Bonus Short Stories

A Scene of a Parent and Child

“Oh, if only my father was an adventurer.”

I was at one of my favorite restaurants in Maalt for lunch when a boy sitting right in front of me sighed this.

His name was Isar Week. An old acquaintance of mine had come to Maalt to do some shopping and had asked me to look after his son. He and Isar lived in a town about half a day from Maalt by carriage, but Maalt was the biggest city in the area, so the father usually came here about once a year. However, Isar had turned seven this year, and his father felt that he was old enough to join him now.

But when they got to Maalt, he had left Isar with me. Isar was probably bored. I knew how he felt, but what he said was so unexpected that I burst out laughing.

“What? What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Well, Isar, did your dad never tell you?”

“Huh?”

“He was an adventurer in Maalt up until eight years ago.”

Isar stared vacantly for a while until it eventually sank in. “R-Really, Rentt?!” he asked, leaning toward me. I wondered if maybe his father didn’t want him to know, but it was too late now. I figured I would apologize to him later and answer his son’s questions for now.

“Yeah, really. Diga was on his seventh year as an adventurer, if I remember right. He had a lot of experience as a Bronze-class adventurer, and he got pretty close to Silver-class.”

“He never told me anything about that. If my mom knew too, I wish somebody would’ve told me.”

“Isar, he probably had a reason not to tell you. I’m guessing you’ve told Diga several times that you want to be an adventurer when you grow up, right?”

“How did you know?”

“It sounds like the kind of thing that a kid your age would say.”

“Don’t treat me like a kid.”

“Only a kid would say that.”

“What the heck? But why wouldn’t Dad tell me just because I said I wanted to be an adventurer?” Isar asked.

“It’s simple,” I replied. “Adventuring is a dangerous job.”

“I know that! But I still want to do it.”

“I don’t really think you get it. Every day could easily be the day you die. You have to be ready for that if you want to be an adventurer.”

“Are you always ready to die, Rentt?”

I put some serious thought into that question. I couldn’t tell him that I was already dead, but that was the truth. In that sense, I was more ready for death than anyone.

“Well, sure,” I said.

“And you’re saying I’m not?” Isar questioned.

“Not yet. Maybe that’ll change one day. You can register with the guild when you’re fifteen, so you’ve still got eight years at least. Take your time to think about it. Maybe Diga will even teach you swordsmanship eventually. He was pretty good with a sword.”

“But he was Bronze-class, right?”

I nodded. “Everyone looks down on Bronze-class adventurers, but countless adventurers never make it higher than Iron-class. Think about that. Also, Diga was close to Silver-class. He wouldn’t have been stuck in Bronze-class forever if he had kept going.”

“Why’d he stop, then?”

“Why’d he quit adventuring, you mean? Because you were born. Diga didn’t want to leave you and your mom on your own. That’s all there is to it.”

“Oh no, so it’s my fault?” Isar fretted.

“Don’t feel bad. It’s a good thing,” I assured him. “It’s better not to be an adventurer if you can help it, and Diga at least seems to be satisfied. Right?” I directed my last question at the man standing behind Isar.

“Hey, Rentt,” Diga Week said and scratched his head. “I know I asked you to look after the kid, but I didn’t say you should tell him old stories.”

“He’s the one who asked, and I thought you would’ve mentioned it by now. Sorry.”

“Well, whatever. Now you know the truth, Isar.”

Isar fidgeted a moment before asking, “Dad, was it my fault?”

Diga shook his head. “Like Rentt said, it’s better this way. Well, there was some fun to be had in adventuring, and it was worth the effort. If you seriously want to do it one day, I won’t stop you. But it’s not for me. I have to protect you and your mother, so I can’t die. That’s what it comes down to.”

“Okay, Dad, I’ll think about it.”

“Do that; you’ve got eight years still. Well, I can start teaching you swordsmanship right away so you can protect yourself, so be content with that. All right?”

“Okay!” Isar said cheerfully.

This pleasant scene of my old accomplice and his son gave me a lonely sort of joy. I wondered if I would get to experience something like this one day. I couldn’t imagine being able to anytime soon, but it seemed like it would be nice.

