Chapter 306 - Reinweils (4)

Was my offer to recruit her really that unexpected?

Amelia studied me as though trying to work out my intentions. Apparently unable to find any ulterior motive, she finally spoke, a trace of bitterness in her voice.

"I'm... a plunderer."

"You're from Noark. That's only natural. But I know better than anyone that you're fundamentally different from them."

In fact, when we first met, Amelia had let Aynar and me leave alive. The same went for our encounter in the sewers. The dwarf, Rotmiller, Misha, and even Dwalki—she had given precious Lete's Blessing to all of them, not just me, a barbarian, while seeking another way.

That was why...

"My information is registered with the Explorer Guild. Naturally, the royal family will know as well—"

I cut her off firmly.

"We just have to make you a new identity."

"It isn't as easy as you make it sound. You're a noble. If I stay by your side, people will inevitably start digging into who I am—"

Good grief, she sure was talkative today.

"That's what I said, isn't it? Once I've dealt with all those restrictions, join my clan."

"I'm telling you now because... that could never happen. If you insist when the time comes, it'll put us both in a difficult—"

"Really covering your bases, aren't you?"

"Covering my bases...?"

"Never mind. Leave whether it's possible to me. All you have to do is answer."

A simple choice between yes and no.

When I neatly boiled it down to that, Amelia hesitated briefly, then sighed.

"Haah. Why must you always make things difficult for me...?"

"So, your answer?"

"All right. If the day comes when being by your side won't cause any problems..."

Amelia trailed off and averted her gaze. But perhaps she disliked that unconscious reaction of hers.

She smoothly raised her head and looked me in the eyes.

"Then I'll become your companion."

A quest had been established.

* * *

Quest Name: Save My Sister!

Objectives: Sister's Survival (0/1), Resolve Identity Issues (0/1)

Reward: Amelia Reinweils (SSR) Recruitment Ticket

Hmm, something like that, I supposed.

While I was neatly organizing this quest in my head, Amelia took the liquor bottle from the table and gulped it down.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't drink because you can't get drunk?"

"I'm thirsty."

Oh, I see.

Still, saying that while chugging liquor was awfully macho.

THUNK.

Amelia set down the bottle with a grimace. Unable to help myself, I asked,

"Do you find liquor tastes bad, by any chance?"

"How could anyone find this stuff tasty?"

"No, I was just checking. I don't particularly like the taste either."

They said it started tasting like a sweet drink once you'd been through enough hardship, so I'd asked just in case. I felt like I'd had more than my share of adversity, but it still tasted pretty mediocre.

"... Enough nonsense. Let's get down to business."

With that, Amelia sat down across from me.

"You wanted to hear about Nivels Enche, didn't you? I'll tell you. Hearing your opinion might help me think of another approach."

"Good."

"Oh, and one more thing. Let me make this clear beforehand: I'll only become your companion if you keep every promise you made earlier. Understood?"

"But I asked you to join my clan, not become my companion."

"Ah, um..."

Amelia flinched at my words.

"That... is certainly true. I... thought that was what you really meant. If those are two different things, I'll correct my—"

"Never mind. Now that I think about it, 'companion' sounds better than 'clan member' anyway."

"... Were you just teasing me?"

Sharp, wasn't she?

"Of course not."

Amelia eyed me suspiciously, but without proof, she couldn't say anything.

Time to change the subject.

"Come on, tell me. Everything I don't know, including Nivels Enche."

As we returned to the matter at hand, Amelia dropped her playful air as well and began recounting her memories.

"Nivels Enche was the name of the man I told you saved my life that day. 'Iron Mask' was the nickname he used in Noark."

"Just as I thought."

That cleared up something I'd been uncertain about.

I was the person who had saved this woman's life.

Heh. No wonder she'd been going soft on me ever since the day I came down to Noark wearing that iron mask.

"That's why I kept wondering whether I should tell you. I came here to change the past, but now that I'm here, the more I struggle, the more everything seems to follow a predetermined course."

"I see."

Having experienced the same thing myself, I didn't need a lengthy explanation.

