Chapter 205. This Is Also Growth
Having Dump sit on a chair, I handed him a cup of warm water.
It seed that it was unlikely for to hear an explanation from him while he was severely upset.
I haven’t known him for long, but I had never seen him lose his self control this much.
He was always gentle and calm, and looked at each situation with a cold calculating gaze.
Instead of trying to push him to answer faster, I decided to give him space and wait until he was ready to talk.
He was looking into thin air with unfocused eyes, and tilted the water cup with his shaky hands for a brief mont.
Dump finally opened his mouth.
“S… Sir Guardian.”
“Looks like you’ve finally cald down. Yes, go ahead and tell .”
“Gone… No matter where I look, I can not find…”
“What are you talking about?”
“My daughter… Berlette… Berlette has disappeared!”
“…”
Only then did I notice that another person who should’ve been there, Berlette, wasn’t present.
I finally understood why Dump’s hand was covered in blood after listening to his explanation as well.
I thought to myself that the feeling of a parent losing their child was equivalent to his hand’s condition right now.
He must’ve not even registered the feeling of pain from flesh on his hand being torn.
Like soone who had gone insane, he must have searched with abandon not only the inside of his house, but the area around it.
I saw on Dump’s hopeless face the sa expression that I saw on my mother’s when I was young.
“Mister…”
“Sir Guardian. I plead to you.”
Dump kneeled on the ground and bowed before .
It must because he wanted to hold onto even a strand of hope.
I pulled up Dump who was nearly begging at this point while he held onto my boots.
“Especially at a ti like this, you have to keep your calm. Get yourself together.”
“No… I want to, but I cannot. My one and only daughter…”
“Do you think it was the castellan who did this? You’ve ntioned it before. That those from the castle kidnap young ladies and Protectors.”
“While that’s true, not once have soldiers rushed here uninvited. If it was the house I’ve been residing in a week ago, maybe…”
“There was a chance that soone was looking for an opportunity nearby. Did you not see anything out of the ordinary in the past couple days?”
“Yes… The last few days were just business as usual. And if the soldiers of the castle found a young lady, they would’ve taken her on the spot.”
“Think about it carefully.”
“However, I saw a note on the table that I have never seen before.”
“A note?”
I went to the table that Dump pointed to and checked on the note.
It was a tiny note with an emblem drawn on it that resembled a brand logo for goods.
It seed that this note that was stuck to the table with a dagger was the only clue we had to work with.
Pulling the dagger out, I carried the note over to Dump and asked him.
“This emblem. Have you seen it before?”
“No. Never. This is the first ti I’ve seen it.”
“Perhaps the flag of Larkenta looks like this?”
“That’s not the case.”
“It looks like we can at least draw a conclusion that she had been kidnapped. We don’t know if and when they’ll co back again. Mister, I want you to go stay for a couple days in the place I’m residing at. It will be safe there. I shall bring you over.”
“I will also take part in the search. I also want to search for my daughter…”
“You’ll only get in the way. I know how you feel, but you already know, right? We don’t even know the group that uses this emblem. It can get far worse from here on out. So please stay there for a couple of days. I shall co to explain to you the situation from ti to ti between those days.”
“…”
Dump wiped his tears that flowed out without stopping, and then took out so chalk and parchnt.
Then he began to copy exactly the emblem on the note onto the parchnt.
For Dump, who was used to drawing blueprints for armors and weapons, he was able to finish copying the emblem in almost an instant, and then followed without complaint.
My heart was heavy as I left the house.
The main reason was that Berlette had disappeared, but there was another issue.
It was ti.
It was obvious that Dump was my partner that was of great help to .
However, I was currently in a situation where it wouldn’t be enough if I spent each day busily growing stronger to keep up with Demon’s growth.
To ignore this would be inhumane, but to invest ti here brought great worry for the future.
Not letting my thoughts show to Dump, I headed for the inn.
Because it was past midnight already, silence filled the streets.
The sound of two n stepping on grass was it.
When daylight cos, the first thing we needed to do was to ask around about the emblem left behind.
I’m sure that Dump copied the emblem onto the parchnt because he had the sa idea.
My head was filled to the brim, but I finished escorting Dump to the inn before heading off to hunt.
I knew the amount of growth I’d get wasn’t comparable to what I could obtain through the Festival of Blood, but I couldn’t just stand by idly.
Just like that, I tore the return scroll and headed for the edge of the 10th tier hunting grounds.
****
I continued to hunt in the unexplored territories.
Since people were scarce at this ti of night, I defeated the monsters with all my power.
So it was natural that I gathered more monsters than usual in one spot before taking them all down, and the speed increased noticeably as well.
I threw in the jewels and quality artifacts that I gained from hunting into the Mobile Storage.
The jewels were sorted automatically by the rank and size.
The sky grew blueish, making consider returning to the inn that Dump was at.
I was just hoping that this situation would be resolved quickly.
After all, I couldn’t stay in this case forever.
