Chapter 316: The enemy of my enemy (1/2)

“I am having Mio continue the investigation over there. Lime is running around with the adventurers.” (Makoto)

“That guy, suddenly clinging to Waka in tears. Good grief.” (Tomoe)

“Even though I said I would be going with you, Tomoe, he didn’t show any signs of wanting to come too. Now that you mention it.” (Makoto)

“He must be feeling bad about it. He must think of it as embarrassing to the point that he can’t meet face to face with me.” (Tomoe)

Lime said something about it being inefficient if he were to be there, but it was probably in part that he found it hard to look Tomoe in the face.

After notifying us that he had gotten an arrangement with the Weitz Orphanage for just past noon, he said he would deal with the rumors we had, and is going around the city with adventurers.

Judging from his state, he must be planning on running around quite energetically.

“Isn’t it because you have been working him to the bone lately, Tomoe?” (Makoto)

“…Haha, I thought I had been quite lenient with him though. Looks like I have been a bit too soft on him.” (Tomoe)

“Answering your expectations continuously must be a hard path. I would say he is working hard.” (Makoto)

He was originally an adventurer that didn’t have that much difference from Toa and the others.

When taking that into consideration, Lime has worked really desperately, and has obtained the ability.

I try to be careful not to promote his difficulty to ultra hard lunatic mode with my words.

If it still ends up increasing despite me trying to be careful…I am sorry.

“Just the thought of asking for Waka to follow-up for him is already insolent, and yet, he was also bested by a mere childhood friend. Moreover, it was his former home, his former home.” (Tomoe)

“Now now, thanks to that, we can try making a yoseba.” (Makoto)

“That’s…! I am indeed looking forward to that though.” (Tomoe)

“Right? There was no need for a labourer stop in Asora, but when thinking about the Tsige orphanage, there’s possible things that can be done.” (Makoto)

“There’s no future for the orphanage at this rate after all. The adventurers, merchants, and the people with money just make babies without thinking about the future. It would be one thing if the parents died at a young age and the child ended up an orphan, but there’s a lot of children that were abandoned because they were a hindrance… Tsige may be a place where desires swirl, but this is just troubling.” (Tomoe)

“That’s why I was thinking about changing a li~ttle bit the orphanage that has been receiving our support with the plan our company has. That’s if you are into it, Tomoe.” (Makoto)

If I am the main player, I am confident in getting soft.

In a lot of meanings.

And it will probably end up in a result that won’t be beneficial for any side.

I think the spider web of Futsu-sama is something that must not be cut.

It is exactly because it is cut heartlessly at times that there’s meaning to it.

Mio is a literal spider, but I feel like she would cut those up without hesitation.

Shiki is busy in regards to the Academy, and I feel like he would show a similar softness as me. With children involved, I think Shiki would get weak too.

If we are talking about fitting candidates, there’s Sari and Tamaki, but I have no intentions of bringing them out from Asora.

Tomoe is a qualified one too…

…Well, you could say that I am being dependent on Tomoe here.

“You said that I would find it fun, Waka. Then there’s no way I would say no.” (Tomoe)

“Thanks, it helps me out.” (Makoto)

“…Did you think up that matter about the yoseba when you were taking a bath with Lime?” (Tomoe)

“Yeah. Now that I think about it, I have simply been receiving reports of the orphanage, it wouldn’t be strange at all to show my face once. But just going there to fix a misunderstanding would feel insufficient. Cause you know, there’s nothing that would trouble us from them investigating us.” (Makoto)

“That’s exactly right.” (Tomoe)

“Then, I was thinking about a way for them to know us well, and on top of that, give us something in return. If it were to work as a fancy harassment, it would be great.” (Makoto)

“Fufufu, I see. I have seen a peek of something similar in your memories. Was it your father? In a childbirth celebration of your father, a friend of his gifted him a 2t truck worth of paper diapers.” (Tomoe)

Truck…

It was a small 2t truck, but even with that, they wouldn’t be able to use all of them up.

I feel like that was not the fancy kind of harassment, but the actual kind of harassment.

