Mission No.3 Little Devils (16)
Obviously, when the morning sun was over the horizon, the crew got on the road looking quite lively.
However, the team members who set out with their hearts pounding with useless excitement and strange anxiety all groaned on Ebalt’s back with a dying expression.
“Captain, take a break and go.”
Hearing Elif’s harsh voice, Ewald turned around.
It was long before dusk fell, and Ewald, who checked the elf whose outline was not properly visible, gave a brief reply.
“Everything is here.”
“It’s been that way since an hour ago.”
I couldn’t see it very well, but it was certain that he was dying.
Ewald, who was about to ask if he was saying he was dying even though he only moved a little less than 80 kilometers in a day, repeated the same answer.
“It’s all here.”
“Where are you?”
“Excuse me.”
Elif, who had been rocking back and forth on his horse all day, looked at the direction Ewald pointed at with a drawn face.
A small light shimmered in the distance.
“Ka, are you Kaisenburg?”
As if tired, Fior’s haggard voice continued.
Ewald nodded and replied.
“Since you made the schedule, it must be right.”
Since it was getting dark, Fiorir, who did not notice the cold eyes of the crew members, threw out words of thanks while ignoring the name of God without knowing it.
Although he had planned it, he didn’t know it would be this far, so Pioneer, quite embarrassed, let out a long sigh.
At least, the route so far was a great plain, so it was not particularly difficult, so when it was decided that it was the most comfortable day out of the entire itinerary, Pioneer got goosebumps.
Besides, there were four more days before he changed his dispatch at the next station.
Fionir let out a sigh.
But Ewald threw the death sentence with a hiss.
“Let’s get some rest and pick up some speed tomorrow.”
* * *
“Welcome.”
The rich-looking innkeeper welcomed the seven people and horses.
The innkeeper, calming the breathing horse, picked up the people who were jumping off the horses one by one and led them into the building.
However, after sending the party in, Ebalt rummaged through his bag and called the innkeeper.
“Do you take care of the horses yourself or do you train them?”
“Yes, yes? Should I do it myself?”
“Then feed them one by one.”
What he took out of his bag were seven small bottles.
The innkeeper, holding a bottle of red liquid in his hand, tilted her head.
“What is this?”
“It’s a potion.”
The innkeeper opened his mouth wide at the bourgeois who asked him to feed the horse a potion that no one else could eat.
An ordinary inn came into Ewald’s eyes, as if drawn in a very picturesque way.
On the first floor of the inn, where tables and chairs are arranged in an orderly manner as if serving as a restaurant, members of the crew were scattered here and there.
Of course, Usbel, who was not human in the first place, was running around with strength remaining. Unlike whining, Elif was lying face down on the table normally, and Ekryn was breathing in the most normal position.
The rest of the staff were incompetent.
I don’t think I have the strength to speak because everyone is dying.
“Hey, it’s been a while.”
Whether the crew did it or not, Ewald looked around with emotion.
In the past, when traveling around the continent in full swing, this was common, but Ebalt, who was soaked in nostalgia for the first time in a while, nodded and pulled a chair.
“Long time no see? Long time no see?”
Usbel, who far surpassed human stamina, approached with quick steps. Ewald stroked Usbel’s head while smiling like a child.
“27 years have definitely passed, right?”
The old woman, who was clearing the table with a face asking if a young man who looked less than twenty-seven years old was talking like that, passed by Ewald with a mischievous laugh. However, Ewald, who is in a cheerful mood, doesn’t seem to care about that.
“I remember the old days. When you come into a place like this, the village chief will come and ask if you’re going on an adventure, and he just said he’d like to ask you something.”
“Is it so? Is it so?”
“A bunch of bandits or what? I miss you.”
It is an expression completely submerged in melancholy.
Usbel brought a chair next to Ewald, jumped up, sat down, and looked up at Ewald while swinging both legs.
“A village chief? Is that the village head?”
“Yes. In the past, security was not good, so people came to visit every five villages.”
“Are you adventurous?”
Ewald turned his head behind his back.
