by Hiro Ainana
In total, we’d earned twenty gold coins and thirty-one silver coins.
If I sold the ant parts at a workshop, I could make another twenty gold coins or so. That meant if an ordinary person earned this much over the course of forty days, they’d make about one gold coin per day.
Although in reality, it took much less time, and we hunted dozens of times more monsters than what I’d sold here.
Of course, if I used these materials to make potions, magic tools, magic weapons, and so on, the earnings would amount to an astronomical figure, but I doubted there was that much of a market for such things, and I only wanted to bother making them for my group or for my own amusement anyway.
“Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I nodded, taking back the materials the guild couldn’t buy and putting the profits in the small pouch I used as a wallet.
“Finally, I have to confirm: You haven’t hidden any additional cores, have you?”
The guild clerk’s eyes glittered.
According to my AR, she had the Eye of Judgment, a gift of the Urion faith.
If I lied to her—or tried to conceal a crime, rather—she would probably find out.
Thus, I responded to her question truthfully.
“Those are all the cores we brought back from the labyrinth.”
The rest of them were still in the labyrinth vacation home, and the ones in my Storage weren’t from this labyrinth.
“Perfect. Thank you very much.”
“No, not at all.”
The woman smiled at me, and I beamed back at her in return.
My “Poker Face” skill was the MVP, as usual.
“Now, before we go back…”
I quickly counted the amount of bag-carrier children sitting by the wall outside the labyrinth entrance. There were twenty of them.
According to the AR display, they all had the Starving condition.
“I’d like to share the other half of this frog meat…”
“You’d like to borrow the grill and some coal, correct?”
The clerk was ready to help before I even finished my sentence.
“Lulu, Liza, would you mind cooking the meat for them?”
“Yes, master.”
“You can count on us, sir.”
Liza set up the grill, while Lulu cut the meat into small chunks.
“We’ll heeelp?”
“Pochi’s a pro at putting meat on skewers, sir.”
I wasn’t sure if such a professional job existed, but Tama and Pochi started skewering the chunks of meat as Lulu cut them.
“It isn’t catching fire very well.”
“Here. Fire Hi.”
Mia used Spirit Magic to assist Liza, who was having difficulty getting the fire to start.
Unlike inside the labyrinth, there were plenty of spirits here, so she could use Spirit Magic without a problem.
“Oh, wow!”
“What a big fire.”
“It’s magic!”
“Gosh, you’re a mage, miss? But you’re around our age!”
The little kids exclaimed in surprise at Mia’s magic, and the eldest girl gazed at Mia admiringly.
Mia kept a cool expression, but her nostrils flared slightly and her mouth twitched. She must not have minded the attention much.
“Rejoice! Our great master, Sir Pendragon, is going to treat all of you to maze-frog-meat skewers!”
At Arisa’s declaration, the kids turned to me and chorused a thank-you.
They’d probably learned this from that Dozon fellow.
“You must not gather all at once, I inform. It is safest to line up in a single-file line, I direct.”
“Mm. Line.”
Nana and Mia took charge of keeping the kids in an orderly line.
There was so much food that we cooked for a good half hour or so until the kids were full, then gave the remaining half to the guild employees and other passing explorers.
The rest of my group snacked on the meat with the other kids, but I planned to get us all some of our inn’s famous lamb dishes to celebrate our return from the labyrinth, so I warned them not to eat too much.
“Wooow, they have a regular service route and everything?”
The explorers’ guild had a carriage that departed every two hours from the west guild in the labyrinth entrance area to the north guild where we’d applied for our explorer badges.
It was more like a cart than a proper enclosed carriage, though.
“It’s a half hour until the next carriage leaves, but…you’ve got eight people, the maximum capacity, so I can just take you now.”
“Thank you. That would be wonderful.”
Sine the driver was nice enough to adapt his schedule for us, I gave him a little extra money along with the carriage fee.
Once we all climbed aboard, the carriage headed out.
“Master, I have located a group in fiery red, I report.”
Nana pointed toward a group of explorers all clad in red cloaks or armor, followed by a shrieking group of female fans.
“Them there’s the Red Dragon’s Roar, a party of all garnet-badge explorers. The fella with the red scabbard is their leader, Baronet Jelil. His nickname’s the Scarlet Nobleman. Looks wimpy, but he’s so good, rumor has it he’s the next member o’ the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga.”
While the driver explained, I verified his information with the AR.
Baronet Jelil was the unusually high level of 45. He seemed to be a magic knight, wielding a one-handed sword and shield and excelling in Fire Magic.
His party members were all within the level 30 to 40 range.
“Are they the strongest party around?”
“Most likely. The top explorer, Master Yasaku, is away right now, so I’d say they’re the best in the game at the moment.”
“Then, for now, this Jelil character and company will be our rivals!”
“Rogerrr?”
“Let’s work hard to be the strongest, sir!”
Arisa and the others declared a one-sided rivalry.
