Turning Chapter 1330

“Fay. Over here. Do you know how long everyone’s been waiting for you.”

Matten, unruffled, led them to a corner. People seated at a big table could be seen talking about something. Glowe’s expression stiffened slightly.

‘...Five. Six in total if we include Matten.’

Every one of them had the same kind of ordinary, affable impression as Matten. Their ages were mostly young, but one looked to be about middle-aged. At a glance, they all seemed like ordinary people far removed from combat, but who could say. There could be a mage or an Awakener among them.

On top of that, Glowe noticed a certain commonality in their features.

‘...Faint, but they all have Southern traits.’

There had been many Southern mixed-bloods in the traveling troupe Glowe had belonged to. That was why she could recognize it better than others.

Most of the merchants there, Matten included, had dark hair with a bluish or reddish cast. Their skin, at a glance, looked flushed like that of someone drunk, but if one looked closely at spots like the backs of the exposed hands or the nape, bluish veins showed strongly.

That was because the skin in those parts was that much thinner and more transparent. The troupe members Glowe knew had told her that the more concentrated the Southern blood, the redder the skin seemed because the skin was born all the more transparent.

They said Southerners often wore clothing that covered almost the whole body, not, contrary to the Orr Empire people’s prejudice, for any other reason so much as to protect their thin skin from injury.

In the case of mixed-bloods, there were some whose traits were so faint you wouldn’t know at a glance that they carried Southern blood, but even those had certain parts of the body with particularly delicate skin. The extremities like the hands and feet were usually that way.

The merchants before her could be passed off simply as people with a strong flush, but they couldn’t escape Glowe’s sharp eye.

While Glowe’s face hardened gravely, Matten continued brightly.

“As you know, originally only three of us including me were going to slip out and meet you. But when the trading company colleagues heard news of you, they said they wanted to give you a congratulations on joining the Cavalry together. Even the vice-leader...... Ha ha.”

“Ah.......”

“It’s everyone’s first time actually meeting an Awakener who became a Cavalry member, so they were all really curious, and I just couldn’t turn them down. You understand, right? And congratulations are better the more people there are to share them!”

“Mm....... R-Right.......”

Matten smiled at Fay, who forced a smile, suppressing his sense of burden.

“Since you’re so shy by nature, I worried that you might feel pressured if I said our party had grown by three more... but it’s great that you brought more of your peers. Now then, shall we exchange greetings? Hey! We’re here!”

At that, Matten’s colleagues turned their heads and greeted them with bright faces.

“Ah. You finally came! You were so late we thought maybe you got lost on the way.”

“Haha. No. Here, this is our friend Fay. And the people who came with him are Ms. Glowe and Mr. Elpokin, Fay’s peers! They said they wanted to join today’s gathering, so treat them well.”

They were practiced. Even seeing Elpokin’s unfamiliar appearance, they didn’t show excessive surprise or aversion.

“It’s my first time seeing the Cavalry uniform I’ve only heard about this close! Nice to meet you.”

“Hey, Fay! So it’s really true you became Cavalry!”

Those who said they’d known Fay since the North casually threw up their arms and hugged him, offering words of congratulations. The others kindly asked Glowe and Elpokin various things and offered the pre-ordered drinks and food.

Glowe refused the alcohol by saying she didn’t drink and only pretended to nibble at the food. Having lived reading the room since childhood, this much was easy.

Elpokin also refused the alcohol, but chomped down the food heartily. Fay, on the other hand, simply couldn’t bring himself to refuse anything anyone offered. Before long, he got tipsy. Thanks to him behaving with that same innocence, Glowe’s vigilance blended in even more unnoticed.

‘...For now, it really looks like a plain old congratulations gathering.’

But there was something that, because it was too ordinary, bothered her instead.

The merchants’ names were all strangely ordinary to a fault. The name Matten was so common that if you called it out on the street, about ten people would turn, and the others had names like Jim or Jog, Bell. Their speech, too, was the capital’s standard with not a single one speaking differently, and instead of talking much about themselves, they cleverly kept up a constant stream of interesting tales they said they’d seen and heard while doing trade.

