Chapter 261 – The Reward of Bandit Subjugation
「Truly thank you very very very much!!」
On the 10th of Platinum month, we, the Element Master came back from the Bandit Subjugation and Greed Gore search, but the person who met us first was neither Simon nor Wil, but some unknown boy.
However seeing a gla.s.ses-wearing girl standing beside him, I quickly understood the situation.
「You’re welcome. It’s good that she was fine, right」
I replied, hearing that the boy was overcome with emotion and started crying while still saying words of grat.i.tude.
「Geez, don’t cry anymore Eddie, it’s embarra.s.sing for me」
「B-But!」
The name of young man crying out loud is Eddie. He is apparently the childhood friend of this girl standing beside him and is also an Knight Cadet in Royal Spada Academy.
And the girl is Shenna, who we saved from the hideout of bandits.
It is easy to imagine just what feeling Eddie had before she returned to Spada completely fine.
「Umm, I’m sorry, he seemed to caused an uproar on his own……」
Shenna poked Eddie with a troubled expression. Seeing their pleasant actions my face distorted, no, I smiled wryly.
「I see, so you came here to say thanks, well, you don’t need to worry about it」
「I’m sorry, thank you very much」
Like that, after talking for some time with them, Shenna left, taking(dragging) Eddie with her.
Incidentally, when returning, Eddie,
「Kurono-san! I will help you if anything occurs, please do tell me!!」
Proposed an offer like that.
「Thank you, I will keep that in mind」
「Shall I spread an information that the rumour of Kurono-san pushing down the Princess of Avalon is a fake?」
「Ah, please, seriously, do that」
Anyhow, like that, the Knight Cadet duo of Eddie and Shenna left.
Now I just need to pray that bad rumours about me would just fade out……no, there is one more great thing
「Looks like everything is back to normal, thanks to Lily」
「Eheheh」
I patted the head of carefree smiling Lily. However, my heart was stinging due to guilt for telling a lie to Eddie.
I said she was perfectly fine, but that was a complete lie.
Although I hadn’t seen it directly, but definitely, her body and heart both were in tatters, all the girls captured there were treated like an entertainment outlet. I heard all this from Zack.
However it was Lily who made it all ‘non-existent’.
Shen used Fairies’ Miracle Drug on this seven girls, but didn’t use it to recover their health, but controlled it using her Telepathy ability, and deleted memories from the time they were captured.
I learned that Shenna’s memories were all gone after 20th of Red Flame month, the other girls were also the same. They all had their memories from some days before getting captured deleted.
And because that disgusting memories were deleted, a lie that ‘not done anything’ to this girls by the bandits was established.
「This was for the best, right」
「Yes, considering the situation this time, this is the very best end」
Fiona strongly affirmed.
Originally these girls would’ve have to heal an emotional scar by spending lots of time, no, if it went bad, then they would have to live their life in a nightmare.
The mental power to getting over a heartbreaking reality may be great, but, from the point of happiness, the choice would be to make it all ‘non-existent’.
That why, I didn’t tell them the truth, it will be just fine if they moved on in life happily while believing in the kind lie made up by Lily.
「Yeah, it was for the best」
This matter ended with everyone being rescued. To me, this is more valuable reward than money or fame.
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Next day: 11th of Platinum month.
The city of Spada was filled with liveliness today as always, but more than that, there was a cheerful rumour coming out of people.
That was the Rank 5 part of Royal Spada Academy, the『Wing Road』had punished the evil Slave Dealer.
In truth this ‘evil Slave Dealer’ was the wirepuller behind the bandits we subjugated, and thanks them, girls not present in the hideout were rescued safely.
They might have fought against the wirepuller, but before I knew it, the whole matter ended safely, truly a happy ending.
However, thanks to that I was able to escape from the tiresome things I had predicted, so I’m thankful to them.
The reason they were so easily able to arrest the Slave Dealer living in a mansion in the Upper Cla.s.s Area was because the party members of Wing Road were either royalties or from The Four Great n.o.bles, meaning they all had status of upper echelons of the society.
If it were freelance adventurers like us, we would’ve got ourselves in a bad situation against a Slave Dealer with this much a.s.sets and influence.
Anyway, thanks to that, highly influential party were able to work as adventurers without any problems.
Thinking on it, the First Princess of Avalon, Nell-san, is also a member of Wing Road. I should say my thanks to her if I meet her anytime soon.
Of course, only when a sword-using brother and a hysteric friend wouldn’t be around her.
Thinking this and that I finally reached my destination.
「Well then, today I will buy a good robe」
That destination was a Mage Robe Specialist Shop with an old woman being the clerk. This place was called『Fix & Fika』
The blackened armour made for anti-Greed Gore purpose had a hole opened in the stomach area because of Ludora’s katana, so I plan to send it to Stratos Smithing Workshop later.
Moreover, my standard equipment is still a Robe, after all my Cla.s.s is『Black Magician』and not a Cursed Weapon-wielder Cla.s.s like『Berserker』.
Well, armour is also not bad, but its better to have a robe as a primary equipment. Moreover now, fighting monsters for trial, I will need a magic resistant defence, rather than physical resistance defence.
「Hahaha, today for sure I will make that witch clerk give me a good reception, and it will happen, when I show off my a.s.sets!」
I have my wallet filled so much, that my enthusiasm is just leaking out of me, or rather, I couldn’t have decided to buy robe if I didn’t had money.
Naturally, the origin of this abundant fund is the reward from Bandit Subjugation.
Although, I didn’t take the quest officially, but concerning the results, we had subjugated the bandits, the guild accepted our work and paid us the suitable amount of reward.
