Chapter 3
“Welcome to the Esras Mercenary Corps.”
With those words, Ren slips a wing into the long door handle, which is shaped differently from the entrance handle, bends it, and opens the door.
“Captain, we have guests.”
Huey and Luciela enter the room, following Ren's gesture for them to come along.
There, a middle-aged man was sprawled across a desk piled high with all kinds of documents.
The man had pale-purple hair swept back and a rough, unkempt beard. He irritably opened his mouth, his pale-purple eyes dulled by fatigue and surrounded by dark circles.
“…Guests?”
“Yeah. And let's replace the first-floor doorknob with one of these, too. Give it a little longer and the door itself'll break.”
“You broke it, so replace it with your own money.”
“Jeez, you're so stingy. Seriously.”
Soon, after roughly clearing away the documents piled on the desk, the man rubbed his eyes and looked at Huey and Luciela, who were standing by the door.
“Pardon me.”
Only after taking in the sight of the two did the man seem to come to his senses. He dusted off his clothes and rose from his seat.
“I'm Viole, captain of the Esras Mercenary Corps.”
“Please call me Huey. And this is….”
“…Luciela.”
“Let's sit down and talk, shall we?”
Viole moved to the sofa prepared for receiving guests in the office and invited them to sit across from him.
“What brings you here?”
“I suppose Mari introduced you.”
“…If you're done showing them in, get out.”
“Aw, why are you being like that again?”
“Stingy? Stiiingyyy?”
Viole lightly tapped the head of Ren, who had naturally sat beside him and tried to join in. At Ren's words, he spoke with a vein bulging on his forehead, as if he found them utterly absurd.
“Do you have any idea how many clients have run away because of you?”
“That can happen when you're doing the job. Don't be so petty.”
“Graaah!!”
“You'll make my eardrums burst, you old man.”
Huey and Luciela could hear it.
The sound of something inside Viole's head snapping with a distinct crack.
-Squeeze.
“Gack!”
“…Do you know who I'm working myself sleepless at night for?”
Viole soon grabbed Ren's head tightly with one hand and lifted Ren up.
“Gaaah! Sorry! I said I'm sorry!! J-just put me down, okay!?”
Seeing Ren struggle with their feet dangling above the floor in Viole's grasp, Huey shouted in alarm.
“E-excuse me!”
“Ah, my apologies. Please wait just a moment. I'll deal with this troublemaker in no time.”
“Help! Helpppp!!”
“If I tell you to get out, then get oooooout!!”
Immediately afterward, Ren was thrown out through the wide-open window.
“Damn captain―!! Just you wait―!!”
“Ha! I've never seen anyone scary among those who say ‘Just you wait’! Finish cleaning, you brat!”
Was this perhaps an everyday occurrence?
Huey was flustered by the sight of neither the person doing the throwing nor the person being thrown seeming to care whether anyone got hurt.
“My apologies. Ren is terribly noisy when around.”
Viole sat down again as though nothing had happened moments ago.
Huey and Luciela wore utterly dumbfounded expressions.
“For now, why don't we talk over a cup of tea?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Apparently fond of tea, Viole picked up the teapot prepared on the table, poured tea into cups, and handed them to the two.
“Anyway, Mari introduced you?”
At Viole's words, Huey recalled the lively-looking receptionist with brown braided hair and green eyes.
“I didn't catch her name, but if you mean the receptionist at the adventurer's guild in the village down there… Here's the letter of introduction.”
Viole accepted the letter Huey handed him, opened it, and skimmed it while stroking his chin.
“Hmm, information… Would you mind telling me a little more about it?”
“I'm looking for a way to travel to another world.”
“…Pardon? Could you repeat that?”
At Huey's words, Viole asked again, doubting his own ears in case he had misheard something.
“I'm looking for a way to get to a world other than this one.”
The answer he received was exactly the same.
Ignoring Luciela, who took a sip of tea beside him and grimaced as though she had no interest in the conversation, Huey began to explain.
“I'm not from this world.”
With an utterly melancholy expression, Huey recalled the events of his past.
It had been the day he finished his tedious military service and was discharged.
“Five years ago, I was suddenly transported to this world.”
The moment he stepped outside the military base after reporting his discharge, his world changed.
From the otherworld of the military to the world he was in now.
Recalling the memory of that hollow moment,
“Fortunately, I landed somewhere people spoke a language I could understand. If I hadn't, I don't know what would have happened….”
Immediately after falling into this world, he had nearly died, but kind people took him in and he barely managed to survive.
And it had taken him four years to learn how to live in this world.
After starting his adventures and spending another year on the road, five years had passed before he knew it, but Huey's goal remained unchanged.
It was.
“My goal is to return to the original world I came from.”
