“Hm? Is someone watching us?”
I finished three more delivery quests after that, and exhaustion… Is something I don’t feel. But the sun has set, so I came back to the inn.
All the major players are gathered here, starting with Ryuryu.
It looks like a suspicious bunch, sitting opposite each other in a corner of the inn like this. Especially since someone who doesn’t know us probably just sees a bunch of old guys surrounding Ryuryu, who is small enough to look like a little girl. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone reported us.
But there’s no one here except for us and guild employees, so that won’t be a problem. In fact, no one else is staying here in this inn anyway.
Normally there would be adventurers, but apparently a lot of them went to the fortress city, so we basically have the place for ourselves.
But since there are too many of us, some are staying in other inns.
“Are you listening, End?”
Whoops, my mind is wandering.
“Aren’t you just imagining it?”
“Of course not!”
“…Maybe you have a fan, Ryuryu.”
I blurt that out, and feel bloodlust all around me.
Ah, the inn employees are getting scared.
I drop my fist on the head of one of my people scaring them, and apologize with a bow.
It’s because Ryuryu is kind of like a mascot everyone loves. I think that in a way, these guys are more loyal to her than to me.
But who knows how true that is.
Hn? Why are you all turning away? Come on, tell me the truth. I won’t be mad.
But then Ryuryu does get mad.
Hey! Stop fawning! What do you mean thank you for that!? Geez!
She says.
“But Miss Ryuryu is right. I do feel unpleasant eyes on me sometimes.”
Says Heat, who has been quiet this whole time, and the air around us becomes tense.
If Heat says so, it must be true. He’s good enough at covert operations to be in the running for either best or second best, even among the ones I brought with me. And since he’s also a good fighter, I trust him to act independently too.
“Will it get in our way?”
“I don’t know that much.”
“Then someone needs to investigate who exactly is after us. Can you do it, Heat?”
“No problem. But I feel like it’s multiple people, so I’d like a team.”
“You can pick whoever you want. Move out tomorrow.”
Everyone hears my instructions, and nods deeply.
Did the kingdom notice us and send people to keep an eye on us?
According to Figuel, there’s a troublesome group here in Elesya. But even he doesn’t know the details.
“We should settle this before our strategy gets started, if possible.”
“End, that’s a careless remark. You don’t know who’s listening.”
Ryuryu rushes to whisper to me, after I said that quietly.
Yes, this is a dining room of an inn, not a private room. But there’s no one else here, and I checked that the employees aren’t near us either. No one’s listening, so it’s all right.
Still, Ryuryu is right to be worried. I’ll be more careful.
“Anyway, drink up for today! We should act as we always do, right!?”
I ask Heat, and he agrees.
He gets it. Well, Heat does like his booze too. Although he makes sure it doesn’t interfere with his work.
Ryuryu looks at us, and sighs like she’s kind of given up.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next morning, I wake up and head to the adventurer guild like always.
When I look at the board, I immediately notice that the amount of chore quests has drastically gone down.
When I first came here, at least one corner of the board was filled with them. Now there’s enough empty space that I can see the color of the wall.
“But it’s still not over…”
I found out why this is the way it is by talking to adventurers in this city.
Most of the adventurers here in the capital became experienced in other places, so there aren’t many people that do low ranking chore quests.
There are some beginners too, but they like to jump straight into the profitable hunting quests.
“It’s all about money.”
People who were born here and have homes here are one thing, but staying in inns costs money, and so does getting their equipment. And then there’s other things like potions.
Oh wait, let’s accept a quest first.
As I walk and pay some attention to it, I really do feel like something’s off. Is someone following me?
I wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t pointed out to me, but now that I’m aware, I can tell.
Should I capture my pursuer? No, that’s not my job.
In fact, I should be careful not to let them know I’m aware.
I don’t want them getting wary and running away. And getting into a fight to capture them would draw too much attention anyway.
First, we need to find out exactly who it is.
If we discover that it’s not someone from the kingdom, I can take matters into my own hands, but…
I’ll just trust that my allies will bring good news, and keep acting as I always do.
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Thanks for the treat.
Quite a different arc going on now I wonder how long it will last