CH 215

It is noon, the day after the case was resolved.

Tauro and the others were to meet with Count Dareder’s confidant.

They wanted to thank him for the case, but he was adamant at first and was about to go home.

He was in the middle of a quest, after all.

And, more importantly, Count Dareder was a member of the Prime Minister’s faction and had met Tauro before, so there was a possibility that he would remember his face.

Therefore, I had refused to meet with him for those reason, but it became difficult to refuse because he hinted that he would guarantee the life of the family of the man who was cursed and killed.

Fortunately, Count Dareder was very wary of the assassination attempt on his life, and also avoided meeting with me directly.

So, I met with the Count’s confidant.

“I would like to thank you on behalf of my master for preventing his assassination”

The confidant bowed his head deeply.

However, the other party was Ankh.

If Tauro was the representative, the conversation would be long and troublesome later on, so he was asked to take over.

Ankh looked uncomfortable, but he would have to put up with it for now.

“This is a coincidence, so it’s a problem if you bow your head like that.”

Ankh had been told to emphasize the coincidence in his meeting with Tauro, so he passed the word on.

“But it is true that you have saved my master’s life.”

The confidant man emphasized the benefactor.

“We would like nothing more than for you to provide for our client’s parents, so I’ll be counting on you to take care of that.”

Ankh says the barbed dialogue.

“My God! You don’t want your own reward?”

“We receive compensation from out client. Your case, as I have said many times, is a coincidence, so we would appreciate it if you could thank the client again. We’d like to report this and other things to the client and complete our quest, so can we go now?”

Ankh glanced at Tauro and spoke.

“Yes, all right! Then may I ask you all to give this reward to the client? It is to be used as a compensation for the victims and to help them in their future lives. Please tell him that I will send a messenger later and thank him again.”

The confidant handed Ankh a leather bag containing money that was on the desk behind him.

“All right, man. We’ll give this to the client. Then, leader, please take this money and put it in the magic storage.”

Ankh took the money and called Tauro “leader,” relieved that the play was finally over.

“Eh?”

The confidant looked at Tauro and Ankh again and again, wondering if he had misheard that a child had been called leader.

” ……. Hey, that’s not right, Leader! I always say my name is leader! Ha ha ha!”

Tauro tells a makeshift lie.

At any rate, if only the name Tauro was not mentioned, Count Dareder would not connect it to him just by asking, no, I would like to think not.

The confidant did not seem to get it, or did he? He conveniently interpreted this as a “good thing” and did not pursue the matter.*

Were Tauro and his party safe? They took a rest as they left Count Dareder’s castle.

“Ankh, give me a break ……! It would have been perfect if it weren’t for that. ……”

“ Sorry Leader! I was so relieved, I couldn’t help but get it out of my system. …… But with this we’ve got our client’s living expenses, so all’s well that ends well, right? Ha ha ha!

Ankh laughed and faked it.

“Anyway, so we can finally go home, right?”

Aeris finally finished stretching out and stood up.

“It’s past noon today, so let’s go home first thing tomorrow morning. If we leave now, it will be midnight before we get there.”

Tauro had given up on returning home today.

“I guess so. Then, shall we stay at the client’s parents’ house today?”

Ragune suggested.

“Yes, that would save us money on lodging, so we can spend it on dinner.”

“That would be nice. leader has ailment recovery magic, so we can drink a lot today, right? Wahaha!”

Ankh was in high spirits.

“It’s fine to drink, but if you get too drunk, Tauro will use his magic on you,”

Aeris drilled him.

“No way, there’s no point in getting drunk then!”

Ankh made a disgusted face.

“Now, now, it’s okay. Drink in moderation, Ankh, so you don’t end up like that.”

Tauro rebuked him, and Ragune also joined the conversation.

“Then I’ll have a drink today, too. I’ll leave the rest to Tauro’s judgment.”

Since it was unusual for Ragune to make such a declaration, Tauro decided not to use magic except when they were hungover.