An Unexpected Reunion
"Hey! Wilhelm!" Yohan bellowed at the top of his lungs the very moment they crossed into Junk Town.
Making this much of a racket was bound to draw out the muscle-bound sheriff soon enough. Yohan stood right in the middle of the street with his arms crossed, confidently waiting for Wilhelm to show his face. Yet, for some reason, nearly a minute passed, and there was still no sign of him.
"O-Orc!"
Only the occasional passerby scurried past, their faces pale with terror as they mistook Billy for an Orc.
"An Orc..." Billy grimaced slightly. He didn't mind people being startled by his appearance, but being mistaken for an Orc instead of a troll seemed to genuinely rub him the wrong way.
"Dammit," Yohan muttered, kicking a stray pebble across the dirt road in irritation. Falco, on the other hand, looked thoroughly embarrassed by the entire spectacle.
"Yohan. Let's just go. I'm dying of embarrassment here."
"Miss Falco is right," Billy agreed, looking equally uncomfortable.
Left with no choice, Yohan grumbled and led their two horses toward the sheriff's office himself.
"Hey! Did you drink yourself into a stupor last night? Why aren't you answering when someone's calling you?" Yohan flung the door open without bothering to knock, but the office was completely empty.
"Do you think he went out on business?" Billy asked, stepping inside behind him.
"Could be. Whenever something happens near town, he usually goes to handle it personally," Falco replied, following them in.
"You back already?"
As they loitered with the office door wide open, a passing townsman stopped and poked his head inside.
"Oh, it's you, Yohan? Well, look at that. You actually made it back alive." The man was an acquaintance of Yohan's. Judging by his words, he had already heard the rumors about Yohan heading north.
"Yeah, the world decided it wasn't ready to lose me just yet. Where's the muscle-bound old man?"
"The sheriff? He said he had to go out this morning. Mentioned some important guest arriving from Balifield."
A guest from Balifield? Did the Lord send someone? Yohan wondered.
"Well, I'll be on my way."
"Yeah, go on ahead." With that, the townsman shut the door and went about his business.
"Guess we'll just have to wait," Yohan said, slumping into one of the visitor chairs. Falco immediately took the seat next to him, while Billy hesitantly looked around before carefully claiming an empty spot.
"I wonder what this 'guest from Balifield' is about," Falco muttered.
"Probably not anyone from the Family."
"True. Especially since I crushed their boss's skull with my own hands." Yohan and Falco exchanged quiet words.
While Wilhelm served as Junk Town's sheriff, it wasn't an official position recognized by the Lord of Balifield. Strictly speaking, he was just a self-appointed vigilante maintaining order in Junk Town single-handedly. So why would someone like Wilhelm leave town to meet a guest from Balifield? No plausible reason came to mind.
Even if it were a surviving member of the Undercity Family, Wilhelm would have torn them limb from limb the moment they showed their face. Yohan crossed his arms, tilting his head in confusion.
"If it's enough to make that old man leave town, it's definitely not a minor issue."
"Yeah. I agree."
The phrase "guest from Balifield" kept nagging at him. If it was a visitor who brought a matter serious enough to make Wilhelm willingly step outside the town...
—It reminds me of that Inquisitor we saw last time, the Goddess's voice echoed in his mind.
"No kidding." It seemed they had both pictured the exact same person. Yohan nodded in response.
Even Wilhelm couldn't just kick a Heresy Inquisitor out of town. In fact, he would likely cooperate to prevent things from getting unnecessarily complicated.
"But then again, why would such a high-and-mighty person come to a dump like this?" Besides, the Holy Kingdom's Inquisitors were incredibly busy people. On top of that, the Inquisitor they met that day had been searching around, muttering about "traces of heresy."
As Yohan leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the ceiling, he sensed a presence approaching from beyond the firmly shut door.
"Oh, looks like they're here," Yohan said, and Falco nodded. Suddenly feeling mischievous, Yohan decided to give Wilhelm a good scare.
"Raaaargh!" The moment the door swung open from the outside, Yohan leaped from his seat and let out a loud roar.
"Ah! Goodness!"
"Huh?"
But Wilhelm wasn't the only one standing in the doorway. Right beside him stood a young woman.
"Is that you, Yohan? Seeing how quickly you returned, you must have chickened out halfway."
"Wait, why the hell are you..." Wilhelm, whom Yohan had tried to startle, didn't even blink, speaking with complete composure. On the other hand, the woman beside him stared at Yohan with wide, utterly shocked eyes.
"Oh... son of a bitch," Yohan cursed under his breath.
"Wait, you're..." Speak of the devil. The very Inquisitor they had just been talking about was standing right in front of them.
"I see. So you two have crossed paths in Balifield before."
"Yeah. That's why I was so startled." As an awkward silence hung in the room, Yohan did his best to act natural while conversing with Wilhelm.
"Now that I think about it, weren't you running around looking for heretics or something back then?" Yohan asked, turning his attention to the Inquisitor.
In all likelihood, the "traces of heresy" she had mentioned referred to the incident Yohan had caused in the Undercity of Balifield. His plan was to deflect suspicion by proactively showing curiosity about the matter.
"Yes. Tracking those traces is exactly what brought me all the way here," the Inquisitor replied with a nod. Her expression as she answered was practically dripping with sheer, unadulterated exhaustion, as if everything in the world was a massive chore. Yohan felt a quiet wave of relief wash over him. If she had suspected him, she would have definitely pressed for more details.
