Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Job with Augurey

“The guild employees said he’d be back in five days, but is he really going to be back by then?” I asked.

This was the grand guildmaster we were talking about. I would understand if he was so busy I’d have to wait to see him, but it would be different if they told me to come back in five days because the grand guildmaster was an eccentric who was prone to randomly going walkabout and they weren’t sure when he’d be back. The guild employee had sounded confident about the date, but they might have been nervously crossing their fingers under the desk when they said it.

“He’ll be back in five days! I hope...”

That could have been the subtext I missed during that conversation. It was hard to be at the bottom rung of the ladder. Then again, only the elites of the Yaaran’s guild employees worked in the capital, so I guessed they weren’t quite at the bottom rung.

“Who knows? If they told you to come back in five days, you’ll have to go there, but you shouldn’t get your hopes up,” Augurey cautioned.

“I think I’m starting to see why Wolf gave me so much discretion on this one,” I murmured.

“He probably didn’t want to deal with it.”

That was likely the long and short of it. No wonder Wolf had looked oddly uncomfortable during the whole process. I decided I’d give him a piece of my mind when I got back to Maalt.

“But, for my part,” Augurey said with a smile, “I’m grateful to Wolf for sending you. It’s thanks to him that I got to see you two and that I was able to get the whole palace stuff and the huge stress it caused off my plate. And it looks like I’ll be able to do a job I can’t take on my own.”

The simple fact was that we would’ve had to visit the capital at some point anyway. Besides, I wanted to have a proper conversation with Augurey instead of the hurried chat we’d had when we saved the princess, so in that regard, I should be grateful. Maybe I wouldn’t complain to Wolf after all. Nah, I could always give him an earful and then thank him.

“So a job then. Augurey, you’re Silver-class now, so shouldn’t you be able to deal with most jobs solo?” Lorraine asked. “Even if you can’t do it alone, you can ask for temporary party members for the duration of that specific job.”

Lorraine made a good point. Even if Augurey needed to form a party to handle the job he had in mind, it wasn’t like it had to be Lorraine and me who helped. I was just a Bronze-class adventurer after all, and while Lorraine was skilled and knowledgeable, she didn’t know as much about the area around the capital as the local adventurers. I agreed with her that it’d be more efficient just to work with adventurers who were used to the terrain.

“That’d be fine for a normal job,” Augurey said, shaking his head, “but the job I’ve taken is one that most adventurers here don’t do very often. Would comparing it to gathering the fire spirit madder we did last time help give it more context?”

When we came to the capital in disguise, we’d taken a job along with Augurey. Well, technically it was a job for Augurey, who’d wanted a specific plant to dye his clothes, but that wasn’t all it was for.

“Ah, that. Did it save the girl’s mother?” Lorraine asked as she recalled the job.

Augurey blinked in surprise. “Huh...? How did you...?”

“I saw you along the main street when we were heading back. I thought it was an admirable thing,” Lorraine said without a hint of irony.

“No, that was...” Augurey looked down as if suddenly struck by shyness. “I just thought we’d gathered too much to use just for dye. That’s all. Oh, the girl’s mom got better. She got ill because she had circulation problems. The healer said she required fire spirit madder for treatment.”

In addition to being useful for dying clothes, fire spirit madder also had a medicinal use. Or rather, that was its primary usage. However, I hadn’t really thought much about it at the time because Augurey had been so insistent on dyeing his clothes a specific color. Turned out it was needed more as a medicine that time as well.

“You call us too nice, but I’m sure you’re just as bad as we are,” Lorraine commented.

“Eh, I guess that’s just a Maaltesian adventurer for you. I’m sure any adventurer from Maalt would have done the same thing.”

I hoped he was right, but I wasn’t so certain that he was.

“So is the job you want us to do one that doesn’t pay well and is pretty much volunteer work for someone in need?” I asked.

“No, not this time,” Augurey replied. “Last time was the exception. The reason I mentioned that job was because this job also requires an eye for finding materials that your average capital adventurer wouldn’t spot. Not that I’m saying there’s anything wrong with occasional charity work, mind you, but fortunately, there are a few oddballs even in the capital willing to do that. You don’t need to worry on that front. The thing with the fire spirit madder was that no one would take that job because they didn’t know how to find it.”

“I see. So what are some examples of what you’re talking about?” Lorraine asked.

“Let’s see... Catching an aqua hathur alive, and I guess gathering clay from luteum golems? Both of those require cutting off the monster’s escape routes. There was also one about wyvern flax too. I had trouble figuring out how to handle that one, but with you here, Lorraine, we could do it using your magic.”

I felt my heart sink as Augurey listed off a litany of jobs. “Wait, were you planning on doing all of those with us?”

“Of course. I mean, you’ve got the next few days off, right? Perfect timing, I’d say. Not like you were planning to spend all day sleeping at your inn, right? Adventurers have short shelf lives, so you gotta make money while you can.”

In a broad sense, he was right, but it seemed like an awful lot of work. Still, we had four days until the grand guildmaster returned to the capital, so we did indeed have a lot of time on our hands. I guess this would be a good way to pass the time. Lorraine and I exchanged glances, and after we both let out a dry chuckle, we decided to go along with Augurey’s proposal.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Oh? Master Rentt? What can I help you with today? The grand guildmaster hasn’t returned yet,” the guild receptionist said as I approached.

She must have remembered my face, or rather my appearance, from my last visit. It’d be hard to forget the creepy man wearing a skull mask and robes, but adventurers were a diverse bunch. We ran the gamut from colorful dandies like Augurey to dark, brooding types like me. There were plenty of eccentrics who looked like they had far more interesting stories than I did, which meant that the receptionist who remembered me was really good at her job.

Although, part of it might be because it hadn’t been that long since my last visit. Now that I knew more about the grand guildmaster, I could tell the receptionist was a little nervous when she mentioned that the grand guildmaster hadn’t returned yet. It seemed Augurey had been right on the money, and the receptionist wasn’t sure if he’d show up on schedule.

