Please Trust Me This Once
We sat in a corner of the restaurant, quietly waiting for Laverre. The place was incredibly noisy. The clink of glasses, the chatter and laughter from the neighboring tables all echoed loudly around us. Normally, in a place this rowdy, I would have wished for some peace and quiet, but this time I didn’t mind it at all.
“That old bastard always looked the type, but damn, he really knows how to piss me off.”
“Don’t be too hard on him. He couldn’t help it.”
“I know that! I know! But that doesn’t make his words any less fucking annoying! He was straight-up disrespecting us earlier.”
It was simply easier on the ears to listen to plain noise than unpleasant noise.
“Hey! Henry, how can you just sit there and take it? After hearing all that shit?”
“There’s nothing to take. I wasn’t even angry.”
“Even if you’re not mad, we can’t just let something like that slide.”
I wondered exactly what range Karena meant when she said “we.” At some point she had begun to assume that if she felt strongly about something, the rest of the party must feel the same. Maybe she was so determined to push her opinion that she had convinced herself first.
“Then what do you want me to do about it? Got any bright ideas?”
“I’m mad precisely because there’s nothing we can do!”
Time crawled by. The minute and second hands seemed to move in slow motion. Just when every single second felt like it was stabbing into my flesh from sheer boredom, Laverre finally arrived at the perfect moment.
“You ordered for me too, correct?”
Laverre pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Yeah. Even though I ditched that pasta place you were so dead set on visiting, I came all the way here to eat this shitty fried rice instead.”
“It’s not fried rice…”
The two of them were already slipping into their usual routine when Jian cut them off.
“Got the quest copies?”
“Right here.”
Laverre pulled some documents from inside her robes and laid them all on the table.
“...There aren’t as many as I expected.”
Even when fully spread out they didn’t cover the whole table, leaving noticeable gaps. The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“There are quite a few, actually. It’s the off-season, and you’re looking for B-rank solo missions.”
Subjugation
Escort
Capture
Gathering
Jian slid the request sheets toward me one by one as he spoke.
“Just so you know upfront, if it looks dangerous, you shouldn’t take it. The overdue penalty would only mean a few months of hardship, but if you get hurt or die here, it’ll be a major incident.”
He added,
“I won’t say anything else. You already know what happens if you push yourself and pick wrong, and I don’t fully understand your current condition. Just choose carefully.”
I scanned down the long list. Among them, one request stood out in particular. I didn’t grab it right away. But after examining the others and ruling out the uncertain ones, nothing else remained.
“I’ll take this one.”
“...What is it?”
I turned the sheet around to show the rest of the party. Their reactions were less than enthusiastic.
“Fuck. You’re seriously doing this?”
“Are you sure you can handle it?”
Neither Laverre nor Karena showed the slightest bit of trust, and they weren’t being gentle about it.
“Uh…”
Jian at least seemed to have some faith, because instead of shooting it down directly he only made a vague sound.
“...Can you do it?”
“Hey. You don’t have to force yourself.”
“That’s right. Dying over something like this would be such a stupid death. I can’t even joke about it, you know?”
Among the continuing objections, Jian’s reaction was actually the most ridiculous.
“Yeah. Since it’s your choice… Ha. No… Still. Ah… As expected…”
At this point I almost wished Jian would join in and stop me too.
“Listen. I have a plan.”
Everyone fell quiet, waiting for me to explain. After my relatively short explanation, while the other two stayed silent, only Karena smirked.
I deliberately mirrored her expression.
“How about it? Pretty good, right?”
Karena kept her smile firmly in place as she answered.
“Haha. You’re calling that a plan?”
Even though I hadn’t meant to, the smile on my face collapsed instantly into a blank expression.
“...As expected. Should I just take the penalty instead?”
“Or how about spending some bribe money? As long as I’m not the one paying, I can probably manage the route somehow…”
The others’ reactions were still negative, but I had my own reasons for confidence, so I decided to lay out the full plan.
“Wait. I’m not finished yet.”
Karena didn’t change her expression or attitude in the slightest.
“What kind of idiotic idea are you going to spit out now.”
