Volume 2 - CH 3.1

Act 2-3.1 : In The Hot Spring Country

With Rember summing up the whole situation, Kuroki felt something was amiss.

Kuro, who had been conversing with Rember a while ago, was Kuroki in disguise.

（I never thought there would be a day where I, a human summoned from another world solely to defeat the hero, would become his bodyguard.）

Nevertheless, Kuroki decided to help Rember since it was a rare chance for him to be acquainted with someone outside of Nargol. Moreover, he thought it would be fine since he won’t meet Reiji and the others directly and would only act as their bodyguard from afar. They would probably not even notice him.

The reason for him coming to the area surrounding Rox Kingdom was to gather the ingredients needed for creating a Goddess. He recalled his last conversation with Modes once he went to his palace and demanded his reward.

「We need a dragon’s horn. The horn of dragon king nonetheless, otherwise we will fail.」

Just from this required ingredient alone Kuroki could surmise that creating a Goddess wasn’t something that could be prepared in a hurry. Moreover, that ingredient was not the only unusual one. According to Modes, they needed special and rare materials to create a Goddess and couldn’t cut down or replace these materials with anything else, otherwise it’ll end in complete and utter failure.

He was told that a dragon, hailed as the Holy Dragon King of Silver, was within the vicinity of Rox Kingdom, and that its dragon horn could be used as material for the Goddess’s creation. When Modes was providing him with the necessary information, he had started gushing about his beloved Mona. Apparently she was made using the Demon Dragon King of Lustrous Black’s horn. This ingredient was the reason why Mona’s hair color was different from Rena’s.

However, for many reasons, Kuroki felt it was difficult for him to do such a task. Cutting a dragon’s horn was no easy feat. Firstly, according to hearsay, it was said that Dragon Kings were powerful beasts, hard to tame or win against in a fight, so he felt that winning against that kind of beast wasn’t going to be easy, even for him. Secondly, he felt uncomfortable with going through with it. Modes’s seemed harmless as it came out sweetly from his mouth, but it was actually quite brutal. He had asked Kuroki to bring the dragon’s horn, but made it seem like he was not going to harm it by doing so, as if it was as simple as plucking one teeny tiny feather from a ginormous bird, they wouldn’t feel it missing.

But Kuroki felt otherwise. Since coming to this world, he had personally witnessed the danger of his power. Taking the horn from the dragon would probably render it dead—he didn’t want to harm a dragon just for the sake of his selfishness and lustfulness, especially since he now knew how it felt like to have a dragon as a companion.

He recalled how good it felt when he rode Glorious through the sky until they arrived near Rox Kingdom. Though an unauthorized person was bound to be in trouble  if they were found flying in Elios’s airspace by the Holy Knights, Kuroki had no such problem as those very same Holy Knights had already been annihilated by none other than himself.

（Honestly, I overdid it last time…. I really lost my temper that night and just crushed everyone who blocked my way without thinking too much about it. Every time I hear that they were annihilated I wonder how much damage I caused to them for people to say so. On the bright side, thanks to that I can fly on Glorious in the sky free from worries. I guess I’m quite fortunate in that aspect.）

Along his way towards Rox Kingdom’s areas, Kuroki has pondered about this matter. Compared to the Nargol’s sky, the majority of this world’s sky was a clear blue, just like his original world’s sky.

He really enjoyed the experience of riding on the back of a dragon as it flew under the blue sky. Though he could very well use magic to fly, he felt that nothing could beat the sensation of riding on the back of a dragon.

That’s why Kuroki couldn’t forgive any egotistical person who would try to take Glorious’s horn, who he experienced the joy of flying with.

That might be part of the reason why Kuroki wasn’t that eager to do this job of cutting another dragon’s horn.

Nevertheless, he had nothing to do after he came to this place.

Kuroki who felt that it might be better to do something rather than do nothing ended up coming all the way til this place on Glorious’s back. On another note, Nut wasn’t with him at the moment.

Thus he hid Glorious in a tower in the middle of the forest since he couldn’t just parade him Glorious through the city. He had already confirmed that the tower was abandoned a long time ago and that no one would come near its vicinity. He decided to hide Glorious in the tower’s hollowed top head. He made sure to come visit his companion every now and then to make sure that he was alright, but he always found his dragon lively in there.

