Chapter 26
#26 Newbie Adventurer Bern (24) - Two Connections
The lich's lair was located in the northern region when the Kingdom of Virka was divided into nine regions.
While adventurers from the northern branch served as a sort of advance team, taking stock of the surrounding situation, carriages carrying adventurers departed from the western, northwestern, central, northeastern, and eastern branches.
The three southern branches didn't take part in this operation, because the distance was too great and waiting to move until after they joined up would give the lich far too much time to prepare. They were tasked with filling the gap left by the many experts pulled away from the other branches.
The convoy departing from the eastern branch included a total of five parties: two rank-4 parties and three rank-3 parties.
And among them were a few familiar faces connected to Bern's group.
“Hahaha! I was kind of disappointed we parted last time without even properly greeting each other!”
Alseus Bertrea.
The rare rank-4 adventurer Bern had gotten acquainted with in Frensia spoke to Bern in a friendly tone.
“I'm sorry. Back then, the situation was so urgent and there wasn't any information, so I didn't even have the presence of mind to greet you.”
At Bern's apology, Alseus shrugged.
“Well, there's no need to apologize. We came out to help after a long time, and it's true it ended in a rush before we could really do anything, which was a little absurd… Still, the incident got solved, and the victims came back, didn't they? I think that's enough.”
“It's not completely over yet. Only when we rescue the remaining victims can we say it's truly over.”
“Hmm, that's true enough.”
Alseus absently stroked his beard, then asked in a quiet voice.
“By the way, did that kidnapper confess anything else? Like the lich's weakness, or information about the magic it uses?”
Bern looked at Alseus silently.
Taking the silence that way, Alseus lowered his voice as if checking the people around him.
“It's a little awkward to say this myself, but because your party wrapped things up far too quickly, our party's position has become somewhat awkward. Everyone we meet these days keeps comparing us, and the team members are more dissatisfied than I can say.”
Bern turned his head and looked at the group resting around a campfire some distance away from Bern's party.
At first glance, they looked like ordinary comrades chatting, but on closer inspection you could feel them shooting sharp sidelong glances toward Bern's side.
Alseus bowed his head almost pleadingly.
“This request is a huge one that's drawing the eyes of the entire guild. If we can show enough of our strength this time, even the guys who doubted or mocked us will all shut their mouths. We'll be sure to repay you, so can't you do something?”
Bern was silent for a moment, then let out a small laugh and said.
“How much can you offer?”
Alseus's eyes lit up.
“So there really is some useful information?”
“That question's answer will depend on the compensation.”
“Oh? This guy. You're more money-minded than I thought?”
“Is there any adventurer who doesn't like money?”
“Well, no, but you, in both looks and attitude, somehow give off the impression of being above money.”
“That's a misunderstanding. I like money.”
“Hmm.”
After hesitating for a moment, Alseus took a coin pouch from the bag at his waist and held it out in one go.
Seeing the weight of it and the dazzling gold visible through the opening, Bern said.
“You're generous.”
“When you have a reputation, money follows; when reputation falls, money gets lost with it too. That's how the adventurer trade is. You should think of this as an investment too.”
Bern took the coin pouch and lowered his voice.
“If you happen to run into the lich's disciples in the dungeon, be careful of the black orb they carry.”
“An orb?”
“About this size, and the color looks exactly like a lump of oil gathered together.”
As Bern described the orb in detail, even using his hands to show its shape, Alseus's eyes gleamed.
“Go on.”
“I was in the middle of interrogating the culprit when the orb he had been carrying suddenly turned into a blade and pierced him. We used healing magic and forced a few words out of him, but we couldn't get any detailed information. If we'd been unlucky, we might not even have known the lich was behind it.”
“Then he died—what about the one executed in the lord's territory?”
“We made a deal with the lord. In exchange for extra payment, the culprit asked to have it treated as if they'd done the punishment themselves. They probably executed some suitable prisoner in his place.”
“Hmm. I see. That is certainly something that lord would do. Any other information?”
“Other than that, it was only the location of the guy's temporary hideout. We'd already rescued the victims who were there, so it's not useful for anything else.”
Alseus nodded.
“Got it. I'll be careful about that orb. Does anyone else know this information?”
“Unfortunately, I haven't had another customer as generous as you yet.”
“Hahaha! I see now, you're a total merchant after all! Fine, I'll trust you.”
Alseus laughed heartily and headed over to his companions.
Bern watched his back for a moment, then returned to his own carriage.
The demon in the shadows asked.
“[What are you plotting?]”
Bern changed the subject.
‘People are easiest to fool when they think they're the ones doing the fooling. I need to be careful too.’
***
At the same time.
Blanca thought to herself.
This is so awkward.
“Th-th, I'm sorry about last time. I think I went too far….”
At the sight of her former teammate mumbling the last part in a nearly inaudible voice, Blanca spoke in a voice so cold it seemed to freeze the air.
“Karina. Stop doing things that don't suit you.”
Karina's whole body trembled violently.
Even so, she couldn't bring herself to leave and just kept fidgeting, which was far too unlike the proud, haughty mage Blanca remembered.
Blanca let out a sigh.
She knew why Karina's attitude had suddenly changed.
‘The situation really had been bad in several ways lately.’
Karina's party was a five-person party made up of two warriors, one thief, and two mages.
But she'd heard that two of them, after attempting to assassinate Bern and being utterly crushed, had left the party and retired altogether.
