‘…if I started doing that, Stop me.’
Easier said than done. You’re not even listening to me.
Luckily, I’m still controlling the magic. So, I have another way to stop Nathan.
If what he said about himself being unpredictable is true, then what am I supposed to do?
I need to do my best to predict him. If he knows what he should do, then all I have to do is consider all things that he could possibly do.
Anyway, I need to closely observe from now on. Things will get serious from now on.
“I will join this Death Caravan or whatever!”
Did he already started? No, it’s too early.
I am cringing just by watching this situation.
There are… a lot of them inside.
“Eunice!!”
(Eula, what’s her name again?)
[Nympha Plume]
“Hi Nympha!”
He waved at her.
“Nympha, you know this child?”
“I’m not a child!”
“Yeah, sure. Sorry, but we can’t let a kid save the Death Caravan…”
“You…”
I am also frustrated. Just because I am small doesn’t mean I am a kid.
“Sorry Eunice. We are stressed out by the situation so please forgive Gregor for his insult.”
“It’s fine. I already did what I needed to accomplish here so see you later.”
Nathan hurriedly ran outside. Gregor yelled,
“Stop!”
Jane is standing in our way.
Nathan turned around and said,
“What?”
Nathan and Gregor stared at each other eyes. I am also staring at Gregor since my point of view is the same as Nathan’s. If I am the one in control here, I would totally looked away already.
“Do you think I will allow you to go alone and get yourself killed?”
“Yes I’ll go, but I’ll live. Besides, where did you get the idea that I will be doing that alone?”
“Are you alone or not?”
“WE will stop Death Caravan whatever you say!”
“Where are your companions then?”
“I will not tell you, you’ll also stop them!”
“So, more than one… Are you lying?”
“No!”
Gregor is utilizing his mana.
(Nathan that is the lie detector magic. You have to accept that.)
So, he accepted the magic.
“Are you lying?!”
“I said, NO!”
…
“You weren’t really lying huh?”
WHAT?!
I am pretty sure that he is lying about the companions.
Who is he referring about?
Well, there is only the land sharks.
Is he unaware that we can’t call for their help?
[Nathan, are you referring to the land sharks?]
(Yeah.)
[Didn’t I tell you that they left already?]
(Yeah.)
[I don’t know where they live so we can’t get their help.]
(Figured as much.)
[You…]
He really is unaware.
Hmm…
Now that I think about it, he didn’t necessarily lie. His question ‘where did you get the idea that I will be doing that alone?’ makes you think that Nathan is not alone. He needs Gregor to tell that he is alone for him to say that though. The point is he didn’t actually stated something, he only asked.
In his answer ‘WE will save Death Caravan whatever you say!’, ‘We’ refers to both of us. ‘We will save’ is applicable since ‘We’ can actually do it just like ‘We’ can battle against the land sharks. He can’t really say that he is alone but since he used and emphasized the word ‘WE’, Gregor assumed that he is not alone.
In his answer ‘I will not tell you, you’ll also stop them!’ He referred to the land sharks. I guess Nathan could really say that the land shark is our companion since we hunted together. In other words, Gregor misunderstood that there are companions accompanying us, but Nathan never said that there’s someone accompanying him. He only said that he has companions. ‘You’ll also stop them!’ involves uncertainty with other people so the lie detector won’t register that.
He really is very good at making misunderstanding. I am even fooled for a second despite knowing everything. I wonder what his limit is.
Gregor sighed. He retracted the lie detector.
“Alright, but don’t blame me if something happens. Nympha, can you delay ‘that’? I am concerned that these brats will die without my permission.”
All the person here are delighted, almost.
“Sorry Gregor, but they really need you there.”
“Why does the caravan decided to go this week? It's ****ing annoying to not be able to participate in this.”
Gregor looked at us and said,
“What are you still doing in here?! Scramble!!”
“””Yes sir!!”””
Everyone ran outside. Nathan asked,
“What is going on?”
Gregar ran in our direction.
…and passed us. Nathan he…
[Nathan!]
(It’s only an accident! I'll call him.)
“Gregor!”
He turned around in our direction.
“I thought I said to go outside.”
“You did, but what happened to the meeting?”
“Ask someone outside or Jane.”
He ran away. He must have things going on.
“I’m sorry Eunice. Gregor is very busy handling many stuff. He can’t be bothered right now.”
