Volume 2 - CH 11

"What are you? By whose permission do you stand before me?"

"You don't need to know about me. You tattooed son of a bitch."

――Could it be me too?

Mars regretted it a little after he said it.

From a third party's point of view, they both use slaves and have slave crests carved on their hands. In other words, both of them are tattooed bastards.

"I am Garland Rubella Levent, second in line to the throne of the Kingdom of Levent and future king! How dare a fool like you speak out before I know what to expect and ask your forgiveness. I am not even allowed to have an audience with you before my eyes. I am in heaven. In addition, I am a dungeon conqueror. I am a warrior, a man of knowledge, a man of position, a man of wealth, a man who is different from the fools in every way."

With gestures, Garland acts as if he were an actor.

He is a proud and arrogant man.

After confirming his personality, Mars decides to deal with him in a way that tickles his pride.

"I didn't know about that country until just now. I really, really don't care about your status. I just came out here because I couldn't watch the violence against that kid."

When I glanced at her, I saw that the cat-eared girl with white hair and light blue hair was cowering on the ground, trying to catch her breath.

Her back was swollen and round as if she was inhaling all the air she couldn't breathe.

It made me sad just to see how she was handling the situation.

It made me realize that torture was an everyday thing for her.

――Aah, I'm such a softie and a hypocrite after all.

I have no intention of helping everyone, but I feel compelled to help the unfortunate people I meet in front of me.

"What I do with my property is my business. I don't need you to tell me what to do with it. ――Now, let me ask you again. By whose permission do you stand before me?"

"No one. And I don't even think I need to."

――As expected, this guy's pride is quite high.

But still, a prince ...... second place, isn't the first place guy usually the next king?

And yet, he's the next king?

――I'm not sure what the rules are for nobility and royalty.

Well, for now, it's better to take the attitude of mocking him.

It's easier to talk to him if he's angry.

"You also have slaves with you. You don't seem to be in a position to complain about others, do you?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly, the prince ――Garland looked at Lilia, who was wearing the back of Mars' hand and collar.

Lilia stripped off the robe that hid her face, exposing her long ears to the crowd, and raised her voice in a harsh tone.

"Don't put you and my Master together!"

"Elf......, you have some unusual things. I can understand why you would want a rare thing that no one else has."

Garland was observing Lilia closely.

No matter where you are from, humans have an aversion to elves.

They are longer-lived, more intelligent, and have a greater aptitude for magic than humans.

If you look at them as a single creature, they are much higher than humans.

He was proud of his race, and Garland knew that he did not have the temperament to be so noble and obedient.

Elves do not generally leave the forest, nor do they willingly antagonize people, but they have been hostile to each other since a long time ago.

As a prince, Garland kept a variety of slaves, but this was the first time he had seen an actual elf.

"I I I-I'm here too.……!"

Hazuki, who was in the middle of the crowd, approached Mars from the crowd with a sluggish gait, her mouth agape, her voice and face as if she were about to cry.

Her inner thighs trembled, and she held her staff in front of her chest.

The lower half of her body was trying hard to move forward, but the upper half of her body was slumped back, as if she didn't want to go.

Standing in front of a crowd of probably a thousand people was almost terrifying for Hazuki, who was basically shy.

She could have stayed hidden, but she wanted to be recognized by Mars as one of them, so she mustered up the courage.

Lilia must be even more uncomfortable with the human race than Hazuki, but she stood up to him in this situation.

Hazuki knows that this is the reason for the difference in how Mars reacts to Lilia and Hazuki.

Mars lowered both Hazuki and Lilia behind him.

It was honestly nice to see them come out, but if they stayed in front of him, he might not be able to help them when they needed it.

"I don't understand. Why are you standing in front of me?"

Garland let out a squeak of displeasure.

Unaccustomed to being interrupted and having things not go his way, Garland was annoyed by the foreign object that was Mars.

The elf, Lilia, and her companion, Hazuki, were not the kind of people Garland should have allowed to stand in front of him without permission.

If it was to admire him, he would allow it. If it's not, he won't allow it.

From Garland's point of view, Mars is just an ordinary man.

