“It’s a nice song,” I said, sitting down at the table.
Diego glanced at me, surprised. “Shouldn’t you be with them?” he asked, looking to where Capitan and the others were drinking merrily.
We’d finished our discussion about the dungeon job, so the rest of the evening was free for us to enjoy at our leisure. Though, I knew that Capitan would be subtly probing Niedz and his friends to get a better idea of who they were as people. After all, when you were training someone, knowing their personality could be just as important as knowing their skills.
People like Diego and me, who disliked talking about our pasts, would avoid the topic no matter how much alcohol we consumed—unless given a good reason. Niedz and the others, however, were simpler folk. The drunker they got, the more they’d tell Capitan.
The outcome of that conversation might as well have been preordained. Capitan had a wealth of experience handling ruffian types who often acted before they thought, because back in Hathara, where he was the lead hunter, everybody looked up to him the most. Niedz and his friends would be wrapped around his finger before long, so there was no need for me to hang around.
“They’ll be fine,” I told Diego. “It’s just nice to have a little peace and quiet while drinking every now and again. The minstrel’s a novel experience too. We hardly ever got any in the taverns where I’m from.”
Diego shrugged. “They do only go where the coin purses are fattest, though I know some eccentrics like to tour the sticks... Hmm. Maybe I should call them dedicated rather than eccentric.”
He was referring to the original duty of minstrels and why the gods encouraged their efforts. Giza, the deity of bards, desired for everything in existence to be represented in song, because it would allow information to spread far and wide across the world, shared between all. That was why bards journeyed across the lands, gathering stories and putting them to music. It was said that even Giza had walked that same path a long, long time ago.
These days, though, bards weren’t all that passionate about the old traditions. This might’ve gone without saying, but touring the remote countryside didn’t exactly earn them a lot of coin. They were always given warm welcomes when they did, since entertainment was hard to come by in such places, but it was no coincidence that they were more often seen singing in the taverns of big cities, where they could enjoy all the conveniences of modern life.
If pressed, I would’ve placed bards as the type who trended toward self-indulgence more than most. After all, their deity was also the god of pleasure. Still, in theory, they could serve their patron god quite well in big cities, where information and stories flowed with more regularity. Not to mention, even a bard might start feeling guilty if all they did was spend their time indulging in idle amusements.
Anyway, you did still see the more sober type of bard every once in a while, who took it upon themselves to make the arduous trek through the frontier, gathering stories from the far corners of society. Those were the types that Diego had been alluding to.
“Which type do you think she is?” I murmured.
“The song she’s singing is an old one, in this city,” he said. “So maybe the less pious type...”
I focused on the lyrics for a few moments. “A story about a doomed love?”
“Yes. Between a beautiful sea fairy and a man of the harbor. Tales like that are common around here.”
I listened along, finding that Diego’s description was right. The minstrel herself was rather beautiful, with long blonde hair, and she was surrounded by a decently sized crowd of men who were admiring her appearance just as much as the music. It was a situation that would’ve made your average woman nervous, if not outright afraid, but it was probably a daily occurrence in the minstrel’s line of work. Her singing was calm and clear, without a hint of wavering.
I sat back and enjoyed the song through to its end, and before the next one started, I turned to Diego. “By the way,” I began.
“Yes?”
“Will you be joining us in the dungeon?”
Understanding dawned in his expression. “Ah, so that’s why you came over here. Sorry for leaving before the discussion was over, then.”
“It’s all right—I prefer it here anyway. Mazlak said he would apologize to you later, for the record.”
“He doesn’t have to. It’s not his fault I’m still hung up on the past.”
I shrugged. “Everyone’s got something like that. There’s no shame in it.”
Diego hesitated for a moment, seemingly unsure whether it was acceptable to broach the topic. “Does that include you?” he asked, eventually.
I had brought it up first, so it was only fair that I gave him an answer. And if I wanted us to be open with each other, telling him about myself would be a sign of my sincerity.
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I nodded. “Yeah. The reason I became an adventurer in the first place,” I said. “A long time ago, I knew a girl. She and I were best friends. One day, though, we were attacked by a monster—and she, her grandmother, and my birth parents were... Well. I don’t know why, but I was the only survivor. Honestly, I still don’t know if that was a good thing. Sometimes, I still wonder whether everything might’ve been easier if I’d just...died with them.”
Even condensed and summarized, it was a heavy story—not something to be dumped on another person casually. But when I glanced at Diego, expecting to see discomfort...
“Yeah? That can’t have been easy,” he said sincerely. “But you’re here now. That’s something to be thankful for, isn’t it?” His words then took on a more joking tone. “Besides, who else is going to rake in haul after haul of cursed items from the dungeon for me?”
I chuckled. It was nice of him to lighten the mood. “Heh. I guess you’re right.”
“Myself aside, though, if Niedz and his friends hadn’t run into you, it probably wouldn’t have been long before they’d ended up dead and forgotten in the wilderness somewhere. I see a lot of their type trying to make it as adventurers, only to end up floundering in the end. You can try to help them along, but it’s never easy. But you’re doing it anyway, aren’t you, Rentt? Trying to make them into fully fledged adventurers?”
“That’s the plan. I don’t know how well it’ll turn out, but I’m sure I can at least get them to the point where they won’t be dying in the middle of nowhere anytime soon.”
“In that case, I want to see how you do it firsthand. It might take me a while to pick it up, but I want to do the same thing for others like Niedz when I come across them in the future.”
“So you mean...”
“Yeah. I’ll join you in the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters. I’ve still got my shop to run, so it won’t be every day, but I’ll be happy to come along if you’ll have me.”