Clan Formation (1)
Clan Formation (1)
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"Why... why do you want a baby so badly?"
Reni looked up at me as if she were upset, but she didn't answer the question. She just hugged my arm tight, as if she were anxious.
"...I'm sorry... I'm being selfish..."
Her subdued voice made it impossible for me to press the subject any further.
Hm. This was tricky. It was awkward to ask anything more, too. When I got down to it, the lie I told was what started the misunderstanding. I'd thought of it as bedroom bluffing and hadn't taken it seriously, but to Reni it was a pretty serious topic.
But why did Reni want a baby that badly?
Of course, I wasn't against the idea of someday... but Reni had a sense of urgency about it. I'd been startled back at the inn when the talk of pregnancy came up, but even then, she hadn't seemed fixated on it to this degree. She'd only said she wanted to have one someday.
When had Reni begun showing this much anxiety...?
Right.
When I was infiltrating with Rebecca and we didn't see each other for days.
Then, when I had gone wild saying I would get Yuri pregnant...
That night, Reni had been markedly different from her usual self. Almost as if she were trying to rape me. She didn't succeed, of course, but the intent had definitely been there.
"....!"
Had Separation Anxiety been removed not because I'd pounded it out of her, but because she believed she was pregnant?!
But why?
The question still bothered me. Why was pregnancy so important to her?
I tried flipping the perspective. What if I were in Reni's shoes?
Reni having to be with other men because she needed to share Divine Power...
"Ugh."
"Ah, s-sorry."
"No, it's alright..."
Without thinking, I'd squeezed Reni's hand. Just imagining it was horrifying. Imaginary NTR—I didn't know why I put myself through that.
Anyway, where was I?
What if a man who was more than a lover to you had to be with other women for some reason? Horrible. And if, on top of that, he told you he'd give you a baby? And then you found out that was never really true?
"..."
I felt bad in all sorts of ways. Th-this really did feel like I'd done something awful. Anyway, Reni had been obsessive about me from the beginning, and now she was just as obsessive about having a baby...
Perhaps she wanted proof that our bond went both ways.
But with what...?
"You done talking?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah."
Yuri and Ariel, having noticed the silence, came back over. Reni was still hugging my arm, staring at the floor.
Yuri frowned a little at the sight but didn't say anything. Come to think of it, I felt a bit sorry toward Yuri, too. It wasn't like I was unaware. I almost always acted with Reni as the priority, so she probably had plenty of reasons to feel left out.
Ugh. My head hurt. It hurt in all kinds of ways!
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Ma—"
"Ma?"
"N-no. Never mind."
I'd nearly blurted out, "Should we get married?" Married? Sure, it would be nice. But I had no house, no car, no job—marriage was out of the question.
Yuri spoke in a tone that suggested she found me pathetic.
"I don't know what you're thinking. I'm asking what we will do now. All this talk about becoming a major guild figure or escaping the royal castle’s influence feels completely unreal. I still have trouble understanding the Goddess’s mission too. So what are we doing immediately?"
"Hm..."
She had a point. The Goddess’s mission was one thing, but becoming important enough to ignore pressure from the royal castle felt like an impossibly grand goal. We could continue living quietly as adventurers, but now that I had received the Goddess’s quest, I did not know how long that life could last.
"What about forming a clan?"
Ariel spoke up.
"A clan?"
"Yes. A clan."
I glanced at Yuri to gauge her reaction. Normally she'd have jumped in with a comment by now, but the fact that she stayed quiet made me think the two of them had already talked this over.
"Explain it to me."
Ariel continued in a measured tone.
"If you end up needing to refuse the royal castle’s demands, joining a clan would be wise. Clan registration may oblige you to carry out guild requests, but it also grants the Guild’s protection. The Guild rarely protects individuals, but it sometimes intervenes for clan members. Naturally, the degree of intervention depends on the clan’s influence."
"Yeah? Why's that?"
"Because it benefits the Guild."
Ariel got the ball rolling. This elf, she had a habit of stating the conclusion first.
