182

I showed Boobs Lady the sentence written in the Canaan language on the memo pad: “Now then, let me properly introduce myself once more. I am the new species of monster called Argos. Now, let us hear your business.”

“No, you should be speaking there, not writing.”

A perfectly reasonable opinion, but unfortunately, my pronunciation was far from native.

I told her I was still practicing and asked to continue like this for now.

I could at least say things like “yes” and “no” out loud, but for anything more complicated than that, I basically proceeded through writing.

Boobs Lady looked at me suspiciously and said, “Well, fine,” but since neither of us was using our native language, I wanted to proceed carefully here.

“The first thing I want to ask is why you came here.”

“I think it is up to me where I am, but is this area the territory of some country?”

Boobs Lady sighed at me for bringing up the concept of territory.

She answered, “It is,” but I flatly rejected that with, “That is a lie.”

“I have obtained information regarding territory from the elves. At the very least, there is no record that Seizeria has claimed the land on this side of the river. And if you say it has declared ownership, then you should clearly state when that was and what exactly is being done to establish it.”

An awkward atmosphere hung in the air due to the length of what I had written and the time it took to read it, but after muttering something while holding her head, Boobs Lady asked, “May I have this note?”

I agreed, and she smoothed it over with the words, “I just wanted to test something.”

“Well, let us leave it at that.”

That was obviously not the kind of sentence a monster would write.

Since it was clear this had gone far beyond what she had expected, I decided to let Boobs Lady owe me one here.

“Now then, to continue from the question earlier, we want to know your objective.”

Naturally, I was neither nice enough nor stupid enough to answer honestly.

To begin with, I doubted they would understand even if I explained my circumstances, and if things went badly, they might try to make use of them.

She was probably the human I could call the closest to me, but I still had no intention of telling her anything inconvenient for me.

So this was the answer I gave.

“…‘Because winter is approaching, I am carrying out overwintering activities over a wide area.’ What, are you going to hibernate or something?”

Boobs Lady was obviously doubting what I had written on the note I gave her.

Since this was my first winter too, there were many unclear points, so I could not say anything for certain.

Still, since the monster I came from was lizard-type, what made it scary was that the possibility was not actually zero.

“I will leave that to your imagination.”

I showed her the memo pad with that written on it, then deftly pinched the page with my claw and turned it in preparation for the next exchange.

“Then could you tell us specifically what you are doing?”

To that probing question, I tried giving a playful reply by raising my index finger to my mouth and indicating, “Secret.”

The suspicious look on her face at that moment was so twisted it made me think that was not the sort of expression a beautiful woman should make.

Apparently unable to bear seeing the lady beside her like that, the girl who had called herself Rena tugged at Boobs Lady’s clothes to calm her down and make her turn her attention toward her.

Boobs Lady nodded as if to say she was fine, then faced me again.

“So you have no intention of telling us, is that it?”

“Would it have been better if I had answered, ‘I am looking for a place that could serve as a base’?”

“If you were going to answer, then answer that from the start!”

Boobs Lady raised her voice as though putting on an angry-comedian routine.

But I wanted her to hear my side too.

Even if I had answered that from the start, would you have believed it?

And would you have accepted it without me explaining the reason?

When I conveyed something along those lines, the answer I got back made me understand her just a little better.

“That is not something I need to think about. Our job is just to make contact with you and draw out your objective. What happens after that is none of my concern.”

Most likely, once reports of sightings of me came up, Boobs Lady had been dragged out here by force.

So she was probably thinking she would do only the bare minimum she had been told to do and then hurry home.

I felt a little bad about troubling someone I was already acquainted with too much.

So I wrote down a plausible objective briefly on the memo and handed it over.

If she was willing to serve as the point of contact, I too was willing to accept a little compromise.

“…Establishing a base in the eastern area, understanding the terrain, and conducting ecological surveys.”

Boobs Lady glared at me after reading the note I had handed over.

“And what exactly are you trying to accomplish with that?”

“Improving food conditions and the living environment.”

After seeing the memo I had written, this time Boobs Lady held her head in her hands.

Rena spoke to her anxiously.

The other two, who had become complete background figures, apparently intended to leave everything to Boobs Lady and were pretending to keep watch over the surroundings from a slight distance.

“Why is a monster even thinking about living conditions…?”

I tried responding to Boobs Lady’s mutter with, “I think it is important,” but she gave no reaction.

