Volume 3 Chapter 82 Quest： Aperitif II
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Rufna had been mixing up some bombs and potions for use against the Bloodsucking Kind, so Kian decided to take Natra and go meet Priscilla.
The waves of magic power from the white-haired Witch were still rolling in from the direction of the warehouse district.
She must be continuing the modifications on the carriage, preparing for when he might suddenly pop in and say, “Guess I need your help after all.”
Whether you saw this as stubbornness or foresight depended on who you asked, it seemed.
”About that Witch──do you think we could negotiate with her again and make her agree, even if it’s just for show?”
”If the pig won’t squeal, I’ll make it squeal. She’s a dangerous Witch, different from Natasha.”
As they crossed the bridge over the grand canal, Kian walked alongside Natra and engaged in conversation.
The sun was high now, casting a dark shadow beneath Natra’s body.
While most accessed the warehouses by water, some merchants used the bridges for transport, making the road fairly busy.
He avoided an oncoming cart and pressed close to Natra.
The scent of her sweat was sexy and arousing.
Between f*cking Natra and screwing Maribel, Kian had lost the ability to laugh at Jibril’s penchant for young girls.
And with Natra around most of the time, it seemed his own sexual tastes were only getting weirder by the day.
After crossing the bridge and rounding the second corner in the warehouse district, they saw that the flashy red carriage was still parked out front, with Priscilla’s familiar busy reinforcing and modifying it.
There were sturdy planks of wood and expensive metal fittings scattered around, and a lone black umbrella was floating in the air, commanding a squad of dragon bone soldiers.
Priscilla herself was set up a bit further away with a desk and chair, fanning herself with a large uchiwa while seemingly working on some documents.
”Ms. Priscilla!”
”……? Lord Kian. What is it? Are you going to make a contract with me and become a beneficiary?”
She set down her feather pen and stood up.
Her eyes were still directed at the documents.
”Yeah, that’s why I came to consult you.”
”Oh, really? So what did you come for… Wait, what!? You want to make a deal with me!?”
Priscilla quickly lifted her face to look at Kian.
She was so enthusiastic that she bumped her forehead against her familiar’s shoulder and yelped, “Ouch!”
It was an adorable move, but thanks to her past antics, it just looked like a calculated action.
Kian ignored her with a serious face and decided to get straight to the point.
”I’ve decided to go to Ramsey after all. I’d like to consult with you about the various things once more. I know I turned you down before, and I feel ashamed of my boldness, but can we talk again?”
”Of course! But why the sudden change? Did something happen?”
Priscilla said that while gathering the documents she had spread out on the desk and thrusting them into her familiar’s hands.
What peeked out looked like employee pay slips.
It seemed like she had been taking care of her Guild’s labor procedures.
’How much should I say?’
(Friedrich told you to keep it under wraps, but if you were going to get help from Priscilla, you should let her in on some details. You needed to show sincerity to this Witch without betraying Friedrich’s trust.)
”Actually, I just received a confidential request. It’s a quest related to the Bloodsucking Kind that’s causing trouble in Ramsey. I can’t give you the details because I have to keep it under wraps, but it’s a search mission. The goal is to enter Ramsey without being noticed by Lord Owl and to recover the people involved in the request. If they’re dead, I also have to confirm the bodies and collect their belongings.”
”Hmm, I see…”
”Ramsey is far away. I’ll need supplies for weapons maintenance and food since I might not be able to resupply in town. I was thinking I would need a way to travel that can distract Lord Owl while carrying all of that.”
”What about winter gear? Well, I’m with the Southern Brigade, you know… I do have some mountain soldier gear from the Châtillon Knights ready.”
”I’d rather not wear a coat since I want to look like an ordinary cobbler. My friends over here are collecting some stuff, so I’m good.”
Priscilla nodded as she pushed the chair back under the table.
”Gotcha, gotcha. Let’s move somewhere else. It’s super hot here, and the noise from the wagon repairs is too loud.”
”Is the work okay?”
”Of course it’s going to be put off! I’ll lead you to the sitting room, just wait a sec.”
”About the house──if you don’t mind me asking, where’s Lord Renaud?”
”He’s talking with Her Excellency Maribel in the dining hall. He should head to the salon in about an hour, so don’t worry about it.”
”I see.”
Priscilla repeated, “Just wait a moment,” then thwacked her spinning black umbrella to settle it down.
The umbrella seemed to have some will of its own, as it hit her forehead.
After that, Kian and Natra landed on the premises of the Renaud residence through Priscilla’s gate.
The grounds had an Eastern style favored by the Shin people, with white gravel, pine trees, and large black rocks representing mountains and rivers.
There was even a bamboo grove planted in a corner of the garden.
Feeling a bit nervous about the unusual architecture, they followed Priscilla around the distinctive main building with the black ceramic roof and headed toward the back entrance.
They took off their shoes like Priscilla, then were led into a spacious tatami room.
The interior had a heavy touch of Renaud’s tastes.
”I’ll get some drinks ready right away. So, you want to sneak into Ramsey to search for people? What do you plan to do about your agent mission for Her Excellency Maribel?”
”I intend to carry it out together.”
”You want to break into Ramsey posing as a cobbler, search for missing persons without Lord Owl noticing, investigate the local monsters, and audit Lord Owl’s performance? Isn’t that a bit challenging?”
”We won’t know anything until we get there. I think we’ll have to take a big detour around Lord Owl’s forward base.”
When Kian said this, Priscilla frowned.
”Wait a minute. Doesn’t that put you inside the Hairkin Races’ territory? Everyone there are Beastmen. It’ll be super hard to hide if they’re on patrol.”
”Lady Priscilla, we’re professionals at infiltration. We know plenty of ways to slip past unnoticed. Just avoiding detection isn’t the only point of infiltration.”
