This will be my last post of the year.
I hope you'll continue to support me next year as well.
After parting ways with Grandpa, I headed to the guild in Nanao. My purpose wasn't to take on quests, but rather to gather information on the Monsters in the surrounding area and their danger levels, and to get prior approval for bringing Shiromaru and the others along with me.
When I explained my purpose to the guild staff, it turned out that Hanasan had already relayed word about Shiromaru and the others. All I had to do was make it clear that they were my Familiars, and receive the usual advice that a master bears responsibility for their Familiars. As for the Monsters in the surrounding area, the bear-type ones in the forest, the wolf-type ones on the grasslands, and Wyverns that occasionally appeared in the mountains were said to be the most dangerous. Other than that, it seemed that Monsters of a particularly high rank didn't show up. However, at a rate of once every few to over a decade, there were sightings of Earth Dragons and...
Running Dragons
(a lesser dragon species inferior to Earth Dragons in defense and attack but superior in speed and endurance), so they said you could never let your guard down completely.
Also, the receptionist told me an interesting story. Apparently, an impostor of me had shown up at another adventurer's guild.
According to her, the impostors were all people who merely dropped my name and didn't look anything like me, but there had been some victims of fraud. That said, most of it was stuff like eating at restaurants on credit and skipping out, or hitting on women, and both the guild and the victims quickly figured out they were fakes, so most of it ended up as little more than a funny story. However, there were apparently some cases where large sums of money were swindled, and wanted posters and warning notices had begun circulating to various towns and guilds.
And as I was leaving, several of the receptionists asked me for handshakes. It seemed my name was spreading thanks to my victory at the tournament in the Royal Capital and this whole impostor incident. When I asked if they hadn't suspected I was an impostor when shaking my hand, they said that this time, information about me had come through Viscount Robo — or more precisely, through Sana — so they knew I was the real deal. On top of that, one of Viscount Robo's subordinates had apparently come by to provide a detailed sketch of me along with my build and distinguishing features, so they knew it was me the instant I walked in.
It was a little embarrassing, but I'd already expected something like this ever since I made Solomon my Familiar and won double victories at the tournament, so I wasn't all that surprised.
After leaving the guild, I decided to take a proper stroll through the town of Nanao, but I asked Solomon to stay put inside my bag while we were in the streets. He looked displeased about it, but I really didn't want to be swarmed by people looking for Solomon when I didn't even know my way around yet. So I promised him I'd let him fly to his heart's content once we got outside of town, and that I'd buy him any delicious-looking food we came across, which finally got him to agree.
The bustle of Nanao was a bit different from the towns I'd visited before. In other towns, stalls only sold food, but in Nanao, there were many stalls offering festival-like games. Most of them were geared toward children, with things like target throwing, ring toss, lottery draws, fish scooping, and colored chicks — many of which resembled things I'd seen in my previous life. However, the last two weren't really the kind of thing you'd treat as pets. After all,
"Mom, when this fish gets big, grill it up nice for me!"
"Mom! I'm definitely gonna make this one grow big, so cook it up real good for me!"
...I heard words like those quite often. Incidentally, the fish scooping fish were fry resembling carp that would grow to about half a tatami mat in size, and the chicks were bird hatchlings that looked like slightly enlarged chickens. Both seemed to come with display samples of their fully grown forms. The colored chicks had white-ish feathers decorated with various patterns drawn in one of several colors — red, blue, yellow, black, or pink. All the dyes were apparently extracted from natural materials and were harmless to both the chicks and humans.
Crowds had gathered around those stalls, mostly families with children, so bringing Shiromaru out to walk around felt
ill-advised,
and I decided to have him wait in the bag together with Solomon instead.
As I wandered around browsing the stalls, a nostalgic scent tickled my nose, and my stomach let out a growl.
"From this direction?"
My feet naturally carried me toward the source of the scent, gradually picking up speed.
"Hey, come on in!"
What I found was a stall selling grilled rice balls. And not just any grilled rice balls—these were the real deal, made with proper soy sauce. They also had rice balls grilled with miso paste spread on them.
"I'll have seven of these, these, and these."
