Starting Over from the Beginning
The inside of the building was far more magnificent than I’d imagined from the outside. A staircase swept down in a gentle curve like the hem of a skirt, linking the grand entrance hall to the second floor with effortless grace. Wide corridors stretched away on either side, splitting off into other hallways packed with rooms. It really was a beautifully crafted piece of architecture. It would have been perfect if it hadn’t been bought with our blood money.
“Most of the rooms don’t have furniture yet. I was looking for one big enough for all of us to sit in…” Laverre said, opening the door to the room right in front of her. When she saw it was empty, she closed it again and tried the next one. It seemed even she wasn’t completely familiar with the mansion yet.
“Ah. Here it is! Come on in!” She waved us inside with a bright smile and stepped through the doorway. We followed her. Inside stood a square table and four chairs. Karena, Jian, and I sat down in that order. The moment she took her seat, Karena sprawled back like she owned the place.
“Hey. Go brew us some tea.”
“Haha. I haven’t had time to prepare anything yet. Unfortunately I don’t have any drinks to offer right now.”
“What do you have? You can’t have absolutely nothing.”
“I do have a little wine. Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Naturae Char—”
“What the… are you even a real priest?”
“Of course I am. Would you like to see my priest certificate?”
“…Ugh. Never mind.”
Only then did Laverre sit down as well. She smiled sweetly and began.
“Now then, everyone. It’s been quite an eventful time, but it’s wonderful to see you all again after so long!”
Unfortunately, the rest of us were in worse shape than she was and didn’t share her ironclad mentality, so answering her required a rather heavy sigh.
“Hm? What’s the matter, Henry?”
“Wait, you didn’t tell her anything?” I asked Jian.
“Nope. I only mentioned what happened to me and Karena.”
“What is it? Did something bad happen to you?”
“This idiot got dumped by the spirits,” Karena said with a mischievous little laugh.
“The spirits? I remember there being four of them… which one rejected you?”
“All of them. All four dumped me at the same time and then completely vanished.”
“What? Why?”
Laverre was so naturally calm that she never seemed surprised by anything. At times it made you wonder whether she was even capable of empathizing with other people’s hearts. Or maybe it wasn’t a question of empathy at all. Maybe she was simply a psychopath and that was why she stayed so serene.
“I don’t know.”
“Hmm.”
“‘Hmm’? ‘Hmm’?! I’m dying over here! What the hell am I supposed to do now? The spirits, those bastards, abandoned me! I was planning to just live quietly doing magic research!”
Laverre answered in her usual gentle voice.
“Oh dear. Don’t lose hope. Compared to other mages I’ve heard about, your situation is actually much better.”
“Other mages?”
“Yes. I heard this from a storyteller. A long time ago there was a mage with ash-gray hair. At first he belonged to the most prestigious magic tower in the kingdom, but he was persuaded by a friend and left the tower to join a party.”
I asked what a magic tower was, but Laverre just vaguely said that such things existed and moved on.
“Okay, fine. And then?”
“After many adventures, he was suddenly kicked out of the party for having a different direction from the others. With no other choice, he headed back to the magic tower. On the way, however, he ran into a succubus and some undead. Quite the disaster.”
To be honest, the story was interesting enough that I found myself listening intently.
“What happened next? Did he die? Or end up with a permanent disability?”
“No. He became a beautiful woman.”
“…What exactly happened? And how is that a tragedy? Turn me into a beautiful woman too. I won’t complain at all.”
“The real story starts now. After becoming a woman, he returned to the magic tower and met his old master. The master told him to enroll in the academy, and he actually did.”
“So far it sounds pretty good. Then what?”
“I don’t know what comes after that.”
I tilted my head and stared at Laverre.
“The storyteller said the story was free only up to that point. If I wanted to hear the rest, I had to pay. So I don’t know the full ending, but I was told it becomes quite tragic.”
“Ha…”
I felt like I deserved compensation for the focus I’d wasted. Maybe it really was pointless to talk about calmness with Laverre. Perhaps she simply had no emotions at all.
“Karena. Curse her out for me.”
“I’ve been doing that this whole time.”
“Hey, hey. That’s enough. This isn’t the time for that,” Jian said. “Our situation isn’t exactly great right now, you know? None of us has anywhere to go. Not me, not Karena. And you two aren’t in any better shape, right?”
