Chapter 327: Pre-Request Verification
「Two, is it? 」
Butler tilted his head slightly, apparently perplexed.
「No, if we count starting the oath, then three, four… 」
Hauron gasped and fixed his words.
「Please stop increasing them. 」
「That’s my line!!!!! 」
He bitterly retorted.
「Calm down. Don’t be too agitated, it’s not good for your body. 」
Dinosso said to Hauron.
「Yes, yes, you’re right. Besides, I have one that personally have the highest priority… You have the King’s Bough, don’t you? 」
「Yup. 」
「Noth, I’ll give the Lady’s picture book to you. I won’t drag you down, so help me a bit. 」
Butler’s eyes widened a bit, before he made a slight bow, seemingly in agreement.
Lady? Drag down? what are you talking about?
「Valmour, Shiva owes me a favor, right? Then you, as her husband, pay it back to me. 」
After he confirmed Butler’s response, Hauron then turned to Dinosso.
「What’s with this, so suddenly. I’ll do it, though. 」
Dinosso was also surprised to suddenly receive a request from him.
Afterward, Hauron suddenly kneeled in front of me for some reason.
「I request that you accompany me. Three days, no two days is enough. In turn, I will give you the grimoires, the treasures that I hoarded, all my secret techniques — everything of mine I will surrender to you. I also guarantee your safety — Please, I implore you. 」
Hauron spoke formally then bowed his head deeply. Ahh, I’m troubled now.
「Ah, I don’t need them. 」
I unwittingly refused.
Hauron continued bowing his head, his body quivering slightly.
I looked at Butler. He slowly shook his head.
「Who is the Lady he’s talking about? 」
I asked Butler.
「She is Ash-sama’s Grandmother. 」
Butler replied with a smile.
Ah, I’m sure he really really wanted that. Ash probably wanted to see it too.
「What do you want Jean to do? 」
Retze asked in a low voice.
「Please destroy the King’s Bough of the Perished Kingdom, and please liberate the one and only King that had been imprisoned by the aforementioned King’s Bough. 」
Hauron’s tone was heartbreakingly sorrowful as he continued bowing.
「…Goodness, I already know how this ends. 」
Retze clutched his head again as he managed to squeeze those words out.
「Me too. 」
Dinosso’s eyes awkwardly roamed around.
「And that includes me… Hauron-dono, allow me to tell you something better in exchange for the picture book. In that rental house that you sojourned last night — it’s best to go there around this time, so if you would, kindly check the living room’s fireplace first, then we can discuss this again. 」
Butler beamingly said. It’s so him, sneakily staking a guarantee to that picture book first just like that.
「It’s faster calling him here, but since it’s a heartfelt reunion, it’ll be better if there’s no one else around. 」
I also guessed what’s going to happen. Yep, this problem should be considered first before owing favors.
「Hey, wait, why are you suddenly staring at me so affectionately!? 」
I helped the befuddled Hauron stand up and pushed him out of the house. We waited for him with steaming cups of tea in front of the fireplace.
「If we agreed then we’d be going to the desert, huh. Well, it’s cold now so it would have been nice to go there for two days. 」
Dinosso smirked.
「If our guess is right, then Hauron must be panicking by now after meeting Khan face to face. I don’t think there are other kings held hostage by a Bough, so we’re probably right. Most of the Boughs were already destroyed and ended, after all. 」
Retze’s gaze was unfocused as he said that.
「I finally understand why Hauron-dono was obsessed with the King’s Bough, and why he didn’t join the journey for the last test. Now that I contemplate about this, it seems Hauron-dono was aware of the contents of the test, so even if he wanted to come, he couldn’t. I wonder since when did he start seeking the King’s Bough? 」
「Right, now that you mention it, he enthusiastically encouraged me to look for it too. By the way, all this stuff makes me crave for a drink this early in the morning. 」
Dinosso quipped.
He was holding the sausage wrapped in gyoza that was smeared with chili sauce that I just served. I topped it with cheese and grilled it, so the outer skin was covered with crunchy bits of cheese. I also prepared crab cream croquettes.
「Shiva will scold you if you drink too much. 」
It’s still morning, so no can do.
「I did think he seemed to have hobbies related to Es, like smoking hookah. I wonder how did he get acquainted with Khan? 」
「Indeed. 」
Butler took a knife out of nowhere and sliced the crab cream croquettes in half. ‘Nowhere’, but it’s probably from his sleeve.
「You didn’t talk about those things while you were in the same party? 」
「We didn’t pry into one another’s business unless necessary. Besides, we only formed that party for a short while. 」
「Really? I thought you’ve been travelling together as adventurers for a longtime. I did hear that it was a legendary party. 」
「Folks are hyping it up in the streets, like 『Legendary Party』 and whatnot, but aside from Hauron, I’ve never teamed up with Noth yet. It’s just a hassle to refute every single time so I just let it slide. 」
Dinosso said, seemingly troubled. Oh, come to think of it, their age didn’t match too.
「Their activity periods slightly overlapped, and they also interacted in some instances so they were frequently lumped together — ah, no, it’s more like folks wishfully thinking stuff like ‘how nice it’d be if so and so teamed up with so and so’ kind of thing. The made-up stories happen to fit their roles in their party perfectly, so the rumors spread. Consider this — Dean wouldn’t share what happened during the time we spent adventuring together, right? 」
Retze explained for me.
「Ahh. 」
I thought Dean was just fangirling on his hero Dean and those two women, but it turned out he was just telling me the truth and not the made-up tales.
「You should take rumors with a grain of salt, alright? Even the accounts from influential guys can be incorrect compared to research records, and stories from your close friends might have mistakes, even if they didn’t have any ill intention. 」
「Yes. 」
Yeah, I also pretended to be Ruf’s descendant, didn’t I? Alright, let’s be more careful.
「Retze, do you know how to gather cinnamon? 」
I hope you deny that suspicious info about taking some bird’s nest on top of the cliff!!
「Ahh, are you talking about gathering the nest of a special bird, or scooping them with a net from the headwater of Es River? 」
The dubious info increased!?
Notes
T/N: Poor Hauron XD This a pic of him from the cover of LN volume 12, but I think it fits this chap as well 😀
Thanks for the treat.