Protagonist Knows Everything - Chapter 42

Kasha was given a three day annual leave.

Of course, we don’t have an annual leave system, Sain didn’t allow her to take up any quests for the next three days.

Contrary to my expectations her reaction was like this.

“Why? I am good. Give me anything!”

“When they say take a break, you take a break. Why do you try to push yourself too much? You’re a kid, pamper yourself a bit.”

“That’s…”

Kasha complained, “I want to be of help.”

“……”

“Tay. Remember? Even if it’s not a guild related, you can ask for anything.”

“Don’t even think about it.”

Originally, I was trying to introduce a life long contract for her, but I eventually gave up on the idea.

For some reason, I decided to quit.

I said, “Okay then, would you like to go out for a C-class quest?”

“Eh? What kind of quest?”

“I was thinking about giving a quest to Ms. Jeriel. She has never done any quests before so I was thinking that it’d be good if both of you went together.”

Then, Jeriel, who had been silently munching on the snack, was amazed as she spoke up, “Yeah? Me?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

“No. Suddenly I’m a C-class… I am not mentally prepared yet.”

“Then, when do you think you will be prepared?”

Jeriel was contemplating and silently held up two of hre fingers.

“Would two days be enough?”

“Two months.”

“……”

“I’m sorry. I’ll go on the quest right away.”

Jeriel became gloomy for some reason and bowed her head.

Kasha comforted her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be with you.”

“Yeah. Mr. Tay is a little scared.”

“Yeah he is really kind, he is worried about sending you alone.”

Both are wrong. I am not scared and I am not kind.  This is just efficient.  Anyway, the two formed a party and went on the quest.

Jeriel looked like a soldier being forcefully dragged into the battlefield, but Kasha looked like she was going for a picnic.  So when they left the guild I heaved a sigh and stretched in my chair.

Sain laughed and said, “Huh. You seem relieved now.”

“You think so?”

“Ms. Kasha was five minutes late this morning, right? Do you know how many times you glanced at the entrance during those five minutes?”

“……”

“You even asked Elena, what’s going on with Kasha.”

‘Was it that obvious?’

I replied while shuddering, “Well things looked dire for some time, but now everythings fine.”

“Yeah. So now it’s my turn.”

“……”

“Do you mind for a minute?”

I stared at Sain’s face.  The room was filled with awkward silence, but Sain finally broke it.

“Fine. Then let’s go to the conference room.”

“Yeah.”

Why are you so nervous? You are the one who wants to say something.

And you are my boss.

Upon entering the conference room, I first served Sain a cup of tea.  Then waited for her to take exactly two sips before I started saying anything.

“It’s a bit late, but once again congratulations on becoming the Guild Master.”

This was the perfect way to start the conversation.

Sain flinched and slowly nodded, “Thank you.”

“Your father recognized you. And you even won the bet.”

Sain nodded and said with a sorry expression, “I promised Mr. Tay that I would arrange your meeting with my father right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s going to be difficult. My father declared that I had won and then immediately left. I don’t know where to find him either.”

That wasn’t a problem, because I know that he’s gonna keep his promise that he made that day in the carriage.

“Okay.”

“You’re so calm, didn’t you want to meet my father?”

“I just wanted to see the founder. But he’s not more important than my current boss.”

At my words, Sain wore a wide smile

But soon she corrected her posture, sat straight up and said, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Please speak.”

“Over the last year, all the things that Mr. Tay has done far exceeded my expectations, everyone’s expectations. Even during the whole ordeal with the Secreed’s curse.”

Sain wore a very sorry expression, but her tone was quite sharp.

“Ms. Kasha chose to believe without any questions, if you said that day is night then she will even believe that without any questions whatsoever, but I want to know.”

She looked straight into my eyes.

“How did you know that Ms. Kasha had the Secreed curse?”

She won’t be convinced if I said that it was a lucky guess.  To be honest I had been preparing for this question for quite a while now. I knew a situation like this will arise where Sain will question my abilities.

I pretended to think for a few moments before I replied.  Sain’s eyes were anxious so I chose to reply in a calm manner.

“It’s been a long time, but do you remember the time when Hans introduced me?”

“Yeah? Ah yes…”

Sain’s fine forehead furrowed as if she recalled a name that she didn’t want to recall.

“Do you remember when you first met me?”

“Yes three years ago when Hans first introduced you…”

“Anything before that?”

“No nothing.”

I guessed so.

I have been collecting information about a lot of people since my rebirth, at the same time I’ve been trying my best to collect information about myself.

My body, Taylor Mason, first appeared in the Kelk City three years before entering the Hagnut Guild. That was about four years ago.  No one knew about anything before that.

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to know about that time.”

Sain tilted her head in confusion.  But soon she realized what I was trying to say

“That means… Doesn’t that mean Mr. Tay doesn’t know about anything before joining our guild? What happened?”

“I don’t have any memories to be exact.”

“I can’t remember anything.”

“I was in Kelk city when I woke up. I had no recollection of the things that happened before that day, so I had a lot of trouble adjusting to it.”

It was true that I had a bit of trouble adapting to this place.

“But there are moments where I get flashes of my memory. Though the information is incomprehensible. Most of the time.”

“……”

“I got to know about the Secreed curse from one such memory. And on the same day Kasha entered the guild with symptoms similar to that curse.”

I continued calmly, “The overlapping of those events was quite unnatural, but I thought about checking it out.”

“……”

“When I carefully gathered my thoughts, I became more and more convinced of the fact that Kasha had been cursed.”

At this point, my throat was a bit dry.  I took a sip of the tea and then carried on with my explanation.

“Another flash of my memory showed me someone, someone who could lift the curse and save Kasha.”

“And that was Ms. Jeriel? But she said that she met you for the first time.”

