Chapter 217: Morning Comes, a Friend Departs, and Longdagger’s Chest is Wet 1
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Yuunou-san, or rather, Maricia Lensfield, let out a sigh mixed with resignation first thing in the morning, thinking that things had indeed gotten troublesome.
She felt that the “bill” for things having gone too smoothly up until now had come all at once.
Come to think of it, far too little had happened on the way to the town of Loakum.
There was Erica Longdagger, whom she had thought, “Ah, so this is the Masked Man’s (Shin’s) wife,” the moment she saw her, and the dangerous Sister who, while screaming, somehow scattered attack magic and beat to death approaching Monsters with a Barrier-clad fist.
Despite traveling with such a group, their journey had been so uneventful it could be called abnormal.
Along the way, Maricia even had the leeway to teach Drim, who wasn’t used to requests far from towns, the tricks of camping and such.
If it were called carelessness, she couldn’t argue.
Maricia felt like she wanted to beat herself up for thinking, “Well, it’s just my partner (Drim) wearing a weird mask, it’s probably fine.”
It was after they arrived in the town of Loakum.
Things had gone completely haywire at a tremendous pace.
Maricia unconsciously smoothed the wrinkles between her eyebrows with her fingers.
The person who did it thought he hadn’t been noticed, but Maricia knew.
She knew what Shin had done upon arriving in Loakum.
Maricia held a fair amount of pride in being a Rank 6 adventurer.
When an adventurer reached Rank 6, they had various connections and means.
Was he making a fool of her, acting as if even she, a Rank 6, hadn’t noticed after he’d done something that flashy? Maricia had thought so. But she was soon dumbfounded when she realized he genuinely thought she hadn’t found out the truth.
But that was fine.
Still fine. Still forgivable. After all, the one who’d messed up was the Masked Man, that Shin Longdagger.
Rather than “it was to be expected,” she even thought, “He finally did something characteristic of him.”
The problem was his wife.
No, the Sister who, for some reason, wore a mask along with Drim was also a problem, but…
The Masked Man’s wife was so dangerous that even that didn’t seem like a problem.
She had thought Erica was dangerous from the moment she first saw her.
But Maricia realized that was quite an understatement when she saw Erica constructing an External Support Magic Circle all by herself, of all things.
On the way to Loakum, it was a mistake to think, “As expected of the Masked Man’s wife.”
It was the Masked Man, who could have Erica Longdagger as his wife, who was amazing.
She didn’t even know what the difference was, and she wondered if it didn’t just mean both of them were dangerous, but…
Erica Longdagger was completely off the charts.
Maricia, a “former” noble, correctly understood the significance of Erica constructing an External Support Magic Circle all by herself.
In other words, she alone could fight a Knights Order head-on and win.
Why was such a prodigy out in the world?
From Erica’s demeanor, Maricia had guessed her origins were likely noble or former noble, like herself, but…
This time, a different question arose.
Noble society wasn’t so lenient as to let such talent go unused.
They would surely use her to the fullest.
If anything, giving her a Knights Order would make her a deterrent all by itself.
And to top it off, her husband was the “Unbefitting Longdagger.” Leaving these two out in the world was just too unnatural.
And considering her husband’s place of origin, Erica’s place of origin naturally became clear.
What had they done?
Maricia, drawing on the education she received as a former noble, put a lid on her thoughts once she understood that much.
It wasn’t hard to imagine it was for some unsavory reason. And it was because Maricia had grown fond of the two of them.
She had run away from home and become an adventurer because she hated “that sort of thing.”
She had no intention of sticking her nose into it now.
Especially since she had found out that the target of this escort request was Pantile.
To be honest, she’d had her fill.
And now, Longdagger was bringing one troublesome matter after another to her already full plate.
She was already full, give her a break.
Drim was already easily influenced by the Masked Man as it was.
“Don’t influence him any more strangely.”
Maricia thought, glancing sideways at Beardy, aka Drim, doing his daily morning warm-up exercises next to her.
To Maricia, Drim was both a disciple and a partner.
She’d never acknowledged him as a partner, but well, he was practically her partner, so that was fine.
This man was born and raised in the blessed town of Noel Jeun, and among them, he was highly sought after as a promising carpenter.
Yet, just because he was saved by an adventurer, Maricia, a little outside of town, he pushed past everyone’s opposition and became an adventurer.
“My partner is a bit too easily influenced,” Maricia thought.
No, if he were only easily influenced, Maricia wouldn’t have worried this much.
The problem was that this Drim produced results commensurate with the influence he received.
Maricia, who had realized the true nature of that blue flame the Masked Man was messing with due to her education as a former noble, was struck speechless one day when Drim reported with a beaming smile, “I managed to make blue flames go bafun bafun too!”
Fortunately—Maricia thought, she truly thought.
What Drim had done operated on a different principle from the Masked Man’s. But when she was shown it for the first time, she seriously almost fainted. She cursed the Masked Man in her heart, thinking, “What have you done to my Drim?!”
Drim, who had been a highly sought-after and skilled carpenter, was indeed also skilled as an adventurer.
He had some foolish parts, but Maricia believed Drim also had talent as an adventurer. Maricia had seriously thought that if he learned steadily as an adventurer under her, he could even reach Rank 6, the same as her, in a few years.
But then…
Drim, after meeting the Masked Man, had his talents bloom in a single leap.
He had talent from the start, so it was a matter of sooner or later, but… Even so, it was too sudden.
“I don’t get it, stop it, don’t instill such absurdity into my Drim!”
“What’s this ‘Bluebeard’ nonsense? Drim is best when he has no beard…”
Maricia shook her head and took a deep breath.
No, she had to calm down.
In this group, she couldn’t afford to lose her composure too.
The Longdagger crew, including the Sister who played the straight man, was a mass of abnormalities. That “Saint” made a face like, “But I’m a person of common sense, you know?” but that was a joke.
A person of common sense wouldn’t play the straight man between those two.
In addition to those three, the escort target was Pantile. At this point, they were utterly unsuitable as people from whom to expect common sense.
What was she going to do with this group?!
Were they going to move while escorting an entire village of evacuees to a place where there might be bandits, with this lineup? Are you idiots?! Are they idiots?! At the very least, it’s utterly foolish!
Just thinking about it made her head hurt.
But she couldn’t afford to succumb to a headache here.
Today, she, Drim, and the Masked Man were to walk at the head of the group.
She had to be strong.
Maricia nodded back to Drim, who gave her a thumbs-up saying, “Counting on you again today, partner!” and resolved herself. “I won’t let him have any more strange influence on my Drim!”
＊＊＊＊Afterword＊＊＊＊
Thank you always for your comments, likes, follows for the work, ratings, etc.
My heart is completely adrift due to my book publishing debut, and I’m the kind of author who thinks, “Ah, if I comment carelessly, this will definitely cause a flame war.”
Actually, my backlog is about to completely run out, and I’m desperately trying to build it up.
If someone says, “But you have time to promote on X, don’t you?” I can only run away with teary eyes.
Look! It’s promotional activity! The next volume depends on it!
Putting aside such author-related matters,
Thank you for the many purchase reports.
Furthermore, receiving your impressions, there’s no doubt that the author is happy, whatever the outcome.
I offer my thanks once again.
Currently, I’m hardly able to reply to comments, but I read all of them.
I do reply to purchase reports, as I feel not doing so would go against basic courtesy.
I am definitely reading all the comments.
The author’s motivation comes from the comments received from readers.
For this too, I offer my repeated thanks.
I am an author who has job-changed from a wannabe to a new writer, but my fundamental footing is here, so I look forward to your continued support.