Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

The Beginning of Our Journey 

For me , as a member of the Dragon Quest generation, the words “Demon Continent” naturally bring to mind the concept of a “Demon Realm.”You know…a dark land ruled over by an all-powerful Demon King, with small villages populated by monsters, long-forgotten ancient shrines, and fearsome creatures swaggering around all over the place. 

It wasn’t really like that in this world though. For one thing, that all-powerful Demon King was nowhere to be found. 

Which isn’t to say that “Demon Kings” didn’t exist. In fact, there were roughly thirty of them at the moment, and they all had at least a bit of territory to lord over. But they weren’t rulers really. They just called themselves kings and acted like they owned the neighborhood. 

Each Demon King did have something like a guard squad or a band of knights, typically with impressive-sounding names. The soldiers in Rikarisu technically belonged to one of these. They complemented the activities of adventurers by exterminating dangerous monsters in the area, capturing criminals in town, and otherwise taking independent action to protect their homes. More of a city watch or local militia than an army really. 

I wasn’t that clear on the exact relationship between the local Demon King and those guys. Did he actually issue them orders, or were they just calling themselves his soldiers? They’d presumably be his army if he ever went to war, so I guess there was some sort of contract in place. 

At the moment, no one was fighting any wars, and things were relatively peaceful. But that only applied when you were in the neighborhood of a specific Demon King. The majority of the Demon Continent was completely lawless. 

Things may be calm around Southern Cross and the Holy Emperor’s Mausoleum, but everything in between was rampant with mohawk-sporting biker gangs basically. 

In any case, the Demon King who controlled the area around Rikarisu was named Badigadi. He was said to be a muscular, macho guy with six arms and black skin. At the moment, however, he’d set off on an aimless journey, and no one had any idea where he was. Sounded like something of a free spirit. 

At any rate, the Demon Continent was crawling with powerful creatures. There was a reason the Adventurers’ Guild put all the monster-slaying jobs at rank C or higher; basically every monster you could find here was at least that tough. Stone Treants were maybe just barely D-ranked. 

That said, demonfolk were generally stronger than humans. They were also very good in group combat, as the unique abilities of various sub-races helped them play specific roles. Hitting rank B was still a real challenge for most people, but the adventurers who got there were stronger than the B-rankers you’d find elsewhere. Those who couldn’t get that far usually ended up like Nokopara or Jalil. 

The more I thought about it, the more incredible Ruijerd seemed. The man said he could take down A-ranked monsters singlehandedly, and I believed him. All by himself, he was stronger than a group of six or seven skilled B-ranked adventurers. 

You had to be pretty happy about earning the trust of someone like that, right? 

*** 

Three days had passed since we left the city of Rikarisu. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that I was feeling a bit more relaxed after winning over Ruijerd, but my appetite was growing increasingly ferocious. 

The problem was, we didn’t have anything good to work with. We were mostly living off Great Tortoise meat, and Great Tortoise meat wasn’t my idea of a good time. I decided to try and improve our culinary situation slightly. The stuff was gross when you roasted it, so we may as well try a different method. 

Using magic, I whipped up a large clay pot, a basic but powerful cooking stove, and some delicious Greyrat-family artisanal water. It was everything we needed to make a basic stew. Water was a precious resource around here, but I could produce it in unlimited quantities. 

Initially, I wanted to use a pressure cooker to get the meat really nice and tender…but the first one I tried to make very nearly exploded, so I decided not to pursue that idea. Cooking the meat this way did take significantly longer, but we didn’t have a gas or water bill to worry about. I was willing to watch lovingly over that simmering pot for hours if I had to. It was particularly convenient that I could make all the cookware we needed using Earth magic, making it disposable. 

One of these days, I wanted to give smoking the meat a try as well…but Stone Treant chips probably wouldn’t imbue it with too pleasant a flavor. 

Stewing the Great Tortoise meat did make it somewhat more edible. Instead of chewing on nasty tough meat, we now had nasty tender meat. 

Yeah, it was still nasty. You couldn’t simmer that pungent aroma out of it, and the flavor was what it was. 

