Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Arrival

“We finally made it, folks.”

Some time had passed since we backtracked the road we took and returned to our original route. There was a slight chance we’d be led off the grid again, but this time, Yattul had taken us correctly to the village of Looza. Yattul had maintained his friendly, traveling-merchant attitude and showed no sign of setting another trap. Maybe the Goblin had no tricks left up his sleeve after siccing a horde of hobgoblins on us and dosing our dinner with sleep medicine. Maybe he thought we’d get suspicious if he tried to pull another scheme. Of course, we were already very suspicious of him.

It was worth mentioning that I was completely immune to the drug, but Lorraine and Augurey had neutralized the dose in their own ways—Lorraine by magic, and Augurey by some mysterious way that he hadn’t shared with me. He was a Silver-class adventurer, after all. They’d both see through any cheap trick and crush it before it sprang.

“Finally. I’m just glad we made it in one piece. You made us sweat for a while,” I said.

“C’mon, boss, can we leave the past in the past, now?” Yattul said with humble humor and a convincing hint of guilt.

With every interaction, I was becoming more and more convinced that Yattul was much better off making a living onstage than in the underground. He wasn’t good-looking, per se, but he had a distinctive look and air about him, and he’d commanded some authority when speaking to his accomplices the previous night, though that sense of authority was well concealed now. I supposed he might need some training in projection and articulation, but I’d have to hear him do a few tongue twisters to be the judge of that.

I gave him a hearty laugh. “I’m sure it’s smooth sailing from now on. We’ll get some rest back here, Yattul. You can focus on the horses.”

“Yessir.” Yattul tucked the wagon roof closed and turned his attention to driving. That being said, the only task left for him was to find lodging for us and a stable for the horses. That wouldn’t require much of his concentration.

“That was a surprisingly quiet trip,” Lorraine said after the wagon was sealed.

“Right?” Augurey agreed, keeping his guard up. “I was expecting something to happen on the road. I guess we can look forward to that now.”

“I’d prefer to relax in the village when we have a room, but I don’t think that’s in our cards this time,” I remarked.

My body didn’t tire, but there were times when I felt mentally exhausted. Even without a long night’s sleep, I could usually recover if I loafed around for a bit. Knowing that I’d have to stay alert, rest was off the table.

“That’s that,” Lorraine said. “Let’s call it entertainment to liven up our stay, which is usually so boring. That being said, we shouldn’t underestimate our foes, of course.”

I couldn’t help but feel taken aback by Lorraine’s unabashed optimism.

◆◇◆◇◆

Looza was one of the numerous villages in the Kingdom of Yaaran, and like many of its villages, it was incredibly rural. Not quite as much as my hometown, but I assumed this village didn’t share the particular characteristics of Hathara. Life here seemed very peaceful, so much so that Maalt started to look like the center of society by comparison. Every resident must have been a farmer, hunter, lumberjack, crafter, merchant, or bartender. Even this village had a bar, allowing the rest of the residents to cut loose once in a while.

“We don’t see adventurers around here very often. There’s not much to see here, but there’s plenty to drink. I’ll keep them flowing until you’re all down for the count,” said the owner of the bar. His towering stature reminded me of a bear, but he seemed more friendly than intimidating. In contrast to his appearance, he was a man of delicate sensibilities, according to other patrons of the bar.

“I don’t know if we’ll party that hard, but I’m glad we can unwind here. And I was hoping to ask you about Lake Petorama,” I said.

“Lake Petorama? So that’s what you’re here for. Not even we go near that place this time of year, but I know someone who can tell you how the lake is most of the time. Hey, Ferrici! These people want to hear about the lake!”

The bar owner called toward a table of three women enjoying their meals and drinks. The one who reacted was the most plain looking of the trio, and she seemed shy as she hesitated to answer. With encouragement from her two tablemates, however, she eventually made her way to us, looking a bit flustered.

It must have been scary to be called over to a band of adventurers who’d just wandered into the remote village. Most adventurers were rough around the edges, and many of them started trouble in a bar once they got a few drinks in them. You could easily imagine how things usually went when a gang of drunk adventurers called over a young maiden. Of course, this kind of situation could also lead to positive outcomes. A girl might earn a gold coin—which could be worth a year’s salary in remote villages—just by pouring the adventurer a drink, or perhaps earn a genuine request for a proper date.

Her friends who’d encouraged her seemed to think this interaction would end positively, at least. Maybe they thought we wouldn’t do anything too aggressive since a woman was in our party—not that there weren’t dangerous men with women in their parties.

“I-I...” Ferrici muttered, clearly nervous.

Lorraine smiled at her. “You can relax. We won’t hurt you. We just have a few questions. Tomorrow, we’re headed out to Lake Petorama, and we wanted to find out the general terrain around it, its distance from here, its size, and any information about its ecosystem. The owner tells us you’re the expert.”

◆◇◆◇◆

Lake Petorama was the final destination of our trip. Looza was the closest village to the lake, which was why we’d decided to stay here. We were after some precious materials that could be found around the lake: aqua hathurs, luteum golems, and even wyvern elata. This place had all the major loot we were after.

Even so, few adventurers made the trip to Looza, mostly because all the other materials available at Lake Petorama were easily obtainable elsewhere. No one really bothered to come this deep into the country. We had little choice but to make the journey, though, because this was the only spot where we could gather all the materials we needed at once, or at least by the deadline.

If we’d tried to gather them at more convenient locations, it would’ve taken us a week just in transit, but trying to round them up all at once wasn’t any better. Any one of them we could have collected in two days’ time. The thought that we were in this mess because Augurey jam-packed our schedule crept back into my mind, but I was sure that Augurey would say he’d planned our itinerary with full confidence that we could pull it off. In fact, it looked like we were going to do just that and validate his planning skills. How annoying.

“Y-You want to ask me about Lake Petorama?”

I came back to reality, remembering that we were going to ask Ferrici a few questions. We’d delegated the interview to the calm and collected Lorraine, out of pure calculation that she’d have much better chances than I would, skull-faced as I was, or Augurey, gaudy epitomized.

“Yes,” Lorraine started. “We plan to gather a few materials up there.”

Ferrici hurriedly interjected. “What?! Y-You can’t go there now! It’s wyvern mating season, so they are very protective of their territory. If you go there, they will attack you!”

Lake Petorama was a famous mating ground for wyverns. Wyverns came in many varieties, but the lake was a favorite destination for the light-blue mime wyverns, a subvariety of the ceva wyverns. The wyverns’ pilgrimage was not an annual event, as they only congregated during a specific time of the year once every few years. During that time, they laid their eggs, raised their hatchlings until they learned to fly, and departed to a warmer climate before winter came. Ferrici was telling us that the mime wyverns had recently taken over the lake for this purpose.

“We know,” Lorraine countered. “We intended to harvest some wyvern elata, since it only grows in the presence of wyverns.”

“Wyvern droppings fertilize the elata, don’t they?” I chimed in, recalling a page from a book I’d read.

“Yes. That’s the theory, anyway. Some smaller wyverns are ridden by dragon knights or wyvern cab drivers, and I’ve heard of an experimental farming of wyvern elata, but they never grew bigger than their natural-grown counterparts. There must be other conditions for it to grow.”

“They were able to farm it, then?” I asked.

“Yes, but it was insufficient in both quantity and quality to make the method economically viable. Harvesting them from the wild yielded better products more quickly. The experiment wasn’t too successful.”

I appreciated how someone somewhere could be taking on any project. This operation wasn’t included in any book I’d read, though. Maybe because it wasn’t worth an inclusion in a book, the experiment had been performed in secret, or maybe I just didn’t read enough, or all of the above.

“We got off track there. Ferrici, was it? Long story short, we know there are wyverns at the lake,” said Lorraine.

Ferrici’s face clouded. “Perhaps you should change your plans, then...”

Lorraine shook her head. “We’re adventurers, Ferrici. We don’t back down from a challenge. Well, that makes us sound braver than we are, but we know the venture itself is possible. There are records showing small amounts of wyvern elata being exported from this village in the middle of wyvern mating season. There must be a way to get to the lake.”

This much we’d researched in the capital. We’d looked up a few traveling merchants who’d been to Looza before and interviewed them. Yattul was one of those merchants. Of course, now we knew that he wasn’t a merchant at all—unless he was and was only moonlighting as a spy. Seemed plausible. A traveling merchant would have an easier time gathering information than most, and it was the perfect cover for most situations. He’d even fooled us at first.

Ferrici’s eyes widened. “W-Well...”

It was clear that she, or the village at large, didn’t want that information to get out. But why not? If there was something that allowed them to go into wyvern mating territory, that would be a highly useful trick. Maybe the secret was too profitable for them to share. Wyvern eggs and hatchlings sold for very high prices, since wyverns could be trained if they were raised by hand. Dragon knights and wyvern cab drivers raised them in a way that best suited their use. In either case, it all started with conditioning from a very young age. If there was a way to obtain a whole bunch of wyvern hatchlings or eggs, any country would want to get its hands on it.

Whether my guess had hit the mark or not, Lorraine looked like she had followed a similar train of thought.

“There’s something you don’t want to talk about? I can make some guesses, but we only want to gather the materials we need, and only as much as we need. Neither wyvern hatchlings nor eggs are on that list. If you can’t tell us how... Well, could you take us there? We’ll pay for your trouble, of course, and we swear to keep our mouths shut about anything we see.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t!” Ferrici exclaimed and sprang out the door.

Lorraine watched the girl bolt, then turned to us apologetically. “Sorry. I couldn’t tie up the deal.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“There was nothing more you could’ve done,” I said, trying to reassure Lorraine. “No way they’d give up on how to get close to mating wyverns, especially not to some random adventurers they don’t know.”

