Rumors About the Nameless Adventurer (3)
Three months later.
"Vice Commander." The voice lingered in his mind like the faint yet distinct chime of a distant bell. Maxim Apparte realized he was dreaming. But the dreams he'd been having lately weren't the kind he could wake from simply by wishing to, so Maxim answered in his mind instead of with his mouth.
"Yes, Christine."
"Vice Commander, what will you be doing today?"
"Training."
Maxim deliberately answered with cool detachment. The scenery around him was shrouded in thick fog. He wanted to close his eyes, but in a dream, he couldn't. "What kind of training?"
"What else would I be doing besides swinging a sword?"
The voice drew near, then faded away. Maxim didn't know whether to hold onto the receding voice or let it go.
"Vice Commander."
Golden hair like sunlight shimmered before his eyes. Through a pain that felt as though his chest were being torn open by a blade, Maxim faced her.
"Vice Commander."
"Yes."
"Please don't come looking for me."
The fog grew denser. Like sea mist rolling into a dawn harbor, Christine vanished beyond the thick veil of mist.
"...Mmm."
Maxim blinked. It felt as though a snake were constricting his skull. He lay in bed for a long while before finally sitting up.
"Damn it."
His body wasn't particularly heavy. The difficulty in steadying himself was nothing more than a trick of the mind. Maxim clenched and unclenched his fists, forcing blood to circulate. Three months had already passed since that day. He had decided not to dwell on the changes any longer.
When he removed his shirt, the air against his skin felt chilly. He moved his body slowly.
"Hoo..."
Only his left palm touched the cold wooden floor. After finishing an uncountable number of push-ups, Maxim stood up. As he loosened his wrists again, he sensed a familiar presence outside the cabin.
Creak. The door opened. His eyes met Naira's, who wore a rather displeased expression, just as he picked up his shirt.
"Ah, Master."
"Ah, my ass. Is that how you greet your master after several days apart, you foolish disciple?"
Thud.
"Urgh."
A heavy pouch of gold coins flew straight into Maxim's head. Their reunion as master and disciple after several days could hardly be called warm. Watching Maxim clutch his head, Naira clicked her tongue in disapproval.
"What are you putting on such an act for? Hurry up and put your clothes on, then sit down."
Maxim picked up the pouch of gold coins, placed it on the table, and quickly pulled his shirt over his head. Naira pulled out a chair first, crossed her legs, and sat down.
"...Welcome back."
"You greet me quickly enough. Enough of that, you brat."
Naira waved off Maxim's greeting. When Maxim sat across from her with an awkward expression, Naira immediately began to speak.
"There have been several attempts in the meantime."
Maxim understood at once what "attempts" meant.
"Their skills weren't bad, every single one of them. Though none of them could use Aura."
"...That family really doesn't know when to quit."
Maxim replied with a bitter and guilty heart. Seeing his reaction, Naira snorted.
"If you're going to react so half-heartedly, you shouldn't have asked for help in the first place."
Naira glared at Maxim as she spoke.
"Helping you now is my own will. It's my amusement, my whim. Even if you worry about me more, I have no intention of stopping."
Her hand grabbed Maxim's chin. Unable to say what he had been about to say, Maxim could only look directly into Naira's vivid blue eyes. After staring intently into his eyes, Naira released him as if her mood had lightened and spoke in a voice tinged with faint amusement.
"It's fortunate that there's still some cuteness left in you."
Maxim rubbed his chin and looked at Naira with a complicated expression.
"Well, shall we get to the main point?"
Naira lightly tapped the desk with her fist, as if she had become a judge.
"The Bensi subjugation was nothing more than a stroll for me, but it seems to be classified as quite a difficult mission."
Despite having slain five long-dead Bensi without a second thought, Naira spoke as if it were only natural.
"Thanks to that, I had to stay by that lakeside for several more days to avoid suspicion. It seemed like trouble would arise if I returned immediately after finishing the subjugation in a single day."
Her voice was filled with displeasure.
"Well, thanks to that, I was also able to lure those bastards out."
"You deliberately lured the assassins out?"
"Since I couldn't go looking for them first, I put on an act of being off guard. I even muttered to myself like an idiot, just like you, and swung my sword around meaninglessly by myself."
At her scathing words, Maxim forced a stiff smile. Naira watched his flustered, sweating reaction with evident enjoyment as she continued.
