Reunion
Satou here. There are times when you might think you’re doing well, but anyone watching would say you’re crazy. That’s why it’s best to listen to advice from more experienced friends.
“Those soldiers back there seemed tense.”
“Maybe some big shot went missing or something?”
Arisa and I were discussing a group of soldiers, decked out like a mountaineering party, who’d been gathered in the space near the labyrinth entrance when we passed through.
My map showed some important-looking figures inside the labyrinth, like royalty from a neighboring nation and a young count, so it probably had something to do with that.
“Huh. That’s too bad.”
“Hmm. Maybe next time we should put in for twice as much time in the labyrinth as before.”
This time we’d come back right on the day we scheduled, but it was possible that some incident might prevent us from coming back on time.
At any rate, I was impressed that Arisa could chat naturally as we walked up the stairs, considering that she’d been out of breath even coming down them on the way in.
Leveling up must have really helped her a lot.
“We’re heeere?”
“The scary door face is smiling, sir.”
Tama and Pochi opened the door out of the labyrinth, which was engraved with a slightly creepy smiling sun.
“We’re counting on you, Captain Zeorun.”
“Yes, sir. I promise to rescue your friend at any cost.”
On the other side of the door, I heard a somewhat familiar, teacherly sounding voice.
As we emerged from the labyrinth and into the light from the windows, I saw a familiar face.
“Pe…?!”
When our eyes met, he started to say my name and then stopped partway through.
Ouch. I guess he forgot my name.
“It’s good to see you again, Viscount Siemmen.”
This was a high-ranking noble who ran a scroll production workshop in the old capital and who was the elder brother of my friend Tolma.
Unlike the somewhat bumbling Tolma, this man carried himself like a particularly strict professor.
“Forgive me, but I couldn’t help but overhear. If a friend of yours is missing, please allow me to assist you as well.”
It might sound like bragging, but considering my unique skill, there were probably few people in this world as qualified to locate a missing person as I was.
“No, erm… That won’t be necessary.”
Viscount Siemmen sighed and shook his head.
He probably felt that a civilian would only get in the way, since he’d already enlisted the help of the labyrinth army.
Sadly, he didn’t know about my unique skill.
Instead, I would have to withdraw for now, do a sneaky map search later, and secretly go rescue this person. This fellow had been very helpful to me with scroll creation, so I wanted to be of some use to him, too.
“We’ve already found him.”
Huh?
Surprised by the normally calm Viscount Siemmen’s sudden embrace, it took me a moment to realize what was happening.
“…Then this must be Sir Pendragon?”
Startled, Officer Zeorun looked at me appraisingly.
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up a quiet murmur of “looking good.”
At first, I questioned whether his eyes were working, but then I realized that he probably meant that I looked awfully clean and healthy for someone who’d been wandering in the labyrinth for days on end.
Well, I took a bath every evening in our labyrinth vacation home, and I changed clothes every day.
“Yes, that’s right. This is Sir Pendragon, an irreplaceable friend of mine and a highly beneficial client.”
Viscount Siemmen finally released me, only to put an arm around my shoulder and introduce me to Captain Zeorun.
I didn’t remember him being quite so touchy-feely, but he must be relieved that I was all right, so I decided to go along with it.
Once I’d exchanged greetings with Captain Zeorun, the two explained why they had been about to launch a search for me.
Apparently, it had all started the day before: Viscount Siemmen had come to Labyrinth City to buy some cores and rare materials, and he had been trying to acquire some ant nectar from a fellow noble when he heard that some explorers had caused a chain rampage.
He then heard that the explorers had been rescued by a young noble with black hair and a mithril sword, who was accompanied by some small children and a scalefolk young lady with a monster spear, which led him to think of me.
Then, when he sent someone to the explorers’ guild to inquire about the matter, he learned that I had become an explorer the day of the chain rampage incident and that I hadn’t returned from the labyrinth since.
At first, he requested that they send in a search party, but the guild was unable to do so until my requested return date had passed.
Thus, he went directly to the labyrinth army general, rounded up some elite forces who specialized in labyrinth exploration, and formed a rescue party of his own. They had just been waiting for their explorer guides when I arrived.
