157 . The Old White Dogkin

「Wait Fran! Hold on for just a second!」

「Nn?」

Erza called out to us as we made our way over from the inn to the dungeon .

He ran towards us with full force, his inner thighs rubbing together and his massive frame jiggling as a result of his movements .

Urushi seemed to feel the same way as me; he was lying down with his tail between his legs . His body language made it seem as if he had simply lost the will to exist because Erza did .

Fran, on the other hand, was able to maintain her composure . Man, she’s got more guts than the two of us combined .

「Erza? Need something?」

「You see, I just so happen to know someone that wants to meet and ask something of you . 」

「Wants to meet me?」

「Yuppers! He’s taken an interest in you because of all the stuff he’s heard from all the other adventurers . He really wants to meet the Magic Sword Girl that everyone’s been talking about . 」

「What kind of person?」

「Hmmm… well, he’s not a bad guy for sure . He used to be an adventurer, so he’s not the strict type either . He’s effectively the boss of Ulmutt’s beastkin, so it won’t hurt for you to know him . 」

Erza’s description made it sound like getting along with the person in question would provide us with a lot of benefits . That said though, we might not actually be able to get along with him .

He might think us to be cheeky . Plus, he’s a beastkin, so the very fact that he wants to meet with Fran seems kinda fishy given that she’s a Black Catkin .

（But introduced by Erza . ）

『True . I doubt Erza would introduce you to anyone that’d try to screw with you… . 』

「I know how you feel . You must be a bit anxious about it, mhmm?」

「Nn . 」

Yeah, in more than one way at that .

「Don’t worry! I’ll be right there with you . I’ll make sure I take responsibility if he tries to take you for a fool . 」

What? Just how? God damn, Urushi’s getting all teary eyed . It’s okay boy, he’s not that scary, it’s okay .

「…Okay . Will meet . 」

「Thankies! I’ll show you over to him then . 」

「Nn . 」

「Would you mind if we took a shortcut? I think it’s one you should be able to take without any issues . 」

Erza jumped the moment he finished speaking .

Apparently his so called shortcut just involved running atop the building’s roofs . I guess that made sense seeing as how this the city was built like a maze and all that, but was that really okay? Would we not get in trouble?

Er, actually, I guess there wouldn’t really be any complaints, at least not to Erza’s face anyways . Oh well, I guess it saves time, so whatever .

「Nn . No issues . 」

「Woof!」

「Knew it~!」

***

And so, we found ourselves in front of a fairly large house after 10 odd minutes .

It wasn’t as big as the mansions nobles would typically have, but it was still fairly sizeable . Two fairly strong-looking beastkin were standing guard in front of the property’s gate .

「Here?」

「Yup . This is Old Man Aurel’s house . Good day, guards . 」

「Good day, Erza . It has been quite a long time since we’ve last seen you . Please, do come on in . 」

「That I’ll do . Oh, right, I’ve brought a little someone along with me, so don’t worry about her . 」

「Sir . 」

Wow, Erza showing his face just flat out gets us past security and everything? Damn .

「I’ve done quite a few jobs for the old man, so he’s taken a liking to me and allowed me go in and out as I please . 」

「Spacious . 」

「Woof . 」

「He’s a former B ranked adventurer and a successful businessman . He’s even also served at the King’s side . 」

Holy crap, Aurel sounds like he’s the spitting image of success . Yeah, he doesn’t really sound like the type that’d get along with Fran . Alright, I should find us an excuse to get us the hell out of there just in case the mood turns sour .

Though, I guess he kinda already has his eyes on us already seeing as how he’s calling us out right now .

Man though, the dude’s garden is absolutely massive . Westillhadn’t even reached the actual house yet .

The garden was beautiful . It was filled with an assortment of flowers in full bloom and decorated with both fountains and statues . Erza taught us a bit about the flowers’ names as we traversed our way through to the main building .

That said though, neither Fran nor Urushi really seemed to really care about what he was talking about at all .

「Gramps! I’m here!」

「Hello Erza . 」

「Hey Shalla, where’s Aurel?」

「He’s currently out relaxing on the terrace . 」

「Thankies . This way Fran . 」

「Nn . 」

Erza seemed to know the place pretty well . The maid recognized his face, and he’d managed to easily find his way over to his destination without having to stop and ask the maid for directions .

Our destination, the terrace, was on the building’s second floor . It, like the garden, was incredibly vast and expansive . The mansion’s size made it so that the terrace provided us a good view over the city in its entirety . Both Fran and Urushi also seemed rather impressed by the angle we had on Ulmutt .

「Wow . 」

「Ruff . 」

They both jogged right up to the terrace railing and began looking at the city while completing ignoring the mansion’s owner .

「Hahahaha . Looks like the view happens to be to your liking . 」

Whew, thank god he wasn’t all anal about manners and stuff . He simply watched over Fran, Urushi, and the pair’s sparkling eyes with a bit of an amused look on his face .

