Heroine Survival Vol 6 Chapter 10

The Prelude of Wars

Soon it would be two months since Elena and I came to this desert town Cutlass.

Our relationship with the beastman pack, Munza Gang became a vague  one of [non-interference as much as possible]. It was only as much as  possible because the gang had a lot of hot-blooded members who would  pick a fight with us. In case something happened, Munza Gang would deal  with the corpses for us free of charge.

With the agreement with Munza Gang, the high class potion we created  became sold directly to Hogros Company and now we had a source of  earning, but with that we unintentionally became enemy with Kirly  Company. So we lost the chance to make a connection with them that would  allow us to cross the desert toward Carlfan Empire with their caravan.

Right now I was walking alone on the main street of Cutlass.

The swarthy skinned Cruz people and dwarves and beastmen whose skin  was sunburnt from the sunlight were working hard under the blazing down  sun.

Being vigorous and simply being busy were different. The price of  food in this desert town was expensive. One had to join under an  organization’s umbrella if they wanted to get food with cheap price. But  belonging to an organization would require them to pay protection  money, so in the end people had to struggle desperately everyday in  order to get their hands on expensively priced food.

This whole town was like a slum, but it was rare for pauper or street  urchin to pickpocket or steal. Getting caught doing something like that  in this town would mean certain death. If they were hungry and would  have to risk their life anyway, it would be better to resort to robbery  from the start. That was the thinking of the people here.

“Strength” was necessary to live in this town. As long as one had  strength they wouldn’t even need to resort to stealing. They would be  able to take away everything from the weak.

But……it wasn’t just my imagination that there was a faint sense of  tension in the air as I passed through the town that was just like  usual.

.

*Zari……*, the bottom of my leather boots made that sound from stepping on the stone floor as I arrived at my destination.

My hood was pulled down as I intentionally showed my bare face. The  noise of the adventurers inside Hogros Company’s adventurer guild  instantly turned louder, and then the sounds were vanishing like a  receding wave.

In the middle of that tense silence, the beastmen who likely knew  about my agreement with Munza Gang were showing a faint hostility……and  sign of fear that surpassed that. They averted their eyes from me.

The Cruz adventurers who didn’t know about the situation in detail  sensed that strange atmosphere between the beastmen and me and looked  puzzled, even so they kept their quiet.

As for the dwarves who boasted the greatest force in this adventurer guild…….

「What do you want, Melsenian woman?」

A young dwarf blocked my way as I walked deeper inside. He was about as tall as me, but his weight might be three times of mine.

「I come to talk about potion. Check with your superior.」

「Never heard about that. Don’t think that a pasty human woman like you can have your way here!」

A fist that was wearing gauntlet that used beetle’s carapace suddenly swooshed through air toward me.

His combat strength was around 400……I guess his rank was bout middle or upper three.

Perhaps he wanted to test his skill or simply disliking me that he  was taking a swing at me. It was sudden but his attack was serious.  Judging from that fist, he must be able to gauge his opponent’s strength  to some degree.

Just based on his thick arm, his physical strength should be above me  even when I used body strengthening. He had the strength. He also had  the mentality of not letting his guard down even though he was facing a  woman. But, that was all.

「Gah!?」

I dodged the approaching fist and counterattacked with a palm strike  that hit his jaw that was covered by lightly trimmed black beard. The  impact made the man bent backward.

The dwarf’s tough jaw didn’t break even after getting hit by my glove  that had magic iron plate inserted in it. The man grinned even while  blood was trickling from his mouth. He raised his fist once more. But I  too didn’t plan to wait for the attack from a dwarf with low agility to  arrive.

I immediately put my arms around the man’s arm and pulled my body to  bend backward. The man’s arm got pulled and I struck with all my  strength on his elbow joint with my knee.

*Gugyun!*

「Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag!?」

The man who got his elbow broken to the opposite direction rolled around on the ground while holding his arm in intense pain.

The dwarves who were remaining a spectator lose their temper seeing that and stood up. But──.

.

「What’s going on here」

A heavy voice that shook the dwarves echoed inside the guild.

Jilgan. The rank 4 heavy warrior dwarf.

He was also an authority in Hogros Company. He appeared with a heavy  footstep that shook the ground. The expression of all the adventurers,  not just the dwarves turned pale.

Jilgan kept walking and saw me. Next he looked down on the man with  broken arm. The young dwarf started sweating rivers on his face, either  from pain or fear.

