Chapter 2: Number, 2, Divergence – translated by raylight

When asking for rooms at the inn, Carol had originally wanted to get two rooms. However, she hadn’t expected that upon opening her wallet, she would find that they probably wouldn’t have money for dinner if she really booked two.

Carol hesitated for a moment, but that was not because she had apprehensions regarding people of opposite genders sharing a room. They had basically slept in the same tent for the past month. It was just that Silvie was simply too noisy. Sleeping in separate rooms at night would be the only way to avoid hearing his voice.

“One room is enough.” In the end, she reluctantly asked for a single room. In the end, tonight’s rest won’t be a very quiet one.

She turned around and walked back to their table, but upon seeing Silvie look around excitedly, his mouth already open in preparation to start talking, Carol had only one feeling. It is high time to start doing missions to earn money.

“Carol! We haven’t come into a city for almost a month! Why did you suddenly want to enter one?” Silvie asked excitedly, “Are we going to look for evil-doers, capture them, and make them forsake evil and return to the right path? Just like the last time with the city lord!?”

Forsake evil and return to the right path? Carol shot a glance at Silvie, and then said indifferently, “I’m not looking for evil-doers or whatever intentionally. It was just that countless soldiers had used their lives to protect this country, thus at that time when I saw that this country had areas of corruption, I just wanted to take action and excise that corruption. Also, it is ‘excising evil,’ not forsaking evil or whatever and returning them to the right path!”

Silvie received a shock when he heard her. “Excising them? You mean to say… Killing them? B-but some people perhaps aren’t that evil, and as long as you talk to them properly, they might change for the better!”

Carol gave a cold laugh and replied, “Just like the city lord before who was selling slaves in private? Once the operation fell through and was exposed, he was even prepared to murder someone who carried a white rose insignia to prevent the secret from being divulged. Don’t tell me that you seriously believed that he would change for the better?”

“He might have!” Unexpectedly, Silvie said this as though it was a matter of fact. “He thought that he would be sentenced to death! For the sake of living, that’s why he would do such a thing!”

“It’s not ‘thought,’ it’s a fact. Once the fact that he was selling slaves in private was exposed, he would certainly die, no doubt about it.”

“What?” Silvie’s eyes widened, and he exclaimed, “He would be sentenced to death?”

“Sentenced to hang, that’s the kind of penalty it would be,” was Carol’s clear-cut reply.

Silvie’s eyes opened even wider, and he trembled as he said, “Why must he be killed? Perhaps he might change for the better… If he is killed, he would never be able to amend his ways.”

“For the sake of this ‘perhaps,’ how many more deaths would occur?” Carol coldly said, “Without a harsh enough penalty, how would we stop the rest of the populace from selling slaves in private as well? If the crime of selling slaves in private were to spread, how many people do you think would suffer from it? You were also once a victim of it, weren’t you? If it weren’t for me, you would already have the mark of a slave branded on your body!”

Silvie muttered in a small voice, “But even if one was sold as a slave, at least they are still alive. Is this not so? As long as one still lives, hope exists.”

Carol frowned, but did not say anything more. She unconcernedly said, “Order some dishes! There isn’t much money left, so you’re not allowed to order wine.”

Hearing about this prohibition, Silvie just could not accept it and began complaining, “I’m not a drunkard! I rarely drink!”

Carol did not quite believe him. “Last time, didn’t you very happily drink wine worth one silver ducat?”

“That’s because I hadn’t been drinking in a long time!” Silvie hurriedly explained, “The last time I had gone drinking was after I had buried teacher LL!”

After he finished speaking, he saw Carol’s face darken, and immediately realized that he had made a mistake with his speech.

LL’s full name was Lorenzo Louis, and he had possessed the white rose insignia that was personally bestowed upon him by the Holy King. As the imperial bard, he was a past companion of Carol’s and was also Silvie’s teacher. However, he had died of illness two years ago. Carol had only learned of this a month ago and hadn’t even managed to meet him one last time.

Because of that, Carol had always been brooding about it. Especially since when the two of them had parted ways, LL had had a few misunderstandings about Carol, leaving the two of them with an unpleasant feeling in their hearts, an unpleasantness that she would now never be able to resolve.

At this moment, a waiter walked over and briskly asked, “What would you like to order?”

“Two plates of beef, a plate of bread, two bowls of soup, and two bottles of grape wine!” Carol ordered without any hesitation.

“And a cup of milk!” Silvie added in a hurry, and then he registered what Carol had ordered. He blinked, not understanding her actions as he asked, “Didn’t you say that we are not allowed to order wine?”

Carol coldly said, “I said that you are not allowed to order wine. Did I say that I couldn’t order it myself?”

Silvie was speechless. Though half of their money was earned through his singing, he still did not dare retort even once. Who had asked him to say something so imprudent just now anyways?

The dishes arrived rather quickly. The aroma of beef made OhmyG.o.d instantly squirm out of Silvie’s embrace. Silvie cut up a piece of beef into several small pieces, and then put them into a small saucer together with the milk, so that OhmyG.o.d could use his little mouth to swallow the food.

