by Sakon Kaidou
“I see. By the way, Noz Forest was a kingdom-owned lumbering ground. I would like you to pay to make up for all the wood you have burned. 130,000,000 lir, please.
“...Take it, you thief!”
“Oh, but I am an authority.”
With that, the kingdom had instantly gotten enough money to function despite having lost Noz Forest. Apparently, it had helped them a lot.
I was mostly just surprised that people sitting at the top of the ranks could readily part with that much money.
“But man, he was just ‘angry’...? What a troublesome guy,” I said.
“Indeed,” Liliana agreed. “Make sure to tell him off the next time you meet him.”
“Eh? Ah... sure?” I didn’t know how to respond.
What makes her think I have anything to do with him? I thought.
After telling me all the circumstances surrounding the princess’ escape, Liliana ran off to search for her again.
She seemed to spend a lot of her time looking for people. I could only assume that she’d been born under that kind of star.
“Anyway, though it’s a pretty big deal, the princess merely ran away,” I said. “We just have to make sure to tell Liliana if we ever see the girl.”
She hadn’t been kidnapped or anything — she was just sightseeing. It didn’t seem like it was something that could leave a bad taste in my mouth.
“I don’t think you should be saying anything so careless,” said Nemesis. “Try to consider your experiences so far. You seem to be some sort of event magnet. You get into all sorts of happenings, regardless of whether they’re related to tians, monsters, or Masters.”
...You might be right, I thought. I haven’t played the game for too long, yet I’ve experienced quite a lot.
“I don’t know how eventful other Masters’ lives are, but don’t you think that you’re far above the average in that regard?” she asked.
Well, I had been thinking that my days here were pretty dense.
“If that knight girl was born under a star that led her into a life full of searching for people, you might’ve been born under a star of strife,” said Nemesis. “I cannot recommend talking in a manner that could summon more such events.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
All these exchanges had made me a bit hungry. Hunger was the reason we had come to this shop in the first place, so I began talking to the shopkeeper.
“Excuse me. Can we eat here?” I asked.
“Yes, certainly,” he said. “We couldn’t do any work until a few moments ago. We have to make up for the time lost.”
“Oh yeah, you were questioned.” I nodded. “Any specific reasons why?”
“Our shop is popular among young girls, so they probably assumed they could find a trace of the little lady here,” he answered.
“Oh?” Nemesis reacted to something. “‘Popular among young girls,’ you say? Does that mean...?”
“Yes, we have a large selection of sweets,” said the shopkeeper.
Nemesis’ eyes lit up. “Excellent!” she cheered. “Master! Let’s eat to our heart’s content!”
“But I just bought some new gear,” I said. “I’m not sure I want to use much more mon—”
“Two gacha pulls, 200,000 lir,” she cut me off.
“I’m sorry. Please eat all you want,” I said, giving in.
An hour later, Nemesis left the shop looking wholly satisfied after having eaten tons of sweets, while I walked out with my hands on my head as I despaired at the state of my inventory, which had less than 10,000 lir remaining.
That’s too much... You ate way too much!
“And yet it still cost less than your gacha shenanigans,” she said.
There was nothing I could say back to that.
“All right, I guess it’s time to go outside and open up the capsule I pulled,” I said.
“Indeed,” Nemesis agreed. “I hope it’s worth more than 200,000 lir.”
...Yes, please, oh God almighty, I thought.
Once again, I went to the Nex Plains, where I’d tested my Miasmaflame Bracers. I distanced myself from Gideon’s walls and stood in the grass several tens of meters away from the main road.
The capsule said, “Open only in spacious areas.” I didn’t know its standards for “spaciousness,” but the place I was standing at was wide enough for an entire house or a ship to pop out without any problem.
“After all, I don’t want to spawn something huge only to have it get stuck on the walls, destroy them, and get me into lots of trouble,” I said.
“Time to open it, then?” asked Nemesis.
I took out the X capsule, twisted it to make it open, and caused something pop out. It reminded me of that long-running game series where you grow monsters and have them fight other monsters.
“It’s a...” I muttered.
I had been steeling myself for the appearance of something as large as a house or a ship, but the thing I’d gotten was nowhere near as big. In fact, it was even smaller than the shop employee’s “carriage” example.
It wasn’t too far off the mark, though. For what I had gotten was a horse. However, it didn’t seem to be a living creature.
The horse was made of a silver-looking metal that was reminiscent of well-polished plate mail. Its shape was blatantly equestrian. It had been forged from what seemed to be armor pieces, and it had glimmering white orbs where its eyes were supposed to be. It could only be described as a “robot horse.”
“So, it’s not a monster?” asked Nemesis.
I seemed to be its official owner, and its description in my inventory went like so:
Prism Steed, Zephyrus Silver
Special equipment: Mount
One of the five Prism Steeds manufactured by Flagman — an artisan from an ancient civilization.
He who walks inside the wind.
Details unknown.
Details unknown? I raised an eyebrow. All the description had told me was that it was rideable and that it had a relation to the wind. With questioning eyes, I looked at both the window with the description and the Prism Steed, Zephyrus Silver — who I chose to call just “Silver.”
