Volume 2, Chapter 6
Volume 2, Chapter 6
Translator: Einbedo
Editor: Weasalopes
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「Well ain’t we in a pickle.」
「Why is it always like this…」
Hiroshi was pretty laid back about the unfortunate turn of events that had taken place, while Artiem looked genuinely concerned. Hiroshi made sure to keep his distance from Artiem, so that the situation wouldn’t take a turn for the X-rated.
「Did you manage to get through to them?」
「Aye, ’twas no biggie. From what I’ve gathered we’ve all been politely split into groups o’ two, so there’s that.」
「How can you be so nonchalant about this…」
Artiem looks on in disbelief at Hiroshi who didn’t appear to grasp the gravity of the situation. Under normal circumstances having the party split in such a fashion usually spells disaster, so there’s definitely room for concern there. However Artiem wasn’t concerned with her own personal safety, in fact she was fully prepared to take on the brunt of anything that came her way, since she was the one to butt in on the dungeon expedition, even if it was under Alan Wein’s orders. What was grounds for concern in her mind was everyone else’s safety, since they had just lost any group synergy they had going in. Granted they were combat experienced but the situation, nevertheless, called for caution, which Hiroshi was severely lacking.
Upon entering the forest dungeon they all got separated through spatial manipulation, which also meant that they had no clue about their whereabouts, yet Hiroshi remained unperturbed. Artiem found this coolness of his baffling. Hiroshi, in an attempt to soothe her nerves, opens his mouth.
「What be the point in getting’ all serious bidness like o’er somethin’ out of our control?」
「I’d like to remind you that we’re in a dungeon.」
「Indeedy.」
「Not only do we not know the way out I’m also nothing but a nuisance, and a complete one at that. The others may have one another to watch over their back but god knows what might happen.」
「Nothin’ outta the ordinary.」
Hiroshi was right, these kinds of traps aren’t an anomaly in the rpg world and walking into them precisely when a low level character is tagging along is also not that rare of an occurrence. The enemy’s deadliness was an unknown variable so throwing some caution to the wind was a good idea but getting overly on edge, however, was not. On the bright side at least they managed to avoid the worst case scenario where Tatsuya, whose close range proficiency is nonexistent, and Artiem get stranded all by themselves, so there was a silver lining to all of this. Understanding this the best they could do at the moment was to act with caution.
Artiem was perfectly aware of this as well, but that didn’t help clear up any of her anxieties. Like how this was her first dungeon outing and dungeon trap experience, and how she got paired up with someone who didn’t do all that good of a job of coming across as a reliable fighter.
Hiroshi, recognizing these set of factors, allowed Artiem to continue voicing her concerns. After letting her cool down for a while, Hiroshi takes a look around and opens his mouth.
「This might be troublesome.」
「I thought we already went over this.」
「I don’t think you and I are on the same page ‘ere.」
Artiem tilts her head in confusion to Hiroshi’s vague remark. Hiroshi, taking notice of this, explains his reasoning.
「I think this ‘ere dungeon might be one of those that’s in perpetual motion.」
「Eh!?」
「As ya can see the ceiling and the walls are plain ivy vines while the ground beneath us is all weeds, deductin’ our relative location is ’bout as hard as any brick maze out there.」
「Are you sure about all this?」
「Does the pope defecate in the woods? Even if it wasn’t movin’ it’d be pretty darned difficult to get around in this samey lookin’ sea of green.」
Hiroshi checks up on the walls while explaining a concept about as foreign to an elf that’s lived all its natural life surrounded in luscious greenery as it gets. He would never even consider touching those walls with a nine-foot pole, so he busted out his trusty ten-foot pole and lightly poked them. As expected the vines began squirming.
「Expected as much.」
「They just moved…」
「Are ya willin’ ta trust me now?」
「Yes.」
「’Tis pointless ta even try ta mark anythin’ here to get a feel for our surroundings.」
Hiroshi’s observation was spot on. Even if they were to etch something into a nearby vine it’d just slither away in the blink of an eye.
「Judgin’ from what happened back at the entrance there’s also the possiblity of warp points bein’ scattered ’round the place.」
「Without a doubt.」
「Now that we’ve got that outta the way.」
Hiroshi, having calmly analyzed their predicament, pulls out his pole axe and squares up against the wall.
