Adventurer's Equipment 2
Kayden looked like she was about to bring up something serious.
Was she finally going to come clean about the crossdressing? Or explain why she carried the title of Sword Princess? Holding onto that quiet expectation, I walked her steadily through the streets until we reached somewhere private — an expensive tavern that put any ordinary inn to shame.
It was the kind of shameless establishment where a private room came equipped with soundproofing magic tools, and the so-called "discretion fee" started at a single gold coin just for the side dishes. Still, the place looked as lavish as it cost, and the drinks and food were good enough that I dropped by from time to time.
"Th-this place…"
"Didn't seem like the kind of favor you could ask out on the street. Don't worry — just come in."
Two hulking guards stood at the entrance like doormen. Beyond a heavy, antique wooden door, attendants in immaculate formal wear bowed with the polished deference of noble household servants. Kayden hesitated for a moment at the sheer expense written into every detail of the place.
For someone called the Sword Princess, is this kind of luxury really that unfamiliar?
I walked past the guards without breaking stride, and she followed after a beat of reluctance. She didn't open her mouth the entire way — not until the attendant had guided us into a private room and the door had shut behind us. Clearly she was still sorting through her thoughts. I ordered the dishes and wine I usually got from the attendant waiting by the door, then sat and waited in silence.
"…First of all, thank you for being so willing to hear me out."
"Rebecca introduced you. Of course I'd listen. So what's the favor?"
She sat rigidly upright, spine locked straight, both hands clenched into fists and resting on her knees. She looked for all the world like a raw recruit who'd just stepped into the barracks — and I was starting to wonder just what kind of request required this much buildup.
She hemmed and hawed long enough that the food and wine arrived and were set out between us. Fair enough. We'd never built any real rapport — our relationship had been purely professional — so springing a personal favor out of nowhere would weigh on anyone.
"I'd like to… entrust a commission to you."
"A commission? To me?"
After that long, grinding deliberation, Kayden finally opened her mouth — and what came out had nothing to do with crossdressing or princess titles. The more I listened, the clearer it became why she'd been so hesitant. My relationship with Kayden was something close to a master-and-apprentice arrangement, after all.
Han Se-ah's party were rookies who'd proven their potential by taking down the Full Moon Wolf. On top of that, Rebecca had used her connection to Roland to shove Kayden — who had zero credentials of her own — into the group. In other words, she was a parachute hire learning the adventuring trade from the ground up… and now she wanted to hand a commission to her own teacher?
If a blacksmith's apprentice walked up to their master and said, "Please forge me a sword — I'll pay you for it," their skull would get cracked open on the spot. Depending on how close they were, maybe it wouldn't matter…
Except she and I aren't close at all…
Kayden's default mode was avoiding me to keep the crossdressing intact. We'd never bonded over anything — never even shared a proper round of drinks between "men." If she'd been some ordinary mercenary Rebecca had introduced, I could've just thrown a high-class courtesan her way and we'd have been friends by morning. Instead, I got a crossdressing princess.
"I'm from a fallen noble house, and I brought certain arms with me when I left. The problem is, for personal reasons, the magic enchantments on those arms have broken down."
"So you want me to gather the materials? If you're going straight to an Upper-grade adventurer with a request like that, it must be some pretty expensive gear."
"For who I am now — for Intermediate-grade adventurer Kayden — it's equipment far beyond my station."
Kayden took a small sip of wine, as if wetting her throat. True to her noble breeding, she held the glass with elegant poise as she pressed on, the words coming out almost like a confession of shame. She'd always been rigid about hierarchy in that blunt way of hers — and now she was the one about to break it. No wonder she looked embarrassed.
And if the embarrassment involved money, it would sting twice as hard.
"An Upper-grade adventurer's commission fee isn't cheap. You've looked into it, so you already know that."
"Yes. I'm aware."
Saying she wanted to entrust a commission rather than simply hire me was the same as admitting she couldn't pay up front. Whether she was a fallen noble or a grand duke's daughter in hiding, having to make a pitiful request over money was bound to be humiliating.
The arms she'd brought from her house needed immediate repair for some reason or another. Repair required expensive materials. And those materials were so costly that a fresh mercenary company recruit — a mere Intermediate-grade adventurer — couldn't even dream of affording them on her own earnings.
"That's why I've only come to ask now. I want to place this commission with my worth as an adventurer as collateral."
"So the collateral is you. Kayden herself."
Watching that pretty face nod, a lecherous little devil briefly took over my brain. A crossdressing princess with her back against the wall — I felt like some villainous noble buying a slave.
I gave my head a light shake, brushing off the devil along with the alcohol warming my thoughts.
What Kayden meant wasn't that she'd become some sexual plaything. She meant she'd bind herself to Hanna's party as an adventurer. Not go back to Rebecca's mercenary company after finishing her training — plant her bones in the party I managed. That was the collateral she was offering.
