Translator: Alpha0210
After getting a meal at the dining hall, Residue left the temple. He wandered the streets in a daze without anyone seeing him off, and before long, a lively clamor surrounded him. It struck him all over again that the temple might actually be the quietest place in the city.
An institution throwing a festival this raucous, yet inside it was as hushed as another world entirely. An amusing contradiction. Though right before he left, they had been bustling about as if some accident had broken out......
...Everyone in the streets was giddy, as if the whole lot of them were nocturnal. Apparently tireless, they were enjoying the festival with much the same vigor as yesterday.
Come to think of it, hadn't someone said this festival ran for a full month?
If so, the residents of this city might well live for that one festival month. The remaining eleven months of the year were, so to speak, a period of endurance, devoted entirely to preparing for the festival.
Residue roamed the noisy streets for a while. With neither purpose nor destination, he melted into the crowd as though he'd become a ghost.
After walking a bit, he realized that where he was now presented a rather different scene from the street he'd walked with Lukas last time.
Because it was a different district, perhaps? That had been the southern quarter; this was the north.
There was hardly any food here. Instead there were precious-looking souvenirs and ornaments, weapons, even slaves.
Perhaps because of that, the people walking the streets also had a distinctly affluent air about them. They definitely looked like they came from wealthy families.
Residue glanced down at himself. In his grime-stained robe, he certainly didn't look like a man of means.
Whether as a backlash to this pointless thought or not, he was suddenly seized by an urge for luxury. There was no particular reason for it, but he wanted to wear clothes hung so heavy with ornaments that his shoulders would ache.
"Being penniless is a sad thing."
Of course, not having a single coin to his name, he was able to suppress the impulse purchase.
As Residue leaned against a nearby fence, wallowing in his own misery, he suddenly felt a keen gaze from somewhere.
Out on the street stood an enormous carriage. Since it was drawn by camels rather than horses, he wasn't sure "horse cart" was quite the right word for it, but no matter.
The carriage was so large that at a glance it could pass for a small building; had the night market's street not been this wide, it couldn't even have entered. No fewer than eight camels were pulling it.
And the keen gaze was coming from inside the carriage.
While Residue sat there half-dazed, one of the men stationed beside the carriage walked over. He was a truly nasty-looking man, with a shaved head and a face covered in scars that he seemed more interested in displaying than hiding.
"Got a moment?"
Since the man asked out of nowhere, Residue nodded.
"The master wishes to see your face for a moment."
"Master?"
"That would be the master of the Goldenrod Merchant Company."
"The road of gold, eh. What a ridiculous name."
"...It's Golden, not Gold."
"Is that so."
Residue took in the night market street once more, then looked at this humorless man's face and said,
"Then does that master of yours mean to buy my time?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"They say time is money, don't they? If your master has business with me, then let him pay a fitting price."
At that, the man said with a bewildered face,
"Weren't you just staring blankly at the street with nothing better to do?"
"To ordinary eyes, it might well look that way."
"Enough of your word games."
"Look here, my bald friend. For an underling, you talk far too much. What you ought to be doing now is going back to your master and conveying my terms. Understood?"
"......"
The man's expression stiffened slightly, and he studied Residue with probing eyes. That arrogant attitude came far too naturally. Was he perhaps the son of some noble family? Judging by his clothes, he didn't look particularly wealthy... but perhaps he was concealing his identity.
While the bald man held his silence, unable to come to a ready conclusion, another warrior approached from the carriage.
"That's enough. Do you plan to injure Master's guest without permission?"
"...That's not it, but."
The newly arrived warrior looked at Residue, then spoke in a slightly more courteous manner than the man before him.
"I heard the entire exchange. I will convey your terms myself."
With that, the warrior headed back toward the carriage. Looking more closely, they seemed less like warriors and more like mercenaries hired with money, yet the way they treated their employer as a genuine master felt strangely out of place. It was almost as though they were voluntarily acting as lackeys.
In any case, the warrior exchanged a few words with the figure beyond the carriage wall, then came back over and said,
"Master asks how much you want."
Even as he relayed the question, his face said he couldn't make sense of his master's attitude.
Residue answered offhandedly.
"One hundred gold coins."
"Do you even know how much that is?"
"Of course I do. A hundred gold coins are worth no less than a full hundred gold coins, are they not?"
"...I can't fathom why the master wants to meet you. Not that it's my place to pry."
Still, unlike the man before him, this warrior knew his place. Before long he conveyed the terms to this so-called master, and, astonishingly, Residue's demand was accepted.
And so Residue came to meet the master of the Goldenrod Merchant Company.
Not with the master coming out to him, but with Residue going all the way into the carriage.
His first impression upon seeing the carriage's interior was that it wasted space to an extreme degree. Apart from a long, plush seat, a table, and a set of drawers, there was little else in it, leaving it remarkably roomy; on top of that, it held only a single occupant.
Residue regarded the one insolently keeping this vast space all to herself. From the circumstances, that one appeared to be the "master" who had wanted a meeting badly enough to pay for it. A woman whose face was hidden behind something like a veil. She sat there alone, without so much as a guard, reading what looked like documents, and when Residue entered, she glanced briefly his way.
