The Mage's Cunning and Shallow... (6)
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"Thank you! Come again!"
I left the shop, the clerk's farewell at my back.
The shopping wrapped up quicker than I'd expected. The area had a handful of shops, probably because it was the busy district where the banks were.
And the clerk's attitude had been perfectly pleasant and courteous from the start—most likely a result of wearing neat clothes.
If I'd been in my usual rough, worn-out adventurer's gear, I probably would've hesitated just to walk into the shop to begin with. Dress codes were a thing, after all. When Ariel went on about formality and such, I'd honestly found it a bit of a hassle, but I was glad I'd kept my mouth shut.
That Rebecca... even if it was just a fitting, the way she'd put this together in such a short time—was she a super butler before she was a super assassin?
After stepping outside, I checked for eyes on me.
Good, nobody watching, right? Then I'd stash it in my inventory.
Done. I couldn't wait to see their faces.
Anyway, next was the present for the Holy Sword. I still didn't know her tastes, but she'd shown a serious fixation on eating, so a snack should be fine—
"Huh?"
A puzzled voice came from beside me, and I turned on reflex. A face I knew. Well, to be precise, a face I'd run into a few times by chance.
Now, who was that again? One of those idiots from the L-something clan... The priestess!
The one with the gentle, innocent eyes who went around in a robe with an audacious side slit.
"Huh? Uhh?"
But the priestess only tilted her head and made strange little sounds. She wore an uncertain expression, as though wondering whether I really was the person she remembered.
"Hello?"
"Huh? Ah, hel-lo...? Um, ah... th-that... the person who goes around with Reni... that's... that's right, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's right, but..."
The priestess blinked several times and stammered. Had she been this tongue-tied before? For some reason, her face looked a little red too.
Still, it was a bit ridiculous that she was so unsure, like she'd only gotten a description and gone out on a blind date.
Was my impression that weak? You'd think she'd remember after I'd saved her twice. Did she have some kind of face blindness?
"Ah, somehow the whole atmosphere is...?"
What about the atmosphere? It wasn't merely that the priestess couldn't get the words out—she couldn't even look me in the face. She only stole sidelong glances at me. Did this woman have something she wanted to say?
"Mm. So, what I mean is..."
"Ah, I, um, I'm Emily."
Emily was quick on the uptake and told me her name first. Right, I wouldn't forget it this time.
"Ah, I'm Yoo-jin. How did things with that Witch end up? Her whole aura was no joke, you know."
Before she'd eaten me alive, I wouldn't have been sure, but after getting eaten, my impression of the Witch had changed a little. For some reason, I had a feeling she hadn't punished these idiots so much as done something lewd.
"Ah, y-yes, thanks to you... I-I'm sorry. We should've thanked you properly afterward, but we were so flustered..."
"Ah, right..."
She wasn't giving a straight answer, though. Well, it wasn't like she'd tell me the story if something had been done to them. Still, I got paid, so that was fine—was it really the kind of thing I deserved thanks for?
"..." "..."
Emily just stood there wordlessly, gauging the mood. No, it didn't feel like she was gauging the mood so much as staring at me blankly. But I didn't have anything else to say.
"Ah, um, nice meeting you. Well, see you next time..."
"Ah, um, excuse me!"
"Yes?"
"Right. Is, um, Reni doing well?"
"Yeah. More or less..."
Emily went on, glancing up and down at me.
"So, um, at the training center where she and I were together, there's a senior priestess named Kate."
Kate, I remembered. She was the sharp-featured supervisor at the training center where Reni had been fretting over not being able to graduate.
"A-a while ago, there was something I needed to ask so I tried to get in touch, and Reni hadn't called in at all... so she's been worried. She was wondering if the Goddess's grace might have been a temporary thing..."
"The Goddess's grace?"
"Uh, that is, I mean Divine Power."
"Ah, that shouldn't be a problem."
Reni's Divine Power was brimming over. Just this morning I'd pumped her full of it before I came out. But Reni hadn't contacted her? I'd thought she said she'd gotten in touch last time—had they just missed each other?
"Mm... seems there's been a mix-up. I'll pass the message along, anyway."
"Ah, yes. Thank you..."
In any case, I didn't have anything else to say, so just as I was about to bid her farewell, Emily squeezed her eyes shut as though she'd made up her mind and blurted out:
"I-I'm sorry to say something like this, but c-could you maybe help us?!"
"...Sorry?"
# # #
"Uh, so you're asking me to join your quest?"
"Yes, yes."
Standing around to talk felt awkward, so we settled into a nearby café. Emily still couldn't meet my eyes, but she seemed a lot calmer now.
"Do you know about the recent Distortion?"
"The Distortion?"
"Ah, what I mean by Distortion is..."
Emily explained the Distortion to me. The dungeon's structure gradually changes, giving rise to new maps, new hunting grounds, new jobs, and so on. Wasn't that common knowledge?
"You call it the Distortion? The Guild didn't mention any term like that."
