What Adults Must Do
"Raimu, I seal you."
—Ghk, gyaaaaaah—!
Bound and immobilized by the combined assault of Evan and Rainia, Raimu was finally sealed by the mage Nau.
Having poured every last drop of his mana into regeneration, Raimu had nothing left to resist Nau's sealing magic. If he had possessed even a scrap of strength remaining, he would have shaken off their attacks and fled — or turned the tables and cut them down instead.
Watching Raimu disappear into the seal, Evan tossed his sword aside and gasped for breath.
"Is it… over?"
"Yeah. The seal's complete."
"Haaaah… I really thought I was going to die."
By his own thoroughly subjective measure, Evan found hunting this demon far harder than fighting a dragon. At least a dragon could be cut. Raimu couldn't even be cut. The realization settled over him that absolute strength did not exist in this world — only relative strength — and he resolved to invent a method or two for dealing with opponents who countered him perfectly.
But that thought lasted only a moment. The moment the tension drained away, the reality of their situation came crashing into his mind.
"Rogue… she's dead, isn't she?"
"Yeah. She is."
"You don't look particularly shaken."
"I'm not unshaken. I'm just used to it."
Evan let out a hollow little laugh at Rainia's words — then, belatedly, caught a glimpse of something swaying at the edge of his vision and turned his head.
Nine lush, full tails were swaying gently. Their owner was Rainia.
What the hell…
Had she always had tails? Evan thought about it for a second and clearly recalled that nothing of the sort had ever covered her rear.
So what on earth were those? As he stared at them in open bewilderment, Rainia, looking faintly embarrassed, tried to tuck the tails behind her back. Not that nine voluminous fox tails stood any chance of vanishing behind her small frame.
"What are those tails?"
"…I don't really know myself. I just drank whatever was inside, and this happened."
"Wait — more importantly, Rainia, you were a fox? Not a wolf?"
Rainia gave a demure little nod, as if to say that's right. Then she snorted with laughter.
"You were about to ask why I named the party White Wolf, weren't you?"
"You can read minds too?"
"What? Pfft — hahaha! Anyone would think that. Anyone would have asked the same thing."
Having said so, Rainia began to toy with her tails, her expression taking on a faintly complicated cast. She glanced around once, realized she had never told her story to anyone but Anes among the remaining two, and quietly began to speak.
"Well then. Where should I start? I am… in fact, a princess."
"Huh."
"Huh."
"Liar."
"…If you interrupt me one more time, I'm done talking."
"I'm sorry."
"I won't interrupt, so please continue…"
"Ahem. As I was saying — I…"
Rainia was one of the heirs born to the chieftain of Gyeongguk-gyeongseong, a pillar of the beastman union known as Nine Lives.
So calling herself a princess wasn't wrong — but it wasn't particularly meaningful either. Beastmen routinely bore dozens of children at a time, and every last one of them was called a prince or princess.
—You have no talent.
Among the chieftain's many children, Rainia stood out for one reason alone: she alone had been born without a single tail.
To the fox clan, a tail was the essence of allure — the very core of their bewitching nature. Born without even one, she was a defective child, a failure both as a beastman and as a fox.
And to children, difference can easily become wrongness.
—Hey, look at her.
—She doesn't have a tail. Hilarious.
—Maybe she's missing something else too. Let's check.
Merciless torment carried out under the indifference of adults.
As the children tormented her, she thought:
—Ah. At this rate, I might actually die.
The intensity of their "games" and discrimination only grew. Realizing that what began as teasing could become a pretext for her death, Rainia staged a secret escape.
Whether as compensation for being born tailless or not, her physical abilities far surpassed those of an ordinary fox beastman. In the end, she fled her territory without incident.
She had escaped — but a beastman with neither status nor connections had precious few options. After drifting from place to place, she eventually became an adventurer.
"I named the party after wolves because I was ashamed of being a fox. We're both canines anyway, so people couldn't even tell whether I was a wolf or a fox."
"That's… please don't be so hard on yourself."
"What? Aah — you thought I was blaming myself. It's the opposite. I'm proud of being a fox beastman. I just hated that those fox bastards got to freeload off my name."
"…Excuse me?"
"I wasn't the one who was shameful. My clan was."
"Ah. That kind of meaning."
Having heard her entire story, Evan thought for a moment, then recalled one particular fact and looked at her.
"Do the people in your clan have nine tails too?"
"No. Most only have one. Two or three at most."
"Then haven't you completely surpassed them? You've got nine tails, Rainia. That's three times more than any of them."
"…You're right."
Apparently pleased by the idea that she had outdone her clan, Rainia gave her tails a little sway. Watching those nine tails rock gently side to side, Evan found his own mood lifting in turn.
But only for a moment. He suddenly remembered that the reason she had changed was something she had consumed from deeper inside the dungeon.
He didn't know what it was, but something guarded by a monster as strong as Raimu had to be extraordinarily valuable — or extraordinarily rare.
And Rainia had swallowed the whole thing. Without so much as consulting him.
