"I'm sorry."
It seemed Amour was the one who had let the secret slip — while Lion was being chewed out by Albert, Amour had gone before Primera and was prostrate on the ground, apologizing.
"Amour, I'm not angry, so please take a seat. I can't really have a conversation with you like that."
"Understood. Also, just Amour is fine."
It seemed Amour had already known Primera would say that, because he immediately stopped prostrating himself and took a seat.
"Um, well... Lion making a fuss was unexpected, but we also bear some responsibility for having forgotten to make everyone keep quiet. Besides, the ones who found out about the engagement weren't the kind of people who'd spread it around for fun, so you really don't need to worry."
The reconciliation between Primera and Amour (if you could even call it that) was settled, but Albert's anger had yet to subside.
Well, his precious sister's engagement being ruined by Lion's carelessness... wouldn't actually happen, but he probably couldn't forgive the complicated mess it could create.
For the record, he'd been spouting all sorts of nonsense the whole time — things like "Don't go casually blurting out an unannounced noble's engagement!", "Are you trying to ruin Primera and Tenma's engagement?!", "Your carelessness is going to become my responsibility!", and "Are you trying to drive a wedge between the Royal Family and the Haust Border Count family?!"
"Albert, let it go already. You've said more than enough, and Lion was just caught off guard by the sudden situation — he didn't mean any harm. Besides, he looks like he's reflected on it plenty."
"Well, if Tenma says so..."
Albert released Lion with a reluctant look.
Perhaps he himself had gotten too worked up and simply lost track of when to stop.
"Tenma, Primera, I'm sorry."
"Well, it wasn't overheard by anyone outside this mansion, so as long as everyone keeps quiet, there shouldn't be a problem. Jin and the others understand that too, I'm sure."
"That's right. Besides, if I have a word with Lina later, I think there'll be nothing to worry about."
Even so, Lina was formerly a viscount's daughter, so even now that she'd had her name removed from the family register, she still understood the fearsome nature of nobility.
If it was something Lina said, Jin and the others would definitely try to uphold it.
Still, though...
"Even though Lina calls Primera 'Primera-chan' with all the proper deference, Primera just calls her 'Lina' without any honorific at all, huh."
And that got me thinking. Was it really the difference in status between a ducal and a baronial household?
"No, Lina calls me by my first name too, no problem. She just likes to joke around and deliberately uses the way she called me when we were kids."
So the childish way of speaking wasn't just how Primera naturally was—there was actually a reason behind it... I had assumed Primera was just being her straightforward self because Lina could be airheaded at times, but maybe Lina had simply been teasing her? Come to think of it, Lina did have a scheming side too, so Primera was probably right. I still didn't know why Lina used the honorific "-chan" behind Primera's back in front of me, though.
"I'll make sure to warn Jin and the others too. It's not like the engagement would be undone even if it got out, but their reputations would take a hit."
Honestly, I didn't think the engagement leaking would be a huge deal. But even if it wasn't intentional, Jin and the others would earn the displeasure of both the royal family and Duke Sanga's household if they let it slip. Combined with my warning and Primera's caution relayed through Lina, they should understand how dangerous it was. Well, those who didn't know the reason might come gripe to me about it, but I could tolerate that much. If I really couldn't, I could always drag them into a sparring match.
"That takes care of Jin and the others...but Chris is fine, right? He made such a huge commotion, and now he won't wake up at all..."
Chris was worrying me by not waking up. I could hear him breathing steadily and he didn't seem to be in any distress, so he was probably okay, but the fact that he was out this cold made me suspect he might be pretending to be asleep.
"Well, he's quiet, so maybe we should just leave Senior Chris as he is? If he woke up and found out what happened, he'd probably make even more of a scene than Lion."
With Cain's remark, we decided to leave Chris alone. Even during Lion's episode, Chris had been in a pretty foul mood—learning about the engagement while still drunk could make him completely unmanageable. We'd need to tell Chris about my engagement to Primera in a setting where Maria was present, or at the very least when Aina was around.
