We arrived at Millishion, capital of the Milis Holy Kingdom.
It had been quite a while since I'd last visited this city.
I'd come to Milis before when setting up the teleportation circle, but I hadn't visited the capital back then.
So this was only my second time in my life.
Last time, I'd approached from the north, and I could still recall the scenery from that visit.
The river flowing down from the Xianglong Mountain Range into the lake, the Pure White Palace floating in the center of the lake, the golden cathedral and the silver Adventurers' Guild standing along the riverbank.
And the seven towers arranged around the city, along with the sprawling grasslands beyond.
...Ah.
"A city of dignity and harmony—the most beautiful city in the world, possessing both in equal measure."
Or something like that, wasn't it?
The scene matched exactly what I'd read in a book long ago, which was why I vaguely remembered it.
Man, that's nostalgic. What was that book again?
Right, right—*Walking the World* by the adventurer Bloody Count.
Thinking about it now, that's quite the name for a title. But come to think of it, who actually wrote it?
During my travels, I'd never heard of any adventurer named Bloody Count.
They must have lived a really long time ago.
Why did
Well, whatever.
Millishion viewed from the south was just as beautiful.
Thanks to the tall towers and high walls, nothing unsightly could be seen. Only the pristine, silvery-white castle reflected the light and sparkled brilliantly.
The walls hid everything except the castle itself, making the castle's beauty stand out all the more.
Simple is best.
"Yeah, this really is the most beautiful city in the world."
The one who muttered that was
It seemed he'd overheard my self-talk.
"But inside, it's probably the dirtiest city in the world."
In Cliff's eyes, only the White Palace was reflected. For him now, that beautiful castle might feel like an imposing, oppressive presence. After all, this was going to become a battlefield of a city. It was only natural to think that way.
In truth, I'd say the
Ariel and the other nobles—most of them were rotten to the core.
But the Asura Kingdom, for all its faults, had plenty of ugly parts on the outside too. Milis Holy Kingdom didn't bother trying to make its exterior as clean as it made the interior. In that respect, Milis was indeed the more hypocritical of the two.
"...Cliff-senpai."
"Come on, I'm not your senpai anymore."
"Cliff... if anything comes up, just tell me."
This time around, I was in a fairly relaxed position. And in that relaxed capacity, I wanted to be there for Cliff however I could. Even if it was just something as simple as running to the convenience store to buy juice—that kind of thing was fine.
"Well then, for starters... could you take me home by carriage?"
"Sure thing, orders of the future High Bishop."
That day, Cliff returned to Millishion.
It was the first time in roughly ten years.
--- Millishion had four entrances.
Last time, I'd entered through the Adventurers' Quarter.
The reason, if I remembered correctly, was that people from outside the city would run into trouble if they used any other entrance.
Anyway, I remembered going all the way around the wall and entering through the most bustling gate.
This time was the same, more or less.
But since Cliff was with us, there was no need to fuss over which entrance to use. The Adventurers' Quarter entrance on the south side was the closest.
Of course, "closest" was relative. It would have been faster time-wise to bypass the crowded streets and take the outer perimeter where there were fewer people. Haste makes waste, and all that.
But Cliff had said, "I want to see the streets again after so long."
And who was I to argue?
After all, this was his hometown—his hometown after ten years. He'd probably be living here for years to come, but today was special. The chance to walk from the entrance to his house and be struck by nostalgia at every turn—that old building was still there, this place still had that thing from before—those opportunities didn't come around often. This was one of them.
"Got it."
And so, I followed Cliff's wishes and drove the carriage straight through the main road.
"So nostalgic..."
Cliff murmured that softly as we passed through Milis's beautiful gate.
Cliff was from the Sacred District and, from what I'd heard, didn't visit the Adventurers' Quarter much. Yet for some reason, the sight of the Adventurers' Quarter gate had him squinting with some emotion. Perhaps it brought back a memory or anecdote of some kind.
My time in this city had been, at most, about a week. The only real memories that came to mind were of Paul.
Those were certainly deep enough to bring tears if I dwelled on them, but beyond that, I didn't have many memories worth calling "memories."
So what I thought about as I looked around was the future—the mercenary corps I'd be establishing in this city.
The streets were filled with adventurers walking about. There were more beast-kin and long-eared races compared to the Asura Kingdom. The adventurers varied in rank, but you could tell roughly by their gear.
