Chapter 25: … What happened?

I returned to the inn.

Of course, the assassin lady is not there.

The moment you wake up, there are no restraints and, moreover, there is no one on the lookout. Who wouldn’t run?

I throw myself on the bed and go 大. The ends of my hands and legs can’t reach the edges of the bed at all.

In the past, I took this posture a lot when I fell into deep thinking -and I also fell asleep in the middle of it a lot. Well, I am digressing though.

My body buried deeply into the mat and, on the contrary, it actually made me restless.

It’s my first time having such luxurious thoughts.

Rinon is not here. ‘I will return to my house for a second’ is what she said and left just like that.

It must be a lie. To a house where her sister is not in; I can’t believe that she would go back there.

I am now lying down here while spreading a movement [Sakai] to follow her. The magic power can’t be felt and they are unable to detect my presence.

Rinon met with people a few meters away from the inn. At this distance, I can hear their conversation perfectly if I just concentrate.

The power that I received from Tsukuyomi-sama is truly useful. That I don’t understand the workings of it sometimes hurts me though. 

—

“So, did you get their background?”

Rinon shakes her head to the sides.

“No, the only thing I could get was that he is the heir of some company.” (Rinon)

“What is that? There is no difference from the information that the merchant guild has.”

What did these guys expect? You really think I would tell everything to a kid that I have just met? Are these guys idiots?

“B-But…because the carriage got attacked, I haven’t had many chances to talk with him.” (Rinon)

“Now that you mention it, the one that got captured has returned. We are washing her to check for magic and trickeries, but nothing is coming out. What does this mean?”

“By the time I woke up in the morning, the two girls he had with him were already gone. And then I went with onii-chan to the commercial area.” (Rinon)

“Companions huh. They were people that had bizarre levels. I don’t know if they had a vow of silence, but it makes my eyebrows sweat. And?” 

… I see, so they do silence people, huh. And ‘eyebrows sweat’, they say. Certainly…

For now, I am happy that not much of the information has been leaked.

“The onee-chan that was sleeping on the bed, by the time we returned, she was not there anymore.” (Rinon)

“Ha~.”

“And then I told him that I would return to my house for a bit.” (Rinon)

“What a blockhead that youngling is. Without any restraints and with no lookouts.”

Shut up. I feel a bit happy that you are believing all this, but it somehow pisses me off.

But well, looking at the appearance of Rinon and the attitude of the man, maybe he is really the ‘can’t be saved at all’ type?

“Hmph, about the cargo, did you hear anything about it?”

“That is… I didn’t understand it well.” (Rinon)

“Ah~ it’s okay, just talk.”

“From here you travel 2 to 3 days and you will be enveloped by a deep mist where there is a settlement of mamono. He said he got it from them.” (Rinon)

“…”

“I-I’m serious! That is what onii-chan said! That he didn’t care about the price!” (Rinon)

Rinon must have felt some danger in the silence of the man, she desperately tried to explain it to him. Those two are not in a friendly relationship. That much I can tell.

“That he didn’t care about the price?”

“He said that they were dreamlike stuff, so it was fine if they could be sold. The old men in the commercial area said that they would buy it for 500 gold coins.” (Rinon)

“500?!”

The voice of the man turns inside out. He is totally a person of low level.

“Y-Yeah.” (Rinon)

“The lowest of the lowest price was that. These may be incredible people. But, 500 gold huh.”

A vulgar expression begins to surface from the man. I could tell that Rinon was disgusted.

At any rate, the lowest of the lowest huh. And it’s that amount of gold. How frightening. Is there another way they can use it aside from selling them at a high price for being new products?

“Hey, hey! Let me meet onee-chan! If I let you hear about a lot of things, you would let me meet her, right?!” (Rinon)

“Oi oi, those are words that you should say after properly doing your job, right? With just this, you will never be able to meet your sister.”

…Trash.

Capturing a small kid and making her do stupid jobs.

My killing intent rises.

I am seriously thinking if I could shoot him with magic from this point.

I can do it.

Let’s do it.

I begin the aria…and then rethink it.

Tch, if I do it now, Rinon will see someone dying in front of her. To suddenly see someone dying in front of you, it might become a trauma.

Damn it, you slightly got away with your life.

