Chapter 16 – NTR 3 Brothers

NTR 3 Brothers

They say dawn comes even if you twist a chicken’s neck.
Time passed, and the day came when I was supposed to meet Airi at the Adventurer’s Guild to subjugate goblins.

“Hello! Sister!”
Airi greeted me with a bright smile.
With her noticeable black hair, she stood out quite a bit among the adventurers.
I’m not sure if it’s an appropriate comparison, but she gave the impression of a flower blooming in mud.

“…Hello, Airi.”
I lightly responded to her greeting.
“Can I sit here?”
“As you wish.”

Airi then naturally sat at the table where I was.
I had planned to depart for the request location as soon as I met Airi, but it seems her thoughts were a bit different.
“Sister. Before we go, shall we chat for a bit? We’re in the same party, but we hardly know anything about each other.”

…I felt this last time too, but she seems to have quite a sociable personality. Airi, that is.
‘She’s the complete opposite of me…’
If I had to say, her personality resembles my little sister’s.
“Okay.”

I couldn’t refuse in front of her as she suggested conversation with a bright smile, so I nodded to her words.
Eventually, an unplanned conversation began at our table.
‘What should I say….?’

I, who could never claim to be sociable even if I died, was pondering what to say in front of Airi.
I hoped Airi would speak first, but Airi just looked at me with a smile on her face, seemingly enjoying something.
…Although Airi’s smiling face was cute, it was also somewhat frustrating.

‘Is this silent pressure to speak first? What do people usually say in these situations…’
Hobbies? Or favorite foods?
‘Is this a blind date… Oh? Come to think of it.. Has her hair gotten a bit shorter?’
Looking now, Airi’s appearance had changed slightly compared to when I last saw her.

“You cut your hair.”
“Hehe. You noticed. I was wondering when you’d realize.”
…So that’s why she was quietly looking at me without saying anything.
“Well, long hair can be a hindrance in many ways. So I cut it off cleanly. Does it look strange…?”

Airi’s hair, which used to reach her shoulders, was now neatly trimmed a bit shorter than what’s commonly called a bob cut.
Airi lightly touched her hair and asked me how it looked. I gave her my honest impression.

“No. It actually suits you better now.”
“Tch. You’re lying.”
“…I’m being sincere.”

If she looked a bit young before, now she gives off a feeling more befitting of an adventurer.

To begin with, since her face is attractive, any hairstyle seems to suit her well.
“Hehe. Thank you. Oh right. I was curious about something, can I ask you a question?”
“…Feel free.”

Airi, who seemed to be in a good mood from my compliment and was smiling broadly, asked me a question as if something had piqued her curiosity.
“Sister, don’t you use something like a staff? The magician I met last time always kept one close and cherished it..”
“I do use one when necessary.. but I usually leave it behind.”

I only take it out mainly when casting large-scale magic, and otherwise, I don’t often take it out because it’s cumbersome.
It’s troublesome. It’s also hard to control the output.
“I see… Hehe. Actually, I thought you might have left it behind.”

She scratched her head and gave an awkward smile.
… Come to think of it, like last time, Airi wasn’t carrying any weapon now either.
‘If she didn’t leave her weapon behind…. Is she a martial artist?’

Usually, when you think of martial artists, you might imagine burly men with muscles, but this is a world where mana exists.
It’s a world where a seemingly frail woman can overpower a man twice her size with strength.
…Even I can overwhelm most knights if I use strength enhancement magic.

If Airi is a martial artist who mainly uses physical enhancement, it’s understandable that she doesn’t carry a weapon.
Looking closely, she’s wearing something like gauntlets too.
“Just in case… Are you a martial artist?”
“Yes! You have a good eye, sister!”

Airi answered brightly.
It seems Airi was indeed a martial artist as I had guessed.
We continued to talk about various things after that.
“…As much as I’d like to keep talking, shall we get going soon?”
“Let’s do that.”

With Airi’s words as a signal, we left the Adventurer’s Guild to head to Rain Village where the client was.

“Rain Village is…. a bit far. About an hour by carriage? Too far to walk….”

After leaving the Adventurer’s Guild, we were pondering how to get to Rain Village.
Since neither of us knew how to ride a horse, renting horses was out of the question, and it was quite a distance to walk.

‘It’s a distance I could cover in one go with teleportation….’
If I were alone it would be fine, but with Airi here, I can’t use teleportation magic.
…Because teleportation magic is considered an even higher-level magic than most people think.

Usually, teleportation magic is limited to moving about ten meters at most. Even that is only possible for quite skilled magicians, and most can’t even cast it at all.
But my teleportation range is at a level where I can move from Lonzville to our house in one go.
‘It’s a bit awkward to say it myself, but I’m out of the norm.’

If it’s discovered that I can cast teleportation magic, and long-distance at that, there’s a high chance my identity will be suspected.

The reason I’m trying to avoid revealing my identity as much as possible is because of Marian’s advice.
When I met Marian last time, she advised me to avoid revealing my identity as much as possible,
The reason being that I’m not just a great magician, but ‘the great magician of the hero’s party’.

