by Funa
Naturally, these modest business owners could not afford to hire drivers and would be in charge of driving their wagons themselves.
“Looks like those are the ones. Well then, let’s hurry up and introduce ourselves. We can continue our conversation about finding Pauline’s replacement after we depart…”
Snap!
“Huh?”
Grindgrindgrindgrind…
“O-ow, owwwwww!”
She was not truly in agony, but Mile cried out, unsettled by the phantom—or was it only emotional?—pain.
“What is this talk about ‘Pauline’s replacement,’ huh?!”
Mile whipped around to see Pauline, the veins bulging in her forehead.
“Why were you trying to leave without me?!”
Trembling at Pauline’s face of pure rage, Mile could only stare, her mouth opening and closing but no sound emerging.
Mavis, thankfully, tossed her a lifeline.
“B-but, Pauline, we thought you were going to be rebuilding the shop along with your mother and brother…”
Pauline replied with a sour expression. “My mother managed the shop alongside my father. As long as she’s there, they’ll be fine. There are older employees who stayed behind and held things together for my mother’s sake, and those who quit will probably come back. Plus, since I’m the one who reclaimed the shop, having me stick around would actually cause a lot of problems. We’d be bound to get people rushing in to say ridiculous things and offering sneaky marriage proposals…”
“Whoa.”
The life of a merchant was, the other three thought, a frightening one.
“In any case, it’s better for everyone if I’m not there. My little brother is officially the successor, but his position would be weakened if I stuck around. I won’t be near them, but if any evildoers try to lay a hand upon my family or the shop, I can be the mysterious long-lost daughter who appears—along with her plucky friends. That’s enough for me.”
“………”
Whether Pauline was mincing words, or whether all this was true, they could not be certain. However, it didn’t really matter either way.
Pauline was still sulking a bit, her cheeks puffed out.
But then, Mile flung her arms around her, burying her face into Pauline’s chest, and her pout began to waver.
“Nn…”
Tears formed in the corners of Pauline’s eyes and slowly began to flow, marking her cheeks. She wrapped both arms around Mile’s back and squeezed her tight.
“Uuh, wuh, wahh…”
A relieved, happy grin spread across Mavis’s face.
Mile pulled away from Pauline’s chest, grinning wide, the trails of tears still wet upon her cheeks.
Even Reina, unable to fully conceal her joy, looked on with a peculiar expression, her smile shining in her eyes.
“Now then, we had better get going. I don’t think the Crimson Vow will be splitting up for a while yet,” Reina said.
They all let out a cheer.
“Yeah!!!”
As soon as they received confirmation of their wages, per the job request, the merchant caravan began to move. Yet just as they were setting off, before they had even made it past the city limits, Count Austien and his two sons came rushing up, breathless.
“W-wait, please wait, Mavis!”
The four girls grimaced, sensing that trouble was once again on the horizon.
The merchants could not possibly ignore the count calling to them, so they stopped the wagons. With little choice now, the Crimson Vow hopped down to face the men.
“What is it, Father? I thought we had concluded our discussion…”
“Oh, yes. I fully acknowledge that. I don’t want to acknowledge it, and I don’t want to let you go, but I know I must. I won’t try and complain about it now. But there’s something else I’d like to talk to you about. Please, won’t you formally introduce me to your master?”
“Huh?”
“Your honorable master is incredibly strong. However, I don’t believe she has been formally instructed in technique, so there is little form to complement her immense physical ability. It’s regrettable—indeed, it’s painful to see! I was hoping to formally invite her into our household, so that we might facilitate a mutual exchange of skills…
“My thought was that I could instruct her in technique, and that in turn, your master could impart upon me the means by which I might attain such a superior physical form. That way, we could both become leagues stronger than we are now! Your master claims to be purely human. If that is the case, then might she still be young? If she were to wed a member of our family, then the future of the Austien line would be secure! Wouldn’t it be splendid for you and your master to become kin? What do you think? It’s a splendid idea, is it not? Now please, let me know how I might contact her!”
“Please, Mavis!”
“All we want is to be introduced!”
Waylon and Ewan bowed their heads as well. Certainly, the figure of this so-called “Master” suited the tastes of the men of the Austien line.
“Wh…?”
The Crimson Vow were stunned.
To tell the truth, they understood what the count was saying. But whether or not they thought it permissible was another matter.
From the count’s point of view, this proposal was not strange at all. In fact, this line of thought was only natural for the head of a militaristic clan.
What Mavis and the others were startled about was something else entirely.
Have they seriously not figured out who “Evening-Gown Mask” is with Mile standing right in front of them?!?!?!
Her mask from the match hadn’t even been enhanced with any sort of identity-obscuring magic.
Mile thought, I-Is this “the will of the world”? The “compelling forces” and “pre-established harmony” that (the so-called) God was talking about?!
