by Hiro Ainana
“Probably not, right?”
Noticing the children’s questioning gazes, I responded. “We can’t do it all the time, but we’ll try for a few times a year, at least.”
The orphanage director nodded, indicating that it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Yaaay!”
“Hooray!”
“I wonder when we’ll get to eat it next?”
“Not for a while, I’m sure.”
“But how long’s a while?”
“Just a while!”
The children’s conversation was adorable as ever.
If I gave them a specific date, I’d be afraid of seeing the looks on their faces in the event that I broke my promise, so I avoided any concrete statements.
I didn’t want to be the kind of father who made empty promises only to break them when the weekend came.
“Oh right, Lady Ravna.”
There hadn’t been a good opportunity during dinner, but now I produced a broadsword made with monster parts from my Garage Bag.
The sword I made from the soldier mantis blade arm was too big for most people. It would be best suited to someone like Lady Ravna.
I’d changed the name of the maker on this one alone, so it shouldn’t cause any problems in the future.
“A visiting merchant left this with me…”
“Oh? A monster broadsword? Would you mind if I gave it a few swings?”
“Go right ahead.”
I gladly handed her the sword.
As far as I could tell from my travels and time in the old capital, Shiga Kingdom nobles and their servants tended to dislike equipment made from monster parts, but Ravna and her employer, Princess Meetia, seemed to have no such reservations.
“Whoa!”
“Ooh, that lady’s strong.”
As the knight swung the gigantic sword around with ease, the kids all watched admiringly.
In a place like Labyrinth City, it was probably normal to look up to the strong.
“It may look unrefined, but it’s really quite a wonderful, well-balanced blade.”
Lowering the sword, the knight gazed at it with the fiery eyes of a maiden in love.
“In particular, it conducts magic with far more ease than the likes of any bronze sword.”
Huh? I did adjust it with “Magic Manipulation” so that magic would pass through it more easily, but I don’t think it’s all that impressive, is it?
One of my handmade Magic Swords would definitely be at least 20 percent more effective.
“This is unlike any of the broadswords I’ve ever tested in a Labyrinth City armory. Was it made by a famous smith?”
“It’s the work of an up-and-coming swordsmith named Hephaestus, I’m told.”
At a nearby table, Arisa did a spit take with her after-dinner tea and was scolded by Lulu.
She must’ve recognized that I’d taken the name from the Greek god of blacksmiths.
Of course, it went without saying that this was one of my pseudonyms.
“Hephaestus, you say? Surely a name that will go down in history.”
I saw Arisa quavering with suppressed laughter, but I just ignored her and accepted the knight’s praise.
“I’ll let the merchant know next time he passes through.”
Lady Ravna held out the broadsword to me, looking reluctant to part with it, but I gently pushed it back.
“Sir Pendragon?”
“Please keep it. I was asked to find a true master of combat in Labyrinth City to use that broadsword.”
“What do you mean? I’m quite certain I don’t have the means to pay for such a fine sword.”
“No need to pay anything. It’s for publicity, you see. Not to use you as a billboard, but if anyone asks you about the sword, please tell them it was made by Hephaestus. According to him, that would be more than enough payment.”
This was the excuse I’d come up with in advance to reassure her.
I’d never seen any kind of billboards in this world, but they seemed to have a word for it, at least.
“For a sword this splendid? Surely not…”
“The merchant told me its maker considered it a failure, you know. It’s too large and heavy, he said, so nobody in his hometown was able to use it.”
The knight could barely pull her eyes away from the sword as she protested. I used my “Fabrication” skill to give her a push of encouragement.
“Please, won’t you use it for his sake?”
“Ravna, to refuse any further would be rude to Sir Satou and Sir Hephaestus.”
“Very well, Princess.” A word from her employer was enough to finally put Ravna over the edge. “Sir Pendragon, thank you. I shall use it with the utmost care.”
“If you notice anything interesting while using it, please let me know. I’ll pass it on to the merchant who gave it to me.”
“I most certainly shall.”
Lady Ravna nodded gallantly, strapping the sword to her back.
Just as I thought, it suited her perfectly.
“Whoa, are we out of place or what?”
A few days after the hamburg feast, my group and I went to the explorers’ guild to take the rookie explorers’ class. As Arisa observed, however, we were incredibly out of place.
The students around us were all middle school–age kids in secondhand clothes and with homemade equipment.
There were some beastfolk mixed in among the humans, like tigerfolk and snake-headed folk.
“E-excuse me! A-are you the teachers?”
A young girl entered from the guild’s practice grounds and looked at us timidly.
She was equipped with chain mail, a steel mace, and even a buckler.
According to my AR, she was the daughter of a hereditary knight serving the feudal lord of a neighboring territory.
She was looking toward Nana and Liza, but I answered in their place. “No, we’re students just like you.”
“O-oh, I’m sorry. I’m Gina, daughter of Sir Darrel the—”
“Hey, mister! What are you doing here?”
“Good to see you again, mister. Are you a teacher now, too?”
Miss Gina was interrupted by the Lovely Wings: a pair of explorers we’d rescued from a monster rampage in the labyrinth before.
