Epilogue: The Aftermath, or So It Was Told

“So, what are you guys going to do, Azu?” asked Renya as he replaced the lid on the ceramic container that held the bread starter he made. The mage in question sat beside him, reading a book.

They were in the inn where Renya was staying. It was early afternoon, and traffic was slow. Most of the tables were empty. Seated at the same table were Shion, Rona, and Azu. Azu, in particular, was a painful sight to behold, sitting weakly in his seat and leaning against the back for support. He had changed his gray robe to a new one, but much of the skin that showed at its fringes was wrapped in white bandages. The medicinal odor emanating from those bandages stung Renya’s nose, but he kept quiet; no point complaining about it to the injured.

In comparison, while Rona was also wearing her usual priest robe, she showed no signs of being bandaged, nor did she smell of drugs. She did, however, look very, very tired, and was currently hunched wearily over the table. Renya thought she should just go rest if she felt so exhausted, but there was probably some reason behind her insistence on being present.

According to the doctor in town who treated the two of them, the severity of their injuries was approximately on par. He had no idea which of them was actually in worse shape, but he did remember thinking that their conditions looked similar. What probably happened was that in the process of healing them, their dear demon researcher figured it was sufficient to simply keep them from dying and stopped both their treatments at about the same stage. After they woke up, Rona had used her own gracecraft to heal her wounds, while Azu opted to rub some prescription medications all over himself. This was the source of the discrepancy in their current conditions.

The graces commonly employed for restorative purposes worked by expending the user’s stamina to heal wounds. For this reason, a heavy bout of healing came with an equally heavy toll in vitality, as evidenced by the profound fatigue that currently plagued Rona.

“What do you mean?”

Azu looked up from his book. Being entirely unconfident in his own stamina, he had declined Rona’s offer to heal him through gracecraft and instead chose the slow and steady option. While he physically looked like a mess, his expression showed none of the bone-deep weariness exhibited by Rona. Whatever ointment he applied also seemed to numb the pain to some degree, so he turned out to be better off than Renya initially thought.

“Your party members quit adventuring altogether, didn’t they?”

While they all returned with their lives fully intact, the same could not be said for their bodies. On top of that, after being swallowed whole by a massive chunk of meat, they had been thoroughly violated within its innards. Some took it harder than others, but none escaped unscathed; the experience left them all traumatized.

Deciding that their lives alone were reward enough, all four of Azu’s guards had declared that they were retiring from the adventuring life and heading back to their hometown with their share of the bounty. Apparently, before they became adventurers, all of them were brought up on a farm in a village somewhere, and they intended to head back to the village and help out with the family business. Hearing that, Azu had taken his share of the mission reward and given almost all of it to his four friends as thanks for everything they had done for him, mentioning with a laugh that while it didn’t come out to much after being split among four people, it should at least give them a head start if they were starting a farming business.

“Yeah. My party has disbanded.”

Azu did not sound particularly upset, but the three listeners’ expressions clouded nonetheless. Everything he had done, he had done with that party; they had gone through thick and thin together. And now, they were gone. There was no way he felt nothing about it. The fact that it didn’t show on his face was either a sign of resignation to reality — no point worrying over a situation if nothing could be done — or a thoughtful attempt to avoid troubling Renya and the two girls with his own issues.

“It might sound perfunctory, but do you want to come with us?”

Had Azu agreed, Renya would have tried his hardest to convince Shion and Rona.

“It’s a generous offer, but…” said Azu with a wry smile before shaking his head.

“Did you receive an invitation from another party?”

“Actually, there is a place where I can find some work. I don’t plan to quit adventuring, but I intend to stay there for a while.”

“Oh, yeah? Where is it?”

“The school.”

Azu explained that Kukrika was home to a school that trained adventurers, and they had offered him a temporary teaching position some time ago. He had originally declined, since he was focused on his work as an adventurer, but they kept the offer on the table so they could discuss it again when he had more time. Now that the opportunity had presented itself, he figured he would take them up on it. Reasonably competent mages with real combat experience rarely deign to serve as teachers, so the process of seeking prospective solicitees was a daily and ongoing endeavor for the school.

“A school for bringing up adventurers, huh… So, you’re going to teach them how to, like, what? Adventure?” asked Renya, his tone slightly incredulous. “Sounds like a pretty sketchy place to me.”

“Not quite. Just so you know, those unfortunate enough to be born in noble families with neither the right to be heir nor the prospect of marriage often become adventurers.”

According to Azu, as a rule, the two eldest sons stayed home. The first-born son succeeded the father as head of the family, and the second son served as both a counselor and a substitute in case the eldest son met an untimely end. The third son and onwards, however, were often seen as trouble by the first two due to their tendency to get tangled up in fights over succession if they stayed home, so they were often kicked out of the family once they reached a certain age. Some even chose to leave on their own. Among these forcibly-exiled progeny, those who were reasonably competent might, through their own hard work, find themselves a position in the government. Those who strove for more, or could only manage less, were then funneled into adventuring.

