CH 56

"The Daughter's Apology and the Guildmaster's Report of the Investigation."

Translated by Dawn

Viscount Rubert was stunned by the sudden appearance of Josephine, and I looked at him with a dubious face, “What is this?”

I didn’t know if she had come in a hurry or if she herself was not strong enough, but she was breathing roughly.

She continued in that state for a while, and then, perhaps finally getting her breathing under control, she bowed her head and said her apologies for that time.

“I am so sorry for the trouble I caused you back then! I didn’t realize it until Sister Margaret told me. I realized that no one likes to have something they care about taken away from them…….”

“Well, it looks like the letter you sent me was genuine. Yes, it is. Every human being has something that is precious to him or her, and no one is allowed to take it away from them for any reason.”

“…”

At my words, Josephine turned her face down and bit her lip. Not only people but all living things were born with some kind of purpose. Most of the time, we spend time without understanding what it is, but in the process, we sometimes find something that we want to cherish.

If it were an animal, it might be called instinct or habit, an answer to the question of what we were born for, so to speak.

In the case of human beings, it would be the driving force that motivates us to do our best again tomorrow, because it leads to the purpose of life and motivation to live.

However, if we take it away from them unnecessarily, people will lose sight of the purpose of life, and they may even take their own lives.

“You’re lucky I have a strong spirit. If I had been a weak-minded person, I might have taken my own life. If that had happened, it would be as if you had killed someone. Taking away someone’s freedom is a privilege that only those who are prepared to bear a grudge are allowed to do. At least that’s how I see it.”

I could see her face turn pale as she listened to my words. Perhaps she had come to the realization that someone might have died as a result of her selfishness. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but if she was sorry for what she had done, I let bygones be bygones this time. I was not a man of small capacity to discuss every little thing that a child did.

“Well, you seem to be regretting it this time, and I don’t really care about it, so let’s let bygones be bygones. But you know what? Just so you know……it won’t happen twice, right?”

“Y-yes! I-I understand!”

At the same time, as she was pleased that her blunder had been forgiven, Josephine took my words of  “it won’t happen again” very seriously, and the next moment I saw her shaking her head in agreement.

After all those threats……and nailing her to the wall, I decided that she would be fine as long as she wasn’t too stupid and asked her to leave the room.

“You’ve done your business, right? I’m going to have an important talk with your father. You know what I mean?”

“Y-yes! E-excuse me!”

I let out a wry smile at Josephine as she hurriedly left the room saying that, and then turned to face Viscount Rubert once again.

“I think I scared her a little too much.”

“Well, that’s about right, since she won’t listen to what the people at home are saying. I appreciate it. By the way…to continue where we left off, what exactly is it that you want to talk about?”

“Well……”

When I thought about reiterating the story that I had been sidetracked by, a question suddenly occurred to me. How much should I tell him?

The current situation of the Orc King’s attack was largely based on my own speculation, and his existence had not been actually confirmed.

I was afraid of causing unnecessary confusion by telling him uncertain information now, and if I was not careful, I could be caught as a guilty party for telling a lie.

However, there would be a high probability that the Orc King was there, even though the evidence was circumstantial, and if he was, he would certainly attack the city of Rendark in retaliation for his defeated comrades.

There was no doubt about it, but none of it was more than speculation, and there was clearly not enough information to conclude that the Orc King would attack this town.

“I’m afraid this is just a piece of information, but there may be a horde of monsters attacking this town in the near future.”

“W-what!?”

Viscount Rubert looked doubtful at my words. Of course, I would expect such a look. If someone you just met told you that a monster was attacking the town you rule, you wouldn’t normally believe it.

And even though I was a C-rank adventurer, I was still a child, not even an adult. It would be crazy to believe such a wild and absurd story as the attack of the Orc King.

“Master, Guildmaster Darren of the Adventurers’ Guild is here to see you.”

“…Bring him in.”

Just as I was about to give him the details, there was a knock at the door and Marcus came in. As if planned, Marcus came to tell us that the guild master was coming, and he gave his permission for the guildmaster to enter the room.

