After subduing the Red Hood Giant Serpent, we returned to the Guild.
As usual, Jaril and I met outside the
We exchanged the completion cards.
Then I handed over the Red Hood Cobra's fangs and skin, and we coordinated our stories.
Since there was a lot of it, this time the entire party—including Veskel—entered the Adventurer's Guild together.
Sure enough, Nokopara came slithering over.
This man really is always at the Guild.
And every single time, he comes up to us.
"Well, well, looks like you guys bagged something pretty interesting. Those Red Hood Giant Serpent scales, aren't they? Huh?"
I shot a glance at Jaril, and he delivered the lines we'd rehearsed.
"Oh, uh, yeah. We got lucky and stumbled on it while it was weakened."
"Heehee~. You guys, huh~."
He grinned, as though something amusing had happened.
Nokopara was looking down at Jaril.
What was it?
Something felt different from usual.
"A-and, on the way, we found the 'Super Blaze' guys dead. Must've been them that wore the thing down."
"What? Blaze... is dead?"
"Yeah."
"Well, can't be helped against the Red Hood Cobra, I guess..."
Nokopara let out a bored little "huh" and exhaled.
"But even so, you two taking on the Red Hood Cobra is a bit much, even weakened..."
"Rather than weakened, it was on the verge of death. No, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it was already dead. Technically it wasn't dead, but it was as good as dead." Jaril rattled off the line quickly and hurried away from the spot.
Nokopara, looking unconvinced, shifted his target to us.
"You guys—pet hunting again today?"
"Yes. Master Jaril's pet-finding techniques are truly excellent, so we're picking up some more pocket change today."
"Heehee~"
I too made to leave in a hurry.
Something about this felt off.
But Nokopara casually slung an arm around my shoulder and muttered in a low voice: "So, how exactly do you find pets outside of town?"
For just an instant, unconsciously, my movement stopped.
But I'm pretty sure I kept my poker face on.
This was still within expected parameters.
They'd just seen us leaving town.
"This time it just happened to be outside the city."
"Heehee~. Meaning what exactly?"
I tried to steer the conversation toward deflection.
Nokopara grabbed Jaril's shoulder with a heavy grip.
"The Red Hood Giant Serpent just happened to be inside town too, did it?"
I see.
Jaril and the others had been seen around town.
Which meant—the jig was up.
"Well, the world is full of strange things, isn't it?"
This pattern was something I'd anticipated.
There were several ways to cut our way out.
For example, I could throw Jaril under the bus and claim we were low-ranked adventurers who'd been saddled with an unreasonably difficult request and were suffering for it.
But I wouldn't do that.
If I did that, there was a chance Ruijeld would cut me down.
It wouldn't be the act of a warrior.
"Oh come on, don't play dumb with me now."
"Play dumb? What exactly are you accusing us of doing, might I ask?"
"Huh?"
"We were assisting the 'Pee Hunter' with a request—helping them with their request. That's all there was to it, correct?"
From trying to deflect, I shifted toward brazen denial.
I'd reviewed the Guild's regulations, and there shouldn't have been any fault on our part.
But just because something wasn't written in the rules didn't make it okay.
The world isn't where you can do whatever you want simply by following the rules.
That said, I didn't know exactly where the line was.
So I'd keep deflecting from the angle of "we're in the right."
"Don't be smart with me. What happens if some idiot copies your method, huh?"
"What do you mean, 'what happens'?"
"Requests become something you can buy with money. The whole reason the Adventurer's Guild exists goes down the drain."
Hmm.
Insisting that no money changed hands wasn't going to fly, it seemed.
But wait—so this fell under the category of trading requests?
He was sharp, this guy.
If methods like ours became widespread, sure enough, people who traded requests for money could emerge.
For example, accepting every D-rank request and then selling them to other D-rank adventurers.
The sellers would get money and rank up without having done anything.
Of course, with that method, if they couldn't sell, they'd fail the request.
"Why would you care about something like that, Mr. Nokopara? It's not like we're causing you any trouble."
"Heh heh. You sure you want to take that attitude? You've got two paths ahead of you—hey, Jaril, you listen up too."
I was grabbed by the collar and lifted off my feet.
Behind me, Ruijeld and
For now, stay calm. The conversation isn't over yet.
"Heh heh heh..."
