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TLN: Two chapters today! Make sure you didn’t miss previous one~.
“So that’s the capital of Laphroaig…” (Makoto)
This is the first time I have come to a big human city in this era.
It is surrounded by not too tall walls, and it doesn’t look like the defenses are high.
“Then, let’s go.” (Makoto)
“Please wait.” (Abel)
Hero Abel grabbed my hand when I was about to move forward.
He is currently in his male form.
“What’s the matter, Abel-san?” (Makoto)
“Makoto-san, did you forget what Julietta-san said? Our comrades haven’t come back since the time they went to the capital of the Moon Country. Let’s check out the state of things first.” (Abel)
“Ah, yeah, you are right.” (Makoto)
Right.
That’s the basics of adventuring.
We should inspect locations you go for the first time.
“Eeh~, it is okay, Our King! No matter what comes, I -the Great Water Spirit- will kick their asses.” (Dia)
Dia appeared and proposed to march on.
“That’s not good, Dia-san! I know plenty well that you are strong, but it is not good to solve everything with violence.” (Abel)
“Oh my, are you giving your opinion to me, human? A weak being like you who collapsed from the mere waves of my magic—Ah! Our King, please don’t glare at me in such a manner! It was a joke!” (Dia)
“Abel-san, sorry for the rudeness of my Dia.” (Makoto)
I reprimand Dia who was saying rude things to Hero Abel.
If I had to be honest here, I do have a side of me who thinks that things will be okay with Dia.
But the words of Hero Abel are something I can’t ignore.
Also, it should have been my creed to be careful.
When did I have such a whatever happens happens kind of mentality?
-“Makoto, you always do reckless things at the drop of a hat!”
Now that I think about it, whenever I would rush into things, Noah-sama would stop me.
I now don’t hear the voice of Noah-sama who guided me before.
…I will be careful, Noah-sama.
I apologized to Noah-sama in my heart.
“Abel-san, thanks for pointing it out. Let’s investigate the city for a bit.” (Makoto)
“Yes, Makoto-san.” (Abel)
We decide on observing the people coming in and out of the city.
I used my Farsight as well, but when it comes to the better eyes, the White Dragon-san and the Great Sage-sama are on a whole other level.
It would be better to ask them instead.
“White Dragon-san, Momo, how is it?” (Makoto)
“The ones doing the inspections are monkeys.” (Mel)
“What bothers me is that…there’s also people who don’t look like humans. What are those…?” (Momo)
“Must be devilkin. A mix of human and demon… Even so, there’s quite a lot.” (Mel)
The White Dragon-san answered the question of Momo.
I see, so there’s a lot of devilkin, huh.
“Devilkin…?” (Abel)
It must not be a familiar term for Hero Abel, he tilted his head.
“What will you do, Spirit User-kun?” (Mel)
“Right…” (Makoto)
The White Dragon-san asked me, but I actually know the background story for that.
Laphroaig in the Dark Era held the banner of ‘race harmony’ between humans and demons.
The thought that if all the people of the world were to be devilkin, peace should come.
That’s why it isn’t strange for Cornet to have devilkin along with humans.
The reason why there’s marriages between humans and demons who are supposed to hate each other is because of the Charm of the Calamity Witch.
The demons and humans become a false married couple -a demonic city where many devilkin live in.
But for the other 3 who don’t know about this history, they must be feeling something is off.
(Nothing gained unless we enter the tiger’s den.) (Makoto)
Judging from what we have gained from observing for half a day, it doesn’t seem like there’s any big danger from just entering.
Then, any further than this would be a waste of time.
“Doesn’t look like we will be getting any more information here unless we infiltrate the city.” (Makoto)
“Can’t be helped… If the situation requires it, I will bail us out.” (Mel)
That’s reassuring.
“Let’s go then. Dia, stay hidden till I call you, okay?” (Makoto)
“…Okay~.” (Dia)
I point this out to Dia who seemed to be dissatisfied, and decided to approach the city.
I thought about using Transform, but it is a city where humans and devilkin can freely go in.
If I were to mess up somewhere in my transformation and it is discovered, it would just bring suspicion on me.
I didn’t disguise myself.
We approach the big gates.
“Next ones~. Hm? Haven’t seen those faces around before.”
The gatekeeper called us to a stop.
“1 big woman, 2 young men, and 1 little girl, huh… What’s your relationship? What’s your business in this city?”
Rather than asking out of suspicion, it felt like he was questioning out of curiosity.
I tell the story that we decided beforehand.
“Al, Momo, and I are siblings. The one here is our mother. We lost our father because of a disease, and we came here looking for work. Is it okay for us to enter the city?” (Makoto)
I decided to make Abel go by a fake name because he is a Hero.
For the others, there should be no problems with our actual names.
“I see… That must have been rough.”
The face of the gatekeeper changed to that of sympathy.
“It must have been rough raising your children alone as a single mother… The inside of the city is safe thanks to the protection of Her Majesty. I hope you can find a job. Your brothers as well, make sure to help out your mother, okay? Here, I will give you candy.”
“Thanks, uncle.” (Momo)
Momo got candy.
This gatekeeper is a super nice person.
“Y-Yeah…” (Mel)
On the other hand, there’s Mel-san whose cheeks were twitching.
Looks like she isn’t too into the idea of being the mother.
She was called Dragon Mother in Laberintos, so I thought for sure that she had a lot of children, but the reality was that she is unmarried.
When I asked ‘Why are you not marrying?’, she went ‘haah?’ and glared at me with eyes that could kill.
…It was scary.
I won’t ask ever again.
And in this way, we easily got into the capital of Laphroaig, Cornet.