After that, Chris didn't wake up until dinnertime, and eventually Aina—arriving together with Duke Sanga—took him home. We did invite him to dinner, but the alcohol hadn't worn off and he had no appetite, it seemed. If things went like that, he'd be suffering from a terrible hangover tomorrow.
"Well then, we'll take our leave for today."
Duke Sanga and his party departed after dinner concluded. As they were leaving, Lion had asked Primera whether she wasn't going to stay the night, but since the engagement was still officially a secret, the Duke had decided they should avoid anything that might raise suspicion.
"To think that Tenma would get married... I thought he had no interest in women, but I guess that worry was unfounded."
Jin burst out laughing, followed by Garat, Menace, and even Grandpa.
"As for me, I always thought Primera-chan had the highest likelihood, so it's not really a surprise. I just didn't expect it to happen so suddenly, that's all."
Lina puffed out her chest, declaring that apart from the abruptness of the engagement, everything had gone exactly as she'd predicted. And for some reason, Amour was puffing out his chest just the same, while Jeanne's face turned slightly red at the sight of him.
"Well, there's still time before the engagement is officially announced, and the real fuss will start after that. More importantly, I think Jin and the others will be the center of attention in the meantime. What are your plans after the audience with the King?"
When I said that, Jin and the others made slightly pained expressions before quickly recovering.
"Actually, about that—there's something we'd like Tenma's help with,"
Jin said.
"Actually, we recovered the Hydra's magic core and the Dungeon Core, but we left all the other materials behind. With the Magic Bags we have, there was no way to carry all of the Hydra's materials back."
"So you're asking me to play delivery service. But I'm stopped quite a ways above the lowest level."
Jin and the others must know that. And yet they're still asking—which means either they want me to make my own way down to the lowest level,
"or Jin and the others will guide me down to the lowest level?"
Like when I took Amy to the Dungeon before—one of them would hold my hand, and we'd head to the Warp Zone near the lowest level.
"Won't that draw complaints from other adventurers? Rather than doing that, wouldn't it be better to ask a Guild staff member to come along and collect the materials?"
I thought that would be a way to avoid earning anyone's resentment, but...
"If you do that, adventurers who are close with that staff member will definitely show up at the lowest level. And they'll die."
Guild staff are supposed to be neutral, but that's just an ideal—not all of them are like that. If such a staff member were asked by an acquaintance or offered a large sum of money, they might, in secret, bring their
cli
ent
to the lowest level.
Or perhaps, aiming for materials near the lowest level, they would send adventurers down there with the Guild's backing.
"With Tenma, though—he's got multiple Magic Bags and Dimension Bags on him, and there's no way he'd lose to the Monsters at the lowest level."
"If that's the deal, I'm fine with it. But if I haul away every last material around the lowest level, don't come complaining to me, alright?"
I had no intention of doing that, but I gave the warning just in case. If there happened to be something rare down there, I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't take it.
"No problem. Knowing you, Tenma, you'd probably rather go down there yourself after the job is done than have weird rumors spread about you."
It seemed they'd even read my personality before making this request.
"This really does feel like a request from people who know me well. If that's the case, I'd be moving right after presenting the Dungeon Core to the King, so I should probably give advance notice. That way, the parts Jin and the others don't want might fetch a higher price."
With the Hydra, things like meat and organs are poisonous and can't be eaten, but the poison glands have their uses, and the skin and bones can be used for weapons and armor. According to Jin and the others, this Hydra was apparently a pretty massive specimen, so even without the meat, there should be plenty of materials to harvest. Of course, some portion of those would need to be sold to the Guild, but beyond that, if I presented some to the King—and while he'd call it a reward, I'd effectively get compensation in return—the King and the others' impression of the "Dawn Sword" should improve even further.
"Hey, Tenma — could you come along and say so too? It'll go over better if Tenma confirms he's on board, rather than us making the case alone."
