Black Iron Magician

Episode 188 Hatenkou

Haruna and Chinatsu are sitting on the sofa in the guild’s guest room, waiting for Giorgia. Giorgia is away for a while, looking for some documents. After a while, they heard a knock on the door. They thought Giorgia had returned, but it was a woman wearing a hood and a mask. Without saying anything, she brought a tray of tea.

「……… (*Bows*)」

「Ah, Dismantler-san. Hello~」

「……… (*Puts*)」

「Thank you very much!」

「……… (*Stares*)」

「Yes, see you again!」

「……… (*Bows*)」

The door closed. Without saying a word, the woman put the tea in front of them, bowed, and left. Wearing a strange mask and not saying anything is more than being unsociable and have a weird feeling. Chinatsu could only watch while being dumbfounded, but Haruna was having a one-way conversation in a familiar manner.

「Um… Haruna, who was that?」

「She’s a guild employee. She seems to specialize in dismantling, and I’ve been in her care when I brought in a whole monster. I’ve met her quite a lot, so she’s been taking care of me like that.」

「I-I see…」

For the time being, it seems that she has a good relationship with Haruna. There sure are strange people in every world. Even though she looks like that, she’s actually a good person. Today is a valuable peaceful day. Chinatsu decided to think so. The tea she sipped to brush off the unnecessary thoughts seems to has a weak taste, but she doesn’t mind about it.

「I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Oh, what’s that tea?」

「The masked employee-san served it. It’s the healthy Gobu tea.」

「……… (Gobu tea!?)」

Chinatsu tsukkomi­-ed violently in her mind. She can’t help but curious about Gobu tea. Gobu means gobu, in short, gobugobu. It keeps repeating in her head.

「Hohoho, I see. I was thinking it’s rare for her to be out of her workroom, so she went to meet Haruna-chan, huh. Even those girls, who are not interested in others, open their hearts to Haruna-chan. I wish that damn Deris could learn from you. …… By the way, what is Gobu tea?」

「You also don’t know what Gobu tea is, Giorgia-san!?」

「C-Chinatsu-chan?」

It’s out of character for Chinatsu to scream like that, and she seriously reflected on it. However, she couldn’t bear it.

「Hohoho, it’s a joke. I know about it, of course. It’s a specialty of a country called Digobula. It was originally called Gobula tea, but now it’s shortened to Gobu tea. Well now, did you mistake it for something else?」

「~~~~」

Giorgia explained with a smile that’s as if saying ‘got you!’. It was definitely intentional. Chinatsu’s sense of closeness is now almost zero.

「Leaving aside the joke, let’s move on to the main subject. I’ve found the records of Deris and the others.」

Georgia spreads the documents on the table in the guest room.

「Deris and Nell retired several years ago. Ah, it was also around that time when Nell became the leader of the Magic Knight Order.」

「With how strong Shishō and Nell-san are, were they famous when they were adventurers?」

「That’s right. They even have nicknames such as 『Black Iron』 and 『Massacre Princess』. Their party was one of the best parties in the world. However, the day before they announced their retirement, they lost their companion. It’s said that she got caught up in the battle between the Great Eight Demons and passed away. Her nickname is 『Awe』. She’s an elf with a cute face, but she’s as tricky as Deris and Nell and she has a terrifying obsession toward money. I’m not sure how much money she had ripped off from me…」

Giorgia slapped his knee and looked very sad. Rather than being sad because of the elf’s death, he was sad because his money was taken away. The depth of his wrinkles seemed to tell how badly he suffered.

「An elf, huh.」

「Do you mean the ones with long ears?」

「Hm? You’ve never seen an elf before? Well, they are basically a race that prefers to live in a closed society, so unless you’re lucky, you won’t have the chance to meet one. Awe is an odd one even among the eccentric elves. Especially when it comes to money and tortur―― ah, no, it’s nothing.」

「「?」」

Giorgia suddenly stopped his talk. It’s probably something difficult to speak for him, or he probably decided it’s unnecessary to tell the girls about it. Anyway, he has no intention of telling the girls about it.

「Anyway! Awe is as weird and as absurd as Deris and Nell! She’s died in battle according to the guild’s records and rumors, but I believe it’s wrong. Her birthplace, the elf village has been turned into a resort recently. The smell of money-making is strong! She’s absolutely pulling the strings behind the scenes!」

Hearing Giorgia’s story, Haruna and Chinatsu remembered. That the destination where their masters went on their honeymoon is the elf village. If she’s as weird and as absurd as Deris and Nell――

「I guess I can’t deny it…」

「I can’t deny it…」

「Right!? You think so too, right!? There’s no way that damn miser would die leaving her fortune! Even if the opponents are the Great Eight Demons, she’ll survive without a doubt!」

This is not a fact known by them, but the fact is that the elf is still alive. Giorgia has no proof, but he’s unexpectedly correct. Still, Haruna and the others have seen a part of the power of the Great Eight Demons the other day. They have experienced the outstanding power of their masters, but they also know how terrifying the Great Eight Demons are. To be honest, they don’t know who’s better.

(Huh? But, at that time, Lily-san said each of them defeated one, right? …… Ah.)

Chinatsu realized.

(…… This is probably better left unsaid.)

And she decided to hold her tongue.

「Ah, that’s right! Gramps Gior, what’s the name of their party?」

「The party name? Hmm, it should be somewhere in the documents… ah found it! Here it is.」

Giorgia handed them a piece of paper. It seems to be the record form used for party name registration. On it, it says――

「――『Hatenkou』? What does it mean?」

「It’s easy to be mistaken for something heroic, but I think it means unprecedented or something like that. Well, I guess it’s perfect for them…」

「Hohoho, unprecedented, huh. Yeah, it fits them perfectly… After all, every single of them sure is unprecedented…」

「Ahaha, that’s true!」

Then, they heard more about Deris and the others from Giorgia. They were ridiculously strong at the time they became adventurers, and it seems that they had reached level 8 when they retired. Also, they were troublemakers since a long time ago. The young Massacre Princess simple-mindedly rushed at the enemy and destroyed the place, Awe took away everything that has monetary value, and lastly, Deris extinguished the fire and erased the inconvenient evidence. They were also doing many other things.

「… Were they bandits?」

「No, well, they chose their targets, such as bad guys and monsters… Unlike now, Deris at that time was having a lot of hardships. Deris himself is far from common sense, but he had to take care of two problematic children that he seemed tired both physically and mentally. I was worried about him at that time. But well, thanks to that, he’s even more wicked and skilled at manipulating information behind the scenes.」

「Ah, maybe that’s where the idea that the more hardship I have, the stronger I get comes from…」

「Chinatsu-chan?」

「Ah, no, I was talking to myself.」