It was weird, honestly. I could have sworn this stuff tasted much better back at that Migurd village. Were we missing something? 

After a moment’s thought, it finally dawned on me. 

It must have been those plants they were growing inside the village. I thought they were half-dead vegetable crops, but that wasn’t the case. That plant was probably some sort of herb or spice… something they used to hide the stench of their meat and improve its flavor. I’d been totally misled by Roxy’s description of them as “bitter and unpleasant.” They were used for seasoning; you weren’t supposed to eat them on their own. 

Good grief. My master could be such a blockhead sometimes. 

I made a mental note to try and buy some spices of that kind if any were available in the next city we visited. I wanted to pick up some other ingredients as well, just for variety’s sake, but maybe it would be a waste of money. Food tended to be expensive on this continent. Vegetables were particularly pricey, since the region was inhospitable to plant life. You could buy five kilograms of meat for the cost of something that resembled a scraggly ginseng root. 

Great Tortoise meat was cheap. It was the staple food around here, more or less. Those things were larger than a five-ton truck, so killing one would get you enough meat to keep a family sated for quite a while. 

Of course, you couldn’t feed an entire city that way. Sometimes people ate Pax Coyotes, or even the larva of insects that lived inside Treants. Brave as she was, Eris hadn’t been too interested in trying the latter. 

Not that I felt any differently. The culinary culture of this continent wasn’t exactly to my liking. Depending on how you cooked it, Great Tortoise meat could at least be edible. By the standards of Demon Continent fare, it was probably on the “tasty” side. I could just barely understand where Ruijerd was coming from when he called it delicious. 

Still, I really needed to get my hands on some seasoning. 

Eris and Ruijerd seemed content to eat their meat plain though. In other words, I’d be making the call to buy the spices all by myself. 

That wasn’t good. We were a team after all. 

We probably needed to get into the habit of talking our decisions over as a group. 

*** 

“Gather ’round, everyone!” I shouted. 

It was just about our usual bedtime. Eris was looking for a good spot to place the rolled-up bundle of cloth she used as a pillow, and Ruijerd was beginning to scan the area for enemies with his eyes closed. But tonight, we had something to take care of first. “I’d like to call a group meeting.” 

“A group meeting?” Eris said, tilting her head quizzically. 

“Yes. I expect us to run into a variety of problems on our travels. By talking things through and making some important decisions in advance, we can avoid getting into arguments when time is of the essence.” 

“Wait…” There was a dubious expression on Eris’s face. Maybe she wasn’t interested in dealing with the details? Ruijerd and I could probably make all the decisions by ourselves, but leaving her out felt like a bad idea. Eris wasn’t a piece of baggage, she was a member of the group. I needed her to participate. 

“Isn’t this that thing you used to do every month back home?” 

Every month…? Oh, she’s talking about those conferences I held with her other instructors, back when I was tutoring her in Fittoa. I’d honestly forgotten all about those. 

“That’s right. This is the adventurer-party version though.” 

Zipping her mouth shut, Eris dropped herself in front of me with a thump. She was clearly trying to look very serious, but there was an uncontrollable grin on her face. That seemed a little weird. It wasn’t like we were doing anything fun here, but at least she wasn’t complaining. 

“Am I to participate in this as well?” asked Ruijerd. 

There wouldn’t be much point to it if you didn’t, man… “Of course. Didn’t you have group discussions like this back in your warrior band?” 

“No. I made all the decisions by myself.” 

That was the way things usually worked in this world, I suppose: the leader calls the shots, and everyone else just follows orders. But I happened to grow up in a democracy. “As of today, I want to talk things out among the three of us and make decisions as a group.” 

“Very well.” With an easy nod, Ruijerd sat down as well. The three of us now formed a circle beside our campfire. 

“All right then. I hereby call the first ‘Dead End Team Meeting’ to order. Applause, please!” 

Clap clap clap. Clap clap clap. 

“Rudeus, why are we clapping?” 

“That’s just how these things work.” 

“You didn’t do this in those meetings with Ghislaine though.” 

