unleash Potential. That meant it was around the time of the last Festival of the Moons. And now the festival had come again.
Does it have something to do with the Festival of the Moons?
He nodded.
I was right. Which meant—
Will we meet again at the next one?
The man grinned, and then stuck up his thumb.
He was fading now, and I was sad that it was over so fast.
Wait, I still have questions!
The man replied with another bow of apology. Then, he vanished. Our time had run out.
Just when we’re getting to the good part!
And with that final yell…
Huh…
Uhh, what happened?
My sight cleared along with my thoughts.
I looked around and found that I was still in the kitchen. There was unfinished curry bread in front of me.
Was that a dream? I didn’t know a sword could dream. I didn’t need sleep—couldn’t, in fact, even if I wanted to. Did I daydream then? It felt like something similar had happened in the past…
I checked the clock. Not a single minute had gone by. I felt like I had been spirited away.
Was I really dreaming…?
Despite my doubts, I was sure my vision was no dream. That man existed, and we’d actually had that conversation via charades.
The next Festival of the Moons is in three months. I hope you’ll feel like talking by then, mister.
He said he was inside me. I was sure that he could hear.
***
“I heard something went wrong with our plans again. What is going on?”
“I’d like to know myself. I sent one of the Ythra thugs over to the orphanage, but he came back spouting nonsense.”
“What kind of nonsense?”
“He said he was suffering from a deadly disease, and it was his last day on earth. I knocked some sense into him, though.”
“And then? Don’t tell me that was enough to put a stop to all our plans.”
“Of course not. But then something happened during the ritual. The mercenaries haven’t returned.”
“Mercenaries? You mean my men?”
“Yes. You said I could use them however I saw fit, did you not? So I obliged. I think his name was Boran.”
“Ah, Boran. He’s strong, but he also has a good head on his shoulders. He has accomplished more than all my other subordinates. You’re saying he failed?”
“He hasn’t reported back, that’s for sure.”
“Something’s going on out there.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“Boran should have no trouble dealing with the city guards and low-rank adventurers. There has to be someone else involved…”
“Indeed. Either way, we were unable to either kidnap Charlotte or stop the Fiend Crusher ritual. The slum folk who consumed the Fiend Water are mostly cleansed of its effects now.”
“Damn it. Could things get any worse?”
“Don’t go about tempting fate. Our Cure Turmeric was stolen, Charlotte got away, the people have been purified…”
“It’s like someone knows our plans… Or is it coincidence?”
“I don’t know… It would appear our plans are being scuttled by someone who knows of them. Actually, the Chimera Soul I had delivered to the Ythra Trade Association was stolen the other day.”
“Really?”
“I asked my contact, since delivery was taking too long. Apparently, it was sent with the Cure Turmeric.”
“You mean to say that whoever stole the Cure Turmeric also stole the Chimera Soul?”
“Most likely. Those fools at Ythra are saying they’ll make it up to me and find another bottle…”
“One that can match the Soul Essence of a Chimera? I doubt it. That thing’s worth millions—no, even more. You destroyed everything else when you left the Raydossian Alchemist Guild.”
“I know. This is why I detest working with laymen. I made it very clear that I wanted it found, but I doubt if they’ll have any luck.”
“We’ll have to reformulate our plans.”
“We have no other choice.”
“How I wish these strange occurrences would stop.”
Chapter 4:
Underbelly
A day had passed since the main event, but the Festival of the Moons was just beginning.
With all the ritual prayers now offered to the gods, the people were now free to enjoy themselves. The city was bustling with events, including a beauty pageant open to both men and women—not that Fran was interested.
We labored with our cooking late into the night and went straight to the Adventurers’ Guild in the morning. There was someone we were looking for.
“Morning, Fran. I got you your salesgirl hopefuls like I promised.”
Colbert was going to introduce us to people who could help run our stall. The three applicants, all girls, stood behind him.
“Hello.”
“’Sup.”
“Hey.”
None of them condescended to Fran, despite her tender age. After all, she was going to be their employer, so they were professional enough to bow their heads. The girls seemed familiar somehow.
“These are the Crimson Maidens, a D-Rank party.”
“We meet again.”
It was the adventuring party we rescued from bandits on our way home from the Crystal Cage. The Crimson Maidens turned out to be a D-Rank party. Adventurer ranking system was split into solo and party, and Fran fell under the solo category. Her rank indicated her strength as an individual. Party rank, on the other hand, reflected the combined strength of the party’s members. Combined, these three had the capabilities of a D-Rank adventurer. They had well-balanced frontline and backline setups, and a good reputation for clearing missions.