It was a bit selfish of , but this wouldn’t be the wrong decision considering the future.
Being completely honest, giving up would an the death of a single person nad Berlette, but if I lost the fight in the celestial realm, then nothing would change in that hellish realm for an eternity.
“So you were awake?”
“Yes. You’ve arrived. Firstly, we should ask around for the aning of this emblem.”
“I also agree with that idea. Since it is the only clue we have…”
“Then I shall go out first. I’ve already prepared a al for you, so don’t skip it. Then…”
“Yes, yes…”
Dump was very different from how he was yesterday.
He must’ve realized that being emotional wouldn’t help at all in finding Berlette.
Seeing him shove the parchnt into his clothing and quickly leave the inn, the thought that I couldn’t just ignore this and move on ca to mind.
To that man, his daughter was everything.
I did not know why he did not have anyone else in in his family, but the one only left for Dump right now was Berlette.
How could I compare to the despair of soone who lost everything.
Convincing myself and coming to an understanding, I left to find for the source of the emblem.
Since Dump knew about the markets, I left that side to him, and I chose the castle entrance because that place was the most populated in all of Larkenta.
It was an early morning, but many were still gathered to enter the castle.
And just like that, the search without a definite end began.
****
“Do you know of this emblem?”
“…”
Despite searching around until the sun was setting, I wasn’t able to et a single person who knew about the emblem.
There was a person who kept looking at strange, but that was it.
As darkness set, the crowd in front of the castle entrance scattered like a receding wave.
I went to the inn multiple tis to check if Dump had found out sothing about it, but I could guess that he didn’t find anything from the vacant room.
Wondering how I would face Dump with a lack of findings, I was greatly worried as I turned to leave.
“Must’ve hid a lass.”
“Hm?”
A man leaning against the castle wall and squatting on the ground said sothing very curious to .
I imdiately approached him.
A ragged appearance without equal and the bottles of empty alcohol around him included.
To put it simply, it was the appearance of a hobo who lived off being drunk.
Just by getting close to him, I was able to sll rot and alcohol.
“What did you say?”
“That you’ve hidden a lass. Family? Siblings? Soone’s fated to be? Kuhuhu.”
“I’ll buy you a round of alcohol. Let’s go soplace quieter.”
“I always gladly welco alcohol. Burp.”
The shabby looking man seed a lot younger than my initial impression of him.
His slouched back and labored gait made think of him as an elderly man at first.
Perhaps due to his body being ruined by alcohol, his hand shook continuously, and his head twitched against his will.
With my thoughts of maybes and what ifs, I took him to a quieter pub.
Since I hadn’t learned anything about the emblem despite my efforts searching all day, even a drunkard was okay if he had any information to share.
“I shall pour a glass for you.”
“Good. Good…”
“Kah! As expected, alcohol is always right. Don’t you think so? Take a swig as well!”
“No, I’m alright. That’s that and… Can you continue on what you were telling before?”
“Hm? What did I say?”
“Just a second.”
I casted a Silent between the man and I.
It was because I determined that there would be no good resulting from others overhearing about what he and I were talking about.
There was no way that the sound made within Silent would ever spill outside of it.
The sound would be blocked by the skill and be completely destroyed.
“You said that I hid a lass. Do you rember?”
“Ahah! Yes! You hid a lass. Burp!”
“Then do you know of this emblem?”
“Three seagulls flying near the sun. Burp. How could I forget? Pour another glass.”
“Huh? Sure…”
Was he telling the truth in the middle of being drunk?
The man wasn’t even looking at the note I was holding out and muttering things I did not understand.
I could see through his robe a lonely smile to the thin air before him and moistened eyes.
And then he looked closely at the emblem.
‘Seagulls that are flying near the sun…’
Seeing the emblem again without much thought again, I noticed that the emblem really did look like what the man had ntioned.
No. I wasn’t seeing this because of what he had said.
In the center of the emblem was the sun, and there were three of the number 3 in Arabian around it.
He must’ve described these numbers as seagulls.
Filling his glass, I continued my inquiry.
“So you know of this emblem!”
“There’s no way I could forget. Even if I’m drunk, it cos to clearly again… Perhaps if I’m dead, that won’t be the case.”
“Please tell everything you know of this emblem.”
“Can you handle it? Burp. You could beco a cripple like . Huhaha.”
The man pulled up the sleeve of his robe to show his arm.
What I saw couldn’t have been caused by an accident.
His arms and legs were bent in horrible ways. And he pointed at his permanently bent back, laughing enough to show his yellow teeth.
Seeing as though I did not flinch and kept a deadpan look, the man opened his mouth.
“I had a daughter once. The story isn’t that long ago. It’s been about 10 years, I think?”
“…”
“Because she was my only child, she was everything to . Enough to break the law and hide them away from prying eyes like you have…”
“Kah! They do business with the lives of people. If you do not have the strength, then you can only suffer at their hands.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)