135 times
Returnee Hassan
135 ? Returnee Hassan #3
“It’s such a big place, and there are so many people here. If I look around, I’m sure there’ll be at least one man who suits me.”
Because it is a party place where nobles and high-ranking adventurers gather, as Hippolyte said, there is no better place to find a spouse.
It seems that high-ranking adventurers, such as those at the gold tier, marry nobles to solidify their status. Of course, that was just something I heard.
Hippolyta marries a nobleman.
I tried to imagine it, but maybe because my imagination is lacking, I couldn’t come up with any plausible scenes. In the case of Commendatore Hippolyta, I could get a little feel for it.
Ugh, kill me-.
It’ll be something like that. Or not.
As I was briefly daydreaming about Hippolyta’s marriage, Luna’s hand, which was holding my side, began to pull me closer.
“Then look far and wide, Hippolyte! You’ll surely find someone good! We’re hungry, so we’ll go first.”
“Let’s do that. We’ll share the same table for the second part of the event. I’ve rented four seats in a corner under my name. I can accommodate the two of you.”
The ceremony to honor Sodomora’s achievements was held in two parts.
Since the first order of business was to enjoy several dinners in a standing party format, Luna and I ate all the food laid out on the table without worrying about what other people thought.
“Hassan, look at this! What kind of fruit is this!?”
Luna asked me while holding a long banana-like fruit in both hands. I thought it was a banana, but the inside was black and it seemed a bit different from the bananas I know.
“I don’t know either.”
“Wow… It’s so delicious. Do nobles eat things like this every day? I’m jealous.”
I was very nervous because it was a place where many nobles and high-ranking officials were gathered.
They eventually got together and talked amongst themselves, and Luna and I were lucky that no one cared.
“Hassan, how about putting some in your pocket?”
Luna looked around as if trying to see if anyone was watching her.
However, it seemed difficult to take the fruit because people who appeared to be servants of the count’s family were running around busily filling up the food and watching us.
“Ugh… Hassan, take a look at the net. I should just take one.”
However, Luna didn’t give up and asked me to look after her. Perhaps because she had suffered from starvation for a long time, Luna’s obsession with food was beyond my imagination.
“Take two for me too.”
“okay!”
Luna untied the knot of the pouch tied around her waist. The guy was hesitantly reaching out and putting some fruit into the bag.
Swish.
As I looked around and watched the net, I could see that someone whose eyes met mine was about to walk towards me.
“Lu, Luna, who’s coming!”
“All done, all done!”
Swish, swish.
Luna retieve the knot.
“There you guys.”
Luna and I couldn’t help but feel nervous about what the white-haired, bun-haired man approaching us was going to say.
Did you get caught stealing?
No, there are so many of them, so you can take one. You won’t get punished, right? You’ll have to pay a fine or something.
When my mind was filled with a lot of complicated thoughts, a man came up to me and said.
“Hey, Samaritan Duke.”
“What, what? I didn’t do anything.”
“I haven’t said anything yet. First, I should introduce myself. This is who I am here.”
The man held out something like a piece of metal toward me. An emblem? A badge? It had a pin attached to it, so it was an accessory that could be worn on the body.
Could it be that he was an emblem-like person? Luna and I continued to look closely at the piece of iron plate, which resembled a small bird spreading its wings.
But no matter how much I look into it, is there anything I can find out? Is it that he is a bird-like person?
“Ahem, I guess I made a mistake in my introduction. That’s the mark of the top of the blue feather. I am Bartolomeo Orcida, a man of considerable rank in the top. Anyone who has any interest in business has probably heard my name at least once.”
But Luna and I were not that interested in business, so we just frowned as if it was the first time we heard about it.
Bartolomeo coughs in vain.
“Well, you may not know. Anyway, among the adjutants of the advance party of this war, there was also my cousin. Bayona. I heard he was by your side-.”
“ah-.”
I also remembered something about Bayona. He was a man who, upon hearing Youngae’s whirlwind tactics, was so amazed that he almost pulled out his hair.
His face and appearance were already blurry, but all that remained was a vague impression of a man who was screaming loudly and acting as if he was doing somersaults.
“I heard, Lord Samaritan. The dance you showed was not ordinary. What do you think? Would you like to work as a bodyguard for our company? I will pay you a good salary.”
I finally figured out why this guy Bartolomeo was talking to me. Was he some kind of headhunter? Oh my gosh, I’m getting all these offers!