I bought the standard soy sauce flavor, the miso-glazed ones, and a green onion-miso flavor mixed with chopped scallions. After giving one of each kind to Shiromaru and Solomon, I bit into a grilled rice ball. They were delicious, and before I knew it, the three of us had finished them off. Shiromaru and Solomon seemed to be eyeing the remaining ones, but I had to put a stop to it—these were souvenirs for the folks back at the inn.
"Soy sauce and miso are absolutely must-buys."
I decided that purchasing soy sauce and miso would be my top priority for the day, and promptly set out to find some.
I asked a passerby for a shop recommendation, and they directed me to...
"The Jay Trading Company, huh?"
It was a familiar company from Seigen. If they handled these goods here, maybe I should have inquired back when I was in Seigen...
Well, I rationalized that buying it at the source would probably be cheaper anyway. As a side note, the shop owner was a pig-eared beastman, but apparently not a relative of Jayman.
After buying the maximum amount Jay Trading Company could sell to an individual, I ended up with about two hundred liters of soy sauce and a hundred kilograms of miso. Any more, and they wouldn't have been able to sell to other customers.
Since I couldn't get more there, I browsed other shops and ultimately managed to stock up on over five hundred kilograms each of soy sauce and miso. I also found sake, mirin, and rice vinegar, so I bought those too. Now I had the "sa-shi-su-se-so" of Japanese cooking covered, which should allow me to make things much closer to authentic Japanese food.
I also found some unusual spices and herbs I hadn't seen before, so I asked about their effects and uses before purchasing them.
After shopping, I wandered through the streets again, bought some food from a stall, and then headed out of Nanao.
Walking across the grasslands, once we'd moved a little distance from Nanao, I let Shiromaru and Solomon out. The two of them immediately stretched to their full length and ran (flew) around the area. Occasionally, the pair would catch horned rabbits or similar creatures, so I busied myself by gutting and preparing them to pass the time.
As the day began to wane, we headed back to the inn before it got fully dark. However, there was no time to even take a bath before we had to head to Lord Robot's manor. Branca, who had come to meet us, explained that Lord Robot was hosting a welcoming banquet for us.
Upon arriving at the manor, we were guided to a room set for a meal and seated at the place of honor beside the Baron.
Four seats were arranged at the head of the room, occupied from left to right by Grandpa, myself, the Baron, and Ms. Hana.
Over by our seats, Amour, Branca, and Sana sat down, with the rest of the subordinates lined up behind them.
"I hereby begin the banquet to welcome the envoy from the Royal Capital! Everyone, eat, drink, and make merry!"
"Ooohhhh!!!"
With that declaration, the welcoming banquet was underway. The dishes that were served were...
"Natto, miso with raw fish, and insect tsukudani... Tenma, can you eat this?"
The food was quite eccentric, to say the least. Even Amour looked concerned. While Hana, Branca, and Sana all wore similarly worried expressions, the Baron was the only one sitting there with a smug grin.
"Well, you see, I just wanted Tenma to try something very Nanao-like."
Hearing those words, I understood that this banquet had been arranged solely to humiliate me. And that the four people glaring at the Baron with reproachful eyes were not unrelated to me, either.
"My dear, shall we have a little talk?"
"Big bro... how pathetic."
"You rotten old man..."
Just as Hana and the others looked ready to explode at Baron Robot, Grandpa and I...
"Seconds, please."
...were enjoying our meal. Sana was the one who took our empty bowls.
"Is it delicious?"
"Yes, very much so."
"It's a bit of an acquired taste, but nothing that bothers us."
We were adventurers, after all. We'd eaten food far stranger than this, and besides, this meal was essentially the same kind of thing I had been longing to eat, so if anything, we were grateful.
The four of them who had been locked in a staring contest wore stunned expressions, but suddenly, all three besides the Baron burst out laughing. The subordinates had been making a ruckus without a care for what the four of them were doing, but hearing those three laugh only made them get even louder.
The Baron, not amused by the situation, wore a bored expression, but Hana looked relieved. And
"Now, Tenma says it's delicious and is eating it all up, so you need to finish yours too… Oh? Come to think of it, they didn't bring any nattō or kusaya to your seat… Sana, sorry, but could you bring this person an extra-large serving of nattō and kusaya?"
