Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Tristina

THE NEXT DAY, we made our way into the bandits’ territory.

No one seemed to be pursuing us. Auber and his soldiers hadn’t followed our trail. They were probably waiting for us at the end of the road, on the assumption that we’d need to pass through the checkpoint eventually.

Ordinarily, the Man-God could have anticipated our alternate strategy. But…

I glanced down at the bracelet on my left arm, engraved with the crest of the Dragon God. Thanks to this thing, the Man-God was incapable of foreseeing any changes to the future caused directly by my actions. He shouldn’t know that we’d taken a different route, even now.

That said, there was still a risk he’d just… figure it out. If he remembered my detailed description of that diary from the future, he might be able to put the pieces together.

But from what Orsted told me, the Man-God had been reliant on his foresight for so long that he wasn’t much good at speculating about the future. He didn’t seem the type to memorize every little thing people told him, either. I doubted he could recall the minor details from that diary at this point.

I’d been trudging forward for a while, mulling all this over, when I felt the direction of the wind abruptly shift.

“Stop!” said Ghislaine, grabbing my shoulder from behind. “They’re here.”

Eris tried to step past me to the front of our line, but I reached out and held her back. With her in the front, we’d end up “negotiating” with our fists. 

Eris backed down easily enough. But I noticed she was looking off to the sides, not toward the front.

“They have us surrounded,” Ghislaine said. “What now? We still have a chance to break through.”

“Don’t you remember the plan? I’m going to negotiate with them.”

“…Right. I’ll guard the princess, then.”

Ghislaine dropped to the rear of our group without another word. When I glanced backwards, I saw her quietly discussing something with Sylphie and the others. My eyes met Ariel’s for a moment; she nodded meaningfully.

So far, the princess was acting as if last night had never happened. She’d claimed that she could handle Luke and the Asuran nobility on her own, but I wasn’t sure what she had in mind yet. I had noticed her talking quietly with Luke as we walked, though… hopefully it would work out for the best. At the end of the day, Orsted had agreed to let her deal with Luke. I was planning to respect that.

I stood quietly at the front of our group, waiting for the bandits to call out to us. My rule of thumb was that it never hurt to take the initiative by introducing yourself, but that could wait until they decided to show themselves.

“…Hmph.”

Eris was lurking right behind me, gazing restlessly around the area. Every now and then, dark shapes moved through the trees; she seemed to be watching them. I felt like she’d been sticking very close to me today… well, ever since the ambush yesterday. Auber had popped up right behind me in that fight. Maybe she was worried something similar might happen again.

After a minute or two had passed, Eris’ gaze stopped roving. It seemed the bandits had completed their encirclement of our group. “There’s five of them or so, I think,” she whispered. “We could handle it.”

Huh. Did she pick up an enemy radar skill at some point? 

Just then, the bushes right ahead of us rustled, and a man pushed his way out into the open. Others showed themselves as well, stepping out from behind trees, or moving forward on the branches on which they perched.

Five… ten… uh, Eris, honey? There’s like… twenty of them, at least. That estimate was a little bit on the low side, don’t you think?

When I glanced in her direction, Eris avoided my gaze.

The man who’d stepped out in front of us had a stubbly beard, a fur vest, and a machete at his hip. Your classic bandit look, basically. He carried an unlit torch in one hand. 

He took another step forward, and loudly said: “What says the echo in reply?”

I was ready for this, of course. Orsted had taught me all their code words in advance. “Rabbit entrails, and the chirping of a thrush.”

The meaning of this exchange was simple enough. The man had asked What’s your business with us? And I’d replied We want to cross the border, and speak with a member of your band. There were all sort of other codes: “nurturing fox” for human trafficking, “a feline errand” to have someone in Asura located, and “awakened bear” to arrange for the disappearance of someone passing through the Red Wyrm’s Whiskers, among others. If anyone happened to blunder into the bandits’ territory without knowing all this in advance, the fine people currently surrounding us would simply strip them of their valuables and possibly their lives.

