Chapter 87 – The Two
Silence fell in the room for a moment.
To be frank about Roden’s feelings now, it wasn’t particularly difficult now.
The core of the past he had to hide was that he was called a warrior.
Fifteen years have passed since he lied to the world and started living anew, saying that he died with the demon king as a hero. In this day and age, heroes can only be found in fairy tale books.
In the meantime, I haven’t committed anything to worry about, and I’ve been living in my own way, so the fact that I’m a former silver-class adventurer, the status after the hero, wasn’t enough to hide it thoroughly.
But… Lately, my tail has gotten really long as I’ve been openly promoting with them. It would be strange to not be able to recognize it if I paid a little attention and investigated it.
Roden, who kept a short silence, moved the thick-cut meat to his mouth and carefully looked at the lord who was mumbling.
Enjoying a leisurely lunch. Even in the midst of that, her eyes were filled with confidence, not like she was testing herself.
Roxia and her twin sisters, who were sitting right next to each other and across from each other, looked tense, Roden and the lord. I looked into the eyes of the two men.
It’s okay, it’s okay.
Deciding that there would be no point in making a clumsy excuse, Roden slowly took off his helmet and set it down at his feet.
“My lord, I would like to greet you again. I am Roden, an alchemist and ex-adventurer who runs a potion shop in the outskirts of Barmela.”
“Yes. It’s nice to see your face again after a long time. It’s a dignified face with clear features that remind me of my younger self. Well, if you compare it to me at that time, it’s a bit lacking.”
“Ha ha, is that so?”
Hearing the light joke, Roden smiled half-cooked, and the lord, who was caressing his handsome mustache with his habitual hand, searched for memories from a few months ago.
“Hasn’t it already been four months since I visited your store? Time flies in the blink of an eye when you get older.”
“Sometimes, when I look back, I am amazed at how much time has passed.”
“There’s a lot I’ve accomplished so far, so I don’t regret the past, but there are times when I miss it.”
Afterwards, the lord finished the meal by exchanging small talk with the party, with the attitude that he did not care much whether Roden’s identity was an adventurer or an alchemist.
As the lord waved the small bell lightly, the waiting maids busily moved, the empty plates were cleared away, and black tea, which went well with the refreshments left on the table, was placed in their respective places.
“A drink after a meal is always the best.”
After fully enjoying the fragrant aroma of black tea, the lord’s gaze, slowly lingering on his lips, returned to Roden.
“Once I have a question, I’m the kind of person who can’t stand it until the moment it’s answered. I looked into your identity after hearing the report from the guild, and my personal interest was piqued. It’s the law, so don’t ask me about the past.”
“You said you couldn’t stand any questions, but I guess you weren’t interested in my past?”
“No, I’m very curious. However, I tend to think that an excellent alchemist is more valuable than a skilled knight. There is no need to risk a valuable talent like you leaving the territory by unnecessary pressure to satisfy my curiosity. I just thought it wasn’t there at all.”
After a moment of silence, the lord rested his tongue and opened his mouth again.
“Well, I’d be fine if you’d like to tell me… I’m not old enough, so if you talk to a person a little bit, you’ll be able to figure out what kind of tendencies they have. At least you’re the type who doesn’t like to talk about things from the past. Specific details. In other words, it’s a feeling that he doesn’t want to disrupt the current peaceful daily life.”
To spend leisurely time by running my own shop with the assets I have accumulated through adventurer activities. It is one of the ideal retirement plans that most adventurers dream of.
It is said that the actions of Roden, who is hiding his past as an adventurer in order to live a peaceful life as much as possible, are not so strange.
“Yes. I would appreciate it if you would think of me as an alchemist who is only a little better at handling a sword than a normal person…”
“It’s a very humble self-introduction. For now, let’s take it that way.”
Hmm… Even though he is dealing with me, he seems to have a lot of experience dealing with nobles, seeing as he continues his conversation as naturally as breathing. I’m a bit concerned about what my friend was doing before.
While harboring a vague curiosity toward Roden, the lord emptied all the teacups and slowly got up from his seat and naturally put his hands behind his back.
“As the guests I invited came, I told them to pay more attention than usual. Everyone. Were the meals and refreshments satisfactory?”
The party, who tasted the luxurious dishes and snacks with a different feeling from what they usually eat, nodded their heads in unison without anyone saying anything.
“It was too much for us… Isn’t it?”
Roden, the leader of the party, spoke first, then turned his attention to the other three.