「Don’t see much of a point in followin’ the path layed out in front of us so how ’bout we directly hack our way through to the source ‘o this miasma.」
「I beg your pardon!?」
「Say ya prayers while ya still can!!!」
He swings the pole axe in a clean horizontal swipe, pushing Artiem’s protests off to the wayside in the process. Hiroshi’s minor strength buff in collaboration with an explosive flame enchantment resulted in the dungeon’s wall being hacked open, burned from the inside and blown into smithereens.
「Less get a move on.」
Says Hiroshi as he offhandedly points at the massive hole in the wall about the width of two grown adults. Despite the impressive showing the skill is next to useless in actual combat, barely able to do significant damage to any monster of the Piaranork’s caliber or higher. However when it comes to environmental destruction it’s second to none and it also had a combat advantage against tree type monsters, which made the spectacle all the more breathtaking.
What was even more impressive, however, was that the performer hadn’t suffered any fatigue to speak of.
「H-how did you…」
「Hmm?」
「How did you do that?」
「I just did.」
Artiem’s ears droop in rhythm with her sigh directed at Hiroshi’s inability to provide a clear answer. Asides from being completely ignorant in adult matters and an unintentional fan service vehicle to boot, Artiem was remarkably down to earth in all other aspects of life.
「Would ya just look at the sheer density of greenery going’ on in ‘ere, there’s got ta be some rare materials layin’ around ‘ere somewhere.」
「Aren’t you forgetting the task at hand?」
「Let us not delay any furtha, daddy needs a new pair ‘o shoes!」
Yells out Hiroshi at the top of his lungs as he hacks through yet another wall, completely ignoring Artiem’s inquiry. As a wood elf Artiem felt a slight queasiness at the sight of this unadulterated act of desecration but, understanding that their hands were tied on this one, goes along with it out of pure necessity.
「Make way!」
Blurts out Haruna as she rushes towards the source of the miasma, making quick work of the beetles in her path. It was clear to anyone at this point that she was on edge, a state very few people have ever seen her in.
「Would you calm down already!」
「You don’t get it!」
「Hiro can take care of himself, he’s been through worse.」
「What did I tell you!」
Haruna cries out in agony as she downs a large hornet without even looking in its general direction. For a lady as emotionally well-contained as Haruna to blow up like that was off-putting to even Tatsuya.
「Look I get that the two being paired up is a recipe for disaster but you have to control your-」
「What if *that* happens again in the middle of battle!」
「Yes yes I get it, now get a grip for crying out loud.」
Tatsuya, being the eldest of the group, is used to quelling any of the party member’s anxieties it’s just that Haruna isn’t usually on the receiving end of such therapy, she’s the one dishing it out alongside him for the most part. Haruna was remarkably mature for her mage but when push comes to shove her lack of life experience reared its ugly head, although that realization didn’t exactly make matters any better for Tatsuya.
「Listen, was there any way we could’ve avoided this predicament?」
「No, there wasn’t…」
「See? If things had went completely south we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now but they didn’t and everyone’s got someone to watch over their back, including Hiro. The guy’s tough, one of the toughest around, but he lacks the raw damage to weather through group encounters and that’s where Artiem comes into the picture, she’s perfect for the role.」
「Is she really?」
「With her newly acquired bow she outclasses Mio in pure attack damage, her positioning and general awareness could use some work but when paired with Hiro specifically they don’t matter as much as damage numbers.」
Tatsuya gives it his all trying to appease Haruna while simultaneously failing to touch upon any of her actual concerns. It wasn’t just a matter of Hiroshi possibly bearing the full brunt of Artiem’s ‘parlor tricks’, any party member that ended stuck with her would’ve likely suffered from the same fate but in Hiroshi’s case it would’ve been particularly debilitating.
「That… wasn’t my main point of concern.」
「Unless lady luck had smiled upon us and he somehow miraculously managed to pair up with me, your main concern might’ve turned into a reality in any other case. Just because Artiem’s prone to getting tangled in such…unfortunate incidents, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to any one of you ladies as well.」
「Don’t you feel like that’s pushing it a bit?」
「Let’s face it, if you got caught out by something like a hunter tree there’s a pretty high chance you’d end up in a… Less than presentable state so to speak.」
「Fair enough… I suppose?」
Same goes for giant spiders, make one misstep while dealing with their webs and it’s fully possible to get tangled up in some suggestive pose. But it doesn’t stop there – slime’s and tentacle monsters also join the ranks as one of the staples of adult-oriented manga and rpg’s. Fantasy as a whole boasts a wide catalogue of such creatures.
