As promised, the spring greens picking picnic ended on the third day. Many people regretted it, but Crank simply made them understand.
“Free escort until today. See you again next spring. Of course, if you pay properly, you can always.”
“Oh my, was this free?”
“I will pay for the carriage rental.”
Maria’s words, of course, those who thought that escort expenses were included, had no choice but to agree. And rather, it made his eyes shine.
“So next year, 3 days are free?”
Crank pointed at Maria.
“That benefit is now available only to members of the Seventh Street Women’s Society.”
“Only 7th Street Ladies can join the 7th Avenue Women’s Association. Other than that, consult.”
Soon many wives flocked to Mary. Maria smiled and gave Crank a thumbs up, and Crank also raised a thumbs up.
It was a time when jobs were gradually increasing in the city, and the activity of monsters was also increasing, so it was not possible to go out every day.
Baskets and sacks full of loot, girls and women thanked Crank and its automatons.
“Good job everyone! It was an exciting picnic!”
“Yeah, thank you. Thanks to you, my pocket money is good.”
“I don’t think I’ll be worried about cold streets for a while.”
“If you plan to go out in the fall, please apply to Maria. You will be paid properly then.”
“Are you going out in the fall? really? i want to apply Look, four automatons are following you? Wouldn’t that be better than following the upper management?”
“Oh, then should I go too?”
After dropping off the boisterous people at the plaza, they returned the wagon to the guild and were about to return, but Orion, the guild receptionist, caught them.
“wait a minute!”
“Oh! Orion! what’s the matter?”
Orion, who smiled at Carrot, looked at Ariete.
“Someone came from Viscount Ibeck. Dear Ariete,”
Ariete’s face, which had been standing still, began to tremble and then flushed red with anger. Then, suddenly, he burst into rage and started screaming in anger.
“aaaiiik-!”
“Huh? Ariete?”
Ariete, who had been hiding her face with both hands, suddenly drew out her sword and started running. Orion stunned and stepped aside, and Crank shouted.
“Stop Ariete!”
The Crank family’s automaton went all out. Ariete pushed through the guild door and began to look around with sad eyes. Guild management staff stepped forward to see that the situation was not serious.
“What are you doing?”
“Arriete, insert your sword. This is a guild.”
“Where is the guy who came to see me!”
Operations staff member Maron walked in front of her and untied his arm. Then he pointed at Ariete’s sword.
“Put it back in.”
Ariete ignored it and moved on. Of course, I had no intention of cutting him. However, Maron did not allow the person who drew the sword to move more than three steps within the guild.
Turton-! Wow… … !
Ariete, who came to her senses, was surprised to find herself lying on the guild floor. A cough came up from the sudden shock.
“town-?! Cool cool-!”
Maron, who grabbed the hand that held the sword and pulled it back, turned it around in the air with his legs, turned back the longsword he had snatched and raised his gaze. Just then, the automatons were pouring in. Carrot, who was the most advanced, stopped with his arms wide open.
From noble mtl dot com
“What! stop! It’s Marron! These are the operating staff! Those guys are dangerous! Just throw people with strange techniques!”
Realizing that the automatons had come to stop them, Maron smiled softly, and the nearby operation staff moved away from their seats.
“Wait a minute. I will call the person who came to you.”
“Huh-wook… … !”
Ariete, sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her half-raised knees, raised a dark gaze with a hard face. Carrot, who thought her condition was strange, placed automatons behind her so that he could attack at any time.
Before long, the person waiting in the interview room on the first floor appeared. It was a woman wearing a luxurious robe with a hood covering her face. She recognized Ariete, who was sitting on the floor, and raised her hand, shaking it gently.
“Oh, Ariete?”
Ariete, who looked like she could kill people with her eyes, turned her head. But those eyes quickly faded.
“pie!”
Viscount Ibeck’s maid Pie took off her hood and came running crying. Then he hugged Ariete, who was sitting on the floor.
“Ariete! You really are alive!”
“Ugh! Ugh, ugh, I tried to die, but I’m alive… … !”
Ariete also cried and pulled her head and waist.
Crank, who entered the guild belatedly, was unable to comprehend the situation when he saw two women sitting on the floor hugging and crying.
He saw Carrot. Carrot shrugged and shook her head. So this time I saw Maron. Marron, who was holding the longsword, also closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What is this?”
“Uh huh? Ariete?”
Tuna looked at the crying Ariete with her head sticking out from behind the crank.
Everyone heard the story of Pi, who came to Ariete in a private room rented by the guild. Ariete’s eyebrows rise.
“You are looking for me? Is that woman?”
“After hearing about you, I inquired and sent a letter, but there was no reply, so I came to find out for myself.”
“Damn it… … ! Should I have sent a fake reply?”
Ariete turned her head and clenched her fist on the table. Pai, who was examining her, turned to the people around her and stood up to greet them.
“My name is Maid Pie, who works for Viscount Ibeck. Ariete and I are childhood friends. Thank you so much for taking care of our lady.”
Crank, who was crossing his arms, frowned, but he couldn’t see it because he was behind his helmet.
“I guessed that one day this would happen.”
“what? Did you know?!”
When Ariete gave up, Crank turned the pitch.
“If you look at the quirks you do every time you receive a letter, you can predict various possibilities. It is just one of them.”
“Turn it off… … !”
Ariete turned her head again and made a sound of strength.
“Sudden increase in heart rate, is this a combat situation?”
Suddenly, Shion’s voice flowed from Ariete’s body. Pie, who was looking around with a surprised face, asked in a trembling voice. It’s like crying with a smile on your face.
“I-I hear… … .”