”But it really feels like you’re walking into trouble on purpose. I have to ask, what happens if Lord Owl finds you?”
”We’ll probably get locked up within the walls of the merchant city Ramsey and put under Owl’s control. Searching for monsters and doing investigations will get pretty tricky.”
The sliding door opened, and Priscilla’s familiar brought in a tea set.
Priscilla watched the familiar set the silver tray of muffins directly onto the tatami floor before speaking.
”Lord Owl is trying to control Adventurers so they can’t kill those monsters, right?”
”And also to avoid accidentally boosting the monster side’s strength. That monster has the ability to gain allies, so if a capable Adventurer gets absorbed, it could become impossible to take it down.”
”Can’t we find some compromise with Lord Owl? Honestly, I think it’s impossible to perform the infiltration without being noticed by him. You should just openly declare that you were sent to observe by Her Excellency Maribel and carry out the investigation.”
(Hmm)
Kian silently contemplated Priscilla’s opinion for a moment.
She was right; if they stated right off that Owl would consider it an act of rebellion against Maribel if he weren’t allowed to investigate, he wouldn’t be able to openly complain.
If he opposed it, he would lose his command (although, there’s the issue of no one being able to take over after Owl gets removed).
Kian’s lucky to have a big, fancy title like Master Knight, and he’s no stranger to Owl either.
If he agrees to binds like not fighting monsters and limiting his time in dangerous domains, they might let him move freely under surveillance.
”You might be right, but we can negotiate with Lord Owl even if we get caught, right? I think we should sneak in first and if we’re discovered, we can just apologize and say ‘Please let us investigate.’”
”No, no, that would be the worst-case scenario…”
”I think Lord Owl will stay the same. If we make it clear it’s a mission from Her Excellency, he’ll listen without getting upset.”
Owl’s nature is more monster than man.
He deeply ‘adores’ Maribel and, twisted as he is, he tries to be the perfect knight for her.
So, his senses are pretty different from a normal human’s.
As long as you avoid triggering his ‘angry’ points, like harming Maribel or ruining her reputation, he can be very rational and reasonable.
”You sound confident. Oh, I see, you and Lord Owl are allies who fought against Oswald together. So you know him well?”
”Yes, Mr. Owl should respect ‘a knight who faithfully carries out Her Excellency Maribel’s orders’ to the utmost.”
”Got it. In that case, I’ll have a merchant’s carriage disguised as a cobbler’s ready for you. There’s a smaller one in the warehouse that’s quicker to repair and disguise. Sorry, can you wait until morning? I’ll rush the job.”
”You can really have it ready by morning!?”
”Of course. It’s an urgent, top-secret mission, right? I’ll push myself a bit.”
”Thank you” “Lady Priscilla, thank you”
Why she’s so kind to him feels kinda creepy, but this is the moment to honestly show gratitude.
”If there’s anything you want me to get locally, just say. Though, most of what we bring back will probably be monster parts.”
”That’s enough. If possible, I’d like samples of the villagers turned into monsters. Whole ones if you can. If not, even scraps of flesh would be good. It’s not something money can buy, after all.”
”Natra, do you think it’s doable?”
”If we stop by villages inside the monster domain, we might encounter some samples. The mission seems like it’ll take a while, so there should be plenty of chances. The problem is after we get the samples. Preserving them’s tough, so we need to hand them over quickly. Two or 3 of us will probably head back to the border.”
”No problem there. The research on the samples will be done locally. You just need to neutralize the targets if you encounter them──don’t have to destroy.”
”Research on-site? What exactly does that mean──”
Priscilla delicately brings the tea given by her familiar to her lips with elegant grace.
”It means just that. One of the Châtillon’s witches will accompany you.”
”Lady Priscilla, I’d rather you didn’t do that.”
Natra raises an eyebrow as she says it.
”Sorry, but you don’t understand how dangerous infiltration missions are. Having research staff along just slows us down significantly. And when it really counts, we’ll need to pull in valuable fighting force to protect the witch.”
”Don’t worry.I’m sending the best witch I’ve got, so it’ll be fine. She’s really good at infiltration.”
”What kind of person is she? What’s her background?”
”────”
Priscilla sets her cup down on the saucer and flashes a quick smile.
”That’s a secret. But she’s a specialist with proper military training.”
”Really?”
”Yeah. No point in lying about it here, right?”
”────”
Kian looked down at Natra.
Natra shook her head silently.
”You can basically ignore that kid. If she’s a hassle, just leave her somewhere. If she causes danger, you can use her as bait and escape.”
”There’s no way that’s okay! Once we decide to form a party, we’re a team. I can’t just throw her away because she’s in the way! There’s the risk of information leaking, and if along the way people think ‘that one is just bait in a pinch,’ it’ll lower the team’s morale. Decision-making will slow down in a crisis.”
”Natra is right. Once we decide to form a party, she needs to have a clear role and act just like us. If she lacks ability, we’ll support each other within the group. Unlike chess pieces, the active members are emotional beings. We either don’t accept uncertain elements that influence our condition, or we take them in and turn them into certain elements.”
”So, work with that kid on missions. It’ll be fine; she’s a very skilled Witch, and she’ll surely be a plus for you. This is a request from a supporter.”
”It’s not about whether she’s skilled, it’s whether she can handle infiltration missions…”
”She can do it! I guarantee!”
Kian exchanged one more glance with Natra at the confident, proud white-haired Witch.
He could have easily just ignored the support contract with Priscilla, but being pushed this strongly made him want to at least meet her in person.
”Alright. Please introduce us to that Witch before we leave. I’ll decide whether to add her to the party after actually meeting her.”
”Oh ho! Yes, Lord Kian! I got it!”
(Is she joking around, this woman?)
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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