Having slain the Red-Hood Cobra, our party headed back to the
Adventurers' Guild. As always, we met up with Jalil outside the building
itself to exchange our task cards. We also handed over the snake's fangs and
skin, and worked out our stories to make sure they stayed consistent.
There was a large amount of stuff to carry this time, so for once we all
headed over into the guild, even Vizquel. The moment we set foot inside,
Nokopara came sidling up to us. It seriously felt like the guy never left this
place…or left us alone.
"Hey there! Looks like you've been huntin' some real interestin' prey.
Are those Red-Hood Cobra scales I see? Well?"
I glanced over at Jalil, prompting him to trot out the story we'd worked
out in advance.
"Y-yeah, that's right. We got lucky and ran into the thing when it was
already real weak."
"Hmmm. You two took down a Red-Hood, huh…?"
Nokopara stared down Jalil with something that looked like a
condescending smirk on his horsey face.
What's going on here? He seems kinda different today…
"W-we found the bodies of the Super Blazers guys before we ran into
it actually. They must have softened it up before they died…"
"What? Hold on, you sayin' Blaze is dead?"
"Yeah."
"Damn. Guess that's how it goes when you run into a Red-Hood
though…" Nokopara said with a disinterested snort. "Still…even if it was
weakened up, it's hard to imagine you an' Vizquel takin' one of those
monsters down…"
"Well, it wasn't just weakened, really. It was almost dead. I mean, you could almost say it was dead. It was still breathing, yeah, but it was basically
a goner, you know?" Jalil, speaking a bit too rapidly now, chose this moment
to walk hurriedly away.
Nokopara didn't seem to be satisfied yet, though, and turned his
attention to us. "So! You guys find some lost pet again today or what?"
"Yeah. Master Jalil's taught us some excellent techniques. We
managed to earn ourselves a bit more pocket money today."
"Hmmmm…"
Something felt a little off about this conversation. I tried to slip away
and walk off quickly like Jalil had, but just as I began moving, Nokopara
slung his arm around my shoulders in a weirdly intimate way, and leaned
over to whisper in my ear. "So tell me, how exactly were ya huntin' down
pets outside the city?"
For just an instant, I stopped moving. But I think I managed to keep my
poker face on. This was a situation I'd planned for. He'd only seen us
heading out of Rikarisu. I could talk my way around that.
"It just happened to wander outside of town this time."
"Oh reaaally? So what then…" This time, Nokopara grabbed Jalil
firmly by the shoulders. "Did that Red-Hood Cobra just happen to be inside
the city, too?"
Okay. So he'd seen Jalil and Vizquel around town as well. In other
words, the jig was up.
"Hmm. Verrry strange. Lots of odd things happening these days."
I'd given some thought to this scenario. We did have some options to
deal with it. For example, I could blame everything on Jalil. If I insisted he
was forcing us to do dangerous, high-rank work against our will, I could
wriggle my way out of the immediate crisis.
I wasn't going to go down that route though. If I did, Ruijerd might cut
off ties with me for good. It was conduct unbefitting of a warrior after all.
"Come on, guys. Just 'fess up already, why don'tcha?"
"To what exactly?" I asked. "Have we done something wrong?"
"Huh?"
"We helped out with P Hunter's job, and P Hunter helped out with
ours. Is that such a big deal?" Instead of sticking to lies and cover stories, I
chose to give the "So what?" approach a try. I'd looked over the guild
regulations a second time a while ago, and there definitely wasn't any clear
rule against what we were doing.
Of course, that didn't mean people would be okay with it. You don't
get to do anything you want just because it's not technically illegal. But I
wasn't sure if we'd crossed the line into unacceptable behavior either. May as
well try insisting that we'd done nothing wrong.
"Are you friggin' serious, kid? Ya ever thought about what happens if
a buncha other idiots start pullin' that crap too?"
"Not really. What would happen?"
"Jobs would start gettin' sold to the highest bidder. The whole damn
point of the guild would disappear!"
Hm. I could insist we weren't paying each other for our tasks…but that
probably wouldn't fly, would it? Right… I guess you could technically
classify this as a form of "buying or selling guild tasks." This guy's smarter
than he looks.
To be sure, if our methods became more common, you'd probably start
seeing some people selling off their jobs for an easy profit. For example,
someone could just accept all the D-ranked jobs available at once, then sell
them off piecemeal to the other D-ranked guys. The seller would get a steady
flow of cash, and eventually move up the ranks—all without lifting a finger
himself.