Of course, the viscount himself wasn’t going to enter the labyrinth, but he’d come to speak with Captain Zeorun.
Still, I was glad the explorers’ guild was such a by-the-books organization.
If they’d sent in a rescue group right on the spot, it would’ve only made things complicated.
“I am terribly sorry to have worried you.”
“Not at all—it appears that I was jumping to conclusions, from the looks of you. In fact, I apologize for causing such a commotion.”
I bowed my head to Viscount Siemmen, who responded in kind.
Since the viscount managed to save face, perhaps we should both apologize to Captain Zeorun here, too.
“I told you, if he’s strong enough to defeat a lesser hell demon, even a big bunch of area-4 monsters wouldn’t be able to put a scratch on him.”
The newcomer to the conversation was an armored knight.
According to the AR display, he was level 27 and one of Zeorun’s men.
“Yes, you were right. You win the bet, sir. I’ll have a cask of wine and five sheep sent to the barracks later.”
“Make it ale, please. We don’t drink that stuff.” The knight grinned crookedly.
He didn’t have a proper title, but he was still of noble class, so I was surprised that he preferred ale over fancy wine.
“Captain, shall I dismiss the men down below?”
“Right. Let me think…” Captain Zeorun stroked his goatee, contemplating for a moment before relaying his orders. “Tell the general that our mission is complete, and we will fulfill our formal duties.”
“Mission complete,” the messenger repeated. “Fulfilling our formal duties.”
“Perfect. Go!”
The messenger dashed away.
“Formal duties?” Viscount Siemmen inquired.
“Yes, the pretense for this mission on paper was that we were taking down plunderers,” he explained frankly. “Since the paperwork went through and we’re all loaded up with equipment, we’ll just go in and wipe out some of the plunderers who have overrun area 2.”
Then the captain turned to the knight and grinned. “You lot must be sick of training anyway, eh? Gotta let loose on some scumbags once in a while.”
“Heh, it’s nice having a superior officer who gets it.”
After this exchange, Captain Zeorun and his knight excused themselves to the viscount and went into the labyrinth.
Maybe they really did enjoy fighting plunderers, but I was guessing half the reason was so that Viscount Siemmen and I wouldn’t feel guilty for wasting their time.
Once they got back, I’d have to deliver some food and drink to them as thanks, too.
“Viscount Siemmen, I would like to thank the general for his concern as well. How should I go about doing so?”
“You needn’t worry about it. I’ll go thank him tomorrow.”
As a former office worker, I couldn’t simply accept this.
“If it would be best for me not to accompany you, then I understand, but…”
“You’re an upright fellow, aren’t you? Very well, I’ll send someone to collect you tomorrow afternoon. General Erthal prefers sweet wine. I’ll ready some casks, so perhaps you can prepare some appropriate snacks to accompany them.”
“I’d be happy to, if such a modest thanks is acceptable.”
“There’s nothing modest about it.” Viscount Siemmen looked almost annoyed. “Your legendary ‘miracle’ cooking is worth its weight in gold. You proved that in the old capital, as I’m sure Marquis Lloyd and Count Hohen would agree.”
Now, those names brought back memories. The gourmet-loving pair of nobles really did seem to deeply enjoy my food, almost as much as my group did, which made it well worth cooking for them.
“Very well. I will be careful to avoid debasing myself with regards to my food.”
He made me feel a bit like I’d been scolded by a teacher, and I took his words to heart.
“Hmm. Good.” Viscount Siemmen cleared his throat and changed the subject. “I shall hold a banquet tomorrow evening to celebrate your safe return. Given the short notice, I may not be able to gather all my noble friends, but I am sure that at least half of them will make it.”
It sounded as though he was planning to introduce me to some well-connected local nobles.
There seemed to be some rather troublesome nobles here, too, like Sokell, so it would be nice to know I had some good ones on my side.
He went on to add that he would normally hold the banquet a few days from now, but he would be leaving for the royal capital on a flying ship the morning after next and wouldn’t return for several weeks. He couldn’t delay it any further.
Viscount Siemmen had seemed busy since we first met in the old capital, so I was very grateful to him for making time for my sake.
