Episode 21.1

Lecan finished his breakfast early and headed to the west gate.

All gates in this town open at two of Princess Turtle (Fengel) time.

Queues of travelers are already waiting inside and outside west and east gates, while vegetable carts from Patz and Rumoi villages are lined up outside south and north gates.

Just as the west gate opened, a familiar looking guard found Lecan and urged him to pass through without getting in the line.

"Thanks."

"Are you going somewhere. Have a safe trip."

The way the guard spoke to him changed. He's all polite now. The fact that Lecan has been promoted to Gold Rank Adventurer must have been communicated. This kind of trivial matters is a sign of the town lord's competent rules.

Lecan cast <Acceleration (Mora)> on himself.

The effect of the magic first manifested after running for about 100 steps, reaching maximum acceleration at 1000 steps.

He can run at a shockingly high speed using just a little stamina.

It's as if he's cutting through winds.

(What a wonderfully pleasant magic this is!)

Lecan experienced the pleasure of running for the first time.

This <Acceleration> magic can supposedly be cast on others. In other word, Nike could have cast it on Lecan during their first herb gathering outing together back then. Looking back, she never cast <Recovery> on him either.

Was that her way of telling to learn them himself, thought Lecan.

Golbul shortly came into view as Lecan was enjoying himself.

Just as he was about to arrive, a familiar man riding on a horse drew closer. The other party also noticed Lecan and slowed down his horse.

"Hey there, Lecan-dono."

"Commander Tesla huh. I see, the messenger was you."

"How'd you get here so fast? Did you set out yesterday?"

"No. Got out of town this morning when the gate opened."

"No way. And you've already gotten here? Well I guess it's you after all. I have passed on the message from our town lord to Earl Golbul-sama, informing him that you have no intention of selling <Dagger of Harut>, and that you are willing to show it to him at least."

"Got it."

"Well then, give it your all."

Commander Tesla ran his horse once again after saying that, but then he stopped and turned around.

"You. You know about Article 28 of the Kingdom Laws right?"

"No."

"You don't? Article 28 of the Kingdom Laws is also known as <Dungeon Laws>. Here's what it says. <No one is to stop anyone entering dungeons>, <No laws are applicable inside dungeons>, <Ownership of every items possessed by those who come out of a dungeon is on him, her or them>."

"Weird how the laws regulate lawlessness in dungeons."

"True enough. Haha. Well, historically, the kingdom had made numerous attempts to uphold laws in dungeons, but never once it went well. In the end they ruled that laws don't reach dungeons to wash their hand of it entirely."

"I see."

"The important part to remember when you meet Earl Golbul is the <Ownership of every items possessed by those who come out of a dungeon is on him, her or them>. Some of tactics often used by Earl Golbul are telling promising adventurers to present any nice items they find, or to put it on auction, then later on they would claim that they had an agreement when they said that."

"I see."

"There are adventurers who explore dungeons by agreement for sure. So are adventurers who sell dungeon items as agreed upon in the agreement. However, all items an adventurer got in a dungeon is rightfully theirs. Whether to sell them or not is that adventurer's choice to take."

"Naturally."

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"Kingdom Laws take precedence over individual cases. The things you got in dungeons are yours."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Commander Tesla lowered his voice here.

"Don't let those Golbul bunch take you for a ride. Well, I reckon you'd be fine."

"Yea."

"Okay then, see you later!"

Commander Tesla turned his horse around and went back to town of Vouka.

Unusually enough for Lecan, he lightly waved with his right hand at the commander's back.

Lecan went inside town of Golbul and headed straight for the Dungeon Guards's station.

"Lecan! You're here already?"

Commander of Dungeon Golbul's Guards, Doug immediately greeted him.

"Sorry, but you gotta follow me to the lord's mansion now."

"Of course."

Mansion of Earl Golbul, Gaionis Douga was a gaudy garish one.

Doug led Lecan to the front gate. The gatekeeper seemed to be aware of Lecan's coming, he ran off into the mansion with a surprised look on his face without even trying to guide them inside.

Doug brought Lecan to a spacious entrance with many people busily running about, yet no one would greet either Doug or Lecan.

Lecan's sharp ears could hear them saying things like, 'he's here already', or 'wasn't it in the evening'.

The two were left standing for quite some time.

"Sorry about this, Lecan. This isn't how it should be. Someone in my position just don't get taken seriously in this mansion, see."

"I'm used to waiting at nobles' mansions. Those bunch don't even think adventurers as humans."

"Oy, oy, you shouldn't say that out loud."

Someone finally showed up, it was Tomaj Douga. Eldest son of Earl Golbul.

Lecan encountered the man once inside the dungeon, the same guy also entertained him when he dropped by this town back then.

"Hey, Lecan! Glad to have you here! Hahaha. Now come this way. Geez, what are you doing, Doug. How could you let our hero stand here of all place."

"S-sir."

"At least commander Doug stood here with me. In a span of time enough to have three meals, none of the people in this mansion greeted me or told me where to go and just left me standing here. Good to know how Earl Golbul treat adventurers."

"I had no idea. Sorry."

Tomaj bowed down deeply.

Lecan thought, ah crap. He ended up making the successor of a town lord bow to him.

(No, not good.)

(I've gotta behave modestly.)

(That's ultimately for the best.)

Lecan planned to adopt Shira's teaching to concede on everything he can concede once again.

However, he was quickly made aware that just as there are people where that works, there are also those where it doesn't.