Chapter 40: A Room I Recognize

Normally, I only sense one or two presences—spirits—at a time. They appear randomly, so I’ve never known how many there really are.
But inside this crowded dining hall, seven or eight presences appeared at once. Even in a place where presences are usually hard to feel, they stood out clearly.

The one inside my ale mug, especially, needed to leave or I wouldn’t be able to drink.
The moment I thought that, the presence vanished. I quickly brought the ale to my lips.

Then I caught myself wondering—what would happen if I swallowed a spirit together with the ale?
The strange thought almost made me spit it out.

Well, that part was fine.
The problem was the persistent stares boring into me.

When I traced the stares back to their source, the men didn’t look away even when I turned toward them.
They didn’t seem hostile, but all five were well-equipped—probably C-rank Silvers.

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“Didn’t think you were still in this town.”
“I heard you were a solo adventurer, but you’re wearing some nice clothes now.”
“That knife at your waist—looks plain, but I bet it’s good quality.”
“They say you make your money hunting birds, but rumor has it you’ve brought in some big game too.”
“For a runt, you make pretty good coin.”
“Meaning your skills aren’t bad.”
“So why is someone like him—a company director—looking for you?”
“Who cares? As long as we get paid, that’s all that matters. If we report we found him, they’ll loosen the purse strings. We’ll inform the company, so don’t lose sight of him, Hail.”
“Yeah… a five-gold-coin bounty. I wonder if a subjugation request will come out of this.”
“That depends on what they want—capture or kill…”

They avoided coming near me as they left the dining hall.
The fact two remained meant one was watching me and the other ready to send word.

Either way, trouble was written all over this. Best to run.

I returned the ale mug to the counter and left the guild, strolling calmly toward the west gate.
I could sense the two following behind me.
I didn’t look back—not at the gate queue, not on the road outside the walls.

After walking a while, I slipped into the northern grassland and moved toward the northern forest, using detection and presence sensing without rushing.

The two continued tailing me, so I stepped into the forest.

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“How far is he planning to go?”
“He’s a wind-mage. He won’t go too deep. And look—just like the rumors—he’s hunting birds.”

The boy ahead appeared to be following bird calls, sometimes cupping an ear to listen.
I’m confident in my own detection skills, but that brat seems to have quite the ability too. If we get too close and he notices, that’ll be bad.

The kid stopped—there was a bird flying nearby.
Then suddenly, the bird fell straight down.

The boy vanished from sight, probably going to where it fell, but his presence didn’t move, which made me wonder if something happened.
After a moment, his detection vanished entirely.

I hesitated for a second—but we couldn’t let him escape.

“He disappeared from my detection. Let’s go!”
“What? You lost him?”
“No, he went to pick up the bird. His figure vanished there.”
“He slipped past your detection? He didn’t seem to notice we were tailing him.”
“That’s what I thought too. No way I’d lose track of some brat…”

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(I’m just a cute little stone statue in the forest—just a harmless little guardian statue, la-la-la♪)
Humming, I waited for the prey to walk into the trap.

The two men approached, muttering to each other, stopping right where I crouched, looking around.

Hidden in the shade of thick shrubs, they hadn’t spotted me.
Heh. So even Silvers can’t see through my tree-mimicry skill.

Oh—they’re tracing my footprints.
Time to say hello.

“Do you lads need something from me?”

They froze for a moment, then immediately readied a short spear and sword.

“My my, that’s quite hostile of you.”

“Who are you!?”
“Why were you hiding?”

Huh. Leaves were blocking their view—they couldn’t even see me.
So the presence-hiding was pointless.

When I stood up and showed myself, they relaxed and grinned unpleasantly.

“May I ask what business you have with me?”

“There’s someone looking for you.”

“You mean Warren-sama?”

“…How do you know that?”

“What do you know?”

The second one seemed a bit sharper.
Time for a pair of whirlwinds.

[Whirlwind!] [Whirlwind!]

Wha—!?
After spinning them both around, I paused and cut the magic.

One collapsed into a squat, so I trapped him in a small [Dome!] and infused magic—he won’t be standing for a while.

The other, barely staying on his feet, got another [Whirlwind!] treatment, carried about 50 meters, and vomited upon release.
I trapped him in a dome too and left him.

I returned to the smarter one.

“If you’re Warren-sama’s messengers, what orders were you given?”

