Expedition (2)
Spending time with people you don't even know is a miserable affair.
It might be a little more bearable if someone among them were outgoing and liked to talk — but if not, it only gets worse.
In the suffocating silence, as everyone stared into the campfire or up at the sky to avoid meeting anyone's eyes, a hooded man muttered under his breath.
"...The hell is this even supposed to be."
The man in question was Ain.
The night air had turned quite chilly of late, so he'd pulled on the cloak he'd packed and drawn the hood up over his head. His eyes, hidden in shadow, darted restlessly as he grumbled.
"Time is seriously not moving."
"That's just how it is. Night watch, sentry duty — time never moves at night."
The speaker was a middle-aged adventurer with a thick, bushy beard. Like Ain, he'd draped a heavy blanket over his shoulders against the cold. He sidled over and sat down beside him.
"First time camping out?"
"...Hardly."
As he said it, Ain lifted the plate hanging from his neck. Unlike before, it now caught the firelight in a gleam of teal-green.
He remembered Lize handing him the plate before they left on the expedition, saying she'd pulled a few strings. His voice was flat.
"I just wanted to complain."
"Haha. A young fellow already at Bronze rank. Impressive."
Ain noticed that the plate hanging from the man's own neck was iron, painted black.
"You've been at this a while, huh?"
"That's right. Mercenary work — you live off experience, don't you?"
"...Mercenary?"
"Ah, right. Kids these days don't call it mercenary work anymore."
The man's words sparked a question, and Ain asked,
"What's the difference between an adventurer and a mercenary? Don't they basically do the same thing?"
"Similar, but different. Mercenaries do whatever they want. Adventurers are managed."
"...?"
"That look on your face says you don't get it. Want me to explain? We've got plenty of time before the next shift anyway."
Fortunately, the adventurer paired with Ain seemed to enjoy talking. He took a few swigs from his waterskin and went on.
"The Adventurer Guild hasn't been around that long. About... twenty years, give or take?"
"Isn't twenty years plenty long?"
"The mercenary trade's been around for thousands of years. If it only became 'adventurer' twenty years ago, that's not long at all."
Compare thousands to twenty, and of course it wasn't long. Ain nodded, conceding the point, and looked at the man without a word, waiting for him to continue.
"Back then, the Crown Prince... Crown Prince Licht enacted a policy to gather up all the mercenaries in the kingdom and put them under one system. Mercenaries in those days were a lawless, scattered bunch — honestly, they were no better than bandits. Plenty of them would turn on their own employers the second something didn't sit right."
"...And he was going to manage that? How?"
"How else?"
The man clenched his fist tight and lifted it.
"With this. This right here."
"...One man could do that?"
"Why not? The man split a dragon in half right in front of our eyes."
"..."
"Ah, not one of those legendary, all-powerful dragons from the stories, mind you. They were wyverns — the ones they call flying dragons."
Even so, those things were the size of a decent building, and they could kill a person or two without breaking a sweat. Top-tier monsters. By current Adventurer Guild standards, a single wyvern would take a party with at least one Gold-rank in it.
How could anyone exist who could split a monster that dangerous in half—
Some damn lizard had to go and bother me while I was sleeping.
AAAAH!! I'm falling!! You lunatic!! There are people down there!!
The hide's expensive, so make sure you collect it properly.
"...Yeah, if someone like that existed, I guess it would be possible."
"It wasn't just Crown Prince Licht, either. The knights under him weren't right in the head. A woman swordsman who'd kill you before you even knew you were dead, a mage who could turn a river into a plain..."
"...What kind of monster squad is that?"
"Exactly. That's precisely how we felt. I was just a greenhorn back then, and looking at those people, I honestly wondered if they were even the same species."
His shoulders trembled with excitement as he went on.
"Anyway, once the royal family stepped in, even the worst of them couldn't just do whatever they wanted. Unless you were ready to quit the mercenary life entirely, what were you supposed to do? You couldn't take commissions anymore."
"The old mercenaries must've put up one hell of a fight."
"Of course. The mercenary captains went berserk. They occupied the newly built Guild halls and caused trouble, deliberately sabotaged commissions, or just tanked jobs on purpose..."
"...But the Guild's still standing, so they must've dealt with it."
The man nodded.
"They handed those mercenary captains a gold plate each, appointed the useful ones as Guild Masters in various regions, and if that didn't work, they used this."
"...If talking doesn't work, you use your fists."
The man's eyes grew distant, looking back on the past as he continued.
"Thanks to that, the mercenaries got a fancy new title — adventurer — and didn't have to worry about getting stiffed on their pay. Plus, the royal family and the Temple were on good terms back then, so priests would even join parties from time to time."
"...Priests?"
