Chapter 4: The Worst Reunion (4)

[4] 1. The Worst Reunion (4)

It was in a deserted hallway that Amy finally released Clara’s hand.

“What in the world was that about?”

Clara rubbed her reddened wrist irritably, glaring at Amy. Amy met her gaze with a cold stare and spoke,

“Is it true?”

“…What do you mean?”

Amy’s jaw was clenched so tightly that its outline was visible through her cheeks.

“I asked if it’s true that you were Rem’s lover.”

“…I had no idea the Hero enjoyed eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. And besides, what does that have to do with…”

Clara’s voice trailed off as she remembered the past.

The image of the hero vomiting at the sight of Rem.

Clara’s eyes widened in realization.

“Don’t tell me, Hero, you knew Rem…?”

“I asked the question first.”

Amy took a step closer to Clara.

“Were you Rem’s lover?”

This was the first time Clara had ever seen the hero this forceful.

A look of bewilderment spread across Clara’s face, and she stepped back.

“Yes, I was.”

But in the next instant, Clara stood tall, closing the distance she had just created between them.

Amy’s blazing gaze locked with Clara’s cold stare in midair.

“So what? Is there something wrong with that?”

“When, how, where.”

Her voice cracked as she spoke.

Clara retorted with a sharp look in her eyes,

“That’s personal. I don’t want to ans… ugh…!”

“Answer me.”

Amy’s strong hand grasped Clara’s shoulder. Clara winced, but the hero didn’t care.

Or rather, she seemed too desperate to care.

“When, how, where.”

Clara glared back at Amy, whose normally bright eyes were now wet.

Then, suddenly, she smirked and asked,

“Then why did *you* throw up when you saw Rem?”

“…!”

A crack appeared in Amy’s hardened gaze. Seizing the opportunity, Clara shook off her hand.

Straightening her clothes, she gave Amy a contemptuous look.

“You can’t answer my question either, can you, Hero?”

“I asked you a question…”

“Am I your servant?”

Unlike Amy, whose eyes were wavering, Clara’s gaze grew colder.

“Aren’t you the one who always emphasizes how we’re equals, Hero?”

“…”

“This is a private matter between Rem and me. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t pry any further.”

Then, Clara turned her back on Amy and said coldly,

“Now, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be going back to the patient. It seems he’s still suffering from aftereffects of his injuries.”

Amy’s eyes widened as she watched Clara walk away. They wavered anxiously as the distance between them grew.

Suddenly, she looked down at her hand, a wave of pain washing over her.

Perhaps because she had clenched her fist too tightly, blood was welling up from the wound her nails had dug into her palm.

And the blood flowed far too easily, escaping her grasp.

Despite all the calluses and scars.

“I apologize.”

Clara turned to Amy with a puzzled expression. Amy pulled out a bandage from her pocket and wrapped it around her hand, continuing,

“But I can’t help but pry.”

She finished tying the bandage and looked up.

With a steady gaze, she looked directly at Clara and said,

“If the person I promised to marry said they were seeing someone else.”

Now it was Clara’s turn to have her eyes waver.

***

When Clara returned to the room, she had a complicated expression on her face, for some reason.

She cast a simple healing spell on me and told me to rest well before leaving the room in a hurry.

It was obvious that her mind was elsewhere.

But I didn’t stop her. I was too lost in my thoughts as well.

Alone in the room with Feya…

I tried to clear my head by inspecting the spare prosthetic leg she had brought me.

“So, what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

I asked without looking at her. For some reason, Feya’s voice sounded a bit frantic.

“You know, that whole ‘lover’ thing with the saint.”

“She’s not a saint, she’s a would-be saint.”

“Same difference.”

“It’s not.”

I answered halfheartedly, trying out the new prosthetic leg.

Hmm… It’s a bit stiff…

Is there something wrong with the bearings in the knee joint…?

“Anyway!”

Feya slammed her hand on the desk. Only then did I look up at her. With a grumpy look on her face, she looked at me and asked again,

“How did you end up dating the saint?”

I gave her a pathetic look and replied,

“…Were you not listening when I said I lost my childhood memories…?”

“Ah, right.”

…Actually, for a brief moment, I had considered telling Feya the truth. We had known each other for a long time, after all.

But Feya was a notorious chatterbox and had no talent for keeping secrets.

I didn’t even want to imagine how messy things would get if Clara found out about my lie.

…Things already seemed pretty messy though.