Lorraine nodded, but she was still somewhat disappointed. “True. I did personally want to learn the method, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Lorraine did boast a hungry sense of curiosity. She wanted to know this particular secret more than she let on, but she had enough common sense and—some form of—a conscience. She at least wouldn’t consider torturing Ferrici for the information or anything like that.

“It’s fine if the magician won’t share their trick with us. If the back door’s closed, we’ll go in through the front,” Augurey said.

Going through the front door, in this case, meant charging into wyvern territory. The wyverns would storm us, but all we had to do was take them all down. Every part of a mime wyvern was useful, so it would net us a nice profit. Their water magic crystals were very versatile too.

The question was if we could actually take on that many wyverns. I couldn’t, obviously. Neither could Augurey, as far as I knew. Our plan rested on the shoulders of our resident mage, the Great Lorraine. This sort of joking description might have drawn her ire, but she would definitely be the most effective member of our party if we were going to charge straight into a horde of mating mime wyverns.

A wyvern’s strength came from the sole fact that it was airborne, but once a wind spell knocked it down to the ground, Augurey and I could manage it. Not dozens and hundreds of them, of course, but all wyvern subspecies were decently intelligent, so once a few were grounded, most of the others would stay away from us. If any stubborn individuals came our way, we could deal with them one by one.

If the task proved too challenging, tucking tail and running was still on the table. No sense biting off more than we could chew. Good thing the guild had offered not to mark this quest as a failure if it came to that.

“That’s all good and well,” Lorraine replied, “but if a few hundred of them come flying, I’m running away. There’s no sense in massacring a population of mime wyverns.”

Lorraine seemed more concerned with the environmental impact than our potential profit, and she added that the wyverns must be keeping the other monster populations in check. Stronger monsters often preyed upon weaker ones like goblins, which multiplied quickly. That said, even goblins could become a serious threat to a small village like this, so I figured they appreciated the mime wyverns helping with pest control.

It was worth noting that wyverns rarely attacked humans unprovoked. In fact, the more powerful and intelligent a monster, the less likely they were to do so. It was believed that they knew eating monsters was more nutritious than eating humans. Still, although there was never a guarantee when it came to monsters, I’d say wyverns were easier to deal with than the likes of goblins, which seemed to enjoy attacking humans.

“Indeed,” Augurey agreed. “We don’t want to bring this village any harm. Let’s get back to the inn, shall we? We should get some rest. Big day tomorrow.”

When I glanced outside, the moon told me the time. With much to do on our agenda tomorrow, it was best for us to get to bed early and start bright and early.

“Yeah, let’s go back,” I echoed.

We paid the barkeep, with a few extra coins for his trouble, and walked out the door.

◆◇◆◇◆

Back at the inn, we each retired to our own room. We’d told the innkeeper that one room would suffice for all of us, but he’d offered three rooms for the same price, since there were extra rooms owing to the village being so remote. Besides, he’d added that he didn’t have any rooms with three beds, so arranging one for us would have been more trouble than giving us the extra rooms—all said in the matter-of-fact manner innkeepers in the middle of nowhere often used.

As soon as he entered his room, Augurey Ars turned off the lights and lay down on the bed. He could still see his surroundings, perhaps because of the excitement this adventure with his old friends had brought him. He stared up at some marks on the ceiling. They started to resemble faces, then the faces of his old acquaintances. This reminded him of his hometown and how there was nothing there.

Perhaps some found value in that town, but not Augurey. He’d grown tired of prideful people refusing to look for new possibilities. He couldn’t stand his soul rotting away in that place, which was why he’d become an adventurer. If the people he used to know were to hear that, they’d turn their noses up at him, scoffing at him for wasting his time. Augurey didn’t care. They didn’t understand him anyway. Well, one person did.

“Grandpa...”

Augurey wondered if he was still alive. He swore when he left his hometown that he would never return, but now he felt like, maybe, he could.

As he spoke with Rentt and Lorraine, he began to realize how important it was to know the place you came from. Even his decision to never return to his hometown seemed more like an excuse to run away than stone-cold determination.

So, maybe now...

“I might go and see him. With Rentt and Lorraine...” Augurey muttered, his eyelids growing heavier until his vision went dark.

◆◇◆◇◆

When a knock came at the door, Augurey opened his eyes. He’d been awake for a few moments already because he’d sensed someone approaching his room. Without instincts like that, he wouldn’t have made it this far as a Silver-class adventurer.

The Bronze-class exam was pretty tough, but the Silver-class one went above and beyond. One time, even his fellow party members, with whom Augurey had been dungeon crawling, had tried to turn on him in his sleep. He never would have become Silver-class without the intuition that woke him up at the first sign of danger.

Some people overcame every challenge with brute force, but that wasn’t Augurey’s style. He’d prepared well and beat the Silver-class exam in the expected way. Compared to that, picking up on someone coming down the hall who wasn’t even concealing their presence was second nature to him.

Augurey got out of bed and approached the door. Glancing out the window, he saw the sky was still dark, with no sign of daybreak. It was the dead of night. If he ever had before now, Augurey no longer expected his guest to be reputable.

With plenty of caution, Augurey called through the door, “Who is it?”

He tried to sound as calm as possible, and no one would have doubted the tranquility in his voice—no one save for Rentt, maybe. Augurey imagined that Rentt might have asked him if he was nervous. Rentt always seemed like he was daydreaming or thinking of nothing in particular, but he always kept a sharp eye on his surroundings. Augurey knew that was just how Rentt was, but Rentt wasn’t the one standing on the other side of the door.

In fact, the unexpected guest sounded a bit nervous but not suspicious. “Um... It’s me, Ferrici. Do you...remember me?”

Augurey recognized the girl’s voice, then recalled how Ferrici had looked to be around seventeen or eighteen. He wondered if she would be offended by that descriptor. She was old enough to marry and might even be expected to do so in a couple of years in a remote village like this. The idea didn’t sit well with Augurey, but he was willing to accept the local customs.

Making a note to himself that he was speaking to a lady, Augurey answered, “We spoke at the bar, not that I contributed much to the conversation. Can I help you? If you want to share something about the wyverns, I’ll go wake the other two.”

Augurey remembered that the barkeep had said Ferrici knew Lake Petorama like her backyard, and judging by her conversation with Lorraine, she knew some important information about the wyverns. He hadn’t expected Ferrici to backtrack after she refused to answer Lorraine’s cordial questioning, but something seemed to have changed her mind.

“No, I...wanted to speak to you, privately, Augurey. Could you open the door?”

So, she’s fallen for me. Augurey wasn’t too full of himself to jump to that conclusion, although adventurers were relatively popular in remote villages. They made more money than most other workers could dream of, and even Bronze-class adventurers could deal with most dangers in the area with an arm tied behind their back. All in all, adventurers made very good matches for ladies of these villages. That said, the fact that many adventurers were rough around the edges and always risked never returning from a job polarized their reception among women. They either clung to them or wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole. It wasn’t inconceivable that Ferrici would rather cling than reach for the pole, but the timing seemed off.

Out of the three of them, at least, Augurey could see why he would be the best candidate for a match-seeking lady, when the other two options were a woman and a weirdo in a skeleton mask. Considering Augurey himself dressed like a peacock, he might very well doubt the sensibilities of any lady who chose him, but he also conceded that, since most adventurers were oddballs at best, ladies who sought after them were ready to overlook some details.

As these futile thoughts whirled through his brain, Augurey reached for the door, recognizing that he wouldn’t get past his musings until he opened it. He turned the doorknob, and the door slowly creaked open.

“Uh... I’m sorry...”

The suspenseful motion did reveal Ferrici, the very one from the bar.

“It’s all right. There’s something important you wanted to talk to me about, isn’t there? Why don’t you come in?”

Ferrici agreed, her cheeks rosy, and quietly stepped into the room.

◆◇◆◇◆

After entering, Ferrici took a seat at the edge of the bed where Augurey had been asleep moments ago. She let out a sigh that would have come across as strangely alluring to most men. Even her attire...

“Ferrici, something’s different about you from when I saw you at the bar.”

“D-Do you think so? Um... How do I look?” Ferrici asked, looking up at him with just her eyes.

Augurey admitted that the gesture was cute. While her silhouette was rather flat, owing to the lack of ample food in the village, her body looked fully matured. Now, she was sitting at the edge of a man’s bed, quite seductively. No one could have missed the signal, no matter how oblivious they were. She’d swapped her plain linen clothes for a dress fit for a lady of the capital, though the cold-shoulder style might have been a bit too revealing in another time or another place.

“I’m sure any man in the village would say you’re enchanting. You look wonderful, Ferrici.”

Augurey’s remark drew a slow and gleeful smile across her face. Ferrici stood from the bed and drew closer to him. “Really?! Oh, good. I was a little worried that...you would think I was being too forward.” She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him—the gentle tug on his waist indicative of her slender stature.

“Too forward? Why would you think that?” Augurey asked.

Gazing up at him with only her eyes again, she slowly said, “Because...I’m...” One of her arms drew away from Augurey’s waist. “I’m about to hurt you very much.”

As soon as the words left her lips, Ferrici’s arm flew back toward Augurey’s side. He saw, from the corner of his eye, a silver object clasped in her hand—a knife. She was wielding it with clear intent to harm Augurey.

At such a close range and practically detained in her embrace, most men would have been stabbed without a chance to react. Augurey, however, was an adventurer, and a Silver-class one at that, which was a sign of distinguished talent among them. The mere fact that Augurey could follow the sudden strike of the blade with his eyes was proof this was far from life-threatening for him. On a near daily basis, Augurey took on monsters that moved faster than her, or bandits that fired magic spells at him undetected.

Augurey thwarted the girl’s desperate strike as he snatched her wrist and squeezed with enough force to leave a sting but not a mark, making her drop the knife.

