213. The Master Hid the Mithril
213. The Master Hid the Mithril
He introduced himself as a peddler traveling to the capital.
Given that he had deliberately strayed this far from the road, he looked like a hyena that had spotted a crashed airship and come to scavenge, but the scale of the threat wasn't large.
Even if he suddenly had a change of heart, he was at a level where subduing him wouldn't pose any problem.
"A ped?dler?"
"I'm sorry...."
But I hadn't known they'd be the kind of idiots who attacked the moment our backs were turned.
The instant they drew their swords, Casey and I reacted immediately, and the bandits disguised as peddlers were all left kneeling, stripped completely naked, with holes punched in them somewhere or sword wounds on their bodies.
The ones who couldn't manage to survive that were dead.
"I heard something crashed near here and came to see the spectacle... but an airship crash... truly something else, heh heh..."
"Indeed. Truly something else."
Hearing those words, Gemma's back flinched.
Still, it was a relief.
"Where's the nearest city around here?"
"Let's see... that would be Ama, our next stop."
"Why do you ask about a city?"
"A city is the smallest settlement with an Adventurer's Guild. I'm planning to go there."
I cited the Adventurer's Guild as a typical example, but beyond that, being a city meant there were far more things you could obtain.
Even if I entered some territory and used the Five Pillars' power to strip everything bare, a city was still better for finding what was needed.
"Still, it's fortunate we fell around here. If we'd crashed yesterday, it would have taken at least a week to reach the capital."
Perda tried to view the situation positively.
We decided to leave the bandit bastards sitting where they were and hand them all over in Ama the following day.
"Still, it's a bit cold... could you at least give us some clothes?"
"Huddle together and tough it out. If you freeze to death, that's one less body to haul, which suits me just fine. Why would I reduce those odds now?"
"We'll endure with our best efforts."
We had clustered the beds together around the campfire, and beside them, a map had been newly added.
It was an item someone had brought back after searching the wreckage of the destroyed airship.
"Here's the capital, and here's Ama. So we would be around here."
A new pin was stuck between the original route that had been marked on the map with pins and thread.
The last pin stuck represented a rough estimate of where we had fallen.
Three pins: the capital, Ama, and us. Looking at it this way alone, it seemed extremely close.
"We were supposed to arrive tomorrow, but now it's going to be incredibly late."
"You lot can just teleport straight there once you reach the capital, so what are you griping about? There are people here who can't do that, you know."
The Magic Tower in the capital had a teleport terminal capable of moving to specific cities or territories.
The usage fee was really, truly expensive, but for the Five Pillars, when converting time into money, it was more than worth paying.
"Atlas, why did you say you were going to the Adventurer's Guild?"
"We need to salvage this airship wreckage, and we'll rent a carriage from the Adventurer's Guild to travel."
"Couldn't the Transport Guild handle something like that?"
"Renting a carriage suited to your rank from the Transport Guild is basically advertising to bandits to come and rob you."
We would need to rent at least two fine carriages pulled by good horses, and even if the road to the capital wasn't that far, it still took a full two days from Ama to reach it.
It would be hard to stop all sorts of vermin from swarming.
"Your skills aren't such that you'd be beaten by mere bandits."
"The swarming itself is the problem. It causes more delays. Like right now."
Defeating them each time they came would be easy.
There were several among us who had reached the upper tier of Expert, and even just one of them would send most bandits fleeing with their tails between their legs.
But if an arrow they shot killed a horse, we'd be tied up right there.
It was better to prevent bandits from showing up in the first place because they were too scared.
"So does the carriage rented from the Adventurer's Guild have some kind of device to repel bandits or something?"
"In a way, you could say that."
"What?"
When I said bandits would be too scared to even show up, they looked at me as if I were some strange person.
"Well, just watch. Have you ever seen me spout nonsense?"
——————————
We departed early the next morning and arrived at the small city of Ama.
Though called a small city, that was by the Empire's standards.
Since it was a resting place for people setting out for the capital, it was bustling with as many people as a major city in another kingdom.
"Whoa! Y-you captured these guys? Truly impressive... Recently, they've been notorious around here for robbing travelers!"
The guards of Ama took over the bandit gang I'd hauled in without issue.
As for confirming my identity, taking out any one of my identification tags was more than sufficient, so it was easily settled.
"People are swarming like goblins!"
After a single night, Gemma had returned to her lively self.
But that didn't mean she had forgotten what I'd taught her.
"What do you mean, goblins."
"Is... is it wrong to say it like that?"
"Would you feel good if someone called you a shit-covered lizard?"
"I... I see... Then what expression would be correct?"
"Wouldn't something like a swarm of ants be better?"
"Ants are also mere insignificant creatures. Is that really better than goblins?"
"Compared to a grotesque monster, an insignificant creature is still less offensive."
"Such profundity... I understand clearly."
Because she didn't know, she occasionally made verbal slips, but her attitude had become one of compliance and acceptance when corrected.
I wasn't sure what resolve she'd made overnight, but Gemma stuck to my side continuously after daybreak.
Perhaps she thought learning beside me was better than being separated, making a mistake, and getting scolded?
A fine learning posture.
The utterly mannerless little emperor from just yesterday was nowhere to be seen.