How did she even know that? Well, whatever. “This is our very first meeting, which makes it an occasion worth commemorating, okay? That’s why we’re applauding.” 

Also, we’re adventurers, not tutors. May as well keep things lively, right? 

“Ahem. Now then! As we all know, I recently screwed up big time.” 

“No, that wasn’t your—“ 

“Quiet, please !” I shouted, doing my best impression of a high-strung lady in triangular glasses. “Ruijerd, if you want to respond, raise your hand after the current speaker finishes.” 

“Understood.” 

“All right then.” Now that I’d overpowered Ruijerd into silence, I continued. “I’ve already identified a number of factors that contributed to my failure.” 

I was lax about gathering information, too focused on making money quickly, over-eager to kill two birds with one stone…etcetera, etcetera. I was going to make a personal effort to be careful about all that, but I also had a more systematic solution in mind. 

“As a precautionary measure, I want all of us to make sure we report when something happens, communicate our thoughts, and consult each other about our options. Report, communicate, consult. That’s ReCoCo for short. Remember that, please! It’s important!” 

“Uh… ReCoCo, is it?” 

An excellent buzzword, if I do say so myself. Sounds almost French! 

“That’s right, ReCoCo. First of all, I want the three of us consulting each other constantly!” 

“Hrm. What would this involve specifically?” 

“When something’s troubling you, or there’s something you want to do, bring it to the group instead of keeping it to yourself.” 

To be honest, I didn’t have much practical experience with that type of discussion myself…but we didn’t have to make this too complicated. Making an effort was the important thing. 

“I’m planning on asking you two for your opinions also. When someone ‘consults’ you, listen carefully and think the matter through. Ask yourself if it’s a good idea or not, and why. Sometimes, you may come up with an even better plan or something.” 

In retrospect, I’d made most of my decisions without asking Ruijerd for any input at all. I always told him that I trusted him, but maybe deep down that wasn’t true. 

“Secondly, communicate ! When you realize or notice something, make an effort to speak up and tell each other about it.” 

Eris was nodding, but the look on her face suggested she was thinking hard. It was tough to tell if she was really following me. 

“Last but not least, report ! The details can frequently be important, but you can keep it simple if you want. Just make sure to inform me when something goes wrong…or when something goes right.” 

I was still technically the leader of this group after all. I needed to act like it. 

“Any questions so far, people?” 

“None. Please continue.” 

Ruijerd shook his head, but Eris raised her hand. “I have one!” 

“Yes, Eris?” 

“So the three of us are going to consult about stuff, but you’re the one who makes the final decision, right?” 

“Well, at the end of the day, I suppose I will.” 

“Why don’t you just make all the decisions right away then?” 

“There’s a limit to how much I can think through all by myself.” 

“But I’m never going to have any ideas you couldn’t think up, Rudeus!” 

It was nice of her to say that, but to be perfectly honest, I was also looking for some reassurance here. I wanted the chance to run my plans past them and hear something like, “That should work fine,” or, “You’ll pull it off, no problem.” 

“Even if that’s true, you may say something that gets me thinking in a different way, and points me toward a better idea.” 

“You think…?” 

Eris didn’t seem to fully understand the point of this. But that was probably to be expected for now. The important thing was to get all three of us using our heads. 

“Well then…moving on. For the moment, I’d like to discuss our future course of action.” 

Our journey across the Demon Continent had begun abruptly, with no time to plan ahead or prepare ourselves. We were going to have to figure things out on the fly as best we could. 

“First of all, let’s discuss our destination. Our ultimate goal is to reach the Kingdom of Asura, on the west side of the Central Continent. No objections there, I assume?” 

The two of them nodded. 

Of course, reaching the Central Continent was easier said than done. We couldn’t cross over to it directly from the Demon Continent; there was no sea route that connected them. The fishfolk ruled the seas on this world, and everyone else could only travel across them on a limited number of predetermined lines. 

“Ruijerd, how can we reach the Millis Continent?” 

“Boats travel to it from Wind Port, the Demon Continent’s southernmost city.” 