A lover… How is she going to explain that away…?

Pushing down the oncoming headache, I said,

“And besides, if I was dating a cleric, I’d be working at a church by now, not eating dirt as a mercenary.”

“Ah, that’s true…”

“There must be some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe she mistook me for someone else.”

Please let that be the case.

Seriously.

Anyway, Feya nodded in agreement. And for some reason, she had a relieved look on her face.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. Our big bro dating a would-be saint…”

“…You’re making it sound like I’m way out of her league.”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”

Some truths pierce the heart like a heavy blow.

I could feel my composure cracking, so I just stared blankly at Feya, who had begun to chatter away.

“Birds of a feather flock together, you know. Clerics with clerics, mercenaries with mercenaries. That’s how you ensure a happy marriage… ow!”

Feya winced, clutching her head where I had just hit her.

“Why did you hit me…!”

“Just shut up and follow me. We’ve got work to do.”

I kicked off the bed and stood up.

“But that would-be saint told you to rest…”

“I know my own body better than she does.”

“And what are you planning to do…?”

“We need to find out why those bastards attacked us and who’s behind it.”

Necromancers are different from ordinary thieves. They aren’t motivated by mere material gain.

Plus, there’s the matter of the horse carcass that was placed there to block our path.

They knew we would be passing through that road at that time.

Even though our transport was supposed to be confidential.

Something fishy is going on. And it’s probably related to the cargo we’re transporting.

“Ah, the Captain already took care of that.”

Surprised, I asked back,

“The Captain?”

“Yeah, she grabbed one of them and interrogated him, but unfortunately, the one she caught was a low-level guy, so she couldn’t find out anything other than that they were after the cargo.”

That lazy bum actually did something?

Blinking in surprise, I asked,

“What happened after the interrogation? Where’s the cultist now?”

“Uh… by now, he’s probably been chopped up and fed to the fish…”

“…She really needs to learn some restraint. We could have gotten a reward if we had handed him over to the guards…”

Unable to hide my dismay, I grumbled.

“Anyway, there’s nothing for you to do, so just lie down and rest.”

Feya patted the bed, looking at me sternly. But I shook my head.

“There’s definitely something for me to do.”

“…?”

I put on my coat with a grin.

“I’m going to get more reward money.”

***

The hero party’s porter, Irene, put down the contract and looked at me with tired eyes.

“…There wasn’t such a clause in the contract.”

“Oh, but there is.”

I pointed to a section in the contract that stated that additional costs may be incurred depending on the circumstances.

“When our mercenary group accepted the request, we anticipated threats such as ordinary thieves or monsters. Our weapons and personnel were prepared accordingly.”

Crossing my arms, I continued,

“But yesterday, we were attacked by necromancers. And they had a clear objective: to steal the cargo.”

“…Perhaps your mercenary group was ill-prepared.”

Her voice was laced with a hint of sharpness.

But I had something to say to that as well.

“You only said that it was a simple transport mission. You didn’t say anything about there being forces that would target the cargo.”

Irene frowned.

After a brief pause, she answered, no longer bothering to hide the fatigue in her eyes,

“Let me tell you this beforehand: We were also unaware that there were people after the cargo until this incident.”

So she’s saying that this isn’t our fault, but the fault of the original client, that high-ranking official?

Closing my eyes, I gathered my thoughts for a moment. And then, I said in a softer tone,

“I believe you’ve misunderstood me. I’m not here to assign blame. I just wanted to let you know that in order to provide proper escort in this situation, our group will have to incur significant expenses.”

In other words, this is going to cost us a lot, so double the pay.

Irene frowned once more. And this time, it didn’t go away as easily.

“Yes, I understand that. But what I’m trying to say is that this amount is too high, even considering those circumstances.”

She picked up her pen and scribbled a number on a piece of paper.

“This is the maximum amount we can offer.”

It was a little over half the amount I had asked for.

I guess I was wrong to assume that the hero party wouldn’t haggle over money.

But that’s fine.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to negotiate reward money.

I smiled, remembering all the times I’d squeezed money out of stingy nobles.

“This won’t even cover the cost of alcoh…”

“Oh, Rem? When did you get here?”

Our eyes turned to a single spot.

Standing there, Clara was looking at me with a bright smile.

To my surprise, she came up to me and sat down next to me. Looking at the scattered documents, she asked,

“Did you come here because of the reward money?”