「W-wait a sec, Jilgan-san-, I just──」

「I already said, call me if a pink haired human woman come.」

「T-this isn’t-! I-」

「Idiot isn’t needed even if it’s my fellow dwarf.」

*Gukin!* Jilgan put his foot on the man’s knee and then crushed it underfoot.

The man screamed, while the inside of the guild conversely fell  quiet. Jilgan didn’t even give a glance at the man and turned back  toward me. Then he jerked his chin to point at the back.

「I already heard the story, “rose”. Come with me.」

「Got it.」

It would be impossible for him to continue as adventurer like that.  Jilgan’s expression didn’t change at the slightest even after crushing  his man’s life. I followed behind him as he walked deeper inside.

I kept silent as I walked forward behind him. We walked up a stone  stair and entered a dimly lit corridor. We kept walking until we arrived  in front of a wooden door which was unusual in this town.

.

「Guild master, it’s the guest I told you.」

『──Get in.』

Jilgan opened the door after a voice behind the door gave permission  and entered inside. I followed after him and found a person waiting for  us there.

Jilgan walk to behind that person and folded his arms there while  kept standing. A female dwarf was sitting on a leather sofa. She put on a  smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

「So you’re the “rose”. Well, sit down.」

「…………」

The west elder of Munza Gang, Kushmu noticed that I was “Ash Crowned Princess”.

But it seemed the surviving beastmen of Batil’s pack spread the story  differently. Now I was getting called as [Desert Rose] instead of [Ash  Crowned Princess].

My guess was that the prestige of [Ash Crowned Princess] itself was  something troublesome for the people here. It was a story from other  country so I thought the people here wouldn’t put that much importance  to it, but a high ranked assassin that had made enemy of people that  usually were untouchable and yet survived them. The existence of such  person itself would be a nuisance and troublesome.

Right now Munza Gang and Hogros Company were choosing the policy of  non-interference with me because the drawback of making me their enemy  was bigger, but I couldn’t predict when they would become my enemy  because of some kind of reason.

The female dwarf stared at me appraisingly with pressure oozing out of her body.

I ignored that and sat down right in front of her while meeting her gaze. The female dwarf exhaled fuh and smiled.

「I’m Jesha. Jesha Hogros. I had heard about you from old man Kushmu.」

「Aria. I heard I can do business here.」

「Yeah, that’s right. But, can you really deliver high class potion for us?」

「No problem.」

I put my hand inside my bag and pretended to pull out high class  potion inside my Storage from there. Jesha leaned forward and stared at  it when I put it on the table.

Jesha Hogros……she might be a relative of Hogros Company’s president or his daughter.

She was a female dwarf with bright red hair that was like mane and huge build.

Normal female dwarf was petite and even the adult one would look like  a big boned human girl. It was said that male dwarf grew beard all over  their face in order to hide their childish looks, so that must be their  racial trait.

But Jesha was different from the average female dwarf who would be  only as tall as a petite human woman. She was as tall as me who was  slightly taller than the average human woman, but the width of her body  was nearly twice of me. She was exuding the atmosphere that made me  imagined a veteran warrior covered with armor of muscles.

「Geezer. Try using it.」

「As you command.」

Jilgan replied to Jesha’s order and suddenly stabbed a short sword  into his own hand. Then he took the potion on the table and applied it  on his wound without even checking for poison.

「……How’s it?」

「The quality is good. Not like the potion of that Kirly bunch that  has deteriorated from heat and long travel. No, this one will still be  better even if theirs is fresh.」

Jilgan used a cloth to wipe his clotted blood and showed the back of  his hand that had mostly recovered back to normal. Jesha nodded with  satisfaction.

「Great. We can crush one of Kirly Company’s forte with this. Oi,  Aria. How many potion you bring with you? How many you can deliver per  month?」

Jesha seemed to get into good mood and called me familiarly with my  name. In respond I took out even more high class potions without a  change in my expression and put them on the table.

「I have fifteen right now. I can make fifty per month.」

「That’s few……is what I wanna say but, guess it won’t be a problem if  it’s for our own usage rather than for selling. I’m down with that. Oi,  geezer. Pay her with some extra.」

「By your will.」

Jilgan took out a leather pouch from his pocket and tossed it to me. The pouch was filled with several gold coins.

Inside was Carlfan Empire’s currency in the amount that was around twenty percent greater than what Kirly Company would pay us.

