Day 421-430/Day 421

Day 421
We continued our trailing of Argento, there is a thrill in finding out what is going on.
First of all, the name of the girl who Argento was taking away seems to be Kredina · Dimgatey · Barbatos · Hagley · Tias.
Argento is calling Craith, one of the [72 Electorate Zoro Mosgoltia] composed of numerous [Demon] tribes that have been leaders in the city for ages, since the far away days of the creation of the [Barbatoss] company, each of the Electorates can trace their ancestry in a direct line to the founders.
She is a mistress of that order, but she has a wide influence mainly in one of several cities in the [Mysterious Dark Continent]. [Barbatoss] is a large business that handles a wide range of products that each house operates as a family business, the current chairman of the granddaughter is drowning in that work.
Mrs. Craith, who had been hoping for a child since she was a child and was even expecting the rebellious phase, also had a deep blood connection to her family, like a throwback of ancient times. She had applied all of that power to this branch of the company to build up her power in the «Dwarf Block».
Planning for the future, her mother seems to have split her between her grandparents, her grandmother taught her on the training ground and she learned about business connections from her grandfather who is a sweet but fierce merchant, training all this time resulted in that aggressiveness backfiring on this occasion.
The large business [Barbatoss] which began to rapidly expand its the power in this neighborhood has recently gained enormous capital and become a transmitter to relay various demands to the giants.
When you wanted a hard-to-find product from distant lands they would be the ones to go to, and now they were beginning to swallow up the local business had originally opened there, demonstrating the skills needed to survive in this fierce battle zone.
Until now, more than anything both the high level and the size difference of the average monster around the Giants' living area affected the business coming from others with no connection to a competent giant that could assist them.
That is still one of the biggest factors in measuring the material value in proportion to the high degree of difficulty of acquisition, and that was what prevented local entrepreneurs from creating their own new company in order to protect their own reasonable profits.
Even while dreaming of success, there are surely many who were crushed before they could start.
However, the big business [Barbatoss] worked steadily over time to build friendly relationships with several giants, starting by assisting young children with their living and battle training needs so that, when they became full grown adults, those Giants would be ready to overcome any issues in becoming trustworthy employees as well as collaborators, proving that skillful negotiations, combined with bribes, could solve any of their problems in one way or another.
It seems that [Barbatoss] was born to be a big business, and the power to make big change seemed to have shown big growth recently.
It may be like the small shopping districts that work through the grit and sweat in local cities losing to the department stores made by large capital-rich enterprises.
Well, well, well, that forced the local businesses to also raise the prices of their goods to compete but, those big companies were just forced to use brute power or underhanded methods to get what they wanted. In the end, could you not sympathize with the little guys?
After all the world is a meal where the weak are served up, to eat or be eaten.
Such a big company, [Barbatoss] was steadily expanding profit while scaling hardships, but even so, a small part of an extremist faction went out of control among the local business associations and gave rise to a sense of crisis, leading to the plan to kidnap Miss Craith who then asked for help, becoming a weak point for the Chairwoman.
The time to attack came when Miss Craith was close at hand, during a party where young people gathered, such as a dinner party or an exchange party.
The back house proprietor who traded in information attacked Miss Craith, who had arrived by the back area after the party, but the guards took their time in responding.
After that, there was plenty of rattling noises and, Argento, which happened to encounter the kidnapping scene, come by to help her run away.
By the way, during all this neither Auro, Oniwaka, Opushii, or the Blacksmith was involved in the kidnapping scene.
This all seems to have been encountered on the way to do something by himself.
That's it, being involved in something this troublesome just as he is going out by himself, seems to point to having a somewhat unlucky son in Argento, but that should be set aside for now.
The boss and his kidnappers were kicked aside by Argento as he ran away with Miss Craith, but the kidnappers persistently chased while increasing their number, that was when we witnessed such an escape play.
Such a runaway drama keep going somewhere into the evening and was temporarily over after several hours.
He succeeded in finally getting away.
Argento and Miss Craith pulled away from their pursuers by various means and eventually hid themselves in a ruined building which was not being used at the moment.
Miss Craith's was left trembling and frightened, but did not try snuggling close or anything else comforting, taking a refreshing drug to relieve the fatigue of the body, a blanket and a relaxing chair type magic item for my magic item storage, Argento used them to warm themselves.
Miss Craith took them and drank recovery medicine from a cup, wrapped in the blanket, and relaxing in a comfortable chair, with Argento, while I took out a cooking pot-type heating magic items and ingredients before starting to easily cook.
After a couple of minutes, they started to talk with us about why this had happened, while eating the warm onion soup that we made.
Argento was concerned about Miss Craith, especially in trying to make sure she was not scared as much as possible, hearing that Miss Craith was flushing from the various meanings.