“Thank you for arranging a wonderful meal. Lord.”
“I ate well, my lord. All of the food was so delicious.”
The twin sisters opened their mouths at the same time, and finally, Roxia bowed her head to the lord and thanked her.
“Heh heh, even the chef would be delighted. The story of the expedition I heard vividly from an adventurer’s point of view this time was quite interesting. Roden, the conversation I had with you was more interesting than expected. I’d like to say thank you again for this. It’s okay to go back.”
“Yes, lord. It was an honor to meet you again.”
Loden and his party once again bowed to the lord in order, returned the equipment they had entrusted to the servants, and slowly left the lord.
“Whoa…”
While the guests were leaving, the lord went up to the office on the second floor and looked down at the back of Roden and his party, looking down at Roden to be exact as he re-read the report he had placed on the desk.
The contents of the report are a rough record of how the headquarters of a drug organization, which was growing larger day by day, turned into a field of corpses in one day while they were on vacation to a port city located in Baron Marite, and a slum. Of homeless people testified.
Write first.
“The corpses of the organization members were neatly cut into pieces with equipment and bones by sharp sword cuts, and the foreign mercenary hired by the organization is missing. Lastly, Petrog, the leader, is thoroughly dismantled.”
Palak.
Then the testimony side.
“A man with a good physique wearing a mask went into the Petrog group’s hideout alone, and when he came out, he led several prostitutes inside.”
The public opinion is that one of the competing organizations hired a high-level mercenary and completely destroyed the Petrog faction, but the lord made a hypothesis.
I’ve heard rumors about this damned bastard known as a pig who can’t live without money and women. Damn you drug addict…
What if he saw the four people who were enjoying their vacation, or more precisely, the lady who went out with Roden? In all likelihood, he would have tried to get his hands on it.
As a result, his organization kidnapped women, and as a result, Roden stormed into the headquarters and thoroughly retaliated, rescuing other prostitutes, including his own woman, as a bonus. … Would you like to talk about it?
Even if the guess was somewhat wrong, it was not considered a mere coincidence that Roden and his party stayed in the port city at the time the drug gang was destroyed.
And when a dungeon appeared in my estate… A swordsman who covered his face with an old helmet jumped into the dungeon alone and defeated it in a short time.
My twin sister was also on the list of missing and deceased adventurers at the time. The main character in that case must be that friend too.
Everything is just pure speculation based on the circumstances without any evidence… The lord has a fairly good intuition and strongly believes in his intuition.
Anyway, if my guess is correct, Roden is not just a silver-ranked adventurer. It is said that he is a being with a level of formidable force capable of slicing armed humans like paper slicing and clearing a dungeon in an hour or two.
Considering it from the perspective of the Margrave, who is engaged in a daily war of nerves with the soldiers of the Altma Kingdom, a neighboring country, in the border area included in the territory, it is quite coveted.
Thanks to its geographical advantage surrounded by high mountains, local wars rarely break out, but talented people with strong arms are always valuable.
“For the sake of my son who will succeed me, I will continue to be close with that friend.”
The lord muttered quietly as he watched Roden and his party leave, then turned his back on the window and began to handle the afternoon tasks one by one.
* * *
“…Did you take the promotion test?”
It was dinnertime on the day two days had passed since the dinner with the lord. The twin sisters who returned home with an exceptionally majestic gait delivered good news.
“Yes, yes. Look at this. Brother.”
“It’s the promotion certificate I got from the guild.”
On the promotion certificates the twin sisters were holding in their respective hands, their names and words were written to guarantee that this adventurer had enough experience and qualifications to take the promotion test.
“A promotion…! Congratulations. Merim-sister, Marill-sister.”
“Huh, it seems you’ve already accumulated enough contributions to take the silver grade promotion test. Speaking of which, I ask you, how long have you guys been promoted to the same grade?”
“Umm~ Has it been a little over a year?”
“It’s been about a year and a month.”
Considering that most (non-talented) adventurers often cannot rise higher in the same rank in their lifetime, their promotion is quite fast.
To hear the story, he submitted a large amount of nuclei and the Mosquito Queen’s head the other day, and reported the location of the obelisk. Thanks to these two, it is said that he received a lot of extra points.
“Honestly, at that time we were mostly assisting, so it stung a little, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity we had already gained. I’m going to give it a try this time.”
“But the fact that I brought the certificate…”
“Yes, our guild is not in a position to take the silver level test.