There, to anyone’s eyes, an old man who looked like the village chief was standing with a cane.
“… I used to do chores like this.”
* * *
“I am not an adventurer.”
Ewald bowed his head to the old man, who appeared as a typical village elder, and stood up while offering a chair.
“But he seems to be a swordsman.”
The old man, who groaned and leaned back with his cane, sat down in a chair.
Ewald silently turned the chair to face the old man.
“I use a knife, but I do.”
“Well then, I have a request. There’s some trouble in town…”
“I can’t.”
Ewald flatly refused.
But the old man let out a deep sigh without saying anything.
“… Then I see. Excuse me.”
“No, old man.”
The old man, who finished the conversation before he could say anything, struggled to get up from his chair.
Even so, Ewald felt apologetic as his stooped waist seemed to shrink even more, but Schheim was in a hurry now.
“I’m sorry you’re busy.”
“You’re welcome.”
The old man walked out the door of his inn with his saggy shoulders drooping.
His back figure kept getting caught in his eyes, but Balt, who soon cleared it out of his head, ordered one of his beers and sighed deeply.
“Master, Master, if you’re going to sigh like that, why don’t you listen at least?”
Ewald secretly tousled Usbel’s hair and smiled bitterly.
“It would be more a pity to say ‘No’ after hearing all of that old man’s story.”
“mmm, is that so?”
“It’s better not to torture hope.”
“The beer is out.”
The innkeeper, who had put down his beer mug in front of Ewald, turned around with a somewhat dark expression.
Unsatisfied with that appearance, Ewald casually raised his beer mug. I want to listen to you if you have enough time. But…
“It’s been a while since we had a group guest.”
The innkeeper roamed around Ewald, combing the cleaned floor.
Ewald sighed louder and put down his beer glass.
“… Let’s not go round and round, let’s get to the point.”
“I hope you can help me.”
“That’s the conclusion, let’s not skip the intermediate steps.”
“… All right.”
Soon after, the innkeeper, who brought a new beer, sat down in the chair across from Ewald.
“I don’t know if the customer knows, but Kaisenburg has been around for a long time…”
“I think all you have to do is ask for what, how, what, and for how long.”
“You have a hot personality.”
It’s just that I don’t like additional explanations.
The innkeeper nodded his head.
“The Magic Bandits are rampaging.”
“It’s the most common type.”
Ewald sipped his beer mug.
“Because they are human traffickers, the damage to the village is great.”
“Because that makes the most money.”
The innkeeper’s impression was greatly distorted by such a calm reaction.
“You don’t know the home base, personnel, and armed status, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
A common development Ewald looked at the innkeeper, struggling to suppress his facial expression.
“We are on a mission as Hwangmyeong. I’d like to help, but it’s hard to move with just the information you’ve just given.”
A dark expression passed over the innkeeper’s face.
“Then…”
“Just like I told you, it won’t work.”
“… Is that so?”
“That’s right.”
Ewald slowly lowered his head.
The innkeeper, who said he was on a mission, had nothing more to say, and tried to stand up while bowing his head in the same way toward Ewald.
However, Ewald seems to have not finished his words.
“Do you have parchment?”
“… Yes?”
“Give me something to write on, either parchment or scroll, and a pen.”
Ewald scratched his head wildly and set his beer mug aside.
“Now, wait a minute.”
The owner, who hastily left, approached Ewald while flapping a sheet of parchment covered with dust.
Ewald took over the parchment almost as if it had been taken away, and quickly wrote down with a pen.
“Okay then, take this.”
Ewald rolled up the parchment and handed it to the owner.
“Go to the capital and find the Templars’ Garrison at the end of ‘Wing Avenue’. And if it’s a request from a human named Ebalt, it will be dealt with.”
“Lord, are you stationed there?”
“Not to the lower classes, but to Marcus…”
After he stopped talking for a moment, Balt clicked his tongue loudly once.
“Just grab someone and say, ‘Ewald gave a f*cking f*ck to tell him to deliver it to Marcus’. Even if we don’t meet Marcus, that will come through.”