Lorraine and Cleaning

“Oh, Rentt.”

“What, Lorraine?”

“Why is cleaning so exhausting?”

We were cleaning Lorraine’s house for the first time in a while. Eventually, Lorraine got fed up and sat on the couch.

“It’s just how it is,” I said. “If you don’t like it, you should try to keep things tidy all the time so it doesn’t get this messy.”

“I know, I know. So after the books are cleaned up, I have to wipe everything down with a rag? Maybe I should just finish this up with magic.”

“You drenched your books last time you did that, so you said you wouldn’t do it again. Remember that?”

“Oh! Right. I guess I have to do it by hand.”

Lorraine held her head in her hands and wailed in an exaggerated fashion. I didn’t know if it was because she’d gone to the theater recently or what, but I felt like the theatrics were rubbing off on her. I was appalled by her behavior, but this pointless conversation was fun anyway.

Then I had an idea. “If you really don’t want to do it, then why not make a magic item that could clean for you or something?”

“Something that could clean for me? Hm, that’s an interesting idea. But how would I design that? Should I just make a rag that moves around on its own?”

“I guess that’d work, but if it doesn’t know what it should clean or what it shouldn’t, won’t it get your books wet?”

“Sounds like it’ll be worth researching. All right, Rentt, I’ll get to work on that. You keep cleaning. It’s in your hands.”

“What? Uh, okay.”

She’d caught me off guard, so I’d ended up agreeing by accident. But after Lorraine went to her room, I realized that she was making me do the rest of the cleaning.

I sighed. “If you just want me to do it, then say so.” Unfortunately, she wasn’t around to hear. But knowing Lorraine, this wouldn’t be the last time that this happened.

A few days later, Lorraine finished her magic item that cleaned automatically and put it on sale. It used fairly expensive materials and sold for a high price, but it did well with housewives who hated cleaning like Lorraine did. It sold out in the first few minutes, and for a while, people would order cleaning magic items from Lorraine while she was walking around town. She avoided going outdoors for a while after that, so maybe this had all been a mistake on Lorraine’s part.

A Thirty-Year Promise

It was a strange request, but the location itself wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. It was a small village near Maalt. But the details of the request were another story.

“Him?” I asked my client, the mayor of the village. I motioned toward a man sitting on a small hill.

“Yes, him.”

“He doesn’t seem to be doing any harm.”

“He’s not, but he’s been there for two weeks now. It’s getting unsettling.”

The request was to somehow chase this man off the hill. The guild received a fair number of such requests, but they tended to be about removing squatters from valuable property. Nothing about this land seemed especially valuable. In fact, it sounded like it was completely ignored most of the time.

But this strange man had a well-worn spear slung over his back, and he’d sat there for days. It was apparently scaring the villagers. Despite the weapon, the man didn’t look like any sort of bandit. He was absolutely bizarre. At any rate, now I knew who I was after.

“Mayor, I’ll try talking to him first. You should go back to the village,” I suggested.

“Will that work?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but if he wanted to attack the village, he probably would have done it already. At the very least, figuring out his intentions should put the villagers at ease.”

“I suppose. I’ll be in my house, if you need anything,” the mayor said before leaving.

I hiked up to the man and stopped right outside the range of his spear. “Mind if I come closer?” I asked.

“Fine with me. Not like I’ll do anything about it. Oh, and if you’ve got any food, would you mind sharing? I’m running out,” he said and held out his magic bag. I nodded, walked closer, and handed over some food from my bag. “Thanks. Can’t leave this spot for a while, is the thing.”

“I heard from the mayor. He says you’ve been here for two weeks.”

“Yeah, I have to stay for a long time. Can’t back down on that.”

He was easy enough to talk to, and he didn’t sound mentally ill or anything. He must have had some objective.

“What for?” I asked. “If the mayor knew that, he could probably relax.”

“I could tell you, but you won’t believe me.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Do you have time?”

“About a week or so.” I had scheduled about that much time for this job.

“A week? Might just barely be enough time. Well, then you can sit here with me for the next week. We’ll start with that.”