“I understand. There’s no need for you to apologize. So, what happened to the meeting?”
“I don’t know.”
It makes sense. Jane’s with us the whole time this meeting is going on. Nympha said,
“Gregor approved the adventurers to save the Caravan.”
Based on Jane’s reaction earlier, the Caravan has only been known today. Nympha is the one who assembled the meeting that's just started earlier. Hmm…
‘That’ is weird.
[Nathan. Ask her the purpose of the meeting.]
(Isn’t that obvious?)
[Just ask her.]
(You’re the boss.)
“Okay, but what is the purpose of the meeting?”
“To know what action to take in regards of the Death Caravan. Why?”
That is pretty reasonable.
“Just curious.”
(I have more room for questions.)
[You’re really planning something.]
(I figured you knew that. I trust you by the way.)
I’m lucky that we are connected with the ‘Lover’s bond’. Nathan is truly scary.
[No questions so far.]
(Alright, my turn.)
“Do they really need the approval?”
[The reason is actually…]
(Wait… I want to know it here.)
[Sure.]
“If they aren’t approved by the guild, then the adventurer’s will not be given a permission letter. If the adventurer doesn’t have a permission letter, the caravan will not trust them or be hostile to them.”
[That is actually not the entire reason.]
(Really? Don’t tell me then.)
[I know.]
“Where is the caravan?”
I know it will arrive here sooner so I didn’t really bother asking that question.
“The road between here and Pollen.”
[It’s at Siñalta]
(Thanks.)
He need to know it if he doesn’t want to be suspicious.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Thanks. See you later.”
“Wait!”
Jane stopped us.
“About your guild’s badge.”
“Yea…s, I have to show my power through the Death Caravan right? I will go now.”
He is trying hard being a girl. It’s lucky my situation is easier, maybe.
“No, take this.”
We received a CCC badge.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a CCC badge. That’s the highest badge rank that I can give to you for now.”
“Thank you. See you later.”
Nathan didn’t notice that he made a mistake earlier. He said ‘Thanks’ instead of ‘Thank you’.
Nathan walked outside.
“Huh???”
That is Jane’s voice. Looks like Nathan is doing it. It is better this way so I’m not yelling at him.
When we turned around the corner, we saw a large group of people.
[They are the people from the meeting earlier.]
(I know. It seems that they are waiting for someone.)
So, we passed them.
[Nathan, I thought you want to hide that fact.]
(I don’t have a choice. Besides, I’m sure the author has his ways to hide it.)
I feel sorry for the author then. (Author: Thanks. Don’t worry. I’ll manage.)
----------------------------------------
*Ding* *Dong*
I checked the door and see a girl outside. I opened the door.
“Welcome. How may I help you?”
“****”
I can read now, but listening is a whole lot different.
[Nathan, she said “I want to try here. My friend recommended this place to me.”, right?]
(Yeah. Did you see the papers labelled Acacia boarding house?)
Hmm… I saw tons of paper with that label when I previously cleaned Nathan’s room.
[Yes.]
(Give some for her and wait for her to finish filling it up.)
“Please come in.”
“Excuse me for coming.”
“This way.”
I guide her towards the living room.
…
We are here now. Uhh...
[Nathan, what should I say next?]
(Just give her the papers.)
[But…]
It might be rude if I just go away. So…
“Please wait for a moment.”
[Nathan, is that okay?]
(Seems good to me.)
[I am not rude that I let her wait, right?]
(Come on. Just do it.)
[Okay.]
I searched for the papers in the other room and found it. I’ll also bring a cup of water and a water bottle from the fridge…
[Nathan, is this enough?]
(Yeah.)
[I think…]
(She is waiting. Hurry!)
[O-okay.]
I ran towards the living room. I handed out the… What is this?
[What exactly is these papers?]
These papers are actually stapled together.
(It lets you stay in the Acacia boarding house. I stay there during school days, so tomorrow we’ll start sleeping there.)
[What’s this place then?]
(This place is owned by Mr. Santiago. He is usually out of country, so he left me in charge of taking care of the boarding house and this house. Being an assistant manager is actually my job. Anyway, just tell her to fill up the form.)
“Please fill up this form.”
“Can I borrow your pen?”
No! I forgot to consider this!
