CH 29

29. Megane-kun, Visiting 「Black Swan of Dawn」’s Residence Once Again

「Yeey! This rabbit is tasty, isn’t it!?」 

「Hold up. Well… I said, hold up!」 

With my fruitless resistance, the Splinter Fang Hare that sat on my shoulder was plundered  by my sister.

Un, well, it’s a gift I bring for the greetings in the first place, so I won’t mind if she snatched it from me like that. It’s something I brought with that in mind. Something I brought so I can give to them. …It should be something like that.

But, that’s no good. I supposed to show it to the upper echelons, the leader while hinting it within my conversation with him before they could receive it from me.

The conversation hasn’t even started, not even a single soul has uttered anything, and yet for some reason, Horun made her move first. What move should I take now?

「……」

「……」

Just look at their faces, the bitter expressions of both the leader as well as the vice leader.

How can you be so calm when you made your elders show such a bitter expression? How can you act so unconcerned? Can you even call yourself a human being? …Wait, no, you’re my sister huh.

…Horun turns her heels without even looking back then goes out of the warehouse with the rabbit under her arm.

What’s wrong with that sister. …Ah, she’s my sister huh. How terrible.

…………

In front of about a dozen adventurers—Royal Capital’s best adventurer’s team 「Black Swan of Dawn」 who gathered, I who came to greet them just lost the very reason for my visit. What’s with this wonderful play of negligence. I want to give it a name, but I can’t think of any.

However, whatever happens, happens.

「Nice to meet you. My name is Eil, I’m from Albat village. As I heard that my sister Horun has been under your great care, I came to pay my respect.」  

As natural as possible. As if nothing happened.

「In this occasion, I brought a rabbit I hunted myself. If you may, please accept it.」 

Precisely, do it as if my sister was never even here in the first place.

—The members of 「Black Swan」 sensed my guidance of 「let’s just advance it like this」 and played along.

「Thank you for coming. I am—」 

「Ain! Oi, Ain! Why aren’t you coming yet, come on, hurry up! Chop-chop!」 

My sis, returns.

Most likely, the one she called is that red-blonde mix woman. She replies Horun at her leisure.

「I’m in the middle of something now~. I’ll come right away, so bring a kitchen knife with you~」 

「Got that! Come quickly, okay!」 

And thus, my sister vanished yet again.

「…rather, shouldn’t she be in the middle of something as well?」 

When such a remark is addressed towards her vanished figure, some of the members nodded their head.

What a lass. After she interrupted the leader, she went and gone in no less than a minute. From her timing alone, it can only be taken as harassment.

…What should I do with this awkward atmosphere. The leader who couldn’t finish his words showed such an unpleasant expression. What do I do?

…………

Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.

「—Nice to meet you. My name is Eil, I’m from Albat village. As I heard that my sister Horun has been under your great care, I came to pay my respect.」  

Since there’s nothing I can do about it, I repeated it. 

While apologizing about my sister in my head.

.

As I promised before, I visited 「Black Swan of Dawn」’s base. 

In the seat facing the entrance, where the Vice Leader in her hood sat the other day, today a man with black hair with some white hair mixed among it is seated there.

Most likely, he is the 「Black Swan」’s leader. 

His age should be well over 40. Not only his build is huge, his most certainly tampered muscles are bulging over his outfit.

In addition, he also has dignity in him. His long hair is tied and thrown to his back, his beard is orderly, and the deep blue glint in his eyes are sharp. However, he doesn’t give off an impression of a brutish adventurer, he feels like a Knight from a faraway country. Well, it’s just the impression.

I don’t need to see him「 through the Megane」, he is strong. I think he is the strongest creature I have encountered thus far. By nature, that also includes all the Magical Beasts.

「Ahem——」 

The leader clears his throat with a bitter expression on his face, judging the meaning of my greeting that was done twice. 

「Thank you for coming. I am the head of 『Black Swan of Dawn』, Rickstein. I welcome you as my sworn friend Horun’s family.」  

「Really?」 

Without thinking, I asked him back. Since it’s right after that, right after something like that. That made me said something I have in my mind, despite it’s not the time to do so.

「Do you really welcome me? I am that sister’s brother, though?」 

「…… Most certainly, I do.」 

Although I feel like he’s kind of hesitant,  Rickstein the leader nods his head.

「However, let me say this beforehand.」 

It seems like the Leader has something he has to say to me in advance. I wonder what it is. A complaint about my sister, maybe.

「I don’t know what you might have in mind, but we treasure Horun as our own, we welcome her, and we keep her close to us. Excessive presents and greetings are not needed… For the rabbit this time around, well, we’ll have to accept it without reserve, however.」 

Rather than accepting without reserve, it has already been taken from me.

Well, of course, there would be a moderate amount of awkwardness left if they said 「we have received it」 right after they said they have no intention to take it. To make it worse, it was done without the leader’s order. Well, it’s my sister who did that, though. 

As I feared, some dicey atmosphere is left hanging. 

「Well, take a seat. Everyone cleared their schedule when they heard that Horun’s relative is coming, they were waiting for you.」 

Ah, is that so. 

It seems like they all have many things in mind, things like; curious about how her parents look like, rubbernecking about her little brother that will come, wanting to ask about the environment she grew in, among other things. I think 10 people coming to see me out of 10 odd members of an adventurer team is quite a number. 

Good grief.

I apologize on behalf of my sister.

After that, I talked with various people.

Well, a big chunk of them is looking at me as that Horun’s brother with inquisition.

Should I say… it’s unexpected, or should I say it’s exactly as Lexton said, but astonishingly they’re accepting Horun as one of them.

For example, quoting what they said, 「Though she’s real trouble, but that’s fine. That’s who she is.」 So I feel like they accepted Horun along with all the trouble she brings. That was also like that back in the village. I think it’s like they’re looking after her like a troublesome pet instead of a human. 

From what the Leader said, 「it’s because she has already become a part of our family」.

Horun sure has been picked up by nice folks.

Amidst all that,

「She’s been telling me she has a brother who’s similar to me, but to think it’s true~」 

Ainliese—the woman in undergarment who appeared right after her nap. It seems like she has a good relationship with my sister. 

Although she carries the air around her quite lenient, I can tell that she’s strong, as if that’s the most natural thing ever. Well, in that regard, everyone here except Laila has remarkable strength. 

「Ain-san, isn’t Horun waiting for you?」 

And that one was, tentatively, my childhood friend Lexton. He informed her about the conversation she held with Horun.

「Now that you mention it. She’ll even gnaw on raw meat if you don’t watch her, after all~ …She should at least eat it when it’s half-cooked」 

I think you shouldn’t eat it half-cooked either, though. Adventurers sure are sturdy.