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Chapter 218 – Reconciliation and Rounding Up
…H-huh?
That’s strange. How did this happen? The Sarz guards were safely rescued, the remaining enemy forces were destroyed (or rather, they destroyed themselves), and I thought we were going to have a happy-ever-after party tonight.
“Well, Your Majesty, the Demon King and Queen. I’m so glad you came all the way here when you were tired.”
Oof. Ecla-san is smiling so much, but I’m scared. I don’t know why, but a smiling face is much scarier than a sullen one!
“Is it because she’s trying to figure out what’s going on in your mind?”
“Myrril-san, please don’t calmly analyze and protect me with your dwarven super-scientific abilities or something!”
“I don’t know about ‘super’ and all that, but I’m sure things will be fine. You’ve never been able to hide your inner feelings from the beginning, after all.”
“It seems so. I’ve never seen a man who calls himself a merchant and yet is so transparent with his thoughts.”
“Well, I agree with you.”
Hey, hey! Why do you all agree?
“But he gets results with it. It is Takifu’s way of life, I guess. I have nothing against it.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for being so honest.”
“Not really honest. You are probably… not interested.”
“Oh?”
Ecla-san tilted her head at Myrril’s words and looked at me with a curious expression. What do you mean you’re not interested? In me?
“Don’t you care what other people think of you?”
Ah, well… I wonder. I’ve never been told that. I never thought about it.
“From the first time I met you, I wondered why you had the habit of looking down on yourself so much. But it’s the same thing, isn’t it? You don’t care how others see you.”
“Heh, that’s interesting. Either you have unshakable self-confidence and a firm ego, or you have nothing to lose and are open to it…”
Myrril and Ecla-san both looked at me and tilted their heads.
“”I can’t see it either way.””
Don’t just say it like that. Leave me alone, my way of life. I don’t know anything about it; I’m not even aware of it.
“Yes, yes, that’s enough about me. What can I do for you?”
“That’s easy. I want to know what you want.”
“I already told Ivan-san.”
“He keeps his mouth shut. He won’t spill anything, not even with a little threat or a little magic.”
“You cast a spell on him?”
“Yes. It was just a little something about ‘gripping people’s hearts and minds.’ He just said the Demon King came to visit during his winter break or something like that.”
It works as well as you’d expect. The name ‘gripping people’s hearts and minds’ doesn’t sound very simple.
“That’s right. We’re here to have fun.”
“Huh?”
“Casemaian was covered with snow, there was no war until spring, there was no shortage of food and supplies, and we wanted to see the outside world, so we came to the Republic with the sea to play. We wanted to eat fish from the sea.”
Ecla-san looks at me with a troubled expression. It’s not quite the same as staring. It was as if she was looking at a talking insect. That’s rude.
“How about the sea serpent? It’s not a fish, but a water dragon, you know.”
“So we were only involved in the sea serpent and the pirate extermination. The only one we decided to kill on our own was… that female chief of the Mole Bandits.”
“You mean Cofina? The dwarf?”
“Yes, that’s her. She impersonated my father’s name. I killed that lowlife with my own hands, but I’ll have to do the rest later.”
Ecla-san sighed and held her head in her hands.
“Are you kidding me? Are you really Kazinair’s daughter?”
Maybe, but… I think she thought she needed to know the truth because Ivan-san’s report and what she had heard directly from us after she had finished with us were not quite acceptable to her. And now, after talking to us face to face, she knows that it’s mostly true.
“But you know what? I heard that as long as people don’t hurt you or your family, you won’t kill them. Since you came to the Republic, you have…”
Has she also been in contact with Lord McKin? So, she also knows about the warning letter from Marquis Erkel, a nobleman from the southern part of the kingdom.
“I see.”
“That’s right. The people who live in our country, even if only for the winter, and the people who live there with us, we consider them as our “relatives.” That is the secret to a comfortable life, even if it means taking some things out of the house and going to a lot of trouble.”
“That’s what… you mean, uwin uwin?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
A little too much, though.
“Am I part of it right now?”
“You make me laugh. I’m related to the Demon King.”
“That would make sense if it was a witch.”
Ecla-san laughed and nodded at Myrril’s joke.
“I’m sorry. For now, I apologize for my rudeness. I am sorry for doubting you. From now on, you are one of the adventurers of Sarz. I’m counting on you.”
“I appreciate your kind words. But first, can you take care of this thing?”
I pointed out the window and handed the problem to Ecla-san.
“What’s that thing?”
Maybe it was the weight, maybe it was the volume, but my stomach was starting to feel a little queasy, so I sorted through the contents of my storeroom and piled the things I didn’t need in front of the Adventurers’ Guild dismantling warehouse.
There were several hundred corpses, four horse-drawn sleighs loaded with gold ore, and two piles of weaponry. They were covered with snow to prevent them from decomposing.
The empty area, which was probably the size of three tennis courts, was filled with space for the horse-drawn sleighs to turn around for loading and unloading, but I didn’t know about that.
“The following is what we collected on this expedition. For now, I think it should be handled by the Sarz who took the initiative… in the southern territories.”
“Hey, Takifu!? What am I supposed to do with all this?”
“Well… I can’t say. It’s too much for an adventurer to interfere in the internal affairs of the Republic.”
“So let’s leave the decision to the great guildmaster.”
“Mir, Takifu, wait a minute! Only if it suits you… Just a little!”
I ran out the door with the very stick-like Myrril in my arms. It was Guildmaster-san who said I could be an adventurer.
“Come on, let’s go have a drink with Ivan-san and the others!”
“Yes!”
I gave her most of the gold ore, but I got one for each of us and one for the guards. We should at least get danger pay and extra money for fuel.
We’re going to have a good time tonight!