In front of the slightly rough youthfulness in this couple, the ladies hid behind my back and turtle themselves from the explosion of that sweet and sour atmosphere.
I take a shot without missing that situation, making sure that we will hold a viewing session later to pick up the story again.
My son's growth is good, it has not even passed a year yet since he was born, but because he is from a demon species so it's does not seem to have been too soon. Perhaps, probably, surely.
Aside from all that had happened to date, the sleeping face of Miss Claith who slept on Argento's chest seemed to be totally calm.
Seeing how Argento seemed to have insomnia, I provided a bit of shade and protection.
Words were unnecessary. Just as he started to animatedly smile, it quietly disappeared where Argento noticed our attention.
Although it seems that Argento rushed to make sure we did not see his expression, but he could not move too much because he did not want to cause Miss Craith to realize that their moment had certainly been witnessed.
I was going to say something in a quiet voice, but I decided not to ask.
This morning, Argento greeted us with a smile after coming back with the light, and it felt like we just had to reply with full smiles.
Whether or not he felt embarrassed, Argento's cheeks turned red before he turned to go to his room. I detained him and made him eat the breakfast prepared by the Sisters.
It was luxurious as the breakfast was made using many tasty ingredients, specifically made to soothe the body.
He was very tired - I mean mentally of course - the meal was not just a nutritional supplement for the body.
After all that happened yesterday, today I spent the day with Argento and left an answering machine on in case any problems come up again.
Kanami and Redhead went shopping with Auro, eventually they got to gather more information.
I took the time to hear from Argento about being chased, and even though Auro was somewhat surprised, I was sure that Kanami-chan would be able to control any reaction well enough.
After asking demons if they were uncomfortable or not they decided to stay in, so from morning to evening I trained with Kanami-chan against two other demons.
I went with bare hands to avoid any serious damage, but we were still able to train intensively.
It was a good day to realize various aspects of my son's growth.
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PLACE TRANSLATIONS ABOVE THE BAR. THESE ARE THE RAWS, LEAVE THEM HERE UNTIL SOMEONE DOES A REAL TRANSLATION (NOT JUST A GT OR RUSSIAN TRANS). CLICK EXPAND TO VIEW THEM.
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“四百二十一日目”
　アルジェントに対して尾行を続け、分かった事がチラホラある。
　まず、アルジェントが連れて逃げていた少女の名前はクレーディナ・ディムゲーティ・バルバトス・ハーグレイ・ティアスというらしい。
　何やら遥か古の時代に色々あって受肉した【悪魔】系種族で構成された“”の一つである【バルバトス】家の直系らしく少々名前が長いので、アルジェントはクレイスと呼んでいる。
