A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation

The innkeeper sat alone in the inn’s dining hall early in the morning, deep in thought.

“No one’s here? What’s going on?”

She sat back in her chair, resting her elbows on the table, clasping her hands with a serious expression as if to emphasize her concern.

It wasn’t that it was bad for them not to come back. Well, actually it was a bit troubling. At least a word would’ve been helpful so she’d know what to do about meals. But if she just prepared the ingredients ahead of time, she could reuse them for the next meal, so that was fine.

The real problem was that Rizel hadn’t been back since the night before last. To be precise, the last time she saw him was when she sent him off to the labyrinth that morning, and since he was roughly expected back in the evening, using that as the last sighting was acceptable.

“…A noble guest out partying at night,” she muttered quietly before suddenly banging her forehead on the table with a thud. Even just whispering those words made her feel an immense guilt.

If it were Jill or Eleven, she wouldn’t even be suspicious. They often don’t come back on time, and while she wished for at least a word, usually if she asked Rizel, she could handle it.

“Do those two need dinner tonight? Should I make some late-night snacks?”

“Just leave them be.”

It usually went like that. If she could leave them alone, she happily did. Those two were scary after all.

Still, she asked Rizel just to cover her bases. Even if the two who came home late wondered why there was no food, if the one person they listened to had given permission, they wouldn’t complain. Though they never did.

She wanted to bow down to the kindness that let her ask the same question repeatedly and still get a smile in response. With those thoughts, she lifted her pounding forehead from the table.

“If there aren’t any noble guests, then maybe it’s a bit lucky that the other two aren’t here either.”

She was scared to deal with Jill and the others when Rizel was absent.

That seemed like no problem, but it wasn’t. Because whenever Rizel didn’t come home at night, he always gave a word. The night before last, he didn’t.

Sometimes Rizel also went out somewhere at night. He would tell her with a gentle smile, “I’m going out tonight,” or sometimes the news was thrown at her half-heartedly through Jill or Eleven.

By the way, she didn’t know where he went. She was terribly curious but never asked. Since Jill and the others didn’t worry about it, it probably wasn’t dangerous. From what she heard, it was similar in his previous country, so she figured he was probably just going out for a night walk. She hoped so.

“But two nights in a row, with no message, this must be… a rebellious phase!?”

To think she’d be dealing with a guest’s rebellion before even having a wife.

Maybe she should report it to her friend who strangely started making motherly comments ever since meeting Rizel. What happened to turn him like that? He was always caring but not to that extent.

No, calm down, the innkeeper shook her head. There was no way Rizel was going through a rebellious phase. Jill and the others weren’t here either, so it was more likely that the three had grown tired of this inn and moved to another. She felt like crying.

“(But still… what’s going on…)”

Resting her forehead heavily on her clasped hands, she stared at the table.

Eleven had disappeared since the evening two nights ago when Rizel didn’t come back. Actually, nobody knew when he left, but since he wasn’t there in the morning, it was probably then.

The last thing he saw was Jill leaving the inn early yesterday morning.

Eleven tried to greet him as they passed but couldn’t make a sound or move at all. It was like being buried in the ground from the neck down and encountering a dragon said to be the strongest—such terrifying fear was imposed on the innkeeper. It was beyond scary, almost making her faint.

Still, that didn’t mean they were with Rizel somewhere outside. The innkeeper’s intuition said no.