While I was technically here as a guild employee, the connection between guild branches wasn’t that strong. Surely there were things they didn’t want outsiders to know. Then again, when it came to Jean Seebeck, even Augurey knew about his antics, so I supposed adventurers in the capital and even the old-school adventurers in other regions might be able to tell us more stories. I just hadn’t been aware of it because there hadn’t been any major disasters that our generation had to face. I knew from old stories that he was a legend, but I hadn’t experienced anything firsthand, nor did I have a good sense of his personality either.

At any rate, I decided that as a fellow guild employee, I’d at least try to temporarily alleviate some of her anxiety about the grand guildmaster’s whereabouts.

As reassuringly as possible, I said, “No, I’m already aware he isn’t back yet. I have an old acquaintance among the adventurers here, and he told me stories about the grand guildmaster. Must be difficult to deal with that.”

The receptionist looked surprised, then sighed in relief. “I see. Then allow me to be honest. I truly can’t say for certain if he really will return in four days’ time. He promised that he’d ‘definitely’ be back by then, but...”

“You can’t exactly rely on his word. I sympathize with you there.” I sighed, but the receptionist shrank back, so I altered my tone of voice and changed the subject. “That aside, I’m not here to hound you on that subject.”

“Oh? Then what brings you here today?”

“As I said before, I have an acquaintance among the adventurers here. Augurey.”

When I called his name, Augurey removed several of the postings on the job board and wandered over to join me. Lorraine was with him as well.

Seeing that, the receptionist nodded. “Ah, that would make sense. If I recall, Master Augurey used to work out of Maalt. Have you known him since back then?”

“Yeah. After catching up, we got to talking about old times and decided to take a few jobs together since we have time until the grand guildmaster returns. We probably won’t go that far afield, but we may as well make the most of that time.”

The receptionist’s expression brightened. I supposed she was glad I wasn’t going to grill her about the grand guildmaster. That, and our going out on jobs would work out in her favor as well.

“I’ll go ahead and register you as a temporary party,” she said. “If you can just fill in the necessary information, I can begin the process immediately. Also, you’re more than welcome to keep the grand guildmaster waiting. Even if it winds up being a few days, it’d be his own fault for wandering off. Rest assured, we’ll keep him properly secured once he returns.”

We were talking about her boss, but if you had no context coming into this conversation, you’d think we were talking about a criminal of some sort. It was the grand guildmaster’s fault for wandering off on a regular basis, but...

Anyway, even though we’d been given permission to stall, I intended to return on schedule. If I dawdled too long, I might get dragged into more palace-related complications. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.

I took the temporary party registration form from the receptionist and turned to talk it over with Augurey and Lorraine. It wasn’t like there was a whole lot to discuss, though. All we needed to do was go over the basics.

“Is splitting the rewards three ways okay?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s fine,” Augurey and Lorraine both answered.

I wasn’t too sure if that was fair, so I said, “I’m still Bronze-class. Shouldn’t my rate be lower than yours?”

Augurey stated, “If we were just talking about class, that would be the usual practice, since that would mean there’s a gap in combat ability. But as far I can tell based on fighting together the other day, it didn’t feel like I was any better than you.”

“Really?”

He was referring to when we saved the princess. Well, my physical abilities had improved quite a bit. I knew I’d gotten stronger, but Augurey had gotten stronger as well. I didn’t know who’d win if we had a proper fight. While I had some monster abilities hidden up my sleeve and could use them to catch him off guard, I couldn’t say for certain that Augurey didn’t have anything comparable. Silver-class was the rank when most adventurers began to develop abilities of that type. Underestimating a Silver-class adventurer by assuming they had no hidden cards up their sleeves was a quick way to end up in a lot of pain.

“If I had to add more reasons,” Augurey continued, “the jobs we’re taking all require special knowledge and skills more than they do combat ability. And you’re a lot better at those things than we are, really.”

“Augurey is right,” Lorraine chimed in. “Rentt, you’re the mentor who taught me how to survive in the forest.”

That had been true a long time ago, but Lorraine had mastered those survival skills quickly. I didn’t think I’d done anything that deserved being referred to as her mentor, but I was really grateful that these two Silver-class adventurers were evaluating me fairly like this.

“When you phrase it like that, it makes it hard for me to say no,” I admitted. “Okay, I’ll take an equal share.”

We then quickly handled the other details with the default terms set for temporary parties and handed the sheet to the receptionist.

She scanned over the pages and nodded. “Everything looks to be in order. I’ll go ahead and register you now. Next, concerning the jobs...”

Augurey nodded and handed the job requests to her. She quirked a brow as she read over the details.

“These are all jobs that have been neglected for a long time. The locations where the materials can be harvested are the same, but no one has taken these jobs due to the difficulty. Are you sure you want to take them?”

I understood that the receptionist was just worried about us, but we’d already discussed which jobs to take, and based on the content of the requests, they were well within our ability to complete.

Augurey wouldn’t have proposed taking jobs that we couldn’t handle. A few other jobs on the board had been left to fossilize there, but all of them were clearly impossible for the average adventurer. One wanted the tears of a fire dragon, while another asked for ore from a kraken’s lair. They were the sort of jobs that would make even Gold- or Platinum-class adventurers hesitate.

Mithril-class adventurers would have been able to handle them, but there weren’t any in the capital. Most Mithril-class adventurers tended to wander from land to land rather than stay in a specific location. At the moment, there were only two whose precise locations were known. One was in the Lelmudan Empire and the other in the Holy Kingdom of Ars. No one knew where the rest were. Or, at least, that was the official story. It was possible that they were on retainer for some country and kept out of the public eye, but that wasn’t the sort of thing normal adventurers like us had any way to determine.

“Yeah, it’s not a problem,” Augurey answered. “I know they’re not easy jobs, but these two specialize in this sort of work. I wouldn’t have thought to take these jobs if they weren’t here, but since they have some free time, I figured it was a good opportunity to take care of them.”

“Understood,” the receptionist said with a nod. “Then I’ll process your acceptance of these jobs. I would add that they have no penalty for failure, so you don’t have to worry in that regard.”