Maybe at the banquet I could give him an original spell that might be profitable as thanks.
The fireworks seemed to be popular. Maybe I could combine Magic String and Mana Light to create firefly lights that could be freely controlled by the user.
I had already analyzed the modules for those, so I could probably make it by the next day.
“…Young noble!”
I heard a young woman call out from the Celivera City side of the passageway.
“Thank goodness!”
“You’re all right!”
The two Lovely Wings explorers who we’d saved in the chain rampage incident came running up to embrace me.
The iron pair of Arisa and Mia managed to cut the embrace short, but I did get to enjoy the muscular physique of Miss Charming and the soft curves of Miss Beauty.
They both seemed to have assumed that we’d gotten lost in the midst of the rampage.
“I’m glad you two are all right, too.”
“Thanks to you, mister.”
“Yes, you really saved us.”
Once we’d enjoyed our little reunion, Viscount Siemmen informed the pair that their services as explorers would no longer be needed and paid them for their troubles.
He explained to me that he’d been planning to hire the two women as labyrinth guides for the search party.
Once the women had thanked the viscount, they said they had to get to work for now and went into the labyrinth.
Since they’d caused trouble for the labyrinth army by causing the chain rampage, they were working to pay off a fine.
After all, they were considered partly responsible along with the man called Besso and his party for exploring the maze ant nest.
The fine was so expensive that even the money for the ant nectar wasn’t enough to pay it off.
Though they dodged this point, I assumed they paid what they were lacking with borrowed money.
Once the two women were gone, Viscount Siemmen said he was returning to the city.
After we saw him off along with his retainers, my group and I headed to the guild’s trade counter.
“Congratulations on your safe return.”
“Thank you,” I said to the friendly guild employee with a smile.
“How did your exploration go?”
“We’ve got cores, maze ant materials, and maze frog meat.”
I placed a flat shoulder bag on the table, and the guild employee smiled, undoubtedly thinking that we hadn’t brought much back.
Arisa grinned impishly as she looked from the clerk’s face to mine.
“First, a hundred and thirty-seven cores.”
“…What?”
I opened the bag, which was actually a magic Garage Bag, and pulled out five pouches full of cores. The clerk’s face froze.
Opening one of the pouches, I showed her the cores.
“Most of them are low-grade, but the large ones like these are grades three and above.”
I was glad Count Kuhanou had taught me about the grade levels for cores before.
“Incredible! These are maze beetle and soldier mantis cores, aren’t they?”
This time, her expression moved from one of shock to gleeful surprise.
Judging by her reaction, it was probably wise of me to leave the cores from stronger monsters like the dendrobiums in the storage room of our labyrinth home.
We’d actually collected over a thousand cores in total, but this time I brought only enough to earn us our bronze badges.
“These ones are around grade one or two, too—there’s not a single dust or white one to be found.”
According to the information I got from her later, “dust” was a nickname for a small core that was less than an ounce in size.
I remembered the small white cores we’d gotten from the likes of the walking beans and hopping potatoes. I could see why those would be considered little more than dust.
“Is this enough to advance to bronze badges?”
I was pretty certain that this would bring us all from wood to bronze badges, but I asked just to be sure.
“Yes, more than enough. Rick, can you calculate the payment for these, please? But first, bring the paperwork for the bronze badges.”
“Of course, Chief Vena. Eight forms, correct?”
“Yes, please.”
I smiled as I listened to their exchange. It was nice of them to get the forms for my kids without me even needing to ask.
“Goodness, it’s been a long time since we saw so many cores from anyone but a garnet-badge party. You’re quite a promising group of new explorers, young master.”
Now the clerk was calling me “young master,” too. This was only our second time meeting, and the first time was six days ago, so maybe she forgot my name.
At her “promising new explorers” comment, Arisa struck a silent victory pose, looking extremely pleased.
Because Tama and Pochi were tucked under Liza’s arms, they could join in only by raising their fists along with her.
Mia and Nana didn’t seem to follow Arisa’s excitement, tilting their heads cutely in a sign of confusion.
Lulu and Liza, meanwhile, watched the rest of the group with warm smiles.
