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Volume 12 Chapter 5 Part 3

「Oh, look who we have here, it’s you. I am glad you could make it. 」

「Yeah… 」

I came here because you called me here, not because I wanted to come of my own volition.

That is what I thought about this situation, but it looks like that was not her actual attitude, but rather the usual social comment used in these kinds of situations.

In that case, is she going to be greeting me in the same way the next time I am going to be coming here with a visit?

「I have received the report of your recent activities in the Labyrinth. You seem to be doing your best. 」

「Well, yeah. 」

Except I am simply using 「Warp」to properly cheat my way through it, but since I cannot say that, I have no choice but to go and deceive her with proper social etiquette.

「I hear that you have been coming to The Labyrinth Behind Nesco every day since the early morning and that you are staying there for a very long time each day.

「Well, that is how I have been living my life up to this point. 」

That’s right. It seems that the people who are living in this world are not accustomed resting or slacking off, which makes the work ethic here similar to that of a black company back in Japan.

Well, it cannot be helped, since in this world there is pretty much no other entertainment or ways to have a prosperous livelihood other than to go and enter the Labyrinths….

No, wait. I guess there is one form of entertainment here after all. The one of which you can take the absolute best possible advantage if you are a Human who managed to unlock the Sex Maniac Job, thus enjoying that entertainment even more.

「I trust that so far there are no problems with Rutina? 」

「No, at the current moment, we are living together just fine. Thank you for your consideration though. 」

「Well, I should have expected as much from you. Do your best in aiding with the Labyrinth subjugation efforts. 」

「Y-Yes, of course. 」

You sure have a lot to say, old lady.

I am also pretty sure that if I tried to say that I have any concerns at all about living with Rutina, then she definitely would have done something to me.

For that exact reason, I think that mentioning that this whole situation happened because the Earl of Selmar was slacking off with his Labyrinth Subjugation duties is not going to be a good thing to do either.

「Now then, the reason why I have asked you to come see me today is because I want to make a request of you. 」

「Hou hou? 」

For the time being, it looks like my hard work and lack of complaints managed to secure me her acceptance.

「Well, I am not going to really expect you to fully commit to it because it looks like you already have your hands busy with helping us with The Labyrinth Behind Nesco, but I am still going to ask this of you anyway. It doesn’t matter to me if you manage to succeed or fail with it, I just want you to approach it with a relatively light heart. 」

She really has a lot to say.

「What is that request of yours, exactly? 」

「Across the sea from Nesco, there supposedly lies a land called Grineer. When I was still but a little brat myself, it was still a part of the empire, as well as its stopping point. One of the girls from the family also crossed the sea in order to move there, but, well… it was so long ago that I do not think she is going to be alive anymore. 」

Elder Cassandra is 107 years old now, so when she says that something happened when she was still a little brat, then I feel inclined to believe that it was something that happened a long, long time ago indeed.

「Grineer, huh? 」

「If we’re lucky, then some of my grandchildren there might probably still be alive, so if at all possible, I want you to go to Grineer and see exactly what is going on there. If you really are as powerful and capable of an Adventurer as you seem to be, then asking something like that of you should not be at all unreasonable. 」

「Why can’t I go there now? 」

「If we knew of a way to go there, then some of the Adventurers from the clan would already be going back and forth between here and there, but I have never heard of it. At the very least, none of the clan’s Adventurers know of such a way. That being said, it’s not like I am ordering you to go there right now out of the blue like that. It’s not like I have managed to get in touch with Grineer now. And this is where you come in. 」

In other words, this is something that she can request of me because I am not a member of the clan, so she probably thinks that it is going to be okay to use me in such a way.
That being said, she said that us going to Grineer is neither important nor urgent, so I guess whether we’re going to go there or not is going to be left entirely up to us.

「So I don’t have to go there if I don’t want to? 」

「No, no, of course not. That being said, I wanted to request this of you precisely because I know that such an excellent Adventurer like you is definitely going to be able to reach it. 」

Somehow I really doubt that you think so.

「Uh-huh. 」

「I’m asking this of you mainly for personal convenience. I just want to know exactly what happened with the members of the clan who migrated over there. However, nowadays there are probably more than a few people who do not even know the name Grineer, and that is why it is something that I would like to hear about while I am still alive. 」

While you’re still alive? I thought that you didn’t plan on dying just yet. Weren’t you the one who said that you are going to continue fulfilling the duties of the head of the clan for as long as you are alive?

Moreover, both Rutina and I were there when it happened.

「This is the first time I am hearing about this place myself. 」

Rutina also says that she never heard about this place called Grineer.

「Well, if you are an excellent Adventurer, there is nothing you that you can’t do. Provided that you are willing to take on a little bit of risk, of course.

Damn lady, you are persistent as all hell, I will give you that.

「It doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, it’s just a matter of whether you’re familiar with the area or not, but I know that it is going to be very tough without any sort of clues to go on. 」
I feel like I’m going to be able to do it, but she’s really tough without any clues.「

「Fumu. Well, it can’t be helped then. There is a village called Tare located on the territories of Hartz Duchy. The Duke of Hartz from two generations ago, that is to say snotty-nosed brat Brocken’s grandfather, was quite an excellent Duke. When the stopover with the Grineer fell into the claws of monsters, he gladly welcome the refugees who fled to his Dukedom there. Last time I heard, some of the decendants of those people should still live there, so maybe some of them will know something about it. 」

「Hmm. Tare, you say? 」

I have heard about the village of Tare before. Hell, I have even been there before, since that village is where one of the Labyrinths in the territory of the Hartz Duchy is located.

It was also a place where not only the village chief, but also the village’s residents seemed to behave like a bunch of arrogant douchebags.

Now, my question is: were they arrogant because they moved there, or is it that the need to move has made them arrogant in the first place?

Could it be that for the people living in the village of Tare, being racist and looking down on humans was a way of venting their frustration of being driven away from their former home by monsters? Because if what I have seen is anything to go by, then that method of healing of theirs was not an especially effective one.

「The Duke of Hartz was an excellent man two generations ago, but ever since then, the quality of his successors has been steadily declining, and since that trends is very likely to continue, I am afraid to see what the future holds for the Hartz Duchy. 」