「Now you better start collecting your marbles soon, before we end up in one such predicament.」
Haruna absently nods at Tatsuya’s attempts to remedy the situation. From that alone it was apparent to Tatsuya that his attempts were in vain and that put him in a tough spot. Haruna might not realize this herself but her fascination with HIroshi had already begun to manifest itself at an unconscious level. This wasn’t just limited to Haruna, however, as Aeris also had the same butterflies in her stomach but what they saw in him was up to anyone’s guess, love is blind after all. Tatsuya was hesitant to start a conversation around this since no good would come out of it and at worst his dedication to his marriage would be subjected to scrutiny, therefore he decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter.
If Haruna had lost all self-control and started having an emotional breakdown, however, things would be different. Desperate times call for desperate measure as the saying goes, using up everything under one’s sleeve is a small price to pay for survival.
「That being said.」
「Hmm?」
「Mio I could see breaking down like this but not you of all people.」
「Who wouldn’t get a little bit concerned over the well-being of their longtime companion?」
「The problem’s not with being concerned it’s why you’re concerned that’s taken me aback.」
Tatsuya figured that he may as well get the mushy talk over with now that the opportunity presented itself. Haruna’s a bright one, as long as she can become aware of her own feelings she should be able to harness them to at least some extent. If she doesn’t she might unknowingly drive Hiroshi and herself into a corner and that’s better to be avoided.
「Mind providing some insight into my psyche?」
「Are you serious about this?」
「As serious as a heart attack.」
「Well if I’m being real with you here you’re coming off as a woman who’s afraid of losing in the battle of love. Actually that’s putting it a bit lightly, it’s more like a clingy woman who’s dead scared of losing her man, or something along those lines.」
「Huh?」
Haruna freezes up upon Tatsuya finishing his sentence. Despite this, her combat ability was so extraordinary that she managed to split open an insect monster that was heading her way by relying purely on reflexes alone.
「I’m not saying you should feel bad about this, ode to youth and all that, in fact it’s the perfect opportunity to have this conversation.」
「…」
「Your journey isn’t going to be an easy one but know that I’ll always have your back and I sincerely hope you won’t be turning it on me or the group out of blind passion. Nobody, not even you, would want that. This can be said for any one of you but just try keeping in mind that moderation is crucial in any aspect of life and that goes for love as well.」
Tatsuya carries on with the life lessons while Haruna stood there, completely silent, unable to ride the overwhelming wave of intense emotions. This was a first for her, up until this point she would tackle every problem with a cool head and a healthy dose of rationality, but now she found herself face to face with a particularly insidious type of a metaphysical enemy, one that actively goes against all reason.
「Some of the most passionate people who act on that passion do so in a very calculated manner. It’s as they say ‘sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone’.」
「Easy for you to say.」
「You’ve managed to remain rational in most circumstances, why can’t you do it now?」
Tatsuya shrugs off Haruna’s emotionally-charged comment while disposing of a swarm of aphid-like enemies with a well-placed fire wall. The reinforcements that were attempting to crawl out of a nearby hole got a taste of a fireball followed up by a grand napalm for good measure. At first sight one might get the impression that he’s just haphazardously throwing fire around without any second-thoughts about it possibly spreading, but Tatsuya was convinced that, it being a dungeon, there was no need worry about that.
「Have you caught on yet?」
「Caught on to what?」
「That really hit home, didn’t it?」
「…」
Haruna, who thought she had managed to get a grip on herself by now, was faced with an unpleasant reality. By no means did she believe she had gotten completely over it, but the realization that she still wasn’t in control of her emotions to at least some extent was devastating.
「Try taking a look behind you.」
「Ok.」
Haruna figures out the answer almost the very moment she turns her head back.
「It’s blocked off?」
「Exactly, the maze is reshaping itself little by little so trying to map it out is pointless.」
「It’s not the monsters that are going to prove the most problematic here, huh.」
「That’s right and a change in circumstances calls for a reevaluation of plans.」
Haruna nods as she stops in place in order to decide on their further course of action. There were no enemies remaining in the nearby area after the carnage Tatsuya had just dished out.
