Escort (Part 2)
Jing clutched his head in frustration. It hadn't even been half a day since they had promised to keep a low profile, and yet trouble had already found them.
By the time Jing and Ratel arrived at the temple, a fairly long queue of people, drawn by the lucrative terms, had already formed.
"Applicants, please line up!"
Jing felt a wave of relief as he watched an attendant walk around giving directions. No matter the region, temples were always orderly. With a system this well-organized, as long as we don't get caught up in any trouble, we should be able to quietly do our jobs and collect our pay.
What a naive thought that was. Jing's fleeting peace was instantly shattered by a man who casually slipped into the line right in front of him.
It was a mundane situation, really. It was just a classic demonstration of the truth that the simpler the rule, the easier it was to break.
All Jing had intended to do was offer a polite, gentle nudge—something along the lines of, 'Excuse me, young man, but this isn't right, is it?'
"Hey. Get to the back."
If only that young sociopath hadn't intervened in the brief moment Jing spent debating whether to let it slide or speak up.
Jing sighed, lamenting how a situation that could have ended with a simple, 'It's no rush, so please step back,' had gone completely off the rails.
Shring. While Jing was briefly lost in thought, the man apparently decided that cutting Ratel down was the best course of action, drawing a well-honed shortsword.
"You arrogant little bastard. I'm going to show you exactly what happens when you run your mouth."
Ratel's comment about his short legs must have been deeply humiliating, because the threatening man's face was flushed a violent red. Fearing a massive scene, Jing quickly stepped between them.
"Whoa, calm down, both of you. There's no need to blow this out of proportion, don't you think?"
"Actually, it's a massive deal."
Unfortunately, the curly-haired man didn't seem to possess a particularly generous heart either. Then again, if he were broad-minded, he wouldn't have done something as petty as cutting in line in the first place.
"Now, let's not get so worked up..."
"Though I suppose it must be hard to find anything that isn't massive from your perspective."
Ratel's quiet sarcasm, which completely derailed Jing's attempts to defuse the situation, finally snapped the last thread of the man's meager patience.
"You little piece of shit!!!"
The tip of the blade lunged straight for Ratel.
Clang! With a sharp, ringing sound, the man's shortsword flew through the air and embedded itself in the ground right in front of the people waiting in line.
The man stared blankly, unable to comprehend what had just happened, looking back and forth between his empty hand and Ratel's sword. His hand, having clashed against overwhelming force, trembled uncontrollably. His skills were as pathetic as his petty personality.
"What in the..."
Judging by his dazed expression, he hadn't even seen Ratel draw his sword. It wasn't that Ratel had used any special magic; he had simply executed the most basic movement with such blinding speed and fluid precision that his unskilled opponent couldn't even register it.
"You... what the hell did you just do?"
"Nothing much. Except you being a complete idiot."
Snickers and chuckles erupted from the crowd at Ratel's blunt reply.
"Why, you...!"
The short-legged man, still refusing to accept reality, apparently still fancied his chances against an overwhelmingly superior opponent. He pulled a dagger from his pocket and lunged at Ratel.
Watching the sluggish attempt at a surprise attack, Jing thought casually,
He won't even graze his collar.
Ratel deflected the swinging blade and immediately grabbed the man's arm. The short-legged man's eyes widened in sheer terror, but the sensation didn't last long. His short legs soared into the air, tracing a wide arc before slamming hard into the ground.
"Gah!"
A heavy thud echoed, accompanied by a choked groan escaping the man's throat.
"..."
The temple courtyard fell into a stunned silence at the sheer brevity of the confrontation.
"I took care of it quickly, since you seem to prefer peace and quiet."
Turning around without even a change in his breathing, Ratel smirked, his lips curling into a crooked grin as if to tease Jing, who was staring at him in utter disbelief.
"How thoughtful of you. And here I thought you weren't listening to a word I said."
Though they passed the selection process with ease, what truly exhausted Jing wasn't the simple test, but the unwanted attention they had drawn.
"The name's Jing! What's yours?"
A voice, hovering somewhere between cheerful and obnoxious, echoed through the dining hall. Ratel glanced at the older Jing, who was currently tipping his cup beside him.
"For a second, I thought you'd suddenly gone senile."
"I felt the same way."
Fortunately, the older Jing had not lost his mind. He looked at the brown-haired man who possessed the boisterous voice. Ratel, on the other hand, didn't even bother to turn his head, focusing entirely on the meat pie on his plate.
"A shy one, I see."
The man casually interpreted the cold reception in whatever way suited him best. Sporting a brown head of hair and a mustache that looked entirely out of place on his youthful face, the man—whether through sheer affability or shamelessness—pulled up a chair and sat down next to them without an invitation.
"Man, that was some incredible skill, brother! That guy never had any manners, and everyone was sick of him anyway. You really taught him a lesson! And you too, old-timer! I saw your swordplay earlier—you're clearly no amateur."
Hearing the overly enthusiastic praise, Jing readily extended a hand. He welcomed any conversation with someone who seemed familiar with the local scene.
"You flatter us. It's a pleasure to meet someone who shares my name in a place like this."