To return home, no matter how long it took.
If only for the sake of the family who must be worrying about him.
“…An otherworlder.”
After Huey finished his story,
Viole recalled what he knew about otherworlders.
“They do turn up from time to time. Though they're hardly common.”
That was likely why Huey had revealed that he was an otherworlder.
“The best-known method involves adapting summoning magic, but I suppose we can rule that out in this case.”
For one thing,
“Hero summoning is something that exists only in legends.”
It was a method said to have been used thousands of years ago, passed down only through legend.
These days, they not only no longer knew how to perform it….
“Besides, this generation's hero is active and well, so it probably has nothing to do with hero summoning. Which means we'll have to find another method….”
Viole stopped speaking and tapped his head with a finger.
“For now, I'm afraid I don't have any other ideas.”
“…I suppose not.”
Since it was something he had already experienced many times,
Huey, too, was about to rise from his seat with a disappointed expression.
“But I'd like to propose a deal.”
“Pardon?”
“Our mercenary corps may be small, but our skills are unquestionable.”
As Huey listened to Viole, he decided not to point out that saying so himself made the claim less convincing.
“What the heck, let's look into it. A way for you to return to your original world.”
Viole spoke of how vast the world was, and how many ruins, treasures, and mysteries lay sleeping within it.
“If there's a way to come here, there must be a way to leave.”
He added that matters like this usually turned up something when one searched through ancient ruins.
Viole opened his mouth with a broad grin.
“If we come across anything that gives us a clue, I'll pass the information on to you.”
Of course, he did not forget to add that all he was offering was information, and that using it to take action was Huey's responsibility.
And Huey's reaction to Viole's proposal was….
“Why?”
He rose and asked guardedly, making no attempt to hide his suspicion.
He wanted to know why Viole was showing such kindness to someone he had met for the first time today.
“Master. We're not finished yet.”
“Hear him out to the end. Didn't he say it was a deal?”
At Huey's sudden movement, Luciela tugged on his clothes and made him sit back down, while
Viole, who had been about to take a sip of tea because his throat was dry, continued speaking as though he had suddenly become the suspicious one.
“Ren! Come in here.”
Viole called out toward the door.
-Creeeak.
“You kicked me out, and now you're telling me to come in?”
The door opened, and Ren entered with their lips stuck out in a pout.
“Was eavesdropping fun?”
“It was pretty fun.”
“Good for you. Seriously.”
-Flick!
“Gack!”
After flicking Ren on the forehead for proudly admitting that they had eavesdropped, Viole made Ren sit beside him.
“The price for providing the information is Ren.”
“What?”
“What the hell are you talking about this time… Ow!”
“Quiet.”
Viole tightly grabbed Ren's head with one hand and spoke once more.
“Take Ren along with you on your travels. In return, we'll pass along any information we uncover to Ren.”
“But….”
“The truth is, Ren used to be an ordinary… well, not exactly, but anyway, Ren was human.”
“What!?”
“Oh?”
Luciela, too, seemed to take an interest in the story and began looking at Ren with curiosity.
“Ren touched the wrong artifact while exploring some ruins and ended up like this, so Ren's been a real headache.”
“That can happen?”
“Anyway, we're also looking for a way to restore Ren to normal whenever we have the time, but….”
Viole sighed, saying they had not made much progress, then continued while patting Ren's head.
“Well, I thought looking for a way to cross into another world might broaden our horizons a little.”
In other words, in exchange for looking into ways to travel to another world, he wanted them to take Ren along and cooperate in finding a way to restore Ren's original body.
“If that's all, then sure… Lucy, what do you think?”
“You were planning to take Ren along even if I said no.”
At Luciela's complaining reply, Huey awkwardly scratched his head and spoke.
“We'll accept Mr. Viole's proposal.”
“That's a relief.”
Viole rose from his seat and moved to his work desk.
As he quickly drew up the contract, Ren approached and whispered quietly so Huey and Luciela could not hear.
“Captain. I'm really going with them?”
“Yes.”
“I mean, not to brag, but I'm insanely weak right now.”
“That's true.”
“What if they have ulterior motives?”
“Then use your judgment and run away. You can still manage that much, can't you?”
“Ugh.”
But if you run away over something trivial, you'd better be ready.
While Ren made a face as though they had bitten into a bug at Viole's unyielding attitude,
Viole approached Huey with the contract, completed in an instant.
“Here's the contract.”
“Just a moment.”
Huey carefully read through the contract Viole handed him to make sure there were no problematic clauses, then nodded and signed it.
“Here you are.”
Viole accepted the signed contract from Huey, put it away, and spoke with a smile.
“Then I'll leave our Ren in your care.”
Luciela would later say: That smile was as refreshing as having a bad tooth finally pulled.