Published: August 10, 2026
While staying in Sars, Jade had often visited the elderly couple who ran the inn.
And this had not just been a recent habit. Ever since the couple retired from being adventurers and started running the inn, Jade had made a point of dropping by whenever he came to Sars.
"Well, we did meet even earlier than that."
As he said that, Lizel listened with a little curiosity, waiting for the rest of the story.
When Lizel returned from his book hunt to the inn, the one waiting to greet him was not the elderly couple, but Jade. According to him, the old lady had joked that she wanted to go shopping, but the old man was taking forever to come back, so Jade had told her to go on ahead while he stayed behind to keep watch.
It had only been a few minutes earlier that Lizel had been welcomed by Jade, who was sitting on a chair just inside the entrance.
And it had also only been a few minutes earlier that Lizel had tried to suggest a book from among today's spoils to entertain Jade if he was bored, only to be flatly turned down. He intended to exact his revenge someday.
From there, casual conversation had naturally begun, and that was how they had arrived at the present moment.
"So your former leader was indebted to the two of them, right?"
"Yeah. Seems they helped him when he was still new."
"By that time, were the grandpa and grandma already rank s?"
"That's the thing, I don't know. Whenever I try to ask for details, they just say it's embarrassing."
"Ah, one of those failures you don't really want to talk about."
"Yeah. I can't even imagine a blunder so embarrassing you can't laugh about it."
Lizel and Jade exchanged smiles.
Lizel had met Jade's former leader only once. If they had belonged to the same adventurers' guild, there would have been more chances to see him, and each time Lizel had been taught what a party leader ought to be like.
He was straightforward and disliked schemes, loyal to a fault, and placed complete trust in his comrades, just as they trusted him. He had a battlefield veteran's air about him, different from Gill's, and to Lizel, he had seemed like an adventurer as unshakeable as the earth itself.
"When I was taken in, the leader and my sister were already middle-rank, so maybe that makes it even harder to imagine."
"I get that."
"Yeah, and there's also Ittō and all that."
"If Gill heard about it, do you think he'd tell me some of his failures too?"
"If you ask him, he'll tell you."
Lizel nodded, then smiled with slightly lowered brows.
"It feels a little unfair that I'm the only one whose rookie days are known."
"Yeah, I totally get that."
Jade agreed wholeheartedly.
It wasn't really unfair, but it was complicated to have only one's own failures known.
The more equal the party members were, the more strongly that feeling lingered.
"You've known the grandpa and grandma since then?"
"Yeah. I even heard they backed me up when my joining the guild was being resisted."
"You heard?"
"From my sister. I don't really remember much about that time."
Jade said those days had been a whirlwind.
Lizel gave him a concerned look, wondering if it had something to do with his family, but Jade continued.
"I was too busy with archery training for anything else."
"Training?"
Lizel blinked once, sensing something was off.
"The one who taught me archery was one of the old man's party members."
"Oh, so the grandpa and grandma weren't a two-person party?"
"No. Why?"
"Gill met the two of them back when they were still active. At the time, it sounds like there were only two of them."
"Oh, Ittō met them a long time ago too? When?"
"Apparently it was a long time ago. Before Gill became an adventurer, I heard."
"I see."
Jade's eyes widened in surprise.
It must have been quite unexpected for his own past and Gill's to be connected through the elderly couple at the inn.
It was a strange and curious link, made possible by that rank s adventurer who had woven together so many different connections.
"Well, maybe at that time my master was off on his own."
"You call him your master?"
"Yeah, but... what?"