《25 Airi and Lisa》
――Six months before Louis and the others reached Midoria.
In a room in a building in the Stania Empire, three men and a woman were having a discussion.
Only one of them stood silently, not sitting on a chair. The man was positioned behind a man adorned with numerous accessories and seemed to be on alert.
The man wearing many accessories is quite obese, his neck is filled with fat, and he alone occupies two chairs.
The obese man opens his mouth with a disgusted smile on his face.
「I hear the Emperor will soon be moving his finger in the direction of the Kingdom of Midogal.」
A woman who looked like an adventurer spoke back to the man.
「Oh, really?」
A man who looked somewhat like this woman also opened his mouth.
「The current emperor is very ambitious.」
「That’s why I’ve come to you with a request. It won’t be soon, but maybe Midogal will be hit by the war. For my part, I’d like to secure a good quality female demi-human slave before that happens. I want to add slaves to my collection that are beautiful, have some special skill, are strong, or have some other feature. I’ve had a few deaths lately from too much abuse and bullying, so my numbers are down.」
「As usual, Toran-sama has good taste.」
「It’s true, isn’t it?」
All three of them are smiling vulgarly.
「The better the slave you bring me, the more I’ll pay you. The deadline is a maximum of one year, and the more slaves, the better. Of course I trust you, but …… please keep it confidential, okay? I don’t have a problem with enslaving demi-humans, but getting them illegally is indeed a bad idea if we get caught. As I’m sure you know, His Majesty the Emperor is a supreme ruler of the human race, but on the surface he’s forbidden to hunt for slaves because of the bad optics. I’ll give you ten platinum coins in advance. Then I’ll assess and pay you for each slave you bring.」
「This is the first time I’ve been asked to hunt for slaves. Toran-sama’s requests are always quite well paid, but this one seemed to be an unbeatable and worthwhile job. Well, it’s risky, but me and him, we’ll be fine.」
With a thin smile on his face, the adventurer-looking man turned his gaze to the woman sitting next to him.
「It’s more of a hobby for me. It’s hard to describe the look of despair on their faces when they realize they’ve been entrapped. I can only imagine the desperation of the other person when a slave collar is put on them……. Of course I like money, maybe when I’m done with this job I’ll buy that magic tool I’ve been wanting……」
The woman, who seemed to have madness in her eyes, distorted her lips.
「I can count on you, can’t I?」
「Of course.」
「Sure.」
They both give Toran a dismissive look and agree.
「Then I will give you the slave collars, that should be enough.」
With that, Toran handed the two of them the slave collars.
◆ ◆ ◆
I – Airi – am not working as an adventurer today, so I’m relaxing at home with a cup of tea.
It’s already been a year and six months since I left Louis-sama.
He said that in the space-time that Kronos created, the body grows ten times faster. If he is still in that time and space, would Master Louis be 20 years old?
While I was thinking about this, Lisa, who had gone out to the bar, came home.
I think she brought someone with her. No one has ever been allowed in this house before, but that’s …… unusual.
「Airi, I’m home. We have a guests today.」
I moved my eyes toward the door and saw one man and one woman behind Lisa.
The man has a muscular body. Is he an adventurer?
His hair is cropped short and flaxen in color, his face is neutral, and he is probably a relatively good-looking guy. I’m not really interested in that.
The woman is beautiful, and her figure is slender.
Unfortunately, however, there is not much where it comes from. Her hair is long, waist-length, and flaxen, just like men’s, and she looks vaguely like a man.
「Good evening. My name is Cross. Nice to meet you.」
A man greeted me with a friendly smile.
「Good evening. I’m Asha. Cross and I are brother and sister, it’s nice to meet you.」
The woman also greeted me with a smile like a sunflower.
「Hi, my name is Airi. I’m living here with Lisa and we’re adventure together.」
「I was having a drink with Lisa a while ago, so that’s when I heard about it. You’ve been a registered adventurer for a year and you’ve reached rank C? I heard you’re close to B rank, you look promising.」
「No, no, it’s mostly thanks to you, Lisa-san.」
I was praised by Cross-san, but it was actually thanks to Lisa-san’s ability.
「What are you talking about, aren’t you S-ranked?」
When Lisa told me that these two were S-ranked, I was surprised.
There aren’t many S rank adventurers in Midoria. …… I’m sure they’ re quite strong.
By the way, Lisa hasn’t been partying with others for my sake lately. So, our friendships are very limited. I can’t speak for others either, but ……
I’m worried about her current situation.
