Trouble in Gururian City
Satou here. I like both Western and traditional Japanese sweets, but my favorites are Japanese ones that incorporate Western flavors. I think it’s important to carry on traditions while also continuing to evolve.
“When we get to Gururian City, you gotta eat Gururian cakes! But it won’t be easy, ’cause they’re one copper apiece.”
“What kind of pastry is it?”
“Lemme see… It’s, like, made out of white grains with sweet black grains on the outside, kinda.”
While I was talking to the commoner sisters about the city’s famous cakes, Lulu reported from the coachman’s stand that the walls of Gururian City had come into view. Meanwhile, the sisters continued chattering.
“You’ve never even eaten one!”
The elder sister turned to me and explained the origin of her younger sister’s story.
“A merchant who came to the village was going on about them, so now she thinks she’s had one herself.”
“Hmph! When I get a job that pays, it’s the first thing I’m gonna eat!”
“It’ll be years before you can get paid, dummy.”
The sisters were going to Gururian City to apprentice at a mercantile.
Until they came of age, children were provided with food, clothing, and shelter in place of actual wages. Given the lack of initial investment, maybe this kind of servitude made for more economic labor than slaves.
Finally, we arrived at the entrance to Gururian City.
There was a line to enter, but the temple knight led us around to the front of it.
At the gate, some young nobles were giving an address to the merchants waiting to get inside.
“Merchants visiting Gururian City! We are seeking a Magic Sword. If any of you can provide us with one, we’ll guarantee you an exclusive deal with the government in the future!”
The young men addressing the crowd were mostly in their twenties and dressed in fashionable knight-style clothing.
Naturally, no one answered them. They were probably affiliated with the similar young noble I saw back in Bolehart City.
“Hey, big sis, he says he’ll make us government merchants if we give him a Magic Sword! Isn’t that amazing?”
“It certainly is. But we don’t have anything like a Magic Sword, so it doesn’t matter.”
“…You girls won’t last a minute if you let every sleazebag on the street fool you like that, you know!” Concerned by the sisters’ remarks, Arisa clearly couldn’t resist sticking her nose in. “You know what that actually means, right? He’s saying, ‘We don’t have money, but we still want a Magic Sword. Please give us one for free. Then, if we manage to have a successful career in the future, we’ll give you special treatment. Don’t complain if that never happens, though.’ They’re all full of hot air.”
“Wow, really? I had no idea.”
“Gosh, Arisa, you’re smart for someone so little!”
As I listened idly to their conversation, I opened the window and looked outside.
The young noblemen were staring greedily at Liza’s magic spear, but they weren’t quite stupid enough to approach a cart with an escort of temple knights, so they were keeping their distance.
Once we entered the gate, we had to let the sisters off.
As commoners, they needed to go through certain procedures to enter the city.
Fortunately, the gatekeeper seemed to be a friend of Sir Heath, so he promised to finish their paperwork quickly and even offered to guide them to the mercantile. What a kind gatekeeper.
“Thanks, Mister Satou!”
“Really, thank you so much. You rescued us from those thieves, then you took such good care of us…”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“I do! Listen, we’re gonna be working at a hardware store called the Green Shop, so please come see us if you need anything, okay? We can’t give you a discount or nothin’, but we’ll make sure you get all the best stuff!”
I imagined the girls would be doing only menial chores at the shop, but I thanked them nonetheless for their kind offer.
After parting ways with the village girls, we continued through the city. There were a lot of people about, making me wonder if there was a festival going on or something.
Even the main street had no separation between roads and walkways, so progress in the carriage was slow. I sent Temple Knight Heath on ahead as a messenger to the Tenion Temple.
In the meantime, I decided to check the map once more. There were no demons, chaos jars, malice urns, or anything of the sort, but I did find twenty or so demon lord–worshipping Wings of Freedom.
I decided to write down on paper the names and whereabouts of the members and mail it off to the city guards in the dead of night.
“Masterrr?” Tama, who was riding the runosaur along with Pochi, called to me from outside the window. “Sword fiiights?”
“Master, humans are fighting over there, sir.”
Interested, I came out to the coachman stand to look where they were pointing.
There was a great deal of people gathered in a large park nearby, making for quite a lively mood.
“Over there, master.”
“I wonder what it is? An exhibition fight, maybe?”
I looked curiously toward where Lulu was pointing, and Arisa stuck her head out as well.
It was dangerous to drive while distracted, so I had Lulu stop the carriage for a moment.
“Maybe it has to do with the martial arts tournament Miss Jojorie mentioned?”
Right—there was a big tournament being held in the old capital soon.
“It’s probably a preliminary battle to decide who gets to enter. Want to go check it out?”
Jackass had gotten out of the carriage to stretch and made a suggestion.
Wait, when did you get out?
“Lord Tolma, we must first go to the Tenion Temple…”
“Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud. Let’s pick up some grub at the food stalls first!”
Ignoring the temple knight’s reminder, Jackass cheerily slipped into the crowd.
“I’m sorry. Tolma is always like this.”
Miss Hayuna tried to apologize to the temple knight, but her expression remained stoic as ever.
“…Sir Pendragon. I’m terribly sorry, but would you mind lending me one of your talented servants to retrieve Lord Tolma?”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
Since her main duty was to protect baby Mayuna, the “oracle priestess,” she couldn’t leave.
I sent Liza and Nana to collect Jackass.
Tama and Pochi, still riding the runosaur, sniffed the air.
“Sweet smeeell?”
“It’s a different smell from the honey pastries and the licorice, sir!”
After a moment, the scent reached the rest of us as well. It smelled like traditional Japanese sweets, specifically red-bean paste.
“Oh man, that smells great! Is that…? Is that red-bean paste?”