Adventurers basically spend a great deal of time and effort learning to work together as a party, so if some members leave, the fighting strength drops sharply.
Much less when one of the remaining members, the bearded warrior, moved sluggishly and focused on tanking rather than attacking, and the healing mage had originally fallen short of rank 3, having been recruited solely for an aptitude for healing spells as Blanca's replacement.
No matter how outstanding Karina's skills were, it would actually be strange if the party could function properly in this situation.
And saying, “Then just recruit new members,” didn't solve the problem, because Karina's party reputation had sunk so low.
A rank-3 party that had five people gang up on one rank-2 adventurer and still couldn't even leave a scratch before being overwhelmed.
Blanca knew Bern was a monster, but to outsiders who didn't know the details, it was inevitable they'd think, “Isn't that party actually nothing special?”
For those languishing at the very bottom of rank 2, maybe not, but for rank-3 adventurers or those with the potential to advance to rank 3, it had become a party with no appeal.
Their party strength had weakened, the stares around them had grown harsher, and there was no sign of improvement.
What's more, the person she'd once held a grudge against had risen to a higher rank than her in the blink of an eye and was thriving.
If Blanca, in this situation, remembered that old grudge and tried to retaliate?
Even if Blanca didn't step in herself, what if strong people who didn't want to make an enemy of Blanca kept excluding Karina's party?
“Hmm.”
Blanca folded her arms and stared at Karina, then at the bearded warrior and healing mage behind her, who both wore similarly awkward expressions.
The healing mage jumped in alarm and looked away, while the bearded warrior hung his head deeply as if ashamed.
Nearby, Renya flew into a rage and shouted.
“No, look at these shameless people! Lady Blanca! There is no need to listen to any more of this!”
“I-I won't do it again! Back then I really thought I was something, so I did it! Just once, please, just once, forgive me…!”
“If you were going to apologize, you should've done it long ago. You've been hiding out all this time, and now that Lady Blanca is doing well and your own situation is dire, what kind of mentality is that?!”
“That….”
Under Renya's repeated criticism, Karina could only blush and fail to offer a proper rebuttal.
Blanca let out a dry laugh.
A rank-4 mage, honestly, could enter some territory and, if they became its exclusive mage, be treated better than most knights.
Would someone with that level of skill really be treated like this very often?
Was she unable to bring herself to leave the adventuring world she'd lived in all this time and settle somewhere else, or had she been cornered so badly lately that she didn't even have room to think of that? Or perhaps—though unlikely—it was a leader's sense of responsibility, making her unable to abandon the other party members and slip away alone.
If it were Bern, what would he say in this situation?
After thinking for a moment, Blanca smiled.
-Blanca, do whatever you want. That's what an adventurer is, isn't it?
Without even hearing him directly, Blanca opened her mouth, letting the words spill out so vividly it felt as if they were replaying in her ears.
“Karina. I'm going to ask you one thing, so answer honestly. If you try to dodge it or lie, I really don't know what'll happen then, so keep that in mind.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Why did you treat me like such an eyesore?”
Karina hesitated to answer, but perhaps the earlier intimidation had worked, because she soon squeezed her eyes shut and muttered.
“…I was jealous.”
“Huh?”
“I was jealous!! I was sold off for a few coins and almost left to rot in a brothel until I died, then I had to sell my body and flatter mage customers just to get a single low-level spell as charity and become a mage. Meanwhile, you were taught step by step by your mother! You even carry a wand most nobles can't easily get their hands on, and you cast this spell and that spell like they're nothing!”
Blanca instinctively looked around and was relieved to find that no one else had overheard.
Even if that hadn't been her intention, if that story had spread because of Blanca's own pressure, it would have been incredibly awkward.
“No….”
Blanca almost blurted out that if she'd had such circumstances, she should've said so earlier, but then shut her mouth.
Because it wasn't the kind of thing you could easily bring yourself to say unless you were cornered like this and had no choice, and she also remembered that she herself had never been interested in her former party members' personal lives in the first place.
Back then, after all, Blanca had only seen her party members as the force needed to rescue her mother.
Blanca wore a complicated expression for a moment, then said to Karina.
“That's enough.”
“What?”
“I've accepted your apology, and I won't make a fuss about the old incident. I won't retaliate, so stop shrinking back for no reason.”
Karina's tearful face lit up.
She looked back and forth between Blanca's face and the faces of the other companions behind her, then bowed to Blanca several times before leaving.
“Lady Blanca, you're truly magnanimous. Even knowing your circumstances—how you were working hard to rescue your mother—she was jealous and behaved so badly, wasn't she?”
“Well.”
Blanca couldn't even imagine what Karina, who'd said she'd been sold off by her parents for a few coins, must have thought after hearing about Blanca's mother, who'd devoted herself to protecting her child until the very end.
Honestly, she didn't really want to imagine it either. It wasn't like this was some contest to see who had suffered more.
Well, rather than just cowering, she'd probably be able to do more against the lich if she relaxed and ran wild. That was enough.
Even if the party's balance had become somewhat unstable, Karina's ice magic itself was quite useful in group battles.
And in this request, where they were cooperating with another party, the missing member's gap could be minimized.
Blanca kept muttering, almost as if making excuses, that this was all for the sake of strengthening their combat power, even though nobody had said anything.
***
And then, some time later.
At the entrance to the lich's dungeon.
A middle-aged man radiating a murderous aura from head to toe opened his mouth solemnly.
─Since it seems everyone has gathered, let's begin the operation.