Chapter 30 (1/2)
“…–!”
We were just about to get to the heart of theinside me, I shot him a venomous look
What little reed to suppress my desire to lay into him
Guildmaster
That hat the man called himself
Slowly lifting his head froed, in his forties But with that height, that build, and above all, those eyes, he gave off a strong feeling of vigor
He wasn’t doing a thing, but under his pressure, I gritdown atto force me into submission
The closer the hostility I detected froe
“…Master”
In the , the clerk’s voice echoed, disproportionately icy
“I believe I said it before, but please refrain fro] the clients”
At the sound of her voice, the e had disappeared, the strength I’d built up flowed out of e in mood threw me off a bit
Thelow over his eyes, the hard expression underneath softening into a broad grin
“My bad, Miss Patsy, my bad It was an accident, okay?”
…Where did it go, thata cohty, the man lowered his head to the clerk like he felt embarrassed and remorseful
What the hell is with this guy?
His incomprehensible behavior only deepened my confusion
Paluard up and her hand on the sword by her side, also seemed to be exhausted She removed her hand Aira, her expression confused, was still helplessly collapsed on the floor
“Might I ask that you put an end to your irresponsible antics? Any more than this, our clientele will dwindle, and I will be out of a job”
“Uh, I’m sorry, I really am I’ll do a proper welcome next”
“I would rather that you did nothing at all It is an incessant annoyance”
The big ized to the clerk coolly repri him Not a hint of that earlier atmosphere remained; the scene only made me feel even more drained
What the hell is going on here?
“Oh yeah, I apologize to you guys too Ah, uhm, ahem Welcome! Welcome to the Brellwandy Adventurers’ Guild! I am — ”
“…Guildht?”
Maybe because of the clerk’s scolding, Arcteur started a do-over of his self-introduction — this tierated enthusiasid voice
“…If possible, call me Arc”
The man, bent at the waist, pulled his hood back up Then, his face co smile, he shamelessly dropped that line
Even if he was suddenly all friendly, I orried about responding There was that huge gap between his first appearance and now, for one And precisely because I knew of his position as Guildmaster, I couldn’t help but sweat over how I should reply
“My sincere apologies As you can see, few people couild Due to the overabundance of free tie pranks like this”
Bowing her head to us, the clerk, Miss Patsy, offered an especially blunt explanation to clear up our bewilderment
Judging frohtly tired expression, she was used to it
“It’s impolite to call it a prank, Miss Patsy When I see such pro adventurers, I simply want to tri… I mean, cheer them on”
Letting slip his true intentions the ed to a formal tone — why, I don’t know — the furrows in Miss Patsy’s brow, and ours, deepened She put her hand against her forehead and let out a h
I can honestly say that this Guildmaster is a real pain in the ass
Maybe it was irresponsible of me to say, since it wasn’t my job to deal with him, but I wished Miss Patsy the best
“For goodness’ sake It isn’t as though the guild has the funds to support such frivolous use of the invocation stones”
Disgruntled, Miss Patsy said so I couldn’t just overlook
“…Invocation stones?”
Her attention caught by the words, just like me, Palmira tilted her head
“You’re — a, a ic-user…?”
I goggled at the person before me in disbelief
Sure, those hooded robes could belong to a textbooksimilar
But with his superior build, his i long robe, his heavily muscled physique was obvious
If one word could describe the air around hi’
To be blunt, it see an axe around topless
“The i in the empire”
I could read the disappointment in Miss Patsy’s barely audible words of praise
“A us, huh”
“Surprising, isn’t it?”
I looked at the proud Guildmaster with an indescribable expression
I couldn’t say how, but the man reached the position of Guild military service Primarily in melee combat
I felt like all ue suppositions had been betrayed
Irene, sure; Guildus?
“About the frivolous use of invocation stones — do you ic, just now?”
Aira said so unexpectedly sharp When you put it that way, it sure looked like it
“Yeah, that was [Coercion]”
“[Coercion]?”
“The first of the attuneic that combines the two”
I almost missed the information the Guildmaster so readily revealed, but couldn’t this be a relatively fundaic?