“Sorry for not considering this.”
“It’s fine.”
I brought her a pen from the other room. She starts writing on it.
----------------------------------------
Nathan is looking at the request board inside the adventurer’s guild.
[I thought you’ll head straight into the caravan.]
(I need to earn money first. I have to say, your monetary system is very bad.)
[Why?]
(I mean, 1000 low rank coin for a medium rank coin. That in itself is nuts, then the next is 100 medium rank coin for a high rank coin and 10 high rank coin for a max rank coin. Why not just 100 rank coins for a higher rank coin for all of those? Besides carrying 1000 coins seems overwhelming.)
I get his point. Well, he doesn’t have any idea what the coins are.
[The coins are actually made from a monster part, and regarding carrying a lot of coins, I’ll explain when you acquired some.]
(That seems gross.)
[I have seen how these coins are made. It is not actually gross.]
I even made some.
(Anyway, time to choose a request.)
[Good luck.]
----------------------------------------
I am waiting for her to finish filling up the form.
…
Wait, if she’s finished, what should I do?
[Nathan, if she’s finished, what should I do?]
(Ask her if she wants a certain room. Otherwise, just assign a random room to her.)
[How should I assign then?]
(Rooms are labelled from A1 to A10. A1 to A5 are the rooms from the ground floor, the rest are in the next floor. Every room except A10 is vacant since the last batch of student’s just finished their period here.)
[What are you talking about?]
“****”
She spoke something. I think she said, “Are you having fun here?”
[Should you be the one answering that question?]
(I actually want to know your opinion.)
[Nathan! she might need true answer from someone who lived here.]
(Do you think so?)
[Yes.]
(Hmm…)
I mean, the way she say it seems…emotional.
(Alright, let me say it.)
I let him say it.
“What’s ‘here’ referring to?”
“Neo-Terra”
I didn’t think of clarifying that because even if she refers to Neo-Terra or the boarding house, my answer’s still the same, because this is the only place I’ve been to here.
“Then, my answer’s no.”
That’s surprising.
“Why are you staying here then?”
I also want to know.
“To have fun.”
What did he mean by that?
“I’m confused.”
I’m also confused.
“What is fun?”
“Fun is…”
She hesitated for a moment.
“Just explain your answer!”
“Alright then.”
Fun can be subjective per person so I understand where Nathan’s going to.
“Fun, for me, is when I successfully done my objectives or get rid of my worries. I might not be having fun most of the time here, but I have to face those difficult times. After experiencing those hard times, the fun that I receive is the most enjoyable feeling that I get. Besides, it is not fun anymore if I have fun continuously.”
He must be referring to how he keeps earning money for his sister.
“No, I think it is still fun even if you continuously have fun.”
“Okay, it’s your opinion.”
She glared at me.
…
I can’t keep this up, so I looked away.
“Are you finished filling up the papers yet?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
(It seems that she doesn’t have any more question. You do the talking now.)
[Okay.]
I took control of his mouth.
(Eula, I’ll do the daily hunt. Let me use magic.)
[Are you sure you’re not about to head straight to the caravan after I let you have that?]
(You even considered that! Yes, only after you let me use magic, I’m not going to the caravan …What?!)
[I told you, the intent translation is very resistant to misunderstandings.]
(Yeah, I’m surprised that it suddenly added ‘only’ on my sentence. I wasn’t supposed to say that.)
[Even if you somehow managed to trick me, I’ll still consider that.]
(If only you’re not bad at conversations, then you might be good at court trials.)
[I’m not bad at conversations!]
(Yeah, sure.)
[Anyway, I have to trust your plan. I want to see if I can predict you or not.]
(I think you can. I know I can’t be perfect in terms of unpredictability.)
[At least you know that yourself.]
“Here is the form.”
She handed me the form which I grabbed. I asked her,
“Do you want a certain room?”
“Besides your room.”
Her eyes, she clearly wants to observe Nathan.
[Nathan, what should I do?]
(Let me use both of my hands.)
I let him use both of his hands.
I looked at the paper. He writes the room number she is in. I think he writes his name multiple times and there is a strange thing he writes on the space labelled signature. This might be how they avoid forgery in papers. It’s easy to imitate signatures though.
Informing that specific information really is a taboo here huh.
After writing, he removes one of the papers from the bundle.
