802: Memento

Fran went to the grave with Nadia and began to dig carefully with earth magic.

Little by little, she moved the earth out of the way so as not to damage her parents’ belongings.

Once she had dug about one meter under the gravestone, something appeared from the earth.

「A leather cloak…」

『It’s a pretty high quality one too. Must be Amanda’s cloak.』

「Nn.」

The cloak was made of a water-repellent material, and it had been rolled up and buried in the earth. When Fran lifted it up, she found several hard objects inside of it.

Maybe they were made of wood? Amanda must have been careful to not allow any water corrosion.

As Fran carefully peeled off the cloak, a wooden board-like object came out from inside. It was about the size of a postcard.

The surface of the board was coated with some kind of paint, and there was some black object painted on it.

Parts of it were cracked, making it difficult to tell what was painted on it at a glance.

However, Fran seemed to know exactly what it was. She took the wooden board in her hands and stroked it lovingly.

『What is it?』

「It’s a decoration Dad made. We hung it on the door to our house. Everyone helped in making it too.」

Apparently it was something like a door plate. Fran’s dad carved it out, and Fran worked with her mom to paint it.

It was originally a picture of three black cats.

『A memento huh. I’m glad we could find it.』

「Nn.」

『Is there anything else in there?』

「There’s also… this!」

Fran held up something reddish-brownish. I first thought it was a small wooden board, but upon closer inspection it had a metallic sheen.

『Isn’t that a guild card?』

「Could that be…?」

「Rank D adventurer cards. They have the names Kinan and Framea on it…」

「I knew it!」

Nadia was also looking for the guild cards of the two adventurers, but she never found them.

The merchant deposited their guild cards at the guild, but someone else had taken them. Moreover, the one who took them seemed to be an influential person in the guild, so the guild didn’t give Nadia any information about them.

『Must have been Amanda.』

「Nn.」

「You said she was a Rank A adventurer?」

「Yeah.」

A Rank A adventurer would certainly be very influential.

She could easily take Kinan and Framea’s guild cards, and it was only natural that the guild wouldn’t give Nadia any information.

『So they reached Rank D, huh?』

「Nn.」

That’s no small feat for a black cat to rise to Rank D on their own. Moreover, Fran’s parents should have only been in their twenties.

They continued their training while protecting their newborn. Things were just starting to work out for them when all of this happened.

「…Mom, Dad. Keep watching over me.」

Fran held the guild cards tightly as she pressed them against her chest.

『Is it okay for Fran to have these? Don’t we have to return them to the guild?』

「There’s no problem. It’s very common for family members to keep guild cards as a memento.」

『Oh, okay then.』

「Yep――Mrgh!」

「!」

「Grr!」

While we were talking about how to deal with the guild card, we felt someone coming into the village. Well judging by this feeling, I’m 99% sure they were antidemons.

They haven’t noticed us yet. I guess they just saw the ruined structures and came to scout them out.

「Fran, you can wait here. Cleaning up the trash is part of my job.」

「We’re coming too!」

「Woof!」

「There’s only a few of them, so just me is enough.」

「Antidemons are my enemy too. I want to protect the graves.」

「…Fine. But you have to listen to me, okay?」

「Okay.」

「Woof!」

Nadia came to the conclusion that someone of Fran’s caliber would not be in any danger. She finally relented, reluctantly allowing Fran to come along.

As we left the cemetery and headed toward the entrance of the village, we saw about five antidemons walking through the village.

Apparently, they had been tracking Fran’s footprints. A blunder on our part.

「Guess I’ll take care of this. Stay here and watch.」

「You’re not using a weapon?」

「I won’t need a weapon for antidemons this weak.」

With that, Nadia darted out.

『She’s fast!』

（Nn.）

Nadia’s movements were quicker than expected, yet she had a high level of stealth. She could move through the grass at that speed without making a sound, something not even Fran could have done.

In front of our astonished eyes, Nadia wiped out the antidemons in a blink of an eye.

As she said, no weapons were needed. She simply smashed the antidemons’ heads in with her fists.

I wondered if she was a martial artist, but she mentioned she uses weapons against strong opponents. I guess she was just multi-talented.

Fran excitedly greeted Nadia as she came back without a sound.

「Auntie, that was amazing!」

「Heheh, I know right?」

「How did you manage to run without making a sound?」

「That’s a skill called Covert Action. With higher levels, you’ll be able to run in grassy places like that without making any noises.」

「I see.」

「Now then――Gragh!」

Suddenly, Nadia clutched her left arm and groaned briefly.

「Auntie! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?」

「No, I’m fine… It’s just a sort of condition.」

Apparently, she sometimes suffers from severe pain. The disturbance that allowed us to notice her in the first place was probably caused by this so-called condition too.

「Should I use healing magic?」

「Nah, I’m fine. Healing magic doesn’t work on my condition anyways.」

「Oh…」

Fran lowered her head down in frustration at Nadia’s words. But unlike Fran, I couldn’t trust Nadia that easily.

『Hey, can I ask you one thing?』

「…What is it?」

It seemed she already knew what I wanted to ask. She looked at me with an expression of resignation.

『For a moment there, I felt the presence of an antidemon… coming straight from you. Who are you really?』

「Master?」

「I guess the cat’s out of the bag.」

「Auntie?」

Fran looked anxious as she switched between glancing at me and Nadia.

Then Nadia reached into her cloak and pulled out her blade with great force.

「…I had hoped I could keep this a secret.」

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