“Fine, but do you mind if I report to the mayor? I’ll tell him that you’ll leave on your own soon enough.”

“Of course. I was wondering why nobody asked me anything. Were they scared? Sorry about that. Just tell him that I’ll only be here for another two weeks at the most. And I’ll pay him back for letting me stay. Could you hand this to him?” The man gave me a bag containing a fair sum of money.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

With that, the man went silent. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk, but that he was on the lookout for something. Rather than trying to speak to him, I went to the mayor’s house to explain the situation, then came back and sat next to the man.

◆◇◆◇◆

Days later, the man suddenly stood up.

“What is it?” I asked, but then I noticed something strange. Everything was shaking, as if there was an earthquake.

“Watch out, here it comes!” the man said just as a giant monster burrowed out of the peak of the hill. It looked like an ant about ten meters long, but it was as imposing as a giant skeleton or a tarasque.

“What the hell is that thing? And what’s it doing here?!” I asked as I readied my sword. But the man thrust his spear before I could make a move.

His skill with the spear was remarkable. He struck the giant ant several times from outside the range of its poison breath and finally slayed it. I hardly had to get involved.

“You’re pretty talented,” I commented.

“At my age, you’re probably better than I am,” the man said with a laugh. “Thankfully you were there to distract it. You’re a fine adventurer.” We shook hands. Then the man dissected the giant ant as he explained the situation to me. “This ant has shown up here numerous times.”

“So you’ve been waiting here for it? How frequently does it happen?”

“Once every thirty years.”

“Huh?”

“It shows up every thirty years. I’m serious. But like I said, you wouldn’t believe me.”

I shrugged and said, “Doesn’t sound like you’re kidding.”

“Yeah. Honestly, I didn’t quite believe it myself. But thirty years ago, I talked to some weird guy who’d been sitting here for a long time, the same way you’re talking to me now. The same thing happened back then.”

“That guy slayed the giant ant?”

“Right, and he asked me to do it again in thirty years. It’s hard to predict the exact time, but he said it always appears some time within a month of this season.”

“You must have a lot of patience,” I said.

“These sorts of jobs can be fun sometimes. Anyway, I could’ve told the villagers, but they wouldn’t have believed me. They saw the monster’s corpse last time, but nobody believed it. Well, I can see why they’d have a hard time believing it.”

“Will you come kill it again in another thirty years?”

“If I live that long. I don’t know if they lay their eggs deep beneath this hill, or if they lay them somewhere nearby and then they burrow over here, but it seems like there’s no end to them. Someone has to do this job.”

“Would you mind if I join in next time?”

“Taking this job on a whim, pal?” the man asked. “Whatever, you’re welcome to do it if you want. Oh, here’s your share.”

The man split the materials from the ant in two and swiftly packed his own share into his magic bag. I did the same with mine, leaving no trace of the giant ant.

“Then it’s about time for me to go. See you in thirty years,” the man said with a wave.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Does it matter? Ask me in thirty years.”

“That’s a long time to wait. But maybe that’s fine. See you in thirty years.”

We parted ways.

Help with Vengeance

There was a sour smell. It was only natural. When a mansion is left untouched for decades, then no matter its extravagance, it will eventually fall into ruin. That was especially true given the gruesome event that had once taken place here.

“Is it really here?” I asked and turned to Lorraine next to me.

“That’s what the client said. If we don’t find anything, we’ll just have to say so. Might as well try.”

The job was to search an old mansion outside the protective wall around Maalt and find a magic item of some importance to the client.

“I’d like to find it if at all possible,” I said. “Oh, we’ve got a welcome party.

“Lorraine grinned and looked straight ahead. “So it seems. Let’s do this, Rentt.”

Before us stood five skeletons wielding expensive equipment. The undead seldom appeared in this country, so this was a rare sight. I sensed a grudge in the air of this mansion, though, so it stood to reason that they would spawn here.

I slashed at the skeletons from the side. I ducked and paid close attention to my positioning so they couldn’t all come at me at once. Thanks to that, my first strike was a clean hit that made one skeleton crumble apart.