Moreover, it turned out we could take all the possessions of bandits we subjugated, so we got all the money, that was enough for near twenty people.
Although, plundering stuff from bandits may sound cruel, but if a bonus of this much wasn’t present, then Bandit Subjugation quests wouldn’t have been established in the first place.
Well, like this and that, with the intention of buying the most expensive stuff of this shop today, I entered confidently through the door of the shop.
Upon entering the shop, a lot of robes greet me, even the mannequin clad in Apprentice Robe with words「Freshman Purveyor」etched on it greeted me. I felt like the whole shop was welcoming my visit.
Haha, sorry, but today I am graduating from Apprentice Robe.
I am already in shirt and pants, without a robe, in other words, I will return back while wearing a new robe. 「Will you wear it here?」, the answer choices to this question are just Yes and YES.
Incidentally, Fiona said she needed that Apprentice Robe for some sort of Enchant experiment or something, so I donated it to her.
If that robe turns into cinder due to the failure in experiment, I wouldn’t feel even a little bit of regret. I just need to think than the memories of me being underestimated while wearing that robe were also burned to cinders with the robe.
To the current me, with a strong resolve to part with that robe, exists nothing that could stop me from walking forward.
In front of my vision is the same witch clerk from before, sitting on the counter.
Apparently she sensed my arrival already as her eyes that were looking down on the book in her hands before, were now looking towards me.
Well then, what sort of sarcasm will come out of her mouth today——
「You’re Kurono-sama from Element Master, right. I welcome you for coming here」
Eh, wtf, candid camera?
I can’t help but think of it that way now, that she is bowing at a perfectly right angle.
Or rather, I don’t even remember telling her my name or party name……
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「I see, so she was your daughter」
Again, I feel the world surely is small. Guess what, this witch clerk old woman is the mother of that Shenna.
She already knew about the situation from her daughter, more or less, I am her daughter’s life saviour, hence she bowed to me.
「I’m truly sorry, I was thinking of coming to meet you for giving my thanks——」
「No you don’t have to do it, I just did my work as an adventurer. I also got the reward from the Guild properly」
I feel utterly uncomfortable to the kind, careful interaction with a person who had been spouting sarcastic words at me ‘till now, but,
「It can’t go on like that, after all you saved my daughter」
I didn’t have the guts to poke fun at a mother saying thanks with teary eyes.
I personally think that just that feeling of wanting to thank me is enough, as for the reward, I already got a great amount of money. I also don’t have greed or arrogance to want more than this.
「No, this is the reward I had prepared for the rescue quest, please take it」
I just heard yesterday that the families of victims pitched in money and requested the Guild to post up a rescue quest.
The heart can’t be measured by money, but, the reward wasn’t small, it told that the families were concerned about the girls’ safety.
Moreover I never took on this quest officially, although, the objective was completed, I can’t say that I’ve got a legitimate right for accepting this reward.
However, seeing her trying to corner me, I feel it would be rude to keep on obstinately refusing her.
At any rate this sort of situation is a first for me, so I don’t know what is the appropriate way to deal with these sort of situations.
「Moreover, if Kurono-sama is still wanting『Baphomet Embrace』then I think this reward would be equal to it」
In her eyes while saying this, a sharp pointy light was flickering.
Hmm, as expected, I cannot look down on this person——No, this time she is trying to pay the reward with good will, so I shouldn’t be vigilant.
「Do you have the『Baphomet Embrace』here?」
「Please, wait a moment」
Saying that she temporarily went in the interior of the shop. Hmm, what a suggestive behaviour that is.
Most probably not even five minutes have pa.s.sed, but it seemed much longer to me.
Soon enough, she came back with a folded black robe in her hands. Like that, she unfolded in front of me and answered to my question from before.
「This is a robe made from a high cla.s.s demon just like Baphoment. This one is called『Diabolo’s Embrace』and is made from Diabolo’s skin」
That was different from the fur of Baphomet, and had a profound feel of a real leather. The design too seemed different from the one I wore before.
However, sensing the dense black magical energy residing in it, I understood that this is a product on the same level, or maybe even better than『Baphomet Embrace』.
「*chuckle*, looks like you liked it」
「Yeah, this is……a good stuff」[ED: An expression like he smoked a hookah for the first time]
Even more than the Apprentice Robe I was using some days before.
I was completely charmed by that jet black gloss, making it seem like the pulsation of magical energy is reaching to me.
「Please, wear it and see if you like it」
「……Yes」
I had no reason to refuse her.
I silently faced my back towards her, who had opened the『Diabolo’s Embrace』that looked more like a coat and less like a robe.
At a glance, the size of the coat seemed small for me, but when I put my hand in it, there was no cramped feeling in there.
No, speaking truthfully, it automatically resized itself based on the wearer’s body proportions.
That’s right, I felt a pleasant temperature change the moment this coat completely fit my body.
Aaanhhh, I feel severely nostalgic right now. So,『Baphomet Embrace』felt this good. I realized that fact just now.
「It looks good on you」
Even those simple words seemed like truth, when feeling this pleasant sensation. Truly mysterious.
No, this time it isn’t the problem of looking good or bad, but there is something in this, that makes me want to just purely ‘yearn’ for it.
「So, how about it Kurono-sama, will you take this『Diabolo’s Embrace』from me as the grat.i.tude reward」
I’m pretty d.a.m.n sure that she already knows what I am going to say.
After all, I have been charmed by it to the extent, that the hesitation for refusing it had already left my body.
「Please let me have it」[ED: With the fase of cheshire cat]
I just wasn’t able to find words other than that.
—
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
He finally got his yearned『Devils’ Embrace』-type Robe!
Kurono is now armed with a black coat. Kurno’s Chuuni-level: level Upped!