Chapter 108 (1/2)
After intervening in the quarrel with the drunk, the old man in the butler’s clothes became the center of attention.
As the amount of noise had only gotten louder and louder, the number of gathering onlookers increased alongside it, curious as to its origin.
There was nothing good about this.
「Wellll, what a strange coincidence.」
「I was thinking the same.」
I said to Shuria in a low voice, while we looked at the man ahead of us, that fat pig Grond’s trusted man, Fegner Leelit.
Fegner had a nice elderly smile upon his face, as he grabbed the drunk man’s outstretched hand.
(He really shows up at the worst time, sigh.)
Being in a situation like this, angry at the drunk, you couldn’t just let things be.
「…」
「…」
I checked with Shuria by looking at her, making sure we both silently watched what was about to happen.
「What the hell! Hey, old man, I don’t need you to be grabbin’ onto my hand! Hic! Lemme go! I wanna touch the woman, Hic!」
「Well, well, time to calm down. Drunkenness just separates us from our friends and family.」
「Who the hell cares about that!? Lemme go, old man!」
「Well, no choice left then.」
「Wha? Owww, owwww, OWWWWWW!」
His deeply wrinkled thin arms started to force the man as the drunk man’s arms began to creak.
The inarticulate drunk suddenly sobered up a bit to a lightly drunk face and began to flail around to push the old man’s arm away.
「Let me go! I said let me go! Whaa?」
However, no matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t push the old man’s arm away. But after a while, Fegner let him free.
The drunk, now with his arm suddenly released, strongly fell to the ground.
What do you say to a thing like this…
Oh, I remember. Heh heh, serves him right.
「Have you sobered up a bit?」
「B…bastard…」
With Fegner being this cool about the whole situation, the drunk’s anger flared up in reaction.
「Everyone’s mockin’ me! I’m gonna kill you!」
The shock of his ass hitting the ground did sober him up, and you could see that he now had gone from a dirty drunk to someone with a bit of composure.
I can’t say that his now regained self-control made his anger suddenly leave him, but with things quickly getting out of hand, I then saw him grab for the sword at his belt.
「Take thissssssss!」
「Oh, well then.」
Fegner calmly breathed out and watched the wild man.
(he, he’s fast)
Only a few people there could even see what happened next.
Fegner had a long sword hanging from his waist and, within an instant, had it out and around in unreal speed.
「Too slow.」
Clink, the sound of metal knocking metal away, as the high pitched sound reverberated only for an instant.
What was left was Fegner slowly replacing his sword back into its scabbard.
「Huh? Wha?」
Half cut off and spinning in the sky was the top part of the drunk’s blade as he stood here clutching the other half of the broken sword, his face devolving into cowardice.
「Wha, wha, wha…」
He couldn’t understand what had happened as he looked for the rest of the sword as if he had a hole in his hand, with his face looking now completely sober.
The ruddy drunken complexion he had was now stark pale, and his mouth fluttered together as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
「It seems you’re sober now.」
「Ah…sorry…」
As he finally understood his situation, the apologetic drunk now seemed to have an expression one makes when pleading for his life.
「No, no, everyone makes mistakes.」
The old man said, with no visible intention to slash at him again.
With this figure of false benevolence, my anger at Fegner seemed to grow even more.
「It seems your sword has been damaged, I apologize. Would you like money for a replacement?」
「Huh? Um…」
Fegner took one gold coin from his bag.
The formerly drunk man couldn’t hide his confusion as to what to do with this money.
There was no way that replacement money in this fashion would be something normal, and the amount itself was weird.
The sword the former drunk was using wasn’t expensive at all, and it was clear that a gold coin was far too much.
「Well, now you can go back to your lodging. And then, you must promise me that you be careful about how much alcohol you consume.」
「Oh, yeah…」
The onlookers opened a path, and the disconcerted man scratched his head and walked away from the place.
With him doing this, the onlookers gathered around simply followed and disappeared.
「…」
…I really don’t like him.
That pointless scene, even if a drunk was going to touch my butt, was simply to showcase the butler’s own sense of superiority, and the onlookers gazing away at the whole spectacle simply reinforced that feeling.
And, even more than that:
「I hope you were not injured, misses. It seemed that you were in trouble, so I apologize for butting in.」
Without ulterior motives, the man seemed happy at this good deed he had done for us.
Actions like this from Fegner made me a bit confused as what to do.
「…yeah, he wouldn’t stop messing with us.」
I noticed that I had spit out a generic response to him.
I should have just left without a word as that was the best, but I wouldn’t let myself do so.
「That’s too bad. I think that he will cease in attempting to bother you again though. Why don’t you simply forgive him?」
「I wasn’t going to kill him or anything.」
「But you were going to cut off his arm, correct?」
「Is there a problem with that?」
「Yes, I happen to not like the sight of blood.」
「…」
This old man, with his persistent expression and laughing eyes, rubbed me the wrong way even more now.
I hate, hate, hate this guy!
「Why did you even butt in, in the first place, you…」
「Minnalis!」
I heard Shuria say in a small voice as she tugged at the sleeve of my maid outfit.
「Oh, right…well then…」
We spun and tried to walk away.
「Wait a second please! If I’ve been insolent or you are in trouble, lets talk it out.」
However, I stomached my emotions and though I was about to walk away, stopped.
「You two are still so young! There’s no need to be touchy, as this world can be a wonderful place to live in!」
「…this world…wonderful!?」
After hearing his words behind me, I murmured out that question.
「Yes, not everything in the world is like that even. I don’t know what has happened, but instead of being angry and holding a grudge against this world, why not live a little lighter, and you can find happiness?!」
「Yes, the world truly is wonderful.」
A world where you don’t have to doubt anyone.
A world like fragile glass, made beautiful on the surface that you continually have to save from breaking.
Until now, I too lived in a world like that.
「…」
I turned my body to him once more for the last time.
I kept my feelings to myself and tried to look expressionless, but it ended in a silent smile.
「My name is Minnalis. Please remember my name.」