Wait, I used an item worth a fortune? Is that okay?
If on the off chance he asked for it back, what would she do?
How many pots of herbs would that take…? I guess I’d just have to pick herbs my entire life…
And she still had one of the items worth several thousand gold in her hand.
Is Sir Gown in a position where he can just freely hand out such expensive items?! Or did he not know how much it was worth…? No, he would definitely know… But what if on the off chance he didn’t…
Her stomach started to hurt.
She glanced at her surroundings. There were only a few people in the area, but it still felt like many times the number of people in Carne. She had the horrible thought that someone might come after her for the horn.
I shouldn’t have brought this. There is lots of crime in the city, right? What’ll I do if it gets stolen…? Wait, if someone blows it and the goblins that get summoned go on a rampage, would I be the criminal responsible…?
Just as she had doubled the amount of cold sweat she was producing, someone sat on the box seat next to her. They moved as if gravity didn’t exist for them—definitely by the power of magic.
Who—?
When she turned to face her company, she was overcome with surprise.
It was a peerlessly beautiful woman with raven-black hair, the one who had been with the adventurer in the raven-black armor before. Her cold obsidian eyes were focused on Enri.
“Horsefly, Mr. Momon has something he’d like to ask y—”
“You’re so pretty…”
“That sort of flattery won’t—”
“About as pretty as Lupusregina…”
Noticing the confusion in the woman’s wavering eyes, Enri realized she had said something stupid and immediately regretted it. How would this lady know who Lupusregina was? But she couldn’t think of anyone else as beautiful as the adventurer before her eyes.
What should I do? I can tell she’s confused… Of course she is. I have to somehow…
“Uh, so you see, Lupusregina is this really pretty lady who comes to my vill—”
“—Thank you.”
“Wuh?!”
Her gaze was still stony, and there was nothing gentle about her tone—her brow was even furrowed—but her gratitude was real. She sighed. “I came because Lo— Mr. Momon has something he wants to ask you. Answer me. What are you doing here?”
It wasn’t as if Enri was obliged to answer, but this was the partner of the person who had just helped her out of a difficult spot. If she wanted to know, Enri figured she should answer.
“Uh, before that, can I say something? Mr. Momon helped me out just a short while ago. Please tell him thank you for me.”
“I’ll tell him. So?”
“R-right. I’m here to— W-well, I have a lot of things to do, but, er, one is to sell herbs.”
The woman gestured with her jaw that Enri should continue.
“Then I’m going to the shrine to see if there are any people who want to move to my village. And I’m also planning to inquire about something at the Adventurers Guild. Besides that, I need to stock up on a bunch of things we can’t get in the village, particularly weapons. That’s about it…”
“I see. I understand what you’ve said and will tell Mr. Momon.”
With an airy movement, as if she had been freed from gravity’s pull, the woman jumped off the wagon. She walked away without giving Enri any further attention.
A cutting, icy wind—that was Enri’s impression of her.
“What an amazing lady… Like Brita’s power times ten…”
She wasn’t the sort of woman one could meet in the village. Is she an adventurer because she has that personality type? Or did she end up with that personality after becoming an adventurer? Enri started to feel nervous about going to the guild.
“Oh, shoot!”
She didn’t think of it until after the woman was already gone, but she must also be a strong adventurer, too. After all, she was partnered with the guy who tamed the Wise King of the Forest. It was possible she knew something about the situation in the woods.
“I should’ve asked her if she knew anything about the Giant of the East, the Magical Serpent of the West, or the Structure of Ruin… Ahh, I’m so stupid. Why didn’t I think of it?”
Enri trundled along the road on her wagon, chiding herself for not being more on top of things, and passed through the next gate.
E-Rantel was broadly split into three areas. The middle section was for the various people who lived there—the normal city area, so to speak.
The Adventurers Guild was also located there.
Usually it would be safer to do herb business with the Apothecaries Guild, but that required a lot of annoying formalities, so she decided to head for the Adventurers Guild, who would do the negotiations for her. At first, she thought maybe she could rely on her connection with Lizzy, but on second thought, although they were close, she realized using the name of her friend’s grandmother was pretty shameless.
The one who had respected her intentions and suggested going to the Adventurers Guild was Nfirea.
If he had come, they could have bought and sold herbs without relying on the guild, no problem, but Enri was only a village girl; she was nervous about dealing with the savvy Apothecaries Guild members. That’s why she had decided to have the Adventurers Guild act as the middleman, even if she had to pay a fee.
She proceeded through the city according to the directions Brita and Nfirea had given her.
The goblins had traveled with her up until the outskirts of the village, but now they were waiting outside for her to be done with her errands. She was hit with the realization that she was alone for the first time since leaving the village, and she clenched the horse’s reins. The tension made her shoulders stiff and sore. She was about to stretch her neck when she caught sight of the building her friends had described to her up ahead.
“I made it!” she quietly exclaimed. There was no chance of her getting lost now.