"Sure thing, sis."
"W-Wait! Damn it, let go, Branca!"
"Big bro, being picky about food isn't good."
At Hana's words, Sana quickly rose from her seat. The Baron, sensing danger and trying to make a run for it, was swiftly caught in a headlock by Branca and pinned down.
"Thank you for waiting, brother-in-law. Sis, it's all yours."
"Thanks, Sana. Now then, your favorite dish has arrived."
"Guh!"
"Fine, I give up."
"Somebody! Help m—glub!"
Hana brought the bowl of mixed kusaya and nattō to the immobilized Baron's mouth, but the robot Baron clenched his jaw shut tight. However, Amour appeared from the side, pinched the Baron's nose, and the instant his mouth opened slightly, jammed an iron rod inside to keep it from closing.
The Baron called out to his subordinates for help, but they pretended not to notice and carried on making a racket. They clearly didn't want to get on Hana's bad side.
Hana waited for the moment the Baron opened his mouth wide to call for help, then poured the bowl's contents straight in. Not only that, once his mouth was stuffed full, Hana, Amour, and Branca all held down the Baron's mouth and jaw, forcing him to swallow. It was exactly like a goose being force-fed for foie gras.
"Tenma-san, Merlin-sama, please try this as well. And Merlin-sama, I've also prepared hot sake for you."
Sana was the only one who hadn't joined the commotion, staying behind to keep us company. What she was recommending now was a salted relish made from river fish.
"Oh, this is good."
"This sake isn't bad either."
While Grandpa and I were eating the salted relish, the Baron had already entered his second round of forced feeding time.
The Baron's subordinates carried on making noise as if their master's predicament was completely invisible to them.
Maybe it was just a regular occurrence for the Baron to end up like that.
After that, the banquet dragged on late into the night, and it wasn't until nearly dawn that everyone finally dispersed. In the room where the feast had been held, several people lay piled on top of one another, fast asleep. Most of them were simply dead drunk from too much alcohol, though a few seemed to have collapsed from overeating as well... though the chief offenders in that regard were the Baron and his daughter, whose bellies were swollen enormously.
Incidentally, Branca had already left earlier with Sana and wasn't here. It was Amour who told me this quietly after Branca was gone—apparently, when Sana had said she was stronger than Branca, she wasn't talking about physical strength. It was simply that in the power dynamic between the two as a couple, Sana held the upper hand. Branca was hopelessly smitten with Sana and, by his own admission, couldn't say a word against her.
On the way back from the Baron's mansion, I carried Grandpa on my back—he'd gotten dead drunk, which was unusual for him—and had one of the sober subordinates guide us back to the inn. Ryūsaiken was normally closed at night, but thanks to Hana having called ahead, they opened the front door for us even though it was the middle of the night.
Amour had tried to convince me to stay the night at the mansion, but there was always the possibility that Amour might make a move on me while drunk (or pretending to be), so I politely declined.
Once back in my room, I slipped into the futon without changing and fell straight to sleep. Grandpa was snoring away in the futon next to mine, but with Shiromaru curled up between us, the snoring wasn't too bothersome.
"Ah, what a nice bath."
The next morning, I started the day with an early morning soak in the bath. Grandpa had come along for the morning bath too. He'd drunk himself into a stupor the night before, but the alcohol seemed to have cleared up completely—he woke up as if nothing had happened and simply followed me.
A few other guests were enjoying the morning bath, but even with the two of us joining in, there was plenty of room.
After soaking in the bath just long enough to avoid getting light-headed, I returned to the room, and it turned out to be just about breakfast time, so I asked the maid to bring us a meal.
While I was eating breakfast, Branca and Amour showed up looking somewhat flustered.
"Sorry, Tenma. Things might be getting a little complicated."
"What happened?"
"That idiot father of ours went and did it again!"
According to Amour, the Baron had apparently mentioned to some nearby village representatives who happened to be visiting that I was here in Nanao. Those representatives then supposedly started saying things like, "If there's someone that strong here, we'd love to have him fight against the folks from our village."
