“Allow me to show you in,” Krista said. “This way, please.”
They followed her into the house and made their way to one of the parlors. The building was small for a noble estate and had only a few servants. The parlor they were in seemed well furnished with high-quality items, but the other rooms were more sparsely decorated, as if there wasn’t enough to go around.
“Welcome, Miss Nacht, Miss Aisha,” a man greeted them with an elegant flourish. He wore a finely tailored outfit befitting of a noble, but beneath it, Nacht could see that his body was surprisingly well trained. “My name is Ludvin Lindburg. It is an honor to meet the heroes of our fair city.”
“Hey, no need to stand on ceremony with me!” Nacht said. “You can call me your bestie Nacht!”
They shook hands, then the woman next to Ludvin introduced herself. “I am Belinda. I’m just a commoner—no need to mind titles and such. Nice to meet you, Nacht and Aisha.” She was a young woman dressed in a witchlike getup, holding a curious golden broom. Nacht had been wondering if she was Ludvin’s wife, but it seemed that was not the case.
“N-Nice to meet you!” Aisha said, introducing herself politely despite her anxiety.
“Kya ha ha ha ha!” Belinda laughed. “Don’t be so shy, girl! This guy hardly counts as nobility anyway. He’s just a commoner who got uplifted.”
“You cut that out, Belinda!” Ludvin snapped. “I’m proper nobility now. Do you want me to have you thrown out for disrespect?”
“Hah!” Belinda shot back. “I’d like to see you try! I believe you’ll find that my name carries rather more weight than yours in court.”
“Gh...” Ludvin said, losing their little exchange. Watching them go at it, Nacht could tell that they were close friends despite their differences.
“Enough, you two,” said Krista. “You have guests.”
“Ah. My apologies, Madam Krista.”
“Sorry, Krista.”
With that out of the way, they moved on to the topic at hand. “First, the results of my investigation,” Krista said. “Unfortunately, I was unable to confirm the whereabouts of Aisha’s mother, the elf Floria. I apologize.” She bowed. “However, I was able to locate an acquaintance of Aisha’s parents and arrange for this meeting.”
Aisha turned her trembling eyes to look over at Belinda and Ludvin.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Aisha,” Ludvin said. “Although, if you’re his daughter, it feels wrong to call you ‘Miss.’ Aisha, let me introduce myself again. I was a lancer in your father Roland’s adventuring party. Somehow, I had the bad luck of being made nobility.”
Aisha gasped. “You were one of my father’s companions?” She hesitated, unsure what to say. “I suppose you must have looked after him, then?”
“Ah ha ha!” Ludvin laughed. “No, I’d say I caused nothing but trouble for that do-gooder! I was the one who needed looking after, trust me. I heard what happened from Madam Krista. It’s truly a shame to have lost him, but to see you alive and well brings joy to my heart.” He smiled with earnest kindness. Aisha awkwardly lowered her gaze, smiling shyly.
“We’ve met before, actually, but I’d be surprised if you remembered me,” said Belinda.
Aisha searched her memories for any recollection of the woman but found nothing. “Um...” she said. “When would that have been?”
“Kya ha ha! Well, there you have it. After all, last time we met, you were only thiiiiis big.” Belinda held out her hand, indicating a height below the seat of her chair. “I was in a party with your lunk of a father. Back then, I was an A-rank adventurer. They called me Belinda the Crimson Lotus, if you’ll believe it. I’m quite famous in the Royal Capital. No chance you’ve heard of me?”
“Oh... Um...I’m sorry,” Aisha said. “But my father told me he was just an ordinary adventurer. You were A-rank, Miss Belinda? That’s incredible!”
Belinda laughed again. “You really are his child—what a good, sweet girl! Well, these days I’m just a full-time housekeeper. Roland couldn’t cast a spell to save his life, but his sword skills were always top class. He won so many tournaments that you had to wonder if he was cheating!”
Ludvin brought things back to the main topic at hand. “Now, Aisha. I hear you’re searching for your mother, Floria?”
Aisha looked meekly down at her feet. It looked like she was having trouble replying, so Nacht cut in for her. “Actually, I’m the one who made the request—”
“N-No!” Aisha said, quickly interrupting her. “I-I want to find her too...”
Whether he could perceive Aisha’s conflicted emotions or not, Ludvin continued speaking. “This is an old story, from back when we were working in the nearby allied kingdom of Estoll. We were hired as guards for a merchant in the Gelariau Forest, one of the biggest woodlands on the continent. We were carrying goods between the towns and villages around the region.”
“It was a pretty normal job,” Belinda added. “But on the way home, we ran into some real trouble.”
“Trouble...?” Aisha asked. The two nodded seriously.
“In the Gelariau Forest is a giant tree so big it towers over the forest itself. It’s the symbol of the woods. The people of Estoll call it the World Tree. The area around the base of the tree is the domain of the elves. We had finished our contract with the merchant and were on our way home when we suddenly heard a tremendous noise and saw the World Tree’s leaves scattering in the wind...”
“It was super loud,” Belinda continued. “It sounded like a battle. There was some kind of twisted mana seeping its way into the forest. I wanted to grab the client and scram, but your idiot father just had to play the hero again...” Aisha’s father had told her that he had been a mere C-rank, but to hear these two tell it, he was some kind of famous do-gooder.
“He told us to protect the client and ran off toward the screams and explosions by himself,” said Ludvin.
“The guild took a penalty out of our reward money for that,” said Belinda. “They were really angry.”
“Oh,” said Aisha. “I’m sorry...”
From the pair’s description, Aisha took after her father in both her relentless good nature and her persistent reckless streak.
“But thanks to that mess, we have Aisha here with us now! Roland showed up later, covered in wounds and carrying Floria on his back. She was on the verge of death. We used every last potion we had stockpiled to save her life.”
“What in the world happened?” Aisha asked. Her father’s friends fell silent for a moment.
It was Belinda who spoke. “Floria refused to tell. Roland said he’d found piles of dead elves, like a scene out of hell. But he saved at least one life that day thanks to his stupidity, so I suppose it was worth it.”
“The problems started later.” Ludvin held his hand to his forehead as if the thought of it was making his head ache.
“The...problems?” Aisha asked in a nervous, trembling voice. Ludvin and Belinda shared a glance and sighed.
“He started spending all his time looking after her!” Belinda said. “Just because a gorgeous elf crossed his path... We stopped taking requests and started spending all of our money on potions and medicine. And then, he married her and quit the adventuring life altogether!”
“Leaving us with no money, no home, and no job! If only he had thought for just a moment before making such grandiose promises!” added Ludvin.
“I see...” Aisha said. “I’m sorry my father did that.”
Aisha had always thought of her father as responsible and diligent, but now, she was wondering if she had been wrong. Before she could go too far down that path, though, Ludvin gave a pained smile and went on.
“Well, we made it out all right. I inherited a couple of noble titles in place of my older brothers, and Belinda was invited to work in the Royal Capital. Perhaps it was for the best.”
“Were you the one who set Aisha up in the pioneer village, then?” Nacht asked.