“Now then, what materials might we have to look forward to?”
The guild clerk looked excited as I began to produce our materials from the Garage Bag.
“Here are seven maze ant carapaces.”
The clerk beamed.
“Also, ten guardian ant blade arms.”
“…Eh?”
Surprise began to register on her face.
“Oh, and three sets of elite ant wings for making Antwing Swords.”
“Ant…wings?”
Now her face was frozen in shock, as if she’d seen something unbelievable.
The guardian ants and elite ants were monsters we’d encountered when we entered the ant nest after parting ways with the Lovely Wings ladies. They were stronger than the maze ants, but my group still defeated them without a problem.
I had more pieces than I could count in Storage, but I decided to turn in only a number that would be consistent with the length of our stay.
“You didn’t go into the nest, did you?!”
The clerk’s exclamation had a note of reproach to it.
I couldn’t blame her for that. More than half my party were children, or at least looked that way, so it was shocking that I would take them into a monster nest on their first time in the labyrinth.
From her perspective, I was sure she wanted to tell me off.
“No, they were roaming around outside the nest. It may have been because of the chain rampage.”
I used my “Fabrication” skill to make an excuse.
Technically, it wasn’t a lie. The materials I’d given her were primarily from ants we’d found outside the nest.
I didn’t want to cause a commotion, so I decided to cover up the fact that we actually entered the nest.
“And here’s the meat of three maze frogs.”
With Liza’s help, I produced the maze frog meat, which we’d broken down into hundred-pound increments.
“That’s quite a lot. Huey, measure the weight, please.”
“Yes, Chief Vena.”
An elderly man in an apron began weighing the frog meat on a scale.
“This must be the last of it, correct? None of these is prohibited from Labyrinth City, and they’re all on the list of requested materials.”
With that, the clerk paused in thought.
“However, we can only pay up to a certain amount for some of these, so I would recommend that you bring them to the workshops and distributors listed on that board.”
I was surprised that the woman wasn’t prioritizing the guild’s profit.
“Is it really all right to recommend something like that?”
“Yes, while we may be called the explorers’ guild, we are actually a public organization under the management of the Shiga Kingdom department of labyrinth resources.”
That made sense. Labyrinths were like mines of valuable resources. Of course the king of the Shiga Kingdom would have a hand in managing them.
“Any profits are put toward operating expenses, but most of that comes from fixed monster core collection.”
Oh right. It was compulsory to sell cores to the government.
“The guild’s exchange program is primarily to ensure that explorers who aren’t knowledgeable about trade don’t get taken advantage of by crafty merchants. Once explorers reach a certain level of wealth, they can buy better equipment, which means they’re more likely to survive.”
So it all comes back to making sure they can continue to collect cores, huh?
“Still, I’d like to sell most of the frog meat here, if that’s all right.”
“Are you certain? With this high quality, you could sell it for anywhere from two to even three times higher a price than what we can offer you here.”
“That’s all right. I don’t have a business relationship with any particular merchants.”
I felt a little bad when she seemed so concerned, but I had mostly just brought this stuff here to see how she would react, so I didn’t feel like dragging it all the way to a workshop to sell it.
I could worry about things like that once I’d made some connections in Labyrinth City.
“Very well. Please fill out these forms while we complete our calculations.”
The only required fields on the forms were our names and wood badge numbers.
Other than that, they just contained the words “…has brought the appropriate number of cores back from the labyrinth and requests promotion to a bronze badge.”
“This is a fairly simple form.”
“Well, in many cases, people who wish to be explorers can’t understand anything too complicated,” the clerk explained.
With the low literacy rate of this land and the lack of many schools or other places of learning, I supposed that was inevitable.
“Once you have chosen your party name, please write it above your names.”
Oh right. We hadn’t chosen a party name yet.
“What should our party name be?”
When nothing came to my mind, I asked the rest of the group.
Arisa was first to make a suggestion.
“Sir Pendragon and His Lovers.”
Nope.
“Pochi and Master.”
“Aw, you don’t want the rest of us around, Pochi?” Lulu teased gently.
“O-of course I do. Let’s call it ‘Pochi and Master and Tama and Liza and Lulu and Mia and Nana and Arisa’!”