“The hell…?” Mr. Bandit studied me dubiously for a long while before continuing. “What’s the thrush’s chick?”

“The striped acorn.” This was the codename for Triss.

Mr. Bandit considered my reply, looking even more confused than before, but then shrugged and raised a hand; the bandits lurking around us melted quietly back into the forest. “Follow me,” he said curtly, lighting his torch.

I turned back to give the OK sign to the rest of our party. Ariel and the others seemed to exhale in relief. 

As I was coming back around, my gaze met Eris’. For some reason, her eyes were sparkling with excitement. “That was awesome, Rudeus!”

I honestly wasn’t sure what was awesome about knowing a couple codewords, but hey, whatever. “Well, let’s go.”

“Right!”

Our party pushed on deeper into the forest, following our bandit guide closely.

The man eventually took us to a lone cabin in the middle of the woods. There was an enclosed area for our horses outside, and the interior was large enough to include a living room, bedroom, and storage space. The bedroom was equipped with a number of three-level bunkbeds. The sheets and blankets looked damp, and they were probably infested with bugs, but they were technically beds. Overall, it felt like a slightly retrofitted woodcutter’s hut. 

Mr. Bandit accepted his payment from me, then explained how this was going to work. “We’ll bring the thrush to you. The crossing’s tomorrow at dawn. Deal’s off if you wander out of here before that.” Before I could say anything in response, he’d walked back off into the woods. Hopefully he was heading back to their base to get Triss for us.

The man hadn’t asked for any details about us or our plans, even indirectly. In this line of work, I guess you didn’t pry—as long as the clients paid up, at least.

“Phew…”

After setting my bags down on the floor, I explained our next steps to the rest of the group. We would slip over the border bright and early tomorrow morning, with a woman we’d be meeting soon as our guide. And for tonight, we had to stay here. That pretty much covered it, really.

“I suppose we’ll just have to pray they don’t hand us over to Darius’ forces in the morning,” Luke replied helpfully.

I had some similar feelings myself. Things had been going so smoothly up to this point that it seemed like we were overdue for trouble. But that wasn’t really a logical line of thought, of course.

“Ah. My ambitions are shattered, and I’m reduced to a plaything for bandits. How dreadful,” said Ariel in a slightly playful tone. “Rudeus, I do hope you’ll be kind enough to let Cleane and Ellemoi go free, at least?”

Ugh. You know as well as I do what’s really going to happen next, Princess… Come on, now you’ve got those two staring daggers at me! What did I do to deserve this slander?

“In any case, it seems we’ll have a roof over our heads tonight,” Ariel continued. “I imagine our journey across the border won’t be easy, so let’s make sure to get plenty of rest while we can.”

The others took that as their signal to get started with their preparations for the night. Ariel herself was looking visibly fatigued after our trek through the forest. She wasn’t used to hiking in rough conditions, obviously. I’d expected her two attendants to be exhausted as well, but they had a surprising amount of energy left. They were busily massaging her legs. It seemed they’d spent the last seven years trained hard for this moment.

Luke was standing at the window and keeping a close watch on the outside, but every now and then he’d shoot a probing look in my direction. Clearly, he still had his suspicions about me. Maybe the Man-God had told him something like “there’s someone working for the enemy among your party”? That wouldn’t even be a lie, technically… although I was the Man-God’s enemy, not Luke’s.

Ghislaine stood quietly in a corner of the room that offered her a good view of everything at once. That was her usual position. When our eyes met, she nodded slightly. It kind of looked like a signal, but there probably wasn’t much meaning to it. 

Sylphie had disappeared into the bedroom, which she was trying to clean up. I wasn’t too picky about this stuff, but would we really be sleeping on those nasty old sheets? Hmm… since we’d brought plenty of blankets and such with us, we could probably just use the mattresses.

Eris was sitting close behind me, working on her equipment. When I glanced back, I found her smirking happily while polishing her sword. It was kind of an unsettling sight, what with the weird glow the blade emitted. 

Well… just have to be thankful she’s on our side, right?

