Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Still, it’s not bad that we earned 4 jurang and completed the quest.
We even earned a trust level of 3.
As soon as the settlement was done, I led Cassis away from this dirty and terrible gambling den.
“It was a really terrible experience, wasn’t it?”
“…It wasn’t that terrible.”
Cassis hesitated for a moment before giving an unexpected answer.
I turned my head abruptly to look up at Cassis.
“No! Your Grace is terribly bad at gambling. Look, we didn’t even bet a large amount at once, but bet small amounts many times, yet how could we not win even once?”
“…No.”
“You’re really bad at this kind of thing, so don’t even go near it! Understood?”
You mustn’t do it!
The debt you have to repay is already so much that it can’t even be recorded in the system’s figures.
What if you incur more debt here?
I’ll start destroying the world even without a quest.
Cassis looked at me with a face full of things he wanted to say, then sighed deeply and shook his head.
“I understand.”
“Good.”
I smiled broadly at his answer.
“Now where shall we go?”
I led Cassis around the surrounding marketplace.
All sorts of street vendors were lined up.
I thought it might be good to eat something simple, but I wasn’t hungry, probably because we had been nibbling on various things.
“Don’t you want to eat anything? Like a snack or…”
At my response, Cassis expressionlessly held out something.
In his hand was an orange sugar candy stick.
I burst out laughing as I received what he handed me.
“When did you buy this?”
“You seemed to like it.”
“…I don’t usually enjoy it, but I tend to always have it at festivals. Thank you.”
I pulled out one piece and popped it into my mouth, then took out another piece and held it out to Cassis.
He hesitated for a long time, only taking the sugar lump in one bite after our eyes met.
Seeing the protagonist of this world chewing with his cheeks puffed out, I asked the question I had been asking Cassis throughout the festival once again.
“Is there anything else you want to do?”
“…I’m fine.”
He barely swallowed the fruit pulp and sugar lump before answering.
The answer was always the same.
Like someone whose desires had been suppressed, Cassis deferred the choice to me, saying he was fine.
There are people who act like that because they’re overflowing with consideration, and there are people who act like that because they’ve experienced everything, but well.
Cassis didn’t seem to be either.
He just acted as if he had no choices given to him.
“Then shall we go to that field over there for a moment to catch our breath? There are too many people here.”
“Alright.”
Just as we were turning to move, a child suddenly rushed towards me.
It was over in the blink of an eye.
The skirt of the dress I was wearing was a mess with cream or something smeared on it, and the child was dangling in Cassis’s hands.
“…Ah.”
Cassis seemed quite flustered too, but for that, he had stopped the child with incredible speed.
In the original game, he was praised as the continent’s best knight, the hero who saved the world, and indeed, a knight is a knight, I thought.
“I’m sorry. It was so sudden that I couldn’t stop it completely.”
“No, it’s okay. I was surprised too, but I think it’s okay to put the child down now.”
Cassis apologized for not completely stopping it, even though he had prevented the child who was rushing at me from colliding with me.
The child, who had been looking back and forth between me and Cassis with a frozen expression, more than just surprised, burst into tears as soon as he was released, slumping down on the spot.
The clothes looked quite neat, seeming to be from a fairly wealthy family, but not nobility.
That’s probably why he’s crying in surprise at seeing me and Cassis.
“Child, don’t cry. Why are you crying?”
I left my messy skirt as it was and immediately sat down to comfort the child.
But it was difficult to console the child who had turned bright red.
What should I do?
I first put a piece of sugar candy I was holding into the child’s mouth and roughly wiped his grimy cheeks with my fingers.
“Did he lose his parents…?”
As I was thinking this, a quest window popped up with a flash.
[SYSTEM | A sub-quest for the ‘Debt Repayment’ quest has arrived.]
Is this a quest too?
Just a moment ago there was a quest to repay debt through gambling, and now another one.
‘Check quest.’
[Let’s repay the debt!
(Quest content is being prepared~)
If you have any inquiries, contact your god directly~)]
“…?”
[…That’s how it is.]
‘What is? Why is there no quest content?’
[It’s quite difficult to make each of these into individual quests. We’ll just let you know like this that you can repay debt, so Irina, just figure it out on your own, repay the debt and all that.]
‘…Pardon?’
Even when I checked the quest again, the content was completely empty.
[SYSTEM | The sub-quests for the ‘Debt Repayment’ quest will proceed with blank content as follows, except in specific cases.]
‘Isn’t that just telling me to figure it out on my own?’
[SYSTEM | Correct answer! If you resolve things well on your own, it will lead to situations where you earn or lose money, so when a quest appears, try your best to resolve it.]
“…Isn’t this dereliction of duty?”
“Dereliction of duty?”
I hurriedly lowered the system window and shook my head at Cassis, who was looking at me with a puzzled face.
“It’s nothing.”
