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Chapter 8 – Appointment
Ines lied after she met her brother in the harbor. And I’m about to get caught covering up that lie… No, I’ve been caught.
“Then we’ll work out a scenario.”
Ines said something about scenarios. I wonder how far she’s willing to go to cover up a simple lie.
“Well, let’s start with the most important one, the reason why I fell into slavery. I told Dario that I had a hard time, so it must be a sad story.”
Ines begins to take charge with the air of a stage manager. Is it my imagination, or is she having a bit of fun?
“What do you mean by sad?”
“Well… I was trapped in a labyrinth, lost most of my friends, and barely escaped with my life. The only one who survived was badly injured, and I’m pretending to have fallen into slavery to pay for his treatment. But in spite of my efforts, the only other person with whom I managed to escape also lost his life.”
…Even though it is fictional, you would pretend that your own party member is dead? Come to think of it, didn’t Ines have any friends? She said that she used to be B-ranked, and it seems like she would have a hard time if she went off solo.
“Now that you mention it, Ines didn’t have any real party members, did she? Are you solo?”
“No, I had a party. But about six months before I sold myself, they were gone.”
Gone. She looks happy now, but maybe she was really sad because she lost her friends.
“Ines, can I ask you why they are gone? Of course, you don’t have to tell me if it’s too painful for you.”
“It’s not a painful story; I don’t mind. It was a mixed-gender party, and the leader was dating one of the members, but he got another girl. He tried to get this girl to join the party, but they got into a fight, and the party was broken up. It’s a very annoying story.”
A love affair, huh? It’s a typical story of a mixed-gender party. I was relieved that it wasn’t something serious like the death of a friend.
“I see, so you don’t want to meet your former party members?”
“Well, I got along well with the thief girl, so I’d like to meet her if I could. But that’s not what we’re talking about right now. We don’t have much time, so let’s finish the scenario.”
“Huh? You’re going to make up a different scenario than the one you just told us?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? There is no meeting between me and Master. If we don’t make that part up, they will find out.”
Well, she said something about me saving her life.
“You said something about saving your life, but it doesn’t sound like you have such a life-threatening problem at the slave trading house. What are you going to do about it?”
“That’s easy. I had lost my party members, and I had lost my will to live. And when I lost my will to live, we could pretend that it was Master who encouraged me by coming to the slave trading house every day!”
Ines says it’s okay confidently. Is it really okay to say it’s okay?
“Do you really want to deceive them with such a story?”
“Yes, I am! It’s okay if you just follow the story, please!”
I have the feeling that this is not the usual Ines. It’s possible that she’s desperate now that the decision to meet with her parents has been made.
“Alessia-san, is this series of scenarios… possible?”
“…Well, I can’t say it isn’t.”
Hmm, she can’t say it’s not possible. As for me, I’m worried because it feels clichéd, maybe because of the influence of the novels and manga.
“Ines, I still think it would be better to have a normal meeting, be honest about the whole thing, and apologize.”
“No! I’ll hide it from them!”
She seems determined. …She threatened to lose her motivation for the night if it was discovered, and I had no choice but to cooperate, but Ines’ parents, please don’t be fooled.
From there, the exchange of detailed information and the development of the story took place with the involvement of Alessia-san and the others. Alessia-san and Ilma-san were very excited, but Carla-san and Claretta-san were definitely not that excited.
By the way, Dorothea-san and Marina-san are playing with Rimu, Fuu-chan, and Beni-chan. I wish I could go over there.
＊＊＊
“Well then, let’s go to the Adventurer’s Guild first, shall we? Ines is okay with that, right?”
“Yes, Dario has already found out about me. It’s almost certain that I’ll meet my family, and I can’t say that I don’t like the idea of meeting people I know and having to hide things from them. I’m going to make sure I fool everybody.”
Not just her family but everyone she knows. Is it just me, or does it seem like she’s running toward destruction?
Ines, who was so reluctant to return to the Aquamarine Kingdom, now takes the initiative and leads us to the Adventurer’s Guild. She’s definitely in a strange state of suspense. But Ines seems to be quite confident in her scenario, which she worked out in detail until it was dark, and she seems to be mindlessly excited. It’s just a little disappointing that it’s so dark that we can’t get a good look at the royal capital.
“We’re here!”
We seem to have arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild. I can’t see much of the outside, but I can tell it’s a pretty big building. As expected for the Adventurer’s Guild in the royal capital.
When we entered the Adventurer’s Guild, the adjacent bar was bustling with activity, but there was no one lined up at the reception desk. It seems that the working hours of the adventurers are completely over. As I watched the bar, I saw people whose appearance I had not seen in the Southern City or the city of Cagliari. I think these people are fishmen. Their body shape doesn’t seem to be different from that of humans, but they look like they have scales or fins on their skin. These people will probably play an active role in exploring the sunken city.