Silver didn’t seem to care, and only continued to stand in the field.
Upon further inspection, I noticed that his head didn’t seem to have a mouth. The description said that he was manufactured by an artisan called Flagman, so it was obvious that he was a robot. However, he occasionally released sounds similar to neighs, kicked the ground with his hoof every now and then, and moved his fiber-made tail in a very horse-like manner.
The way it was impossible to tell which part of the sky he was looking at made him seem somewhat cat-like.
“How about riding him?” suggested Nemesis.
Good idea, I thought. Thankfully, Silver already had a saddle and reins, so I wouldn’t have any problems getting on.
I closed in on him while being wary of kicks or something like that, but he turned out to be very obedient.
Once I took the reins, he lowered himself in a way that made his stomach partly touch the ground, making it easy for me to get on.
What a well-trained and friendly horse, I thought. It was strange that he was actually a robot.
I was quickly growing fond of him. I wanted to get on and speed through these fields on him.
After I sat down in the saddle, I placed my feet in the stirrups. After I did that, Silver stood up.
“Wow...” I murmured.
The view from atop of a horse was slightly moving. My visual point was much higher than when I stood on my own two feet, or when I’d ridden a pony when I was young.
Silver moved his hooves in a way that made it seem as though he wanted to dash through the fields right now.
“Be careful,” warned Nemesis.
Riding together with Nemesis seemed pretty hard, so for now, I had her wait while I tried riding Silver by myself. I’d give her a chance to try after a short
run.
“All right, let’s go,” I said. “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!”
Saying those words I’ve always wanted to say, I threw the reins, and at that moment, the sky and ground were reversed.
Unable to tell which way was really up, I felt as if I was falling upwards.
I could see Nemesis, who looked completely taken aback.
I could hear the sound of Silver running through the fields.
With my five senses in such a state, I fell to the ground — head first.
“Good thing it’s just grass,” Nemesis said that while looking down on me.
With my hand on top of my slightly creaking neck, I used healing magic on myself.
Silver was looking at me, and I couldn’t tell whether he was worried or didn’t think anything at all.
“I never would’ve expected you to fall off on the very first step,” said Nemesis.
Same here, I thought. I’d fallen off the very moment Silver had begun to run.
“You had a small audience looking at you from the main road,” said Nemesis. “They all made expressions much like mine when they saw what happened.”
That seemed like an appropriate reaction, honestly.
“...Why did that happen, though?” I couldn’t help but ask. I hadn’t been riding him in a weird way or anything. The way I’d been thrown off seemed to ignore all laws of physics.
“It’s a wonder, indeed,” Nemesis agreed. “You’re a Paladin, so you should be able ride horses without any problems.”
“Exactly, so... hm?” Realizing something, I took a look at Silver’s skills. There was a total of three — Running, Wind Hoof, and one unknown skill that said “????,” just like a skill on the Miasmaflame Bracers.
I took a look at the details of the “Running” skill.
Allows running while someone is riding. The rider must have either Horse Riding or Riding skills.
“Horse Riding... skill?” I read out loud.
I can’t ride Silver without that skill? I thought. I can only make him walk around?
“Well, you don’t have the skill,” said Nemesis. “Strange, considering that you’re a Paladin.”
“There aren’t many skills I can learn from my job,” I said. The only ones I had so far were Paladin’s Aegis and the low-tier healing magic.
“Strange,” she seemed puzzled. “A Paladin is basically an upgrade to Knight, so you have every reason to have the Horse Riding skill.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “...Wait, an upgrade?”
Wait, Paladins were upgraded Knights.
The realization of the implications made me break out in a cold sweat.
“Nemesis, I’m going offline for a second.”
“Hm? W-Well, if you insist...”
After logging out, I went on my PC and began doing research on the Horse Riding skill and the relationship between low-rank and high-rank jobs.
Horse Riding was a skill that practically represented the Knight — the low-rank job that usually came before Paladin. Therefore, anyone who took the normal path and became a Paladin after having been a Knight would naturally have the Horse Riding skill. But, due to some twists of fate, I’d ended up skipping Knight and going straight to Paladin.
Doing so had given me a great stat growth and a head start over most newbies. However, the number of skills the Paladin job had given me was really lacking. In fact, I only had a mere two — Paladin’s Aegis and First Heal.
Rook had far more, as a Pimp — a low-rank job. I could only assume that skills from high-rank jobs required the player to learn skills from low-rank jobs of the same grouping.
According to the walkthrough wiki, Knights had no access to Paladin’s Aegis or any healing spells — they could only be learned after becoming a Paladin. Other skills that could be learned by Paladin were Grand Cross — which was considered to be the job’s ultimate attack — and Purifying Silverlight — which no one really knew how to get.
All skills except for these four were extensions of skills learned by Knights. That included offensive and other skills... such as Horse Riding.
I sat at my PC and silently processed the facts.
I didn’t have a single offensive Paladin skill. My level was in the mid-20s. I definitely should’ve had one by now. But I didn’t, which meant that my assumption was correct.
