Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Cliff’s Homecoming

MILLISHION, the capital of the Holy Country of Millis. It’d been a while since my last time in this city; I’d been to the Millis Continent to set up the teleportation circle, but I didn’t stop by the capital that time. So, this was only my second visit.

I entered the city through the northern gate back then, and I could still remember what it looked like. The way the river flowed down the Blue Wyrm Mountains into the lake below, the immaculate White Palace floating in the center of that lake, the golden cathedral built by the river, and the silver headquarters of the Adventurers’ Guild just a bit downstream. And last but not least, those seven towers surrounding the city with those vast plains stretching out below.

Ah… How did it go again? “This is a place not only rich in majesty, but also in perfect harmony with nature. No other city in the world is nearly as beautiful,” right? That scenery looked like it was lifted off the pages of a guidebook I read long ago, so it stuck with me. Man, that took me back. What book was that, again? Ah, yes, Wandering the World written by the adventurer Bloody Kant. Whew, that was a few letters off of being a hell of a name.

Uh, anyway, the view of Millishion from the south was still just gorgeous. The tall towers and the tall castle dominated the view. The castle was unblemished silver, glittering in the light. Their shine and size blotted out everything from view but the walls themselves. There was an aesthetic simplicity that guided its design, and it made the already beautiful castle all the more striking.

“Man, there really isn’t a city in the world more beautiful than this one.”

“Beneath the surface, there isn’t a city in the world more rotten. I promise you that.”

This comment came from Cliff. Guess he heard me talking to myself.

Cliff’s sights were set on the White Palace. After all he’d been through, that beautiful castle loomed over him. Of course—he was here to go to war.

Honestly, I thought that the Asura Kingdom was far more rotten underneath its facade. Ariel and all those nobles’ hearts were plenty riddled with decay. Then again, Asura the Kingdom’s surface was rotten. It didn’t bother to hide what it was. In that way, I guess, the pretense might make Millis the worse of the two.

“So, Cliff… I know you’re a genius, but…”

“Come now, we’re past that, aren’t we?”

“Right… Just, if anything happens, feel free to talk to me.”

I had way less pressure on me just this moment. As such, I wanted help Cliff bear his burden. Anything was fine, even something as small as buying him a cup of coffee.

“In that case… Could you start by taking this carriage to my home?”

“It shall be done, your future Pope-ness, sir.”

That day, Cliff returned to Millishion, his former home. He’d been gone almost a decade.

***

Millishion had four entrances. One each in the Adventurers’ District, the Residential District, the Divine District, and the Commercial District. The last time I came, I entered through the Adventurers’ District. If I remember right, it was because out-of-towners were in for a headache if they entered through any other gate. Well, even if I don’t remember right, I’m sure that we circled around the city walls and entered through the most packed entrance. And today, we were doing the same thing. Unlike last time, we had Cliff with us, so we didn’t have to be picky about the gate. We chose the southern entrance in the Adventurers’ District simply because it was closest.

And by “simply,” I mean “only.” It would have taken less time if we’d traveled unimpeded outside the city instead of wading through the sea of bodies inside of it. Our haste made waste. But Cliff had his own ideas:

“It’s been a while, so I want to see the city,” he said.

Hey, it was his first time being home in a decade. He was going to live here for years to come, but he’d only see it like this once. Walking down the road to your home and reminiscing about how this is still here or that used to be there wasn’t an opportunity that came by every day. It had to be now or not at all.

“You got it.”

And so, I humored Cliff and took the reins.

“This takes me back,” Cliff murmured to himself as we passed underneath Millis’s beautiful gate.

Cliff was born in the Divine District, so I heard that he hadn’t visited the Adventurers’ District much. Still, he looked up at the Adventurers’ District gate and squinted his eyes, like he was projecting some personal memory onto the scene. My time in this city, however, lasted only a single week; the only things I remembered all involved Paul. Of course I could get a little emotional about that if I thought it over, but nothing else held any particular resonance for me. When I looked around, didn’t see visions of my past. I saw the future. I saw the Mercenary Band I would build in this city.

Adventurers were walking all over around us. There were a lot more beastfolk, elves, and the like here than in the Asura Kingdom. The ranks of the adventurers ran the gamut, but you could more or less tell who was at what level at a glance. Boys and girls of fifteen or sixteen scurried around while equipped in obviously secondhand armor. There was a beginner-rank clad in brand new armor who looked to be eighteen. A mid-rank in his twenties whose equipment was a mix of both new and worn down. A veteran whose equipment seemed worn-down if you didn’t know what to look for, but was in fact a mix of magic items and other high-class goods. The spread of adventurer paths was fairly varied, but given that they lived at the foot of the Millis Church, there were plenty of healers and few mages.

