Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: To the Palace

“Ah, here we are.”

We stopped in front of a rather worn-looking inn, but it wasn’t as though the building was in bad shape. It was well maintained and clean, even though it was old. It gave the impression that it was an established institution in this part of the city.

“The sign says ‘Falcon’s Rest Inn.’ This must be the place,” Lorraine murmured after she checked the scrap of paper that Augurey had given her.

We entered the inn, and inside we found the inn master and his wife working. At the front desk was a young girl who was presumably their daughter. Inns like this one were usually family businesses. Of course, high-end lodgings aimed at high-ranking adventurers were generally run by well-established merchant houses, but most places on this scale were run by a family.

Augurey was a Silver-class adventurer, so I’m sure he could have moved to a pricier place if he’d wanted to, but people usually preferred the environment they were used to. He’d likely used this inn since before he became a Silver-class adventurer and just preferred to stay here.

“Oh, welcome. Are you here to rent a room today?” the girl asked as we approached the reception desk.

I shook my head. “No, we’re here to see someone. I’m told an adventurer named Augurey stays here.”

The girl nodded as though our appearance made sense to her. “Mister Augurey is in room three. I don’t believe he’s gone out today. Would you like me to go get him?”

“No need to trouble yourself. We’ll go to him. Would that be a problem?”

“Not at all. Please do. It’ll be the room on the right at the end of the hallway.”

Lorraine and I exchanged nods and made our way to the specified room.

I lightly rapped my knuckles against the wooden door.

“Hm? A guest? I don’t remember making any plans for today...”

We heard a voice talking to himself on the other side, then the door swung open. I couldn’t help but think it was a touch careless since he didn’t know who was on the other side, but there weren’t that many people who could pose a threat to an adventurer—even fewer if the adventurer was Silver-class. So while I wouldn’t call it wise, it wasn’t particularly an issue for him. It would be different if he was in a situation where he knew someone was out to assassinate him, but I doubted that was the case at the moment.

When the door opened, we were greeted by the sight of Augurey dressed just as garishly as I remembered. He was wearing frilled, rainbow-colored clothing, a hat with a giant peacock feather, and a sword on his hip that had brightly colored patterns inscribed into the hilt. In other words, he hadn’t changed since the last time I saw him.

Still, in spite of his questionable taste in clothing, his facial features were well formed, and if he were to dress a little more reasonably, he would look quite handsome. He even had a cultured air that made you think he might be a scion of some noble house. That aside, based on his current attire, you’d have to conclude that he’d taken one too many blows to the head. Why did he like to dress this way? It was a mystery to which no one knew the answer.

As Augurey stood there with the door open, his expression turned to one of surprise. “Rentt! And Lorraine too!” He exclaimed loudly.

“Yeah, been a while,” I said. “Well, maybe not that long, but anyway, it really has been some time since we’ve seen each other dressed normally like this.”

The last time we saw him, we’d been dressed in the latest imperial fashions, but this time we were dressed normally—aside from my mask, that is.

Lorraine eyed Augurey with a faintly exasperated look. “The person right in front of me isn’t dressed normally...”

Augurey looked confused, as though he didn’t know what Lorraine was talking about. I wasn’t sure if he was playing around or if his reaction was serious, but if I had to guess, he was feigning obliviousness. Despite appearances, Augurey was well grounded and intelligent. He wasn’t the sort of fool who didn’t understand just how unique his fashion sense was. The fact that he dressed this way despite that probably meant there was a reason behind it, but it might just be his personal preference, so it was perhaps useless to pursue that line of questioning.

“The two of you really did come out of the blue, but I’m glad to see you. I was starting to run out of excuses.”

Augurey sounded uncharacteristically tired, and I had a good guess as to the cause of that fatigue.

“The palace has been insistent, I suppose?” Lorraine asked.

“Well, yeah. Why don’t we sit down and talk about it? Come on in. It’s a little messy, but there’s enough room for the three of us to relax and have a chat.”

It seemed Lorraine’s guess had been on the mark. Since we had come to see Augurey for that very reason, it was a convenient segue for us. We nodded and entered his room.

◆◇◆◇◆

“So. It’s been a while since that incident...”

Augurey seemed to be asking what our excuse was for taking so long. That was understandable. We’d told Nauss Ancro that we’d come by later, without specifying a date, and we’d also mentioned we needed a few days to sort out other matters. All things considered, it made sense that the royal family would think it would only be a few days before we came for an audience. When we didn’t appear in that time frame, they’d started nagging the one among us they knew lived in the capital. We’d evidently left Augurey in an awkward position.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I apologized. “A lot came up that we had to deal with.”

I then described the events that had occurred in Maalt to the extent that I was able to tell him. Augurey already knew I was a monster. Moreover, he’d signed a magic contract that prevented him from talking about any matters that would do us harm without our permission. That was why I told him most of what had happened. Since we were unsure of how much we could tell him about the Latuules, I left that part vague. I basically just told him that we’d gotten help from a powerful vampire.

Having heard the story, Augurey appeared satisfied. “It sounds like you got caught up in quite a bit of trouble. Then again, you’ve been in trouble since you turned into a monster. Given what happened, though, I can hardly blame you for taking so long to show up. Things were pretty difficult for me, but compared to you, I was just getting nagged by the palace. Not a big deal, all things considered.” He gave us a nod of understanding.

“When you say nagging, what sort of thing were they doing?” I asked. I wanted to know if they were just pestering him or if they were threatening him with something heavier like actual punishment. Based on what I could see from Augurey’s demeanor, it was likely the former.

“At most, it’s them demanding to know how much we’re going to make them wait,” Augurey replied. “That said, the days between each messenger have started to get fewer and fewer, and I felt more and more guilty each time I had to turn the messenger away. Even though I always said I’d make sure to bring you two, they’d ask when that would be. I almost gave myself an ulcer by repeating the same stressful exchange over and over again.”

It didn’t sound that easy to deal with, honestly. Now, whether it caused Augurey a great deal of mental anguish was a different question. It might have been slightly stressful, but Augurey was the sort of man who’d get the heck out of the kingdom if things started looking serious. He wasn’t the type to feel overwhelmed by the pressure heaped upon him and end up hanging himself. Nevertheless, our prolonged absence had caused him undue stress.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized again. “I wish there was something we could do to make up for it.”

I felt guilty about leaving him to shoulder all of that burden. Then again, I didn’t feel guilty for committing the crime of entering the capital as a monster. It’s not like there was anything I could do about it, anyway.

Augurey smiled as though he had been waiting for my comment. “Oh, really?! I have just the thing you can help me with...”

He began listing off jobs that required a party to undertake. He didn’t hesitate in the slightest, but that was because we both knew each other very well.

Augurey then turned toward Lorraine as though he were asking the most natural question in the world. “Lorraine, you’ll help too, right?”

“I suppose I have no choice. I hold some responsibility for this matter. I’ll listen to your request,” she said with a note of resignation.

◆◇◆◇◆

“So now that I’ve gotten a fair reward for my work,” Augurey began.

“I can’t help but feel I’ve been fleeced,” I muttered.

“Different things, really. A totally different matter altogether. The problem is with visiting the palace. Even if we can easily get in thanks to the medal you were given, are you sure you’ll be okay with your, um...special body? The palace has some impressive detection equipment.”

Augurey sounded genuinely concerned, but we’d already dealt with that particular issue.

“We’ve tested all of the detection devices the royal palace uses,” Lorraine answered, “and none of them responded. There’s no problem in the slightest.”

Augurey tried his best to hide his shock. “Um, I’m pretty sure information on what devices the palace uses isn’t public knowledge. How did you even discover that?”

His reaction was perfectly understandable. After all, Lorraine had confidently and plainly stated that everything was fine. She wasn’t the sort to make definite statements when she wasn’t certain or had any doubts, and evidently, I’d developed a habit of wholly believing something to be fact if she was willing to state it was. If I called that an expression of my trust in her, that sounded nice, but perhaps I had just entrusted the difficult thinking to her and stopped thinking for myself. Since I had a tendency to make careless blunders at important points, I should’ve probably been more careful. I mean, that was exactly how I’d been swallowed by a dragon. But for all my precautions, I couldn’t help but unconsciously and implicitly trust Lorraine.

“Through my connections and my knowledge as a scholar,” Lorraine replied. “Of course, even then, there’s a chance my knowledge might not be complete, so I’m currently in the process of confirming that it is. In fact, all right...”