Which meant…we needed to head all the way down to the very bottom of the Demon Continent, cross over to Millis, cut across it to the western coast, and catch a boat there to the eastern seaboard of the Central Continent. 

It wasn’t technically our only option. There was something of a “backdoor route” as well. You could travel to the northwest of the Demon Continent, then cross over to the Divine Continent. This allowed you to reach the Central Continent without going all the way down to Millis. Theoretically, it could cut several months off the necessary travel time. 

However, this route wasn’t as simple as it sounded. The Divine Continent was totally encircled by steep walls of rock. Unless you had wings, it was essentially impossible to make it up there. That meant we’d be crawling our way around the bottom of the cliffs. There were no roads down there, and no stable footing either. There were also many, many monsters. Supposedly, only one in twenty who risked that journey lived to tell the tale. 

On top of it all, even if you managed to survive the Divine Continent, the next sea route took you to the north of the Central Continent—its most inhospitable region by far. Only desperate criminals with bounty hunters hot on their trail ever chose this option. 

The potential time gain was only theoretical. It would probably take significantly more time if we actually attempted it. There wasn’t much reason to put ourselves in mortal danger in exchange for a minor difference in the length of our trip. 

Which meant…our only real option was to head south. 

“Do you know how much the fare will be?” 

“No idea.” 

“How long will it take us to travel all the way down there?” 

“Quite a while, I’d expect. If we stayed on the road continuously…perhaps six months?” 

Six months even at a constant march? This is going to be a real hike… “Is there any way we can get there faster? Like a teleportation circle or something?” 

“The use of teleportation circles was forbidden in the aftermath of the Second Great Human-Demon War. Some may remain intact, but using them would likely be difficult.” 

Huh. I wasn’t being too serious, but I guess there really are teleportals out there. “So we’re basically stuck plodding along on the ground then?” 

“That’s right.” 

There were apparently no high-speed transportation options to speak of. Travelling for six months straight sounded…pretty daunting. 

Maybe I was just thinking about this the wrong way though. We weren’t actually going to stay on the road for months at a time; we were going to move along bit by bit, hopping from one city to the next. Slow but steady. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and all that. 

“Okay. Well, let’s think short-term. If we start traveling toward Wind Port now, how long will it take us for to reach the next town?” 

“We should arrive at a sizable city in about two weeks.” 

Two weeks, huh? About what you’d expect out here, I guess. “Do you know if it has an Adventurers’ Guild?” 

“I would expect so.” 

According to Ruijerd, in the old days the Demon subraces all created their own small villages, and cities developed as central locations for them to trade, mingle, and exchange information with one another. As a result, modest-sized “towns” didn’t really exist on this continent, and you could expect any city to have a guild that employed warriors from the local peoples. 

Originally, before the guild’s existence, the cities were protected by warriors chosen to represent the various races living in the area. Sometimes a more warlike people would dispatch additional fighters on behalf of a race who rarely fought; the Superd and Migurd apparently had a relationship like that at some point. Marriages between different peoples were also common from the start, as a means of strengthening such bonds between villages. No wonder there was such a wide variety of Demons… The whole continent was probably full of mixed-race people. 

Whoops. Wandering a bit off-topic here. 

“All right then. In general, I think we should make our way south by traveling between cities with guilds in them.” 

After reaching each new city, we’d stay for a week or two. Unless we lost our status as adventurers, we could take on guild tasks and spread the word about Dead End. Once we scraped together enough cash to buy supplies for our journey to the next city, we’d get right back on the road again. 

“…That’s the general pattern I have in mind at least. Do you two have any questions or opinions about any of this?” 

Ruijerd raised his hand. “You don’t need to bother telling anyone about me. That’s part of the reason I cut off my hair. Right now, I’m not even a Superd.” 

“Well, we won’t go out of our way. We’ll just do what we can while completing our tasks.” 

After seeing what Jalil and Vizquel had accomplished, I realized we didn’t need to do anything too fancy. We’d just do our jobs politely and thoroughly and introduce “Dead End Ruijerd” to the client if it went well. And if something went wrong, “Rudeus” would be the one to step up and take the blame. Nice and simple. From now on, I’d be the one associated with Dead End’s missteps and misdeeds. 