"Oh, your name is Jing too, old-timer? Well, it is a pretty common name. Honestly, I've met up to three other Jings in a single day before! On the bright side, it makes it easy for people to remember."
Delighted that Jing was engaging with him, the young man grinned broadly and began to ramble, offering up details no one had asked for.
"There are downsides, of course. Since it's so common, whenever bad guys need a fake name, they always go with 'Jing'..."
"Yes, well, it's very nice to meet you."
He talked far, far too much.
"Ah, I talk too much, don't I? Everyone tells me I need to learn to shut up."
Even though he had been abruptly cut off, the young man simply chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
"I'm Jing, and this is Ratel. It seems you've been in this town for quite some time?"
"Not that long, actually. I wandered around from place to place before drifting in here about a month ago. It's a pretty decent town."
Young Jing leaned in slightly toward Ratel, who was still focused entirely on his food, before turning back to the older Jing with a smirk.
"I was curious because I've never seen faces or skills like yours around here. I'm the type who can't stand not knowing things. You two must have come from quite far away, huh?"
Jing quietly studied the young man's face. Based on what he had observed during the selection trial earlier, the youth's skills were neither exceptionally outstanding nor terribly lacking. His questions seemed to stem from genuine curiosity rather than an attempt to pry for information.
"I'm not much different from you. I've just been swinging a sword a bit longer, is all. I've done various jobs here and there, and eventually drifted down this way."
The phrase "various jobs" carried a heavy weight of unspoken history, but it wasn't a lie. Stroking his mismatched mustache, the young man nodded.
"You can definitely tell you've got a lot of experience. What about him, though...?"
His intrigued gaze shifted toward Ratel. Jing looked at Ratel with an anxious expression. He had pre-arranged a story that they had simply crossed paths and decided to travel together, but Ratel had been too busy stuffing his face with bread at the time for Jing to be sure he had actually listened. Still, after all that nagging, surely he would play along to some extent.
"Jing knocked me unconscious and kidnapped me. That's how we ended up traveling together."
"Oh..."
He was wrong. Jing pressed a hand to his forehead, reminded once again that the only thing this brat ever coordinated with him on was meal times.
"Well, that's... certainly a unique way to bond."
Though he seemed a bit rough around the edges, Young Jing was apparently a decent fellow at heart, managing an awkward response. However, his previous warmth had clearly given way to a heightened sense of wariness.
"No, that's not it at all! Why on earth would you say it like that? We just met by chance and decided to travel together."
"Hey, Jing!"
A voice calling out from a distance made Young Jing turn his head.
"Come have a smoke! Once the job starts, we won't be allowed to!"
"Be right there!"
Waving back, he patted down his trousers and stood up.
"It was nice meeting you. It might only be for a short while, but I look forward to working with you."
With a light wave, he disappeared through the dining hall doors.
"Am I getting so old that my memory is starting to fail me? I could have sworn we both agreed to say we just met on the road."
"Your memory is fine. That is indeed what we agreed on."
As Jing stared at him with a look that demanded to know why on earth he had said that then, Ratel pointed his spoon at him.
"He was being too loud while I was trying to eat."
"Still, did you really have to scare the poor guy like that?"
At Jing's exasperated remark, Ratel looked back at him as if he were the one talking nonsense.
"Aren't you supposed to be quiet when you eat?"
"Well, yes, but..."
Why does he always sound like someone who only learned half of his manners? Jing debated whether to point out that scaring people into silence was a rather questionable way to enforce table etiquette, but ultimately kept quiet as Ratel returned his focus to his meal.
"Even so, you should learn to be a bit more flexible in communal spaces like this. If you want to survive among people from now on, gathering information is crucial. And there's no easier or more convenient source of information than other people."
"Why go through all that trouble when you can just grab someone and beat them until they talk..."
"Stop trying to give an old man a heart attack and just eat your food."
At Jing's sigh-laden response, Ratel merely shrugged.
"We really need to do something about your method of problem-solving..."
Jing, who was in the middle of his lecture, suddenly stopped. Sensing a gaze from afar, he turned his head in that direction.
He saw a young child lingering near the entrance of the dining hall. The child was dressed in worn but neat trousers and a shirt. One of the children gathered for the Tinas Ritual, no doubt.
While nobles summoned priests directly to their estates, commoners gathered at nearby temples to undergo the ceremony together. This child was unmistakably one of them.
The sight of the young child reminded him of the Young Duke of Fides. Jing offered his warmest, gentlest smile and gave a soft wave.
The child flinched and quickly turned away, suggesting that to the little one, Jing looked like nothing more than a scary old man.
"For someone who has a kid, your way with children is absolutely terrible."
Ratel teased Jing, who was staring wistfully at the back of the child's head as they bolted without looking back.
"Quiet, you. My son used to love it when I did that."
"So that direction must lead to the children's quarters."
"That's right. And here I thought you weren't paying any attention, but you actually listened to the guide."
Jing offered a word of praise, remembering how Ratel had done nothing but stare at the prayer room while the priest was explaining things.
"I make sure to listen to the important things."
Jing wondered if that was a subtle way of saying his own words weren't important, but he decided to keep his mouth shut.