Naming (2)
Erinn left Cheonrang Palace and headed somewhere. The direction was the same one Allen had taken by mistake the day before while searching for the banquet hall.
As she drew closer, familiar faces came into view. Among them, a tall, strikingly handsome man spotted her at once, smiled, and called out.
"Erinn. Did you sleep well last night?"
It was Orlando, Hero of the Holy Flag. His expression suggested he had no idea why she had come looking for him. Erinn swallowed a dry laugh at the transparent act and walked over.
If she had meant to confront him in earnest, she would not have bothered hiding it. But if she wanted Orlando to move the way she intended, there was no need to press him too hard or corner him too thoroughly.
She put on her usual mischievous smile and spoke.
"Orlando, Hero~?"
"Yes, Erinn."
"Did you have some business with one of our party members yesterday~?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, was that not it~?"
Erinn gave a light little giggle.
"You sent someone to our party member yesterday, so I naturally assumed you were the one who ordered it~♡"
"…I sent someone?"
"Hmm~?"
Erinn looked at him as if puzzled. Then she deliberately tilted her head a little more clearly than necessary and said,
"Yes, of course I thought it was you who sent them~ Was I wrong~?"
"Why would you think it was me…?"
"Well~."
Erinn shifted her gaze past Orlando to Kael, who had just stepped out of his room.
"One of your party members came calling, you see~?"
Orlando immediately understood where she was looking. It was as good as saying Kael had gone to them, yet he showed little sign of fluster.
Instead it was Kael, freshly emerged from his room, who felt the eyes on him and looked faintly startled.
"…Is that so?"
Orlando remained composed. He offered Erinn a gentle smile.
"This is the first I am hearing of it, so I am afraid I have nothing to say. Erinn, would you mind if I spoke with him first and then reported back to you?"
"Well…."
Erinn smiled sweetly.
"That works. Managing party members is the party leader's job, after all~ And taking responsibility for a party member's mistakes is the party leader's job too♡"
"…Indeed."
"Then I will trust you and wait~?"
With that, Erinn left as lightly as if everything had already been settled. At a glance it looked like a poor choice—handing the whole matter over for Orlando to handle internally.
But that was the sort of thing only someone who did not know Orlando would say. He had clearly warned Kael before.
Do not do anything unnecessary.
He would not tolerate anything that brought harm to the party.
If Kael wanted to act, he was to move so that no one ever found out.
So the party would not be dragged into it.
Kael had kept none of those conditions.
"Kael."
"…Hold on, Orlando. I did not do anything yesterday. I went, yes, but I turned around without laying a finger on anyone."
"Did I not make myself clear? Do not do anything unnecessary."
Orlando looked at him. Kael flinched, shoulders twitching, then dropped his gaze—arrogant Kael, of all people.
Orlando strode closer. He was taller, broader, and, as befit a Hero, superior in every aspect of skill. The way he loomed over Kael carried a crushing pressure.
"Do not leave your room for a while, Kael."
"What…?"
Orlando said,
"This is not a warning. It is an order."
"…Tch. Fine."
Kael went back into his room without further protest. The same Kael who acted like a thug around everyone else could not so much as twitch in front of Orlando.
Orlando pinched the bridge of his nose.
Erwin staggering back late last night, Kael going after Erinn's party member….
His head throbbed as if it might split.
"Rough going, Orlando."
"…Barg."
Whether he had been watching the whole time or not, Barg offered sympathy for Orlando's stress.
"They are both still green. They will learn to keep their heads down soon enough."
Among the party, Barg and Orlando were the original members; Kael and Erwin had joined later. There had been other party members once, but after they died these two had filled the empty seats.
That left them relatively lacking—not in combat ability, but in the ability to read what kind of people they were dealing with.
Orlando frowned slightly as he spoke.
"…There is nothing to gain from getting tangled up with that side."
"I agree."
Barg thought of the small Hero who had been smiling so brightly at Orlando only moments earlier.
"Getting marked by that monster is never good news."
On the way back after giving the Thief her name, I found the others clustered together in the garden. Letisia, Freya, and even Ser-Aria were there.
"Just Erinn missing?"
"…Erinn left somewhere a little while ago."
"That so?"
"…Yeah."
If the Thief—no, if Thief said so, it was trustworthy. When it came to reading people's presence, she was better than even Erinn the Hero.
Thief and I walked over to them naturally.
"What are you all doing out here?"
"Oh, Allen!"
Ser-Aria greeted me cheerfully and immediately pulled out a bottle, guzzling from it.
She had already drunk herself senseless yesterday, yet I had never once seen her put the stuff down.
"Where did you two go off to with the Thief?"
"…Name. Allen gave it to me."
"Pardon?"
Thief said,
"…Thief. Allen gave it to me."
She seemed to be emphasizing that I was the one who had named her. Was that really so important…?
The three of them looked at me for a moment at the news that I had chosen the name, then smiled and turned to Thief.
"Thief, do you like the name?"
"…Yeah."
"Puhaha! Not bad! It was a little awkward calling you when you did not have one—Allen did good!"
"It is a pretty name."
Apparently my naming sense was not half bad. Their reactions were all positive.
"So this is where everyone was~?"
A voice and tone I would have recognized even with my eyes closed drifted over.
"Erinn."
Of course it was Erinn.
"Did the talk go well?"
"Yep~."
Talk?
I wondered if it was about Kael coming to my room yesterday.
Letisia must have told her.
