262

Chapter 262 — If (10)

Ekua watched the departing figure.

The wheat-colored hair tied loosely and low looked a little unfamiliar, but that was all.

The unyielding strength conveyed by that ramrod-straight back and waist was not the slightest bit different from before.

Though the outward appearance had changed and the distinctive features had been hidden, he was still the knight they knew.

He probably always would be.

【So, are you truly not going to show yourself all the way to the end?】

[Hmph.]

And this stubbornly dishonest being, too, would surely remain one of their eternal pillars.

Ekua chuckled at the turtle slowly crawling out from behind Sangun’s back.

[Why should I show myself? What’s so pretty about him?]

【Yukgwi, you are not being honest either. After going to such lengths for his sake.】

[No, that was…….]

[Hehe. Why not just say goodbye? Who knows when you’ll see him again.]

Yukgwi snorted at Sangun’s remark.

[Why would I want to see him again?]

Both Ekua and Sangun knew perfectly well that was not sincere.

They laughed again.

[Then you’re really never going to see him again?]

[I’m not. I won’t. I’ve done this much for him already. Why would I see him again?]

[And yet you even put a blessing on the items for him.]

[Hey. I only did that because it’d be a waste after spending money on them.]

That was doubtful.

If one were to rank all the things Yukgwi or Sangun considered worthless, human currency would probably place quite high on the list.

And even if the money really did seem wasteful, from Yukgwi’s perspective it could only rank below power that had only just been recovered.

In other words, unless Yukgwi had been thinking of the person who would receive them, there was no reason to spend newly recovered power just to bestow a blessing.

Thus, Ekua decided Yukgwi was lying and smiled softly as a result.

[Why are you smiling?]

【I have always been someone who smiles often…….】

[Hey, you little brat.]

Oh, of course.

That did not mean Ekua was foolish enough to say something like, 【You really are not being honest, are you?】 again.

Why would Ekua freely voice every thought to Yukgwi, who was already getting angry over nothing more than a smile?

Ekua had absolutely no intention of sitting still and asking for a beating.

[Ugh, seriously. And I can’t even punish this one.]

Well, judging by that response, the other party seemed to have already read every thought from the smile alone.

Sangun and Ekua, now plainly in league with each other, smirked again.

[But what kind of blessing did you actually give them?]

[…None of your business!]

[Wheeeen.]

[Ugh. Seriously, disgusting.]

At Sangun’s wheedling, Yukgwi spat to the side and slowly curled up.

Despite everything said until now, the only place Yukgwi continued staring was the direction in which the knight had departed.

[…Hardness that will not crumple even beneath the weight of a great mountain, will not cave in even when swept through the deepest sea, and will not melt even after falling into lava.]

[…Oh?]

[That’s all I gave them.]

As expected.

No matter how much Yukgwi pretended otherwise, Yukgwi really did care about the knight.

First there had been the pointed hints to Sangun about making sure the knight took food, and now Yukgwi had even spent power ensuring those two items would never break no matter what happened to them.

[That’s an amazing blessing! I knew it, Ancestor, you really do like Sir Knight— Ow!]

[I let a brat like you get away with things a few times, and now you keep getting cheekier!]

[Ah, no lifting the scales! No lifting the scales!!]

Ekua smiled warmly at the two beings squabbling with each other.

It really did feel good to know that someone Ekua cared about was loved by others as well.

[Wheeen. Always picking on me…….]

[You’re the one begging to be punished.]

[Wheeeeeen.]

May only good fortune follow that person from now on.

May the world bless him.

Ekua offered that prayer to fate and turned away.

It was time to return.

* * *

“Haah! I can finally breathe again!”

Fierce White Wind, Murloc, stretched while holding down a hat with an absurdly enormous brim.

“Seriously…….”

The Chief Mage, who had declared complicity by following her out rather than even attempting to stop her escape, was much the same.

Instead of stretching, the Chief Mage covered their mouth with both hands and expressed the emotion coursing through the whole body.

The sunlight and wind touching bare skin seemed to be some magnificent blessing.

“Humans really are meant to get some sunlight.”

“Absolutely, absolutely.”

“I don’t care how good the money is, being locked in some little underground room for more than ten days is absolutely impossible!”

“Hear, hear!”

Anyone who heard what the two had endured, however, would have no choice but to understand their reaction.

After all, the flood of item-crafting commissions had forced those two to spend a full twenty days down in that underground room.

And even after all that time, commissions were still piled up like a mountain, meaning they were in a situation where they would have to remain confined for at least another ten days.

“Now then, onward! Forward, in pursuit of a blanket all my oooown!!”

“Forwaaaard!!”

But how was spending a total of thirty straight days underground supposed to be reasonable for any human being?

White Wind, at least, could not tolerate it.

The Chief Mage, who had been imprisoned along with her as an assistant, felt the same.

They needed freedom.

The freedom to breathe outside air, the freedom to buy one of the blankets that had begun trending within the Magic Tower—things like that.