When I looked back, Cassis was sitting on the ground with one leg bent at the knee, following my lead.
Perhaps because of this, the gaze of the person I always had to look up at was now at the same level.
There was dirt on his neatly pressed suit pants.
Is this person originally like this?
Or did he change to become like this?
I felt strange as his red eyes stared at me intently.
“…”
Whatever the case, it was clear that the Cassis right in front of me was an incredibly kind person.
“Is there a security office nearby?”
“Ah. Should we take the child there?”
“Don’t you think we should?”
The child, who had barely calmed down after eating about three sugar candies, looked up at me and Cassis alternately, his face becoming tearful again.
I gave the child a new sugar candy stick in his hand, fearing that he might burst into tears again after I had just managed to console him, but his tearful face showed no signs of brightening.
At that moment, Cassis approached the child and lifted him up.
The child initially screamed “Waaah!” as if surprised, but soon seemed to adapt to the suddenly elevated view, hugging Cassis and biting into the sugar candy he held in his other hand.
“Do you know the way to the security office?”
“…I’ll guide you.”
And so, Cassis and I set off on a long journey to the security office.
The streets that would have been quiet normally were very crowded due to the festival.
And there were many people who knew me from running around everywhere to repay debts over the past few years.
“Oh? Isn’t it Lady Seike? It’s been a long time.”
“…Ah!”
‘Oh no! Who is this? Which captain is he?’
[The captain from Renbei Port City!]
[His name is Ken Albi!]
“Captain Albi, it’s been a long time. Did you like the wine we sent?”
“Haha! You’re as kind as ever, even after such a long time. I’m doing well. Thanks to the wine you supplied last time, the voyage was very enjoyable.”
He was one of the people I met while going through the tutorial of repaying the Count Seike family’s debt in the past.
“My goodness, Lady Seike. Do you remember me?”
“Of course I remember, you introduced our wine to the royal capital, didn’t you? It’s been a long time, Lady Linsia.”
With each step, people from the small quests I had undertaken to repay debts suddenly appeared.
I greeted everyone with a “Haha!” while discreetly checking Cassis’s reaction.
Cassis showed no particular dissatisfaction or annoyance, just stably holding the child.
However, perhaps worried that the child might get bored, he occasionally bought food from nearby vendors and put it in the child’s mouth.
So when Cassis, the child, and I arrived in front of the security office, much more time had passed than expected.
Until just a while ago, the sun had been high in the sky, but now it was gradually setting, and the sky was turning bluish.
The child was asleep in Cassis’s arms.
Rather than sending the child who was sleeping soundly directly to the security office, Cassis chose to sit on a bench in the quiet open space in front of it.
“I’m sorry, Cassis.”
“For what?”
“For the delay because of me…”
“It’s alright. I rather enjoyed it.”
There’s no way he could have enjoyed it.
A distance that should have taken 20 minutes to walk took over an hour.
He added an explanation to my puzzled look.
“Because I could see how you’ve been living. It’s not easy for a noble lady to be on friendly terms with everyone from captains to merchants.”
“…It was necessary to make a living.”
“Even if it’s necessary, there are people who can’t do it.”
The reputation of Seike in noble society has long since hit rock bottom.
Many nobles fear their reputation falling.
The upper class of the capital doesn’t value Seike very highly.
They thought it was very vulgar for a noble, who wasn’t even a wealthy bourgeois, to make money by selling things to commoners.
They also judged that we didn’t know the honor of nobility.
But the reason I can be unafraid is not only because I’m from 21st century Earth, but also because the game system allows me to view this place as if it’s a step away from reality.
I was about to tell Cassis that he didn’t need to blame himself, but I just closed my mouth.
“So I was glad to be able to glimpse how much effort you’ve put in for Seike, and how wonderfully you’ve lived.”
At that moment, I heard a ‘ding!’ sound.
[SYSTEM | The Duke’s trust level has reached 7. (7/13)]
Until just a moment ago, it was only 3 out of 13 total, but I’m not sure how it rose so much.
Did he like me talking with various people?
I pushed away the system window and turned to Cassis, smiling playfully.
“Then how about hiring me? Me, who is so wonderful and amazing! In Luwin! Isn’t it great?”
I said while pounding my chest, but Cassis just smiled as always without any particular reaction. He slightly stroked the head of the child in his arms and leaned his body slightly.
As the sun was slowly setting and the wind was getting chilly, a middle-aged man came running from far away.
He was hurriedly heading towards the security office when our eyes met, and then his eyes turned towards Cassis, and he stopped in his tracks.
The man’s face was pale as if he was flustered.
“Ian!”
“Mmm…? Ah, Dad?”
The child woke up groggily, then spotted the man and smiled brightly, quickly jumping down from Cassis’s leg and running towards him.
It seemed to be the child’s parent.
“You managed to get here smoothly, Your Grace.”
“Indeed.”
