Dean was almost kneeling down as he energetically apologized.
「 You were under the influence of the spirit, so you were deceived too. 」
Ash’s so broad-minded.
Meanwhile, I was busy grilling the rest of the rabbits. Forget veggies, I should have at least brought some dried herbs.
「 Jean, I’m really sorry, too! 」
「 No worries, no actual harm done. 」
Ash explained that only the men were affected by that flower in the guild, apparently. Some of them had only one petal. Maybe those guys with the questionable judgements had the flowers stuck on them for way too long. If it were me, I’d probably burst out laughing from the sight of men sporting fake flowers on their heads. Ash, how do you keep your calm, huh.
「 The guild will be turned upside down if they were to know I collapsed, so let me consult Kaina first before taking Amille to the Fae’s Bough. 」
Spirits love hanging around Fae’s Bough, and it’s also a place where people drop the spirits, it seems. There’s a room with a special scent that the spirits couldn’t resist. Since spirits were invisible, it’s common to take people who had turned abnormal and toss them there. This was to test whether the spirit left and they returned to their senses.
Dean actually found out that I did something about the spirit — I can’t stand sharp guys.
「 Well, isn’t it easier to bring her while she’s still asleep? 」
Even if she collapses, there’s the bed, and she won’t notice a lot of things if she’s out cold.
「 Ahh, got it. So it doesn’t have to be during the day. 」
We made Dean promise not to spill about how we could see spirits. Not sure if he’ll keep that, but if it becomes troublesome, then I’ll just change towns immediately. Ash agreed to meet that butler in this town, so it’d be difficult for her to move until they’re reunited. Well, good luck.
「The personnel might be few, but the guild’s still running through the night. Tell us the shift, and we’ll do this when there’s fewer men around. Let’s bring the money talk to the higher ups after that. 」
I trained my eyes on Ash at that last part, referring to the money she lost from being ripped off by the inn recommended by a guild representative.
「 Really sorry ‘bout this! I’m returning back to the town to do preps. If it’s alright with you, just use the carrier, I’ll talk to them. 」
「 Carrier? 」
Never heard about that term before.
「It’s the person who carries the bear. 」
「 Well, not just bears, but yeah, bear. 」
Carriers were the ones who transported the bears that the adventurers hunt, and the place for retrieval varies. It’s the job that novice adventurers usually take. It’s something you would know by coming to the guild. We decided on the time and place for pick-up, but Dean was already occupied for the day from the requests he received through his sis. If he didn’t hunt, he had to refund them, so if he’s not confident about the request then he would refuse — that’s so sloppy, are you really Silver?
Well, your offer is appreciated, let’s try it out.
「 Ah, Jean. Be on alert even if you’re resting. See yah. 」
Dean left for the town with those words.
Yup, will do my best… Not confident about this, never noticed when Ash came, too. How do you sense that ‘aura’ anyway! Huh, maybe casting 【 Search 】 would be faster, I guess.
There’s the carrier business, so it was decided that Ash and I’ll go hunting for bears together. Only a pack of monster wolves appeared, though.
Ash’s fighting style was calm, and her movements were minimal. She’s hitting the vitals with just a blow, slaying the wolves one after the other. The way she handled the sword was beautiful, yet powerful — a perfect role model, huh. Just imitate her in the meantime. Thanks to 【 Martial Arts Ability 】 , I could copy her. Well, just like what Dean said, I had to be vigilant, but I’m not really used to fighting, or being surrounded by enemies for that matter. If an opponent doing a different kind of attack appeared, I probably won’t be able to keep up doing this copycat style.
【 Search 】 , then attack head on and win!!! — That’s what I had done when I was alone, you know. Somebody watching from the sidelines would probably tell you that rather than using the sword to slash, I was using it like a club to beat ‘em. Imagine doing a whack-a-mole — there you go.
「 It’s still not worth one bear, but this is enough. We can’t carry any more than this. 」
Ash put away her sword after slaying all nine of the monster wolves.
「 Yeah, you’re right. 」
Hornless Wolves are longer than me, while Horned Wolves are double that size, around 2 meters or so.
We gathered the horns first.
「 What about the magical stones? 」
「 Wolves’ value drops really low when their hides have flaws, so we better leave this to the experts. 」
「 Got it. 」
Tried the best we could to drain their blood before stuffing them into the sack.
「 So it’s vertical, huh. 」
Ash mumbled before copying me. Hey, no way we could cram all those Horned inside, right.
Hoisted the sack with the wolves heads lolling out, and the remaining wolf that didn’t fit in, onto my back. Ash held only part of the sack, in return, she slayed the monsters that we met along the way as we trudged on to the meeting place.
The two carrier bros’ jaws dropped as they stood there, stupefied. Underestimated Ash’s strength ー it might even be above that of Dean.
「 Hiii!!! 」
「 Impossible! You can’t board that! 」
「 It’ll crack, it’ll crack! We just borrowed this! 」
The carrier bros kept on crying that their cart would break, so Ash and I couldn’t do anything but carry two wolves each. Hmm, it’s difficult to bring a huge cart to the edge of the forest, so the cart was small, couldn’t be helped, I guess?
We changed the destination to the Commerce Guild. The idea was for me to sell them and split the cash with Ash. Meanwhile, she would sell the horns to the Adventurer’s Guild, get her things from that overcharging inn, then we would meet-up again.
The assessment here was extremely strict, so it would take a lot of time. You could make money from the hides of monster wolves, but as Ash had said, they’d beat down the prices for any small flaw they saw.
I’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild when Pink Head’s problem has been settled. The Commerce Guild has its own inconveniences.
***
「 All right, where to try it? 」
「 I might lose consciousness for a longer time than Dean-dono. How about an inn? 」
「 What will you do if you’re out cold for a few days? Remember what happened to Dean after? Since it’s glued on you directly, won’t the impact be even more severe? Know anyone in this town? 」
There were people around us, so we didn’t say the word ‘spirit’ while we talked.
「 None. 」
「 Let’s wait for Butler-san? 」
「 No idea when he will be back. 」
If Butler was there then you wouldn’t have been scammed, I guess.
Why did he leave her? Hey, what if Butler is actually a natural airhead, huh.
「 If you don’t mind, wanna come to my house? 」
I feel like I want to test the things I can do to a spirit, so we settled on that. It will be the first time a guest will come over to the house I rented. Hey, isn’t it the same as saying I invited a woman over to my house?