Stupid Leen, pushing the conversation onto me. I wanted to ride out this whole thing in silence! Erifell also looked at me. She readjusted her glasses and affixed me with her reddish-brown eyes. It would be weird for me to stick to my silence.
“Yeah, I know him, but we’re not close enough that we, like, keep in contact or anything.”
“I see. Another adventurer said they saw you talking to him in the guild before. If you’re not all that close, then don’t worry.”
In my opinion, Erifell should know more about Jiray than myself as he used to do odd chores for the guild. But, well, the guild in Esma wasn’t small by any means, and Erifell didn’t deal with adventurers below B rank. I supposed that there were things you didn’t see in your everyday life—not that I knew much about the receptionist life. He was still a rookie and the fact that she’d brought his name up meant...
“Has he not returned from a quest?” I asked.
Fledgling adventurers often went on their first quest with gusto, only to never return. Whatever quest you took, you couldn’t dare assume that it would be a breeze. It could cost you your life. Even if you yourself made no mistakes, the unexpected could suddenly happen, and simple bad luck could lead you to your demise. It was such an everyday occurrence that I was surprised a guild receptionist would bring it up.
“No, not that,” she replied.
I was relieved to hear this wasn’t news of his death, but Erifell suddenly clammed up.
“No, my apologies. This doesn’t concern you, so don’t pay it any more heed.”
“You’re just going to leave us hanging? This is going to bug me all day!” Leen said.
Despite Leen closing in, Erifell didn’t budge in the slightest. I guessed that Erifell’s will was strong enough to withstand Leen’s brazenness. Adventurers often got violent with their words, so it made sense that you needed to have an iron will to work with them.
“Say something, Hakura!”
“Well, I’m a bit concerned, but I don’t wanna get involved with stuff that’ll be a hassle.”
“Why don’t we hear her out, and then if it sounds fishy, we can pretend we didn’t hear anything!”
“What’s wrong with you? If we find out he’s in trouble, then we have to go help him!”
Leen and Erifell suddenly looked at me wide-eyed. Having two pretty ladies staring at me wordlessly made me feel uncomfortable.
“What?” I said.
“I was just thinking, Hakura, you... Oh, forget it,” Leen replied.
“Finish that sentence, c’mon!”
“You don’t want to get involved if it’ll be a hassle, right?”
“Are you implying you were about to say something that’d be a hassle for me to hear?”
“May I continue?” Erifell said, sighing as she adjusted her glasses.
“Your glasses seem to be the wrong size,” I said.
Erifell was readjusting her glasses way too much. I’d never seen her do this at work.
“Yes. And?”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
Even with the small motions of her mouth moving from talking, I could see her glasses gradually migrating down her nose. I wondered if she was acting on pure reflex when she pushed them back up.
“To confirm, neither of you are currently undertaking a quest, are you?” Erifell asked.
“Why are you asking? You should know.”
At the moment, Erifell was pretty much in charge of Leen. Any jobs we did were chosen by her. The reason Leen complained but wasn’t outright rejecting it was because all of the quests were tricky ones that only Leen could solve; others would have to resort to more violent methods. Erifell was really skilled at picking out the perfect quests for our monstermancer here. I wondered if things could have been solved a little more peacefully when we were going to Rydea if Erifell had been in charge when we received the quest.
“Is it another weird quest?” Leen asked.
All the same, Leen hated being forced to work hard each time. She shot daggers at Erifell, who accepted them like a breeze as she shook her head.
I continued to keep quiet since I was merely Leen’s aide. The only time I was needed was when discussing the appropriate reward. Or so I’d thought.
“No, this time, I need you, Hakura Istilla,” Erifell said.
“Me?”
“Not as an adventurer...but as a witch hunter.”
As soon as she said this, a switch flicked in my brain. I felt my blood run cold and a chill seep into my head. My hands clenched in reaction.
“N-No, you can’t do that! Hakura’s my bodyguard right now! You need to ask me to— Huh?”
I put my hand on Leen’s shoulder to stop her protests.
“Sorry, Leen, but this is my job.”
If someone needed me, then my job was simple: kill a witch.
“Tell me more, Erifell.”