"On the second day, they showed themselves. If they'd had even ten seconds to observe me hunting the Bensi, they wouldn't have come out so carelessly."
Naira took out a neatly folded piece of paper and placed it on the table.
"There wasn't much I could find out. Amusingly enough, it seems they received orders to prioritize capture alive. They were holding back on their sword strikes so as not to kill me."
Maxim unfolded the paper. It was an order from the Benning family—not a request outsourced to outsiders, but one carried out by actual members of the family.
"...People from the Benning family..."
"It wasn't that they came out to test the waters. It means they were certain that the person carrying out subjugations under the adventurer's plaque was you. It was probably an operation to capture you alive."
Maxim's gaze grew coldly lifeless.
"They probably intended to keep you alive and then use their daughter—what was her name, Theodora?—to move her as they pleased."
Maxim ground his teeth.
"They've already replaced personnel in the royal palace to their liking, and by now most of the Royal Guard must have been swapped out with their own family members. But why would they try to capture you alive instead of leaving you alone or eliminating you?"
"...Theodora."
"For the Benning family, it would be too much of a burden to completely ignore you and turn away. She's quite an influential figure, isn't she?"
Maxim rubbed his eyes. Naira looked down at him quietly and spoke.
"...When I took you away back then, I asked you something."
Naira's fingertips rested atop Maxim's bowed head.
"I asked what you wanted."
Legs that had been trembling. The mages who had appeared. Christine disappearing as the rain suddenly began to fall. Recalling that time, Maxim clenched his fists tightly.
"And you answered."
Naira's voice settled softly, yet it was firm.
"You said you would take it back. That you wouldn't lose it."
Those words remained in Maxim's mind like a tombstone driven into the earth. His coldly sunken eyes began to gleam with killing intent.
"...Yes."
"Don't hesitate."
Naira lifted Maxim's head firmly. His now longer hair fluttered from the motion.
"I hate half-hearted endings more than anything."
==
There were two reasons Naira carried a longsword and impersonated Maxim. The first was to determine whether the Benning family was still searching for Maxim's whereabouts.
"I've already told you about this, so I'll move on,"
The Benning family's—more precisely, Count Leon's—obsession with his goal far exceeded expectations. His subordinates had repeatedly tried to kidnap Naira, who was active as an adventurer, from the shadows.
"You'd best give up on this. Count Benning will probably keep searching until you die of old age."
"That's quite welcome news."
Maxim frowned in disgust.
"Because whenever I want, I can grab their tail and follow it."
And then there was the second reason.
"About that tail problem,"
Naira rested her chin on her hand and tapped it lightly with her finger.
"It seems the number of eyes watching has increased."
"...What do you mean?"
"Besides the occasional ones sent by Benning and the eyes watching me."
Facing Maxim's puzzled expression, Naira held up her index finger.
"Curiosity."
"..."
"Interest, thinking that fellow might be useful."
Maxim recalled the term "unofficial mission" in his mind.
"Are they nobles' informants?"
"Probably. But it doesn't seem like all of them who showed interest belong to a single faction."
Naira's eyes narrowed. Those perfectly vivid blue eyes were weighing all things. The elf's voice was placing humans on a scale and measuring them. Maxim felt as though he were standing on the scale's plate as he met Naira's gaze.
"Tell me. What should we do?"
"There will be contact first."
Maxim opened his mouth.
"The other nobles aren't blind and deaf either, so they would know that the Benning family has been persistently tracking someone. If it's the nameless adventurer who's become a hot topic in the Adventurers' Guild, they'll be even more interested."
"You're saying they could do something like that in the current situation where the capital has been practically devoured by the Benning family?"
To Naira's question, Maxim answered immediately.
"Since they can't move openly, they'll seek out the Adventurers' Guild. That's why the royal family keeps rolling out policies to keep adventurers in check."
There was something like conviction in Maxim's voice. Naira curled one corner of her mouth in interest and asked him,
"You're certain."
"...Because for a year after becoming an official knight, I had to chase after high-ranking nobles. I know what they want and how they act."
Maxim answered flatly.
"Good. Then assuming I manage to get contacted by a noble, what next?"
Naira's fingers rubbed the table.
"What will you do after that?"
Maxim looked down at his hands. He clenched his fists tightly, then slowly opened them. He closed his eyes and observed his body. He could move. He could fight. That was the conclusion Maxim had reached.
"From then on, I'll handle it myself."
