Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Backstreet Mad Dog (3)
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Whenever was it... the day the only person I could trust in this cesspool left me behind.
[Do you know, Cloe? Humans never break as long as they have at least one trustworthy tooth by their side.]
I never imagined the person who said that would abandon me.
[Someday, someone will surely come to take you away. Until then, you have to hold on.]
The conversation we had that day was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
[Mister... can't you just not go?]
[I'm sorry, but right now, there's something I absolutely have to do... Once that's finished, I'll definitely come back to see you.]
[A promise...?]
[Yes, I promise.]
With those words, the mister never came back to the slums.
Or maybe... it wasn't that he didn't come, but that he couldn't.
...
"...Ah."
When she opened her eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.
It wasn't particularly clean, but compared to the dust- and bug-infested ceilings of the slums, it was far more sanitary.
"Ugh..."
As she overcame the throbbing headache and struggled to sit up, the sound of an argument drifted in from what looked like a kitchen in the distance.
"...Th-that..."
"Ah... why like th..."
Pleasant, beautiful voices—at least two of them. One sounded vaguely familiar to Cloe.
"Sion, I'm asking this sincerely out of curiosity, but is it possible that my definition of cooking differs from yours?"
...A talking cat?
"Ah, no... This way, you can make food faster..."
...That mage from earlier?
"Normal people don't think you can substitute thirty minutes on low heat with ten minutes on high, Sion."
"Th-this is all for... ef-efficiency...!"
No, listening to it, it sounded like one side was entirely at fault.
"Wh-what... are you two...?"
"Ah, you're awake... It's almost done boiling... just wait a bit..."
"Having watched the entire cooking process, I advise against eating it."
"L-Lily...!"
Opinions on cooking or whatever held no interest for Cloe.
What she wanted to know right now was why she was here.
"Why did you... spare me... ugh..."
"Um... c-can you stop talking for now...? You just woke up, so you need to rest..."
"Th-that's why... why did you save..."
"...Huh? Didn't you make a contract with me...?"
Contract?
[...That's... one hell of an offer...]
Ah, right.
She had made a contract with that mage.
Thinking everything was over anyway, she'd accepted the offer like grasping at straws.
"For now... focus on recovering..."
It seemed the girl had made the offer in earnest.
'My body's condition... isn't as bad as I thought.'
Seeing the bandages wrapped all over her body, it was likely the girl had nursed her.
And even now, she was making food for her, so there was no room for further suspicion.
"Um... want to try some...?"
...Though it wasn't normal food, of course.
"...What did you put in this?"
How could cooking something turn a soup into a slime-like blob that didn't even flow?
"Frost lotus root and flame root ground up... silver mushrooms too... anyway, all the nutritious supplements good for the body..."
"Are you thinking of changing professions from mage to alchemist by any chance?"
"Sh-shut up...!"
Judging by the lineup of ingredients, it was questionable whether this was even an attempt at soup or some kind of elixir.
"...Still, it doesn't taste bad."
"-Right?!"
Still, the taste wasn't half bad.
More precisely, the relaxed atmosphere where she could eat in peace after so long.
She'd made too many enemies lately, so even meals had to be rushed and hasty.
This jelly-like food was better than her recent meals.
"Look at that face—it's obviously a white lie out of kindness."
"...I-Is it...?"
The mage girl and the talking cat had been bickering nonstop.
They clearly seemed to have spent quite a long time together.
Caught between them, Cloe felt like an intruder.
'Doesn't suit me.'
Neither this frivolous chatter nor this warm atmosphere.
Cloe, who had wandered the back alleys living a life where she trusted no one, thought she didn't fit with these two.
"So, what do you plan to do with me from now on?"
That's why she got straight to the point. What did they want by saving her?
To the girl who held her lifeline, clearly the dominant one in their relationship.
The girl's offer had been: she'd save her hometown in exchange for Cloe handing over control of her life and death.
"Use me as a test subject?"
The most likely possibility was exploiting Cloe's constitution, which resisted magic, for experiments.
It was one reason countless mages had tried to kidnap her before, so Cloe assumed this mage girl was the same.
"Hmm... well, I haven't really thought about it..."