"But you said you wouldn't give up. Never mind that—just tell me. When did you next meet me... no, Nivels Enche?"

"I don't know the exact date. But if I remember correctly, it was about three weeks from now. The place was in the inner castle..."

After that, I talked with Amelia for a long time, gathering the information I needed to know. Whatever I asked, she answered honestly, without being guarded or testing the waters as she had before.

In a sense, it was our first completely open conversation.

Of course, that didn't mean an answer immediately presented itself.

"Anything else you want to know?"

"No, I think I've heard everything I need."

"I see. Then, perhaps..."

"Sorry. Honestly, I still don't know. I'll think about it some more."

"I see..."

When I admitted that I couldn't think of anything either, Amelia looked disappointed, but made no further comment about it.

"Well, even you couldn't come up with a solution immediately."

"Sounds like you weren't expecting anything from me in the first place."

"... What a strange man. If that were true, would I have told you any of this?"

"Hmm. So you trust me?"

"... To some extent."

"To some extent, huh."

I couldn't help chuckling at that.

Normally, I would have considered it a slippery answer, but perhaps because it was Amelia saying it, I felt rather pleased.

You know how it is. You more or less tune out praise from your parents, but when someone who's usually prickly says something good about you, it feels like you've earned their recognition.

"Anyway, if you have no more questions, it's my turn."

"Huh?"

"Why are you surprised? Naturally... I have things I want to ask you, too."

"Oh, of course. Go ahead. What are you so curious about?"

"What exactly did you discuss when you met Auriel Gabis? I didn't get to ask in detail then."

I'd expected a question about the world I'd lived in or something, but apparently not.

She really had no idle curiosity.

Well, that did make things easier for me.

"Honestly, what I told you before is everything you'd be interested in. But since you're curious, I'll start at the beginning. When I opened my eyes, I was in a mansion that felt incredibly familiar. Oh, explaining why it felt familiar will take a while..."

"That's fine. Go ahead. There's still plenty of night left."

"Uh... In that case, all right."

I then told her everything that had happened in the spiritual world I'd visited last month.

In the process, I mentioned several major figures: the Commander of Orculus, the Scholar of Destruction Velvev Luingenes, and the mysterious man called Kagureas.

"Kagureas? I've never heard that name either."

Unfortunately, Amelia knew nothing about that man, either.

The other two were a somewhat different story, though.

"The Commander of Orculus was there... There were rumors he might be an evil spirit, but to think they were true. Does that mean you come from the same place as him?"

"Not quite. Not all evil spirits come from the same dimension."

"Does that go for the Scholar of Destruction as well?"

"Probably. People from my world only started being dragged here around this very period."

"I see... You've told me some surprising secrets. The Commander is one thing, but Luingenes—that old geezer wasn't even rumored to be an evil spirit."

"On that note, could you tell me about those two?"

"I don't know much, but if you're interested in what little I do know."

Once again, Amelia covered her bases before sharing information, but much of what she told me proved more useful than I'd expected.

After all, I knew very little. There wasn't much publicly available information about either the Commander or the Scholar of Destruction. Naturally, even my basic knowledge differed from that of Amelia, a Noark native who'd had plenty of dealings with Orculus.

"So will you be summoned there again on the fifteenth?"

"Probably. At the end, he said something about sorting out the issue of fairness. I'm rather curious how that turned out, too. Oh, is there anything you want to ask him? I can ask for you the next time I'm summoned."

"... I'll think about it."

With nothing more to discuss, we called it a night and lay down in bed. Perhaps because we'd stayed up nearly all night, the day felt especially long.

But had lying down given her something else to wonder about?

"Bjorn, what was the world you lived in like?"

Uncharacteristically, Amelia began asking all sorts of questions, and I faithfully answered each one.

Democracy, science, cars and airplanes, missiles.

Every topic required explanations, so my answers ran long, but I didn't find it boring or bothersome.

After all, this was the first time I'd talked about these things with someone while in this body.

Usually, I had to think twice about every single word I said to hide the fact that I was an evil spirit. With Amelia, I didn't have to.

How much time had passed like that?

"That was fairly interesting. Though I knew most of it already."