Naira chuckled. Her blue eyes, filled with that laughter, were asking if he could really do it.
"Does that mean you don't need your master anymore?"
"...What are you saying?"
Naira looked at Maxim, who spoke as if hurt. Maxim let out a long sigh.
"If you become active any more than this, you might get caught."
"I don't particularly mind."
"Your hidden kin would find it a bit inconvenient."
Naira laughed and continued to tease Maxim.
"That young Maxim has grown a lot. He even knows how to talk back to his master now."
"I don't remember having such a mischievous master."
Naira burst into laughter.
"Yes, that's true."
Silence. Maxim turned his gaze to Naira, who was looking at him.
"Will your body be all right? The wounds?"
"The wounds are fine. I've also expelled almost all of the demonic energy."
At the mention of demonic energy, Naira's brows furrowed. A dissatisfied voice escaped her lips as she genuinely expressed her displeasure.
"Who would have known the Magic Tower was independently researching black magic."
Naira stroked Maxim's arm.
"But on the other hand, you could say we've uncovered one of their cards."
Naira recalled the witch who had transformed into a shadow and burrowed into the ground before disappearing. Though she claimed to have dealt with it before being seen, there was no guarantee she hadn't been noticed.
"...Though the same goes for our side as well."
Bright sunlight streamed through the window into the room.
"Will you be all right?"
"What you've helped me with so far is more than enough."
Maxim's words carried the wish that she would no longer be involved. Naira noticed the implication and softened her expression.
"Do you remember the first time we met?"
"Are you talking about when Master was active as an adventurer...?"
"More like an herbalist than an adventurer."
"Where would you find such a strong herbalist?"
Back then, in the forest, when Maxim had encountered the grizzly, Naira had taken down the red bear that had charged at him. That experience from his boyhood had become a lesson etched deep into his bones, occasionally appearing in Maxim's dreams.
"What a big thing to do, a little brat like that coming out alone into the forest."
"...Why are you suddenly reminiscing?"
Maxim answered curtly. Finding even that reaction amusing, Naira covered her mouth slightly and laughed.
"If the time that's piled up is greater than the time you have left to pile up, you'll become like that too."
"You say that as if you're exactly like that, even though you'll live much longer than me."
"Did I get caught?"
After speaking in a wise and stylish manner, Naira soon leaned back in her chair with an expression no different from someone Maxim's age. Maxim, who had been trying to read the true meaning behind that expression, soon gave up and buried his face in his arms. Naira's palm rested atop Maxim's bowed head. When Maxim tried to rise, squirming, Naira firmly pushed him back down. Maxim had no choice but to quietly accept Naira patting his head in an absurd posture.
"Oh, you pitiful disciple."
At her master's affectionate words, Maxim's expression twisted. It was a mixture of joy, guilt, anger, and self-loathing.
"Don't make that kind of face."
"Please promise me, Master."
"What, that you'll ask me to step back once things are over, just like you said?"
Perhaps because the words he had wanted to say were taken from him, Maxim immediately closed his mouth, which he had been about to open.
"Even if you don't worry so much, I was planning to step back right away. I don't want to make things more complicated either."
Naira let out a small sigh.
"This is as far as I can get involved."
She drew the line. In her heart, she wanted to step forward even more. She didn't want to see her only disciple, whom she had made over her long life, wandering in despair.
"From here on, it's entirely up to you."
Therefore, she spoke even more firmly.
"It's your choice, your path forward. Won't you regret it?"
"Instead of regretting, I'm going to think about what I can take back."
Christine, who had disappeared. Theodora, who would have been left alone in the knight order. Could he say he had protected Marion? Maxim bit his lower lip hard.
"...Right."
Naira looked at Maxim's expression. And she said nothing more. For a while, only silence flowed between Naira and Maxim. It was a silence that wasn't awkward, each lost in their own thoughts.
"I'll take a look at your sword."
"What?"
Maxim's eyes widened. Seeing Maxim react as if he had heard something unbelievable, Naira shook her head.
"Why that reaction?"
"No... It's just that it's been so long since Master said something like that."
"I'm your master, so what's the big deal?"
Naira stood up from her seat. Maxim's gaze followed her as she rose. Her light greenish-gold hair sparkled as it caught the sunlight directly. Looking down at Maxim, Naira spoke playfully in her flawless voice.
"I'm hungry, Maxim."
"...Yes, Master."