Blooming
Blooming
Maybe it was because I'd been through nothing but chaotic, mind-numbing days lately, but even though I was in a situation where I had to shop for demonkin who'd secretly crossed the border, my heart was more at ease than it had any right to be.
It was so peaceful it felt downright leisurely. So much so that my cheerful reaction made Seneran anxious instead.
"You're really okay, right? It's not that I don't trust you, but since this is strictly secret work, I can't help but be a little cautious, you know?"
"You've smuggled people in before, ma'am, and you're getting jumpy over this?"
"That was different. I handled that myself."
So she didn't trust me after all.
When I spoke with my eyes without bothering to voice it, Seneran laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her head.
"Well, don't worry too much. I'm a local here, after all."
"Even if you're a local, moving supplies around is visible, so it'll be tough..."
"I may not look it, but I was someone who received the head butler's favor in the Ogatorf household. Since you're so anxious, I suppose I ought to explain how I'll pull it off."
Just as one of the side jobs the butlers in my past life did as a matter of course was secretly clearing out and selling off surplus byproducts from the household, a similar culture existed here too.
The only difference was that the head butler position in the Ogatorf household was such a high-level personnel asset that there was no need for side work, so they'd allocate the profits skimmed that way into the family's assets and distribute them to the servants as a sort of performance bonus to manage loyalty.
Even though that process was carried out with absolutely no illegal components and through very normal procedures, as these things usually go, after doing it a few times, you inevitably start to see 'Huh? Couldn't I just quietly pocket this on the side?'
"As long as you don't try to move everything in one go, there's no problem. Don't worry."
On top of that, since Ogwen was still in the middle of rapidly expanding, there was so much money and food moving around that keeping close tabs on supply movements wasn't easy. With the scale growing and the number of mouths to feed increasing, getting a little extra food supplies on the side with Madam Alisha's help was child's play.
Sure, there'd be extra costs, but under the name of confidentiality fees, even Seneran wouldn't consider that a loss, so it was even less of an issue. After convincing Seneran with that short explanation, I took the money for the down payment, hitched up a cart horse, and headed for Ogwen.
Driving a cart leisurely without Laika or Asilie around genuinely felt like I'd come for convalescence, and with my heart starting to feel strangely buoyant, I arrived in Ogwen. Even though it was still early, quite a lot of people were moving about on the outskirts.
People repairing the city walls, people entering Ogwen, people leaving—they all had various purposes, but most of them were adventurers.
The number of people whose skills weren't good enough to go outside in winter and were working construction was not small, so for them, Ogwen was a pretty decent city. Gazing at the adventurers who were easy to distinguish from the stonemasons by some subtle difference in atmosphere even though they'd taken off all their gear, I entered the city and pounded the pavement as planned to go greet the familiar faces.
The city had changed, but the people who were there before remained the same... no, rather, they were doing even more prosperously and living in comfort.
Tex's clothing store, which used to only collect and sell used clothes, had grown so big he could keep one or two outfits made from silk flown in from Radan across the sea as display pieces, enough that his daughter-in-law Remiri ran a branch store. Milena was supplying foodstuffs to most of the restaurants in Ogwen's northern district. Yans's smithy had relocated entirely to do business catering to adventurers, doubling its size and apprentices, and the errand boy brats running around all over maintained at least a passable appearance.
It was fascinating in many ways how this place was growing prosperous as if it were a different world, while the rest of the world was in an uproar with the war against the demonkin and whatnot, but either way, it was a good thing for me.
Even though I'd been running around outside for years, the people of Ogwen still saw me as Eldmia, the errand boy with good hands. They rejoiced in my growth as much as their own success, and without nitpicking over this and that, they readily accepted my proposal.
"So, I think I'm gonna have to steal some of your food supplies, big sis."
"You little shit!! Say something like that in advance before you do it!!"
In truth, even Madam Alisha, who was the key to it all, didn't refuse—she just unleashed a torrent of curses while slapping my back, so my business was settled quite neatly.
As I laughed heartily and took a few smashes from the still overflowing-with-energy Madam Alisha, when I didn't even pretend it hurt, she shook her head and stopped the violence. She inevitably went into the kitchen to prepare food with the other kids and said to me,
"Sick my ass, you're perfectly fine. Is that all your business?"