“So looong?”
Even Tama thought the revision was a little ridiculous.
“Perhaps we should choose something shorter. How about ‘Demon Lord Slayers’?”
“Doesn’t that sound too much like a title?”
It’d be a pain if anyone believed that name, and otherwise, most people would probably just laugh at us for being would-be heroes.
“‘Larvae Protection Squad,’ I suggest.”
“Whaaat? Then we’d be stuck protecting all those kids outside the labyrinth.”
“Although I would at least like to make sure they don’t starve…”
Aren’t there any soup kitchens in this city or anything like that?
“I like ‘Sir Pendragon and His Darling Friends.’”
“Lulu, you really are Arisa’s sister.”
“What do you mean by that, Miss Liza?!”
Arisa’s penchant for Showa era–inspired cheesiness was rubbing off on Lulu.
“Fairy Friends.”
“Well, we are friends, but…that doesn’t really sound like a party name, does it?”
Now Tama was the only one who hadn’t made a suggestion.
“Mm? ‘Meat-Eater Squad’?”
“Fried-Chicken-Eater Squad.”
“Chocolate-Parfait-Eater Squad.”
Tama’s suggestion set off a chain of similar ideas from the rest of the group.
Were they just saying what they wanted to eat under the pretense of suggesting a party name?
Speaking of chocolate parfaits, I would have to check in with Nea the elf soon to see how her chocolate-making experiments were going.
At this rate, we would never come up with a party name, so for the time being, I just put down my surname as our party name.
Once I’d checked that all the forms were right and handed them in, the guild employee signed each of them with the words “receipt of cores confirmed—Labyrinth Gate Supervisor Vena,” then put them away in a folder.
“The application is complete. Your bronze badges should be ready within three days or so. Until then, please keep carrying your wood badges.”
She added that we could pick up the badges at the east guild when they were complete.
While we waited for the calculations to be finished, I asked the clerk about taxes, handling charges, and things like that.
She stared at me in surprise for a moment, until she glanced at my aristocratic clothing and seemed satisfied.
No doubt she found it unusual that an explorer would be interested in things like taxes.
“The taxes on the cores sold here are deducted in advance,” she said, then glanced at me to make sure I understood before she continued. “Aside from the cores, anything explorers bring back from the labyrinth is tax-exempt.”
“Tax-exempt?”
“Yes, since our main priority is the safe and consistent retrieval of cores.”
What? In my mind, feudal societies always taxed commoners as much as they possibly could…
“We do take taxes wherever we can,” she added with a wink.
They must take heaps from merchants and artisans instead.
“I’ve finished the calculations, Chief.”
“These ones, too.”
Receiving the results of the calculations from her lackeys, the head clerk informed me of the results.
“Cores differ in value based on size, grade, and any damage on the surface.”
Looking at the piece of paper, I found that the maze ant cores were worth one copper coin each, while the maze frog cores were worth two silver coins each.
I’d also included a single core from one of the 30s-level monsters that my group had defeated in droves every day, just for reference. A particularly large one, it was worth five gold coins—a significant difference.
“The prices vary quite a bit, don’t they?”
“Yes, grades three and higher are in great demand for potions and magic tools, and there are many tools that can only be made with cores of a certain size or larger.”
That would explain the massive difference in prices.
The cores from the whales—like the giant monster fish Tobkezerra—were a deeper red than even red grade 9. I didn’t intend to sell them, but I was a little curious how much they would be worth.
“This is the amount we can pay for the other materials. Please have a look.”
I examined the other paper the guild clerk handed me.
At the guild’s buying rates, the seven carapaces were worth fourteen silver coins total, the ten blade arms were worth forty silver coins, and the three ant wings were six silver coins. If I brought them to a workshop, the carapaces and blades would be worth several times more, while the intact wings would be worth two or even three gold coins apiece.
Incidentally, two pounds of the frog meat was worth around a silver coin. Hunting frogs might be more stable for making money than cores.
Doing a bit of calculations, I guessed that an explorer up to level 10 would be able to just barely scrape by, level 15 or so would be able to make a normal living, around level 20 would be relatively profitable as long as the explorer wasn’t injured, and anyone above level 30 would be able to make a pretty cushy living for themselves.