“Ah, yes… Now that we know necromancers are targeting the cargo, we’ll need to be better prepared.”

I replied, unable to hide my puzzled look.

Clara listened to my explanation and asked, her expression thoughtful,

“How much more do you need?”

“What?”

“Clara…?”

I wasn’t the only one who was puzzled.

The porter’s face flushed with confusion.

“But… the budget that the Chancellor approved…” (TL Note: Chancellor was basically the medieval equivalent to a prime minister)

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”

Dismissing the porter’s concerns with a single sentence, Clara smiled shyly at me.

“Ah, and also… I want to give Rem a little bonus…”

“…What?”

What bonus?

“You helped us so much in repelling the attack. And you were seriously injured because of it…”

“That’s just part of the job…”

“Hehe, you’re still as humble as ever, Rem.”

No, it’s not that… It’s just that the porter’s face is getting more and more pale by the second.

“If we exceed the budget again, the Chancellor will… My salary… I tried to stop them… Why is God testing me like this…”

The porter muttered to herself, sounding like a typical low-ranking government official. It seemed my first impression of her being more of a desk clerk than a porter wasn’t that far off.

“But I believe that good deeds should always be rewarded.”

But Clara didn’t care. She took my hand in hers, her smile benevolent.

She was so friendly, a stark contrast to when we first met.

All I did was pretend to have amnesia, and I’m being treated this differently?

What’s going on?

But my confusion didn’t end there.

Clara suddenly frowned and said,

“By the way, how long are you planning on speaking formally to me, Rem?”

“What?”

“I told you, you might not remember, but you and I were involved in the past. Of course, we had to part ways due to unavoidable circumstances…”

Her smile faded along with her voice.

But the melancholy was short-lived. Soon, a gentle smile spread across her face.

“But we’re still friends, right? You can speak comfortably to me, just like you used to.”

…I’ve only spoken informally to you once in my life…

“Or are you still uncomfortable around me… because you’ve only just lost your memories…?”

Suddenly, Clara looked at me cautiously, stroking her hand. A pitiful look naturally filled her deer-like eyes.

“If that’s the case… I’m really sorry. I was just so happy to see you…”

She looked like a puppy who had done something wrong and was trying to read my mood.

Before I knew it, I opened my mouth.

“I-It’s not like that… I, I’ll speak informally from now on…”

As if her pitiful expression had all been a lie, she brightened up and asked,

“Really? You’re really going to speak informally to me from now on?”

…Damn my old habits.

Right, I was always weak to that expression of hers…

But it’s too late to take back what I said.

I nodded, feeling a sense of self-loathing.

“Ah, but…”

Then, a crazy thought suddenly crossed my mind.

“Then why did you avoid me at first?”

That was the question that had been plaguing me ever since I first met the hero party.

Why am I being treated so differently just because I pretended to have lost my memory?

I looked at Clara expectantly, waiting for her answer.

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, she didn’t give me the answer I wanted.

“Oh, that… I was just a little embarrassed to see you after such a long time…”

Clara looked away shyly.

But her face was pale, and her eyes were downcast.

A lie.

“Really? For someone who was just embarra…”

“Ah, now that I think about it, it’s almost time for prayers…!”

I tried to press her further, but she suddenly made an excuse and stood up.

“Then, see you later, Rem.”

And with that, leaving a faint smile behind, she left the room.

I watched her go, lost in thought.

It’s clear that something is going on.

And it’s also clear that it has something to do with my childhood memories.

But I can’t figure out what it is.

Well, at least it seems like they don’t hate me…

The questions kept piling up. I shook my head and slapped my cheeks.

No, get a grip, Rem. Work comes first.

“Now, about the cost…”

I turned to the porter to talk business, but I couldn’t help but stop.

“I miss my mom… Why do I have to do this… I never wanted to be a civil servant… I hate the Chancellor… I hate overtime… I hate disciplinary reports…”

The porter was clutching her face, her words filled with the woes of life. I couldn’t help but see my own past reflected in her.

[Why does the Captain always have to blow things out of proportion… I want to go home… I hate overtime… I want to quit being a mercenary… Life sucks…]

I quietly closed my eyes at the sight of a nightmare that was still ongoing. And then, I said in a gentle voice,

“Um… Then, how about we deduct my bonus from the cost…”

The porter flinched before bowing her head deeply and saying,

“…Thank you so much.”

…Looks like there are people suffering from their Captain’s blunders everywhere you go.