It was clear that any more resistance on Ferrici’s part was futile, but she did not grow quiet. On the contrary, she began screeching and thrashing about, not like the young woman she’d presented herself as in the bar and up to now, but like a rabid animal.

Augurey noticed something in her and lightly tugged her toward him so that she swayed, revealing her fine, slender neckline. Augurey swiftly struck her neck with the side of his hand; the almost nonchalant movement was enough to rob Ferrici of her consciousness and she crumpled.

To keep her from hitting the floor, Augurey caught her under her arms. He made sure she was knocked out clean, then gently laid her down on the bed. He produced a spool of rope from his tool bag and tied Ferrici up, utilizing rags to prevent the rope from leaving marks. This way, she couldn’t attack him again if she came to.

“That takes care of it, I guess, but...”

Was she Siren? The thought had crossed Augurey’s mind. It certainly seemed like he had things under control, but there were a few glaring oddities. The first was how tactless the attack seemed to be. The honey trap was a time-tested tactic that couldn’t be underestimated considering how often men fell for it. They couldn’t help it. It was in their nature. It made sense that this method would be Siren’s specialty.

If Augurey hadn’t expected the approach, he might have even seriously considered the possibility that Ferrici had fallen for him. Maybe there was nothing more to this attack. But if that had been her aim from the start, Ferrici should have been more forward in the bar and at least shown some interest in him. She hadn’t made any moves toward him at the time, though.

Nevertheless, here she was. It didn’t make sense, and neither did Ferrici’s lack of strength. Siren must have been trained as a saboteur and therefore should be a capable fighter. She at least should be strong enough to make it alone from the point in the woods where Rentt had eavesdropped on their conversation, through possible monsters and bandits, all the way to the village.

Ferrici, on the other hand, had the typical physical strength of a girl her age, and how she’d tried to stab Augurey was completely amateurish, from her grip on the knife to the way she drew it away from him before striking. Augurey would have simply pushed the knife in if he’d been in her shoes. That was quicker and forceful enough to wound the human body. The drawback was overkill. He knew Rentt and Lorraine would do the same, but Ferrici had neglected such a basic maneuver.

Augurey couldn’t shake the feeling that Ferrici was not Siren. If not, then why did she attack him? That, he didn’t know. He had a few theories, but nothing definitive.

Augurey concluded that his predicament called for a conference. Leaving Ferrici alone in his room, whether she was Siren or not, seemed precarious, so Augurey threw her over his shoulder and went to knock on Rentt’s and Lorraine’s doors.

◆◇◆◇◆

Even the hallways of the inn, which had been primarily constructed with older lumber, looked cozy. Tallow candles lit the walls, filling the hall with a gamey smell. This scent was familiar to adventurers and residents of remote villages, but Augurey suspected it might seem a bit pungent to those from the city. These candles were commonly used in Maalt as well, but the more expensive, plant-based candles were preferred in the capital. In higher-class establishments like five-star inns and brand-name clothing shops, they used magical items for light for fear of starting a fire, and of course, those were more expensive than any candle. Augurey preferred the soft-lit tallows, but he had to admit he could go without the smell. It clung to your clothes.

“Not that I can do anything about that,” he muttered to himself as he arrived at the door to Rentt’s room.

Augurey knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” A voice answered, sounding slightly on guard.

◆◇◆◇◆

I sensed someone walking up to my room. In my current position, I had reason to fear for my life if someone were to enter, so when the footsteps stopped outside my door and a knock came, I was a bit short with my reply.

“Who is it?”

When I heard the voice that answered me, my concern was eased. It was a familiar voice, I mean.

“It’s me, Augurey. I know it’s late, but I need to talk to you about something. If you could let me in sooner rather than later... I’m worried that someone’s going to see me.”

Discovering the identity of my midnight guest was comforting, but Augurey had shared a strange sentiment. In a remote village like this, one wrong move could be publicized to the entire village in a single day, but walking down the hall of an inn in the middle of the night hardly constituted an idiosyncrasy. Yet Augurey had sounded...

Whatever. I’d open the door, but I obviously had to warn him first. “Sure, but you can’t freak out when you see my room. Just to be clear, I’m innocent.”

“I will never doubt your innocence in anything. I’ll say the same to you, though. I’m innocent.”

That exchange told me that we’d both experienced some sort of disturbance, probably of a very similar nature.

With a sense of relief—which was weird given the situation, but at least we were already on the same page—I said, “Then come on in,” and opened the door.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I see,” Augurey said. “No wonder you were so concerned that someone might get the wrong impression from this.” He gestured to the thing strewn beside my bed.

“Right back at you. Why do you have her in a roll-up?” More specifically, she was tied up, but that was semantics. The fact that he had used pieces of fabric under the rope attested to Augurey’s gentlemanliness. That wouldn’t be the case if he’d just kidnapped the girl and brought her here, but that wasn’t a possibility I entertained—not with Augurey.

“You know the answer, don’t you? She attacked me. By the looks of it, you had a similar issue.”

Augurey’s eyes were on the thing on the floor, which was a woman in her undergarments. It went without saying that the woman wasn’t Lorraine. That would have caused a whole slew of other problems, but I wouldn’t get into that.

The woman was one of Ferrici’s friends from the bar. Speaking of Ferrici, Augurey laid her down on my bed.

Allow me to explain how Ferrici’s friend ended up on my floor without her clothes. She came knocking on my door in the middle of the night without warning, saying she had to talk to me, so I’d let her in. I was hoping that she might know some secrets about the wyverns or the lake, but I didn’t get the chance to ask. She stripped herself down and made some advances on me. Then the knife came out. Unfortunately for her, stabbing me by normal means usually didn’t produce the desired effect.

I’d used Splintering—I’d been practicing—to detach the part of my skeleton where the woman tried to stab me, so the knife had only caught the air before I knocked her out and tied her up. I wouldn’t die from a few stab wounds, and I could heal them ostensibly, but I knew full well that any damage to my body was cumulative. I’d seen how Splintering worked out for that vampire in Maalt’s new dungeon. I had no intention of letting this woman stab me, even if she was clearly an amateur with a knife. Just as I had tied her up and put her on the ground to decide my next move, Augurey had knocked on my door.

I gave him the rundown, and he gave me his version of a similar story. We just had to share a look, and we knew we had a consensus. We kept the name Siren and any other keywords out of our mouths, though. There could be prying ears just beyond these walls. If Lorraine had been here, she could have set up a Sound Barrier, but...

That reminded me. “If you and I were attacked, Lorraine could be in a similar predicament, right?”

“If they’re after you and me, they’re definitely after our whole party,” Augurey agreed.

“We should go check on her.”

“Right. But what do we do with these two?”

We observed the detained women for a few moments. Leaving them here seemed like a bad idea, but so did carrying them on our shoulders. The former, though, was just not an option. If these two were Siren and/or her accomplices, they would bolt. If not, it was possible that they would be silenced while we were gone. No way we were letting them out of our sights.

“Let’s take them with us,” I concluded. “If one of us carries them and the other keeps ahead to check the hall, we should be fine. If push comes to shove, we’ll have to tell the truth.” If we bumped into the innkeeper or any other guests, I meant. Lying about it could lead to more trouble down the road.

“Would they believe us?” Augurey asked.

“I don’t know, but what choice do we have? Let’s pray no one spots us.” That’s all I could say.

◆◇◆◇◆

“We’re clear. Come on.”

I waved Augurey forward after checking that there was no one around the corner of the hall. Augurey had decent night vision—though not as good as mine—so he easily spotted my wave and came over. I moved to the end of that hall, and repeated the process.

“I feel like we’re abducting them or something,” Augurey muttered, glancing at the ladies on his shoulders.

“This is the best we can do. We’re almost there. Let’s go.” I went around the corner and stood before Lorraine’s room, waving Augurey to me. He came shuffling over, when...

Lorraine’s door opened. I hadn’t knocked, so Lorraine must have opened it. She poked her head out of the door and said, “It’s you, Rentt. Good timing...” She turned her gaze to Augurey, who was still shouldering two young and half-naked ladies. “Oh.”

“No, I’m... I can explain, Lorraine...” Augurey started, clearly flustered.

“Don’t worry, I get it,” she said with a little sigh. “Come on in, both of you.”

Augurey looked like himself again as he walked into her room, half-naked ladies and all. I double-checked that no one else was out in the hall before sliding inside and securely closing the door behind me.

◆◇◆◇◆

“We thought you might have gotten one too,” Augurey said as he dumped his cargo onto the bed that was already occupied by another captive. Unlike our catches, Lorraine’s assailant was bound by rings of light around their wrists and ankles—very high-level magic, if I had to guess. Neither Augurey nor I could have cast anything like that.

Magic spells became more difficult to maintain the farther away you were from the spell and the longer the spell was active. Magic items were another story, but maintaining a spell like this for a long time with no aid was much more difficult than it looked.

The assailant, just to clarify, was a man. A decently good-looking fellow that looked a bit out of place for a remote village. Beautiful people were often taken to the city when they were young. Not as slaves or anything, but they tended to get more opportunities like an apprenticeship or adoption. I supposed some were taken into slavery in more unruly places, but slavery was, at least on paper, outlawed in Yaaran. There was no open slave trade, and you’d have to chalk up any illegal operations as the product of sick people. Knight orders and constabularies tried their best, but there would always be some crime that went unpunished.

“Exactly,” Lorraine said. “So even if Augurey is carrying half-naked women on his shoulders and following a man in an eerie mask, I would never think that some human traffickers were trying to abduct these women into slavery. Besides, slavery brings more trouble than money in Yaaran. For you two, adventuring would be far safer and more profitable.”