Arisa was getting especially fired up for whatever reason and whipped her head around searchingly.
“You there, young master! Would you like a Gururian cake?”
A girl with a food tray suspended from her neck emerged from the crowd and approached the coachman’s stand where I was sitting.
She reminded me of a Showa-era salesgirl selling bento boxes at a train station, or something along those lines.
Alas, she wasn’t wearing a Japanese-style outfit to match—just ordinary commoner’s clothes with a short apron tied around her waist.
“Sure. Could I buy eleven, please?”
“Yes, of course! That will be eleven large coppers.”
I didn’t feel like haggling, so I handed her two silvers and one large copper.
That was pretty expensive for a pastry, though. Each one cost the same as a night’s stay at the Gatefront Inn back in Seiryuu City.
I handed out the leaf-wrapped Gururian cakes to everyone.
I thought the temple knight might decline, but she gladly accepted it. It seemed girls who disliked sweets were rare even in a parallel world.
“Mrrrr. Black things.”
Mia was eyeing her cake rather distrustfully.
“It’s a sweet pastry made with grains and bean paste,” I informed her, and she cautiously took a bite.
“…Yum.”
With this brief statement of approval, Mia cupped the Gururian cake in her hands and began eating it reverently.
“I think it could stand to have a bit more sugar.”
Critical though Arisa was, she devoured hers in an instant.
I’m guessing that if they used more sugar, which is always expensive, the pastries would cost even more.
“Hmm. So it’s that, is it?”
“Yeah, it must be.”
Arisa and I both recognized the pastry as ohagi, a traditional Japanese sweet.
Instead of mochi, there was a clump of glutinous rice that hadn’t been pounded smooth.
The red-bean anko was lumpy, giving it the feel of a very traditional ohagi.
“So the name of this city…”
“Yeah, it must be a pun.”
I couldn’t tell this to anyone else—they would have to understand Japanese to get the joke—but there was no mistaking it. Ohagi was made by packing sweetened white rice together, then rolling it (gururi) in red-bean paste (an). That had to be where the name “Gururian” came from.
Whoever named this city was definitely a Japanese punster.
After we finished the ohagi, there was still no sign of Liza, Nana, or Jackass.
“I’m going to look for them. I’ll bring Tama and Pochi as escorts, so the rest of you wait here, please.”
With that, I headed into the crowd, holding Tama’s and Pochi’s hands.
Usually, this would end in even more kids getting lost, but I didn’t need to worry about that as long as I had my radar.
“Anyone who wants a badge of participation for the preliminary battle, line up here! You don’t need to go to the town hall. We’ll sell you one right here at this branch office!”
A big bald man was holding up a bronze badge-like object and shouting.
Oh, so these were the badges you needed to bet to enter the match.
“The winner is the Wolf of Walt Village, Ton!”
And this round had just ended.
The young man named Ton received a badge from the winner. His friends crowded around him, handing him drinks and a towel to wipe his sweat.
“Wow, Ton! Three more and you can enter the prelims!”
“Psh, this is nothin’!”
Ton had seven badges crammed onto his shirt.
So you needed to win nine street matches to qualify for the preliminary round of the tournament.
“I’m not gonna stop at the prelims.”
“Yeah, I bet you’ll get four wins in the prelims and move on to the second round no problem, Ton!”
“Ha-ha, damn! If you get that far, you might get to be a knight.”
No wonder people were so excited about making a splash in these matches, with a carrot like that in front of their faces.
This would increase the number of people who could fight off monsters in the territory, too, so it sounded like a good event overall.
The participants mostly ranged from levels 5 to 7, with very few of them more than level 10.
“There’re still four more qualifying spots for Gururian City, so you’ve got this in the bag.”
“I wouldn’t let yer guard down. Last year, the three remaining spots all went in a day!”
“Yeah, I got no time for breaks. Who’s going to be my next challenger? I’ll take anybody on!”
A middle-aged man responded to Ton’s hotheaded declaration, and another match began.
I was fairly interested in the match myself, but when I spotted Liza and Nana on the other side of the crowd, we went to meet up with them.
“Oh nooo?”
“Liza is being bullied, sir!”
As we got closer, we saw five good-looking young men surrounding Liza and Nana.
“Master, help is required, I request!”
Noticing me, Nana rushed up and grabbed my hand to drag me over.
I stood in front of the youths with Nana still attached to my hand.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m these young women’s guardian.”
These children were all from noble families living in Gururian City. All five of them had a blank space in the affiliation section of their profile.
None of them seemed to have a rank or title, and frankly, they probably didn’t have jobs, either.
“Do you have some business with my children?”
Normally I would be more polite, but I remembered the advice Viscount Nina had given me during her political purge of Muno Barony: kowtowing to power-hungry young nobles would only go to their heads, so it was better to act haughty with them.
“I—I ordered that demi-human to hand over her magic spear, but she won’t do as she’s told!”
“A weapon like that would clearly be best suited in the hands of Horan here, the spear master…”
“If you’re her master, you’d better order her to donate her spear to Lord Horan!”
So basically, these childish nobles were saying, I want your weapon; give it to me. How could someone in their mid-twenties be so unabashedly stupid?
By the way, the so-called “spear master” Horan did have the “Spear” skill, but he was only level 4. Liza could probably knock him out while whistling a tune.
As I was wondering how best to deal with these idiots, I got backup from an unexpected place.
“Hey, guys.”
“What do you want? Back off, plebian.”
The man who pushed his way through the group was none other than Tolma the jackass, still in his traveling clothes.
“Sorry, but we have to go see Lady Sara at the Tenion Temple, then say hi to our friend Lord Worgoch. If you have nothing else to do here, would you mind getting on your way?”