"Hello there."
"Yes. Hello."
Residue answered carelessly and sat down across from the master. The carriage's interior was a touch stuffy, so he loosened his robe.
Meanwhile, the master calmly gathered up all her documents, then looked toward Residue and said,
"Rubil, of the Goldenrod Merchant Company."
"Residue. Where have we met before?"
"What do you mean, all of a sudden?"
"If we weren't already acquainted, you'd hardly put up a hundred gold coins just to talk."
Of course, there was always the possibility that someone stood behind her, and this woman was a mere puppet.
"It isn't much money to me. I am the master of the Goldenrod Merchant Company, after all."
"I couldn't care less what company you're master of."
"...I see. You must be terribly ignorant of the ways of the world."
Rubil let slip an ambiguous laugh, then said,
"I sensed something unusual from you. The aura of someone strong, perhaps? As you know, merchant work always comes with danger and adventure. There's never enough capable talent to entrust with escort duties."
"And?"
"Having said this much, you really ought to catch on. I'd like to hire you as an escort."
The purpose was even more boring than Residue had expected.
Residue started to force back the yawn rising in him, then, on reflection, found no particular reason to hold it in and opened his mouth wide.
"......"
"I didn't sleep very well yesterday. More importantly, could you give me the gold first? I have something I need to use it for urgently."
"...Well, why not."
Rubil opened the drawer at her side, swept the gold coins within into a pouch, and held it out to Residue. Residue took it without even bothering to count.
"I'll put it to good use."
"I've no interest in what becomes of money once it leaves my hands. More importantly, shall we get back to business?"
"You're offering me escort work? Not interested. Protecting someone doesn't suit me, and I've no reason to do it. Of course... if you came at me a little more honestly, I might think differently."
"Honestly?"
"About your reason for speaking to me, that is."
"......"
At that, Rubil fell silent.
An inexplicably uncomfortable silence flowed for a moment, and then a voice seeped out from behind the veil.
"I fell for you at first sight."
"Hm."
Now that was a line he hadn't seen coming.
"My coming here was pure coincidence. I'd wanted to experience the festival of the town of Sarman at least once, and there were rumors that rare goods sometimes turned up for a pittance in the market street that forms in the north."
With that, Rubil drew something from her breast. It was a small bell, and when she gave it a light shake, a clear tone rang out.
Jingle-.
At that, a faint light seeped from the carriage wall, and soon it began to project the view of the street outside. So there was a reason the carriage had no windows.
"This is how I browsed the wares along the street. I was just despairing over my empty haul when I discovered you."
A bashful voice continued.
"...Honestly, I've never felt drawn to someone like this at first sight, so I didn't know what I should do. All my life I've had neither interest nor curiosity in anything beyond making money...... Even so, I didn't want us to part like this, so I called you over on impulse. Was it terribly rude of me?"
"Not really? I got paid."
"Ah. You must be fond of money."
Delight seeped into Rubil's voice.
"The sages who'll sit at their desks all their lives until they set off for the next world declare that a lust for gold can only end in ruin, but I see it a little differently. I hold that the more a person loves money, the more honest they are. Residue. You are a very honest man. I like that about you as well."
"......"
"Residue, who loves money dearly, and Rubil, who possesses a great deal of it. I'd say our interests could mesh quite nicely. What do you think?"
It was here that Residue opened his mouth.
"The Blue Knight is nearby."
"––."
At the abrupt declaration, Rubil's veil trembled slightly, and for the first time Residue caught a glimpse of the face behind it.
In truth, that alone was enough.
Residue went on with a sly grin.
"It was a decent attempt, but you completely ruined it at the end. Listen, there's no question that I am an extraordinary and magnificent being, but my face is merely average. An unfortunate truth. Love at first sight? That nonsense isn't going to work on me. In other words, that ridiculous little performance of yours hit rock bottom right at the end."
"...Were you not suspicious from the beginning?"
"Half belief, half doubt, at most. Still, by your standards you took quite a few bold gambles, didn't you? For one, I knew you had no fondness for female forms."
"True. I thought I might turn that very preconception to use, but in the end it was wasted effort."
Rubil gave a snort of laughter and said,
"You always were strangely quick on the uptake."
"That, and hasn't your scheming grown rather clumsy? Would it sting to hear it ranked below Agolet's?"
"Heh. Who can say...... I'll admit I've thought, more than once, that I'd like to test myself against the White Knight someday."
Now that was a match he'd love to watch from the finest seat in the house.
Gazing at the being before him, Residue recalled Pale's words.
Hadn't she said something felt inexplicably off? Truly, the woman's instincts were nothing to scoff at. Who could have guessed they'd all be gathered in this one town.
Now genuinely curious, Residue asked,
"So what exactly was that little farce just now meant to accomplish?"
"Who can say......"
The Black Thorn Demon King began by removing the cumbersome veil, and said,
"I simply wanted to build our relationship anew, from the very beginning."
*****
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