Martial Arts Academy (1)
The capital of the Shah Zar Kingdom, Parvata.
“Fresh fruit for sale!!”
“Come on in, customer! We’ve got truly fine goods here! For all your daily necessities, look no further than Agra’s shop!!”
The Shah Zar Kingdom itself boasted a considerable economy and a large population, so its capital, Parvata, went beyond merely lively—it was downright noisy.
With so many people thronging the streets, shops and merchants abounded, and with them came no shortage of touts hawking their wares. Our group alone had already been subjected to several rounds of aggressive soliciting.
“W-why do the humans of this country cling so desperately?”
“Haha…”
When even Caesius was driven to say something like that, it said everything.
Tug.
Just then Clara lightly tugged at my collar. When I looked her way, she pointed ahead and spoke.
“…Albrecht, over there.”
“Ah.”
There it was—the restaurant we’d been searching for. The moment we arrived in Parvata we’d decided to eat something delicious, so we’d asked the coachman if he knew any good places. He’d recommended this one as one of the most famous spots in the city.
Sure enough…
“…The line’s ridiculously long.”
“…Yeah.”
Even here, there was a wait.
“Anyone starving right this second?”
“Not particularly.”
“…I can wait too.”
That settled it, then.
We naturally made our way to the end of the line and took our places. A woman with copper-toned skin approached me and asked,
“How many in your party?”
“Ah, three.”
“Three, understood.”
Apparently she was checking the people waiting.
“You’ll need to wait about an hour from now.”
“Ah, got it.”
“All right, please wait just a little while.”
Surprisingly, an hour felt short given how long the line was. The place must have had a lot of space inside. Once the server left, I turned to Clara.
“She says it’s just an hour’s wait.”
“…Okay.”
She’d probably heard it herself, but I’d told her anyway because Clara didn’t much care for crowded places. She didn’t like drawing attention either.
If she ever took an MBTI test, she’d come out a solid I for sure. Even now she seemed a little overwhelmed, sticking close to me—close enough that she looked ready to wrap her arms around mine at any moment.
I didn’t mind, so I simply let her be. Don’t ask what that meant.
I stood there blankly, waiting for our turn while watching the people streaming past on the street. Then Caesius suddenly scowled and spoke.
“Albrecht.”
“Hm?”
“Some lowly creature keeps touching me from behind.”
“…?”
At those words I glanced behind her. There was someone there, but they were a fair distance from Caesius. What was touching her…?
“Meow.”
Right then, accompanied by an adorable cry, a cat climbed up onto Caesius’s head. Her scowl deepened as she said,
“How dare a mere beast climb onto this body’s head. Shall I kill it?”
“No, no need to go as far as killing…”
So that was what had been touching her. Clara watched and smiled faintly.
“…Cute.”
When Clara carefully stretched out a hand, the cat eyed it and let out a low, warning rumble.
“…Ah.”
“Doesn’t seem to take to people.”
“…Yeah.”
But the fact that it had climbed onto Caesius’s head… was that because she wasn’t human, but a dragon?
It was a rather adorable sight. Caesius was quite beautiful herself, so even with a cat perched on her head and a scowl on her face, the overall effect was overwhelmingly cute.
“Uncomfortable?”
“Don’t ask the obvious.”
“Right.”
Looks like I’d have to shoo it off. I quickly reached out and caught the cat around its midsection. The cat, suddenly seized, let out a startled cry.
“Meow?”
“Down you go.”
The moment I set the cat down, Caesius’s expression finally relaxed in satisfaction. I placed the squirming animal on the street.
“Meow.”
At first the cat looked bewildered, pacing back and forth in front of us before gradually wandering off. Watching it go, Clara spoke.
“…How did you catch it?”
“Hm? I just grabbed it. It didn’t run, did it?”
“…But it was being wary.”
Clara asked,
“…Have you ever raised a cat?”
“A cat? No…”
I hadn’t. But after answering, I wondered—maybe there had been one. Not me, but this body, Allen.
If he grew up in the countryside…
Raising a dog or a cat wouldn’t have been strange at all. Maybe that was why I’d been able to grab the cat so precisely just now.
“…I want to raise a cat.”
“Hm?”
Clara looked up at me.
“…You’re going to be an adventurer from now on, right?”
“Looks that way.”
“…Then we’ll need a house.”
“Ah?”
Right. Unlike the hero’s party, adventurers each needed a place to live. Most of them lived out of inns, but we had more than enough money…
Getting a house would be possible.
And since we’d be attending the martial arts academy here in the Shah Zar Kingdom for a while…
“We’ll need to find a house here.”
“…Yeah.”
First eat, then visit the academy, then look around for a place to live.
Wait…
But if we got a house… where would these two live?
I blinked, then looked at Clara and Caesius.
“Do we need to get separate houses?”
“…Hm?”
“Why go to all that troublesome effort?”
Caesius spoke as if she couldn’t understand the question at all.
“Can’t we simply live in the same house?”
That brazen declaration left me blank for a moment. Then I quickly pulled myself together. She was a dragon, so of course her way of thinking would differ from a human’s.
“You might think that as a dragon, but people are different. Men and women living together raises all sorts of issues, and the way others look at it…”
“…I’m fine with it.”
“…Huh?”