Hana had initially thought it was just polite conversation, but after stepping away, it turned out they'd gotten into specifics. By that morning, numerous letters had arrived demanding to know when the fight would take place.
Because those letters had been delivered before the sun even came up, Hana had leapt out of bed thinking some kind of emergency had struck the surrounding villages. The truth of the matter then came out of the Baron's mouth, and she was reportedly in a terrible mood. As for Robo-Baron, he had received a beating—from Hana, under the banner of "discipline"—then been wrapped in a straw mat and thrown into the dungeon. Amour, terrified of Hana in that state, had fled here along with Branca to take shelter with me.
"So that's the situation—we need you to come to the mansion right away. By this point it's hard to refuse, and apparently the Baron wants to discuss arrangements and offer an apology. Normally my brother and sister-in-law should be the ones to come, but my brother is in no condition to be useful, and my sister-in-law is swamped with all sorts of other matters and can't easily leave the mansion."
"So there's no other option... I guess?"
"Tenma, consider this doing a favor for that idiot father of ours... Even a fool like him is reasonably useful around here."
"My sister-in-law also said, 'You can use that idiot however you want—just cooperate with them.' She says they'll pay a proper commission, and depending on the details, they may even add to it, so please—this one's on you."
The two of them bowed their heads in unison. After discussing things with Grandpa, we decided to accept this request as an official commission from the Viscount's family, channeled through the Guild. Apparently, going through the Guild rather than accepting a direct request from the Viscount's family meant there would be official paperwork on record, so if anything came up, we could have the Guild on our side.
Branka, having heard our and Grandpa's answer, seemed to have expected as much beforehand. She headed straight to the Guild, and after the contract was signed, we made our way to the estate.
It turned out the Guild had been informed in advance too, and the contract went through without a hitch. Well, "contract" was generous — it only had simple terms written on it, so in the end I just signed my name on the contract that Viscount Robo had already signed (with Hana-san drafting it for him). However, the very last clause of the contract stated: *"In the event that negotiations break down after discussion, Tenma reserves the right to unilaterally terminate the contract, in which case no penalty shall be assessed, and furthermore, the commission fee shall be paid in full as consolation money."* Those were absurdly favorable terms. In short, it meant that for this matter, all initiative was handed to me — if I refused, I'd still get paid the commission, and if I accepted, I'd receive the commission plus additional fees.
After the contract was finalized, we arrived at the Viscount's estate, and the commotion was so loud it could be heard from outside the front door. It felt even more hectic than I'd been told.
With bustling subordinates scurrying all around us, we were led to the same room used for the banquet the day before, where Hana-san was at the head of the table, issuing instructions to what appeared to be her civil officials.
"Sister-in-law, I've brought Tenma. Also, we've completed the contract at the Guild."
"Thank you, Branka. Everyone, please step out for a moment."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The subordinates gathered only the necessary documents and filed out of the room. As I passed them, the apologetic expressions on every one of their faces were particularly striking.
"For now, please take a seat... To reiterate, I am truly sorry that our fool went and did something so presumptuous."
"We are deeply sorry."
"My apologies."
The moment I sat down across from Hana-san, she, Branca, and Amour all prostrated themselves in a formal bow, voicing their apologies.
"This matter is entirely the fault of our household. All responsibility lies with Robo, the head of this Viscount's family, and with myself. With that said, we humbly ask that you accept this commission."
Hana-san spoke these words with her forehead still pressed to the tatami floor. I had her and the others return to a normal posture first, then listened to the detailed explanation. According to her, the Southern Autonomous Region was far from a united front — if anything, there were many who, given the chance, would try to topple Viscount Robo and take his position for themselves.
However, Viscount Robo — or rather, the Nanao family's military strength stretching back to Grandpa Kei — was said to be overwhelmingly superior within the Southern Autonomous Region. Even if their enemies formed alliances, they were confident they could win. And even in the worst-case scenario, they could hold out long enough for allied villages and towns to send reinforcements.
But if they unilaterally went back on a deal that had been brought to them by Viscount Robo — or rather, one they had been guided into making — they risked losing the trust of allied towns.
