Part 10: Presents
AFTER moving to the new spot, the first to speak was Dennis, one of Totto’s hangers-on.
“Oh, yeah, Boss Lady, we bought ya some clothes.”
He offered me a bundle, which I accepted. Clearly, they had been listening when I’d mentioned not having any other clothes at dinner the night before.
“Are you sure? I’ll gladly pay you for it.”
Such conscientious young men. Maybe it was naive of me, but now that they were treating me so kindly, I couldn’t help feeling like the previous day’s debacle was basically water under the bridge.
I unwrapped the paper and shook the clothes out. There were two sets of hemp-colored pants, a navy blue tunic, and a black hooded robe. I stood out like a sore thumb in my tracksuit, so this gift was quite the lifesaver. I could walk around wherever in these new clothes without attracting any attention at all.
“Yes, please consider this our apology for yesterday,” Totto said, inclining his head. “It wasn’t all that expensive anyway. We hope you get good use out of it.”
The other three followed Totto’s example, bowing their heads and urging me to accept the clothes.
Maybe Dennis, Dominic, and Roman had also reflected on their actions and decided to walk a better path, despite their continued flippant comments. It didn’t feel right to reject their generosity, so I gratefully accepted. For some strange reason, they reminded me of my younger coworkers, which was an oddly pleasing thought.
“Then, um…thank you very much,” I said, and the four of them smiled bashfully. Then, just when I thought we had settled things peacefully, Ralf cut in.
“I heard you guys did something to Haruka yesterday, but not the details.” He scowled menacingly at them, but Totto didn’t even flinch. He only glared back.
“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?” he said. “This is none of your business.”
“I happen to agree with him,” Ellie cut in. “It’s none of your business, Ralf. And don’t take advantage of all this commotion just to start using Haruka’s first name.”
To my surprise, Totto had just received reinforcement from an unexpected source—and I didn’t even realize that Ralf had very nonchalantly gone from calling me “Miss Yamagishi” to “Haruka” until after Ellie pointed it out. I didn’t mind since everyone called me “Haruka” anyway, but I could clearly see the moves of a man popular with women.
So Totto really despises Ralf, huh? He wasn’t even bothering to try hiding his hostility.
Fearing another fight was about to break out, I had no choice but to step in.
“All right, enough,” I said. “Ralf, I appreciate your concern. And I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me, from bringing me here in the first place, to your consideration for me afterwards.” I drew the topic back to myself to take his attention off Totto. After everything that had happened so far, I definitely didn’t want to be around conflict.
“But that’s not the problem… Argh! Fine, I understand,” Ralf relented. “I’ll let it go, out of respect for you, Haruka.” Then he dragged a hand through his hair with a heavy sigh. Maybe that was his way of compartmentalizing his feelings, because he shook his head a moment later and smiled.
“Let’s let bygones be bygones for now,” he said. “Haruka, I was waiting for you today because I was hoping to join you if you accepted a job. And I’d be more than happy to help find something suitable for you. What do you say?”
I found myself tensing at the sight of his nervous but hopeful expression. I knew I had to turn down his offer, because I’d already agreed to join Albert and Corinne’s party, but I hesitated. Albert was once more absorbed in front of the job board, while Montana sat on the floor chipping away at a stone. Corinne was the only one in our party who was paying any attention.
“Um,” Corinne started, “you see, Haruka, she…”
She tried to give Ralf my answer for me, but her voice came out small and strained. Why does she keep looking back and forth between me and Ralf? Maybe she was struggling to turn him down because of his rank. Wait, what was I doing making a young kid intervene on my behalf anyway? I needed to reject him myself.
“Actually, I kinda missed the right moment, but here, this is for you.”
While I was busy worrying about how to answer Ralf, Ellie tapped me on the shoulder and gave me something. She must have changed the subject after seeing Corinne so flustered. The parcel she thrust into my hands was inside a paper bag, and unlike my first gift of the day, it was all wrapped up in paper of violently pretty colors.