I planned to keep that last part a secret from Ruijerd though. 

What’s that you say? “Didn’t you just decide you should talk everything over as a group?” 

Don’t be such a nitpicker, buddy. 

“Any questions specifically about what we’re going to do while staying in the cities?” 

“Yes!” 

“Go ahead, Eris.” It made me a little nostalgic to see her raising her hand like this. Almost felt like we were back in the classroom again. 

“Are we going to look around to see what the shops are charging for stuff, like you used to?” 

“Oh, you mean my market research…?” Hrm. Come to think of it, I’d slacked off on that in Rikarisu. I really had been rushing around thoughtlessly back there. If I’d bothered to study the local market in advance, I may have managed to get our all-terrain lizard for a somewhat better price. 

“Yes, let’s do that. Knowing the local prices is the first step toward spending money wisely after all. Anything else come to mind?” 

Ruijerd and Eris looked at each other silently. Seemed like the answer was “no.” 

Well, this was probably good enough for our first meeting. We’d no doubt run into thornier problems as we moved forward. The important thing was to talk them out slowly instead of getting into fights with each other. 

“All right then. Looking forward to working with you!” With that, I bowed my head and brought things to a close. 

As of that moment, our journey finally began in earnest. 

*** 

We made it to the next city without anyone realizing that Ruijerd was a Superd. 

To be fair, he’d shaved off all his hair, even his eyebrows—and on the Demon Continent, people didn’t usually do anything too dramatic with their haircuts. I got the feeling that most of them took pride in their naturally distinctive appearances. 

The guards at the gate greeted us warmly. 

Honestly, Ruijerd looked like nothing so much as a mafia thug or a skinhead at this point, but…maybe there were tons of guys with scary faces around these parts? The fact that we were actually dressed like adventurers this time probably made a difference too. They seemed genuinely pleased to have us. As we stepped inside the city, Ruijerd mentioned that he’d never received such a warm welcome before with a small smile on his face. 

While our appearances apparently weren’t a problem anymore, when we announced ourselves as “Dead End” at the guild, quite a few onlookers shouted questions along the lines of, “You sure that’s a good idea?” 

When I replied that it wasn’t a problem since we had the man himself with us, most of them burst into uproarious laughter. It was nice to see that trick still worked. I was almost grateful for how infamous the name “Dead End” was. It made for an excellent icebreaker. 

After settling into our lodgings at a local inn, we soon held another team meeting. Eris kicked things off this time, announcing, “Rudeus was sniffing my underwear while doing the laundry, and I want him to stop,” with a perfectly serious expression on her face. 

I was immediately forbidden from touching Eris’s panties again. That was kind of a problem, though, since it meant only Ruijerd was now capable of doing our laundry. I wasn’t about to hand over my darling Eris’s underwear to some old pervert who couldn’t help but pat every child he saw on the head. Therefore, we taught Eris how to do the laundry, and it became one of her responsibilities moving forward. 

Before too long, however, I happened to spot her furtively sniffing my underwear. Of course, I didn’t raise an objection. A man has to be broad-minded about these things, you know? 

Gathering information didn’t prove to be too difficult. I could find out almost anything I needed to know at the Adventurers’ Guild. All I had to do was act like a child and innocently ask the other adventurers. It went so smoothly, it almost made me wish I could stay a kid forever. 

Eventually, I got a bit carried away and asked a lady adventurer with a nice body what her vital statistics were, at which point Eris knocked me down and sat on me jiu-jitsu style. 

Sadly, the concept of “tapping out” was a foreign one in this world. 

We moved along from city to city, following this same general pattern, and made our way steadily to the south. One month slipped by, then two… 

One day, Eris decided she wanted to start learning the Demon-God Tongue. 

Without Roxy’s dictionary, I couldn’t really put together a detailed curriculum or anything. Still, she had both Ruijerd and myself to learn from, and seemed to pick up the basics quickly. Back in the Asura Kingdom, she’d basically refused to learn how to read and write her own language, but I guess circumstances can change a person. It must have been very stressful to be the only one who had no idea what anyone was saying most of the time. 

