Mounted knights surrounded the carriage as they traveled.
"Master Merlin, we'll be arriving at the village at the halfway point shortly. We plan to find lodgings for the night there and depart again tomorrow morning."
Edgar called out to Merlin, who was inside the carriage.
"Mm, understood. See to it."
Truth be told, Merlin had wanted to press on toward Gunjou City without rest, day and night. But he knew that while the knights and horses might physically manage it, his own mind would snap if he tried — so, reluctantly, he had to agree.
*(If it were just me, I could have forced my way there alone and been quicker about it...)*
He'd been too polite, worrying about embarrassing Alex after the king had personally assigned these knights to accompany him. Maybe that had been a mistake. But there was no point saying so now, and the thought remained locked inside his head.
About an hour after the report, Merlin's party arrived at the village at the halfway point.
"Master Merlin, I'll go find us an inn, so please wait here for a moment."
Edgar dismounted near the entrance of the village, said this to Merlin, and headed into the village with two knights in tow.
In the meantime, he'd left command to Chris, who was now issuing orders to the remaining knights and quietly positioning them on guard around the area.
Just then, a carriage emerged from the village. It happened to end up blocking their road, so Chris gave Mark the signal to pull their carriage further to the side and let it pass. As the two carriages drew alongside each other,
"Sir Knight, we're merchants — is there anything you might need?"
A man riding in the other carriage stepped down and called out. Chris was a bit flustered by the sudden approach, but—
"What sort of goods are you carrying?"
Merlin's voice cut in smoothly, and without missing a beat he stepped between Chris and the man. The man seemed to have noticed Merlin already, but he paid it no mind.
"What we have on hand right now includes portable dried rations, spices, liquor, herbs, potions, armor, weapons, and slaves."
The man, who introduced himself as Jayman, rattled off his available merchandise without hesitation.
"Hmm, we'll pass on the slaves, thanks. Chris, how are we on potions?"
Merlin thought for a moment, then confirmed with Chris.
"There's still a good amount left, but we've used up about twenty percent overall."
Each person carried a few potions on them, with the rest managed by Chris. The system was that whenever someone used one, they would receive a replacement from Chris's stock, and the supply would be replenished accordingly.
Upon hearing how many remained, Merlin said:
"Then, let's purchase around twenty potions... Of course, I won't buy them if they're overpriced compared to the market rate or if the quality is subpar."
At those words, Jayman nodded and brought out the potions. Merlin took one of them, opened it, and inspected it.
"Hmm, these are quite fine potions."
Saying that, he paid the fee and had Chris stow them away in his bag. The price was about ten percent below market rate, so he bought an additional ten bottles.
"Thank you very much for your patronage... Then, if you'll excuse us here."
Jayman bowed deeply, returned to his carriage, and departed in the direction Merlin and the others had come from.
"Lord Merlin, for just around thirty potions, that merchant was remarkably humble, wasn't he..."
Chris seemed to feel something was off about Jayman's attitude, but:
"He most likely noticed that you and the others are Royal Guards, Chris. For a merchant, having sold goods to the Royal Guards is something of a status symbol... He probably won't go bragging about it on his own, though."
"Is that so," Chris said with a puzzled tilt of his head, but just then Edgar and the others returned, so he stopped thinking about it.
"Lord Merlin, a vacancy just opened up at an inn nearby, so I've secured rooms for everyone. Lord Merlin, I, and Chris will each have private rooms, and the rest will share."
The place he led them to was the same inn where Jayman and his group had been staying, and Merlin's room was the very one Tenma had stayed in... though Merlin and the others had no way of knowing that.
"Good! Then today, let your bodies rest well, and make sure you're in top condition for heading to Gunjou City starting tomorrow!"
At Merlin's words, the group headed toward the inn.
(Just a little more and I can see Tenma! Tenma, your grandpa is coming soon!)
Merlin and his party's journey was far from over.
Meanwhile, in Seigen at dusk,
"Damn it! Everyone, every last one of them, just laughed when they saw my face!"
A lone youth was walking through an alleyway. The boy's name was Geiri, the second son of Marquis Samons. He had come to Seigen and quickly meddled with Tenma, bringing great humiliation upon himself.
