Urusphier (1)
Urusphier really was a city—so vast that losing your way once meant you might never find the inn again.
I had thought Alrba was a pretty big town.
That had been a drop in the ocean… no, a drop on a bird’s toenail.
And with the Karahan Mountains rising at its back, the whole place looked like something out of a painting.
“We’ve returned the carriage and left the horses at the stable… shall we head to the guild now?”
“Y-yes.”
“I wonder how long Hepais will take. She said she’d be back by evening, though…”
Right.
Hepais had gone off to buy all sorts of materials she needed.
I had told her we should finish the maintenance quickly and head for Karahan, but she had stubbornly insisted we make absolutely sure of everything first, just in case…
So I had no choice but to agree.
She claimed her master wasn’t that fragile, so it would be fine, or something like that.
Thinking of the Yuria I remembered… she really was the type who wouldn’t die easily, so maybe it was okay.
Anyway!
I was happy!
Truth be told, I hadn’t agreed reluctantly at all… I had agreed with a big smile!
I couldn’t wait to feel the fragment’s effects for myself!
Was it Thirst, or was it Berserk? My memory was fuzzy… I was pretty sure it was Thirst?
Or maybe both.
Either way, I hoped it would be ready soon!
I would be without my greatsword all day again, but as long as I stayed quietly at the inn with Rubia…
Wait… she would stay with me this time too, right…?
She wouldn’t leave me behind and go somewhere, would she…?
“Until Hepais gets back, why don’t we look around the market a little? We can buy some raspberry jelly while we’re at it. How does that sound?”
“H-hk…! J-jelly… I like that!”
“Heh heh… All right. Then let’s get to the guild first.”
I tightly clasped the hand she held out and set off toward the guild building visible in the distance.
We had been walking for quite a while when I finally voiced the thing that had been bothering me since earlier.
“Umm… Rubia. Back at the checkpoint… was it really okay to do that…?”
Rubia usually kept her Perception Obfuscation Robe pulled low over her head, but at the checkpoint she had yanked it off as if it were a nuisance.
Thanks to that, every gaze in the place had locked onto us…
And the crowd that came surging over… uugh…
We had skipped the line and finished in an instant, but…
It had been really, really hard on me…
“Ah… yes. By now… well, it’s fine.”
Her expression looked as if she were swallowing a dozen other words.
“What if… people report us and the knights come swarming like last time…”
“Jure will handle that somehow. It’s still all right for now.”
The words “for now” snagged a little, but I nodded anyway.
Rubia must have some kind of plan.
And even if the knights did show up, I could protect her.
Once I properly adapted to the fragment, I might not reach Master level, but I felt I could at least hold my own against Platinum.
In the game, the fragment had been every bit as effective as a Unique Ability.
There was a bit of a penalty, sure.
But the power was so good I just had to put up with it.
I was still sketching out how I would handle the knights if they arrived when—
“Ah, we’re here.”
We had reached the Adventurer Guild of Urusphier.
It was on a completely different scale from Alrba’s.
An enormous building clad entirely in what looked like extremely luxurious marble.
I couldn’t see the color, but even at a glance… it was gray.
Anyone could tell it was gray!
“Hoo… shall we go in?”
“Y-yes…!”
Looking thoroughly tense, Rubia pushed open the guild doors.
An overwhelmingly solemn atmosphere swept over us.
Alrba’s guild had been run more like a tavern—loud and lively.
Here there was none of that.
It was more like… a bank?
Or maybe… that place you had to visit before military service…
The draft physical examination center…?
Anyway… I hated it.
I hated it so much…
“Noah? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, u-uh… no… just… old memories, a little…”
Apparently I had squeezed Rubia’s hand without realizing it.
She was looking down at me with an expression full of worry…
“Umm… I’m fine, so… let’s hurry to the reception desk…”
“…All right. If anything gets hard, you have to tell me, okay?”
“Y-yes…”
I loosened my grip a little and stepped forward ahead of her.
The reception desk was all the way at the back.
Along the way stood a massive request board, an aptitude testing area, a quest intake counter, and every other facility neatly arranged.
It really was nothing like Alrba.
Ssscrape— clack— sssscrape— clack—
…I had wanted to reach the desk while making as little presence as possible.
But thanks to the greatsword dragging along the floor… several adventurers started looking our way.
And then the murmuring began…
This… this was exactly like Alrba…
“You really do draw every eye, Noah. Heh heh…”
I was walking with my whole body hunched, yet Rubia was grinning and teasing me.
“R-Rubia looks suspicious too, you know…? Hmph…”
“That’s because you’re cute…”
“I’m not cute… I-I’m cool.”
“Hmm~? You are?”
What… what was that smug little hum supposed to mean…?
“Ugh… I hate you, Rubia…”
In a fit of pique I let go of her hand with a little tug.
I heard her startled voice behind me but ignored it and marched straight to the reception desk.
The moment I arrived, the receptionist spotted me and—
“Welcome!! I am Shur, receptionist of Urusphier!! What business brings you here todayyy!!”
“Eek!”
The voice was so enormously loud that I reflexively flung myself into Rubia’s arms as she came up behind me.
“R-Rubiaaa… th-that person is weird…”
“I thought you didn’t need me anymore, Noah? You let go of my hand just now and walked off just fine on your own.”