I had not even brought it up myself, yet she had gone and sorted it out on her own. I was grateful. Maybe now I could finally sleep easy.
"Ah, Erinn! The Thief has a name now!"
"Allen gave it to her, they say."
"Hmm~?"
Erinn giggled.
"You named her with that scrub naming sense of yours~? It is totally lame, is it not~?"
"…It is not."
When I denied it, Thief nodded as if to back me up. Erinn tilted her head and asked,
"So what name did you give her~?"
"…Thief."
"Thief…… hmm, not bad~?"
Erinn walked up to Thief and said,
"Your eyes always shine so bright, so it suits you~♡"
"…Thank you."
Unexpectedly, Erinn spoke to Thief with real gentleness. Hearing that the name suited her, Thief smiled shyly, clearly pleased.
…If she could talk like that, could she not manage to say something nice to me once in a while?
I looked at her a little sulkily, and Erinn looked right back and said,
"That means that is how you felt about her."
"…Huh?"
"Why are you asking back like an idiot~? I am talking about the reason you scrub gave her that name, you dummy~♡"
No—the nuance just now had been a little different.
It had not been a simple explanation of the reason. There had been some other emotion riding in her voice. I did not think it was just my imagination….
But Erinn treated my suspicion as pure imagination and tore into me instead.
"Anyway, the way you were grinning while personally naming a girl was kind of pervy~♡"
"When did I ever grin like that?"
"Puhuhu♡"
Erinn laughed her bratty little laugh and abruptly changed the subject.
"We leave at six this evening."
…Look at her slip away like an eel.
"That is early."
"No real reason to linger too long~."
If this came right after the northeastern reclamation event of the kingdom….
"So we are heading back to the Empire?"
"Yep~."
Yep?
According to the original story of Dungeon in Evil, the next stop after this event was not the Empire. We were supposed to head for the Bastien Principality, the country that shared the northern border of the Estire Kingdom.
More precisely, to the principality's capital, Eisencastelle. Something always broke out in the principality right as the Estire Kingdom events wrapped up.
If it had been a minor problem the principality could have handled it alone, but the fact that the Hero's party—the player—was meant to go there meant something serious had happened.
And that something was….
"Lady Erinn! Lady Erinn!!"
A servant came running from the other direction in a hurry.
"What is it~?"
"I have urgent news to deliver…! Forgive me for calling your name so freely… I am Eric, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Not a servant—a government official.
"It is fine. More importantly, what is this news you need to deliver~?"
"If it is at all possible, would you be willing to travel to the Bastien Principality?"
So that was how the destination changed. I had skipped through the story text too carelessly to notice.
"Why there~?"
"Well… a lair has appeared right in the middle of the principality's capital."
This was the incident I had been talking about.
"It appears some clueless young-rank dragon is responsible. It decided it rather liked the land, you see."
A single young, spirited dragon had claimed the heart of a nation's capital as its lair. It was no different from walking into someone else's house and announcing that since it liked the place, the house was now its own.
"Hmm~ But we cannot just move around as we please~? We would need permission from the Imperial military…."
"That should not be a problem."
Assistant Secretary Eric explained.
"This is an official request for aid sent by the Bastien Principality directly to Lady Erinn. The fact that they issued a formal request like this means they have almost certainly already finished talks with the Dern Empire as well."
"…And Orlando's party~?"
"No request for aid was sent to us. They probably… assumed we would be busy enough with our own kingdom's affairs."
"Hmm."
Erinn looked around at us and asked,
"What do you want to do? Rest, or go help~?"
"They will need the help, will they not? The Bastien Principality does not even have a Hero's party of its own."
"Of course we help!"
Ser-Aria declared that helping was the only option and took another swig of liquor.
"There is no way some little Hero who does not even know what good booze tastes like can protect a whole country! Puhaha!"
So "no Hero's party" did not mean the principality had no Hero at all. How young did someone have to be for a Hero's party not to have formed yet?
"Scrub, what about you~?"
"…Me?"
"You are the commander, are you not~?"
She was really going to keep pushing that, was she….
For me, going that way was obviously the better choice. A young dragon's lair. There were things to be gained in the process of clearing it.
"If everyone is in decent condition, helping is better than ignoring a request for aid."
"No one was hurt in the last battle, so we are fine."
"If we leave it alone, a great many people will be hurt. We should go help as soon as possible."
"…Yeah. Let's go."
I was glad everyone's opinions lined up. I looked at Erinn and said,
"That is the consensus."
"Great, then we are going~."
"Thank you, everyone! I will send the official dispatch at once!"
Assistant Secretary Eric bowed deeply and ran off as hard as he had come. Watching him made me think civil servants really did stay busy….
"Scrub~♡"
"…What?"
"You are not allowed to cry when you see the dragon~♡"
"I am not going to cry…."
Why would I cry?
I was speechless. There was absolutely no reason to cry at the sight of a dragon. If anything….
I might laugh from pure joy, maybe.
There were materials you could get from a dragon's lair that I needed for crafting. Gear that a character with decent stats would not particularly need—but for a scrub with stats like mine, it was essential.
…Scrub?
I had just called myself a scrub without thinking. That mesugaki was contaminating my brain.
"Then shall we set out without further delay~?"
"That would be best."
"We have money now, so let us take a comfortable carriage!"
I agreed with Ser-Aria on that one.
"Sounds good."
I was thoroughly done with those bone-rattling cargo wagons.