According to Lugus, a dragon would eat only when it was the time for it to eat, otherwise it wouldn’t eat anything. At the moment, Glorious didn’t seem to need to eat anything.

When his train of thought reached that point, Kuroki submerged himself in the hot spring all the way til his shoulder.

He was currently using the public hot spring in Rox Kingdom.

Gallios had invited him to go to this place after they parted ways with Rember.

It was obvious that this location was quite popular as many others were enjoying the hot spring around them.

Though he had come here for nothing at the end as he was rather reluctant to cut the Dragon King’s horn, the hot spring was fantastic. He felt that he didn’t waste his time after coming so far to this place.

Rox’s hot spring establishment wasn’t that well made, it was only a simple rock bath.

However, it was still well equipped. They had soothing liquid foam, made from a certain rare plant’s oil, that they offered guests and even had a sauna-like room, perfectly furbished. Kuroki ended up nostalgically recalling his time in Japan when he soaked himself in a hot spring.

（I wonder how everyone’s doing now. Are they worried about us? Can we go back in one piece?）

When thinking about Japan, he had lost himself in his own thoughts. After waking up from his daze, he felt that he had soaked himself in the hot spring for a little bit too long. It was high time he left.

「Oioi, leaving already, Kuro?」

Asked Gallios.

Kuroki looked at Gallios. He was undoubtedly a very hairy man. His body was filled with scars, a testament to his way of life.

Kuroki met Gallios just the other night.

He had accidentally stumbled upon the injured Gallios when he was walking inside of the forest, foraging for his own food. He wanted to help him right away and heal him, but unfortunately, he could only use self-healing magic, which is why he couldn’t heal Gallios then and there. Seeing that he was on the brink of death, Kuroki quickly decided to carry Gallios on his back all the way to Rox Kingdom.

He had thought that it would be difficult for him to enter with Gallios since he had always been refused entry wherever he went. However, unexpectedly, Gallios was a famous figure in Rox Kingdom; the gatekeeper had noticed Gallios, who was carried on Kuroki’s back, immediately.

This was his first time in the area inside of the rampart, he couldn’t believe that he made it in, and through the front gate no less. It seems that Rox Kingdom was rather lax in terms of entry as long as that person didn’t commit a crime.

It seems that entry rules were different in each country. There are countries that will only allow one to enter if they pay the appropriate amount of entry fee, and then there are other countries that won’t allow anyone to enter unless they are their own citizens or their allied country’s citizens.

Speaking of money, unlike in his previous journey, Kuroki made sure he brought human currency this time. In fact, his previous money conundrum in the Holy Republic of Lenaria could’ve been easily solved if he had known the “rules”. He had only had a hard time last time because he didn’t know how to exchange gems with money. Thankfully, it was solved easily by creating his own money, or as others call it, through his “Private coinage”.

The Holy Republic of Lenaria is not the only country that has the right to issue money, every country has the right to make their own money, which is why it was not hard for him to make money in private. The problem was whether the one that he made could pass the inspection.

There’s metal that resembles copper, silver, and gold even in this world. The diameter of a coin has to be around 2~3 cm whether they are a copper coin, silver coin, or gold coin. So, as long as he makes a gold coin with the Holy Republic of Lenaria’s gold coin as the base, it might be able to pass as a normal gold coin.

In short he just needed to acquire metal such as gold or silver to create the money if he ever needed money.

Naturally, there were also people who made poor quality money such as the Yen coin, which is made by mixing other metals with the main three.

Nargol was a country that never collected gold or silver and just mined a bit of copper. From there, he had mass produced copper coins using a sample he got in the Holy Republic of Lenaria. Kuroki’s coins were very well made, so even if they were privately made, he could use them in many places. He had asked Gallios if he could use his coins in Rox Kingdom and had gotten his approval. So he was no longer worried about money.

（Nevertheless, I think I shouldn’t use thess hand made copper coins recklessly during my stay in Rox Kingdom…）

Gallios was letting Kuroki stay in his home during his stay in the kingdom as a show of gratitude after he had saved Gallios’s life last night. And today, he even brought Kuroki along with him to enjoy the hot spring. Naturally, free of charge.

Though Kuroki felt grateful for Gallios’s hearty reception, he felt that Gallios didn’t need to go that far. He smiled wryly as he responded to his earlier question.

「Yeah, I think we’ve been soaking long enough.」