"Quests entrusted to clans have markedly higher completion rates than those entrusted to individual adventurers. The Guild has its own tier system, but that alone doesn't verify an individual’s responsibility or ability. Clan membership means passing through two filters, so the difference in reliability is considerable. For that reason, clans and the Guild sometimes intervene to smooth over minor crimes committed by members of famous clans. It's not a particularly desirable practice."
"I-is that so."
I guessed wherever people lived, the same kinds of things happened. I felt like I'd glimpsed a side of this world the novel never showed.
"In any case, forming a clan will make it easier to assert rights against either the Guild or the state. Large clans sometimes occupy stabilized regions inside dungeons, for example. Of course, that only applies to major clans."
"Huh..."
Wait. They occupied territory? It reminded me of online games. Did they harass outsiders who ventured deeper inside? Had even this world gotten the Hell Korea treatment?
"So do they do things like control hunting grounds?"
"Control? What do you mean by that?"
"Hm. Like, when new monsters spawn, they take priority rights to deal with them, or something..."
"What on earth... Hm."
Did this world not have that concept yet? Maybe I should've explained it a bit more. But Ariel soon came up with an answer.
"I understand what you're saying. You're asking if they monopolize the hunting rights in a given area, like a noble's forested estate."
"That's it. You know that saying—you can't even gather firewood properly in a noble's forest."
"That's not the case."
Ariel went on with her explanation.
"You may already know this, but changes in a dungeon’s environment are difficult to predict. It's hard to control a place when no one knows how it will change. Clan occupation is therefore less about securing hunting grounds and more about establishing supply bases."
"Really?"
"No one can continuously control hunting in a dungeon’s ever-changing environment. An occupying clan mainly gains priority over supplies and collects resupply fees from individual adventurers. It may not sound impressive, but the profits are considerable."
Right. So it wasn't about controlling a hunting ground; it was about running the hunting-ground shop.
But there was something odd about Ariel's explanation. Just listening to it made joining a clan sound like a clear win.
"Then wouldn't it be strictly better to join a famous clan? Why suggest we make our own?"
Ariel looked at me fixedly.
"Did you not say we had to conceal your identity? Is it not better for as few people as possible to know that you awakened?"
"..."
This idiot! I avoided the women’s eyes.
Anyway, a clan of just us. It definitely didn't sound like a bad idea.
"But it seems like we have too few people."
The regular members were me, Reni, and Yuri. Ariel and Rebecca could be considered potential members. The Holy Sword wasn't a person but someone we carried around, Rebecca had her duties as a butler, and Ariel... I did not know. Was a wizard who couldn't use magic useful?
"It isn't necessarily about having numbers. What matters is contribution to the Guild."
Ariel had now shifted fully into a lecturing tone.
"Your abilities may be awkward to use directly in combat, but you can still multiply other people’s abilities severalfold. You also possess an Awakened ability beyond comparison with ordinary artifacts. This party alone can accomplish what would require a dozen or more veteran adventurers."
"..."
She couldn't use magic, but she was silver-tongued. I felt my confidence swelling, somehow. Honestly, wasn't she the one with buffer abilities? Not me?
"Wow. We're really that strong?"
Yuri was practically giddy. Judging by the way she puffed up with pride, Ariel might have praised her a little too highly.
"The problem is that our equipment is shoddy and we know far too little relative to our capabilities. But if we can offset those weaknesses, then yes."
"..."
Way to rain on the parade. Still, this was a lot better than I'd thought.
"So there's no downside for us at all. Can we form one right now?"
"Hm..."
At my question, Ariel's expression turned a little ambiguous.
"I can provide a clan house, but I do not know whether the other requirements can be met. You should ask the receptionist for details."
At Ariel's words, Yuri's face lit up entirely.
"A clan house? So that mansion becomes ours now?"
"Hey, you're being way too—"
"It's empty space anyway. This is the only way I can repay you. Use it however you wish."
"Wow... that's bold!"
Watching Yuri giggle and practically overflow with excitement, we headed back to the Guild.
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"You want to form a clan?"
Lize wore a slightly troubled expression.