Of course, Sion had no such intentions.
'...I don't want to kill her.'
All achievements related to Cloe had already vanished, so Sion had no reason to kill her.
'But... letting her go feels a bit iffy...'
The achievements window had clearly stated it deleted all Cloe-related achievements because she wouldn't become a boss monster.
But what about the opposite?
If there was even a slight chance she could become a boss, new achievements might appear.
"Hmm..."
Leaving Cloe as is could make her a boss anytime, so she had to keep her around.
But traveling with her long-term didn't appeal to Sion, who hated living with others.
As Sion's dilemma deepened—
"Ah!"
—one decent idea popped into her head.
"Hey, want to learn some magic?"
A way to monitor Cloe to prevent her from becoming a boss monster while achieving an accomplishment.
"...You want me to be your disciple?"
It was the moment the Grand Archmage's first disciple was born on the continent.
...
Leonia Empire Capital, Imperial Knights Captain's Office.
"—Thus, the unusual behavior of the magical beasts is highly likely the work of a dark mage."
"And the basis for that is the observation report from Sion's disciple?"
"Yes."
In the office, the vice captain was reporting the mission results to the captain.
"...What's the probability that this girl named Rion isn't actually Sion's disciple?"
"Just in case, I asked the Magic Tower Master closest to Sion for confirmation, and the response was that she is indeed the disciple."
"Hmm..."
The man seated at the head of the office only looked away from the report on the desk after reading it a couple more times.
"Good work on the mission, Vice Captain. As expected, you handle things cleanly, Olivia."
"B-Brother..."
Edwin von Leonhardt, captain of the Leonia Empire's Imperial Knights.
He was Olivia's older brother, a martial artist hailed as the empire's greatest swordsman.
"I heard you got saddled with another mission for the Hero. Must be tough on you."
"Yeah... he's really too much sometimes..."
Of course, compared to the official empire's strongest, the Hero Karl Leonhardt, Edwin was a few levels below.
Before long, the dignified figures of the two knights vanished from the office, replaced only by a weary little sister and her caring brother comforting her.
"If he weren't the Hero... I'd have beaten him to a pulp—"
"Yeah, I know."
"Yes! Yes!"
"Our Livy is really mad, huh."
-Stroke stroke-
"D-don't pat my head!"
"Ah, sorry. Old habits..."
As Edwin comforted Olivia, a single question arose in his mind.
"By the way, what kind of person is this Rion?"
The Grand Archmage Sion was a figure shrouded in mystery—not just his identity, but even his face was unknown to the world.
Even the Hero, who had partied with him for quite a while, didn't know his face, so no further explanation was needed.
Sion's disciple Rion was undoubtedly no ordinary person either.
"Hmm... honestly speaking..."
Edwin was somewhat interested in Rion due to her connection as Sion's disciple and quite curious about what kind of person she was.
"She's cute."
"...Huh?"
"Super cute, the kind that makes you want to hug her right away?"
But Olivia's response was far too insufficient to satisfy Edwin's curiosity.
"I-I see... So, is she still at the Magic Tower?"
Sion was famous for refusing visitors without even showing his face.
But with his disciple Rion, at least her face could be seen.
Edwin, wanting to confirm firsthand what Sion's disciple was like if the chance arose, asked about Rion's whereabouts.
"According to the Tower Master, she recently headed to the empire."
"To the empire...?"
Her whereabouts were quite unexpected.
"Yeah. She left word that she was going to the Adventurer's Guild, so probably to Prifre City?"
The Grand Archmage's disciple suddenly becoming an adventurer.
Truly fitting her master, she was taking completely unpredictable actions.
"...Wait, she went to Prifre City?"
"Yeah, ah, hold on..."
As they discussed Rion's whereabouts, the siblings suddenly recalled a fact they'd momentarily forgotten.
The countermeasures headquarters where the Hero was currently stationed was near Prifre City.
And the contents Olivia had reported were likely known to the Hero to some extent.
Which meant information about Sion's disciple Rion had probably already reached the Hero's ears.
"No way..."
Perhaps, by some coincidence, the two might meet.
Realizing that possibility, the siblings shared the exact same thought.
"Nothing will happen, right?"