Adventurers who were clearly teenagers of fifteen or sixteen dressed in obviously secondhand equipment were newcomers.
Those with brand-new gear were around eighteen—the beginners.
Adventurers in their twenties with a mix of new and worn equipment were the mid-rankers.
And those who appeared to be wearing worn gear at first glance but were actually equipped with what looked like mana-infused items or high-end gear were the veterans.
Jobs varied, but since this was the heartland of the Milis faith, there were many healing mages and relatively few offensive mages.
In the magic city of Sharia, you'd mostly find seasoned warriors and swordsmen alongside beginner mages. It was the kind of place where battle-hardened fighters recruited promising young mages fresh out of the magic academy.
As for races, there were mostly humans and beast-kin.
The prevalence of beast-kin was probably related to Lina and Purcena's extended stay here.
In the Asura Kingdom's capital of Alms, everywhere you looked it was nothing but beginners. Because the schools there were so well-developed, there wasn't much occupational bias. However, the races were almost entirely human. Non-human races were typically mid-rank or veteran adventurers who quickly moved on from the royal capital.
The diverse spread of adventurer races and skill levels in Milis was likely because the Great Forest was nearby.
Beast-kin, long-eared folk, small folk, and charcoal folk poured down from the Great Forest as newcomers, while adventurers who'd built up experience in Milis headed north into the Great Forest where the monsters were stronger.
But since the Great Forest didn't have an Adventurers' Guild, these seasoned adventurers used Millishion as their base.
Some of the more experienced ones probably commuted between Millishion and Xanport within the span of a year.
As a result, this city—which also housed the Adventurers' Guild headquarters—was host to a wide variety of adventurers with no particular concentration of one type.
Now then, how to go about establishing a mercenary corps here.
In the Asura Kingdom, things had gone smoothly partly thanks to Ariel's connections. In that country, there had been a surplus of "swordsmen," "merchants," and "nobles."
Commoners who'd entered a swordsmanship dojo but never became soldiers, never became adventurers, and had no connections to teach swordsmanship to anyone.
Merchants' sons who'd studied commerce but had their shops taken over by the eldest son and been forced to strike out on their own.
And third or fourth sons of low-ranking nobles who'd studied everything comprehensively but couldn't inherit the family title or find a bride.
When you gathered all these people together, you had connections in all sorts of places, and things had worked out smoothly—especially for jobs that soldiers found difficult to handle.
In the end, we'd entrusted the branch leadership to the fifth son of a high-ranking noble who'd come recommended by Ariel.
Man, when I interviewed that fifth son about the branch leader position, it had been a blast.
His answer had been: "I was disguising my status and actively engaging with commoners. By doing so, I learned about cultural differences while also understanding the importance of getting to know each and every colleague personally."
His responses were so well-reasoned that I thought, "Oh, this one's got potential."
And in practice, his ability to lead people was excellent. He was intimately familiar with the lifestyle and cultural differences between nobles and commoners, and whenever disputes arose within the corps, he could understand both sides and guide them to resolution.
He didn't have charisma, exactly, but in a strange way, he was the type that people didn't dislike.
Of course I'd entrust it to him.
He was more capable than me.
But I digress.
The point was, I wanted to establish a mercenary corps here in this country too.
What I needed was personnel, a branch leader, and a direction for the corps as an organization.
Aisha had been taking notes of some kind, but our policy was to make decisions after seeing things on the ground. So she, like me, was looking around with curious eyes.
But it would be premature to decide everything based solely on what we saw here. This was the Adventurers' Quarter, so naturally there were more adventurers. But there was also the Sacred District, the Commercial District, and the Residential District.
It was certainly true that dealing with the locals rather than adventurers would be the better approach for our purposes. We should check out the Sacred and Residential Districts before drawing any conclusions.
"I didn't pay much attention last time I was here, but... there are really all kinds of races."
"The Great Forest is nearby, after all."
As I said that, I looked around too.
There really were all sorts. A small folk child who looked barely ten years old, long-eared folk with limbs as thin as dried branches.
And the beast-kin came in all varieties. Dogs, cats, rabbits, deer, rats, tigers, wolves, sheep, bears...
Come to think of it, did those folks feel anything at all when they saw livestock like cows and pigs being kept as domesticated animals?
Then again, humans don't feel anything special seeing monkeys kept in zoos, so maybe it was the same idea. They were simply different creatures.
"Ah—ah—...!"
"Hey, careful! It's dangerous if you stand up...!"