Of course, with that approach, you'd end up failing any jobs you
couldn't manage to sell.
"Why do you even care, Nokopara? We're not causing you any
trouble, are we?"
"Ya sure you wanna take that tone with me, kid? Yer standin' at a bit
of a crossroads right now, see… You listen up, too, Jalil!"
At this point, Nokopara seized me by the front of my robe and lifted
me up off the floor.
Glancing behind me, I shook my head at Eris and Ruijerd, whose eyes were flashing with anger. Right now, I needed them to stay; this conversation
wasn't over yet.
"Hehehe…" It was hard to interpret Nokopara's expression, what with
the whole horse-head thing. But I got the definite impression that he was
leering at me. "If ya care about yer status as an adventurer, ya best start
bringin' me two iron coins per month."
Oh wow. This is almost refreshing actually. I felt like this was the first
time I'd met one of these types since I was reincarnated in this world.
Everyone I'd run into lately was more of a shades-of-grey character, you
know? It was kinda nice to get such a clear-cut bad guy for once. At least I
wouldn't have to overthink the situation.
In any case, now I knew why Nokopara hung around the guild all day.
He obviously kept a sharp eye out for adventurers who were up to no good—
so he could squeeze cash out of them. Seemed like a nice, easy line of work.
Couldn't I just report him for blackmail or something? No…that would
mean exposing my own actions as well…
"You guys are makin' good money these days, right? Heheh. Oughta
be no sweat."
"D-do you mind if I…ask a few questions?" I said, doing my best to
sound hopelessly flustered.
"Like what?"
"Uhm… I guess what we did…would probably be classified as selling
a job, right?"
"Yeah, fer sure. They'd slap ya with a nice fat fee and rip up yer card if
they ever found out. Wouldn't like that, would ya?"
"No! No. We…don't want that."
Stay calm. This isn't anything worth panicking over. I knew something
like this might happen. We're okay. We're still okay.
"U-uhm, okay, we don't have that kind of cash on hand right now,
so…can Jalil and I go turn in our jobs?"
"Sure, whatever. Just don't make a run for it, all right?"
"W-wouldn't dream of it, chief!"
This guy wasn't that smart after all apparently. The two of us broke
away and headed for the counter.
"H-hey…what do we do? What are we gonna do, man?!"
"Calm down, Jalil. You need to act like nothing's wrong."
Having offered Jalil those vague instructions, I signaled Vizquel to
come over and join us. We passed over our completed task cards and
received our rewards. But before we left the counter, I also had them dissolve
P Hunters and join Dead End.
This step may or may not be meaningful. I wasn't sure how detailed
the Guild's records were.
I looked back across the room and saw Ruijerd glaring at Nokopara
with murder in his eyes. While we may have broken the guild's rules, it
seemed Horseface's arrogant attempt at blackmail was a far graver violation
of the warrior's code.
With a small gesture, I signaled Ruijerd to restrain himself.
Eris didn't seem to understand what was going on. If she spoke the
Demon-God tongue, she'd probably have been the first to attack that
obnoxious horse…and she'd probably have used her sword, not her fists.
As Jalil and I rejoined the group, Nokopara slung his arms around our
shoulders like we were old friends or something. "All right then! Cough up
yer payment for this month, boys."
With a forced smile on his face, Jalil started to hand over the two iron
coins he'd just received, but I grabbed his hand to stop him.
"Just one thing before we do that."
"What? Make it quick, kid. I got a real short fuse."
I paused for just an instant to steady my nerves and say a silent little
prayer.
"You do have some sort of proof that we broke the rules, right?"
Nokopara's irritated "Tch!" echoed across the lobby.
***
Nokopara started off by pulling a list of tasks that Dead End had
completed from the Guild's record books. The clerk didn't ask him why he
wanted this information; this probably wasn't the first time he'd asked for it.
Apparently, we'd be using this information to pay a few visits to our previous
clients.
"Oh, and don't get any funny ideas about attackin' me in some back
alley," said Nokopara, his eyes moving from Ruijerd to Jalil.