As for myself, I didn’t have much to do at the moment. It would have been nice to use this time to give Orsted another update, but I wasn’t dumb enough to break the rules of our agreement with the bandits. I decided to take some time looking over the condition of my own gear.

Two hours or so passed uneventfully. It started raining at some point. Not the kind of torrential downpour you’d see in the Great Forest during its rainy season, but you could hear it pattering away on the roof of the cabin.

Ariel was sleeping. She’d passed out the moment she got into the bed Sylphie had prepared for her. Ellemoi had accompanied her into the bedroom, and Luke was standing right outside the door like some kind of gatekeeper.

Sylphie, Eris, and Cleane were talking about something in hushed voices over in the corner of the room. Every once in a while, you’d hear Sylphie or Cleane giggling, so it probably wasn’t a particularly serious conversation. It was good that they were getting to a relax a little, at least. You couldn’t expect people to spend every minute of the day on high alert.

Ghislaine hadn’t moved at all in quite some time. She was sitting on the floor close to the entrance with her eyes closed, but it didn’t seem like she was actually asleep.

So, not much in way of conversation. I’d finished looking over my equipment some time ago; at the moment, I was trying to figure out what else I could do with the empty hours still ahead.

“Hm…”

But then, I saw Ghislaine’s ears twitch.

“Someone’s here,” said Eris, rising to her feet. 

She and Ghislaine both had a hand on the hilt of their swords now. The air in the cabin was suddenly thick with tension.

After a few moments, there was a knock at the door. The sound echoed throughout the entire cabin.

Ghislaine made eye contact with me, and I nodded. She moved forward and opened the door.

A hooded woman stepped inside. She was wrapped in a thick cloak of water-resistant monster hide, but it was still easy to tell that she was… well… voluptuous.

“Fuckin’ hell. Couldn’t you idiots open up a little faster?!”

The woman pulled off her cloak, muttering curses to no one in particular. She had light-brown hair, which was typical enough in Asura, and wore very revealing clothing, which was much less typical. 

Wow. Are those puppies actually bigger than Eris’?

“Okay, so? Which of you wants to see me?” the woman called out, looking around the room. “I assumed some moron was gonna try and buy me for the night, but it looks like that ain’t it. Spit it out! I’m a busy woman!”

She’d spoken so loudly and intensely that her voice seemed to fill the entire cabin. Eris grimaced, and Cleane glared at her reproachfully. 

Before I could say anything, Sylphie spoke up. “Uhm, I’m sorry, but we’ve got someone sleeping in the back. Would you mind lowering your voice?”

The woman’s mood immediately took a turn for the worse. “What the hell?! You called me out here in the pouring rain, and all you’ve got to say is lower your voice?! Are you people fucking with me?! They call me Triss the Hasty for a goddamn reason, you know!”

Huh. Apparently, this was Triss. I’d been expecting someone a little softer-spoken.

Unfortunately, it seemed we’d gotten off on the wrong foot. Those diary entries said that she’d treated me with a lot of respect, but that was only because I’d stolen one of the Millis Church’s most sacred texts. I had no real connection to Triss in this timeline. But I had discussed that issue with Orsted in advance, and we’d worked out a plan.

“Ughhh. Goddamn it, what a joke… Look, I’m in a bad mood right now. I lost at dice, and Donovan rubbed my face in it for hours! This new slave girl spat in my goddamn face! And then I had to run out here in the rain! Tell me what you want right now, or I’m leaving. I’m not in the mood for any more crap today, all right? Better luck next time!”

You know, I feel like most of that isn’t actually our fault, miss…

I wanted to get to the point, of course, but we clearly needed to get her calmed down first.

As I was trying to find the right words, though, Luke stepped smoothly forward. Taking Triss by the hand, he wiped the water from her forehead with his handkerchief. “Our sincere apologies for the abrupt summons, miss. Please forgive us if you can. We know your time is precious, but we ask only that you consider what we have to say.”