What surprised me most were all their commerce-related skills. You didn’t see much of that among adventurers.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Judith, the leader,” a woman with long blue hair said, shaking Fran’s hand. “My father was a street peddler, and he used to drag me everywhere with him when I was a kid. That’s where I learned Cooking and Trade.”
Her earliest memories were of watching her father hawk his wares. She must’ve picked up Cooking at some point in their travels. Judith was as pretty as she was polite. Having her run the register would be enough to bring in the customers.
“I’m Maya. I do chores for the party.” A girl with short red hair bowed her head. Her relaxed pace was at odds with her roguish appearance. She explained that she managed the party’s cooking, equipment, and food while they were in a dungeon. Skill-wise, she was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, but she had Negotiate, Calculate, and Cooking, which was perfect for us. She was beautiful, too. She would do great as a salesgirl.
“Lydia,” said the last girl.
She looked quite like Fran. Black hair, pale skin, blank expression. Her hair flowed all the way to her waist, but she was similar to Fran in all other aspects. Although it went without saying that Fran was much cuter.
“…”
“…”
Lydia
and Fran stared at each other. Neither of their faces moved, and an odd air flowed around them.
“…”
Fran tilted her head to the side.
Lydia dropped to all fours and hung her head. “I lost…!”
“Lydia, what are you doing?”
Judith was surprised at her friend’s sudden collapse.
“She has me beat. She’s not making up her expression, she really is that cool!”
“I see…”
“And if the rumors of the Swordceress are true, then she’s already a better swordsman than me and has mastered Flame Magic. She’s so young…”
She knew a lot about Fran. Then again, maybe this was a side effect of fame. I didn’t know whether it was good or bad…
“I’m infinitely inferior to her. The only thing differentiating us is the length of our hair.”
“Come on now, you’re much taller than she is.”
“The Swordceress is still growing. It won’t take long for her to surpass my height.”
“O-okay, maybe that’s true. But you have the God of Wisdom’s Blessing, don’t you? It’s the name of a Skill that she has,” Judith explained as she consoled her comrade.
The Skill allowed Lydia to increase Magic and Knowledge-type skills faster. A useful skill for any adventurer. Lydia also possessed a skill called Magic Circle, which allowed her to create amulets. Very interesting.
“She has Calculate because it’s a prerequisite for Magic Circle. She doesn’t have Cooking, but she does have Compounding.”
“I-I’ll work really hard, I promise!”
“Me too.”
We’d caught a glimpse of their work ethic during the caravan incident. Colbert was willing to vouch for them, too. They were competent, and I couldn’t have asked for better candidates.
We hired them and got right down to negotiating rates. Unfortunately, we were ignorant of the going rates, but Colbert clarified for us. His B-Rank wasn’t just for show.
Between us, we decided that meals would be included for the duration of their employment, along with a payment of 10,000G each. At 30,000G, I wondered if the price was too low, but there wasn’t much danger involved in being a salesgirl. On the contrary, 30,000G was plenty.
We were used to hunting monsters above our Adventurer Rank, after all. Our financial values were slightly dulled because of it. The girls’ main motivation was to get three days’ worth of free food. It would seem that Colbert had informed them about the great dishes Fran’s master was capable of. I was thankful, just as long as they did their jobs.
“For Colbert to give you such a rave review—we must try it.”
“It’s gonna be good. I know it.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Ugh. I’m so jealous…” Colbert’s eyes turned green with envy. “Say…you wouldn’t happen to have any other slots open, would you?” the gourmet pugilist asked.
I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have anything in particular that we needed help with…
“I’m the one offering help, so think of it as volunteer work. No pay required. Just let me eat some of your master’s cooking.”
He was so driven by his appetite that he reminded me of my two travelling companions. We’d never had a B-Rank in our midst before, so I supposed we could let him handle whatever chores came up.
“If you don’t mind working on chores, sure.”
“R-really? Yes!”
“We look forward to working for you.”
“See you tomorrow!”
Now we had a team of four helpers for our food stall.
We went back to preparing for the contest as soon as we returned from the guild. We were at the final stages, now. The outside of the curry bread was prepared, as well as the filling, so all we needed to do was wrap and fry them. It would be our most difficult step.
Fran couldn’t concentrate on anything that took too long, so I was alone on this one. The bread bubbled and crackled as it fried to a golden brown.
Wow, it’s already dark out. I didn’t even notice.
I had been concentrating since mid-morning. The sun was already setting.
That took longer than I expected.
Fran and Jet were training on what used to be the restaurant floor. I asked them not to make too much of a ruckus, so they spent their time practicing their spells, casting and drawing three-dimensional shapes in the air. It wasn’t so much training as play, and I doubted Fran saw it as such. I thought I’d bring them some snacks for being a good beastgirl and direwolf.
Hm?