“By the way, where did they say the place selling those blankets was?”

Perhaps being worked half to death had taken its toll.

She could not remember the destination.

At White Wind’s question, the Chief Mage following behind caught a foot on a stone and stumbled.

“…The Chiriti Merchant Company.”

“Ah, right. Maybe I really am getting old. I keep forgetting little things like this lately.”

Well…

If age truly was making her memory deteriorate, wouldn’t she forget the list of four thousand magical materials circulating within the Magic Tower before something like this?

The Chief Mage had that thought but wisely kept it to themself.

White Wind was precisely the sort of person who would respond, Maybe you’re just stupid? if anyone said such a thing aloud.

“Hmm. More importantly, if we’re going to the Chiriti Merchant Company… I’ll get to see the cute little kid too!”

“A cute little kid?”

“You know. The child I agreed to look after.”

The client might have ended up a wanted criminal, but that did not mean White Wind could simply wipe her mouth clean and throw the commission aside.

Considering how much money she had received back then—more precisely, how much money the other side had declined to take back—that was only natural.

“Judging from the regular reports, she seems to be doing perfectly well, though.”

The Demon Knight had only asked her to look after the child until the girl could properly stand on her own, not to keep her under surveillance, so White Wind did not know the details of Akata’s day-to-day life.

To begin with, when arranging a position for the child at the merchant company, White Wind had gone through a friend of a friend of a friend rather than invoking the Magic Tower’s name, leaving her without much of a direct line for receiving news.

Still, the occasional messengers she sent to check reported that the child remained bright and energetic.

And after White Wind made a personal investment in the merchant company, the girl’s food, clothing, and shelter seemed to have improved considerably—it was, of course, fortunate that the head of the company was someone who cared about employee welfare.

So it probably was not as though White Wind had gotten the commission for free.

Akata had settled in so well that White Wind had barely needed to do anything, but still.

“If I give her some spending money on top of that, I won’t have completely embarrassed myself, right?”

“That probably depends on how much spending money you give her.”

“I’m making plenty these days. I’ll just give her, say, five hundred thousand gal.”

The only problem was that she had no time to spend money.

Between the growing number of commissions and the skyrocketing price of items, her assets were continuing to swell.

Under those circumstances, what did spending five hundred thousand gal from her own pocket matter?

Selling a single item would bring in almost twice that much.

“Only five hundred thousand gal?”

“I’d like to give her a million, but I feel like she’d refuse because that much would make her uncomfortable.”

“That’s true.”

Five hundred thousand gal was, in fact, an absurd amount of money for simple spending money… but this much, at least, they could probably force into the girl’s hands.

The mages, who had no understanding whatsoever of ordinary people’s living expenses, thought about the matter with perfect serenity.

Read only on MUGEX

“WELCOME ME!!”

In the meantime, their feet had carried them directly in front of the Chiriti Merchant Company building.

The excited White Wind kicked open the door and shouted thunderously.

The moment her robe—the symbol of a mage—billowed into view, everyone inside the building nearly leapt out of their skins.

Even amid the chaos, their waists bent and greetings rang out almost instinctively.

“Forget the greetings. I’m here to commission a patterned blanket.”

“Y-yes!”

“Oh, right. I heard you have an employee from the Great Forest working here too. Could you call her over? I want to ask her a few things about the Great Forest.”

“Yes. We’ll bring her immediately.”

It was not as though White Wind did not know Akata’s name, but mentioning it here would only make things awkward for the child.

So White Wind pretended not to know her and asked that she be brought over.

“We will show you to the reception room.”

“Good.”

Fortunately, the employees seemed to fall for that flimsy disguise.

Having only just managed to collect themselves, they led the way.

Jingle.

Around then, the entrance door that both White Wind and the Chief Mage had passed through opened once again.

The newcomer appeared to be a customer.

“What can we help you with?”

One of the free employees moved to attend to the visitor.

“Wow.”

“What?”

Of course, the arrival of another customer gave neither White Wind nor the Chief Mage any particular reason to take an interest.

In the end, the person was merely someone they would pass by.

“No, it’s just… the person who just came in is incredibly tall.”

But the newcomer’s build was simply too conspicuous to ignore.

The Chief Mage voiced their admiration, and White Wind turned around after them.

“It’s really rare to see a Middle that tall. He must be nearly a whole head above average.”

“…….”

A physique like that could not be attributed simply to individual luck.

Unless one possessed some trait that allowed growth to continue even after adulthood, someone raised in a household without enough food would have difficulty growing that tall.

On top of that, the Chief Mage could already see two magical tools on him.

A pair of silver-rimmed glasses and an ear cuff resting on the rim of one ear.

It would be impossible to tell what kind of magical items they were without a closer inspection, but the fact that he owned items like those meant he was, at minimum, no ordinary person.

“A mercenary? But he doesn’t have a weapon…….”

The cloak obscuring the lines of his body also made it difficult to decide that he was some kind of fighter.

All the more so because there was no weapon hanging from either his back or his waist.

