Chapter 16 – Salvation

000

A city on the edge of the continent.

A quiet, small place with only adventurers and guilds to offer.

Normally, there are no incidents even during the daytime.

Just. It was just a repetition of the days passing quietly as always.

However, today was different.

A red scroll issued by the Adventurer’s Guild. The ‘Wanted Bounty’ quest.

The target is the magic swordsman ‘Cleon’.

It had been exactly 10 years since the guild in this city had issued a request for a red scroll.

The villagers gossip.

Black-haired black-eyed. About a young man with a demonic sword that contrasts with a holy sword.

Some accused him of knowing this would happen.

Some regretted that his help had never been received.

However, no one moved to help Cleon.

That would soon turn the entire adventurer’s guild into enemies.

It was like not being able to stay in this city any longer.

In the middle of the crowd trying to find Cleon’s hiding place in any inn.

Only one place.

Only the ‘Quon’s Room’ inside the mid-level lodging was quietly forbidden from entering.

And if you look inside

The owners of the room, Quon and Sasha, are sitting on the floor with dark faces.

I come in through the window and see Lila lying on her stomach, occupying the bed as it is.

Alvein’s arbitrary request.

Without consulting them.

No, the gap between them must have been too deep.

The three of them had no choice but to remain silent about the current situation in which the guild was chasing Cleon.

“Everyone is too much. They don’t listen to the story of Mr. Quon, who is actually involved in the incident…”

Sasha muttered quietly as she hugged her knees. Tears welled up in his eyes.

“It can’t be helped. Being wanted is the authority of the guild master. It’s also a matter where the trust of the entire guild is at stake…”

Quon comforts Sasha by stroking her hair.

About an hour ago.

Sasha, who saw the request being issued by the guild, insisted on Cleon’s innocence to everyone in the guild.

No one listened to her words.

Rather, he was treated as a child who knew nothing.

“It’s no use trying to say it. Deep down, there must have been a lot of guys who were jealous of Cleon… Well, even if they’re not interested in Cleon, there are quite a few guys who are looking for a reward.”

Lila opens her mouth without moving her body.

The situation was quite strange as only his head moved whenever he spoke in an immovable position.

Seeing Lila like that, Sasha and Kuon had no choice but to question.

“…Hey, Mr. Layla. Why are you lying in Mr. Quon’s bed. From a while ago.”

When Sasha can’t contain her curiosity and opens her mouth, Layla is silent for a moment.

Then, pressing her hair down to cover her face, she spoke in a voice that sounded like a mouse hole.

“It’s just. A little… My back hurts. I’ve been studying for several days…”

“”Oh…””

Quon and Sasha opened their mouths at the same time and looked at each other.

This is… That’s it.

It was a reaction I knew.

An awkward silence lingers.

A strange air was formed that everyone here was hugged by one person.

It was Lila who spoke first to forcefully change the flow.

“Ah-what-… Don’t worry. We’re the only ones who know where Cleon is. He won’t find it anyway.”

“But in case something happens… Wouldn’t it be good for us to join Cleon-san right now?”

Sasha seemed to have no idea what would happen if Cleon was outnumbered no matter how strong he was.

I look back at Quon and Layla with worried eyes.

However, Quon shook his head and comforted Sasha.

“Sasha. Didn’t Cleon tell you? No matter what action Alvein takes, we shouldn’t move.”

That day. The day Layla received the core of the sword and the three of them returned to the city.

Cleon asked the three of them before parting ways.

From now on, he will prepare for a fight with Alvein, but he was told not to get in the way.

If you’re going to help Alvein, he’ll take it as hostile to you.

If he had no intention of doing so, he was to let Alvein act alone.

It is Cleon’s policy that it is easier to predict Alvein’s actions that way.

“Hmph. Pretending to be strong is incredible.”

Laila snorted and turned to Sasha.

A look of displeasure appeared on his face.

Like Sasha, it must have been dissatisfaction with the situation where Alban’s atrocities could not be seen.

It might be a matter of her pride

Even if Albain wins against Cleon.

The party will return to the party without Cleon.

