Hero
Hero
After Balkun spent a little longer giving me the pointless warning not to expect anything strange from the sword—it had no special functions, it was just sturdy—I finally left the dwarf district. Since he and Gin hadn't seen each other in ages, Gin stayed behind to catch up.
Come to think of it, wasn't being sturdy impressive enough for a sword? Yans's longsword had gotten wrecked precisely because it wasn't durable enough.
Seeing how much Balkun worried about it, maybe warriors in this world were so accustomed to supernatural abilities that they expected all sorts of things from their swords too.
"Then again, those bandit bastards back then lost their minds because they thought it was a Demon Sword too."
The morons who'd contributed to my first kill crossed my mind again. If that was the kind of delusion Balkun was worried about, I could understand it. If there were enough delusional little brats who happened to meet a dwarf, bought an incredible sword for next to nothing, and convinced themselves they'd stumbled into some miraculous stroke of fate, it was worth warning them.
Of course, Eldmia, whose mental age exceeded 30, didn't harbor such delusions, so it was completely irrelevant. Even without any of that, I was already grinning from ear to ear just from the sturdiness Balkun had mentioned several times.
At the very least, I clearly wouldn't have to worry about its durability just from swinging it around the way I had while fighting those Demonfolk bastards.
Granted, jumping from a longsword that cost a few coppers to one that cost a whole gold coin was a hell of a leap. But when an opportunity like this came along, there was no reason not to take it. If I'd been broke, that would've been different, but with a decent pile of gold already in hand, skimping on the sword that was both my livelihood and my lifeline would've been insane.
"That's how it came to be."
"So that's how you ended up with such a good sword?"
As soon as I arrived at Ragnis's residence to prepare for the upcoming visit to the Empire, she more or less forced me to hand over the sword. After inspecting it carefully and hearing the whole story, she nodded.
"Selling something like this for only one gold coin... I really don't understand dwarven values. Still, it worked out well for you. Now you've got a good weapon."
Of course, she'd never properly handled a sword in her life, so she didn't possess some mystical ability to discern a fine sword.
Ragnis briefly explained that dwarven smithing incorporated both alchemy and magic. Apparently that meant mages could judge the value of dwarf-made items more clearly than ordinary warriors could. I just wished she'd explained that before practically snatching the sword out of my hands in alarm.
"I thought you'd picked up something ridiculous you couldn't handle somewhere, or gone on a spending spree."
"Come on, I'm not that thoughtless..."
"Plenty of people get swept up in life in the capital and fall into debauchery."
"I'm not that undisciplined..."
Anyway, aside from the little happening caused by my new sword, our conversation flowed normally.
There were no major changes. Most of the concrete details I received were that I'd be accompanying as an attendant along with the female knight named Renisa who had guided me last time, and that Radnelbandes would join us to see the Hero.
Even if we included all the servants, the total barely exceeded ten—a very modest composition for a noble.
"Even if I am a margrave, everyone knows what happened to me. If I pointlessly puff up my entourage now, I'll only get laughed at."
Nobles' attendants and servants were ultimately a display of power. And it wasn't just a matter of vanity; it was also part of the courtesy shown to the host. The Empire wasn't offering a quick pop-in for a day or two; they proposed about a week of exchange. Usually, when staying that long, even the most minor noble would bring over twenty servants. The point was to demonstrate that you had the capacity to feed and lodge that many people showing up from all over. To my modern sensibilities, it was an extravagant and incomprehensible formality. So, going with a small number could be perceived as underestimating the host's ability and treated as a lack of manners.
Ragnis had taken that into account and reached her conclusion.
"Actually, Master said he wanted to come see the Hero too, but I wonder if he's really doing it to help me save face. If seeing the Hero was all he wanted, he could've gone long ago."
It felt exactly like a 'small but elite' unit. Of course, aside from the margrave's name and Radnelbandes's reputation, Renisa and I were nothing special, but since Ragnis herself said so, there was no reason to contradict, so I just smiled.