Daughters were usually married off into other families, but the exceptions often found themselves becoming adventurers. These exceptions included those whose personalities scared off all suitors, those whose features evoked the wrong kind of awe from onlookers, and those who simply refused to let their parents decide their marriage and ran away from home.

“With that said, the school also functions as a place of education for the older sons until they can succeed the family, so you’ll see some of them enrolled as well,” said Azu, adding a mention of the fact that the school also taught more traditional subjects. “You don’t want idiots becoming adventurers, after all. It doesn’t end well.”

“Dealing with a bunch of nobles, huh… I’m getting depressed just thinking about it.”

Renya quickly looked at Rona and waited a bit until she noticed his glance. At first, she seemed confused. Then, after a moment’s contemplation, she grudgingly shook her head. Apparently, the “female nobility who hated the thought of their marriage became adventurers” bit didn’t apply to them.

In hindsight, though, his question was unnecessary. Shion was, on the outside at least, a beautiful young woman. Sure, she destroyed the illusion whenever she opened her mouth, what with her somewhat crude language and birdbrained tendencies, but that didn’t change the fact that she was still the daughter of a noble family. The number of requests asking for her hand in marriage must have been too numerous to count. Even if she managed to run away from her suitors, it was easy to imagine that there should have been — and still would be — tons of people hunting her down to bring her back.

“The fostering of young talent is an important job. It’ll probably be tough, but I’m rooting for you,” said Shion.

She was probably the least injured of the three. Renya had suspected as much based on the perfunctory treatment Emil had performed on her, and indeed, she was the first to be discharged by the doctor in town. A quick examination by Rona confirmed that no restorative gracecraft was needed. His concern about her catching a cold also proved to be unnecessary. She turned out to be one tough cookie. Although, whether said toughness spoke to her mettle as a swordsman — minimizing the damage of Emil’s strike through pure skill — or simply an unreasonably sturdy constitution, he could not say. She did, however, seem to feel ashamed to have been so powerless against the demon, and ever since returning to town, she had spent every day at the guild’s training area, swinging her sword until either mind or body gave out.

“Let me know if there’s anything I can help with. I’ll be happy to. As long as it’s within my capabilities, that is,” said Renya.

“I’ll gladly ask for your help when the time comes, then. Thanks. Come to think of it, though this job has left me none the richer, I’ve come away with a new friend. I’d say getting to know you is a reward in itself,” concluded Azu as he closed the book he was reading and placed it down on the table. There was a smile on his face. It was a good smile, the kind that was leagues removed from his prior image of a gloomy mage. And the kind that turned the corners of Renya’s lip upward, as well.

“Well, enough about me,” Azu said. “What about you three? I assume you all plan to keep adventuring?”

“Yeah. I mean, the whole reason we got into this was to make enough money to have a more permanent place to stay. A base of operations, you know?”

“The reward… this time… wasn’t bad, but… still… not enough…”

Rona could barely manage three words without a labored gasp. The other three at the table all looked at her, somewhat worried that she was about to keel over and die on them right there.

“A place to stay… A home, then. A tantalizing thought indeed, even for adventurers.”

“It wasn’t some grand plan, by the way. It was mostly just going with the flow. Anyway, we’re going to need a fairly big place since we plan to fit all of us in there.”

“Do you? Well, aren’t you a real Casanova of our times. Sharing a roof with two young ladies, huh?” Azu chuckled. There was a silent jibe embedded in the laugh: have fun with that. It earned him a scowl from Renya.

But man, this sure was one dangerous job.

Leaning back against his seat, Renya looked up at the ceiling and withdrew into his thoughts. A single mistake, one wrong step, and Emil would have had eight extra specimens to play around with. That was no exaggeration. In fact, had it been not a whimsical researcher, but a true fighter they ran into, they’d all have been killed. Make no mistake — these were deadly jobs, and they were putting their lives on the line.

Of course, so long as they needed to make money, they had to take risks. Renya was aware of that. But the whole experience left him earnestly wishing he could have been eased into all this, perhaps with a slightly easier mission to start with. This was, after all, his first official job from the guild.

Its results: the death of half the crew and a mutual acquaintance with a demon. Luck had not been on his side.

“He who entrusts himself to Lady Luck is a fool, but he who spurns her is just as stupid. I’d much rather take the middle road. As they say, everything in moderation. I’m fine with living in a way that allows me to keep my promise to that girl, but man, sometimes, I really have to ask… can’t life be just a little easier?”

With the faintest of whispers, Renya directed his question up at the distant sky, where it faded into the empty air, unheeded, unnoticed, and ultimately unheard.