Border Town Notos
It seems that it takes two days on foot to reach the border town of Notos from the outer edge of the Forest of Abyss.
There seems to be a town relatively close to the dangerous forest. Although Forest of Abyss has many dangerous monsters but accordingly yields many precious materials.
After cleaning up, as the sun was setting, we have moved to a place separated from the Forest of Abyss, spend the night in a camp, and walked towards the town of Notos along with the two bandits the next day.
Carriages apparently don’t drive near the Forest of Abyss, and the girl has apparently come on foot too.
“Which reminds me, I didn’t ask your name, didn’t I? Please, tell me your name.”
Somehow, it feels as if she’s forcing herself and pretending to be tough.
“My name is Kaito. I’m fourteen.”
“Eh! You are still only fourteen? I thought you would be at least the same age as me since your body is big. Oh well, my name is Elrain. You can call me El. Nevertheless, you are strong for being so young, aren’t you? Are you a high ranking adventurer?”
“I don’t know what high ranking adventurer is, but I’m not an adventurer.”
There, Elrain asks Kaito as if recalling something.
“…… That reminds me, Kaito, didn’t you come out from the Forest of Abyss?”
“Yeah, I didn’t think the forest would be so vast. It took me seven days to get out of that forest.”
Huh? There are no reactions coming from El.
“…… I misheard you, didn’t I? That’s right, there’s no way a person could live in the depths of the Forest of Abyss.”
El is grumbling something under her nose, but I can understand her feelings. I also thought that I’m going to die several times, I would like to excuse myself from living in the forest for more than a week.
The speed of Kaito’s development is a special trait of visitors from afar, but when talking about defeating S-rank monsters, high leveled ones at that, Dolfares’ training has a big impact.
The higher the level of the opponent is, the more fighting experience it has. Kaito doesn’t notice that.
On the middle of the way, they made a camp and arrived at the town of Notos before the second day ended.
The town of Notos is encircled by high walls, it’s a fort city.
The northern gate pointing in the direction of the Forest of Abyss is without people in the evening, so they were able to enter without lining up.
Naturally, because I have no social identification, I had to pay a fee of five silver coins. About fifty thousand yen? I don’t know whether it’s expensive or not.
When we handed over the bandits to the soldiers, we were given four gold coins. When I consider I was given 200,000 yen per person, I realize the inexpensiveness of crime slaves.
“…… Kaito, I have a little request, but…… could you lend me some money?”
El embarrassedly asks to borrow money.
“No, didn’t I tell you that it’s fine to split the gold coins by half?”
“That’s not good! I was the one who got saved and didn’t do anything.”
“Then, El should guide me around this town. I will give you a guide fee of one gold coin for now.”
Saying such, I forcibly stuff a gold coin into El’s hand.
“Is that alright? You could live for twenty days with one gold coin.”
“It’s fine, I still have the money the bandits had on them, after all.”
After that, I had El introduce me to an inn. We had dinner together in the inn’s dining room.
“So, Kaito. What will you do tomorrow?”
El asks me about my plans tomorrow while drinking after-dinner tea. I have requested El to guide me around the town, but I have to decide the proper order.
“In that case, am I able to get a status plate from any guild?”
“It’s fine from any guild, but the Merchant’s Guild and the Worker’s Guild have difficult conditions to join, so I think you rather go to the Adventurer’s Guild.”
Is that so? I wanted to do some smithing tomorrow, but, let’s go to the Adventurer’s Guild in the morning then.
“Then, I will register at the Adventurer’s Guild in the morning, hand over the bandits’ status plates and receive the reward. If possible, I would like to buy underwear and clothes after that, though.”
“Now that you mention it, Kaito. You don’t have any bag on you. …… Huh? Then, what happened to the money you collected from the bandits? Huh?”
Did she notice just now? Is El surprisingly an airhead?
“I will talk about that later, so come to my room.
When I said that, El’s face suddenly turned bright red and she began fidgeting.
“…… Umm, we have just met…… well, Kaito did save me, my heart was throbbing, but I, it’s my first time……”
“No, no, no, I just want to talk, El. It’s not something I can speak about in the dining room, so I want to speak in my room.”
Did she hear me, or not, El keeps on twisting and turning.
Oh, well.
Knock, knock!
“Come in! It’s open.”
After finishing the meal and returning to my room, I was relaxing on the bed after a long time when El knocked on the door.
I have El sit on one of the chairs, and I sit on the bed.
“So, what I wanted to talk about. You know I came from the Forest of Abyss, right? Because I have lived deep in the forest, I’m ignorant of common sense. Therefore, on top of guiding me around the town, I would like you to teach me the common sense as well, how about it?”
When I look at El after speaking so much, she stares at me with her eyes wide open.
“Umm, El.”
“Are you saying you have been living deep in the Forest of Abyss!!”
“Hey! El, calm down! I did say that, didn’t I?”
“I don’t think it’s something to joke about!”
I somehow managed to calm El down and told her about the place surrounded by mountains in the Forest of Abyss. That it’s a place filled with a holy atmosphere. That there is a lake in which Spirit Queen-sama lives. I tell her about living while being trained by Master Dolfares.
“I don’t know where to retort.”
El looks extremely exhausted.
“Undead who retained sanity was your master? Spirit Queen-sama? Speaking of Spirit Queen-sama, she’s an existence above the Four Great Spirits, you know? What S-class monster as a master.”
“I spend only six years with Master Dolfares.”
“I’m not talking about that!”
“The place I have lived at, there were no strong monsters. The reason I became able to fight is thanks to Master Dolfares.”
“What sort of invigorating master are you talking about!”
“So, about the money from the bandits, I have stored them in my item box, you see?”
“Listen to what I’m saying! Why are you smoothly talking about item box! Isn’t that a rare skill from legends!”
Somehow, El became excited, and her face turned red.
“Haah~ enough already. Kaito doesn’t know common sense and is out of the standard. Let’s leave it at that. So, is your weapon in the item box?”
“Yeah, this is it.
I retrieve the bardiche from the item box.
“…… Somehow…… I feel a tremendous power from it, but…… this, that’s not a normal weapon, is it? What is it made from?”
“Hm? Is that so? It’s something I made. It’s made from Orichalcum alloy.”
El who heard ‘Orichalcum’ stiffened again.
“O, Orichalcum, you say. Is it perhaps entirely made from Orichalcum? That can’t be true, right? There’s no way there’s this much Orichalcum.”
Oh my? It appears that Orichalcum is far more precious metal than I thought.
But, I have quite a lot in stock.
“I would like to make equipment for myself, so I would like to borrow a workshop if possible. I have gathered a fair amount of materials.”
“…… I’m tired, I’m going to bed already.”
Saying such, El returned to her room unsteadily.