「Changing up our approach might be necessary but there’s really not a whole lot of options to pick out from.」
「And either one of them would still involve us facing off with the core.」
「How about we just stay on the move in that case?」
「That sounds reasonable for the time being but let’s go over this once more after we’ve covered, say, another three diverging paths, maybe something will come up then.」
「As you say.」
The two decide on their plan of action and make their way towards yet another fork in the road. In their wake laid a mountain of corpses, all of which were maimed beyond recognition.
「What’s your take on all of this?」
Hiroshi was busy merrily hacking away at the walls, Haruna was having a violent emotional episode meanwhile Makoto and Mio hadn’t moved an inch from their initial location, instead opting for a leisurely chit chat.
「Haruna’s in a bad spot.」
「Why makes you think so?」
「Knowing who Hiroshi’s paired with must’ve cornered her emotionally.」
Makoto found herself agreeing with Mio’s surprisingly rational take on the situation. Ever since the whole hot spring debacle Haruna’s been on edge whenever the two were in proximity of one another. She was concerned in more ways than one.
「I think there’s reasonable grounds for concern there, even when taking Haruna’s personal stake in the matter out of the equation.」
「They complement each other nicely and even if things were to turn south in that sense it’d do him good.」
「Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.」
Makoto blurted out just as Mio had barely finished her morally dubious sentence. In her mind such drastic measures were crossing a moral line when dealing with someone with a deeply ingrained phobia.
「Mako there’s always a limit to over-protectiveness, if we don’t take action and pressure him into developing at least a modicum of immunity to physical contact with the opposite sex he’ll never be able to take full control of his life and here we have an opportunity that just presented itself on a silver platter.」
Mio’s verbose rambling left Makoto completely dejected. It appeared as though the admonishment she received for her take on the assassin incident had fallen on deaf ears.
「Didn’t we have this talk already?」
「I get it, time fixes all problems and whatnot but we’re in a fantasy world.」
「Your point being?」
「Think slimes, ropers, succubi.」
「I see what you’re getting at now.」
Makoto could easily see things going south if any one of those happened to appear at an inopportune time, especially the last one which was essentially a death sentence to HIroshi.
「All of them are fairly commonplace in fantasy settings, not good.」
「I’m glad you’ve caught on.」
「Just one teeny tiny question, what corners of the internet did you have to scower to get acquainted with all of those at your age?」
Mio placed two fingers against her lips in the shape of a V and pretended to be smoking while blankly staring off into the distance. Despite her attempt at avoiding the issue it was pretty clear that she was into media not by any means suited towards a first year middle schooler, the kind that’s 18+ and chalk full of graphic scenes that don’t shy away from depicting any of the juicy details. Her parents provided her with all the freedom in the world considering she’s hemiplegic but wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect them to draw the line somewhere? Like any responsible adult would.
「Would you look at the pot calling the kettle black.」
「I’m a fully grown adult, it’s only natural I’d be acquainted with these, as are most of our group members asides from Haruna, possibly.」
Needless to say most of the members were otakus. While VRMMO’s did gain significant traction and went on to become widely accepted across society it’s only fair to say that most of the people who’d seriously consider trying their hand at one of those were more than likely otaku’s or at least otaku-inclined. In that sense Haruna was the oddball of the group since she started playing at launch despite not being actively interested in any otaku related media.
That being said she didn’t, by any means, look down on others who were different from her in that regard. Whenever faced with raunchy jokes or topics she’d never actively chip in nor ever politely ask anyone to refrain from bringing such subject material up. She knew that healthy adults were just instinctively wired to hold an interest in such manners and thought nothing of it. Truly a shining example of mature wisdom.
「That just sounds like you’re being hypocritical.」
「If you were, say, in your second year of middle school I’d begrudgingly let it slide but before all this went down you were a primary schooler.」
「Age isn’t relevant.」
「There’s got to be an ethical line drawn somewhere and you know that…」
Mio’s future prospects were concerning. It’s not just her hemiplegia either, even if she was to somehow completely overcome it her perspective on life would likely lead her to some… rather unconventional places, to say the least.
「A bit off topic but I’ve got this feeling that you’ve been assigning all of us roles based on dating sim conventions.」
「…」
Makoto’s observation was met with the exact same attempt at avoiding the issue as earlier. It didn’t fool anyone.
