Chapter 46: Being On Your Way, Egyptian Style

After checking the map, we confirm the fastest route to the Crimson Tree Caves and set out towards them.

The fastest route leads through the Thirdrema’s main road, but we had to avoid it in order to not to run into anyone who would like to say hi to us by stabbing us in the heart.

「Let’s go through here and take this back alley……」

「We might even want to pass through here on the way. It’s going to be a shortcut!」

「Hm, I see…… Right.」

After deciding on our preferable route, we set out without delay.

「He’s not here……」

Saiga-0 let out a heavy sight while sitting in a player-run restaurant, feeling down.

When it comes to Thirdrema, it was a city in which various players with “Chef” profession were competing against one another in order to create the “dishes inside of the game that taste as good as their real world counterparts”.

Amongst the various stores, this one was Saiga-0’s favorite. It was serving the dishes that were created from the ingredients that could be found in the nearby Crimson Trees Cave. As for her favorite dish, it was the “Caesar’s Salad with Glowing Moss and Nitro Tomatoes.” And because it tasted so unbelievably good, Saiga-0 developed a passion for salad even in real life.

「I knew that there would be a lot of people here, but it is really crowded.」

The reason why she came here in the first place was because she felt frustrated and needed a change of pace.

So, what was it that she could do for things to change? The answer that Saiga-0 came up with was the “change of mindset”.

(In other ways, I must change the ways I do certain things.)

That was the theory. But when it came to putting the theory into practice, Saiga-0 had a huge problem with coming up with anything…… Then she raised her head.

「Yes?」

Right before her eyes, there was this thing with only eyebrows and eyes on its face, with the whole of its body being covered by something that looked like a long white cloak…… It was flying in the air while having a difficult time with keeping its balance.

「Umm, this is, that Egyptian one……」

Maybe it was some kind of divine providence, but at that moment something seemed to have clicked inside of Saiga-0’s mind.

「…… Ha!」

At that moment, Saiga-0’s mind managed to connect the disjointed words at the speed of light.

Bare feet, markings, cloak, mystery, the one she was looking for…… That person’s nametag was far away and the nametag was really small, but Saiga-0 was sure that it was in fact four syllables long. She couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, but Saiga-0 was sure that this hooded person was in fact Sanraku.

It was a sudden realization and opportunity. But opportunity was only worth so much unless you choose to take action on it. Her favorite salad was yet to arrive at her table, but Saiga-0 didn’t care. She stood up and started running towards that person who was doing his best to conceal his presence.

「C, could you stop wriggling around there so suddenly!?」

「Oh my, I’m sorry, but it’s really hard to be hiding inside here like that! Not to mention that it’s also embarrassing!」

This item’s name was “Medjed’s Cloak (Note: Is that you, Nitocris!?).

No matter how you look at it, this item looked exactly like the pictures on the Egyptian murals that you could see in books or on the Internet. Right now, I looked like the henchmen of some Old God or a boss monster.

This was technically a headpiece, but it was so long that it reached all the way down to my knees, so I was able to effectively cover up almost the entirety of my body with this item alone. However, this item was also rendered it impossible to use your hands and skills, which made combat with monsters impossible to conduct. Hence, the trash item. Also, its design was somewhat embarrassing to use in the city like that.

Dressed like that, I was jumping from roof to roof, dashing through the back alleys, and sometimes even sprinting through the main street.

Although it was awfully conspicuous, thanks to that I was hoping to be able to conceal my real identity as Sanraku, at least to some extent. And even if someone is to figure out my identity, I would be long gone before anyone would be able to act on it. In my mind, it was the perfect strategy.

「But why are we making such an awfully long of a detour!?」

「Faint! Faint, my dear friend!」

We keep on running, sometimes using wooden boxes or walls as stepping stones that would allow us to get onto the higher ground more easily.

But currently we were running towards the Ancient Ruins, not the Crimson Trees Cave. However, our destination remained largely the same. It was only a diversion that we would use to try to confuse anyone who was thinking about tailing us. We were going to get back on course at the last possible moment.

「Listen up, Emul. If you want to trick and lie to people effectively, telling straight up lies will do you no good. You need to learn how to mix truth with lies in such proportions that they will start to seem genuine to your targets.」

This is Pencilgton and his goons we are talking about here. Simple tricks and small deceptions wouldn’t work on them. If we wanted to evade them, we needed to put in some genuine effort in this.

With everyone thinking we were going towards the Ancient Ruins, we should get enough breathing room to be able to visit the Caves without being disturbed by anyone. I was really hoping it would work out just like that.

「Now then, let’s give them one hell of a show!」

「Kyaaaah!? I get it! I get it already, so please stop with the somersaults! I beg of you!!!」