The Banished Black Swordsman Wants a Peaceful Life with the White Saint in the Frontier ~Huh? You Want Him to Come Back with the Saint? It’s Already Too Late~ - 78

Chapter 78: The Stone Shrouded in Miasma

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“Hey, you two. Welcome. Perfect timing.” The moment Lloyd opened the door, the “boy merchant” at the ledger desk raised one hand with a grin. His gestures alone were mature for his age, yet his expression was as childlike as ever.

“…Perfect timing?”

Lloyd’s brows drew together slightly, and the answer appeared at the edge of his vision. At an empty table in front of the counter sat two earlier arrivals. One of them—Fran—turned around and waved energetically. Her short, light-green hair fluttered softly with the motion.

“Yoo-hoo! Lloyd, Lusha!”

“It feels like it’s been forever, doesn’t it?”

Beside her, Elena raised a small hand while remaining seated.

“Oh, you were here?”

“Good morning, Fran, Elena.”

Lloyd responded with a raised hand, and Lusha gave a polite bow before removing her hood. Her silvery-white hair shimmered in the shop’s light. Cron’s gaze paused there for just a moment before returning to the ledger. Lloyd looked at the two of them and asked.

“How’d it go?”

“It went how it went.”

Elena let out a sigh and shrugged. Before she could continue, Fran puffed out her cheeks.

“We’ve been working to the bone! Seriously, Cron really drives people hard.”

Elena and Fran shot Cron sharp looks. Cron, meanwhile, seemed completely unbothered, merely twirling his pen between his fingers.

“Busy is good, isn’t it?”

Lloyd lifted the corner of his mouth in exasperation, and beside him Lusha let out a small giggle. If they had the energy to complain, that meant things were going well.

“Oh, right. We saved up enough to repay the material costs we borrowed from you two, so we’ll return that first.”

Elena pulled out a neatly tied pouch of gold coins from the leather pouch at her waist and held it out to Lloyd.

“That’s fine, but are you sure? Don’t you need it more on your end? You could repay us later.”

Elena and Fran’s house still had nothing inside, of course. No bed, no table, no chairs, no dishes, no cloth—far too many essentials were missing to call it livable. Logically, the money should go there first. But Elena stated firmly.

“I don’t want to owe you two.”

“Yeah, yeah. We were saying we don’t really like borrowing money from friends.”

Fran nodded vigorously in agreement.

Friends, huh…

The word felt unfamiliar to Lloyd. It was like seeing his own name suddenly written in a place he had always thought was far removed from him. It felt ticklish, but not unpleasant. Lusha gently peeked at him from the side, a soft smile forming.

“Lloyd, you look happy.”

Called out so precisely on the warmth in his cheeks, Lloyd responded with a wry smile. But she looked just as happy.

“You too.”

“…Yes, I suppose I do.”

Their eyes met for just a moment, then drifted apart. Neither of them had lived lives where they could casually call someone a friend. That was precisely why being called one so naturally made them happy. Black and white. Cursed and holy. They should have been opposites, yet they shared strangely many things in common. Perhaps that was why they had been drawn to each other.

“Alright. Then with this, we’re square. The repairs are finished, so you can move in anytime.”

Lloyd accepted the pouch of gold from Elena. Fran leaned forward, eyes wide.

“What, you already fixed it!?”

“Yes. We finished yesterday. We’ve cleaned it up as well!”

Lusha’s cheeks lifted as she answered brightly.

“Yay! I wanna see it soon! Right, Elena?!”

“Yes. I’m looking forward to it.”

One voice bounced with excitement. The other was more restrained. Both carried relief. For those living in inns, the reassurance of having a base was surely something special. For now, their “odd-jobs” work seemed to be going smoothly. They would continue staying at a cheap inn until they could afford furniture, then move into their new home. That was the plan.

The air in the merchant house was calm, everything seeming to proceed according to schedule. Only the master of the room wasn’t smiling. Though Cron’s hands flipped through papers smoothly, something in his gaze was dim. Lloyd did not miss it.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

At Lloyd’s question, Cron stopped his pen and looked up.