“Undergarments. You need those too, right?” Ellie said. “I’m almost positive the size is right. You don’t need to pay me back. Actually, I’m not the one who bought it all anyway.”
Ellie suddenly turned her head, and when I followed the direction of her gaze, I saw a familiar face. It was the young lady with the golden pigtails, the one who had buried her face in my chest and then taken a deep breath. Now she was breathing heavily again, and she gave me a thumbs up.
Huh. Interesting. She’s a really cute girl, so why do I feel so creeped out?
“That’s our clan master. Apparently, she’s taken a liking to you, Haruka. She likes anyone pretty…” Ellie seemed to consider for a moment. “Just make sure you’re never alone with her, okay?”
The sense of danger I felt emanating from this woman was much stronger than what I’d felt when Totto and his friends had accosted me the day before, and I couldn’t muster up the courage to ask Ellie why. Gingerly, ever so gingerly, I raised my right hand and gave a small wave in response to the thumbs up. The girl clapped both hands to her cheeks and gave her head an excited shake. I quickly averted my gaze. I…don’t think I should look at her right now.
“Does that mean she’s a Rank 1 adventurer?” I asked Ellie.
“Yup, in the Golden Wings clan. And there’s really no harm in interacting with her, for the most part.”
A clan was a larger group to which a team of adventurers belonged. Clans often had a base of operations and their members shared common goals. The creation of a clan required the Guild’s official approval, maybe to prevent too many ruffians from convening, or to prevent unauthorized rank inflation. But the constraints were worth it, because the Guild would sometimes commission work directly from clans recognized for their abilities.
In fact, the reason I’d been able to guess the girl’s rank correctly had to do with one of those pesky restrictions—only first-rank adventurers and above could form their own clans. So, despite looking almost like a child, the fact that this girl was a top adventurer meant I really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Incidentally, groups of adventurers had a complicated nomenclature. I inconspicuously opened my notebook to double check.
✦ ✦ ✦
Parties - can assemble new ones for each job
Teams - a fixed party officially registered with the Guild
Clans - a group of teams officially sanctioned by the Guild (only a few exist in towns and cities)
You had to be incredibly powerful to be a clan master. And now that I knew the girl with the indecent gaze was one, I grew even more terrified.
“So? Any thoughts on my proposal?” Ralf was still gazing expectantly at me.
He was standing closer than I’d realized and I automatically took a step back. Normally, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but his confession had made me hopelessly self-conscious around him. I felt somewhat guilty about it, but I wanted to maintain a buffer of personal space between me and him.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but I actually already promised to join another party…”
“Yeah, you heard her!” Corinne added, popping her head out from where she was hiding behind me.
I knew Ralf was probably frustrated that things weren’t going as he hoped. Still, he kept a smile on his face and his tone light.
“Well, that’s too bad, huh?” he said. “But if anything happens to change that, I want you to come to me first, okay?”
Then Ralf spun on his heel and strode briskly out of the Adventurers’ Guild. I felt bad for not being able to give him what he wanted, but if we worked together while I was in his debt, I wouldn’t have been able to be myself, which would make things even more awkward.
“Arrogant prick.”
As I was silently apologizing to him, I heard those words coming from next to me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the sour expression on Ellie’s face. Totto snorted in agreement.
Personally, I doubted Ralf was a bad person, simply because of how kind he’d been to me, but it was clear he had very few allies here.
“He really drives me nuts,” Ellie added.
“Phew! I’m so glad that’s done with!” Corinne exclaimed, sounding relieved. “I honestly thought he’d snatch you from us, Haruka.” Then she wrapped her arms around my waist. I froze at this unexpected behavior and stood there with my arms raised awkwardly out of the way. It was a habit I’d honed over years of commuting to work on a packed train, a way to show people I wasn’t going to molest them.
Obviously, I still wasn’t used to this world—or this body.