Of course, that’d be for a normal explorer without any of my advantages, like my map and other information.
Going by these prices, I could understand why most low-level explorers had such light armor.
“This is the total for the cores and materials.”
I did a little mental math and confirmed that it was correct.
In total, we’d earned twenty gold coins and thirty-one silver coins.
If I sold the ant parts at a workshop, I could make another twenty gold coins or so. That meant if an ordinary person earned this much over the course of forty days, they’d make about one gold coin per day.
Although in reality, it took much less time, and we hunted dozens of times more monsters than what I’d sold here.
Of course, if I used these materials to make potions, magic tools, magic weapons, and so on, the earnings would amount to an astronomical figure, but I doubted there was that much of a market for such things, and I only wanted to bother making them for my group or for my own amusement anyway.
“Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I nodded, taking back the materials the guild couldn’t buy and putting the profits in the small pouch I used as a wallet.
“Finally, I have to confirm: You haven’t hidden any additional cores, have you?”
The guild clerk’s eyes glittered.
According to my AR, she had the Eye of Judgment, a gift of the Urion faith.
If I lied to her—or tried to conceal a crime, rather—she would probably find out.
Thus, I responded to her question truthfully.
“Those are all the cores we brought back from the labyrinth.”
The rest of them were still in the labyrinth vacation home, and the ones in my Storage weren’t from this labyrinth.
“Perfect. Thank you very much.”
“No, not at all.”
The woman smiled at me, and I beamed back at her in return.
My “Poker Face” skill was the MVP, as usual.
“Now, before we go back…”
I quickly counted the amount of bag-carrier children sitting by the wall outside the labyrinth entrance. There were twenty of them.
According to the AR display, they all had the Starving condition.
“I’d like to share the other half of this frog meat…”
“You’d like to borrow the grill and some coal, correct?”
The clerk was ready to help before I even finished my sentence.
“Lulu, Liza, would you mind cooking the meat for them?”
“Yes, master.”
“You can count on us, sir.”
Liza set up the grill, while Lulu cut the meat into small chunks.
“We’ll heeelp?”
“Pochi’s a pro at putting meat on skewers, sir.”
I wasn’t sure if such a professional job existed, but Tama and Pochi started skewering the chunks of meat as Lulu cut them.
“It isn’t catching fire very well.”
“Here. ? Fire Hi.”
Mia used Spirit Magic to assist Liza, who was having difficulty getting the fire to start.
Unlike inside the labyrinth, there were plenty of spirits here, so she could use Spirit Magic without a problem.
“Oh, wow!”
“What a big fire.”
“It’s magic!”
“Gosh, you’re a mage, miss? But you’re around our age!”
The little kids exclaimed in surprise at Mia’s magic, and the eldest girl gazed at Mia admiringly.
Mia kept a cool expression, but her nostrils flared slightly and her mouth twitched. She must not have minded the attention much.
“Rejoice! Our great master, Sir Pendragon, is going to treat all of you to maze-frog-meat skewers!”
At Arisa’s declaration, the kids turned to me and chorused a thank-you.
They’d probably learned this from that Dozon fellow.
“You must not gather all at once, I inform. It is safest to line up in a single-file line, I direct.”
“Mm. Line.”
Nana and Mia took charge of keeping the kids in an orderly line.
There was so much food that we cooked for a good half hour or so until the kids were full, then gave the remaining half to the guild employees and other passing explorers.
The rest of my group snacked on the meat with the other kids, but I planned to get us all some of our inn’s famous lamb dishes to celebrate our return from the labyrinth, so I warned them not to eat too much.
“Wooow, they have a regular service route and everything?”
The explorers’ guild had a carriage that departed every two hours from the west guild in the labyrinth entrance area to the north guild where we’d applied for our explorer badges.
It was more like a cart than a proper enclosed carriage, though.
“It’s a half hour until the next carriage leaves, but…you’ve got eight people, the maximum capacity, so I can just take you now.”
“Thank you. That would be wonderful.”