The horse-faced man's expression was hard to read, being a horse face. But I could vaguely sense the slimy grin plastered on it.
"If you value your adventurer registration, then bring me two iron coins every month. My place."
How refreshingly shameless.
I felt like this was the first time I'd met someone like this since coming to this world. Everyone lately had some mix of decent and terrible qualities, so having someone who showed only their bad side was oddly refreshing. No need to worry about being considerate.
But Nokopara—no wonder he was always at the Guild.
He was watching for people doing shady things inside the Guild.
And when he found them, he'd shake them down like this.
Easy money.
If I reported him, wouldn't that settle things in one shot?
No—if I did that, my own wrongdoing would be exposed too.
"You guys seem to be making decent coin, heh heh, so you've got room to spare, right?"
"C-can I ask a couple of questions?"
I played at being rattled while keeping my composure.
"Hm?"
"This is really classified as trading requests, isn't it... right?"
"That's right. Get caught, and you lose your adventurer registration and pay a fine. That'd be bad, wouldn't it?"
"Very bad, very bad."
Stay calm. There's no need to panic yet.
I'd anticipated this kind of situation too.
It was fine. Still fine.
"Th-that said, we don't have the money on hand right now, so—would it be okay if Jaril and I went to submit the request report?"
"Sure, fine. But don't try to run?"
"Of course not, sir~"
Yep—this guy wasn't all that bright after all.
Thinking that, I headed for the counter.
"H-hey... what do we do, what do we do?!"
"Calm down. Please keep your cool."
I gave Jaril a perfunctory response while beckoning Veskel over.
I handed over the completion cards and collected the rewards.
At the same time, I dissolved the 'Pee Hunter' party.
Then I registered both Jaril and Veskel into 'Dead End.' It might have been a meaningless measure. I didn't know how meticulously the Adventurer's Guild kept their ledger books.
Glancing back, Ruijeld wore a look of fury.
His gaze was fixed on Nokopara.
We were the ones who'd broken the rules this time, but using that as leverage to extort someone was apparently not very warrior-like.
I signaled Ruijeld to stand down with a hand gesture.
Eris didn't seem to understand the situation.
If she had, she would probably have been the first to charge at Nokopara.
Not with her fists—with her sword.
"Come on, just pay up for today."
When I returned, Nokopara was being all buddy-buddy, slinging his arm over our shoulders.
Jaril tried to hand over the two iron coins he'd just received with a forced smile.
But I grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
"One thing before that."
"What? Make it quick—I'm not a patient man."
I took a deep breath in my heart.
Pray that this works.
"We did commit fraud—do you have proof of that?"
Nokopara's hateful tongue-click echoed through the Guild hall.
--- The Guild's ledger was pulled up, and every request that 'Dead End' had taken on was retrieved.
The Guild clerk didn't bother asking why. This probably wasn't the first time Nokopara had requested this.
Using those records, we headed to the clients' locations.
"Don't even think about ambushing us in an alley."
Nokopara said this while looking at Ruijeld and Jaril.
Ruijeld's killing intent was considerable—was the man really not afraid?
Perhaps he was surprisingly accustomed to being on the receiving end of that kind of killing intent.
"If I die, my companions report to the Guild. And besides, unlike you guys who are barely C-rank, I'm a C-rank who can actually reach B."
That last line was clearly bravado. Even Nokopara couldn't possibly think he could win five against one.
We were cornered, sure, but he didn't want to die either.
Still, he was short-sighted. If it were me, I'd bring at least one bodyguard.
"Well, here we are."
First house.
A residence I'd never seen before.
When I knocked, out came a crotchety-looking old woman.
A hawk-like nose, dressed in a black robe.
A sickly sweet smell wafted from inside the house.
She was probably making neru-neru-ne in there...
She gave Nokopara a suspicious look when she saw his face, but when she saw Veskel, her expression softened.
"Oh my, if it isn't Veskel! What brings you here today? And with such a big group. Ah, are they members of 'Dead End's Ruijeld'?"
Nokopara shot us a stunned look, and seeing the old woman's gaze fixed on Veskel's face, he forced on a smirk.
"Old lady. These guys aren't from 'Dead End.' You've been had."
"Hm?"
The old woman glanced at Nokopara, then snorted.
"What do you mean, 'had'?"