“There’s so many big buildings! There’s a lot of buildings being sold, Makoto-san!” (Abel)
“Uwaah, there’s a lot of stores, Master!” (Momo)
Hero Abel and Momo were looking around the city restlessly.
Oi oi, you are showing in plain view that you are country bumpkins, you know?
Learn a bit from the calmness of Mel-san.
“Hoh! What’s with that thing? That’s the first time I see that!” (Mel)
I see Mel-san bantering at a street stall.
Now that I think about it, she did say that it has been several centuries since she has been in a city on the surface.
I sigh at the 3 merry companions as we walk through the city.
We have to secure a place where we can sleep first, so we searched for an inn.
We found one in no time.
But we don’t have money.
While we were troubled, we were asked ‘is there nothing you can change for money?’, and the White Dragon-san took out a magic crystal from Laberintos. They said ‘This is a magic crystal with unbelievable density. Wait for a bit’ and went deeper in.
The innkeeper returned after a while with a massive amount of coins.
“Is this much okay…?” (Mel)
Mel-san was flustered by this.
“Yeah, of course. We have also ranked up your rooms by one tier. On the house.”
And we were given good rooms.
The innkeeper here is also a good person.
We left our luggage inside the room, and decided to explore the city.
“Customer-san.”
We were going to leave the inn, but the innkeeper called us.
“It seems you are new in this city, so I will tell you this. There’s a speech from Her Majesty in the morning, so make sure to gather at the front of the Moon Castle. Everyone in the capital is duty-bound to do so.”
“Got it. Thanks for telling us.” (Makoto)
I thanked the innkeeper and left the inn.
“Heya, cute girl, wanna buy something?”
“The handsome boy there, I have armor that would suit you.”
“Beautiful madam, want to come check out dresses that would look divine on you?”
“Who you calling a madam?!” (Mel)
They were attempting to pull in everyone to buy goods.
Mel-san, aren’t you forgetting the setting we made?
Momo and Hero Abel were going around the stores merrily.
Our original objective is to gather information regarding the Holy Sword, but we could do that by going to a bar at night.
I bought a few skewers from a food stall, and sat at a bench in the area.
I observe the people passing by while I eat slowly.
The point that bothers me is the amount of devilkin there were.
Devilkin have traits that a human wouldn’t have.
Some would have horns.
Some would have peculiar skin color.
Some would have 3 eyes.
But they were all friendly.
There’s also a lot of children and elderly.
When I tried testing it out by asking the people the way to the castle, they would answer me kindly.
The atmosphere might resemble that of Rozes.
At that moment, Mel-san sat by my side with a big *pang*.
“I’m taking one.” (Mel)
Saying this, she stole one skewer from my hands.
The money came from the magic crystal of the White Dragon-san, so I’ve got no complaints.
Or more like, I felt like I bought too much.
“This is tasty. What meat is this?” (Mel)
“It is apparently Berserk Bison.” (Makoto)
“Hooh… I will hunt one next time.” (Mel)
“They apparently make it with a secret sauce, so it won’t be the same taste even if you make it, you know.” (Makoto)
“I see. That’s a shame.” (Mel)
We chattered mindlessly.
In order to not bring suspicions from the surroundings.
(Spirit User-kun, have you noticed? The curse that the citizens here are under.) (Mel)
The White Dragon-san speaks to me in thought transmission.
“Yeah, Charm, right?” (Makoto)
I answered in a low voice.
(That’s right. I also feel the presence of demons. The demons that shouldn’t be able to coexist with humans have made families together. The Charm magic that is covering this whole city… There’s an unbelievable expert here.) (Mel)
“The Moon Oracle…must be the Queen of this country.” (Makoto)
Deemed as the Calamity Witch.
The one ruling this country.
(An acquaintance?) (Mel)
“No way. We will be acquainted from now on.” (Makoto)
(Again with the cryptic talk… In the first place, just what in the world are you? It seems like you are hiding the fact that you are a believer of an Old God though…) (Mel)
Being asked this, I thought for a bit.
My objective.
The fact that I have come from 1,000 years in the future.
It might be okay to tell Mel-san.
She is incredibly prudent after all.
“Mel-san, about my objective…” (Makoto)
(Wait. I don’t want to hear it here.) (Mel)
“?”
I was unexpectedly stopped.
(It is not like I don’t have an interest in your identity, Spirit User-kun, but if you are going to be speaking about it, please do so to everyone. We are a team, right? Creating a difference in information between team members is the source of friction. Don’t you think so?) (Mel)
“…”
I was remonstrated.
(The only thing I want to know the most is if we can defeat the God of Demons, Iblis. You think we can, right, Spirit User-kun?) (Mel)
“I guarantee you that.” (Makoto)
(What gives you so much confidence for you to say it so decisively…? Well, fine. I will put my hopes on you.) (Mel)
“…Okay.” (Makoto)
Those words reminded me of Noah-sama for a second there.
The two who went to play—I mean, explore the city had come back.
We returned to the inn once, and gathered information in the bar as we had dinner there.
But we couldn’t get much concrete information.
The Moon Country is great.
The Queen of the Moon Country is great.
You will be safe if you stay in Cornet.
That was all they said.
In the first place, all the residents of the capital have been Charmed.
They most likely don’t have any important information.
This is troubling…
At that moment, someone spoke to us.
“Takatsuki Makoto-sama…”
I was startled.
I was called by my full name.
I have not called myself Takatsuki even once in the past.
The only ones who know about that are the people of the future.
When I looked at the person who called me, it was a slightly suspicious person that was covered with a deep hood.
I have no recollection of a person like this.
“Can you please come with me? …Our master is waiting.”
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