When I glanced back, Zenis was standing up in the carriage.
Aisha was rushing to sit him back down, and he was swaying with the motion of the carriage while pointing at something.
What he was pointing at was a monkey.
No, excuse me—it was a man with a monkey-like face.
Come to think of it, among the beast-kin, none of them really looked like monkeys. So were monkeys actually a rarity in this world?
Rare enough that Zenis was excitedly pointing at one.
Hmm, that monkey-man looked familiar.
Actually, wait—that guy wasn't beast-kin...
"...Oh."
"Whoa!? Senpai, is that you? What are you doing in a place like this?!"
He was a demon.
--- "Well, I never expected to run into you in a place like this."
As soon as Geese spotted us, he hopped right into our carriage without a shred of hesitation.
He acted as though it were his own carriage that he knew like the back of his hand.
"Talk about a coincidence! More importantly, what are you doing here?"
Geese seemed genuinely thrilled to see us. His face was one big grin.
Being received with that much enthusiasm made me happy too.
"Half work, half family business."
"Gotcha, gotcha. As for me, well, it's a tale of tears upon tears—"
Without even being asked, Geese launched into a story about what happened after we parted ways in Sharia.
Geese, Talhand, Vera, and Shera had arrived in the Asura Kingdom as planned. There, they'd sold the mana-absorbing stone and come into a fortune.
Vera and Shera had used that money to retire from adventuring and returned to the town where they'd originally lived. Geese didn't know what happened after that, but he assumed that with money to their name, they'd probably started some kind of business.
As for Geese himself—predictably, you might say—he'd gotten hooked on gambling.
I didn't know much about it, but the Asura Kingdom apparently had a gambling district, and he'd taken to hanging around there.
Part of it was simply that Geese had always been a gambling man to begin with, but coming into a massive sum of money had apparently caused him to lose all restraint.
In just a few months, Geese had burned through every last coin.
"Man, that was a scary time. They took everything I had to wear. The only thing I had left to bet was my life, basically."
If things had continued as they were, he'd have ended up sealed in concrete at the bottom of the ocean, no doubt about it.
The one who saved him was Talhand. He'd been planning to set off on his next adventure and had come to say goodbye to Geese when he stumbled upon the scene.
Though exasperated, Talhand had sold the mana-infused gauntlets he'd just had made at the workshop and used the money to rescue Geese. Those gauntlets had cost him his entire fortune too—same mana-absorbing stone variety.
Thanks to that, both of them were completely broke.
They couldn't afford to stay in the expensive Asura Kingdom, so they'd headed south.
If it had been me, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to help—or travel with—someone with such extravagant spending habits. But Talhand had known Geese for a long time, so maybe it was a mutual thing.
Maybe Talhand had been saved by Geese at some point too.
Well, it was friendship, wasn't it?
And so the two of them had bypassed the Cylone Kingdom—which was in the middle of a messy civil war—and the King Dragon Kingdom, which was rumored to be involved, and returned to Milis.
Like returning to their old nest.
After that, Talhand had left for his own reasons, and Geese had ended up alone.
According to Geese, Talhand had probably gone back to his hometown.
"That guy, going back to his hometown—what's he even doing there?"
Geese grumbled, but I kind of understood. When you'd been traveling for a long time, there were moments when you suddenly wanted to see your family.
Homesickness. It was
"Are you not going back, Geese?"
"Me? Don't be ridiculous. Going back to some backwards middle-of-nowhere place with nothing to do? That doesn't sound fun at all."
Was that so?
I always missed my home.
"That guy also seems to have bad memories of his hometown, though."
"Maybe he went back to settle those bad memories."
No matter what had happened in the past, things changed as time went on. Something you absolutely couldn't forgive in your teens might become forgivable in your twenties, and by your fifties, you might not even care anymore.
Maybe Talhand had reached some kind of closure in his heart and gone back to reassess things.
"Well, forget about Talhand—I'm resuming my adventuring career here."
After parting with Talhand, Geese had apparently started working as an adventurer again in this area. Though he wasn't making much at all.
He was a demon with no real combat ability, after all.
"So, Senpai, what brought you here?"
"My mother's ended up in this state, so her family called me in. Figured I'd drop by to see them while escorting a friend."
"Ohhh... Zenis's family, huh..."
Geese looked at Zenis with sympathy. Zenis wore his usual vacant expression, though he seemed to be in a slightly better mood than normal.
Maybe it was because Geese was here.