The reason Adventurer Guild wanted to secure high class potion wasn’t  only for fighting other organization. There were high ranked monsters  deep inside the ancient ruin Resvel. One of them……was low rank 6 earth  dragon. At the very least they would want to secure a hundred of this  potion in case such monster appeared.

「I’ve received it.」

I said that and moved to stand up, but Jesha called out to me with a relaxed tone.

「Oi oi, going home already? There’re two beautiful girls in the same  room like this. No one is gonna complain even if we drink some fire  spirits while having girl’s talk you know?」

「Funny joke.」

I replied like that with a straight face. Jesha looked back at Jilgan  behind him with an exasperated face. But she saw him closing his eyes  as though in meditation and pressed a hand on her face while looking up  to the ceiling.

Fire spirits was distilled alcohol with strong alcoholic content  created by dwarf. It would truly burn if it was lit with fire. I didn’t  want to drink such thing, but for now I sat back on the sofa. Then Jesha  spoke with slightly lowered volume.

「……Aria. You have heard the news right?」

「Yeah.」

I also spoke briefly while nodding to her words.

「Kushmu died. By Riezan Family’s hand.」

Munza Gang’s west elder Kushmu who acted as the go-between for Munza  Gang, Hogros Company, and me was attacked by Riezan Family and died.

The agreement itself was between organizations so it didn’t get  scrapped after reaching this point, but Jilgan who was acquainted with  Kushmu was furrowing his brow in displeasure.

The strange atmosphere of the town was caused by that. It wouldn’t be strange for feud to break out anytime anywhere.

Riezan Family was in control of the red-light district that was  filled with various races. Why would they pick a fight with armed  organization like Munza Gang? Ron and I and the others couldn’t  determine the reason even after gathering information. Riezan Family  already captured the perpetrators and publicly executed around ten  people, but there was no one who believed the front that they were  trying to sell.

「We’ve got no business with the lizard’s severed tail. Just what are those guys thinking……have you noticed?」

「What happened with the guild’s dark elves?」

Jesha slightly narrowed her eyes when I said that. The guild’s  members were mainly dwarf, but other races should also be included.  However I hadn’t seen any dark elf here.

「The guild’s dark evels vanished several days before Kushmu got done  in. Not all of them are gone but, it’s only the young dark elves who  were born in this town.」

「…………」

The dark elves with some level of strength……who weren’t born in this  town were gone to somewhere. What was the meaning of this…….

Jesha poured fire spirits into her glass and started drinking as  though to say that the talk was over. I saw Jilgan nodding so I stood up  and walked toward the door. Jesha spoke one last time toward my back.

──Be careful with the “evil race”──she said.

***

Evil race. It was like a derogatory term toward dark elf, so that  term didn’t get used in this town where there were also ordinary dark  elves living in it.

What was the meaning of Jesha intentionally saying that? I could  guess. But even that guess wasn’t definite seeing how Jesha was being  vague about it.

I returned to the street and wore my cloak once more to hide myself. Then I went to buy necessities.

Clothes, food, alchemic materials that were hard to be found around  here, etc. But I didn’t buy the cheap wheat mixed with sand that this  town’s residents often bought.

My aim was the small scale merchant caravan that came to this town.  They were really wary and Elena and I who weren’t used to long travel  couldn’t come with them to go back but, at least we could obtain proper  food and material from them.

I bought a bit of wheat, salt, and sorghum that was still unprocessed  in a large bag. They were expensive but they didn’t get sand mixed in. I  stored the bag into my Storage under my cloak before leaving the town.

.

There were several presences following me. Were they from Kirly  Company or Hogros Company……. Judging from their unskillful tailing  skill, I guessed they were just some thugs aiming for my money.

Anyone who knew about my strength wouldn’t send a tail with ability  below rank 3. In the first place the me right now could even detect rank  4 scout, so there was no point tailing me.

Even so I crossed the desert by running just in case. I took a large  detour for around one hour before approaching the town again. I erased  my presence and headed toward a rotting watch tower at the outskirt of  the town.

The crumbling tower was made from stone and had been there ever since  the town was built. Nobody would get near it. Even so I knew that this  tower was still standing.

「Welcome back Aria.」

I passed through the old cloth that was hanged up to act as a door  and entered inside. The dog beastman toddler noticed me from her voice  and clung to my foot while shaking his tail. Elena who was playing with  the dwarf toddler smiled softly when she saw me.

「I’m back “Lena”.」

This place was……one of our hopes to be able to escape from this town.

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