The Babysitter Wants to Stop Dying

Chapter 26: Haphazard Temporary Employee

Only S-ranks and A-ranks were Rankers.

In other words, the position of Ranker was something only superhumans granted an A-rank could challenge.

They were commonly called Ranker aspirants.

Most A-ranks hoped to become Rankers and were active all over Astava. After accumulating a certain level of achievement and fame through subjugation teams, rescue activities, and escort missions, an invitation to participate in the Ranker debut match would be sent from the Ranking Management Bureau.

But there was no such thing for S-ranks.

From the moment they were granted their rank, they were already Rankers, and the treatment of being the best, the top-tier, followed.

That's how rare S-ranks were, and each individual's existence was the power and order of Astava.

‘But an S-rank is dead?’

Moreover, being 9th means they are in the upper ranks among them. There was no way they could die easily.

It didn't seem like a conversation I could butt into, so I silently watched the situation.

The gazes of the Knights, who had been rendered speechless in an instant, all fell on Camila. As if awaiting a command, it was the same for Romero, who had been darting her eyes around until just a moment ago.

For a moment, I thought I felt a strange thrill from Romero, but seeing her like that now, I must have been mistaken.

But they weren't the only ones in shock. Camila, who had covered her mouth with her hand, was staring blankly somewhere beyond the ruins.

“Would you like to read it.”

It was Mago who roused the Professor. Camila accepted the new official document with a stiff face.

“……The Association isn't calling the Knights for monster subjugation.”

She spoke after holding the paper for a long time.

“Cavris's death is bizarre, is it……”

The paper was mercilessly crumpled. And then Camila ripped it in half.

“Professor?”

Delphi flinched at her menacing aura and called out to her, but the Professor didn't answer. Instead, her violet eyes found me.

“Something is going wrong. Cavris had never died before.”

Camila, who had approached me, muttered as if whispering. The gazes of the others darted over to me.

‘Cavris had never died?’

I was getting a little used to the Professor's incomprehensible words, but my heart was still pounding fast.

Even with everyone watching, I calmly looked down at Camila and asked.

“Do you perhaps think this is related to me?”

“……Why do you think so?”

“Because you've been saying strange things to me ever since the Center.”

At Camila's blank upward gaze, I was able to bring up a certain question I had held deep in my heart all this time.

‘Camila is related to the curse.’

The main quest I had to solve.

Helping the protagonist and lifting the curse cast upon Astava.

I didn't know how, or to what extent she was related, but she was one of the keys to the curse. It was clear that she was not just some clue needed to find the protagonist.

There were too many suspicious signs to simply dismiss Camila Ingram as an eccentric genius psycho.

The notification window I got after meeting her.

[You have acquired a key clue!]

[You have been chosen by the protagonist's second most precious person!]

[The 'power of a name' is mighty!]

<3rd Clue>

Get close to the Captain. She knows everything.

It was a daily life where it was difficult to think about anything calmly amidst the rush of events, but I knew for certain that my contact with Camila was not something to be taken lightly.

Just in case, it's possible that Camila knows what that 'curse' is.

But I couldn't ask rashly. Then she would become suspicious of my identity.

It was obvious that no one in the world knew it was under a curse or something. In that situation, if Camila asked me how I knew a curse was cast, what on earth should I answer?

That I'm actually a Player?

If she believed me when I said this was a world inside a game, that would be the hopeful route, but if I were to be mistaken for a Devil worshipper, the despair route would unfold.

The Devil worshippers always claimed that this world was the playground of the great demons, and that obeying them and enjoying safety was the best choice and an honor.

The moment I was mistaken for a Devil worshipper, a powerless and weak citizen like me with no connections would be immediately handed over to the infamous witch trials. Unless Camila was really one of them, as the Center Director said, and believed me.

‘But it's much more likely that Camila Ingram is not a Devil worshipper.’

Aside from her connection to the protagonist, just seeing how well Lottie gets along with her shows that she is not a bad person. The little one, who is amazingly good at judging people, clings to her just as readily as she does to me.

Of course, her near-mad obsession with work is a bit creepy.

“Monsters of that grade we saw today have never appeared in Eastbourne before. Even the Gate detector I designed didn't react, so they must have appeared from somewhere and come all the way here. Purposefully.”

Camila said that and lowered her head. Lottie blinked and met her gaze. After staring at the child for a long time, she slowly stroked Lottie's head.

“If I hadn't called the Knights here because of you, Eastbourne would have seen a much worse fate. More people would have died beyond District 3.”

“What is it you're trying to say?”

“Could you be the key?”

“……Pardon?”

My face crumpled on its own. At the throbbing pain that squeezed my brain, at her gaze upon me.

Camila's brilliantly shining eyes were empty.

As if they belonged to someone who had long transcended all of this.

“I hope you're really related, just as you said, Mr. Neroro. I'm so sick of this now.”

Before I could ask anything more, Camila, who had removed her hand from Lottie's head, glanced at Romero. For a moment, their gazes locked, but the Professor immediately passed me by and said.

“The Rodeo Knights will go to the 3rd Continent. The mission is to investigate the death of Ranker Cavris.”

With her back to the members, she spoke firmly. Delphi and Phillip, who had been waiting for my conversation with Camila with bated breath, reacted violently.

“Whaat? Professor! That's absurd!”

“I don't want to! Another business trip!”

But as if their opinions were not even a consideration from the start, Camila continued.

“The departing members are Vice-Captain Romero, Delphi, Phillip. And Mr. Arsen Neroro and Lottie. Mago, report it as such.”

