Caught

It took 2 seconds to recognize the identity of the somehow familiar face encountered as soon as the reception room door opened.

It took 3 seconds to realize the other meaning of the question uttered from Odd’s mouth, asking why Lua was here.

That a child who should have been obediently wandering around only the guild headquarters as always was in a place located on the exact opposite side of the continent.

It took 4 seconds to truly understand the fact that one of the people who should absolutely never find out that I was doing things that would get me scolded had discovered it.

It took exactly 5 more seconds after that to kneel down as if collapsing and raise both hands high toward the sky.

“…I’m sorry.”

I briefly wondered if it would have been better to beg for my life, but since whatever I said wouldn’t make much difference now.

I showed the most pitiful expression I could toward Odd, who was literally speechless in many ways.

Hoping that, just as one cannot spit at a smiling face, one cannot get angry at a tearful face.

Since ancient times, striking first has been the truth of all ages and places.

I thought that if I knelt down before the person who had already worked me hard tried to scold me properly, the intensity of the anger might be somewhat reduced.

In addition, fortunately amid misfortune, it wasn’t just me and Odd in the reception room.

After all, the person Odd had come to meet was not me but Rier.

Therefore…

“Odd, was it?”

“…Yeah.”

“I don’t know what business you have with my daughter, but how about talking just with me for now.”

It wasn’t that strange for Rier, who was already drained from the meeting with Tine, to try to sort things out before the situation became more complicated.

Odd’s eyes widened at the sight of Rier naturally calling me his daughter, but that could be explained somehow later.

Therefore, right now, I had to make it possible for Rier and Odd to talk alone.

The more Odd’s attention was focused on me, the more his resentment would grow.

For now, I needed to make Odd distracted by something else.

Right after that, I began to lower my slightly aching arms and rise to my feet.

“P-please don’t mind me and talk comfortably between the two of you…!”

And so, I backed out almost like I was running away and came back outside the reception room.

Only after I myself closed the antique wooden door of the reception room with a thud did a faint sigh escape me.

Strictly speaking, it merely postponed what could have been an immediate scolding to a bit later, but still, that’s something.

Moreover, there was currently a person residing in this mansion who could be considered quite a reliable ally.

As someone said, a person with a somewhat excessive level of empathy. Someone who seemed like they would defend me better than any lawyer right now.

It would be a hundred, a thousand times better to get Cinia’s help than to explain on my own.

“Cinia! Help!”

“Help?”

In fact, I was already very grateful to Cinia just for persuading Rier…

Nevertheless, I had no choice but to ask for help again.

That’s how much Odd.

No, how frightening the anger of a teacher who witnessed with his own eyes the sight of his student playing hooky was.

Especially since I had promised to diligently review what I had learned from Odd during his absence.

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

It was a few weeks ago.

A small question mark appeared on Odd’s face as he heard all the tasks he had to do as a guild member, not as the child’s tutor.

The reason being that some of the requests that the Lunatic Guild Master in front of him had mentioned had a low probability of success.

In addition, he couldn’t quite understand why, among the many guild members of the Lunatic Guild, she specifically picked him to ask.

“Well… It’s good if it works out, and if not, there’s nothing we can do.”

“No, I think I can at least try. What I’m curious about is, why me?”

He asked what the true intention was in sending him to a place with which he had completely severed ties a very long time ago.

The answer that came back was of an extremely simple kind.

“After thinking about it, you seem to be the most suitable person.”

“Is it that intuition of yours again?”

“It’s not entirely without intuition, but among the people I can ask right now, you’re the only hunter who is from the Northern Continent.”

They say life is about school ties, regional ties, and blood ties, right? In other words, the advantage of being from the Northern Continent wouldn’t be entirely useless, Asha murmured briefly.

Not long after, the echoes of the old past began to rise.

Of course, there weren’t only bad memories, but the end was something that had been repeatedly regretted countless times.

“I’ll… try.”

After leaving only a brief answer somewhat distant from confidence, he turned away from the office.

Either way, he was in a position where it was a bit too much to openly refuse the Guild Master’s request.

There was also a promise, or something like a promise, that there would be no reproach even if the requests with a low probability of success failed.

