A New Job Request (1)

When Wolk and I sat down at the dining table, Yuri placed a plate of savory sandwiches on the table.

She had even garnished the plate with edible decorative herbs so that it looked presentable.

Then she hurried back toward the kitchen counter.

After watching her retreating figure, Wolk turned toward me across the table and grinned.

“She’s practically your wife already.”

“Give it a rest. I’m just looking after her until she can stand on her own two feet.”

“Looks more like she’s the one looking after you.”

“Ugh…”

I couldn’t exactly deny that.

Even now, she was preparing the table for us. We took turns cooking, but she handled most of the other household chores, so it would probably be more accurate to say that I was the one being taken care of.

Wolk grinned even wider.

“Why don’t you just marry her at this point? It’s about time you settled down and started a family.”

“None of your business. I’m more like that girl’s guardian.”

“Even though she’s the one taking care of you?”

“Well, yeah, that’s true… but I did take her in after she was thrown out of the Hero’s party.”

I answered somewhat awkwardly while watching Yuri’s back as she warmed up the soup.

At that moment, Wolk’s teasing expression suddenly turned serious, and he lowered his voice.

“The Twilight Ravens are searching for Yuri Claudevel right now.”

“The Twilight Ravens… Oh, right. Nick mentioned something like that.”

“You know Nick Bluestar?”

“I met him at the Combat Tournament in Belgion. Though I don’t think he knows who I am.”

I had been wearing the bear costume at the time, after all.

Nick still had no idea who the bear really was.

The members of the Twilight Ravens I’d seen in Belgion… They hadn’t seemed like bad people.

Then Wolk gave me a suspicious sidelong stare and asked a question.

“Speaking of Belgion, I’ve heard rumors about some outrageous bear who reflected the Hero’s attack.”

“O-Oh? Really?”

“Apparently he was also accompanied by an incredibly beautiful woman. The arena owner wants him to become one of his exclusive fighters and has been searching for the bear.”

“W-Wow, really? A bear and a beautiful woman. That’s an unusual combination.”

“Roy, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA.”

“You always start speaking in that stiff, broken monotone whenever something’s inconvenient for you.”

Wolk shrugged as if to say he had completely given up on me.

Ah, damn it. He saw right through me.

Well… there weren’t many adventurers capable of directly reflecting an attack from the Hero.

“Anyway, weren’t we talking about the Twilight Ravens?”

“Right. They’re searching for Yuri now. We have a duty of confidentiality, so we won’t tell them where she is.”

“If Yuri wants to join the Twilight Ravens, I don’t have the right to stop her… But after being used by her former companions, she doesn’t seem very interested.”

“The Twilight Ravens are mostly easygoing, decent people. None of them would treat her carelessly. Still, personally, I don’t think it would be a good idea for her to join that party.”

“Why not?”

“Because it could put them in direct conflict with the Hero’s party. Apparently, the Hero’s group is searching for her too.”

“Seriously…? They’ve already had enough of living without Yuri?”

I snorted at the Hero’s party even though they weren’t there.

They had probably realized only after letting her go that Yuri was far more valuable than they’d thought and now wanted her back… Talk about selfish.

“If Yuri joins the Twilight Ravens, the hostility between them and the Hero’s party, which is already bad enough, will only intensify. Then the conflict between the Hero’s patrons and the Twilight Ravens’ patrons would probably come out into the open as well. As the Adventurers’ Guild, we’d rather avoid that kind of confrontation. If humans start fighting among themselves, the demons could take advantage of it.”

Demons.

The race that lived on the Neldsis Continent across the eastern sea looked broadly similar to humans, but many had distinctive features such as horns growing from their heads, fangs, or scales covering parts of their skin.

They possessed more mana than humans and were physically stronger as well.

Demons with especially immense magical power could live far longer than humans. Apparently, though, only a tiny handful lived that long.

Among all the races living on the surface, they were probably the strongest creatures.

However, extremely few of them possessed intelligence comparable to that of humans.

Of course, there were demons with intelligence equal to humans, and those individuals became nobles and royalty who governed territories.

The Demon King ruled the entirety of the Neldsis Continent.

Five hundred years ago, the demons had invaded the human continent in order to expand their territory, but after the Hero defeated the Demon King, the Demon King’s army collapsed.

After that, the demons fought among themselves over who would become the next Demon King, and bloody internal conflicts continued for centuries.

It wasn’t as though demons never attacked humans during that period, but most incidents were individual conflicts and never escalated into major wars.

Now, five hundred years later, a new Demon King had taken the throne, and demons had once again begun invading human lands.

Several small island nations and uninhabited islands to the east had already been occupied by demons.

At the same time the Demon King emerged, a Hero was born.

Just as five hundred years ago, the Hero and his companions were now traveling in order to defeat the Demon King.

However, perhaps humanity had evolved as well, because in recent years, people had begun to appear whose abilities rivaled those of demons, and adventurers with strength comparable to the Hero’s party had also started emerging.

The adventurers belonging to the Twilight Ravens were the foremost examples.

“I have no intention of sending Yuri back to the Hero’s party.”

“Of course. I don’t want her going back to people who treated her like that either. That’s where you come in.”

“Me?”

“Make her your official partner. Ideally, marriage would be the best option.”

“!?”

“Under adventurer regulations, it’s forbidden to forcibly separate a married person from their family in order to recruit them into a party. So all you two have to do is become family.”

M-M-M-M-Marriage!?

Me and Yuri!?