Chapter 851: The Sand City Uprising 8
Isabel ended up being sent to Polka for treatment on her arm.
“If you go there, you’ll definitely be cured. After all, we’ve got three confirmed cases right here”
Nancy assured us emphatically. The confirmed cases being herself, me and 100-man commander Becker.
“Well, mine wasn’t that serious since they reattached it right after cutting it off……”
“No, no, even so, if you’d left it alone, who knows if it would have healed properly?”
“Compared to Smithson, who just cut it off and tossed it, or that lady who burned hers and ate it, it wouldn’t have been much different from natural healing. Seriously, like Isabel, why can people just so easily discard an arm? Mine got chopped off by the enemy, so I had no choice, but voluntarily deciding to just toss your dominant arm? That’s not something most people could do”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly straightforward……”
No, well, Tetes and Neia were totally looking at me like 「Whoa, this guy’s messed up」, so maybe it seemed like I discarded it pretty easily. But if I’d thought of another tactic, I wouldn’t have done that.
“Right. Can I hitch a ride too, by the way?”
“……Is something wrong, Special Duty Commander?”
“No, it’s this hair bleach. I was in a rush, so I used some crappy stuff……my hair’s in such bad shape now, even if I dye it again, it’s not gonna stop being all frizzy and brittle. Seriously, if I comb it carelessly, it snaps off in chunks. It’s mentally draining. I was thinking maybe the sacred spring could fix it”
“……Well, fine, I guess”
“You look weirdly reluctant. You’re not seriously planning to do something lewd to one-armed Isabel on the way, are you?”
“I certainly wouldn’t dare!?”
The hesitation was mostly because I figured the female slaves would look more disgusted than I would, and also because I doubted that sort of thing could be fixed at the sacred spring. It supposedly does improve hair condition, but would it actually make bleached, limp hair look nice? Like I said the other day, I’ve never dyed my hair, so I have no idea.
Since Isabel-san will be away, Cosmos-san will apparently stay at the shop instead. Without a manager, the shop really can’t be protected. For a while longer, 「Tower Emblem」 will remain in a delicate phase. Even though Carlos-san and his wife took the brunt of it, you never know what might happen at Cosmos Main Store.
“It would’ve been nice if we could’ve left it to Cathy-san”
“I’ve only been here a few months, and you’re already dumping everything on me? Honestly, when your brother bolted out there, I thought my life was ending. And those two silver ones? They just used illusions to slip out and are rustling about doing something”
“……You noticed?”
Leda murmurs that the illusion she left behind should’ve been perfect. That overconfidence was probably her downfall.
“Well, I couldn’t risk getting bitten for real, so I pretended not to see”
“We are not such barbaric dragons”
“……For us dark elves, that’s no comfort at all. This area was still manageable, but closer to the capital, countless towns vanished a hundred years ago”
“……I see”
Emma’s face clouded over. Emma was from the Palace, which had no contact with the human world back then, and she wasn’t even born yet. She knew the historical facts, but she couldn’t say anything in response. Seeing Emma like that, Cathy-san, looking suitably embarrassed, swept her hair back with a flourish, as if to start over.
“Anyway, I’m not taking responsibility for this. I’m tagging along with you. I hear there’s a rather splendid hot spring there, right?”
“Ah, well……yes. You could say that’s about all we have”
Cathy-dono declared she’d sneak along to Polka. Honestly, her attitude could easily be seen as selfish, but Cosmos-san, who’d just committed the reckless act of suddenly appointing her as the group’s restraining force (including the dragon), couldn’t strongly object and just gave a wry smile.
“While you’re at it, please take Felicia along as a reward for her service this time. Oh, and you should bring a few others too. It’s compensation for not being able to fulfill that promise of training them here♪”
“Hey hey……what kind of training, Smithson? At Talc’s premier brothel?”
“…No, not me. For Emma and the others, you know various things……”
100-man commander Becker, buried his face in his hands. Having long since removed his makeup, he was now just a disheveled middle-aged man with white hair.
“Of course I’m riding back too~”
“Wait, Cima! We haven’t had our proper meeting yet! And what do you mean going back? Your home is here, right?! This place is freezing cold! Especially with the snow hell coming up!?”
Cima was trying to board the 「Flying Sexroom」, dragging Carlos, who was trying to stop her. ……Wait, Carlos is actually being dragged? Cima isn’t exactly huge herself.