「I’d be willing to bet Haruna’s either the fan service character or the side heroine whose love was never meant to be in your eyes.」
「The former’s Artiem, the latter’s unoccupied for now.」
「Gotcha.」
Mio had fallen for the obvious bait. She could’ve attempted to bring back the conversation to what it was originally about but that was a last resort solution at best since openly avoiding confrontation would’ve implicitly confirmed Haruna’s jokey suspicions to be true, which was to be avoided at all costs. Mio therefore decided to go along with the joke and purposefully come off as suspicious as humanly possible. She began by blowing air out of her lips in a shoddy attempt at whistling but that didn’t cut it, so she took it one step further and began recreating what seemed like a really botched imitation of traditional tai chi movements.
In reality those weren’t just any movements slapped together with no rhyme or reason, they were a reference to a certain infamous dancing, if you could call it that, sequence in this one heart-wrenchin…gly below average coming of age dating sim’s opening cinematic. The game was so old that the platform it originally released on can only be found in museum’s nowadays and yet Mio, at her age, was apparently deeply enough involved in the subculture to be in on the joke. This, amongst other things, made Haruna seriously contemplate the possibility of age fabrication going on.
What was evident from this short episode was that Mio was, without a doubt, the most far gone within the group of Japanese folk.
「Are you done yet?」
「Ackchyually if I had to go on a limb and pinpoint Haru’s type, she’d definitely be that one main heroine from the stone age of dating sims who’d awaken the latent existential dread within the deepest recesses of the souls of players who attempted clearing her route without a walkthrough by requiring them to successfully clear over five random events a day while simultaneously making sure to avoid all and any events pertaining to other heroines, no matter how trivial or inconsequential they might be.」
「That’s… surprisingly accurate, I’ll give you that much but if you think I’m letting you off the hook that easily you’ve got another thing coming.」
「Isn’t it odd how Mako’s keeping up with the conversation? I suspect age fabrication’s in play.」
「No, it’s not odd at all, one of my guild mates just happened to be from around that time and it occasionally popped up in conversations. Oh and I’d like to remind you that what you’ve just fallen for the pitfall of circular logic.」
Makoto wasn’t going to drop the matter that easily, she was out for bloo… answers.
「I’ll have you know that humans are too complicated to be put into boxes oh and if you thought for even a second that I’ll turn a blind eye to your 18+ media consumption habit you have another thing coming, miss.」
「The dominoes have already fallen into place.」
「We’ll see how long that stays true once we get back home.」
「At least let me try out the popular new releases.」
「If they’re popular enough they’ll get an all years version eventually, have some patience.」
「But to some the 18+ bits are integral to the story…」
「That’s exactly why you keep clear of them! Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?」
Makoto noted getting Mio back on the right track as one of her main priorities despite having derailed herself some time back. To be fair to both of them the industry surrounding otaku interests is well known for leading people off the straight and narrow.
「How about we have this conversation some time later?」
「Consider yourself lucky, for now. While I’d love nothing more but to get to the nitty gritty, now’s not exactly the time nor the place.」
Makoto begrudgingly yielded to Mio’s desperate attempt at changing the subject. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were in a dungeon Mio would have most certainly not gotten off the hook that easily.
「How do we proceed here, Mako?」
「Let’s get a good grasp of our surroundings first before we get to anything concrete.」
Mio had decided that leaving all the planning up to Haruna, who was much more experienced in dungeoneering, was the best course of action.
「Just to be sure is anyone within your detection range?」
「Nope.」
「That means there’s at least a kilometer of distance between all of us.」
Mio’s detection range, enhanced by her high perception stat and various detection abilities, was off the charts. Even without the use of magic and even in an environment where there’s a lot to pick up she could still narrow down her options to only what she wanted to find at the moment. Taking Mio’s word on this one was a no-brainer so it was safe to assume that the group had been separated at least a kilometer away from each other.
「Can you cast healing spells?」
「Can do minor heals, barely. Unlike Tatsu and Haru my spell power isn’t high so it’s really weak.」
「Could you be more specific?」
「It’s about on par with class six potions.」
「By class six potions do you mean the randomly dropped ones or Hiroshi’s handmade ones?」
「Somewhere in between.」
Considering their current capabilities it certainly lacked oomph but potion reserves were limited and there’s always a risk of poisoning, not to mention that they’re impractical to utilize in a dungeon environment. In that sense a minor heal with next to no cast time and a short cd was immensely useful, even if not particularly potent.