Of course, Mr. Jelil didn’t hear this through the crowd of people, and the driver simply chuckled. “Good luck, future top explorers.”
Arisa was probably being serious, though.
In reality, we already had better equipment than his party. It was only a matter of time and a little bit of work.
“There are lots of shops for explorers around here. The artisan district is by the south gate.”
The carriage passed the west guild and into a narrow road surrounded by a jumble of shops.
As I listened to the driver, I gazed at the shops and the pedestrians wandering around.
“The aqueducts in this city are awfully dirty.”
“They probably don’t use this water for cooking, though, right?”
Arisa gazed down into the water, which contained garbage and bits of food.
“Sure we do. We just get it from one o’ the parts that isn’t dirty, that’s all.”
“Seriously?!” Arisa exclaimed.
I had to admit, I was pretty shocked, too. This place might be hard on those of us who were born and raised in sanitary environments.
But of course, I had spells like the Everyday Magic Pure Water and magic tools like the Well Bag. It wasn’t a big deal for us.
“Rich people and nobles have wells of their own, and that’s all upstream, so it’s probably clean, eh?”
Possibly noticing Arisa’s and my shock, the driver gave us some reassurance.
Recovering and looking around at the street, I saw that there was trash lying on the ground, and the explorers wandering about were throwing aside their scraps and garbage, too.
At least there wasn’t any human waste in the streets like there would be in medieval Europe.
According to my map, this place did have a sewage system, though it wasn’t as large in scale as the one in the old capital.
“Master, the larvae hiding in the alleyway
s do not look well, I report.”
Nana pointed out a few children slumped in the shadows of the alleys.
“Yeah, them’s kids who can’t find work. They’re probably passed out from hunger, see.”
“Huh. Don’t they have a secret thieving circle or something?”
“No, not really. Lots of the shops in Labyrinth City are run by former explorers, so stealing from ’em means you’re putting your life on the line. Besides, even first-time offenders get sent away to the mines here. Thieving’s a last resort.”
The driver quickly dispelled Arisa’s romantic delusions.
This seemed to be a pretty tough city. If there were any temples that gave out food to malnourished children, I would have to leave them a big donation.
“It can be a little sketchy round these parts, so don’t go into any of them side-alley shops unless you know what’s what. Lots of dangerous folks and kidnappers about.”
The carriage passed through a little arch into a street that was evidently the pleasure district. Something about it just gave off an air of delicious indecency.
There weren’t any beauties waving from the doorways or anything, so I wasn’t sure why it felt so exciting.
Not that I would say anything, of course.
Once we left this district, we were on the main road that linked the north and south gates, and soon we reached the busy area in front of the north gate.
“Master, we are passing through the inner wall, I report.”
Once we passed under the wall that separated the nobles’ quarters, the scene changed into a quiet street with few passersby.
“Them big buildings over there belong to counts and viscounts, and most of ’em near the wall are barons, baronets, and suchlike. There are some residences a little farther along for multigenerational hereditary knight families, too.”
There seemed to be a lot of distinctions among classes.
“Honorary knights and other new nobles like that tend to live near the walls. Some of ’em who don’t like all the noble formalities even live outside the walls instead.”
According to my AR display, many of the houses in this area were empty.
Most likely, one couldn’t obtain a big house like these without high family status.
The driver continued to give us helpful information until we arrived in front of the east guild.
“Hi, I’d like to extend my stay at the inn. Is that all right?”
We returned to the inn where we’d reserved a room in which we had yet to spend a single night.
I was paying a high price for this room, so tonight we would take full advantage of it.
Or so I thought…
“S-Sir Pendragon? Y-you’re alive? I thought you were dead…”
…but the innkeeper’s response was rather disturbing.
“W-well, I’m quite glad you’re all right. E-erm, yes, you can extend your stay. I’m terribly sorry, but your room is being cleaned at the moment. For now, please wait in the lobby. W-we shan’t charge any additional fees or anything like that, of course.”
The innkeeper was acting highly suspicious; his eyes darted every which way.
Just then, Tama and Pochi came running back from checking on the horses.
“They’re gooone?”
“The runosaurs and carriage aren’t there, either, sir.”
Oh-ho? What’s this all about?
Our eyes all turned toward the innkeeper.
Arisa and Liza, especially, were practically glaring a hole through him.
“Y-your horses are out for their regular exercise in the pasture. The carriage was dirty, so we are currently polishing it up at a workshop that specializes in luxury carriages. This is a free service from the inn, of course.”
I see. He must have thought I’d died and tried to sell them.
“Is that right? That carriage was specially made by a master in the old capital. It’s worth well over two hundred gold coins. It won’t be scratched or soiled in any way at this workshop, I hope?”
“O-of course not, sir.”
I decided to make the man suffer a little for his sins.
“Liza, Nana, I’m concerned. Could you go and check on the carriage?”