[Tell her that this is her copy of the agreement that lets her stay in the boarding house.]
He gave me the control of his hands.
[One more thing, tell her to not lose it.]
I handed the paper that Nathan is talking about to her.
“Vanessa Stellar… Right? This is your copy of the agreement that lets you stay in the boarding house and make sure that you don’t lose it.”
“Hmph!”
She abruptly received the paper… Okay. It maybe has something to do with Nathan’s answer earlier.
“Nathan Ytor… You can call me Vanessa.”
“Okay, Vanessa.”
“Later…”
She walked away… What’s wrong with her?
Could it be...?
…
I’m not sure, I hope not.
Let’s go back to job hunting.
*Growl~*
I’m hungry huh. Like Nathan ate last night, I’ll open a canned food.
*Ding* *Dong*
There’s another person, I’ll eat later then.
…
This time, there is a boy and a girl in front of the door. They are brothers and sisters that will also move in the boarding house. We did the same thing as earlier.
During the time that they are filling up the form, four more persons have arrived who also have the same business. One of them asked me a question, I think his name is Ishaan Akhtar.
“Why did you decided to live here?”
I’ve let Nathan answer,
“I’ve seen the opportunity to earn money here and I thought to myself ‘Why not?’. I’ve have more reasons to live here since then.”
It is more or less the same as he previously said to me.
*Groowl~~*
“I’m sorry that you’ve not eaten yet because of us.”
“Don’t worry about it, please I insist that you continue finishing the papers.”
…
I managed to finish doing the papers. So, it’s time to eat then.
I’ve grabbed and opened a canned food.
----------------------------------------
I‘ve been monitoring Nathan’s actions since he started doing the requests, so far he finished the daily quest and finished a single request. He is about to finish the last request which is to deliver letters.
He is now back to the person who submitted the request.
“I’ve finished delivering all of them.”
“Thank you for doing my request.”
“You’re welcome.”
Nathan received the paper that signifies that the request is complete. There are three things he might do here, either submit the papers right now, or go somewhere and submit it later, or something pretty unrelated.
He walked inside the adventurer’s guild and submitted the papers. He has now received his first coin here.
(Eula, how should I react to this? I am supposed to receive 75 low rank coins, but this is only a single low rank coin.)
[That coin’s value is 75 low rank coin, so they give you the correct amount of coin. Let me use my magic.]
He’s given me the control of the magic.
[Remember this magic I am about to cast on the coin.]
I’ve casted a magic. The coin lights up and shows the number 75 on it.
I also showed him how to split the coins with two different values as well as combining two coins.
(I take back what I said about your monetary system being bad or rubbish. This is actually pretty cool. By the way, how were you able to determine its value earlier without casting the magic which shows its value?)
[Do you see the figures on this spot?]
I’ve drawn an arrow in his eyes pointing to the spot I am referring to.
(Yeah. So, you only need to read that to know its value.)
[Exactly.]
I split the 75 low rank coins to 35 and 30 low rank coins.
[Do you see how the figures differ from each other?]
(Basically, it is the same with the Roman Numerals.)
[So there is something similar there huh.]
I’ll search for that later.
Anyway, I combined the low rank coins back to 75 low rank coins before he goes outside. This time, he might search for an inn, specifically the Babyfly inn if he wanted. There are a lot of choices he can do regarding my necessities though. There is also a chance that he is trying to confuse me with this.
(Why does the ranked coins separated from each other?)
[You can’t combine or add more value to the low rank coin once the value reaches 1000. Once it reaches that value, it can go through evolution which will turn it into a medium rank coin. Unfortunately, that process is irreversible so once you turned the low rank coin into medium rank coin, you can’t turn it back.]
(Does it mean that the reason 100 medium rank coins is one high rank coin and 10 high rank coins is a max rank coin is because that is its maximum possible value?)
[Yes.]
(How about the max value of a max rank coin?)
[10,000 is its maximum value.]
(That’s unexpected. I thought it will be 5 or less than that.)
He arrived at the Babyfly Inn. Nathan has encountered this inn when he is doing the delivery request.
Nathan paid 30 low rank coins for staying a single night in the Inn.
[You didn’t say that Nympha has recommended you here.]
(It is better this way. With 30 low rank coins as their income, 5 coins difference is very large. It’s not like I’ll not earn more.)