“My n-name is…Eris Boreas Greyrat.” 

“That’s right. You got it, miss.” 

“Really?!” 

Well, she still wasn’t anywhere near ready to have an actual conversation, but… 

Let us recall the words of Yamamoto Isoroku. “Show them, tell them, have them do it, and then praise them; otherwise, people won’t do anything. Speak to them, hear them out, recognize them, and give them responsibility; otherwise, they will never grow. Watch them work with gratitude, and show your faith in them; otherwise, they will never truly blossom.” 

Tons of instructions there, but for the moment, I focused on the “praise them” part. “Truly splendid, miss! Superb work! You’re making me all tingly!” 

“…Are you making fun of me? 

“No, no! Perish the thought!” 

Yeah, okay, I may have gone a little overboard there… I guess you’ve got to know how to praise them, too, huh? 

“Hmm. You know, we’re going to be leaving the Demon Continent soon, right?” 

“That’s the plan. We’re headed to Millis next.” The word “soon” felt a little optimistic there. We still had a very long road ahead of us. 

“Maybe there’s no point to me learning the Demon-God Tongue after all then…” 

“Well, you may end up coming here again someday, right?” 

Although she’d been driven to it by necessity in this case, it seemed clear that the girl still didn’t enjoy studying very much. 

While I was tutoring Eris in the Demon-God Tongue, Ruijerd was also teaching her how to fight. At first, I joined in their training sessions, but I honestly couldn’t keep up. Ruijerd’s method of instruction was very simple: he exchanged blows with you for a while. Before too long, you’d end up sprawled out on the ground or with the tip of his spear up against your neck. At that point, he’d simply say, “Do you understand?” 

Unfortunately, I didn’t understand. Not at all. No matter how many times I tried. However, Eris was a different story. Every now and then, she’d say, “Yeah, I get it now!” with an excited expression on her face. 

I did theoretically understand what she was picking up from these lessons. Most likely, Ruijerd was “pointing out” our mistakes and weaknesses. Combat is fluid and dynamic. It’s difficult to describe the perfect step or feint in words, so instead, he demonstrated by example. That said, I never got anything out of it except a few bruises. If I were capable of improving just by getting knocked around, I would’ve made more progress years ago. 

Eris, on the other hand, was probably a prodigy. When it came to battle, she was on a totally different level. I found Ruijerd’s combat style incomprehensible. But somehow, it made sense to her. She wasn’t just pretending to understand; she was actually learning from him. I could see her getting stronger and stronger by the day. I didn’t think she was anywhere close to Ghislaine yet, but at this point, I suspected she may be slightly better than Paul. 

Could she beat me even if I used magic at this point? It felt plausible. I needed to give some real thought to how I could improve. The idea of sitting on my hands doing nothing while Eris grew steadily more powerful was just humiliating. 

In pursuit of a way to get stronger, I eventually challenged Ruijerd to an all-out fight while Eris was off running an errand. I came at him with everything I had, using the tactics I’d developed to beat close-range fighters like Paul, but… 

Long story short, I lost. Badly. None of my tricks, traps, or strategies were remotely effective against him. 

“Not bad at all. You’re already a well-rounded, powerful magician.” For some reason, though, he complimented me after the fact. I seemed to remember hearing something similar from Ghislaine a long time ago. “However, your strategic approach was poor. There’s no need for you to try and beat me in close combat.” 

He explained that I should have initiated the fight from a far greater distance. It was only natural to struggle when you positioned yourself right where the enemy wanted you. 

That definitely made sense, but…you don’t always get the chance to start a battle from half a mile away, right? “So what should I do when someone gets in my face?” 

“Hard for me to say. Spellcasting is outside my field of expertise… The Dragonfolk are said to be proficient at using magic in close-range combat, but my only first-hand experience of that was briefly observing Perugius in battle. I couldn’t tell you much.” 

“Perugius? Isn’t that the guy with the floating fortress? How did he fight?” 

