103. Compromising!

103. Compromising!

“Nope! We refuse!”

I happily gave my response to Hadrian’s offer. The blonde man stared at me for a moment, blinking. Then he leaned back on his chair and sighed.

“Thought so.”

Strumming his fingers on the desk, the leader of the Valiant Dreamers Company wore a resigned face.

“Is there any reason in particular why you don’t want to join us? Anything we can do to convince you?”

I paused, tilting my head up to the ceiling. A few thoughts came to mind; but it was nothing Daniel would approve. The reason why I had rejected Hadrian was simple: the Valiant Dreamers Company would never accept me in the first place.

It was the exact same reason why I refused Stephen’s offer— the Iron Champions Company only saw me as a resource. While I doubted the Valiant Dreamers Company would see me the same way, the fact remained they wouldn’t actually see me as me. They would see the false skin I bore and assumed that was Salvos.

When in fact, I was a Demon.

I would only join them if and only if I revealed the real Salvos to Hadrian. But judging by the look on Daniel’s face, that was not an option. So, I shrugged.

“There are many reasons! And there are some things you can do to change my mind.”

“That is?”

Hadrian gave me an expectant look. I crossed my arms and sunk into my chair.

“It’s a secret!”

He narrowed his eyes— not suspiciously, but with more curiosity than anything. Then he laughed.

“Well, I guess there goes our two [Heroes].”

Daniel visibly flinched from the remark, however he and I both knew Hadrian did not actually think we were [Heroes]. It was one of those things Humans said but didn’t mean in a literal sense.

“Yep. Sorry! We’ll help out where we can though!”

I offered an apologetic smile. Then I beamed and raised my chin.

“In fact, I’ve already asked one of my friends to help out where she can!”

“You have?”

“Saffron Merryster.”

I spoke the name with pride. The noble who I had met and escorted briefly through Nixa. She had given me her family’s crest and told me I could ask for her help if the need ever arose. I had thought this was the perfect situation to call on her aid.

Hadrian frowned.

“Who?”

I deflated.

“Uh… a daughter of the Merryster family?”

“…”

“A Dukedom in Nixa!”

I sputtered, waving my hands insistently.

“Have you really never heard of her?”

“I can’t say I have. But— I’m not too well versed in politics. My dad deals with that for me.”

I stood up and placed both my hands on the table. I held Hadrian’s gaze, speaking earnestly.

“Well, she’s a noble! A very powerful noble! I’m sure she’ll be able to help!”

Hadrian looked at me for a moment, studying my face. Then he stood up and smiled. He placed a hand on my shoulder and spoke gratefully.

“Thank you, Salvos. For your assistance thus far.”

Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head.

“However, I implore you, could you please listen to one last request we have?”

I glanced back at Daniel and we exchanged a look. We had been helping with the Valiant Dreamers Company thus far, it really couldn’t hurt to help them out a little bit more.

“Sure?”

Hadrian let out a relieved breath.

“I ensure you will properly be reimbursed for this. It’s not that difficult, but—”

“Wait.”

My voice came out sharp, cutting off his words before he could finish. Tapping a finger on my chin, I had a thought.

“We don’t need gold.”

“Salvos, what are you saying?”

Daniel piped up in a hurry behind me; he quietly whispered my way.

“We have barely any money right now! Everything we made from the Motharis was spent on stocking back up on potions and enchantments!”

There had been a few artifacts we took from the Brilsum Ruins that were worth selling. And after we had appraised it and got our gold for it, we proceeded to spend our money all on other kinds of artifacts. One of them was my brand new gold bracelet!

It looked fancy and had jewels sticking out of it. It was perfect for battling Humans in their social field! I could use it to better convince them that I was a Princess, since princesses were very well dressed!

Shaking my head, I raised a finger at Daniel.

“That’s exactly why we don’t need any more gold.”

“But… but…”

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He was baffled— unable to come up with a riposte. Having triumphantly beaten him in this social battle, I shifted my focus back to Hadrian with a jingle of my bracelet.

“Hadrian, we don’t need payment in gold or anything like that. But we want something else.”

“That… depends. What exactly is it you want?”

Looking at me with a puzzled face, Hadrian waited for me to continue. I lightly clapped my hands together and smiled.

“We want Edithe!”

—–

Daniel, Edithe, and I said our goodbyes to Rachel the next morning and started our way towards our destination. We were headed for a town just east of Viechester— it was called Lulica. They had been dealing with a bandit problem for the past few weeks, although it never amounted to enough to warrant the Adventurer Guild’s attention.

But apparently, that was only because of fear of some kind of repercussion from the Platinum Ranks in Viechester. Because now, with most of the Valiant Dreamer adventurers busy with the company war and the unaffiliated adventurers overworked, these bandits had come out in full force and began attacking travelers and carrying out kidnappings for ransom.

They weren’t even low level too— they were said to be around Gold Rank, and their numbers were unknown. So, it was up to the three of us to deal with this threat before we could finally leave Viechester.

“But why are we leaving Viechester, Salvos? What’s this deal you made with Hadrian? I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Edithe spoke in a worried tone. I grinned back at her and gave her a thumbs up.

“I told you, we’re going to get you stronger first! Daniel and I will get you to Level 70, just you wait.”