Rinon sticks to the guy and asks over and over. I breathe in deeply in order to suppress the killing intent that was slowly rising again.

“If you insist so much, you leave me with no choice. Do one last job. Then I will return you your onee-chan. I will also forget about your debt.”

Debt huh. It must be dirt cheap loose change for him.

“!! You can do something like that?!” (Rinon)

“Yeah~, it’s easy. You accept?”

The man who suggested that was a pitless lowlife.

Of course, Rinon can’t refuse.

But…

I dissolve my [Sakai].

I already know the result. I don’t want to hear the words directly.

If what he said is true, then Rinon’s onee-san is probably still alive.

If it turns out to be a lie, I would turn it into a ‘my first torture’ and ‘my first murder’ combo.

It’s not like I want to support Tomoe, but I think I might act a bit violently, so I close my eyes in order to rest.

This will be after my two followers return. There is nothing else to do right now.

And when I think about Rinon, it must be more beneficial for her if she finds me sleeping.

It will soon be 45 minutes.

I breathe in deeply and fall asleep.

—

Noisy.

Ah, I see. I was sleeping, right.

Is Rinon okay?

Honestly, I was thinking of what to do with her from now on.

If my followers bring me the information by the time I wake up, and Rinon is ‘still alive’, I plan on going a bit wild.

If ‘she is not’ then I am going extremely wild.

“Hn, morning.”

I look at my surroundings. There are four people.

This is…fumu, for a ‘first episode’, it’s a happy development.

Tomoe, Mio, a woman that looks the same as the one in the portrait, and Rinon.

“Waka! You have awoken.” (Tomoe)

“Waka-sama, good morning.” (Mio)

For them to be using good morning when it’s already evening, is it that? A retaliation against me for not letting them sleep? Or is it a business-like way of greeting?

My two followers gave me greetings as expected. They have to do at least that. We are in front of people after all.

Rinon is averting her gaze.

And Rinon’s sister is bowing her head deeply. She has a really nice posture. If you are going to drop your head so much, then just do a dogeza* that is more comfortable than this.

The sister is safe for now. Her little sister had returned to attempt a crime -no, she was probably caught. That Mio didn’t kill her was probably because of Tomoe.

What a lucky little girl…no, both of the sisters are, huh. It’s to the point that I want them to share a little bit of it with me.

“Girl, lift your head.” (Tomoe)

Tomoe told the sister that and she timidly lifted her head.

[Forgive me for using writing. You can read,right?] (Makoto)

That her little sister can and the elder one can’t, such a thing can’t happen, right?

“A, y-yes! That you have rescued me at this instance, I truly thank you very much!”

Being nervous to the extreme, she thanked me while stuttering and fumbling. What? Is she a person that can’t handle strangers?

But a conversation is possible. Okay.

Though, she got me. Even her voice -aside from the color of her hair- she was the exact copy of her. <TN: referring to the girl in his memories>

[You are free to talk the way you want. You are not a follower or anything like that after all.] (Makoto)

“As you can see, she has returned with all her limbs, Waka.” (Tomoe)

“She was being treated with some rough drugs, but I have already cleaned them out.” (Mio)

You two, your reports are practically asking me to give you praise. But they truly did do a good job.

So Mio had a secret skill like detoxifying, huh. This will be useful.

I once again look at the sister. Now that I think about it, her face had so much impact that I didn’t remember her name. Uhm, what was it again?

I certainly heard it from Rinon but, for some reason, I can’t find it.

Though…

While I am thinking about asking her again, I look at her from hair to the tip of her toes.

The more I look, the more I feel that this is not on the level of ‘she resembles her’.

The worlds are different, and yet, there are two melons; how amazing.

She is a bit taller than me and her style feels like it has already matured. Her breasts are on the big side.

And her appearance was practically a mirror image of ‘that girl’. Just that…her eyes are a bit wild, or more like, these are probably the eyes an adventurer has.

They were eyes that were rough and filled with inquisitiveness.

And her hair. She had the same red hair as her little sister. It is not ‘black hair dyed red’.

“Hasegawa, right?” (Makoto)

It’s the kohai that I remembered thanks to Tomoe. <TN: Junior in school>

The girl that confessed to someone like me, moreover, the kohai that I had awfully rejected and hurt.

A cute and zealous kohai that gave her all in archery.