It was true the residents had laughed at him, but more than half of it was Geiri's own persecution complex. The rumor had certainly spread that he, a noble's son, had picked a fight with Tenma. However, most people who knew Tenma merely thought, "Another idiot showed up," while those who didn't know him had only a passing interest, like, "Oh, so there was such a person?" Furthermore, Geiri's own face wasn't particularly well-known.
But for Geiri, the fact that he, a noble, had been shamed by a younger, attention-grabbing child—and that his father had ended up scolding him for it—was an unforeseen disaster. Because of this, he couldn't realize that others weren't paying nearly as much attention to him as he thought.
"All of this... it's that brat's fault!
If he had just quietly handed over the Dragon...
I wouldn't be in this mess!"
He remained completely unaware that he himself lacked the power to make a Dragon his Familiar. His resentment toward Tenma only grew.
Perhaps that's why, before he knew it, Geiri didn't realize he had lost his way.
Seigen was a city where you couldn't easily get lost if you stayed on the main roads. At worst, heading towards the center from the main streets would lead you to the dungeon. So, getting lost was a rare occurrence.
But Geiri was in an unfamiliar land, deliberately taking back alleys to avoid people, lost in thought with blood rushing to his head. As a result, he became lost.
Because of this, Geiri didn't realize that, without knowing it, he had wandered into the western part of the city... in other words, the slums.
When he finally noticed, his surroundings were nothing but dirty buildings, garbage was scattered throughout every alley, and he had even ventured into areas where orphans and vagrants hid in the shadows of that refuse.
"What is this place? It's filthy! Staying here, I might catch some strange disease."
Muttering this, he tried to retrace his steps back the way he came, but he couldn't find his way to the main road at all. It made sense. This area was full of illegal additions and expansions, its layout completely different from other districts. Only those who had lived here for many years knew the way.
Naturally, Geiri, who had only recently arrived in the city, couldn't possibly know the roads. No matter how far he walked, he never reached the main street.
Growing increasingly irritated, Geiri turned to a man lying nearby.
"Hey, you over there! Take me to the main road!"
He barked the order. But the man took one look at Geiri and a lecherous grin spread across his face.
"Why, yes, sir. Please wait just a moment."
The man said this, then leaned in to whisper something to a nearby man before returning to Geiri.
"Allow me to guide you. However, the streets around here are rather complicated, so it will take a little time."
Saying this, the man stepped in front of Geiri and began leading the way.
They had probably walked for about twenty minutes. Just as Geiri was starting to grow irritated at the fact that they hadn't reached the main road at all—
"Turn here and the main road is just up ahead."
The man said this and stepped aside. Without an ounce of caution, Geiri shoved past the man and rounded the corner—
"Hey! What's the meaning of this! It's nothing but a dead end!"
Spread out before Geiri was a plaza that had half-turned into a garbage dump.
When Geiri turned back toward the man—
"You really are a dumb kid, aren't you? believing everything a total stranger says and following along without a second thought!"
Standing there, separate from the man who had led him, were four others. As Geiri moved to draw the sword at his hip in a flash—
"Easy now, little brat."
A man who had suddenly appeared behind him pinned him down. From behind that man, several more emerged from the shadows of the garbage piles.
"Let go of me! Do you have any idea who I am! I am Geiri, the second son of Marquis Samons!"
Geiri made a point of introducing himself, and the men burst out laughing.
"Well, well! Let's collect a ransom then! A Marquis would pay just about anything!"
Saying this, they struck Geiri on the back of his head, knocked him unconscious, bound his hands and feet, and forced a ball gag into his mouth.
"Hey! Somebody go get a collar!"
The thing the men had brought over was originally meant to be fastened around a slave's neck — a slave collar that, once worn, rendered the wearer unable to defy the commands of its owner. The man fastened the collar around the unconscious Geiri's neck.
Of course, this was illegal merchandise that only licensed slave traders were permitted to handle, but for those who lived in the underworld, that was hardly a concern.
"We've got ourselves a nice little cash cow. Somebody go dig up info on this guy! And don't you dare screw it up, you hear?"
