Chapter of Unknown Promise: To a Craftman’s Delight

“Well, my dear, was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”

Yumias tilted her head, smiling like usual.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“I see, I see. Well, as I just told you, there’s little to worry about you as long as you are prepared. Yes, yes. I pray for your success.”

She giggled, narrowing her eyes a little. She reminded me a bit of a cat like this. At least, she was just as whimsical anyway. Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but sigh. It was fortunate we had gotten some… more or less actual answers out of her. So, in a way, this was quite a success. Now we knew a little more about our chances of success and about the danger should we fail. I guess… I couldn’t get around this, huh?

“Nn… Well… Uhhh…”

“Yes? Is something else the matter?”

“... Thank you.”

“Hehehe, you are very much welcome, my dear.”

Her smile widened ever so slightly, giving me the impression that, this time, it was a genuine one.  She was… hard to read so I still wasn’t sure if it was genuine or if she just pretended that it was.

“Now then! If that is all, I will look for new drinking buddies. Unless, dear, you want to join me?”

“I’ll refrain, thanks.”

“Too bad! Another time then.”

I couldn’t afford to get drunk today and have a hangover tomorrow morning. That was just asking for trouble.

“In that case, ‘til another time!”

“Nn. Huh?”

Before I could even say bye… she was already gone.

“... She’s always so quick to appear and disappear.”

Maybe I should have asked her to teach me that… Maybe she would actually teach me?

“Yumi, was it all right not to ask her about the dreams?”

“... Oh.”

“... Did you forget?”

“I… might have.”

That matter hadn’t even crossed my mind right now. I was too occupied with tomorrow. If Karen hadn’t said it right now I wouldn’t even have noticed.

“Well… She knows we saw those dreams so she’ll talk with us on her own if she wants to. Nn.”

“Shifting responsibility is not a good thing to do.”

“...”

But she was the one who cut us off last time… Is probably not something I should say right now.

“... I get it, I’ll ask her next time.”

“That’s good.”

Karen nodded, a satisfied smile on her lips.

“Then… Dinner?”

“Nn. Sounds good to me.”

We had done what we came for so might as well.

“Nn… What about talking with Ria, though?”

“We might as well ask her while we eat?”

“I guess we could.”

There were still some preparations to be made, after all.

“Then, let’s get going.”

“Nn.”

Having decided on our next course of action, Karen and I took off to have dinner.

“Oh, but I wonder if dinner’s already done?”

“If not, we’ll just wait.”

“Nn, I guess that’s what we’ll have to do.”

Frankly, we hadn’t spent all that much time on Yumias right now. It had been over quicker than I had expected. It was a little surprising but, well, she had her own things to do. Like, drinking. It’s not like I couldn’t understand that sentiment but I did have some apprehension, seeing how she drank those men under the table until they passed out. All the while she didn’t even seem remotely drunk.

“I really wonder what her body is made of…”

“Whose?”

“Yumias. She wasn’t drunk at all. At least, she didn’t look drunk. And the others were all passed out.”

“Is that… impressive?”

“... In a way?”

Could you call it impressive? Having a high alcohol tolerance? Probably, yes?

“Well, I’d love some of that tolerance for myself.”

Getting wasted isn’t great. Then again, sometimes you wanted to, so having too much of a tolerance was probably not that awesome either.

“I’d rather you don’t drink too much…”

“... I’ll try not to overdo it.”

“...”

“I’ll really try not to.”

“...”

After a short pause, Karen sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

“You’re quite similar to Yumias in that aspect…”

“... There are many others who like alcohol.”

We just happened to both like it… Also, I didn’t have a penchant for collecting cheap alcohol that I wasn’t even going to drink myself.

“Look at all those men over there, they’re all dri— Wait…”

I pointed at the closest group I could find that was making merry and drinking… Only to realise the devil herself had already found new drinking buddies.

