"So, what you want?" Finally done with the negotiations, I was ready to listen to what he wanted. If it was something that would require too much of my time, I would immediately reject.
Brand took a deep breath and spoke, "Please look out for my daughters. If somehow they ever get into trouble, please help them out." Brand looked at me seriously. I was slightly surprised. This would be the second time I had seen him this serious. It seemed he was the type to never compromise on his family. It made me wonder what kind of trouble his daughters might find themselves …
I ended up pausing my thoughts. Did I mishear? "Wait, daughters? As in more than one?" I asked him while he looked back at me with a smug smile. I wanted to slug him. What was the smug look for? It was totally unnecessary, yet it felt annoying. Like he had won over me or something.
"Of course. You already know them both." I did? It was not long before I realized. Layla. The big breasted girl was his daughter. I never would have guessed it in a million years. Iris was obvious. With Iris, no matter how much I wanted to tease about a pretty daughter coming from a beast father, it would not work. Not only because there was actually some resemblance, but also because even with Brand's bald head and annoying face, his rough and masculine face made him quite handsome.
As for Layla, she looked nothing like the old man. I was talking about her real face. Who knew why she had changed her looks with illusion? Interestingly her level of magic was very high, but with the build of her body, she looked to have trained as a fighter as well. It was not unheard of for a monk or fighter to have or know a bit of magic, however, her mastery in illusions was so high you would think her a mage.
Wait, things made even less sense the more I thought about it. 'Since they were sisters then why did that Iris girl introduce her sister as a friend during the introductions?' That was just cold. There was a chance the answer had to do with the reason the Layla girl was hiding her real appearance with illusion magic. I was only a little curious. Not that I cared much.
It looked like he was already feeling the threat of the new 'hero'. For whatever reason he could not personally take care of it. Maybe I was thinking about it from my perspective of 'no one can do shit to me', but still. There was also a chance it was the kids that did not want to leave the side of the defective hero.
"Fine." I had no reason to reject that offer. I did not need to join their party. I could always put a tracker of each of them or a [Guardian Demon] on each of them.
Brand nodded with a smile, returning to his happy go lucky personality. "Good. Claire here will take care of the necessary works." The young secretary, who apparently was Claire, smiled to me and walked to the door, motioning for me to follow.
Just as I was about to exit the room, I heard Brand's voice behind me, "One more thing." I stopped by the door and turned to him with a questioning expression. "During our first meeting, your old man, he said he was a retired adventurer. Just how strong is he?" Brand was curious. There was a high chance someone trained the monster standing before him, and he had a hunch it was the old man. He could not help himself but ask.
I understood his reasoning. In terms of age, to him I was probably a little too young to have displayed that kind of power. That meant there was probably someone behind me, and to him, that person was probably my old man. "My old man, huh?" His question forced me to remember things I had done so well to bury. "In all my life fighting my old man, I have never once been able to put a scratch on him, to this day. Literally." I frowned while I unpleasantly remembered my old man beating me up all in the name of training. With a frown, I left the office in a sudden bad mood, completely ignoring the secretary that had widened her eyes in shock. At this point, I was beginning to worry for her. Her eyes might end up popping out.
…
Brand had a serious expression while alone in his office. He knew the old man would be powerful judging by how powerful his son was. He had already met the old man, and although he gave him the feeling of a regular and harmless old man, his instincts from years of fighting stronger foes made him feel otherwise. If what the boy was saying true, then it looked like he had completely underestimated the old man.
He always had a hunch for these things. If that was what he felt in front of the old man and with what his son had just confirmed, then as they say, a crab will never birth a bird. His son would be an even bigger monster as well. Turned out he was right as always. That was the reason why he followed through with his attack where he usually stopped short with other recruits. If he had been wrong? "Hahaha." He laughed not as one of his carefree ones. No. He was just terrified of what would have happened.
"The problem now would be those old men. Hopefully he doesn't get pulled into their bullshit politics." Brand was worried, that was until he seemed to remember, "Hahaha. With the character of that kid, he would probably cut them down before they get the chance. Hahaha. That's not too bad an idea." He seemed excited at the prospect of Riggs causing chaos.
What he was thinking about was, such a strong father and son duo, what could have caused them to leave their home continent to come here? Even if Lorks city could barely be considered a city, it still had S class adventurers, and each S class adventurer in the continent was known to each other. Since he did not know the father Bob, who had claimed to be a retired adventurer, then it stood to reason that they did not belong to this continent. 'What would drive them to leave their continent?' Regardless, every S class adventurer was enjoying wealth, yet the father and son duo were here opening a bakery to earn a living. Well, now the son was going to earn with his adventuring.