"Well, it's—"
"Veskel did a proper job with the pest control. True to being a Zumeba. Ever since then, not a single one's been spotted."
It seemed this old woman was one of the houses Veskel had visited. Come to think of it, one of the things Ruijeld had monitored had mentioned something like this.
"As long as they do good work, I wouldn't mind even if they were the real 'Dead End.'"
The shock of those words wasn't limited to Nokopara. Even Ruijeld himself wore a surprised expression.
"B-but—"
"I'm not getting any younger. If I can meet something like that before I die, I'd like to. That's all."
You're meeting him right now, you know.
Nokopara's eyes darted back and forth as he turned to Veskel with an irritated look.
"Veskel! Show me your adventurer card!"
Veskel's eyes went wide for a moment, but then he grinned.
There on the card was the party name 'Dead End.' "W-what?! You sons of bitches, you actually—!"
'Pee Hunter' no longer existed.
If they looked it up, traces would still remain in the Guild's ledger.
Digging further, something might even violate the regulations somewhere.
But Nokopara apparently wasn't sharp enough to follow that trail.
"Damn it! Next!"
Without returning to the Guild, I followed along behind Nokopara, grinning the whole way.
--- After visiting dozens of clients, Nokopara had gone past red and turned a ghostly blue.
"Son of a bitch, what the hell is going on..."
Every single client recognized Jaril and Veskel as members of 'Dead End.' And their adventurer cards all said 'Dead End' too.
The final indignity came when they visited the girl from the first request—the one who'd sent Ruijeld into the petrified forest. She let out a cry of joy and latched onto Ruijeld's leg.
"Mr. Nokopara. I'm sorry, but with no evidence, we can't exactly pay you, can we?"
"Goddammit."
And honestly, we could even turn around and sue him for obstructing our requests if we wanted. Fabricate some charges and all that.
"Heh heh heh."
A bad laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
While we were at it, we could see the last client's location up ahead.
Or rather—it was the Lupus爪 Inn.
Jaril and the others apparently worked at the same inn where we were staying.
With people who actually knew our faces, it might be hard to keep up the charade. But I didn't remember being particularly close with the innkeeper either.
Well, things had been going the same as always so far.
We'd manage somehow.
"Last one—it's them."
Two people walked out of the entrance of the Lupus爪 Inn.
Seeing them, I froze.
This was bad.
My brain was sounding alarm bells.
Emergency.
Sudden air raid. Enemy aircraft incoming.
Unforeseen contingency.
My lack of foresight, my stupidity—all laid bare at this critical juncture.
"Ah,
Kurt greeted us with an exhausted expression.
Had Nokopara sensed my panic?
Or had he planned this from the very beginning?
"Hey—you were the ones who helped us out in the Petrified Forest before, right? That was 'Dead End,' no mistake?"
Oh, this was really bad.
'Dead End's' current party rank was D.
The request that 'Pee Hunter' had taken was B-rank.
Meaning we shouldn't have been able to take it.
Meaning, if they looked into it, the whole thing would unravel.
This was bad. This was really bad.
"Well, that's..."
Kurt looked at me and Ruijeld.
I desperately shook my head, silently begging him to shut up.
*(Put on a brave face. You didn't borrow anyone's help. You broke through the crisis with your own people, right?)* I prayed—at the very least, Kurt and his group would put up a brave front and protest, "We don't know what you're talking about! Nobody saved our asses!"
Kurt saw my expression and nodded firmly.
"Of course! I've never seen anyone that strong."
You honest-to-God fool!
Kurt proceeded to recount how powerful we were—how we'd buried the Executioner and the Almond Anaconda. His account was quite embellished and full of onomatopoeia.
"Rudeus is seriously godlike. That Ex guy or whatever kept talking big, but he was nowhere near Dead End's level. One-on-one with Ex, and what happened? One punch. Literally one punch—Ex went splat. Flat as a pancake. And Jeld is seriously insane. He just went 'whoosh' here and 'whoosh' there, and the anaconda was done for! He did all this incredible stuff and looked like it was nothing! No, I was seriously blown away!"
Nokopara listened with a "hmm, interesting, wow, impressive" grin plastered on his face.
And then— "Wait, that's weird. The guys who took on a request in town today were supposedly helping people in the Petrified Forest, huh?"
"No, well, that was us helping Jaril—"
"Jaril and Veskel have been in town the whole damn day."