Overcoming obstacles,

Quon, Laila, and Sasha return to the side of the hero who has become more and more arrogant.

It was a future that gave goose bumps down my spine just imagining it.

“…But. It’s unexpected. Ruti-san, only listened to Alvein’s story and put on a bounty.”

Quon, who had doubts about the situation where things had gone this far, quietly brought up the next topic.

Sasha and Layla’s eyes focus on Quon.

Among them, the one who had been active in this guild for the longest was definitely Quon.

Sasha and Layla have never met the guild master Luti.

One of the reasons was that there were many days when Ruti was locked in the office.

As for Lyla, the guild master was out of her mind.

It was because it hadn’t been long since Sasha had joined the guild.

However, Quon has experience meeting Luti.

In order for the old Alvein to accept the choice of the holy sword and change his class to a hero.

I remember her reading a declaration recognizing Alvein as a hero on behalf of the kingdom.

At that time, she was a kind and considerate woman to them.

Even with lies

Albein was not a person who could give an order to drive someone to death with only one-sided lies.

“Lutei… I’ve never met him. What kind of person are you?”

When Sasha said that, Quon opened his mouth.

“Hmm… He’s a distinctive person with pink hair. I don’t think we have that much of an age difference, but he’s the one who rose to the position of guild master 10 years ago.”

Quon himself was not very detailed about Luti’s character.

What I know is the contents and appearances discussed above.

And how popular it is in the city.

It goes without saying that she was resourceful, but I’ve never met anyone who knew her privately.

“Pink… Ah.”

Hearing Quon’s story, Sasha put her hand on her chin and seemed to be contemplating something.

“…Maybe, yesterday. I might have seen Mr. Rooty…”

“Yesterday? Where?”

It was Lila who reacted to Sasha’s unexpected story.

“Uh… At the inn I’m staying in. I felt a bit cramped, so I opened the window… I thought I could hear the conversation from the alleyway under my window…”

Sasha said, “Uh…’ As they cross their arms and focus on recalling their memories.

If I had known it would be like this, I would have listened to it properly even if I was sleepy. I think the same.

“I didn’t know who it was, but I could see pink hair through the robe.”

“With only pink hair… Who were you talking to?”

“…!——Probably, it’s Mr. Alvein. His voice was familiar, and he smelled.”

Sasha clapped her hands as if she had just remembered it.

In her eyes, her unique golden sentence, similar to a magic poem, appeared.

A hunter’s eye that follows a scent.

Visualize smells,

A hunter’s imprint containing the power of a beast that enhances the sense of smell itself.

Could it have been activated in response to memories? Layla ponders for a while before opening her mouth.

“…So. Looks like Luti is right. But the two of you had a tryst? Was it like that?”

“Albain… ? With Luti? No. It’s the first time I’ve heard of such a story.

The two of them nod at the same time at Quon’s denial.

Certainly, Albain, who likes to show off, would have done so.

“…And I think there was someone next to Mr. Alvein.”

“Wait. So you’re saying there were three people?”

Sasha nodded at Lila’s words.

With the feeling that your head is gradually clearing.

Sasha’s memories of last night began to come back vividly.

000.5

‘…Mr. Cleon.’

Sasha looked down at her wet fingers for a moment and shook her head.

From the day I mixed my body, I couldn’t control the occasional sexual desire and soothed myself in this way for several days.

Originally, he would have released it by running through mountains or forests to chase prey.

When Alban’s curfew prevented him from leaving the city,

It was necessary to release the heat that was only building up in this way.

Wipe your hands with a towel and drink the water from the water bottle.

As the cold water traveled down his esophagus, it seemed to sweep away any remaining heat from his body.

Ha…♥

She does, and Sasha, who involuntarily lets out her sigh, covers her mouth with her hand.

I wonder if the previous one wasn’t enough, but I didn’t feel like doing anything more than this.

Rather, something feels stuffy.

Could it be that some bad energy has come to me?

Sasha looked out the window, which opened in the direction of the living grove where Cleon was.

“Kuh… Why… You.”

Then, a voice came from below.