In the first place, the rumor Pi had heard about Ariete’s life and death was the story of a female knight in a steam cloak who wore an automaton prosthetic arm because he had no limbs, and it was a fairly famous story that spread to the capital.
They themselves didn’t really know.
Pai, who had hoped that it would be a rumor after checking the limbs that were still attached to each other when they met again, saw Ariete suddenly get up and covered her mouth with both hands.
“Shion, take me out.”
Cheeky-! Catch up!
Because I saw more hands in the 3rd repair work, the movement of the variable skeleton became quicker. Ariete looked down at Pie, as several fixtures were loosened and her severed arm removed.
“Zion now lift me up.”
The exoskeleton automaton Shion inserted his arm into Ariete’s armpit in his chest and lifted it up.
The body of a woman in short shorts and a tank top was lifted up.
There were no limbs.
“Aww! To Ariete!”
Pai, eyes wide open, sobbed. Ariete also squeezed out her tears as she spoke.
“I lost both arms and legs one day and everything I had. It was a terrible day. The day I decided to kill myself, a little girl collapsed in front of me. I wanted to protect that child. Lastly, even if I died, I wanted to save that child.”
Ariete turned her head and looked at Carrot.
“That is you, Carrot. You are my last expression of courage.”
“Oh, thank you. I am the symbol of your last courage, so I am happy.”
Crank intervened.
“It hurts if you hang on too long. Shion, wear it again.”
Shion put Ariete inside her body again. Crank looked at Ariete and said.
“Is that the reason why you can sleep soundly when you hug Carrot?”
“E, the symbol of the last courage, and the reward that accompanies it.”
Tuna, still hiding behind the crank, murmured while chewing on her thumbnail. Ariete, who had merged with Shion again, raised her arm and pointed at everyone in the room.
“If it weren’t for these people here, I would be dead. Even if I had been rescued, I would have killed myself shortly after. All of these, including the automaton, are my real family who think of me. But now and I go back to the woman who treats me as cattle? It can’t be.”
Pai, who knew the situation, nodded while crying. She stood up and hugged Ariete.
“I know you’re alive, so that’s okay. do whatever you want.”
Ariete, who was crying, eventually hugged her.
“pie-!”
The two women embraced each other again and began to cry. Carrot murmured.
“It would hurt if you hugged Ariete, but there are a lot of places that protrude.”
“hmm.”
After the story is over, Pi decides to stay at the inn and return the next day.
“I’ll tell you when I get back that I was wrong. It was someone else.”
“thanks.”
Pie laughed.
“Are you talking like the deceased head of the family? She used to talk like a sweet girl before.”
“Uh, uh, mo, that kind of tone didn’t suit an adventurer. A lot of people looked down on me.”
Ariete stuttered. Crank, who was crossing his arms, said.
“You must have a lot of backlogs, would you like to visit our studio for a while? We will find a reliable inn for you.”
“Uh, does it matter anyway?”
“You can’t just send your childhood friend who came to visit you from afar.”
I decided to move to the workshop and was about to leave the private room, but Marvin’s guild master came down to the lobby, looked back at them, let out a short sigh, and sent me off without saying anything.
Crank nodded his pitch and thanked him for his consideration.
When they got far enough away, Marvin’s guild master started laughing greedily.
“The good stories never stop! Khehehe!”
As if his head hurt, Orion touched his forehead and said.
“Ah, guild master please, why are you doing that again?”
“What are you talking about! Aren’t they all trying to pay you guys! Maron! Hurry up to collect data! Even the little things are great!”
Maron, who was standing with the other operation staff, nodded.
* * *
Upon arriving at the workshop, Pie looked inside and began to sob again.
“This, this… in a place… … How are you?”
“Excuse me! It is the most peaceful place in the world for me! There was no place to sleep at one time, so I was willing to go homeless!”
Dull-!
After dusting off their bodies with compressed air, the people who entered the workshop began to organize the items they had brought. Pi stood in Odokani and watched their daily life.
After finishing their work, the automatons sat in neatly arranged chairs and waited. The chairs had their names written on them.
Seeing that, Pai widened her eyes.
“Is that a magic charger?”
“yes. I made it because it was annoying to send it to the charging station every time. Connect and use the pre-charged mana stone. Actually, I wanted to prepare a mana generator, but it was a bit difficult to use for home use.”
“A mana generator?”
Pi was looking at Crank, who was making an amazing sound, with disbelief when Carrot appeared.
“Get out of the way, get out of the way! It’s narrow, don’t block the road! childhood friend!”
“Oh, yes!”
“Don’t stand there, sit here.”
Ariete, who came down from Shion, walked with automaton prosthetic arms and legs like real ones. Seeing that, Pai was thrilled.
“Ariete! It’s like old times! It looks so much better!”
Ariete laughed. She said, lifting her right arm.
“The maintenance guild made it for an experiment. I use it for everyday life.”
Pai smiled brightly and nodded.
The meal was prepared by Carrot and Charles. In the meantime, Pie started talking while drinking tea.
Crank, who heard everything about Ariete’s origin, family, family background, and why she became an adventurer, looked at Ariete.
“Is it the beginning of the family that a soldier who defected from Izelia received a noble title in Riznet? That’s why I used Izelia’s writing.”
“Only my deceased father is from Izelia, and the woman is from Liznet. It’s just fluff. He is a man of vanity.”
“Oh oh. I’ve seen a lot of people like that. He likes to reveal himself and lives out of a sense of superiority.”
As Carrot brought the plate, Ariete took it and passed it aside and nodded.
“It was. My father passed away from a chronic disease, and our family, which only had daughters, began to decline. In the meantime, the woman with the blood of a merchant stepped forward and started to build a family. Do you know how you did it?”
“how?”
Ariete gave a ridiculous smile.
“He sold his daughters.”