“Obviously,” I muttered.
Jian rested his chin on his hand and thought for a moment. But no matter how you looked at it, he wasn’t thinking. He was hesitating. It wasn’t the struggle of coming up with a solution for the future, but the agony of deciding whether or not to say out loud, Should we just form the party again? Or maybe he had already decided and was now just figuring out how to say it.
It must have been pretty embarrassing to shout “Disband!” with tears and snot running down your face only a few months ago, then try to start over again so soon.
At that moment, Laverre broke the silence born of collective agony.
“Would you all like to form a party with me again?”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
Jian answered so quickly that he kept talking before anyone could react.
“But why? You’re still part of the church, aren’t you?”
In truth, those two sentences should have been reversed. The “why?” should have come first, then the “sounds good” after hearing the reason. But Jian’s reaction was completely inverted. It was obvious. The question he had been desperately hoping for had finally been asked, and his mouth had answered before his brain even registered it.
“Because if I don’t form a party, I won’t receive any support funds. I was demoted from combat priest to regular priest, after all.”
“Well… then it’s settled. What about you two?” Jian asked, looking at me and Karena.
“The guild ditched me too, so obviously I’m in.”
“Henry?”
“I’m in. Please take me.”
“Then it’s decided.”
And so, in a rather anticlimactic fashion that didn’t match the grand achievements our party had once accomplished, we reformed. Not to oppose some newly born evil, nor because of some world-ending catastrophe. We came back together for the single common reason that our dreamed-of futures had been shattered.
“…But what are we going to do first?” Karena asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question.
“What do you mean?”
“Come on. Henry got dumped by the spirits, Jian doesn’t have a sword, and I don’t have a guild anymore. What exactly can we do in this state?”
“I get why Jian and I are screwed, but why are you?”
“I borrowed my poisons and daggers from the guild.”
Laverre tilted her head, still not quite understanding.
“Couldn’t you just buy new ones somewhere else?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Why not? You could just pick up any random thing from the adventurer guild right next door…”
“If you don’t get it, just nod and move on.”
“I see.”
Jian chimed in, nodding along as if he understood perfectly.
“I agree that we’ve definitely gotten weaker. In our current state, we couldn’t beat the Demon King’s army. You know, that… Ki… whatever his name was.”
“You’re talking about that undead gentleman, right? I believe his name was Kirzel.”
“No, the one in the blue armor. That was Karwell.”
“Huh? Wasn’t it Kirwen?”
Whenever the four of us gathered, the conversation rarely stayed on track. It frequently derailed into side paths. This time was no exception. We suddenly started arguing about what the guy’s name had actually been. I insisted it was Karwen, but the other three immediately shot me down with absolute confidence that I was wrong. After a long debate, we eventually concluded that it wasn’t all that important anyway.
“Anyway. We definitely can’t beat him in our current condition. Henry’s been abandoned by the spirits, and I don’t have a weapon.”
“You can just buy a new weapon,” Karena tossed out as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
“I can’t. The investment I made in the trading company completely failed, so I’m broke.”
“In that case, I can lend you some money. The annual interest rate would be 32.12 percent…”
“That’s even worse. Borrowing money from a party member is the worst idea possible. It destroys the party dynamic.”
“Then what are we supposed to do? I can’t fight alone, can I?” Karena said, pouting.
Jian glanced at me. From that look, I could roughly guess what he was about to say.
“Wait. You’re not seriously thinking…”
“Looks like Henry already figured it out.”
“What? What is it?”
“Before I received the holy sword, I had a weapon I used for a long time. I’m thinking of going to the people who made it for me. This was before Laverre and Karena joined the party.”
“Where is that?” Karena asked.
I answered for him.
“Remember the weapon Jian used back then? The big black one. He didn’t buy it, and he didn’t pick it up somewhere. The orcs made it for him.”
“…Orcs?”
“Yeah. Their village isn’t too far from here. I’m planning to go there and get a new weapon.”
“How? We don’t have any money,” Karena pointed out.
“Well, there’s always a way.”
Jian put on a confident grin. Whenever he made that face, I always felt uneasy first… but still. Yeah. That was just how it was.