“Confirming?” As Augurey quizzically tilted his head, a knock came against the wooden slat placed in the window frame. “I sure have a lot of guests today. But why from here? We’re up on the second floor.”

Augurey looked at us, silently asking if he could open it. He was being considerate, since the conversation we were having was far from normal.

I nodded. I had no idea who was at the window, but if it was someone unwelcome, we would just have to chase them off. Lorraine also nodded, so Augurey walked over to the window and opened it.

“Hm? There’s no one here...?”

“No, it seems the guest was looking for me rather than you,” Lorraine explained as she approached the window. She looked to the lower right, almost to the very end of the sill, and cupped her hands as though she were scooping up water. Something then hopped into her palms.

“It’s a puchi suri,” Augurey said with a faint note of surprise. “Lorraine, when did you start keeping monsters as pets? Oh, I suppose Rentt might be part of that hobby...”

Augurey seemed to be drawing some strange conclusions in his head, so I hurriedly interjected, “Hold up, hold up! That’s not it at all!”

Augurey chuckled and said, “I’m kidding. At any rate, it seems the puchi suri is completely obedient to Lorraine. Did she become a monster tamer?”

Lorraine slowly shook her head and gestured toward me with her chin. “No, this is one of Rentt’s familiars. I’m just borrowing him for now.”

“A familiar. It really drives home that Rentt’s an actual monster. But it doesn’t seem that bad when I think of how monster tamers also control monsters as servants. It’s said goblin riders use the same methods as monster tamers, and the line between monsters and familiars and pets can be ambiguous. That’s something I remember Lorraine saying a long time ago.”

For a minute there I was impressed with Augurey’s level of knowledge, but it turned out he’d just regurgitated something Lorraine had told him.

Generally, the difference between familiars and servile monsters was that owners controlled their familiars with their own mana, while monster tamers trained their servile monsters like horses and pets to obey commands. Be that as it may, it seemed monster tamers also had magic connections to their servile monsters, so they weren’t totally different, just a difference in degree of control through mana. Not even experts were certain about the exact distinction, and it was one of those things where precise definitions weren’t really possible.

“So why did this familiar knock on my room’s door...or rather, window?”

“He’s the one who was doing the confirmation that I mentioned earlier,” Lorraine said. “Rentt, can you tell what he’s saying about the test results?”

The reason Lorraine was asking me was because she couldn’t directly exchange thoughts with the puchi suri, but I could.

“So, how’d it go?”

When I sent those words with my mind, I got an answer.

“Not a problem. Got into the king’s private chambers.”

It was short and to the point. Maybe this puchi suri was the quiet and concise type? Edel’s answers were usually a lot louder and vaguer. He had an almost piratical air to him. It was hard to describe, since he didn’t put it into words, but somehow his thoughts reflected his personality.

“Seems things were fine,” I told Lorraine.

◆◇◆◇◆

“My name is Rentt.”

When I introduced myself, one of the two soldiers standing watch in front of the well-built stone bridge leading into the castle furrowed his brow in suspicion. I couldn’t blame him; I’m sure this was the first time he’d heard my name.

“Where are you from? What do you want?”

Lorraine, Augurey, and I were all here. Yesterday, after chatting a bit more, we’d cut our meeting short, and today we’d made our way to the palace.

I’d gotten a little nervous when we went from the commoners’ district to the nobles’ district, but just as Edel’s underling had said, none of the detection devices had gone off, and we’d been able to make our way to the palace without incident. While the guards keeping watch in front of the noble estates had looked at me with suspicion, they were retainers who reported to that particular noble house rather than the palace and weren’t the sort to leave their posts to chase after a faintly suspicious passerby.

Well, I’m sure they would’ve sent word to the authorities and come after me if I’d been swinging around a weapon or firing off magic while shouting, “Fear the undead! I’m here to destroy this city in the name of the great vampire lord Laura Latuule!” I would never do something like that, though. It’d turn the entire Kingdom of Yaaran against me. Wait, the scarier thing would be having House Latuule as an enemy. What was even scarier than that, though, was that I wasn’t sure if it would even turn them against me. I felt like Laura might chuckle and say something like, “If you wish to play like that, please, do as you wish. That sounds entertaining.” Isaac would happily go along with her wishes too. It was a creepy thought.

Besides, I just couldn’t imagine winning against them. It was such a tall order that I might even give up my childhood dream of becoming a Mithril-class adventurer if fighting House Latuule was one of the requirements. Just kidding. Maybe.

I mulled over those silly thoughts in my head as I talked to the sentry.

“I’m a Bronze-class adventurer. I have business with Her Highness, Princess Jia Regina Yaaran. I’m not here to cause trouble. Would you mind letting me through?”

All I was doing was stating why I was here, but the sentry looked at me suspiciously and continued to interrogate me. His suspicion was well placed; I was, after all, a monster, and an undead to boot—the most hated and distrusted of all the monsters in this world. The popular conception of the undead was that they were either mages who’d sold their souls to evil or people who’d died with such anger and hatred that they had stuck around just to get their revenge. Basically, they were as bad as could be imagined. There was no way for the guard to know that I was undead, though.

“A mere Bronze-class adventurer is here to see Her Highness? I won’t say it’s impossible, but I’m not aware of any visitors of that sort scheduled for today.”

The fact that he was genuinely considering my story despite my appearance spoke to how seriously he took his job and how sincerely he dealt with people as a representative of his employer. I’m sure that in plenty of other countries, he would have just dismissed me and chased me off. If I were in his place, if some weird-looking man like me came around saying he had business with a princess, I’d never let him into the palace. I had an ace up my sleeve to turn this situation around, however. Or rather, I should have just started the conversation with it.

I began to dig around in my pocket. While I had my magic bag with me, I’d already taken the medal out in anticipation of this very situation, since that’d make it easier to just—presto—produce the medal as needed.

And so—presto—I wasn’t able to instantly produce the medal. I thought it was here somewhere. I continued to search, but I obviously wasn’t doing myself any favors by standing here digging around in my pocket. The sentry slowly started to reach for the sword hanging on his hip.

Crap, this was bad. I needed to find it soon, or...

My hand found what felt like the right object, and I drew it from my pocket with gusto, which prompted the guard to do the very same thing with his sword. He must have thought I was drawing a weapon of some sort, but what I held in my hand wasn’t a weapon.

“A medal?” the sentry said aloud. He then sheathed his sword and continued as though he’d never drawn his weapon at all. “Which must mean you have an introduction from a noble. It’s a common scam. Some ne’er-do-well will manage to talk a gullible rural noble into giving them a medal with the family seal so they can get a look at one of the royals. So you’re one of those, eh? Wait, hold on...”

The guard looked closer at the medal as he spoke and finally recognized the crest depicted on it. His tone suddenly shot up half an octave.

“W-Wait, this is the seal of the Marquess of Ancro! And this version is Lord Nauss’s personal...”

I hadn’t realized this, since I hadn’t taken time to carefully look over the medal, but it appeared the seal on it also identified the individual member of that noble house. This was the first time I’d ever been given— Oh wait, this was only loaned to me. Anyway, this was the first time anyone had ever lent me anything like this. I didn’t know anything about medals since I’d never had an opportunity to learn about them.

The only large noble house around Maalt was its ruler, the Viscount Lottnel, and it wasn’t as though I was close with the viscount himself. The most I’d ever interacted with him was attending the occasional party he threw to interact with the adventuring community in Maalt and glancing at him from a distance. At a party like that, the viscount had no time to talk to a Bronze-class nobody like me, and he was usually too busy talking to other attendees like the guildmaster, Wolf, or the head of some group that had close ties with the guild. Even if I’d wanted to talk to him, his entourage would probably have shooed me away.

Basically, I just wasn’t in the right social circles to have any meaningful relationship with a noble like that. There might be opportunities in the future, perhaps. After all, I’d heard that the Viscount Lottnel had a close relationship with House Latuule, and these days I was pretty close to House Latuule. Still, it wasn’t as though I needed to think much about it at the moment.

“How did you...get this?”

The guard must have really wanted to ask me how I’d managed to steal the medal from Nauss, but he’d somehow swallowed that accusation and calmly finished his question.

“I once spotted Her Highness and Lord Nauss being attacked by monsters,” I explained. “I knew I couldn’t just leave them, so I went to their aid. These two were with me at the time.”

I gestured to Lorraine and Augurey.

