CH 228

Marte is a port town near a lake, that connects the three mountain towns to the city in the sky where the dragon king lives.

When I first heard of a city in the sky, I imagined a city actually floating in the air, but that’s not what it’s like.

In fact, it was merchants who came from outside the country that started calling it the city in the sky, because the reflection of the sky in the lake makes it look like it’s floating in the air.

I get the same feeling when I see this sight, and it looks like everyone else is also fascinated by it.

“Amazing…”

Someone whispers, and all I can do is quietly nod.

“Welcome to Marte. Hn… Try not to start any trouble.”

Says the gatekeeper after checking my guild card.

He actually seems bored. I’m assuming not a lot of people come here.

After going through the gate, a lot of eyes are pointed at us. I guess they really aren’t used to outsiders.

We’re going to check out the guilds for now. First the adventurer guild, then the merchant guild, and lastly the alchemist guild.

There are multiple inns to choose from, so we’ll pick one after getting information in the guilds. The sun is still high in the sky too.

We enter the adventurer guild, and see it’s pretty quiet.

There are quests posted on the board, but not a lot.

“Well this is rare. We don’t have a lot of quests available, but go ahead and accept one if you’d like.”

The receptionist is a man. That’s rare in itself, but he’s also a beast person.

“Doesn’t it look like there are more transport quests than hunting quests?”

“Yes. I guess a lot of them are about escorting food deliveries. And things like picking quests.”

I do get the feeling that there aren’t a lot of hunting quests. Back in that settlement built on the surface of the mountain, there were also a lot of tough looking people that could probably hunt monsters if they carried weapons.

And there might not be many monsters to begin with.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any at all. Sure enough, I see a few quests about hunting flying monsters. But there are more about investigating the forest.

They might hunt the monsters periodically before they can really settle.

“I think you will find rooms in any inn, but as for good food…”

He seems to be really thinking about it, and we should get a lot of information here. Hikari is holding on to Rurika’s waist and listening with a serious look on her face.

Once we’re done here, we split into two groups.

One is going to get us an inn and gather information around town, and the other is going to the merchant and alchemist guilds.

I’m on the latter, along with Hikari.

We’re going to meet up by a store near the center of town when we’re done. We settle on a fountain in the square as the place where we’ll wait, but it’s fine if our meeting place is vague, because I can just find them with Map if they’re around that area.

First we’re going to the merchant guild to ask about the laurel tree fruit.

“Laurel tree… I don’t think you can get it in this season.”

I’m told that not only is it expensive because it’s used for all sorts of medicine, but it’s also found in a dangerous place, so there aren’t a lot out on the market. And apparently we can’t even pick it without permission.

It sounds like Celes was right.

“Where can we get it?”

“The dragon king’s side. That island.”

He says while pointing outside the window, to the island floating on the lake.

“How do we get there? Are there boats at appointed times?”

I look at the pier, but don’t see any boats that would fit that purpose.

“The island… It might be tough for outsiders. I think you will need the permission of the feudal lord.”

So we can’t just come and go freely?

“Yes, a lot of outsiders want to go to Altea, because it’s easy to obtain precious materials there. But many of those people caused trouble, so it was decided that only those with the feudal lord’s permission are allowed to travel there.”

I say thank you and we leave the merchant guild.

Then we go to the alchemist guild, but they don’t have any laurel tree fruit. Bozen actually contacted them, but it was just after they used what they had.

“I heard we need the feudal lord’s permission to go to the island, but how do we meet him?”

“The feudal lord… Normally you could just go to the mansion… But that wouldn’t be easy for outsiders.”

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, guildmaster. This man wants to go to Altea.”

“An outsider? I am Yan, the guildmaster. Why do you want to go to the island?”

I guess Bozen didn’t tell them a lot.

I tell them what I can about what happened in the Majolica dungeon, and how the petrification cures we had couldn’t heal Casey completely.

“I see. So even holy magic could not cure it… Did they ask a high ranking priest?”

“…I assume so. I don’t know how high ranking, but the patient is close to the feudal lord of the region.”

“Eh… So you know nobles, mister?”

“I have connections. So what do I need to do to meet the feudal lord here?”

“And you know Bozen too? What’s your name, mister?”

“Sora.”

“Ah, I see. You uh? Got it. I’ll write a letter of recommendation. You’ll get to meet him, but I’m not guaranteeing you’ll be able to visit the island.”

We’ve managed to get to the next step, so that’s good at least.

But is it really that hard to get permission?

If it comes to that, I want to see if I can negotiate and try to get my hands on laurel tree fruit that way. But I wonder what this feudal lord is like.