Chapter 385:
Cooperation
I MADE ANOTHER POT OF TEA and set a fresh cup in front of everyone. I stole a glance at Zinal to find him sighing quietly to himself. He looked quite glum. I looked at my father, and he smiled uncomfortably back at me. This is just so indescribably awkward. What do I even do?
“Y’know, from an outsider’s perspective, Zinal really would look like a pedophile,” Fische remarked. Garitt nodded in agreement.
You guys are Zinal’s friends, right? Why kick him when he’s down?
“Gentlemen…” Zinal’s voice was terrifyingly low.
“But I’m not wrong, am I?”
Fische, for the love of peace, don’t look at me. I picked up my cup and took a slow sip of tea. Ahh, so good. So soothing. Yeah. I’m just gonna forget about what I should say and have a nice, entertaining stare at my tea.
“By the way, what were we talking about again?” Garitt asked everyone at the table as he took a bite of pastry.
Right. What were we talking about?
“Huh?” Fische looked at the ceiling.
Zinal sighed loudly in exasperation. “We were trying to figure out why Druid hasn’t become an elite-level adventurer.”
Oh, that’s right. And the room was filled with the tensest air I’d ever breathed.
“Riiight, that’s what we were talking about. So you said there was a problem with your skill?”
Nothing ever seems to faze Fische, does it? And he’s sort of a peacemaker that way? Actually, no, looking back on his actions so far, I think he’s only made things worse.
“Yes, I told you that I didn’t become an elite adventurer because of a problem with my skill.”
“Yes, about that… Wouldn’t registering as an adventurer in the first place give away your skill?” Garitt asked.
My father nodded. “Yes, but as long as I never become an elite adventurer, the information would go no further than the town it was recorded in.”
“Oh! Now that makes sense. Yes, all the towns and villages in the country are notified when someone becomes an elite adventurer.” Zinal nodded in approval.
“Yes, and I wanted to avoid that at any cost. And since the guild master in my hometown is a friend of mine, he let me stay below elite level.”
“Aha, that makes sense,” Fische said. “Too bad you didn’t ask him that in the first place—then he wouldn’t’ve thought you were a pedophile.”
Electricity shot through Zinal’s spine, and Fische grinned wickedly in reply. Garitt just looked at them both with a tired frown.
“Err…” As I sat there, wondering if I should stop them, Garitt looked at me and shook his head.
“Don’t mind them; they’re always like that.”
“Are they, sir? I always thought Mr. Zinal was more levelheaded than that. I guess looks can be deceiving.”
“You just twisted the knife, didn’t you…?”
“Huh?!”
I twisted the knife? I gave Garitt a confused look, but he just smirked back at me. Uh-oh, did I say something wrong? Oh! Looks can be deceiving… I looked at Zinal, who responded with an innocent smile. I’d better just smile back. Oh, drat. My tea’s gotten cold
“By the way, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” My father faced the three men across from us solemnly. Garitt munched on the last pastry and gestured for him to speak. “Zephyr…your party…are you investigators?”
Investigators? As I looked up at my father in confusion, the trio exchanged looks.
“How did you know?”
“You seemed to know an unusual amount about elite-level adventurers, and you all act a bit different from others of that rank as well.”
The only elite-level adventurers I knew were Rattloore and his party. Did they really act differently? I didn’t see it.
“Druid, you’ve clearly been through hell. Most people wouldn’t notice.” Zinal frowned critically at my father.
Hell, huh… I looked at my father, who had a sheepish expression on his face. As somebody who’d lived a negligent life, he’d definitely been through all sorts of hellish experiences.
“Well, it’s in the past now. So?”
“Yeah, you’re right. We’re hired investigators. We keep tabs on elite adventurers.”
Elite-adventurer investigators? I gave Zinal a confused look, so he explained that elite adventurers were respected simply for having the title. However, there was no guarantee that all of them deserved that respect. Some elite adventurers took advantage of their positions to do bad things, and Zinal and his party investigated them. His explanation was rough, but it seemed like they were character evaluators. That sounded like a really tough job.