I couldn’t tell if she was trying to make us feel better somehow, or if this was her way of saying she trusted us—even though she made it sound like Augurey and I would jump at the chance to traffic humans as long as the money was good. This time, I was pretty sure she was joking. Anyway...

“Did he make advances at you?” Augurey asked, ignoring her previous comment.

“Yes. He said he had something to talk about. We did talk for a short while until he tried to pin me down, so I just decided to knock him out with Gie Vieros.”

Augurey shuddered. “Yeesh. That thing hurts pretty bad if it’s a clean hit.”

Gie Vieros was a simple, basic spell that shot out a clump of earth. By the same token, it was said to be a good indicator of a mage’s skill. Someone as talented as Lorraine could easily make that clump of dirt punch through a few sheets of metal. I imagined the effect the spell must have had on the ordinary, albeit better-looking than average, villager.

“Hey, is he alive?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course he’s alive. Even I know that murder on our first night in such a small village, for any reason, is a bad idea. Don’t you agree?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Augurey chimed in.

It was an obvious conclusion, and even if common sense hadn’t stepped in, we had more reasons to keep our assailants alive.

Lorraine quietly set up a Sound Barrier and cut to the chase. “So, I think one or all of them are Siren, or a combination of her and her accomplices. Thoughts?”

Even though we were pretty sure our three captives on the bed were out cold, Lorraine had set up the spell to only include the three of us within it.

With confidence brought on by guaranteed privacy, I answered, “That’s what we’re thinking. But if we’ve found three of them already, it muddles our next move. There could be more of them, and... Doesn’t this feel off to you?”

“It does. It was like a switch had flipped when he attacked me. It didn’t seem like he was acting until the attack, but rather...” Lorraine trailed off and rubbed her chin.

Augurey chimed in. “Ferrici was my attacker. Do you remember her?”

“The girl we were introduced to in the bar, right?”

“Right. She was acting weird too. I didn’t knock her out right away. Once I detained her, she started thrashing like an animal. Like she’d lost her mind. It didn’t even look like she was acting of her own volition.”

That was it. Lorraine and I had knocked out our attackers relatively quickly, but it still felt weird, like they weren’t conscious of their actions. It felt like they were a puppet master’s marionettes. It was still too early to call it for sure, but we had to confirm.

“I don’t sense magic on them, but it’s very possible that they were being controlled,” Lorraine said. “We’ll have to test our hypothesis. Should we wake one of them?”

“They might go berserk again,” Augurey noted.

“We can’t help that. Even if they do, I wouldn’t know how to snap them out of it if it’s not magic. In that case, we’d have to knock them out again by force or magic and capture Siren herself as soon as possible.”

She had a point there.

“Then we should pretend we’re still none the wiser,” I suggested. “I don’t want them making a run for it. We should scope out the village too. There may be others that have turned like this.”

“What if all of the villagers have?” Augurey muttered.

Lorraine nodded and said, “I see. Preparing the stage. Maybe it means that all of the villagers are made into actors.”

That was a terrifying thought.

◆◇◆◇◆

We tried various methods to wake at least one of our three captives, but our efforts were in vain. No magic nor brute force had awakened them. When Lorraine slapped her attacker—who appeared to be the most durable of the three—full force and the guy didn’t so much as stir, Augurey and I shared a look of disbelief. It didn’t take us long to conclude that any normal means of snapping people out of unconsciousness was going to be a waste of our time.

“That one was a bit harsh. The mark on his cheek looks like a lymes leaf,” I said. A lymes, by the way, was a tree that produced leaves about the size and shape of a human hand.

“I was nearly taken advantage of, regardless of whether he was being controlled. I should be allowed a slap or two,” Lorraine countered. She didn’t want us to misunderstand her intentions, though, so she soon added, “Jokes aside, some hypnoses are so powerful that they need that much of a shock. I thought it was a possibility since none of my spells has worked on them. I can’t very well do that to the two women, hence my choice. But if he has nothing to do with Siren, he’ll understand once we explain ourselves.”

Apparently, her slap wasn’t just a violent method of stress relief. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Lorraine would never do such a thing, but she wasn’t the type, so her rationale made more sense to me.

“Oh, good,” I said. “I mean, we’re not good, since they’re still out cold. I do have one idea left... We need to bag Siren.”

“Looks like it,” Lorraine agreed. “The question is, where is she? Is she one of these three, hiding out in the village, or is she somewhere farther away? She might even be long gone.”

All options seemed plausible, which would turn our search into quite an ordeal.

Augurey gave his two cents. “I don’t think she’s gone. She wouldn’t leave without seeing the end results, and the Goblin is still around. It does seem like the three of them plan and work together. They’d probably have another meeting if they knew their plan had failed.”

“True. Worst case, even if she is gone, we can ask Goblin about her whereabouts. I have him marked, so we can track him wherever he goes.”

To “mark” someone, as Lorraine so casually mentioned, was to track them through magic. Unlike the normal method of just searching for someone’s mana, marking someone with a specific spell would allow the mage to keep track of them much more easily and at a greater distance. It was another very high-level spell, if you hadn’t guessed already. Casting it in silence was difficult enough, and the tracking radius of the spell depended on the caster’s skill level. Since Lorraine said she could track Goblin “wherever” he went, she was confident that she could find him in a very wide range. Once Lorraine got her fingers around you, she’d chase you down to the pits of hell. Imagining myself on the receiving end of her ire chilled me to the bone.

“Another option is to interrogate Goblin now,” I suggested.

Considering that Siren was his accomplice, you’d think Goblin would know who she was and how to snap her victims out of this stupor. It was tempting to say that this was our most efficient solution, but I doubted either of them would go for it.

As if to prove me right, Lorraine shook her head. “If we question him now, they could take Ferrici and the others hostage. We still need to feign ignorance about Goblin’s scheming. If we decide to cut our losses with these victims, it’s another story, but that’s not really an option.”

“They’re only here because we are,” Augurey noted. “I’m not heartless enough to say that I don’t care about their lives.”

I wasn’t serious about my suggestion either. I just wanted to confirm that we were on the same page.

“That makes it difficult,” Lorraine said. “Should we start with...looking outside? She might just jump out at us from some bush.” She was joking, but it wasn’t entirely impossible. The only hiding places around here would be bushes and woods.

“We have to check on the other villagers too,” Augurey added. “However, we can’t leave these three here. Lorraine, could you watch them? Rentt and I will go look outside. If we don’t find anything, we’ll regroup. What do you think?”

Lorraine and I mulled it over for a minute and agreed, both knowing that we had no better option at that time.

“I don’t mind watching them, but can you move this guy to the sofa? The ladies will be in for even more of a shock if they wake and see they’re lying in bed with a man,” Lorraine said.

The unconscious trio were sprawled on the bed. Waking up inches away from a stranger’s face, no matter how handsome it was, would be quite surprising, I imagined.

“Not a problem,” Augurey replied. He hoisted the man onto his back and took him to the sofa.

I could have done it just as easily, but Augurey happened to be closer. He was more muscular than he looked, even among adventurers, so it was always best not to judge a book by its cover.

Augurey then cocked his head.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I recognize... Oh, well. It’s nothing,” Augurey said meaningfully and set the guy down.

We then left Lorraine with the three unconscious people and went to scope out the village.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Where’s the innkeeper?” I asked.

We didn’t want to bring any undue suspicions upon us for leaving the inn without a word, so I’d decided to look for the innkeeper. When adventurers came from the city and stayed in remote villages like this, it wasn’t uncommon for them to party too hard or go out in the middle of the night to have their way with the girls of the village. I just wanted to speak with the innkeeper so he didn’t mistake us for thugs like that.

“I don’t see him,” I muttered.

The innkeeper, who’d been at the reception desk when we checked in, was nowhere to be found. Even in the middle of the night, family-owned inns usually had someone manning the reception. It would’ve been a tough schedule if they had to do that every night of the year, but these businesses could turn a profit if they got one or two stays a week. The night concierge not only attended to the needs of the inn’s guests, but also protected the establishment from the very real dangers of customers stealing from them or sneaking out in the dead of night to avoid paying for their stay.

“Strange. Maybe he fell asleep?” Augurey peered over the counter, but suddenly sensed an attack. He pulled his head back, then drew his sword and stood on guard.

I followed suit. “What’s going on...? Oh, come on.”

Beyond the counter stood the innkeeper with a hatchet in hand. He was glaring at us with bloodshot eyes, foaming at the mouth like a rabid beast.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Augurey asked.

I nodded, but clarified. “Don’t kill him.”

“Of course— Whoa!”

The innkeeper had vaulted the counter and was now charging us at full speed, raising what must have been his log-chopping hatchet. His movements were inhuman, which made them difficult to predict. We had some opportunities for a counterattack, but I hesitated to go at him with my sword when I wanted to contain him with as few injuries as possible.

Augurey blocked the hatchet with his sword. “He’s stronger than I expected, but not as much as any adventurer!” He parried and closed the distance between him and the innkeeper, then drove the hilt of his sword into the innkeeper’s sternum. The innkeeper groaned, his head rolled back, and he crumbled to the ground. Augurey ensured that he was unconscious, then said, “Cute little surprise.”

“Yeah. But not entirely unexpected.”

“Right. Who knows how things are outside.”

“Not good, if I had to guess.”

Imagining the worst, we shared a look and a sigh. Staying inside wasn’t an option, though, so we left the innkeeper where he was and stepped out of the inn. Siren could still come in and silence the innkeeper, but the chances of that happening seemed slim now. Of course, nothing was a guarantee.

◆◇◆◇◆

“I did have a feeling we’d find ourselves in this situation,” Augurey said.

“What a coincidence,” I replied.

