Beg and Beg Again (4)
The corners of Baramson's lips trembled. The silence that had drifted in with the briny scent of salt smirked for a moment and slipped away.
“...Hey, you. Do you really believe you can kill a dragon?”
It was a fairly meaningless question.
If we failed to kill the dragon we were finished, so what was the point of imagining failure? Besides, strictly speaking we were a party that had gathered to hunt Satan. Surely a dragon couldn't be stronger than Satan? If we couldn't even take down a dragon, this party ought to fold right then and there—the same way you don't challenge the final raid boss with specs that can't clear the first one.
But was it even possible to simply decide “we're not running it” and quit the way you would in an ordinary game? No. Not at all.
As a player and as a roleplayer I had no choice. The former because the quest could not be canceled; the latter because my nature would never allow retreat.
“If you guide the way.”
In short, there was only one answer. Push forward claiming it was absolutely possible. Uahaha.
“...Yeah. Maybe. But you know as well as I do that the only one taking a loss in this deal is me.”
Of course, if I thought that would land, I was dead wrong.
Baramson was no fool. Why would he accept this? Logic and emotional appeals had already failed even when human lives were the stakes.
“I have no reason to swallow that loss and gamble.”
If anything, I found his calm response strange. Strictly speaking, what I was doing was nothing more than pure stubbornness. Answering such a tantrum with this much rationality was hard enough—perhaps Baramson was unexpectedly level-headed.
“The question is wrong.”
Even so, I did not stop talking.
“If one day is the price of hiring a dragon-slayer, this is a profitable deal for you.”
I would keep repeating it: my concept was not the sort that backed down....
“...This is driving me insane.”
“There are no further offers. The time I will spend on you is finished.”
And I did not drag things out in an undignified way either. I decided to cut it clean right here.
“...Captain.”
“I know. Don't worry.”
Baramson whispered with his companions, but I placed no hope in that.
The raid? It would work out somehow. I hadn't trolled the negotiation itself, so on this point I could brazenly leave it to chance. Even if it failed, the Archmage had no grounds to blame me.
“Hah. Your confidence... on any other day I might have believed it... but I still won't gamble my brothers' lives—”
Jingle-jingle.
Just as expected, the moment Baramson was about to refuse, a bell rang inside the reception room. Three seconds later the door creaked open.
Baramson hurriedly threw on his robe.
“Um, someone is looking for the client.”
“Captain!”
“It's a disaster!”
An office clerk poked his head through the open doorway, and behind him voices that seemed to be calling for Baramson piled up one after another.
“You lot!?”
People he knew, then. Baramson and his companion both startled.
Outside the reception room noise flared briefly, then fell quiet, and a single representative stepped inside. He had clearly lacked the means for a proper robe; he wore only tattered cloth draped over himself with a connecting cord across his chest. Beneath it a chest binder and bandages faintly stained red showed through.
“Captain, I'm sorry.”
“Itkam?”
As the man entered the clerk withdrew. The one called Itkam paid no mind to appearances, stripped off the cloth covering, and dropped to his knees on the spot. Dozens of short braids of black hair swayed; a body marked with injuries everywhere was laid bare.
“We lost the ship.”
“What?!”
Baramson, who had been about to rush to him, recoiled in shock at the words.
“Out at sea, beasts I'd never seen in my life appeared. Looked just like sea crocodiles, and those things... the bottom of the hull...”
“Sea crocodiles?”
“Wait. Would you tell that story in greater detail?”
Sea crocodiles...? Wait—could those be Dragon Tooth Soldiers?
“...?”
“Perhaps... beasts with a bone-like texture?”
“H-how do you know that...”
Itkam's eyes flew wide at the Archmage's question. So the Dragon Tooth Soldiers really had sunk their ship. The problem was where it had happened.
“Did you go near Dragon's Howl Gate? Were you attacked there?”
“That is...”
Itkam glanced at Baramson as if seeking permission; Baramson in turn fixed this side with a burning stare.