“Rentt!” Lorraine shouted before I could go after a second one. I guessed her intentions and dodged to the side just as a blade of wind like a giant guillotine shot past my previous position. It wiped out the four remaining skeletons.

“Did I even need to do anything?” I asked.

“I probably wouldn’t have gotten them all at once if you hadn’t.”

“Then great, I guess. I’m not sure that you should have broken that wall down, though.”

The wind blade had flown into a wall and completely destroyed it. Nobody had been to this mansion in a long time, but it was still somebody’s property.

“It’s probably fine,” Lorraine said. “And if not, we’ll just apologize later. It’s not like this is a very valuable property.”

“I guess if you’ve got money, you don’t have to care that much.” I was always strapped for cash, so I wouldn’t want to pay even a single bronze coin in reparation fees, but it probably wasn’t a big deal to Lorraine.

“Not exactly. At any rate, it’ll all be solved if we just find what we’re looking for. Now that it’s come to this, let’s find it at all costs.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We continued our search.

◆◇◆◇◆

“But is there any proof she’s the real deal?”

“Indeed. I haven’t the faintest clue where she came from, and yet she wants the family fortune.”

“She must be a swindler. We have to drive her away at once.”

In one room of a wealthy family’s mansion in Maalt, a girl was enduring constant insults from the many adults around her. The girl didn’t react much to the abuse. Her eyes sometimes wavered, as if she were waiting for something, but she was always quick to pull herself together again.

“It seems we’ve come to an agreement,” the old man sitting at the end of the table said. “Remira, it doesn’t sound like you have anything further to say either. If so, then I declare that the will is―”

Just then, the door slammed open. Everyone turned toward the entrance and saw two adventurers. They had what looked like a piece of a medal, and they were smiling at Remira.

Remira stood up and took the medal. “Here’s the proof,” she said as she took out a similar piece. The two halves formed a single whole that displayed an image of an aloof-looking person. The picture on the medal began to speak.

“The Mewick family fortune is to pass to our direct descendants,” it said. “But if there are no direct descendants to inherit it, it is to pass to Ordel Zatz.” The picture went on to state more minute conditions of the contract, concluding with, “This medal can only be activated by one of my direct descendants.”

Everyone else in the room fell into despair, especially the old man named Ordel. Remira was a direct descendant of the family, but Ordel had killed her parents and secretly tossed her away to a distant land. Through many twists and turns, she had made it to this house and had come up with a way to take everything from Ordel. The final step was to find the magic medal, a task she’d entrusted to Rentt and Lorraine. The gamble paid off.

Remira ran up to them and said, “Thanks to you, I got to avenge my parents.”

“But you’re going to let them live?” Rentt asked.

“Now that I have the rights to this house, I expect to find plenty of proof of their wrongdoings. Making them live without the fortune will be more painful than death to them.”

“That’s its own sort of hell, I guess. You’re pretty cruel.”

Remira giggled.

“We’re going back now, Remira, but if you ever need anything, feel free to ask for our services again. Any adventurer would love to have a wealthy client,” Lorraine said jokingly.

“Yes, I’ll be sure to ask you.”

About an Encounter With a Young Boy

Adventurers were bizarre. That’s what Lista Ease, the son of a merchant in Maalt, had thought when he first encountered one.

Lista’s parents ran a general store in Maalt called the Ease Trading Company. Most of their wares came from other merchants, but that alone didn’t attract customers. They needed at least a couple products exclusive to their store if they wanted to survive. And while Lista was still a child, he was well aware of this.

He knew that three times a year, his father or mother would visit his mother’s home village deep in the mountains to obtain special products. It was within a few days’ distance of Maalt, but the land was harsh. There were monsters and bandits along the way, so his father usually went while his mother ran the store.

But not this time. His mother had to use her connections to negotiate for these products, so she needed to go once a year to stay on their good side. This was one of those cases. She wanted to introduce them to her son while she was there, so Lista came with her to the village of Kachara.

Of course, they couldn’t go by themselves with just a coachman. They needed a bodyguard, so they put out a request at the guild for a talented adventurer.