Jin said as much, but really he was probably just scared of getting interrogated by the King and the others all by himself. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong, so I figured they could just be upfront about it — but unlike me, Jin and the rest viewed the King as someone who lived on a whole different plane of existence. That was probably why they needed me there: to make sure everything could be explained quickly and decisively.
"Sure, I don't mind… but in exchange, give me a share of the Hydra materials as payment for hauling cargo and briefing the King. I'd be happy with a decent amount — though you can set aside Jin's and the others' portions, plus the King's and the Guild's, before figuring out what's left for me."
In practice, hauling was about the only work involved, so I probably wouldn't end up with much. But Hydra materials were rare, and I wanted to secure whatever I could. Then again, I still had materials from the Earth Dragon, the RUNNING dragons, and the Wyvern, so this would just become part of my collection — and if you counted the intel on the warp zone near the lowest level as part of the payment too, you could argue I wasn't being underpaid at all.
"If Tenma's okay with that, we don't have a problem… though there's a chance usable hide won't be in great supply, so cut us some slack if that turns out to be the case."
Jin bowed his head apologetically, but it was Grandpa — not me — who looked most surprised by those words.
"Hydra regeneration is absurdly high — that means they must have laid on extremely relentless attacks."
Of all of us, Grandpa was the only one who'd actually fought a Hydra, so his surprise made sense. Jin and the others, however, wore awkward expressions.
"Well, 'relentless' is one way to put it…"
Jin seemed reluctant to elaborate, and the rest of us stared him down in silence.
"They brought in dozens of ballista, fired bolts into the Hydra, doused it in oil, and set it ablaze. Once it was weakened, they severed the heads one by one, and when it finally stopped moving, they forcibly extracted the magic core."
The reason Jin had been so cagey was that the method used to kill the Hydra could generously be called unorthodox.
When I pressed for details, it turned out they had hauled five or six ballista at a time up to the floor just above the lowest level. From there, they watched for openings and repositioned the ballista to the very edge of their firing range. Once they had enough in place, they fired in sequence. The bolts were custom-made — the head and shaft were hollow like a wide straw, so that when the bolt pierced flesh, blood sprayed out from the back.
No matter how powerful a Hydra's regeneration was, it apparently couldn't produce blood faster than it was hemorrhaging from wounds all over its body. Once the bleeding slowed, they doused it in oil and burned it. When it was thoroughly weakened, they cut off each head in turn. By that point, regeneration had slowed so much that no head regrew before all of them were removed — though flesh did bulge from the stumps and form something resembling the base of a new head. The heart was still beating, though, so they had to forcibly extract both the magic core and the heart.
"Honestly… that's a pretty savage way to fight. I mean, against a Hydra you probably have to go that far, but… anyone hoping for a story about an epic clash of swords is going to be disappointed."
"Still, you could say they discovered an effective strategy for taking down a Hydra. Now, you'd need somewhere inescapable like a dungeon, plus the transport capacity and funding to move that much equipment — but compared to how I fought, this method is far safer and gives you a much better chance of coming home alive. Pity about the hide, though."
Unlike me, who found the whole thing a bit anticlimactic, Grandpa's evaluation was quite high. I supposed that was the difference between someone who'd actually fought one and someone who hadn't. Jin and the others seemed over the moon at Grandpa's praise and launched into all sorts of war stories, which prompted Grandpa to share tales of his own hardships. And just like that, the banquet kicked off.
The banquet apparently stretched late into the night, because come the next morning, Grandpa and Jin were found passed out drunk in the dining hall by Jeanne and Aura.
Renny, Jeanne, Aura, and I had turned in before midnight, so we were fine. But Amour had stayed up late keeping Grandpa and the others company and had been dragged back to bed by Renny in the middle of the night. He got up around the same time I did, but he looked a little worse for wear.
"Hey, Jin — wake up!"
"Ugh... my head hurts... can you keep it down..."
Jin was suffering from a terrible hangover — even speaking seemed to be a struggle.
"You're going to be meeting the King in a few days, so no more alcohol until then."