“Yeah. I don’t know how but I somehow knew that she could break the curse.”

Then silence befell the room.

‘Wasn’t that convincing enough?’

It was a poor explanation that even made me laugh inside when I thought about it.  It was more of an excuse than an explanation.

But when I tried to say something, Sain’s voice interrupted.

“Hmmm… so that’s the case.”

“So…?”

“I won’t ask anything more.”

I was thinking about five or six faces that she’d make.  At the same time I was simulating how I’d react to each one of them.

But she looked calmed.  Her reaction inadvertently made me ask a question.

“Do you believe me?”

“Absolutely.”

“……Why?”

“Why?”

Sain laughed as if I had asked a stupid question, “If I don’t trust Mr. Tay then whom will I trust?”

“Sain.”

“If anything…”  She gave me a warm smile and said, “It’s very unfortunate that you lost your memory, but don’t be too sad.”

“……”

“Because you are making a lot of good memories in this Hagnut Guild. Please don’t forget the memories that you make here.”

Having said that, she turned her head.  She seemed to have realized that she had spoken something embarrassing.

I swept my face.

‘There’s also bosses like this.’

Once again I realized how lucky I was to have joined the Hagnut guild.

Then Sain said, “I asked everything I wanted to ask. Now, it’s Mr. Tay’s turn.”

“Yes?”

“You must have a lot of questions, right? About my father’s work or the bets. I’ll answer everything, so you can ask.”

I pondered for a moment.  But soon shook my head.

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah?”

“Just like you believed in me and didn’t ask anything, I’ll do the same.”

That’s because I’m going to ask Nortel directly.

Anyhow.

Sain said with a soft smile, “Mr. Tay. Thank you.”

“……”

“Now, our guild has become famous not only in the Kelk city, but also in the northern regions. I also won… I can say that I have achieved quite a lot.”

“Sain.”

“But people are greedy.”

She clasped her hands and spoke in a sincere manner, “I would like to take the Hagnut guild further.”

“How far to be exact?”

“How far indeed.”

That was the exact thing I had said to Ron.

“Can you help me out till the end?”

“Absolutely.”

After that we shared warm smiles with each other.

The moment I was about to leave the room like that, Sain asked something, “By the way, Mr. Tay. Have you ever heard anything about the Wyvern Guild?”

“No.”

Still, I was constantly checking the personnel records.

However, neither Von Lebek nor Dirk Perchen showed any updates.

‘I’ll have to dig into this soon.’

Especially for Von, I’ll have to teach him a lesson.

“Whew. I See.”

“……”

“I know. Sorry for being so useless. Now let’s get back to work.”

“Yeah.”

Then I was back at the reception desk. Elena walked up to me and asked, “Was that a good interview?”

“Yes.”

“I got a letter for you, Mr. Tay.”

She gently placed the letter on the counter.  The sender was not mentioned on the envelope.  Just like the letter that Sain had received that day.

Elena looked closely at my expression and said, “I won’t ask you anything.”

“Yeah?”

She knew that I received a letter without a sender, just like Sain, but she chose not to pry into it.

I stared at Elena.  She just smiled and changed the topic.

“Did something happen when you and sister were on that quest?”

Elena didn’t know about Kasha’s curse.

Before I could say anything, she asked again, “From the beginning, her sister had a little bit of a flower garden.”

He’s very good at talking harshly. This little sister.

“After going to that quest, my sister has changed a bit. Before, she had some doubts, but now everythings clear.”

‘What?’

“So it’s better if I just believed in Mr. Tay just like my sister.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Huh. Yes. Of course.Anyway, I’ll go back!”

After giving that vague remark, Elena returned to her desk.

I glanced around and opened the envelope.

-I’ll buy you a drink. See you at the adventurer’s bar at 9 o’clock tomorrow night.

That was enough for me to know who the sender was.  So I decided to do some simple preparation.

He said he was going to buy me alcohol.  It’s common knowledge that negotiations and information exchange are better when there’s a bit of alcohol involved.

***

So, that night, I visited Jeriel.  To be precise, Jui… No, no. Goddess Parmel.

“You came to visit me this late at night, you wanted to talk about something… a blessing?”

“Blessing or whatever I just want you to make it so that I can’t be harmed.”

“You’re talking like someone is after you. Why ask me? Ask your girl. She’ll equip you with an absurd amount of defense magic if you just said that you’re scared.”

I ignored her remark and simply said, “Because it’ll be annoying if Kasha and Sain knew about this.”

“You don’t want to make them worried. I see.”

‘Does this goddess have bad ears?’

Then she calmly asked, “What kind of blessing would you like? Healing? Defense?”

My lips curled up and I asked.

Like last time, I came prepared to persuade this goddess.  I was thinking about how I would convince her, but this somehow went too easy.

“I can’t help but ask. Why did you become so generous?”

“Well?”

“You didn’t like me right?”

Then Parmel with a somewhat menacing smile.

“I’ve changed my mind since last time.”

“……”

“You seem to be a man whose main skill is to use people…”

“Even the person being used doesn’t feel bad. It’s amazing.”

“Is that so?”

“Now just take the blessing and go back, lack of sleep isn’t good for Jeriel’s skin.”

Thus, I received various blessings from the goddess, all in one body.  The deadline isn’t that long, Parmel said, but there won’t be anyone in the world who should be able to harm me. Not until tomorrow midnight.  So I finished all the preparations for the face-to-face meeting with Nortein Rhime.

A day passed.

***

I somehow turned down Kasha who was set on having dinner with me. And then headed to the meeting location  As soon as I opened the door, one hand rose up from one of the tables.

“Here.”

It was Nortel Rhime.

Face.

Finally, I saw his face.