Wow, okay. That felt seriously fake…

Triss just stared at Luke for a moment with her mouth hanging open. But then a blush spread across her face, and she lowered her gaze from his. “Uh, well… if you say so, I guess I’ll hear you out, at least…”

Somehow, it had actually worked. Never underestimate the power of a pretty face.

Luke shot a meaningful glance back in my direction. The rest was up to me now.

“Uh, hey,” said Triss as he released her hand. “Before we talk, would you mind… telling me your name?”

“…I’m Luke.”

Luke chose to omit his family name entirely. He then stepped back into the group without another word. Triss mumbled his name to herself with a dreamy expression—

Wait, no. Is that suspicion on her face? It looked like the name rang a bell, for some reason. 

But in any case, it was time for me to step up and take control of this conversation. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Triss,” I said, offering her my best and brightest smile.

“Who the hell are you?” she replied, her dubious expression giving way to an outright scowl. It was the kind of face you might make at a particularly shady door-to-door salesman. Apparently I still wasn’t very good at the whole ‘smiling’ thing. I’d have to make some time to practice one of these days. Maybe I could get an expert to train me… Aisha came to mind.

Anyway. Time enough for all that later. “My name’s Rudeus,” I said, bowing my head politely.

Triss looked me over slowly from head to toe, then raised an eyebrow. “Rudeus? I feel like I’ve heard that one before… wait a second.”

Clearly, she’d pulled something out of her memory. Both her eyebrows were raised now, and she seemed genuinely startled.

“Are you Quagmire?”

Oh. They’ve heard of me all the way out here?

“What’s the most vicious mage in the Magic City of Sharia doing all the way out here…?”

Uh, vicious? What kind of rumors were going around about me, exactly?

As I scrambled for a reply, we were interrupted by a sharp metallic ting. Triss shut her mouth instantly, and the skin on my back began to crawl.

Ting. Ting.

 The sounds came at a steady rhythm now. I looked in their direction, and I found Eris standing in a corner of the room, her eyes cold and focused, flicking her finger against the pommel of her sword.

It was something like a warning, or maybe just a sign of her displeasure. Like the sound a rattlesnake would make when you blundered into its territory. A physical shiver ran through me, from the base of my spine to my head.

“Uh, sorry.”

I wasn’t the only one who was shaking. I could see Triss’ shoulders quivering as well.

“I’m not, er… trying to pry into your business or anything, okay?”

The words seemed to be directed more at Eris than at me. She acknowledged the apology with a quiet snort, and finally stopped flicking her sword. 

God, that girl is scary sometimes.

“It’s just, you need information to survive in this line of work,” Triss continued. “We know the names and faces of most, well… dangerous people.”

“I’m really not that dangerous, for the record,” I said.

“Yeah, sure. Don’t worry, I get it. You’re just some random guy named Rudeus, not that famous mage, right? That lady over there isn’t the Berserker Sword King. And that beastfolk woman isn’t the Black Wolf, either. Sound good?”

“…Yes, let’s go with that.”

Maybe giving her my real name had been a mistake. It was surprising that she even knew about Eris, though. Was there any chance she might be an apostle of the Man-God?

…Nah, that seemed very unlikely. She’d probably heard a few rumors about Quagmire Rudeus, and one of them must have mentioned that I was working with the Black Wolf and the Berserker Sword King. I couldn’t jump right to blaming Man-God for anything I didn’t understand. It was going to throw my judgment off.

“All right then, Random Rudeus. Mind telling me what business you have with Triss the border-hopping thug?”

It was finally time to broach the main topic.

In the long run, we wanted Triss to expose Darius’ misdeeds and help us bring him down. But if I just came out and said that, it was hard to imagine she’d react well. I couldn’t just start off by asking her “You’re Tristina Purplehorse, a former member of the Asuran nobility, correct?” This woman knew how vicious the world of Asuran politics could be. We could explain our situation to her, but if she didn’t see any chance of victory, she wouldn’t get involved.

