Chapter 18
I was on my way out of Phila's workshop, heading for Bordeau's forge.
I planned to retrieve the red log and hand it over to the alchemist.
The heartwood of a tree imbued with the Red Moon's magic was used as a valuable catalyst.
Wood infused with the Red Moon's magic was valuable in its own right, so even if it had lost some of its magic, there were plenty of ways to put it to use.
"It's nearby. Search every inch."
"""Yes, sir."""
As I entered an alley, adventurers in identical uniforms were searching the surrounding area.
They were startled when they saw me, then passed by and resumed searching the area.
"It's unusual to see them around here."
An adventurer in the same uniform.
They were clan-affiliated adventurers.
Since they were based outside the city walls, they had no reason to come here.
The clan had its own blacksmith, and hired wandering mages to imitate enchantments, however clumsily.
From the snippets of conversation echoing through the alley, it seemed they were chasing someone.
'There aren't any tracking quests at this point in the game.'
It was just about the time the clan adventurers disappeared from view.
Something rustled and stirred in a reeking pile of garbage.
Beneath a tattered tent lay someone covered in clotted blood.
It was Darko.
He looked up at me with bloodshot, vacant eyes.
When he saw me lifting the tent, his shoulders hunched as if he were facing a grim reaper who had come to take his head.
"H-hiiik!"
He frantically backed away, scraping at the filth on the ground with his hands and feet.
When his back hit the building wall, his jaw trembled as he realized there was nowhere left to run.
"E-Eck... B-Boss."
A wheezing metallic sound escaped unattractively through his split lips.
"Did you come to kill me? P-please, spare my life. Please?"
"...."
Judging by his state, the noble had truly cast him aside.
Perhaps the people who had held grudges against him had beaten him half to death, but even so, fear showed in his eyes as he clung to life.
I had no grudge against him.
It had been infuriating that he'd sent subordinates after Ellis, but that had become the decisive factor that made Elena rely on me, so it had been useful.
Still, I wasn't entirely free of resentment, so I considered punching him once.
'Should I take him to Elena?'
She'd probably want to vent some of her anger, too.
But I soon abandoned the thought.
Clinging to a plot thread from a past playthrough would only interfere with Elena's concentration.
Still, perhaps I hadn't lost all the affection built up over the years I'd spent as Eck, so I deliberately asked him one question out of curiosity.
"Why are your clan members chasing you?"
The clan adventurers I had just seen were chasing Darko.
The clan's deputy leader was Darko's wife.
"I-I don't want to talk about that fucking bitch...!"
"Hmm... Is that so."
Having lost interest, I turned away.
Just then, a voice rang out.
"He couldn't have gotten away. Start searching from the inside again! This time, search every corner more thoroughly! If you don't find him, don't expect to go home!!"
The murderous shout echoed through the alley.
Darko's complexion turned deathly pale.
"B-Boss...!"
Darko crawled toward me on all fours like an animal and clutched at my trouser leg.
"S-sorry. P-please spare me just this once. T-this time, I'll really do anything...! I'll apologize to E-Ellen too! So... hic!"
Darko pulled the tent over himself and hid inside the garbage pile.
"....."
"Ugh...!"
At that moment, the clan adventurers heading toward this alley spotted me, flinched, and turned down another path.
"Captain, aren't we going that way?"
"If you don't know, shut up. Can't you see who's there?! If we lay a hand on him, we're the ones who'll die."
The clan adventurers turned down another path one after another.
They had suffered plenty at my hands—or rather, Eck's—but strictly speaking, they were avoiding me because of what had happened in connection with Darko.
After all, it was publicly believed that Darko had incurred my wrath.
"A-as expected, Boss."
"Enough. Explain."
"W-well..."
Darko's bloodshot eyes glared horribly from his filth-caked face.
They held terrible hatred.
Darko had a wife and a daughter.
He had lived a fairly successful life.
The guild's swordsmanship instructor had a job for life, a noble's backing, and enough standing to influence the guild even after retirement.
His wife was the clan's second-in-command, so their positions complemented each other nicely.
They cherished each other while using each other.
"My wife, that fucking..."
But that mutually exploitative relationship was gone.
"She'd been seeing the clan leader for a long time... Sob... That fucking bitch... I loved her... She said we'd be together forever, and then..."
"I see."
In the first place, you two were just using each other whenever it suited you.
"But you didn't love your wife."
"I fucking loved her, okay?"
It was completely unlike the way he normally talked, but I wasn't about to expect a logical answer from a man driven into a corner.
"If you feel so wronged, why don't you ask Daril for help?"
"Daril... I was afraid that might be the case..."
That might be the case?
"She was the clan leader's daughter."
"Oh dear."
For some reason, I started to feel sorry for him.
"When I went home, I found her naked and having sex with the clan leader. When I confronted them, my wife—of all people—attacked me... I asked what she was going to do about Daril, but she said Daril wasn't my flesh and blood... Sob... Sniff... How could she not be my child after all the time I'd spent raising her?!"