By contrast, the Magic City of Sharia had a lot of battle-hardened warriors and plenty of newbie mages. The warriors more or less headhunted from the University of Magic, where they’d find promising mages who were eager to become adventurers. Race-wise, Sharia had a lot of humans and beastfolk. The abundance of beastfolk was likely related to Linia and Pursena’s long presence there. Meanwhile, in Ars—the capital of the Asura Kingdom—it was newbies everywhere you looked. The large variety of schools meant that one job didn’t particularly dominate over another, but the racial makeup was almost entirely human. The few non-human races were typically at mid-rank or veteran, and they left for the royal capital soon enough.

Millis’s variety in race and expertise likely stemmed from its proximity to the Great Forest. The Great Forest provided fresh blood from beastfolk, elf, halfling, and dwarf races who traveled south to Millis. The city gave adventurers opportunities to prove themselves, after which they’d travel north to challenge the strong monsters of the Great Forest. However, the Great Forest didn’t have an Adventurers’ Guild, so they made their bases in either Millishion or Zantport. As a result, this city’s Adventurers’ Guild HQ hosted adventurers of all stripes.

Now, how would I establish a Mercenary Band in a place like this?

In the Asura Kingdom, I had connections with Ariel, which made everything go smoothly. That country had three specific groups: swordsmen, merchants, and nobles. First, commoners who had formal training in swordsmanship but failed to become soldiers or adventurers, and also lacked the connections to find someone to mentor. Second, people raised in a merchant family with some amount of study in the trade, but who lost succession to the family shop to the eldest son and were forced to try their luck on their own. Last, third or fourth sons of lower noble families who were educated on a wide variety of subjects (although they mastered none of them), and who had no hope of succession or marriage.

Once we stitched together that diverse lot into one team, what do you know? We had serious connections. We became the one-stop shop for jobs that solders couldn’t take on.

I promoted the fifth son of a high-ranking noble family to branch director back there. Ariel had introduced us. Man, that interview was a trip. Aisha and I put on these fake triangular glasses and asked him what he did during the two-year gap before joining the interview.

His response? “I was concealing my identity and actively engaging with the commoners. It taught me not only about the differences in our cultures, but about the importance of deeply understanding each and every business partner you work with.” His answer was so perfect that I had to take notice of him.

In practice, he was pretty skilled at holding together a group. He knew the differences between noble and commoner culture inside and out, so when disputes broke out inside the Band, he was the guy who’d understand both sides and find a solution. He wasn’t exactly a magnetic personality, but he was the kind of guy who people never hated. Oh, he could handle it. Better than I could, certainly.

Now that they were in his competent hands, I needed to build a Mercenary Band branch here as well. I needed personnel and management. We needed a mission for this Mercenary Band. Aisha was taking notes; she’d put off planning until we had eyes on the place. Well, we were here, now, and both looking.

It was too early to set anything in stone based on what little we’d encountered so far; there were naturally going to be plenty of adventurers here in the Adventurers’ District, but we had a Divine District, a Commercial District, and a Residential District to explore too. Locals were certainly going to know more than we did. It was best to save our conclusions for after we visited the Divine and Residential Districts.

“I didn’t notice it the last time I visited…but there sure are a lot of different races here.”

“It’s ’cause the Great Forest is so close.”

Saying that made me take another look around. This was a diverse bunch; from halflings who barely looked ten years old, to elves whose spindly limbs reminded me of those from a wilted tree. I mentioned the beastfolk before, but not the sheer variety of them. I saw dogs, cats, rabbits, deer, mice, tigers, wolves, sheep, bears…

Random thought, but when, like, a beastfolk guy looked at farm animals of their own kind, like cows and pigs, did they feel a little spark, or… No, they probably feel the way humans do when we see monkeys at a zoo. Just an animal.

“Ahh, aaahh…”

“Oh, wait, don’t stand up so—”

I glanced behind me to see that Zenith was standing up on top of the cart. Despite the rocking of the carriage and Aisha’s hurried attempts to get her to sit down, she continued pointing at something ahead.

Her finger was aimed at…a monkey. Wait, no, that was rude. It was just a monkey-faced man. That reminded me, I don’t think I’d ever seen monkey-like beastfolk. Maybe monkeys were actually rare in this world. Rare enough to make Zenith point at one with joy.

