The Two Leaders

“―Thank you.”

“Eh?!”

Her eyes were hard, and so was her voice, and even her eyebrows were straining. But the thanks she had given was genuine.

“…Haaaah. Momon-sa―san has some things to ask you, which is why I came. Don’t waste time.

Why are you here?”

Enri had no obligation to answer. However, this was the partner of someone who had helped her. If he wanted to know, then she should answer.

“That, before that, can I ask a favor of you? Momon-san helped me earlier, and I’m very, very grateful. Please tell him that.”

“I will do so. So why are you here?”

“Ah, yes, I, I’m here, because there’s a lot of things that need to be done, for instance, selling the herbs.”

The woman gestured with her chin, indicating that Enri should continue speaking.

“Then, I’ll go to the temple, to see if there’s anyone who wants to move to our village to live. And then I need to go to the Adventurer’s Guild to talk about some things. And I need to buy some things we can’t get in the village, like weapons. Something like that…”

“I see. I understand what you’ve said. I will relay it to Momon-san.”

With ethereally graceful movements which seemed independent of gravity, the woman alighted from the wagon, and left without looking back.

Enri’s impression of her was that of a frozen hurricane which tore people apart.

“She’s an amazing woman… it feels like she’s ten times more powerful than Brita-san…”

There were no girls in the village like her. Nabe had probably become an adventurer because her personality was like that. That made her feel even more troubled about her visit to the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Ahhhh, oh no!”

Nabe was a powerful adventurer, but Enri had only noticed after she had vanished. In addition, she was the partner of the man who had subdued the Wise King of the Forest. She might have been able to tell Enri about what was going on in the forest.

“The Giant of the East and the Serpent of the West, and whatever that Monument of Destruction is… if only I had asked her about all of those. Ah~ I’m such a dummy, why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

Enri drove her wagon through a gate while scolding herself for her carelessness.

♦ ♦ ♦

E-Rantel could be roughly divided into three zones, separated by the walls of the city. The middle zone was where people lived.

It was also where the Adventurer’s Guild could be found.

Ideally, it would have been safest to sell the herbs at the Pharmacist’s Guild. However, that would have involved a lot of troublesome paperwork, so she had chosen to go to the Adventurer’s Guild instead to use them as a go-between. She had considered drawing on Lizzie’s help for this, but Enri had decided that using her best friend’s grandmother’s name would be too shameless, and reconsidered.

The plan of going to the Adventurer’s Guild was Nfirea’s idea.

If Nfirea had come in person, they wouldn’t need to use the Guild and he could sell everything directly. A simple village girl like Enri doing this by herself would be left to the tender mercies of the shrewd members of the Pharmacist’s Guild.

Enri headed down the road Nfirea and Brita had told her about.

Although she had been travelling with the goblins before that, they were all waiting outside the city for Enri to finish her business. Ever since she had set out from the village, she realized that she was alone, and her hands gripped the reins even more rightly.

The tension stiffened Enri’s shoulders. Finally, unable to stand it any longer, she looked around in all directions and her destination was in front of her.

“I found it!”

Enri squealed a little squeal of joy. Now that she was here, she probably wouldn’t get lost.

She handed the reins of her wagon to the sentry standing at the door of the Adventurer’s Guild, and pushed open the door.

Inside, warriors in full plate armor, hunters with bows on the backs, and magic casters both arcane and divine were walking around. Some were enthusiastically swapping information about the monsters nearby, others were looking closely at the parchments on the nearby noticeboard, and a few were getting a feel for their newly-purchased gear.

The place was filled with a heat and activity that made Enri unsteady on her feet, a world of unrelenting scrutiny and tension. This was the world of adventurers.

Enri’s mouth dropped open as she beheld a sight she would never see in her village, then hurriedly shut it back up.

It was true that she hailed from the boondocks, and it was no surprise that she’d be startled by the mood of the big city, but for a girl her age, staring dumbly with her mouth agape was just shameful.

Enri set out, her back ramrod straight, consciously checking her movements so that she wouldn’t move the arms and legs on the same side or do anything which would make her a laughingstock.

However, Enri started to have her doubts about whether it was all right for an obviously out-of-place village girl to be strolling so boldly amongst the muscular adventurers.

At the counter, she was welcomed by the receptionist’s smile.

“Welcome.”

“Y-yes, I’m here to visit.”