Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 4.5

Side Story: The Disquieting Woman

A few years ago, when I was still making a living as a human adventurer of Yaaran...

“She wants you to take her to Rook Cape?” I asked. I was at Lorraine’s place having dinner. “Remind me why she wants to go there again?”

“She wants to see the view from there, apparently,” Lorraine replied. “Well, strange jobs are a copper a dozen. Adventurers such as ourselves can’t be too picky about the details, though we’ll be careful to look out for anything suspicious, of course.”

We were talking about a job Lorraine had accepted. A woman by the name of Hilde had requested an escort to a remote area called Rook Cape.

The strange thing about the job was that nobody ever went there. No towns or villages existed in the area, and neither did any dungeons. There was no particular specialty that could be found there either...unless you counted the scenery, which, granted, was beautiful.

There was also one more thing about Rook Cape...

“Funny you should mention caution...” I murmured. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“You’re worried about it happening too, are you? It’d be nice to not have to consider it and let her be, but I’d rather not accidentally see something unpleasant.”

“So you are getting that feeling, huh?”

We were talking about whether this Hilde woman was planning on throwing herself off the cape.

Geographically, Rook Cape was an outcropping that jutted out high above a large lake—Lake Quia.

Because of this, it was known as a common suicide spot. It wasn’t too far from the town of Maalt—a two-day journey on foot, if you pushed yourself, but this was just far enough to create a sense of distance. For those who’d made up their minds, it was a place where nobody could get in the way.

From that point of view, it would seem that there was no need to worry, though, since the client had requested an escort.

I brought that up to Lorraine. “Still, she wouldn’t go out of her way to hire an escort if she was going to do it, right?”

“That’d be true if she were a man, maybe. There’s always the chance that a lone woman would get snatched by bandits during the journey. Maybe she’s just making absolutely sure. Just because she might want to die doesn’t mean she’d want to be taken by bandits.”

“Ah, right...”

In my head, I’d had the preconceived notion that nothing else really mattered if you were going to die anyway, but Lorraine was right that there were absolutely some things you’d rather avoid.

“Okay, I get the picture now,” I said. “Just stay on your toes. If you can convince her not to...”

“I can promise I’m ready to stop her and hear her story, at least. I’m not so busy I can’t make the time for that.”

“Good to hear.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Oh, Rentt!”

Early the next day, when I went to the guild, an employee called out to me.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“You haven’t taken a job yet, have you?”

“No, I was just about to.”

“Then could I ask you to fill a vacancy on another job? It was short notice.”

I wasn’t unfamiliar with the situation. While many adventurers in Maalt were the diligent type, the profession inherently attracted rowdy people. In other words, sometimes you’d get adventurers who’d cancel on a job without any prior warning. The cleanup for that would then fall to the guild and its employees to handle.

I looked at the employee’s face. I felt a little bad for them.

“Sure,” I said. “I don’t mind. But could you tell me about the job first?”

“Oh! Thank you! Okay, so...”

The guild employee explained the details of the job, and I found myself surprised. It matched the details of the job Lorraine and I had talked about just yesterday. The vacancy was an adventurer who had been intended to be the wagon driver but could no longer be found.

If that was all the job was, then I figured I’d be fine.

“Got it,” I said. “I’ll take it. Where should I go?”

“You’re meeting at the wagon staging area. You should hurry. It’s almost time.”

“Will do. I’ll head there now!”

As I ran off, I heard the guild employee’s voice call out behind me.

“Thank you so much!”

◆◇◆◇◆

“So you’re the replacement?” Lorraine asked when I reached the wagon staging area. “Hilde, are you okay with him?”

Hilde was a young woman. She didn’t look like she was suicidal, but then again, I didn’t know a thing about women’s emotions. They were simply unfathomable.

“Yes, I don’t mind. It doesn’t seem as though we have another option, anyway...”

“We could always postpone it to another day.”

“I’m afraid not. I’d like to be there by this evening.”

“In that case, this is our only option. It should be fine though. This man—Rentt’s reliable when it comes to his work.”

“Is he an acquaintance of yours?”

“It’s more like we can’t get rid of each other...”

“Then I have even less to be concerned about. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rentt.”

Hilde smiled and held her hand out to me, so I shook it.

“R-Right. Good to meet you too.”