At those words, several men took off running, while the remaining ones carried Geiri off somewhere.
Completely unaware that anything of the sort was happening above ground, I spent the day tackling the dungeon as usual.
I was currently clearing the thirty-eighth floor and, at that very moment, in the process of shattering the speed record for a full clear. My name was becoming fairly well known by now.
And that, naturally, led people to fixate on one thing — my adventurer rank.
I could solo down to floor thirty-eight (well, not technically a true solo, but close enough), and yet I remained stubbornly stuck at Rank C. This piqued people's curiosity, and all sorts of speculation began flying around.
One rumor held that Tenma was a secret agent for the kingdom, deliberately keeping his rank low while traveling from region to region, covertly investigating influential figures and reporting back to the crown.
Another claimed that Tenma was a homunculus created by magic — youthful in appearance but actually several hundred years old, which explained a strength far beyond what his looks suggested.
Yet another spread the idea that Tenma was the illegitimate child of some nobleman. Having grown powerful enough to alarm the rightful heir, he had been cast out and was now traveling the land to gather strength for the day he would have his revenge — hence the refusal to raise his rank and draw attention.
Rumors like these were making the rounds. It was honestly a pain.
Of all of them, the last one circulated the most. The reason seemed to be that people had noticed my connection to Duke Sanga and the fact that Marquis Samons had bowed his head to me — so someone had started whispering that perhaps I was the secret child of some great noble, or even of His Majesty himself. As far as I could recall, I had never invoked Duke Sanga's name back at Seigen, so the most likely culprit was someone who knew me from Gunjou City — possibly someone in Jin's circle.
Incidentally, I had learned about this rumor from Jin and the others. For a brief moment I had suspected them, but when I saw them shaking their heads frantically, I decided they weren't the ones behind it.
"How do rumors like that even get started?"
To avoid running into more of them, I had been spending longer stretches in the dungeon these past two or three days.
As I was turning these thoughts over in my mind,
"Uuuuu..."
Shiromaru suddenly let out a low growl, and Solomon's guard visibly sharpened.
I stopped in my tracks, drew Kogarumaru from where it hung at my waist, and probed the surroundings for any sign of presence.
(Something is definitely targeting me... but where...)
Just as I was trying to pinpoint the location, killing intent erupted from directly above me.
"There!"
I swung Kogarumaru overhead. Through the blade, I distinctly felt the sensation of making contact with something—
something that had been struck—
that was the impact I felt.
Whatever I'd struck was deflected a short distance away from me, revealing its true form. There, before me, stood—
"A snake! That feeling just now... it was like hitting a rubber tire with a stick..."
What I saw was a massive, pitch-black snake.
According to my Appraisal, it was a Dark Rubber Anaconda, B-rank. Based on how it felt, it seemed like half-hearted strikes and slashes wouldn't do any damage.
Even though my strike had been incomplete, Kogarumaru's cut didn't seem to have been very effective.
"Guess I'll have to get a little serious..."
I sheathed Kogarumaru and took an iaijutsu stance. As I slowly closed the distance, the anaconda coiled its body, and the next instant, it shot toward me like an arrow with terrifying speed.
"Hmph."
I exhaled sharply and drew my blade in a counter against the anaconda.
Kogarumaru had relatively little curve, so I couldn't generate as much speed as I'd hoped, but forcing through the swing, the blade bit into roughly the middle of the anaconda's lower jaw and tore through all the way to the back of its head.
The anaconda's decapitated body flew past me without losing momentum, slammed into the wall, and then fell to the ground. It continued to writhe there, but as expected, it didn't attack again.
"Guess cutting won't be very effective if you don't properly angle the blade..."
After muttering that, I sheathed Kogarumaru and collected the anaconda.
Looking at the cut, the anaconda's body was covered in rubber-like skin roughly five millimeters thick, and its flesh was a clean pink color that resembled chicken at first glance, though it turned out to have more elasticity than chicken when I touched it.
However, the truly puzzling thing was that a six-meter anaconda had fallen from above. That wouldn't be unusual in a forest, but this was a dungeon, and this area was full of rock.
