Previous | Table of Contents | Next
Tafel belched and placed her hand on her stomach. Her gaze landed on the empty bowls and plates on the table in front of her. After eyeing each piece of dishware, she raised her head and looked Vur in the eyes. “You’re right,” she said and nodded. “He’s a good chef. Should we add him to our party?”
“He already has a party,” Vur said and shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll want to join.”
“That’s a shame,” Tafel said.
Vur shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if he joins our party or not,” he said and leaned over to the side. He reached into the Recordkeeper’s clothes, causing the winged woman to shriek and cover herself. That didn’t stop Vur from retrieving a three-pronged orb though. “With this, we can find the chef at any time, and whenever we’re hungry, you can open a portal to him.”
“That’s mine!” the Recordkeeper said and snatched The Searching Machine Two Thousand from Vur’s hand. She huffed and stuffed it back into her clothes. “Besides, it won’t work like you want it to. Even if you drip that man’s blood into the treasure finder, it’ll only point out his location if he’s nearby.”
“Well, if he won’t join our party, and if we can’t track him down whenever we want, couldn’t we just hire him?” Tafel asked and tilted her head.
“E-excuse me,” Helden said. As the person who had cooked the meal, he had been forced to stand at the side of the room. If anyone wanted to know the details of one of the dishes, he was ready to explain them at a moment’s notice. “Can you please not talk about me as if I’m not in the room? Also, I wouldn’t be against joining your party as long as my companions can join me.”
Tafel raised an eyebrow. “How many companions do you have?”
Helden held out his hand and raised four fingers.
“Four?” Stella asked, poking her head out of Vur’s chest. “Weren’t there only three women with you when we left?”
“Well,” Helden said and scratched his head. “I happened to meet a knight on the road, and after helping her with an issue that had been plaguing her for years, she decided to join my party.”
Stella raised an eyebrow. “Another woman, eh?”
Helden shrugged. “What can I say?” he asked. “It must be fate.”
“Fate. Yep. I’m sure you would’ve helped a male knight as well.”
“Of course.” Helden maintained a straight face and looked at Tafel. “Well?”
“Five people is practically another party,” Tafel said and furrowed her brow. “It wouldn’t be good to travel around with such a large number to complete missions. How about this? You can become a subsidiary party to ours.” Tafel nodded to herself, liking the idea more and more. She smiled at Vur. “How about it? It’s the next logical step for our party’s evolution; we can’t do all the mundane things by ourselves. It’s good to have parties working below us. All the top parties have subsidiary parties attached to them.”
“I’ve never heard about this before,” Stella said. “Why didn’t you mention it earlier? If I knew we could legally make people our subordinates, I would’ve had Vur force those adventurers into signing contracts with us during the auction.”
Tafel squinted at Stella. “Is it just me, or are you behaving more and more like a hooligan?”
“It’s just you,” Stella said with an innocent expression on her face.
“That’s right,” Diamant said from the runes on Vur’s arm. “She has always been a hooligan.”
“Definitely,” Mistle said, chiming in from Vur’s back.
“If she says she’s not a hooligan, then no one can be identified as a hooligan,” Zilphy said.
“Is she that bad?” Sheryl asked. “I think she’s pretty nice most of the times.”
Stella’s expression darkened as she retreated into the tattoo on Vur’s chest. “Why are the three of you talking bad about me? I only kicked you out of Vur’s body once, and all of you forget who owns the place, huh?”
Vur’s body flashed with lights before dimming. He glanced down before raising his head again, undisturbed by the commotion caused by the beings living inside of him. His hand reached across the table and landed on top of Tafel’s. “If you want subsidiary parties, then we’ll get subsidiary parties.”
Tafel beamed at Vur. “Alright,” she said. “Should I get Alice to start working on the arrangements?” She tapped on the table and frowned while mumbling to herself, “No, she’s busy with her wedding planning. If I push back my spell learning, I could make some time to do this.” Her brow furrowed, and she pursed her lips.
“I can do it,” Vur said.
Tafel looked up, her eyes widening at Vur. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Do you know what arrangements need to be made?”
“Yeah,” Vur said and nodded.
Tafel blinked hard. “Really? Why do you know this?”
Vur raised an eyebrow. “It was in one of the books in your library.”
Tafel scratched her head. “Oh,” she said and scratched harder. “Are you sure…?”
“Are you doubting me?”
“No,” Tafel said, her head shaking rapidly from side to side. “It’s just weird to see you take initiative to do something. Is everything alright?” She leaned over and placed her hand on Vur’s forehead. “You’re not feeling sick, are you?”
Vur blinked and thought about it. After a bit, he shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m fine.”
“Alright,” Tafel said and retrieved her hand. She stared at Vur with an odd expression. “Do you need me to come with you to the adventurers’ guild? Should I arrange for a butler to accompany you to the housing district later? You know you need to go to the housing district after registering at the adventurers’ guild, right?”
“I know,” Vur said and leaned forward. He gave Tafel a peck on the cheek before standing up. “You don’t have to come with me. Have fun learning your spells.”
Tafel sat in a daze as Vur led Helden out of the room. When the door shut, the demon turned her head towards the Recordkeeper. “I’m not going crazy, right?” she asked. “That was weird, no?”
“It’s just registering a subsidiary party and purchasing a company house,” the Recordkeeper said. “If I was rich, I could do it too.”
“It’s not about being capable,” Tafel said. “It’s about wanting to do it. Vur only takes the initiative when it comes to eating and sleeping.”
The Recordkeeper shrugged. “Maybe he’s plotting something.”
Tafel snorted. “Vur doesn’t plot. He never plots. He solves everything with the strength of a dragon.”