novelraw Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Chapter 87
*
Come to think of it, it's been a while since I last formed a party.
While being jostled in the same carriage as John and Edds and the others, I thought about such things.
Even if it's a relationship of mentor and apprentice, it's not entirely wrong to say we formed a party, but...
No, calling that an adventurer party or something like that is too much of a stretch.
Even if it's just for the two days until the next town, I look at the party members I've come to act together with and think.
At the very least, they won't hoist me onto their shoulders and jump off a cliff, nor will they try to skewer me along with a monster under the reasoning of "I naturally thought you'd dodge." By the way, that was from behind.
By the way, Erika is my life or half of my being, so she doesn't count as part of the party.
Do you deliberately feel a special sense of camaraderie with your right leg? You don't, right? So, that's how it is.
Incidentally, it seems my life will end in less than a year.
Gufu!
*
"Whoa! Shin just suddenly spat out blood!"
Due to Edds' shout, I lightly wave my hand to show there's no problem as gazes gather on me.
While healing the cheek flesh I reflexively bit through, I scatter the spilled blood with purification magic.
By the way, Shara is on Erika's side, so to me, she doesn't count.
The only ones who casually call out to the masked man who suddenly spewed blood are Edds and his partner, Pal.
From the others, it's not quite wariness, but I feel a distance beyond just being an outsider adventurer who isn't an acquaintance.
As for the distance toward a mysterious masked adventurer—at least I haven't given my name—it might be considered pretty good.
This is probably also due to the words John, the leader of this bodyguard party, used when introducing me.
John introduced me to the other adventurers like this.
"This guy is the apprentice of 'Kindhearted Barbara.'"
The faces of the adventurers when I was introduced like that were indescribable, and it might have been easier to read a frog's expression.
Regardless of the adventurers' reactions, there's one thing I understood from John's introduction.
That he hails from Faltarl.
Knowing me means exactly that.
If it were my mentor or my junior apprentice, even if they made a name for themselves in another country, I could accept it as just that.
Unfortunately, I haven't had such a flashy career.
While having 'Kindhearted Barbara' as my mentor, I was Rank 4 in Faltarl.
Even taking into account that I was attending the academy at the time, that's still slow.
Though it's the wrong person to compare myself to, my junior apprentice reached Rank 7 long ago.
My junior apprentice, 'Skewering Elsa,' falls into the category of genius, but even so, my slowness is nothing but proof of my utter ordinariness.
So, to me, the fact that John knows about me is quite strange.
Well, I haven't given my name, though.
I looked at John, sitting across from me, and thought about such things.
*
John, the leader of the bodyguard team, had no intention of adding more bodyguards.
This time, he had already taken in two novice adventurers, Edds and Pal, from an acquaintance, and above all, the number of bodyguards was sufficient.
He was trusted enough by his employer to have that level of discretion.
Furthermore, the one who approached him was a masked adventurer.
Sure, there are plenty of pieces of armor that completely cover the face, but no one wears a plain white mask around town.
Normally, no one would think to let such an obviously suspicious person join the trade caravan's bodyguard team.
But even so, the reason John added the masked adventurer to the team was none other than because he was a Longdagger.
What comes to mind is the time when I was still based in the capital of Faltarl.
In Faltarl, where everyone seemed crazy, there was a boy surrounded by the craziest bunch of all.
In Faltarl, where powerful monsters appear more often compared to other countries, he was surrounded by lunatics who found supreme joy in hunting monsters solo.
The boy, who should still have had plenty of time to become anything, was laughing.
For John, who couldn't stick to any job for long and became an adventurer to make a living with the strength he was somewhat confident in, the boy seemed nothing short of insane, or perhaps an irredeemable fool.
When he learned that the boy was the apprentice of 'Kindhearted Barbara,' he felt a strange sense of understanding, thinking, ah, if he's crazy, then of course he could laugh while surrounded by those people.
By the time he learned the boy was a member of the nobility, he wasn't even surprised anymore.
The boy's name was Shin Longdagger.
In Faltarl, where people say things like rank fraud or that Faltarl's adventurer ranks are worth two more in other countries, and even among the monstrosities in the capital's Adventurer's Guild.
Despite having been an adventurer for only about a year, the boy stood shoulder to shoulder with those monstrosities.
That boy is now the masked man in front of him.
If he's to be added as a bodyguard, even setting aside the mask issue, his ability is guaranteed.
"Hey, you."
John waited until the masked man who suddenly spat blood finished cleaning up before speaking to him.
He couldn't keep up with these weirdos' antics every time.
"Are you really 'that' Longdagger?"
"......Jin Goldendagger."
John snorts at that answer.
He had checked the guild card when allowing him to join as a bodyguard.
Though it was presented with fingers covering everything but the 'dagger' part of the name, that's practically the same as saying it's Shin Longdagger.
While wondering what reason an adventurer who is the apprentice of 'Kindhearted Barbara' and holds an 'official' alias would have to hide his identity, he sets the doubt aside.
"You said it's just until the next town, but what are you going there for? What's the reason an adventurer like you would leave the Demonlands?"
More than that, more than hiding his identity, what puzzled John more was that Shin was leaving the town of Hekatai.
From John's perspective, it was also strange that an adventurer like Shin, who was surrounded by crazy people in Faltarl, was away from Faltarl.
That in itself could be explained if he said his goal was the Demonlands, which would be a plausible enough story.
But to leave even Hekatai, which is on the frontline of the Demonlands.
The first thing that came to mind was whether he had committed some crime in Hekatai and was fleeing, but if that were the case, he wouldn't use a carriage; he'd run on foot.
For an adventurer like Shin, running on his own would be much faster.
If that's not the case, then...
"Is there something in the next town?"
To John's question, the masked man hesitates slightly before answering.
Hearing that answer, John thought, yup, this guy is definitely one of those crazy people after all.