“Oh, so you’re... Yes, I’ve heard about you. I’ve also heard that you didn’t show up despite the invitation, so I had forgotten about the whole incident because I thought you were never going to appear.”

The guard was being a touch snide, but it also seemed he was telling the truth. Not everyone who got an invitation to the palace showed up. For example, those who had skeletons in their closet might not appear out of a desire to avoid those skeletons coming to light. I was kind of a shining example of that, even though, technically, I was the skeleton in my closet. I would’ve had no choice but to run like hell if the security devices had detected me.

There were less extreme examples than me, like merchants who’d once been famous bandits or famous adventurers who’d run away from a noble house and were operating under a false name. No matter how much of an honor it was to be invited to the palace, those sorts of people would never dare to come. That was why the sentry had filed us into a similar category and forgotten about it. Really, he should’ve been praised for retaining some information about us in the back of his mind.

“We had reasons for our delay. We weren’t putting it off on purpose. We’d certainly like to apologize to Her Highness and Lord Nauss directly. Will you let us through?”

The guard nodded. “Very well. But if I let the three of you merely wander in, you’ll just end up repeating this same exchange again inside. I’ll come with you until we can find a servant to show you the way.”

He then politely accompanied us to the entrance of the palace.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Ah. I’d heard you’d finally come, and so you have!”

As we waited in one of the palace’s sitting rooms intended for lower-class guests, the door suddenly burst open, and with a chipper greeting, a man we recognized walked through the door—Nauss Ancro, the captain of the Kingdom of Yaaran’s Royal Guard. He was middle-aged and equipped from head to toe in shining silver armor.

Although the guard had already returned to his post, he had told us on our way here that Nauss was the head of House Ancro and that he had a good reputation among the nobility. That said, he wasn’t particularly powerful in terms of influence, trailing behind the viceroy Duke Lukas Bader; Marquess Marcel Viesel, the head of the first prince’s faction; and the Countess Gisel Georgiou, the first princess’s faction in name recognition. He didn’t have any particularly notable accomplishments, but he was evidently known as a loyal man of good character.

While I’d heard of the other nobles the guard had listed, I didn’t remember hearing Nauss’s name all that often. Even if we adventurers loved freedom and disliked authority, considering that we had to live in this country, we couldn’t avoid interacting with nobles or their relations in some fashion. We did talk about nobles from time to time, but I didn’t recall Nauss ever coming up in those conversations.

Besides, Maalt was so far away from the capital that we rarely had a reason to talk about these kinds of things. At most, we might discuss them once every six months or so. I figured Lorraine might be an exception, though, and when I looked over at her, her expression told me that she’d known the basics about Nauss beforehand. The reason she hadn’t mentioned anything was because, based on what the guard had told me, Nauss wasn’t a particularly objectionable person. Or maybe Lorraine had been letting me judge Nauss for myself.

I wasn’t sure about Augurey, but he’d presumably looked up Nauss while we were busy in Maalt, and they might have even met during that time. The fact that Augurey hadn’t given us any warnings before the meeting told me that Nauss wasn’t excessively touchy about matters of etiquette. And it wasn’t like Lorraine and I were completely uncultured and lacking in manners. If Augurey had been with more rough-hewn adventurers, he might have offered pointers on how to act or speak around nobility.

“Lord Ancro. As I promised, I’ve brought them to the palace,” Augurey said grandly.

Nauss must have been the one who’d been bugging Augurey about visiting. While Augurey was confidently acting like this had all gone according to plan, the fact of the matter was that Augurey had been bluffing and buying time. His mannerisms and tone gave none of that away, though. In fact, they demonstrated that Augurey was an unexpectedly good actor. He’d always been prone to gesticulating grandly and speaking grandiloquently like a performer, though. In that sense, maybe he was acting exactly like what you might expect of him.

“Augurey, you have my apologies for doubting you. You must understand. Everything was so ambiguous—the date the pair would arrive, where they lived, and even their names. Surely you can’t blame me for wondering if there was something more behind it all.”

Depending on the listener, Nauss’s apology might have sounded like a veiled insult, and most commoners would have kowtowed to him and begged his forgiveness at this point, but again, Augurey maintained his debonair attitude.

“Fair enough, m’lord. Still, the two are, in fact, here. If they had anything to hide, they wouldn’t come to a place like this.”

Actually, I had a ton of things I was hiding. Like the fact I was a monster and an undead. And that I knew vampires. And that I had a means of instantly traveling to the capital. I was pretty sure that any one of those things would warrant death, or maybe something worse—never mind them all combined. Even so, Lorraine and I maintained our level expressions and nodded along to their conversation.

Nauss smiled at Augurey and replied, “Indeed, you’re quite right. This palace is equipped with a great many protections. A criminal can’t just easily enter, and we even have magic items that can detect ill intent. I’m afraid I cannot divulge any specifics, but many other layers of protection are in effect as well. But since the three of you are present despite that, it is proof you have nothing to hide or feel ashamed of.”

It was true that I wasn’t a criminal, and I had no intention of harming anyone in the palace. I didn’t know what other detections they might have in place, but since they didn’t react to me, it meant that Nauss was right. As for the monster detection, for whatever reason, it just didn’t react to me.

That was the biggest issue, but it wasn’t like we could say, “Hey, I’m a monster, but your devices didn’t react. You should switch device providers! If you act now, the great alchemist Lorraine Vivie will be happy to provide you with a set of monster-detection magic devices built on new principles for just five platinum pieces! Just five platinum pieces; what a bargain! And if you buy now...”

We weren’t some vendors hawking wares on the street. I mean, I’d fallen for that sort of sales pitch a few times in the past and ended up making an unnecessary purchase. None of them were big scams, though. It was more like realizing that the “sale price” was just the normal price, or something was a little smaller than usual—just petty little things like that.

“Quite so. Now, Lord Ancro, if possible, today we’d like to simply pay our respects to you, m’lord, and then be our way,” Augurey said casually.

He was essentially asking if we could leave. For our part, it’d be easiest if it turned out all they wanted was to see us at the palace, then let us go, but...

“Surely not. We haven’t been able to properly thank you yet. And Her Highness has been anticipating seeing the three of you again. I, Nauss Ancro, certainly couldn’t continue to use the title of marquess if I were to simply let you go.”

Well, there went that hope. Sure, this was always going to be the most likely outcome, and Augurey hadn’t asked to be excused with the expectation that we’d be let go, but Augurey was really good at setting up these sorts of conversational traps. He could basically trick you into giving permission for something before you could really think it through. Clearly it wasn’t going to work with a noble who was used to dealing with that sort of subtle wordplay every day, though. Damn. It worked so well on simple adventurers!

“You honor us, my lord. Then, do we have an audience with Her Highness next?” Augurey asked.

“That’s the plan, yes. There’s no need to be nervous. As I said before, Her Highness is a grounded and gracious woman.”

That was clear from the fact that she was willing to go to the trouble of inviting adventurers to the palace just to thank them. It was just that, from our standpoint, being here was a little bit of a hassle by our standards as adventurers. This was merely a gap in our worldviews, however, and there wasn’t really anything we could do about it.

If possible, I’d hoped that the princess would be gracious enough to just let us go home, but I wasn’t going to get my hopes up for that one now.

◆◇◆◇◆

Nauss lightly knocked on a giant door. “Pardon me, Your Highness. It is I, Nauss. I have brought guests for you.”

On either side of the door were two large, fully equipped knights standing guard. We stood ramrod straight behind Nauss in an effort to appear as inconspicuous as possible. No, wait... I was the only one doing that. Neither Lorraine nor Augurey appeared particularly ruffled. They were at ease and acting no different from usual.

Were they used to visiting royals? Now that I thought about it, they were both Silver-class adventurers, so they’d probably worked directly for high-ranking nobles in the past. It reminded me of the sheer gap in experience between them and me.

Well, not that it bothered me all that much, but I really needed to become Silver-class soon. I hadn’t been able to take on enough jobs to fulfill the prerequisites for the Ascension Exam because of all that had been going on lately, but I figured I should take on a bunch of jobs when I had some free time so that I could apply for the exam. I swore to myself at that moment that I would.

I wasn’t sure whether I had the skill to pass the exam, but I wouldn’t know until I took it. I mean, I could now handle Silver-class monsters, and depending on the situation, I could even defeat Gold-class ones like the tarasque, which was only for Gold-class adventurers and up. That was partly because it required special preparations to deal with its venom, but I just happened to be immune to poisons. That was why I thought I was maybe around the Silver-class level. Or perhaps I could only take on upper-Bronze-class monsters. I wasn’t super confident about that.