Darko sobbed as he repeatedly slammed his forehead into the muddy ground.
"Boss, I'm truly the one who's been wronged. I devoted my entire life to that bitch and worked myself to the bone for her... She took everything from me without leaving me a damn thing! You and I have a bond, don't we?"
"What kind of bond do we have?"
"Aren't we brothers?! Please! I-I beg you! I can't die like this, not when I've been wronged this badly!"
His desperate wailing echoed through the narrow alley.
It was the cry of a man who had lost everything and been thrown into the gutter.
What a pity.
I looked down impassively at the crown of his head.
A man who had once wielded his paltry authority to crush other people's lives while snickering was now whining that it was unfair for his own life to have fallen apart.
Eck was trash too, but at least he hadn't forgotten his own deeds.
"Who are you calling your brother? I only looked after you because that noble was being a nuisance. There was never anything between us."
"B-Boss..."
When I glared at him, his complexion turned deathly pale.
I shook off his grip on my trouser leg and kicked him.
Thud.
"Guh!"
"You're filthy. Don't cling to me."
I looked beyond the alley.
"Yasmelo! Darko's here! Come take him!"
A chorus of deep, metallic voices answered.
"Eek!"
Darko's eyes widened as though they would split from sheer terror and despair.
The flash in his eyes was rage forcing its way through the terror and despair.
"E-Eckkk! You devil! I'll curse you! May you be betrayed by the brat you raised and eaten alive!!!"
Crazed with rage, Darko hurled curses as he tore through the garbage pile and fled before the clan adventurers could rush in.
I threw the completely worn-out shoe that had been rolling around near my feet at the back of his head.
Thwack!
The shoe struck him in the back of the head and knocked him to the ground, and the clan adventurers ran past me and began stomping on Darko.
The leader of the pursuers stopped in front of me.
"Thank you for your help."
"I was thinking of killing him, but I handed him over alive. Deal with him properly instead of killing him."
"Yes, sir. We plan to send him to the mines and make him labor there for the rest of his life. He'll pay dearly for offending the noble. Thank you for giving us this opportunity."
The clan had grown by trading on the noble's name, so they would work Darko until the noble's anger subsided.
If they killed him, the noble would take his anger out on the clan, but keeping Darko alive and making him suffer would appease the noble.
Cruelty.
Nobles never forgave anyone who sullied their name.
Only those who had experienced it could understand how relentless a noble became once freed from the restraints of propriety.
"Kgh... S-save me... Cough!"
"You bastard! After defiling my daughter! Don't expect an easy death!"
"You must've groped Jeina's ass every day, huh?! Just fucking die!"
That was the last time I ever saw Darko.
I turned and headed back toward Bordeau's forge.
***
I entrusted the refinement of the red timber to the old alchemist.
Having more or less finished my preparations before the Red Moon rose, I returned to the guild, sank into my assigned seat, and drank the liquor Jeina served me.
Of everything I had to do today, only welcoming Elena home remained.
"Eck, is lunch the usual?"
As always, I accepted the usual lunch and liquor from Jeina when I arrived at the guild.
The orc shaman should have been defeated by now.
At Elena's current level, the orc shaman was no match for her. The ogre-leather light armor's magic resistance could easily block an orc shaman's magic, after all.
The problem was her party members.
There was no way those guys could have avoided the orc shaman's aphrodisiac spores.
'The answer is to use Mira.'
After satisfying Mira first and getting her into a state where she could move, I could have her, under the aphrodisiac's influence, take care of the other two.
But when people panicked, even an obvious answer became hard to see.
I tilted my glass.
Gulp, gulp.
"Gugh..."
My head began to throb.
I was already getting drunk after barely one glass.
In any case, if Elena had heeded my advice, she'd still be a virgin. If not, she'd probably use her body to save her party members.
'I'd be disappointed if that happened.'
If Elena lost her virginity, I would have no reason to hold back. I could simply redesign her growth path around using her body.
In truth, that would be much easier and simpler.
A year was too long. I could get her to S-rank within three months and still have time to spare.
To be honest, as a man, I wanted Elena to give up her virginity of her own accord.
My ultimate purpose in interfering with Elena was survival, after all. She had to grow stronger for me—and everyone else—to survive.
And yet, I rejected the easy, fast route because...
'That was...'
Just then, the guild door creaked open.
At the edge of my vision, Elena came rushing over, panting, and said,
"M-Mister, what should I do?"
"What happened?"
"W-well..."
Elena explained the situation, her face pale.
"Hans and Duke... have become women."
For a moment, I tilted my head, wondering whether I'd heard her correctly.
"What?"
"I said Hans and Duke became women! T-their... private parts burst, so I-I showed them to a priest, but after he fixed them..."
Ah, so that's how it happened.
I understood the situation.