Enter, Pursued by a Memory
Enter, Pursued by a Memory
Yen Tie and that guy whose arm got cut off, too—just as I was thinking that this was the season for running into people you figured had gone their separate ways, the woman who guided us to a roughly arranged guest table brought out warm tea.
The appearance of the woman with her red hair tied up, wearing glasses—a rarity in Itisel—had changed a lot from my last memory, too. Her attire was clean, and the dark circles that used to fill the undersides of her eyes and the venom that lurked beyond them had vanished without a trace.
Having finished the brief preparations for conversation, she sat down across from us, noticed my gaze, and showed a sheepish smile, her attitude distinctly different from back then.
"I wasn't in any state for a proper introduction back then. I'm called Siel. I'm currently working for the guild, managing the village's personnel."
She looked a bit exhausted, but it was only fatigue from work—she still had some composure. Anyway, to end up in a guild management position in that short a time... I'd thought she was a woman of some nerve, but I guessed she had the skills to match.
"I'm Eldmia Ega. This is Asilie. We received a support request from the capital and came as red-rank adventurers. I don't know if you've been well... but you look healthy."
I didn't tack on any unnecessary pleasantries about it being a relief. Surviving while the village got wrecked wasn't something you could call a relief, and just being alive didn't mean you were doing well. I couldn't tell if she'd grasped my intent, but Siel simply nodded lightly without any particular remark and answered.
"I'm getting by. Recently I've been racking my brains over work, but now that Eldmia has arrived, things might improve a bit."
"I heard briefly from someone named Ikop out front. He said monster attacks have been frequent."
"That's correct. Goblins coming in packs was a problem, but... orcs have appeared recently, and the damage is increasing bit by bit."
According to Siel's explanation, the village currently had only sixty residents, six professional builders, two clergy with Divine Power and two without, and for combat personnel, ten mercenaries and twenty adventurers. Even most of the residents were of working age, contracted to help with labor in exchange for benefits when they moved in after the village was fully completed later—so this was a considerably large-scale project.
When the village was finished, it would definitely be a scale that could comfortably house over two hundred people. But putting that future matter aside, I decided to ask about what was immediately hard for me to understand first.
"Could you tell me what grades the adventurers from Raviel are?"
Goblins were genuinely troublesome, it was true. Because those little monsters weren't just filthy—they had the cunning to use their filth as a weapon and the strength of about a child.
Just the sight of something that wouldn't even reach your waist crouching low and trying to slash at your legs was threatening enough, but imagine dozens of them. Sure, they might be officially recognized as the absolute bottom of the monster food chain—certified fucking pushovers—but if you couldn't position yourself skillfully, you'd be surrounded in an instant, pelted with stones at range, and beaten to death with shit-smeared weapons up close. That was the most common outcome.
But that threat only applied when the bastards were acting in a proper swarm, and at the same time, only when your own side was outnumbered.
Their stamina, speed, strength, intelligence—everything was ultimately at the level of brats, so if you knew how to handle them properly, you could slice them up with ease. In open terrain like this, even a single blue-rank adventurer could easily cut down twenty goblins, even if the goblins were throwing stones—so it went without saying how clear their limits were, the little shits.
And yet, the fact that these things coming in packs was a 'problem,' and that damage was gradually increasing now that orcs were appearing... from my perspective, I had no choice but to ask about the adventurers' skill level first. Because the only thing I could hear in this was that the Raviel Adventurer Guild had shamelessly requested red-ranks from the capital while staffing their own side with only blue and yellow-rank adventurers.
"Four are red-rank, ten are blue-rank, and the remaining six are yellow-rank."
Fortunately, the Raviel Adventurer Guild apparently wasn't quite that shameless.
"Then the adventurers who were injured this time..."
"Two yellow-ranks and the two blue-ranks leading them were injured. Aside from those four, there’s one red-rank adventurer who got a bit hurt handling a goblin pack alone when they first tried an all-out fight, one blue-rank adventurer laid up with an upset stomach, and two mercenaries injured fighting goblins—so another four people are sidelined."
Thirty people having to protect and fight for seventy non-combat personnel—it was a situation I could reasonably understand. I briefly folded away the distrust toward the Raviel Adventurer Guild that had been flaring up inside me and nodded.
"The Capital Adventurer's Guild also said they were willing to send additional personnel, so it doesn't seem like an immediate worry. Who should I talk to about work-related matters?"
