Chapter 79: Flora Kidnapped
After Kurune and I took our time talking at the field of flowers, we came back to my house before the evening.
「Flora, we’re back~」
When I opened the door and called out to her, I saw that there was nobody in the living room.
「…Flora?」
Huh? That’s weird, normally she would run up to me first with a smile and say “welcome home”.
「It’s been quite a long time since I came home greeting someone. Hm? Where’s Flora?」
Kurune asked when she entered the house and was about to greet Flora.
「Maybe she’s in the room in the back. Or maybe she went out?」
「Hmm, I see. But there’s food in mid prep still in the kitchen, so she’ll probably be back soon right? If that’s the case, I’ll wait here for a bit」
When I took a look in the kitchen where Kurune was pointing at, there was definitely some food that was in mid-preparation just left there.
There’s a soup pot that she possibly finished reheating, and there’s some half cut up vegetables sitting on the cutting board.
「……Ahh, sure. I’ll go make you some tea so have a seat」
「Okay」
After I told Kurune that I’m going to make her some tea, she put on her slippers and headed to a chair in the living room.
Did a guest come to visit while Flora was cooking and then she went out?
I don’t know why but I have a bad feeling in my chest. I feel like something bad has happened. There is an indescribable feeling of uneasiness spreading in my chest.
Before I start brewing the tea for Kurune, I’ll go to the room in the back of the house just in case to make sure that Flora wasn’t in the house.
Unfortunately, there was nobody there. The only thing different in there was that the bedsheet had been changed and the pillows were lined up neatly side by side.
Alright, what about the vacant room and the storeroom then?
I closed the door and went to check those rooms but Flora wasn’t in either of those places.
As I thought, it seems that somebody did come to visit while Flora was in the middle of cooking and then she went out.
I muttered that to myself in my mind. For some reason, the unease in my heart isn’t going away.
「Aldo! Are you looking for Flora? There’s some kind of note on the table, it looks like she wrote something here」
I heard Kurune’s voice coming from the living room’s direction as I closed the door of the storeroom.
「Thank you. I’ll come back right now」
I see, if it’s Flora, she would leave a note behind if she had to go out all of a sudden.
I’m so silly for worrying and panicking like that.
When I came back to the living room as I smiled bitterly in my mind, Kurune pointed at the folded up note on top of the table as she remained seated.
I quickly opened up the folded up note.
Then, a bunch of golden-colored stuff slipped out of the note and fell onto the table.
「What are these? Threads? Or could it be hair?」
When I heard Kurune’s dubious voice, my heart skipped a beat.
I touched the bundle of golden-colored hair fearfully.
This silky, smooth, golden-colored hair…I know this hair that shines in the sunlight. I have touched it many times before.
「…It’s Flora’s hair」
「Ehhh? Flora’s hair? Why is something like that in the note?」
We might find out once we read what’s written in the note.
Without responding to the surprised Kurune, I opened up the folded note.
『To Aldred the dragon slayer, I have your woman with me. If you want her back, get yourself ready for a fight and come to the southern forest alone. If you say anything unnecessary to the people around you, I’ll kill her. -Zoak 』
「What?!」
「This means…!」
Kurune was surprised as well after she instinctively peeked into the letter’s content.
There’s no mistake about it. Flora was kidnapped.
Moreover, she was kidnapped by someone who belongs to the vicious Dark guild.
「……Zoak」
I muttered in a low voice as I could not believe it either.
This man called Zoak is someone who lives in the underground world as he takes on jobs like robbery, assassination, bodyguarding, and spying. He specialized in assassination.
He’s always stealthy and well prepared. And above all, he’s good at fighting humans.
Before he fought me, he had probably fought against countless knights, mercenaries, and adventurers.
That guy’s will to survive and his battle capabilities are no joke.
Who knows what could happen to Flora if she was kidnapped by that guy.
Once I started thinking about that, my anxiety hit its limit and my anger towards Zoak surged out.
When I realized it, my body had already begun moving.
I chucked the simply written note away in disgust as I headed outside from the living room.
「Aldo! Calm down!」
However, Kurune grabbed onto me and stopped me.
She’s getting in my way when someone important to me could be fighting for their life, so I yelled out at her without thinking,
「Flora got kidnapped, you know?! How can I be calm?!」
「Still, you can’t just go like that. How can you face that guy without even a weapon?! Calm down for a second!」
「To begin, the reason why Flora got kidnapped is that you came here, no?! That guy showed up right after you got here! I’m sure that it’s because you were followed by someone from the kingdom-」
「……」
I raised my voice at her in anger, but Kurune only looked back at me with a hurt look.
The worst thing that I could possibly say had just slipped out of my mouth.
「……Sorry. It’s actually my fault in the first place since I ran away here without even telling the kingdom. I’m sorry for blaming it on you」
「……No, it’s my fault for coming here and threatening your livelihoods. Sorry」
When I saw her making somewhat of a lonely smile, I felt an intense feeling of regret.
If I just leave things the way they are, our bond as old companions will shatter.
After I realized that, I lowered my head and apologized to her again,
「I’m really sorry, Kurune. I went too far just now」
「…It’s fine. We always did things on a whim in the past, didn’t we? And we always covered for each other after. This time it’s because of my carelessness, so don’t apologize to me like that」
「No, it’s because I just left the kingdom without saying anything that this-」
「Yeah yeah, you already took back what you said just now, didn’t you? You don’t have to apologize like that. Come on, sit down and let’s talk this over」
I sat down after Kurune encouraged me to do so.
Yeah, she’s always been like that.
No matter how unreasonable and inconsiderate the male members of the 『Black Silver』were and how much we inconvenienced her, Kurune would always let bygones be bygones in the end and support us.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that she would forgive anything if we just apologize, but whenever we were about to make a wrong decision, she would always let us know and talk to us seriously about it.
The fact that our party managed to not run into trouble and stay together the whole time even though everyone in our party was so reckless was also probably thanks to the only female member of our party, Kurune, supporting us.
How pathetic it is of me to realize that now. I was such an unreliable leader.
However, it won’t solve anything even if I keep on apologizing to her here.
Right now, what’s important is to calm down and take action.
「Zoak is that guy from the kingdom’s Dark guild, right?」
「Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. He had most likely accepted a mission from the country’s nobles」
I know that some nobles have connections to the Dark guild.
When I think about who would want to bring me back to the country the most, it would be the nobles after all.
I had a feeling that some nobles would try to distinguish themselves at times like this without caring about how they’d look working with the Dark guild.
「If he’s here to bring you back, isn’t it weird that he would ask you to get ready for a fight? If he wants to bring you back, shouldn’t he be bringing Flora back to the kingdom with a horse carriage and tell you to go there?」
True. It’s weird that he would ask me to get ready for a fight if he kidnapped Flora in order to bring me back to the kingdom.
If Zoak wanted his mission to go smoothly, he should have done exactly what Kurune said.
「Doesn’t he have some other motive?」
「I think…he probably wants to fight me again to have revenge. I fought against him in the past during a quest to protect a noble」
It was back when I first became an A-ranked adventurer. I had a one on one fight with Zoak during a quest to protect a noble that the Dark guild was after.
「Ah, the rest of us didn’t see that fight. What happened at that time?」
「He escaped after I slashed one of his eyes」
It was horrifying how that guy was still laughing as he slashed at me even when he became soaked in blood after I cut one of his eyes.
「Also…」
「Also?」
Kurune leaned in closer towards me as I thought of something.
「I think he wanted to say something to me on the day of the dragon slayer parade too but I didn’t really care at the time. Hm, how did I reply to him again?」
「…No wonder that guy is still coming after you」