I ignored her and continued with the rest of the plan. By the time I finished, everyone wore a more relaxed kind of worried look than before.
“Will it really go that smoothly?”
“I’m not sure about the first part, but the second part is solid.”
“Leave him alone. If it goes wrong, it’s only his loss.”
Jian rubbed his chin for a moment, then readily agreed.
“...Yeah. Well. If it’s only to that extent. All right. Give it a shot. It’s not like anything catastrophic will happen.”
Readily…
The sea sparkled under the sunlight. Waves sliced by white light scattered like silk, only to shatter against the hull like fragile jewels. Salty wind swept my hair back. I leaned against the deck railing and stared at the flock of seagulls. A sight like this would normally stir up some poetic feelings and make me think it was beautiful, but this time it wasn’t working. I had been trying since earlier, yet I kept failing. It wasn’t seasickness. It wasn’t the glaring sunlight setting my nerves on edge. It wasn’t even the cold. It was simply…
“Young man! Come down and have a drink!”
“I’m fine, thank you!”
“Really? Come down anytime if you change your mind!”
…The ship the guild had provided was simply terrible.
“Fuck… No matter how you look at it, sending us on a fishing boat? I know they’re trying to save money, but still…”
Once the boat picked up speed, the curses felt more appropriate. The sound was swallowed by the sea wind whipping against my ears, so no one else could hear it. The words simply circled inside my mouth.
“Fuck.”
I said it once more. I didn’t want to repeat it a third time, so I leaned on the railing again. The waves showed no sign of calming. The increasing sway made my stomach turn. The boat’s motion was only part of it; my own anxiety was doing its share.
That was when it happened. Several ships appeared on the horizon that had looked the same for so long. Gradually the shape of a port emerged in the distance. My nausea eased and the sea breeze felt more generous. Only then did I shout inside my heart.
I've arrived at Suckbiyan!
The ship soon docked.
“Thank you! Have a safe trip back!”
“You take care too, young man!”
I bowed to the woman and slowly walked out onto the pier. On either side stood two enormous ships that seemed to steal the breath from my lungs. The cool sea breeze kept brushing against my cheeks. Standing between those massive hulls and their towering sails, I suddenly felt like a child again. It wasn’t only the overwhelming pressure that large things usually create. The real cause was the pounding of my heart.
As I walked, the cries of seagulls, the clink of coins, and the voices of people gradually mixed together, and the market came into view. Fish and furniture, books and spices, herbs and silk all glowed with a soft luster. People in exotic clothing clapped their hands to draw in passersby. At both ends of the passageway, two large pillars supported a sign connected by graceful rainbow-like curves. Written on it was this:
Suckbiyan Fish Market
Where There's Nothing We Don't Have
That strangely old-fashioned slogan somehow made the place feel even more like a local landmark. When people thought of Suckbiyan, the fish market was impossible to leave out. Thanks to its heavenly location for trade, all sorts of high-quality goods gathered here. Among them, the two most famous things were fresh seafood, as expected from a fish market, and…
“Hello. May I take a look at what you have?”
“Oh my, wizard sir! We have everything!”
Scrolls, of course. There was once a rumor back in my hometown of Chiyev that no mages lived in Suckbiyan. The logic was that since the place overflowed with all kinds of scrolls, there was no need for actual mages. Of course it was only a baseless rumor, but the fact that it had spread as if it were common sense showed how openly everyone acknowledged the quality of the scrolls available here.
“Then… one spare, one for immediate use, one in reserve. Three of each type… nine total. Ah. Yes! That’s correct!”
I had built my plan around using scrolls to replace magic, but naturally Karena and the others had not been enthusiastic. Still, I wasn’t relying on the scrolls completely.
“Is there anything else?”
The shopkeeper apparently hadn’t heard me clearly, because after handing over all the scrolls he asked again.
“Distilled water. Can I get it here?”
“That would be… over there where they supply the natural philosophers. Ask them. If they don’t have it, then I wouldn’t know.”
Even so, I hoped I wouldn’t have to use the second plan. Why? Well… I wasn’t particularly fond of that one either.