"I saw one priest smash an orc's skull in with a warhammer. Better than most adventurers, that one."
He shuddered at the memory and tossed a couple more logs onto the fire for no particular reason.
"I heard the idea was to keep the mercenaries organized as a force they could use in an emergency, but I don't really know. The man who created the Adventurer Guild vanished, after all."
"The man who created it vanished? You said the Crown Prince made it."
"I don't know the details myself. He just disappeared one day. I heard something about a demon subjugation — I think that was the last anyone saw of him—"
He tilted his head, and in that moment, an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind them.
"An awful lot of talking for a night watch. Can you even do the job properly like this?"
"Who—?!"
"That's something you don't need to know."
They turned to look. Despite the late hour, a man in knight's uniform stood there, a gleaming noble house crest pinned to his chest. He looked a little older than Ain — a young man in the prime of youth. Ain spoke.
"...What brings a knight of House Karpe out here?"
"I could hear the chatter from over there."
The brown-haired man turned his attention to the bearded adventurer sitting beside Ain.
"That aside — there's a man here who seems awfully fond of talking about Crown Prince Licht."
"W-what do you mean?"
Ain could tell there wasn't a shred of humor in the knight's words. His expression hardened.
"...Fine. Then I'll pretend I never heard tonight's conversation."
"Quick on the uptake. Yes, that's for the best. Especially... for a priest like you."
"P-priest?"
"...How did you know?"
Ain had his hood pulled all the way down and his cloak wrapped around his body. Naturally, his rosary was tucked away inside his clothes. There shouldn't have been a single thing about him that suggested he was a priest.
The brown-haired man standing before him spoke with the same rigid expression.
"In the old days, the Temple and the royal family were on good terms, so it wouldn't have mattered much. But things are at a breaking point now. You never know what might happen if you go around digging into stories like this. You could end up being the spark that starts a war."
"...That's a hell of a leap. Just from listening to a story."
"If it weren't for your... special circumstances, you never would have made it to Bronze rank. Think about how much influence the royal family has over the Adventurer Guild."
"What?"
The special circumstances Ain possessed. He realized easily enough that it referred to his master. His brow furrowed.
"Who the hell are you? Are you even really a knight?"
"Well, I don't see any reason I should tell you that. My business here is done. Enjoy the rest of your watch."
"Hey!"
Ain stood and called after him, but the man didn't look back. Ain's face twisted as he watched him walk away.
The man had dumped a pile of cryptic remarks on them and left. It was irritating, sure — but something else bothered Ain more.
If the relationship between the royal family and the Temple was that disastrous, why had his master placed Ain and Jina in the Adventurer Guild? Why had she sent her own disciples to become members of an organization so close to the royal family?
That was something Ain couldn't understand. His master had a foul temper and acted on impulse — but she also had far too many secrets.
He turned it over in his head for a moment, then shut his mouth tight and sat back down. The bearded man spoke carefully.
"Um... so you were a priest, sir?"
"...Something like that."
"H-haha! And I had no idea... W-well then, would you like to turn in? I can handle the rest of the watch on my own!"
"Where's this coming from all of a sudden..."
"P-please consider it a gesture of respect toward the clergy!"
Did Ain notice the cold sweat running down the man's spine as he said it?
In the past, he'd mouthed off to priests he'd taken commissions with and paid dearly for it. He simply didn't want to be anywhere near people who served the gods. But he couldn't just get up and leave, either — who knew what he'd suffer if word got out that he'd dumped the entire watch on a priest. So what he chose was an escape dressed up as consideration.
Faced with the man's relentless pleading, Ain made a sour face and stood.
"...You sure that's okay?"
"O-of course! Nobody's going to come all the way out here anyway!"
"Someone just did."
"Th-that knight was a special case."
When he put it like that, there was no reason to refuse.
"...Alright. Good luck, then."
"T-take care, Father!"
"Take care? We're like ten steps away..."
Not that it mattered — his tent was only a few paces away. Ain watched the adventurer tremble the entire time he stood and walked to the tent, then let out a small sigh and looked for his spot inside.
"...Ah."
The far left. His spot.
He saw the black-haired girl inside his sleeping bag — and froze solid.
"...Why are you back already?"
The speaker was Jina, who had been lying in his sleeping bag leaving her scent behind until he returned. Ain glanced to the side. Er was asleep as if she'd been knocked unconscious, and Haru was lying there like a corpse.
"...Well, now that it's come to this, I guess there's no helping it."
"W-what?!"
Jina had originally just wanted to leave her scent in his sleeping bag. But now that she'd been caught, she changed her plan. The corner of her mouth curled up.
"Thanks for the meal!"
"S-save me, Er!!!"