Black Iron Magician

「Oi Deris, wait a minute. Are you sure your little disciple has the ability to do this?」

Just as we were about to leave the room, Requiem called out to me.

「What’s up with you all of a sudden?」

「No, I don’t care even if you die, but not for that kid over there. If she charges into the slum’s problem for your convenience and died, I’m going to have an uneasy conscience. I don’t care wherever you go, but don’t drag that kind into it.」

「…… Even if you say that.」

Why is Haru being treated so gentlemanly and kind everywhere she goes? My friend, are you a lolicon?

「Haru is talented even if she looks like this. She won in a flash against those three newcomers of yours, you know?」

「…… Tuds, is that true?」

「I haven’t confirmed the details, but it looks like they are admired this young lady and Deris-san so badly. They must have lost cleanly. However, the problem is that those newcomers are all level 2. It’s somewhat unreasonable to use it as an indicator to measure her strength.」

Yeah, I wasn’t happy about that either.

「Hah, the drop in quality of personnel is not something to be proud of, eh… Well, I get it. I get it that she’s fairly useful.」

「There’s no problem then――」

「Wait, wait. This isn’t over yet. I only understand her minimum strength. From what I heard, the five men who recently entered this quarter are all quite capable. I still don’t have enough trust to let her walk around this quarter where those five men are loitering.」

「Then, what should we do? Unfortunately, we’re also busy. Tell me the quickest way to prove it.

Requiem points his thumb at Tuds and gives Haru a vicious gaze.

「Fight him for a bit. That’s how I’ll judge you.」

「「Eh, is that okay!?」」

「…… Why do you guys look so happy?」

I and Haru are so happy with the unexpected way to test her ability.

Looking at his behavior so far, this big black man, Tuds, is probably Requiem’s trusted retainer. Unlike the three Chihuahuas, he should be competent. A resident of such a backstreet business said that he would let Haru practice with him. There is no better chance for Haru to gain experience than this.

「I think that you already knew about it, Tuds is a strong man who can compete for the first or second place in Midnight.」

….. Yeah, I knew. I knew, okay? I knew that he might be someone like that.

「If she can compete with him decently, I’ll have to acknowledge her. She can go wherever she likes, be it the Ash Rope’s place or a brothel.」

「Got it. Can we just do it here now?」

「I don’t mind. Tuds, we’re just going to measure her strength. Go easy on her.」

「Yes, of course.」

Haru and Tuds face each other after taking some distance. Tuds is at least 190cm tall, and due to his toned muscles, he can be perceived as even bigger. By arranging them side by side, it’s not an exaggeration to compare them as an adult and a child.

「Please do!」

「Yes.」

Tuds is standing on the ground with his feet firmly planted. On the other hand, Haru is someone who constantly makes use of her footwork and shows a light movement. Ah, this is going to be a pretty interesting match.

「―― Begin.」

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We left the shabby inn, bathed our bodies in the dazzling sunlight, and enjoyed the fresh air.

Ah, was the air outside this delicious? Thanks to Haru cleaning the house these days, I’ve gotten used to a clean house. I have become more sensitive to the stagnant air.

「Well, you only exchanged a few blows, but I’m glad that you are acknowledged without a problem.」

Requiem gave Haru a passing mark. At that time, Haru and Tuds exchanged punches and kicks for only a short time. Haru used the newly acquired skill 『Evasion』 to avoid all attacks and hit Tuds’s defenseless body with full strength. Then, the match was over and she passed.

「But, he was really going easy on me. His expression didn’t change at all even after receiving my attack…」

「I guess that’s the difference in basic ability. I think that Tuds guy is about as strong as level 5.」

「T-that much!?」

That’s right. He piled up experience from scratch and crawled up in the underworld, so he might be a more troublesome opponent than Haru’s classmates. Well, Haru is also a big deal for being able to land a hit splendidly against that level 5 opponent. Even though he went easy on her, he has so much power where Haru was about to faint the moment she got in touch with his attack.

「I see… it was no wonder that I saw something like a flashback. Thanks to that, the time passed slowly, so the result is all right!」

「Haru, when you do things with preparedness to die, do it moderately.」

That was something you see just before you die after all.

「Shishō, I thought about it for a while… why Nell-san and the others aren’t doing this investigation of missing people by themselves? Isn’t it faster if the country do it?」

Haru tilts her head. She seems to be wondering why Nell and the Knights hadn’t investigated the matter.

「Well, I think they are working on it. They knew that your classmates were gone and discovered them was because they investigated it. But, it’s hard for Nell and the knights to get involved in this slum.」

「?」

As Haru says, it’ll be faster if Nell leads the knights into the Ash Rope’s hideout. Or rather, she alone is fine. But in order to move on such a large scale, they would need a good enough reason to do so first.

On the surface, there is no connection between the Magic Knight Order and Midnight. But, on the assumption that they don’t interfere with each other on an unspoken level, these two organizations are the ones that maintain security by dividing it between the slums and the rest of the city. The security of the soldiers and knights who serve the country can’t reach the slums. In exchange, Midnight doesn’t cause any major trouble and they don’t bother ordinary people like someone that’s not a slave. And indirectly, they can get information out from the underworld. This subtle form of cooperation has been continuing this far.

For these reasons, it is the current situation that they can’t help each other openly. If it’s Nell, I’m sure she wanted to charge in to deal with this case without minding that, but since she caused a problem in the slum before and she has her position as the knight leader, the authorities must have stopped her. I can only assume that they don’t want to break the old relationship that has been striking a perfect balance between the two, or some other trivial reason. That’s when a handyman like me, who doesn’t belong to the country, is called upon. Even the rewards won’t be given directly. They give the reward through the guild by pretending to put on a request there. I’m sure they don’t want to make a bigger deal out of it because Haru’s classmates are also involved this time. I’m sure they don’t want the public to know that someone from the castle was involved in the kidnapping.

「Hmm, I don’t really understand…」

「Since they can’t deal with everything, they pass it to a freelancer like me. In short, it’s a grown-up thing.」

「Oh, I know that. That’s a magic word that can solve anything, right?」

「Oof, damn straight.」

Grown-up things, it sure is a magic word equal to the word ‘Nell’.