“She’s fast…”

Even Karen was surprised, seeing the group. It hadn’t even been a few minutes… Yet, there she was, holding up her own mug and laughing together with those men.

“Anyway… I’m not the only one who likes it.”

“... I guess so.”

Karen still frowned, likely not quite convinced. Or just not all that happy about it. I didn’t know.

“Just promise me not to cause a problem for others again.”

“... I’ll try.”

Future drunk me, I sincerely hoped you weren’t going to do something stupid.

“That aside, we should look for Ria now. Doesn’t look like they finished dinner yet.”

“Nn.”

While we talked, we had finally arrived at the large dining area. Alas, most tables were still empty and the women were still running to and fro, preparing food.

“Nn…. Do you see the captain?”

“You think he helps out again?”

“Mrs Korwen did fetch him, after all. So, I’d think so.”

“... That’s not quite why we came here.”

Just taking a quick look wasn’t going to be much of a problem, was it?

“Oh, there he is.”

In between the busy women was one single man wearing an apron. He was slouched forward, seemingly working on something on a table. He was completely focused on his work that it was actually quite impressive.

“... Hey, Yumi, can you see what he is doing?”

“Nn? Uhh… Give me a moment.”

They were all quite busy so it was hard to see. Once you thought you had a free view someone else passed right in front of him. Thankfully, it didn’t take all that long for me to find out what he was working on.

“He’s cutting meat into pieces.”

“Hmmm… How big?”

“Nn? Why do you want to know that?”

“I just wanted to know.”

“Well…”

What a weird thing to be curious about.

“I think… they’re cubes about this big?”

I motioned with my hand the approximate size. That said, it was only a guess. It was quite some distance, after all.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

I turned to Karen, seeing her staring right at me.

“... Did your eyesight improve?”

“... Huh?”

“I can’t even see what he is doing from here.”

“Well, but you know I have good eyesight already?”

“But not with your normal eyes, right?”

“... Eh?”

Huh? Wait…

“... I didn’t notice.”

That was… quite shocking, actually. But now that she said it, she was right. Right now, my eyesight was the same as it was with my changed eyes. At least, how it had been before our little nap.

“Sis, how did you figure it out?”

“... When Yumias attacked you, you dodged it.”

“Nn? But that was out of pure luck and reflex? I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t be able to do that again.”

Not only that… I was quite sure I wouldn’t be able to dodge it even once if she tried it a hundred times. She had been lenient with that attack and I was simply lucky enough to have reacted in time.

“But you wouldn’t have had the chance to dodge if you couldn’t see it, right?”

“... I mean, yes, but… Sis, did you not see it?”

“I did. But I was still surprised that you managed to react to it.”

“Nn…”

If she said it like that… Still, personally, I thought it was pure dumb luck. But maybe for Karen, it looked like there was more to it? She did notice this so there had to be something about it…

“Then, next I noticed it with the craftsmen. You could make them out from a large distance.”

“Ohh… That’s… also something I didn’t notice at all.”

“And then, just now…”

“I see… Is that why you were asking me that weird question?”

“Yes.”

“... I’m glad.”

“Huh?”

Seriously, it was such a weird question out of nowhere, I was a little worried there.

“But my eyes, huh… Well, I guess my eyes are quite a neat change.”

“... I wonder if they get even better if you change them.”

“...”

That was possible, wasn’t it?

“Haaa… Another thing to try later, I guess.”

Well, in a way, my entire life had become a series of experiments, questions and new experiences anyway. It probably wasn’t going to suddenly stop.

“For now, we still need to find Ria. We probably shouldn’t talk about this out in the open that much anyway.”

“... You’re right. Sorry, that slipped my mind.”

“Nn, it’s fine.”

For once, it wasn’t me who forgot about that. Made me feel a little better.

“Still, Ria… I can’t seem to find her?”

Finding Korwen had been relatively quick. But Ria wasn’t around.

“Maybe she’s still working?”

