How It All Ended
I woke up the next day. It was 6:30 am—later than my usual waking time.
I stretched with a big yawn and looked to the side to find Pearl, in her puppy-sized form, curled up asleep. When I stroked her soft, fluffy white fur—
(Fwaa~h. Oh, Joan, you’re awake.)
“Yeah, thanks for everything yesterday, Pearl.”
Knock, knock, knock. “Young lady Joan, excuse me.”
It was Sarah, as usual, who entered.
“How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”
“I’m fine. And you, Sarah?”
“I’m okay too. Thank you.”
After a bath and getting dressed, I headed to the living room.
There were Father, Grandfather, Grandmother, Gray, and the Guildmaster.
“Good morning.”
“Ah, good morning, Joan. How are you feeling?”
“Yes, I got plenty of sleep, so I’m fine.” Growl~
“Wahaha, if your stomach’s growling, you must be alright.”
“Hehe, that’s true.”
“Ehehe.”
“Missy, your mental strength is something else… Anyway, you really helped us yesterday. Thanks a lot.”
“Oh, right. What happened after that?”
After I lost consciousness, Nancy and the rest of our household staff stormed the abandoned house and captured the four culprits. Then, during questioning by our private guards, they revealed the location of the human trafficking group's hideout. Based on that information, they went to the hideout.
“So, where was this hideout?”
“Ah, it was in a disused woodcutter’s cabin in the forest on the way from the Lampail territory toward the capital. They’d taken it over.”
“Well, it doesn’t exist anymore though…”
“Huh? Grandfather, what do you mean ‘doesn’t exist’? It was a hideout, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t understand, and looked around, then Nancy spoke up.
“If I may, allow me to explain.
Those who went to the hideout were Lady Lindsay, Old Tom’s family, myself, Snowy, and Blau. By good fortune, all thirteen members of the trafficking group we’d heard about from the adventurers were present at the hideout. First, Old Tom, Snowy, and Blau sealed off all exits of the cabin with earthen walls to cut off escape routes. Then, Kent, Yumi, Mike, and I took the lead and captured the culprits one by one. After securing all of them, we neatly disposed of the eight who had no useful information along with the cabin.”
““““………””””
“U-Um, what do you mean by ‘neatly disposed’?”
“A bonfire, Young lady Joan. Rest assured, thanks to the earthen walls Old Tom and the others built, the forest suffered no damage.”
“So then… don’t tell me, the eight of them too…?”
“Oh no, we aren’t that cruel. We simply hung them from trees as a lesson. Though, well, a few of them bled a bit from bumps or rope cuts while being strung up. I just hope no monsters are drawn in…”
““““………””””
So basically, the only difference was whether they were burned or fed to monsters… Either way, that’s pretty brutal…
And just what is Nancy’s definition of ‘cruel’? I want to ask, but also really don’t…
“U-Um, by the way, why were Snowy and Blau there?”
“Those two were very upset that you had been put in danger. Apparently, they heard about it from Pearl. So I decided to take them along. They’re such clever creatures—when they fanned the flames, the fire burned down everything in no time, and they even blew the culprits’ blood scent into the forest to attract attention.”
“Ahaha…”
“Make sure to thank them too, Joan.”
“Okay…”
“Well, I should get going…”
As the Guildmaster stood up to leave—
“Morgan, stay for breakfast. You came to report early in the morning; it’s the least we can do.”
“No, but…”
“Oh? Morgan, you should accept kindness honestly, you know?”
He couldn’t say no after Grandmother put it that way.
Just as we were about to move to the dining room, the living room doors opened and Mother came in with the twins.
““Good morn—ing!””
“Good morning, Hugo, Lyla.”
“““Good morning.”””
“Big sis, does your head hurt?” “Big sis, does your body hurt?”
“Thanks, Hugo, Lyla. I’m not hurt anywhere.”
““That’s good~ Right?””
Seems the twins had been worried in their own way.
This morning’s breakfast was typical for our house: a one-plate meal with a meat omelet, salad, butter-sautéed bacon and shimeji mushrooms, and French toast. But for the Guildmaster, it seemed like a surprise. Especially the French toast, which he really liked—he even had seconds.
After seeing the Guildmaster off, I headed to the stables.
“Snowy, Blau.”
(Good morning, Joan. How are you feeling?)
(Good morning, My Lady.)
“Thanks for everything yesterday. Grandmother and Nancy told me what you did. You really worked hard—thank you.”
(It’s okay. When Pearl told us what happened to you, we wanted to do something. So we asked to be taken along when they said they were heading to the hideout.)
“I see… Sorry for making you worry.”
I said, as I gently stroked Snowy and Blau.
＊＊＊＊＊
I had something I wanted to confirm, so I headed to the kitchen.
"Good morning."
“"Good morning, Joan-chan!””
In the kitchen were Arthur and Anny.
"Joan-, how are you feeling?"
"Yeah, I slept really well, so I'm full of energy now. Thanks."
"That's good~ I was on standby duty yesterday, so I was really worried about you."
"So, what brings you here?"
"Oh, right! I was wondering if you knew when Mr. Taiki might come next."
"Hmm~, not sure. Gray might know better. He's usually the one who tells us about arrival schedules. Why? Is there something you need?"
"Yeah. I need glutinous rice and red beans~"
“"Glutinous rice? Red beans?"”
"Is glutinous rice different from regular rice?"
"Yeah, how should I explain this... You steam glutinous rice and then pound it. That gives it a sticky, stretchy texture."
"Ah~ so that's why the isobeyaki we had last time was so stretchy! That makes sense."
"Then I'll go ask Gray~"
"Ah— she's already gone… Sous Chef, what exactly are red beans?"
"Who knows? But if Joan wants them, they must be for something delicious."
"That's true~"
What do you think about this chapter?
