197 - A Certain Mage’s Despair

“I told you, I said I do not want to.”

It was a refusal of a request for the who-knew-how-manyeth time.

To begin with, despite the fact that I had decided to retire as an adventurer, for some reason it had not been accepted, and I had been forced to accept a compulsory request in the form of a “special case.”

The pay itself was not bad, but it meant I would reunite with the new species of monster, “Argos,” whom I had had no intention of ever getting involved with again, and just when I thought that job had finally ended, a request came from the Bariyan Trading Company.

I had no intention of accepting it.

However, Rena had bitten at the amount offered.

The content of the request was escort duty.

However, to someone who knew that monster, it was no exaggeration to say that the contents of that request applied only to the journey.

If it was escort duty against a new species of monster with abnormal combat ability, it was only natural that the request fee would rise that much, and it was also true that it was convenient for us, who needed funds.

If there was a problem, it was that since I would be meeting him once more, I needed to complete my transaction, and although I had to urgently stock up on potions, I think making the Bariyan Trading Company prepare them as a condition for accepting their request was, if I do say so myself, a good idea.

After that, I completed the transaction safely, left the place, and waited for the client.

It seemed that they were trying to make some kind of transaction on their side as well, and because they did not want us to know the contents, it took this form.

Even now, I did not know what they talked about.

However, because I accepted this request, I received a warning from the guild.

Apparently, there were suspicious movements around the Bariyan Trading Company, and even we, who had accompanied them, were being looked at with suspicion.

I wanted to say, “What nonsense,” but without exception, places where money gathered around that trading company were generally suspicious.

And because its head had come into contact with the new species of monster, an order came to me, who had accepted the escort request, to “watch him.”

Of course, I refused.

I had properly said my farewells to Argos.

Yesterday, I had clearly told the staff member who came to notify me that I had no intention of getting involved with him ever again.

And now, once again, another staff member was in front of me.

“I. Do. Not. Want. To.”

The inn dining hall――the male staff member sitting opposite me adjusted his crooked glasses at my words of rejection.

“Do you not understand that this is a case where that will not work?”

“Adventurers are supposed to be free to come and go. When is the guild going to let me quit?”

“Once we can judge the information you sold to be correct.”

I glared at him, thinking that I was supposed to have accepted the investigation request for that purpose, but he snorted and said, “Did you think it could be proven with just one time?”

It seemed they wanted to use me no matter what, but I also did not drop my firm stance of refusal.

At minimum, unless I was promised a reward I could accept, I had no intention of moving.

However, I could not overlook his next words.

“Then we will take it to the other one.”

“What do you mean by that?”

It was obvious who the other one indicated.

That was precisely why I stopped him, but more than that, I put a hold on it because she could hardly be called suitable.

“Rena has nothing to do with this. I was the one who sold the information as an individual.”

“But she accepted the Bariyan Trading Company’s request. It is true that you are more convenient, but from our side, either one is fine.”

That was certainly true, but in that case, the point of contact with Argos became important.

Even in that regard, Rena was insufficient.

However, the staff member laughed as though there was no need to take that part into consideration.

“What matters is monitoring the movements of him, the head of the trading company. Reasons and achievements can be handled however we like on our side.”

Seeing his attitude, as if to say that they could make as many reasons as they needed to force someone into it, I was certain that my escape route had already been blocked.

I merely said, “Understood,” and looked up at the ceiling.

I wore a hooded robe as if to hide my appearance.

I dealt with my smell by using perfume, but… honestly, I did not think this would fool him.

I had considered whether there was any useful magic item, but Argos’s abilities had still not been fully grasped.

It was a job I carried out while holding the anxiety of, “What will I do if I am found out?”

However, when I opened the lid, although Argos did send his gaze toward me, he said nothing and concentrated on his transaction with Gust, the chairman of the Bariyan Trading Company.

There had been times when he identified people by their chests, so hiding my body may have been the correct choice.

In any case, it was an unwilling job I had gone along with out of a nonexistent sense of responsibility, thinking, “As someone who sold information on Argos, I need to see this through,” but I was able to finish it safely.

There was only one point I could not overlook: the target of my surveillance had brought out magic items in his transaction with Argos.

I knew that thing’s combat ability well.

Adding magical elements to that was clearly bad.

Therefore, I made sure to properly report only this matter.

With this, it was over――at that time, I collapsed onto the bed at the inn as if it had finally ended.

Then, just as I was about to fall asleep while remembering everything that had happened, I realized that I had made a fatal oversight.

(That night, that light… that was not fire. The light as he left was magic?)

The farewell message at the end had left a weak impression because it had come after a series of overly impactful events.

There was no doubt that Argos could already manipulate magical power.

(If that is the case, why did he come to Seizeria?)

No, before that, who in the world taught Argos magic?

There was one thing that came to mind.

“That long-ear!”

I had said it aloud without thinking, but what had she done?

I concluded it could not possibly be something he had learned on his own, but I was probably not wrong.

My premise had collapsed.

The possibility had emerged that Argos had approached Seizeria for something related to magic.

Was that for further acquisition of magic, or for obtaining magic items?