Erifell nodded and cast a glance at Leen before readjusting her glasses.
“What will you do?” she asked her. I imagined she was checking if Leen would be taking part.
“Grrk...” Leen forced out a groan as her face turned bright red. After a moment’s silence, she stamped onto the pavement. “I’ll come! Of course I’ll come!”
“Ow!”
In her rage, she’d kicked my shin again. Come on, why?
“Then follow me.”
Erifell didn’t pay much heed to our conversation and moved to lead the way, when suddenly...she fell over. With a tumbling sound, she hit the ground, her glasses clattering away. She remained there, unmoving. It didn’t look like she’d slowed her fall at all and had collided with the ground face-first.
“A-Are you okay?” I asked. She’d fallen with enough intensity to cause concern.
“Pay me no heed,” she said after a pause, slowly pulling herself to her feet. She had grazed her nose, but she didn’t appear to be injured. It was a small mercy, but I wasn’t sure if this was merely a case of bad luck.
“Ha ha ha!” Leen burst out laughing, clapping her hands, as soon as she realized Erifell wasn’t badly hurt. Seriously?
“Wow, I can’t believe you have a clumsy side! That’s news to me!” she went on.
The smug grin on Leen’s face shone with the ugly resolve that she would abuse this weakness as much as possible now that she had discovered it. I had to wonder just how much suffering Erifell had caused Leen before she met me. This kind of glee didn’t come from your average grudge.
“I don’t mean to be so clumsy,” Erifell said, still without a single trace of emotion on her face, as she checked that her glasses weren’t broken.
“How did you fall over? There’s nothing to fall over!”
“This doesn’t happen normally. I imagine it’s just exhaustion from work. My days have been rather long recently.”
“Well, a whole village was wiped out, so that would wear you down.”
“Yeah...” I muttered.
After we’d submitted our report about Leston, it had been slated for extermination. The only things left at that point were corpses and the shells of a former life. The church would do a proper examination at a later date and probably burn everything down to cleanse it. Any future maps wouldn’t bear the village’s name anymore. Even if a new one were to emerge from the ashen remains, it wouldn’t be Leston. And that would be a long time from now.
Erifell reaffixed her glasses and shifted her body up and down without rising to her feet.
“Erifell?” Leen asked, but there was no reply. It seemed that she couldn’t get up.
“Fine, fine,” Leen said, holding out her hand with an absolutely wicked grin.
For Erifell’s part, she deliberated for a moment, but ultimately clasped Leen’s hand.
“Whoa!” Leen shouted, looking shocked. “Erifell, are you okay? Your hand’s burning hot!”
“Don’t worry about me...” she said.
That wasn’t possible. Looking at her now, her fatigue was obvious. She was wheezing and her skin was covered in beads of sweat. Her face was red, but her neck and fingers were drained of color. Even her lips were almost blue. I was surprised that she managed to rage so much at Cormeca in this state. I wondered if she didn’t want to show vulnerability to someone she didn’t like or if there was another reason.
“Hmm...”
Leen placed her hand on Erifell’s forehead and squinted as she assessed her temperature. From Leen’s expression, it didn’t look good.
“Should we call a doctor?” I said.
“No, I’ll look after her. Let’s take her home. It’s close by,” Leen replied.
Leen gave her staff to me and lifted Erifell onto her back after getting permission to do so. Leen appeared small, but she was an adventurer with a Sphere. She could easily give a piggyback to a grown woman. She carried her staff all the time, but it would be difficult to continue holding it, so I was in charge of carrying it for now.
“I didn’t know you knew where she lived,” I said.
“I’ve been a few times,” Leen replied.
“You don’t seem close enough for her to invite you over...”
“No, it was for scolding and complaining. Or scolding and griping.”
“Uh-huh...”
Leen walked slowly, most likely out of concern for Erifell. I wished she were this thoughtful usually.
“Hey, Hakura?”
“Yeah?”
“Looks like we’ve gotten involved in something that’s going to be a hassle.”
I wanted to quip that she spoke as if she weren’t the one currently holding a sick person, but I couldn’t because she was helping to carry said sick person. Dammit all...