CH 15

Episode 15 – The End of the Third Day

After I returned to the base with Smash, I was immediately pulled aside by Ahmed, who had hunted another gigantic beast called a Deep Boar. After that… if I were to phrase it positively, she had treated me to a great feast, but if I were to put it in a slightly different way, I had been forced into eating so much that I had collapsed, hadn’t able to get back up, and had spent the night lying on the floor like that…. And that was how the second day of plant collecting in Mount Cornello came to an end.

My movements on the third day were pretty similar to the second day. After collecting plants, I went back and was once again “treated to a feast” by Ahmed… once again repeating this tough schedule. I did know that I should’ve been refusing Ahmed’s meat invitations, but I had been having a hard time doing so. It could be considered a bad part of my character, but when I looked back at the kind of environment I grew up in, I couldn’t help but feel that I should never refuse anyone’s favor or goodwill — especially if it was food, but even more so if it was something as valuable as meat. I spent the rest of that night thinking that, but I somehow managed to finish the third day without getting sick. At last, tomorrow was the last day of collecting plants on Mount Cornello. I managed to collect twice as many plants as I had expected to collect, and, above all, everyone from the [Azure Alliance] was so kind to me.

Dion and Smash were caring towards me from the start, and Ahmed, who took a while to warm up to me, had her…excessive parts to her, but by no means was she a bad person. From the last three days we spent together, taking into account her behavior, I realized that it was just not possible to measure Ahmed by the same standards as ordinary people.

“Oi, Lewin. You’re still awake?” (Ahmed)

“Yeah, I’m still up.” (Lewin)

“I see, that’s good. Well… how was it? These last three days.” (Ahmed)

“Of course, thanks to [Azure Alliance], I had a very fulfilling past few days. Really, thanks so much for that.” (Lewin)

Ahmed’s tone was more subdued than usual, so I took this chance to thank her. It worked out that I was just thinking about this a moment ago before she came over.

“That’s good. I’ve been an adventurer for a long time, but this is the first time I’ve had a client like Lewin, so I had a lot of fun as well.” Ahmed said unexpectedly, in a rather uncharacteristic manner.

“Is that so? I don’t understand what kind of people your clients are usually, but I’m really glad to hear that you had fun.”

“Glad? …For what? I don’t get you,” Ahmed said with a chuckle.

I didn’t really understand Ahmed that much, but I thought that probably went for the both of us. It went without saying that what was normal for me was not normal for Ahmed, and what was normal for Ahmed was not normal for me. In the first place, there was probably no such thing as a “normal” person anyway.

“I had fun too, so I said I was glad because this feeling wasn’t one-sided.”

“…Sorry. It’s probably not possible.” (Ahmed)

“Is that because… the reward was too low? If that’s the case, I think I could afford to increase it a little.” (Lewin)

I had already earned 4 gold coins as of yesterday, so I felt like I could pay up to 6 gold coins. For an escort group like [Azure Alliance], I didn’t think that was a high price at all.

“No, it’s not a matter of the pay. Actually, we were already planning to leave Grezesta.” (Ahmed)

“Leave Grezesta? As in, changing your base town of operations? But why in the world…?” (Lewin)

“You already heard from Dion that I was originally in the party called [Azurite], right? I was frequently having complications with them. Until now, they put up with just giving me a rank demotion, but in the end I received the order of expulsion from the Grezesta branch of the Guild.” (Ahmed)

I had heard from the receptionist lady that her rank was demoted due to her poor behavior, but it turned out she was actually in a dispute with her former party members. Even after getting her party rank demoted, it didn’t seem to settle the matter, so she was expelled.

Well, it seemed like a pretty plausible situation. Normally, there would probably be a penalty for both parties, but, for the Adventurer’s Guild, between the E-rank [Azure Alliance] and the A-rank [Azurite], it was obvious that they would prioritize the A-rank party. Hence, it was decided that [Azure Alliance] would be the one to be expelled.

Even if you understood the reasoning, it was still sad. Just when I thought we were getting along pretty well, too…