If these two became Lisa’s friends, would that change the current situation? I imagined.
After that, I went to bed a little later, but the three of them went back to drinking at home and made a lot of noise until late.
I could hear their happy voices from my bedroom.
◆ ◆ ◆
I – Lisa – have been training her as an adventurer since Airi asked me to join her party.
I have not partied with anyone else during that time, as I completed the request with a considerable margin of safety.
There were so many invitations to have me in their party.
However, I am an elf who is said to have excellent beauty. Speaking for myself, I didn’t want someone who was attracted to my looks to ask me out. Also, apart from that, there are people who invite only me, an A rank, even though I’m in a party with Airi.
So, as far as party invitations go, I was frankly fed up.
While I was having a drink in a bar to relieve myself of this feeling, two people, a man and a woman, started talking to me.
That’s Cross and Asha, a brother and sister pair.
After hitting it off with them at the bar and inviting them to my house, we became friends at a rapid pace.
Then, 20 days later.
Right now, I’m in a party with Airi, Cross, and Asha, and we’ve come to a captured dungeon near Midoria to improve our coordination and to train Airi.
I’ve partied with them a few times now, and have gotten to see Cross and Asha’s personalities for myself.
As a result, I feel that these two are fine to party with.
「Airi, get the Ogre under control first.」
「Airi, be aware of traps while you keep it under control, okay?」
They give accurate advice. These two are indeed S-ranked and very dependable.
Still, …… reminds me of the days when I was working with Sarah, Dan and Galwin. The thought made me smile naturally.
「Hey, Lisa, stop smirking and help me!」
「Oh, I’m sorry for spacing out. I’ll help you right away.」
This is how I finished my request today.
Then, on my way home, a serious-looking Cross comes into my field of vision.
When I moved my gaze a little, I saw Airi and Asha having a conversation.
「Hey, Lisa, can I ask you a favour?」
What? What’s wrong?」
For the past 20 days, Cross has been taking care of both Airi and me.
I’d listen to him if it wasn’t too much to ask, but what kind of request would that be?
「Actually, …… we used to work as a party of four…….」
Cross and his friends were a party of four, and I was surprised to hear this information for the first time.
「Our previous party members were an elf and a human. This time, they came here to broaden our horizons a bit. And those guys wanted to get stronger, so they separated from us to go to a dungeon that had a certain level of difficulty…….」
The fact that they had worked with elves before brought a slight surprise to me.
When I looked at Cross’s face, he looked somewhat apologetic and then bristled.
「You’ve taken separate directions. What happened?」
Feeling a little tense, I prompted Cross to continue.
「So, it looks like they got hurt in that dungeon. Moreover, it seems that on the way back from the dungeon, they were attacked by bandits. The human’s name is Orin, he managed to escape, but the elf Lara was captured by …… bandits.」
I have a bad feeling …… that even my elven brethren …… are captured by bandits.
「So, it seems that Lara has become the plaything of bandits! That’s what Orin found out after he managed to gather some information. And Orin came to us the day before yesterday with that information. We want to help her! But there are a lot of bandits in the area. …… I’m sorry about that, but I need Lisa and Airi’s help. We don’t want to overwhelm Airi, and logistical support should be enough.」
「Where are the bandits?」
Without knowing the location, I can’t say for sure either. I want to help him, and I want to do him a favour.
「The bandits are on the Staonian side of the border with the Kingdom of Midogal. I was really hoping to get the imperial guards to move, but they won’t move for the elves…….」
Certainly, from what I’ve heard about the Stania Empire, it doesn’t look like they’re going to rescue elves.
I think about what Cross said.
Currently, one innocent woman is said to be the amusement of bandits. How am I supposed to just disregard this?
But as long as we’re involving Airi, we need to consult with her at least. ……
「I just need a day. I’ll talk it over with Airi when I get home today. I’d like to go if I could.」
I’ll discuss it with Airi when I get home.
As a result, we decided to follow those two, because although Louis was a cause for concern, we still couldn’t bear to abandon the elven woman.
The next day, I told Cross and Asha about it.
He asked us to prepare for the trip as well, as it would take about 10 days to prepare. So until the day before my departure, I decided to work with Airi on requests in the vicinity.
And now, the day before our departure, I’m on my way to the guild with Airi to escort her to her B rank exam.
That’s because, thanks to Cross and Asha, she was able to complete a lot of requests and quickly accumulated enough rank points to take the exam. I have the two of them to thank for that.