“Is it okay for us to know about this?” my father asked.
Zinal awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. That meant it was supposed to be a secret.
“Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone. Right, Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“That certainly sounds like a hard job,” I said. Investigating a person’s character felt like it would be a daunting task.
“You think so? But it’s fun to find faults in people, right?” Garitt asked. Zinal and Fische nodded in agreement.
Wait a minute, does Garitt have a wicked streak like Zinal? Are they all a bit sadistic at heart? I glanced at my dad, and he slowly nodded back at me. I see. Zephyr is a force to be feared.
“Hm? Something wrong?” Zinal asked innocently.
We shook our heads no.
First impressions really are unreliable. You know, I just noticed everyone’s much more relaxed now. Even Dad has let his rigid guard down. I guess these guys are good at bringing out people’s true colors, huh? Maybe that’s why they’re investigators.
“You’ve got a sharp mind, Ivy.”
Ah, they stopped calling me “Miss!” And no, Zinal, you’re the sharp one. I didn’t even say anything.
“Why d’ya think he couldn’t figure these people out?” Garitt asked.
“Yeah, usually he can read a person like a book,” Fische agreed, giving me a curious look.
“Maybe because Ivy’s cute? And that dampened his judgment?”
“Ah, then that would have to mean he’s…”
“Give it a rest! Everyone makes mistakes!”
Garitt and Fische both seemed to get a kick out of pushing Zinal’s buttons, and he didn’t come across as too terribly angry about it, either. They had a really laid-back vibe about them. Completely the opposite of the way they’d been when we first entered their room.
“So, was there anything else?” my father asked.
Zinal and his men gave him a strange look.
Wait a minute… Yeah, they did say there was something they wanted to ask us and something they wanted our help with, right? I think the question they wanted to ask was about my father being an adventurer, so they still wanted to ask for our help with something, yeah?
“Didn’t you say you wanted our help with something?”
“Oh, that’s right! We wanted to pick your brains about this.”
So they wanted to pick our brains, not get our help… What could it be about?
Zinal cleared his throat, then looked us both in the eye. “Listening to the village chatter and what the guild masters have been saying has raised many concerns for us. Druid, since you’ve got abundant experience and knowledge, we’d like to ask if you’d help us.”
My father looked at the three men one at a time and nodded. “If it’s something within my power, I will help you.”
“Thanks. Um, as for Ivy…”
“I’ll help you only if she’s included,” my father said. Zinal fell into thought, and even Fische looked a bit uncomfortable by the proposal. “Ivy is only nine years old, but she’s had a lot of life experience, so it’s okay to include her.”
Well, yeah, I definitely have had a lot of experience. I guess you’d describe me as “worldly” for my age? Not that I’m happy about it, though!
“What?!” Zephyr gasped.
“Well, it’s a long story…” my father said.
“Aha, got it.” Garitt nodded, sensing something in my father’s tone. There was a look in his eyes that I couldn’t put my finger on, though.
“Sooo…first, about the village gossip. There’s the one about the trash levels at the dump and the one about the adventurer carrying dead bodies in the middle of the night. Either of those rumors ring any bells?”
Zinal stared at my father. We’d heard about the trash levels…but an adventurer carrying dead bodies?
“We heard it was a specter, not an adventurer, sir,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s right. We heard the rumor about the trash level, too,” my father said.
Where along the line did the specter change into an adventurer? When we heard the rumor, the person it happened to was telling it. So the “specter” was just how that person interpreted it, right? I think it was a black specter?
“So you heard.”
“Yes, we wandered around the village to listen in on gossip, too.”
“Of course you did.” Garitt and Fische both looked impressed.
Come to think of it…what does a specter even look like? It’s a black… No, a white-sheeted thing with no feet and… Huh?
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