“Your salary is 1 gold per month. And for each month you complete your escort duties, you can receive an additional 20 silver.”
1 gold per month?
The huge sum seemed to strike me like lightning. One gold a month, twelve gold a year. Twelve gold coins.
Back when I was a slave, I could barely save 30 silver in two years. So how many Hassans could I buy with 12 gold?
It’s so much money, I can’t even calculate it!
While I was counting the gold coins in my head, Luna, who was holding onto my side, answered instead.
“no!”
“Oh, I see. By the way, who is this girl next to you?”
“…I don’t know!”
Luna quickly hid her head behind my back. At that, I too came out of my thoughts. Unfortunately, as Luna said, I really had no choice but to decline this offer.
“Really, I’m so sorry, but I have to decline.”
“No, 12 gold per year. If you get bonuses as well, you’ll be earning as much as a former knight for being an escort. Why would you turn down this opportunity?”
The man Bartolomeo asked me back as if he couldn’t understand. But there was nothing I could do. Right now, I was living for something other than money.
“It’s really unfortunate, but I can’t quit being an adventurer.”
“Huh, you really are a wilderness person. I can’t understand why you would choose the difficult path when you could be safe and well off.”
“Hassan will soon become a gold tier adventurer!”
The one who answered the man’s words was Luna, who once again stuck her face out from between my sides. The man’s eyebrows narrowed significantly at those words.
“What? A gold tier adventurer?”
Not only that, but the people who were talking around us also started to turn their attention to us. And then they all started muttering, “What?” “A gold tier adventurer?”
Groan, groan.
I was completely out of my mind from the sudden attention and focus. Luna must have felt the same way, as she hid herself by resting her head on my side.
“Ugh, the voodoo of hiding… .”
Do they think that if they hide their faces, they won’t be seen by others? They say that when pheasants hear gunshots, they bury their heads in the ground to hide their bodies. Luna was a pheasant.
Anyway, in the end, it’s up to me to deal with this commotion that has arisen.
As I was hesitating with my face flushed, Bartolomeo, who was listening to my story, burst into laughter.
“A gold tier adventurer? That’s a grand dream. Yes, a Samaritan who wants to be a hero. How interesting. So, what kind of hero do you want to be?”
“What kind of hero are you talking about…?”
“Yes, let me ask you if there is a hero you usually admire. Achilles? Or Theseus? If not that-.”
“Yi Sun-sin.”
The name of the hero I respect came to mind reflexively. Yi Sun-sin is a truly powerful and wonderful hero. It is like a DNA imprint engraved in my body.
But the murmurs about those words only got worse.
“Who is Yi Sun-sin?”
“I don’t know, maybe I heard wrong.”
In the midst of all the commotion, only Bartolome, who was talking to me, kept his expression on his face and asked back.
“Who is that? A great man? This is the first time I’ve heard the name of such a hero.”
Ahh-. You don’t know?
As expected, the people in this world are all just this guy and that guy.
“Once upon a time…. he was the one who saved his people.”
“Ah… I see. So he’s like a hero of the Samaritans… .”
The man said he understood, but his expression showed that he had no idea what was going on.
This guy must have been difficult to understand.
Because they are people from another world.
The man, Bartolomeo, just looked at me with the kind of eyes that could see any person. Then, soon, he raised the corners of his mouth and cheekbones and smiled.
“Anyway, it’s Gold Tier. It’s a grand dream. A man should dream big. However, it won’t be easy to beat the numerous Silver Tier adventurers invited here and win the Golden Necklace of Glory.”
At the man’s words, I looked around. Among the people enjoying the party in suits and dresses, there were quite a few Silver Tier adventurers wearing silver identification tags around their necks.
Since I don’t know their faces, I think they are probably adventurers from the Minerva Guild. However, the way they look at me doesn’t seem very friendly.
Even a fool could tell that it contained emotions like, ‘Hey, look at this guy.’ I think I may have unknowingly unleashed a wide-area provocation.
I guess there was no need to create enemies for no reason. This is how it turned out.
Ding ding ding-.
Just then, a sharp, high-pitched sound, like someone striking iron, reverberated through the banquet hall.
I looked around and saw a middle-aged man with a neatly grown beard and a white wrapper wrapped around his hands, striking something like an iron bell with both hands high in the air.
“Okay, let’s move on to the next step!”