“Yes. He summoned his Front Wyrmgate and Rear Wyrmgate, and attacked using magic claws.” 

Oh, summoning spells… I don’t know any of those though… “What types of summons are these Wyrmgate things?” 

“I don’t know the specific details, but I believe the front gate constantly drains magical power from his enemies, and the rear gate feeds that power to him.” 

As a result, Perugius could gain a steadily greater advantage the longer a fight dragged on. It apparently hadn’t been that effective against Laplace, who had a truly enormous supply of raw magical power…but an ordinary warrior would be sucked dry and lose consciousness in less than five minutes. 

“Wow. That’s one underhanded way to win a fight.” 

“…Is it?” 

I’d expected Ruijerd to back me up on that one, but he didn’t seem to agree. Maybe he thought of Perugius as a comrade of sorts, since Perugius helped him strike back against his most hated enemy. 

“In any case, don’t rush yourself. You’re still very young. You’ll grow stronger in due time.” 

In the end, Ruijerd patted my head and offered me some consolation. He did seem to view me as a “warrior” at this point, but he hadn’t stopped with the head-patting. I think he just enjoyed it for his own sake, honestly. 

Anyway. While I appreciated the sentiment, I wasn’t too clear on how I was supposed to grow stronger. 

As I grappled with these worries, our party moved slowly but steadily south. When we reached a city, we took on guild tasks there, made a name for ourselves, saved up some money, then set out for our next destination. 

We repeated those same basic steps over and over again, never lingering too long in one place. 

Before I knew it, five months had passed…then six. 

One day, we met someone on the road who immediately challenged Ruijerd to a fight. 

“My name is Rodriguez! I am the third student of Peacock-Blade Auber, pupil of the great North God Kalman!” 

At first, I assumed he was some sort of bounty hunter, and someone had put a price on Ruijerd’s head without us knowing about it. 

“Your deportment suggests you are a man of some renown! I wish to challenge you to a duel!” 

However, that didn’t seem to be the case. The man explained that he was a human swordsman who’d come to the Demon Continent to train himself. 

“What should we do, Ruijerd?” 

“Hm. It’s been a long time since I had a match of this sort…” 

According to Ruijerd, the Demon Continent actually got many visitors like this. The monsters on this continent were strong, as were the adventurers who hunted them down. This made it an ideal place for warriors to hone their skills. 

Wandering around with no objective except “getting stronger” seemed pointless to me, but whatever. 

“I wouldn’t mind accepting, but what do you think?” 

“I think you have every right to refuse. What do you want to do though?” 

“I am a warrior. When someone asks me for a bout, I would prefer to oblige them.” 

You could have just said that in the first place, man… 

I decided to set some ground rules, at least: 

1. This is a friendly sparring match, not a duel to the death. No killing allowed. 

2. Our warrior will only state his name after the fight’s over. 

3. Both sides agree not to hold any grudges, whatever the outcome. 

The swordsman cheerfully consented, so the duel got underway immediately. 

Ruijerd won fair and square, having cleanly fended off his opponent’s most furious attacks. He didn’t take it easy on the guy or anything; he just took a calm, low-risk approach, shutting down everything the swordsman tried until he had the man cornered. 

“You’ve bested me completely, sir. I never expected to stumble across such a peerless fighter here… This world is truly full of wonders! What is your name, if I may ask?” 

“Ruijerd Superdia. People also call me Dead End.” 

“What? You’re Dead End himself?! The fearsome Superd warrior?! I’ve heard tell of you many times on this continent!” 

The swordsman seemed totally astonished by this. It seemed that much of humankind knew surprisingly little about the Superd at this point. Many weren’t aware that they fought with three-pointed spears or had a red ‘jewel” on their forehead; their emerald green hair was the only feature that remained common knowledge. In other words…four centuries after the war, they were deeply prejudiced against a whole group of people based on nothing but their hair color . How could anyone think that was a good enough reason to oppress someone? 

“However…I notice that you have no hair, sir.” 

“Yes. I recently felt the need to cut it off.” 