“P-Professor. Is Arsen Neroro really joining the Knights?”

Mago asked with a face of utter disbelief. And it was the same for me. Weren't the Knights, whom I was seeing for the first time and who were accepting it so nonchalantly, the strange ones in this situation?

Even at the news that Lottie and I were going with them, they were only muttering, ‘I really hate business trips.’

As if it had all been planned.

“Wait a minute. The Knights…… you mean me?”

I had vaguely guessed that Camila was part of the Knights. With Lottie's premonition, I had also anticipated that the place I would be joining was the 'Knights'.

But joining just like this?

Isn't this too sudden?

“The formal appointment will be held after this is over. I hope you will show a capability that everyone can acknowledge, Mr. Neroro.”

And I expect the rest of you to complete your mission perfectly.

Camila, having finished what she had to say at her own convenience, was already moving away.

“She's always so willful. Why on earth did she change so much?”

Delphi, who had been scratching her head, suddenly held out her hand to me.

“Anyway, congratulations. We're a pretty decent union, so it won't be bad. Well, it depends on what you're expecting.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment before quickly shaking her hand. The grip that squeezed mine was no ordinary one.

“Wow! Wait, wait a minute. I hate business trips, but am I not the youngest anymore? What, this is the best!?”

Following that was Phillip, cheering from behind her.

Really,

Is this right?

‘Really?’

***

And so.

“Ah, it's cramped! Sunbae, move over a bit!”

“Shut up. Phillip.”

“There's a spot over there!”

“If you're talking about that dirt floor, then you must want to get beaten up again, huh?”

I was being transported out of Eastbourne in some kind of cargo wagon.

“Lottie. Want to look at Hyung-ah for a bit?”

I gently prodded the little one who had been clinging to my chest since a while ago, but she didn't budge. Lottie, who was only clutching my shirt tightly, did not lift her head.

‘Hmm. She must be really unhappy about something.’

After boarding the wagon, the Knights had tried for a long time to get close to Lottie.

But one by one, they gave up on the unresponsive child who had buried her face as if she were sulking, and returned to their own spots. And then Delphi and Phillip started fighting.

But honestly, none of that was a big problem. Above all, it wasn't a serious issue for a child to be shy.

What was really tiring was,

‘This is hard.’

The cargo bed, reeking of straw and the musty smell of livestock, was packed with four adults and one child.

We were taking in the full beauty of nature provided by the unpaved road we encountered as we left the city center.

It felt like my butt was about to shatter at any moment.

‘What, is this…….’

I was staring blankly at the empty space blocked by the canvas. Phillip, who had been complaining nonstop, began to shout at the top of his lungs.

“The Vice-Captain should've told them to give us more support now that we have more members! Why is it always a cargo wagon! Let us ride in a car too!”

“This is comfortable enough. Just lean back on the haystack properly.”

“What's comfortable about it! It's about time those damned regulations were changed too! Say something to the Professor!”

Romero, who had been writhing and groaning herself, tried to act nonchalant and leaned her back against the haystack.

“Um, do you always travel like this?”

Perhaps influenced by Phillip's tantrum, my mouth, which I had intended to keep shut, opened on its own.

This was a mode of transportation that I couldn't accept no matter how hard I tried.

Astava, perhaps because its foundation was in a game, had strange hybrids of various elements, and the most representative was this kind of thing.

The coexistence of cars that could go up to 60 km/h and horse-drawn carriages.

Neither gave way to the other, and both were used side by side. In my previous life, carriages were completely pushed out by cars with the changing times, but here, as if there was no such thing, the current system had been in place for a very long time.

Right. So it wasn't strange to be riding in a cargo wagon.

What was strange was that the big shots called the 'Rodeo Knights' were crammed into a cargo wagon.

“Sorry to be a downer to the newbie, but you'll have to get used to it from now on.”

Delphi, who had her eyes fixed on the open entrance of the cargo wagon, waved her hand. Since she first got on, she had been staring intently at the dust kicked up by the wagon wheels.

“I have a rough idea of what kind of longing or impressions people have of us. But you know, our treatment isn't that great compared to our fame.”

After saying that, Delphi stuck her head out a little further and muttered, ‘Ugh, the smell of cow dung.’

“What does that……”

“Now, now. I'll explain it to you, good friend.”

As I narrowed my eyes, I heard Romero's voice from the side.

Since getting on the wagon, she had been relentlessly asking about what Lottie liked and disliked, and when I told her Lottie liked snacks and being sung to, she had become crestfallen, saying she was a terrible singer.

A few minutes ago, she had been struggling to win Lottie's favor with some rather embarrassing and unfounded aegyo, but she had a slightly resigned look on her face at the little one who remained stubbornly burrowed in my arms.

“You'll learn naturally as we spend time together, but our Knights are a bit special. Shall I start with what you absolutely must follow.”

Inside the rattling wagon, Romero's eyes narrowed into thin lines.

“First, avoid empty formalities. Second, always maintain a close bond between members. Third, external exposure is forbidden.”

“……External exposure, forbidden?”

At the unexpected word, I slowly repeated it, and Romero smiled brightly and patted my shoulder.

“You haven't been formally appointed yet, but you're practically an apprentice, so Arsen, please follow this too. Otherwise, you'll get scolded by Camila.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“Simply put, it means no getting your picture taken, no interviews, things like that. Revealing that you're a member of the Knights is also forbidden. All the Rodeo Knights need to exist are their name and their achievements. Ah, of course, it doesn't matter if you get found out naturally.”

Everything Romero said was dizzying.

I had no intention of doing those things anyway, but why the fuss?