Chapter 87

After intervening in the quarrel with the drunk, the old man in the butler's clothes became the center of attention.

As the amount of noise had only gotten louder and louder, the number of gathering onlookers increased alongside it, curious as to its origin.

There was nothing good about this.

「Wellll, what a strange coincidence.」

「I was thinking the same.」

I said to Shuria in a low voice, while we looked at the man ahead of us, that fat pig Grond's trusted man, Fegner Leelit.

Fegner had a nice elderly smile upon his face, as he grabbed the drunk man's outstretched hand.

(He really shows up at the worst time, sigh.)

Being in a situation like this, angry at the drunk, you couldn't just let things be.

「…」

「…」

I checked with Shuria by looking at her, making sure we both silently watched what was about to happen.

「What the hell! Hey, old man, I don't need you to be grabbin' onto my hand! Hic! Lemme go! I wanna touch the woman, Hic!」

「Well, well, time to calm down. Drunkenness just separates us from our friends and family.」

「Who the hell cares about that!? Lemme go, old man!」

「Well, no choice left then.」

「Wha? Owww, owwww, OWWWWWW!」

His deeply wrinkled thin arms started to force the man as the drunk man's arms began to creak.

The inarticulate drunk suddenly sobered up a bit to a lightly drunk face and began to flail around to push the old man's arm away.

「Let me go! I said let me go! Whaa?」

However, no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't push the old man's arm away. But after a while, Fegner let him free.

The drunk, now with his arm suddenly released, strongly fell to the ground.

What do you say to a thing like this…

Oh, I remember. Heh heh, serves him right.

「Have you sobered up a bit?」

「B…bastard…」

With Fegner being this cool about the whole situation, the drunk's anger flared up in reaction.

「Everyone's mockin' me! I'm gonna kill you!」

The shock of his ass hitting the ground did sober him up, and you could see that he now had gone from a dirty drunk to someone with a bit of composure.

I can't say that his now regained self-control made his anger suddenly leave him, but with things quickly getting out of hand, I then saw him grab for the sword at his belt.

「Take thissssssss!」

「Oh, well then.」

Fegner calmly breathed out and watched the wild man.

(he, he's fast)

Only a few people there could even see what happened next.

Fegner had a long sword hanging from his waist and, within an instant, had it out and around in unreal speed.

「Too slow.」

Clink, the sound of metal knocking metal away, as the high pitched sound reverberated only for an instant.

What was left was Fegner slowly replacing his sword back into its scabbard.

「Huh? Wha?」

Half cut off and spinning in the sky was the top part of the drunk's blade as he stood here clutching the other half of the broken sword, his face devolving into cowardice.

「Wha, wha, wha…」

He couldn't understand what had happened as he looked for the rest of the sword as if he had a hole in his hand, with his face looking now completely sober.

The ruddy drunken complexion he had was now stark pale, and his mouth fluttered together as if he had forgotten how to breathe.

「It seems you're sober now.」

「Ah…sorry…」

As he finally understood his situation, the apologetic drunk now seemed to have an expression one makes when pleading for his life.

「No, no, everyone makes mistakes.」

The old man said, with no visible intention to slash at him again.

With this figure of false benevolence, my anger at Fegner seemed to grow even more.

「It seems your sword has been damaged, I apologize. Would you like money for a replacement?」

「Huh? Um…」

Fegner took one gold coin from his bag.

The formerly drunk man couldn't hide his confusion as to what to do with this money.

There was no way that replacement money in this fashion would be something normal, and the amount itself was weird.

The sword the former drunk was using wasn't expensive at all, and it was clear that a gold coin was far too much.

「Well, now you can go back to your lodging. And then, you must promise me that you be careful about how much alcohol you consume.」

「Oh, yeah…」

The onlookers opened a path, and the disconcerted man scratched his head and walked away from the place.

With him doing this, the onlookers gathered around simply followed and disappeared.

「…」

…I really don't like him.

That pointless scene, even if a drunk was going to touch my butt, was simply to showcase the butler's own sense of superiority, and the onlookers gazing away at the whole spectacle simply reinforced that feeling.