Most Paladin skills required the player to learn the skills from the low-rank job of the same grouping — Knight.
Why didn’t my brother warn me about this? I thought. ...Oh, I guess he just didn’t know anyone who’d started with a high-rank job, so my case was a first to him.
I had a feeling that — like Rook’s Lost Heart — many high-rank jobs required the person to have reached the max level on low-rank jobs of the same grouping. Even Paladin requirements weren’t ones that could be fulfilled by your standard level 0 newbies, so it was natural for him not to know about this.
“...I see,” I muttered. It all made sense now. I couldn’t learn the skill and ride Silver without switching to the low-rank job, Knight.
I didn’t care much about the offensive skills. I had Nemesis with me, and I’d recently gotten my hands on the Miasmaflame Bracers. However, to ride Silver, I had to find a way to learn the Horse Riding skill.
I searched around for a way to learn it without switching to Knight, and it didn’t take long for me to find it.
There was an accessory called “Amulet of the Equestrian Tribe,” which gave a +1 to the Horse Riding skill. That was the only thing I would need to be able to ride Silver.
That wasn’t all. Jobs which had the aptitude for skills acquired through accessory effects could actually master those skills and make them their own. Since Paladin was an upgrade to Knight, it was obvious that I had the aptitude for Horse Riding.
“Yes! This is it!” I exclaimed.
Quickly concluding that I had to go to Gideon’s marketplace and buy one of those accessories, I took a look at how much they went for.
Amulet of the Equestrian Tribe — Market Price: 100,000 lir.
I fell to the ground.
◇
“We have to find ways to get money.” I logged back in and stated our next course of action.
“Well, we have less than 10,000 lir left,” Nemesis nodded. “We would’ve had to get money even if we didn’t have this problem with Silver.”
She was right. We were nearly broke, so we had to do something about it regardless.
I seem to have a knack for getting big money and quickly losing it all, I thought. Strange, considering that I’m not actually wasting it.
“Gacha,” said Nemesis.
A-Again, I-I’m not actually wasting it.
“By the way, unlike the first Permit, the second one wasn’t signed, right?” she said. “Why did you just give it to Rook instead of selling it? I can’t be sure if you would’ve gotten the 100,000 lir you spent on it, but you could’ve received at least half of that, no?”
“...Ah,” I said. She had a point.
“You...” Nemesis couldn’t find the words to express what she felt.
“No, it’s fine,” I said. “I already gave it to Rook. A man does not go back on his word. We’ll find other ways to make money.”
“That’s easy to say,” she said. “However, Rook is currently offline and asleep, while Miss Sunglasses has her hands full with some other business. There’s a limit to how much we can do just by ourselves.”
“Yep, that’s a bit of a problem,” I agreed. I could go and accept some quest, but since I was solo, my choices were limited to the ones with low difficulty and thus low rewards.
There was also the meeting we had planned for tomorrow afternoon, so I couldn’t take any quests that would last too long.
“Perhaps we should hunt for a bounty? Like that demon?” suggested Nemesis.
“That’ll get us a death penalty if we fail, though,” I said. “We wouldn’t make it for tomorrow’s arrangement.”
“I see this world
just isn’t nice enough to give us a means of getting 100,000 lir in a short amount of time,” she said.
Time wasn’t a big problem — I’d have had tons of it after the surprise Marie had in store for us tomorrow. However, I wanted to ride Silver as soon as possible.
“What about the arena, then?” asked Nemesis. “It allows fighting without the risk of death penalty and rewards the victor, no?”
“Yeah, well, I looked it up and found out that you can only participate when your total level is above 51,” I answered.
During the testing this morning, my level had gone up to 26. I still had a way to go before the arena was open to me.
“Oh, yeah!” Something came to me. “I can still bet on the fighters! I’ll put my money on who I think will win and—”
“Don’t,” Nemesis cut me off. “Fortune might favor you when it really counts, but most of the time, you’re just plain unlucky.”
...You’re not wrong there, I thought.
“Guess I’ll have to give up on getting the Amulet of the Equestrian Tribe by today or tomorrow and just do some basic money-making instead,” I sighed.
“Good idea,” Nemesis agreed. “With that in mind, let’s make our way to the Adventurers’ Guild.”
Nemesis and I began walking towards Gideon’s first district, where the guild building was.
“By the way,” Nemesis spoke up again. “I know that borrowing from Rook isn’t an option, but what about Brother Bear?”
“Having him lend me money would make me feel like a loser,” I said.
“Hmm...” she pondered. “What about your old equipme—”
“Already sold it,” I answered before she could finish. And all the earnings I got from it have disappeared into your endless stomach, I thought.
The only property I owned currently was the gear I was wearing and the less than 10,000 lir I had remaining.
“Oh, this talk about equipment reminds me...” said Nemesis. “Why are you so averse to glasses?”
“...What?” I asked.
“I’ve been wondering about it since our exchange with the penguin,” she continued. “I tried looking through your memories, but I couldn’t do it because it’s in the deepest, most private section of all. Honestly, the defenses on it are way too strong, and I can’t help but wonder why.”