While I was second-guessing myself, someone answered from the other side of the door.

“Nauss, come in.”

“Then, if you’ll pardon us,” Nauss said as he opened the door. He entered, then held the door open and gestured for us to follow suit, so we filed into the room after him.

◆◇◆◇◆

When we entered, a girl of maybe fifteen or sixteen dressed in really elaborate clothing greeted us. Maybe her outfit wasn’t all that elaborate considering she was royalty, but it was certainly fancier than what a commoner might wear.

It went without saying that this girl was Jia Regina Yaaran, the second princess of the Kingdom of Yaaran. It looked like she hadn’t changed much since I last saw her.

Once we were inside, Nauss began explaining who we were. “Your Highness, these are the adventurers who came to our aid when we were attacked on the highway.”

Nauss then glanced briefly in our direction, which was his way of telling us to introduce ourselves. I wondered if I should go first, but before I could say anything, Lorraine began her introduction.

“It is an honor to be in your presence, Your Highness. My name is Lorraine Vivie, a humble scholar who makes her living in the city of Maalt.”

Lorraine’s movements were also extremely elegant, and it reminded me once again that she was from the empire, the greatest country on the continent.

After Lorraine had finished her introduction, the princess tilted her head quizzically. “A scholar? Are you not an adventurer?”

“I am also an adventurer, Your Highness, but that is, technically, a secondary occupation. My proper occupation is as a scholar.”

“I see.”

The princess, satisfied with Lorraine’s explanation, gave Lorraine a faint nod. She then remained silent, indicating that we should continue our introductions. As I was readying myself to go next, Augurey beat me to the punch.

“An honor to be in your presence, Your Highness. My name is Augurey, and I am an adventurer. I have a more formal name, but it is long and can be hard to pronounce without stuttering. I scarcely wish to subject you to such an embarrassing sight, so please forgive me for introducing myself so simply.”

Augurey’s introduction was rather informal, and in some contexts, it would have come off as disrespectful, but both the princess and the marquess were smiling, which told me that they found it acceptable. How nobles drew the line between familiarity and disrespect was vague, and it differed depending on the individual and the region, but it seemed Augurey knew where the line was in Yaaran.

The princess then addressed Augurey. “Oh my. To have such a long name... Is that a tradition of your people?”

“Yes, it is, Your Highness. For my part, I would have preferred a shorter, easier to pronounce name, but I’m afraid I lacked the ability to communicate that to my parents before I was born, and I couldn’t simply discard my own name. That is why I chose to introduce myself with the easiest and shortest part of my name, for the sake of others. Of course, if you wish to learn my full name, I would be happy to oblige Your Highness, but in that case, I would recommend calling for tea and sweets. I will do my best to finish reciting my name before you finish your tea.”

“He he. No, you need not trouble yourself. Nauss, it is fine, yes?”

Nauss nodded. “If that is what you wish, Your Highness.”

A part of me questioned if it really was fine, but the guild would have already run a background check when they made him a Silver-class adventurer. It wouldn’t reveal personal information about an adventurer just because a noble demanded it, but it would often relay background information, especially if the inquiry came from the palace.

While the guild was technically an independent organization, it wasn’t completely free from government involvement; it couldn’t afford to ignore the government’s orders. Guilds also had connections with those located in other countries, though, and if a country tried to push the guild too far, it could put up some resistance. It was something of a balancing act. Whatever the relationship between the guild and the kingdom, it was clear that there was nothing objectionable about Augurey’s background.

Next, Princess Jia turned her gaze toward me. Lorraine and Augurey did the same. I felt nervous as I finally began my introduction.

“An honor to be in your presence, Your Highness. I am Rentt Vivie, a Bronze-class adventurer. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

My introduction was short and simple, partly because I was afraid of tripping over my words and partly because I was the lowest-ranking one here. I didn’t have anything I wanted to explain to her either. In addition, though I was maybe overestimating my importance, I didn’t want to draw the princess’s curiosity. After all, I was already wearing a weird mask. I figured it was best to be quiet and unassuming. My efforts, however, were for naught.

“You’re a Bronze-class adventurer?” the princess asked. “Yet you are in a party with two Silver-class adventurers? And your mask... Is there some important reason for it? Also, you share a family name with Miss Lorraine, so perhaps you have some relationship with her?”

Despite my best efforts, she subjected me to a barrage of questions. They were all understandable questions, though, and I’d gotten the same ones repeatedly since I’d become undead, so I figured they wouldn’t be too hard to answer.

“Allow me to clarify, Your Highness. First, as to why a Bronze-class adventurer such as myself is partied with two Silver-class adventurers...”

“Yes?”

“The three of us once operated primarily from the city of Maalt. Furthermore, I have known Lorraine since we were both fledgling adventurers, and I met Augurey when he was still Bronze-class himself. When we first met, we were all peers.”

We weren’t anymore, though. Augurey’s promotion to Silver-class had been a bit of a shock, but that wasn’t because he didn’t have the talent or because he had no future as an adventurer. I knew he would eventually earn the promotion, and I had steeled myself for that. It was just that it’d happened a lot sooner than I’d thought it would.

I wasn’t particularly jealous of him or anything. I’d grown used to my fellow Bronze-class adventurers overtaking me the last ten years. Besides, my dream was to become Mithril-class; other people’s rank had never been my focus.

“I see. But it is somewhat unusual that you are still in the same party, is it not?” the princess asked.

That was definitely true. Lorraine and I were one thing, but Augurey was now operating out of the capital. It probably seemed even odder to the princess, because she wasn’t aware of those details. It wasn’t unusual for parties to disband when the party members changed ranks. It had nothing to do with adventurers being disloyal or heartless; it just tended to cause problems if there was too big of a difference in the members’ skill levels.

It wasn’t good for the stronger members of a party to spend most of their effort protecting the weaker members in the middle of a job. It meant they couldn’t focus on the task at hand. The guild itself must have believed that mixed-level parties were an issue, because it was relatively proactive in introducing people to new parties or helping parties recruit new members. They never did that sort of thing for adventurers, though. The guild likely thought it was more efficient to let attrition thin the huge number of newbies. It was a harsh world out there.

“I believe you are referring to the fact that we were together when we came to your aid, Your Highness,” I replied.

“That’s right.”

“At that time, we were only in a temporary party. Ordinarily, we work separately. Lorraine and I operate out of Maalt, while Augurey operates out of the capital. We aren’t a permanent party, Your Highness.”

The princess nodded. It appeared that explanation had put the question to rest in her mind. She no doubt had a number of follow-up questions on the subject, but since I didn’t want her probing into our affairs, I decided to continue.

“As for the skull mask...”

She tastefully clapped her hands together. “Yes! I was particularly curious about that!”

I had successfully changed the subject. I mainly wanted to avoid answering why we’d come from Maalt to the capital. I could always lie about that, but I wanted to be as truthful as possible. I didn’t want us getting in trouble if they found out we were lying.

Still, the princess seemed awfully interested in my mask. I supposed that made sense; adventurers often wore masks, but not many would choose a creepy skull mask like this one. I couldn’t say no one would, but I was sure the vast majority wouldn’t. At most, I’d seen one or two walking around in Maalt.

Normal masks were common, honestly—things like birds, cats, or dogs. There were odder ones, like really abstract masks that weren’t really patterned or anything, but the adventurers who wore those were the oddballs. It was best to avoid them when possible.

Hold on... Did that mean people looked at me in that way? There was a good chance that was the case. I wasn’t sure if I was happy to learn that about myself, but either way, I needed to continue.

“As for my mask... I apologize, but there’s nothing particularly complicated about why I wear it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. When I suffered an injury to my face, I decided to conceal it until I could get it healed using healing magic or potions. I asked for an appropriate mask from an acquaintance, and this was the mask they brought me.”

“And your injury?” the princess prompted.

She must have been asking if it was still unhealed, but the answer to this one was also clear.

“No, it has already healed, Your Highness.”

She tilted her head questioningly. “Then why...”

“There is something strange about this mask, and I cannot take it off.”

“Are you saying it’s a cursed item?” Nauss cut in. It was clear from his expression that he wasn’t happy that I’d worn it into the palace.