The clothes he wears, the sword he carries, nothing about him stands out.

"Hey. If you don't want it, you can sell it to me if you want to kill it. As you can see, I'm a sucker for pretty girls. I especially have a thing for the different kinds."

「Fu, fufu, fuhahaha! What are you talking about!? You want what belongs to the king!? Don't you dare speak so loudly, fool!"

"No, you said you're not king yet. ......right? Well, that's okay. I want it anyway. I have a little bit of money. I want you to sell it to me. The price is ...... I don't know the market, so say what you want. If I can afford it, I'll buy it."

――Almost there. This tattooed bastard may offer a sum of money for now to show how big he is.

Otherwise, if he doesn't want to give it up, he won't even answer in the first place. Even if they did, they would just say it was impossible and that would be the end of it.

And if I told him the price in front of such a large crowd, he wouldn't mince words when I paid him.

It's too embarrassing a situation for someone who calls himself a king to go back on.

"Well, yes, ...... three thousand, no, fifty million. If you want to pay 50 million, I can sell it to you. It may be a little too much for a beast like this!"

In Japanese yen, this is equivalent to fifty million yen, an amount of money that Mars should not have, given his appearance and luggage.

"Your Highness! Nem is not exchangeable for money! Have you forgotten that His Highness gave you the magic of the [Forbidden Magic Book] for fun! Even if you exclude that, Nem's abilities are...――"

Ethan Schmidt, the large man behind Prince Garland, said in a loud voice commensurate with his size.

Unlike Garland, who looked down on everything equally, Ethan knew the value of Nem, the slave cat-eared girl.

Before Ethan could say anything more, Mars smiled and said loudly.

"You said it?　――There you go. That should be 50 million."

Mars plunges his right hand into the pitch black space and spreads a rough pile of gold coins into the traffic.

The people looked at the gold coins, which seemed to have suddenly sprung up, and let out a groan.

"【Treasure House of Dreams】……You're a breaker, too.――I am a king and I do not make mistakes in what I say. Check the amount and give him Nem."

A red-haired woman in white armor carried Nem on her back with a cold look in her eyes.

She seemed to be a member of Garland's entourage. She is beautiful, but her tense face is not pretty.

Mars received Nem, who was limp and nearly unconscious from pretending to be a princess, and immediately left her in the care of Lilia and Hazuki.

"Both of you! I know she's all right, but you need to heal her!"

"Yes!"

She had been suspended by her neck just a few moments ago, but after Lilia's arrow had knocked her to the ground, she had been able to breathe and seemed to be conscious, albeit faintly.

Even so, if she didn't healed quickly, there might be some after-effects.

After handing over Nem, a slave print disappeared from Garland's heavily tattooed arm.

"Remember this. The next time we meet, I will cut off your head from your body."

Garland pointed his sword at Mars from the top of the carriage with a look of irritation that he did not try to hide.

The high-pitched squeak of metal scraping against metal drowned out the sound of the crowd.

The sword was overly decorated, but the blade was sharp and thinly polished.

The most significant feature was the absence of a blade tip.

It was round, like a butter knife.

It was the first time he had seen it, but Mars knew what it was used for from his previous life.

A sword for execution.

It had only one purpose: to cut off heads.

That's why it doesn't need a sword tip.

For the man named Garland, the sword was a tool for cutting off the heads of the weak in a safe environment.

"I don't think we'll be seeing each other again, though?"

"The breaker is in a place like this. ――We're here for one thing, right? We're here to open the gates to the heroes among heroes, the summit that no one has ever reached before."

"……"

――The seven great dungeons. An uncharted territory where no one has ever even returned alive.

I guess this small-scale dungeon conquest was a test to see how strong they were.

And the results were good, weren't they?

"Well, I don't care if you think so. ――But I've never wanted to be a hero. Please don't lump us with together."

Spitting it out, Mars ran over to Lilia and the others.

He was not interested in Prince Garland as an individual.

――With this, the first condition for the capture is cleared.

These guys are going to make our dungeon attack easier.

Tightening his loose lips, Mars disappears into the crowd with the three of them.