“I know. That’s part of the reason I chose them.”

Augurey had carefully considered the risks when choosing the jobs. Of course, the lack of penalty didn’t mean that we were taking the jobs with the assumption that we’d fail, but it was always nice when a job had no penalties for the adventurer in the case of failure.

At its heart, the guild took everyone, so the restrictions on success rate weren’t all that stringent. Adventurers wouldn’t be expelled for failing too many jobs. Part of that was due to the uncomfortable fact that anyone who failed that much would probably die before they reached the point of being expelled, but there was also the fact that there weren’t any strict terms attached to success rates. Still, I’d heard that you could get a bad reputation if you failed too often. That would hurt your chances during Ascension Exams, and the guild wouldn’t inform you when profitable jobs became available.

Jobs weren’t restricted to just the ones posted on the public boards. The guild would hold specific jobs for specific adventurers, which was why the adventurers who understood where their bread was buttered paid close attention to their success rate. Essentially, what the receptionist meant was that failing any of these jobs wouldn’t be counted as part of our success rate in terms of our reputation with the guild.

The types of jobs where that was true, while rare, did exist. They were usually ones that had been sitting there gathering dust or ones that were so challenging that failure seemed unavoidable. That didn’t mean you wouldn’t get fair credit for completing them, but most people wouldn’t go near them because they were either a waste of time or a waste of your life.

As for the jobs we’d just accepted, they were the sort where you might just waste a lot of time.

“I see. In which case, I have nothing more to add.” The receptionist finished processing our paperwork. “There. Everything is complete. Please be careful, and I wish you the best of luck.”

We nodded and turned to leave the guild building.

◆◇◆◇◆

It went without saying that even in the capital, the area past the great walls encircling the city was a vast wilderness. The kingdom’s knights and adventurers made a habit of regularly culling the monsters in the immediate vicinity, so the ones left were typically small spawns of the weakest monsters, but being near the city didn’t guarantee your safety. If you traveled half a day away from the city itself, you’d be in completely untamed territory.

“Rentt! Incoming!”

“Got it!”

I was already aware of the approaching presence before Augurey shouted his warning, and I turned to face it, readying my sword. I saw a somewhat larger, lanky monster with green skin charging at me with a crudely crafted weapon in its grasp.

It was a monster called a hobgoblin, which was larger than a goblin and had a silhouette closer in proportions to that of a human. People speculated that they evolved from normal goblins, but no one really knew that for certain because it was extremely rare to actually see monsters evolving.

In my case, I’d experienced it firsthand, but I’d been told that I was going to evolve into a vampire after a ghoul, only to find myself turning into something else entirely. The scholarly evolution theories weren’t without issues either. There were examples like puchi suris, which had multiple paths to evolution, but I would imagine monster evolution itself was a complex topic.

Despite all that, it felt intuitive to me that hobgoblins were an evolved form of a goblin. It looked like a normal goblin just had a growth spurt, and other than gaining a little speed and some ability to plan, it was close to a regular goblin in terms of capabilities. Basically, they weren’t that strong.

I swung my blade downward, and it slid easily through the hobgoblin’s neck. Its head went flying in one direction while the rest of its body collapsed as the momentum from its charge continued to carry it forward. It then lay motionless and didn’t so much as twitch.

◆◇◆◇◆

After defeating the hobgoblins, we immediately harvested their magic crystals. We had plenty of experience doing this, and even I had fought hobgoblins countless times and knew precisely where their magic crystals were and how to harvest them. The crystal was right under the heart, and you could easily find it by stabbing around that area with a dagger.

I wasn’t the only one who was used to doing this, though. Lorraine had her scholarly training, and she’d memorized the anatomical drawings of most monsters. She’d also put in plenty of work as an adventurer in Maalt. Dissecting a hobgoblin was child’s play to her at this point.

It was the same for Augurey. While he was now a Silver-class adventurer, he’d spent a fair amount of time as Bronze-class. Among the Bronze-class monsters, hobgoblins had relatively valuable magic crystals. They were a good source of steady income, so we were all accustomed to dissecting them.

“Guess that about does it,” Augurey said with a sigh after we finished dissecting the ten or so hobgoblins and gathered them in one spot. The work wasn’t particularly taxing, so he was relieved that no more hobgoblin bodies littered the roadside. The scene looked like the aftermath of a monster attack, which often conjured unpleasant memories for most adventurers, so I understood his relief.

Still, it wasn’t like any of us would have fallen to pieces if people had been attacked by monsters and we’d been too late to save them. Sure, that sort of trauma might affect young, inexperienced adventurers, but it’d been a long time since we’d passed that stage in our careers. It wasn’t that we felt nothing at all, but we could keep our cool even if we witnessed such a scene.

“Yeah. Not that there aren’t other things we could harvest from them,” Lorraine remarked, “but I doubt there’s demand for it in the capital. I can’t imagine we’d be able to sell it, so I’ll just incinerate the bodies.”

Lorraine began chanting her spell and turned the pile of dead hobgoblins into ash. If we were in the middle of the woods, we could’ve just left the bodies there to rot, but this was right by a major road. It’d be bad if the smell of the bodies drew other monsters. Sometimes that could even spiral into a situation where even stronger monsters came hunting the monsters drawn by the bodies. When that happened, the road would be closed to traffic until they could be eradicated. It was bad news all around, which was why when monsters appeared near major roads, it was standard practice to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Even if a party had no one who could use magic, almost all adventurers had some way of starting a fire. If you couldn’t dispose of the bodies with fire, you would carry them away from the road and bury them. It was often a hassle, but it was better than the alternative.

That said, it wasn’t a particularly common occurrence. Most monsters with some level of intelligence understood that people passed through areas near roads, and among them would be powerful adventurers. For roads near the capital, there was the added threat of knights on patrol or in training, which meant monsters were even more likely to avoid them. Yet we’d run into some hobgoblins—not just a couple strays, but a group of ten of them. That was unusual.