Clearly, they were our teachers for the day.
“Hey, everybody here?”
A bearlike, bearded man with a wooden sword strolled over.
“Sir Dozon? Are there extra teachers today?”
“No, I think it’s no one but you two and me.”
The three teachers seemed to know one another.
The explorer Mr. Dozon was a commoner, despite the Lovely Wings’ use of “sir.”
“Are you here as a student of the rookie explorers’ class, Sir Noble?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Whaaat? But you’re an expert already, mister!”
“Sure this isn’t some kind of mistake?”
The Lovely Wings pair exclaimed in surprise, so I showed them the letter I’d gotten from the guild.
Other than this initial misunderstanding, the class went pretty smoothly.
“…So anyway, if ya start by huntin’ them potato and bean monsters, you’ll never go hungry, kids.”
The rookies listened intently to Dozon’s lecture.
“For some reason, though, just huntin’ potatoes and beans all the time won’t make ya stronger.”
He explained that it was all but impossible to level up by defeating those monsters, even for a brand-new, low-level explorer.
“So form groups of three or more, and if you see any maze rats or maze moths while you’re huntin’ the beans and potatoes, make sure you go after those guys first.”
The latter weren’t worth much beyond their monster cores, but they were worth hunting for leveling up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tama and Pochi nodding vigorously.
You know none of this applies to you at your level, right?
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br /> “What about the entangling canola that show up in those areas?”
“Ahhh, labyrinth manju stands will sometimes buy those off ya, but usually there’s not much use for ’em. And they’re tougher than the potatoes and beans, so I’d avoid fightin’ ’em if ya can.”
Dozon responded to the rookie’s question dismissively.
“Canola? Couldn’t you get oil from it, then?” Arisa asked.
“Hunh? If ya need oil, all ya gotta do is hunt goblins and bring ’em to a butcher, yeah?”
Dozon looked at Arisa like she’d said something totally ridiculous.
Since making plant-based oil required certain processing and solvents, it was probably easier just to get it from oil slimes.
Still, I’d love to get my hands on vegetable oil, so I decided to check later if I had any recipes.
“Anyway…”
Dozon went back to his main point.
“When ya hunt them rats and moths, ya might see goblins or maze ants, but don’t touch ’em until ya got the proper equipment. Maze ants are particularly tough. Without the right weapons, even your teachers here might have trouble with them.”
Dozon gestured to the Lovely Wings, who chuckled dryly.
“Yeah right! We could beat a goblin up no problem!”
one particularly bold student shouted at Dozon.
“A stray one, maybe. But there are strong ones that travel in groups near where the beans and potatoes live. If ya ever get into it with those, throw a smoke bomb or a flash bomb and run for it.”
Bopping the mouthy child on the head, Dozon turned to warn the others.
“Anyone who doesn’t have any flash bombs, raise your hands.”
We were the only ones who raised our hands in response to Dozon’s declaration.
After lecturing us for a while about how an explorer should always be prepared, Dozon gave us a sample smoke bomb and flash bomb.
He informed us that they were sold at the west guild’s shop, so I decided to buy a bunch before we next went into the labyrinth.
“Listen up, you lot! For us explorers, our bodies are our tools. If ya get hurt, it’s all over!”
Tama and Pochi tilted their heads inquisitively at this.
“What about potiooons?”
“Ya won’t make any profit if ya use somethin’ so expensive,” Dozon responded.
“Really, sir?”
“Tama. Pochi.”
Liza made a lip-zipping gesture at Tama and Pochi, which the two hurriedly mirrored and shut their mouths.
“The only folks who can afford to use potions on the regular are noble parties or garnet-badge explorers.”
Really? I didn’t think they were that expensive…
I was a little confused, but by then, the subject had already shifted from potions to overnight camping.
“It might be a little early for you lot to try this, but if you’re gonna stay in overnight, make sure ya bring food for twice as long as you’re plannin’ to stay. And hire bag carriers, too. Water’s real heavy.”
Right, I guess it’s not like everyone has water stones or Well Bags.
“Mister, you’ve stayed in the labyrinth before, right? How long?”
“Yes, about seven days.”
“Seven days?! With those little girls?! That’s crazy.”
Mr. Dozon looked shocked.
We had a base there in the style of a vacation home, so it was fine for us, but I guess normally it’d be rough to sleep on the damp ground night after night.
“Don’t follow their example, kids. Most people stay only three or four days. Some lookouts hole up in the mantis or beetle areas for near half a month, but they’ve got troops to bring ’em supplies, so that’s different. If ya try to do the same thing, you’ll end up dead.”
Half a month in the labyrinth without a shower or anything? Just thinking about it made my head itchy.
I was still shuddering about that when the lecture ended and we moved on to practical lessons.
Dozon and the Lovely Wings pair split up and taught the rookies some basic moves.
“Hey, Sir Dozon, can you use ‘Spellblade’?”
“Yeah, right! If I could do things like that, I wouldn’t be wastin’ my time as an explorer.”
Dozon scoffed at the curious newbie’s question.
At that, Pochi and Tama looked at each other.
