Chapter 692

TENKEN 692 Making a Bet with Diaz

Fran had been busy since the day after accomplishing the request to take Katley to the dungeon.

As a famous person, she has received many invitations and requests.

Even though the guild would have to turn down any contact from nobles, there were some requests that could not be refused and some that Fran would want to accept.

The request that she couldn’t refuse was the invitation from Elsa. It was not an invitation for a meal or a chat, but an inquiry about the effect of her serum.

Cosmetic products and fashion are things that Fran is not interested in at all. She even thought that it was a hassle to apply it to her skin at night for some reason. Though we got it for free from Elsa, she only uses it because I was so insistent on her applying it.

Well, there was no way this Fran could give a decent answer though. The only thing that would come out of her mouth was 「I don’t know」 or 「It’s troublesome」, and Elsa couldn’t help but laugh.

Previously, she has also given her serum for free to some female students at the academy of magic. She apologized to Elsa, but she just laughed and forgave her. She was rather pleased to hear that they were so popular.

Moreover, she gave her another large amount of serum when we parted, she was seriously too nice to her.

She must think that she didn’t hate it as much as she said she did, because she used it so much that it was all gone. It pains me that it’s like we’re deceiving Elsa though...

I think I could let Elsa know about me, but I don’t think this is the right time.

Fran thanked her with a wry expression on her face as she accepted the serum.

Well, Fran refused it at first, but Elsa looked so sad that she felt compelled to accept it. To be able to make this Fran feel guilty, what a fearsome person.

I hope I can repay her someday.

And the request that Fran was happy with was the request for tasting new dishes that had been sent out by chefs and restaurants.

Riding the wave of the curry boom that had come to Ulmut in full force, many chefs were experimenting with curry dishes and trying to perfect them. They were probably preparing for the martial arts tournament.

Curry dishes were already well known when we were here before, but an unprecedented boom happened this time. It seems like all the restaurants are serving curry dishes now.

Then Fran, the disciple of the curry master who created curry, appeared.

It seems that along with the craze for curry, the information about Fran was also passed on to the chefs in Ulmut, and a number of requests for tastings were made to Fran.

There was only one at the beginning. But as a result of the chef’s tearful improvements in response to Fran’s harsh opinions, their curry dish became significantly more delicious.

The word spread quickly, and a large number of tasting requests were sent out to Fran.

Eat curry, give a few opinions, and get paid good money. It’s the best request an adventurer could ask for.

Moreover, as a B-ranked adventurer, the people who wanted to make requests to Fran were all from famous restaurants that made a good amount of money. Since they were all competent cooks, there were very few bad dishes.

Well, there were some dishes that were a bit too challenging for Fran’s taste though.

However, it was not without its problems.

The chefs had started to secretly call Fran as the 「Curry Princess」 or 「Spice Princess」. It seems that her nickname has become the Black Lightning Princess of the Disciple of the Curry Master now...

What I was afraid of was that Fran might like that alias. What would happen if she started calling herself the Curry Princess when she had such a cool alias as Black Lightning Princess?

I have to prevent that from happening.

The cooks seemed to understand that this nickname was not preferred by adventurers, and fortunately, they did not call her that to her face.

From time to time, there are those who almost call her Curry Princess by accident, but when that happen, I used telekinesis to physically cover their mouths.

Well, I know it sounds a bit harsh when I put it like that, but all I’ve done was just shut their mouth with my telekinesis and temporarily prevent them from talking, okay?

That’s how hard I worked for the past few days.

And now, there was a messenger from the adventurer’s guild at the inn where we were staying. They told us that Diaz wants to talk to us.

『I wonder what he’s going to talk about?』

「Nn」

Would it be about Sibylla, who are suspected as spies for the Kingdom of Raidos?

The guild had asked the adventurers not to make any direct contact with them so as not to provoke them. Therefore, we have not approached Sibylla and her companion at all. We just left the monitoring to Urushi.

If so, they must have made some kind of move then.

Or has Dimitris arrived in Ulmut? We had asked him to introduce us after all.

He seems to be a rather difficult person to deal with, but with an introduction from the guild master, maybe he’ll at least listen to us. Well, maybe, that is.

But to my surprise, what Diaz want to talk about were something about neither of those things.

「I need to talk about Zelos Reed」

「...Okay」

Fran’s expression tightens in front of Diaz’s serious face. Now, what kind of talk will it be?

It was impossible to tell what he’d say from Diaz’s expressionless face.

「...Fran, in our conversation the other day, you said that you had Zelos Reed life in your hands, right?」

「Nn」

I think what Diaz is referring to is when Zelos Reed gives his life to her in exchange for her to take Romio to Barbra’s orphanage when he dies. Such is her promise with him.

But to be honest, I don’t think it would be a fair deal to take his life when Zelos Reed is not dead and Romio and he are being sheltered by the academy of magic.

Fran too, would not be as unreasonable to use that promise to ask for anything from Zelos Reed now. However, such a promise was certainly made between Fran and Zelos Reed.

I’m also sure that Fran had explained to Diaz how she let Zelos Reed go and told him of her promise. Fran may not have been aware of her own feelings, but she knew that Zelos Reed life was in her hands, so she would not do anything unnecessary.

But Diaz was certainly aware of his feelings. I’m sure that’s why Diaz mentioned it to us.

「Let’s make a bet. I’ll give up on the idea of getting my revenge if you win. I can’t erase this grudge, but I’ll carry it with me to my grave. I’ll never touch Zelos Reed. In exchange, if I win, you will tell me where Zelos Reed is. What do you say?」

Diaz was smiling as he said so, but to me, it seemed like an expression of anguish. I don’t know why I felt that way myself...

「...What’s the detail of the bet」

「How about Fran and I fight in the upcoming martial arts tournament, and the winner wins the bet?」

「Diaz is participating?」

「I mean, there’s nothing in the rules that says a guild master can’t participate, right?」

『But we don’t know if Diaz and Fran will be matched up against each other for sure, do we?』

Or would the guild master’s authority allow for such a thing? That’s what I thought, but it turned out to be wrong.

「I can’t do anything about it, because the order of the matches is decided randomly in the final round. So, if one of us loses in the middle of the tournament and the matchup itself doesn’t happen, you win the bet, deal?」

「You sure?」

「Yeah. When that happens, I will just give up and think that it is destined to happen」

It’s a very favorable bet for us. Is that how confident he is? Or does he already know that he’s going to lose? I don’t know which.

If Diaz was serious about finding Zelos Reed, it actually wouldn’t be difficult for him to find Zelos Reed. If he searched the Adventurer’s Guild’s record, he could easily find out where Fran had travelled.

Instead of doing that, why bother making a bet with us...?

『What if we don’t accept that bet?』

「If that’s the case, I’ll go find Zelos Reed on my own」

「...Okay, I’ll accept that bet」

『Fran, are you sure?』

「Nn. I know how Diaz feels. It must be tough to be stuck in such a state」

Fran showed an expression that looked somewhat concerned for Diaz. Diaz then bowed deeply to Fran.

「Thanks. I appreciate it」

Diaz’s face looked somewhat relieved as he smiled at us.