It seemed Lorraine had been thinking the same thing, because after a moment, she murmured to herself, “Perhaps there is some sort of turf battle occurring between monsters in this area.”

“That might be it,” I said, “but we have no way of checking. It might be best to go into the woods to investigate, but there are no villages or hamlets in this area anyway. Besides, if all that’s running away is hobgoblins, it can’t be that serious.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. It could be the start of something much worse. When a goblin king is about to emerge, it starts as skirmishes between groups of goblins. It’s not rare for events that appear to be minor squabbles between goblins to turn out to be a sign of an emerging goblin king.”

She was right, but she was jumping to the opposite extreme.

Augurey shrugged. “We could debate this all day. Even the biggest disasters have little hints that something is coming, but if we were to chase down every possible sign of a looming threat, we’d run into a shortage of people really quickly.”

Obviously, Lorraine understood this as well. She smiled and said, “That’s true. I don’t think we need to investigate at this stage. I was simply making note of the possibility.”

“That’s fine then. I just didn’t want to go home empty-handed because we went chasing after a phantom goblin king.” Augurey was joking, of course. He wasn’t so self-centered that he’d worry about money if there really was a big threat looming on the horizon. “Then I guess we can move on?”

“Hey, folks!” a voice called out to us.

I turned to find our wagon with a middle-aged man sitting atop it approaching. It was the man we’d hired to be our driver for this trip. His name was Yattul, and because of his line of work, he was very muscular. He wasn’t trained to fight, though, and he wasn’t so strong that he could face a group of ten hobgoblins himself.

The instant we’d detected the group of hobgoblins, we’d instructed him to stay behind as we got off the wagon and went ahead to take care of the monsters. Although he’d been far back enough that we weren’t in his line of sight, he must have seen the smoke rising from the burning bodies, so he’d come forward on his own.

“Were ya able to get rid of all the beasties?” Yattul asked as he approached.

“Yeah,” I answered. “There were about ten hobgoblins. We took their magic crystals and burned the bodies. Did you want to buy the crystals?”

Yattul wasn’t just a wagon driver. His main occupation was a merchant. He traveled between the small village we were headed toward and the capital. However, since that wasn’t really enough to survive on, he evidently did work elsewhere.

“Ohh?! Really?! Hobgobby magic crystals fetch good prices, so I’d be happy to buy ’em, but are ya sure? You’d get a better price at the guild, I reckon?”

Yattul was right, but the price difference wasn’t huge, and we wouldn’t lose much by selling the crystals to him. A part of me also felt it’d be better to sell to someone like Yattul, who worked an unprofitable route to support a small village. Augurey, Lorraine, and I had already agreed to sell the crystals to Yattul beforehand, so there was no reason not to do so now. If he’d said no, we would’ve sold them at the guild.

I nodded. “It’s fine. We can’t sell you all of them, but...”

“No, no, it’s more than generous of ya to offer just a few. I appreciate ya, boss.”

The rest of the crystals Lorraine wanted to use for alchemy, so they’d be her share. I handed the magic crystals to Yattul, then after receiving the payment, I split the money with Augurey, giving him three crystals’ worth and keeping the same amount for myself. The remaining one we’d use for a meal when we got back to town. Perhaps we were being a little too precise on dividing the spoils, but carelessness in this sort of thing often led to inner conflict and resentment later. We were above those sorts of things, but it was best to make sure we drew clear lines when we could.

After checking that the monsters had all been reduced to ash, we got back onto the wagon. Yattul cracked his whip, and the wagon once again began traveling down the highway.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Huh...? That’s odd...”

As we were lazing around in the wagon, we heard muttering from the driver’s seat. Yattul was talking to himself. I was curious, so I poked my head out from the back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Yattul turned to me with a troubled expression. “Oh, hey, boss. Something’s off. The road should be right, but it looks different from usual. Normally, we’d be almost to the hamlet, but...”

“You might just be imagining it,” I suggested. “Your sense of distance might be off because of the hobgoblin attack.”

“Hmmm... Ya really think so? I can’t tell. Could you guys take a look outside every so often? Lemme know if you notice anythin’ off.”

I nodded, then returned to the others. “We’re apparently in the process of getting lost. He wants us to keep our eyes open too.”

Augurey tilted his head quizzically. “Huh? Was the way to the hamlet all that complicated? It’s not a straight path, but it should be pretty hard to get lost on the way.”

The highway had multiple forks, so if you picked the wrong path, you’d end up in the middle of nowhere. I’d understand getting lost if he took the wrong fork in the road, but there hadn’t been any up to this point, and Yattul traveled this route regularly. If he got lost this easily, he would’ve gone broke a long time ago.

“It’s unusual to be attacked by a group of hobgoblins on the highway around here,” Lorraine noted. “I could see how it might be enough to confuse him and make him lose his way. But, monsters aside, I’ve heard ‘there’s no such thing as a merchant who’s never been waylaid by a highwayman.’ If one panicked that easily, I don’t think they’d be able to work as a merchant.”

Lorraine referenced a common saying among merchants. Few had combat skills like adventurers, but they still had the bare minimum to defend themselves. It was common for merchants to pick up weapons and fight alongside mercenaries and adventurers when they were in a convoy. As a result, merchants were usually a lot more desensitized to violence than your average person, so a little bit of danger shouldn’t be all that traumatic. And yet...

“If I had to suspect something...” Lorraine continued as she stroked her chin.

“What?” I asked.

“He’s under the influence of some sort of charm. It would make sense if its effect interfered with his sense of direction and caused him to take a wrong turn.”

“Charm? You mean magic?” Augurey asked.

“No. I don’t feel any presence of magic. I’d be able to tell immediately if that were the case. It’d have to be some other method. Drugs, perhaps?”

“Drugs, hm? But when would that have happened?”

“That I don’t know. It could have been while we were away from the wagon fighting the hobgoblins, or someone might have dosed him before we set out. No point in worrying too much about the timing.”

She meant the drug could have had a delayed effect. That wasn’t impossible, but...