"Well, I've heard a bit about what kind of family Zenis comes from, but... I don't think it's gonna be pleasant...?"
"What did you hear, exactly?"
"Not much. Just that it's a strict, traditional family."
Geese shrugged.
That was about the extent of what I already knew before coming here.
But there was nothing to do but go.
"Oh, we're almost at the district border. Sorry, but let me off here. If a demon like me wanders into the Sacred District, it'll be trouble."
At Geese's words, I brought the carriage to a stop.
Geese immediately hopped down with a light "yoink."
"Well then, if you're staying around for a while, I'm sure we'll run into each other again. Stay well, Senpai!"
Geese waved his hand as he walked off into an alley...
He was about to leave, then turned back.
"Senpai! Can I ask you one thing?"
"Sure."
"Do you remember what Paul said in that labyrinth?"
Words Paul had said in the labyrinth.
There were many that came to mind, but one in particular stuck with me.
It was probably that one.
"Yeah."
When I said that, Geese nodded with satisfaction and turned on his heel.
The acquaintance I'd met so suddenly had departed just as suddenly.
It really had been a chance encounter.
But even so, running into someone you knew when you were tense and on edge—that was always a welcome thing.
With that thought, I stepped into the Sacred District.
--- By the time we reached Cliff's house, the sun had already set.
Cliff's house was more ordinary than I'd expected.
A modest single-family home—just the right size for a family of three or four. Nothing that stood out from the house next door.
In fact, the Sacred District was lined with houses all of the same design.
I'd expected something on par with Ariel's estate since he said it was the home of a clergy member, so it was a bit anticlimactic.
"It's surprisingly small."
"All the clergy who work at the headquarters are given these houses. Though Grandfather has a room at the headquarters too, so this house hasn't been in use."
Cliff didn't get offended by my tactless comment and simply explained.
So it was basically company housing.
"Thanks for bringing me—I appreciate it. It's late, so stay the night," Cliff offered.
At his suggestion, it suddenly occurred to me.
Zenis's family home was in the Residential District.
If I went now, it would take a fair bit of time. Showing up in the middle of the night felt like it would cause unnecessary trouble. Arriving in travel-worn clothes wouldn't leave a great impression either.
I could stay at an inn in the Adventurers' Quarter and visit properly tomorrow, but that would be doubling back...
"Sure, I'll take you up on that."
I decided to accept Cliff's offer.
We unloaded our luggage, put the horse in the stable, and stored the carriage in the warehouse. While we did all that, the rest of the group carried their belongings inside.
But the moment I moved to bring the carriage in, a puff of white smoke billowed out from beyond the door.
"Ah-choo!"
A sharp smell hit my nose, and Aisha let out an adorable sneeze.
"Ke-hough... This is terrible... Grandpa clearly hasn't been cleaning..."
Cliff grumbled while covering his nose with a cloth.
Maybe he'd left things be, thinking Cliff wouldn't be returning for a while.
In any case, the inside of the house was covered in dust.
"Consider it thanks for letting us stay—I'll help with the cleaning. Well, Aisha will."
"Huh? Sure, that'd be—wait, what?"
"Ehh? Me?"
Aisha yelped in surprise, and Zenis shot her a reproachful look.
Well, Zenis's face was expressionless as always, but I could feel the intent in his stare.
Don't look at me like that.
Have I ever left you alone to do all the cleaning?
I had. Every time. Completely left you to it.
I'm grateful, though...
"I'm kidding, of course! I'll help too, obviously."
"Naturally."
The late-night deep clean began.
We threw the windows wide open, used wind magic to blast out the bulk of the dust, and then swept up the rest with brooms. After that, we damp-mopped only the rooms we'd be using.
Taking into account that the house hadn't been used in years, we also ran hot air over the beds and blankets to kill any bugs.
The kitchen had been in pretty rough shape too, but Aisha handled it on her own.
Actually, while Cliff and I were tidying up the living room, Aisha had finished the rough cleaning of the room she'd be using entirely on her own.
At three times the normal speed.
Aisha the Red Comet strikes again.
After that, we made a light dinner using the leftover food from the road.
"Cliff-senpai, welcome home."
"It's too early for that. I haven't met Grandfather yet."
We toasted with water and ate dried meat and soup. For an in-home meal, it was a bit bland, but this was about what you'd expect. We wanted to use up the excess food before it went to waste anyway.