"Hold on a second, Rainia."
"Hm? What is it?"
"So basically, you hogged the treasure that was inside all by yourself, didn't you?"
"…I had no choice. I had to save my comrades."
She protested as best she could. Evan settled the accounts without mercy.
"We agreed that half of everything from this dungeon would be mine… so now that you've gulped down that treasure whole, doesn't that mean half of you belongs to me?"
"Th-that… is that how it works?"
"In theory — yes?"
Evan stole a glance at the nine tails that had frozen in startled stillness, and smiled.
He still hadn't managed to get a girlfriend. But he had acquired a fox-beastman slave.
"In defense of our idiot leader — that is incorrect."
Unfortunately for Evan, he did not acquire a fox-beastman slave. Nau, Rainia's party member, stepped in with a proper calculation on behalf of the woman about to be carted off into bondage.
"So you're saying this dungeon itself is worth a fortune?"
"Yes. The potion Rainia drank was an extraordinary elixir, of course — but that's only in hindsight. There was no way to test whether it was poison or medicine. Rainia could just as easily have drunk it and died."
"Hmm… is that so?"
Nau's argument went like this: the elixir Rainia had consumed possessed absurd potency, but there had been no means of proving that at the time. If what she drank had not been the fruit of an archmage's research but simply a poison some mage had tossed in for fun — she would have died a meaningless death. Even setting that aside, there had been no clinical testing to confirm the potion in the recording was even suitable for beastmen. By that logic, far from owing money, they were the ones who ought to be compensated.
"By comparison, this dungeon can reliably fetch a price."
"Is the building that valuable?"
"Yes. We can't prove whether that potion was genuine, but we can prove that an archmage's hand touched this structure."
"So it's expensive?"
"Extremely. Our Magic Tower would pay at least 1.5 million Elso."
"O-one point five million Elso…!"
"So. What's it going to be? Our leader was in the wrong, so if you want, we'll renounce all rights to this dungeon right now. Otherwise, we take the potion she drank to a proper appraiser and have it valued."
"So… what happens depending on which I choose?"
"Choose the first, and you receive a guaranteed 1.5 million Elso. Choose the second, and you might end up with 750,000 Elso and not a single coin more."
Evan thought it over. A guaranteed 1.5 million, or a gamble on top of 750,000.
Once he had heard the full explanation, Nau's reasoning was extremely persuasive. With no way to verify whether the elixir Rainia had drunk would produce such special effects for just anyone, he couldn't be confident the potion would appraise at over 1.5 million Elso.
It was an elixir that would have done nothing special for him anyway, so Evan decided to treat it as a gift to Rainia and chose the first option. After all — wasn't a world with one more nine-tailed beauty in it a net planetary gain compared to Super Evan?
"The first one."
"Good choice, kid."
With the deal concluded, Evan turned his head toward the place he had been deliberately avoiding. Anes, as if on cue, offered an awkward smile that said she was finished.
"…Is it done?"
"Yeah. It's done. There's no body, but we still had to do something."
"Won't people say something?"
"Adventurers dying on a job is something that can happen anytime. Rogue was prepared for it too, I'm sure. She already left us a will."
"A will?"
"She said if she died, her share should go to the church."
"…I didn't write one."
"The rest of us all did."
Evan gave a bitter smile at the revelation that the others had written last wills. He had not entertained even a 0.1% chance of dying on this adventure — but these women, who had spent long years as adventurers, had prepared for death in advance.
They were looking at a different world from his.
So this is what a real adventurer is… Evan felt the difference between himself and them in his bones.
Evan disclosed the dungeon now under his ownership to the guild, and it was promptly put up for auction. Just as Nau had predicted, the archmage's dungeon sold for 1.5 million Elso. Precisely 1.53 million.
It was the first archmage's dungeon to appear in a very long time, and the residual traces of the archmage's mana and magical research records had been exceptionally well preserved — that was what commanded such a price.
Well, as far as Evan was concerned, the reasons hardly mattered so long as the price was right. He cheerfully transferred ownership of the dungeon and received his payment.
"After deducting the twenty percent auction fee, that comes to 1,224,000 Elso."
"…I have tax exemption privileges."
"Yes! Which is why we waived the thirty percent tax for you!"
Listening to the auction house clerk's staggering words, Evan walked out of the building with a hollow laugh and looked back at it.
Some people nearly die earning money, and others just sit there skimming twenty percent in fees…
It was thoroughly unfair, but he couldn't imagine founding a new auction house at this point, drawing people in, and making a living off it. Such a thing wouldn't have been possible in the first place. In this kingdom, auction houses were state-run — and most businesses that simply sat and collected fees were the same.
Unless you were confident you could win a fight against the nation — more precisely, against that monster of a man, the Blue King — you didn't so much as set foot in that direction.
1.22 million… call it roughly 1.2 million, then another ten percent off that…
Per their prior arrangement that he would take half of all dungeon proceeds, 600,000 of the remaining 1.22 million Elso was his, and the other half belonged to his party companions — except those party members had already offset their dungeon rights against the elixir Rainia had consumed.