Hm? Had I seen that monkey before? Wait a sec, that wasn’t even a beastfolk…

“Oh.”

“Yooo?! It’s Zenith and the boss! What brings ya all the way out here?”

It was a demon. And not just any demon.

It was Geese.

***

“Whew, who’da thunk we’d run into each other all the way out here?”

The moment Geese saw us on the road, he hopped into our carriage. Zero hesitation, as though he owned the dang thing.

“Coincidence is a crazy thing, I tell ya! Wait, what’d you guys come here for, anyway?!”

Geese seemed pretty happy to see us. His grin stretched from ear to ear. Some of that joy was starting to rub off on me.

“Half work, half family.”

“Ah, yeah, I feel that. But listen, you ain’t gonna believe what I’ve been through! I’m talkin’ tearjerker from start to finish—”

Nobody asked him, but Geese began to recount the tale of what happened to him after we departed back in Sharia. Geese, Talhand, Vierra, and Shierra had all arrived at the Asura Kingdom, just as planned. There, they cashed in the stones of absorption for a massive sum of money. Vierra and Shierra used the money to retire from adventuring. They presumably returned to their hometown; Geese lost track after that, but given the money they had, he figured that they started a business or something.

As for Geese, well…in a not-entirely-unexpected twist of fate, he got addicted to gambling. I wasn’t too familiar with it, but the Asura Kingdom apparently had a gambling district that Geese soon became a regular at. Geese always had a bit of a gambling streak, but the fortune he now had took the limiters off. In a matter of months, Geese had managed to blow every coin to his name.

“I tell ya, things were gettin’ hairy back then. They even took the shirt off my back! All I had left to ante up was my life itself.”

If Geese had been left to his own devices, he would’ve been put in a pair of cement shoes and sent to sleep with the fishes. It was Talhand who had saved him.

Talhand decided it was about time for his next adventure, and decided to peek in on Geese before setting out. Talhand was a little dumbfounded by the mess Geese had gotten himself into, but he still decided to sell off the freshly forged gauntlets he’d just had made to bail out his old party member. Those were gauntlets made with the stones of absorption too; combined with his research costs, they’d represented Talhand’s life savings. Now they were both flat broke. The high cost of living in the Asura Kingdom was suddenly too expensive, so they set off to the south.

If I were in that position, I’d never stick my neck out for someone that bad with money, much less travel together with him afterward. But Talhand and Geese went way back, so maybe this was how it went between them. Like, maybe Geese had been the one saving Talhand’s hide in the past.

Hey, that’s friendship for you.

Shirone Kingdom was going through some internal strife that they did not want to get involved with, and given that the King Dragon Realm was rumored to be contributing to it, they decided to skip those destinations and go straight to Millis. Revisit an old haunt.

Sometime after that, Talhand struck off by himself, leaving Geese all alone. Geese thought he probably returned to his own hometown.

“What’s that guy thinking, going home of all places?” Geese grumbled.

Me? I could sort of understand. It was homesickness. You know, the illness Nanahoshi had a chronic case of. A long journey could make you want to see your family again. 

“Are you not going back, Geese?”

“Who, me? You gotta be kiddin’. What am I gonna do in that boring backwater village? Watch paint dry?”

Well, can didn’t mean always. Personally, I’m a homebody. Only at home could I find Sylphie’s breasts (health restoration item, touch activated), or Roxy’s breasts (temporarily raise luck stat, touch activated), or Eris’s breasts (time skip power, touch activated).

“I mean, I ain’t alone. That guy had some bad memories or whatever with his hometown, too.”

“Then maybe he wanted to go back and settle the score.”

No matter what might have happened in the past, time changes you. Things you could never forgive in your teens might be things you could find it in your heart to accept in your twenties. By your fifties, you might not even care anymore. Talhand might have compartmentalized that old stuff in his heart and went back to see his home as a different person.

“Well, ’nough about Talhand, I’ve been back in the adventurin’ biz here.”

Apparently, Geese started adventuring again after Talhand left. Important addendum: he hadn’t found any business yet. You know, since he was a demon and had zero combat prowess to speak of.

“So, boss, what broughtcha to this neck o’ the woods?”

“Well, you know the state my mother’s in, so her family called her over to see her. I was traveling here with a friend, so I figured I’d stop by.”

“Ah… Zenith’s fam, huh…”

Geese looked at Zenith with what seemed to be pity. Zenith’s expression was as blank as ever, but she somehow seemed to be in higher spirits than normal. Probably because Geese was here.