There was no deflecting anymore.
Nokopara had surely already calculated how to corner us.
Stay calm. There had to be options left.
Think. First—three options. Come up with choices.
Alright, got them.
One: Kill Nokopara.
If I believed his story about having companions, this would never end well.
But it might actually turn out okay. Everything depended on luck.
Low option.
Two: Pin all the blame on Jaril.
We were newcomers; they were veterans. If we cried that we'd been deceived and used, it might even work.
But we'd lose Ruijeld's trust.
You don't betray your companions.
Low option.
Three: Pay the money for now and figure something out later.
This also depended entirely on luck.
We might find a solution quickly, but if Nokopara learned about our combat capabilities, he'd lay trap after trap to make sure we couldn't escape.
Couldn't let us leave town. Couldn't let us escape from him.
Low option.
No good—they were all low options.
Hesitation was the enemy of action.
What to do.
The easiest path was option two.
But it was probably the worst move.
A stopgap that led nowhere in the future.
Betraying them meant severing the trust with Ruijeld.
Ruijeld would never trust my word again.
So option two was out. Absolutely out.
Option one was out too.
It was pointless. Everything we'd built up until today would be wasted.
Not that it mattered—even on the Demon Continent, where people were tolerant of killing.
Do it once, and you'd start trying to solve things the same way every time.
I had no intention of walking a blood-soaked road.
I didn't have the resolve for that.
Option three was even worse.
Giving them money was admitting guilt.
That was the one thing you absolutely should not do.
While they kept us on a leash, they'd pile on offense after offense, adding charge after charge.
To deal with those charges, they'd make even more unreasonable demands.
If it were me, I'd demand something like Eris's body.
And then, eventually, I'd be forced to kill Nokopara.
No—even then, option three was still...
No, no—if I was going to choose option three, I should have chosen option one from the start.
There was no way out. I'd have to kill Nokopara and his companions.
Did I have to kill them?
Was I really going to do this...?
Was I even capable of killing someone?
What about the others—wherever they were?
Could I have Ruijeld track them down?
How?
Even Ruijeld couldn't find them if he didn't know who to look for.
Should I just give up being an adventurer altogether?
You didn't need a registration to live. I had some idea of how to make money on this continent.
But even if I resigned myself to that, what would happen to Jaril and the others?
If they looked into it, the pet-kidnapping scheme might come to light too.
We had money now, and we could leave this town.
But they were different.
They lived in this town.
If word got out that they'd been kidnapping pets, wouldn't they be driven out?
They had no way to survive on the plains.
In the end, wouldn't that mean betraying them anyway?
Or would I look after them after they'd been expelled from town?
Impossible. We were barely hanging on as it was.
No way I could do that.
No—if I'd come this far, I'd steel my resolve.
The resolve to walk a blood-soaked path.
Remember my objective.
Get Eris home safely.
If that was what it took, I'd betray Ruijeld, betray Jaril and the rest of them.
Even if Eris despised me for it.
Even if I could never face
I'd use Water
Forget the adventurer registration.
I'd stain my hands with whatever evil it took to achieve my goal.
I'd do it...
--- I steeled my resolve and gathered magic in my hand.
That was when I noticed.
Nokopara's face had completely changed.
"Wha—ah..."
The horse-faced man had gone pale white, his knees knocking together.
His gaze wasn't on me. It was on someone behind me.
I turned around.
There stood Ruijeld.
Soaking wet Ruijeld.
Beside him, the water jug from behind the inn was overturned.
"R-Ruijeld?!"
What entered my eyes was a brilliant emerald green.
The water had washed the blue dye away.
His emerald green hair hung wet and glistening.
He untied the knot of the iron plate that had been hiding his forehead.
The red gemstone on his forehead was now exposed.
There stood a demon warrior, his face contorted with fury.
"S-s-s-spelled..."
Nokopara fell on his rear with a splat.
"I am Ruijeld Spelledia of 'Dead End.'"
His voice was flat, the acting terrible.
But the killing intent was real.
"KYAAAAAA!"
Someone screamed.
A girl walking around the corner, a young man, an old man— they threw down what they were carrying, shrieked, and fled.
In the midst of it all, Jaril was the first to betray.
He shouted at the top of his lungs and ran, with Veskel right behind him.
"I was just being threatened! I don't know anything! I'm not one of them!"