A strange man named Rentt Faina answered their request. He wore a black, devilish robe that was frightening yet, honestly, a bit cool. His face was covered by a skull mask, which disturbed Lista’s mother, and she asked him to take it off.

Lista’s parents always said that looking at people’s faces to determine their personality was part of the job. That was probably why she wanted Rentt to remove his mask. But Rentt refused. It bothered Lista’s mother a bit, and she didn’t know whether to trust him. She didn’t want to think that the adventurer would attack them on the way there, but it was possible.

However, Rentt was surprisingly kind, and when he noticed her anxiety, he explained himself. He said that an acquaintance had given him the mask one day, and when he tried it on, he found that he couldn’t take it off. Lista’s mother didn’t believe him at first, so Rentt let her yank on it as hard as she could. Once she tried it and failed, she trusted him.

Lista tried it too, and while Rentt didn’t even touch the mask, it felt like it was stuck on with some sort of adhesive. It didn’t seem to pull on his skin, though, as if it were a part of his face. His mother worried that it was a curse, but Rentt said that he was allowed to enter and leave Maalt without issue, so presumably it wasn’t. Maalt had a special barrier that kept cursed objects out. Every merchant in Maalt knew that, so she was convinced.

By that time, Lista’s mother fully trusted Rentt, and they talked ceaselessly on the way to town. Rentt had plenty of stories and a wealth of knowledge. He was familiar with all the materials available around Maalt and the special products of all the villages in the area, so he had plenty to discuss with merchants.

That wasn’t bad in itself, but Lista was worried that his kindness might mean he wasn’t strong. He was, after all, a Bronze-class adventurer. They’d asked for a Silver-class adventurer if possible, but the guild had recommended Rentt, to their disappointment.

They changed their mind, however, after monsters attacked their carriage. It was a group of goblins led by an orc, a relatively nasty group of monsters for this region. Most Bronze-class adventurers would have trouble with an orc, but Rentt was different. He defeated the goblins in no time, and even the orc fell to his blade.

He wasn’t faster than the eye could see, and Lista could in fact clearly follow his movements, but he somehow mowed through the monsters nonetheless. Lista thought that a strong adventurer needed speed and power, but Rentt didn’t appear to have much of either.

When Lista asked Rentt about it, he said that mastering the basics could take you surprisingly far. But he’d laughed and said that they wouldn’t be enough when it came to extremely powerful monsters. Rentt hadn’t boasted or anything, so Lista figured he was just normally down-to-earth like this.

They weren’t the least bit anxious the rest of the way to the village, and after they got there, they negotiated for the special products. Rentt even walked around the village and found medicinal herbs that could be sold as another special product. The villagers were thankful, and both Lista and his mother were surprised. Lista learned that adventurers needed not only strength, but a variety of knowledge and techniques. Bandits attacked them on the way back to Maalt, but Rentt easily fought them off as well. Lista would never call Bronze-class adventurers weak again.

When they got back to the store in Maalt, and Lista’s mother told his father about everything that had happened, Lista’s father praised Rentt for his work and asked if he would work for them exclusively. But when he learned that Lista’s mother had already asked that and been turned down, he was disappointed. Lista had never seen his parents show anybody so much respect before, and he hoped that he could one day be somebody like that.

From that day forth, Lista aspired to be just like Rentt. He wouldn’t be an adventurer given the family he came from, but he wanted to protect their caravan by himself and find goods to sell wherever he traveled. Rentt had taught him that it would be possible as long as he worked hard enough.

Years later, the Ease Trading Company became one of the biggest businesses in Maalt, but that’s another story. The company’s most prominent figure was its second president, a man who was known by everyone in Maalt as a powerful warrior, but nobody knew how he reached such heights.

About Life Objectives

“Looks like this is the place,” I muttered to myself.

I was standing at some ruins not far from Maalt that appeared to have been destroyed hundreds of years ago, if not thousands. When I’d asked a nearby village about it, they had said that some religion had used it as a central location a long time ago and had based their entire religion around it. As proof, there were many unfamiliar symbols carved into the stone wreckage lying about the ruins.