When I looked carefully at the spot where the anaconda must have been, there was a lateral passage carved into the wall.
I tried floating up to peek inside and could feel a draft of air flowing from deeper within.
So I asked Slarin to go in and scout ahead. She returned after about two or three minutes. Apparently there was a spacious area further in.
I decided to use earth magic to widen the passage until it was big enough to crawl through, then headed inside.
Crawling after Slarin for about five minutes, we emerged into an area where many large, jagged rocks jutted out from the ground.
As I looked around near where we had descended, I noticed one spot where I could sense something off about the aura.
That spot was directly on the other side of a large boulder from where I currently stood. It felt as though something was suppressing its presence, so I drew Kogarumaru, ordered Shiromaru and the others to stand by, then masked my footsteps and aura as I slowly approached.
From what I could see around the rock, there was nothing out of the ordinary, but at the very spot where I had sensed something, I could feel what seemed like a barrier.
So I cast "Dispel," an anti-magic spell, aimed at that spot and cut through it. And what I found where the barrier had dissipated was...
"A girl... Why is she in a place like this..."
There were two young girls wearing grimy, ragged clothes.
One was a small, white-haired girl, and the other, though filthy, appeared to be blonde — and she looked more like a young woman than a girl, honestly.
Neither of them had noticed me — they were startled by the sudden collapse of the barrier. But the white-haired girl recovered her wits first, grabbed a battered sword lying nearby, and pointed it at me with a fierce glare.
The other woman stared at me with hollow eyes, then tried to move as if to shield the white-haired girl, but she seemed far too weakened to do so, and collapsed right then and there.
"Wait! I have no hostile intentions!"
As I said that, I tossed Kogarumaru to the ground at my feet and raised both hands.
The white-haired girl still didn't lower her guard, but—
"I have a large supply of potions and several types of medicine on me! If you put the sword away, I'll give you enough to treat that woman!"
Those words made the girl hesitate for a moment before—
"Then just hand over the medicine!"
With that, she lowered her sword. She didn't let go of it entirely, but she did seem to relax her guard somewhat.
"For now, I've packed potions and various medicines like antidotes."
I wrapped the potions and such in a piece of Kobold fur and lightly tossed it toward the girl.
The fur landed about three meters in front of her, so I backed up nearly ten meters and sat down. Just in case, I'd positioned Shiromaru and the others to surround the girls.
The girl cautiously approached the fur without ever turning her back to me, quickly retrieved it, and pulled out a potion.
She opened the bottle of potion, lightly tasted the liquid inside to verify its contents, then moved to have the woman drink it.
"Aura, drink this!"
However, whether the woman lacked the strength to even swallow, or whether she was too far gone for potions to work, I couldn't tell from here—but either way, there was no sign of recovery.
"Aura! Please, just drink it!"
The girl was screaming, but the woman's responses were growing weaker by the second.
If this kept up, the woman was in serious danger. Thinking that, I immediately closed the distance between myself and the girls.
"What are you going to do?!"
The girl swung her sword at me—I had somehow ended up right in front of her—
"Now is not the time for that!"
I caught the blade on the back of my left hand and deflected it away. Blood streamed from the back of my hand, but I merely wiped it on my clothes and left it be.
The girl had gone weak in the knees and was sitting on the ground, having collapsed onto her rear.
Taking advantage of that opening, I checked on the woman's condition—her complexion was terrible, and her breathing was ragged. Her body had likely been weakened by some minor poison or illness, and then she'd caught an infection on top of that. Honestly, at this rate, she could die at any moment.
"Antidote, Cure, Resist, Aqua Heal"
I cast a string of spells in succession. Antidote to purge the poison, Cure to disinfect and boost her recovery rate, Resist to raise her resistance, and Aqua Heal to mend her wounds.
Only after all that did her complexion finally improve and her breathing settle. I tried giving her a potion, and this time she was able to swallow it.
I suppose you could say it was a moment of relief at last. But just then, the girl who had collapsed onto her rear got to her feet and snatched the woman away from me, pulling her into an embrace.
The girl was overjoyed to see the woman's improved complexion, but she still hadn't let her guard down around me.
Seeing the girl holding the woman close, I stood up and pulled a bed out of my bag.