“Give it up, Carlos. I’ve said it before: Cima is a grown woman. She can make her own decisions, and her temperament is more than most men can handle”
“She’s still way safer than Hilda!”
“In a way, I think she’s even harder to chain down than Hilda or Nord. Those two are at least thoughtful in their own way, but this girl is pure instinct”
“Could you stop saying unsettling things, Nancy!”
As always, they’re entertaining, but this couple makes you wonder which side to take when you try to get involved. Nancy’s assessment of her sisters-in-law seems fair, though rather harsh. ……And Jose has also come to see us off.
“Well, yesterday I was honestly calculating when the dragon might swoop in and how to cover it up. You’ve got some guts, kid”
“……Honestly, I almost called them a few times myself. ……But, belatedly, this is the kind of thing the constabulary should be handling, right? Is it really okay for us to just wrap this up ourselves?”
Celesta has military police in many towns. Normally, they handle criminal investigations and arrests involving civilians. They don’t have the combat strength of a regular infantry unit, and whether you can really rely on them if a horde of monsters appears……well, that’s a bit questionable. Still, they’re not people you want to cross, and you don’t want to have to deal with them too often. But Jose just shrugged.
“Even if you gathered every single reserve member here, we wouldn’t have three hundred. They might manage minor crimes around town, but against an ogre guild? They wouldn’t even give us the time of day if we tried to mess with them. Especially the 『Tower』, just their regular members number two thousand. Throw in their entire clan and you’re looking at nearly ten thousand ogres involved. You think we could just bite off that much?”
“……But if we defy them, this time it’ll be treason”
“For that charge to stick and get the military to deal with the ogres, we’d have to be prepared to be wiped out. ……Even the righteous military wouldn’t go that far. That’s why this town has another ogre organization for balance. Conversely, if that one gets corrupted, we’d have no choice but to rely on 『Tower』. That’s the balance we’ve maintained for hundreds of years”
“……I kinda thought I’d like to live here, but it’s still pretty scary”
“Even so, the scariest thing in this town is still Carlos-san”
Smirking, Jose-san glanced sideways at Carlos-san. His usual weird big brother move.
“At the end of the day, brute force only makes enemies. What a merchant builds is loyalty and allies. ……It’s not just about silencing troublemakers with a bag of gold coins. That guy has a mountain of tactics, hard and soft. And for centuries, he’s sustained life in this town, steering it his way, keeping the air vibrant. If you seriously piss off a man like that, neither the 『Tower』 nor the 『Trident』 would stand a chance. They always think they’re making profitable deals with him, but without even realizing it, they’ve become his tools”
“…………”
“Don’t forget, Dragon Tamer. The one you should truly look up to is that man. ……That’s what real strength looks like”
“……Maybe. I suppose”
While moving things with money carries a somewhat negative image, the business of distributing work, food, and entertainment to people through money also shares happiness and pride with many. He who honors this and continues to operate it is, in a sense, the hero most needed by the world and perhaps the symbol of 「This Country’s Strength」.
Accepting Leda’s complaint, Emma flew them back. The 「Flying Sexroom」, carrying 100-man commander Becker, the group from their arrival, and several prostitutes, slowly took off from behind Cosmos Main Store. As they flew over the vast desert, gleaming white in the sunlight, Isabel slowly stood up and smoothly opened the entrance door.
“Wait”
“That’s dangerous!”
Aurora and I scrambled to our feet in panic, but with her remarkable physical prowess, Isabel didn’t even stagger in the wind. Bathed in the light from outside, she smiled silently. With one hand, she opened the package she’d been holding and lifted the ogre’s head inside by its horns.
“……This is the end. ……I’m ending it. Lucky”
Then, she tossed the head into the sea of sand hundreds of meters below. Turning back to us, who watched in stunned silence, she spoke in that familiar tone for the first time in ages.
“Thank you. For everything. ……For everything……I’m truly sorry!”
Within her, sentiment and conflict must have been raging all along. What that was like, we couldn’t possibly know—neither her life nor Lucky’s—and it would surely be rude to pry. But. We could at least help her return to her daily life.
“……Yeah. Welcome back, Isabel”
Saying that, I put my arm around her shoulder. Aurora closed the door, and the vengeance vanished into the sand.