“Hey, this is your destination, right?” I asked the middle-aged man behind me.

He was a scholar named Gavun, and he studied folklore around Maalt as both a job and a hobby. He’d made a request at the guild for somebody to escort him to the ruins and back. As for why he wanted to come here, I hadn’t asked him yet.

“Rentt, first of all, let me thank you,” he said. “I sure couldn’t have made it here on my own.”

“No need to thank me. This is my job. So what brought you here?”

Gavun took a pendant out of his pocket. “Have a look at this.”

“Looks like it has a similar crest to the rubble around here.” The pendant was oddly shaped, but it resembled markings I’d seen scattered about the area.

“Yes, that’s right. This arrived at an antique shop in Maalt recently, and the owner of the shop didn’t know what it was worth, so he sold it to me for cheap.”

“So you got lucky when you found it?”

“Pretty much, but I’m probably the only person in Maalt who would have wanted it in the first place. You wouldn’t have a clue what it was without intimate knowledge of local folklore.”

“Then I’m guessing that shopkeeper was happy to sell it. So what does it mean?”

“Well― Oh.”

Before Gavun could explain, the pendant glowed with a blue light.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Looks like it’s real after all. It could have been fake.”

“Can you explain what this is all about now?”

Gavun nodded. “I told you on the way here what they say about this place, didn’t I?”

“That some religion was based around it?”

“Right. Nobody remembers the name of the religion, but they worshiped a god who had dominion over the past. With the proper tools for the ritual, they could supposedly see into the past.”

“Do you want to see the history of these ruins?” He was a scholar like Lorraine, and I was pretty familiar with the sorts of desires she had.

“That does sound appealing, but no,” Gavun said with a revealing smile. “This is what I want to see.”

I was blinded by white light. A moment later, I was in a small house. Strangely, all the colors looked dull. I looked out the window and saw what looked like the scenery around Maalt.

“Are you working today too?” a young woman said. I turned around and saw her with a young, oddly familiar man.

“Yeah, sorry,” the man said. “I know it’s Linza’s birthday today, but if I lose my chance, I’ll have to wait another thirty years for the next opportunity.”

“Oh, I understand. Take care.”

“Bye.”

“Daddy! When are you getting back?!”

“Sorry, Linza. I know it’s your birthday.”

“It’s fine! Just doing your job as a scholar, right?!”

“You’re such a good kid, Linza. I’ll be sure to buy you a souvenir. Your birthday present will be a little late, but you’ll get one.”

“Okay! I’ll be waiting!”

They looked like a loving family enjoying a peaceful life, but Gavun was watching with an anguished expression. The scene changed, and now I saw the young man kneeling in front of his dead wife and daughter.

“Why? You said you would wait for me,” he said through tears. He was undoubtedly Gavun. He told me he was single, but evidently that hadn’t always been the case.

“Rentt,” Gavun said.

“What?”

“I think you can guess what I want to see next. If I made a request about that, would you take it?”

I shook my head. “I have my limits.”

“You won’t kill them? Then I’ll go on and watch the rest by myself. You were only able to watch with me because I wanted you to, but I can force you out too. I can’t show the moment of my family’s death for nothing, you see.”

“You’re going to seek revenge?”

“Yes, no matter how many years it takes. Anyway, Rentt, you’ll have to wait a while for me.”

Everything went white again, and next thing I knew, I was back in the ruins. Gavun returned some time later.

“Did you find out who did it?” I asked.

“Yes. No turning back now. Shall we go back to Maalt?”

“I’m guessing I can’t stop you.”

“This is what I’ve been living for. If I hadn’t come across this opportunity, maybe I would have gone down a different path, but unfortunately I happened upon that pendant at the antique shop.”

“Well, I guess we should go back to Maalt.”

We didn’t speak much on the road back. I didn’t know what to say, to be honest.

Several days later, a murder took place in Maalt. I considered looking into it, but when I heard the culprit’s name, I decided to stay out of it. I didn’t want to be the one to bring him in. But he got what he wanted, in any case.