“Even if that was true, why would someone drug Yattul?” I asked, scratching my head. Not to be rude, but while Yattul was probably a little richer than your average capital resident, he didn’t seem to be worth targeting if you wanted money.

Lorraine contemplated it a moment, then said, “I can’t answer that one either. Someone might have a grudge against him, or perhaps we’re the target. But that’s a bit implausible as well. We’ve been with Yattul since we decided to hitch a ride on his wagon. If they were targeting us, then they drugged him after we made that decision. Which would mean the only opportunity to do so would have been during our encounter with the hobgoblins earlier.”

“If that’s the case, then the one who drugged him might still be nearby.”

“Right. But they’re both only possibilities. It might just be that Yattul himself has a terrible sense of direction. To confirm that we’d have to check on Yattul first.”

“You have a good point. Should we stop him now?”

Augurey stuck his head out of the wagon. “The sun’s about to set. We should have been at the hamlet by now, so I’m sure Yattul’s going to propose making camp. We can wait until then to check on him, right?”

It might have seemed like we weren’t taking this seriously enough, but if someone really had drugged Yattul and was still hanging around, a sudden stop would tip them off. It’d be better to wait until we had a natural reason to stop. If Yattul ended up going in some strange direction, we could stop him then, but this was the most reasonable solution for the time being.

Augurey’s prediction didn’t take long to come true.

“Sorry, folks. Looks like I made a wrong turn. Don’t think we’ll make it to the hamlet today, so we should set up camp here. That be okay?”

We all nodded.

“That’s fine. But do you know where we are?” I asked.

“I’m not even sure about that. Sorry, but we should be okay if we turn back. Oh, and as for the fare, I’ll return it since it’s my fault we got lost. And I’ll make sure we get there.”

Yattul, crestfallen, gazed at the ground. It gave me the impression that he might just have a terrible sense of direction. At any rate, we were going to set up camp here. Yattul intended to give us some of his rations, but we’d brought our own food. We also had our cooking gear in my magic bag, so even though we were camping, it’d be a decent meal. Yattul was overjoyed when we invited him to join us.

◆◇◆◇◆

As we were having dinner, Lorraine quietly checked to see if something was wrong with Yattul and came to the conclusion that there were signs he’d been drugged in some fashion. While I also had training as a healer and would have been able to figure out the drug if I could check his symptoms, doing so without touching him would require a high level of magical knowledge, hence why Lorraine did the checking.

After Lorraine finished describing Yattul’s condition, I identified the potential drugs that could have been used on him and laced his stew with antidotes for those drugs. Whatever drug it was, it wasn’t all that powerful, and the antidote was similarly weak with few side effects, so he probably wouldn’t die from it. It’d be different if he already had some physical malady, but I remembered Yattul mentioning that he’d been blessed with a hardy constitution and couldn’t ever remember getting sick, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

After we finished dinner, Lorraine and Augurey got sleepy and began to nod off.

“You can go to sleep. I’ll watch the fire,” I offered as I turned my gaze to the campfire Lorraine had started.

“All right. Thanks,” Lorraine said. “I guess we’ve just been so busy lately that I can’t keep my eyes open. Good night.”

“Then I’ll do the same,” Augurey added. “Wake me up if anything shows up. I might wake on my own, but there’s always the possibility I might not.” He shrugged, then found a suitable branch to use as a pillow and lay down.

The last one awake, Yattul, also seemed to be nodding off.

“You can go to bed too, Yattul.”

“No, I’d feel bad for makin’ ya do it, boss. I should keep watch...”

He was apparently still blaming himself and trying to stay awake out of a sense of duty. I doubted he planned to stay awake the whole night, but he wanted his passengers to rest first. In my case, I could last a few days, even a week without sleep—one of the biggest advantages of becoming a monster. On the other hand, maybe I’d lost many opportunities to find peace and rest in this life, but considering that I was an adventurer, the advantages still outweighed the downsides.

Lorraine and Augurey had gone straight to sleep—not because they didn’t care about me, but because they understood I’d be fine. Yattul had no way of knowing that, though. He was wavering, so I decided to nudge him to go to bed.

“It’d be bad if you don’t get enough sleep and it impacts your ability to drive tomorrow. If you’re prioritizing your job, then go ahead and sleep. You can sleep until the morning. I’ll make sure to swap with Augurey and Lorraine during the night, and it won’t be that hard with the three of us.”

I was actually planning to keep watch all night, but I told a little white lie to avoid suspicion.

Yattul was convinced by my argument and nodded, although hesitantly. “You’re right. Somethin’ was off about me today. Sorry it caused this whole mess. I’ll sleep now so I can make up for it tomorrow...”

He then lay down.

◆◇◆◇◆

Although Yattul had lain down, he was still awake, only pretending to sleep. The merchant Yattul—or rather, the operative “the Goblin”—was acting under orders he’d been given from above. He’d been instructed to approach three adventurers named Rentt, Lorraine, and Augurey in the capital, to promise to take them by wagon to their destination, and to follow through with that promise. Then, he was to find some way to dispose of them on the way there.

While he hadn’t bothered looking up the Bronze-class adventurer, he’d already been provided with a fair amount of information on the Silver-class ones. He’d understood that it wouldn’t be an easy job, but when he dug further, he’d discovered that Augurey had only recently been promoted to Silver-class and had been stuck at Bronze-class in some backwater town.

Furthermore, he’d also found that Lorraine’s primary occupation was as a scholar and that she’d only been given the rank of Silver-class in recognition of her scholarly accomplishments. Essentially, it was clear to Yattul that she didn’t have the actual skill of a Silver-class adventurer.

The Goblin himself was about as skilled as a Silver-class adventurer, and he’d disposed of plenty of adventurers at that rank before, so while he thought the job would be difficult, it wasn’t beyond his abilities. He also had no intention of underestimating the trio and had made extensive preparations to ensure that his targets were disposed of without a trace.