I felt like the rage on Ruijerd's face was pretty obvious, but Horseface
didn't seem too intimidated. Maybe he was used to getting glared at by men
who wanted him dead. "If I die, my pals will go straight to the guild to report
ya. Oh, an' unlike you phony C-rankers, I'm the real deal. I could hit B-rank
anytime I felt like it."
You had to assume that last part was just a bluff. Even Nokopara surely
didn't believe that he could take us one on five. He was driving us into a
corner, yes, but that didn't mean he had a death wish.
Still, this seemed somewhat careless of him. I would've taken at least
one bodyguard along if I were in his shoes.
"Oookay then, here we are." The first place we arrived at was an
ordinary but unfamiliar house.
When Nokopara knocked on the front door, a cranky-looking old lady
emerged. She had an eagle-like beak on her face and wore a plain black robe.
A sugary-sweet smell wafted from inside the house itself. No doubt
we'd interrupted her in the middle of whipping up some Nerunerunerune…
The old lady glared at us suspiciously at first, but once she noticed
Vizquel, her face lit up.
"Well now! If isn't Vizquel! What's all this, dear? You've brought me
quite a crowd today. Oh, are these the other members of Dead End Ruijerd?"
Nokopara surveyed our startled faces, then looked back at the old lady,
who clearly only recognized Vizquel. He let out an amused grunt, a nasty
smile spreading across his face. "Sorry, lady, but they ain't Dead End. Ya got
scammed."
"What?" Glancing at Nokopara, the old lady snorted disdainfully.
"How exactly did I get scammed? Huh?"
"Well, they—"
"Vizquel cleared out those bugs just fine. Can't beat a Zumeba for this
sort of thing, can you? I haven't seen a single one since."
From the sound of things, Vizquel had dealt with some sort of insect
infestation here. Come to think of it…this old lady matched what we knew of
one of the clients Ruijerd had observed her working for.
"So long as you do the job quick and proper, I couldn't care less if
you're the real Dead End!"
Nokopara wasn't the only one startled by that comment. Ruijerd's eyes
went wide as well.
"L-Listen, lady…"
"Hell, I'm an old woman. I don't have much time left either way. If I
had a chance to meet a real Superd at the end, I'd take it every time."
Nokopara's eyes darted around uncertainly for a moment, but then he
turned forcefully to Vizquel with a scowl. "Vizquel! Let's see yer adventurer
card!"
Vizquel started in surprise, but then a small smile spread across her
face. She took out her card and showed it off to everyone. The final line, of
course, now read "Party: Dead End."
"What the—damn it! Are you kiddin' me?!"
At this point, P Hunter no longer existed. An examination of the
guild's records would probably have revealed why. And with a bit more
work, evidence of our rule-breaking might also have emerged. But at least for
now, this didn't seem to occur to Nokopara.
"To hell with this! We're goin' to the next one!"
With a small smirk on my face, I followed as he stomped off to the
next address on his list.
***
By the time we'd visited several dozen former clients, Nokopara's face
had somehow gone from red to blue.
"Shit! What's goin' on here?!"
Everyone we spoke to had the impression that Jalil and Vizquel were
members of Dead End all along. Their adventurer cards even backed up that
story.
There was even a feel-good moment near the very end when we came
to the girl who'd been our first ever client; she'd yelped with joy and hugged
Ruijerd's leg.
"I'm sorry, Nokopara, but I don't think we can pay you if you can't
produce any proof."
"God dammit…"
Forget paying, maybe I'd report him to the guild. I could always accuse
him of "obstructing" us from finishing our jobs or something.
"Heheheh…" As I snickered evilly to myself, the final destination on
Nokopara's list came into view.
It was…apparently the Wolfclaw Inn. It seemed Jalil had taken on
some odd job in the place that we were staying. Bluffing our way through this
might be harder if we had to deal with anyone who actually knew us, but I
felt like we'd barely spoken with the innkeeper. We'd probably manage
somehow.
"Here. They're the last ones."
Two people emerged from the Wolfclaw Inn's front door. I froze at the
sight of them.
This was not good. There were about fifteen different alarm bells going
off in my head: Emergency. Emergency. Red alert. Air raid incoming!
Unanticipated contingency! All too late, I understood just how thoughtless
and stupid I'd really been.
"Oh, Rudeus. You're back. Good to see you, man… Uh, what's with
all these people?"
We were face to face with the surviving members of the Tokurabu
Village Toughs. There was deep exhaustion on Kurt's face, but he still greeted us in a friendly tone of voice.