After leaving her wagon with the doorman, she went inside.
There were warriors clad in plate armor, hunters with bows and arrows, priests and wizards, plus a few people who generally looked like casters, all coming and going. They exchanged information about monsters in the area, seriously examined the sheets of parchment stuck on the board, or confirmed the quality of items they’d purchased with an ease that came only with practice.
It was a world full of vigilant eyes, tense heat, and an intense clamor—the world of adventurers.
Enri’s jaw dropped at this scene she would never be able to see in her village, and she hurriedly closed it.
True, she was a country bumpkin, and she wasn’t afraid to be amazed by the atmosphere in the city, but she was embarrassed as a girl of marrying age to be seen with her mouth hanging wide open.
She walked straight ahead, careful not to move unnaturally. She didn’t want to get laughed at. She did wonder if it was all right for a village girl to walk among the brave adventurers. She felt out of place.
When she reached the counter, she was met with a friendly smile.
“Welcome.”
“Yes, here I am.”
Enri met the receptionist lady’s eyes, and they both grinned awkwardly in spite of themselves. Enri felt the tension go out of her shoulders for perhaps the first time since she had entered E-Rantel.
“What can the Adventurers Guild do for you today?”
“Well, uh, first, I was hoping you could sell some herbs for me.”
“Very well. And where are the herbs right now?”
When Enri explained that the herbs were on her wagon outside, the receptionist lady spoke to the woman next to her.
“The appraiser will go there now, so do you mind waiting inside the building for a short while?”
“That’s fine. There’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about… I don’t have an immediate request, but I might make one
in the future…”
She gave an outline of the situation to the smiling receptionist, and her smile gradually morphed into a more serious expression.
“I see… I’m a receptionist, so I don’t determine request difficulty levels, but if it’s about the Magical Serpent of the West or the Wise King of the Forest, the adamantite-rank adventurer Sir Momon is probably the only one who can take the job. In which case, it would cost quite a lot.”
Enri felt the receptionist’s attitude shift. It was like she had lost motivation, thinking, It’s a pain to explain this, since you can’t afford it anyway.
Through living with the goblins, Enri had gotten better at reading people’s emotions. This growth could be attributed to her efforts to understand the goblins, which seemed like only hideous creatures with borderline unintelligible expressions to most humans.
She probably thinks we don’t have that kind of money in the village… Well, it seemed like the first thing she looked at was my clothes, so I guess that’s what she would think… And she’s wearing nice things.
Enri mentally compared her clothes with the receptionist’s and acknowledged that she lost by a landslide.
But wearing clothes like that to do village work would be a waste; plus, they’d get in the way.
As a woman, Enri judged this match a draw.
“Uh, I heard the city offered money, a subsidy…”
“It does, but the subsidy is only for a portion of the cost. The rest you must cover. Adamantite-rank adventurers are extremely expensive, so even after deducting the subsidy, you would owe quite a large sum. Of course, you can put in a request at a lower price, but we don’t encourage it. Jobs paying less than the going rate are lower priority, so you would have to be prepared for the possibility that it will be difficult finding someone.”
The receptionist probably spoke so fluently, so fluidly, because she was regurgitating rules she had perfectly memorized. It was likely she was already thinking that Enri was just a bother.
I guess that’s only natural. A customer who can’t pay is no customer at all…
The receptionist lady’s words matched exactly what Nfirea had told her. That’s why she didn’t feel too down. It was simply reality that there weren’t many people who would lend a hand to the weak for little to no reward.
That’s exactly why Sir Ainz Ooal Gown is our savior. He even gave this treasure to a village girl like it was nothing!
If she said she would pay with the horn, what sort of attitude would the receptionist take? She imagined how gratifying it would be but did nothing of the sort. That great caster had given her this item out of kindness and told her to protect herself. It wasn’t something she could sell just because it would be good for the village. She couldn’t let his benevolence be in vain.
So Enri nodded.
“I understand. Please at least tell me how much. I’ll take the information home and consult with the rest of the village.”
“Oh? Then please do that. If you come when the broker’s appraisal is done, I’ll have the fee all calculated for you.”
Enri thanked the receptionist, moved away from the counter, sat on a sofa across the lobby, and thought she would kill time until the broker assessment was done by staring absentmindedly at the ceiling.
I’m tired…
Ever since she had passed through the gates, it had been a parade of new experiences. No, nothing had been this bewildering since she’d lost her parents in the attack.
Everything was always the same. I thought that way of life would go on forever…
Remembering what she had lost, she sighed quietly.
Remembering what she had gained—the goblins, her old friend—she shook her head back and forth.
I wish they would hurry up…
When she was moving, she didn’t have time to get depressed. She could empty her head and work hard.
“Miss Emmott, your assessment is done.”
At the call of the person who must have been in charge of sales, Enri stood and walked over.
“Th-thank you!”