And there was Kurt, who had gone weak in the knees.
Perhaps he'd remembered the time he'd chewed Ruijeld out just the other day.
His face had gone blue, and he'd wet himself.
His hair had changed color—was that really enough to terrify them this much?
I couldn't understand it at all.
You guys were perfectly fine until now!
Kurt—just a minute ago you were practically singing Ruijeld's praises!
You said you wanted to be like Ruijeld someday!
You looked at him with eyes full of respect!
And all it took was seeing his hair color to make you this terrified?
Look at Eris—even without understanding what was happening, she was perfectly composed.
As always, arms crossed, feet shoulder-width apart, chin slightly raised.
Eyes narrowed into a sharp, quiet glare.
Totally composed.
Around us, people were fleeing, some trembling and collapsing, some who'd drawn their swords but whose legs were shaking too badly to stand.
Everyone was shaking.
So this was it.
This was what the sight of 'Dead End' meant.
Just having green hair—this was what it signified.
This much fear had permeated the people.
Ha—heh, somehow I wanted to laugh.
What was I even trying to do?
I'd thought I could handle everything alone—just me—when simply showing his hair could cause this kind of chaos?
Ridiculous.
I'd thought because Eris was fine, because the Migurd tribe was fine, everyone else would be fine too?
It was pointless.
The Spelledia's terrible reputation wasn't just reputation.
It was a symbol of terror.
And I thought I could fix that?
Pointless, pointless.
Impossible.
"............"
Ruijeld walked slowly toward Nokopara amid the pandemonium.
"You... Nokopara, I believe you said your name was."
He grabbed him by the collar and lifted him.
Nokopara's heavy body came up effortlessly.
"Ruijeld! You can't kill him!"
Even at a time like this, I was still shouting things like that.
You can't kill him—doing so now would leave an indelible stain on the Dead End name forever.
No... that was pointless now. It was too late for that.
Whatever I said now didn't matter anymore.
Fine.
Do it, you S-O-B!
"I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't actually think you were the real deal! F-forgive me! Please! I'm begging you!"
"............"
Ruijeld's face, twisted in fury.
Nokopara, trembling.
*'Hey, what's going on?!'* Eris suddenly spoke to me.
I answered slowly.
*'The worst possible situation is unfolding.'* *'Then do something about it!'* *'I can't. I'm sorry.'* *'If Rudeus can't do it, then there's nothing to be done!'* Eris gave up without a second thought.
I'd given up long ago too.
There was nothing left to be done.
This was all my fault.
I'd been caught, and I'd thought I could somehow wriggle free.
With my shallow thinking, I'd convinced myself things would work out no matter what.
They hadn't.
Now that it had come to this, the only thing I could do was follow the original plan—let the water wash it all away.
Water Saint-class magic.
Just kidding. Ha ha ha.
"P-please save me! I—I've got three hungry kids at home, seven mouths to feed!"
Nokopara spouted a completely incoherent plea.
Obviously a lie, no matter how you looked at it.
Even I could come up with a better sob story.
"............We'll leave this town. So forget about us."
But Ruijeld let him go just like that.
So the mention of children had worked after all.
"Th-thank you, th-thank you so much!"
Relief washed over Nokopara's face—but his expression contorted at the next words.
"But if, when I arrive at the next town, I find that our adventurer registration has been revoked..."
Ruijeld drew the tip of his spear across Nokopara's cheek, leaving a thin, clean cut.
Nokopara's crotch went dark with wetness, and something bulged at his rear end.
"Don't think I can't make it back into this town...?"
Nokopara nodded frantically.
Ruijeld released his grip.
Nokopara dropped with a sickening splat.
--- And just like that, Ruijeld was driven from the town.
He'd taken all the blame on himself and fled.
It was awful.
Ruijeld had taken off running on his own, leaving us behind.
The guards came and questioned us about what had happened.
I argued that Ruijeld had done nothing wrong.
But I was just a child.
They'd decided I'd been coerced into saying that.
In their eyes, Ruijeld had been plotting something nefarious, and we'd been used as tools.
They didn't know the specifics, but they considered themselves lucky to have averted the worst-case scenario.
That was how it played out in their minds.
The people around us looked at Eris and me with pity—the eyes reserved for innocent, exploited children.
My insides were boiling with rage.