“Sara… Isn’t that the duke’s daughter who’s staying in the Tenion Temple?”
“And Lord Worgoch is a viceroy, isn’t he?”
Tolma’s words set the young nobles quaking in their boots.
“Listen, commoner! It’s poor manners to act friendly with those above your station! I’ll make you pay for that right here and now!”
Horan, the ringleader of the cowering group, flew into a rage and drew his sword.
“My, you’re short-tempered. Here, have a look at this.”
Jackass reached into his coat and produced the dagger with the Siemmen family crest on it, showing it to the foolish young nobles.
“H-hey…!”
“Th-the biggest noble family in the old capital…”
Horan and the others all knew the name and crest of the Siemmen family; they drew back with exclamations of surprise. It was like when an undercover cop flashes their badge.
Smiling faintly, Jackass took a single step forward.
“““We’re so sorry!”””
Immediately, the young nobles apologized in unison, then scrambled away toward the main street with their tails between their legs.
I certainly hadn’t expected this guy to come to our rescue.
Guess I should probably go back to calling him Mr. Tolma in my head…
“That was a great help, Lord Tolma.”
“Oh, not at all. Actually, I was hoping you could do a little favor for me anyway…”
Tolma pointed sheepishly at several food cart owners, who seemed to be waiting on him.
…So you didn’t bring any money, huh?
All right, I’ll drop the “Mr.” From now on, he’s just Tolma.
Once I’d paid for Tolma’s food, we went and bought a few things to bring back for the others at his recommended stalls of choice. There were a lot of food cart staples, like chicken skewers and melons chilled in well water.
While we walked around, I asked Tolma why the nobles were so interested in Liza’s magic spear.
“I see. So a magic spear would exempt them from the first preliminary round for the martial arts tournament?”
“That’s right. Not just spears, either—Magic Swords and mithril blades and such work just as well.”
“But even if they did get the exemption, wouldn’t they just be sorely defeated in the second preliminary round if they don’t have the strength to back it up?”
Did they want to join the tournament in the old capital that badly?
“That’s not it. See, if you’ve gotten through the first round of qualifiers, you can enlist in the duke’s royal guard.”
“They would go to all that trouble to get into the royal guard?”
“You may not know this, Sir Satou, but the royal guard is something of a dream job to young nobles without titles of their own.”
I see. So this was an underhanded way of getting a job offer from a place that would normally be out of their league.
Now I understood a little.
But whether I would actually go along with that was another question entirely.
I just hoped they would keep their little endeavor far away from me from now on.
Once everyone had eaten the food we brought back from the stalls, we resumed our journey to Tenion Temple.
“People of Gururian City! Wake up from your false religion!”
I heard a suspicious-sounding call from outside the carriage window, so I moved next to Lulu and took a look.
The speaker was a man in a purple robe standing on top of a barrel at the side of the road.
He was part of that Wings of Freedom group of fanatics we’d encountered in Muno City.
“The gods do not want people to be happy! It is their will that permits us to go on cowering before the threat of monsters yet labels any movements toward freedom as ‘taboo’! Good people! Now is the time to take back the freedom of humanfolk!”
The purple-robed man’s speech was so insane that I wouldn’t have been surprised to find him frothing at the mouth, but the people passing by gave him no reaction.
Only one person stood up to challenge his speech: Lady Knight, who was accompanying us.
As a knight whose job it was to defend the temple, she probably couldn’t just let his heresy slide.
“Stand down, you demon-lord follower!”
“Tch! Damned watchdog of a foolish god!”
The minute he recognized Lady Knight, the purple-robed man jumped from the barrel and took off down an alley like a rabbit.
“Stop right there! You cur!”
His sudden dash must have triggered an instinctive reaction for Lady Knight, who took off after him on horseback.
Won’t your boss be angry that you abandoned your duty of guarding baby Mayuna?
With that trivial thought passing through my mind, I searched the city map again for the Wings of Freedom.
For some reason, most of them were moving like they were being pursued. Most likely, they’d attempted to give speeches until the authorities or temple officials gave chase.
…Hmm?
Suddenly, a red spot appeared on the map.
Right on the street we were traveling on…
“Run away! There’s a monster in the streets!”
A shout from the crowd caused a panic to break out on the main avenue.
Scores of people began fleeing from where the monster had appeared.
“Arisa!”
“Okeydoke!”
With a single deep breath, Arisa invoked her Psychic Magic spell Repellent Field.
After the Psychic Magic landed, the people fleeing all around us started to avoid our carriage, as if they’d seen something truly disgusting.
We’d used the same spell to deal with the people fleeing from the goblins in Muno City.
Once I saw that it was working, I checked the details of the red light on my radar.
It wasn’t just a monster… It was a demon.
“Everyone but Lulu, prepare for battle. Lulu, please park the carriage on the side of the road.”
Of course, the only “battle preparations” that really needed to be done were Arisa and Mia collecting their staffs and Tama and Pochi their short swords from the Garage Bag.
While they set about doing that, I pulled up the map.
The creature that had appeared was a lesser demon called a short-horned demon.
He was level 30, with only the race-specific abilities Transform and Flame Hand and the skills “Super Strength” and “Hard Body”; he had no magic-type skills at all. He was probably meant to be some kind of advance guard.
By all appearances, he was already engaged in battle, surrounded by knights and warriors from levels 13 to 33.
There were at least three people around the same level as the demon, so they should be all right without me… No, wait.
“It takes a full squadron to stand a chance at defeating even a lesser hell demon, and you still risk losing half.”
The temple knight Sir Keon’s words echoed in my mind.
I didn’t know how large a squadron of knights was, but it was probably more than seven.