"A red-rank adventurer named Bardena Bekhen and the mercenary captain, Kal Guls, are acting as the focal points. They're probably eating in the hall right now. Ah, now that you mention it, what will you do about meals? The ingredients are provided by Raviel, so you can take and use whatever you want, but if you're not cooking it yourself, it's set up so that an extra surcharge is added outside of designated hours."
It wasn't information I'd known beforehand, but it was something I'd fully anticipated. I pulled out the scroll I'd received from the guild and handed it to her. After unrolling it and reading the contents, Siel looked at me with an odd expression and asked.
"I'm telling you in advance, the adventurers and mercenaries are lodging and eating at the village hall."
"I figured as much."
"When they find out about this... I think the atmosphere might turn bad. Are you okay with that?"
I answered Siel's worried reaction with a smile. Her point was accurate, but that was none of my concern.
If they had complaints, they should take it up with the client.
◈
After that, I only exchanged a brief chat with Siel about recent news before leaving. It wasn't a very nutritious conversation. It was just things like how there were a few other people here besides herself, and some were staying in the gate city.
Still, she said there weren't any who dreamed of revenge.
As we left the temple, there was no need to ask for directions. Even though it was in the middle of a raging blizzard, the presence of the building was unmistakable, with numerous lights flickering close together, and the distance was closer than I'd thought.
At the entrance of the hall, where we arrived with Laika still excitedly leading the way, two men who were clearly mercenaries even at a glance stood like guards. The sight of them with their burly arm muscles exposed on this cold day seemed a bit insane, but the heat from inside the open entrance of the hall flowed out, so it apparently wasn't that freezing.
"...A face I haven't seen before? Who're you?"
Mm, judging by the short speech, the personality was mercenary average. Then I didn't need to bother with formalities either.
"We came on a support request from the Capital Adventurer's Guild. I spoke with the administrator at the temple, and they told me to meet someone here regarding business."
The two mercenaries, who had been slowly scanning me and Laika, saw Asilie and then, as if on cue, twisted their faces with jealousy and envy and spat on the ground. Only then did one of them shift slightly aside to indicate they wouldn't block the way, and spoke with a sullen expression.
"Go inside and find Bardena. The adventurers are managed by that guy. Look for a big blond guy who looks gloomy. Easy to find."
"A blond who looks gloomy?"
"You'll know when you see him."
Even if their speech was a bit short, these guys were at least decent enough that it ended with just spitting. If Seneran had been here, they definitely would've thrown a word in and crossed the line. Guys with filthy tempers would've kicked up some shit, too.
There was no need to get worn out from the start, so we nodded and went inside the hall, then without a moment's hesitation took off the cloaks we'd been wearing. The warmth made it perfectly understandable why those guys had been standing there in short sleeves. The architects must have poured their heart and soul into the heating when they built this hall.
"Pretty noisy for a place with injured people, huh?"
"Yeah. Guess it's not that serious."
Taking a light look around, the hall was absolute chaos, with dozens of people scattered everywhere as they pleased, eating and jabbering. Should I say it was like taking the hall of a successful inn, just making it bigger and slamming it down here? With tables arranged around a central bonfire, it felt exactly like those Viking halls I used to see in old dramas or games. Not just the layout, but the people eating, shouting, punching, and brawling—all included.
"Seeing how relaxed they are, Seneran might have been right after all."
There wasn't even any deliberate attempt to lighten the mood; they were just busy eating and drinking. Hm, so after partying like this, they all gathered right here in this hall to sleep, huh. I'd made a damn good call stipulating the lodging conditions in advance.
"Blond... blond... Ah, over there. The blond who looks gloomy."
"Big Sis, no matter what, that's a bit much... Oh, it's real."
At first, I thought it was just the mercenaries insulting his looks, but it wasn't. I looked where Asilie first pointed with her fingertip, and there really was a massively built blond man, eating quietly with a gloomy face like someone who'd just heard the world had ended.
It wasn't just his face that was gloomy, either—he was listlessly fiddling with his spoon with a momentum that could kill even the onlooker's appetite. It was astonishing that the people around him could keep laughing, chatting, and eating without paying him any mind.
"It's amazing there are people around him when he eats like that."
If the person who cooked the meal saw it, it was at a level where they'd smack him on the back of the head and demand to know if he had a problem with the food.