“Sir Boxxo, Lady Hulemy, we come bearing a humble request!”
One day, following my usual wave of afternoon customers, I find myself shooting the breeze in front of the Hunters Association building with Hulemy. While she’s gushing to me about magic items, we’re suddenly surrounded by a group of people in black clothing and sunglasses.
Before we can fully assess the situation, they all bow their heads to us.
Their unique appearances gave them away immediately as Suori’s bodyguards, but I wish I knew what sort of “humble request” they were talking about.
“Hey! What’s going on here? If you don’t explain yourselves properly, you’ll just annoy Boxxo.”
Yes, that’s exactly what I wanted to say. Thanks, Hulemy.
“Please excuse me. In less than an hour from now, we believe the young lady Suori will approach you with a request. We would like you to kindly accept it when she does.”
“And what would that request be?”
Rather than provide a straightforward answer to Hulemy’s easy question, the bodyguards huddle up in a circle and deliberate their response.
“We request that you keep what you’re about to hear a secret. In the very near future, influential merchants will come together for an exhibition where they will show off their personal magic items and respective magic-item engineers.”
This situation seems similar to how some nobles have personal artists. So a bunch of rich people are getting together for a show-offy competition with the magic items their engineers made, huh?
“Were the master of the house here, we wouldn’t have a problem, but he is currently abroad on business matters and is unable to return for the moment. In a stroke of bad luck, his personal engineer is with him as well, so we have no engineers to participate with.”
“And you thought Boxxo and I would fit the bill?”
Hulemy’s remark seems to be right on the money, and the whole crowd bows to us at once.
But if that “master of the house” or whatever isn’t around, can’t they just not attend?
“If the higher-ups aren’t here, why don’t you just sit this one out?”
Hulemy’s thoughts are so in line with mine that it’s scary. I think it’s a coincidence, but… She didn’t actually complete that mind-reading magic item from a while back, did she?
“Unfortunately, this event was planned by the daughter of a merchant who seems to have some sort of quarrel with the young lady… She will be attending in place of her parents as well, which means the young lady must attend…”
“A competition of vanity. Rich people really have it rough, huh?”
The black-clad bodyguards fidget remorsefully at Hulemy’s sarcasm.
I’ve got a better grasp the situation now, but what should we do? Suori is one of my loyal customers, so I wouldn’t mind participating, but I don’t think Hulemy has ever even met her.
“The young lady Suori has a somewhat…a bit of a…a rather intractable personality, so we believe her interactions with you may become overbearing before long.”
Yep, I agree with you there. I can easily imagine that. Was that why they got in touch with me in advance?
“Therefore, we ask you to please— What? The young lady is close?! This is far sooner than we expected. Please, keep our meeting a secret!”
No sooner had a woman in black whispered something into the man’s ear than did they scatter like spiderlings and vanish; not unlike ninjas.
“Um, well… Those guys sure have it rough, huh?”
“Welcome.”
“The young lady Suori. I’ve seen her buying things from you a few times. She’s the real tiny one, right?”
“Welcome.” Yes, yes. It’s the strong-willed girl with the twin-tails.
For a while after our reunion, she had a bad attitude. She would constantly try to pull pranks on me—though they all ended in failure.
She’s not actually that bad of a kid, and it seemed like she was going through some personal drama at the time, so that probably influenced her behavior even further.
Speak of the devil, here she comes.
As always, her gait is proud and bold, but her usually firm glare is darting all over the place. She seems nervous.
Spotting Hulemy drinking a milk tea next to me, Suori’s eyes widen for just a moment.
After walking up to me, she looks between Hulemy and me.
I know it’s hard for her to find the words right now, but instead of words, a silent pressure flows from within her, a force of will you’d expect from someone much older.
“E-excuse me… Would you happen to be the famous magic-item engineer, Hulemy?”
When she talks like this, she looks like your standard, proper young lady. It feels weird to me, though, considering her usual cheeky attitude.
“Yep, that’s me. And who might you be, miss?”
“Please excuse my rudeness. I’m— My name is Suori. I understand this may be ill-mannered of me, but I have something I’d like to request from you, Lady Hulemy, and you, Sir Boxxo.”
It looks like she’s prepared herself. Her serious gaze pierces Hulemy and me.
“I do not mind if it is only temporary, but would you please help me and play the role as my personal magic-item engineer and her invention?!”
The little ball of pride and conceit is now bowing deeply to us. That must be how important this is to her.
The black-clad bodyguards, watching us from behind buildings, put hands to their mouths, clearly unsettled.
“Oh, quit it. Kids aren’t supposed to do that. Lift your head back up.”
“Th-then may I take this to mean that you accept?”