“Well, I’ve heard a bit about what kinda place Zenith’s family runs…and lemme tell ya, it doesn’t sound like my idea of fun.”

“Um… What exactly have you heard?”

“I dunno the details, but I hear they’re a buncha stiffs.” Geese shrugged.

Yeah, I kinda knew that before coming, thanks. Regardless, I still had to go.

“Whoa there, we’re almost at the district line. Sorry, but can ya stop for a sec? Demons like me don’t go to the Divine District if we know what’s good for us.”

I followed Geese’s request and stopped the carriage. Geese hopped off to the street below.

“Welp, I’m gonna be stickin’ around for a while, so don’t sweat, you ain’t seen the last of me. Keep on keepin’ on, boss!”

Back turned, Geese waved his hand as he walked down the street…until he turned back to face us.

“Boss! Can I ask ya somethin’?!”

“What is it?”

“You remember what Paul said back in that dungeon?”

The dungeon, huh? A lot of things came to mind, but only one rang out in my heart. That must’ve been the one he meant.

“Yes.”

Seemingly happy to hear that, Geese nodded and turned around.

The acquaintance who’d appeared so suddenly had disappeared just as quickly. I had to wonder if our reunion was, in fact, a coincidence. It didn’t matter. I was happy to see an old friend and shake some nerves off.

With that on my mind, I continued to the Divine District.

***

When we finally reached Cliff’s house, the sun had already set.

Cliff’s house was a lot plainer than I expected. It was a single-building home that looked like it could cozily house a family of three or four. It didn’t stand out at all from the neighboring homes… Wait. The Divine District had row after row of identical houses. I assumed that a pope’s house would’ve been a bit more like Ariel’s, so this caught me off guard.

“It’s pretty small.”

Rather than getting angry at my rude comment, Cliff graciously explained. “People of the cloth who serve the main church are all provisioned homes like these. Though my grandfather has a room in the headquarters, so this house doesn’t get much use.”

Basically, they were company houses.

“I appreciate you escorting me home. It’s rather late, so please, stay the night.”

I took a moment to think about Cliff’s proposal. Zenith’s family home was in the Residential District. It’d take some time to get there. If we visited in the middle of the night it was bound to cause problems, and I wasn’t emotionally prepared to meet them while still in my travel clothes. We could go back to the Adventurers’ District and come back tomorrow…but all that backtracking felt a little excessive.

I decided to take Cliff up on his offer. “Fair enough. Thank you.”

I set down my luggage, took the horse to the stable, and pulled the carriage into the shed, while everyone else took their luggage inside. Or I would have, but as I was steering the carriage, the others opened the front door of the house and something like white smoke tumbled out.

“Achoo!” Aisha sneezed adorably after the scent pricked her nose.

“Cough… This is awful… Grandfather didn’t so much as clean the place, I see,” Cliff cursed as he held a cloth to his nose.

The house was covered in dust.

“I’m not sure it’d be enough to thank you for letting us stay the night, but we’ll help you clean up… By which I mean, Aisha will.”

“Oh, much appreci—hm?”

“Who, me?!”

Aisha let out a bewildered voice while Zenith shot me a scolding look. Well, Zenith was expressionless, but I could still feel the intent in her gaze. Hey now, Aisha, don’t give me that look too. Have I ever ordered you to clean something alone?

Oh yeah, all the time. Every little job I could. I appreciated it, I really did…

“H-hey, that was clearly a joke! Of course I’ll help, too.”

“As you should.”

So began our big midnight cleanup. After opening the windows and blowing out a large area with wind magic, we broke out the brooms to take on the rest. After that, we mopped up the rooms we intended to use with a wet rag. Given that the place hadn’t been used in years, I also gave the beds and sheets a gust of hot air to kill the insects.

The kitchen was pretty filthy, but Aisha managed to get it presentable all on her own. For real, while Cliff and I were cleaning the living room, Aisha finished the lion’s share of the cleaning for every room we’d use. Compared to us, she went three times faster: the Red Comet, Aishar Aznablerat. With that done, we used the remainder of our travel rations to fix ourselves a light dinner.

“Congrats on making it home, Cliff.”

“Don’t celebrate too early. Not until I’ve met my grandfather.”

We gave a toast with our glasses of water and feasted upon jerky and soup. It didn’t quite have the flavor of a home-cooked meal, but it was what it was. We didn’t want to lug around a ton of excess ingredients, so we were trying to use up the last of it.