“Er, the amount is—”
At that moment, she heard someone’s quick steps—no, someone running about as fast as they could—coming toward her. Enri turned her head to find the receptionist lady standing there, panting.
“Miss—no, Lady Enri Emmott of Carne. Might I ask you for a little more detail about what we were discussing earlier?”
It was definitely the same receptionist from before. But she was desperate. Her eyes were bloodshot.
“U-umm, excuse me, I’m about to give her the results of her assessmen—”
“I’m talking right now. All I need is a minute, so you can shut up.”
The broker’s face twitched.
“If you like, we could talk in the sitting room over a drink.”
Her lips were pleasantly curled, but her eyes held no mirth at all. She was bizarrely desperate.
What did she sense from Enri’s hesitation? With wet eyes, she entwined her fingers as if to pray. “Please! I want to hear what you have to say! I’m screwed unless you tell me!”
Enri had no idea what this frantic plea was about, but she would have felt bad to reject her. When she glanced back, the broker seemed to understand what she was thinking and nodded.
“I—I see. Then will you take me there?”
That moment, the receptionist’s body visibly relaxed.
“Thank you! Thank you so much! Right this way—follow me!”
Bathed in curious stares, Enri followed. The receptionist had a viselike grip on her right hand. She was definitely not letting her get away.
Maybe I was too hasty…
Though seized by a mild anxiety, she entered the sitting room.
She looked around silently. The empty room had an extremely refined interior furnished so magnificently she hesitated to sit on the sofa.
“Now then, go ahead, take a seat.”
A voice in a corner of her mind said, I won’t be taken prisoner the moment I sit down?
But nothing happened even when she sat on the sofa. That is to say, the comfortable sofa merely supported her body.
“What would you like to drink? I can offer you quality alcoholic beverages! Would you like to eat? Perhaps it’s too early? I suppose it is! Then fruit…or perhaps cake?”
“Oh, you don’t have to go to all that trouble.”
The abrupt change in the receptionist scared Enri just a little bit. It wasn’t like she was particularly cold toward Enri when she first arrived at the guildhall. She thought the receptionist’s reaction utterly natural and didn’t feel like she’d endured any malice or derision. At least, the lady had been more normal than she was now.
What caused this transformation? Is it because I’m carrying the horn again?
“Now, now, don’t be shy. You can have anything you like. We have snacks that go great with our drinks.”
“No, really… Uh, I don’t have much time, so shall we start talking?”
“Right! Just as you say. Let’s get talking!”
The receptionist took out a thin piece of white paper. The only paper Enri had ever seen was thick with muddled colors. This paper she was just given had to be a luxury item. Does this mean she has no issues if I use it?
Enri started talking. Earlier she’d kept it brief, but this time she went into so much detail she bored herself.
A short time later, about when she was starting to get thirsty, her story reached its end.
“Thank you! I’ll bring you something to drink, so please enjoy the refreshment before you go. You can leave the glass here. Thank you very much for everything today!”
The receptionist popped out of her chair and exited the room as if compelled.
“Really… What the heck is going on?”
There was no one around to answer Enri’s murmur.
In the end, Enri returned to Carne without staying over in E-Rantel.
She had to spend the night in the mead
ow, but she wasn’t worried. On the contrary, she slept quite well—thanks to her friends guarding the wagon now packed with new cargo.
“Ahh, you can finally see it.”
Carne’s wall came into view ahead of them. The sturdy logs lined up in a row were a grand sight, but having just seen E-Rantel’s walls, she couldn’t help but think Carne’s seemed inferior in comparison.
“There’s so much I need to hurry and report to the headman,” Enri answered the goblin in the cargo bed. Five goblins plus Konaa the goblin cleric were the members of the goblin troop who had accompanied her all the way to E-Rantel. Chousuke the goblin rider was also with them, but he was keeping watch at a short distance.
“Ya got done half of what ya needed, but the thing the headman asked for didn’t go so well—was that it, boss lady?”
“Yes. I asked the priest in the city, but no one said they would move to our village.”
“That’s weird. Some people have already moved to the village! Why aren’t there more? Could the priest or whoever be lying?”
“No.” She winced. “Frontier villages are dangerous, so people tend to avoid them. I was hoping for third sons or whatnot who ran off to the city after not inheriting any land…but I guess there just aren’t many people who want to come out to a place like this if they’re not under orders. Also, the folks who have moved to our village so far are people who already spent time in other frontier villages, so their situations are a little different.”
“So that’s just how it is?”
“That’s just how it is, but personally I’m a bit relieved.”
Building friendly relationships with goblins and living together alongside them in a village was probably difficult for the average person to accept. She knew people from the city would be against it for sure, and she wanted to avoid trouble.
Honestly, if Enri were asked to choose whether to accept new settlers from the city or the goblins, she’d choose the goblins.
Just then the wagon jolted, and there was some clinking and clanking from the cargo bed.
“Ah, sorry. Is everyone all right?” Enri looked over her shoulder.
The Two Leaders Page 10