“For now, I suppose we have learned what we wanted to know.”

Boobs Lady stood up after tucking the note paper I had given her into the pouch at her waist.

The girl beside her stood as well when Boobs Lady, who presumably had given the signal to withdraw, did, and the other two nonentities started moving too.

I had one favor to ask, but judging from the atmosphere so far, it did not seem like she would listen.

I figured I had no choice but to give up this time, when Boobs Lady turned back to me as if remembering something and asked a question.

“Oh, right. There is something I want to ask personally… Rena’s name you managed to learn properly, so why is it that I am remembered by my chest? You understand Canaan, so I assume you heard my name.”

Oops, that question hit effectively.

But I already had an excuse I could use right away.

After all, I had plenty of samples, so there was no reason I could not use that as my explanation.

“All mages dress in much the same way, so they are difficult to tell apart. As for your name, I probably missed it.”

All the female mages I had met so far had without exception worn witch hats and off-shoulder dress robes.

I did not know whether it was a trend, but I remembered that the men had also been dressed almost the same way.

Therefore, my theory that “mages are difficult to distinguish by appearance” also held up.

After hearing that reason, Boobs Lady looked away and sighed as if there was something she did not want to remember, saying, “There are all sorts of things on our side too.”

Apparently she too had a negative view of dressing that way.

Since we had managed to have one final conversation not related to work, I tried asking Boobs Lady for a favor on a long shot.

“Since we are here, I would like to ask one favor.”

When I stopped Boobs Lady and showed her the memo with that written on it, she made an openly displeased face.

That reaction was entirely within my expectations.

So I played one of my cards.

I brought my backpack in front of me so she could see it, then took out a single bottle from inside.

“That is…!”

One of the items that had driven mankind mad more than almost anything else in recorded history—alcohol. And not just any alcohol, but wine produced by the Empire.

Because the nation had fallen, even someone who only drank casually would understand the value of this one bottle.

It might not be very effective against someone who did not drink, but its monetary value was unquestionable.

It could be seen as pure liquor, or as something for resale… which type of person was she, I wondered?

One look at her staggering toward me gave the answer away.

She was the former, and the effect was immediate.

Rena was calling out something from behind, but as if none of that even reached her ears, Boobs Lady stretched out her hand toward the bottle I held.

“…No mistake. This is wine from the Empire. Where on earth did you get this?”

Boobs Lady looked up at me and asked while tracing the label on the bottle with her finger.

“I happened upon a cellar in good condition and obtained it there.”

When I added that it had been very recent, Boobs Lady muttered something.

She was apparently so absorbed in checking the state of preservation of the wine that she did not respond when I called to her.

So I borrowed the witch hat again.

With my view improved, I admired things for a while—then raised the wine bottle.

“Hey, let me inspect it more thoroughly, properly, and carefully.”

As Boobs Lady stretched upward and reached out, her breasts came right before my eyes.

They bounced up and down, and the sense of mass in motion was wonderful.

However, that vertical motion soon ended, and Boobs Lady took one step back.

“Fine, fine. I get it. I just have to ask, right?”

Saying that, she straightened the disordered neckline of her dress robe.

I nodded and handed over the bottle, then ran my pen across the memo, and as soon as I finished writing, I showed it to her.

“…The same potions as when we traded last time. You are not doing this sort of thing with the elves too, are you?”

When I replied, “I am,” Boobs Lady gave me another one of her backward recoils.

I placed the witch hat on the summit of that pose, and Boobs Lady took it in hand and put it back on.

“Both of them? Those are pretty expensive, you know?”

If she knew their effects, then she would know I was not lying.

Just the one for healing injuries would have been enough, but thinking of emergencies, I wanted to restock the other one too.

So I decided to pay out of my own pocket.

I rummaged through my backpack again and this time took out a second wine bottle and the leftover ornaments, including the gems I had used in negotiations with the elves.

Boobs Lady’s eyes changed color at the sudden appearance of precious metals, but here I stopped her with my hand.

Separating the two things to my left and right, I asked, “Which will you choose?”

As Boobs Lady, realizing what I intended, hesitated over which one to take, Rena came up from behind and started scolding her about something.

She had probably had some sort of bad experience with alcohol before.

With obvious reluctance, Boobs Lady’s hand slowly moved toward the jewelry and pointed at that.