According to Marian, after the common enemy known as the Demon King disappeared, the hero’s party came to be seen as a great threat by the upper echelons of the Empire who held power.
‘They probably thought we might threaten their power since we have the support of the people and possess great strength.’

In fact, Marian and the other party members are under quite a bit of political pressure even though they have no interest in power at all.
For me, who originally hid my identity with disguise magic because I disliked things becoming troublesome, hiding my identity is no longer a matter of choice.

‘Thinking in that context, causing a commotion inside the Adventurer’s Guild was a mistake..’
It was too much. Back then. Even if Airi resembled my little sister, still.
Anyway, because of that, my goal has been set to be recognized as just a somewhat skilled magician.
…At least until Saya and Puel can be independent.

Although it can’t be helped that I’ve already shown my power to the people of Heren Village, I need to be as careful as possible from now on.

“Um.. Sister? What should we do?”
Airi asked me again as I didn’t answer.
‘To think I was lost in thought with a person right in front of me…’

There’s no greater rudeness than this.
It’s a situation where Airi would be justified in getting angry, but rather than being angry that I ignored her words, she looks at me with eyes of concern as if something might be wrong.
I immediately apologized to Airi and then answered her question.

“…I’m sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment. Let’s first see if there’s a stagecoach that passes through Rain Village. Walking would take too long.”
“I think that’s a good idea too!”

In this world without cars or airplanes, there exists something called a stagecoach that transports people while passing through cities.
The stagecoach, which was also used as a means of transportation in early modern Europe on Earth, is quite a common means of transportation in this world.

We two, having decided to take a carriage, headed to where the stagecoaches were.
Since there’s a city called Clepis famous for its bronze mines not far from Rain Village, there should be stagecoaches that pass through Rain Village.
However….

“There’s not a single carriage that passes through Rain Village? Really?”
“Oh right. That’s what I’m saying. Lately, there’s been rumors of vicious bandits appearing on the way to Rain Village, so all the carriages going to Clepis have started using routes that bypass it.”

When we arrived at the stagecoach station, we heard the shocking news that there wasn’t a single carriage passing through Rain Village.
Apparently, because the bandits kept plundering the carriages so much, the carriages started using routes that bypass Rain Village…
‘This is troublesome…’

Just as I was thinking we might have to walk after all.
“Excuse me… Are you two perhaps thinking of going to Rain Village?”

A man slowly approached us and asked if we were planning to go to Rain Village.
Looking behind him, there were a few men who seemed to be his companions, and judging by their attire and cargo wagon, they appeared to be merchants.

“…That’s right. Why?”
Airi responded somewhat coldly to the man’s words.
Despite her response that could have been perceived as rude, the man answered with a seemingly good-natured smile.

“Haha. We have circumstances that require us to pass through Rain Village on our way to Clepis. I came to ask if you might like to join us.”
“…What circumstances require you to pass through the dangerous Rain Village? And also, if you’re going, why not just go with your group, why are you asking us to join?”

Airi asked the man back, still in a cold tone.
Although her tone was a bit sharp, they were all reasonable doubts. It’s too suspicious. Approaching us so conveniently like this.

Then the man, as if trying to prove he was harmless, showed his palms and started to explain the reason for inviting us.
“I completely understand your caution. I would be suspicious too if I were you. Please listen to what I have to say first, and then take your time to decide whether to accept our offer.”

“…Go ahead and speak.”
“Thank you. First, I’ll explain about the goods we’re handling.”
Rustle.

The man slowly approached the cargo wagon and lifted the tarp covering the goods.
‘It’s luminous stones.’
Luminous stones are minerals mainly used in magic lamps or luminous artifacts, and they’re quite valuable minerals.

“It’s… luminous stones?”
Airi, recognizing the goods loaded on the wagon as luminous stones, said in a low voice.
The man nodded to this and continued his explanation.

“That’s right. You may know this, but luminous stones have a property where they lose their light if not processed quickly after mining. That’s why we’re thinking of passing through Rain Village despite the risk.”
“…That’s fine, but why are you inviting us?”

The man, still wearing a seemingly good-natured smile, pointed to the adventurer’s badges hanging at our waists.
“I saw the adventurer’s badges hanging at your waists. As you just heard, there are rumors of bandits appearing on the route passing through Rain Village. That’s why we wanted to travel with adventurers. I hope that explains it.”

The man bowed his head lightly after finishing his words.
‘Although all his words make sense…’
Somehow it didn’t feel right.

The man in front of me was slightly suspicious, but the most suspicious were his companions behind him.
“Huff…huff…”
A middle-aged man with a potbelly who looked like he’d try to hypnotize women.
“Sisters. Do you have boyfriends?”
A man with slightly tanned skin and blonde hair.
“Beautiful. Women.”
And a dark-skinned man who looked quite strong.

‘They look suspicious no matter how you look at it…’
Three brothers who somehow looked familiar were looking at Airi and me as if licking us with their eyes.