I couldn’t hear the details of the story because it was on the 4th floor, but it was a woman’s voice.

Looking down, a woman in a robe was talking to a man with a familiar face.

Hero Alvein A man who is at the center of the current events.

His face, which was considered trustworthy just a short while ago.

Now it looks just like the wolf you can meet in the forest.

Then, naturally, the figure of another person standing next to Alvein caught my eye.

Cloak. And a sword at the waist.

Angular hat.

A red coat to show dignity while being tidy.

I could tell it was ‘female’ from the smell.

When a pattern appears on Sasha’s retina,

Naturally. I could see the smell of the body of the woman in uniform.

Smell of blood. Iron smell. Smell of ink.

`Huh?`

And she had a mixture of two scents she knew well.

It is-

I saw the woman looking up at me.

Although Sasha was embarrassed, she reached for the window.

The next moment, the woman’s face was right in front of Sasha.

“Stealing… You’re a bad kid.”

A face shadowed by the brim of a hat.

Only the shining eyes were visible from below.

Was laughing

It was a smile twisted like a distorted crescent moon.

In the next moment, Sasha felt various facts wrapped in a bundle in her head and hiding in the depths.

The mind becomes hazy.

001

“Wait! That’s strange! Why is the woman’s face reaching in front of Sasha’s on the 4th floor!”

Layla tackles Sasha’s story.

It was a strange woman to move only her fingers while lying face down.

However, Sasha shook her head while stomping her feet at Laila’s words.

“I-I really am! A face suddenly fell in front of me… I tried to put me to sleep and seal my memories. I remembered everything else, but I can’t remember the face properly…”

Hearing Sasha’s words, Quon quietly uses a healing spell to erase the negative effects associated with the curse on Sasha’s body.

As for Sasha, though, she didn’t feel anything change within herself.

In any case, I had just passed on everything I remembered.

“… You said you lost your mind when you saw the eyes and heard the voice? Maybe… My eyes. That’s it.”

Lila looked at Sasha quietly and spoke.

“A demonic eye that manipulates other people’s memories. It’s a guy with a fairly high rank. Since you’re a member of a special clan, you have an eye imprint on it, and thanks to resisting the demonic eye, you were able to preserve your memories to some extent.”

Sasha blinked.

Lower than the pupil.

The imprint engraved deep inside is a curse and a blessing passed down through inheritance.

It’s useful for hunting, but if you use it too much, it turns the user into a beast.

No way, I thought it had the ability to block the effect of the magic eye.

It was Sasha who felt grateful for something in her hometown her for the first time.

“But. There are quite a number of mystic eye servants on the continent. That’s what the academy is…”

Layla talked to that point and then closed her mouth for a moment.

Then, as his face turned blue, he said, ‘No, no way…’Muttering the same thing as ‘.’

“…What’s wrong? Are you okay? Lila.”

Quon closes his face, worrying about Layla.

Layla looked at Quon and Sasha for a moment, then shook her head.

Delivering this to the two of you here and now…

Rather, it might drag them both into danger.

That’s what I thought, so I stayed silent.

002

The guild’s resting place the next morning.

Most of the adventurers belonging to the guild did not show their faces in the guild, as if they had no intention of accepting a new request, devoting themselves to the search for Cleon since yesterday morning.

Those who are here now are not interested in hunting people, or

There are only old people who sit down at the rest area and try to nag in the name of their senior’s favor.

And it is the guild master ‘Luty’ who is listening to nagging from such people.

“These… These days… Because I lack the grit… Just a little… If the request is difficult… I throw it away… Eh…

The guild master listens to phrases that make you sleepy just by listening to them without making a hateful face.

Although she doesn’t usually come down,

It seemed that yesterday’s wanted bounty was a good opportunity for the old people to crave her.

Of course. Most of the old people gathered here were people who had accomplished such feats.

The one who pioneered the road of the living forest, which has become the adventure ground of adventurers for granted.

The one who found the entrance to the abandoned mine, reached the deepest part of this dungeon, and returned with the treasure. Etc…

Because they were like that, their affection and pride for the guild was certain.