And, even more than that:

「I hope you were not injured, misses. It seemed that you were in trouble, so I apologize for butting in.」

Without ulterior motives, the man seemed happy at this good deed he had done for us.

Actions like this from Fegner made me a bit confused as what to do.

「…yeah, he wouldn't stop messing with us.」

I noticed that I had spit out a generic response to him.

I should have just left without a word as that was the best, but I wouldn't let myself do so.

「That's too bad. I think that he will cease in attempting to bother you again though. Why don't you simply forgive him?」

「I wasn't going to kill him or anything.」

「But you were going to cut off his arm, correct?」

「Is there a problem with that?」

「Yes, I happen to not like the sight of blood.」

「…」

This old man, with his persistent expression and laughing eyes, rubbed me the wrong way even more now.

I hate, hate, hate this guy!

「Why did you even butt in, in the first place, you…」

「Minnalis!」

I heard Shuria say in a small voice as she tugged at the sleeve of my maid outfit.

「Oh, right…well then…」

We spun and tried to walk away.

「Wait a second please! If I've been insolent or you are in trouble, lets talk it out.」

However, I stomached my emotions and though I was about to walk away, stopped.

「You two are still so young! There's no need to be touchy, as this world can be a wonderful place to live in!」

「…this world…wonderful!?」

After hearing his words behind me, I murmured out that question.

「Yes, not everything in the world is like that even. I don't know what has happened, but instead of being angry and holding a grudge against this world, why not live a little lighter, and you can find happiness?!」

「Yes, the world truly is wonderful.」

A world where you don't have to doubt anyone.

A world like fragile glass, made beautiful on the surface that you continually have to save from breaking.

Until now, I too lived in a world like that.

「…」

I turned my body to him once more for the last time.

I kept my feelings to myself and tried to look expressionless, but it ended in a silent smile.

「My name is Minnalis. Please remember my name.」

And with that smile, I raised my skirt in a final curtsey.

Then I turned around, and without ceasing walked away.

「I can't stand that guy!」

I said when I knew that Fegner couldn't hear my voice, and then I apologized to Shuria.

「Sorry about that, Shuria.」

I didn't have to apologize after all that annoying crap happened to us, though.

Because we let the whole thing finish without getting flustered, all this stuff we encountered seemed to fight for a place in my memory, but I knew that we shouldn't have done anything to attract attention.

However, I wasn't able to hold back.

A world with nothing to hold a grudge against. A world full of beauty.

When I couldn't understand the crack in that world that was spilling out black darkness, I decided to crush that world.

What was left were the shards of that world that cut and scarred me, leaving a dark and slimy feeling.

That old man and the way that he spoke seemed to know of that world.

Trying to look that benevolent, and knowing that those humans that should enjoy the beautiful world they live in, while being the accomplice of the man that was bringing all the filth into the world.

『This world can be a wonderful place to live in』he says.

『Why not live a little lighter』he says.

Speaking in those light phrases.

Everything so smooth, just a discomforting fake show.

It's really hard to hold back when you remember it all because of a man like that.

「His actions remind me…of my father.」

「Huh?」

He would always help others, seemingly kind and always smiling, always willing to be gentle.

My father was that type of man.

The village would depend on my father, so I thought he was kind. I thought he was a respected man.

…one day, when his position became to dangerous, he up and left my mother and I, he was a good man until that moment.

「Getting in between fights with me and drunks, looking good to other people…」

「Fegner isn't your father though.」

「Yeah, I know, but I won't forgive him.」

I knew that much.

That's why I'm waiting for that day.

Because he is an accomplice with Grond, the moment when his false skin is finally peeled off won't be much longer.

☆

「My name is Minnalis. Please remember my name.」

It felt like an icy chill moving down my spine, so much so that I wanted to look away and my words stopped.

In that moment, those two girls that look like they hate the world disappeared into the crowd.