Above all, regardless of what happened, giving up without even trying would be a direct denial of the days he had lived so far.

In the end, he had no choice but to depart for a place he had considered one he would never visit again.

Although the means of transportation was supported by the Lunatic Guild, there was nothing he could do about his chest that gradually tightened just from facing that cold wind again.

“Haah…”

White breath naturally formed over the deep sigh he unknowingly let out.

Nevertheless, the results of somehow moving forward rather than backward were not as bad as he had thought.

Tasks such as meeting with Lunatic Guild members dispatched throughout the Northern Continent to deliver secret directives, or surveying the overall situation of the Northern Continent, weren’t that difficult.

Of course, it was a bit different for the requests that Odd himself thought had a high probability of failure.

After all, he had said they were things that would be good if they worked out, and if not, there was nothing to be done.

He wasn’t that heartbroken even when a letter requesting more active support from a global corporation was finally rejected and returned to him.

The problem was that the next schedule was a meeting with the man who reigned at the top of the Northern Continent.

He already knew what kind of tendencies a man called Rier had, given his fame…

“…Do I have no choice but to fight?”

The things that the man called the battle maniac had done when encountering strong fighters like Odd until now were not exactly pleasant.

As a guild member of Lunatic, not as the barbarian Odd, he pondered for quite a long time whether he could properly convey his business to the battle maniac.

In that process, if he ultimately challenged Odd himself to a fight, it would be unavoidable, but nothing was decided for sure yet.

This time too, it was a type of task that would be good if it worked out, and if not, there was nothing to be done.

And so, finally arriving at Rier’s mansion. After being guided to the reception room by those who had received the contact and were waiting for him.

–Step.

“He will arrive soon.”

At the moment when someone who looked like a mansion servant brought the news that Rier would soon return to the mansion.

More precisely, at the moment when he realized that a small silhouette that momentarily passed by beyond the reception room window was somehow familiar.

“…Am I nervous? Me?”

At first, he mistakenly thought he had seen an illusion due to nervousness.

After all, the familiar silhouette he had just spotted should have been on the opposite side of the continent.

So, after briefly composing himself and stabilizing his heart again.

Not long after, he shifted his gaze toward the reception room door that finally opened.

“…Lua?”

“T-teacher?!”

Because he realized that what he thought he had seen wrongly was actually seen correctly.

The gears of reason, which had been working well until now, instantly misaligned and stopped.

However, after just a few seconds, the child herself knelt down suddenly and began to punish herself, saying she had done wrong.

Although he still couldn’t understand why the child was with Rier. He could belatedly realize that something strange was going on.

“…………”

He unconsciously frowned at the scene that was confirmed to be an undesirable sight in many ways.

Right after that, Rier’s somehow slightly tired-looking voice was heard.

“I don’t know what business you have with my daughter, but how about talking just with me for now.”

In the end, he didn’t say no.

How the battle maniac came to call the child his daughter was impossible to understand…

Either way. Right now, there was something more important than the child who had somehow begun to back away.

Right after that, he handed a sealed envelope to the man in front of him.

“A letter from the Lunatic Guild Master, Asha, to Rier of the Northern Continent.”

And so, after Rier took the letter he handed over.

“I bet it’s about The Tower. Why is she so desperate to make people work? I’m sure they’ll be fine without me.”

As expected, seeing him react indifferently just as predicted, only the word “lost” came to mind.

However, the final answer uttered by the scarred mouth not long after was, for some reason, not a refusal.

“Thank my daughter. If it weren’t for Lua, I wouldn’t have even read this politely worded letter.”

“What… does that mean?”

“Unlike someone living somewhere, she came in person, bowed her head, and begged.”

The stories that followed were also by no means detailed, extremely brief stories.

But he roughly learned what the child had done by walking to the middle of this cold place.

The decisive blow was the story of the brief confrontation between the child and the battle maniac.

“Wait, are you saying you and Lua fought?”

“Strictly speaking, we didn’t fight. I couldn’t even hit her once.”

“…What?”

His already confused mind became even more confused at the words that were hard to believe from start to finish.