“You damn brat—you’ll be a criminal slave for this! Let me out right now!”

“Hmm… becoming a criminal slave sounds terrible. Tell me what orders you have, and you can walk away alive. Otherwise…”

I pulled a short spear from my magic pouch and smiled.
He understood immediately—his face twisted in fear.

I’m an adventurer used to killing monsters, and this forest is far from town.
If I kill him, beasts will clean up the evidence.

I do like smart people who understand that.

“Why do you think it’s Warren-sama?”

“I had a run-in with his men back in Korche.

And in Kreis, I was ‘invited’ to the Warren Company branch.”

“You’re in conflict with the company?”

“So, your answer?”

“If I talk… you’ll release me?”

“I don’t enjoy unnecessary killing. The rest is up to your luck.”

I picked up the sword he dropped and stabbed it into the ground in front of the dome.

Live or die—your skills decide.

“…What happened to Hail?”

I picked up the man’s short spear, tossed it far away, and smiled warmly at him.

I’d thought things had ended back at the Krais branch…
Looks like the sub–guild master and the duke’s family made a blunder somewhere.

This guy probably doesn’t know anything important, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just let an attack on me slide.
The more information I can get, the better—and I need leads if I want accurate details.

“Our base is in Zandra. Sometimes we get jobs from the Warren Company. This time, the job is to find the whereabouts of a Wind Mage named Leon. If we report the location, we get five gold coins.”

“Is that all? There must be more after you hand over the location.”

“There probably is. But I’m just the grunt told not to lose track of you. If you want more, ask our leader, Marcus.”

He clearly didn’t know anything else, so I added three more charges of magic to the dome and turned my back to him.

“Hey! Do something about this! This isn’t what you promised!”

“I said ‘If you talk, you can go home alive.’ If I release you now, you’ll run straight back to Warren Company to report everything. The dome will disappear tomorrow night. After that, it’s all up to luck.”

With three additional charges, the dome would last about 36 hours.
Since it was still late morning, it would disappear in the middle of the night tomorrow.

All I could do was hope he survived.

The other man had finished vomiting and was glaring at me while crouched.
He seemed to know I was coming for him next.

I added three charges of magic to his dome as well.

“Hey, brother! What is this? Let me out!”

“It’ll disappear tomorrow night. Until then, endure it. It’s punishment for tailing people without permission.”

If Warren Company in Zandra learned where I was, they’d either invite me… or attack.
If they were this persistent, sooner or later they’d learn about my family too.

They weren’t sane opponents, and I didn’t need to think hard to know what would come next.

The phrase ‘A wise man avoids danger’ crossed my mind… but so did ‘Strike first’.
Two of their men were now “missing.”
So I decided to follow the second saying and get answers directly from the branch manager of Warren Company in Zandra.

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In the evening, I changed into some old adventurer clothes and returned to Zandra.
I headed into the guild dining hall, grabbed a mug of ale, and sat in an empty seat.

“You alone, brother?”

“Yeah. Can you make good money in Zandra?”

“Don’t ask an adventurer that. If he says yes, he’s skilled. If he says no, well… you can guess.”

True enough.
From the back of the hall, sharp gazes stabbed into me.
Their two missing men hadn’t returned—so they were definitely coming for me.

I pretended not to notice and continued chatting with the man who’d spoken to me.
A nasty presence approached.

“You’re coming with us.”

“You’re not going say no, right?”

“Ah, is the master summoning me?”

“Oh? You catch on quick. Then let’s go.”

“Fine. Lead the way.”

“Cheeky brat… you’ll tell us about those two later.”

They walked me a long way.
Couldn’t even afford to hire a carriage?
Well, that worked in my favor.

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It was late at night when patrol guards stopped us, but once the name Warren Company was mentioned, we were practically waved through.
They must be throwing their weight around a lot—scary.

With me being a head shorter than the men escorting me, the guards didn’t see my face.

Among the rows of modest mansions, we circled around to the back of one notably larger house.
One of the men knocked on the back door in a distinct rhythm.

There was no questioning—just the immediate opening of the door.
I was shoved inside without a word.

“Who’s that?”

“That’s the guy Branch Manager Grosvenor ordered us to bring.”

“Follow me.”

Short and to the point—impressive.

Passing through the servants’ hallway after entering from the back door…
I finally arrived at a room I remembered all too well.