　そんなクレイス嬢だが、彼女は【神秘豊潤なる暗黒大陸】に幾つか在る都市の一つを中心に幅広い影響力を持つ【バルバトス】家が家業として運営する、幅広い商品を扱う大商会【バルバトス】の現商会長が溺愛する孫娘である。
　才色兼備で幼少の頃から期待され、先祖返りのように古の濃い血が宿るクレイス嬢は　この度、この≪小人街区≫に支店が建てられるのを機に自ら志願してやって来た。
　将来のため、孫娘の自分には甘いが凄腕の商売人である祖父の下で商売の実地研修や人脈を広げる事などを目的としていたらしいが、今回はその積極性が裏目に出た結果だった。
　最近この辺りでも急激に勢力を伸ばし始めた大商会【バルバトス】は、巨人達の様々な要望に応えられるだけの資本と伝手がある。
　遠方の手に入り難い商品を取り寄せたと、激戦区で勝ち残った手腕を発揮して元々やっていた地元の商会を確実に飲み込み始めているらしい。
　今までは巨人達の住む区域の平均的なモンスターレベルの高さと、何より身体のサイズ差から実力ある巨人とのコネのない他からやって来る商会は手が出なかった。
　入手難度の高さに比例した素材価値を守り、相応の利益を得るため現地の商会が団結して新規参入を阻んでいた事も大きい要因の一つだろう。
　成功を夢見て、叩き潰された者はきっと多い。
　しかし大商会【バルバトス】は複数の巨人の実力者とそれなりに長い時間をかけて友好な関係を築いたり、子供の巨人を生活面や戦闘面で援助したりする事で大人になった時に従業員や協力者にして問題を乗り越え、一つとっかかりが出来れば巧みな交渉と賄賂という実弾で問題を次々解決。
　【バルバトス】の工作で味方する商会も生まれ、勢力はここ最近大きな変化を見せているらしい。
　地方都市で汗水垂らしながら働く商店街が、資本豊かな大企業の作るデパートとかに負けていくような感じかもしれない。
　いや、まあ、地元商会も資材価格を引き上げたり、強引だったり悪辣な手段を使う事もあったらしいから、同情は出来ないか。
　所詮この世は弱肉強食、喰うか喰われるかである。
　そんなこんなで大商会【バルバトス】は苦難を蹴散らしながら順調に利益拡大していたのだが、それに危機感を抱いた地元の商会組合の中でもごく一部の過激派が暴走し、裏家業者に依頼して商会長の弱点になるクレイス嬢の誘拐を計画した。
　襲うタイミングはクレイス嬢が参加する、少年少女が集う食事会や交流会などパーティに出かける時である。
　情報を集めた裏家業者はパーティ後で帰路につくクレイス嬢を襲撃し、しかし護衛達が身を挺して時間を稼いだ。
　その後何やかんやとあり、誘拐現場に偶然遭遇したアルジェントが助けに入って逃亡にいたる。
　ちなみに、誘拐現場にはオーロや鬼若、オプシーやら鍛冶師さん達はいなかった。
　何でも、お使いに向かった先で誘拐現場に遭遇したらしい。
　行く先々で面倒事に巻き込まれるとは、に何だか色々と思う事はあるが、それはさて置き。
　パパパッと誘拐犯を蹴散らし、アルジェントがクレイス嬢を連れて逃げたが、仕掛けた以上失敗できないと誘拐犯は数を増やしながら執拗に追いかけ、そんな逃走劇を俺達は目撃したわけである。
　そしてそんな逃走劇も夜という時間が味方して、数時間もすれば一時的に終わった。
　逃走に成功したのだ。
　様々な手段で追っ手を引き離したアルジェントとクレイス嬢は、今は使われていない廃ビルのような建物の中へと身を隠す。
　一息ついて追われた恐怖が湧いてきたのかクレイス嬢は身を震わせて怯えてしまうが、それに寄り添って慰めるなんて事はせず、テキパキと収納系マジックアイテムから肉体の疲労を緩和する回復薬と暖かい毛布と寛げる椅子型マジックアイテムを取り出し、それを差し出すアルジェント。
　クレイス嬢がそれ等を受け取って回復薬を飲み、毛布にくるまり椅子に座ってホッと落ち着く間、今度は鍋型の加熱用のマジックアイテムや食材を取り出し、簡単に調理を始めた。
　数分後には出来上がった温かいオニオンスープを二人で食べながら、何故こうなったのかなど色々と話し合う。
　アルジェントは極力怖がらないようにクレイス嬢を気遣い、クレイス嬢は色んな意味でドキドキしているのか紅潮していた。
　少し荒っぽい青春大爆発な甘酸っぱい雰囲気に、物陰に隠れてデバガメする三鬼人。
　その様子を逃さず撮影し、後で鑑賞会を開こうという話で盛り上がる。
　息子の成長っていいよね、まだ一年経過していないけど、鬼種なので早すぎる事ではない。多分、恐らく、きっと。
　ともあれ日付も代わり、恐いからとアルジェントの胸の中で眠るクレイス嬢の寝顔は穏やかだ。
　そのまま不眠番するアルジェントから見える場所で、物陰から少し顔を出してみる。
　言葉は不要。
　ただニマニマと笑みを浮かべ、ふと俺達の気配にアルジェントが気がついた所で静かに消える。
　一瞬だが確かに目撃された事に気が付いたらしく、アルジェントが慌てたような気配がしたがクレイス嬢を起こさないためにアルジェントは動けない。
　一応小声で何か言っているが、聞かなかった事にした。
　そして今日の朝、ややふて腐れた顔で朝帰りしてきたアルジェントを満面の笑みで出迎えた。
　それが気恥ずかしいのか、アルジェントは頬を赤く染め、俯きながら自室に行こうとしている。
　それを引き留め、姉妹さんが用意した朝飯を食べる。
　多くの食材を使用した朝飯としては豪華なそれはとても美味しく、身体に精がつく。
　色々と疲れた――精神的な意味が強い――肉体には丁度良い栄養補給ではなかろうか。
　その後は昨日の今日なので、アルジェントが出歩くとまた問題が出そうだからという理由で俺と一緒に留守番だ。
　カナ美ちゃんと赤髪ショートはオーロ達と一緒に買い物に出かけ、ついでに情報収集をしてくる事になった。
　アルジェントを追いかけ回されたと聞いたからか、オーロが何だか張り切っているが、カナ美ちゃん達が上手く制御してくれると信じたい。
　居心地が悪いのか鬼若も残ると言い出したので、昼から夕方までは二鬼を相手にミッチリと訓練する。
　被害がないよう素手で行ったが、集中的に訓練をする事が出来た。
　息子の色々な成長を実感できる、良い一日だった。
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Category:Novel
Category:Re:Monster ~ The Dark Continent ~ Vol. 1
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