I shook my head. “No, that doesn’t appear to be the case. If it truly was cursed, I wouldn’t have been able to wear it into the palace, right?” We were in the royal palace, so there had to be a number of countermeasures in place that didn’t exist elsewhere against cursed items.

“Yes, indeed. Nevertheless, there are no such things as absolutes. This happened quite a long time ago, but some rogues brought a powerful cursed item into the palace.”

“I had no idea.”

The truth was that I was a bit of a rogue here. I was a monster. The fact that I was able to enter the palace meant that exceptions could get through the protections. Even so, Nauss was simply describing an example from the past, so I went with the assumption that he was simply speaking of the rare exception.

“However, that is not the case with me,” I explained. “And this mask... It is evidently closer to a holy item.”

“A holy item?” Nauss inquired.

“While it is not very much, I am imbued with divinity.”

With that, I released a small amount of divinity and made it visible. This was something I’d just recently learned how to do, around the time I learned the vampire techniques. I felt like there were commonalities between them and divinity, but I couldn’t say what exactly they had in common.

Nauss nodded. “That is, indeed, the glow of divinity.”

“It was given to me because I decided on a whim to repair a shrine that had fallen into disrepair. The spirit of the shrine blessed me with divinity as thanks. That is why it’s so weak. But I was able to speak with the spirit a second time, and when I asked them about the mask, they told me it was like a holy item. Unfortunately, the spirit also said they couldn’t give me any more details about it.”

A part of me still wanted a more detailed explanation from the spirit, but gods and spirits were fickle. There simply wasn’t anything I could do about it.

“A holy item...” Obviously surprised by my explanation, the princess looked curiously in my direction. Wait, she was more than just curious. “Nauss, this may be...”

Her Highness then glanced at Nauss, who caught some sort of message from her look. I could tell they were communicating with their expressions, but I couldn’t tell what exactly they were saying. I turned to Lorraine and Augurey, but they were just as lost as I was. I’d mentioned the spirit and the mask because the spirit wasn’t anything unusual and I just didn’t know all that much about the mask, but I wondered if I’d said something wrong.

◆◇◆◇◆

After exchanging glances with Nauss, the princess turned to us and bowed her head. “I have a request for you three. Please, will you help me?”

Though Yaaran was a pretty informal kingdom, the class system was still as strict as anywhere else. While lower-class nobility might occasionally mingle with commoners as near equals, and an eccentric higher-class noble here and there might do things like work as a logger with his subjects in the mountains, a member of the royal family wouldn’t bow their head to some adventurers and ask them for help. Despite that fact, the princess was now doing exactly that.

All three of us responded by mildly panicking.

“Your Highness, please raise your head!” I exclaimed, yet the princess was determined to hold the course. It took her some time to come up from her bow.

I was positive that this would send a whole boatload of trouble our way, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. The only thing I could do was be grateful that she wasn’t trying to use her authority to force us to do something for her.

“While we would be happy to help, Your Highness,” Augurey began, “we certainly can’t say yes unless we know what it is that you wish to ask of us. Surely you won’t request that we find the end of a rainbow, or bring back manure from a dragon. I’m afraid that’s beyond even our abilities.”

Augurey had attempted to defuse the tension with humor. There was no way to find the end of the rainbow, and as for dragon manure, it didn’t not exist, I guess? Technically, I might qualify as such. I didn’t know where I’d been expelled from after being eaten, so it was certainly possible that had been my exit. In any case, I shouldn’t be letting my thoughts go there.

“Yes, I suppose you’re correct. My apologies. I let my haste get the better of me,” the princess muttered.

“No need to apologize, Your Highness. That said, it seems that Rentt’s referring to his mask as a holy item is what drew your attention.”

Augurey tactfully continued to guide the conversation. He was right, and it was around that time that the conversation, or rather the atmosphere, went awry.

“I am afraid it will be a somewhat long tale. Will you listen to me recount it?” the princess asked.

The three of us wasted no time in nodding. It wasn’t like we had any other option, and it might end up causing trouble down the line if we didn’t listen now. You could argue that listening would be the problem, but given that we were already here, we had no choice but to find out what was going on.

“Very well,” Augurey replied.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Are you all familiar with His Majesty, the current king of Yaaran?” the princess inquired.

“Yes, His Majesty, Karsten Reshon Yaaran,” Lorraine answered. “I believe as of this year, he is sixty-five years of age.”

“You are correct.”

Leave it to Lorraine to know not only his name but his age as well. Still, sixty-five was relatively up there. Most kings died before they reached sixty and very rarely from natural causes. Those that died of old age were the happy few. That said, a fair proportion of Yaaran’s kings had died from either old age or real diseases—not poison disguised as a disease. Naturally, this information had been released by the government itself, so for us lonely commoners, it was impossible to tell if that really was the case.

“He was still in good health,” the princess explained, “and he was enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as ruler. It was hoped that he would continue to do so, and it was said he would reign for another ten years.”

Oh crap. She was about to say something that normal civilians like us weren’t supposed to know. We couldn’t do anything to stop her, though, so we resigned ourselves to the inevitable as the princess continued.

“Recently, though, His Majesty’s health has taken a turn for the worse, and if things continue on their present course, he may not even see out the year.”

And now we knew, which meant we couldn’t leave the palace. They would chain us up in some dungeon, and we would spend the rest of our lives crying as we were fed stale, unappetizing bread. At least, that was the image that popped into my head, but I figured we didn’t need to worry about that. If they were going to do that, it would’ve been easier to not tell us anything in the first place.

Of course, if we declined Her Highness’s request, we could end up living like that, at least until the king’s death. We’d probably be okay, though. Worst-case scenario, we would just need to get out of the palace, then use teleportation magic to flee to some other country. We already knew that a kingdom of Yaaran’s size couldn’t chase down people who fled the country. Maybe I was dismissing Yaaran’s capabilities a little too much, but I doubted we’d be valuable enough to be worth that level of effort.

“Just what is the cause?” Lorraine asked. She did so specifically because it would help us understand the crux of the matter—what Her Highness wanted us to do. I hadn’t a clue how we might be involved, though.

Her Highness avoided directly answering Lorraine’s question and instead said, “In this kingdom, a new ruler must inherit two objects if they are to take the throne: the crown of the kingdom and the scepter of the kingdom.”

“Yes, I’ve seen them before,” Augurey chimed in, “when they were on display at the temple. I also recall that the crown was an exquisite piece of craftsmanship. The scepter, on the other hand, was surprisingly simple for a relic of state.”

“Yes, that is correct. The crown was crafted by dwarves in the distant past, but the scepter was a gift from the high elves.”

High elves ruled the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree, and they were equivalent to royalty there. However, no matter how special a human royal might be, they were just as human as your average commoner. High elves were different in that they were a distinct race considered superior to the elves they ruled. Furthermore, high elves were extraordinarily long-lived. They were living links to history, making their very existence valuable.

Then again, if you looked back into history, you’d find that humans had fought against high elves in the past. Once was when the humans tried to enslave the elves. They’d also warred over religious disputes, which had ended in human religions declaring that high elves were inferior to humans. To put it mildly, the relationship between humans and high elves was a long and complicated one. There was no doubt, though, that they were skilled artisans of magic items, and treasured relics attributed to these artisans were scattered all over the world. The scepter of the Yaaran Kingdom must be one of those relics.

“So what does the scepter have to do with His Majesty’s health?” Lorraine asked.

◆◇◆◇◆

“When the true king of the kingdom possesses the scepter, it dampens the unclean energy that exists in Yaaran. It doesn’t have much of an effect on locations such as dungeons and the lands around them, and the effects do become weaker with distance, but even then...”

Her Highness made it sound simple, but the scepter’s power was remarkable. It depended on what specifically she meant by unclean energy, but it piqued my curiosity, as well as Lorraine’s as a researcher.

“You mentioned that it dampens unclean energy, but that can mean many things depending upon the context,” Lorraine said, bluntly asking what we were all thinking. “It can be interpreted as weakening monsters, but it can also be interpreted as dispersing diseases or toxins. Or it can also simply clean the air. May I ask what the exact powers of the scepter are?”

Her Highness nodded. “It is said that it prevents the birth of undead monsters, as well as reduces their powers. Of course, that is restricted to cases where the bodies are properly buried. It can’t do anything if the bodies are simply left where they fall, and its effects do not extend to dungeons and their surroundings. Because of the scepter’s powers, there are almost no skeletons or other undead in cemeteries around the capital. Occasionally, skeletons appear in places far from the capital, but powerful undead are rarely born within Yaaran itself. Does that answer your question?”