Besides…near the demon, my radar showed the blue dots that indicated acquaintances of mine. Two of them.
I couldn’t just look the other way.
“Lulu, you wait here. Take care of the horses and the carriage. You too, Mia and Arisa—”
“Coming.”
“I’m coming, too, of course!”
Mia and Arisa didn’t even let me finish telling them to stay before they refused.
“All right. Just hang back and cover me. Nana, keep Lulu safe. Liza, follow me and direct Tama and Pochi.”
“Master, here.”
Arisa handed me the fairy sword and its belt.
“Thank you, Arisa. Let’s go!”
With that, I rushed through the thinning crowd.
As the others followed, I told them that it was a demon up ahead, not a monster, and explained his level, skills, and things to watch out for in the battle.
I planned to leave the fighting to the knights and provide them support from behind, while the others transported or healed the wounded.
The beastfolk girls had higher defense than the knights of the same level, so as long as I covered them well, they should be able to stand up to even a lesser demon.
Still, I had no idea why a demon had materialized in the middle of the city all of a sudden like this.
At the very least, I was certain there’d been no demons here when we entered the city.
In fact, there hadn’t been any in the entire duchy. He didn’t seem able to teleport, either, so someone had either summoned him or sent him here.
Eventually, there were no more fleeing crowds at all, just abandoned carts and carriages littered around the street.
When we turned the corner at the intersection of the main road, we saw the knights and warriors fighting the demon.
The demon himself was quite different from the one in Muno City. He resembled a huge red gorilla with six arms and short horns.
The remains of demolished carriages lay scattered around the battlefield, as well as several large holes in the buildings facing the street.
A few warriors were slumped on the ground around the demon, unable to fight any longer.
Miraculously, there seemed to be no casualties as of yet. But if this went on much longer, people would surely die.
Judging by the situation, the injured were too close to the rampaging demon to be rescued.
The demon’s powerful arms struck a few people fighting at the forefront, and they were propelled into the air, as high as if they’d bounced off a trampoline, toward us.
If they hit the ground like that, even the heavily armored knights might lose their lives.
“Mia! Use Balloon!”
With the fairy sword, I slashed open a barrel of liquor lying nearby on the ground and flung it toward the area where the knights were about to land.
“… ? Balloon Kyuubouchou!”
Mia’s magic produced an explosive torrent of steam that canceled out the falling knights’ downward acceleration.
That should keep them alive, at the very least. Hopefully they can just walk it off.
One of the fighters was on a slightly different trajectory and also happened to be a beautiful woman. Quickly, I darted over to catch her.
“…Wh-what?”
The woman, clad in a dress, had squeezed her eyes shut in preparation for the impact and now blinked a few times.
“Please try not to put yourself in harm’s way, Lady Karina.”
“Sa… Er, Sir Pendragon!”
Realizing who had caught her, Miss Karina flew into a panic.
I got why she was stammering, but what was up with this ritual of alternately entwining and releasing her fingers over her chest? Was this her way of acting bashful?
On top of that, she kept mumbling increasingly absurd comments in my arms, from “Heavens, to think you would hold me like this twice!” to “You’re surprisingly strong, aren’t you?” to, finally, “Perhaps we’ll go to the royal capital for our honeymoon…”
Clearly, her inability to handle any physical contact with the opposite sex hadn’t changed since our last encounter.
“I forbid you to princess-carry anyooone!”
“Mm, forbidden.”
Once they’d caught up behind me, Arisa and Mia immediately lodged their complaints.
Meanwhile, Tama and Pochi were giving recovery potions to the knights who had just fallen.
“Thank you for your assistance, Sir Pendragon,” said Raka, the sentient necklace blinking blue at Miss Karina’s chest. I responded by politely asking him to help his master stop throwing herself into danger.
Even with Raka’s protection, Miss Karina had still lost about 20 percent of her health, so I asked Mia to heal her.
As I put Miss Karina down, she grabbed onto my sleeve, but she appeared to have as little idea of why as I did.
Mia narrowed her eyes, but she began casting the spell to heal Miss Karina nonetheless.
“Master, the front lines are about to give way.”
“We’ll heeelp!”
“You can come, too, Karina, ma’am!”
Tama and Pochi each patted one of Karina’s breasts in greeting, then stood on either side of Liza.
Why do they get to do that…?
“All right! I’ll take the lead. Liza, you and the others help the wounded first.”
I could hardly imitate Pochi and Tama’s greeting, so I simply gave a light wave before dashing into battle.
On the front lines, two more people had collapsed, leaving only the level-33 imperial knight Sir Ipasa and a level-29 warrior with a large shield.
Both of them were bloodied and slowing down.
The demon fired three shots of Flame Hand, which rocketed like bullets into the warrior’s shield.
The stone paving broke beneath the warrior’s feet, sending up enough dirt to cover his ankles.
Before the dirt hit the ground, the demon spun around and hit the warrior with his tail, knocking him away.
The warrior rolled over two times, then three, finally crashing through the wall of a nearby house and landing somewhere inside.
Contrary to his heavy-looking appearance, the demon was very light on his feet.
Sir Ipasa’s sword slashed at the demon but was blocked by his tail, and the demon prepared to shoot a Flame Hand at the defenseless imperial knight.
Just as he released the shot, I used the Pit spell right beneath his feet to throw off his balance.
The spell rocketed off course, grazing Sir Ipasa’s armor and sending him tumbling across the ground a few feet.
As the knight attempted to rise, I saw a trail of burn marks across his chest plate. It looked painful but probably still a lot better than a direct hit would have been.
Sir Ipasa attempted to stand up but finally toppled to the ground, gushing blood.
The demon slowly approached the pair to finish them off.