If it is a memory of mine, is it at the time of my little sister, Mari’s birth?

Can’t really call it a memory, huh…

It is a memory that I have almost no recollection of. This is the first time I have heard of it.

A friend, huh. My father didn’t give me the impression that he had many friends aside from the people at work.

Who is it, I wonder. Someone I know too?

“That’s way too many. Or more like, I am surprised that you properly remember things from my memories aside from period dramas, Edo, katanas, and history.” (Makoto)

“…Really? Anyways, one whole room of the Misumi household was completely used up by those paper diapers, and it was amusing.” (Tomoe)

“Must have been.” (Makoto)

“The fact that they managed to use them all up speaks a lot about the plannings of the person that sent them.” (Tomoe)

“None remained? Seriously?” (Makoto)

“Seriously.” (Tomoe)

“Ah, it is there, huh. The Weitz Orphanage.” (Makoto)

“Looks like it.” (Tomoe)

“By the way, Tomoe, about this…” (Makoto)

I take out a bottle that fits perfectly in my hand and has an intricate design.

“…A perfume bottle.” (Tomoe)

Tomoe showed vigilance for a second, but she soon took the bottle from my hand with relief.

“I don’t feel any magic power from it. It looks like it is just a simple perfume.” (Tomoe)

“…Yeah. Just that, I received that from that Dusk Street Top. Before I departed, when I was with Mio.” (Makoto)

“Fumu…” (Tomoe)

“It is a perfume that has been popular in Tsige for a long time with men in the upper class, and he himself uses it, is what he said.” (Makoto)

But it is perfume.

I felt like it was strange he would give me the same thing he uses as a present.

I tried smelling it right at that place to see what kind of smell it had, but I honestly felt like it wasn’t that good of a perfume.

It was to an extent where I wondered if elves like this kind of scent.

I don’t have a scent I am normally using, so since I got a present, I even wondered if I should try putting it on as much as possible to show that I am using it.

But it is perfume.

The magic tool that gave me the worst memory I had recently was a perfume.

Even after understanding that it is an item with no magic power, my doubts still remained.

Just in case, I removed the lingering scents of it before meeting with Tomoe, and was thinking about asking for her opinion on whether to use it or not.

“Hmm, I don’t remember there being a story like that at all. It is certainly a scent I know of though… That Top was an elf, right?” (Tomoe)

Tomoe confirms the scent.

So she knows it.

So it is not some original blend perfume.

“Yeah, by the way, it is a man.” (Makoto)

I feel like gifting a perfume between men is strange.

“It would enter in the expensive category, but I would say it is the kind that’s sold normally. But there’s no practice in Tsige of giving perfumes to others, and elves don’t like perfumes too much to begin with.” (Tomoe)

“I see.” (Makoto)

“I can’t tell what his objective is, but there might be some bad underlying reason for it.” (Tomoe)

“Right? The Dusk Street did feel uncomfortable. It seems they do have different tastes and factions, but it disgusts me in foundation. It is the den where people who are even more crazy loyal to their desires in Tsige stay, so there…might be things that only you can do there though.” (Makoto)

Like stealing, for example.

It is clearly a crime, but it is one of the light ones in the Dusk Street.

It is not that you steal because you don’t have money, you steal because it is fun to steal. They love to see the troubled person that got stolen from.

Those kinds of people gather.

It is a similar situation with deceiving, killing, and kidnapping.

If it were on the vector of simply bettering their skills, I personally wouldn’t have felt that much disgust towards it.

“Then, let’s move with the number one case in mind.” (Tomoe)

Tomoe blows away the scent that was wafting around her and her surroundings.

Being able to blow away the scent that’s on her in such a free manner like this, magic is more handy than modern science.

There might actually be something that can eliminate scents with one push though.

Like the powerful ones of the toilet—wait, that’s not important.

“Number one?” (Makoto)

“The case where there might be some kind of meaning to the people we are about to meet. The people may have had some bad memory towards a person that had this kind of scent.” (Tomoe)

“I see…” (Makoto)