Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Translator : Elizabeth
As I turned around, what was in front of my eyes was a guard clad in armor from head to toe. The coldness wrapping around my shoulder must have been the feeling brought by the coldly cooled metal gauntlet.
“Ye, yes?”
My body feels like it’s freezing solid. At an unexpected moment, public power appeared before my eyes. The only people capable of being armed inside the city were them, including adventurers and knights under nobles.
“Wh, what business do you have….”
Even though I did nothing wrong, my lips are slowly stiffening. Actually, there was one thing that weighed on my conscience. 7 years ago, the rights as a citizen recognized vaguely amidst the large-scale administrative procedures due to the Slave Prohibition Act. Since the background is medieval, I don’t think there would be systematic and precise identity verification procedures like in modern times, but there must be a reason the guard grabbed my shoulder.
I unknowingly assumed a defensive stance. Although I’m confident I’d be subdued in 1 second if a fight started…. If I get caught, I have to at least appeal my innocence.
In the rigid atmosphere, the guard clad in armor spoke.
“As expected, this voice… it’s that guy from back then, right! It is!”
An agitated voice as if treating some sworn enemy. Startled at being grabbed by the collar suddenly, I shouted.
“Why, why are you doing this!” “Why am I doing this! You should know that better yourself!?”
Then, saying rather I should know better, the guard with a deep voice shook me back and forth wildly. It hurts a lot because the metal gauntlet touches me every time I’m shaken. Save me… a guard is killing a person! Since I don’t even know for what reason I was caught, it’s a situation where I can only say I really don’t know.
“I, I don’t know! I said I don’t know!” “Ha? This jerk…! If you don’t know, I’ll make you know!”
However, perhaps angered by my saying I didn’t know, he dragged me somewhere without releasing the collar he grabbed. Outwardly, the guard is merely exercising legitimate public power. It was natural that there was no one to stop him.
Time passed, and the truth realized a while later. Turns out, he was the very person I had entrusted Shane to.
“What? Why are you doing this? I’m truly dumbfounded.” “….”
Even if I had hundreds of mouths, there was no way I had anything to say. That guard who couldn’t grab me because his leg was grabbed by Shane, who was like gum. Eventually, caught by him skipping over 7 years of time, I was dragged to the interrogation room of the barracks where I had dumped Shane at the time and heard a lecture.
“You came back shamelessly well enough, huh?”
I bow my head at the man’s question asking sarcastically. Actually, I didn’t come back because I wanted to. I wasn’t planning to come up from the countryside. To explain how that happened….
“That, um… it happened like that.”
Various excuses circled my head countless times, but I decided to gloss over it appropriately rather than giving a detailed explanation. Rather than listing various excuses, glossing over it appropriately like this doesn’t fan the anger.
“You lived completely forgetting about it, right? Huh?” “No, that’s not it but….” “What do you mean not it, you said earlier you didn’t know what you did wrong.” “That is….”
Naturally, since I didn’t even know who you were in the first place. Such words came up to my throat but went back down. If the other party suddenly says ‘You shall know your sin’, there’s no way I would have a clue what they’re talking about.
Just as I was about to attach something to the end of such vague words. Another guard’s voice was heard from outside the interrogation room.
“He-y! Huton! Use the interrogation room moderately and come out!”
The name of the man sitting opposite the interrogation room is Huton. A veteran guard who has gone through all sorts of hardships, working here for a whopping 11 years as of this year.
“Tsk, got it!”
Huton clicking his tongue at his colleague’s call and going outside. As I went outside following his gesture to follow, the smell of sweat piercing the nose was vibrating inside the barracks. While the man finished his shift and changed into casual clothes. Only around the time we were about to head out to the street did he speak first.
“It seems you came back because your life stabilized and you were worried, but anyway, Shane is doing well.”
Huton bringing up the story of Shane first, which I didn’t even ask. Perhaps he thinks the purpose of my return is related to Shane.
“Ah, is that so…?” “Yeah, the first few months were quite an ordeal, though.”
When I asked back to Huton as if it was unexpected, he seemed to recall that time as if turning back time to the very first meeting. Shane was mischief itself in Huton’s memory too, just as I remember. The first few months he seemed depressed while looking for me, but around the time a year passed, he grew up rapidly as the public son of the barracks? He said only that occasionally he looked for unidentified food and often skipped meals.
“Seems you treated him fairly well before dumping him?” “…Yes, well.”
I answered as if reluctantly affirming his guess. After all, he was one of the three kids I lived with until the end. Actually, if it weren’t for the Slave Prohibition Act and enforcement, I would have invested a little more time to find a good family. Still, hearing the news that he is doing well seemed to put my mind at ease.
“Well… coming to now, I understand that decision too, since it was chaos for a while because of that Slave Prohibition Act.”
Just when I was letting out a relieved sigh, guard Huton suddenly brought up the story of the Slave Prohibition Act.
“Bankruptcy filings of people who were slave traders piled up like a mountain, kidnapping incidents inside and outside the city, confinement and abuse of former slaves… we were incredibly busy too.”
As if he was also a victim of the cataclysm called the Slave Prohibition Act, he started rattling off the things that happened at that time. Since I quickly entrusted the kids and went into hiding in the countryside, these were things I heard only through passing rumors afterward. Illegal slave trade that flourished as legal slave trade set. Confinement and abuse committed by slave traders who still considered slaves as property. Bankruptcy filings of slave traders who became beggars in an instant because they couldn't do anything with the slaves bound by law.
