CH 16

“… Sorry, could you say that again?”

On behalf of the astonished crowd, I cleared my throat and questioned the princely adventurer. He put on a slightly annoyed smile, but faced me without any hint of having taken offense to my question.

“Sorry for being so abrupt. I’m Lawrence Neygal, 9-star rank.”

“Ah, hello. I’m Sumire, and this is Fikar.”

“… 9 stars?!”

“Neygal… Lord Neygal?!”

I was just doing a normal handshake, but surprisingly, the people around us were getting excited. What is it? Is this guy someone really important?

When I looked around cluelessly, asking for help, a clerk told me, “He’s part of the noble family that governs the Neygal region in the north.” I’d never heard of that family, but he must’ve been important since he was a nobleman. I had heard that there were many strong monsters in the north though, so he was probably a strong and amazing person.

“Sure, I have the title of ‘Earl’, but I’m the third son, and I’m more of an adventurer who travels from place to place anyway.”

“Is that so…”

As I would later learn, peerage was given to people who controlled territory, and if multiple people in the family were involved in governing duties, then they could all share the title, with the family taking the name of the land as their own. The system seemed to have been created because noblemen mostly concerned themselves with politics in the royal capital, making it difficult to constantly go to and from their territories to deal with demons and disasters. I don’t know how the aristocracy worked in my original world, so that’s all the information I had.

“Fikar — I’ve met him once before.”

“Eh?! Is that true?”

Fikar glanced at Lawrence-san, but tilted his head and denied it with a shake.

“Well, we merely passed each other in the royal castle, so it’s not surprising that he doesn’t remember me.”

“Royal castle?”

You went to such a place, Fikar?

After he suddenly disappeared, I was able to track Fikar’s path by checking the request records collected by the guild, but it would take more time and authority than I had to find information about the exact nature of his work and where it required him to go. On the other hand, if you only wanted to know how many requests someone’s taken, you could just search them up by name and rank. So, except for the first month, I checked on the number of requests he’d taken from time to time, confirming that he was at least still alive, even if I didn’t know where he was. I also never questioned him about it, since he was so quiet about everything.

“Could it be that you haven’t told anyone?”

According to Lawrence-san, he and two other party members he usually worked with were invited to the royal capital and ordered by the king to subjugate the Demon Lord. The central guild1 had put out a request for high-ranked adventurers to defeat the Demon Lord, but it seemed only natural that a high-ranked noble would be personally assigned to slay it. However, just as they were about to head out, news of the Demon Lord’s demise was brought to the royal castle. The victorious party was a single, low-ranked, 4-star adventurer on a dragon, but the central guild apparently had “irrefutable proof” of his feat and rushed an envoy to the castle.

“What is this ‘irrefutable proof’?”

“It’s a very fine fibrous magic stone. It’s unique to the Demon Lord and is impossible to refine, so anyone who knows of it will immediately recognize it.”

So, according to that story, the completion requirement for the Demon Lord subjugation request was to bring back the fibrous magic stone. The royal castle and central guild scrambled to confirm the facts of the matter, but the person in question jumped onto his dragon after receiving his rewards — without replying to the voices asking him to stop.

I was inwardly going “awawawawa” and sweating by that point.

The gold coins that Fikar handed over endlessly, the gold coins that were used mainly to make our meals a little more luxurious… they were the reward for defeating the Demon Lord!

“We investigated with some volunteers, and the number of monsters had clearly decreased. The plants growing at the foot of Mount Thracias2, where the Demon Lord supposedly lived, were also noticeably less toxic.”

“I see… Fikar, you really did beat the Demon Lord, huh?”

Fikar nodded. Please don’t agree so easily.

“Um, so… You came to see Fikar?”

“Mhm. I wanted to see if it’s true that he’s a 4-star adventurer. Also, my companions had a bit of a temper afterwards.”

The prince-adventurer Lawrence-san stepped back and towards the side, slightly lowering his head, and introduced his companions to us. One was a muscular Schwarzenegger-type guy that made you want to say “Wait, did a boulder just arrive?”, while the other was a gloomy-looking wizard in a black robe and holding a staff as tall as he was. The latter was tapping his staff on the ground and staring intensely.

Err… this is…

Fikar, are you in a pinch?

“Oi oi, this skinny guy’s the Hero? You’re joking.”