Both of them had less than 10 percent of their health left.
And their position wasn’t looking good.
I had no choice.
I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but I could at least shield the fallen fighters until they recovered.
“Liza, fight from a distance! Make evasion your top priority!”
“Understood!”
After giving Liza her orders, I double-checked the information displayed in the AR next to the demon.
This guy was tough. He still had almost 90 percent of his health left.
“Over here! You ugly gorilla!” I shouted, using the “Taunt” skill on my voice.
The demon immediately charged at me, leaping over the heads of Liza and the others with ease as they tried to attack.
As he dropped toward me from the sky, he pulled back his arm.
Then, in the next instant—
He came down at me like a cannonball.
I dodged him at point-blank range by twisting my body to the side.
The Fire Hand flew past me, hot air brushing by my cheek.
“Sir Pe— Satou!”
“Master!”
“Satou!”
I thought I heard Miss Karina, Arisa, and Mia shout from behind me.
The demon’s burning hand plunged deep into the ground in a spray of rock and earth.
Looking up, I saw the demon’s eyes distorted with hatred.
I guess he hadn’t been expecting me to dodge.
The limb shriveled up and vanished into the earth.
Meanwhile, three of the demon’s arms on his other side came flying at me with the same force as the previous attack.
It looked potentially painful, so I avoided it with a light jump.
Drawing my fairy sword, I infused it with just enough magic to strengthen it without invoking “Spellblade.”
Moments later, the demon’s short tail stretched out from behind and lashed at me like a whip. It was the same surprise attack that had knocked out the warrior not long ago.
I narrowly avoided giving in to the instinct to slice off the tail. Instead, I hopped back to avoid it and its cloud of dust, waited for the right moment, and nailed the demon directly in the face.
With an incomprehensible gurgling shriek, the demon stopped moving for a moment.
It was a perfect opening, so I decided to give a light slash to the demon’s ankle with the fairy sword.
It took a lot of effort not to carelessly lop his leg off in the process.
“Ooh! It cut through the demon’s super-tough pelt!”
“Even the knights couldn’t get anywhere with it! That’s crazy!”
“What a beautiful blade…”
“It’s gotta be a dwarven mithril sword!”
“He must be some famous swordsman, then. Who is he?”
What’s with all the comments from the peanut gallery?
Springing lightly aside to avoid another tail attack, I searched my surroundings.
In a nearby alleyway, five or so well-dressed children were peeking around the corner. I had an audience. I’d drawn the demon away from the previous battlefield, and people who’d been hiding in the nearby buildings worked together to carry away the injured, including Sir Ipasa and the warrior.
By now, hopefully they were getting recovery potions in the safety of the buildings.
Suddenly, a clear ringing echoed through the street, and the demon’s movements slowed mid–Fire Hand.
The AR display next to him showed the words Power reduced by 30 percent.
Turning to the source of the sound, I saw Arisa ringing the demon-sealing bell, which was emitting a pale-blue light. Miss Karina had probably handed it off to her.
“Aim for his legs.”
“Aye-aye, siiir!”
“Roger, sir!”
Tama and Pochi jumped in under Liza’s instructions.
The beastfolk girls darted around, jabbing at the backs of the demon’s knees.
Irritated, the demon tried to drive them away by swinging his tail around, but by that time all three of them were already out of his range.
So they were going with the same “attack once, then retreat” strategy we’d employed in monster battles in the Seiryuu City labyrinth.
“Over here! I’m your opponent!”
I used “Taunt” again to draw the demon’s attention.
Just then, two Flame Shots struck the demon’s body and exploded. Arisa and Mia were using the Fire Rods we’d confiscated from the thieves.
“Magic won’t work…”
“His fur must be resistant to flame.”
“Maybe if you hit inside his mouth?”
According to the peanut gallery, the Fire Rods wouldn’t have any effect here.
“I shall assist you! Sir Pendragon!”
Miss Karina, rushing in like a whirlwind as usual, sent a flying kick square into the side of the demon’s face.
I wish she hadn’t shouted my name. Is she deliberately trying to advertise my identity?
She was glancing this way as if hoping I would call out her name, too, but I stoutly refused.
I couldn’t spoil her like that.
Realizing that the Fire Rod wasn’t working, Mia instead used the Water Magic spell Irritation Mist, burning the demon’s lungs.
I shot her an accusing glare when my lungs started stinging, too, but she carefully avoided my eyes.
While I was distracted, the demon came at me with a Fire Hand.
“You mustn’t look away during a battle, you know.” Miss Karina diverted the incoming attack with a kick and looked at me with a triumphant grin.
“Lady Karina! Do not let your guard down!”
Raka’s advice came too late, as a Fire Hand from the demon’s opposite side promptly flung her across the battlefield.
Maybe next time you shouldn’t look away, either.
Luckily, Raka’s powerful defense protected Miss Karina, so she would be fine.
Even after receiving such a fierce blow, she was almost entirely unharmed. It would probably just leave her head spinning for a moment.
The defense of the multilayered “scales” that Raka produced around her was far stronger than the comparable Practical Magic spell Shield, so much so that I wished I could equip my own kids with such a durable automatic self-defense mechanism.
That little incident aside, our battle continued steadily. It was tedious, but I just had to deal. I couldn’t become distracted and let one of my kids get hurt.
WHOOOOSH!
Fed up with his inability to hit me, the demon swung his arm around and around in the air above his head.
“Get back!”
The beastfolk girls jumped away on my command, and seconds later the earth exploded into clouds of dust under the demon’s attack.
“““Waaah! My eyes, my eeeyes!”””
The kids in the alley shrieked and covered their faces. So the dust got into their eyes, did it?