As I was preparing Fran’s tea and cookies, I sensed the appearance of an odd presence. Fran sensed it as well, ceasing her practice to look around.
Looks like we have guests.
Our guests weren’t difficult to notice. They’d concealed their presence while approaching the building, but their sheer number made it futile. They might as well have walked right in.
“Should I grab them?”
Wait, they might want something.
As yet, we didn’t know what. One of them came around to the back door and knocked. His brazenness made me wonder who we were dealing with. Fran carefully answered it.
“Who is it?”
“Sorry for coming so late. I wanted to ask you a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Yes, I’d really appreciate it if we could talk for a few minutes.”
He sounded like a gentleman. That was as far as it went, though. His bad intentions were seeping through, and I could tell his manners were only skin-deep.
I looked out the window to see what our fake gentleman looked like. He was dressed like a mild-mannered merchant. He looked like he didn’t have a single bad bone in his body. He would’ve tricked us too, if my Evil Sense hadn’t kicked in.
A quick Identify revealed the rottenness of his character. His Class was listed as Fraud, and he had the Skills Threaten, Lie, and Counterfeit. A bad man indeed. He wasn’t physically imposing, but it didn’t make him any less dangerous.
“What do you want?”
“I’d appreciate it if you would let me in.”
“Can’t you just talk from there?”
“Our conversation might go on for a while.”
As Fran stalled, I continued my observation from the window. His friends were hiding in the shadows, but it was no use against my Night Vision and Presence Sense.
The majority of them were weak. Bandit class, with the skills Mug and Steal. The only one we had to keep a lookout for was the single high-level Assassin leading them. He wasn’t particularly strong, though he had the element of surprise on his side. He should be no problem once he was stripped of that, though.
What should we do? The man at the door hadn’t done anything yet…aside from surrounding the place with his bandits, of course. It was safe to say that he didn’t have our best interests in mind, but would we be in trouble for striking first? I already felt like the situation was enough to warrant self-defense. Anyone could see we were dealing with crooks.
Fran, let him in and don’t let him get away. I’ll go take care of our guests outside.
“Hm. Okay.”
“Thank you so much for your understanding!” the fraud answered happily, mistaking Fran’s response for an invitation.
“Come in.”
“If you’ll excuse me.”
He walked through the door. Jet circled around and lay in front of the doorway, blocking his escape. Even though Jet had made himself smaller, he was still a wolf. Plenty intimidating for a Fraud with no battle prowess. He seemed nonchalant about it, but I caught him stealing a glance in Jet’s direction.
“Oh, wow. That’s a…real cute puppy you have there.”
“Huh? Jet’s a wolf.”
“R-really?”
“Wolf-type monster.”
“A-a monster?”
“He’s my familiar. Really strong. Can kill people easy,” Fran said, latching the door closed.
She was pressuring the con ma
n now, and his facade finally cracked. A grimace appeared at the corner of his fake smile.
I exited the house before the con man could find me. Using the Space-Time spell Short Jump, I transported myself behind the bandits and observed the situation. I didn’t know whether to attack them, wondering whether I should knock them out and find out what I could from them. Then again, I could kill the entire party and just leave the Assassin alive for interrogation…
“Do we really need an army to take this little girl down?”
“Just in case, you know.”
“Well, it’s a pain in the ass! We should’ve just skipped the talkin’ and got right to killin’.”
“We have our orders, man. Besides, you know she’s gonna stink if you kill her first.”
“Promise me we’ll have some fun while she’s still kicking and screaming.”
“Heh heh. Don’t you worry. We will.”
Well, then. “She’s gonna stink if you kill her first.” Really? I didn’t see the point to letting these scumbags live. I would be doing the rest of the world a favor. What “fun” did these people have planned in store for Fran, anyway? Whatever it was, she was never going to know.
Hey.
“Who’s—”
Die.
I decapitated the idiot robber’s head before he could finish and quickly disposed of it. None of them expected an ambush, and despite having Danger Sense, they couldn’t react fast enough. These scumbags were as good as trash.
I worked quickly. The robbers might have been weak, but the Assassin had Presence Sense. His disappearing comrades wouldn’t go unnoticed. I methodically cut each of them down, and one by one they fell. All in a day’s work.
By the time I killed the fourth, the Assassin and the remaining two robbers had finally noticed something was off. They were disturbed, but as they argued among themselves about what to do, I took them out, too.
With the weaker robbers dead, I paralyzed the Assassin with Lightning Magic. He was still vaguely conscious, but I knocked him the rest of the way out with a telekinetic jab to the head.
All right. Back inside.
I floated the Assassin inside and hid him away in a corner of the shop.
“We’d like you to return it to us,” said the Fraud. He was just getting to the meat of his discussion.