It was to scold Luti for the appearance of a wanted bounty that tarnished the guild’s honor.

Their stories are slow and long.

Just by standing still and listening to their stories, Luti felt as if his mental strength was being cut in real time.

However, I am listening to the story without expressing it at all.

And a female adventurer quietly watching the scene.

Light armor with long black hair tied into one piece and tight fitting body.

Rapier at the waist.

Although the attention was focused on other leisurely adventurers around him.

She was quietly looking at Luti, as if not expressing herself.

“Uh, hey… That woman… Was that adventurer in our guild?”

“Sure… If there was, Albain would have taken it away… But I don’t think I saw it… “

The sound of whispering softly and gulping saliva.

No matter how indifferent she looked, her voice was unpleasant.

Cheer. And look back at it.

Then the adventurers cleared their throats and averted their eyes as if they were embarrassed.

“Anyway… Well done…! Don’t paint the name of the ancestors…!”

Eventually, the 3-hour long nagging comes to an end.

The old people left the guild with their shaky legs.

I’ll go to a nearby pub and have a drinking party to find the glory of my youth.

Ruti also sighed and tried to quietly return to her office.

The adventurers around them sent a sympathetic gaze to Luti and burned their anger once again at the ‘magic swordsman’ who made their idol suffer like this.

And the female adventurer who was looking at Luti also moved.

Follow Luti up the stairs.

The top of the stairs led to an office hallway where she could do paperwork as an adventurer, so no one stopped her.

Luti and she walked away, keeping some distance,

Following Luti who stopped in front of her office her, the adventurer also stopped.

“What’s up?”

Luti looks at the woman with a silent, weary face.

Then, with a wry smile, he asked her about it.

“…What?”

Then, after a moment of silence, the woman spoke.

He replied with an expression of “I don’t know.”

Seeing her condescension her, Ruti shook her head.

“Awesome. Really girly. What kind of magic is it?”

“…”

Next moment. The pupils of Luti’s eyes change vertically.

Then, the woman’s figure disperses like a haze and the surrounding scenery shimmers.

Appearing behind the female figure was a black-haired, dark-eyed male swordsman.

“Cleon.”

Ruti seems to be happy and tired.

I put the man’s name in my mouth.

There was a bit of longing in it.

003

The two quickly entered Luti’s office to avoid the eyes of others.

Luti looked up at Cleon, who hadn’t seen him in a while, and smiled kindly.

“Sorry. I’ve been busy, so I haven’t had a chance to talk lately.”

“For several years. Maybe it would have been better for you not to talk.”

At Cleon’s words her, Luti inflates her cheeks as if she is upset.

Rather than being genuinely angry, it was a reaction against Cleon’s words that he did n’t even have in his heart her.

“Please don’t say that. It’s between you and me, right?”

At Luti’s words her, Cleon turned his head.

Luti looks at Cleon for a while and moves closer to the office table.

In the meantime, Cleon is recommended to sit on the sofa for guests.

“So, what did you do? Oh, black tea is fine?”

“What?”

At what Luti said, Cleon pretended not to understand.

But Ruti seemed to satisfy her curiosity of her.

“That thing earlier. Disguised as a woman. It’s an illusion magic, but I’ve never seen anything so advanced. If I hadn’t read the sign of the magic sword hanging from my waist, I wouldn’t have known it was you either.”

Well, Cleon shut her mouth for a moment, then she started to explain.

“With the illusion magic of someone you know… Mixing a spell that suppresses the sense of incongruity of someone you know… “

“Lyla and Quon~ The power of a magic swordsman. Are you using it properly?”

Cleon turns her head away as if he has lost the mood to explain.

“Wait! That means… You did it with two people!”

“Hey. Lower your voice.”

Of course. ‘Having done’ is the truth.

Although the situation on both sides was slightly different.

Even as Cleon, it was uncomfortable for Luti to talk about such things without shame.

“You said you wouldn’t do it with me even if I died!”

“That’s the situation… No, because I don’t intend to do that even now.”

Luti puffs up her cheeks at Cleon’s attitude towards her.