"Hey there, kid. You remember who saved you in the Petrified Forest?
That was Dead End, right?"
Ah, crap.
I don't know if Nokopara had picked up on my panic, or if he'd
planned to ask that question from the start. But either way, he had us now.
Dead End's current party rank was D. The task P Hunter had accepted
was ranked B. In other words, we couldn't possibly have taken that job. Our
story was about to fall apart.
"What…?"
Kurt looked over at me and Rudeus. I shook my head frantically, trying
to tell him to keep his mouth shut.
Come on! You're a proud kid! No one helped you! You got through
that mess all by yourselves, right?
If the kid would at least insist he had no idea what Nokopara was
talking about, we still had a chance. I just had to pray his stubborn pride
would come through for us.
Meeting my desperate gaze, Kurt nodded decisively. "Of course it was!
I've never seen anyone as strong as these guys before!"
Oh my. What an honest boy!
He proceeded to explain just how strong we really were, describing our
defeat of the Executioner and the Almond Anacondas in a vigorous style that
involved tons of sound effects.
"Seriously, Rudeus is freaking crazy! Those Execs are hella scary, no
doubt, but that one shoulda never got on Dead End's bad side! This was a
one-on-one fight, right? Exec versus Rudeus! How do you think that went?
Boom! Splat! It was over in one shot, man! One shot! Oh, and Ruijerd's
unbelievable too! He was just, like, fwoosh! And then kablam, there go the
anacondas! He was doing all this ridiculous stuff without even batting an eye!
Seriously, I got goosebumps!"
Nokopara listened to the entire story with a great big grin on his face,
tossing in the occasional, "Wow, ain't that something," or, "No kidding?"
When Kurt finally ran out of steam, he turned back to us.
"Well, that's awful weird. Didn't you guys take a job around the city?
Why were you off in the forest savin' kids from monsters?"
"Uh, well…we just tagged along with Jalil on that one…"
"Sorry, but Jalil and Vizquel were in the city that whoooole time."
It was over. No point pretending anymore. Nokopara had obviously
figured out how to use this to drive our backs against the wall.
Calm down! You've still got a chance here!
Focus, man. For now, we need some options to choose from. Let's say
three. Uh, all right. Here we go…
1. Kill Nokopara
If he really did have a bunch of co-conspirators, like he claimed, this
plan would end very badly. But there was also a chance it might go off
smoothly.
It was a total dice roll, in other words. Bad idea.
2. Blame Jalil for everything
We were newbies, and Jalil was a veteran. If I started screaming that he
tricked us into this and took advantage of us, we might slip off the hook.
However, trying this one would cost me Ruijerd's friendship.
Betraying our "comrades" would just be wrong after all. Another bad idea.
3. Cough up the money now, find a way out later
This was another dice roll. I might find some way to resolve things
quickly, but now that Nokopara knew we were dangerous, he'd probably set
up a multi-layered scheme to keep us trapped in this city and safely in his
gang's clutches. Another bad idea.
Well, now I had three terrible plans to pick from. That was clearly time well spent!
What the hell was I going to do?
The single simplest way out was plan two, but it was probably the
worst choice by a long shot. Whatever its immediate benefits, we'd be
crippling ourselves in the long run.
Betraying Jalil and Vizquel would mean losing Ruijerd's trust for
good. He'd probably never listen to a word I spoke ever again.
Plan two was off the table. Absolutely off the table.
Plan one was no good either. It was just…senseless. I'd derail myself
completely off the path I'd been following up until today. It didn't matter
how casually people viewed death on the Demon Continent; that wasn't even
the issue here. If I killed Nokopara now just to get myself out of trouble, I'd
start solving all my problems the same way. I wasn't ready to commit to
murdering my way through my life.
Plan three wasn't any better though. By handing money over to these
people, we'd be admitting our own guilt. That was the last thing I wanted to
do.
There was also a real possibility we'd end up breaking other rules, or
even laws, as they were squeezing cash out of us. That would give Nokopara
more leverage over us; his demands would likely escalate. He might even try
to get his grubby hands on Eris… I knew I would if I were him. If it came to
that, we'd be forced to kill him after all.
But even so…it basically had to be plan three, right?
No, no. Compared to going down that road, we may as well pick plan
one from the start. We'd just have to kill Nokopara. And all his friends too.