“Yes, thank you. I hadn’t the faintest idea that the scepter had such abilities, but now that you mention it, skeletons are rare in this region.”

We would run into them around Maalt sometimes, but Maalt was far from the capital, so it just meant that Maalt was so rural that even the scepter’s powers weren’t very useful there. Still, if the scepter considered Maalt a backwater, it made me want to snap it. I wouldn’t do that, though. They’d do a lot worse than just arrest me if I did.

“Those are the powers of the scepter,” the princess added. “Sadly, there is no such thing as a magic item that produces effects without any cost. Just as it is necessary to have flowing water to power a water wheel, mana is required to operate a magic item. In the scepter’s case, the necessary power is the king’s very own life energy.”

“That’s unsettling...” Augurey mumbled as he groaned. I understood how he felt. Considering that it protected the kingdom, the king’s life force was an appropriate exchange, but it sounded like it was practically a cursed item now.

“It originally did not ask much of the wielder,” the princess explained. “At most, using it would cause an hour or so of fatigue. However, it is now a dangerous object that attempts to endlessly sap His Majesty’s life force.”

“How did that happen?” Lorraine asked.

“According to the court mage, the scepter has been worn down by long years of hard use and is now bearing too much strain. I have seen it with my own eyes, and the scepter does, in fact, have cracks all over its surface.”

“I suspect that means that the efficiency of its energy conversion has significantly deteriorated. I myself create simple magic items here and there, but even simple objects crack if they are used too much without maintenance, and it can take so much mana from me that even I, as the creator, will be caught by surprise.”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, His Majesty will not stop feeding his life force into the scepter because he states that if he does, tragedies will unfold all across the kingdom. While it’s certain that if the scepter’s effects fade, the powers of undead monsters will increase and their creation rate will rise, many of his advisors note that the guilds and the knight companies throughout the kingdom can combat those effects to some extent and have urged the king to stop using the scepter.”

It seemed that the king had decided not to listen to that advice, because the princess shook her head sadly.

In reality, if His Majesty were to stop using the scepter and undead started spawning in greater numbers, and if they became stronger, it would be difficult to deal with it. One of the reasons Yaaran was relatively peaceful and stable was because of the paucity of monsters along its major highways.

In most countries, major highways were spawning points for undead. After all, lots of people died on the road, not to mention the animals and monsters that also died there. If the scepter was reducing the creation rate of undead from those corpses, even if it wasn’t particularly powerful, it was easy to imagine what would happen if that disappeared. There’d be a lot more people dying along the highways, and, as a result, the flow of traffic would slow down. Merchants would require a lot more guards as they traveled, and that would have a major impact on the economy.

It wasn’t as simple as telling the king to stop using the scepter. It might result in a boom economy for adventurers, but I, at least, wouldn’t want that to come at the expense of a bunch of innocent people. The king’s royal and noble advisors weren’t looking to increase the number of victims along the highways either. It was just that to them, they felt that the king’s life and his health were top priority and that it was best he stop using the scepter. Evidently, the king was an extremely serious and honorable man when it came to his duties. That, or there was some other motivation. Either way, that didn’t change the fact that he continued to use the scepter.

“Forgive me for saying this, but if it means he may only survive for another year or so, shouldn’t we come to a more permanent solution?” I tried to be a little more vague with my wording, since it would be a lèse-majesté to just flat-out say, “You guys need to think about what’ll happen after he’s dead.”

I might not have been vague enough for some people, but the princess didn’t take any offense. In fact, she interpreted my question differently.

“You are completely correct, which was our reason for that journey to the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“That journey?” I asked as I tilted my head.

“The one where the three of you came to save us,” the princess answered.

Ah, that was really the only way to describe that incident. I then remembered that we hadn’t asked where the princess and her entourage were going. It wasn’t like we’d discussed it beforehand, but all three of us had decided it was best not to get dragged into any further complications. I guessed the whole desire to avoid unnecessary problems was really what marked us as commoners.

“May I assume that you were on the way back from the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree?” Lorraine asked.

The princess nodded. “That’s correct, but we were attacked multiple times on the way, and by the time we reached that location, Nauss and the other royal guards were exhausted. That was why we required your aid.”

At the time, Nauss and the others had been so worn out that it was hard to believe they were royal guards. I remembered wondering why they’d fought so poorly, but it made sense once I learned it was the result of a continual string of battles. Wait, did that mean...?

“Did the elves of the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree attack you?” I asked. “That sounds like it would have some scary consequences.” I remembered that Nive had been attacked a bunch of times when she’d gone there to obtain a wand.

“No, certainly not,” the princess insisted. “The elves may be somewhat xenophobic, but they are, at heart, very peaceful people. That doesn’t preclude them taking up arms when the circumstances call for it, but they’re too civilized to suddenly attack royalty from another kingdom.”

Well, I guessed that was true. If they did such a thing, the best-case scenario would be a war between the countries. Even though Yaaran was more rural, it could still mobilize a fairly large army. Not even the elves would casually start a war against the kingdom.

“Then why?” I prompted.

“In all honesty, we do not know who attacked us. The attackers varied. At times it would be monsters, then bandits, then mercenaries. However—”

“Allow me to explain the details here,” Nauss interjected before Her Highness could continue.

“Thank you, Nauss.” Rather than be offended, the princess gratefully let Nauss take the reins.

As I wondered why she would do that, Nauss said, “I will explain this speculation. It would be problematic if Her Highness were to speak the words.”

Nauss sounded cautious, and he waited until we’d nodded before he continued. It wasn’t that he trusted us implicitly; he was doing it so he could take responsibility for any fallout. It was hard to say how we should interpret that, but in that case, we’d end up in the dungeon, so I definitely wasn’t going to tell anyone else.

“We have no incontrovertible evidence, but we have strong reason to suspect that the attacks were organized by His Highness, the first prince, or by Her Highness, the first princess, or perhaps by both.”

Now I understood why the princess couldn’t say it out loud herself. The two other royals were ranked higher than Princess Jia. The first prince, Joachim Princeps Yaaran, and the first princess, Nadia Regina Yaaran, were Princess Jia’s siblings by blood, but that was exactly why they would become enemies the moment the current king passed away. This was starting to shift into some shady territory.

“Why would they do that?” Lorraine asked.

That was a good question. Even if one or both of her older siblings had been behind the attacks on Princess Jia, that still left the question as to why. The simplest explanation was that they were seeking to remove a rival claimant to the throne, but Princess Jia didn’t have a particularly strong claim in the first place. Even in a disputed succession, it was more likely that one of the two older royals would receive the crown. If we were to dig in the weeds, there might be other claimants, like the current king’s younger brother or other scions to the royal family, but even though I was from Yaaran, I didn’t know any of those details. Either way, it didn’t make much sense to target Princess Jia this early in the game.

Nauss was quick to answer. “That is because there was a chance that Princess Jia would become the designated heir as a result of her visit to the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree. I believe they wished to nip that potential outcome in the bud.”

If that was the case, it would make sense why the prince and the princess would act. Still, that just raised yet another question. Why would Princess Jia become the designated heir by visiting the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree?

“I explained earlier that the scepter was approaching the end of its life as a result of years of hard use, and that His Majesty continues to use it in spite of that fact,” the princess said, rejoining the discourse. “It goes without saying that this is not a desirable outcome. We needed to find a solution, and there were two possibilities that seemed the simplest. The first would be to repair the scepter. Then perhaps the king could continue using it. But since His Majesty continues to use it on a daily basis, we would have to remove it from the capital for several weeks to have it repaired—we’d have no choice but to ask the high elves to repair it for us—and that would have dire consequences.”

It was a powerful relic. It didn’t take an expert in magic items to know that it required a certain level of specialized knowledge to fix it, which was why they’d have to ask the creators of the relic to do so. But taking the scepter out of the kingdom meant that it wouldn’t be usable for a time and undead would spawn all over Yaaran.

It could be a fun country for me to live in, but it definitely would be hell on normal people. I felt Laura and Isaac might be able to keep Maalt safe, but I couldn’t see that being the case everywhere else, so that wasn’t a feasible option.

“In the end, we concluded that we had to choose the second option—to request that the high elves craft a new scepter. The scepter itself is a relic of the high elves, so they are the only ones who could craft a new one. That was why I decided to go to the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Did the elves agree to craft a new scepter?” I asked.