Of course, this was not truly the case.
They were simply incredibly dense.
That was all there was to it.
Mavis managed to wave off the count’s request, telling her father to “Ask me about it the next time we meet.”
After that, the merchant caravan returned to the capital, largely without incident.
Well, at the very least, they weren’t attacked. If there were any trade routes that were attacked that frequently, anyway, no one would ever use them. And if a certain route did get that way, then commerce would grind to a halt, and the king or lords would send out a large-scale extermination force.
Normally, so as not to obstruct commerce, bandits aimed only for stupid merchants who were too cheap to invest in an escort, or weak targets that the king or lords would have no interest in. Normally.
Within the wagon, Mile and Mavis received a lecture from Reina.
“There is something that I need to say to the two of you…”
While the two of them wondered what this something might be, Reina continued.
“I’m sorry, but pickled cabbage is delicious! Especially when you eat it with boiled sausage!”
It was a completely frivolous topic.
“Or, when eaten as a snack along with ale…”
Why was she so invested in this pickled cabbage?
Not wanting to cross-examine their friend, Mile and Mavis sat quietly, listening respectfully to Reina’s sermon.
Their return to the guildhall also passed with little incident.
Theresa would be handling the report to the guild. As a result, there was no need for the Crimson Vow to do anything. All they had to do was receive the job completion approval for their escort job and collect their pay.
Theresa sneakily tried to collect pay for the job as well, but she was told that her portion would go to the guild master “because she was still on guild business.” Needless to say, she was quite vexed…
“We’re back!!”
As always, Mile called out when they entered the inn.
However, Lenny did not greet th
em in return with a cheerful voice, as she usually did.
Thinking this peculiar, Mile looked to the counter, only to see that no one was sitting there.
“Hm, I wonder if she’s in the bathroom?” Mile pondered, tilting her head.
Just then, the sound of pounding feet came from further within the inn, and Lenny came flying out.
“M-M-M-M-M-Miss Miiiiiiiiiiile!!”
Lenny flung her arms around her, letting out a sob.
“Wh-what’s wrong?!” Mile asked, startled.
Lenny explained through her tears.
She was at the end of her rope, and it was all thanks to the baths.
After the Crimson Vow had left the capital, Lenny went to seek out a mage on behalf of her busy parents.
Even if, proportionally speaking, magic-users were relatively rare, this was still the capital. About one in ten people was good enough at magic for it to be useful in their work, and about one in every few dozen skilled enough to earn a full-time living. With a population as large as that of the capital, there should be a fair number of such people around. Furthermore, many magic-users came from their home regions to live in the capital, meaning that there was an even greater abundance of talented workers, many of whom could be found around the local shops and factories, and at the hunters’ guild.
There was no need for them to worry about maintaining a reserve of magic when they were safe in the capital, particularly if they were a hunter. Even if they had stored away any magical energy just in case of an emergency, they should have no problem using most of it up by dinnertime or so. If they slept, it would all be replenished by the next morning, so it should have been well worth helping Lenny just to earn a little pocket money for booze and snacks.
At least, that should have been the case, and indeed, there were tons of people willing to take on the job.
However, this was where the troubles began.
The amount of water that your average mage could produce was very little.
Seeing how easily Mile had always been able to do it, Lenny had assumed that producing hot water with magic was rather simple, but in truth, it was quite a chore.
When one attempted to produce water with magic, unless another means was specified, the nanomachines in the area that the magic—or rather, the thought pulse—reached had to condense the water particles from the air. Until the temperature reached freezing, the water could not be completely extracted and would automatically be cut off at a moderate level. Therefore, people whose thought pulses had a short reaction range would not be able to produce very much water.
To obtain a larger supply, water had to be transported from a different place, typically by aerial means.
The distance of the water source also factored into this. If it was transported from the ocean, then the salt would have to be removed before it could be transferred. For particularly large amounts, this was not an instantaneous transfer, and the transmission formation would need to be maintained over a long period. Unless one gave extremely concrete instructions, the strength of the thought pulse and powers of visualization required to persuade the nanomachines to properly arrange this shot way up.
Therefore, for all but the most accomplished magicians, the amount of water produced would be limited to what was in the air in the immediate vicinity, which is to say, not very much. Once that water was removed from the air, subsequent attempts to draw water would prove fruitless, until the air currents moved to bring in new air that was full of moisture.
In other words, executing the magic necessary to draw out large amounts of water was quite difficult, and your garden-variety mage could produce only a little. That was the sum of things.
In fact, a simple way to gauge a magic-user’s abilities was simply to ask, “How much water can you produce, how many times can you do so in a row, and, how long does it take before you can draw water again?”
