Episode 20.10

Since Eda insisted on taking a bath, Lecan opted to go to Shira's house.

"Didn't I tellcha don't come."

"Oh yeah, you did. Sorry. I forgot."

"Well, is fine. I haven't gone into rest yet, still sorting out documents and letters. So, what do you need."

"The town lord recommended my and Eda's promotion to gold rank adventurers."

"Hee. That's good. You're gonna accept it, right."

"Eda should get her rank to gold, but I'm thinking of declining myself."

"And that's because?"

"I don't want to be bound. Besides, the town lord was looking to buy <Dagger of Harut>. Wouldn't want to find myself selling the dagger cause I ended up owing him a debt."

"Hold on there. I'll get us some tea."

Shira took down the first class tea leaf from the highest shelf and poured it in cups.

A nice aroma filled the room.

"Lecan."

"Yea."

"Your strength is like a finely whetted blade. Razor sharp pointed strength. Anyone who steps on it gets stung. Unless you see them as friendly."

"That it is."

"That's a fragile strength."

"What"

"Think about it. Pointy stuff breaks easily. Sharp blades nick easily. Just like you."

"What do you want me to do."

"Become a solid sword."

"Solid sword?"

"A sword that won't get chipped even if you hit and cut up rocks with it."

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"What should I do to be that?"

"Right, well. First of all, I suppose you must understand the weakness of the strong."

"I don't get what you're even talking about."

"Do you think town lords are strong?"

"They are. They've got got authority and subordinates. Position too."

"It can be said so indeed. However, a town lord is also the weakest existence in the whole town."

"What?"

"Cause they've got so many things they have to protect. The town's economy, prosperity and peace. Nobles and commoners. Merchants, workers, farmers, and adventurers. And they have to protect every single one of them. A part of town being ruined is the same as having part of the town lord in ruin as well."

"There are have nots in this town."

"And are you going to bring that up to blame the town lord? A town lord has to kill two in order to save eight. There are times when they are forced to forsake some for the sake of a whole. However, if that whole prospers, everybody will eventually find happiness. That's what it means to be a town lord."

"Is there really such a town lord out there?"

"I'm talking about the position itself. Although, I do think this town's lord is doing a pretty good job."

"The son is an idiot though."

"That's it."

"What's it."

"The way you look at people."

"What about it."

"When you look at someone and think of them as shallow, that someone might really be shallow in reality, or it might be your way of looking at that someone that's shallow."

"My, way of looking?"

"I personally think that boy is quite something."

"Which part of him that makes you think so?"

"What does asking me that entail. Finding that out yourself is a path to becoming a solid sword. You can't have someone else walk your path."

Lecan can't win against Shira in a verbal argument. Even so, the fact that Shira holds the town lord's son in high regards must mean that he's got good points Lecan is unaware of.

"Town lords are weak. However that weakness is not a weak weakness, it's a strong weakness."

"Strong weakness?"

"Yep."

"I can't comprehend what you're saying."

"I figured you wouldn't, right now. The time you do is the time you're about to become a solid sword."

"In the end, what am I supposed to do. Should I accept the gold rank?"

"You gotta decide that on your own. Right, you're going to meet the town lord after this, aren't you? Just concede on everything you can concede."

"What?"

"You can't agree to stuff like getting deprived of your freedom as an adventurer, or having your important things taken away. You don't have to sell the dagger either. But make use of everything else to save the town lord's face."

"Save his face?"

"Don't you put up that confused look on me now."

"Even if that's something that will bind me?"

"I'm telling you to learn how to distinguish that. Once you do, it might turn into an armor that protects you instead of a chain that binds you. Cutting down everything that falls on your body is the same as living in bare."

Lecan couldn't really follow.

Isn't being an adventurer means being constantly in nude.

In exchange for having nothing, nothing binds you.

Isn't that freedom exactly a privilege of adventurers.

However, he doesn't believe Shira would lie or speak nonsense.

Shira is the first being in Lecan's entire life that he could call master.

Even if she's a non-human monster.

He couldn't flat-out reject Shira's words.

"I'll follow your advice and concede on things I can concede. I'll report back later."

"And I told you don't come here."