610 Messy Situation
The magic beast was in a mountainous region and before it moved away from its last known location.
That was the last known intel we got before we departed.
"Not that way. Over here. We gotta see our contact. Let's hurry."
Berume picked a path at a fork.
I'm fine with upping the pace up, but I don't feel comfortable with the travelers we pass by along the way. They all got this look of surprise.
I guess they can't help but stare at someone who run alongside Grudos on foot.
Their eyes keep following me as we make our way at a heightened pace.
"Over there. It should be further deeper into that rest area. Let's stop there."
We've arrived it seems. Berume left the Grudos with me and looked around all over the place.
"...Oy, you. Are you Selram's messengers? Show me your tag if you are."
A suspicious man with cloth wrapped around his head showed up out of nowhere from behind a tree.
"Ah, got it. Oy, take it out."
I fetched Berume's luggage from my magic bag as instructed.
She rummaged her bag and handed over a weirdly shaped jagged card to the man.
The man then fetched his own jagged card and pieced them together to form a perfect fit.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
"Confirmed. Follow me. The matter requires prompt responses."
Berume gulped, seemingly getting tense from the man's grave tone.
We followed the man into a hut where we made the final preparations.
"You're here much earlier than scheduled, though I suppose that's better than running late. And, is this person who looks like a kid no matter how you slice it, really it?"
"Ah, this guy's a monster despite his looks. He gonna do just fine."
The both of them are curt. I get that it's hard to imagine my strength from how I look but I wish they had the sensibility to choose their words better.
"You want my help, don't you? Is that a way to talk about me? Hey? Can I just go home?"
"Ah! You, my bad, it's our bad, don't be like that! Not after coming all the way here!"
Berume quickly apologized in a panic. Not sure if it's because she's nervous from the tension or she's done some thinking on her own.
But I can obviously tell the contact is squinting at me dubiously like, 'Are they for real with this guy?'
Yet he seemed to refrain from making unnecessary remarks and resumed talking about this urgent matter.
"The magic beast has left the mountain and is now prowling a nearby forest. It seems to prefer the forest over the mountain. We were deciding whether to evacuate the nearby village or wait for you."
Here I thought.
"Why'd they leave something that dangerous alone? What's the national army doing? Like dispatch the troops why don't they. Are they really valuing money over people lives?"
My mood worsened here. If this thing is dangerous, why won't they take care of it asap.
"Haa~, it's cause the federation's domestic affairs were highly unstable until very recently. There was little chances they actually did anything even if we reported. S'why civilians, aka Selram used her own capital to monitor the beast. All this time."
This all sounds familiar to me. Sure enough, it's Kanedor's matter.
"The political strife may be over now but it's still not in a state they can dispatch a real number. Half baked measures are akin to sending those soldiers to their death. Selram figured that out. She concluded she had to take the matter into her own hands. Of course, she's still a merchant at heart. Ain't no way she didn't calculate how to profit off this. It been a balancing act between profiting and keeping people safe, a real delicate one at that. She probably gonna be barely in the black even if everything went well."
My bad mood got blown away after hearing all that.
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