“Nn, that might be… Should we check for her at her wagon?”

“I think it won’t take long until dinner, so we could just wait here.”

“Well, either way is fine for me.”

“Then, let’s wait.”

“Okay.”

The two of us looked for a place to sit down at. Coming early was actually quite nice, we could choose any seat we wanted.

“Hehe, let’s sit over there, Sis.”

“Yumi…”

I pretended not to hear the accusatory tone in her voice and pulled her hand towards our seats. The seats that were the closest to the cooking area, of course.

“If we have the chance, we have to make use of it.”

Some of the women saw us approaching and some greetings were directed towards us, including from Mrs Korwen. We sat down and returned the greetings.

“I wonder what dinner will be. I wonder what it’ll be.”

It didn’t look like there was going to be fish again. Which was, in a way, quite unfortunate. Yesterday was great.

Hope it’ll be good. Nn, I’m sure it will be.

While feeling a little excited for dinner, we waited for them to finish.

A good while later, dinner was prepared and ready, the dining area began to fill itself and the time to eat had come. Of course, with all the people coming, Ria… had not appeared. We asked a few mercenaries but nobody had seen her. We even asked Korwen once he had a little break but neither did he. In the end, she didn’t show up for the entirety of dinner.

And so, here we are, in our desperate attempt to find Ria.

Or, in other words, we had come to her wagon. Karen was standing at her door, knocking on it while calling out for her.

“Miss Ria? Miss Ria, are you here?”

“... Nothing?”

“Nothing… Is she not here either?”

Karen frowned, knocking again and calling out for Ria.

“Miss Ria? Hello?”

Alas, no response.

“Doesn’t seem like she is here… What do we do now?”

“No idea…”

Asking Ria and preparing for the next day had been the last thing on our list.

“The captain said we shouldn’t worry too much if we can’t find her but…”

He was the one who wanted to leave early… And if we didn’t do the things we could do now, we’d just leave all the later.

“Guess she’s not here, after all. Yumi, what do we do? Wait here or go back?”

“That’s the question… The captain did say we shouldn’t worry too much… I guess we should head back.”

“Okay…”

It wasn’t quite what we had planned but there was nothing we could do if the person in question wasn’t available. And, in a way, wasting our energy on searching for her the entire evening wasn’t exactly very resourceful either. We were better served just getting to bed early.

Actually, it’s not like we don’t have anything else to do either.

We could get our own things ready. And…

“Nn? Hey, Sis.”

“Yes?”

“For that magic, I’d need two points with the tentacles.”

“Yes.”

“One in the fort and one… where?”

I just remembered… We still had something to do.

“... Back to the captain we go?”

With a wry smile on her lips, Karen nodded in affirmation.

“Not like there’s much else to do. He’d just call for us later anyway.”

“Nn… That would have been a little…”

Worst case, the timing could have been really… really bad.

“Good thing we noticed early enough. Oh well, back we go.”

Today wasn’t my day, was it? First, we had to do a job that nearly bored me to death. Then we got into trouble with those craftsmen. Yumias was… not that bad today. Okay, those drunkards were an issue but it wasn’t me who had to carry them later. Then we were unable to find Ria and now we realised just in time that Korwen still wanted us to do something.

Yeah, today’s not my day…

At the very least, tomorrow promised to be quite interesting.

“Yumi, maybe we should go back to our wagon first to fetch the crystals.”

“Ahh, that’s a good idea.”

No point in walking back again. Now, that would’ve made me depressed.

“I wonder how many we’ll need, though… Nn, just setting them up… didn’t need much, did it? It was only when I connected them that it was using up a lot.”

“I think so. But we should still bring a few more, just in case.”

“Nn. They’re easy enough to carry anyway. And we don’t know how big we’d have to make it.”