「How many times can you cast it?」
「About thirty times without going over my mana per minute and over ten thousand times if I was to completely empty out my mana reserve.」
Fairy Tale Chronicle’s ability costs and regen were all fixed values, with some abilities there was an element of randomness to the cost but none of them scaled off of the users max mp or hp values. With all of her stat boosts combined Mio’s mana per minute regenerated close to one percent of her total mana, which was enough to continuously cast crafting skills for six seconds at a novice level and two minutes at an intermediate level. In other words it was pretty resource intense the lower one’s proficiency was at a skill.
「That doesn’t sound all too bad.」
「I wouldn’t put too much faith in that if I was you.」
「Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, have you acquired any new offensive abilities by chance?」
「Nope.」
「That about settles that then, don’t see any change in weapon choice either so there’s another box that we can tick off.」
「I’m not sensei levels of bonkers, I can’t just fashion any old Hunter tree into a bow like it was second nature.」
There was an undeniable experience gap between the hardcore players that have been playing since launch and the semi-hardcore players who shirked on certain skills. Mio’s case was special and she managed to rack up a lot more hours than most but there were only so many hours in a day.
「Don’t think it’s a good idea to approach the core of the miasma in our state.」
「Compared to the other groups only our hp is at a good enough level, everything else is lacking.」
「Well I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve to cover those blind spots, not to mention that we also have the added benefit of thief skills on our side.」
「I’d rather you not put too much faith into them, I’ve next to no experience in this particular kind of dungeon.」
「So long as they’re intermediate or higher I don’t see a problem with that, makes a whole world of difference.」
Mio was still largely unconvinced, a perfect example of how fickle a concept objective self-evaluation was.
Haruna wasn’t exaggerating by any means, thief skills, a la crafting skills, had a world of a difference in usability between novice and intermediate ranks. Novice level thief’s could only reliably disarm the kind of traps that any old Joe could safely set off with a long enough object and a little bit of patience while intermediate level thief’s were already dealing with the types of traps that couldn’t be set off with such primitive methods. Advanced level thief’s could swiftly deal with and set traps of a magical nature. Needless the say the applicability goes up exponentially with the ranks.
There was a catch to all of this, however. Thief skills were infamous for being incredibly tedious to acquire and on the whole they were exclusively geared towards a very specific kind of player, those who couldn’t comprehend the system intuitively were pretty much screwed, not to the extent of crafting, but screwed nonetheless. Makoto was just on the cusp of intermediate and has been for a while now but that’s not because she had given up on the pursuit she simply hasn’t had the opportunity to interact with traps in any meaningful way for some time.
「Have you noticed anything strange about this dungeon?」
「The walls are moving.」
「Are they really?」
「Yup.」
Mio whipped out a ten foot pole and poked a nearby wall. Makoto, upon seeing clear signs of movement, frowned.
「This makes things interesting, doesn’t it?」
「It sure does.」
「Hopefully it won’t pounce on us at least.」
「That variable is unclear at the moment, although if we go by clichés it would’ve done so by now.」
Makoto nodded in agreement. Even if the walls were to attack they’d likely pick a more opportune moment.
「In any case we’re lacking in resources so we should probably be better off avoiding moving directly towards the miasma.」
「A detour it is?」
「You know it.」
「Follow my lead.」
The two, led by Mio, began making their way towards where the miasma wasn’t as prevalent. Unlike Hiroshi’s gung-ho approach the two decided to take their sweet time. The path behind them began quickly disappearing but that wasn’t much cause for concern since they had been expecting as much from the very get go.
「Got to wonder what awaits us.」
「Anything but one of those obscene traps, I hope.」
Mio responded with an out of place comment. At the very least it proved just how calm and collected the two were about their predicament.
Meanwhile, over at Wulls.
「I’ll do anything just please let me see deary’s face one last time.」
「You know what, I think it’s about time I take you up on that offer.」
Said Layotte after some consideration to the girl who had been obsessively repeating those exact words verbatim during every single one of his visits. Due to her… various character flaws she was, for the longest time, seen as too maladjusted to bring out into the light of day, but as of late she’s gotten an opportunity to prove herself when she got paired up with Rayna to eavesdrop on Hiroshi who was making his way to Kalsus and passed with flying colors, thus the change in perspective.
