Teir Bamon (1)
Blood sprayed as the Orc King's head went tumbling across the ground. Watching the headless body crumple, I finally released the barrier.
Ashel, flicking the blood from her blade with a small sigh, met my eyes. She bowed her head, her expression thick with shame.
"I apologize."
"It's fine."
I'd been startled, admittedly, but thanks to that I'd gotten a solid confirmation of the Immovable Barrier's defensive power.
I looked around. The orcs, having lost their chieftain, were milling about in confusion. I didn't even need to tell Ashel to mop them up — they began scattering in every direction as if fleeing for their lives. Even orcs had enough sense to recognize an opponent who'd slaughter them to the last if they picked a fight.
"Hahh..."
The adventurers who'd been watching from the sidelines looked thoroughly relieved. Rodin seemed to have collected himself as well; he was staggering to his feet. I said to them:
"Let's head down."
This Mystery hunt had been eventful in more ways than one.
After descending the mountains and returning to the city, I paid the adventure party the remainder of their commission. They insisted they couldn't accept it — not after I'd done them such a favor — but a promise was a promise. I forced the money on them anyway.
"We are truly grateful, young master. May glory follow you on every path you walk."
They offered their thanks with genuine respect shining in their eyes. I'd used a precious potion to save their lives and then dumped a fortune in commission money on them besides. The reaction was only natural. But I'd successfully obtained an important defensive Mystery thanks to them, so I didn't feel the slightest bit of regret. Besides, a few hundred gold was pocket change. The funds I'd brought from the Lord's Castle included dozens of platinum coins in my possession alone.
We left the city the very next day. The tedious carriage journey resumed, our next destination the First Lord's Territory, ruled by Shintoe. I stared blankly at the scenery rolling past the window, thinking about the Mystery I'd obtain there.
Then, out of habit, I glanced toward Ashel sitting across from me. A faint shadow seemed to hang over her expression.
"You don't look well."
Ashel looked over at me.
"Were you injured in the fight?"
"No, my lord. It's just..."
She chewed her lip, then spoke with an even darker look.
"You appointed me as your escort, Lord Ron. And yet I feel I keep failing to fulfill that duty."
"..."
"Even when we faced the orc king, I failed to finish the job properly. I made a mistake."
This again?
We'd had a similar conversation when we encountered Bellebagora. Whether it was clearing out trash mobs or smashing through walls, she was actually providing me with indispensable help. But she couldn't stand against the truly powerful ones, and that seemed to weigh on her. I hadn't even said a word about it, but her rigid personality was something else.
This personality of hers is a real pain...
But on the other hand, I was also glad. Compared to the Ashel I'd first met — who'd been like talking to a wall — this was enormous progress. The fact that she was bringing this up and talking to me at all meant the distance between us had closed that much, didn't it? Or maybe not.
I chose my words, then spoke.
"When I first met you, I said your abilities had caught my eye by chance."
"Yes."
"That was closer to speaking of your potential than your present capabilities. I know your current limits. In other words, I know perfectly well which tasks you can handle and which you cannot."
I continued as Ashel listened attentively.
"The serpent of the Luthers Mountain Range, and the golem we encountered in the dungeon — both were opponents you couldn't have handled even at full strength. That's why I've never been disappointed in you. You can still become far stronger, so hunger for growth instead of blaming yourself. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"..."
"That said, letting the orc get away was a mistake. Don't let your guard down from now on."
She seemed to chew over my words, then bowed her head. I turned back to the window and watched the passing scenery.
A considerable stretch of time later, we arrived at Vilpeck, a city in the southeastern reaches of the Fifth Lord's Territory. As the carriage rolled down the main road, something suddenly occurred to me.
Come to think of it, wasn't that restaurant in this city?
When I'd played the game, Vilpeck City had a restaurant that was quite famous in the lore. Gold Chicken, I think it was called. It wasn't just some throwaway MacGuffin, either — there was even a sub-quest where you gathered ingredients for a chef struggling with a new menu. More than anything, the reason this place had stuck in my memory was that it sold fried chicken, just like the name suggested. In a medieval-style fantasy world, fried chicken was a fairly unfamiliar dish, so it was rarely seen.
Might as well stop by.
I was a little tempted. After booking rooms at a high-end inn in the city, I said to Varos:
"Find out if there's a restaurant in this city called Gold Chicken."
This was five years before the game's timeline, so it might not have opened yet. But Varos returned not long after with news that the restaurant did exist.
"It opened recently and has been gradually gaining a reputation in the city. Their main dish, I am told, is fried chicken."
We decided to have dinner there and left the inn at once. When we arrived and stepped inside, quite a few people were already dining. The atmosphere was moderately lively. A waiter circulating through the hall spotted us and greeted us brightly.
"Welcome! Table for three?"
We were shown to a window seat. I sat first, and Ashel and Varos sat across from me. This seating arrangement had felt a bit awkward at first, but I was getting used to it. When we'd first left the Lord's Castle and eaten at an inn in the first city we reached, Varos had been a pain about it — insisting he couldn't possibly sit and eat with me, that he'd stand beside me and wait on me instead. He was an excellent talent handling all the miscellaneous work of this journey, but if he had one flaw, it was that his loyalty ran a bit too deep.
The waiter held out a menu and asked:
"What would you like to order? If you're not familiar with our restaurant, I can explain—"
"No, that's fine. Two chickens."
"Yes, sir! The cooking takes a bit of time, so please bear with us!"
This medieval-style world — especially in big cities like this — had a lot of oddly modern touches mixed in, like this restaurant. It was a game world created by modern people in the first place, so that was natural enough.
What's unnatural is my situation, having entered that game world.