Was that just…my only option here? Was I really going to do this? Did
I have to?
I honestly didn't know if I could bring myself to murder someone. And
how were we going to deal with the rest of his gang, wherever they were?
Maybe Ruijerd could track them down somehow. But how? If he didn't even
know who he was looking for, that third eye of his probably wouldn't do us
much good.
There was always the option of just giving up on the "adventurer" thing. We could find ways to survive, even without the guild. I had a decent
sense for the ways we could earn money on this continent by now.
Still…let's say I made that call, painful as it may be. What would
happen to Jalil and Vizquel? Not only had they participated in our scheme,
the guild's investigation might turn up evidence of their pet abduction
business. Our party had some money saved up and no particular attachment
to this city, but the two of them were different. This was their home, and they
might end up getting driven out of it. Those two didn't have the skills to
survive out in the wilderness. Wouldn't abandoning them just be another kind
of betrayal? Could we take them in after they were banished?
No. Not a chance. It would be hard enough dealing with our own
problems; we couldn't possibly take care of them as well.
…Okay, to hell with this. I need to steel myself. I'll become a killer if I
have to.
Remember the goal. I have to get Eris back home safe, no matter what.
To make that happen, I'm willing to betray both Jalil and Ruijerd. I don't
care if Eris ends up hating me. I don't care if I can never look Paul or Roxy
in the eye again!
I'll flood this whole damn city with a Saint-tier spell. Eris and I can
make a run for it in the confusion. Let them take away my status as an
adventurer if they want to. I'm going to reach my goal, no matter how low I
have to sink.
Just you watch!
***
With my mind made up at last, I began gathering magical energy in my
hands… then noticed the look on Nokopara's face.
"Wha…ah…"
He'd gone white as a sheet all of a sudden, and his knees were
trembling. He wasn't looking at me though; he was staring at something
behind me. I turned around. Ruijerd was standing there, looking very… wet. A
water jug I'd noticed out behind the inn lay on the ground next to him.
"R-Ruijerd…?"
His hair shone emerald green in the sunlight. It was soaking wet. He'd
dumped the water over his head and washed out the blue dye. He'd also
undone his headband to expose the red "jewel" on his forehead.
"H-he's a…S-S-Superd…"
Nokopara had fallen backward, landing on his bottom.
"I am Ruijerd Superdia, also known as Dead End. It appears my
identity has been exposed. I suppose I'll have to kill you all now."
Ruijerd delivered his line in a stiff, unnatural monotone. The man
really wasn't cut out to be an actor. Still, the rage in his eyes was real.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Someone let out an ear-piercing shriek.
And suddenly, everyone on the street was screaming—girls, young
men, and old people alike. They dropped whatever they were carrying and
ran for their lives.
As the chaos spread, Jalil was the first to betray us. Shouting, "They
threatened me! I didn't know anything! I'm not on their side!" he turned and
ran, taking Vizquel with him.
Kurt's legs had given out under him. Maybe he was remembering how
sharply he'd spoken to Ruijerd just the other day… His face was deathly
pale, and it looked like he was pissing himself.
Why were they all so terrified all of a sudden? It was still Ruijerd. His
hair color had just changed, that was all. I couldn't begin to understand it.
You guys were acting normally up until now, right? Come on, Kurt.
You were just talking up Ruijerd like he was some sort of superhero. You said
you wanted to be like him someday, remember? You were looking at him with
respect in your eyes! So why? Why are you so afraid of him now that his
hair's green? Look at Eris, man. She doesn't have any idea what's going on,
but she's staying calm, right? She's standing there with her arms folded, her
feet wide apart, and her chin in the air. Quietly watching all this with her eyes wide open.
So why's everyone else freaking out?
Many of the people around us were fleeing in a blind panic. Others
were sitting in the street. A few had drawn their weapons, although their legs
were wobbling. There'd been many different types of people in the area, but
they were all trembling now.
All this because of one guy with green hair?
I knew the people here feared Dead End. But I didn't know they feared
him this much. I didn't know how visceral their terror was.
Hah.
It kind of made me want to laugh. What was the point of all my plans
and scheming anyway? They took one look at his real hair color, and this is
what we got. Did I really think my little PR plan was going to change a
thing? How ridiculous. Maybe I assumed everyone would come to
understand him, the way Eris and the Migurd did. But that was never going to
be possible.