After a while, I raised my hand in greeting the guildmaster who had arrived. When he recognized me, his eyes widened and he spoke to me in surprise.

“Oh, kid. What are you doing here?”

“I just happened to be called in today. Also, I was just about to talk about that matter.”

“I see…….Anyway, Viscount Rubert, I am here today because I have something to tell you.”

“I heard a little bit from Rolando, are you talking about a horde of monsters that are going to attack this place?”

“That’s right.”

Then Darren explained that soon after I brought back the Orc General, he sent an adventurer to investigate the Orc King. As a result, they learned that a herd of about 5,000 orcs, with the Orc King as their head, had gathered within a distance of about four days by adventurer’s foot from the town of Rendark.

The adventurers who reported their findings said that it did not appear to be moving immediately, but was rather waiting for something to happen.

“Are you sure……that the Oak King has 5,000 orcs!?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

Viscount Rubert, who looked as if he could not believe the words that came out of Darren’s mouth, asked Darren with a look of hope that he was mistaken, but the answer he received did not change.

Still, 5,000 orcs are twice as many as I had expected…….no, it’s good that we have confirmed the existence of the Orc King, and now we need to think about what we should do next.

“…-kun. Rolando-kun, is something wrong?”

“I was thinking about something for a moment. What is it?”

“I’d like to hear from you who actually beat the Orc General. Can you beat the Orc King?”

“I can’t. At least, my current strength is only enough to win a head-to-head battle with an Orc General. It is obvious that the Orc King is stronger than the Orc General. I am not sure I can compete with the level of strength I have now which is enough to struggle against the Orc General.”

That was my honest opinion, without exaggeration. With my current level of ability, I could only handle the remaining Orc General cronies, and I could never be a match for the Orc King.

However, if the Orc King was a pure higher species of Orc General, then it should be a brain-muscle type specializing in physics, with a low resistance to magic.

However, there was no denying that, being a higher species, it might have overcome that sole, arguably weak point. It would be difficult to say anything about the details without actually fighting him.

“Anyway, for now, let’s take steps we can take based on what we know.”

“I agree…”

“Excuse me, both of you. Can I go home now?”

It would be easier to have responsible people discuss these matters among themselves, and above all, there were probably some things they couldn’t let me hear. If that was the case, I should leave now and do what I have to do.

“Oh, I’m sorry you had to come all the way out here. See you later.”

“Kid, you know we’ll discuss and decide about the orcs here, so don’t tell anyone until then, okay?”

“Ah, I’m going to do that. Well then, both of you just do your best and don’t overwork yourselves.”

I said goodbye to them, got up from the sofa, and was about to leave the reception room when I heard a voice behind me. It was Viscount Rubert.

“Rolando-kun! Don’t run away just because the orcs are coming, okay?”

“I’m responsible for what happened. If I run away like this, I’ll be the worst kind of scum as a human being. I won’t run away.”

I answered Viscount Rubert’s question with a shrug of my shoulders, and this time I left the Viscount’s house.

They say bad hunches often come true, but I really didn’t expect that Orc King would be there. ……I wanted it to be off the mark.

It would probably take at least five days for the 5,000 orcs to reach the town of Rendark. The fact that there was no movement at the time of the investigation suggests that there was probably a different unit from the one I had defeated and that they were waiting for that unit to join up with them.

(If you take that into account, the orcs will be in town in six days at the earliest, and no later than ten days at the latest.)

As I was calculating the expected arrival date of the orc horde in my mind, a thought crossed my mind. The idea was quite calculating, or perhaps it was a “what if” type of idea, or at any rate, it was clearly a wishful thinking type of idea.

(We don’t have to deal with the orcs head-on, right? But to make this happen, I’m going to need that and that…….)

As if putting together the pieces of a puzzle in my head, I piled up ways to fight the orcs. And at the moment when all the puzzle pieces came together, one route came to completion.

“This is the only way to handle this situation…….alright!”

Having somehow found a way to win, I decided to go for it.