What had Ruijeld supposedly done?
Wasn't everything something I'd done?
Wasn't this whole disaster caused by my own naive thinking?
We returned to the inn and immediately packed our things.
Our luggage wasn't particularly heavy, so it didn't take long. We left the inn.
We had to hurry—Ruijeld might disappear somewhere far away.
Besides, we couldn't stay in this town regardless.
Nokopara was still alive.
He'd said he had companions.
Our fraud was still out there.
Once things cooled down, we'd have no one to back us up.
"Hey, Rudeus..."
As we stepped out of the inn, Kurt came up to us.
I didn't know what to say to him.
He wore a confused expression.
"Why were you with someone like that?"
"Don't say 'someone like that.' Who was it that saved your life? And here you are, scared enough to wet yourself—what happened to all that big talk about rising to the top?"
"No, that... I'm sorry..."
No—no, I shouldn't take it out on Kurt.
He was, if anything, on our side.
"I'm sorry, Kurt. I said too much."
"No, it's fine. You're right."
Kurt was a good guy.
Eris was glaring at him with both hands behind her back.
"Kurt, I have a favor to ask. Repay the debt of your life."
"Yeah, sure. What is it?"
Kurt nodded with a serious face.
"Ruijeld isn't a bad person. He's feared because of something that happened in the past, but he's a good man. Even after we've left this town, spread the word—that's all I ask."
"Oh, uh, yeah. I understand. He's a life-saving benefactor, after all."
Whether he truly understood, I had no idea.
Well, a verbal promise might be enough—he might actually follow through.
--- We stopped by the Adventurer's Guild to remove Jaril and Veskel from 'Dead End.' While we were at it, I asked the clerk to pass along a message.
"Things turned out like this, but we made it out okay. Thanks. 'He' says he's grateful too—please let them know."
They'd betrayed us in the end.
But maybe that couldn't be helped.
In the end, that was the only way they could have saved themselves.
If you closed your eyes to that last part, they had genuinely helped us.
On the way to the town's entrance, I purchased a six-legged reptilian creature—a sort of lizard bred for transport.
It had six legs and big, bouncy eyes that gave it a certain charm.
On the Demon Continent, these creatures filled the role that horses and wagons did elsewhere.
A big enough one could easily carry two full-grown adults. Ten iron coins.
About half of everything we had.
But I'd made up my mind that this was the one thing I'd buy before setting out on a journey.
I'd heard that traveling across the Demon Continent with and without one of these lizards made a world of difference.
I asked the shopkeeper how to handle one, loaded our luggage on, and headed out of town.
The gate was crawling with soldiers.
They might have been about to go hunt down Ruijeld.
Among them, I spotted a familiar face.
A lizard head and a pig head.
They looked pale but also oddly excited.
When I approached, they warned me: "'Dead End' just left, so watch out."
From there, the comments kept coming—Dead End are demons, what were they planning to do in town, and people who'd never even seen Ruijeld were declaring him evil based on nothing but speculation.
"He was in town for nearly two months and never caused a single problem!"
I couldn't hold back and said it.
The gate guard gave me a "Huh?" look.
I glared at both of them, clicked my tongue once, and walked out of town.
My heart was prickling with unease.
--- I had to find Ruijeld again.
Would he still be nearby?
No—he would be.
If his pride as a warrior was genuine.
He wouldn't abandon us—no, he wouldn't abandon Eris.
"This should be far enough."
Once the town had disappeared from view, I fired a magic firework into the sky.
A thunderous boom echoed outward.
Heat rained down as light scattered in every direction.
I waited for a while, but Ruijeld didn't appear.
"Eris, please call for Ruijeld."
Eris called out for Ruijeld at full volume.
What a powerful voice.
After a while, the ones who showed up were Pax Coyote.
I was in a foul mood, so I took it out on them.
The surrounding rocks were obliterated, and the area became a nice open clearing.
The Pax Coyote were reduced to chunks of meat.
Even ripped apart like this, they'd probably revive as zombies.
Hmph—like I cared.
After all, this was about that town.
"Look—there's Ruijeld."
When the fight was over, Ruijeld finally appeared.
He wore a guilty expression.
I wished he wouldn't look like that.
"Why didn't you come immediately when I called?
Were you planning to just disappear silently?"
But for some reason, what came out of my mouth was a sharp, accusatory tone.
