Another world, Celeste

Chapter 39

Outside the entrance of the garden park, a guard with dull grey hair due to old age is taking a short break when Serafina comes up to him for a casual conversation.

The old guard looks at Serafina pitifully before opening his mouth to speak. "Serafina, I strongly advise you to complain to the guild for making you work too hard this time. Your face is much worse than my son's haggard face when he returned from a month-long request."

"You don't have to say it," Serafina says irritably before getting to her real purpose of approaching the old man. "Seen anyone lurking around lately?"

The old man has been working as a guard of the garden park for the longest. Outsiders may think it's a menial, trivial job. On the contrary, the garden park is the only public space in the entire mining town where contracted monsters and tamed animals are allowed to roam freely. Hence, guards assigned to the garden park naturally form connections with the local tamers.

Another unique thing about the garden park is that since its inception, the place isn't restricted to tamers only. Ordinary citizens are allowed to visit as well. Therefore, it is necessary to impose some rules to ensure everyone's safety and one of those rules is keeping strict control of the number of visitors that go in and out of the garden park.

Despite knowing perfectly well that the old guard can't divulge that information, Serafina still blatantly enquires about the visitors he has seen lately.

Rather than getting upset, the old guard smiles broadly and speaks in a roundabout way. "When I woke up this morning, never have I imagined that I would be receiving good fortune today."

Serafina looks at the old guard inquisitively.

"My grandchildren will be thrilled to hear that their grandfather exchanged some words with a beautiful lady friend of Sir Ronald."

'Beautiful lady friend of Sir Ronald...?'

At the top of her head, there is only one person who fits that description.

"You're talking about Lady Polina, right?" Serafina asks the old guard.

The old guard smiles and chooses to keep his silence.

Serafina crosses her arms and deduces, from the smile plastered on the old guard's face still high up to his eyes, that his encounter with Lady Polina must be not long before she arrives. However, this isn't what she wanted to know. The old guard won't tell her anything unless it's an order from the lord.

'He just wants to boast to someone about meeting Lady Polina,' Polina thought.

In that case, Serafina has something to boast also.

She widely grins and says, "Actually, I happen to be acquainted with a ranger who understands full well the bliss of fluffiness."

"An adventurer's exaggerated tale is more believable than you claiming a ranger shares your obsession with monsters' fur," the old guard reacts sceptically.