After a short, uneventful chat, I returned to the manor without incident. Even there, I was practically excused from work because I'd be accompanying Margrave of Levien as an attendant, so I spent the time training and trying to recall the sensation I'd felt in the abandoned dungeon. As someone who handled Magic Power, I had a feeling that sensation was essential if I wanted to reach the next stage, so I even carved time out of my sword training to work on it.
Somehow, I felt that if I trained this hard enough, I might not be able to cut space, but I could cut through Magic Power. I had no idea what use that would be, but if I ran into Demonfolk bastards who used Magic Power, maybe I could at least hope to cut through both them and their power at once. That thought fired me up, and I tried approaching it from all sorts of angles. Of course, if a little effort were enough to get results, I'd have learned to fly ages ago.
Time passed like that, full of regret with no gain, and the day of departure for the Empire approached.
When I arrived at Ragnis's residence early that morning, the area out front was unusually hectic, with servants loading luggage into two carriages. Renisa was inspecting the small number of guards and giving them orders; she gave me a slight bow, which I returned. I went upstairs, knocked on Ragnis's door, and heard her imitate the dignified tone she'd used last time.
"Enter."
"Entering."
As soon as I answered and flung the door open, Ragnis, who'd been looking at me with a really peculiar expression, greeted me with a big laugh.
"What the hell was that!"
"A well-aimed strike to bring a big laugh to the busy margrave first thing in the morning. So, is this the outfit I'll be wearing for a week?"
After I gave an exaggerated greeting with unnecessary politeness, I looked at the clothes hanging on the mannequin beside her, and Ragnis smiled faintly and nodded.
I didn't care much about anything else, but considering I'd been a bit anxious about having to wear provided clothes, the outfit was remarkably decent.
"It's the uniform we used to issue to the family knights. Since it was made in the capital, the pattern remained."
"So that's why Renisa was wearing something similar?"
Even if nothing else was clear, there was no doubt the Levien family understood the importance of a good uniform.
A white uniform with a wine-colored half-cape. Judging by the design alone, it looked tailor-made for getting assassinated, but apparently that was just my own sensibility.
"Hmm... I wasn't sure how it'd look on you since you're built like a mountain, but you wear it better than I expected."
The average height here was around 165, and even knights rarely reached 180, while I was pushing 190 all by myself. I definitely stood out. My parents had both been fairly tall too, so genetics probably played a part. Come to think of it, Yekaterina had been almost at eye level with me. I'd never heard that Ravil people were especially tall, so maybe she'd actually been born into some well-off family and simply grown up eating extremely well.
"An elf even admitted I'm handsome, didn't she? A man needs at least this much going for him before he can dress up properly."
"Don't lie. Asilie was always saying you weren't handsome."
"...Something to add to my letter, then."
I was curious what kind of conversations she'd had with Asilie for that to come up so often, but there was no time to dawdle. I let it go and finished getting ready to leave.
"And Sir Radnelbandes?"
"He had other business and said he'd join us at the gate."
"Then until he joins us, I'll have to brighten the procession with my handsome face and imposing figure. You got me a fine horse too, right?"
"What nonsense. You're riding in the carriage with me."
"Why?"
"Because you're my attendant."
"But Renisa is also an attendant."
"You worked as Sheryl's personal butler, so you must've picked up this sort of thing. Renisa's a knight through and through. She can't do it."
Heavens! So the goal was to unfairly exploit my labor!
"I don't work for free, Margrave Le— Agh! That hurts! Stop!"
"I'll make sure you're compensated, so shut your mouth, Mr. Eldmia."
Fine. If she's paying me, I'll be a good boy and put up with it...!
"Alright. Since the Margrave is not one to go back on her word, I'll trust you."
When I extended my hand to escort, Ragnis was there with a dumbfounded expression. That look was funny, so I made a come-on gesture to tell her to hurry up, and only then did Ragnis burst out laughing and take my hand.
"Keep me safe this time too."
"What could possibly happen in the Empire, of all places?"
Lately, every time I said something like that, I got a sense of déjà vu that something had happened... but surely not. Still, it was the Empire, and we were going to see the Hero—what could possibly go wrong?