Raising a carnivorous slime was a very expensive proposition. Thankfully, OhmyG.o.d’s food intake was not large, as a piece of beef and a cup of milk was enough for it to stay sated for two to three days.

Carol, on the other hand, grabbed a bottle of wine with one hand and started pouring it into a cup.

Originally, Silvie thought that Carol was going to drink it all herself, and would not leave even a single drop for him. He didn’t imagine that she would push the first cup of wine she finished pouring to him, saying, “Drink!”

Silvie received the wine cup, smiling as he said, “There’s also a portion for me?”

“There’s no point in drinking alone.” Carol also poured herself a cup of wine, which she drank in one go.

Compared to Carol’s boldness, Silvie drank in small sips. A cup of wine that was hardly considered big took him five to six mouthfuls to finish.

Carol shot a glance at Silvie. Though the latter’s face had turned red, he seemed to have neither reacted peculiarly, nor have the mannerisms of a drunken person. She immediately poured another cup for him.

Silvie’s eyes widened, and he quickly ate some food to fill his stomach before he dared continue drinking. Who knew that once he had finished his second cup, Carol would serve him a third cup… However, at this point, she herself had already drunk an entire bottle of wine.

“This won’t do!” Silvie waved his hands repeatedly, declining the offer. “I can only drink two cups, and absolutely cannot drink a third one!”

“Drink only two cups?” Carol seemed to be a bit impatient as she said, “What kind of a stupid rule is that? Did LL set something like that for you again? Now that he has pa.s.sed away early, don’t be so troublesome. Drink up!”

Holding the third cup of wine with both hands, Silvie pulled a long face. However, seeing that Carol’s face had already darkened, he did not dare say that he refused to drink. After a moment of hesitation, he clenched his teeth, and then raised his head and drank it all.

“That’s refreshing to see, much more becoming of a man!” Carol poured herself yet another cup of wine, then raised her head and gulped it down. After she finished her drink, she saw Silvie with his head still raised, not moving.

Seeing the situation, she raised an eyebrow… With a “Bang!” sound, Silvie collapsed on the table. His forehead had even struck the tabletop directly, making a loud sound.

Carol was stunned for a moment, and seeing that the other was not moving even an inch, she asked, “Silvie?”

Silvie did not stir at all.

“…”

Carol seemed to have a smile that was not quite a smile on her face as she talked to herself, “So he really could only drink two cups. He grasped his capacity for liquor far too precisely.”

After finishing the meat on the table, Carol carried a man slung over one shoulder, held their luggage and two loaves of bread with her other hand, and returned to the inn’s room. Afterward, she threw one person and one pet —or perhaps both of them were pets, one couldn’t say for sure— onto the bed.

After that, she grabbed her dark red cloak and draped it on, even making the hood hang low over her face, and subsequently walked out of the room heading towards the Adventurer’s Guild.

In truth, she did not actually have a habit of concealing her true ident.i.ty. However, there were too many idiotic individuals in the world, and there were always people who wanted to stir up trouble. For example, calling her a sissy, insinuating that she was actually a female… Yup, that’s right, that is, insinuating that “she” was actually a female.

Did she look that much like a guy? She was only wearing pants, coupled with being a little flat-chested!

Wearing a skirt might perhaps improve this kind of situation. However, regarding the thing called a skirt, she had already cut her ties with it for nearly ten years. Wearing a skirt and moving around was simply too difficult, not to mention she would probably be treated as a transvest.i.te and invite trouble.

From being suspected that I am actually a female to being suspected that I am actually a guy, both will invite trouble! Neither male nor female attire seem to fit. Carol was a little depressed upon thinking that.

Once she arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, she immediately walked to the wall that was completely covered with mission requests.

For the past month, since she had received news of LL’s death, she truly had not been in the mood to do any missions, and had completely stopped undertaking them. The money that she originally had left was already not a lot, and the expenses of an additional person werealso of a considerable amount. Thankfully, Silvie could always rely on his singing to earn at least a bit of money, so they did not have to go so far as to cut themselves off from cooked meals. However, she could not keep relying on Silvie to earn money!

Carol looked to-and-fro for a suitable mission on the mission board. However, probably because of this city’s remote location, there weren’t many missions available. If the reward money was too low, the mission was hardly worth doing. The majority of the rest of the missions were bodyguard missions. She certainly had no interest in protecting anyone. Having one Silvie is enough!

After a tough time, she managed to pick a mission for gathering herbs, and the reward money was relatively high.

“So much money for gathering herbs?” Carol frowned, but after looking at the location where the herbs were approximately distributed, she understood why. It was in the utmost depths of a forest, and it was also very close to a certain xenophobic race’s territory.

Carol thought about it for a while, and then tore down that mission request. Turning around, three burly thugs stood in front of her, blocking her way. Just looking at their expressions, she knew that they did not just happen to be standing in her way.

There really are too many idiotic individuals in this world!

However, this time, Carol was not filled with impatience. That was because she just so happened to be in a pretty bad mood.

Her fists clenched.