Chapter 71 – Volume 2 Chapter 32 Meeting Face-to-Face

After a slight hesitation, I followed Master into the passage.
Going down into the white stone ground passage, I looked up and saw Master a little ahead of me strengthening herself and increasing her defense with magic.
After quickly preparing for battle, Master took one look at me and opened her mouth.

「Raust, draw your dagger. Stay alert from here onwards.」

Without waiting for my answer, Master began to walk into the passage.
Looking at Master’s back, I muttered.

「Ahh, so that’s why.」

At that time, I finally understood why I got chosen to accompany Master instead of Ronaldo-san.

Master walked slowly in the narrow passage while keeping her eyes on the surrounding.
Her behavior was caused by the assumption that we would fight in this narrow passage.

Assuming a fight indoor, Ronaldo-san who wielded a greatsword would be at a disadvantage, and in the worst case, it could even get in the way of the battle.
Same case with Zieg-san.
Narsena, a martial artist, could fight indoor, but she wouldn’t be able to utilize her speed which was her best arsenal.
Unlike Master, Armia who needed to chant her magic and couldn’t fight in close-quarter combat would just become baggage.

Considering these circumstances, Master chose me, who was handicapped the least in an indoor fight, to accompany her.

Her judgment was rational.
And above all, that conveyed how serious she was.

That in turn showed how abnormal the man, the branch chief, was.

「Who, what are you…?」

The words I murmured were filled with my amazement of the Labyrinth City’s Branch Chief.
Master’s cautiousness and my unconscious fear toward him caused my tension to rise as well.

My tension peaked when Master, who walked in front of me, stopped.

「Found him.」

「-!」

In response to her words, I looked over her shoulder and saw a firm door.
I spontaneously activated magic detection, but I couldn’t detect what was behind the door at all, my face scrunched up.

Despite my magical detection, it was as if I couldn’t understand anything.
It was my first experience.
And this abnormality told me, above all, that there was something behind the door.

Perhaps noticing the abnormality I detected, Master whispered at me.

「You can also understand that man’s abnormality, right? I also don’t know what is behind the door.」

Her stern face made me even more uneasy.
However, we couldn’t stay here forever.
With a firm determination, I opened my mouth to Master.

「Let’s go.」

After looking into my eyes as if to make sure I meant what I said, Master began to walk toward the door.
We reached the door immediately, then Master looked at me.
I nodded silently, clutching my dagger.
With that as a signal, Master opened the door.

The next moment, what was behind the door that opened with a loud noise was revealed.
There were only a few lights like in the passage.
The small light illuminated a room that seemed rather bleak for people to live in and Hanzam who stood in the back.

And then, like being attended by Hanzam, there was an old man in a white robe with long white hair sitting next to him.

「-!」

The moment I saw him, I instinctively understood.
This old man was the person that Master was wary of.
And this man was the one who was hindering magic detection.

There was something about the old man that I could instantly understand.
Reflexively understanding that this old man was of the same rank as Master, I held my dagger in front of me.

However, even when being pointed with daggers, the old man’s attitude didn’t change.

「That’s a lot of noise. Don’t you think you should at least knock?」

There was no hostility in his voice.
On the contrary, the old man talked to us intimately, like he was dealing with his own child.

I realized that I felt a familiarity with the old man’s good-natured demeanor, which made me even more cautious.
I couldn’t lower my dagger despite remembering what Master said about avoiding a fight.

「It’s kind of lonely that you don’t even reply.」

Seeing us like that, the old man stood up with a mutter.

It was then some parts of his face were exposed to my eyes.

「Wha-!」

As the tall old man stood up, the lighting further illuminated his face, which still looked neat even in his old age.

This also exposed the ears that were clearly too long to be human ears.

I was so shaken from the sight I just said the words that crossed my mind.

「Elf!? Why? Why a race that didn’t receive god’s favor…!」

Races that didn’t receive the god’s favor, also called sub-humans, was a general term referring to the several races that were said to be extinct long ago.
Each of the sub-humans used much stronger power and magic compared to humans, but unlike humans, they didn’t receive skills from the god and got destroyed hundreds of years ago.
I was really shaken because I had read that from the book.

However, on the other hand, the calm part in my head inferred from what Master had said and concluded this outcome wasn’t strange.

Master said this case involved lost technology which should have disappeared a long time ago.
The creator of said lost technology was Elf, one of the sub-human that was said to be extinct hundreds of years ago.

Does Master know from the beginning that the branch chief is an elf?
As I came to this conclusion, I tried to look at my master.
However, the next moment, an angry shout came my way stealing my attention.

「Oi, defect healer. Don’t you dare mention that damned label.」

When I looked at the source of the angry shout, there was Hanzam who was glaring at me.
Hanzam repeated his words to me, who was surprised by the sudden hostility.

「How dare you mention that damned label when you’re not even close to hold a candle to this personage?」

I naturally readying myself for battle from the bloodlust that was directed at me from Hanzam.
In response, Hanzam put his hand on the hilt of the weapon that was tied behind his waist.

It was the branch chief that soothed Hanzam.

「Hanzam, calm down. I don’t care. And in this day and age, there’s no point in getting worked up over every little thing.」

「Kh-! But-!」

Hanzam didn’t let go of his weapon even when the branch chief himself trying to soothe him.
Seeing that, my vigilance increased, the air in the room was tense, as if we were one step away from breaking into battle.

However, that atmosphere was shattered by Master.

「Let’s talk about it later. Do you want to be killed?」

Hanzam turned his hostility to Master after our entire previous exchange was treated like an afterthought by her.
However, the hostility that appeared on his face soon dissipated.

——It was when I noticed that Master had built magic to the brink of activation and it was aimed at Hanzam and Branch Chief.

「Wha-!」

After taking another uninterested glance at Hanzam, Master turned to Branch Chief and started talking.

「Keep in mind that I consider small talk as unnecessary chatter too. From now on, just answer what I ask.」

Only then everyone in the room understood.
The reason Master didn’t say anything until now was because she was preparing to invoke magic.

「Avoid fighting as much as possible she said…」

In the midst of all this, despite being considerably shaken, I was also strengthening my body.
Considering Master’s magic had been completed, it almost seemed like the fight had already been decided, but it was better to be prepared for battle just in case.

Either way, combat was inevitable.

「Fuck!」

Looking at Master and my attitude, Hanzam drew his weapon even though he knew it was already too late.

However, even in such a situation, the branch chief’s demeanor didn’t change at all.
In the tense atmosphere, he put on a good-natured old-fashioned smile that even seemed abnormal now and opened his mouth.

「Ralma, isn’t it awful to suddenly activate a spell of this magnitude?」

It was then I realized that his words overflowed with familiarity with Master.
Judging that it was just a misunderstanding, I tried to shake off that idea from my head…… or I would, if not for a certain possibility that came to my mind.

When we first came into this room, the branch chief talked to us as if he were talking to a child.
I thought it was either an act to keep me from finding out what was going on inside his mind, or an implication that the threat he felt from me just amounted to a child.
But now I realized that there was another possibility.

Right, the possibility that Master and Branch Chief had known each other for a long time.

「Even if I make a mistake, I don’t think that’s the way to address your master.」

「…………Huh?」

The branch chief just announced that Master was his disciple.
The smile on his face was unchanged, it was still the good-natured old-fashioned smile.

「And another thing. If you think this level of magic can stop an elf when they’re at their home base, then I will need to lament my disciple’s retrogression don’t I?」

…But I could no longer feel anything but awe from that smile.