“I-I see. Well, I wouldn’t want to pry…” 

By now, the man knew he was standing face-to-face with the most “fearsome” and “vicious’ of the terrible Superd people, and he’d experienced the Superd’s strength firsthand. I would have expected him to shrink back in horror. But the two of them were both warriors, and that was apparently enough to form a bond of mutual respect between them. For those who lived in pursuit of strength, Ruijerd was someone to be admired rather than feared. 

“To think I had the chance to spar with a legendary figure such as yourself… I’ll have to boast about this to everyone back home!” 

That man, unlike most of the others we would run into, was clearly happy to have met Ruijerd. It was almost like they’d ran into a Hollywood superstar on the sidewalk—and discovered that despite his reputation for being rude, he was actually a warm and friendly guy. 

“You there! My name is—” 

Following that first duel, Ruijerd began receiving a constant stream of challengers. The farther south we went, the more of them we ran into. 

A number of these warriors-in-training were well-versed in history, and pointed out that Ruijerd had the same name as the leader of the infamous Superd band from the days of the Laplace War. When he explained that he was that same man, they all reacted with astonishment. He’d then proceed to spend an entire day and night recounting his experiences during the war to them. 

Old man Ruijerd did tend to prattle on once you got him started on the past. But his simple, straightforward descriptions of what really happened were apparently enthralling to other warriors like himself. In particular, they loved the part where he broke through a ring of 1,000 soldiers, went underground, and eventually got his revenge on Laplace. More than a few macho tears were shed. 

If we turned that whole story into a book and got it published somehow, maybe we actually could rehabilitate the image of the Superd to some degree. “War Without Justice—Mortal Combat on the Demon Continent!” sounded pretty good, right? Or maybe “History’s Untold Truths: The Real Story of the Superd!” 

Hey, I could probably print them up myself using Earth magic, right? And I knew all four of the major continental languages at this point. Of course, there was a possibility I’d break some local law in the process and get thrown in jail somewhere, but it felt like an idea worth filing away for future reference at least. 

“Goodbye then! Thank you again! I learned a great deal.” 

The warriors-in-training always said their farewells cheerfully. I don’t think a single one left angry or upset. 

And all of this was only possible because Ruijerd had cut off his hair. 

Maybe we should just have all the Superd shave themselves bald? 

All the while, we kept moving south, never losing sight of our goal. The eighth and ninth month of our journey came and went. 

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Problems popped up numerous times. Eris could understand what the people around us were saying now; as a result, she’d sometimes flip out and start fights when people mocked or insulted us. Ruijerd’s identity was exposed numerous times, which resulted in us being driven out of several cities. I also repeatedly tried to peep on Eris in the bath, only to have Ruijerd drag me off by the scruff of my neck. 

The same problems kept cropping up at a fairly steady rate. At first, that made me anxious. I tried to think up ways to fix them, or prevent them from happening in the first place. 

But when I really thought about it though? Eris got into fights, yes, but she never drew her sword on anyone. And when Ruijerd got chased out of town, it was never as violent and chaotic as his flight from Rikarisu. Once, a soldier we’d gotten to know actually said, “Sorry. Some people just get scared when they know there’s a Superd around,” in an apologetic tone of voice. 

Also, I never actually succeeded with spying on Eris in the bath. 

All of these problems were pretty minor in the scale of things, in other words. They never snowballed into any major crisis. 

So I started worrying a bit less. Eris was a violent person; Ruijerd was a Superd; and I was a pervert. We’d all been the way we were since birth, and there wasn’t much hope in changing us now. The three of us were managing as best we could. That was good enough for me. A screw-up now and then wasn’t the end of the world. 

No reason to stress out about it, right? 

At some point, I really did start to feel that way. I wasn’t taking our mistakes lightly, or underestimating what they cost us. I just learned how to relax a little and keep things in perspective. That may sound simple, and I guess it is. But it took months and months on the road with Ruijerd and Eris before I finally got the hang of it. 

About a year had passed since we set out on our journey from Rikarisu. Before we knew it, the three of us had become A-ranked adventurers… 

And at long last, we’d reached the city of Wind Port, on the very southern tip of the Demon Continent.