As for the Goblin’s code name, it came from a special ability that he possessed. He sort of looked like a goblin—he was short and had a faintly feral aura about him—but the name came from the fact that he’d been able to command goblins and hobgoblins from birth. His ability was similar to that of a monster tamer; only he’d had it as a baby. He’d heard from his parents that they’d almost had a heart attack when a goblin approached the unattended baby and started caring for it, but he had no memory of that event.

His ability was extremely unusual in the small village he was from, and word spread quickly about it. One day, someone from the capital came who wanted to adopt him. As recompense, his parents had accepted a large fortune, and he’d been taken to the capital to grow up in an ideal environment.

He originally could get only one goblin to listen to his requests, but his training in his new home had helped him develop his ability to the point where he could now control a dozen evolved hobgoblins. Yes, the monster attack hadn’t been random; the Goblin had set it up using his special ability. He’d also been trained in various skills and fighting techniques needed of an operative, along with developing a resistance to various poisons and drugs.

Nonetheless, he hadn’t expected a measly dozen hobgoblins to take down two Silver-class adventurers. He’d had them attack the party to test the trio’s abilities. Even though he had prior intelligence on their potential capabilities, the Goblin knew from experience that his own two eyes were the best source of intelligence. He’d known plenty of operatives who’d failed catastrophically because they’d relied too much on the information they’d been given ahead of time.

That was why he’d sprung the hobgoblins on them, and the results of that attack had proven that the Goblin’s faith in his own two eyes was justified. Even three Silver-class adventurers took some time to deal with a dozen hobgoblins, but the trio had easily disposed of them and had even had time to harvest magic crystals from them.

Although he still felt he could take them in a fight, he needed to make sure he accomplished his mission. He’d decided to take the more devious but certain method—to put the adventurers in a state where they couldn’t resist and then kill them. Fortunately, he’d chosen to start on the wrong path and had already made arrangements to set up camp for the night. He’d also prepared rations that were loaded with sleeping potion. It was a potent sleeping potion too, one that would knock out a monster five times the size of a human.

The Goblin had planned to feed those rations to the adventurers, put them to sleep, then kill them—or rather, have goblins kill them—but even that plan had gone awry. One of them had been oddly well prepared, producing cooking utensils from a magic bag and making a stew. But the Goblin was tenacious, and he’d sneaked the sleeping potion he had in reserve into the pot. The adventurers had eaten the stew, and the two Silver-class ones had fallen fast asleep.

Unfortunately, the potion was taking time to have an effect on the Bronze-class one. Maybe he’d been in too much of a hurry and hadn’t put in enough. Still, it was just a matter of time. It was clear he’d fall asleep eventually, and then the Goblin would dispose of the three adventurers.

The Goblin lay down, waiting impatiently for the potion to have its effect.

◆◇◆◇◆

The night’s over, the Goblin thought as the golden orange light of daybreak began to shine above the distant mountain range.

How was this possible? The answer was simple. Rentt the Bronze-class adventurer simply never slept.

The adventurer had undeniably eaten the stew the Goblin had dosed, and the dose he’d used was supposed to be powerfully soporific, yet the adventurer had stayed up all night without so much as a yawn. The Goblin had watched with bated breath, wondering if Rentt would sleep this moment, or the next, or in the next minute...until the night was gone.

The impossible had happened, and the Goblin wanted to scream and demand answers from someone—anyone. Had he failed to stir the stew thoroughly enough when he’d hastily sneaked the poison in? Had Lorraine and Augurey taken the majority of the dose, leaving none left for Rentt?

It wasn’t impossible, but the Goblin clearly recalled... No, he paused and reconsidered. The truth was what you could see and feel, what you could verify. He had to stick to that philosophy.

Rentt hadn’t slept. That was a fact. The Goblin’s scheme had ended in failure, but there was nothing he could do to change that now. Besides, that wasn’t the only trick he had up his sleeve. The Goblin wasn’t so prideful he thought he could pull off any job alone on the first try. All that mattered were the final results.

For the time being, he would accept the small victory of forcing one of them to keep watch all night, which must have weakened Rentt to some degree. The Goblin would have preferred to weaken the two Silver-class adventurers, but for whatever reason, Rentt hadn’t woken either of them. The Goblin was concerned for a moment that the trio had seen through his sabotage, but he soon chased away that thought. If they had, they wouldn’t have kept him around. They could have left him prey to a monster and led their own way. As to why Rentt hadn’t woken his Silver-class companions, the Goblin just assumed they were the greater fighters, and Rentt had wanted them to be well rested.

It wasn’t uncommon for adventurers of varying ranks to form a party, but the lower-ranking member usually volunteered for menial duties around the camp to compensate for the gap in fighting capabilities. Perhaps they felt pressured to earn their keep, or perhaps they genuinely believed their assignment was for the betterment of the team. That was certainly the more efficient approach to running a party, and as long as the members got along, things ran smoothly. The longer a party worked together, the more likely it was that they suffered some fissure in their dynamic, but Rentt’s party seemed free of any such friction, so it was logical that Rentt had let the other two sleep.

As if to confirm the Goblin’s assumption, once the Goblin started the wagon, Rentt lay down and went to sleep. Keeping watch through the night must have taken a toll on him.

Some things had gone according to plan, but the Goblin had executed missions before where things hadn’t gone perfectly at first, so he wasn’t too shaken about it...yet.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Well? What are we going to do, Rentt?” Lorraine asked after stealthily setting up a Sound Barrier around us.

The barrier was so masterfully constructed that even I, with my heightened sensitivity to mana, barely felt the thin, invisible veil covering us. This was one handy spell, considering it perfectly soundproofed the area within it. Of course, the average mage couldn’t whip up one of these. It was only at our disposal thanks to Lorraine. In any case, it was safe to say that a normal human wouldn’t have a clue that a barrier was up.

Case in point, Yattul hadn’t moved a muscle when Lorraine spoke. If he’d been feigning ignorance, he could seriously pursue a career in acting. Although, considering how obvious he’d been when he drugged our stew, I doubt he was powerful enough to negate this Sound Barrier.

“What is there to do?” I replied. “We’re going back the way we’re supposed to. I think we’re good.”