In conclusion, if one could only draw water from the air around oneself, it would be impossible to draw enough water to fill up an entire bath in one go. Plus, it would take some time for the moisture in the air to replenish itself, by which point the mage’s power would have dissipated. As the amount of mages the inn had to employ increased, the cost of the free food and drink they provided them had ballooned.
In response to this, the matron of the establishment had handed a hellish decree to her daughter.
“Let the magicians focus on using their powers for heating the water alone. As for retrieving it, Lenny, you can go draw it from the well…”
“I’m dying! I’m definitely going to die! Please, Miss Mile! You have to do something!!!”
“Ah…”
As far as Lenny was concerned, the fact that the bathtub was large was a curse. Filling it even halfway probably required countless trips back and forth to the well. Plus, it was not only the baths, but the reservoirs above as well, and filling them with water was quite difficult.
If things continued this way, in half a year, Lenny’s body would be strong enough for her to become a splendid hunter…
No, no, no, no, no!
The Crimson Vow all shook their heads in unison.
They truly were four peas in a pod.
For now, as a temporary countermeasure, they would partition off the baths.
One part of the large tub was sectioned off into a portion about the size of two of the bathtubs in an average Japanese household. When Mile and the others were not present, only this side would be used. It would still require a great amount of water to fill it, but considerably less compared to all the trips Lenny had been making up until then. That, combined with a little help from the magic-users, should make Lenny’s job a great deal easier.
“Th-thank you so much! Honestly, I really thought I was going to die!!”
The problem behind her ordeal had not been entirely solved, but at least when the Crimson Vow was present, she wouldn’t need to worry about it. Lenny looked greatly relieved— even more when Pauline tossed her another lifeline.
“It isn’t very efficient to use you for such a menial task when you can do so many other things around the inn, is it, Lenny? Wouldn’t it be better for you to continue your job as a receptionist and hire some orphan children to carry the water from the well? Orphans will work for cheap, and as long as they can earn enough money to buy food, then they’re happy, aren’t they? Hiring mages to produce the water must be a lot more expensive.”
Hearing this, a glimmer formed in Lenny’s eyes.
“M-my Goddess…”
And so, thanks to the black-hearted goddess, Lenny was saved from a life of pain—and a future as a beefy macho man.
“Now, that just leaves Mile…” Reina muttered suddenly, after a short rest in their room.
“Yeah,” said Mavis.
“You’re right…” Pauline agreed.
“Huh?”
Mile stared blankly.
“I’m saying that now that the troubles with Pauline and Mavis’s households are settled, that just leaves your folks, Mile. Pauline and Mavis’s situations were resolved in part thanks to you, so now it’s only right for the two of them to do something to help with your situation, don’t you think?”
“Yes!” said Pauline.
“Yeah, of course!” Mavis agreed.
However, Mile did not appear pleased.
“Oh… But, I’m being sought after by the king and princess back in my home country, you know? And if they say I have to take a husband, in order to continue my family’s line, I’ll have to give up being a hunter…”
“Well then, if you’re sure… Let’s take a break for a few days, and after that, we can start our next job!”
“Good idea. I hope we can find something fun this time!”
“That sounds good! Let’s pick something worthwhile—not something basic like goblin hunting!”
Somehow, it seemed that their previous topic had been thrown completely by the wayside.
Interludes
1. A Difficult T
own to Live In
In a certain town, a man who had been swindled out of his money was being comforted by his friends.
“Do you plan on just lying here and crying yourself to sleep?” his friend asked.
“Of course not!” the man answered. “I’m still in pauling right now, but even I have crimsonian friends at my side. Soon enough, I’ll make a pauline-about happen!”
In this town, thanks to one particular incident, a number of special idiomatic phrases had come into use.
“Pauling”: n., adj. lying in wait, devising; or, plotting a counterattack.
“Crimsonian”: adj. merciless, and with an inhuman level of supporting strength.
“Pauline-about”: n. a disproportionate retribution.
This town was an incredibly difficult place for anyone named Pauline to live…
2. Ambition
“Now then, please carry the water from this well to both the bathtubs and the water supply up top that I showed you before.”
At little Lenny’s directions, the six orphans before her nodded dutifully.
After much trouble, Lenny had finally convinced her parents, who were beginning to grow concerned about how long the counter had gone unattended, to let her bring on some orphans for when the Crimson Vow was out of town.
The pay was low, but for children who were guild hopefuls—particularly those who lacked the funds for regular meals—the job was a godsend. The job was not dangerous, it would strengthen their bodies, it went on for several days, and they would earn enough money to eat for a few days after it was over. Plus, even once their tasks were done, they could return at the next opportunity, and there was the possibility that more clients would start hiring orphans for similar tasks in the future.
And so, the orphans paid even Lenny, who was barely older than they were, the full respect due a client.
Their pay was calculated not by the hour, but by the task. In other words, they were paid once all the work was done. It didn’t