"What about you,
"We're going to visit the Latreia family first."
"Gotcha. Will you be staying there overnight?"
"I think so, probably."
They had a bad reputation and all, but they were Zenis's family at the end of the day. Staying for a while shouldn't be a problem.
There were various things I needed to do—preparations for the mercenary corps branch, checking on Cliff's situation—and being lodged at the Latreia estate might restrict my freedom to move around. But I wouldn't know until I went.
I could always just pay a greeting visit and stay somewhere else if needed.
"Well then, I'll need to hire someone who can do housework..."
"If you want, I could send Aisha over once every few days?"
"No, that's alright. You two are busy too, and besides, I know people I can ask."
Cliff shrugged as he said that.
--- For sleeping, we were given the guest room.
Three people in a not-very-large room. A tight squeeze—sleeping shoulder to shoulder.
...or so I thought, but both Aisha and I were fully grown adults. The bed itself was small, with no room for three adults to lie side by side.
So we gave the bed to Zenis and Aisha and I slept on the floor, using borrowed blankets and cushions from Cliff to make our beds.
There was carpet on the floor, so compared to sleeping outdoors, it was nothing.
I set my head on a pillow and lay down.
Before long, I found myself making eye contact with Aisha, who had set up her own bed right next to mine.
"Hehe, sleeping in the same room as big brother like this—Sylphie-sis would be so jealous..."
"We've done this plenty of times on the road."
"Yeah. But somehow, hehe."
Aisha seemed to enjoy the novelty of sleeping together under the same roof, grinning happily.
It was an adorable smile.
If this had been Sylphie, I probably would have felt a stirring and pulled her into my arms right then and there. Sylphie would have quietly inched closer to me too.
But with Aisha, there was no stirring. She wasn't leaning toward me either.
I liked Aisha, and it seemed Aisha liked me too. But neither of us sought that kind of physical contact.
It was a strange feeling.
She was this cute, and yet...
"I don't mean to pry, but... what do you think about what Lillia-san has been saying all these years? Like, what's your take on it now?"
"What about what Mom's been saying? Which part?"
"You know, about having me take you on as a servant, or doing this, or doing that."
When I asked that, Aisha tilted her head with a blank expression.
Then she put her hand to her chin, thinking about it.
"Hmm... It's not that I dislike it... but I think it's probably different from, say, what Sylphie-sis has. It's like... different. But different how, exactly..."
"No, I get it. Yeah, it is different, isn't it."
It was a fuzzy conversation, but we understood each other somehow. The feeling was aligned.
"Nfufu, that's why I love big brother so much~"
While saying that, Aisha shuffled over to me and pressed her body against mine.
Warm and soft.
What a nice body pillow.
"Sometimes I wonder... will I ever fall in love with someone and want to have kids someday?"
While I was enjoying the warmth, Aisha suddenly said that, as if the thought had just struck her.
She was talking about what we'd been discussing.
"Who knows. Maybe you will?"
"What kind of person, I wonder..."
Aisha's boyfriend.
I couldn't even imagine it.
Would it be some highly capable type, or some helpless type? Aisha could adapt to anyone, but it didn't seem like she'd fall for someone who needed her to do so.
What were Aisha's normal social interactions like?
The mercenary corps had... lots of beast-kin. Aisha with one of those wild-looking brutes?
I wasn't about to let my sister marry some guy who could've been anyone's bone-buried dog!
If I asked
Nah, better not ask. If he told me she stayed single her whole life, I'd feel awful.
Oh, right.
One more thing to confirm before bed.
"Aisha, tomorrow I'm taking Mother to her family home, but... what are you going to do?"
"..."
Aisha shifted slightly within my arm's reach, creating a bit of distance. Then she settled back into her original position.
"I'm going. Mom specifically asked me to come, no matter what."
"Gotcha..."
"Mm."
Hearing Aisha's firm reply put me at ease.
Tomorrow was the visit to Zenis's family. We'd have a proper conversation, establish connections with the family...
Going to a prestigious household alone was nerve-wracking, no matter what.
After that, it would be setting up the mercenary corps branch. Having the Latreia family's connections might make things go more smoothly.
I wanted to get properly rooted in this land.
"Well then, I'll be counting on you for a while."
"Got it. Leave it to me."
"Seriously, you're a huge help. Thanks for cleaning today too... Good night."
"Mm, you're welcome... good night... zzz..."
Listening to Aisha's drowsy voice, I closed my eyes.