“Hey. It looks like you know exactly what those things are.”
His face was pale on one side as well—bloodless, like paper.
“Did I not say the Sea Dragon has been corrupted?”
“What? Wait—the Sea Dragon corrupted?”
“What does that have to do with the beasts that sank my ship?”
“Those are what the Sea Dragon's teeth and scales become. Normally it creates them for its own protection, but... once the Sea Dragon fell to corruption, their purpose seems to have twisted. We ourselves were ambushed once during reconnaissance.”
Around then I drifted into a brief side thought. If the Inquisitor hadn't thrown up a barrier that time, our ship would have been holed the same way. Old news, yet a small wave of relief still passed through me.
“What...”
“Then answer me now. Where did you meet them? If they have expanded their range of activity, the matter grows serious—that is why I ask.”
“...Gamak Bay.”
Under the Archmage's prodding, Baramson, who had been pressing a hand to his forehead and crumpling his face, finally forced the answer out. His voice was sunken and flat.
“I docked at Gamak Bay in case Bipurit's men were waiting in this city.”
Gamak Bay was exactly the place we had planned to lure the dragon. It also sat dead center between Dragon's Howl Gate and Gryu Telz.
“...It seems the situation has grown more serious.”
The Inquisitor opened her mouth for the first time in a long while, spoke that single sentence, then pressed her lips shut again. Her manner niggled at me, but the words themselves I agreed with. At this rate Dragon Tooth Soldiers would appear in the waters right off the harbor before long.
“...Captain.”
“...First, stand up, Itkam. This isn't your fault. I never foresaw it either. Even if I'd been there it wouldn't have changed much.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I told you not to apologize. More importantly—the kids. How badly hurt?”
“Wayan is dead... Teman and Kkeutut are injured. The rest are all right, thankfully.”
“I see...”
I first offered a silent prayer for the dead. At the same time I calculated what this would mean next. Cold as it was, I had no choice—plenty of lives hung on our side as well.
“Are the wounds severe? If you will allow it, I can assist with treatment.”
“...”
“Do not worry. I will not bind you with debt over something like this. I am merely fulfilling a human duty.”
“...Please.”
At this point their problem was no longer simply saving people; even getting home had become impossible. A ship was not something you could pick up for a couple of coins. And even if they somehow acquired one, they would then lack the funds to hire the hands needed to sail it. From their perspective it was pure catastrophe.
“I—”
“Please wait a moment.”
In the meantime the wounded were brought into the reception room, and the Archmage stopped the Inquisitor who had been about to step forward. Whether it was because of the hostility toward the temple she had shown earlier remained unclear.
“I'll handle it.”
“Please do.”
Dev stepped up instead. I wondered how well a non-physician could treat anyone, but surprisingly his skill was excellent. With the Archmage's magic layered on top, the two men's wounds were quickly closed. Slower than Holy Power, yet at least nothing would worsen.
“...”
Baramson's face darkened as he watched his subordinates receive care.
“I hated the idea of gambling my brothers' lives even if it killed me...”
And when the treatment finished, he stood before me.
“Hey. I'll ask you once more, sincerely. Really... can you really take down a dragon?”
Suddenly I wondered whether this, too, was a narrative correction to drive the plot.
“If I cooperate, will you kill the Sea Dragon and then come help Zakrati?”
If so, it felt a little cruel. Guiding a person's impulse and manufacturing a situation in which they have no other option are very different things.
“I already told you.”
But I could not leave it unanswered.
“One day is enough.”
I let the answer fall out casually.
“Yeah. You did. Haha.”
Baramson laughed while pressing a hand to his forehead. An empty laugh—draining for anyone who heard it, and touched with quiet sadness somewhere deep.
The Archmage, finished with the wounded, rose and looked our way.
“Surely you aren't planning to take only the payment and then wash your hands—”
“Do not insult me.”
“Insult, is it? Fine. Then... won't you show me something at the end so I can feel certain? Prove that forced claim of yours that you can kill a dragon.”