"Okaaay..."
Garat, Menace, and Lina didn't even have the energy to speak, so Jin answered on their behalf. While I was looking after Jin and the others, Grandpa had staggered off toward the kitchen, but—
"Grandpa, the medicine I had stored in the kitchen has already been collected, so there's nothing left if you go there."
"Nnn... grrr... nnn..."
Grandpa gave up on the medicine and obediently made his way over to me.
"Grandpa, Jin and the others came here specifically to meet the King, so don't get carried away and let them drink. I'm going to report this whole thing to Ernest, so you'd better brace yourself for one or two little remarks... or ten or twenty, for that matter."
Tossing a few barbs at Grandpa myself wouldn't have much effect, so I decided to ask the person Grandpa feared most for help. If Ernest were the one delivering the reproach, he'd probably take on the job without even being asked.
"Th-that's..."
"Just hold it in."
I made it clear that reporting to Ernest was already decided, leaving no room for argument, and went ahead to hand out the hangover medicine to Jin and the others first. It was only natural to prioritize our guests, but—
"Grandpa, sorry. We're out of medicine."
I ran out by the time I got to Lina. Chris had been drinking like a fish lately, so the medicine supply had been consumed at an alarming rate.
"Hey, I'm going to go get some from Mark's place, so just wait here until I get back."
"P-please... hurry... back... come... won't you..."
I couldn't shake the feeling that some kind of flag had just been planted, but for now I rushed to the inn run by Uncle Mark to get a share of the same medicine I made for home.
"Grandpa, I got some... Grandpa?"
I had sprinted the whole way, so I made it back in under thirty minutes. But what greeted my eyes was Grandpa, slumped face-down on the table like a dead man.
"He's asleep... Rest in peace, Grandpa."
I placed the cup of medicine and water near Grandpa, closed my eyes, and clasped my hands together.
"I'm still alive, you know..."
I thought I heard something, but I had things to do today, so I quietly slipped away.
"My stomach's full, so let's get started."
What I needed to do today was build the golem for Primera. Golems were, in a sense, standard equipment for the Ootori family. And since this one would be protecting my fiancée, I needed to make one with solid performance. It might take several days to finish, but I'd take my time and do it right.
"First, what shape should it be... Maybe a knight type?"
Since Primera gave off a knightly impression, I decided to model the golem's form after a knight.
"The shape's decided, but what style should I go with..."
The golems I'd built so far included ones assembled from chunks of wood, stone, and earth; golems with refined cores taken from the better-performing ones among those; a royal-exclusive goolem; the scorpion-type golems I gave to Jeanne and Aura; the '
Giant Guardian
', and the horse-type golems for Tanikaze and Raiden.
The difficulty of crafting them roughly followed the order I just listed, though Tanikaze's ranked somewhere before the royal-exclusive one.
"The reason the later golems are harder has to do with the rarity of materials and the amount of metal used in crafting them. As for Raiden's in particular, I still have no idea how I managed to build it..."
If I could create a perfect manual for building golems like Raiden's, I could form the kingdom's strongest army... Well, if the method leaked outside, it would probably spark disputes that could split the kingdom into pieces, so maybe it's better that it can't be replicated... But still, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was such a waste.
"If I were to make one, I'd want to go with the royal-exclusive type, but I promised I wouldn't sell those to anyone other than Lady Maria and the others. I probably shouldn't give one to Primera either."
It wasn't like I'd be selling it to Primera, so it wouldn't technically break my promise. But the promise not to "sell" might implicitly extend to "not give away" as well, so I should avoid it as much as possible.
"In that case, maybe I should try building it with a new method... What should I do..."
It was unlikely I'd come up with a new method just like that, so I decided to start by searching for magic cores that could work as a golem's core.
"Let's see, magic cores that could work for a core..."
Searching through the bag, all sorts of things came out. In terms of high-value items, there were things from Running Dragons and Earth Dragons, along with dozens of species from Orcs and Goblins — well over ten thousand in total stuffed inside the bag.
