The City and the Adventurers' Guild (4)
The City and the Adventurers' Guild (4)
#
"Nnnh... ahh... nn..."
Morning had come, but Reni showed no sign of getting up. She was spooned against me from behind, still impaled on me, leaking moans while pretending she wasn't awake. There was no way I couldn't tell she was awake, though. When I gently stroked her belly, she squirmed like she was annoyed. When I just fondled her areolas, she acted like she was sleep-talking and pushed her nipples into my fingers.
"Ah... fuuuh... haaah..."
What was with this priestess again? She wasn't getting angry like before. If she were, she'd have turned into a blanket slime long ago.
"Reni? Miss Reni? Young lady?"
"...Nh..."
Annoyed that she wouldn't answer, I lightly pinched her nipple. She still made a heroic effort not to move. Wait, I was getting déjà vu from this.
"Nnh?! Uuum... ahh... hup... hnnnh... churrp..."
I flipped Reni around to face me, then kissed her. Only then did she open her eyes. So she wasn't going to get up unless I kissed her first. This priestess had picked up a very wanton habit. I should make use of that next time.
"Yoo... Yoo-jin..."
Her hair was slightly disheveled, and dried trails of tears and drool remained from however many times she'd come in her sleep. Reni smiled bashfully at me, but then her brows arched as though she'd remembered something. Her attempt to look angry was painfully obvious. What was she going to say now?
"Yoo-jin... why, why do you keep..."
"Keep what?"
"..."
Reni stopped mid-sentence and rolled her eyes upward. Ah, there it was. That face people make when they were trying to retrieve a memory. Was she trying to figure out where to start being mad about yesterday?
"Nh..."
See? If she wanted to get angry, she first had to recall what she herself had done yesterday. Thinking back, she'd washed my body with her own sex—an utterly depraved act.
"What's wrong?"
"...N-no, nothing..."
"Why? Did I do something wrong yesterday?"
"N-no..."
"Come to think of it, what did we do yesterday? I'm pretty sure in the bathroom, Reni, you..."
I deliberately started to vocalize yesterday's act, just to embarrass Reni—
-Thump-thump.
This... this insolent priestess!
"Kyaa?!"
I hoisted Reni up while still buried inside her and carried her to the bathroom.
...
"Nooooo!!!!!! Haaaaaaahng!!!!!"
# # #
"Look at you, positively glowing with happiness."
"..."
Yuri's expression was clearly one of extreme displeasure, but whatever Yuri said, Reni stayed glued to my side, beaming. Why? Why was Reni in such a good mood?
"H-here's your meal."
The red-haired server, as if sensing the unusual atmosphere, set the food down and fled in a hurry.
Yuri picked up a piece of bread and began tearing it into tiny shreds and chewing it fiercely, as if it were her mortal enemy. Almost as if she wanted me to hear her... Then suddenly, she opened her mouth.
"...Are you two seriously going to do it for a whole week?"
What? Was that why she was mad? There was no way. Today was an important day. I had to do it properly with you.
"No?"
"Ehp."
A pathetic, deflating noise escaped Reni's lips. When I turned, she was staring at me with the expression of a hero betrayed by a comrade in the final battle against the Demon King.
...This priestess would obviously run off crying if we actually did it for a week, so why was she acting like this? Could she be... a masochist? For someone like that, she hated pain, though...
"Heh-heh..."
"Nh..."
Yuri was soon smirking, and Reni wore a face that didn't know whether to get mad or cry. This was going to go on forever at this rate.
"Ahem. Hm. Today..."
Enough with the petty squabbling. Time to get things done.
"First, today we'll go to the Guild and register as adventurers. After that, let's get some gear sorted. Then starting tomorrow, we'll head into the dungeon."
"Ah, yeah." "Y-yes."
"But before that, there's something we need to decide."
"What's that?"
"I need to hide my identity... a fake identity? Something like that. I need to make one."
Based on my discussions with Reni, this other world didn't conduct detailed censuses. You simply registered at the Adventurers' Guild, and raising your rank there essentially became your identity. But my abilities and items were the problem. The most conspicuous were the Holy Sword that could spew Holy Fire and the existence of my Inventory.
Well, I could opt to avoid encountering other parties as much as possible to keep them hidden.
Still, to prepare for when we did run into other people, we needed to coordinate our stories about where these items came from. And for that, I needed a fake identity that would plausibly own such artifacts.
But Yuri, apparently misunderstanding something, made a completely off-the-wall suggestion, her eyes sparkling.
"Heh... then how about starting by changing your hair color and eye color?"
"Huh? You can change those?"
"This is a big city. I only glimpsed it in passing last time, but I think they use that kind of magic at beauty salons here. See that red hair? That woman probably used magic too, don’t you think?"
"Really?"
So there were methods like that. Was it worth considering?
"Then what color should I..."
"Blond hair and green eyes."
Reni spoke up in a tone that suggested it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Huh?"
Flustered, I turned to look, and Reni immediately deflated into a shrinking violet. But as if she still had to get her point across, she continued, stammering slightly.
"Y-Yoo-jin, you need to hide your identity, so... a-after all, black hair is a little..."
"Is it? Then..."
"No, black hair isn't that rare. I have it too. And you saw my aunt, right?"
"Huh?"
"So I think you only need to change your eye color. That probably won't cost much, right? Since you're so thrifty, Yoo-jin?"
"Ah..."