“That, then? Are you saying you can help us then?”
“Perhaps a unit will be dispatched.”
“Are you sure?”
Ewald shrugged his shoulders.
“It will be dealt with within a month. It may take a little longer, but we’ll be stopping by on the way, so if we haven’t dispatched by then, we can deal with it. Well, something like that.”
The innkeeper held Ewald’s hands with a face full of emotion.
From noble mtl dot com
“Thank you! Thank you, Adventurer! Thank you!”
“No, thank you when the work is done.”
Ewald looked away from the innkeeper with a shy face.
“Just give me a room.”
“Nothing. Of course, adventurer. Of course I would. Best room…”
“Four double rooms.”
“… Yes?”
“All in twin beds. Is it breakfast?”
“Ah yes. All are twin beds. Breakfast, of course.”
“How much would it be if I added a hot bath for one night and the fee for using the stable?”
How much? He opened his mouth with a face that said he was not the owner.
“Oh no, no, no. Just…”
“You wouldn’t do business by digging the ground.”
The owner, who looked at Ewald with an expression that seemed like there were all these people, stuttered.
“All in all, it is 84 geld.”
“It’s cheap.”
Ewald nodded his head.
“Calculate, Fior.”
“… All right.”
Fionir, who was dead, jumped to his feet with his coin pouch.
Peonyr, who approached the owner with footwork similar to that of a ghoul or zombie, opened the bag of coins while rubbing the terrifyingly thick dark circles.
“Master, please set aside one room as a single room.”
Ewald slightly frowned at Pionir’s additional order.
“What about the room?”
“Captain’s room is calculated separately…”
“Is the money rotting? That’s a tax, man.”
In the end, Fiornier, who hadn’t even made a sound, did the calculations and grabbed the innkeeper’s arm.
“Sorry. Please give me the men’s room first.”
The innkeeper nodded his head hastily, because he was bleeding and he was about to die, and almost dragged Pionir on his back and disappeared to the second floor.
Shortly thereafter, Elif and Ekrin, who had surrounded the half-fainted Shupea and Adele, stumbled up to the second floor, guided by the innkeeper.
“I need to start with physical training.”
“I will, I will. I am too weak.”
Of course, he was a non-human Ewald in a different sense from the non-human Usbel, so he said that. Ewald, who casually spat out lines that the other crew members would have jumped out of injustice if they heard them, emptied his remaining beer.
Then came the neighing of horses from his stable.
“Master, master, are the horses very lively? I’m up and running.”
“Since I fed the potion, I’m going to see my weak hair come on, well.”
Ewald, who was looking at the empty beer glass in a casual tone, licked his lips.
“Beer, is it okay?”
“Give me one too, please.”
“… Let’s ask him when he comes down.”
“Good good.”
The innkeeper started running down the stairs with a bang.
Did you hear about asking for a beer?
By the time the thought of sorry for jumping down so quickly came to mind, the innkeeper passed by Ewald and ran out of the inn.
“These guys!”
Completely ignored, Ewald and Usbel turned around and looked back.
The image of the owner who ran out with the energy to break down the inn door disappeared into the darkness.
“Should I go out and see?”
“It is, isn’t it?”
The two burst out of the inn door.
The completely darkened street narrowed my view, but I could quickly find the figure of the innkeeper, who was so large.
“Can not be done! No, Dennis!”
The innkeeper shouted urgently and ran somewhere.
However, he was so fat that he couldn’t even run a few steps, and his breath was up to his chin.
Ebalt, who had followed him, spoke to him in a worried tone.
“What happened…”
“Mo, adventurer!”
The owner grabbed Ewald by the collar.
Ebalt scratched his head at the unexpected incident, but the owner, whose face turned red, pressed his fist hard.
“Ooh, save my child, adventurer!”
“… Yes?”
“Master, Master!”
This time it’s Usbel.
Uthbel’s sonorous voice flew to Ewald, who turned his head away without being able to free himself from the master’s collar.
“Someone stole all our horses.”