Sine the driver was nice enough to adapt his schedule for us, I gave him a little extra money along with the carriage fee.
Once we all climbed aboard, the carriage headed out.
“Master, I have located a group in fiery red, I report.”
Nana pointed toward a group of explorers all clad in red cloaks or armor, followed by a shrieking group of female fans.
“Them there’s the Red Dragon’s Roar, a party of all garnet-badge explorers. The fella with the red scabbard is their leader, Baronet Jelil. His nickname’s the Scarlet Nobleman. Looks wimpy, but he’s so good, rumor has it he’s the next member o’ the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga.”
While the driver explained, I verified his information with the AR.
Baronet Jelil was the unusually high level of 45. He seemed to be a magic knight, wielding a one-handed sword and shield and excelling in Fire Magic.
His party members were all within the level 30 to 40 range.
“Are they the strongest party around?”
“Most likely. The top explorer, Master Yasaku, is away right now, so I’d say they’re the best in the game at the moment.”
“Then, for now, this Jelil character and company will be our rivals!”
“Rogerrr?”
“Let’s work hard to be the strongest, sir!”
Arisa and the others declared a one-sided rivalry.
Of course, Mr. Jelil didn’t hear this through the crowd of people, and the driver simply chuckled. “Good luck, future top explorers.”
Arisa was probably being serious, though.
In reality, we already had better equipment than his party. It was only a matter of time and a little bit of work.
“There are lots of shops for explorers around here. The artisan district is by the south gate.”
The carriage passed the west guild and into a narrow road surrounded by a jumble of shops.
As I listened to the driver, I gazed at the shops and the pedestrians wandering around.
“The aqueducts in this city are awfully dirty.”
“They probably don’t use this water for cooking, though, right?”
Arisa gazed down into the water, which contained garbage and bits of food.
“Sure we do. We just get it from one o’ the parts that isn’t dirty, that’s all.”
“Seriously?!” Arisa exclaimed.
I had to admit, I was pretty shocked, too. This place might be hard on those of us who were born and raised in sanitary environments.
But of course, I had spells like the Everyday Magic Pure Water and magic tools like the Well Bag. It wasn’t a big deal for us.
“Rich people and nobles have wells of their own, and that’s all upstream, so it’s probably clean, eh?”
Possibly noticing Arisa’s and my shock, the driver gave us some reassurance.
Recovering and looking around at the street, I saw that there was trash lying on the ground, and the explorers wandering about were throwing aside their scraps and garbage, too.
At least there wasn’t any human waste in the streets like there would be in medieval Europe.
According to my map, this place did have a sewage system, though it wasn’t as large in scale as the one in the old capital.
“Master, the larvae hiding in the alleyways do not look well, I report.”
Nana pointed out a few children slumped in the shadows of the alleys.
“Yeah, them’s kids who can’t find work. They’re probably passed out from hunger, see.”
“Huh. Don’t they have a secret thieving circle or something?”
“No, not really. Lots of the shops in Labyrinth City are run by former explorers, so stealing from ’em means you’re putting your life on the line. Besides, even first-time offenders get sent away to the mines here. Thieving’s a last resort.”
The driver quickly dispelled Arisa’s romantic delusions.
This seemed to be a pretty tough city. If there were any temples that gave out food to malnourished children, I would have to leave them a big donation.
“It can be a little sketchy round these parts, so don’t go into any of them side-alley shops unless you know what’s what. Lots of dangerous folks and kidnappers about.”
The carriage passed through a little arch into a street that was evidently the pleasure district. Something about it just gave off an air of delicious indecency.
There weren’t any beauties waving from the doorways or anything, so I wasn’t sure why it felt so exciting.
Not that I would say anything, of course.
Once we left this district, we were on the main road that linked the north and south gates, and soon we reached the busy area in front of the north gate.
“Master, we are passing through the inner wall, I report.”
Once we passed under the wall that separated the nobles’ quarters, the scene changed into a quiet street with few passersby.
“Them big buildings over there belong to counts and viscounts, and most of ’em near the wall are barons, baronets, and suchlike. There are some residences a little farther along for multigenerational hereditary knight families, too.”
There seemed to be a lot of distinctions among classes.