What’s ht, the [Six Attunements]
The tords that, in that dream, were a mystery to [me]
“…Guildic?”
I asked hesitantly
Magic, the e part of et him to teach me
But even so, I wanted to know about ic ‘Attune an eye And then, ic
If I could understand theht solve the mystery of this body
Plus, Irene wasn’t around This was a chance to understand the systeers
“Mm, ahhh, okay I want you to call me Arc from here on”
And whaddaya know, as though what people call hireed with disappointing ease
–
–
“Okay, how about we start with the Six Attunements? Know them?”
“Uh, I don’t”
I honestly shook my head
Thankfully eren’t going to start with ‘What ispoould end the lesson right then and there
“Okay, the Six Attune respectively to light, fire, wind, water, earth, and darkness These are connected to the co the [attuned power] that we also call the ‘source’ Uo into detail, so let’s just say that, generally speaking, it’s the [power of existence]”
Arc was probably explaining things in an insanely simplified way, but even at this level, it already took everything I had to keep up
Uic is based on those six forces… I think
“This power is everywhere For example, when you breathe out, there’s wind It’s kinda like that Why was there wind? Because you breathed out This is a tremendous oversimplification, but when you follow such an ordinary phenoic”1
Besideout a small breath
When I turned my eyes to her unconsciously, she looked away in a huff She had an interest in ic? So cute
“But you must be able to understand the [power of existence] This is where things suddenly get difficult Ordinarily, we can’t grasp the mechanism of this [power] If you ask why, all I can say is that the human mind just isn’t wired that way But on rare occasions, there will be people gifted with an [intuitive understanding] Those are the i They have the ‘aptitude’ people often speak of”
For ic, aptitude was necessary
That I already knew It was coe — almost every adventurer knew about it
I didn’t get what it ] As Arc said, it couldn’t be fully explained
“Then, what are the Six Attunements?”
“The Six Attuneive form to this world Aptitude usually skeard one of these six Just because one is a rasp on all of them Most are suitable for about two Three or four would be quite a”
“You have — ?”
“Three”
While he was saying hoesome it was, Arc readily revealed he had three 2
But the way he was speaking just nohat about all six?
“Is it possible to have all six?”
“…Hmmm… I’ve only heard about that in ru around a few years back However, since it’s a truly a about it now suggests that it ht have been misinformation In the first place, not a soul had ever heard of having all six until then Even the legendary us Tetra had five”
Endoith all Six Attunements
The dream [me] said that
Then, what happened to her after that?
“The legendary us”
Suddenly, Palmira spoke up
Linking her hands together with a slight excitehten
To be honest, with s, I’d completely , it was the other way around
From her unusual interest, ends
“You want to know?”
Sed on interest
In response, Palmira looked at ave Arc a small nod
“The short version,”
said Palmira, perhaps out of consideration for me
“Hic At least two thousand years ago, before the advent of ic, it seems the world was full of monsters, and mankind led a dreadfully frail existence In a sense, that periodof human history”
The subject of his story was grander in scale than I thought
Now that was a hero I ‘ooh’ed in genuine admiration
“Then, what kind of power did Tetra have?”
Drawn in, Paled him to continue
She was surprisingly engaged It was really unexpected
Appearances aside, she see that inside she was a twenty-year-old woman In fact, Aira simply looked as stunned as me
Well, it was Palmira, so as a little quirkiness after all this time?
“That’s right Because even five is beyond the realination, it’s becoo I wonder if all that re open the heavens and shattering the earth”
Tearing open the heavens, shattering the earth
Suddenly, I looked at my oo hands
If that drea was the master of not five, but six Attunements In that case, was it possible that if I wanted, I could do the same?
I couldn’t i that unrealistic at all And I didn’t particularly want to, either
A power so absurdly strong —
“Do you want that kind of power?”
Taken aback by those words, I raised my face My eyes met Arc’s as he looked down at me
Do I want power?
While I struggled to get aze turned to Palmira
“I do Maybe”
Palht for a little bit before she opened her‘maybe’ to the end
“I don’t think I do It’s frightening”