第2章：二人の冒険パーティー
私は日本出身ではなく、西洋から来ました。翻訳がうまくできないため、英語で投稿しています。私の物語を楽しんでいただけると嬉しいです！
Two green hands grabbed the edge of the counter and hauled up a face that looked like it would rather be anywhere else. Bushy brows. Scowl baked in. The goblin hung there a moment, chin barely clearing the countertop, blinking at the dim tavern interior like a man who had walked a very long way in a very hot sun.
"Something cheap." his gravely voice speaks as he struggles to hold himself up on the counter, "I don't have much."
Tull looks towards the goblin next to him in surprise and curiosity. He has never seen a goblin around the village before. And this one was wearing nothing but a loincloth held together by fraying thread and stubbornness, like a wanderer who had left everything behind and kept going anyway.
Host fills up a glass of water and slides it towards the goblin with an easy smile.
"Sure thing, friend! Water is free. Please have as much as needed!"
The goblin spent a moment fighting the barstool. It was nearly as tall as he was. He wrestled himself up onto it with a grunt and settled into the cushion, eyes barely clearing the counter. Then he picked up the glass and drank. Big, audible gulps before he set the empty glass down with a sharp clack.
"Another."
Host took the glass, filled it, and slid it back without a word. The goblin drank again. The sweat on his bald head was beginning to ease as the cool water and the shade of the tavern worked on him.
Gulp. Gulp.
"Another." The goblin speaks with determination and relief. He was going to drink his weight in water and he clearly knew it.
Tull watched him go through glass after glass, his own drink forgotten. By the eighth glass his mouth had drifted open slightly. He could not help it.
The goblin caught him staring. He turned on his stool and fixed Tull with a look that could have petrified if he were a basilisk.
"What? Got a problem, kid?" the goblin huffs.
Tull threw up both hands immediately, leather gloves flapping back and forth in a frantic show of innocence. A nervous laugh slipped out while he scrambled for words.
"N-no! It's just- I never-"
"Never seen a goblin like me?" The goblin's heavy eyelids dropped half-closed as he huffed. "You ain't the first."
Tull continues to motion his hands uselessly. Around him, the tavern had gone quiet. Host had finished with the dishes and drifted off somewhere to find other work, and the only company left at the counter was a stranger who had made it pretty clear he preferred to be left alone. Tull finally got himself together.
"No! It's just I've never seen you around before."
The goblin turns towards the counter as if to ignore Tull's existence. His gaze settled somewhere around the worn edge of the wood, and his brows came down low.
"Cuz I ain't from here."
A spark of hope lit up in Tull's chest before he even knew what he was feeling. 'Someone passing through. Someone without ties to the village, without a reason to say no. Maybe, just maybe, someone who might actually...'
The thought fizzled as fast as it had come. He let out a slow breath and reached for his sheathed sword, gripping it in both hands, the familiar weight settling into his palms like an old habit. The sadness crept back in quietly, the way it always did when he stopped moving long enough for it to catch up.
The goblin looks at him from the corner of his eye, noticing the embarrassed demeanor of what looks like an Adventurer becoming that of someone who recently lost something precious.
"What's your problem?" he said, the sarcasm harsh and cutting, "Adventurer life too hard for ya?"
The sheath shifted in Tull's grip. His hands were shaking a little. 'Of course. Even a stranger at a bar.'
"Actually..." He stopped. Took a breath. "I couldn't become an Adventurer. They wouldn't let me register because I didn't have a party."
He was mostly talking to himself by then. The words just kept coming.
"This town is so small. I doubt I could find anyone willing to take me in. I don't have any combat experience. I don't have anything to offer."
The goblin rolls his eyes at the idea that Tull's problems were so shallow.
"Look, kid. Not being an Adventurer isn't the end of the world. You got so much more you-"
"You don't understand." Tull's voice cracked on it. The tears had been sitting at the edges for a while now, and keeping them there was taking effort.