"It's the one I was using, so sorry about that, but it's better than leaving her on the ground. Go ahead and use it."
Saying that, I moved away from the girls and called Shiromaru and the others over.
The girl was frightened when Shiromaru and the rest came bounding out from behind nearby rocks and such, but I made sure to give them a thorough scolding first, then had them lie down, and promised her that they would absolutely not harm her.
After that, I sent Shiromaru and the others out to scout the surroundings, treated my left hand, and then started cooking.
The menu was a stew made with anaconda meat.
When I first tasted the anaconda meat raw, it was low in fat with a protein-forward flavor, so I figured it would be fine even for the girls whose bodies were weakened. I chopped it up finely along with vegetables and simmered it all together. For the seasoning, I made a white sauce from milk and flour, thinned it out a bit, and kept it simple—no spices—relying on the vegetables' natural flavor with just a touch of salt and soy sauce, then mashed some taro (what I call that particular root vegetable) to thicken it.
That said, just stew alone wasn't going to cut it for me, Shiromaru, and Solomon, so I also added anaconda teriyaki and orc meat skewers… Incidentally, the orc bones that normally would have been treats for Shiromaru and the rest, I stashed away in my bag for my own ambitions.
Maybe drawn by the smell, Shiromaru and the others came back to where I was.
Among them, Slarin planted himself in front of me and spat out a monster's corpse with a thud… I mean, I know the Dimension Bag is stored inside their bodies, but Slarin's behavior is just impossible to see as anything other than… gamey, no matter how you look at it.
I collected myself and examined the haul: one small Dark Lava Anaconda (about two meters), five Kobolds, one Orc, and three horned rabbits. I transferred everything into my bag first, then praised the three of them and gave them their portions.
Watching all this, the girl suddenly turned red in the face and clutched her stomach. Her growling had probably given her away. It wasn't like I actually heard it, but I scooped some stew into a bowl and approached her.
"I prepared it so it would be easy to digest, so it should be safe for you to eat."
I held out the bowl along with a spoon, but the girl wouldn't take it.
She was clearly hungry, but the look in her eyes said she still couldn't trust me. Resigned, I set the bowl down on the ground nearby, walked back to the pot, and started eating my own meal.
The first thing I thought after taking a bite was,
"Anaconda... fucking delicious!"
That's what I thought. At first, I'd only thought it tasted a bit lean, more like protein, but once it simmered, the gelatinous parts between the meat fibers melted away, and when I put it in my mouth, the meat fell apart. It seemed there was hidden umami in those gelatinous bits, making the stew taste even better.
I was shoveling it into my mouth, lost in the experience, and even asked for seconds. Naturally, Shiromaru and Solomon also demanded more stew—but only the meat. As expected of number one and number two.
However, I, the evil mastermind, dumped a huge amount of vegetables in along with the meat. The disappointed faces Shiromaru and Solomon made at that moment were fun to watch. They ate the vegetables with a sort of "well, I guess it can't be helped" expression, but in the end, both of them licked their bowls clean.
Seeing this, the girl timidly started eating the stew, gradually increasing her pace with the spoon... It looked like she was enjoying it.
She finished everything in what felt like an instant and still had a slightly unsatisfied look on her face, so I asked if she wanted seconds, picking up the pot. The girl hesitated for a moment, then gave a small, shy nod.
As I was pouring a second helping into her bowl,
"Hm... mm... where is..."
The woman seemed to have regained consciousness.
"Aura, you're awake! Do you know who I am?"
The girl abandoned her stew and rushed over to the woman. The woman stared blankly for a while, but then,
"Jeanne... where are we? Why are we in a place like this?"
she answered.
Antidote... a purification magic effective against most poisons, with its strength depending on the user's skill.
Cure... a sanitation and purification magic effective against infections like tetanus.
Resist... a magic that increases various bodily resistances. In this case, it was used to boost resistance to illness for Aura, whose stamina was low.
Aqua Heal... a type of recovery magic. This one was water magic, but a light magic version, Healer, also exists. Compared to Healer, it restores less stamina, but for treating wounds, Aqua Heal is more effective.