I’d grabbed a hat from the floor of the wagon and placed it on my face to emphasize my snoozing facade. I’d also tucked the Map of Akasha into it, which continuously showed us our current location.

Just recently, I’d discovered that there was more to this item than just mapping dungeons. I’d been playing with it and had accidentally pulled up a world map. I could possibly discover more hidden features, but it had taken me a while to find the world map one, so even if there were additional functions, it could take me some time to figure them out.

The world map feature, by the way, differed from the dungeon one in that it showed us our current location even though I certainly hadn’t traversed the entire world yet. Like the dungeon map, though, it only labeled towns and settlements that I’d personally been to. I guess it wasn’t easy to master the use of any item. It was plenty useful as it was, however, particularly in our current situation.

“You two are awfully blasé about this. He’s definitely working for someone. The sooner we detain and interrogate him, the better, in my opinion,” Augurey said with a friendly smile. His sardonic tone betrayed that mask, producing a chilling contrast.

Lorraine had spoken in a similar manner, and I was quietly impressed by their acting chops. I, on the other hand, was free of that burden, thanks to the hat on my face. Not that I couldn’t have done the same if I’d tried, but my version of masking my emotions required less work.

“Even if we interrogate him now, there’s no guarantee he’ll spill everything,” Lorraine countered. “It’ll cause more trouble later if he gives us half-truths and we’re left with ambiguous intel. We need to clarify more of the situation. The fact that he’s still with us, even now when he suspects we might be on to him, suggests that he’s going to pull another trick. Best-case scenario, a few of his friends come out of the woodwork. Then, even if we happen to dispose of a few of them, we can gain some information.”

“You scare me sometimes, Lorraine,” Augurey admitted with a quaking breath, but he didn’t criticize Lorraine’s train of thought, so he must have considered it logical.

“Lorraine’s only showing her true colors. She’s a scholar willing to sacrifice her life in the pursuit of knowledge,” I said.

“Even scarier. But I can’t argue with your points, Lorraine. Oh, well. Let’s keep up the charade and pretend we’re one gullible bunch.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Oh? The wagon stopped.”

The horses had quietly come to a halt. We were still on the same road back, and it didn’t look like there was anything around us. Just as I was wondering what had happened, Yattul poked his head into the wagon.

“Sorry, folks. Nature calls.”

Whoever our driver worked for, he seemed human enough. There was nothing suspicious about him needing to use the bathroom once in a while. There would have been nothing suspicious, anyway, if we’d been a genuinely gullible bunch.

Lorraine spoke to our driver while I was indisposed by my fake sleeping. “There are few monsters along the travel roads, but the same can’t be said for bandits. I’ll go with you.”

In other words, we wanted someone to keep an eye on him. It was a reasonable request, and we’d kept up this routine throughout our journey.

This time, however, Yattul took advantage of the fact that Lorraine was the one to mention this. “No, no, no! Can’t have a lady accompany me! I’d be too nervous to go!” he said and hopped off the wagon before anyone else—by that, I mean Augurey—could get a word in edgewise.

If we were a gullible bunch, we would’ve believed that he went to answer nature’s call as he’d claimed, though he would have been much safer with Augurey by his side if that was the case. Yattul had craftily timed his announcement, making sure that I was asleep and addressing Lorraine so she would be inclined to volunteer as bodyguard. Maybe he had another excuse if that hadn’t worked out.

“There he goes. I guess he doesn’t want me to watch either.” Augurey shrugged, finding a bit of humor in the exchange.

“If he had to choose, I’m sure he wouldn’t want you staring at him. Besides, you’d stick out in the woods, Augurey.”

Augurey was dressed in contrasting colors that made your eyes ache. Since monsters usually directed their attention his way, it came in handy when trying to herd hordes of them. You might think him an altruistic adventurer to choose his outfits with this in mind, but Augurey insisted that his attire was a product of his fashion sense. Its practical benefit came at a mere coincidence. Yattul might have been able to use the monster-luring getup as an excuse for why he wouldn’t have wanted Augurey to follow him out.

“I can conceal myself if I want to, with an overcoat or something. Not that he was really concerned about that,” Augurey muttered.

“He has accomplices out there, then,” Lorraine said. “They must have planned to meet up in the woods. Shall we investigate?”

Tough call. “They’d probably spot all three of us coming, so I’ll go,” I offered.

“Should I try to tie them up?” Augurey asked.

It didn’t matter very much which one of us went, but considering the possibility that someone skilled in detection could be among the friend group Yattul was soon to be reunited with, I was the best option since I could eavesdrop from farthest away. My undead ears were pretty high caliber.

“Let’s play it by ear,” I said. “If I can suss out what they’re planning to do, it might be better to just listen and let them be. I prefer that to trying and failing to catch them all and losing the element of surprise.”

“You’re going to peek at their cards and crush their plan at every turn. That’d be a nightmare to anyone in his line of work,” Augurey said in mock horror, but the content of his remark was accurate.

I didn’t know who Yattul was spying for but having his every scheme crushed head-on must have seemed like a never-ending nightmare to him. I liked the sound of that.

“Let’s go with that,” I suggested.

I sneaked out of the wagon, making sure Yattul didn’t see me.

◆◇◆◇◆

The Goblin was a decently skilled saboteur, but he rightly understood that he required some additional assistance to complete some missions. On this mission too he’d brought along colleagues who could aid him if needed. However, this was accomplished more by his master being extra careful than by any request on Yattul’s part. The Goblin had come to believe that his master’s decision was spot on in this case.

The Goblin walked away from the wagon and into the woods and called out the code names of his aides. Immediately, two shadows appeared nearby.

The Goblin explained, “The trap didn’t spring. I failed. But they haven’t noticed yet. I will carry on with the plan.”

“You failed, Goblin? I hope our targets are as capable as you’re making them sound,” answered the voice of a young woman, lusty and confident.

“I can’t be certain yet. It could have been pure luck.”

“Then just try again,” the woman answered without a second thought.