We had to take this one step at a time. First of all, we needed to make friends with Triss. Then, during our journey to the south, I could drop some hints about our plan to defeat Darius. Later on, I might mention how helpful it would be to find some way of damaging his reputation—such as locating one of the high-born girls he regularly enslaved. At that point, there was a good chance she’d volunteer immediately. And if not, I could drop the pretense and pressure her to help us out.

So, for the moment…

“Excuse me. Are you, by any chance… Tristina Purplehorse?”

A voice from the back of the room knocked all the words out of my mouth.

I turning slowly to face the beautiful blond-haired woman standing behind the rest of us. It was Ariel, of course. Her hair was a little messier than usual—she’d probably just woken up—but her voice was as clear and charming as always.

Triss stared across the room at her, wide-eyed with surprise. “Wh… Why do you know that name?”

“Oh, it really is you. Don’t you remember me? The two of us met just once, at my fifth birthday party.” 

I’d considered intervening, but Ariel gestured with her hand and gave me a quick wink. From the looks of things, she had a plan.

“P-Princess Ariel?!” Triss said, looking utterly stunned. For a long moment, she seemed to be studying Ariel’s features closely, perhaps comparing them to her memories—and then she froze entirely, her mouth hanging slightly open. “Why… But… What are you doing here, Your Highness…?”

Her legs trembling, Triss kneeled on the wooden floor. The princess pushed past me and stood before her. 

“I received word that my father is deathly ill, and attempted to return to Asura,” Ariel said with a self-effacing smile. “But it seems my elder brother isn’t in an especially welcoming mood.” 

Uhm, is it really a good idea to just throw that out there? It certainly didn’t seem that way to a sneaky, careful guy like me… but on second thought, that kind of openness was probably the best way to earn real trust.

“Oh, I get it. So that’s why you came to us, to smuggle you across the border…”

Triss nodded thoughtfully. I got the feeling that she’d already heard about the recent battle in the forest, if not the specific details.

“But what about you, Tristina? What are you doing in a place like this? The last I heard, you’d gone missing without a trace…”

“Uhm, well…” Triss hesitated for a moment; but looking up into Ariel’s eyes, she seemed to find a reason to continue. “It’s a long story, but—”

From that point on, everything moved along quickly and easily. As I turned out, I didn’t need to say a single word. Triss poured out her whole miserable life story to Ariel like a sinner at confession.

Darius had kidnapped her at a young age, and kept her as a sex slave for years. Eventually, he’d sold her to this bandit gang. For a time, she’d been the leader’s woman, but he’d trained her as a bandit on a whim. And when a new boss took over, she gained her freedom as a member of the band. There were all sorts of strange and ugly details in the story, but Triss told it calmly, without any tears or smiles.

Princess Ariel, on the other hand, was crying openly for most of it. And her tears looked absolutely genuine. With the last of them still running down her face, she made Triss a promise: “I can’t truly understand your suffering, but I guarantee I’ll give the man who did this to you his rightful punishment.” Then she asked Triss to help our cause by testifying to what Darius had done to her.

It was a remarkably convincing act.

Still, Triss was hesitant to agree. The Kingdom of Asura was very powerful, and Darius was a sly and vicious man. She insisted that we stood no chance of victory. Ariel, in turn, told her that this wasn’t true. She named her allies: Sylphie, Eris, Ghislaine, me, and Perugius himself, and argued we were capable of overcoming Darius and winning her the throne.

Triss agonized over her decision for a whole hour. But after that painful period of silence, she finally nodded. She swore an oath right then and there to escort Princess Ariel safely to the capital, and help her bring down Darius.

Ariel had gained herself another loyal follower in no time at all. I hadn’t contributed in the slightest. While I sat on my hands, the princess’ earnest words and skillful arguments had won Triss over, heart and soul.

This goal had been brought up during our meeting with Orsted the previous night. But we hadn’t come up with a detailed plan to achieve it. Ariel had probably just sprung into action when she saw how slow and clunky my own plan was.

The princess was one seriously impressive woman. No wonder she was confident she could win over the entire Asuran nobility on her own.

I’d just have to focus on the things that only I could do.