No one could see me in the debris, and I took this opportunity to circle around behind my foe and incapacitate his other leg with a slash.
While I was at it, I got in a few jabs at his shoulder joints.
I didn’t manage to hold back as much as I intended, though, and the demon’s health was cut down by about 70 percent.
I hurriedly shook the blood off the sword and wiped it clean before the dust cleared.
“Look, look!”
“We’re winning now!”
“There’s blood all over his legs and back!”
“It must’ve been the Scalefolk lady with the magic spear!”
“Did those little kids do the legs, then?”
The noisy onlookers had already recovered, but luckily they seemed to have fallen for my trick.
As blood dripped from his wounds, the demon chased after me, fists raised, whipping his tail at me.
Then, a blue light shimmered from the roof of a nearby building.
“Karinaaa Kiiiiiiick!!”
Calling out a silly-sounding attack name, Miss Karina rained flying kicks down on the demon’s head.
The demon was starting to dodge when I kicked his jaw upward, trapping him between me and Karina’s barrage of attacks.
I felt an unpleasant crunch under the sole of my foot as the demon’s skull cracked open.
His health gauge was draining with incredible speed now.
“Liza! Now!”
“Understood!”
Liza’s magic spear drew a red arc of light in the air as it drove into the demon’s neck. “Ha!” She twisted it in deeper.
For just a moment, the tip of the spear glowed red.
Liza herself didn’t seem to have noticed, but she’d used “Spellblade” just now.
His health drained to zero, the demon crumbled into black dust. The wind swept the chaff away, erasing the traces of his existence.
Stooping, Liza picked something up from the ground where the dust had been.
“Master, I’ve collected a core and what appears to be a horn.”
“A horn?”
The objects Liza handed me were a small core about the size of my thumb and a tiny red horn.
The core was normal enough, but when I looked closer at the other object, the AR display showed the name short horn. The detailed description read, Transforms an intelligent creature into a demon.
So that was why a demon had suddenly appeared in the city.
I searched for other similar items on the map, but I couldn’t find any.
However, I couldn’t search inside other people’s Item Boxes, Garage Bags, and so on. I couldn’t say for sure that they didn’t exist.
Well, I could think about that later.
After putting the thing away in Storage, I set out to rescue the wounded.
First, I headed back to where Sir Ipasa and the others had been fighting—specifically, the area where three or so carriages had smashed together.
The blue spot on my radar was close now.
I jumped onto a simple temple carriage and entered the open door.
“…Lady Sara.”
I called out to her, but her eyelids remained closed, trembling in pain.
Her HP was down by about 40 percent, and her status conditions read Unconscious and Internal Injuries, so I produced a magic potion to pour into her mouth.
However, the potion simply trickled back out of her lips, making it difficult to get her to swallow it.
Though I felt bad about it, I had no choice but to convey the potion to her mouth-to-mouth. This time, I felt the magic potion pass through her soft lips and flow down her throat.
Miss Sara’s eyes opened weakly.
I drew my face away from hers, waiting for her to wake up completely.
“…Sir Pendragon?”
“Are you awake now?”
“Y-yes…”
I lifted Miss Sara in my arms and carried her out of the carriage.
I wasn’t sure when exactly Miss Sara regained consciousness. She had her head down and kept pressing her fingers to her lips, so I couldn’t read her expression.
But I did what I did only as an emergency treatment method, so it didn’t count, all right?
Just because we rescued Miss Sara didn’t mean the chaos was over.
Once we had brought her and the other wounded parties to the temple, we parted ways with Tolma and his family there. We were then summoned to the viceroy’s castle, where I received his thanks, a medal, a hundred gold coins, and an invitation to stay for a banquet.
Only Miss Karina and I were able to enjoy the superbly delicious dinner, so I decided to do my best to reproduce the dishes for the rest of the group later.
Once the banquet was over, we moved to the salon for some friendly conversation.
Courtly ladies who were indulging in some romantic gossip surrounded Miss Karina.
“Lady Karina, is Sir Pendragon your fiancé?”
“…N-no, he is not.”
Miss Karina answered the viceroy’s wife after a suspicious pause.
She acted haughty but was actually quite shy, so she was having a hard time interacting with all these new faces.
I would’ve liked to throw her a lifeline, but I myself was being besieged by men with questions about the defense of Muno City and the battle with the demon earlier that day.
“If you can defeat a demon, surely a swordsman like yourself could even aspire to victory at the martial arts tournament!”
“Thank you, but as I said before, all we did was deal the finishing blow after the knights and warriors had already brought the demon near death. And without the help of my comrades and the protection of magic, I am certain I would have fallen in battle myself.”
One of the nobles was insisting that I should enter the tournament, so I repeated my explanation while politely declining.
I would really rather watch a tournament than fight in it.
Oh, and speaking of knights…
I found out why the imperial knight Sir Ipasa was defending Miss Sara from the lesser demon that afternoon instead of the temple knight Sir Keon.
As it turned out, the temple knights were away on a mission to take down the Wings of Freedom.
That must have been why it looked like someone was chasing around the cult members earlier.
Incidentally, the female knight who’d abandoned her post defending baby Mayuna in favor of pursuing the cultist had received a sound scolding from a higher-up at the temple.
“You’re saying that even if you go to the old capital, you won’t be participating in the martial arts tournament?”
The viceroy seemed bewildered to hear that I wouldn’t be participating.
Did I really look like that much of a fighter?
“That’s right. I’m not terribly well suited to competition, I’m afraid…”
“You know, if I formally recommend you, you can bypass the preliminaries and participate in the final selection.”
“I think such an honor would be better bestowed upon your own worthy warriors, Your Excellency.”
“Hmm. I see… What a humble young man you are.”