While she was a trained saboteur like the Goblin, she’d only worked in the profession for a few years, which meant her missions so far had been relatively easy. She had not yet realized that some things simply couldn’t be explained.

So far, the Goblin had little cause for worry with his targets, but some part of him deep down warned him that he must not underestimate this mission. While his brain told him that he was being overly cautious, he knew from experience to trust his gut in times like this.

“I am aware of your accolades, Siren,” the Goblin stated, “but we may be dealing with someone the likes of which you have not yet encountered in your career. It’s important to keep that mindset at all times. Of course, there may be nothing to worry about.”

“I suppose we’ll find out. Well, I’ll go set up my stage, then. Just up the road,” Siren said, then disappeared.

An old and brittle voice, starkly contrasting with the Siren’s, spoke next. “Underestimating your enemy is dangerous, but so is fearing them more than is necessary, Goblin.”

“That’s true, but...” The Goblin couldn’t put his finger on what was causing the tide of anxiety rocking his heart.

His hidden comrade chuckled. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll clean up the mess. You and Siren may each pursue the mission however you see fit.” The shadow then disappeared as well.

◆◇◆◇◆

“What did you find out?” Lorraine asked as soon as I returned to the wagon.

Yattul hadn’t returned, but I noticed that the Sound Barrier was still active, so we could talk within it. Of course, Lorraine would never have asked such a question if there was any chance Yattul could have overheard.

I answered, “Not much. They didn’t go into details. They must have planned this out beforehand.”

“So ‘Operation Eavesdrop on Their Secret Conversation So We Can Anticipate and Crush Their Every Move’ wasn’t the master plan you thought it would be?” Augurey asked.

“Since when are we calling it that?”

“Just now. I came up with it. Not bad, right?”

“You’re right. It’s horrible,” Lorraine remarked, sounding exasperated. “It lacks any semblance of creativity.”

“Then what would you call this operation, Lorraine?” Augurey countered.

“What? W-Well...” Lorraine looked flustered, which didn’t happen often. She was both knowledgeable and creative, but her talents were limited to the field of academics and magic, not in witty operation naming.

After groaning in contemplation for some time, she finally said, “I take it back. We can call it ‘Operation Eavesdrop on Their Secret Conversation So We Can Anticipate and Crush Their Every Move.’”

“Victory!” cheered Augurey. At what, though, I didn’t have a clue.

As Lorraine and Augurey reached a common ground that no one had asked them to find, I steered the conversation back in its original direction. “Operation Eavesdrop wasn’t a complete failure.”

“You already shortened it?” Augurey asked dejectedly.

Ignoring him, Lorraine asked, “Why not?”

“I didn’t get the details of their scheme, but I got the gist. First off, there are three of them, including Yattul.”

“Oh? Are they going with quality over quantity?” Augurey asked, still sounding downtrodden.

“Maybe. And they were using code names. Yattul’s is ‘Goblin.’ A woman and another agent who sounded like an old man were with him. The woman was called ‘Siren,’ but I never heard the code name of the old man.”

Augurey seemed to regain some of his spirit. “‘Goblin’? I thought it was weird that we encountered hobgoblins yesterday. Was it Yattul’s doing?”

Monsters rarely appeared on travel roads, especially if they were relatively smart like a hobgoblin. We naturally assumed that the variable was Yattul. If the hobgoblins hadn’t been lured there, they would’ve had to have been chased from their original nest by other monsters or the like. And if that had been the case, the hobgoblins would have suffered some injuries. The ones we encountered, however, might have been covered in some dirt, but they’d definitely been fine until they’d attacked us.

“Most likely it was him,” Lorraine answered. “He somehow lured them from their nest or summoned them here. It could have been done by either of his accomplices, but it’s certainly possible if any of them is a monster tamer.”

“Do you think Yattul’s the one?” I asked.

“Just a possibility. It’s rare for a tamer to control that many monsters at once. It may be more likely that he used some other method to lure them here.”

At most, a monster tamer could control up to five monsters at once. Various theories as to the cause of this limit existed, but that was the generally accepted cap. Controlling ten of them at once, even hobgoblins, seemed impossible for a single tamer.

“We can only speculate beyond that,” I concluded. “As for the other two...”

“Code name ‘Siren’ and an elderly accomplice... If the code name ‘Goblin’ is rooted in his talents, I wonder if the same goes for Siren,” mused Lorraine.

Augurey contemplated this as well. “Could be. Siren’s a woman, you said? The monster siren lives out at sea and tempts seafarers with her song, luring them to the dark depths. Which means...”

“Which means?” I prompted.

“She could be a total hottie!” Augurey exclaimed, shaking his fist in utter conviction of his hypothesis.

Even as Lorraine and I rolled our eyes, Lorraine admitted, “We can’t count it out, though I doubt any agent of the empire would be so straightforward with their code-naming.”

“They’re not?” I asked.

“I don’t know much about them. Information about them seldom surfaces. What I’ve heard are various rumors—that they call each other by number alone, or that they have no name or code name at all. In comparison, our opponents are like children playing spies. It’s cute, really,” Lorraine added with a touch of mockery.

It seemed like they’d chosen those code names because they hadn’t expected anyone to find them out, but considering the chances of someone eavesdropping on them, even I could see that they should have chosen names that didn’t give away information about themselves, or chosen not to have code names at all. That was what I would’ve done, anyway, if I made my living in the—metaphorical—underground.

“I’m sure it’s not child’s play for them, but I see what you’re saying,” Augurey said. “My joke about Siren’s appearance notwithstanding, wouldn’t our best guess be that she specializes in manipulating men?”

As I suspected, Augurey hadn’t made the comment about Siren in earnest.

“Manipulating men, huh?” I mused. “That reminds me. Siren did mention ‘building a stage’ up the road. Guess that makes sense now.”

“Building a stage? We might run into her in the village of Looza, then,” Augurey speculated.

“Let’s see... I guess we better watch out for friendly women in the village.”

“You said it.”

“I feel like I’ll be left out,” Lorraine muttered with some disappointment.