At the remark that I was thrifty, Reni looked at me with pity. How had my image ended up like this? Reni saw me as a freed slave, and Yuri saw me as a miser. I didn't think I was that stingy with money...
As I was speechless in disbelief, Yuri kept chattering away, pleased with herself.
"Change your eyes to a dark red color, like mine. Then we could say we share the same blood, couldn't we?"
"...If we share the same blood, what do we call it when we sleep together at night?"
"...Ah."
Yuri blanked out for a moment as if that hadn't occurred to her.
"...That... w-well, we can say we're distant relatives..."
"You... do that with relatives?"
"..."
Yuri mumbled something at that. I read her lips... What? It was depraved so she liked it? This girl seriously wasn't right in the head either. A previous suspicion resurged. Could this girl actually be not a genre-novel maniac, but a porn-novel maniac?
"Anyway, forget it."
I'd asked just in case, but as expected, there was nothing of value. I laid out the cover story I'd prepared in advance.
"...So, the illegitimate son of a fallen noble, from the eastern region beyond the kingdom?"
"Let's say I was a child pushed aside in a succession struggle for the tribal chieftainship. Then if I'm ignorant of local common sense or act rude, people will simply write it off."
"Hm... then what about the Holy Sword?"
"Th-that... I could say I... r-received it from the Church."
As if it was her turn, Reni suddenly raised her hand and spoke up. Of course, it wasn't a particularly helpful suggestion. Because...
"But Reni. You can't tell lies like that."
"...!"
Reni's face fell into an expression of truly monumental shock. Why make that face? She was the one who always got into trouble because she couldn't tell even simple lies.
Of course, Reni wasn't always incapable of lying. On the contrary, during sex, all kinds of lies rolled off her tongue with ease. No more, I didn't come, I was full, I was hungry, I was sleepy so I had to sleep, I couldn’t do it anymore, this and that...
"Let's just keep it simple and say I received it as a keepsake from my mother. My mother being from this region."
Now I had become a knock-off warrior, weary of intertribal succession feuds, wandering with my mother's keepsake, the Holy Sword. The excuse that I'd run away to see the world was a bonus.
Saying it this way made me look quite immature... but that was better. That way, even if I did strange things, people would just chalk it up to that.
"Alright. Looks like we've got things roughly sorted, so shall we go?"
#
When we stepped onto the main street, the colossal walls surrounding the city came into view. It had been late and dark yesterday, and we had hurried into the inn exhausted, so I had not properly noticed them.
As I marveled at its imposing grandeur, Yuri pulled out a map of the city and started showing off again.
The city's overall shape was a semicircle cradling the end of a mountain range. A massive outer wall ringed the city, and at its center, where it met the mountain range, an even larger inner wall enclosed the mountains. It looked as though it were protecting the roots of the range. No, rather than protecting them, it was more like...
"It looks strange. Usually, city walls are built to defend against external attacks. But those artillery batteries? They are batteries, right?"
"Right. They're artillery batteries powered by magic stones."
"Yeah. Those batteries are aiming toward the inside of the city."
"Heh-heh... well, of course they are."
Look at her, look at that stuck-up nose. If I could land just one flick right on that forehead, I'd have no other wishes.
"West Keep means a fortress that protects the city from the dungeon. Monsters might burst out of it, so the batteries were positioned this way."
"I see..."
"How about it? Do you respect me a little more now?"
"...Reni? Let's go."
"Hey!"
...
The city was bustling. Adventurers in armor were everywhere, and occasionally, guards in light armor carrying short spears patrolled the streets. There were also many people who looked like tourists and street vendors selling food.
The roads were wide enough for several carriages to pass. There were even streetlamps! Good grief. This was a medieval fantasy, right? Did they have electricity or something? There was no way.
"I believe this kind of luxury is possible because it's the largest producer of magic stones. I'd only ever heard about it; this is my first time seeing it. I imagine it might be similar to the capital."
Reni spoke, sounding impressed.
"If the city is this lavish, it must draw a lot of tourists."
I see. So that was it. Money begot money.
Come to think of it, I remembered hearing something similar on Earth. In Hong Kong, building owners received subsidies if they kept their office lights on for the night view? I didn't know if that was actually true, but it was a credible urban legend.
As we walked the streets, sights I hadn't noticed yesterday caught my eye.
The city felt more like Europe during the Industrial Revolution than a medieval fantasy. The roads were paved with stone, and the buildings were quite tall. It looked plausible enough to pass for 19th-century Earth. Guardian's Fort had been fairly clean, but it still felt medieval. This place was considerably more advanced.
I hadn't noticed in the dark yesterday, but there were quite a few demi-humans like dwarves and beastfolk, and I even occasionally spotted a street vendor with a feline head!
Following Yuri's guidance, as we entered the street where the Guild came into view, an incredible sight unfolded.
'This is something.'
There were countless adventurers. It was a fascinating sight.
Adventurer was an occupation people normally shunned. No, honestly, calling it an occupation was a stretch.
In games and novels, the protagonist had to wander the world, advancing the story and meeting heroines, so inevitably, they had to be an adventurer.
But if you looked at the essence of it, an adventurer was nothing more than a wandering odd-jobber and fixer. They roamed the world with a sword at their hip, but the work they did was closer to that of a day laborer. It was never something you could make a long-term profession out of.
And yet here, enough adventurers to shatter that prejudice were roaming the streets. It was a scene straight out of an anime, right before my eyes.
"What are you doing? Let's hurry up."
"Ah, yeah."
Seeing me spellbound, Yuri grinned and quickened her pace.