Because the other party was a monster, I could not understand his objective.

While thinking, I unconsciously bit the nail of my finger.

I knew well enough that nothing would change no matter what I thought.

However, my anxiety hit the mark in another form.

Thinking back on it, I should have been on guard.

Trading with a monster――what kind of impression would that give in this country?

What kind of meaning would it carry?

And how would such a human be treated? Even though I should have understood that best myself, I had forgotten it.

Even though I had sworn on that day, in that place, that I would never forget, I had forgotten it.

The next day, I was summoned to the guild and headed to the designated room.

Waiting there were the noble from that time――Tonel Baumann, one adventurer man I had seen before, and one priest I felt I knew.

“Leave us,” Tonel urged the staff member to exit.

He gestured for me to sit, but I had a bad feeling, so I looked around the room.

(There are no windows. In other words, the only exit is here.)

Seeing my wariness, Tonel sighed.

“Diera Kinoshita. You are suspected of betrayal.”

“Huh?”

I involuntarily spoke at Tonel’s words, but it was within the scope of the worst-case scenario I had imagined last night.

However, what followed was unexpected.

“Guon was killed by Argos. The escorts accompanying him were also annihilated, except for these two.”

“After all I said, some idiot still laid a hand on him!?”

Even though I had said over and over that ordinary elites would not be a match for him, casualties had appeared.

However, it was unreasonable to make that my responsibility.

Before I could say that, the priest beside Tonel opened her mouth.

“Mr. Guon, who attempted to negotiate with Argos, was killed. We, who accompanied him as escorts, were likewise made targets of attack, and we survived by scattering and fleeing.”

“What did you do?”

“I think you can tell from Guon’s usual words and conduct… he negotiated with that same high-handed attitude, angered Argos, and was killed. It was a foolish act of taking the words, ‘As long as you do not attack, it will be fine,’ exactly as they were.”

However, the adventurer man explained that the fact remained that he had been attacked first.

Even after hearing those words, I could not immediately believe them, but more than that, when I considered that man’s stupidity, I became anxious that it might be possible.

Even so, I would say what needed to be said.

“Three times.”

The adventurer… his name should have been Cole, if I remembered correctly.

I turned my gaze toward him as if to argue back and spoke of my own experience.

“I saw Argos fight three times. In all of them, that thing gave the first move away.”

The first time was against the ogre.

Absurdly, he came right in front of it, stood still, took a blow to the head, and only then started fighting.

The second time was against an army.

Against Canaan’s forces, he stood still until a volley of arrows was fired.

The third time was against the giant viper.

Although he approached on his own, he did not lay a hand on it and did not attack until it coiled around him.

Unless we attacked from our side, it would not become a battle.

This action of Argos’s, which had far too little reason――for that reason, it was sufficient to use as a basis.

That was what I thought.

“Oh? You trust the behavioral principles of a monster over the words of humans?”

And then I remembered.

(Damn it! This is beyond a bad move!)

In this Seizeria, standing on the side of a monster was not something that would be permitted.

I understood my blunder… no, my enormous blunder, and froze.

It was certainly true that my explanation had been insufficient.

But there was already no thought in my head to recover from it, only the fact that I had blurted out something irreversible.

“As expected, people who negotiate with monsters cannot be trusted.”

I recognized the look in Tonel’s eyes as he laughed while looking at me.

Although he was a mage like me, his gaze clearly contained contempt――a bloodline supremacist who would never recognize anyone as a mage unless they were a noble.

“Noble supremacy, is it?”

“Call it pure-blood supremacy.”

Something even worse than the worst I had expected had appeared.

Tonel, who revealed the true nature he had never shown until now, gave a small laugh.

He was an extremist who did not consider anyone without blue blood flowing through them to be a mage, and who would even eliminate them.

“Only those who inherit noble blood need wield magic.”

Words I had once been told resurfaced in my mind.

These people did not act according to reason.

In other words, this conclusion had been drawn from the very beginning, and there was even a possibility that the threat called Argos was nothing more than a means for their own objective.

“At last, the mass-produced models will arrive here as well. With them, we will advance west. Argos, was it? In the end, it is a monster. How could it surpass our wisdom?”

However, it seemed he did possess the thinking of a noble that monsters should be eliminated.

If they crushed one another, I would have nothing to say, but that was not now.

Right now, escaping from here came first.

“Ah, that is right. You were well acquainted with that monster, weren’t you? In that case…”

The mad supremacist laughed, saying he would test whether I could become bait to lure it out.

Escape and resistance were crushed instantly.

At this close distance, there was no way a mage could do anything, and although I tried to somehow slip out after being pinned to the floor by the adventurer man, it did not take long for me to understand it was pointless. As I gritted my teeth, Cole, who had put his knee on my back, quietly apologized, “Sorry.”

(Even the guild has already been bought off…)

Apparently, this was as far as I would go.

But it was only me.

Then it would be fine――I had thought such a naive thing.

If I had thought about it even a little, I should have known that people like them would not be satisfied with only that much.

At this time, I should have resisted, literally “with the intent to die.”