“Ugh!”
As we approached the reception desk, Ines raised a subtle voice of a woman of her age.
“Ara… Ines?”
A beautiful woman of the human race at the reception desk sees Ines and calls to her. She meets her brother as soon as she arrives in the royal capital, and the second person seems to be an acquaintance of Ines as well. It is not surprising that God manipulates the people Ines meets for fun. …It’s scary how Creator God-sama could do that.
“…Flora, it’s been a long time…”
“I knew it was Ines. It’s been a long time. How have you been?”
A human woman spoke to Ines with a smile.
“Yes, I’ve been fine. Why does Flora work for the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“At first, I was just helping my parents, but then someone asked me if I wanted to work for the guild, so I thought it would be fun and decided to give it a try. That’s right, Dario also works here. I’ll go call him.”
“W-wait a minute. We need to talk to the receptionist first.”
The receptionist looked surprised, then turned her head to look at us. It seemed that she had only seen Ines.
“Sorry for the inconvenience. Can I help you?”
Her attitude suddenly changed. I wish I could learn from this quick change of attitude.
“I am Alessia, the leader of Girasole. I’m staying here for a while, so I came to visit this place.”
Alessia-san handed over her guild card and gave a brief account of her stay here. The receptionist who checked her guild card looked a bit surprised, probably because she was an A-ranked adventurer.
“A report on your stay, huh? I understand. However, the high-level requests in this country are inevitably related to the sea. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No problem. Our purpose was originally to take a vacation, so don’t worry about it.”
It’s not a very big island, and there aren’t many monsters on land, so it would certainly be a waste if you were an A-class adventurer who couldn’t go into the sea.
“The process has been completed. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.”
“Yes. I was wondering if you could help me find a place to stay. I don’t mind paying a little more for a place to stay that is clean and has good food.”
“Is it an inn? …Since you are also going sightseeing, how about the Mermaid Inn, although the price is a bit expensive. The inn is built right on the ocean, with a spectacular view of the sunken city spread out before your eyes. Of course, the food and rooms are well worth the price!
Oh, so it’s an ocean view, huh? The beautiful ocean all around, and the ancient city that sank there. I’m excited just to hear about it.
“If it’s called the Mermaid Inn, does it have something to do with mermaids?”
Alessia-san, good question. I want to see a mermaid.
“There is no connection at all. There are rooms that are filled with seawater in anticipation of mermaids, and they were often used by mermaids in the past. But these days, mermaids only visit occasionally, so you could say it’s just a name.”
Hmm, mermaids only come occasionally? That’s unfortunate.
“Don’t mermaids visit much these days?”
“Yes. It’s not that the relationship between mermaids and us has become bad, but the exploration area has become deeper, and there are more monsters that mermaids have trouble with. That’s why the number of mermaids visiting us has decreased.”
“Monsters that mermaids have trouble with? Is there such a thing in the sea?”
“Yes. It is a shellfish monster with a hard shell. Mermaids can move quickly in the sea, but many of them are weak, and their magic is not so powerful that it can be used repeatedly, so it has become an area of difficulty.”
“Oh, I’ve always wanted to meet a mermaid, but I guess that’s not going to happen.”
Mermaids aren’t invincible underwater. I have a feeling that they could if they cooperated with the fishmen or something, but the fact that they haven’t is probably some kind of disadvantage. Too bad I won’t get to meet them.
“Mermaids who are in business occasionally visit us. When they do, they often stay at the Mermaid Inn, so if you are lucky, you might meet them. But it is really only occasionally. They don’t trade in common necessities, so they come to do business with us when they run out of their preferred items.”
“If there’s a chance, that’s good enough for me. Wataru-san, would you mind if we stayed at the Mermaid Inn?”
“Yes. If I can see the sunken city from my room, that would be fun enough for me.”
I don’t expect to see any mermaids. My Luck is low, so the more I hope for it, the less likely I am to see them.
“Then it’s decided. Wataru-san, do you want to go to the inn right away? Or do you want to go to Ines’ brother?”
“Ines, what do you want to do? We’re just going sightseeing, so it could be now, tomorrow, or anytime.”
“Hmm… I felt somehow calm after seeing Flora, so tomorrow will be fine. Flora. Tell Dario that I’ll see him tomorrow afternoon.”
“Yeah, okay. Huh? Ines, that collar…”
“I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Then, Master, let’s go.”
…Flora-san was surprised when Ines called me Master, but is it okay to leave it alone? Well, it’s late at night, and it’s hard to talk to Flora-san and Dario-kun right now. I’m sorry, but let’s go back now.
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