When we stepped out of the inn, we were faced with a sight that made us want to groan—ten or so villagers surrounding us. We’d half joked about the entire village being under mind control, but it wasn’t so funny anymore. On the other hand, the fact that they were a small group might be a good sign. That wasn’t enough to fill the entire village, no matter how remote it was. Besides, these were average Joes from the village; a Bronze-class adventurer like me could handle them without much trouble. Even when I was alive—pre-undead, I mean—I could’ve handled myself in a situation like this, so when the villagers charged us with perfect coordination, we were able to take care of them with relative ease, carefully knocking out each of them without causing any injury.

When only one was left standing, he bellowed and went to stab himself in the neck.

“Wha—? Stop!” I whacked the knife out of his hand and knocked the guy out.

Out of concern that the others would follow suit, Augurey and I double-checked that all of them were out cold before letting out a sigh of relief.

“That was close. I didn’t think he’d try to kill himself,” Augurey said.

I shook my head. “I doubt he would have, if he had a say in it. Our man-eater friend has gone a bit far. We’d be in a world of trouble if any of them died.”

How much trouble? Maybe not as much as I’d made it out to be. Usually, ordinary villagers held no power over adventures, but in cases like this, the government could investigate and decide to arrest us. Of course, we could say we were attacked unprovoked until we were blue in the face, but...

Just then, it occurred to me. “Maybe that’s what she’s trying to do.”

“What do you mean?” Augurey asked.

“Force us to hurt or kill the villagers so we’d be arrested.”

“Oh, I see. That wouldn’t be fun.”

I was sure Siren wouldn’t have minded if her puppets had killed us, but that was the backup plan in case we proved to be a challenge. She’d swoop in while we were immobilized and kill us. Pretty clever, all things considered. I could splinter my way out of any bindings, though. Lorraine could get herself out of trouble too. There were bindings out there that could disrupt its captive’s mana, but Lorraine was the kind of woman who would’ve prepared for a glaring weakness like that. Augurey, on the other hand... He might be screwed.

As we searched the village for more disturbances, we whispered to each other.

“All this is shedding some light on who’s pulling the strings behind the curtains,” Augurey remarked.

“Yeah,” I concurred. “Bad move going to see the princess.”

Suddenly, Augurey sniffed the air. “Oh, I remember now! Wait here, Rentt! I’ll be right back.”

He ran off without giving me a chance to ask him what he was talking about. Silver-class adventurers were fast—not that Silver-class jobs were merely foot races or anything. Swift feet were crucial for getting away from a monster that outclassed you, so higher-ranking adventurers typically ran fast.

In any case, since Augurey told me to wait, I was going to wait. I just stood there...in my skeleton mask. Wearing my dark, hooded robe. How conspicuous could I get?

After some time, Augurey returned. “Thanks for waiting, Rentt!”

“Where were you? Wait... Who’s that?”

Augurey was carrying a woman in his arms—a woman whose shabby clothes didn’t quite conceal her allure.

“Siren, probably,” Augurey answered.

Naturally, I went slack-jawed at his response.

◆◇◆◇◆

“She’s Siren?” Lorraine asked as soon as we finished recounting our outing to her.

I couldn’t blame Lorraine. Anyone would be confused as to how we’d gotten here. I was still wondering how Augurey could tell that she was our culprit, myself. He could’ve identified her if he’d been working with Goblin, but he’d have no reason to bring Siren to us unconscious if that were the case. Augurey would’ve had to be working a double-crossing plan that spanned years. Unless he somehow knew how I’d turn out, it wasn’t even worth tricking me into a friendship back then. I could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the chances of that seemed slim. Long story short, Augurey identified and detained Siren, somehow.

“I’m not completely sure,” Augurey admitted. “Just a thought she might be. I could have snatched the wrong person.”

“Intricacies aside, why’d you think she’s Siren?” I asked.

“When I picked up the guy who attacked Lorraine earlier, I caught a whiff of this scent.”

“Scent?”

Lorraine and I went up to our sole male captive and sniffed him. I detected various smells: grass, dirt, and his body odor—like any member of this rural village, I assumed. Otherwise...

“I smell a faint perfume...I think,” Lorraine said.

Now that she’d mentioned it, I noticed it too. I had a decent sense of smell, but I wasn’t connecting the dots. Even this village in the middle of nowhere had a corner shop with a bottle or two of perfume. They were locally made, of course, probably from wildflowers in the area, but nothing was unusual about that.

Augurey, thankfully, had some wisdom to share on this. “Right. They’d have some perfume out here, but the one I smelled on him is only sold in the capital. I lined up to buy it once. When I picked him up, I thought I recognized it. Then I finally remembered.”

Lorraine summarized, “You thought it was weird you found that scent on a villager out here, so you suspected he’d picked it up when he came in contact with someone from the capital. In other words, Siren. That was your reasoning.”

That made sense, except...

“How sharp is your sense of smell, Augurey?” I asked. “Making that connection is one thing, but sniffing it out from who knows where in the village...”

I could’ve pulled off the same thing if it’d been blood, but not with any perfume. My nose just wasn’t equipped for that sort of thing; strictly speaking, I was some sort of vampire. Maybe I could do it with the smell of meat? I’d have to try.

“Just one of the thousand specialty tricks up my sleeve,” Augurey quipped in a way that made it hard to tell if he was joking or serious. He could color me impressed if that was true, but I doubted it. Why was Augurey loafing around in Silver-class when he had a thousand tricks up his sleeve?

“You’ll have to tell us all about it sometime,” Lorraine deflected. “Our next step, I suppose, is interrogation. We have to wake these people from their hypnosis.”

“You think she’d tell us?” I asked.

“She just has to be persuaded. Can you both leave the room? Oh, and take those three with you. I’ll handle the interrogation alone.”

“Are you sure, Lorraine?” Augurey asked with concern. “She’s got brainwashing powers. You may not be safe on your own...”

I wasn’t too worried for her. “She’s fine. I’m more concerned for Siren, even. Take it easy, Lorraine.”

I threw the young, unconscious man over my shoulder and walked out of the room and down the hall to Augurey’s room. He hurried after me with the two women on his shoulders.

◆◇◆◇◆

After a while, a gentle knock came at Augurey’s door. “It’s me, Lorraine. Can you open the door?”

Augurey and I shared a look before opening the door. I’d considered the possibility of someone else standing there, but it was her, all right.

Lorraine stepped inside and began reporting her findings. “She told me most everything we needed to know. First, Siren’s powers.”

“Hypnotizing people?” I asked.

“Yes. She can completely control up to twenty or so people at once. However, it requires some form of preparation—giving them a whiff of a certain drug, holding a conversation with them... And when the victim is too physically or mentally durable, her hypnosis won’t work. I suppose that wasn’t much of a factor when mind controlling these villagers, though.”

“Uh-huh. It’s not magic, then?”

“No. You could call it a special ability or maybe a talent. It’s a very rare power that doesn’t involve mana. There is no commonality among those that exhibit them, so research has been moving at a snail’s pace. Very intriguing. I wouldn’t mind dissecting a specimen like that.”

I had no qualms about Siren being dissected, but I hoped it could wait. We weren’t digging for a scientific explanation of Siren’s abilities; we just wanted to know how to snap her victims out of it. Lorraine seemed to be on the same page, because I could see her rein in her scientific curiosity.

“The method to dispel her hypnosis is surprisingly simple,” she said. “In fact, it’s already done. When she loses consciousness, the mind control fails. Since Augurey already knocked her out, her victims can be woken up normally.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Then let’s wake them up,” I suggested. “I don’t totally believe their minds are unshackled, but that should be the only thing to look out for.”

Lorraine and Augurey nodded in agreement.

The ten villagers who’d attacked Augurey and me were tied up in a pile in the inn’s dining hall, along with the innkeeper. Who knew what they would’ve been made to do if we hadn’t bound them. We hadn’t really had a choice.

“I concur,” Lorraine said. “Just to be safe, we should wake one of the three, first. Explaining ourselves to one of them and having them pass on the message would be better than trying to explain ourselves to a mob.”

“I know I’d be surprised if I woke up in my local inn tied up,” Augurey remarked. “Oh, do they remember what happens when they’re hypnotized? If they do, we wouldn’t need to explain much.”

“According to Siren, they remember nothing while they’re under mind control. Her usual tactic is to move her victims into positions where it wouldn’t be implausible to suddenly come to their senses, which means that she can snap her victims out of hypnosis at will.”

Augurey nodded. “I see. Then we do need to orientate them. Now, who to wake first... My vote’s for Ferrici.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“We had a full conversation last night. She should be the easiest one to convince.”

“Oh? I don’t think she has the best impression of us considering how we parted yesterday,” Lorraine countered.

Our current situation sure made us look like a band of adventurers who were desperate to get into mating wyvern territory and who’d just kidnapped and tied up a girl who knew the trick to slip in. It was hard to believe Ferrici would take our word for it.

“That’s exactly why we wake her,” Augurey said. “I think we can gain her trust easier if we untie her and thoroughly explain how we got here.”

“That’s one way to do it...” Lorraine replied, not entirely convinced. “We can wake the others if that doesn’t work. She would have lost time, anyway. If we go with that angle, she might not find us as suspicious.”

We had no better idea at the moment, so we would wake Ferrici first.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Hey... Hey...” I called, shaking her by the shoulder. We’d tried this method many times before we detained Siren, but she’d never responded. Now, though...

Ferrici murmured and slowly opened her eyes. When her vision came into focus, she screamed.

I couldn’t blame her. Who wouldn’t be scared if they woke up to a guy in a skeleton mask, an adventurer dressed like a peacock, and a mage who looked like a mad scientist? I’d be scared. If we’d been kidnappers, we might’ve covered Ferrici’s mouth and told her to shut up, but we were most definitely not kidnappers.