If anything, the combination of soft wheat-colored hair, gentle green eyes, pale complexion, and glasses brought to mind some sheltered scholar who had spent an entire lifetime doing nothing but pursuing academics.

He was an ambiguous young man in more ways than one.

“…Thirty years.”

But the Chief Mage could not continue that line of thought.

The Great Sage beside them had begun trembling while muttering an incomprehensible phrase.

The Chief Mage panicked.

“Great Sage?”

White Wind did not even seem to hear the Chief Mage calling her.

The trembling running through White Wind’s body grew stronger, while the customer who had entered gave the employee attending him a bright, gentle smile.

The Great Sage clenched her fist.

“If I were only thirty years younger!”

“What?”

“If I were, I’d ask him on a date this instant!!”

Ah.

Right.

This was the person who was always complaining that her type was a beauty with a modest, wildflower-like appearance.

The Chief Mage’s eyes went flat.

* * *

“If I were, I’d ask him on a date this instant!!”

That scared me.

I was startled by the sudden shout, and then startled all over again once I saw who had shouted it.

Why is White Wind here?

“Yes, yes. Come along.”

“No, no, no! I might not be able to date him, but there’s nothing wrong with looking! You don’t see a beauty like that every day!!”

“You’re causing a nuisance, Great Sage.”

“Nooo, my beauuuuuty!!”

But thank all the gods, White Wind did not seem to recognize me.

I scratched my cheek awkwardly.

I might have received them half against my will, but… the glasses and ear cuff really were astonishingly effective.

I unconsciously touched the frame of my glasses.

Somehow, the cool metal seemed to hold a trace of warmth.

“Haha… so, who did you say you were looking for?”

“Ah, I heard a girl named Akata was here…….”

“Ah, Akata.”

Regardless, I still needed to accomplish the reason I had come here.

Determined to leave as quickly as possible without crossing paths with White Wind, I asked for Akata.

“I’m sorry. There’s another guest who asked for her first…….”

“…I see.”

But that plan was thwarted.

Someone had arrived before me.

“What sort of work does she do that she even has customers asking for her……?”

“Until recently she mainly handled deliveries, but the head of the merchant company gave her a special assignment, so she’s prioritizing that now.”

“It isn’t dangerous work, is it?”

“Of course not.”

If they were calling it a special assignment, I probably could not ask for the details.

But if the head of the merchant company personally entrusted her with work, then at the very least her standing within the company could not be bad.

The employee speaking about Akata wore nothing but a pleased expression too, so it certainly did not look like she was being ostracized.

And she even had customers seeking her out before me.

At this point, couldn’t I say the kid was steadily making her way toward success?

“Then… may I ask another favor?”

Once I thought about it like that, something began swelling in my chest.

All I had done for that kid was provide a little support—and even that I had entrusted to someone else—yet that alone filled me with a strange sense of pride.

“That depends on what the favor is…….”

“I was asked to deliver something to Akata, but I need to leave immediately. Would it be difficult to leave it with you?”

“Ah, that much is no trouble at all.”

Then again, it would probably be strange not to feel proud of children who were moving forward with their lives.

I happily accepted the pride swelling almost to bursting and handed the bundle I was carrying to the employee.

The employee looked inside the basket and raised an eyebrow slightly.

“What name should I give her when I deliver it?”

“Ah, that…….”

My gaze followed theirs into the basket.

Soft, beautiful threads in all sorts of colors, purchased once again from the shop I had visited before.

“Thread bracelet. Tell her I lost it, and that I’m sorry. She’ll understand.”

I had bought them because I had no idea what else to give her, but I wanted to believe she would like them.

She had seemed to enjoy making thread bracelets, after all.

“Thank you for accepting the favor. I know it’s a bother.”

Even if she did not like them… at the very least, she would probably find some use for them, right?

With that belief, I moved my lips.

I had spent so long keeping my face stiff that smiling had actually become awkward now… but it probably did not look too strange.

The employee smiled back at me, and I did not see anything like What’s wrong with this guy? in their eyes.

Jingle.

Good.

Then I guess it’s time to go.

With the employee seeing me off, I left the building again.

It was a little disappointing that I had not gotten to see Akata’s face, but at the same time, I felt a little relieved.

After all, if I met her with this face, what kind of persona was I supposed to use?

The disguise itself was already in out-of-character territory. If I showed Akata my actual personality on top of that, her mind might explode.

But acting out my original persona while disguised would be strange too.

Like I just said, the disguise itself was already breaking character.

In that case, maybe missing each other like this was actually for the best.

With those thoughts, I retraced the path I had taken here.

I would spend today in this place, and starting tomorrow, I would begin tracing the Demon Knight’s past.

“I guess the first stop should be the closest one, Chechebator in Manhapelt…….”

And the first step of that pursuit would be the knight academies of the East.

If it was true that the Demon Knight clearly bore the marks of Eastern swordsmanship—and formal training in it, at that—and if his family truly had been knights, then those schools would be precisely where the greatest number of traces should remain.