Fortunately, the lip-zipping gesture from before seemed to have worked, so they didn’t say anything careless.
“The only folks who’re still explorers even though they can use ‘Spellblade’ are weirdos like Jelil and Zarigon.”
“So Zakorin can use ‘Spellblade,’ too? That’s surprising…,” Arisa murmured rudely.
Judging by the way my companions had acquired it, I imagined that “Spellblade” was mostly a rare skill because weapons that could conduct magic well weren’t widely available.
If practice weapons for it like wooden Magic Swords became popular, the amount of “Spellblade” users would probably increase.
“You sure? This is a lotta people, even for a noble.”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
Once the lesson was over, I invited the teachers and rookie students out to a bar near the guild.
All my treat, of course.
It wasn’t quite like an after-work drinking party, but I’d learned a lot of useful information and explorers’ common knowledge from Mr. Dozon and the others, even the rookies, so I wanted to thank them by treating them to food and drink.
“Whoa, we’ve never eaten at a place like this before!”
“Hey, quit starin’ like that. They’ll think we’re a buncha country bumpkins!”
“Well, we are country bumpkins! What’s the big deal?”
Many of the rookies seemed anxious, but it wasn’t a particularly high-class bar.
A single silver coin was enough for all the food and drink you could want.
“Once we’re full-fledged explorers, d’you think we’ll be able to eat at places like this all the time, too?”
“Sorry, but even we only come here a few times a year.”
“Wait, really?”
“Ah-ha-ha, well, maintenance and repairs on all that armor and equipment really add up.”
I heard the Lovely Wings chatting with a rookie.
So even well-established explorers didn’t have a great cash flow.
“Mr. Dozon, what would you like?”
“Let’s start with a round of ale and whatever meat ya can bring out fastest.”
Dozon placed a decidedly manly order with the waitress.
“Just fruit water for these girls, please. And how about a heaping helping of whatever dishes you recommend?”
“Let’s order everything on the menu!”
Since most of my companions were too young, I ordered fruit water for them.
I could probably let Liza drink, since she was old enough, but I refrained because drinking tended to make her sleepy.
“A-are you quite sure?”
“Yes, if that’s all right.”
The waitress seemed taken aback by Arisa’s bold request, but I handed her a few gold coins and told her to let me know if it wasn’t enough.
“Well, damn, aren’t you doin’ well? Your girls got some pretty fine armor, and I hear you’re even givin’ out food to the needy, right? Most nobles don’t have enough cash for all that, do they?”
“Yes, well, I happened to make some rather profitable trade deals on the sugar route,” I answered with an arbitrary excuse.
In truth, the amount of money I’d made on the sugar route wasn’t even 1 percent of my loot from the Valley of Dragons, but it was a convenient reason that satisfied most people’s curiosity.
“You can make that much just from trading?”
“Master simply happens to have some remarkable connections,” Arisa replied to the rookie. “He wouldn’t have been able to profit so much if he hadn’t been friends with the king of Lalagi.”
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br /> “Friends with a king?!”
“Whoa! You’re amazin’, mister!”
The newbie explorers looked at me in awe.
“Fancy meeting thee here, Sir Satou.”
“Good evening, Princess Meetia.”
Princess Meetia of the Nolork Kingdom emerged from a passing carriage.
“C-cute!”
“Mr. Noble seems to know an awful lot of cute girls.”
“Maybe she’s from a good family?”
“I wonder if I could get her to marry me when I’m a garnet-badge explorer?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Her Highness is a princess from another kingdom.”
A whispered conversation reached my ears from the direction of Arisa and a few of the rookies.
Hmm?
I saw the green-clad noble entering the west guild. Was he there to interrogate the plunderers?
As I watched his movements on my radar, I saw a few yellow dots appear, which indicated a monster that wasn’t hostile.
Looking in that direction, I saw a woman accompanied by two panther-like monsters.
“Oh, don’t worry. That’s just a tamer and her pet monsters.”
“I’ve never seen an explorer with pet monsters before.”
“Ya haven’t? A lot of explorers use pet monsters or golems, y’know. Necromancers and summoners, on the other hand, even veterans like me hardly ever see those,” Dozon explained after noticing my gaze.
“See? There’s Lun, a puppet user. Joggo and the golem army will probably be back from the labyrinth soon, too, so ya might get to see that.”
Lun’s puppet looked like a marionette made out of bricks.
It moved stiffly, but according to my AR, it was actually pretty powerful.
“Here, I brought some ale, boiled beans, and meat skewers. The stew will be out soon. You can snack on the meat until then.”
“Great, thanks.”
We quenched our thirst with the ale and fruit water the waitress brought, and the rookies dug into the meat skewers.
The beastfolk girls were quick to join in on the feeding frenzy.
“Mmmm!”
“S’been ages since I had meat.”
“In our village, we only ate meat during harvest festivals an’ such.”
The young explorers ate with relish as they chatted excitedly about the food.
Soon the meat skewers were gone from the table. As we munched on some dried snacks and drank the ale, I saw several explorers greet Mr. Dozon on their way by.