Chapter 5 (2/2)
Well, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
I’ve gotten a bit off track, but anyway, even for adventurers, the past is a touchy thing.
What was even more wretched, or should I say the worst of the worst, was the past of a slave. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine how miserable it must be.
That wasn’t a story I wanted to hear.
“Delicious!”
At sundown, we sat around the bonfire, spitting and roasting Palmira’s mushrooms before eating them.
Perhaps out of extreme hunger, Aira devoured them greedily with tears in her eyes. The least useful among us, but that’s normal, I thought, and I let it pa.s.s.
Some of the mushrooms looked poisonous, but they sure were tasty.
“You’re amazing.”
When I honestly told Palmira what I thought, with her own cheeks stuffed full of mushrooms, she struck a triumphant pose.
She was a weird one, but good to have around, really.
–
–
“…that’s the plan, anyway.”
After the meal, with our bellies full for the first time in a long while, I told the others about my plans from here on. I didn’t know how things would turn out in the immediate future, but it would be a good idea to talk about what we were going to do once we arrived in Telaberan.
In short, I was going to become an adventurer.
So I asked the other two about their plans.
“If you guys have somewhere to go back to, you should. Well, even in that case, if you don’t have any acquaintances in Telaberan, you’ll still have to do something to earn money for travel expenses.”
For example, prost.i.tution.
Though I didn’t say it.
Palmira was too skinny and too small, but if it were Aira, she’d probably be able to manage it that very day. It was a shame that she wasn’t of much use at present, but she at least had a good face and figure.
But prost.i.tution is a harsh line of work. Just like adventuring, it’s the destination for women who weren’t able to become anything else. Of course, unlike slavery, it’s a legal existence, there’s no high or low in work, but if you didn’t particularly desire to, there was no need to go out of your way to become one.1
“For now, Aira, look for a position as a barmaid.”
Something like that would work as a compromise, right?
Aira [hmmm]’d, looking troubled. Well, there was still time, so it was fine if she was hesitant.
“Palmira…”
“I’ll become an adventurer too.”
An immediate reply.
To be honest, I was worried about what to do with Palmira.
She was skinny, with an unfriendly glint in her eye, but you could say that she was a beautiful girl in her own way. I thought about finding her a job waiting tables, like Aira, but it might be pretty difficult to find work for two.
“Um, but, being an adventurer is…”
While I struggled with how to break it t her, Palmira turned and extended her hand to me.
“Knife.”
“Ah, yeah.”
I didn’t know why, but under the weight of her gaze, I obediently handed her the knife. She squeezed it several times and hefted it in her palm as if testing its weight. Then, picking up the wooden branch at her feet that she’d just used to roast mushrooms, she stood and moved a few steps away from the bonfire.
A wooden stick in her right hand, the knife in her left. She had the knife in an underhand grip.
“Ha–!”
Then, suddenly, she began to swing the wooden stick and the knife.
At first slowly, then gradually speeding up, the wooden stick, the knife, slashed through the empty air with increasing sharpness.
In front of an astounded Aira and me, at the end she grandly held her weapons aloft, and, drawing both along with her into a turn, she delivered a spinning kick to the air.
“How was that?”
She took a breath, her face devoid of expression.
I was a bit bewildered. That was a spectacle I would never have imagined.
It was unmistakably a combat technique backed by some kind of experience. At the moment, she was probably stronger than me.
It was quite possible that even back there, had there been one or two goblins, she could have pushed them back as long as she had a weapon.
What a weird girl, I thought, but that was as far as I got.
I’d become extremely interested in her background, but at the very brink, I pulled back.
She had her eyes fixed on me.
“…I got it. Then you’ll be an adventurer, Palmira…Well, I look forward to working with you.”
“Likewise. I’ve decided to accompany you, Chris. So we’ll go together.”
Tossing the stick into the bonfire, she sat back down.
“I — I — I want to be an adventurer too…”
Aira hastily piped up. No doubt that display confused her more than me. I sighed and asked, tentatively,
“Aira, do you also have… for example, are you a mage or something like that?”
“Eh? Eh, ehh–……no…”
With that one word, her confusion dissipated, and she hung her head in dejection.
Well, that’s how it is, I thought to myself.
“But, if someone as small as Palmira can be an adventurer… then I…”
Aira persisted, her voice small and subdued.
Big or small didn’t really have anything to do with it, but there was certainly some truth to it. In practice, even among adventurers, there weren’t any children this young. Besides, whether the guild would accept her registration was doubtful.
If I remembered correctly, right now there should be an age restriction.
“I’ll say this once,”
Palmira responded.
And her next words shocked me. Probably Aira too.
“I’m twenty years old.”
We both went rigid.
Once again, we looked at Palmira.
Whatever the angle, she still only looked about thirteen, maybe fourteen. Take away the evil look in her eyes and her lack of expression, and no matter how I looked at her, she had the features of a child.
Her build didn’t look like it belonged to a twenty year old either.
Ask a hundred people and they’d all say the same.
Perhaps noticing our gazes, Palmira looked a bit huffy.
“B–…”
From the side, Aira squeezed out the words in a faint voice.
“…Big Sister?”
“Stop.”
Palmira shut her down right on the spot.
Footnotes
1. Am I reading this right? もちろん奴隷と違って合法的な存在ではあるし、職業に貴賎はないが、別に望まないのであればわざわざそうなる必要は無いだろう ↵
<script>