Suppressing another sigh, we slowly made our way to our own wagon to fetch the crystals. Thankfully, our wagon was… pretty close to Ria’s so we only really needed to walk less than a minute and we were in front of our door. Once inside, we went straight for the crates in the back with the crystal.

“How many should I take, though…”

“Yumi, put them in here.”

Karen handed me a pouch, slightly bigger than the one I usually stored the crystals in.

“I guess I can just fill it, huh…”

Pouch at the ready, I scooped up the crystals in the crate and filled the pouch until it was filled to the brim. No way in hell was this not going to be enough. Right? Right?

“Great. With that done, we can now go to the captain.”

And with our newly acquired crystals, we left the wagon, walked through the camp and back to the dining area. Thankfully, finding Korwen was, once again, relatively easy. He was at the table, talking with… Merim.

“Captain.”

“—at so… Oh? You’ve come at the right time.”

“Did we?”

“I was just thinking of calling for you.”

Well, that was convenient. Merim and Korwen both made some space for us to sit down, unfortunately forcing me to sit opposite Karen. Well, there wasn’t enough space so it couldn’t be helped…

“That’s quite the face you’re making for sitting down next to me, you know?”

“Nn. I wanted to sit next to Sis.”

“Seriously, I’m your captain, you could do with some more respect.”

Despite saying that, he didn’t look particularly angry.

“So, what’s that bag Karen’s carrying about?”

“We brought some crystals. For the preparations for tomorrow,” answered Karen.

“Oh? That’s convenient. One less trip to make after this.”

Good for him…

“Captain, with Merim back…”

“Ahh… Merim, how about you tell them?”

“If that’s what you want, Captain.”

Oh, did something interesting happen, after all?

“So, I’ve been to the governor’s place, right?”

“Nn.”

“Ran as fast as I could. And, lo and behold, I wasn’t the only one there.”

“The craftsmen?”

“Their leader, at least. Stood there, arguing with a servant. She didn’t want to let him in apparently.”

That was already a start… What the heck did he do? No, wait, actually… It’s already quite late, the governor probably just didn’t want to be bothered at this time of the day.

“So, when I approached and announced myself, the servant promptly let me enter.”

“In front of that man?”

“Right in front of him. The expression of his was worth the entire trip.”

That was quite easy to imagine… but that probably meant that Korwen’s suspicions were right. He had gone there to fix the holes in their story.

“Didn’t take long for the governor to turn up either. Explained to him everything and just as we expected, he hadn’t contacted the Craftsmen’s Guild at all.”

“As expected, huh?”

“Yes, just as expected. Honestly, it’s actually a little funny when you’re right on the mark.”

Was it funny? A little, maybe?

“Anyway, since the governor had no idea what was going on either, he called that man in.”

“Oh?”

“Well, since the lie had been exposed already, he couldn’t talk himself out of it anymore either. Not to mention, the governor clearly wasn’t quite amused at their actions. Judging from his expression, though, this was quite unusual for the guild, too.”

“Then, there was a special reason, after all?”

Merim nodded, affirming it. Seconds later, he broke out into a grin, reminiscing at the memory.

“The governor… Let’s say, he didn’t take any explanation at all. In the end, the man had to explain the whole thing.”

“Oh?”

Now, we finally got to the interesting part.

“Turns out, the chairman’s son had gone into the forest. Or more like, to the fort.”

“Huh?”

The fort? I thought it was mostly forgotten by the people here. At least, the governor didn’t remember it at all. Seemed like there were at least some who knew about it, though. It was a little weird that the craftsmen knew about the road if they hadn’t been involved by the governor. But if they knew about the fort beforehand, that made sense.

That said, what could a craftsman’s son want in an abandoned fort?

“Turns out that the boy saw some things he probably shouldn’t have. He was a little evasive about the content of it, but the governor was quite insistent. So, after a while, he folded and finally told us. Or more like, he showed us.”