「Nn . Amazing . 」

「Woof . 」

「That’s good to hear . I’m Wijaht Aurel, a White Dogkin . Mind telling me your name, little missy?」

「Nn . Black Catkin, Fran . This is Urushi . 」

「Woof!」

「Thanks for accepting my invitation . Do have a seat . 」

The White Dogkin was like Erza in the sense that he gave off an incredible sense of impact, albeit one of a completely different type; the man gave off the same sort of impression as a Mafia’s Don .

His back was straight, and his gait full of vitality despite the fact that he appeared rather old .

「You really don’t look like someone in their seventies no matter how I look at you . I really would like you to tell me your secret . 」

「It isn’t really anything special . I simply kept setting goals for myself and moving forward . I just didn’t give my body any time to age . 」

Thank god he isn’t the type of person I was suspecting he might be .

「This tea is quite delicious, it’s one of my favourites, so I do recommend you try some . 」

「Nn . 」

「The leaves come from the Continent of Chrome . Collecting tea leaves has in fact been the sole hobby that I’ve picked up in my older years . 」

「Garden?」

「I don’t do the gardening myself . I just hire someone and have them do what they think works best . The garden would probably end up some sort of jungle if I was the one in charge of it . 」

Fran got down to business while enjoying the refreshments provided .

「Wanted to meet me? Why?」

「Hahaha, you sure are a hasty one . I honestly wasn’t driven to do so by anything in particular . I just happened to feel like meeting you after hearing all the rumours that’ve been going around town lately . 」

「As I said earlier, he’s basically the one in charge of all of Ulmutt’s beastkin . He just so happened to be interested in you, Fran . 」

「In charge of the city’s beastkin? That’s an exaggeration . I just happen to know most of the people around because I was an adventurer for at least fifty years . 」

Is that really it? Does he really not like run an operation from the shadows or something? Okay, you know what, let’s use the Principle of Falsehood and double check . I know Fran totally just warned me about overusing it, but this is one of this scenarios where I kinda have to! Right…?

「I took quite a bit of interest in how terrifyingly strong everybody said you were . 」

「So, what do you think? Isn’t she cute? She really is just as strong as they say too . 」

「It seems that you’ve taken quite the liking to her . I can see why, it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a bold kid, so I too immediately took a liking to her . Also, I assume the fact that she’s got your approval means that the rumours were true as well . 」

Apparently the part about him taking a liking to Fran was the truth .

「Still believe rumours even though I’m a Black Catkin?」

「What, did you think that being a Black Catkin innately made you weak? That’s not true at all . I’ve met a fairly strong one when I was young, and right here in one of Ulmutt’s dungeons at that . 」

Aurel spoke in a bit of a nostalgic tone .

「Really? That’s not something I’ve ever been told about . 」

「That’d be because I’ve never mentioned it . 」

「Where is that person now?」

Fran questioned Aurel in a tone of voice much firmer than her usual one . I could see why though, this was our first time ever hearing about any other strong Black Catkin .

「That… isn’t a question that I know the answer to . 」

「Then, what kind of person?」

「Well, it all happened a whole 53 years ago, so I’ve basically forgotten everything . 」

It seemed that he just lied to us… but why? Was it because he died in the dungeon or something?

Aurel’s expression had gone dark . It didn’t seem like he wanted to explore the topic in any more detail .

「I know most of this city’s beastkin, so do tell me if you happen to run into any issues . I’ll be sure to give you a hand . 」

The Principle of Falsehood informed me that he really meant what he said, that he’d help us out if need be . You know what, let’s not try digging into that whole other Black Catkin and whatnot . There was no point probing him about the topic, especially seeing as how we seemed to have just won his favour . No point going out of our way to lose it now .

「By the way, I happen to have a request for you . Would you mind taking it?」

「What kind?」

「I’d like you to deliver something to a place not too far from here . You should be able to get it done if you work at Erza’s pace . 」

「Can’t just ask Erza?」

「I’d prefer if you took this request . How about it?」

「Okay . 」

Fran replied to him immediately . I felt that this whole thing seemed a bit fishy, but Fran seems to think it’s okay, so , so I’ll just roll with it .

「Great . Thanks . 」

「Nn . 」

Aurel made a bit of a relieved smile . It seemed that he’d really wanted Fran to take his request .

「Alright then . I’d like you to take this to one of my acquaintances . 」

「Pendant?」

Aurel handed Fran a plain looking pendant with a black stone embedded inside of it . It looked like the type you were supposed to wear around your neck .

It looked a really cheap item, the kind of thing you could find just about anywhere .

「That it is . Could you hand it over to the eastern dungeon’s Dungeon Master?」

「Dungeon Master?」

「Yeah . Make sure you hand it over personally, okay?」

「Nn . Got it . 」

Hmm, this request’s got a bit of a mysterious air to it . I’m really looking forward to seeing what’ll come out of us doing it .