But… now Rubia was sulking too.
Wh-what do I do…
“Uuuu… I-I’m s-sorryyy… hng…”
People’s eyes gathered… the receptionist had startled me… and that had made me let out a weird scream.
Even as more gazes piled on… Rubia kept pushing me away, so…
Tears started streaming down my face…
I bitterly resented my floor-scraping affinity and social stats.
“Hng… b-but… Ru… Rubia teased me f-first… hick… she did… hup… s-still, I’m s-sorry, so… please… help me… sob…”
The louder the murmuring grew, the more my body trembled.
I clung even tighter to Rubia’s clothes.
We stayed like that for a short while.
Then Rubia’s body began to shake little by little.
I had narrowed my Qi Sensing because I was scared of people looking at me…
I widened it just a little and looked at her.
But…
But…!!
“Rubia… hick… y-you’re… holding back a laugh right now…”
“Pffft— hahahahaha! Ahh… if you cry that pitifully over a little joke… heh heh… I’m going to lose it… It was a joke. I’m sorry, Noah.”
I hated her.
I hated her so much it made me crazy…
But if I hated her… she might do the same thing as before…
So I couldn’t hate her… uuu.
“I-if you’re sorry… then help me… th-that person’s voice is… t-too loud…”
I buried my face in Rubia’s chest.
Little by little… the trembling began to ease.
“Heh heh… All right. Come on.”
After stroking my head for a long time, Rubia took my hand.
I nodded meekly and trailed after her.
Pathetic… I was so, so pathetic.
In Alrba it hadn’t been this bad…
Was it because this place was so quiet…?
And… it was unfamiliar… and there were so many people…
I felt like I was forgetting how to walk.
How… how did I move my arms when I walked…?
What angle should my neck be at?
What expression should I make…?
W-wait… where was my tongue supposed to rest…?
Uuu…! I was going to lose my mind…!!
It was all because of the stats!!
I wasn’t normally like this!!
“Ahem, hello. Um… I’m sorry about just now. I’m… a new hire… I think I got a little too carried away.”
The same receptionist named Shur who had just bellowed like a maniac…
…now bowed her head in a very meek voice.
If you were going to do that… you should have done it from the start!!
You only made… you only made me look ridiculous…
Hiding behind Rubia, I quietly nodded.
“Th-thank you… Then… what business brings you here today?”
“Ah, I’ll explain that.”
In a carefully lowered voice, Rubia began to recount everything that had happened in Roholan, step by step.
The more she spoke, the more the receptionist’s face drained into pure shock.
“And so… we came here. Where can we collect the subjugation reward?”
“Wh-wha… a-ah… u-uh… c-could it be…”
Now the shock had turned into outright fear as she looked at me.
Why me again…
“Excuse me… Miss Shur?”
“Hyeek…! Y-yes…”
“Um… then perhaps the head of the Urusphier Guild—”
“Is something the matter?”
A woman walking toward us from behind cut Rubia off, stepping between us and the receptionist.
Rubia quietly studied her, then carefully opened her mouth.
“Ah, we have money to collect from the head of this guild.”
Huh…?
Ru… Rubia…?
Wh-what kind of way is that to talk… like a loan shark…?
“…Pardon?”
“I have money to collect. From the head of this guild.”
The woman’s face hardened like stone.
“You have… money to collect…?”
“Yes. So please call them right away.”
Rubia hid me behind her and frowned as if the surrounding stares irritated her.
“…I am the head of the Urusphier Guild. ‘Revije.’ Do I have money to give you?”
“Then this will be quick. There are too many listening ears here… so let’s speak somewhere quiet.”
A faint anger settled into Revije’s expression.
“Just what in the world…”
Rubia hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a voice that carried the same faint anger.
“We came from Roholan.”
Rubia’s voice rang softly through the silent guild.
At once every gaze in the place locked onto us, and—
“Hyeek…”
—all the murmuring died away.
“My… I apologize. I should have checked your registration first…”
Revije glared hard at Shur behind her, then bowed her head and gestured inward.
“There are matters to discuss beyond the subjugation reward. Please, come inside.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
Rubia gave a small bow and tightly took my hand.
Then she whispered quietly.
“I expected the rumors to spread, but they spread faster than I thought.”
“Y-yeah…”
I nodded slowly and edged a little closer to her.
“I deliberately acted pushy so we could go straight to the head… I didn’t expect it to turn out like this. I’m sorry, Noah.”
“It’s okay… h-honestly I was a little surprised, but… you didn’t mean to, so… it’s fine.”
“Haa… thank you. But… aren’t you curious how exaggerated the rumors have gotten? I wonder how those people see you, Noah.”
At her words I widened my Qi Sensing.
Every single one of them was looking at me with complicated expressions.
That was a relief, at least.
Well… it didn’t seem like rumors calling me a beast or a magic beast had spread.
Maybe that receptionist Shur had just overreacted?
After all, the one who took down Carpeng was… Luci.
“Umm… they don’t seem to be thinking anyth—”
Black hair, greatsword…
A demon that drinks blood…!
“Pffft—! A blood-drinking, kuh-hup— a-a demon… hahahaha!”
Ah.
For real.