The wagon was a rental that Hilde had hired. She’d already paid the fee, so all that would be left to do was drop it off upon our return to Maalt.

I was a little wary about how well she seemed to be tying up loose ends, but the more we spoke to her, the more I realized that I had nothing to worry about. She wasn’t suicidal at all.

Then, despite Lorraine and I having done our best to hide our concern, Hilde asked, “Um, is something bothering you?”

Lorraine, perhaps thinking that we might as well come clean given how far we’d come already, explained, her tone slightly nervous.

After a few moments of silence, Hilde burst into laughter.

“Aha ha ha! I get it now! Ha ha ha! Now that you’ve pointed it out, I can understand why you’d think that. A lone woman traveling to Rook Cape... I suppose it does seem like that kind of place. Still, rest assured. I don’t intend to do any such thing.”

“I-Is that so? That’s good to hear...” Lorraine said. “But now I must admit I’m even more curious as to what your goal is.”

Rook Cape had nothing but a good view. It wasn’t a place worth making the effort to go to, yet that was what she was doing.

“Normally, that’s how it would seem, yes,” Hilde said. “But, hmm. You know, I was originally going to enjoy it alone, but why don’t you two join me? Are you good at hiding yourselves?”

Though we were unsure why she was asking, Lorraine and I nodded.

◆◇◆◇◆

Rook Cape, at night. Under the moonlight, we hid ourselves as we watched the lake.

“Really?” Lorraine asked. “In a place like this?”

“Yes,” Hilde replied. “Every year on this day, without fail. The story’s been passed down in my family since my great-grandmother’s generation. I come every year.”

“I haven’t seen your job postings,” I pointed out.

“I usually ask an adventurer party I know, but not long ago, they went to the capital, so...”

“Ah, right... Oh, look! Seriously...?”

In the midst of our conversation, a peculiar presence began to rise from the lake. It took the form of a mighty monster—one that everybody knew the name of.

“A dragon,” Lorraine breathed. “An...ice dragon, if I’m right. Who could’ve known one lived here of all places?”

It was an honest-to-goodness ice dragon. But the wonders didn’t end there.

“It sounds like it’s singing...” I said.

Its cry echoed throughout the surroundings like a song. It was beautiful; I never would’ve guessed it to be a dragon’s cry if I hadn’t known.

“I’ve heard before that certain species of dragon cry like that when courting a mate,” Lorraine said. “But I had no idea when or where they did it...”

“Look, it’s coming!” Hilde exclaimed.

Another dragon descended from the skies. This one was an ice dragon too, but it had wings, making it look like a different species entirely.

“Those wings...” Lorraine murmured, her tone becoming analytical. “They’re made of ice. So they use those to fly, and use the songs to guide them to their mates? That’s a fascinating element of their ecology. From the look of it, I think the one in the lake is the female.”

Then, the pair of ice dragons sank deep beneath the water.

“Grandmother said they probably couple down there,” Hilde said.

Lorraine nodded. “They likely do. Otherwise, with their massive bodies, they’d tear up the ground and make a ruckus that would attract attention. In the lake...they could even build barriers.”

“It’d be rude to peek, of course. Now then, let’s head back.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Yes. I only came here to hear the song. I don’t want to interrupt the newlyweds.”

“Mmm,” Lorraine hummed. “You’re right. I suppose we should go. You’re driver again, Rentt.”

“Yeah...I know.”

◆◇◆◇◆

After we returned to Maalt, we parted ways with Hilde. She told us that she’d like to commission us again next year, if we were still around, and Lorraine agreed.

We were back in Lorraine’s home, and she had a satisfied expression on her face.

“That was an excellent job,” she said.

I nodded and asked, “Because you learned something you didn’t know about monster ecology?”

“Mmm. Maalt’s great for occasional discoveries like that. There are so many novel experiences on the frontier. Perhaps I’ll start taking jobs more actively starting tomorrow...”

“I’m all for you doing that, but I suspect the good ones are rarer than you expect... That aside, I was doing some thinking, and I realized something kind of scary.”

“What?”

“That lake’s a suicide spot, right? And a dragon lives there.”

“Ah. So after the suicide happens... Perhaps we shouldn’t think about this too hard.”

“Yeah. Let’s just forget it.”

“Couldn’t agree more.”