It was a reasonably fair demand. Even when pitching an investment you produce some plausible graphs and projected outlooks. The trouble was I had nothing ready to offer as proof right now. Would splitting a building in half convince him?
“If he single-handedly slaughtered hundreds of demons and cut down dozens of demon contractors, that should be roughly believable, no?”
Dev casually slipped a remark in. Baramson's eyes narrowed.
“That's... impressive. Still a bit vague, though.”
“For the record, those weren't old achievements. He did it in a single day.”
“What? What human can do that?”
“He's standing right here.”
I felt a little awkward. That was... a different case, wasn't it?
“He also dropped a house-sized dragon in two exchanges.”
When did I—ah. The Nucker. That one had gone down so anticlimactically I barely registered it as a dragon.
“That alone earned him a guild medal of merit. Young master, take it out for a moment.”
With much the same expression as when the clerk had demanded it last time—face like I'd bitten into an insect—I rummaged through the inventory. The medal I had regarded as pure inventory waste was proving unexpectedly useful.
“It's real...”
Baramson rolled the medal across his palm for a moment, then handed it back. Half believing, half not. That ambiguous psychology floated across his features.
“If you're still doubtful you can ask around. Mention the incident that happened in Tatara and you'll find one or two people who will talk.”
“Ha. You're that confident... Fine. Then I'll try believing you once.”
He simply did not have many options left. A decision had clearly been reached.
“Captain...”
The companion who had been with him from the start and understood the entire situation did not stop him in the end either. He only wore a look of pity.
“Ha. Never thought I'd end up staking my life and my subordinates on a gambling table like this. Even throwing Zakrati into the pot...”
Around then Baramson glared at me. I did not bother dodging it. I felt no particular shame or anxiety over the blank checks I had been writing so freely.
“You will keep your word.”
Well, the shame wasn't completely nonexistent, but neither side had any real choice left. Showing it would only make the con look worse. Future-me, the one who would have to clean up the mess, was going to have a miserable time... yet that future had been locked in the moment I sealed myself inside the concept.
So straight ahead! Unconditionally straight! Don't look back! There is no behind to look at anyway!
“Hey, Sage!”
“Speak.”
“Earlier you offered my companionship as advance payment, right? I'm adding conditions! You said with your own mouth that you'd try to get aid to Zakrati ahead of time. You must dispatch at least one Great Sage. That is my first condition.”
“Naturally. It shall be done.”
“And leave the temple out of it. I will not accept their help.”
“...Understood as well.”
“Second: protection for us. I don't mean 'don't file a report.' I mean keep us safe from Bipurit. We barely slipped the net to reach this place; if we join something this large my location will reach their ears, won't it?”
“Understood.”
“Third: a ship and provisions for our return to Zakrati.”
“Is there more?”
“Lastly... if I die, you must take my subordinates back to Zakrati.”
“Do not worry. I swear it without fail. If you wish, even with the Adventurer's Guild as notary.”
The situation had flipped so that their side was now the more disadvantaged, yet... aside from the first condition nothing was particularly difficult. And the first was something the Archmage would handle on his own.
From our perspective there was no loss. Ah—well, not completely none. Once this was over I would be forced to head all the way to the Yabad Region.
...Will they follow? Tch. Or would it actually be better if they didn't? Then I could drop the concept play.
Well, no chance they wouldn't follow.
“Good. Then since it's decided, I want to hear how this Sea Dragon hunt is supposed to go. But before that I'd like to explain the situation to my party.”
“As you wish. Let us change locations while we are at it. They need rest as well, do they not?”
“Appreciated.”
In any case, with this I had secured the captain. The end of a fierce negotiation for a shipmaster.
The Fang Aimed at Zakrati
∎ Move to Zakrati
In exchange a new quest had appeared—well, that much was inevitable.
“Then to save time, I'll hear the rough outline while we walk. There must be some kind of plan, right?”
...But what good is a new quest when the crisis still isn't over?
Our plan isn't even drawn up yet. We're screwed. Hehe.