"My sister was an amazing Adventurer. It was her dream to become a well-known Diamond Rank Adventurer someday." He paused, "...But she went missing weeks ago."
He lifted the sword and drew it partway from the scabbard. His own face looked back at him from the blade, pale and red-eyed, one tear already rolling down his cheek.
"The Guild sent a search party, and all they could find was this sword and leg armor."
His voice was breaking in earnest now. Across the counter, something had shifted in the goblin's expression. The irritation had gone quiet. His ears had dropped back, and the set of his shoulders had changed into something smaller and less certain.
"I finally worked up the courage to apply. I wanted to carry on her dream. And maybe find out what actually happened to her." Tull's jaw tightened. "But now I might not be able to-"
"I'll help you."
Tull blinked. "Wh-what?"
The goblin had already hopped off the stool. He landed with a gravelly groan and immediately reached back to straighten his loincloth, scratching the back of his head with a look on his face like a man who had just heard himself say something foolish and was absolutely not going to take it back.
"I said I'll help you get registered. Now c'mon, kid. Before I change my mind."
Tull, filled with sudden hope, gets up and starts to follow the goblin. They left together, stepping out into the afternoon. The sun hit them both across the face, warm and immediate. Down the road, the Adventurer's Guild building sat solid and familiar, a large emblem carved above the door: a pair of silver wings, a sword plunging down through the center of them.
Tull pushed the door open and held it. The goblin walked through. Behind the counter, Rosa was bent over a stack of paperwork. She looked up at the sound of the door, recognized Tull, and straightened immediately, folding her hands together at the front of her yellow skirt in the natural, practiced way she always did.
"Oh, Tull!" She smoothed her skirt once out of habit, then caught the second figure coming in behind him.
She went still for just a moment. He was short, barefoot, covered in road dust, wearing what had once been a loincloth. Tull clearly knew him, or at least, had brought him inside. But she had never seen this person before in her life.
She recovered quickly.
"I see you've found a... friend?"
"Rosa," Tull said, and there was barely contained excitement in every syllable, "we'd like to register as an adventuring party."
Something settled back into place behind Rosa's eyes. This she knew how to handle. She reached for the forms and a pen, smile returning.
"Of course! But first, the Guild requires me to ask a few questions." She looked between them. "What are your names?"
A sudden realization hits Tull when the question is asked. He looks down at the goblin in genuine curiosity.
"That's right," he said, almost to himself. "I don't think we ever introduced ourselves." He looked back at Rosa. "My name is Tull."
Rosa kept her expression pleasant and neutral while she processed the information that these two had apparently become an adventuring party without learning each other's names.
"Grog." The goblin's voice was quiet. Just the one word, graveled and plain.
"Great!" Rosa brightened, pen moving. "Now, do either of you have any combat experience?"
Tull looked away. From Rosa's side of the counter, the top of Grog's head and the tips of his ears were the only parts of him visible above the wood.
"No," they said, more or less together.
Rosa wrote it down. "And do either of you have any magical affinity?"
"No." Tull's voice was flat with disappointment. Grog's was simply flat.
Rosa set the pen down and reached under the desk for a small wooden box, the Guild emblem carved neatly into the lid. She clicked the latches open, lifted the lid, and removed two small bronze badges cast in the shape of the emblem.
"Without combat experience or magical affinity, you'll be starting at the lowest rank." She slid a badge across to each of them, then clasped her hands together under her chin, eyes bright. "But, congratulations, Tull and Grog, on becoming Bronze Rank Adventurers!"
Tull picked up the badge. His face had gone red. His hands were not quite steady.
This was it. He was a registered Adventurer. This was the first step. His sister's dream, and his chance to find out what happened to her. He rubbed the badge against his glove until it caught the light coming through the sunroof, watching it gleam, and for a moment he let himself smile without trying to hold it back. He turned toward Rosa and gave her a small, genuine bow.
"Thank you, Rosa. And also thank you, Grog-"
He looked down at the space beside him.
Empty.
He glanced around the room, then back at the door they had come through.
"Grog?"