Since we were within Lorraine’s Sound Barrier, I could ponder the fact that not a soul would hear, no matter how loud the girl screamed. Mwa ha ha ha ha! This might’ve been a real fear for Ferrici, though. We stood there waiting for her screaming to diminish until she seemed a little calmer. She glared at us, silently asking, “What are you going to do to me?!”

“What are you going to do to me?!” Ferrici shouted.

Never mind. She said it out loud.

“Nothing,” I said. “First, we’re going to untie you. Then we’ll explain what happened here. You can decide what to do after that.”

When I approached her, she skirted away from me.

“I’ll do it,” Lorraine said with a sigh.

Maybe it was intimidating for a guy to approach her while she was tied up. No hard feelings. No hard feelings at all.

Ferrici kept a wary gaze on Lorraine as she came near, but she didn’t try to distance herself this time. At least, she seemed to believe that we were untying her.

When she saw the loose rope and the pieces of fabric used to protect her wrists, she thawed a little bit. “What’s going on? Just to be clear, I won’t spill a word about the wyvern habitat.” Her voice was steely, however, indicating that she clearly remembered our last conversation.

Truth be told, Lorraine had a million ways to make Ferrici talk whether she wanted to or not, but there was no need to remind Ferrici of that. It would just scare her unnecessarily.

Seeing as how I wasn’t the best delegate for this particular negotiation, Lorraine stepped up to bat. “We’re not going to ask about it,” she reassured her. “Can you tell me the last thing you remember? Anything.”

So that was where we were starting. It probably was the best way to get through to Ferrici about Siren.

Ferrici looked taken aback, but she searched her memory—she must have been a nice person—until the realization hit her. “I left the bar to go home, but...I don’t remember anything after that.” Still confused, she hadn’t considered the cause of her memory loss just yet.

“To clarify, we did not abduct you on your commute. You can verify this with the barkeep later, but we stayed and drank at the bar for another hour or so after you left. Your memory loss was someone else’s doing.”

“Who would... Why would...”

“We don’t know for sure, except that someone hypnotized you, those two knocked out over there, and others in the village. We were fortunately able to apprehend her. This culprit, Siren they call her, was after us. She hypnotized you to make you kill us. You knocked on Augurey’s door—he’s the man over there—and attacked him with a knife.”

Ferrici went wide-eyed.

◆◇◆◇◆

“A knife...?! I never did that!” Ferrici protested.

Lorraine continued to tell her the facts. It was best not to feed someone lies, white or otherwise, in this sort of situation. Truth could hurt more than lies.

“You did. We know it wasn’t of your own volition. As I’ve said, someone put you under hypnosis.”

“Hypnosis...” Ferrici repeated, apparently having glossed over that part in Lorraine’s initial explanation. The shock of being told she’d attacked Augurey might have buried that nugget in her short-term memory. You’d be in denial too if someone had told you, “Hey, I bet you don’t remember, but you tried to stab me.”

Ferrici looked Lorraine in the eyes, searching for a more detailed answer. There was no sign of scorn in her expression, though, only curiosity.

“Do you understand what hypnosis is?” Lorraine asked.

“I’ve heard of it...” Ferrici replied.

Even in this remote village, that word wasn’t entirely foreign. Circuses that traveled from one desolate village to another sometimes had a so-called hypnotist on their roster, although most adults saw them for the hacks they were. If the hypnotist used magic, that would be another story, but not many mages could cast mind-controlling spells, the intricacies of which were a well-kept secret. Therefore, in villages like this one, most people saw hypnosis as a cheap gimmick.

Lorraine continued, “Hypnosis comes in many varieties. The displays you have seen of it were mostly parlor tricks, I presume. Most of them use a plant in the audience to fake the effect. Things like preventing the hypnotized from standing up, making them laugh uncontrollably, convincing them that a food tastes different...”

Lorraine’s examples jogged Ferrici’s memory. “I used to believe it when I was a child, but as I grew up and realized that most often the members of the same traveling circus were being hypnotized, I stopped believing. One time, someone from our village was hypnotized, but I also saw the hypnotist slipping him some coin.”

“That sounds about right,” Lorraine said. “But not all hypnotists are snake oil salesmen. Although very few in number, some are the real deal. There is also a decent community that researches their skill. It’s not my field of study, but I requested to undergo hypnosis once. When I say that it’s a real phenomenon, I speak from firsthand experience.”

That must have been one of her adventures from branching out to all corners of academia back in the capital. I thought it was pretty obscure territory, but Lorraine was curiosity incarnate, so I guess it was right up her alley.

Ferrici looked at Lorraine doubtfully. “Really...?”

Lorraine nodded, perfectly serious. “Yes, really. Even so, such suggestions aren’t too strong, nor do they last long. Not even a powerful suggestion can force others into complex actions. For example, the kind of mind control you underwent, Ferrici, is supposed to be impossible to instill by ordinary hypnosis. You were commanded to kill Augurey, and you performed a complicated sequence of actions: coming to Augurey’s room, approaching him suggestively, embracing him to close your distance, and trying to kill him with the knife you had kept hidden.”

Now that Lorraine laid it out like that, it was a complex series of actions—a far cry from being unable to stand up out of a chair. Each step of the assassination had required dynamic decision-making. If this was possible by hypnosis, you could create an army of soldiers who held no regard for their own life. A king or someone of similar status would go to great lengths to get their hands on that resource.

Considering that, I wondered if Siren was one of the mastermind’s more valuable employees? Their whole operation felt too lackluster for that to be true, though. Maybe we were that much of an outlier.

I doubted Siren had considered that anyone would sniff her out just from the trace of a scent she’d left on one of her victims. None of us were dogs, after all. Augurey just had a nose as sharp as one. I’d taken a whiff of Siren when Augurey brought her in, but the smell was nowhere near overpowering. In fact, she’d probably tried to avoid wearing any recognizable scent. This wasn’t a misstep on Siren’s part, just bad luck.

“I really...did that...?” Ferrici uttered, stunned by the gravity of her unconscious actions. Her cheeks then went red with embarrassment. She sat pondering this for a few seconds before turning to Augurey. “Um... I don’t remember any of it, but I’m so sorry I did those things! Attacking you with a knife... I don’t expect forgiveness for something like that. Are you really all right?”

I, for one, didn’t think she owed any of us an apology. She was being controlled, and our rolling into the village had caused the whole thing. Still, Ferrici seemed to feel responsible for the attack.

“It’s not your fault at all,” Augurey said. “I don’t have a scratch on me. Besides, I’m not much of an adventurer, but I’ve trained enough to stave off an attack, no matter how surprising, from a village girl. Are you all right?”

“What?” Ferrici asked, looking confused.

“You went berserk during the attack, so I had to knock you out with a strike to the neck. I tied you up in case you came to and still weren’t yourself. I hope neither left a mark, though I tried my best to prevent that.”

Ferrici checked her forearms. There were no marks, thanks to the fabric that had cushioned the rope.

As for her neck, Lorraine took a look. “No mark. It’s a pretty neck.”

Coming from her, I couldn’t help but imagine some sinister subtext. Maybe she was imagining Ferrici’s decapitated head in a jar. Lorraine had jarred monster heads in her room by the dozens...

“I’m glad,” Ferrici said. “But even if there had been a mark, that’s all right. You were protecting yourself.”

“Really? That’s a relief,” Augurey replied. “But all blame lies with the one who hypnotized you. You shouldn’t feel bad about it.”

“But...”

“If you insist, can you help us explain ourselves to the others who were hypnotized? If possible, we would appreciate it if you could spare them the part about us possibly being the root cause of all of this. We’d have nowhere to go if we were kicked out of the inn. What do you say?”

Augurey had asked for her help very casually. Playing the jester suited him well. By injecting some lightheartedness into the conversation, he made Ferrici smile.

“Yes. Is that all?” she asked.

◆◇◆◇◆

After that, we started waking the villagers we’d knocked out, beginning with the two that had attacked Lorraine and me. They and Ferrici must have known one another, because they accepted her explanation—only that a dozen or so villagers had been under hypnosis—without much question. Ferrici left out the details about whether the hypnosis was magical and about who the culprit was targeting. Some of the villagers must have been left with unanswered questions, but people in remote settlements tended to be realists, for better or worse. They were resilient, ready to accept the information they were given and focus their energy on moving on.

Even though Ferrici had kept the fact that we were the hypnotist’s targets a secret, we couldn’t expect the other villagers not to connect the dots when something like this happened the night of our arrival. The more experienced villagers—middle-aged or older, like the innkeeper—were surely the wiser. No one pursued that suspicion, though, thanks to Ferrici’s heartfelt retelling of the events and her emphasis on the fact that we’d freed them from their hypnosis. We wouldn’t regain their trust completely, but we took the fact that no one was kicking us out of the village as a win.

Once she’d gone through all of the villagers who’d been hypnotized and they returned to their homes or jobs, Ferrici turned to us. “Um, I kept a lot of things from them, but...” She trailed off, still looking nervous. She knew how this looked for us.

Lorraine said, “Some of them realized that we caused this. None of the younger ones, who seemed more happy-go-lucky, realized, but I did catch a glance from the innkeeper, for example.”

“I thought so... I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. We’re asking you for a favor. And even those who must have their suspicions haven’t demanded we leave the village.” Lorraine paused, then looked at Augurey and me. “Now, we may need to expedite our quest, because it’s possible our welcome will only extend until tomorrow, so let’s take care of business first thing in the morning. Thoughts?”

I figured we’d spend a couple days completing the job with some time to spare, but I agreed that we’d lost that luxury. We could camp out in the woods if we had to, but I’d rather save that as a last resort.

Just as I was about to answer Lorraine, Augurey interjected, “Oh, sorry, Ferrici. We were about to discuss our business with you still here. Thank you for helping us out. I’m sure your parents are worried sick, so let me walk you home.”