Rather than end up fighting over something so trivial, they said it was no disgrace at all to bow down and beg me for help.
"If that's the situation, then I don't mind participating in the contest of strength. So, if we're going to have this contest, what format are you planning to use?"
Once I gave my consent, the tension visibly drained from Hana-san's and Branka's faces. Amour, for some reason, looked delighted.
"For the time being, the plan is to hold a tournament where we gather only those who want to fight Tenma, and have the winner of that face Tenma in the final match..."
"If that's the case, then let's make it open-entry, just like the martial arts tournament in the Royal Capital. We'll hold a team-based preliminary round, and only those who advance from that will compete in a single-elimination tournament bracket for the finals."
"No, we can't very well have Tenma fight in the preliminaries. First of all, it's out of the question, but if Tenma were to lose in the preliminaries, people would start making excuses like 'it was a free-for-all, that's why he lost,' or worse, they'd claim someone was scheming to stack unfavorable villagers together in one group to knock them out before the finals... Let me think... We'll give Tenma a seed into the final tournament bracket, and for the preliminaries, we'll have everyone draw lots in public to determine the groups."
No one knew yet how many people would show up for the tournament, but once the number of participants was decided, they would determine how many would advance to the final bracket.
"Let's send word to the village that delivered the letter right away. At the same time, we'll put out a notice to each village and town to recruit participants. If we're going to do this, let's make it a grand tournament... so that no one has any excuse to make afterward."
Hana-san said this with a quiet laugh. The sheer creepiness of it sent a chill through everyone present besides Hana-san. Amour in particular was so frightened that he immediately hid behind me.
"If that's the case, and they're the representatives for Nanao... Branca, Amour, I'm counting on you."
The representatives for Nanao would be just the two of them. The reasoning was that these two would almost certainly make it through the preliminaries, and as long as they weren't in the same preliminary group, Nanao would secure two spots in the finals. Beyond that, it would also ensure there was no record of Nanao's fighters losing to competitors from other villages or towns during the preliminaries.
"Then, perhaps I should participate as well?"
"Oh, Master Merlin, please refrain from entering."
"Hm?"
Grandpa was immediately refused by Hana-san, and he wore a look of confusion — why?
"If Master Merlin were to participate as well, we'd risk a drastic drop in the number of other participants. And if you happened to be matched against Branca or Amour in the preliminaries, they would certainly lose. I'm sorry to ask this for our own convenience, but please, I beg your understanding."
"Mm... This is a commission from the Viscount's household as well, I suppose there's no helping it..."
Grandpa told himself it was a commission and tried to accept it, but his dissatisfaction was obvious on his face.
"I'm truly sorry."
"It's fine, it's fine. Tenma is the star of the show this time. I'll just stay in the background."
Hana-san bowed deeply once more. Seeing this, Grandpa shifted his attitude and moved the conversation forward.
"For now, we'll use what we've just decided as the core framework and work out the rest of the tournament rules from there. I don't think there will be a full month before the event, so in the meantime, I'll make arrangements for Tenma and Master Merlin to stay at the Ryusaiken inn. Also, Tenma, Branca, Amour — please make sure you're in peak condition for the tournament."
"Understood."
"Alright!"
"Understood."
"Then, meeting adjourned!"
Along with Hana's declaration to dismiss, the civil servants who had been waiting outside the room filed back in all at once. Apparently, they were going to start drafting the letters to be sent out to various locations immediately.
"But shouldn't this be something Viscount Robo takes the lead on?"
"If that idiot handles it, even the things he *can* do will fall apart. Tenma — people have roles that suit them. All he's suited for is being a figurehead viscount. Nanao will be fine as long as Mom's around!"
"Can't argue with that... Brother shines in battle and at festivals, but when it comes to domestic or foreign affairs, he tends to drag everyone down more often than not... Strange thing is, the people of Nanao still seem to adore him, though."
Viscount Robo wasn't incompetent, but neither was he useful in matters of politics. Apparently, he was the sort of difficult person who somehow managed to possess just enough charisma to make things complicated.