Chapter 33: Trade City Heizen ⑪ – Araya of the Gourou Subjugation Squad
He was a young elf.
Golden hair, deep green eyes. He wore a monocle over his right eye.
Since he was an elf, of course he was beautiful— a refined, slender sort of beauty.
His clothes were a white jacket and black trousers.
Formal-looking, but otherwise normal.
He wasn’t armed. On the thin cord-like belt at his waist hung a pouch.
“Araya-san, help me! These guys suddenly attacked us!”
“They attacked us first!”
Bid-san glared irritably at the large man who refused to give up.
When he cried for help, the elf called Araya sighed and spoke.
“What exactly happened here?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? What are these guys?”
Bid-san shot Araya an annoyed glare.
“The Gourou Subjugation Squad.”
“We already know that.”
“And they really are members?”
“They are.”
So they weren’t lying.
I asked, exasperated:
“Is the Gourou Subjugation Squad a bandit group?”
“No. A clan of monster hunters.”
“That’s strange. This man told me to hand over my money, my gear, the women—”
“L-lies!! I never—”
The large man went silent as Bid-san pressed her blade to his neck.
A thin line of blood ran down.
“Keep quiet…”
“Guh…”
“May I continue?”
“Go ahead.”
Even though his comrade was in mortal danger, Araya didn’t try to stop any of this.
“He told me to hand over my money, my gear, the women, and even my house.
When I refused, this happened.”
“…Your house?”
“My uncle’s house.”
“I see.”
Araya pushed up his monocle.
Bid-san spoke coldly:
“So the Gourou Subjugation Squad plans to pick a fight with the witch, huh?”
“The witch? That witch? I know she’s here.”
I had suspected as much.
So they had been aware.
“Yes. I’m the witch’s apprentice.”
“I see. Then you’re Wof?”
“That’s right.”
“…Proof?”
A doubtful glint flashed in his eyes. He was probably expecting a two-meter-tall monster or something.
I answered boldly:
“Could you tell us your headquarters? I can visit tomorrow with the witch herself to greet you.”
“………Ah—no, that won’t be necessary. We have no intention of making trouble with the Zensera family. Of course, we have no intention of opposing the witch either.”
Zensera? One of the Three Great Houses?
What was that about?
“Then what will you do?”
“Hmm. Cut.”
Suddenly a deep wound appeared across the large man’s body.
A relic attack.
Bid-san jumped back.
The man died instantly.
“…Erasing evidence?”
I tensed.
A line-of-sight relic user—just like Alweld. Troublesome.
Could the Blue Saint’s Gauntlet reflect it?
Araya shook his head slightly.
“No. This whole incident was entirely Zagoh’s squad acting on their own. As I said—we have no intention of opposing Zensera or the witch. I suspected something was off. These men should have been assisting with the Great Heizen Forest subjugation mission. It makes no sense for them to be here.”
“Judging from that, you didn’t just ‘happen’ to pass by, did you?”
So they were keeping watch.
“My apologies.”
Araya bowed his head.
Both Bid-san and I were taken aback by the unexpected gesture.
“What’s going on here?”
“Even if they were mere underlings of underlings, our clan caused trouble. As an apology—take their equipment and money.”
So that was his settlement offer.
Not bad, really.
Equipment, huh. I tried using Wheel of Fortune.
No reaction.
Ah—right, still in cooldown. Inconvenient.
Bid-san looked at me.
“What do we do?”
“Just the money is fine.”
My knife belt was already full, so forget the equipment.
“Yeah, that’s true. Okay—we’ll just take the money.”
“In that case, wait a moment—”
Araya snapped his fingers.
From the surroundings, several figures in black clothing suddenly appeared.
“…!?”
“What the heck!?”
The black-clad people silently and efficiently cleaned up the corpses, stuffing them into bags.
Their outfits resembled ninjas from my previous life.
Probably served a similar purpose.
One of them gathered the money and handed it to me.
“Th-thank you.”
“…”
Once their task was done, the black-clad figures dispersed.
“It’s an important time for us. We don’t want any public disturbances.”
“I agree.”
“Even if they’re underlings of underlings, keep them under control.”
“Sorry. We’ll tighten things up so this won’t happen again.”
With that, Araya left.
We kept watching his back until he disappeared, staying alert the whole time.
Only after he was gone did we breathe out in relief.
We no longer felt like heading for the eastern market.
Strangely drained and hungry, we decided to go to Berg Diner instead.
On the way there, Bid-san kept ranting angrily the whole time.
I listened quietly and thought.
Could this “old acquaintance of the witch” be the Zensera family?
If so, maybe I could deliver the letter from my uncle.
We arrived at Berg Diner.
The door opened and the bell rang.
“Welcome!”
Rell-san’s younger sister, Samaniya-san, greeted us cheerfully.
The place wasn’t crowded, though busier than last time.
We chose a table seat.
We sat facing each other and ordered.
Bid-san got the herb-grilled meat platter set.
I ordered the five-sandwich assortment.
“Wof-kun, you don’t eat much.”
“Bid-san eats a lot.”
“It’s stress-eating from anger!”
She was really furious…
To help her cool off even a little, I said I’d treat her today.
“Huh? Wof-san?”
I turned at the sound of my name.
At the table beside us sat a black-haired boy with wolf ears and a tail.
“Navel-san?”
He was a boy, but older than me—sixteen.
“It really is Wof-san!”
“Hello there.”
The green-haired youth, Koran-san, greeted us, and the elf woman, Plansy-san, bowed lightly.
No mistake.
They were Cerberus Turn.
“It’s been a while.”
“Long time no see.”
Navel-san and I bowed at almost the same time.
Cerberus Turn was a three-person party of Rank IV explorers, led by Navel-san.
Our connection was strange fate—
I helped them in the Hydrangea Dungeon and asked them to deal with the rumors about me.
It didn’t work, and the rumors spread even more.
Eventually, the rumor-eating monster Helftu appeared.
Defeating it was… difficult.
“Cerberus Turn, huh?”
“H-hello, Bid-san.”
“Oh, it’s Bid-san.”
“You’re here with Wof-san…?”
So they knew Bid-san too.
Probably because they were also Rank IV.
“What are you three doing here?”
“We came to earn money!”
Korann-san declared energetically.
Navel-san gave a wry smile.
“We came to test our abilities a bit.”
“Ah, Forest Wave, right?”
“And we wanted to experience the Full Moon Bazaar too. Are you two here for that as well?”
Plansy-san asked enthusiastically.
“Well, something like that.”
“You guys knew each other?”
“Well… stuff happened.”
“It’s not just us. The witch is here, plus Mineha-san and Hoss-san.”
“Hoss—as in from Lightning fang?”
“Mineha-san… wasn’t her mother a Rank I Fairial? She’s supposed to be amazing.”
“The witch!? THE witch is in Heizen!?”
They all looked shocked.
Right—Lightning fang is Rank IV too.
Mineha-san was Rank III and very eye-catching.
And the witch… well, yeah. Of course.