"Running Dragons and Earth Dragons are too big, and Orcs or Goblins won't let me build anything strong…"
The S-rank Monsters I had on hand were all too large, so I needed something smaller, but I didn't have any A-rank ones. The closest thing in terms of power would be Wyvern parts.
"A Wyvern's magic core should work just fine as-is."
If the core was large, I'd have to thicken the area around it for protection. That would add weight, resulting in either a slow-moving Golem or an extremely fast one. But since a Wyvern's magic core was only about ten centimeters, a coating or thicker surroundings wouldn't be a problem.
"There are some chipped pieces, but this should be fine."
For Gigant and Tanikaze, I had used cracked magic cores from Dragon Zombies, so it should work with Wyverns too. That said, there was a massive gap in grade between Dragon Zombie and Wyvern cores, so what worked with a Dragon Zombie wasn't guaranteed to work with a Wyvern. Even if I failed, cracked magic cores could still be used as various materials, so I could use them as reinforcement material rather than as a core.
"This is pretty tricky."
Magic cores in good condition could become cores without issue, but chipped cores had distorted shapes, making it difficult to cleanly engrave the Golem's information onto them.
"Well, I did fail a few times, but five came out cleanly, so I should be able to make the number I planned."
I failed several times but secured the planned quantity, so I decided to call it done for the core-making.
"I've got the cores, but I still haven't figured out the outside… What should I do?"
I had a handle on the Golem cores, but I still hadn't decided what kind of Golem to build.
"For now, let's eat."
I'd been so focused on making the Golem cores that I'd passed noon without realizing it. Once I thought about lunch, my stomach started growling despite not having bothered me at all before, so I headed to the dining hall to grab something.
"Nothing looks good here. Maybe I'll check outside."
I couldn't find anything I particularly wanted to eat, so I decided to walk around and check out the stalls and shops, combining it with a stroll.
"Shiromaru and the others look ready to go too."
When I mentioned checking out the stalls, they seemed to understand — I turned around to find Shiromaru and Solomon waiting eagerly. Both of them had intense expressions with drool dripping down, and Slarin was wiping up the drool that had fallen to the floor.
"Alright, let's head out. But Solomon, you're riding in the bag as usual."
"So cuuuute~"
Solomon replied with a "yes, yes, I know" sort of air and slipped into the Dimension Bag as usual.
"Thanks to Jin and the others, there are still so many stalls around."
Normally, the number of stalls drops sharply around the time of the royal banquet held after the tournament, but this time, thanks to the buzz about the Dawn Sword conquering the dungeon, many stalls that would usually pack up and head home extended their stay in the Royal Capital on short notice. Because of that, we had plenty of options when choosing what to eat.
"I'm pretty full now. Shiromaru and the others still want more, huh?"
After visiting several stalls, I was quite satisfied, but Shiromaru and Solomon said it still wasn't enough. At this rate, there was no way they'd agree to stop the stall tour anytime soon.
"Are you finally satisfied?"
It wasn't until evening approached that Shiromaru and Solomon finally seemed content, and they began snoring away inside the bag.
"Getting sleepy right after eating — they've got it pretty good."
At my mutter, Slarin bounced in agreement. At this rate, dinner was... no, those two would eat it even if they had to force themselves. As a kind of appetizer for what was to come, I took a detour on the way home and spotted the Royal Capital's knight squad several times, moving about in small units. It was probably a show of force meant as both patrol and deterrence. It happened every year, but this season saw the most crime in the Royal Capital, and this year the festival celebrations were dragging on even longer thanks to Jin and the others, so they were likely on heightened alert.
"I'm starting to get a sense of direction for the Golem, I think."
I had already decided to make it a knight-type Golem, so actually seeing armored knights on the move gave me ideas about how to construct it, but...
"Doing it alone seems like it'd be too difficult, so maybe I should ask Kelly for help."
I decided to consult the blacksmith I trusted most in the entire Royal Capital.