"For now? Why? Is there something you need help with?"
"What's overflowing is working hands. It's nothing, but Jin asked if you could spare him some time sometime."
"Jin? Where is he?"
"These days he's mainly working at the adventurer guild stables. He's coming here in the evening anyway, so if he's not there, he'll come back."
Even though he started as a foreign worker, he was now acknowledged as Ogwen's number one most eligible bachelor, yet for some reason, far from getting married, he hadn't even secured proper lodgings and was holed up in one room of Madam Alisha's orphanage. Why was a guy like that looking for me?
I'd been through so many spectacular things lately that I briefly worried he might be getting tangled in some other incomprehensible, mysterious incident. But if that were the case, it meant he needed my help, so I hurried toward the adventurer guild.
Passing the place where I'd had my first date with Ragnis, and cutting across the street where I'd unleashed the unforgettable Galactica Phantom, I arrived at the adventurer guild. Circling around to the stables, I was able to find Jin without much trouble.
"Ah, big bro, you came."
"Yeah. Big Sis Alisha told me you were looking for me. Did something happen?"
He wasn't the only one in the stables, but seeing that most of them were young kids, it seemed Jin was among the most senior. The guy, who had been feeding hay to a horse, gave various instructions to a brat beside him, then approached me with a smile, but he didn't look very well.
"It's nothing much, but... that ruins exploration going on near your house, big bro, is it something illegal?"
It was an unexpected question, but I wasn't surprised or flustered.
Less because I maintained a perfect poker face, and more because I thought it wouldn't be strange for a guy like him to have picked up on this much. But I couldn't grasp his exact intentions, so instead of answering, I scratched my chin and watched his reaction. Seeing me like that, Jin scratched the back of his head sheepishly and continued his explanation.
"It's nothing much, but I have some personal circumstances, so I tend to hear information about stowaways and smuggling around the coast fairly often. After I got some spare coin, I kept listening somewhat consistently, and I ended up making friends I can trust to some extent. That's where the story about those ruins came up."
Jin was a piece of work, openly saying he intentionally and frequently came into contact with illegal news, but what was funnier was that it didn't feel like he was collecting that kind of information to do bad things. Since I had no clue how this guy ended up coming from Radan across the sea all the way to the edge of the inland in the first place, all I could think was that he must have his own circumstances.
"What did they say?"
"Stories like: The Golden Mage poured a massive amount of money into the ruins exploration. Then she suddenly fired all the hired personnel. But she's still there, and so on. They were saying rumors are circulating that she ruthlessly cut all the hired hands she'd hurriedly employed because there's something to hide."
I wondered for a second if those halfwits imprinted by Seneran had risked their lives to spread rumors, but judging from the content being something you could deduce just from the circumstances, that didn't seem to be the case.
Although he was a reasonably trustworthy guy, just as I was pondering how much I should explain without causing problems, Jin lowered his voice, as if he still had more to say.
"But a few days ago, people appeared who are digging into the back of those rumors. Not with money, but with violence."
And the next thing he said made my brow furrow instinctively. He said they'd stirred things up as if they had no intention of showing their faces there a second time, so the rumors had spread far and wide. But just from hearing the rough circumstances Jin gave, it was definitely the Demon King's Army.
"I can't know the specifics, but there are signs that even nobles or the royal family are about to move regarding this. If it's something that might have a guilty tail..."
"You're telling me to be careful."
"Right. Well, I'm sure you'd handle it fine on your own, big bro."
He meant he'd just happened to hear the story and his goal was to warn me. Was the reason he didn't seek me out first earlier because he thought he might become a hindrance if his tail got stepped on?
Up until now, I'd just thought of him as a fairly perceptive guy, but now that it came to this, I couldn't shake off my doubts.
"Just what the hell did you do before?"
It wasn't my place to say, but he was a truly mysterious and extraordinary guy. He had quick wits and knew a lot, as if these sorts of things were familiar to him. Yet he didn't seem like a spy who'd come to Itisel carrying out some secret mission. The goodwill he showed me didn't seem to have any other hidden plan or ulterior motive, either.
Because of that, I ended up blurting out a question I'd been holding in for years, but Jin just shrugged his shoulders with a good-natured smile.
That reaction irked me for no reason, and I wanted to smack him one, but I decided to hold back since he'd even given me a warning in advance.