"Ah, the Guild, well, it's only proper for them to use the official term, I suppose. Come to think of it, Distortion might just be something we use among ourselves. Yeah..."
Right. So instead of the long term "Dungeon Environmental Shift," they just called it "Distortion."
"I have a rough idea of what that is. I ran into it once before."
When I spoke in a tone that said get to the point, Emily flushed red. She looked absolutely mortified, but she still forced the words out somehow.
"W-w-we made a few mistakes last time, so we got kicked off a regular quest. We could've kept doing it if we took our punishment from the Witch, but for a lot of reasons that was a bit... so...."
Punishment, she said. What kind of punishment had the Witch been planning to give? Just what sort of punishment would make them turn down a steady source of income?!
"A-anyway, because of that, we have been pushed pretty far down the waiting list for clan quests..."
Emily was rambling, but I could still follow the gist.
So, when you joined a clan, normally you got easy quests with good rewards, but they'd screwed up a few times and their evaluation had dropped, so now they couldn't get the benefits the clan provided.
Performance reviews were harsh even in another world, huh.
So anyway, that meant instead of going through the clan, they were looking to take quests directly from the Guild.
"Is that allowed?"
"Yes... w-we have no choice... our turn has been pushed back quite a long way..."
As she said that, Emily glanced out the window. Her gaze landed on the district where all the banks were clustered.
"We had a pretty big expense last time, too..."
As she spoke, Emily's eyes slid back and forth between the banks and me.
...She was broke.
Now that I thought about it, I'd sold her that ZICO. How much had I charged her again? My conscience stung a little. If I'd sold her something other than ZICO, I wouldn't have batted an eye.
"Ah, um. I'll think about it. What kind of quest is it, by the way?"
A visibly relieved look crossed Emily's face, and she launched into her explanation.
What Emily described was, essentially... a kidnapping quest.
She said it involved going deep into a dungeon to confirm the habitats of certain monsters. Even better if you could capture their young or their eggs. The client was an arena, so the pay was supposed to be generous.
"Normally, this kind of work isn't something that trickles down to us, ah, I mean, to ordinary adventurers. But, well..."
Quests for monsters to supply to the Arena—habitat scouting, target selection, capture, and the like—were usually the exclusive work of adventurers contracted to the Arena, mainly tamers. But...
"For some reason, the tamers have all gone into seclusion, I hear. They're holed up in their homes and won't come out. The Arena's in quite a bind since even people under contract are acting that way."
"..."
Tamers, huh.
Out of nowhere, I remembered that guy from before who'd come dragging an ostrich. The one I'd shown the pleasures of the rabbit masturbation sleeve. Was he off jerking it with that rabbit-thing? What if he'd spread the practice to his companions?
Nah, no way. No way something that terrible could happen.
"Ahem. You know the details well."
"Ah, I heard about it from the clan side. Since the Guild won't tell you this much..."
Right. So the Guild protected personal information to a degree.
Anyway, a quest. A quest to abduct eggs and young!
If the subject weren't a monster, this would be a straightforward crime, yet this priestess went around talking about it so casually.
Well, if it was about kidnapping the young of things like goblins, I wouldn't exactly feel my conscience pricking me much either.
Come to think of it, disgusting though it was, it didn't really feel like a bad thing. This might even be a good opportunity. These guys were idiots, but they probably had more experience than our party did.
"...I'll head back and talk it over. Where can I reach you?"
"Ah, h-here..."
# # #
After parting from Emily and buying the Holy Sword her snack, I found Ariel practically sprawled out in the bank's waiting room.
"Looks like you're done?"
"Mm. You've come..."
Ariel looked a little unsteady.
You know the look—someone in a late-night entertainment district, too drunk to keep their balance. Ariel wasn't quite that bad, but her dazed expression made her look dangerously out of it. The tips of her ears were faintly red, and her breathing was a little heated.
"Hey, you okay? Things go well?"
"They did. There should be no problem with the financing now. Rebecca will be able to rest a bit easier, too."
"Good to hear. But you don't look so hot. You all right?"
"Mm... not enough to worry about. I've already experienced the effect once. The other person, however, could barely think straight."
"That so..."
As she said it, Ariel huffed through her nose like she found it funny. Managing to convey a laugh while keeping a straight face—she had some talent.
But she'd made someone lose their wits. Just what the hell had this woman done? Had she framed someone as a rapist like I'd done?
Then there was that talk about the tamers all going into seclusion. Maybe I really was poisoning this other world...
Just as I was feeling a shiver at the things I'd set in motion, Ariel spoke up first.
"It seems you've finished your business as well. Let us return, then."
"Yeah. But you..."
"What is it?"
"..."
You were going commando right then. I wanted to ask whether you’d really be all right going back like that.
I couldn't quite bring myself to say that. I was the one who'd left her without panties, so pointing it out felt way too shameless.
"Never mind. Let's head back, quick."
"Very well... Is something the matter? You seem to be in a good mood."
"Nah, it's nothing."
It was no big deal. I was just curious about the faces the girls would make when they got their presents.