This wasn't a question of countering a few ugly rumors. For these
people, the Superd were terror personified. And I wanted to change that?
What a joke. It was hopeless from the start.
As all hell broke loose around him, Ruijerd slowly walked up to
Nokopara. "You there. Your name was Nokopara, wasn't it?" Grabbing the
horse-man by the neck, he pulled him up off the ground. Nokopara's body
looked heavy, but Ruijerd lifted him effortlessly.
"Ruijerd! Don't kill him!" Even now that it had come to this, I found
myself shouting out a warning. If he killed Nokopara under these
circumstances, with everyone watching, the name "Dead End" would be
tainted forever.
Honestly, though, wasn't it already? Was there any point to holding
back now?
Nope, not really. Forget it. Go get him, Berserker!
"I-I'm sorry! I h-had no idea you were the real deal! P-please, don't
kill me! Please!" Ruijerd's face was full of rage. Nokopara was shaking like a
leaf.
"Hey, what the heck is going on?!" hissed Eris, sounding a bit
unnerved.
"We're in the middle of a worst-case scenario," I responded slowly.
"So why aren't you doing anything about it?!"
"Because there's nothing I can do. Sorry."
"Well, I guess we're really out of luck then!"
The girl gave up quickly enough. In her defense, I'd already done the
same a while ago. There was no fixing this mess. And it was all my fault. I'd
assumed we could always "figure something out," even if somebody caught
on. I'd let myself believe we could improvise our way through any
unexpected trouble. And this disaster was the result.
Now that events had come this far, the only real way I could intervene
would be to carry out my original idea and wash the slate clean.
Like, with a magic tidal wave. Good one, right? Hahaha.
"P-please, ya gotta have mercy! I-I've got three…no, seven hungry
kids at home!" Nokopara pleaded for his life in a somewhat incoherent
fashion. It was fairly obvious those kids didn't exist. Even I could have
managed to come up with something more convincing.
"…I'm leaving this city. And you are going to forget you ever met
me."
Still, Ruijerd let him off the hook right away. I suppose the reference to
children was probably a factor there.
"R-right, right! Th-thank ya so much!"
Relief washed over Nokopara's face…for an instant at least.
"However you had better hope our status as adventurers hasn't been
revoked by the time we reach the next town."
Ruijerd jabbed his trident forward and sliced a single shallow cut
across Nokopara's cheek. A wet stain spread across the front of the horse-
man's pants, and something bulged out in the rear.
"Don't assume you're safe within this city's walls…"
Nokopara nodded vigorously and repeatedly.
When Ruijerd dropped him, he hit the ground with a nasty squelch.
***
Before long, Ruijerd was chased out of Rikarisu. Taking all the blame
for everything on his shoulders, he fled into the wilderness.
That was an ugly, frustrating day. Ruijerd set off running all by
himself, leaving us behind. Soon enough, guardsmen ran up to ask everyone
what had happened, and I insisted Ruijerd had done nothing wrong. But in
their eyes, of course, I was just a child. They decided that he must have
intimidated me into saying that.
Before long, everyone arrived at the conclusion that Ruijerd had been
planning out some evil plot here, using us as his pawns; the details of his
scheme were unclear, but at least he'd never gotten the chance to carry it out.
Everyone around us looked at me and Eris with pity in their eyes. They were
convinced that we were naïve children who'd been manipulated by a vicious
devil.
I was so angry I could have punched someone. What exactly had
Ruijerd done wrong anyway? All of this was my fault. None of it would have
happened if I hadn't gotten so damn complacent.
Eris and I returned to the Wolfclaw Inn, gathered up our few
possessions, and left it for good. We needed to hurry, or Ruijerd might
wander off somewhere. It wasn't like we could stick around in this city
ourselves anyway. Nokopara was still alive, as were his supposed allies. And
the fact remained that we'd broken the guild's rules. Once things calmed
down a little, we'd be boxed in again—and without Ruijerd to rely on.
"Hey, Rudeus…"
As we were walking out of the inn, Kurt approached us with an
uncertain expression on his face. I didn't know what to say to him honestly.
"Why the heck are you guys travelling with that monster?"
"Don't call him a monster. You remember who saved you in that
forest, right? Where do you get off pissing your pants at the sight of him?"
"Well, uh…that's true, I guess. My bad…"
Okay, there's no point taking it out on Kurt. He was trying to help us
back there. "Sorry, Kurt. That wasn't fair."
"Nah, it's fine. It's not like you were wrong."
He really was a good kid. Although Eris was still glaring at him with
her hands clenched at her sides.
"I've got a favor to ask. I want you to pay us back for saving your life."
"Okay," Kurt said, his expression growing more serious. "What do you
need?"
"Ruijerd really isn't a bad person. People are afraid of him because of
things that happened a long time ago, but he's a good guy. I want you to
spread that around the city, even after we leave."
"Uh…right. Got it. I guess I do…owe him my life after all…" The kid
didn't sound entirely convinced.
Oh well. He seemed like an earnest type. Maybe he'd actually keep his
promise.
I stopped by the Adventurers' Guild and removed Jalil and Vizquel
from Dead End. I also asked the clerk to pass on a brief message for them:
"Sorry it came to this, but thanks for all your help. You've got his gratitude
as well."
Those two did betray us at the very end, but you could hardly blame
them for that. It was the only option they had to save themselves. Putting
aside how things ended, they'd definitely helped us out a great deal.
On our way to the gate out of town, I stopped to buy a lizard-like
reptile trained to carry people and luggage. It was a large creature with six
legs and charmingly bulgy eyes. On this continent, they were basically used
in place of horse-drawn carriages. This particular species could easily
accommodate two adult riders at once. It cost us ten iron coins—about half of
all our money on hand. But I'd decided some time ago that I was going to
buy one of these when we hit the road again. Having one supposedly made it
much, much easier to navigate the Demon Continent. After a brief tutorial from the merchant on how to control the thing, I
loaded it up with our bags and we headed out of Rikarisu. There were a large
number of soldiers gathered around the gate. Maybe they were preparing to
try and chase down Ruijerd or something. Their faces were pale, but their
expressions were excited.
When I stopped to say hello, they warned us to be careful out there,
since Dead End had fled the city not long ago.
From that point, they proceeded to emphasize that Dead End was a
bloodthirsty devil, and speculated about what evil deeds he'd been getting up
to inside the city—not that they'd ever even seen him.
After a while, I just couldn't bite my tongue anymore. "That man was
in the city for nearly two months, and he didn't cause any trouble at all."
The guards looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I glared at
them, clicked my tongue in irritation, and finally walked out of the city. I was
in a truly foul mood.
Right now, we needed to meet up with Ruijerd. Was he still
somewhere nearby? I had to assume so. If his pride as a warrior was still
intact, there was no way he'd abandon us…or Eris at least.
"I guess this should be far enough."
Once the city was completely out of sight, I sent a magic firework into
the sky. It burst in mid-air with a ferocious boom, producing a flash of light
and a wave of heat.
We waited for a while, but Ruijerd didn't appear.
"Eris, can you call for him as well?"
Eris shouted out Ruijerd's name at the top of her lungs. Which was
incidentally pretty loud.
This time, something did appear after a while. But it was a group of
Pax Coyotes. I took out my irritation on them.
Soon enough, the rocky area we were standing in was transformed into
a perfectly flat plateau, and the monsters were reduced to bloody chunks.
Could they still come back as zombies, even from this state?
Hmph. Not my problem. That city can deal with it.
"Look, it's Ruijerd!"
Not long after the battle ended, our wayward Superd finally made an
appearance. There was a guilty look on his face; that just made me feel even
worse.
"Why didn't you show up when we called for you? Were you planning
to run off somewhere without a word to us?"
Yet for some reason, the first words that came out of my mouth were
accusatory. This wasn't what I'd wanted to say at all.
"I'm sorry." Ruijerd led with an apology. Awkward.
This whole mess was obviously my fault. I got cocky and careless. I
made the call to team up with Jalil and Vizquel because I wanted a quicker
and easier way forward. When Nokopara threatened us, I just assumed we'd
manage to wriggle our way out of it. But then we got backed against the wall,
and Ruijerd had to clean up my mess for me. If he hadn't made himself the
scapegoat, we may have gotten trapped in that city for good. I couldn't even
blame bad luck for the way things went. Nokopara was a pro at blackmail. He
would have cornered us somehow, even if Kurt hadn't given us away.
"For what? I'm the one who owes you an apology." I felt like such a
piece of crap.
"No. You did everything you could, Rudeus."