Evan briefly wondered whether that meant he could claim the entire remaining half as well, but that was not the case. One party member had not renounced her share. More accurately, she had been unable to renounce it.
"This must be the place."
Evan lifted his head and frowned slightly at the church, noisy with children running and playing. This was the church Rogue had named in her will.
Following her final request that her share be sent here should she die on a commission, Evan had come in person carrying the money. He rather wished he hadn't.
Back then, when thousands had died all at once in the count's territory, he had felt nothing particular… but now, a heavy pressure crushed his shoulders so thoroughly he could barely take a single step.
"Oh my, a visitor?"
After he had stood fidgeting in front of the church for some time, a nun approached and spoke to him first. Evan flinched, briefly considered running, then decided that if he didn't do this now he would never come back — and quietly met her eyes.
"I-I'm a companion of Miss Rogue…! Um, that is…"
"Ahh — she has gone to the Lord's side, then?"
"Huh? Y-yes…"
"I see. So that child, in the end…"
"Um, I — I was the vanguard of her party. I couldn't protect her properly…"
"No. From the moment she chose the life of an adventurer, she was prepared for the danger. There is no reason for you to blame yourself. Or — did you deliberately abandon your duties in order to get her killed?"
"Of course not!"
"Then that is enough. She will be happy in the next world."
Looking at the nun's calm expression, Evan handed over the will and the money in a daze. Seeing the considerable sum of 120,000 Elso, the nun's eyes widened briefly, and she made the sign of the cross.
"Thank you for bringing this to us, sir."
"No, it was something I had to do…"
"This world is full of shameless people who close their eyes to the things they must do. And to deliver such a large sum without a second thought… were you, by chance, in a special relationship with her?"
"A special relationship…?"
"A lover, for instance."
"Th-that's not it! We only met recently!"
"To do this for someone you only just met… you have a good heart."
The words a good heart made something twist uncomfortably in Evan's chest. He knew he was not that kind — he was someone who had not so much as blinked at the deaths of thousands.
And yet, remarkably, the nun before him seemed much the same. For Rogue to have left a will naming this place, they must have been quite close in life — and yet the nun's manner was as if a complete stranger had died…
"How can you be so calm?"
"Pardon?"
"Rogue is dead, and yet you act as if some stranger you never knew has died… why are you so composed, Sister?"
"Ahh — I understand what you're asking. You're carrying a burden, aren't you, sir?"
With a smile of unfathomable depth befitting a woman of the cloth, the nun regarded Evan and hummed thoughtfully, considering what she ought to say.
How much time passed? At last, having ordered her thoughts, the nun spoke.
"First — one cannot empathize with every person's suffering. We are not gods. Believing such a thing possible is, in fact, arrogance."
"Arrogance…?"
"Yes. It is enough that we save those within our reach, and feel the pain of those before our eyes. Compassion may be an emotion humans ought to possess, but one cannot drown in it alone."
The nun fell silent for a moment, listening to the laughter drifting from inside the church.
"Do you hear that laughter?"
"…Yes. I hear it."
"That laughter is the laughter she protected — the laughter Miss Rogue safeguarded. It is the will she left behind in this world."
"Aren't you sad? Rogue is dead."
"Of course I am sad. It feels as though my heart will tear apart. But… enduring that pain and smiling in front of the children — that is precisely what an adult must do."
"An adult…"
It was still a distant concept to him. An adult. Evan could not quite believe he would ever become one.
The nun looked at the fretting boy and smiled gently.
"Sir, I was about to prepare flowers for her. If you have a little time…"
"I do."
"Very well. Please wait inside and play with the children for a while."
The nun led Evan into the church. The children, who had been shrieking with laughter alongside the other nuns, fell instantly silent at the sight of a stranger.
"Everyone—! This is a companion of Miss Rogue's…"
"Evan. Evan Kalshooter."
"This is Evan. He says he came on an errand in your sister's place today."
"Sister Rogue?!"
"Really? Where is she?!"
"Sister Rogue, Sister Rogue!"
At the news that Evan had come in Rogue's stead, the children latched onto him and began demanding to know where she was. The nun quietly smiled and stepped aside, leaving Evan to be besieged in her place.
"Big brother, big brother! Why didn't Sister come with you?!"
"Mister, are you Sister's boyfriend?"
"Isn't she going to give us pahu-pahu today?!"
Looking at the children clinging to him and searching for Rogue, Evan instinctively understood what the nun had meant by what an adult must do.
He put on a false smile and hid Rogue's death.
"Yeah. Sister said she's too busy to come. But you'll get to eat lots of delicious things instead."
"Really?! Does that mean we can have cloud cotton candy?!"
"I want drake steak!"
"I-I want egg tarts made from thunderbird eggs…"
"…You kids have more expensive tastes than I expected."
Evan laughed hollowly and played with the children while waiting for the nun to return. A short while later, together with the returning nun, he built a small grave and prayed quietly before it.
He felt, just a little, as though he had grown more like an adult.