No matter how you look at it, they are different in appearance, like her brother and her sister her,

The content was that of a lover who she had been dating for several years.

Of course.

The two aren’t lovers, and they’re not even siblings.

Both in the past and in the present.

“Then… Are some of the wanted crimes the answer… ?”

‘Sexual torture’… If it’s limited to Lyla, it certainly might be.

“Fighting with friends”… It is true that I fought with Lila.

“Conflict initiation”… Laila’s coming to him is the root cause of the incident.

“Because of Lyla.”

At Cleon’s conclusion, Luti shook her head as if she was a little fed up.

“Yes, yes. That’s right. Do you know how hard it is for me to clean up after ‘Aspect Magic’? How about living in the mansion?”

“Did you know?”

“Roughly. I haven’t told anyone.”

Luti’s reply reminds Cleon of the assassin who fought a duel with him last night.

So, did he come to investigate his location her on his own his?

No one came after that, so it was clear that he hadn’t been bragging about his position.

“Did Albain find out your secret?”

Cleon said directly.

Then, Ruti stopped. And stop moving.

Then, the smile or composure from earlier slowly disappears from his face her, replacing it with a sad, self-deprecating face.

Then he slowly nodded his head.

“Sorry, Cleon.”

“… It’s not your fault. There’s no way Alvein figured it out on his own. There are definitely guys out there who want to manipulate him to their will his.”

Cleon quietly offers words of comfort to Luti, who is apologizing to him.

There is no way to reach Luti’s secret her with Alvein’s information power.

Her secret should be hidden in the deepest place in the world.

“Probably the work of the Enforcement Division.”

“…Enforcement department?”

At Cleon’s words, Luti tilted her head.

She has lived a long time, but she has never heard of such a name.

Upon receiving the explanation, Luti darkened her face a little.

“Lyla… Said that.”

“Please bear with reporting to the royal family. I was asked by Quon not to hand over Lyla’s secret to her.”

Luti nods her head at Cleon’s words her.

Originally, it was an agenda that required a report to the royal family.

In the current situation, Luti decided that trusting Cleon’s judgment was the fastest way to resolve it.

“They’re aiming for Albain. They might be aiming for the weaker side by colliding me and Albain.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Befitting a puppet show is a requirement. I’ll have to destroy their script.”

Cleon calmly organizes his thoughts of her, his eyes shining.

Then, Luti felt a certain relief from the guilt she felt for Cleon, which had been weighing down on her until just now.

Ruti put the tea in front of him.

She wrapped her arms behind him and lifted her face from behind Cleon’s back her, resting it on his shoulder her.

An unfamiliar breath touches Cleon’s cheek her.

A fresh scent from nearby tickled her nose.

A landscape like a lover’s morning.

Cleon looks at Luti for a moment as he approaches without changing her face color in her.

“Thank you for not leaving this city.”

“…”

At Luti’s muttering words of her, Cleon almost took her hand her slowly without realizing it.

“My cute little brother…”

“Hey.”

As he tries to fabricate absurd facts, the atmosphere breaks and Cleon falls.

Then Ruti laughed as if she was generous and satisfied.

Luti and Cleon’s eyes meet for a moment.

Then, Cleon pours the tea in one gulp and gets up from his seat her.

“You can wait a little longer.”

“You’re an idiot. What are you going to do if you stay here longer and get discovered?”

Then Ruthie made her ‘mmmh’ sound and put it on top of her own chin.

She shows signs of her thinking about something, and she responds quickly.

“…I will protect you.”

“A voice without heart.”

As Cleon snapped her fingers.

Once again, his appearance changes to `her she’.

“Wait a little. I’ll solve it and come back.”

Saying that, Cleon opens her door and lets go.

Luti looked at her back for a moment and then placed her hand on her chest her.

Pounding, pounding. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, so I wonder if I’ve lost my immunity.

She was working hard to add her ‘comfort’ to her heart her towards Cleon.

And she quietly opened her mouth.

“It’s not something I don’t mean to say.”

When she lied to Cleon

There was only one.