Startled, I turned to Clara. She met my gaze with pure eyes free of even the slightest stain of impurity.
“…I think living together is no problem at all.”
At the very hour Albrecht’s party arrived in Parvata, Erinn’s party was receiving praise from the Behend Kingdom.
It was only natural. They had stopped enemies that had nearly driven the kingdom into the abyss of ruin, and they had even destroyed the Obelisk.
“Hero Erinn, thank you truly for saving our kingdom! The Behend Kingdom will never forget this!”
“…It was only what we ought to have done.”
Even though Godrit III, king of the Behend Kingdom, had personally expressed his gratitude before his ministers—an extraordinary show of favor—Erinn’s expression somehow remained less than pleased.
Of course it was because of everything she had been through, but to Godrit III and the royal ministers that demeanor carried a slightly different meaning.
They wondered if their treatment of her had been insufficient. Under ordinary circumstances they might not have looked kindly on such an attitude from a hero, but the situation now was different. Instead, it was the Behend royal court that found itself reading her mood.
“…Haha, Hero Erinn. Is something troubling you?”
“…Pardon? Ah.”
Hearing that, Erinn seemed to realize belatedly and answered,
“No. I was merely surprised by such generous treatment.”
“…Haha, is that so?”
Seeing the relief flicker across Godrit III’s face, Erinn closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. And even if she had to force it, she put on the best smile she could manage.
That was her duty as party leader, and it was also for the sake of her companions. Even if she didn’t feel like it, she had to manufacture the expression.
Godrit III and the Behend Kingdom bestowed an enormous reward upon them. Perhaps because Behend’s economic power far outstripped its military might, a considerable sum was paid out.
Combined with the proceeds from selling the Dragon Jade, it was honestly enough that they wouldn’t need support funds from the empire for the next several years.
…
Yet Erinn did not consider that money the party’s alone. She saw it as something that needed to be shared. More precisely, she believed he deserved the larger share.
“Without his knowledge and strength, we never would have made it out alive.”
If they hadn’t solved the Murder Clown’s riddle, the party would have fallen, and Erinn might have had to begin a new life all over again.
“I’m thinking of splitting half of it between the two of them.”
Erinn asked her companions,
“Is that all right with everyone?”
No one objected to her decision. On the contrary, they all considered it only natural.
Erinn went to see Ophelia again, briefly explained the situation, and arranged to set aside a portion of the funds as their share. Ophelia looked mildly puzzled as she replied,
“There’s no problem. Since it’s simply transferring money to one side, it doesn’t violate our depository policies… however, Hero.”
Ophelia asked,
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I’ve been wondering about this since last time. You and he never seemed to be on particularly bad terms, so why did you choose to part ways?”
Erinn froze. More than anything else, the fact that even Ophelia—who had barely met them a few times—thought they hadn’t looked like they were on bad terms bothered her. A little. No, a great deal.
“…It’s not something to discuss with outsiders.”
But Erinn deflected the question. Then she held out the funds she had received from the kingdom.
“I’ll leave it in your hands. That will be all.”
After Erinn left the Black Frog Guild building, Ophelia stared at the funds for a moment before turning to Bradley.
“Could it be a lovers’ quarrel?”
“I don’t believe that’s the case… Guildmaster, please don’t take unnecessary interest.”
Bradley advised,
“There’s nothing good to be gained from getting deeply involved with the hero’s party.”
“…Well, true enough.”
Ophelia nodded in agreement with Bradley’s opinion.
“All we need to do is take good care of the money.”
Yet even as she said that, a strange curiosity and interest continued to bloom inside her.
“…Bradley?”
“Yes?”
“If our client shows up at any of the guild branches, report it to me.”
“…Guildmaster, did you not hear what I just said?”
“I heard you.”
Ophelia said,
“But what am I supposed to do when I’m curious?”
We finished a delicious meal and stepped back outside. I’d forgotten about it while eating, but the moment we came out, the issues we’d discussed earlier came flooding back.
Live together…?
Caesius was one thing, but the problem was that Clara treated it as far too trivial. Was I the one being weirdly overconscious about it? No, that couldn’t be right.
As long as Clara wasn’t busy with her usual self-loathing, she was a beauty so striking that someone like me would hesitate to even speak to her.
I didn’t know what kind of perception half-dark elves carried in this world, but at least to me—free of any such prejudices—she was an untouchable beauty.
When I dealt with her day to day she felt more like a little sister I was looking after, so I’d rarely seen her as a woman… but living under the same roof every single day would be different, wouldn’t it?
No matter how I looked at it, pure, naive Clara had spoken far too casually about the whole thing.
…First let’s check out the martial arts academy, then think about it.
If there was nothing to gain at the academy, we might not settle in Parvata right away. Then I could put this worry off a little longer.
“We’ve filled our stomachs, so shall we head to the academy?”
“…Yeah.”
“Indeed. We ought to move before the sun sets, no?”
At Caesius’s words I looked up and saw the sun already sinking. We needed to hurry.
I set off at once, and Clara and Caesius followed without getting lost. After walking about fifteen minutes from the restaurant, we finally reached our destination.
“This the place?”
“Yeah.”
I said,
“Kalari Payat Martial Arts Academy.”
The mid-game training ground of Dungeon in Evil—the Kalari Payat Martial Arts Academy.