Ferrici had slipped my mind. If Augurey was going to walk her home, our discussion would have to wait until he returned.

However, Ferrici shook her head. “No, after all I’ve done, I can’t trouble you anymore.”

“Ferrici. Like I said, that’s behind us. You already helped us enough. Besides, I don’t want to walk you home only for your benefit. We did apprehend the hypnotist, but there’s no guarantee she doesn’t have an accomplice out there. Worst-case scenario, if we let you walk home alone at this hour and you get attacked, it won’t feel right to us. So, for our sake, could I walk you home? If you’re uncomfortable with me, I can offer up the services of Skull-Mask or She-Mage here.”

We knew for a fact that Siren had at least one other friend at large. Lorraine was tracking Goblin’s whereabouts, but we didn’t even know who the older-sounding accomplice was, the one I’d overheard at their meeting. I hadn’t sensed him since either. The mysterious third member of their group could very well be the most dangerous of them yet, so it wasn’t a good idea to send Ferrici home unchaperoned. Not that I thought they’d abduct a plain-Jane villager when we had Siren at our mercy, but better safe than sorry. I could have done a deep dive into all the slim chances of danger, like Ferrici’s entire family being attacked after we walked her home, but that wouldn’t have been very productive. We couldn’t keep an eye on every single villager twenty-four seven; we just wanted to do what we could. It wasn’t like we were trying to save the world.

Ferrici smiled. “Well...in that case, Augurey, I’ll take you up on your offer. Lorraine would be fine, but if Rentt walks me home at this time of night, my parents may keel over.”

“Right,” Augurey said with a chuckle. “They’d think he was coming to reap their souls.”

This was an outrage. I was a quasi-vampire, not a reaper...which probably still kept me at the top of everyone’s wish list of things to avoid in the dead of night.

Augurey and Ferrici soon left the inn, so Lorraine and I engaged in productive conversation.

“How’s Siren?” I asked.

“After she answered my questions, I put her to sleep. She won’t be up for another full day. I could wake her, but not without a spell. It’s possible that Goblin or his elderly accomplice might dare a rescue, though. How should we prepare for that? I did lay some booby traps.”

Magical booby traps, she meant. By the sound of it, they were powered by some sort of catalyst or magic item and would remain effective until the mana contained in them ran out. That seemed good enough to me. If the traps worked on them, we’d have them detained. If not, we’d have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.

“I supposed we don’t need to apprehend them all,” I answered. “I wouldn’t want to get into a skirmish here and end up destroying the inn.”

Lorraine’s priorities might have been off, but we came to an agreement. Even if all of them got away, she could continue to track Goblin.

“Then we’re all set on Siren,” I said. “As for Goblin...”

◆◇◆◇◆

I lightly knocked on the door and waited a few moments.

“Who is it...?” a sleepy voice called.

“Oh, Yattul. You’re all right. Thank goodness,” I responded with audible concern.

Yattul—nicknamed the Goblin—asked, “Rentt? Did somethin’ happen?”

Like he didn’t know. As much as I wanted to point out that his trio had made us deal with that rigamarole in the middle of the night, I knew I couldn’t spill the beans yet.

“I’ll tell you all about it. Can you let me in?”

“Sure thing. Now you got me curious...” He trailed off into a yawn as he opened the door. “Lorraine too. Must have been quite the ordeal if you both are up.”

Was he being genuine? There was a chance that he was. Maybe the details of when and where to make a move had been left up to each individual operative, and Goblin wasn’t happy that Siren had interrupted his sleep by pulling the trigger this late in the night. In any case, he had to have guessed as to why we were knocking on his door so soon.

We entered his room.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Wow... That’s incredible. Sorry you had to deal with all that,” Yattul said with some exaggerated surprise.

We’d given him the less-specific explanation that we’d been attacked but didn’t know why. Lorraine and I had discussed prior to knocking on his door whether or not to tip our hand about Siren’s capture. We’d settled on including a trickle of the truth. Goblin was sure to realize that Siren had been captured, if he hadn’t already, but just mentioning her capture wouldn’t tip Goblin off to the fact that we knew more than we were letting on. We’d decided to tell him that we hadn’t gotten anything out of her, which I figured would work since she likely had been trained to resist normal interrogation techniques.

“We did capture someone who may be the culprit, but we’ve barely gotten any information out of her,” I said.

Yattul asked, “How’d you figure out she was the culprit?”

“She looked suspicious, so we knocked her out, and all the villagers who were acting strange and wouldn’t wake up just...woke up, and they seemed like themselves again. We don’t know how, but our guess is they were under some kind of hypnosis.”

I gave Goblin a half-truth I thought was believable, and if he was frustrated that Siren had gotten herself captured, he didn’t show it.

“Hypnosis... I thought that kinda stuff was all hocus pocus,” he stated.

“Some of them are real,” Lorraine explained. “I’ve been hypnotized once myself. It’s rather interesting being on the receiving end of it.”

Lorraine probably meant that. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see how it felt, but I didn’t want to snap out of it in the middle of a murder scene. If I was going to be hypnotized for the fun of it, I’d have to go with the entertaining kind, not Siren’s.

“Interestin’... You got some guts, Lorraine,” Yattul said.

“Not really. I only asked to be hypnotized precisely because I knew it couldn’t have much of an effect on me. If I had experienced something like this, I would have greatly hesitated.”

The fact that she still would’ve considered undergoing hypnosis was a testament to the overpowering strength of Lorraine’s curiosity. It’d be terrifying if someone hypnotized her to be an endless magic-firing cannon.

“But that’s a tangent,” Lorraine continued. “Anything out of the ordinary with you, Yattul? Anyone else knock on your door last night?”

“Don’t think so... But unlike when we’re campin’, once I hit the sack in an inn like this, it takes a lot to wake me. Someone might’ve knocked on my door, but if I wasn’t awake to hear it...”

“You answered when we knocked.”

“I was already half-awake. Thought I heard a lot of noise. Otherwise, you woulda been knocking till mornin’.”

Was he telling the truth? Doubtful. He was up during the entire ordeal, which meant he knew that this would happen. Things had gone according to their plan, but now, with Siren’s failure and capture, they’d be forced to improvise—unless they could continue their initial scheme without Siren. There was no way to tell, but given that we had traps in place around Siren, our best move would be to wait and see.

We were off to Lake Petorama tomorrow to complete our job, which would look like an opportune time to rescue Siren. Now that we’d fed Goblin all the clues, we just had to wait for them to make their move. Even if they deactivated all of Lorraine’s traps, we could always track Goblin, and I figured Lorraine had marked Siren too. The last of their trio remained an unknown factor, but we couldn’t do much until he came out of the shadows.

This just about wrapped up what we could do here. I shared a look with Lorraine and turned to Yattul. “I’m just glad you’re okay. We caught the culprit, so I don’t expect any more trouble, but be careful. We’re going to get some rest. We have an early morning since we have to go out to the lake for our quest.”

“Shouldn’t you keep a watch over the culprit?” Yattul asked.

“She’s tied up real good. No way she’s getting away.” I resisted the urge to add, “Without anyone’s help,” and left the room with Lorraine.

Out in the hall, I asked Lorraine, “You think they’ll bite?”

“We’ll see. Either way, it works out for us. If they don’t, we’ll hand over Siren to a peacekeeper knight or constable. It means we’ll let the last member of their group slip, but there’s not much we can do if they don’t come to us.”

“Guess you’re right...”

◆◇◆◇◆

The pair trod toward Ferrici’s house. Ferrici had fallen into a contemplative silence after leaving the inn, so Augurey had waited to speak until it felt an opportune time.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

Ferrici snapped out of her thoughts. “Oh, sorry. I must be a bore to walk with...” Flustered, she fluttered her hands about in a manner that seemed very genuine.

Augurey smiled, knowing that he would be hard-pressed to find any girl in the capital who could pull that off. As meager as Yaaran was, its capital was a sizable city, and women there were much more adept in the nuances of romance than men. Too often did men fall into a false sense of control with a woman only to realize that they were playing perfectly into the woman’s hands—a shuddering thought.

Men usually had the upper hand when it came to physical strength, but a good number of chivalrous adventurers and skilled knights populated the capital. Any disturbers of the peace would be met with swift public intervention, leaving men with no choice but to pursue their romantic interests by legal means. As a result, the capital’s plazas were often filled with men catcalling passing women, who had plenty of experience with this and deftly turned them down.

Augurey imagined that if Ferrici found herself in one of those plazas, she would be swept away by some sweet talker within the hour. On the other hand, considering how she’d refused to give up information on the wyverns even in the face of adventurers, he wondered if she would be the type of girl to ignore catcalling altogether.

“I’m far from bored,” Augurey replied. “I had a very exciting night, actually. It’s not every night you have this much fun.”

“Fun?” Ferrici echoed, wide-eyed.

“Absolutely. It’s pretty boring going through the motions in the capital, just doing jobs to put food on the table or up my rank. I’m not cocky enough to say that all requests are easy, but they’re same-old, same-old. In the humdrum of cookie-cutter jobs, I can’t help but look for something more exciting.”

This was true for many adventurers since they worked to complete jobs, and requests were only posted because there was some sort of demand for them. Gathering a specific herb, hunting for food, collecting materials for weapons and items—most jobs boiled down to replenishing some sort of supply that’d been expended in the capital each day.

Silver-class jobs were no exception. Of course, you often had to visit a new site each time, and you had to make the appropriate preparations for the job. There were many factors to consider for each request, like the shifting monster habitats that changed with the seasons. Navigating those variables made the job of an adventurer more time-consuming and arduous than civilians imagined. Performing those tasks day after day was no cakewalk, so when the jobs were finished, you felt a decent sense of accomplishment. Augurey wouldn’t go so far as to say he was disgruntled, but he still hoped for a change of pace from the repetitive gigs.