‘Merchants are usually sensitive to rumors....... But somehow those people look closer to the traveling troupe folk I used to be with.’

People in traveling troupes keep pouring out fun stories and all kinds of information to attract the interest of passersby for hawking. Once the hawkers lure in even one more person and bring them into the troupe tent, those who set out to truly empty their pockets are fortune-tellers like Glowe.

Fay listened, slack-jawed, to their stories. Elpokin, likewise not knowing much about such things, didn’t seem to clearly sense what was odd.

‘...For now, I should pretend to be entertained too.’

Merely staying on guard wouldn’t be enough to grasp their true intent. Glowe kept chiming in at Fay’s side, acting like someone amused by the merchants’ stories. Even as she did, she gathered the tidbits that occasionally popped out of the merchants’ mouths and sorted them in her head.

They said they belonged to a trading company that went back and forth between the North and the capital. They hauled low-grade mana stones that were abundant in the North to the capital to sell, and with the money, they bought winter necessities and took them back to the North.

“So that’s how you met Fay as well.”

When she gently steered the talk toward their meeting with Fay, the merchants answered frankly.

“That’s right. When we first open trade, we sometimes stay several months in a single village. The other people in the village weren’t very friendly to outsiders, but Fay was different. He took an interest in what we talked about and listened. That’s how we became close.”

“Aha....... Since you were said to be the friends who gave Fay the opportunity to join the Cavalry, I was really curious about that story. Could we hear that, too?”

“Glowe, we don’t really need to hear that.......”

Fay was embarrassed. Until now he’d only briefly explained those merchants as “the people who helped me go take the entrance exam,” but he’d never told the particulars. Glowe wanted to hear that part today no matter what.

When she shamelessly kept acting curious, Matten stepped in and began to speak.

“Ha ha. Fay had wanted to leave the village from the beginning. As is usual for capable young people. But the villagers acted so closed off, and the people around him did nothing but get in the way, so he couldn’t find a chance. In a place like that, if it were discovered that Fay was an Awakener, we thought there was a chance he might never be allowed out for the rest of his life.”

“...Mm. So you didn’t tell others that you were an Awakener.”

Elpokin nodded with a face that said he understood.

“I ran away the instant I awakened because I didn’t have the guts to face the villagers, so I know....... That’s a tough problem.”

“Right. Fay was the same. Even so, he trusted us and told us he was an Awakener. Then we, in turn, remembered that recruitment for the Cavalry’s second intake was ongoing and could give him advice. All we did to help was make sure he didn’t draw eyes when he left the village and offer a few words that might help when registering for the exam.”

When Matten said that, another merchant beside him smiled and clapped Fay’s back.

“I heard the competition for this Cavalry intake was really fierce, so I thought maybe you wouldn’t make it. When the news came that you’d passed, you can’t imagine how glad and surprised we were. You’re amazing, Fay!”

“No......”

“We’re also really grateful that you didn’t forget us even after joining the Cavalry. You’ll keep getting along with us well in the future too, right?”

“O-Of course!”

“Haha. I knew you would. You’re a loyal fellow.”

“I, for one, would really like to keep being close with the two who came today as well. Talking with you, I get the sense you’re truly good people, and it would be a shame to part as is.”

Matten narrowed his eyes in a smile at Glowe.

Glowe’s sense flashed for an instant again.

‘......Ah. Is this the real purpose for bringing me and Elpokin here?’

***

“They’re totally out of their minds trying to butter up three rookies.”

At the same time. Sitting beneath the tavern window, Debran was casually polishing shoes, listening to the voices drifting from inside. A shadow cast beside him wavered, and from within came Gakein’s voice.

“...They haven’t shown any sign of noticing us yet, right?”

“None at all. Nobody cares where a bootblack polishes what.”