(My, I really have gotten older. To see such murderous intent in a young girl like that…no, even though I'm weaker, I could see a very strong will to kill in that girl…)

It had been a long time since I had seen a battlefield and that pure and fierce will to kill that she had.

And even more, in the words I spoke as we had just met, she already knew what I was going to say, just as much as I knew as well.

「…I don't regret what I've done, I think it's the correct path. I think I've lived too long.」

I sighed to myself, and started walking again.

People are animals that forget.

Many years ago, the thought of the brother that I hated and killed, somehow I really can't even remember anymore.

All of my memories have become faint like lingering scents, and everything around me that I thought I hated now makes me feel like I'm a different person.

…it must be because of the revenge that I fulfilled.

「Those girls too, should find a man like the boss I had in my life.」

He lets out all the emotions, he's the one that saved an indecisive me from myself.

Now passed away, his son Grond, no, master, grew the business to an enormous size.

He was obsessed with money, and because of that obsession, the Grond Trading Company grew.

The final words of his father, my boss, 『Make the Grond Trading Company bigger than any other』was fulfilled.

There was only one more step. If we can get the special right to currency recasting, then this city will be the one in which the Grond Trading Company takes off.

If so, Grond will become the bedrock of this area.

…that's why we have to do all this carefully.

We must get all the info we can, which is why I didn't think I'd meet those two girls.

(However, they did have a nice smell about them.)

Out of all the gathered information, there wasn't anything that caught my attention.

But in contrast to that, my heart is still all tied up.

I can't find the reason, but it must be that there's something like sand in the gears, some kind of strange uncomfortable feeling.

「…maybe I'm just thinking too much.」

I noticed that I was now before one building Grond owned.

I was about to get information, records, etc., relating to a transaction, and this was a place where transactions go from small to large.

「Oh! Mister Fegner! You are here yet again?」

「Yes, for a little.」

The guards in this building gave me a brief greeting and I went inside.

Just as the master said, it was hard to get all these different currencies that all the traders were using without being noticed, so lately I've come frequently to arrange the transactions.

At this time, people were walking around the place busily.

「Ah, are you okay, your face looks a bit pale.」

「Ah, Mister Fegner.」

A bit emptyheaded-looking man with a pale face address me.

(He must be…the man charged with recording all the transactions that occur here.)

「Hah hah hah, it's no problem. We just need a lot of money to start a new store in another city. I was a bit surprised by the sudden word, but I'll be moving the wages there.」

He smiled with a tired smile.

Right now, the expected transactions were becoming fierce, and everyone was moving hurriedly.

There was nothing one could do, even if it made you sick.

「Is that the smell of medicine?」

「Yes, lately at the tool shop near my house they've been selling potions for cheap. They're just little potions that help speed your recovery from fatigue…they aren't cheap usually so I got some when I could.」

「Oh really?」

There was a little doubt in my words.

However, the smell remaining on this man…

「Um, sorry, I have work to do…」

「Oh, yes…hang in there.」

And with that, the man quickly ran somewhere else.

☆

Now it's two days after I met Nonorik and when Minnalis and Shuria met Fegner.

The red sun bathes the streets like blood or fire, at this time.

I felt the light pushing me along, as I walked the streets.

Privileged guests were visiting the town, and because of that, I turned towards the lodging lining the street that would be housing them.

「Why is it that these rich folks like all these useless decorations?」

Minnalis said to herself as we saw our goal.

A lodging that was shimmering on the outside with gold leaf, while the inside was something completely different…the outside just had gold hanging on it.

Minnalis was practical too, and she'd never use gold for something useless like that.

「Wooohooo, look at all the sun reflected off of it!」

Shuria looked at it a bit gloomily with squinting eyes.

I didn't know what she was feeling.

「Well, whatever, we're here now.」

In the middle of this place we were going to was connected to the slums.

That was the entrance of the thugs hideout, called the 『The Slugs.』

「Okay, let's go. This is the first step in showing the difference between right and wrong.」

I said quietly, as I could feel my hot blood running through my body.

「…who…these people, I won't forgive them. All those I want revenge against, I'm going to crush all of them until they're dead.」