Ashel was naturally taciturn, and Varos wasn't someone I could chat with casually, so I sank into my own thoughts while waiting for the food.
Why had I entered this world? Finding that answer was currently beyond me. Come to think of it, gods actually existed here. The one true god of the RASA universe, who had bestowed the Holy Sword upon Seintea's Hero. Perhaps a god could tell me why this had happened to me.
"..."
Whatever the case, surviving was the most important thing right now, so it was a pointless thought. If I kept surviving, I'd meet the Hero someday. That was a problem for then. Feeling my mood sink a little for some reason, I leaned back in my chair.
Then the shop door opened and a customer came in. A woman in luxurious clothing who looked like some nobleman's daughter, accompanied by an escort knight. She scanned the hall, frowned, and shouted in a shrill voice:
"Manager! Are you going to keep me waiting?!"
The manager inside spotted her face, startled, and hurried over.
"Welcome, Lady Denbri. It is an honor to have you visit our establishment."
"Tsk. Slow as molasses."
The woman looked around.
"I heard this restaurant's food was so famous lately, so I thought I'd try it myself while I was out. The interior's shabby and provincial."
"Haha... I apologize. We're still far from worthy of receiving a noble lady such as yourself."
"Why are you stating the obvious? Just show me to the best seat."
...What is this brat?
As I watched, the atmosphere inside the restaurant had gone quiet. The other customers were all watching her warily. She must have been quite a well-known figure in this city. Lady Denbri?
The mayor's daughter or something?
Calderic didn't have a noble class like Seintea, which was a typical monarchy. All power was concentrated in the Lords in an absolute centralized structure, so a noble class to check them would have been meaningless to begin with. However, mayors and commanders who managed cities and fortresses existed in each region. They formed families and inherited their positions, much like Seintea's noble houses. There was no formal nobility, but in practice, they were Calderic's aristocrats.
"We'll bring out your order shortly, as requested."
Once seated, the woman scanned her surroundings once more. Watching the other customers hastily lower their eyes, she smirked and tapped the fan in her hand. The look of superiority on her face made it clear she was openly enjoying those reactions.
What an eyesore.
The thought crossed my mind, but I soon lost interest in her. No need to concern myself with a problem customer. I'd just quietly try this world's fried chicken and leave.
I was waiting for our food when another commotion broke out. Once again, the source was her table.
"I-I'm so sorry!"
A waiter carrying drinks had apparently dropped a glass. And of all places, it had been near the problem woman. Some of the drink must have splashed on her dress; she looked down at the hem. Her face twisted with irritation and rage. She shot to her feet and viciously slapped the apologizing waiter across the face.
"Ah—!"
"You miserable bitch, are you insane? The likes of you dare stain my dress?!"
One slap wasn't enough. She grabbed the waiter by the hair, threw her down, and started stomping on her without mercy. Nobody stopped her. The manager, who'd come back out at the commotion, just watched with an anxious expression.
"..."
Watching the scene and thinking she was a genuine lunatic, I noticed Ashel's expression growing harder and harder from across the table. She had a fundamentally good nature and couldn't easily look past that kind of injustice. The one-sided violence grated on me as well. I said to her:
"I told you before. Express your thoughts and your will."
Ashel flinched and looked at me. Then she nodded and spoke.
"...May I help that waiter?"
"Do as you like."
The moment Ashel started to rise at my answer—
"Ah, my lady."
A voice came from elsewhere first. It was a young man who'd been sitting in a corner. He approached her, casually stepped in front of the fallen waiter, and said with a servile smile:
"I apologize for the intrusion, but if you could find it in yourself to forgive her at this point, this waiter would be deeply moved by your ladyship's mercy. So..."
"Who the hell are you? Get lost."
The woman shoved the man aside and grabbed a glass bottle from the table, as if intending to smash it over the waiter's head. Startled, the man urgently grabbed her wrist.
At the same time, the escort knight standing beside her seized the man's arm. He gripped so hard the man's face twisted in pain.
"...Huh?"
The woman stared at the hand gripping her wrist in disbelief, then turned a chilling gaze on the man.
"You grabbed my arm? You dare?"
"P-please, just calm down for a moment..."
"Jerold, cut this bastard's wrist off."
The man's expression went rigid. The knight reached for his sword hilt without a shred of hesitation, as if he truly intended to carry out the order.
That was when it happened.
Ashel, who'd already closed the distance, seized the knight's arm. The knight, his arm caught, frowned and looked at her. He seemed to put force into it, trying to shake her off... but that was never going to work. When his arm didn't budge at all, the knight's expression turned bewildered.
"What now? Have these lowborns gone insane, constantly butting in?"
"..."
"What are you doing, Jerold?! Cut down this crazy woman first!"
But the knight's arm still wouldn't move. Seeing his face flushed completely red from the blood rushing to it, the woman seemed to grasp the situation. She looked flustered, then turned her gaze toward me.
"Hey, you! Black hair! That's your escort knight, isn't it?! Call her off already! Do you even know who I am?!"
...Did she just call me "black hair"?
It was so absurd I couldn't even laugh, but Varos's expression had turned downright vicious.
"To dare speak so, without even knowing her place..."
He looked ready to summon a spirit and attack on the spot, so I gestured for him to stay put and opened my mouth.
"How vulgar."
"...What? What? Vulgar?"
"The way you're thrashing around like a colt with its tail on fire is truly vulgar. Stop making a scene and get out."
Only then did Ashel release her grip. The knight clutched his arm and stepped back. The woman, trembling all over, let out a scream, then glared at me as if she wanted to kill me.
"Kill him! Don't just stand there like an idiot — kill that bastard right now!"
The knight hesitated, then finally reached for his sword hilt. I said to Ashel: