“Here you are, Nack,” said Ururu.
“Oh, thank you,” I replied. “But I . . . All of this . . .”
“Surprised, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Nothing important was discussed, and there were no big announcements. It was just bam, let’s eat. It felt like it happened too fast for me to comprehend. It was exactly what I’d felt several times when I’d been with Usato.
“It’s not always quite this rowdy, but it’s a special occasion. You joined the team today. You’re a brother in arms,” Ururu said.
“A brother in arms,” I said. “I feel kind of embarrassed.”
It wasn’t a bad feeling, though. I felt myself blushing.
“You’ll get used to it,” said Ururu, smiling even more. “After all, as of today, this is your home.”
Home.
The word alone seemed to fill my heart. And for the first time, I really felt like I was a member of the rescue team.
“The name’s Alec. I joined the rescue team because I cracked the owner of the restaurant I was working at right in the kisser and got myself fired. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I was at my wit’s end when the captain kidnapped me.”
The welcome party was in full swing. When things had settled down a little, Ururu suggested that everyone stand up one at a time and introduce themselves so that I could start remembering people’s names. The introductions were short and sharp, but also unique.
Tong was a wandering brawler who’d visited Llinger to test his strength who had bumped into Rose. He’d lost a fight with her miserably, and she’d dragged him to the rescue team as part of what she called “reform.” Gomul was just a thug who’d had the bad luck of running into Rose. She promptly made him a part of the team. Gurd had worked as a merchant’s bodyguard, but he’d been arrested by knights who mistook him for a monster. After that, he was put under Rose’s watch. Mill had been a knight with a bad attitude. When he quit being a knight, he’d picked a fight with Rose. After having the snot beaten out of him, he woke up a rescue team member.
This is all too much! How am I even supposed to comment on these stories?! Gurd wasn’t even treated like a human! And some of you were kidnapped?! Or beaten into submission?!
I was calm on the outside, but in my heart was a storm.
“What about you, Felmy?” asked Ururu.
“Don’t call me Felmy unless you’ve got a death wish,” spat the demon.
Felm stared at me, then reluctantly stood to her feet. I was curious. How did she end up here? To say that a demon living among humans was rare didn’t even begin to cover how strange it was.
“I’m Felm,” she said. “As you can see, I’m a demon. Usato captured me during the war, and here I am.”
Usato does exactly the same thing as Rose for recruitment!
I’d heard that students sometimes come to resemble their teachers, but even when it comes to beatings and the kidnappings?! Usato really was something else. I nodded to myself while Alec glanced at Felm with a cheeky look on his face.
“You even tried to chase after Usato when he left the kingdom,” he said. “You would have preferred staying with him, huh?”
“Wh-what?! Don’t you dare go getting the wrong idea! I just wanted to escape this monst—”
“What?” asked Rose, cutting her off.
“Nothing! Nothing at all!” replied Felm, shrinking into her chair as she glared at the captain.
Rose wasn’t staring at me, but even I felt a shiver down my spine. I wondered if she was teaching me by example.
“Well, I guess I’m up next,” said Ururu, standing from her chair.
Ururu had already introduced herself to me earlier, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to stop her, so I didn’t say anything.
“I’m Ururu,” she said. “I’m eighteen. This is my brother Orga; he’s twenty-three. We’re both healers who work at the town infirmary.”
“Oh, you’re going to introduce me, too?” asked Orga.
“Quicker that way, no?”
“Well, yes,” replied Orga with a chuckle.
I could do little more than nod. Ururu’s energy was overwhelming.
“We’re a part of the rescue team because Rose invited us to join,” Ururu said.
“She did?” I asked.
Did she really mean that? Was it just an ordinary invitation, or was it more along the lines of being kidnapped or beaten?
“Yep,” replied Ururu. “Orga and I were looking for a place to work when we happened to meet Rose by coincidence.”
“You both had to work?”
“Well, four years ago our parents were attacked by monsters. They weren’t badly injured, thankfully, but they were merchants, and all their goods were ruined. Orga and I decided we’d look for work.”
Ururu glanced at her brother and shrugged before going on.
“As you can see, Orga is really frail. He couldn’t hold most jobs for very long.”
“You don’t have to make it sound so awful,” said Orga. “I mean, I can’t deny it, and it’s true, but still . . .”
It sounded like Ururu was the stricter of the two siblings.
“Okay,” I said, “so that’s how the infirmary came about.”
“We opened it a little while after we joined the rescue team,” said Ururu. “We had some help from Rose, of course.”
That meant the infirmary was a part of the rescue team’s operations.
Now I had everyone’s names and learned of their . . . unique personalities. Rose was in charge of everyone. Directly under her were the scary-looking rescue team members. The infirmary, meanwhile, was run by Ururu and Orga. In terms of appearance, Usato looked like he should be doing what Ururu and Orga did, but he was more like Alec and those guys. If I wanted to get to the same level as Usato, then it would all come down to how hard I could work from here on out.
“Your turn, Nack,” said Ururu, rousing me from my thoughts.
“Me?”
“We’ve all introduced ourselves to you, so now it’s your turn to introduce yourself to us. Tell us about yourself.”
“My story . . .”
Where to start? If I tell them about my upbringing, I’ll just kill the mood, so . . .
“How about I talk about how I came to meet Usato?” I offered.
“That sounds great. We’re all ears!”
Everyone at the table looked at me, curious as to how Usato and I came to meet. Felm, meanwhile, glared and ground her teeth the moment she heard Usato’s name. I tried to ignore her.
“It all started when . . .” I began.
My childhood friend Mina had turned into my tormentor. Usato had saved me from my bullying. Then he put me through an intense week of training. It was so hard that I even ran away at one point and was ready to beg Mina for forgiveness. But Usato found me and set me straight.