“Rudeus, what will your plan tomorrow be?” asked Cliff.

“First, we visit the House of Latria.”

“I see. Will you stay there tomorrow night?”

“I think we probably will.”

She might not have had the most generous reputation, but Claire was still Zenith’s family. There shouldn’t be a problem with us staying for a while. I had work to attend to, such as setting up the Mercenary Band branch and keeping an eye on Cliff, so staying at the Latria home would limit my freedom a bit…but I had to go first to be sure. Worst-case scenario, I’d go say hi and find somewhere else to stay.

“I’ll need to hire someone who can cook, then…” said Cliff.

“Well, how about I send Aisha over once every couple of days?”

“No, that’s quite all right. You all have enough work on your plate,” Cliff said with a shrug. “I have someone else in mind, anyway.”

We were given the guest room—three people in a tight space. We were family, so we all squeezed into the bed…but Aisha and I were fully grown adults by now. The bed itself was pretty small, nowhere near the size for three adults to sleep side-by-side on. We gave the bed to Zenith instead, while Aisha and I slept on the floor. We made a spot to rest on with cushions and sheets we borrowed from Cliff. The floor was carpeted, so it was downright luxury compared to camping out.

I set my head down on the pillow and rested on my side. When I did, I found that my eyes met Aisha’s, who had apparently made her bedding right next to mine.

“Teehee. Think Miss Sylphie will get jealous if I tell her I slept with you, Big Bro?”

“Come on, we’ve done it plenty of times on the road.”

“Yeah. But, you know, still. Teehee.” Aisha enjoyed sleeping with company, so she couldn’t hold back her giggles.

Ah, what an adorable smile. If she were Sylphie, I’d have found myself getting horny and pulling her close. Sylphie would have snuggled her way deeper into my arms. But I wouldn’t get horny over Aisha, and she didn’t have any urge to snuggle into my arms. I loved Aisha, and Aisha loved me, but it wasn’t a relationship I felt any sexual desire over. If I had to describe the sensation, it was something quite similar to what I felt for Lucie. You know. Familial love.

“I know it’s kinda out of the blue,” I asked, “but what do you think now about what Lilia’s always been telling you?”

“What my mom’s been telling me? Which thing?”

“You know, like serving me, or servicing me, stuff like that.”

Aisha looked surprised by the question, but she then brought her hand to her chin to consider it more deeply.

“Hmm, I mean I’m not opposed… But like, it’s just kinda different from with Miss Sylphie. Like… Well, I’m not sure what it’s like, but…”

“No, I get you. You’re right, it’s just kinda different.”

It was all subtext, but we more or less understood one another. We had to feel out each other’s meanings.

“Heh heh, glad you understand. This is why I love ya, Big Brother!” said Aisha as she wriggled her way towards me and pressed her body against mine. She was soft and warm, truly a fine hug pillow. As I was enjoying the sensation, Aisha asked something else, as though the thought just came to her.

“I wonder… Will I fall in love with someone someday and want to have children of my own?”

This was probably the thing that was “different” from earlier.

“Good question. Well, why not?”

“But who would it be with…”

Ah, who would be Aisha’s lover? Yeah, I couldn’t imagine. Would he be the perfect-at-everything type, or would he be totally useless? Aisha could probably fit herself in with any partner she made, but I couldn’t see herself liking someone she had to change for. Who did Aisha normally spend time with? The Mercenary Band…lots of beastfolk thattaway. Aisha, with that pack of wild animals? No siree, I’m not giving my little sister to whatever the cat dragged in!

If I asked Orsted, he’d probably know what kind of partner Aisha married…but I think I’ll refrain. I’d feel bad for her if he told me she’d end up an old maid.

Oh, right. I should make sure of something before I fell asleep.

“Aisha, we’re taking my mom to her family’s house tomorrow… So, what’ll you do?”

“…”

Aisha moved out of my arms and took her distance, returning to where she originally lay.

“I’ll go. Mom didn’t make it sound optional.”

“I see…”

“Yep.”

Hearing Aisha’d be there put me at ease. Tomorrow, I’d be visiting Zenith’s home. I’d be going through the usual pitch and making connections, but the thought of going to such a high-class house all alone made me antsy.

“Well, I appreciate the help.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it.”

“Seriously, you’re a lifesaver. And thanks for the cleaning tonight too. Anyway, good night.”

“Mmh, you’re welcome… Good nighdd… Fwah…”

I listened to Aisha’s sleepy muttering as I closed my eyes.