“Looking at such cases, rather, it’s like you did well by entrusting him to us.”
Perhaps the man finally cooled his anger, he rationalized the events of that time apathetically, treating them as things all in the past.
“Then….” “But why necessarily me.”
Just when I was about to say something at the attitude that seemed softened. Guard Huton glaring at me immediately with eyes wide open. Oops, was the anger not over yet? Even if he asks why it was him, I can only say it was too appropriate…. Hmm, let’s not say this explicitly.
“I’ll send a letter to Shane too, so don’t run away this time.” “Yes….”
As I kept my mouth shut tightly, he finished talking. Refusing here would be a shameless act to Shane too. I unavoidably elongated a timid single word.
“Where do you live? I need to know to send him there or not.” “Residence… should I say, for now, I am in a position of living off someone.” “Doesn’t matter, you live there, right?”
Following that, Huton asking for the residence this time. As I hesitated to say it as if it was uncomfortable, at that question interrogating apathetically but persistently, I had no choice but to say where I am living now.
“What? That house is… you mean there? Really?” “Yeees….”
Then, the man checking again as if unbelievable. As I nodded shortly with an awkward affirmation, two words called ‘suspicion’ were visible beyond the heavily frowned eyebrows.
“You, were you some famous person I didn’t know?”
It seems that house is quite famous to various people. His reaction of tilting his head asking if I was a famous person as soon as I gave the address was excellent.
“No…?”
Far from famous, I am someone whom it wouldn’t be strange to call nameless. As I shook my head with eyes wide open, only then did Huton tilt his head once again apathetically and say.
“Is that so…? Well, business is done, so you can go now.”
Like that, distancing myself from the guard to whom I entrusted Shane. I wondered what it was when I was caught out of nowhere, but I could say it was fortunate. In any world, one gets discouraged in front of public power. More than that, what was I trying to do again? While letting out a sigh of relief on the street, I traced back one by one what I was trying to do before getting caught.
‘Ah right, dinner preparation.’
Recalling that there was only one thing I could do, I hurriedly moved my steps toward the city center.
“This, and that, and give me that.” “Not buying anything else? I’ll throw that in too.”
As I ordered a few fruits and vegetables, the merchant encouraging tie-in sales of fruits I didn't even want. It’s a ploy to sell off fruits harvested too early just by looking at a glance. Since places like this are individual businesses, it’s not like only marketable goods come out always.
“Sorry, I came out with only the money to buy exactly this.” “Is that so? Then can’t be helped.”
No matter how vicious a soliciting merchant the opponent is, regardless of the actual pocket situation, two words ‘no money’ make them fall off easily. Like that, while starting to return home holding one thick brown paper bag in each hand.
“If it’s black hair, isn’t it that person?” “Excuse me, I have something to ask for a moment….”
This time, caught by an adventurer group, I was interrogated persistently asking abruptly if I knew an adventurer called Haley. When I asked who that was with acting filled with soul, the adventurers moved away muttering a few complaints each, as if they guessed wrong this time too.
“Isn’t it a nonsense rumor spread from somewhere?” “Ay, it must have been just a different person.” “Still, heard someone as high as Ruby-rank was searching, must be someone amazing.” “Maybe a former Ruby-rank adventurer or something?” “Good, if we meet, I should ask for a fight.”
I hold tension at the conversation of the adventurers moving away. Somehow it seems strange rumors are growing in size….
Anyway, time passed, dinner time when Haley promised to return home.
“…Such things happened, is there any countermeasure?”
Talking about what happened on the street during the meal, I sought advice wondering if Haley had any countermeasures. Perhaps Haley hadn’t thought of this part either, she bowed her head as if falling into deep thought for an instant and stopped eating.
“That… is not good.”
Before long, Haley, who continued short contemplation, speaks. Well, I know too that it’s not a good situation. Basically, adventurers are a profession that has to be belligerent. Naturally, being in a position receiving their attention can’t be good. Haley, who seemed to have reached the same conclusion, started pondering deeply with her head still bowed. Soon, her eyes that were thinly open suddenly became large, and Haley spoke with a bright smile.
“First, let’s do something about that conspicuous hair color!” “Hair… you say?”
A solution that came out unexpectedly simply. I fiddled with my hair with a reluctant voice. Hair that I’ve never even permed, let alone dyed, in my entire life. I asked Haley with a suspicious look.
“That, doesn’t it take a few hours?” “Huh? If it’s color, it can be changed simply with a magic tool.” “Magic tool.”
A word popping out from a place I hadn’t imagined. Come to think of it, this was a world where magic existed. Then naturally, it’s plausible for something like magic tools to exist. I became so used to farming work that I had forgotten such things even existed.
A magic tool that changes hair color. Suddenly thinking of that, a simple curiosity crossed my mind.
“Excuse me, this is just out of curiosity….” “Yes?” “By any chance, can being bald also be done something about with a magic tool?” “Ah, that… doesn’t work.”
At the sound of asking while pointing to the head, Haley’s smile fades in an instant, and a bewildered gaze passed by. You mean even with the overwhelming mystery called magic, hair loss doesn’t work? If neither science nor magic works, where on earth is the hope for bald people….
“I-It’s okay! A solution will come out someday!”
As I was swallowing such regret, Haley clenched her fist showing the back of her hand in front of her chest and spoke boldly. Excuse me, Haley? It’s not my story, you know? Besides, I heard those words until I was sick of them in modern times too.