Chapter 11
It was raining.
The downpour was so heavy that the old saying about the sky having a hole punched through it seemed almost too fitting.
Silvia stood by the window, staring blankly at the rain outside.
Raindrops fell with relentless force from the heavens, striking every corner of the world.
When it rained, everything in the world became equal.
Anything beneath the sky had no choice but to be struck by the same falling rain and left just as wet as everything else.
The rain-soaked ground, the trees, the rocks, and even the guards visible beyond the window.
All of them were the same.
Silvia loved rainy days.
She loved the rain itself, and the peculiar air and scent that only existed when it fell were her favorite of all.
More than anything, watching the world quietly as the rain washed over it was almost her only hobby.
Whoooosh-
[It’s coming down more than usual today.]
Flinch-
Silvia jerked at the voice that seemed to come from behind her and turned around on reflex.
The words had seemed to mingle with the sound of the rain hammering against the glass, but there was no one behind her.
There was no sign that the door had opened, either.
“Haa.”
Silvia pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a short sigh.
Come to think of it, today was the first time.
This was the first rain since Evan had left the world.
There was another reason Silvia liked rainy days.
On a day like today, when the rain fell this hard, the knights’ outdoor activities and training were canceled.
That meant she could see Evan legally.
He always came around this time.
About thirty minutes after the rain started, Evan would always come to Silvia’s room.
He brought the sweet tea she liked and cookies that were even sweeter and crisper than the tea.
She would drink the tea he brought, chat with him, and watch the rain fall.
It had been such an ordinary part of life that it was also a fantasy that could never return.
“…Yeah. It really is coming down hard.”
Silvia’s lonely voice echoed emptily through the rain-filled room.
She had no idea that someone else had heard it, too.
*
“It’s raining hard.”
“Yes, it is!”
It was a bright, cheerful voice that stood in stark contrast to the sound of the rain beating violently against the window.
Kabin looked almost giddy, as though he had come here on a picnic.
The moment he had started making a racket in the inn lobby, saying, “It’s such an honor to share a room with Lord!” I had known what sort of man he was.
I wonder if it rains in the Bernice Empire, too.
I forced myself not to pay attention to Kabin, who was examining the cramped room by himself with an excited air, and looked out the window instead.
The rain that had started without warning was harsher than I had expected.
Watching it fall naturally brought Silvia to mind.
Rainy days were Silvia’s favorite.
What was it she said? Looking at the rain made her feel calm and happy.
Thanks to her, I had come to like rainy days myself before I knew it.
Rain meant I could go see Silvia even during work hours.
I hope it never rains in the Bernice Empire.
Except when I had business outside the imperial palace, I always went to see Silvia whenever it rained.
At some point, Silvia had begun to take that for granted, and on rainy days she would wait for me.
And she might even be waiting for me right now.
“Lord! The room is clean, with no problems at all!”
“…Yes. And let’s sort out how you address me.”
What cut across my thoughts was Kabin’s enthusiastic voice.
I had wondered why he was inspecting the narrow room so earnestly; it seemed he had been checking for ambush formations or magic circles.
“How I address you?”
“Yes. If you keep calling me ‘Lord’ in front of humans, it’ll raise suspicion.”
“I-I see. There’s surely no better time than this to make the Lord’s majesty known to all under heaven.”
Kabin nodded with the expression of someone who had just had a great revelation.
I’d felt it since a little while ago, but Kabin’s attitude toward me had definitely changed since last night.
It was as if he respected me a little more now.
“Then what should I call you, Lord?!”
“Call me Evan.”
“E...van?”
“Yes. That’s my name from now on. Evan Erche, no, Meyer.”
“Ooooooh!”
So I hadn’t been imagining it.
All I had done was tell him my name, yet Kabin dropped to one knee with an absurdly moved expression.
“Lord Evan Meyer! I will devote my loyalty to you from this day forward!”
“…Yes. For now, wait here until dawn.”
“Understood! Evan!”
To my mind, Kabin’s behavior was ridiculously overdone, but I was too lazy to comment on it, so I let it go.
In any case, we would be parting soon enough.
Three in the morning.
Three a.m., Ronier Inn, room 307.
The information Banua had given me was firmly etched into my mind.
To think there would be a broker who connected monsters to the human world.
I sat down and toyed with the snake scale in my inner pocket, the one that radiated a chill against my fingers.
What I had in my pocket was Banua’s scale.
Like Penrix before him, Banua had given me one of his scales as a sign of his loyalty.
Of course, the information Banua had given me was far more useful than any scale.
Banua, who ruled the south of the demon realm, knew far more about the human world than the other races in the upper regions did.
Enough to know of a human “broker” who helped intelligent monsters go out into the human world.
The reason I had bothered stopping in Ronier and coming to this inn was exactly that.
To reach the Bernice Empire, which sat near the center of the continent, I would have to cross at least two national borders.
