139. Next Next Destination.
「Is that really what happened?」
「Nn.」
「That’s quite amazing, Fran.」
We were currently inside of Rhodas’ manor.
That said, we naturally weren’t actually visiting him. We’d come to see the prince and princess.
It turned out that we weren’t the only ones getting ready to leave the city. Flut and his party were also packing up and getting ready to head back to their country. Their ship was to set sail tomorrow.
「Did you see any of the monstrosities?」
「I did.」
「Did you fight them?」
「Defeated easily.」
「That’s awesome! Man, Fran, you’re so cool!」
Fran, the prince, the princess, and the former slaves had gotten together for a tea party.
The children were delighted at the fact that we’d provided them snacks in the form of curry bread.
「Are you not going to come with us, Fran?」
One of the former slave asked her in a bit of a hopeful tone, but she responded to him with a shake of her head.
「Already decided where to go.」
「Come on, can’t you just change your mind and join us in serving the prince?」
「Need to go.」
「Yeah, but we’ve finally started getting along…」
「Yeah, he’s right!」
「Let’s not pressure Fran any further. I’m sure she has her reasons and circumstances.」
「That’s right. Besides, it isn’t as if we won’t ever see each other again.」
Flut and Satia somehow managed to calm the other children down.
「I do understand how you all feel. I’d love for her to come with us as well. In fact, I’ve even considered offering to hire her as our guard once more. I’d also considered offering her a permanent, high paying position.」
「Then w-」
「But I decided against it. I’ve decided not to make use of royal position.」
One of the children tried to protest, but Flut quickly cut him off by raising his voice while shaking his head.
「Because I would then lose the ability to call her my friend.」
「We would much rather be Fran’s friends than her superiors. If we employed her, we’d no longer be able to call her our equal.」
The children fell silent in response to the prince and princess’ proclamations. They seemed to have understood and accepted the twins’ opinions.
Fran looked rather pleased to hear their choices. Her expression hadn’t changed, but both her ears were happily twitching away, so it was rather easy for me to read her.
However, the children seemed to have felt that they’d been scolded, and hence, an unpleasant atmosphere soon filled the room. Luckily though, Serid bailed us out of the situation by bringing in a few sweet treats. He also helped perk everyone up by telling us about the recent failures experienced by the children during their training sessions.
The children’s moods were soon restored, and hence, they ended up chatting the entire day away. The sun had started setting before we’d even realised it.
We wanted to stick around a bit longer, but Serid informed us that Flut and Satia unfortunately had other responsibilities to attend to.
「I apologize for interrupting your conversation, but it has come time for your appointment with the Magistrate, your Highnesses.」
「Is it really that time already?」
「We had so much fun that the day almost seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.」
Both twins promptly accepted their duties; neither Flut nor Satia had voiced that they wished the delay the appointment. I was amazed at how they were already able to immediately prioritize their royal obligations over their personal interests.
「It is unfortunate, but we have an meeting to attend. We must depart for it immediately.」
「We still have tea and sweets readily available, so please feel free to stay as long as you’d like, Fran.」
「I unfortunately have to object to that. There is in fact an envoy here for Miss Fran as well.」
「Envoy?」
「I named him an envoy, but the individual in question is in fact the Master of Barbra’s Adventurer’s Guild. He has just finished meeting with the Sir Rhodas and the Magistrate. Guildmaster Gamud immediately stated that he would like to meet with you upon hearing that you were currently at this residence.」
The Guildmaster? Did he need us for anything? I could’ve sworn we dropped by the guild already just earlier this morning, but oh well, might as well go see him I guess.
One of the manor’s servants led us over to another room upon confirming that we were willing to see the other party.
「There you are, Fran!」
There, we met with the Guildmaster, the buff ass dwarf that’d help us fight off Rynford.
「Sorry for calling you out like that.」
「Don’t mind.」
「Heard that you’d be leaving soon. I wanted to meet with you at least once before you did, but I couldn’t really find the time for it because I’ve been busy with cleaning up after everything that’s happened. Caught wind of the fact that you happened to be visiting, so I urged them to lend me a room. Been wanting to thank you, you know? Your actions saved the city.」
Gamud got up off the sofa and bowed a deep bow.
「Didn’t really save. In fact, was saved. Almost lost against Rynford.」
「Forrund and Amanda are the only two that could’ve possibly beat that thing one on one, so don’t sweat it. What matters is that you bought us enough time to arrive. He probably would’ve spread mass destruction if you didn’t manage to stall him. That’s why, I’ll say it again. Thank you.」
「…Nn.」
「Gahahaha. All’s good so long as you know how grateful we feel.」
Fran’s expression warped into one that simultaneously expressed both happiness and frustration. If I had to say, it seemed like it was leaning a bit more towards the latter than the former though.
That said, I can’t really blame her. I mean, we really did end up losing to Rynford. In fact, recalling our loss is making me feel all frustrated too.
「Nyways, let’s get down to business. I heard that you were looking for magic stones. That true?」
「Still looking.」
「I see… And you’re planning to head to Ulmutt next?」
「Nn.」
「It ain’t going to be too easy for you to get your hands on magic stones over there either, you know?」
「Really?」
「Really. Think bout it this way. Barbra is Kranzel’s second biggest city. All the other nearby cities ship their excess magic stones over to us, so there being none in Barbra means that there ain’t any anywhere else either. Of course, that applies to Ulmutt too. The place really does produce a lot of the stuff, but most of it gets ported right over.」
Wait, seriously? Well, I guess that does kind of make sense. I mean, Barbra’s got a lot of adventurers, but there’s no way they can get enough magic stones to fuel the whole city all by themselves.
It looks like it really is going to be hard for us to get magic stones, even if we do go to Ulmutt.
Gamud produced a folded up a piece of paper from one of his chest pockets as we groaned in response to his words.
「So I’ll give you this.」
Is that… a letter?
「This’ll serve as a letter of introduction. It’ll get you into the auction held in the kingdom’s capital.」
「Auction?」
「Yeah. They hold a huge auction in the capital every June. It’s normally pretty hard to get yourself through the door, but show this to the staff at the capital’s guild branch and they’ll let you take part in both the buying and the selling. 」
「Sure it’s okay to take?」
「Yeah, don’t sweat it. Oh, and don’t be feeling like you’re obligated to participate or anything either. Just do whatever you want, it’s just an option now is all. I do think it’s a good idea though. Should be able to get a whole bunch of magic stones for cheap if you get lucky.」
Looks like we just got our hands on something amazing. The auction sounds like a pretty big event.
「Nn. Will thankfully accept.」
「No problem. Glad to be of service.」
Welp, I guess we’re going then. For some odd reason, we ended up deciding where to go after leaving Ulmutt despite not yet having even set off for Ulmutt.