184 - A Certain Mage’s Complaint (1)

When that request was delivered to me, I remembered saying, “No way,” without even checking the contents.

I also remembered my refusal being rejected.

So then I slammed down my hunter license… well, now it was my adventurer’s card. That was yesterday.

And now what sat before me was the metal tag that proved I was an adventurer.

The guild receptionist who brought it pressed it on me in silence.

“I said I was quitting, didn’t I?”

“It has not been accepted. This request carries compulsory force.”

I slumped my shoulders and said, “Give me a break,” but what came back was a quiet yet perfectly audible click of the tongue.

The receptionist had come all the way to the inn to see me in person, and when I followed her gaze, I understood the meaning.

The receptionist even brought up a noble’s name as she cornered me for dragging my feet.

At that declaration of “We have no intention of letting you escape,” I let out a huge sigh and reluctantly allowed myself to be hauled away.

It would have been fine if the usual bald guy had been the only one waiting at the guild, but that noble from before was also in the reception room.

(Did I charge too much, taking two hundred gold coins for a single piece of information?)

I had inflated the price a little, thinking I should at least make enough not to have any trouble if I was going to start something new, but once they paid it, that created an obligation.

Information was the kind of product where you could not just take the money and say goodbye.

So the moment I entered the room, I understood what they were going to say.

“—And so, to repeat myself: there has been a sighting report of Argos. In order to confirm the accuracy of the information, I want you to make contact with Argos.”

“Yeah… I figured.”

I had never expected that guy to come to this side, and remembering a figure I had completely forgotten left me feeling drained.

A part of me could not help thinking it would have been better if he had gone west and been killed by the long-ears, but now that he had come here, there was nothing to be done.

I was not eager, but if they wanted two hundred gold coins’ worth of work, then I had to move. That was the contract.

“So where exactly did he appear?”

Once it came to this, I switched gears and decided to finish it quickly.

After that, things moved fast.

I was told what I had to do, hurried out of the room, and before departure, I joined up with the two people the guild had assigned.

Since they were people whose names I did not even know, they were probably chosen so that it would not matter if my information turned out to be wrong.

In other words, adventurers whose deaths would not be a problem.

I did not know what kind of sweet talk had been used on them, but I would offer only my condolences.

And so the party leaving the town of Saisaros numbered four—I turned my gaze to the one extra person I had not planned for.

“Diera-neesan, you are not going to leave me behind again this time, right?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Unable to withstand the pressure hidden behind that smile, the kind that gave me no room to refuse, I obediently nodded.

Last time, I had forced things my way.

So this time, I had to be the one to yield.

I knew that, but honestly, what I really wanted was for her to wait behind.

Praying in my heart that my guess was correct, I headed for the place where the sighting had been reported.

The report had been a little vague, but I figured we would find something if we searched beyond the river, and as I talked with Rena, we kept walking.

I thought it would probably be fine, but just to be safe, I repeatedly warned her not to do anything rash.

That thing might be highly intelligent, but in the end it was still a monster.

No matter what happened, I had to make sure Rena returned alive.

Holding that resolve in my chest, I kept moving forward, and by the time the sun went down, we had managed to approach the river area where the sighting had occurred.

This area could still be called within Seizeria’s sphere of influence, so there were few monsters, and the quality of them was nothing special either.

If we were going to spend the night, I thought this area would be suitable, so I consulted the other members.

Apparently everyone felt the same way, so we smoothly started preparing camp.

But then Regina, who was acting as our scout, found something.

When I approached and stared in the direction she was pointing, I could indeed see a faint glow leaking through.

“I did not hear anything about other adventurers being out here.”

I nodded at Regina’s narrowed-eyed remark.

If so, then what was that?

That thought of “No way” made me start running.

I could hear voices calling for me to stop from behind, but I ignored them and kept running.

And as I got closer, my suspicion turned into certainty.

That was a campfire.

But there was no human silhouette around it, and when I reached the river, I finally saw the figure.

I could tell what it was even from a distance.

“Argos…”

I had unconsciously murmured his name.

Once I steadied my breathing, I used a light spell to cross the river.

With this, our presence was definitely exposed.

There was every chance he had already noticed us, but as long as we did not make the first move, it should be fine.

His form was clearly visible now, and it had not changed from the last time I saw him.

That posture of sitting in front of a campfire surrounded by fish skewered on long spits, waiting for them to finish grilling, was uniquely Argos.

With the light illuminating the river and the campfire ahead, it was bright enough now that we should be able to clearly make each other out.

And yet even after seeing me, Argos only tilted his head as if trying to remember something, without moving.

Having no choice, I pulled down the front of my dress robe with my left hand and exposed one breast.

Then Argos nodded as if to say, “Oh, it is this one.”

(He still remembers people by their chest?!)

If he was that intelligent, he should remember faces, I cursed inwardly, while tucking my chest, chilled by the cool outside air, back into my robe.

I checked behind me just in case, but the others were still far enough back that they probably had not noticed.

Anyway, now that we had confirmed each other, I closed the distance.

I crossed the river using the stones and rocks jutting up through the shallow water as footholds, and just then I heard voices calling me from behind.

When I kept walking toward Argos, those voices turned into screams that sounded close to shrieks.