He is working so hard for his sister so maybe it is relatable to him. Besides, all he requests he did were very low rank which could be accomplished within moments. If he does higher rank requests, then he will earn more money.
(By the way, is there any food you can’t eat?)
[Yes, I can’t eat unsafe or poisonous foods.]
(You’re joking, right?)
[It’s funny though.]
(No, it’s not. Nice try though.)
Really? I thought it was a good joke.
(Don’t feel down because of my reaction. I know someone who would laugh at that joke. But seriously now, what are the foods you can’t eat?)
[I think none, more or less.]
I have tasted a lot of foods hiding as a fugitive. I have adapted my tastes to a range of foods that I don’t care what I am eating anymore.
He goes to the dining area within the inn and ordered foods. It’s nothing special so I proceeded to clean up the table.
(Eula, is it really alright for me to do that?)
[Do what?]
(I am planning to wash myself after this. You know, myself as in your body.)
That huh.
[Feel free to do that. We’ll be connected for a very long time, it is very inconvenient if this holds us back. Besides, even if I am the one who is controlling, you can still see and feel everything so it’s the same thing.]
(A-alright then.)
[Now that you reminded me, maybe I should also wash yours.]
…
…
…
I am back to the computer researching for something profitable while Nathan is doing more requests.
We kept going like this until night time.
[I’m impressed you’ve actually not been compromised.]
(I don’t think I can do it without your guide though.)
[But you managed to remember all of them, which leads to me not helping you recognize them most of the time.]
(You remembered all of them from the first meeting though.)
From my experience as a fugitive, I have a habit of remembering every people I’ve met or seen. It actually helped me once to easily discover a spy so I’ve been doing it since. This time, it helped us avoid the group of adventurers who will participate in saving the Death Caravan.
(So, do you find anyone suspicious within the group of adventurers?)
[No one in particular. If I participated in the meeting, then maybe.]
Nathan and I are in the same page. We wanted to be in the shadows because both of us finds participating in that group troublesome. Nathan is supposedly ‘unpredictable’ so he might be considering to participate, but that is still predictable. So, if I consider all the things that Nathan would do, then I must consider that he will betray the group of adventurers.
Who knows what would happen tomorrow.
(Any progress in the research?)
[I am considering several things. I might be able to decide tomorrow.]
(Speaking of tomorrow, it is a school day.)
If I am right, then it is a place where someone teaches knowledge.
[I am already excited for tomorrow.]
(One more thing, there will be a lot more new students tomorrow. So don’t rely on the memories you previously saw.)
[What’s happening?]
(That school allows selected students from different school and countries all over the world to enroll at that school. The reason why there are some students who filled up a form earlier to stay at the Acacia boarding house is they’ve arrived at this country this day.)
[I am already losing my confidence to go tomorrow.]
Let’s just hope that nothing bad happens tomorrow.
[One more thing, you’ll never try anything stupid while I am sleeping, right?]
We clarified earlier that it is okay for him to do whatever he wants to my body, so he should realize that I am referring to something like going somewhere dangerous while I am sleeping.
(Come on! You even managed to consider that. I don’t plan to anyway. Anyway, can I wake you up if something happened?)
I remembered that he doesn’t want to wake up someone sleeping.
[Feel free to do that. I don’t really mind.]
My sleep is disturbed several times during my life as a fugitive so I am already used to it.
[So will you wake me up if something happened? You only asked me that question but you didn’t say that you would do it though. I am amazed you can actually put up a misunderstanding this way though.]
(Yeah, I am surprised it actually worked. Well, I’ll wake you up if something happens so don’t worry.)
I find nothing wrong with his statement.
[There may be some things that I didn’t consider, but I trust you.]
(I trust you too. So, good night.)
[Have a good sleep.]
We slept for the night.
…
Now that I am sleeping, there’s this feeling that I forgot something important.
(Do you felt that you forgot something too?)
[Yes, but I think it’s only my imagination.]
(I think that it’s true that we forgot something though. I didn’t think that it’s this troublesome though.)
[Even if it’s true, there’s nothing we can do about it. Let’s just go to sleep.]
(Yeah, you’re right.)
…
…
…
(…elf! Mark my words, Author! I’ll remember those things sooner than you’d expect! I will…)
[SHUT UP!]
(Sorry...)