The reason they had her under effective house arrest in one of Wulls castle’s long forgotten rooms wasn’t out of fear of being found out but because of said maladjustment at the time. To get an accurate image of just how untamed she was her knowledge of social customs was nonexistent, she saw others in a darwinistic light – they either conquer or get conquered themselves. Needless to say letting her of her leash was not a viable option.
To the surprise of everyone she proved to be rather cooperate and obedient, so long as they provided her with a routine dose of ‘spiritual sustenance’ which was a fancy way of referring to any of Hiroshi’s used articles, such as towels or the leftover bony bits of a fish, for instance. Even taking two steps back Layotte couldn’t help but find this little idiosyncrasy of hers downright repulsive.
「Would you really do that for me?」
「Under a few conditions.」
There exists a rare few individuals whose body language can convey their emotions much more vividly than any string of words ever could but the look in her eyes trumped all of them, there was no competition to be had. If only she knew the words that would come out of Layotte’s mouth right after.
「What conditions?」
「First and foremost, under no circumstances are you to make direct contact with them without explicit permission.」
「!?」
Her pupils dilated, mouth opened agape and her head tilted forward at the heart-shattering demand.
「At least tell me, why?」
「What did you expect? That they’d welcome you with open arms?」
「No, no I didn’t.」
Layotte let out a despondent sigh at her answer. Although she had grown enough to not completely stand out in a crowd she still lacked in the emotional self-control department, even Fum and Lime were better adjusted in that regard.
「Have you perhaps forgotten how you were out for his blood?」
「I don’t recall anything of the sort.」
「Isn’t that awfully convenient.」
Layotte let out yet another sigh while going through a mini mental breakdown but managed to keep it all internal. On that fated day after being apprehended she would end up double-crossing the Assassin’s guild by spilling the beans on all of their internal affairs and even lent a hand in directing an assault on their base of operations. Once the dust had settled and she got rewarded for her various contributions all of her recollection of what had just went down seemingly vanished into thin air. The only memories that did get permanently etched in her mind were the ones that in some way pertain to Hiroshi because apparently they just left that strong of an impression.
This wasn’t just some sudden onset of amnesia or anything of the sort, the assassin’s guild had fiddled around with her mind in a way that would make her lose all memory of the guild and any of its assignments in case of failure, although for whatever reason it only kicked in once everything was already said and done. She herself was not aware of this and there was no one on their side who had privy to such classified information, so this phenomena was left unexplained.
Now that whatever mechanism that was controlling her memories went off she was finally in a position to begin anew as a fully-fledged human being with no strings attached. The sequence of events that led up to her reformation, however, would require infringing on multiple public broadcasting laws in order to describe in full detail.
「Allow me to jog your memory, you were an assassin who infiltrated this here castle in an attempt to dispose of Haruna and Aearis who were being guarded by Hiroshi at the time. They’re not the type of folk to forgive and forget all willy-nilly.」
「Why would I ever…」
Her expression further contorted with despair. Even this slight fluctuation was immediately noticeable due to her expressionless nature.
「No need to get that down in the dumps, I’ll make sure you get in contact with them somewhere down the line.」
「Can I take your word for it?」
「Naturally. Besides, considering your assigned role it would be unreasonable to keep you away from them forever.」
「My role?」
「I’ll explain later.」
She obediently nodded. While she did want to know what was in store for her it wasn’t a matter of utmost urgency, so she decided to carry on with the conversation. From this little episode alone it was clear just how imbalanced her emotional maturity was in comparison to her logical thinking capabilities, an apparent consequence of her abnormal upbringing.
「Secondly you are to prioritize carrying out orders to the letter except in cases of utmost emergency.」
「Even at the expense of Deary’s life?」
「Depends, if you deem the party incapable of handling the situation put in front of them and your aid happens to be sufficient enough to turn the tides in their favor I’d be willing to turn a blind eye to your digression.」
「Understood.」
「That being said, I don’t expect you to have the judgment necessary to accurately discern these situations when they do happen to come up.」
「I’ve no intent on breaking orders unless doing so would save deary’s or any one of his party members lives, they’re the only exception.」
「I sure hope so.」
Layotte lightly shrugged at her morally questionable remark. To him she was nothing more but a puppet, a puppet who just happened to be a lot more useful than expected and who could potentially make things take a turn for the interesting depending on how they play out. That’s why he decided on getting her properly educated in various aspects of life instead of simply dishing out capital punishment, which he had no qualms in doing had the circumstances been different. If she was to, in any way, work against the interests of Farlane she would be dead in his eyes that very moment.