“Well, if you have a good reason, I’ll think about it. But only if you stop with that hoity-toity way of speaking and talk naturally. Right, Boxxo?” Hulemy says with a wink.
Suori fixes her stare upon Hulemy as if she’s a rare animal. This must be her first time interacting with someone like her.
“U-um, do you promise you won’t get mad if my tone is slightly rougher?”
“Kids are supposed to be a little cheeky.”
“Well, then. Hulemy, Boxxo, could you please help me?”
Yep, there’s the tone I’m so familiar with. Time to hear her real thoughts on the matter.
“There’s a rival shop our business has been in competition with for some time. The heiress is this bratty girl who has a bad personality, looks at you funny, and talks weird. And she’s ugly! She shamelessly decided to have an exhibition right when she knew my father wasn’t here. Just thinking about that detestable face of hers makes me want to… Grrrr!”
Now she’s stomping on the ground. Could it possibly involve some past event that makes her blood seethe just by remembering it?
Hulemy’s face is drawn back from Suori’s sudden change in attitude.
“Oh my, I do apologize. This exhibition involves bringing one’s personal magic-item engineer as well as their creations, and…bragging about them, if we’re being honest. It’s a rubbish gathering, really.”
Wait, Suori doesn’t think highly of the gathering? That’s a surprise.
“Nevertheless, should I refuse, my father’s prestige will hit rock bottom. As his daughter, I must rub that egotistical brat’s face into the mud, or I won’t be satisfied.”
They must really not like each other. The sinister grin on Suori’s face is something I’ve never seen on a little kid before. Rather than save face as a merchant, it seems like she really just doesn’t want to lose.
“What do you say? I can make it worth your while. Will you help me?”
I don’t have a problem with helping—in fact, now I’m interested, so I was already going to accept. But what about Hulemy?
I shift my gaze to her to see a smirk on the edges of her lips… Oh, this should be fun. She’s thinking the same thing as I am, isn’t she?
“Sure, sounds good. This oughtta be fun. I accept.”
Now that she’s cheerfully consented, my own answer is easy. “Welcome.”
“Thank you very much!”
Suori’s smile is like a blooming flower, revealing a cuteness appropriate for her age, making me feel happy just looking at it.
I don’t know what lies in store for us, but to be honest, I’m sort of looking forward to it.
Several days passed after that, and I was eventually brought to a specially installed tent.
I’d been excited, thinking we might be going outside the dungeon, but Suori wouldn’t be leaving this stratum on her own, either, so the exhibition took place inside a temporary tent hastily assembled for the occasion.
I call it a tent, but it’s fashioned from an elaborately designed fabric, and to be blunt, it really stands out against the rest of the Clearflow Lake stratum that’s currently being rebuilt.
The interior design is simple, but a skillfully made carpet covers the ground, no doubt a show of how rich they are.
Currently, I’m snuggled up in a big tarp, with only a small hole out of which I can secure a field of vision. My range of sight is not good by any stretch of the imagination.
“Boxxo, can you see?”
“Welcome.”
That must be Hulemy next to me, whispering out of consideration.
The story today is that I’m a brand-new magic item created by the magic-item engineer, Hulemy.
She has plenty to be proud of already with her sheer fame and skill as an engineer, but she must really want to give this young lady a thrashing. I’m not trying to brag, either, but I don’t think any normal magic items will be a match for me and my vending machine capabilities. I start to feel sorry for Suori’s adversary.
Right now, we’re waiting in a corner of the tent for this so-called exhibition to start. People who look like magic-item engineers shuffle in one after another, objects covered in cloth carried in right behind them.
It looks like there are a total of five magic items, if the cloths are any indication. Next to us are a man and woman in white scientist-type clothing. They must be magic-item engineers.
The cloth-covered objects come in many sizes, some not half my height, one twice as big as I am.
I’ve seen a tent like this, specially installed at a venue, once before as a child—and I understand now why they needed something as large as a circus tent.
We’re in one of its corners, but in the middle section is a cluster of people, old and young, male and female, wearing the kind of rich-person clothes you’d see in paintings and having pleasant chats with one another.
Suori is in there, too. Now, I wonder where this “detestable” young lady is. If she’s close in age, I should be able to spot her right—there she is.
Her height is about the same, too, and her clothing is of similar design. Suori’s outfit is mainly red, but hers uses blues. Her hair is silver and straight, reaching down to her ankles, while her skin is fair like high-quality Japanese paper. Her eyes are narrow, with the corners angled slightly down, making her appear docile. Even when she laughs, she puts a hand to her mouth with a refined gesture, radiating a prettiness that is exactly the opposite of the energetic Suori.
At a glance, it looks like Suori has lost the “young lady” competition, but I won’t say that.