Merim took something out of his bag and put it on the table. It was a piece of cloth. A damaged piece of cloth, full of holes and tears. Its blue colour was still very vibrant, indicating that it wasn’t very old. A single emblem was sewn right in its centre, large enough to cover most of the cloth.

“Mr Vice-captain, is that a flag?”

“That’s not quite right, but close enough. It’s probably a cape.”

“So, what’s this… cape about then?” I asked him.

“Well, that’s the problem. This cape is from Krohmea. Or more accurately, it’s the emblem of the lord on the other side of the forest.”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

The hell did that cape do in the fort?

“The whole situation is quite unclear, honestly. We don’t know why the cape was there. But there has been some bad blood between Auria and that lord since both sides claim the Sleeping Forest. Where Lafria is completely in the right, though.”

“Krohmea traded away the Sleeping Forest in an agreement a few years ago it seems. It should have settled all possible disputes. I also heard about it from Will during the negotiations. It’s not exactly public knowledge,” added Korwen.

“But we don’t know whether this cape ended there before that deal was over or after. I can’t imagine that lord being very happy about this outcome.”

A cape with questionable meaning, huh…

“But how did that lead to those craftsmen going there?”

“Well, the old man knew the implications of that find. And he also knew, it’d be really bad for them if it was found in their guild. So, he really just wanted to return it as fast as possible. Turns out, the son only found the fort by pure chance and had no idea how to get back there.”

“How the hell did he return from the fort…”

“Something I was curious about, too. Apparently, he roughly knew where the lake was, so that’s where he headed to. Then he followed the beach back to town.”

Ahh, then it was no wonder he didn’t know the way back… He probably had no idea where he left the forest.

So, since they didn’t know the way to the fort, they hoped to find it while freeing up the road. Then, they wanted to return the cape to where they found it, before it got the whole guild into trouble.”

“... All that… just to return that cape?”

“All that just to return that cape. What fathers do for their sons, huh? It’s quite something.”

You could say that. It was crazy. We all knew how long it would take to unearth that road.

“I also think he partially wanted to prevent others from reaching the fort before they could return it. That probably played a part as well.”

“I see… It’s still… Wouldn’t it have been easier to search for a way to the fort?”

“Probably. Didn’t cross his mind, though. Might have been because everything happened so quickly. The son watched us going into the forest yesterday. He got incredibly worried and told his father everything. This morning.”

This morning. That really wasn’t a lot of time. They really had been in a hurry.

“Well, now everything’s known to us and the governor. In the end, the governor decided that it was a relatively minor incident and the first time in a long while the guild had caused trouble. As punishment, they’ll have to do the entire road for below market value pay.”

“I see… Nn? Wait, they wanted to do it basically for free already before that, so isn’t this actually good for them?”

They suddenly got paid, after all, without expecting to be paid.

“The governor asked us to pay at least half of those costs as well.”

“Oh?”

I turned to Korwen, curious about that.

“Mm. We’ll pay that bit. Honestly, we’ve unexpectedly got some good deal out of the whole situation without even doing anything. The governor seems to have some trust in that guild so we have little reason not to.”

“Huh.”

Well, they didn’t cause any problems. The most they did was get on Merim’s nerves for a while.

“The old man was quite grateful for the lenient punishment. I don’t think we’ll have to worry much about them causing trouble in the future.”

“That’s good news, isn’t it?”

“It is. Also, they owe us now which could come in handy in the future. We’ll be living here for a long while so building up some good connections is convenient. Especially if they just fall into your lap like this.”

He really was looking positive about this, wasn’t he? It was a pretty good result, though. That old man’s attitude had bothered me, true, but it wasn’t like he really annoyed me or attacked me. That said, it didn’t make me like him much.

“But why do you have the cape cloth with you,” asked Karen after a short while.

“Well, here comes the next part. As I just told you, the governor has no idea what the cape is about. But the problem is also that the cape was found in the fort which, by right, belongs to us now.”