「Thirdly you are not to speak of our ties under any circumstance. Hiroshi and a few select others will be informed beforehand but you are not to discuss the matter unless spoken to first.」
「Need not be said.」
「Awfully rich coming from the one who spilled the beans just because of some guy but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, for now.」
「You need not worry, nothing is as euphoric as being manhandled by deary.」
「That doesn’t really alleviate any of my concerns…」
Muttered Layotte upon hearing her concerning remark. She was most certainly an entertaining play thing but at the same time there was much room for concern.
「And last but not least you are to report any bit of information you pick up back to me as soon as possible.」
He gracefully side stepped having to linger on a discomforting point by pronouncing the last condition.
「Even details like deary’s favorite sexual play and the g-spots of the female crew members?」
「I don’t know why you’d ever want to gather such information but I’m not going to stop you, just make sure to report it.」
「Understood. Now, what’s my assignment?」
「You are to travel to Darl and get in contact with the underground society, dig up as much relevant intel as you can.」
「She, yet again, was entirely consumed by overwhelming dread.」
「Darl? As in, not the elf village?」
「Firstly even if I was to dispatch you there now you wouldn’t even make it on time for their departure. Secondly you’d have to make your way through the southern forest to make it to the village and your assassin training probably didn’t involve getting around forests, now did it?」
「I’ll find a way.」
「It’s too late for that and besides, forests are their field of specialty there’s nothing that they need you for there.」
The fact that there was no way of refuting his point made it all the more emotionally painful.
「They need you to cover their weak spots, without your expertise in underground affairs they’ll be completely lost, so quit being all sorry for yourself and focus on making their adjustment period as smooth as possible.」
「At your command.」
「Hold on there for a second.」
She tried to immediately head out while Layotte’s helpful advice was still fresh in her mind and got stopped right in her tracks almost as immediately. Her level of air headedness would, under normal circumstances, be plenty a cause of concern but, according to her re-educator from the intelligence department, it was as if she became a completely different person when dealing with underground matters so it wasn’t as cut and dry as it may have initially seemed.
「We’ve prepared equipment and enough money to cover the travelling expenses, you’ll find Ernest waiting for you to receive them.」
「At your command.」
「Also we can’t have you being nameless for much longer as it impedes communication. I’ll be giving you a name and I expect you to assume it.」
「I want deary to do the honors.」
「Don’t be silly, or at least that’s what I would have said had this name I had in mind for you not been suggested by Hiroshi. Feel free to rejoice.」
And so she did. In case anyone found all this to be a little too convenient it was actually all true, the name Layotte had in mind for her was brought up by Hiroshi during one of their talks where they discussed potential code names for fresh intelligence department female recruits.
「Please say it is so.」
「It is, I had predicted you whining over this so I asked Hiroshi for his thoughts well in advance.」
Unable to control her sheer excitement she began to tacitly urge Layotte to get to the point through the use of body language.
「Your name is now officially Rainy Moon.」
「Rainy Moon.」
「Enough talk, get your stuff together and off you go.」
She nodded and left with an unrealistically graceful walking posture. As hard as she may try to blend in with the regular folk little idiosyncratic mannerisms like that would inevitably crop up and give out her true power level to the trained eye.
「I’ve done about all I could do now it’s time to just sit and wait.」
Their journey was bound to have its ups and downs and Layotte felt that having her cushion some of that burden would be a nice, friendly gesture towards the group, a thought process that was a far cry from pure self-interest. That being said he still had Farlane’s best interests in mind but he cared for Hiroshi, who he considered to be one of his best friends, about just as much. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be doing something as potentially dicey as he was now.
「I would dispatch someone more appropriate if I could, but alas. She’s a real piece of work but I know you’ll make it work somehow, Hiroshi.」
He muttered as he locked the door. At around the same time Hiroshi, who had made a little detour to collect some materials, felt a chilling sensation running down his spine but let’s not infer causation from correlation, shall we?