“To be honest, my story isn’t all that long either.”
Windhand reached toward the pie and thinly sliced charcoal-grilled pork that had been served as drinking food.
Heavily seasoned and loaded with spices, the dishes were perfect accompaniments for alcohol.
Though they didn’t go particularly well with tea.
“Is that so?”
“If I had to summarize why I came looking for you, it’s to repay a debt. That’s all.”
“A debt.”
I narrowed my eyes.
I had assumed some new problem had arisen in the Yabad region and that he had come looking for me to help resolve it.
I hadn’t expected something like this.
“…I appreciate the sentiment, but I do not understand why now, of all times.”
I wouldn’t deny that I had done things for them that could be called favors.
But why bring that up now?
It would be one thing if I had asked them for help, but I had never sent Windhand or anyone in that region any signal at all.
“Why now? Are you seriously asking me that?”
But Windhand blew my opinion away with a single dumbfounded look.
I had no idea what it was, but apparently something had happened in the meantime that made helping me seem unavoidable from his perspective, even if I knew nothing about it.
“…I truly cannot think of anything.”
No, seriously.
No matter how you say it, from my perspective this still feels completely out of nowhere.
Of course, gratitude…