That was the most important question. If that was settled, then there wasn’t all that much to worry about. Once the new scepter was completed, the king wouldn’t have to continue sacrificing himself. After all, the whole thing about him only having one year to live was because he kept using the current, broken scepter. Since he was healthy enough that he could reign for another dozen years or so, so long as they got a new scepter, he’d most likely live out the rest of his natural life. Even if the strain of using the broken scepter had reduced his life span, it would give the kingdom time to plan. At the very least, it would avoid the prospect of a bloody succession battle in around a year’s time.

The princess nodded. “Yes, technically. However, they had some conditions...”

On one hand, I knew there would be strings attached, but on the other, I was surprised they’d agreed to do it. Elves were known to be isolationists, and they didn’t like to interact with other people. There were exceptions, like the one I’d met, but I was sure the elves regarded her as an eccentric. I mean, her personality alone would’ve marked her as odd even among humans. She wasn’t the typical example of an elf.

After a brief pause, Augurey asked, “Conditions? What sort of conditions did they request? Did they demand ceding of land perhaps?”

Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a lot of things that elves might want in exchange. They had a very different outlook on life than humans did. While money and land were the most basic forms of wealth, if I had to say whether elves coveted that sort of thing, I’d say that they didn’t. Augurey didn’t seriously believe the elves had demanded land either and had just used that as an example of terms they might request.

As expected, the princess shook her head. “No, they were not interested in such things. They asked, broadly speaking, for two things. First, that they would determine the ingredients that went into the scepter. This is less a condition and more a necessity, given that they are better informed about how to make such a thing. As for the other...before I speak about it, do you know about the Holy Tree?”

Lorraine was actually more interested in learning about the materials that would go into the scepter’s creation, but she decided it would be prudent to simply answer the princess’s question.

“Yes. They even call their country the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree. The Holy Tree is the pillar that holds the nation of elves together, one that they protect and sing the praises of above all else. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen it with my own eyes, but I’ve heard that it is imbued with enormous amounts of divinity and that even a single leaf from the tree is traded at astronomical prices. To adventurers, the tree is literally worth its weight in gold.”

Perhaps that was a crass way to frame it, but that was exactly what the tree was to people like us. I’m sure the elves would regard this as the height of blasphemy, but since there weren’t any elves here...

“Indeed,” the princess continued. “Among humans, the royals of the Kingdom of Yaaran may very well be the only ones who have ever laid eyes upon it. I’ve only seen it once myself, when His Majesty took me to visit the country.”

Lorraine looked surprised. “I wasn’t aware that relations between the countries were so close.”

I looked at her for an explanation, and she leaned over and whispered in my ear, “It’s said that the elves won’t show anyone, not even royals of the most important countries, the Holy Tree. Even the emperor was unable to persuade the elves to do so. He could have forced it if he’d wanted to, but that would have required starting a war. It’s that important to the elves.”

Did that mean the Yaaran royal family had a special, close connection to the elves? Or was that relationship just between the king himself and the elves? Well, considering that Princess Jia was able to visit the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree, speak to the high elves, and ask them to craft a new scepter, the royals must have a good relationship with them. Also, the original scepter had been a gift from the high elves in the distant past. It was easy to imagine there was some sort of connection between the two groups.

“When I saw it, I understood how an entire country could worship the tree. Since I’m a follower of the Church of the Eastern Sky, I couldn’t simply worship or pray to the tree, but its sheer brilliance, its presence, and the aura of purity it gives off could convince one that it was a god itself.”

What were gods? The definition depended on the religion, so there wasn’t one simple definition, but the princess had felt something supernatural and otherworldly from the Holy Tree. Some things in this world just made you fall silent in awe. The dragon I ran into was one, and it was clear that the Holy Tree also fell under that category. I felt a little impatient as I waited for the princess to continue.

“I’m told some elves can even hear the voice of the Holy Tree. High elves in particular can distinguish distinct words from it.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of such things,” Lorraine remarked.

The princess was telling us about things so secret that not even Lorraine, who had far more knowledge than anyone else here, had heard of them. It was starting to make me worry that even if we did listen to the princess’s request, we might not be allowed to leave here. We’d probably heard too much to go back to life as normal.

“This was something I only learned in my recent visit,” the princess explained. “I’m told that the Holy Tree’s voice sounds like a song to the elves. They also mentioned that those songs are then recorded as music. The elves outside of the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree always carry a musical instrument when traveling, and the songs they play have a mystical sound to them. I was very happy to learn the roots of that music.”

You might run into elven bards every now and then. They didn’t stay in a single place for long, but they often spent anywhere from a few days to maybe a month in a single pub, making money by performing before they resumed their wandering. They weren’t particularly good at conversation, despite the fact that they played music so eloquently, and most of them weren’t talkative even if you addressed them, so I’d never had a detailed conversation with one. So their songs came from the Holy Tree? That was interesting to learn, but it wasn’t all that relevant right now.

“I apologize for getting off track,” the princess said. “The subject I wished to focus on was the fact that the elves could hear words from the Holy Tree. I’m told that hearing actual words is rare, but they recently heard the following. To paraphrase, they were told that ‘a human will come with ties to one who owns a holy item. Bring the one with the holy item to the tree.’”

Augurey and Lorraine turned to look at my mask, and I put my hand to it.

◆◇◆◇◆

“A human will come with ties to one who owns a holy item. Bring the one with the holy item to the tree.”

That would sound vague and nonsensical without any context. Gods and spirits sometimes handed out prophecies, but they were rarely as clear-cut as conversations between mortals. There were a lot of explanations for why that was, ranging from the fact that there were limits on how directly gods and spirits could interact with the world, to the fact that there were strict rules between the gods as they jockeyed for influence. It could also be because the future was never set in stone, and the gods valued that uncertainty and therefore left things up to the interpretation of the mortals. The favored reason depended on which religion you subscribed to, but since they all had this in common, it likely meant gods and spirits did speak in riddles.

I’d technically received a prophecy from a spirit, but that had also been vague and hard to interpret. Maybe it was different if you created a vessel for the spirit and kowtowed to it, asking for its guidance, but if I did anything like that right now, everyone would think I’d gone mad. Maybe I’d try it later.

Oh, but I needed special components. That sort of thing required mana-infused material, but I was fresh out of the shrub ent wood I’d used last time. I’d have to get some new material, and since the vessel had to be in the shape of a person, it’d be easier to use wood of some sort. Clay might work, but it wasn’t like wooden or clay monsters were common. I’d have to go to where those monsters lived to gather it. I supposed I could always just buy it, but I had trouble breaking out of the adventurer’s mindset that it’d be cheaper to gather the materials myself.

Well, I didn’t have to do it right away. Besides, the spirit in question was supposedly a minor split-off of a bigger spirit. If the Holy Tree was a god, then my spirit barely registered as divine. Chances were I wouldn’t get much useful information.

The meaning of the Holy Tree’s words were clear without clarification anyway. If we assumed the “human” in this prophecy was Princess Jia, then the one with the holy item would be me, and the Holy Tree wanted the princess to bring me to it. Oh dear. What a headache. I immediately concluded that it’d be better to avoid getting involved.

“I see. Based upon those words, it does seem like I fit the terms offered by the Holy Tree—”

“Almost certainly!” The princess leaned forward excitedly, encouraging us to agree with the observation.

She was a bit more forceful than I’d expected. I figured she was a lot calmer and more collected, but I guess heightened emotions brought out her actual personality. And now that I thought about it, she’d also practically leaped out of her carriage after the monster attack, so I supposed it was in character.

I tried not to be intimidated by her enthusiasm as I continued, “Unfortunately, my mask is only ‘close to’ a holy item, and it’s not certain that it actually is one. Perhaps it would be unwise to take an item that isn’t explicitly holy to something as divine as the Holy Tree?”

Technically, I was told the mask was probably a holy item, so I kept my phrasing within the bounds of the truth. After all, it’d be bad if they had some sort of lie-detecting magic item here in the palace. They wouldn’t be checking each and every statement I made, though.

From what Lorraine had told me, while it was possible to create a lie detector, it was hard to say how reliable they were because people very rarely saw things in such stark terms as truth and lies. The precise details were a little too specialized for me to understand, but I was able to get the gist of what she was saying.

It was common that if you told a lie often enough, you’d believe it yourself. Occasionally, adventurers would lose a comrade during a job but couldn’t find the body, and as a result, they’d convince themselves that said comrade was still alive somewhere. If you questioned someone like that with a lie detector, even if you asked them if their comrade was dead, the lie detector wouldn’t be able to tell that the adventurer’s claim was a lie.