* * *
As Hippolyte had said, in the corner of the banquet hall there was a round table that could seat four people.
“I can finally live a little now.”
Luna is sitting on a chair and lying face down on the table. Her legs seem to be sore from constantly getting up and moving around.
“The table is cool and feels good. Shhhh. I’m melting.”
Soon, Luna fell asleep, lying face down on the table, breathing evenly. It was amazing how you could fall asleep anywhere, anytime, as long as you put your head down.
On the one hand, I think that’s also a very blessed talent. There are many people in the world who have trouble sleeping.
Anyway, if Hippolyte hadn’t been there, Luna and I, who couldn’t even reserve a table, would have had to stay up until the very end of the event.
Then your legs will swell up, and swelling in your legs can have adverse effects on your entire body.
It’s a good thing to have someone you know.
I, who was born naked in this world and didn’t know a single person, ended up sitting at a table rented by nobles at a party like this.
To this extent, Hassan has succeeded sufficiently.
If you’re a fox riding a tiger, you’ve succeeded. You can go back to your fox den and brag about it to your grandchildren.
So I opened my mouth to flatter the tiger and try to please him a little. Hippolyta seemed to be secretly weak to compliments. I thought she would like it if I said something nice.
“Lady Hippolyte, it’s so nice to sit in your chair. Thanks to you, I’m alive.”
“Oh, I see.”
At my words, Hippolyte’s brow furrowed strangely, and then she let out a small snort.
“Huh, this is nothing special. It’s a little embarrassing to say it myself, but I am a renowned adventurer. And when I reach the gold tier in the future, I will be able to enjoy even more rights and benefits.”
“But, didn’t you say that you were refusing to be promoted to Gold Tier? Can I ask why you suddenly changed your mind?”
“This is the result of an internal meeting between the guild and Sodomora. They probably wanted to put up a strong signboard to wash away the stigma of being a broken guild and a broken city that was attacked by cultists.”
“okay.”
I didn’t understand what he was saying, but I just nodded my head and said, “Okay, that’s it.” Hippolyta added a few more words.
“Well, even if it’s not just that, I’ve decided to try out various things. The things I’m going to try next are things I’ve never tried before, so I’m a little nervous.”
“Are you thinking of changing jobs?”
“Rather than changing them, I’m going to try to parallel them. Warrior and woman. I’m going to try to balance these two attributes a bit.”
I wondered what that meant, balancing the two attributes of warrior and woman. I simply understood it as, from now on, I should put a little more weight on my life as a woman.
We talked about marriage and such. I think I’ve heard that some people become more anxious about marriage as they get older, and maybe Hippolyta was one of those types of people.
How old are you?
I was going to ask how old he was, but I stopped myself. The reason being, it seemed like the second part of the event was about to start.
“It’s the Count.”
“As expected, the Count himself is coming out.”
The murmur of the crowd growing louder as they began to walk in the distance, and some stood up and began to applaud.
The musicians who were playing their instruments also changed the melody to a thunderous march.
and-!
A man stood on a high platform and raised his palm as if responding to the cheering crowd here and there.
“Please sit comfortably. I will not look shorter if you stand up. Anyway, I greet all the guests. I am Hawkins Sardich, entrusted with the security of Sodomora and its surrounding areas by the glorious royal family.”
He was standing on a really high platform, because otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to see his face.
The Earl of Change was a dwarf, a midget.
A bearded dwarf nobleman? This feels strange. His daughter, Yeong-ae, seems to have been quite tall. Is it hereditary on the maternal side?
The dwarf with the magnificent golden beard said:
“There are five teams that will be discussed here today. Four of them are not nobles. Times are changing. It’s really interesting. However, no one likes boring speeches, now or in the past, so let’s get on with it.”
Doo doo doo doo doo-.
The musicians began to play drum-like instruments quickly and lightly, and at the same time, I felt nervous and my heart felt like it was going to burst.
“These are the ones who should be called first. They are the Silver Roses, an adventurer team from the city of Calcutta. They are the ones who captured the leader of the cult, Anxious, and ended the war.”
Are you a Silver Tier Adventurer Team?
I knew Calcata because it was the city where Elfriede had lived and where I had been a slave before coming to Sodomora.
So my heart started pounding really hard, hoping that I would see a familiar face.
“Since everyone is busy, today, Delphina, the leader of the team and the Sword Master, has come to the awards ceremony as our representative. Come out here and receive your award!”
[Work Review]
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