After I repeatedly declined, the viceroy finally accepted my decision.
“Incidentally, Sir Pendragon, I’ve been told that your sword was able to cut through the demon’s hide. Is it the work of a master sword smith, perchance?”
“Yes, Elder Dohal of the Bolehart dominion did me the great honor of forging it.” I gave an honest answer to the old noble’s question.
“Wh-what did you say?!”
“You got that crusty Elder Dohal to make a sword for you? I’m impressed, Sir Satou!”
“That old fellow refuses to make a sword for anyone who doesn’t suit his fancy, even a high-ranking noble…”
“P-perhaps it was Viscount Lottel’s recommendation?”
The nobles raised a chorus of surprise. The only person who seemed relaxed was Tolma, who’d managed an invitation to the dinner. He was dressed like a proper noble now, apparently having borrowed clothes from the viceroy’s home.
Still, Elder Dohal’s reputation carried impressive clout.
The viceroy and company were all dying to see the sword, so we had it brought to the salon. I had given it into their custody when I came to the castle.
“It can’t be—a seal?!”
Accepting the fairy sword from the steward, the viceroy gave an exclamation of shock when his eyes landed on the hilt.
The rest of the clamoring nobles had a similar reaction.
“That’s the seal that they say is only affixed to true masterpieces, even among Elder Dohal’s works!”
“I’ve never seen it in person before.”
“The craftsmanship on this hilt is incredible, too.”
“Heavens, the sheath alone has value as a beautiful work of art. I would love to have such an elegant piece for my own sword, to be sure. What workshop produced this?”
The sword was causing a fuss before it even left the sheath.
I had actually just fashioned this in a hurry upon being invited to the viceroy’s dinner party, since I didn’t want to show up with a plain black sheath, so I didn’t really have a good answer to that question.
Instead, I decided to just say that I got it from Elder Dohal as well.
Drawing the sword, I placed it on a stand that the steward produced to show it to the viceroy.
“Its inscription is ‘the Fairy Sword.’”
“What a beautifully patterned blade.”
“This green and silver edge is difficult to produce even with the finest mithril.”
“Truly, only Elder Dohal could have fashioned such a sword.”
It certainly was a beautiful weapon, but I hadn’t expected it to captivate these discerning nobles so completely.
I’d have to be careful not to show it off to any strangers.
“If you’ll pardon me, I’m going to get a bit of air.”
I excused myself from the salon for a short time. The viceroy had been regaling us with tales of his youthful mischief while we enjoyed his prize liquor, but when the topic turned to Gururian City’s private politics, I thought it best to take my leave. An outsider probably shouldn’t be hearing this anyway.
I opened the balcony door and went out onto the veranda. Though we were on the second floor, the courtyard was level with the terrace.
I closed the glass door behind me. According to what I’d heard earlier, it was made in a workshop in the old capital. Glasswork was relatively common in the Ougoch Duchy.
“Sir Pendragon?”
A clear voice called my name, and I turned to see Miss Sara, her hair glimmering silver in the moonlight.
She looked almost like…
“…A fairy.”
“Oh my, Sir Pendragon…”
The second half of my thought escaped from my lips against my better judgment. My “Fabrication” skill must have betrayed me because of all the alcohol.
“Good evening, Lady Sara. Please forget my comment; it was a slip of the tongue.”
“Hee-hee. I certainly will not.”
Perhaps because there was no one else around, Miss Sara’s usual restraint had given way to a more relaxed manner typical of girls her age.
Because my long name seemed a bit difficult for her to pronounce, I told her she could simply call me Satou.
“Well, Mr. Satou, shall we take a stroll around the garden?”
“Yes, it would be my pleasure.”
Miss Sara gave a mischievous smile.
The courtyard contained a small water feature resembling a creek, lined with evening primroses blossoming with a faint glow under the moonlight. They seemed to be emitting the light themselves, so they must have been different from any primroses I’d seen in Japan.
From beneath the flowers, I heard what sounded like the call of crickets.
“Oh, fireflies…!”
Following her gaze, I saw two fireflies twirling among the primroses in a dance.
“It’s quite beautiful.”
A mysterious young beauty in a fantastical garden. It was a scene perfect enough to paint. If I could, I’d insert Lulu into the painting as well.
Miss Sara and I walked along the waterway amid the sounds of the bubbling brook and the chirping insects.
I could feel the calm returning to my heart and mind.
What a therapeutic atmosphere.
“Satou…can I ask you something?” Still gazing straight ahead, Miss Sara murmured to me quietly. “Do you think…you can change fate?”
Well, that’s a pretty heavy topic.
Sure, I was all about that stuff when I was still going through puberty, but not so much now that I’m older.
A vaguely positive answer was probably my best bet here.
“Of course.” Miss Sara reacted with surprise at my prompt, clear response, so I decided to elaborate a little. “There’s no such thing as a destiny that can’t be changed.”
I mean, I don’t think anyone can change things like the Big Crunch or whatever, but that’s probably not what she’s asking about.
“You…really think so?” Miss Sara faltered, as if she was struggling with some inner conflict.
I had no doubt that a girl like Sara, who was both a duke’s daughter and an oracle priestess, had all kinds of troubles weighing on her.
“Yes, I do. So if someone tries to force some silly fate on you, just let me know and I’ll put a stop to it with my own two hands if I have to.”
I answered as lightly as possible, trying to lift her spirits and help her forget her worries.
Her fingers entwined behind her back, Miss Sara turned to me with a little giggle.
“Even if a demon lord is about to kill me?”
“Yes, of course I’d save you from a demon lord. Why, I’d knock him out before he knew what hit him.” I responded in kind to Miss Sara’s lighthearted prod, finally eliciting a genuine chuckle from her.
She laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes, so I gave her a handkerchief. “…I’m glad you’re here, Satou.” Miss Sara wiped the tears from her eyes and crinkled them up in a smile. “Thank you.”
Her faint smile looked about to disappear at any moment, and I had a sudden urge to embrace her. Still, I managed to resist the impulse.
A strange silence fell over us for a moment.
What was I thinking? This girl was practically half my age. Maybe if she were five years older it’d be a different story, but…
…well, I guess technically, in this body I was her age.
“Oh? If it isn’t Sir Satou and Sara. Having a little rendezvous?”
A voice from the darkness made Miss Sara flinch. From behind a particularly tall shrub, Tolma emerged onto the path.
“T-Tolma! Satou and I would never do something so unseemly!”
“Oh really? Because you appear to be calling him by his first name…”
At times like this, Tolma’s constant inability to read a situation actually came in handy.
“Oh, you!” Miss Sara pouted crossly at Tolma’s teasing.
“Lord Tolma, no need to tease her any further, please.”
“You’re awfully mature for your age, Sir Satou. I can’t get a rise out of you, huh?”
Well, yeah, because I’m actually almost thirty on the inside.
“I was simply thanking Satou for his help today.”
“So far away from prying eyes?”
“Tolma!”
“Sorry, I’ll stop, I’ll stop.”
I thought it was a fair enough question, but Miss Sara put the brakes on Tolma’s remarks by furrowing her lovely eyebrows.
“I wouldn’t want any of us to catch a cold from being outside too late. We should go back to the salon soon.”
“…I suppose so.”
“Oh? You’re going back? I was just about to leave so you could continue your little date.”
With that, the nobleman jokingly fled toward the path back to the salon as if to avoid Miss Sara’s last exclamation of “Tolmaaa!” The two of us followed after him.
As we walked, Tolma struck up a new conversation.
“Still, it’s a miracle that there wasn’t a single casualty in that little demon brawl today.”
“Yes, thanks to God’s protection and the help of Satou and his friends. The injured can be healed with magic, but there’s nothing we can do for the dead…”
Though Tolma’s tone was casual, Miss Sara responded in a manner befitting a person of the temple.
I appreciated her giving credit to my group as well, but one of the things she said grabbed my attention even more.
“Is there no magic that can resurrect the dead?”
“…No, none.”
Caught off guard by my question, Miss Sara took a moment before responding.
Man, I can’t believe a fantasy world like this has no Resurrection Magic! What a damn shame!
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Sara? When that young noble was murdered, the holy woman—”
“Tolma!”
Miss Sara’s expression darkened at Tolma’s latest slip-up, and her admonition came in a completely different tone.
“Sorry, sorry, I forgot we aren’t supposed to talk about that. Sir Satou, please forget what you just heard, all right?”
“Certainly. I didn’t hear a thing.”
I readily accepted Tolma’s request.
My guess was that either the existence of some resurrection item was being kept a secret, or perhaps the requirements for using it were so strict that it could be used only under specific conditions.
If some half-baked rumors about resurrection went around, it would surely cause an uproar from people wanting to use it.
“Were you out for a walk, Lady Sara?”
The viceroy greeted the three of us when we returned to the salon.
It was a good thing Tolma showed up. If Miss Sara and I had returned together, it would have undoubtedly sown the seeds for some unwelcome gossip.
For some reason, Miss Karina seemed to be eyeing me rather sharply.
Perhaps she was angry that I left without bailing her out.
“I went to the garden to look for you myself, but we must have missed each other,” said the viceroy’s wife.
“Did you need something from me?” Miss Sara tilted her head.
“Yes, in fact, a courier came from the Tenion Temple just a short while ago…” The viceroy’s wife’s tone was gentle.
Thanking her, Miss Sara started toward the room where the courier was waiting.
For some reason, Tolma went after her, so I ended up following along as well. I was curious about the nature of the courier.
“…An urgent summons from the Tenion Temple in the old capital?”
“Yes, but it was conveyed with signal lights from the great river, so I’m afraid I don’t know the particulars.”
“I understand. I shall borrow an express ship from the viceroy and return home at once, then.”
As I listened to Sara’s exchange with the priest, I opened the map to check the situation around the old capital and the Tenion Temple, but I didn’t see any signs of a major disturbance.
It was probably an internal problem in the temple, then.
Sailing at night was banned even in emergencies, so it was decided that the viceroy would prepare an express ship so that Miss Sara could leave for the old capital first thing in the morning.
“Take care on your journey home, Lady Sara.”
“Thank you, Satou. Let us meet again in the old capital.”
I saw Miss Sara off that morning at the docks for the exclusive use of nobles.
Arisa and Mia were watching from behind as if they’d caught me with a mistress, but I didn’t feel a single shred of guilt about saying my farewells to a friend.
The bells of Gururian City rang to announce that a vessel was passing through on urgent business.
The sound echoed off the water as if the great river were calling out in response.
Someone waved a flag from the control tower of the docks, and the express ship waiting on the open river suddenly took off in a spray of water.
“Faaaast?”
“So speedy, sir!”
Watching at my side, Tama and Pochi waved frantically in surprise.
As I understood it, express ships were equipped with a high-speed propeller that operated on magic, so they could move over the water at speeds up to sixty miles per hour.
I caught only a brief glimpse, but it seemed to be related to the hydrofoil.
Express ships had a very small capacity for passengers, I’d heard, so the only person accompanying Lady Sara was the temple knight Sir Keon. Tolma and his family, as well as the other temple knights, would be taking a larger ship provided by the viceroy to the old capital.
I planned to request passage on the same ship as a reward for defeating the demon.
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