At least, that was how I interpreted Lorraine’s explanation. Even if more precise lie detectors had been found in a dungeon, installing it at the palace would demonstrate a ruthlessness in court politics that the nobles would find hard to swallow. I hated to phrase it this way, but for court nobles, their entire job pretty much consisted of lying for a living. It’d put a serious damper on their way of life if they were being fact-checked every time they spoke. Anyway, all that was to say that it was unlikely they’d find out I’d been a little misleading about my mask.

The princess took a moment to think, then said, “That may be true. The high elf informed me that I was the human described in the prophecy, but when I asked who the person with the holy item would be, they only said that I’d know when I met them.”

That wording was tricky. The princess must have figured that I was the person in the prophecy when she found out I owned something that might be a holy item. So, in a sense, she’d known the second she’d met me, but she was also wavering after my critique. Maybe she hadn’t known after meeting me. It seemed the high elf and the Holy Tree’s vague wording was working in my favor. Lorraine and Augurey also recognized this fact and joined in to help me.

“We cannot deny the possibility that Rentt is the one described in the prophecy,” Lorraine said. “But if Rentt were to go the Land of the Venerable Holy Tree and it turned out he was not the one, it could damage the relationship between the kingdom and the elves. It may be best to proceed cautiously.”

Augurey added, “There’s a chance that someone with an actual holy item, rather than Rentt’s iffy one, will appear soon. If relations with the elves aren’t ideal at that point, it might make the situation far more complicated than necessary. It would be better not to hastily jump to conclusions.”

It almost sounded like they were making me out to be some sort of forgery, but they had a good point. Questionable actions like taking an odd person to the Holy Tree could damage the good relations the kingdom currently enjoyed with the elves.

Their arguments resonated with the princess, and she began conferring with Nauss. After a short conversation, they reached a conclusion.

“It is as you say,” the princess concluded. “Perhaps I was getting ahead of myself. There remains the issue that His Majesty does not have much time left, but now is certainly not the time to draw rash conclusions and make the problem more complicated.”

She’d accepted Lorraine and Augurey’s argument, but that didn’t mean I was home free.

“Nevertheless, Mister Vivie, the possibility remains that you may be the one, which is why I would like to have a method to contact you when necessary. Have you any objections?”

It was phrased as a request, but I was sure it was meant as an order. This was as good of an outcome as I could expect, though.

“No, Your Highness,” I replied.

After that, Lorraine and I gave Nauss our contact information. Specifically, we gave them our guild registration numbers—I gave the number for Rentt Vivie—and our address in Maalt. We also mentioned that we were currently here on a job and that we would leave the capital in a few days time. Nauss expressed that they would’ve preferred we stay in the capital for the time being, but given that he couldn’t give us a clear time frame, he was willing to let us leave.

That was how we managed to complete our visit at the palace. There was still a good chance we’d be called back, but I could always worry about that once we were done with our current to-do list.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Now that we’ve taken care of the biggest concern, we’ve got a few days without any plans,” I said when we returned to Augurey’s lodgings.

We could have gone to our inn instead, but Augurey’s felt more comfortable. His experience working in the capital had paid off, so he knew the best inns to use as a base. Even though he’d chosen this one not long after he came to the capital, he’d surely tried out various lodgings when he first moved here.

Even though this was an inn, he’d been using it as his base of operations for a while. He had settled into this room, and a number of his own things lay around here and there. Some innkeepers didn’t like their guests doing this sort of thing, but most weren’t particular about it. That was partly because they were tolerant and hospitable, but often they would sign contracts with adventurers saying that they could have the things in the room if the adventurer died, so it could work to their advantage.

It was a stark reminder of how cutthroat adventuring could be, but it was a fact that adventurers died often, and the sort of things they kept in their rooms could be valuable. It was usually a diverse assortment of things—spare weapons and armor, magic crystals, and magic items. At some of the worst inns, the innkeepers would greet you with disappointment if you came back in one piece. Of course, I wouldn’t want to rent a room in a place like that, especially for an extended period.

“Oh, right. You have to wait for the grand guildmaster to return, don’t you?” Augurey asked.

I’d already explained that whole situation to him. Many jobs required confidentiality, but when I entered into this particular contract, I’d gotten permission from Wolf to share the basics of my task, so long as I wasn’t out telling the entire world that I was here to take the grand guildmaster to Maalt.

There were a few reasons for that, but the biggest one was that I couldn’t say anything that risked drawing unwanted attention. If other adventurers saw me wandering around with the grand guildmaster, they might think that I was following them to curry favor or that I was part of some weird entourage. That wouldn’t happen to me in Maalt, but here in the capital, adventurers were typically more ambitious and thus more sensitive to that sort of thing.

Basically, Wolf had arranged things so that if someone came up to me and asked why I was with the grand guildmaster, I could just say, “Oh, I’m here to escort the grand guildmaster to Maalt. As for me? I’m just an adventurer who works in a backwater city. I’m looking forward to getting back there and eating some bug stew.”

Despite appearances, Wolf was good at taking care of little social cues like that. Oh, and for the record, I didn’t eat bug stew all that often, but I was a lot more desensitized to it than the city kids in the capital. I’d be perfectly fine with eating it if they dared me to do it to prove I was from the country.

“Exactly,” Lorraine answered. “They’re out for the moment. Augurey, have you met them before?”

Lorraine had never met the grand guildmaster of Yaaran, so she wanted to learn more about them. I had to admit, I wanted to know more too. Part of it was simple curiosity, but part of it had to do with the grand guildmaster’s advanced age, so I also wanted to plan a journey that they’d be able to handle.

Augurey paused, then said, “I’ve met old man Jean before. He’s got a habit of popping up randomly. You sometimes catch him wandering around town, then you’ll see him run off in some odd direction, only to find a guild employee dashing after him.”

“Hm? What’s the deal with that?” Lorraine asked as she tilted her head to the side.

She understood what Augurey meant, but she couldn’t imagine the sort of situation where that would happen. Why would the grand guildmaster be running away while a guild employee hurried to catch them? I wondered the same.

“That’s just how he is,” Augurey explained. “There are times when I have to report to him, and an employee will tell me that he’s up in his office. But when I go up there, I find that the office is empty and a pile of unfinished paperwork sits on his desk. When I report that to the guild employee, they’ll turn pale, hurriedly start issuing instructions, and send all of the employees out into the city to look for him. That’s almost a daily occurrence, I guess? I’ve sometimes wondered why he’s even serving as the grand guildmaster.”

From the sound of it, the grand guildmaster was just immature and didn’t like to do his job. Lorraine came to a similar conclusion, but she also found some other issue with the situation.

“Wait, but I also heard he dealt with major disasters by directing many of Yaaran’s guildmasters in incidents like the Ansallen Riot, the Deneb Goblin King Tsunami, and the eruption of Mount Jarlis. It was thanks to Jean Seebeck that they were settled with minimal damage. However, I don’t know the details because they all happened before I was born.”

All three were famous incidents. The Ansallen Riot occurred when a sect of a new cult holed up in a city and summoned a huge horde of powerful monsters. Something went wrong with the summoning circle, though, which resulted in it continually summoning monsters. From what I’d heard of it, it was a hell of a mess.

The Deneb Goblin King Tsunami happened when a huge number of goblins flooded into Deneb, but on a scale much larger than usual. No one knew what the exact numbers were, but I’d heard that it was somewhere between thirty and seventy thousand goblins. Some people claimed it was closer to two hundred thousand.

The eruption of Mount Jarlis began when a red dragon made its nest in the volcano, and because its presence empowered the fire spirits in the volcano, it erupted. At the time, there were a number of cities and villages near Mount Jarlis, and the damage that would have occurred if it hadn’t been dealt with would have been immense. The worst of the damage had been averted by mobilizing a huge number of mages to redirect the lava flow.

In all of those cases, it was said that Jean Seebeck, the currently grand guildmaster of the Yaaran’s guild, had taken charge and prevented the worst from coming to pass.

Augurey clapped his hands together and, with a forced smile, said, “Yeah, that’s exactly it. He’s amazing when it comes to dealing with emergencies, so the guild wants to keep him from quitting no matter what. He himself has wanted to retire for a while, but a lot of people just genuinely worship him, so they put up with his antics...”