“Ah, yes. I said ‘perfect timing,’ right? A bit of trouble’s come up. If anything, this request falls more into your field of expertise.”

“Our field of expertise? What do you mean?”

Lusha tilted her head slightly and asked again.

“Well, you’ll understand once you see it.”

Cron opened his desk drawer and took out a small bundle wrapped in cloth. He loosened the white fabric and revealed a dark stone that fit in his palm. No. Calling it a stone felt insufficient. Its coldness was excessive. The air around it seemed heavier, denser. That unpleasant pressure.

The moment it was placed on the desk, Lloyd’s right arm throbbed sharply. The mark of the 〈Malice Glyph〉 pulsed faintly in response. That sensation… Like dark ripples crawling slowly beneath his skin. He heard Lusha’s breath tremble faintly beside him.

“This is…”

“Yeah. Miasma.”

An unmistakable stench. A sudden, unpleasant chill. The same hard shadow Lloyd always sensed when releasing the power of the 〈Malice Glyph〉. Faint, but certain. This stone was shrouded in miasma.

“What’s going on?”

Elena shot a sharp glance at Cron. Cron lightly laced his fingers together and inhaled, as if choosing his words carefully.

“I don’t know the details.”

“You don’t know…? How irresponsible.”

Fran frowned. Whenever the White Saint Lusha was involved, Fran’s usually gentle expression grew slightly stern. It was likely a habit from her time in the Church. Even if she considered them friends, old instincts didn’t disappear so easily.

“Don’t look so scary. A caravan visited a small southern village called Mingaram, and the village elder consulted me after picking this up. Recently, monsters have been appearing unusually often near the village. They think this might be related to that.”

“Mingaram…”

A pale blank spot on the edge of a map surfaced in Lloyd’s mind. A shallow basin at the foot of the mountains, a few days’ travel from Gluteridge. Several tributaries merged there, and the wind did not pass through easily. If the stone carried even faint miasma, then the source likely lay somewhere in that land. If left alone, distortions would form at the village’s edges. Increased monster appearances would merely be one natural consequence of that distortion.

Fran crossed her arms and looked between Lloyd and Lusha.

“Sounds pretty dangerous. Want us to help?”

“Hmm…”

Lloyd glanced at Lusha beside him. She was already looking at him. Without words, he understood they were thinking the same thing. Elena and Fran were in a busy earning period. There were surely other requests in town. Solving the city’s troubles would likely be more profitable. More importantly, they didn’t even know the causal link yet. If this could be resolved simply by purifying the miasma, Lloyd and Lusha alone would suffice.

Lloyd gave Lusha a brief nod, then turned back to Fran.

“No. We’ll go check it out ourselves first.”

Fran’s expression clouded immediately, her concern shifting toward Lusha.

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes. Until we investigate, we won’t even know what the problem is. If it’s just dispelling a curse, I can handle it myself.”

Lusha answered with a bright smile. Seeing it, Lloyd let out a small breath.

“If it looks like it’ll turn serious, we’ll come back and ask for backup.”

That was enough for now. First, they needed to confirm Mingaram’s situation. If the monster numbers were too great, or if it seemed too dangerous for just the two of them, they would rely on their friends without hesitation.

“Got it!”

“Understood. Rely on us anytime.”

Fran’s cheerful reply and Elena’s concise acceptance felt strangely reassuring. Their words were light, yet carried weight.

So this is what it means to have comrades.

It was something Lloyd hadn’t truly felt even when he had once been in a party.

“Then I’ll leave this with you.”

Cron rewrapped the stone in cloth and handed it to Lloyd. A dull coldness transferred into his palm, and the mark on his right hand throbbed again.

“Honestly… I hope this doesn’t turn into something troublesome.”

Since Elena and Fran still had business to discuss, Lloyd and Lusha left the merchant house first, and Lloyd muttered under his breath.

“Yes…”

Lusha looked up at the sky. It was pale and faded, with only the wind passing through. As if foreseeing some uncertain future, her expression, too, carried a trace of anxiety.

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