I hadn't meant it that way.
"Sorry."
The first words out of his mouth were an apology.
I felt terrible.
By any measure, I was the one at fault.
I'd gotten ahead of myself, brought Jaril and the others into the party, tried to take the easy way forward, gotten caught in my own scheme, had someone exploit it, thought it would somehow work out, and ended up backed into a corner—only for Ruijeld to clean up my mess.
If Ruijeld hadn't taken the blame, we might have been trapped in that town indefinitely.
No—Nokopara was a professional at that game. Even without Kurt and the others, he would have cornered us eventually.
"Why are you apologizing? I should be the one apologizing."
I couldn't bear it.
"No—you did everything you could."
"But—"
"Operations fail. I know that you've been wracking your brain day and night, thinking through every angle."
Ruijeld smiled softly and placed a hand on my head.
"I'll admit, I never quite knew what you were thinking. Until today, I assumed it was some ill-conceived scheme. So, yes—there were many times I had to hold my tongue."
Ruijeld looked at Eris and nodded.
"You were just desperately trying to protect something. Just now—when you were ready to kill that man—I saw that resolve in you."
Just now—ah, when I was about to flood the town.
"If you have something to protect, then you're a warrior."
A warrior.
When he said that, tears almost came.
I wasn't that noble.
I'd been pathetically scheming about money, calculating gains and losses, and I'd been prepared to cut Ruijeld loose.
At the very end, I'd been about to throw away the one person I could count on.
"Ruijeld, I... no, I..."
I spoke from the heart, in my own words.
Without the armor of formal speech—just me, myself.
But I didn't even know what I'd been about to say.
"Don't."
Ruijeld cut me off.
"From now on, put me on the back burner."
"Huh?"
"Relax. Even without repairing my reputation, I'll protect you. Trust me. No—please trust me."
I did trust him.
I believed in him.
He didn't have to do it.
I understood—yes, selling Ruijeld's name was hard work.
Having two objectives muddied my actions and led to impossible demands.
The mental stress I'd been under lately had been immense.
I couldn't think about the things I needed to think about, couldn't come up with the ideas I needed to come up with.
The result was a failure like this one.
So he didn't have to.
But I couldn't accept that either.
Having seen what I'd just seen.
Having witnessed what it looked like to be feared—having seen a man pelted with stones in the middle of a town.
Just accept it? Just say "okay, next time we'll wait outside town, thanks"?
No. I couldn't do that.
"No—I will definitely erase the reputation that's been attached to you, Ruijeld."
If anything, my resolve had only hardened.
This was the least I could do to repay him.
Next time, I'd get it right.
I'd push myself, but within limits, and I'd make it work.
"You really don't learn, do you? Do you trust me so little?"
"I trust you completely. That's exactly why I want to repay you."
I'd been bullied too, back in my old life.
Beneath a label slapped on me, I'd suffered—and spent decades in a world without people.
If Roxy hadn't brought me out, I never would have met
Ruijeld's case and mine were different.
The scale was entirely different.
I knew that.
But even so.
That was no reason for me to abandon Ruijeld.
Unlike Roxy, I couldn't do it unconsciously.
All I could do was keep failing and crawl forward through the mud.
For Ruijeld, it was probably a nuisance.
I might fail again like this and make him clean up my mess.
But that was still better than doing nothing.
"............You're a stubborn one."
"Not as stubborn as you, Ruijeld."
"Heh. Then—I'm counting on you."
Ruijeld gave a wry smile and quietly nodded.
For some reason, at that moment, I felt that Ruijeld and I had truly formed a bond of trust.
--- The next morning.
When I woke up, Ruijeld had shaved his head bald.
I was dumbfounded.
Or rather—it was terrifying.
Combined with the scar on his face, he looked like a yakuza.
"I learned from all this that people fear me because of my hair. So."
I thought that took incredible resolve.
In my world, shaving your head bald carried meaning—a gesture of determination and remorse.
This world didn't have that custom.
It didn't—but.
Seeing what he'd done, I felt like I should shave my head too.
Remorse should be accompanied by action.
If Ruijeld had done it, shouldn't I go bald as well?
No—but still...
"E-Eris, should I do something like that too?"
"No way. I actually really like Rudeus's hair."
I used Eris as my escape hatch.
Laugh at me for my cowardice.