"But anyway, old man, how did you end up going outside of town with Her Ladyship the Inquisitor?" This wasn't just an act to deceive her; Yohan was genuinely curious. At his question, Wilhelm glanced over at the Inquisitor.
"She said she was looking for someone skilled enough to punch a clean hole through solid stone structures."
"What does that have to do with leaving town?"
"She wanted to test my skills, so she suggested a duel."
"Wow." So they fought out in the wasteland where they could tear everything to pieces, just to avoid wrecking the town? Talk about a couple of absolute badasses. Yohan let out a genuine exclamation of awe.
"In any case, does this prove my innocence?" Wilhelm asked the Inquisitor.
"Yes. You are clearly not the culprit behind the incident in the Balifield Undercity. Though I must say, your martial prowess is far too exceptional to be wasted in a backwater dump like this."
Perhaps pleased by the Inquisitor's praise, a rare, faint smirk tugged at the corner of Wilhelm's lips.
By the way, that Inquisitor... When I first saw her, she was just a drunkard causing a scene, so I thought she was a bit of an idiot. But she's actually strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Wilhelm? Messing with her would definitely lead to a massive headache. Let's just play nice and slip away when the time is right, Yohan resolved internally.
"So, Yohan. You actually made it back in one piece," Wilhelm said, changing the subject. Yohan snorted.
"Well, something like that."
"And your new companion... Did you hire an Orc mercenary?" Wilhelm's gaze shifted past Yohan to land on Billy. Hearing this, Billy shook his head with a firm expression.
"I'm not an Orc. I might be a half-breed, but I'm a troll."
"My apologies. It's quite difficult for us to tell the difference. Besides, you're rather small for a troll."
"That's true. It's not the first time I've been mistaken for one, to be honest." In truth, this was the common perception of people in this world. Falco nodded repeatedly in agreement with Wilhelm's words.
"What's worse, this guy is a vegetarian. He doesn't even eat meat," Falco chimed in, needlessly poking fun at Billy's dietary habits.
"Well, I suppose a person's diet can vary depending on their personality or taste."
"..." But Wilhelm shut her down with a flat, objective response. Falco's face fell in disappointment.
"Anyway, since you've brought a troll with you—even if he's a half-breed—I'd like to hear the details of your journey."
"Hearing this makes me curious as well. Was there something up north?" the Inquisitor interjected.
"For some time now, rumors have been circulating about man-eating trolls roaming the lands north of this town. This guy and the pointy-eared girl happily trotted off after hearing that, and somehow they've returned alive."
"Hmm." As Wilhelm explained the background, the Inquisitor tilted her head, a peculiar look crossing her face. That was, without a doubt, the face of someone whose intuition had just been triggered. Yohan got a very bad feeling about this.
"So, did the two of you slay those man-eating trolls? Or is this green fellow here the troll from the rumors?"
This was bad. Cold sweat broke out on Yohan's brow under the Inquisitor's barrage of questions. If he told a blatant lie, he would be caught immediately. The Holy Kingdom's Heresy Inquisitors were absolute experts at sniffing out falsehoods. He had to stick to the truth here.
"This guy just happens to be of the same race, but he wasn't in league with them. If anything, he was a victim," Yohan said, winking at Billy. Falco, watching from the side, made a gagging sound, but Yohan decided to be magnanimous and let it slide given the gravity of the situation.
Right. I'm not lying. I'm just omitting a few crucial details.
"You see..." After quickly sorting out what was safe to say and what would get him killed, Yohan finally spoke.
"There really was a tribe of man-eating trolls up there. There was a human village nearby, too, and they were forced to sacrifice one villager every year to be eaten."
"So the rumors were true. But how on earth did you manage to survive such a place?"
"Yeah. It turned out there were a few capable folks in that village, just like you, old man. So we teamed up and wiped them all out." To be perfectly honest, Jack and Falco had only taken down a few, while the rest had been consumed by the divine flames Yohan unleashed. But there was absolutely no reason to explain that part. He needed to downplay his own achievements while emphasizing the cooperation of the locals. In reality, the only "cooperating locals" were Billy and Jack, but the Inquisitor and the muscular sheriff would surely picture a massive mob of angry villagers fighting alongside Yohan to defeat the trolls.
"I figured as much. For a second, I thought you had slaughtered them all by yourself," Wilhelm said, half-joking. Yohan barely suppressed the urge to snap back with, Actually, I did.
"Yohan, was it? We met once before in Balifield."
"Y-Yeah? What about it?" The silent Inquisitor finally spoke. Tensing up, Yohan braced himself for whatever she was about to say next.
"Is it truly the case that you banded together with a large group of villagers to subjugate the trolls?"
"Well, that's..." True to her profession of grilling and roasting people for a living, the Inquisitor began to pierce Yohan with a sharp, interrogative glare.
"I'm sure it is," Wilhelm suddenly interjected, speaking up in Yohan's defense.
"Why do you say that?"
"It seems you're under the impression that Yohan is some legendary hero capable of cutting down dozens, if not hundreds, of trolls all on his own." The Inquisitor nodded slowly at Wilhelm's words.
"Unfortunately, Yohan is nowhere near that impressive. He's just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill street rat."
"Haha... Hahaha..." Swallowing the stream of profanity rising rapidly to his throat, Yohan could do nothing but force a bright, cheerful laugh.