“N-no, no, that will not be necessary. Surely you must be exhausted, since you’ve just returned from the labyrinth. We’ve received some particularly good cuts of lamb today, so how would you like a meal? I’ll send someone to fetch your horses and carriage at once. If you wouldn’t mind having a meal in the meantime, erm…”
This guy seemed like way too small-time of a crook to be running such a fancy inn. Maybe he was a son-in-law or something trying to make some extra cash?
“Everyone, this kind innkeeper says he’ll treat us all to a lamb feast free of charge. Let’s thank him, shall we?”
As a fine for his trickery, I figured he could at least give us a good meal.
The younger kids all thanked the man cheerfully. I wasn’t sure whether he realized that I’d figured out his scheme or not, but either way, the innkeeper agreed to give us a free meal.
After our delicious feast, our horses and carriage were safely returned to the inn.
The food was delicious, and the horses hadn’t been replaced with new ones or anything, so I decided to let it slide.
I’d certainly given the man a fright, and I was sure a full-course lamb meal for eight people was a considerable blow to his wallet. He’d probably suffered enough.
I would have to whip up a special meal for the horses later, too.
“What’s going on here, Hesson? Where’s my carriage?! I didn’t pony up three hundred gold coins just so you could bail on our deal at the last minute!”
Just as I was getting ready to forgive the innkeeper, an old gentleman came storming into the lobby.
“Baronet Dyukeli! Erm, I’m afraid there’s been a mistake…”
The innkeeper shrank away from the skinny old man.
He must have tried to sell my carriage to this man for three hundred coins. From the sound of things, he was pretty good at driving a high price.
“Why, if it isn’t the baronet! Please do come into the parlor. We’ve just received some fine red wine from the royal capital.”
The lady of the inn managed to coax the enraged baronet out of the room.
I didn’t want to stick my nose into any more trouble than I had to.
The lamb feast had satisfied my appetite, and no doubt the innkeeper was going to pay dearly for trying to swindle a high-class baronet.
I had no desire to keep staying at an inn that I couldn’t trust, so I decided we would find a new place to stay.
We could check in on the Ivy Manor and see if it was habitable, and if not, surely Viscount Siemmen or one of his friends could suggest a good place.
It’d be fun to put a Return seal slate somewhere in the city and live in our labyrinth vacation home, too.
The Ivy Manor and the Temporary Home
Satou here. Sometimes you’ll hear a story about someone you know in an unexpected place. It usually makes you realize how small the world really is, but it might also cause you to think better of that person now that you know about this unexpected side of them. Or worse, of course.
“Shall we get going, then?”
Once we’d checked out of the inn, we decided to go to the Ivy Manor, the place where the elf Trazayuya had lived, as a potential new dwelling.
“So where exactly is this Ivy Manor?” Arisa asked once we were in the carriage.
It hadn’t turned up when I searched the map for it earlier, but there was one large area of the city that was considered a separate part of the map, so my guess was that it was in there. It was on the southeast side of the city, close to where the nobles lived.
“See that forest over there? I think that’s where it probably is.”
“Ooh, that? I figured it was a nature park or something.”
“Mm. Lots of spirits.”
Sure enough, when I activa
ted my Spirit Vision, I could see that there were several times more spirits around the forest than anywhere else in the vicinity. There was one particular area where the spirits seemed to gather most, so I marked it on the map as our destination for the time being.
Our carriage traveled toward the forest for a while.
Once we passed through an arch in a low stone wall that formed a barrier around the forest, we entered a new map.
When I used “Search Entire Map,” I was able to spot the Ivy Manor right away.
There was only one house in the whole forest, so that had to be it.
“It really does look like a nature park.”
“There are many small birds and animals, I report.”
“Mm, peaceful.”
Beyond the arch was a large expanse of nature. Well-dressed people strolled along the small paths weaving through the trees, and there were some children catching small fish and prawns on the banks of the reservoirs and waterways.
The Ivy Manor seemed to be farther upstream from this clear reservoir.
According to my map, it was at the source of the water.
Turning off the beaten path, we took the carriage along a narrow road hidden by some weeds.
After we’d proceeded for a while, the carriage suddenly changed directions.
“What’s the matter, Lulu?”
“I’m sorry. I suddenly got the sense that I had to change directions for some reason.”
My log said I’d resisted a Return Home spell. It was probably a security measure to keep people away.
“Mrrr?”
Mia seemed perfectly fine; maybe the spell didn’t work on elves.
Everyone else was affected the same way as Lulu.
“There seems to be some kind of spell here, so Mia and I will go on ahead for now. The rest of you wait here for a little while, please.”
With that, Mia and I started walking toward the Ivy Manor.
I took Mia’s small hand in mine, not wanting her to get lost because of the teleportation spell Wandering Forest.
“Date.”
Mia looked up at me happily, blushing a little.
I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her that this was just so she wouldn’t get lost, so I simply smiled back and enjoyed our stroll through the peaceful forest.