I had warned them thoroughly beforehand not to say or do anything that might provoke him, and yet this was how they behaved.

(No wonder they drag me out for requests like this.)

Even while feeling exasperated with the two behind me, I faced Argos.

Then Argos stood up, brought over a convenient rock, and set it down opposite where he himself sat, as if saying, “Please have a seat.”

The screams of the other two were noisy, but I ignored them and was about to sit on the rock when I looked at Argos and saw that in his hand was what looked like a cleaned fish skewered on a spit.

“…Again?”

He stabbed the metal skewer into the ground, adding another grilled fish.

Acting as though everything could just go wherever it pleased, I beckoned to the two who were panicking on the opposite bank.

Then I spotted Rena a little farther back than them, and for the moment I felt relieved, but she came straight across the river.

Using the light spell I had set up to judge her footing, she jumped across the river in a lively rhythm.

Keeping up that momentum, Rena threw herself at me with a hug and smiled, saying, “I caught up.”

Without thinking, I stroked her long, beautiful hair, and she happily let out a little “Mufuu.”

Then, just as I noticed movement from the Argos in front of us, he placed a rock beside me for Rena to sit on and walked toward the river.

I could hear the screams of the two who still had not crossed, but Argos ignored them, returned with fish in his hands,

and then immediately started cleaning the fish with a blade he had taken out.

“This guy is…”

I was too dumbfounded for words.

Rena was staring at the scene with her mouth hanging open.

When I closed it for her with my hand, she pointed at Argos and made incoherent noises while her gaze darted back and forth between me and him again and again.

Only then did the other two finally cross the river.

For the moment, I pulled Rena close and calmed her down, telling her, “It is all right.”

And then iron skewers with fish on them were added before us.

At the same time, Argos held out grilled fish toward us.

That was the kind of guy he was.

(It is painfully obvious he is enjoying watching our reactions.)

But even so, given the purpose for which I had come here, I had no choice but to take it.

I handed one of the offered fish to Rena and bit into the other hesitantly.

Rena politely thanked him, but did that thing even understand words?

Just as I thought that, it replied with a “Gaa.”

I decided not to think too hard about it and checked the taste of the fish.

It did not taste strange, so I was about to say it was fine, but Rena was already quietly eating away.

And before I knew it, Argos was pouring water into a transparent container and drinking it.

Then Rena took out her own cup and held it out toward him.

Without thinking, I blurted out, “Wait!” to stop her, but Rena drained the water that had been poured for her in one go.

“Yep, it is fine.”

As I panicked, Rena firmly stated that it was safe water.

If Rena said so, then there was no mistake, but it was bad for my heart, so I wished she would say something first next time.

Just as I let out a relieved breath, the other two finally came close.

I could tell from where they stood that they were on guard.

But the two of them did not have enough ability for this.

(They probably do not understand even that, which is why they are here.)

Once I decided those two were useless, Rena unexpectedly asked for a second fish.

When I tried to tell her, from the way she was gesturing, “You do not need to force yourself,” she simply replied that it had honestly been delicious and she wanted to eat a bit more.

“The grilling was just right, and the salt was just right too.”

That unexpectedly high praise shocked me.

Rena, who usually said no more than, “It is okay. You can eat it just fine,” no matter what I made, was praising the fish Argos had grilled.

Just as I nearly staggered from the blow, I caught movement at the edge of my vision.

I reflexively turned, and there was Argos holding up a sheet of paper with the Canaan language written on it: “Could it be that you are bad at cooking?”

I stood up in surprise, but ended up colliding with someone behind me.

Rena helped me as I endured the pain, but that was hardly the issue right now.

“So, you understand the language?”

That was not even a question. It was simply a confirmation.

And as if to prove it, another sentence was written on the paper.

At the shocking fact, written there, that “I do not understand Seizerian, but I do understand Canaan,” I recoiled violently.

Then, before I knew it, the witch hat that had been taken from me was placed over my face.

For the moment, I had to share this information first, so I told the Rena beside me about it.

Then this time, in Furon, he asked Rena, “Is this woman bad at cooking?”

Who was he calling bad at cooking? I nearly punched him, but when he realized that did not get through, he started writing in another language instead.

“I do not understand Seizerian.”

What exactly was he trying to assert in Elven?

I ended up shouting without thinking, but apparently from that he grasped that I had dabbled in multiple languages, because he then informed me of the order of my proficiency by mixing all three languages together.

That needlessly elaborate probing made me smack the memo out of Argos’s hand.

At that point, the two useless ones came closer and asked what was going on.

I would rather they had just stayed as they were, since I did not want the scene disrupted, but sharing information was still better than not.

So while I was explaining things to them, Rena stood before Argos, who was eating grilled fish.

Then she repeatedly pointed to herself and introduced herself by saying, “Rena.”

Since there was already precedent for him remembering people by appearance rather than by name, I thought it was probably pointless, but then Argos pointed at Rena.

(Ah, I bet he is going to imitate the sound like a bird or something.)

I had no intention of being surprised anymore, so I predicted what would come next.

“Rena. Got it.”

Clumsy though it was, that was unmistakably Seizerian.

Everyone there clearly heard Argos’s voice.

“It taaaalked!”

The perfectly synchronized scream of all four of us echoed through the night forest.

If you can talk, then talk from the start!