“But this area is…”
“Something wrong?”
The guild employee nodded. “One of our adventurers goes here often and talks a lot about a fruit that can be foraged nearby. He likes it, apparently.”
Sounds like the adventurer who made this illegal dump will get caught faster than I thought.
“Huh, okay.”
“Oh, please don’t tell anyone else about this! We need to conduct an internal investigation.”
“I know. Also, what should I do about the berserk gashlasses?”
The guild employee turned around and raised a hand. Another employee approached us and escorted me to the dissection room in the back.
“Why’re you coming, Gotos? You can always wait out back.”
“Master told me to bring you back.”
Argh… Well, it was worth a try.
“Got it. I’ll go see Master.”
Guess I have no choice but to give in.
I handed over the gashlass corpses and headed back to my master’s house with Gotos.
Argh… I’m not looking forward to this. He only laughed last time, but he’ll definitely give me a piece of his mind now.
“Just give in.”
Gotos’s words made me raise an eyebrow.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, did you?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t.”
“You got mixed up with some shady characters from a bad group—your one mistake was not telling Master about it.”
Yeah, that would be the biggest issue. Master always insisted I talk to him if I was ever caught up in a major hassle or got in way over my head with some organization.
When I hid the woman from the church, I wasn’t sure whether I should tell him. I knew I ought to let him know, since getting on the church’s bad side always put your family in danger, but I thought I could clean up my own mess, so I didn’t say anything. Even now, I believe I made the right call. After all, here I was, standing on my own two feet.
“We’re back, Master…”
Gotos entered the building where he and his friends were. I followed him and heard voices from the back of the house. We entered Master’s room and found him sitting with a glass of booze in hand, beckoning to us.
“Hey there, troopers. Just to let you know, I haven’t had any trouble with that pair you brought me.”
I was a little surprised to hear a sigh of relief escape me at the news—I hadn’t realized I was that worried about Egar and Lange. Since the church had trained them to kill, I’d figured they could handle whatever came their way. But my master’s words made me realize something: I’d been worried about them.
Ah… That must be why Master sent Gotos after me.
“Is that so? Well, thank you very much, Master.”
I’ve still got a lot of growing up to do…
Gotos stared at me in surprise as I lowered my head to my master.
Well, I don’t blame him for being surprised. I’ve never humbly bowed to anyone in thanks before.
“How’d your job go?” my master asked.
I told him about the illegal dump and the berserk gashlasses. Once I was finished, he sighed.
“They just don’t care about the consequences, do they? They know monsters go berserk off the magic energy left in trash.”
I nodded in agreement. The adventurer guild knew better, but they chose the easy way out, even though they were aware it might bite them in the ass later.
“Well, whatever happens next is the adventurer guild’s problem, not yours. So, Druid, why’d you forge a Life Contract with those two?”
That came out of nowhere. Actually, no, it didn’t. That’s what I came back here to talk about.
“I just…had a feeling it would be okay.”
“Huh, okay. Boy, did I laugh when I saw that contract. Never thought I’d see the day when the self-proclaimed hassle-hater would choose to take on a hassle.”
So that’s why he laughed so hard.
“Well, I was drunk.”
“Drunk, eh? Well, you’re making your own way in the world now, Druid, so I’ll spare you my lecture.”
Gotos’s expression twisted a little when he heard my answer. They both must have caught on to my lie. But maybe it was because my master wasn’t saying anything that Gotos held his tongue as well. It made me feel a little guilty. I knew I had worried him.
“Don’t do anything too reckless, okay?”
I nodded back at my master. Which category does a Life Contract fall under? Reckless, surely.
“I won’t. I’m sorry I worried you. And you, too, Gotos, I’m sorry.”
I did kind of run away without giving you an explanation.
“Well, you should be sorry. When I heard what happened, I almost marched into the forest to beat you up.”
I’m glad he didn’t do that.
I smiled sheepishly at Gotos, then looked at my master again. “Ha ha! So, how are those two doing right now?”
He had said there were no problems with them, but where were they now?
“Egar and Lange are with Marual, learning how to see through a person.”
How to see through a person? Since they’re assassins, wouldn’t that be unnecessary?
“They haven’t learned the most essential parts about being human. They know how to kill people and how to search for and mask auras. They know how to sneak into mansions and hide. They know how to deceive people, betray people—all those lessons have been perfectly pounded into them. But they don’t know how to communicate and socialize with people—they just copy what everyone else does.”
Is that really what they do? I…don’t know. When I first met them, it was on a job, and they both seemed very unstable back then.
The next time I saw them was a few days earlier, and they’d been tormented with worry. Both times, they’d been at the end of their rope. That was why I’d stipulated in their contract that they should “be free.”
“Druid?”
“Huh?” Startled, I looked at Gotos.
“You okay? You’ve got a really grim look on your face.”
Grim?
I felt my face. I hadn’t meant to look that way.
“Well, Druid’s a compassionate guy, after all.”
Me? Compassionate? The guy who stole so much from my own family?
“And I like him that way.”
My master looked at me and patted my shoulder. And for some reason, I stopped wondering whether he was right.
“Master?”
“Druid, what did you wish from them?”
What?! I wished something from Egar and Lange?