This was due in large part to Augurey’s aversion to boredom. Silver-class adventurers made enough money that a decade of hard work and saving could result in a nest egg fat enough for an early retirement. It wasn’t uncommon for adventurers to complete repetitive yet well-paying jobs to safely progress toward retirement rather than pursue glory or a higher rank. That was what “smart” adventurers did.

Those who pursued a rank higher than Silver—Gold, Mithril, and Platinum—had a screw or two loose. They were special kinds of idiots who sought after the thrill and the rush rather than payment. They craved danger and close calls with death over the bliss of peaceful boredom.

Augurey, with no uncertainty, was one of those idiots. Rentt, and most likely Lorraine too, were birds of a feather. Even though Augurey recognized his humdrum jobs were a stepping-stone in his pursuit for excitement, he couldn’t help but find it dreary.

After hearing an abridged version of this, Ferrici sanely said, “I would rather live a safe and comfortable life where I don’t have to worry about putting food on the table.”

Any normal person would agree with Ferrici. Those who didn’t became adventurers, and only those adventurers who strongly believed in their personal philosophy could climb the ranks. An adventurer’s rank was both an indication of their strength and of their foolishness. Adventurers, protest as they might, would agree with that sentiment, at least deep down.

“If only I could feel that way,” Augurey said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t have run away from my hometown and the peaceful life laid out for me.”

“Is your family rich, Augurey?” Ferrici asked.

This question coming from a young lady in the capital would’ve made Augurey wonder if she was prospecting for gold, but Ferrici’s tone was clear of anything but genuine curiosity.

“I never would have had to work a day in my life,” Augurey remarked.

“But you gave it up to be an adventurer...?”

“I did, and I don’t regret it. I’m having a blast every day. I’m not bored when I’m with Rentt and Lorraine. Excitement like this keeps falling into my lap, one after another.”

“An excitement like a girl you met at the bar trying to stab you with a knife?”

“Right. Well, maybe not that fun.” Augurey shrugged and gave Ferrici a smile, which she returned. It brought him some comfort to see she was feeling well enough to make light of her situation.

“That’s my home over there,” she said, pointing to a house.

They approached the dwelling, which had been built somewhat on the outskirts of the village, where no other soul could be found. Augurey was happy to see that he’d made the right choice in walking her home. He’d also hastened his pace, purely to save Ferrici’s parents from worrying about her for another minute.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Ferrici! Where have you been this late?!”

Despite Augurey’s best efforts, when they arrived at Ferrici’s house, they were greeted by a man running toward them. Beside the man stood a woman who looked how Augurey imagined Ferrici would look in thirty years.

“You must be Ferrici’s parents,” Augurey said. “You have my sincerest apologies. Ferrici’s late return isn’t her fault. There was a complicated situation...”

Augurey’s eloquence must have made him sound suspicious, because Ferrici’s father gave Augurey a look. There was no meaning behind it at first glance, but Augurey had a feeling that the man was gearing up to hold the man who’d kept his daughter out accountable.

◆◇◆◇◆

“What kind of situation are you in?” asked Leo, Ferrici’s father.

He and Lenora, Ferrici’s mother, had just introduced themselves to Augurey, and now they were all seated around a table in their house. Augurey had told them that he was an adventurer who’d come to the village to complete a job.

“Dad, I think you got the wrong idea!” Ferrici protested, which only earned her a glance from her father.

He faced Augurey with a very calm expression, but Augurey sensed outrage boiling beneath the man’s tranquil exterior. Noticing that Leo did indeed have the wrong idea, Augurey decided he would clear up the misunderstanding as quickly as possible.

Having been ignored by her father, Ferrici moved to confront her mother, but Augurey stopped her with a hand on her shoulder before giving her a look that said, “Leave it to me.”

Even that interaction seemed to stoke Leo’s rage; his fists tightened almost imperceptibly, which would have passed unnoticed by anyone less observant than Augurey. He respected Leo for keeping his emotions in check and being willing to hear him out despite being convinced that he was some random guy who’d taken advantage of his daughter.

Judging that they could hold a rational conversation, Augurey started, “As I said, it’s not Ferrici’s fault that she hasn’t come home until now.”

He spoke in a sincere and straightforward manner, forgoing his usual lightheartedness. He could compose himself when he wanted to, out of necessity. Silver-class adventurers often completed jobs for nobles and were even invited to some high-society parties, so they had to be equipped with a decent sense of etiquette. Some adventurers stubbornly refused to adopt any etiquette or even interact with any nobles, but Augurey wasn’t the stubborn type. As long as he kept his conscience clean, he was willing to do anything it took.

“So whose fault is it?” Leo asked with an admirable lack of accusation in his tone, despite no doubt wanting to blame Augurey and bash his face in.

Thankful for Leo’s composure, Augurey continued, “The person who caused tonight’s events. Let me start at the beginning...”

Augurey then gave Leo an account of what had happened. Leo, who’d been expecting some excuse for why Augurey had taken his daughter out at night, was shocked to hear a completely unexpected story. The information that his daughter had been used as a pawn in a nefarious plot involving their idyllic village had struck him like lightning. He rushed to his feet, faltered, and sat back down.

After a deep breath, Leo asked, “Did all of that...really happen?” In contrast to his previous tone, which had been full of certainty, Leo now sounded anxious, shocked, and even apologetic.

“I couldn’t fabricate a story like this,” Augurey replied. “I assume that news hasn’t reached this far out in the village, but it should be the talk of the town tomorrow.”

“I see... I don’t believe you have a reason to lie about this, anyway. I just can’t believe it.” Leo stared at Augurey with determination in his eyes. “I beg of you...”

“Yes?”

“Please forgive Ferrici for what she has done. I will do anything in my power to make this right. If you tell me to pay for her crime with my life, I’ll—!”

“No, honey!” cried Lenora.

Tears in his eyes, Leo put a hand on her shoulder. “Lenora, keep Ferrici safe!”

Apparently, Leo thought Augurey had accompanied Ferrici to demand some sort of reparations for the attack. True, more than a few adventurers would have done so in Augurey’s shoes, but he had no intention of extorting them.

He hurriedly said, “No, I wouldn’t ask anything of you! Ferrici and I have already discussed this!”

Unfortunately, that was a poor choice of words. Leo turned to his daughter and pleaded, “Ferrici! You have so much to live for! Think of your future!”

Augurey writhed internally as the misunderstanding worsened. In hindsight, he realized this was a natural conclusion for her parents to reach. Adventurers were the epitome of violence. The whole village could take up arms against a single adventurer, but they wouldn’t stand a chance.

An outrageous demand suddenly became difficult to refuse when it came from an adventurer. Now that one had suddenly knocked on their door—with the revelation that their daughter had nearly killed him, albeit under the influence of mind control—Ferrici’s parents lost their rationality. In their defense, though, plenty of adventurers would have resorted to extortion.

Augurey regretted not thinking his line of conversation through beforehand. Regardless, he would strive to de-escalate the situation.

◆◇◆◇◆

Half an hour later...

Leo smiled in relief. “Oh, now I understand! Why didn’t you say so? I thought I’d have a heart attack.”

“Dad, I told you to listen,” Ferrici said.

“I apologize. Nothing like this has happened before, and I lost my composure. I just wanted to protect my family.”

“I’m happy to say there’s no need,” Augurey assured him. “I only came to explain why Ferrici hadn’t come home, not to demand anything for it. Just be careful for a while.” Augurey also wanted to warn them, since one of the culprits was still at large, and he felt a little remorseful that he couldn’t be more open with them about this matter.

“We will,” Leo assured him. “And, Augurey?”

“Yes?” Augurey answered, tilting his head to the side.

“Thank you, really. From what I hear, Ferrici could have been killed. Is that right?”

“She...” She very well could have been, if Augurey was being honest. He would have killed her had his life been threatened, and an adventurer with a shorter fuse would have done so just for being attacked. That would have been much easier than detaining Ferrici alive.

As if he could hear Augurey’s thoughts, Leo said, “I cannot thank you enough, Augurey. I owe you my daughter’s life...”

Augurey shook his head. “Please, there’s no need for that.”

Lenora, and even Ferrici, who realized that she’d only made it back alive because of Augurey, began to thank him profusely. Since Augurey knew that his party was the reason all of this had happened, he pleaded with them to stop.

Once the family stopped expressing their gratitude, and after much persuasion, Augurey attempted to excuse himself.

“If there’s anything we can do for you, please let us know,” Leo said. “There may not be much we can do for an adventurer, but we will do everything in our power to assist you.”

Augurey smiled. “Really, there’s no need to do anything for me. Have a good night.”

Ferrici and her parents watched Augurey walk away.

Once he was gone, Leo said to Ferrici, “You’re very lucky that you happened to attack an upstanding adventurer.”

“Yes. Augurey’s a Silver-class adventurer, I’m told.”

“S-Silver-class?! That’s impressive.”

An adventurer of that rank was almost legendary to beings of a remote village—practically a monster. Leo wouldn’t have pegged Augurey for one.

“From what they told me, I tried to stab him from behind, but he detained me without giving me a scratch.”

“A young girl like you may not have been much of a threat, but that’s still impressive. I’m really grateful that Augurey was the one you attacked. I wish we could have thanked him properly, but an adventurer like that could easily buy anything we could offer. What can we do?”

“The only thing I can think of now is to pack them a meal to take when they leave the village,” Lenora suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea. They must get sick of preserved foods. Yes, let’s do that,” Leo agreed as they went back into the house.

“Thank him... Right...” Ferrici muttered to herself as she followed her parents in. Her house was warm, and she looked forward to a good night’s sleep, but she made a mental note not to oversleep.