'I've gone and made another person into a human being.'
At this rate, wouldn't it really be good to become an instructor or teacher in my old age?
I wondered if I might not become famous as a master of one-on-one behavioral correction.
But seeing those scenes, the rest of the party watched me trembling as if looking at a ghost.
Several large guild buildings lined the street.
It wasn't the capital, but being a city close to the capital, many decent guilds were visible.
Past the urgently needed Transport Guild, the Weavers' Guild, the Blacksmiths' Guild, and various other guild buildings, what caught my eye was a rather shabby-looking building.
"The Adventurer's Guild... is that one."
The location where the Adventurer's Guild settled was always the same everywhere.
Since they were errand-runners who sold people's labor, not goods, when comparing all the guild buildings, it ultimately ended up being the most nondescript and dilapidated one.
It seemed like that had become its defining characteristic by this point.
Upon entering, sure enough, a drinking party was in full swing.
"Ugh, filthy. This is the Adventurer's Guild?"
"Tch, and noisy too.... Do they even work if they're drinking from midday?"
"These are people who've already finished their work. Not all adventurers swagger around competing against strong monsters. People who scrape by day to day cleaning sewers are also adventurers."
Seeing the adventurers holding a drinking party in broad daylight in a hall that wasn't even properly cleaned, Lemnos and Albion frowned.
It wasn't just the drinking; their appearances seemed quite filthy, which was probably why.
Casey and Amy had been in and out of Adventurer's Guilds many times, but it seemed most of the people here were seeing one for the first time.
After all, even when visiting a city, there was generally no reason to enter an Adventurer's Guild.
"What's this."
As we entered the building, a few adventurers who had been loitering near the quest board came over after spotting us.
"Did you lose your way? This isn't a place for young masters to visit, keekeekeek."
Why was it that in every single branch, there were always one or two NPC-like bastards loitering around the quest board, waiting for someone to pick a fight with?
It was enough to rank among the world's seven wonders.
From the midday drunkards wandering around to the swaggering punks, I truly liked how the place called the Adventurer's Guild never changed, no matter the branch.
"What kind of guys are they?"
"Losers who can't take on the Gold-rank or higher requests left on the board, but also hate cleaning sewers, so they wait endlessly for an easy request to show up."
"That's awfully specific."
"Guys like that aren't just one or two. If they had any sense knocked into their heads, they'd watch the situation from afar since we might be here to commission work directly, but they don't even have that intelligence. Still, let's all be understanding. Half of all adventurers are people who can't even read."
The moment my words ended, other adventurers laughed.
"Kyahahaha! Hey, you hear that? He nailed it, you're illiterate!"
"Wow, that's spot on. You've been to the guild a few times, haven't you?"
"Y-yeah, I can't read! So what the hell is your point!!"
I hadn't specifically singled out one or two people, but it fit exquisitely well, as one adventurer, whose face flushed bright red with shame, drew the sword from his waist.
"Damned noble brats..!! Do you know where you've walked into, mouthing off like that, huh??"
The sword was, like his appearance, poorly maintained.
Worn out and filthy, just grazing it seemed like it would give you tetanus.
As the adventurer drew his sword, Edgar placed his hand on his flamberge.
He looked ready to draw if the man took even one step closer.
The tense air, the noise, the smell of alcohol, the scent of old wood, the metallic tang of iron — all of it was familiar.
"Truly a nostalgic atmosphere."
-Kwang!
"Kuaaak!!"
And immediately after, the adventurer who had drawn his sword was struck in the abdomen by me, went flying backward, smashed through a table, and collapsed.
It seemed like a rib was cracked, but he should be thanking me.
Edgar, pricked with vigilance, had been thinking of severing his arm, after all.
Wouldn't a broken rib and a bit of hardship be better than having one arm crippled?
"Oooh..."
"Heh heh, we know nothing."
Seeing him defeated so thoroughly, the adventurers who had been subtly testing the waters avoided my gaze.
The Adventurer's Guild was, in many ways, dirty, smelly, noisy, and absolutely not a good environment, but the simplicity and brute force made it comfortable.
"... I could have handled it."
"If you'd cut off an arm with that, it'd be hard to reattach. Idiots like that, if they get crippled, they'll just starve to death."
"Since when did you care about something like that?"
"Didn't you know? I only cripple people in hospitals to the extent that they won't become disabled."
Once the idiots were cleaned up, the atmosphere became quite decent.
I saw the information desk inside, protected by wire mesh.
As I walked over, the receptionist, having just witnessed a person go flying, was tense as a bowstring.
"Ah... Welcome! How may I assist you?"
"It looks like I'll need to meet with the branch manager. Please guide me."
"Do you have an appointment? Without an appointment, the branch manager is..."
Listening to the predictable by-the-manual response made me want to yawn.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure."
Meeting the branch manager was possible without an appointment.
I unfastened one of the items I wore around my neck every day and showed it to the receptionist.
-Clink.
"This is...?"
The moment the receptionist saw the identification tag, her eyes went wide.
The milk-white, gleaming identification tag showed off its color without a single smudge.
"Mi... Mithril...? I have committed a discourtesy."
"It's fine, so let me see the branch manager."
"Yes... Yes!!"