Episode 3 – The Contract
“Explain to me what exactly is wrong with me!”
Kanon declared, puffing out her chest.
She clearly had full confidence in herself.
“Everything. Literally everything,”
Nada said, exasperated.
There was even a hint of mockery toward Kanon hidden in his tone.
“What did you say!? I’m often told I’m cute, you know!”
Stamping her foot, Kanon raised her voice in protest.
The elderly butler standing behind her wiped sweat from his brow and hurriedly tried to calm her.
“Milady Kanon is indeed very lovely,” he said soothingly.
But since the person in question, Nada, remained utterly unfazed, Kanon’s anger showed no sign of subsiding.
“Well, sure, you’re cute… in a childish way,”
Nada added bluntly.
Kanon let out a deep, frustrated growl at his curt attitude.
“Muuuu! I’m still young, my skin is fresh and smooth, and no one can beat the shine of my hair! And with these jewel-like looks of mine, it wouldn’t be strange if people called me a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms! I’ve even had one or two proposals, you know!!”
“That wasn’t from a dog or something, right?”
Nada said, barely listening as he skimmed through the documents again, checking for any mistakes.
Even if he felt a little dissatisfied with some parts, he was considering accepting the conditions depending on the details. So Kanon’s speech was dismissed as nonsense in his mind.
“It was not a dog! A proper adult man! He even said my cotton-soft white skin was beautiful! If you saw this body, you’d be filled with desire too!”
Tears forming in her eyes, Kanon shouted.
Nada let out another sigh.
To him, the idea of being attracted to someone younger than him—someone who looked like nothing more than a child—was absurd. His type leaned far more toward mature, sensual women.
Even if Kanon stripped naked right here and now, Nada would probably say, with a straight face, “You’ll catch a cold. Put your clothes back on.”
To him, she didn’t look like a woman—more like a younger sibling, like the kids back in his hometown.
“No way I’m getting aroused. You pint-sized brat—”
He shot back without thinking, despite her being a noble.
“Uuu… uuuuu…”
Kanon’s lips twisted in frustration as she let out a low growl after being brushed off yet again.
To Nada, she really looked like an annoying little puppy throwing a tantrum, and he scratched the back of his head lightly.
Expecting nothing short of a massive headache from this mess, Nada spoke slowly, trying to steer things back on track.
“…So, can we get to the main topic now?”
“…And what is this main topic?”
Kanon glared at him as she plopped heavily onto the sofa.
Her eyes were still watery, her lips were pouty, and she drew her body inward with her hands resting on her knees.
“There’s no way that earlier crap was serious, right? You’ve got some sort of real bargaining chip, don’t you?”
Nada asked.
He assumed everything Kanon had said earlier was a joke.
There was no way she could have meant it.
“What nonsense are you spouting? Fool. I was being completely serious.”
Kanon said proudly, sticking out her chest again.
Her confidence made it clear she sincerely believed her earlier “proposal” would be accepted, and Nada’s expression froze over.
“Wait… you were serious?”
The voice that escaped Nada’s mouth was so ridiculous that even he couldn’t believe it.
“Indeed. A marriage engagement with me! Frankly, I thought this contract could’ve been far more favorable for our side. Still, since you will be my husband, I figured I should at least make some concessions.”
Kanon nodded repeatedly with her arms folded, as if confirming something important.
She had genuinely expected her demands to be easily accepted.
Nada’s headache grew even worse.
“…So you were serious?”
Nada spat the words out.
“Yes. You have no objections, do you? I’ve heard that young wives are something all men long for. Naturally, you must also yearn for a stunning wife like me, yes?”
“I don’t.”
Nada let out a long sigh.
“I really am the type of woman who devotes herself, you know?”
“And what about it? That’s not something I’m looking for.”
“Then what exactly are you dissatisfied with? I don’t understand what part of this you find fault with. True, my body might still be a little small, but judging from Mother, I’ll grow splendidly. I have great potential. What more could you possibly want?”
Seeing that the discussion was going nowhere, Nada lowered his head for a second, then spoke clearly:
“If this contract requires marriage to you as payment, then I’m leaving. I’m not agreeing to a contract with that condition, and I have no intention of getting engaged to you.”
He stated it flatly.
“If you marry me, you’ll become a noble. That’s a tremendous rise in status for an adventurer. And yet you still refuse?”
Kanon tilted her head.
It seemed genuinely strange to her that he wouldn’t jump at the offer.
But Nada had his own reasons.
“…I have no intention of becoming a noble, and I don’t want to. If you insist on an engagement with an adventurer, look elsewhere. If you want to talk business, then drop the engagement part and raise the pay, or offer completely different terms.”
Nada didn’t have the slightest desire to become a noble.
If asked why, he would simply say: Because he’s an adventurer.
He became an adventurer to survive. He had never considered any other path, nor did he plan to. Besides, he felt that being a noble didn’t suit him at all. Always watching someone’s expression, always trying to push someone else down to rise higher, always keeping an eye out for schemes and betrayals—he had no desire for a job that would make his stomach hurt every day.
Even if people said the highest achievement for a common adventurer was to become a noble, Nada couldn’t relate.
He much preferred living by the strength of his own arm.
“You truly have no intention of becoming engaged to me?”
Kanon growled low in her throat, like a dog annoyed by the answer.
“None.”
“Really, truly, absolutely no intention of spending your life with me?”
“Not even a little.”
“Really, really, really?”
“Not at all.”
Nada’s sharp refusal made Kanon pout again as she glared at him.
But he showed no intention of yielding, looking back at her with an unbothered expression.
“Milady… perhaps ‘that’ would be appropriate here?”
At that moment, the butler behind Kanon whispered softly to her. Nada couldn’t make out the details, but Kanon clearly didn’t like the proposal. Even so, under the butler’s insistent urging, she reluctantly accepted.
“…Very well. Fine. Old man, I shall follow your advice. Bring it.”
“Milady, that item is far too heavy for me to bring out myself. Please fetch it. I’ll keep our guest company in the meantime.”
The butler spoke gently.
Kanon paused, thought for a moment, then nodded. “I suppose so.” She dashed out of the room, like nothing more than an ordinary girl, completely devoid of noble decorum, at least in Nada’s eyes.
“I apologize.”
A few seconds after Kanon left, in the heavy silence of the room now occupied only by Nada and the butler, the butler spoke up.
“For what?”
“For the young lady. She’s actually very honest and isn’t normally this forceful. But… well, something rather serious happened recently in the Spinossissima family.”
Nada stayed quiet.
And so, the elderly butler explained why they had summoned an adventurer like him, and why such a young girl was taking part in negotiations at all.
Apparently, the head of the Spinossissima family—Kanon’s father—had passed away about two months ago.
The family owned a home in Inferno and a small territory far from the capital, but they were not a particularly large or powerful household. And because Kanon’s grandfather had only one child—Kanon’s father—there were no other heirs. After her father’s death, Kanon had taken up authority as acting head of the house.
In truth, her mother should have been the one to act as interim head.
But her mother, too, had fallen ill and now spent her days entirely confined to bed.
Because of that, Kanon is acting as the acting head, but she’s still just a child—and on top of that, a child who has received no proper education. Because of this, all the adventurers who had contracts with the Spinossissima family cancelled them the moment Kanon’s father died. Now the household is struggling with the amount of Calvaon they need to send to the territory where Kanon and the others live, and it seems Nada was the one they pinned their hopes on.
The reason was simple: He had a proven track record. That was the only point that mattered.
Kanon knew almost nothing about adventurers or dungeons. She also didn’t understand the importance of Abilities or Gifts. She looked only at Nada’s dungeon-clearing progress and the stray monsters he had defeated so far, and based on those achievements alone, she decided to hire him.
As for the amount offered for collecting Calvaon, that was apparently the absolute maximum the Spinossissima family could afford right now. And the reason she made the engagement part of the contract was that she feared the contract might be cancelled again, so she thought the only way to secure an adventurer was through marriage.
The butler and maidservants had tried to stop her, but Kanon’s resolve had been firm, and she hadn’t wavered in the slightest until today.
“I’m at least relieved to know you’re not some dangerous fellow with a taste for little girls.”
The butler smiled kindly at Nada.
“—Let me be clear: just because I heard all that doesn’t mean I’m going to compromise.”
Nada warned him sharply.
“Yes, of course. I understand. I only wanted you to know the current situation of the Spinossissima family. Surely you wondered why such a young girl was the one sitting at this negotiation table?”
“…Doesn’t matter. Your household’s situation has nothing to do with me. I’m an adventurer. I’m here to talk business.”
“That is reassuring. It is precisely because you are that sort of man that we can entrust the Spinossissima family’s treasure to you with peace of mind—”
Treasure?
There was something in the butler’s words that caught Nada’s attention, but before he could ask, Kanon came running back into the room. She flung the door open energetically. She must have run to the place she needed to go and run all the way back, because her clothes were slightly disheveled and sweat beaded on her forehead.
“I brought it!”
“…Brought what?”
Unlike when she left the room, she was now carrying something wrapped many times over in white cloth. He couldn’t tell what was inside.
“This!”
Kanon tore off the white cloth in a rough, careless motion—and inside was… a vambrace.
Normally, vambraces come in pairs, one for each arm, but Kanon was holding only one. It was a type that covered the area from wrist to elbow, made of metal. It had no particular decoration and was a dull, tarnished gray. From the central part, Nada could see that it was fastened using strings.
“What is that shabby-looking vambrace supposed to be?”
Even after looking at it, Nada couldn’t imagine it was anything of value.
Was this ordinary vambrace, the kind you could buy cheaply in any armory, really supposed to be worth accepting the earlier contract?
He glanced at the butler—only to find the man grinning slyly.
“Hehehn. You really have no eye for these things. This—this was found in a dungeon. And it seems my ancestor was the one who discovered it there, and he treasured it for his entire life!”
“This vambrace?”
Nada took it from Kanon and examined it carefully.
At a glance, it looked completely ordinary. Maybe a bit lighter than an iron vambrace—that was the only notable point.
Nada had been an adventurer for five years. He had seen plenty of weapons. And since he lacked both Abilities and a Gift, he took special care with his equipment. He considered himself decent at judging gear.
But no matter how he looked at it, this vambrace seemed like an ordinary one.
—No.
He found something.
On the inner edge of the armor—A small dragon’s footprint was engraved.
“What’s this?”
There was only one thing he knew that symbol from.
“Hm. I asked my father about that once, but he didn’t know. Our ancestors left behind almost no written records. When it was engraved, who engraved it—everything is a complete mystery.”
Such a thing was possible, Nada supposed, as he stared at the marking.
“And so, my proposal is this: if you agree to the earlier contract, I will lend you that vambrace. Unlike normal vambraces, if you grip your hand and pull sharply, a blade will come out—so I’ve heard.”
Nada put the vambrace on as instructed and moved exactly as Kanon described.
And—A blade really did appear.
A thin, straight, silvery blade sprang out from the wrist area of the vambrace.
The blade was small, only about the length of a dagger. But Nada had studied at the academy—he knew that weapons found in dungeons often functioned far better inside the dungeon than they did on the surface.
If Kanon’s explanation was correct, this weapon might extend its blade much further when used underground.
“So? What will you do? Will you accept the contract with me?”
Nada took her words seriously. He removed the vambrace and thought it over slowly.
There was only one answer.
“—Fine. I’ll let you trick me. I’ll accept your deal. I’ll hand over the Calvaon at whatever rate you want—as payment for renting this vambrace.”
If he could acquire a useful weapon, he had no reason to refuse—especially one from a dungeon.
Without proper equipment, death was always a possibility in the dungeon.
This wouldn’t be his main weapon, but a blade that could be deployed just by moving his arm—Nada judged that such a tool could easily save his life in an emergency.
“Good. Then the contract is complete.”
“Yeah. I’ll be counting on you.”
Nada and Kanon firmly shook hands, and their contract was sealed.
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