“So the cape is ours now?” I asked.

That couldn’t be it, right? That’d be a little silly.

“Good take but no. The governor wants us to investigate and search the fort if there are any other clues about the cape and their owners.”

“Oh… So, we got a job?”

“We got a job. Nice, right? And we get paid even if there are no results. Since we’re planning to skim through the entire fort and its surroundings anyway, it’s basically free money.”

No wonder they were both in such a good mood. Things had gone a great way for them.

“The only issue in the whole thing is… the bandits’ bodies.”

“Ah… I nearly forgot about those.”

The bandits had been there as well…

“The guild chairman’s son didn’t say anything about bandits so they might not have been there at the time. But he also might not have encountered them. There’ll be some more questions for him but for now, we’ll assume they weren’t there yet. The governor didn’t know anything about those bandits nor did the chairman. If they came after, we still don’t know what happened there at the fort. If they came before, they might have something to do with this cape.”

“I see…”

If they were involved… Maybe they were hired by that lord to cause trouble here? Or they had fought with soldiers in Krohmea and it was part of their loot…

“Nn? What happens if those bandits looted that cape from the Krohmean lord?”

“That’s the problem… If they did, Auria would be expected to return the cape and whatever other belongings were found. But if not, we’d pretty much just give back the evidence,” grumbled Korwen.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not the worst but it’s an annoying issue. That’s why I hate politics. You’re stuck between a troll and a dragon.”

Great…

“That said, it’s not exactly our issue. While we want to maintain a good relationship with Auria, we’re not part of the town. But we’ll be stuck between the two if they happen to throw some stones at each other.”

“I’d rather not get hit by a stone.”

“Neither do I, Yumi. We’ll just hope we can find something in the fort that can be a little more conclusive.”

“Nn…”

So, in the end, it came all back to us searching the fort.

“Oh, but there was something interesting,” interjected Merim.

“Nn?”

“Until a few weeks ago, there was a travelling female mercenary in Auria. The governor wasn’t too interested so we don’t know her name but she might have been the one to deal with the bandits. Unfortunately, she left town already.”

“A female mercenary? Alone?”

“Yes. It’s quite uncommon but there are a few. It’s too bad we don’t have her name, though.”

I couldn’t imagine myself travelling alone as a mercenary, at least. Well, I probably would just get lost somewhere and never return… Actually, I did end up in the slums really quickly…

“The governor will probably ask around and try to find out who that was. It’s not something we’ll have to concern ourselves with too much.”

“But captain, what if it turns out to be your daughter?”

“Then she wasn’t the one to deal with the bandits. Too clean of a job.”

“... That’s not wrong but captain, should you really say that about your own daughter?”

“She is how she is…”

The hell had his daughter done?

“Merim, parents don’t have it easy. She’s old enough and I can’t tell her anymore what she should do and what she shouldn’t. It’s not like we’re much better, right?”

“... It’s hard to argue against that, Captain.”

“Because that’s how it is. You better remember that, Merim, so you won’t be too surprised if the same happens to you.”

“... I’ll just hope it won’t come to that..”

“I held that hope, too, once.”

Korwen nodded solemnly to himself as if he was trying to convince himself.

“A— Anyway! We’re not planning on having children yet so I can think of that in the future. Shouldn’t we focus on the present now?”

“Not much to focus on the present, though. After this, I’ll take our two girls here and prepare for tomorrow. Then all we need to do is sleep. We can’t do much about the rest now.”

“… I guess.”

Merim slouched forward, resting his chin on his arm. Seeing Merim so listless, Korwen smiled wryly before turning towards Karen and me.

“We should get done with those preparations soon. How about we head off now?”

“Nn, that’s fine with me.”

“Me too.”

“Good. The faster we are done the earlier we can sleep.”

And the earlier we could get up in the morning, right?

With that implicit reason in mind, we followed Korwen, who stood up and led us away, leaving Merim behind.