"But…"
"Even the best-laid battle plans go awry. I know how thoroughly you
thought about every detail, every step we took, day in and day out."
Suddenly, Ruijerd smiled and placed his hand gently on my head. "I
didn't know what you were thinking of course. And I'll admit that, until
today, I suspected your goals to be immoral. For that reason, there were times
I could barely abide your decisions…"
He paused to glance over at Eris, then nodded to himself. "But now I
understand that you were simply desperate to protect something, no matter
what the cost. I saw that in your eyes just now, when you were ready to kill
that man."
Just now…? Oh, when I was about to flood the city…
"You fight to protect something, Rudeus. And that makes you a
warrior."
When Ruijerd spoke those words, I actually had to fight back tears. I
didn't deserve that sort of praise. I was a shallow, short-sighted person. All I
ever thought about was making money and finding ways to get ahead. I'd
even been ready to abandon Ruijerd himself. I nearly cast aside the one ally
we could rely on to the bitter end.
"Ruijerd, I… I'm…"
I wanted to be honest with him. I wanted to tell him something—in my
own words, plain and simple, without hiding behind superficial politeness.
Even if I didn't know exactly what that "something" was.
"Don't say anything." But he cut me off before I could. "From this
point on, put your goals ahead of mine."
"Huh…?"
"Don't worry. I'll protect the two of you, even if you don't improve
my reputation. Trust me…please."
I did trust him. Of course I trusted him.
Which meant we didn't have to help him anymore.
It made sense. Spreading the word about Ruijerd was no easy task, and
trying to pursue two goals at once made it difficult to really focus on either.
We may have been stretching ourselves too thin. I'd been under so much
stress lately at least. I'd overlooked some things that really should have
occurred to me, and failed to think through a number of important details. A
situation like that can easily lead to disasters like the one we'd just
experienced.
And so, we didn't have to help Ruijerd anymore.
But I couldn't accept that. Not after seeing what I'd just seen. Not after
watching everyone basically chase him out of town with pitchforks. I
couldn't bring myself to say, "All right then. Just wait outside next time we
reach a city."
"I can't do that, Ruijerd. I'll fix your reputation, no matter what."
If anything, his offer only made my determination stronger. I owed him at least this much for everything he'd done. I was just going to have to do a
better job from now on. I wasn't going to push myself past my limits again,
but I'd still do everything I could.
"Haven't you learned your lesson, Rudeus? Am I really so
untrustworthy?"
"I do trust you. That's why I want to help you reach your goal."
I was bullied myself, back in the day. People slapped a label on me,
one that I never managed to remove. And I suffered for it. I spent decades by
myself. If Roxy hadn't dragged me outside, I might never have escaped that
isolation; I might never have even met Sylphie or Eris.
Ruijerd was a more complicated case, of course, and the scale of his
problem was incomparable to mine. But that was no reason for me to give up
on him. Roxy had helped me without even meaning to, but I wasn't Roxy. I'd
have to keep trying, keep screwing up, and slowly crawl my way forward
through the mud.
It may be a total nuisance, from Ruijerd's perspective. There may be
more disasters like this in store, when he'd have to clean up my mess for me.
But that was fine by me.
I'd rather fail than not even try.
"…You're certainly a stubborn one."
"You're one to talk, Ruijerd."
"Hah… All right then. Let's do what we can, I suppose."
With a wry smile, Ruijerd nodded slightly.
For some reason…in that moment, I felt like I'd finally earned his trust
for good.
***
When I woke up the next morning, Ruijerd was as bald as a cue ball.
The sight left me dumbfounded. Also a little freaked out, honestly. In
combination with that scar on his face, it made him look like a yakuza.
"What happened yesterday made it clear that my hair frightens people,
so I got rid of it."
That…must have taken real resolve. Back in Japan, shaving yourself
bald was a way of expressing single-_minded determination, or showing
remorse for some huge mistake. Things were different in this world of
course. But even so…seeing Ruijerd like this, I sort of felt like I should
follow his example.
The best way to atone is through action after all.
Do I really want to shave myself bald too? I mean, I did screw up here,
right? But…hmm… Man, I dunno…
"U-uh, Eris? You think I should do that too?"
"Don't you dare. I like your hair the way it is, Rudeus."
Yeah, okay. So I ended up using Eris to get myself off the hook.
Go on, laugh at me. I deserve it.