“Honorary knights and other new nobles like that tend to live near the walls. Some of ’em who don’t like all the noble formalities even live outside the walls instead.”
According to my AR display, many of the houses in this area were empty.
Most likely, one couldn’t obtain a big house like these without high family status.
The driver continued to give us helpful information until we arrived in front of the east guild.
“Hi, I’d like to extend my stay at the inn. Is that all right?”
We returned to the inn where we’d reserved a room in which we had yet to spend a single night.
I was paying a high price for this room, so tonight we would take full advantage of it.
Or so I thought…
“S-Sir Pendragon? Y-you’re alive? I thought you were dead…”
…but the innkeeper’s response was rather disturbing.
“W-well, I’m quite glad you’re all right. E-erm, yes, you can extend your stay. I’m terribly sorry, but your room is being cleaned at the moment. For now, please wait in the lobby. W-we shan’t charge any additional fees or anything like that, of course.”
The innkeeper was acting highly suspicious; his eyes darted every which way.
Just then, Tama and Pochi came running back from checking on the horses.
“They’re gooone?”
“The runosaurs and carriage aren’t there, either, sir.”
Oh-ho? What’s this all about?
Our eyes all turned toward the innkeeper.
Arisa and Liza, especially, were practically glaring a hole through him.
“Y-your horses are out for their regular exercise in the pasture. The carriage was dirty, so we are currently polishing it up at a workshop that specializes in luxury carriages. This is a free service from the inn, of course.”
I see. He must have thought I’d died and tried to sell them.
“Is that right? That carriage was specially made by a master in the old capital. It’s worth well over two hundred gold coins. It won’t be scratched or soiled in any way at this workshop, I hope?”
“O-of course not, sir.”
I decided to make the man suffer a little for his sins.
“Liza, Nana, I’m concerned. Could you go and check on the carriage?”
“N-no, no, that will not be necessary. Surely you must be exhausted, since you’ve just returned from the labyrinth. We’ve received some particularly good cuts of lamb today, so how would you like a meal? I’ll send someone to fetch your horses and carriage at once. If you wouldn’t mind having a meal in the meantime, erm…”
This guy seemed like way too small-time of a crook to be running such a fancy inn. Maybe he was a son-in-law or something trying to make some extra cash?
“Everyone, this kind innkeeper says he’ll treat us all to a lamb feast free of charge. Let’s thank him, shall we?”
As a fine for his trickery, I figured he could at least give us a good meal.
The younger kids all thanked the man cheerfully. I wasn’t sure whether he realized that I’d figured out his scheme or not, but either way, the innkeeper agreed to give us a free meal.
After our delicious feast, our horses and carriage were safely returned to the inn.
The food was delicious, and the horses hadn’t been replaced with new ones or anything, so I decided to let it slide.
I’d certainly given the man a fright, and I was sure a full-course lamb meal for eight people was a considerable blow to his wallet. He’d probably suffered enough.
I would have to whip up a special meal for the horses later, too.
“What’s going on here, Hesson? Where’s my carriage?! I didn’t pony up three hundred gold coins just so you could bail on our deal at the last minute!”
Just as I was getting ready to forgive the innkeeper, an old gentleman came storming into the lobby.
“Baronet Dyukeli! Erm, I’m afraid there’s been a mistake…”
The innkeeper shrank away from the skinny old man.
He must have tried to sell my carriage to this man for three hundred coins. From the sound of things, he was pretty good at driving a high price.
“Why, if it isn’t the baronet! Please do come into the parlor. We’ve just received some fine red wine from the royal capital.”
The lady of the inn managed to coax the enraged baronet out of the room.
I didn’t want to stick my nose into any more trouble than I had to.
The lamb feast had satisfied my appetite, and no doubt the innkeeper was going to pay dearly for trying to swindle a high-class baronet.
I had no desire to keep staying at an inn that I couldn’t trust, so I decided we would find a new place to stay.
We could check in on the Ivy Manor and see if it was habitable, and if not, surely Viscount Siemmen or one of his friends could suggest a good place.
It’d be fun to put a Return seal slate somewhere in the city and live in our labyrinth vacation home, too.
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