He was a young, burly man with tanned skin and short silver hair. Even with the same silver hair, Fikar’s was a brighter silver that reflected the colors of the rainbow, while his was more of a smoky silver. There was also a bulky sword peeking out from behind his body, although he probably handled it with ease considering that he looked like he could squeeze the oil out of a walnut with his bare hands. With his gray eyes, he was staring at Fikar with an expression like an onigawara.

“The fact that he had the Demon Lord’s magic stone does not prove that he was the one who slew it.”

The other young man, sneering under his dark robe, had long greenish hair hanging out from his hood. The hood and hair obscured his eyes, but I could see his broad nose and twisted mouth. Well, most of his body was obscured by his robe that flowed to the ground anyway, but the hand that held his giant staff was out in the open and looked quite firm. The shape of a sword was also visible from within his robe, so it was clear that he wasn’t a man of just books or magic.

“Let me introduce them. This is the great swordsman, Degis Galgancia. And the magician is Kilris Palricas.”

“Galgancia… like, the Rock Fortress?”

“Yeah, you know your stuff.”

Degis-san’s hand was so big that I could only shake three of his fingers. Kilris-san was just glaring at me. Sorry, but I’m not a geography expert. Lawrence-san saw this and followed up.

“Palricas is a village of magicians. Everyone there, children and adults, they’re all trained to be magicians.”

“Ehh? I heard that there aren’t many magicians though? There’s such an amazing place?”

“… fuu~”

I wasn’t sure if that meant I got a passing grade or what, but Kilris-san let out a sharp huff and extended his hand. I grasped it lightly and tried to release, but he pulled me in. He took a good, long look at my hand, then brought his face up to mine, looking directly into my eyes. On that note, his eyes, previously hidden by his hood and hair, were a dark shade of orange.

“I thought your hair color was unusual, but… fuu~, you’re as unimpressive as I imagined.”

“Really?…”

“On top of that, this is… hebu–!3”

Shocked by the fact that I was almost certainly completely incapable of ever using magic, Kilris-san tried getting an even closer look, but Fikar suddenly grabbed his face and he stumbled backwards. Fikar’s other hand was being used to tightly grip me.

“Wait, Fikar, I think it’d be better if you didn’t do that…”

“No, Kilris could’ve been more polite. Sumire, I’m sorry.”

“You, you can’t just suddenly grab someone’s face!”

“Sorry, Kilris-san. Come on, Fikar, say sorry…”

Kilris-san, who had been quivering with indignation, looked to have regained his composure after my apology and Lawrence-san’s intervention. He snorted, not hiding his continued displeasure.

“Is this man your pet or something? You haven’t trained him well if he can’t make a sound.”

Indeed. Or so I was about to agree and apologize again.

“Fikar is silent and expressionless and there are some parts of him I don’t really understand… but he’s strong and caring, and he always helps me.”

“Yeah? You sure about that ‘strong’ part? 4-star, right?”

Fikar, with a subtly moody yet still expressionless face, took out his guild card with the hand that wasn’t gripping me and tossed it at Degis-san. Seeing that there were indeed only four stars on the card that looked strangely small in his hand, Degis-san laughed like an idiot. The other two looked on and responded similarly, but not with as much vigor as Degis-san.

“But, Fikar has Su on his side and he should be able to go higher once he takes the promotion exam.”

“This benihiryuu… I’m sure anyone could catch something like this.”

“Right? For these northern ohryuus that we’re riding, it’d be difficult unless you’re at least an 8-star.”

Perhaps sensing that the slimeball-muscleman combo was making fun of her, Su starting thumping on the ground with one foot. It was nice that she wasn’t barking, but the ground was shaking slightly. She quieted down as soon as I petted her a bit, maybe because Fikar was nearby.

Su, who had been silently squinting at me, suddenly raised her head the moment I stopped petting her, letting out a quick “Gau!” When I reached out with my hands to calm her down again… Lawrence-san and co.’s dragons started making noise as well. They were all looking in the same direction as Su, but making softer noises. Gazing towards where Su was baring her teeth, I saw two things flying in a row. As they grew larger and larger in the sky, I realized they were dragons, with tails that were swimming in some sort of light-reflecting cloth. Once they reached the space above the plaza, the dragons used their large wings to turn around, now with only their backs visible from below.

“That flag belongs to the knights of the royal capital and the central guild.”

Lawrence-san, who had been looking up and using his hands to shade his eyes, turned to Fikar.

“You’re the person we’ve been looking for after all.”