"What? You knew? How?"

"There are plenty of evil spirits in Noark who have revealed their identities. Live there long enough, and you're bound to hear things."

"I see... No, wait. Then why did you go out of your way to ask me all that again?"

"That's..."

Amelia trailed off.

A long silence followed.

"Don't tell me you're asleep?"

"..."

"Don't pretend to be asleep. I know you only sleep with half your brain, like a dolphin."

"..."

Had the student surpassed the master?

I'd never expected her to turn one of the two ways to infuriate someone back on me.

"... Are you really asleep?"

"..."

Well, look at that. Now she was even snoring.

Ha. Hilarious. Was she acting or what?

I couldn't tell, but I stopped talking to her and closed my eyes.

The reason was simple. If she really was enjoying her first deep sleep in ages, I didn't want to disturb her.

"... Good night."

I rolled over to face the wall, too, and soon fell asleep.

* * *

After that day, time passed quickly.

No, perhaps "quickly" wasn't quite right.

Honestly, it was incredibly boring. To avoid introducing any variables, we strictly limited our outings and spent all day killing time in our lodgings.

Oh, that didn't mean the time was wasted.

"Bjorn, wash yourself."

"Why? I'm not even going out."

"... You smell."

We talked all day long, about all sorts of things. Sometimes it was my home world, sometimes Amelia's memories with her sister, and sometimes stories from the Labyrinth.

Anyway, those wide-ranging conversations helped me get to know Amelia much better.

The biggest gain, though, was probably finally learning which Essences she possessed.

'Has she never had the chance to work with a proper team? With those stats, I don't understand why she only made it to the eighth floor.'

Amelia's build was far stronger than I'd expected.

Honestly, without his Arc longsword or Draconic Tongue, I could comfortably rank her above that Dragonslayer bastard.

'And she doesn't just have combat abilities. She has a Guide's talent, too.'

That allowed her to fill the Scout role, and as an Aura user, she was a massive damage dealer who could slice through even monsters resistant to physical attacks.

Her weakness was her frail body...

But that was something I could solve simply by tanking properly in front.

"Oh, right. How did your outing today go?"

"As expected, they turned us down."

Fresh from her shower, Amelia answered while toweling her hair dry.

Tsk. So it had turned out that way after all.

"Hmm. Maybe we offered too little..."

Our attempt to buy the Reinweils sisters out of their positions as another team's beaters had failed.

"What were they like? Did they seem likely to change their minds if we offered more money?"

"Hard to say. I'm not sure, but we'd be better off not trying that. If they realize how fixated we are on those two, they won't just grow wary. They'll try to use it against us."

"True enough. Everyone here is cunning."

"Still, I managed to make a natural approach. Fortunately, they showed interest in us first."

"What kind of interest?"

"They asked if we'd consider joining their team."

In a sense, everything was proceeding exactly according to plan, but neither of us looked happy about it.

After all, this had all already happened in the past.

"Everything fits together so perfectly it's suffocating."

In the original history, we joined that team, too.

Then, after going through various things, we would experience that incident about five months later.

"So what will you do?"

"... Join the team as planned. It's a little stifling, but it's the best way to stay close when that incident happens."

"Is that so? Then let's do that."

I raised no objections. No matter how I looked at it, I doubted we could change the past this way, but I couldn't think of another approach, either.

For now, I'd follow Amelia's plan. At least until I came up with something better.

Right. So, with that in mind...

[23 : 55]

I checked the time once more.

Watching me, Amelia spoke.

"Oh, come to think of it, today's the day."

"Yeah."

I drank a glass of water and lay down in bed.

"Have a good trip."

Having someone see me off felt awfully strange.

"I've still got five minutes before I leave. Besides, it'll only be a moment here anyway."

"Oh, that's true."

After that, I passed the time chatting with Amelia about nothing in particular.

Was it because I'd be dealing with Auriel Gabis?

I was feeling a little nerv—

CLICK.

Just then, the second hand of the clock on the bedside table clicked, and my vision blurred.

'That lemon-lime soda was really good last time.'

Would he give me more if I asked?