It was only natural that having a “human” who could provide me with a false identity and actively help me travel would make the journey a little easier.
And according to Banua, the broker I was about to meet could even take me all the way to the country I wanted.
Of course, I would have to pay the price for that privilege.
“Evan.”
“What is it.”
I answered with a trace of irritation before I could stop myself, distracted again by Kabin’s voice.
Perhaps sensing my discomfort, Kabin continued cautiously.
“I-I’m going to take care of the matter.”
“…Ah.”
The “matter” Kabin referred to was the condition that would let us stay at this inn tonight.
We had arrived at the inn, but without money, we obviously couldn’t secure a room by ordinary means.
Instead, after learning that we were adventurers who had survived the demon realm, the innkeeper had made a request.
He would give us one of the remaining rooms if we would drive out the guest staying on the inn’s top floor, the fifth.
A rather absurd request.
According to the innkeeper, a fairly powerful adventurer party had been using the entire fifth floor for weeks without paying a single coin of lodging.
It was less a stay than an occupation.
There was also the more obvious reason that the guards were busy dealing with monsters and didn’t bother themselves with such trivial matters.
“You should be fine on your own. You are, after all, my descendant in name.”
“Of course, Evan! A few humans are nothing!”
“Don’t overdo it. Handle it appropriately.”
“Yes! Leave it to me!”
Kabin nodded with an eager, self-assured expression.
To me, he looked like a novice knight fresh from entering the order, but Kabin was still a vampire in his own right.
However weak he might be, dealing with a few low-class humans who didn’t even respect the rules of the trade would be no trouble for him.
“I’ll be back!”
I gave the departing Kabin a light wave, then unbuckled the sword at my waist and laid it beside the bed.
It was a surprisingly fine sword for something hastily made from Penrix’s fangs.
And not the sort of blade one would often see in the human world, either.
Whoooosh-
At last, with the room quiet, I sank into thought while watching the rain outside.
I hoped Kabin would take care of things without causing any real disturbance.
*
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! They didn’t look like they had money, but that sword wasn’t ordinary. You saw it too, didn’t you?”
“I did. It wasn’t an ordinary sword.”
The fifth floor of Ronier Inn.
Contrary to what the innkeeper had told Evan, the owner was chatting quite amicably with the guests staying on the fifth floor.
They were talking about the sword Evan had been carrying earlier.
“Mm. If Esby says that, then it’s worth trusting.”
“I’m telling you. In any case, I’ve said what I always say, so when they come looking, handle them properly. Understand?”
Lisa, the owner of Ronier Inn, gave Gail and Esby very strict instructions.
At Lisa’s words, Gail laughed heartily and motioned for her to hurry inside without worry.
Unlike the impression she had given Evan’s party, the fifth floor of Ronier Inn was not occupied by a violent adventurer party.
The fifth floor housed Lisa’s accomplices and business partners, Gail and Esby, along with their underlings.
Their role was simple.
Whenever Lisa deceived naive adventurers like the ones today, she would lure them up to the fifth floor so they could be robbed blind.
“Esby, you said there were two of them, right?”
“Yeah. One boy and one white-haired man.”
“To survive the demon realm together, those two must have some outrageous luck.”
Gail threw himself onto the plush sofa with a wicked grin.
The massive body built of muscle sank into the cushions, and the sofa caved under his weight.
“The sword was the white-haired man’s. I want it.”
“Hahaha! If it’s something you want that badly, now I’m looking forward to this.”
Gail’s anticipation only grew at Esby’s rare display of greed.
According to Lisa, the two of them looked weak at a glance.
Just to be safe, the mana detector they had tested them with during check-in hadn’t picked up anything, either.
In other words, they were trash.
From Esby’s reaction, it seemed the one with no real skill had somehow gotten hold of a good sword and come here full of confidence after a stroke of luck.
You could make a fortune from a single properly harvested monster corpse in the demon realm, after all, so he probably wanted a big score.
“Greed always brings disaster!”
With a loud, booming laugh of “Kahahaha,” Gail downed the beer on the small table in one go.
On top of that, the city had seen almost no new adventurers since the Bernice Empire’s knight commander had died recently, so this was a rare bit of business.
“Esby, the magic circle is ready, right?”
“Yeah. I prepared it right after I saw Lisa talking with those people.”
“Good. Then all we have to do is wait for them to come knocking.”
“Yeah.”
It was precisely the moment Gail and Esby finished speaking.
Thud, thud.
From beyond the door, the sound of someone climbing the stairs grew unusually loud.
The two exchanged a glance and gave slight nods before moving into their places.
Gail would play the role of the rude adventurer leader, while Esby would hide and ambush the fool who thought himself a righteous avenger.
Knock, knock.
“Are you in there!”
At the voice of a young boy, Gail barely managed to suppress the laughter threatening to burst out of him and answered.
“What is it?!”
The operation had begun.