That’s why, even if I knew this girl was a completely different person, it disturbed my heart.

It was an event that I was made to remember not too long ago, so more the reason, or so I think.

“Eh?”

I accidentally called her by that name. Her lips moved slightly and, from there, the sister let out a voice in reaction.

Tomoe let it slip, but the ears of Mio perked up and reacted to it. I feel that she will be questioning me pointlessly later.

It’s a name from my previous world, so they probably didn’t take it as a person’s name.

[It’s nothing. Anyways, I heard the situation from Rinon and was preoccupied. I am glad you are okay.] (Makoto)

“I was reaping what I sowed, but you have truly saved us. We have been able to properly ‘manage’, so I got ahead of myself.”

Her way of rethinking about herself is the same as Hasegawa.

Being able to more or less stand your ground in a harsh frontier, you can certainly get self-confident with that.

But I don’t know what to think about you bringing your little sister there.

After all, with one error, the little sister ended up in beggar-like looks and tottering the town at night. Her sister was being drugged and her life was in danger.

[It seems that this is a pretty dangerous place. The outside goes without saying, but the inside is as well. I have my followers with me, so I am somehow able to live.] (Makoto)

I respond to her while mixing in a wry smile.

In reality, the level of these two are practically the definition of bizarre.

Hearing that the two of them were mentioned, their expressions changed, practically saying ‘it was nothing’. In a way like they were smirking.

Really.

But the moment I mentioned those two in the conversation, I noticed the change in the appearance of Hasegawa and her little sister.

Her sister was moved; the little sister was cowering.

“The strength of your followers was truly dreadful. First, they appeared in the room that we were confined without a single sound. It was quite an epic and incredible thing!”

“No no, it wasn’t that much.” (Tomoe)

“If I use my darkness abilities, something like that is nothing.” (Mio)

That’s why I’m saying your faces are too loose. There is a limit to how happy you can be.

“That’s right! Then the darkness magic! It helped me drive away the poison that was inside my body and, when we were returning, she destroyed the enchanted door with her hands without even using an aria!”

Leaving aside the enchanted part, that she was able to clean the poison is pretty incredible. Next time, I will ask her to teach me. I think it was a bit too much to destroy the door though, but right now it’s a plus for you, Mio. 

However, even with that, I can’t find an explanation for the state of Rinon when her sister has already returned.

She was probably told by that man to steal the money, but the moment she was about to give it, she was caught by one of the two, maybe?

I understand that she must feel guilty about it.

But the sister that was her true objective has returned alive, so I think it should be fine to have a more cheerful face.

Rinon, who had a face that looked like she was worried, seemed to be saying something. Without moving for a bit, she hung her head down all stiffly.

“Moreover, the lookouts and the able mercenaries were all handled by Tomoe-sama’s splendid physical prowess. They all went *snap *snap.”

Oh? I feel like she is telling me something in a roundabout way. Is she just exaggerating things? I warned Tomoe not too long ago after all.

“!!! Y-You are exaggerating, Toa. I didn’t do that much…” (Tomoe)

There is one idiot here that looks like a kid who has been caught doing bad things. She tried to restrain Toa, but I stopped her with my eyes. And then, I clearly confirmed the appearance of Mio, who was sweating.

The sister of Rinon called Toa, who was right now in a state of excitement, continued talking without the need for me to press her to continue.

“What do you mean ‘exaggerating’?! It’s my first time seeing such a thing!! Even the building that was made with special materials to resist demon attacks was destroyed without a trace by Tomoe-sama’s fist and Mio-sama’s darkness.” (Toa)

The two of them were going ‘ahahaha’. They were at each side of Toa-san, making an incredibly easy to understand reaction.

“They even blew away the guild’s strongest, Ace, and 50 other adventurer mercenaries that were teaming up!”

… Uh, hey?!

What?! What is happening?! Don’t tell me that, while I was sleeping, it already turned into an ‘all is resolved, look forward to the next episode’?!

I am glad that I have a mask. I am sure that my face is showing a lot of expressions right now. Eh, are these tears?

I didn’t know about this feeling.

The words of Toa hit me in my heart in a way I didn’t expect.

—–

Translation note:

And in the next episode of Dragon Ba—wait what?! 

Previous Chapter  l  Next Chapter