Being a noble-born young lady, her thinking ran along noble lines. This wasn't a mercenary's mindset or an adventurer's. It was a knight's — the kind who swears herself to a lord. Mercenaries and adventurers were a labor market; people transferred and hired based on how they were treated.
"Yes. I am the collateral. My sword — it's useful enough, isn't it?"
Confident in her own skill, yet ashamed to be asking for a favor — a contradictory posture. Her back was straight and her eyes sharp, but her breathing trembled and a faint flush had risen in her skin. She looked for all the world like a pretty private getting hazed by the seniors… except the person inside that shell was a young lady, which changed the picture somewhat.
With the lecherous devil gone, a mischievous one surged up in its place.
"Useful enough. Getting someone like you for a handful of materials is a good deal."
"…Thank you."
"Eh, nothing to thank me for. Must've been hard to say all that — so let's take it easy tonight."
At the words "take it easy," Kayden started to rise from her seat. I waved her back down with a gesture that said where do you think you're going, then rang the bell set on the table. Time for a bit of teasing I'd always wanted to pull on a crossdressing woman.
"Ah, then I'll just—"
"Hm? Where are you off to? A mercenary — an adventurer — ought to properly unwind."
"Pardon?"
What greeted Kayden, frozen halfway out of her chair, were the women who slipped quietly through the door. Unlike the streetwalkers of the market district, they wore thin dresses fit for a social gathering, gliding into the room with practiced grace.
Two of them gently took Kayden's arms and eased her back into her seat as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The other two came to my side and settled in on either flank. The look on Kayden's face — suddenly sandwiched between two beauties — was priceless.
This is it.
Ten years in a world with no internet and nothing else had left me with one thing grown large: a craving for this kind of entertainment. It was also why I'd been able to get along with someone like Rebecca.
"Um… Roland, sir?"
"That pretty young master over there is a rising star who climbed all the way to Intermediate-grade with nothing but a single sword at his hip. Through personal connections, he's got ties to an Upper-grade adventurer and the leader of a major mercenary company — a real prize of a young lord."
"My, my. With skin that fine, I took him for a noble young master or a mage from the Magic Tower."
Kayden's crossdressing was flawless. The problem was that the flawlessness included her looks. The beauty of a gacha character didn't vanish just because she was dressed as a man. Anyone could see she was a soft-featured pretty youth, so of course the ladies latched on with eyes lit up.
As women who worked the pleasure trade and kept ties to the information guild, their instincts were razor-sharp. They'd clocked immediately that this was half hospitality, half teasing. Instead of buttering up some rich noble, they'd been handed the job of tormenting a pretty young man — and there was no way they'd complain about that.
"Look, I, this kind of thing…"
"Just look at that skin. At this rate, half the girls on the night streets will be crying over him."
This wasn't a world that ran on modern moral sensibilities. Children under ten worked the fields for their keep, and women without money crawled into alleyways and spread their legs as a matter of course — a medieval fantasy land through and through. No one was going to get angry over calling a few hostesses at a high-class tavern.
Because the Kayden sitting in front of me was, for all public purposes, a fallen noble young master who'd clawed his way up from bottom-rung mercenary work — a man.
"Must be in a good mood tonight. The wine tastes better than usual."
Unlike the two women plastered to Kayden's sides, chattering at a volume designed to overwhelm, the two at my side attended me in silence — massaging my arms with soft hands, plucking the stems from the small fruits meant as snacks.
They clearly knew exactly who I was.
"…Did the old man tell you to look after me?"
"Heehee. The only things that come out of our mouths are laughter and sweet little moans."
"Appreciate the answer."
The young woman who was supposed to stay quiet had spoken to me for the first time. The words themselves carried no content — but the lack of content was the content.
Not long ago, that John Smith fellow had shown his face openly at the Adventurers' Guild. A suspicious character whose very name screamed alias. What had the chat called him again? Five-star Silent Whisper, John Smith?
Three-star Grace and six-star Roland had been linked.
Four-star Kayden and five-star John Smith were linked too.
The difference was that a lovestruck country girl and a princess posing as a fallen noble operated on entirely different scales. Whenever it happened, Kayden's character story looked like it was going to get grand.
"What?! You're leaving?!"
"The way you say that makes it sound like you're kicking me out. I've got a personal commission — somewhere I need to go alone for a bit."
The day after I'd enjoyed the spectacle of Kayden thrashing desperately under a pile of skirts, I struck while the iron was hot and brought it up. Han Se-ah's eyes went wide as lanterns. She looked like someone who'd been treating me as a caught fish, only to get punched in the face.
"It's nothing major. Just something I need to fetch from a ways out. At our party's level, the twentieth floor wouldn't be a problem, but play it safe — stick to the nineteenth and get used to camping. I told you about the homework, right? You need practice spending the night inside the Tower."
"Um, so, Roland? You are coming back, right?"
I grinned at Han Se-ah's continued stream of off-kilter answers.
Ah. This was fun.