Holidays

[Player Name: Kaga Michio]

[Current Character Levels & Equipment] :

[Jobs] :

Explorer Lv.35

Hero Lv.33

Mage Lv.35

Monk Lv.34

Alchemist Lv.19

[Equipment] :

Wand

Leather Helmet

Leather Armor

Leather Gloves

Leather shoes

"Okay, here I go!"

Sherry declared that readily while swinging her Club around. She is the newest Party

Member who joined the ranks of my Party after I bought her as a slave recently. She is

short, petite and very pretty, but not because she is a child. That is because she is a

member of the Dwarf race, and while they may not be a race with the most imposing

stature, Dwarves are one of the races that is considered to be the strongest as far as

pure physical strength is concerned.

Now that a considerable amount of time has passed since I first arrived in this strange

world that seems to be based off on a game that I wanted to start playing as an

alternative method to killing myself when I did not want to live anymore, but

somehow, for God only knows what reason, when I finished the registration and

created my character, I somehow ended up being physically transported here instead.

Now that I got more or less used to living in this world and adventuring in its

Labyrinths, which can be said to be this world's equivalent of dungeons in your typical

RPG game, I decided that aside form my first slave, Roxanne, who is a member of a

Wolfkin race, I would definitely need to bolster our ranks with yet another member of

our Party, the one who would be specialized at fighting so that she and Roxanne could

handle fighting on the frontlines while I would support them from the back with my

magic, since now that we were about to begin exploring the eighth floor of the

Labyrinths, the number of monsters that we would have to fight at once should jump

up to four, and I was dreading that fact, which is why before we got Sherry I tried to

delay the moment of advancement to the eighth floor as much as possible. But of

course, fighting is not the only thing that Sherry is helping me out with. Aside from

being useful as a frontline fighter in the Labyrinths, she is also useful to me in many

ways other than combat. Yeah… Many, many things.

Right now, we are in one of the Labyrinths where Sherry kept on practicing one of her

newly-learned skills: striking two or more monsters at once with her Club, which most

of the Dwarves tend to be using as a form of crowd control, and I have to say… she is

getting better and better at it. She swung her Club towards the two monsters that were

charging towards her from the front, and with just a little twist of her body she ended

up sending both of them flying into the Labyrinth's walls to her left with ease, after

which she proceeded into attacking the third monster that Roxanne was fighting with,

and they promptly dispatched it after Sherry staggered it and Roxanne dealt the

finishing blow with her Scimitar, and when that enemy was done with, she moved to

face the last Collagen Coral of the bunch. It tried to jump at her and smack her with it

long, hardened limbs, but she easily evaded that attack by twisting her body to the

side and then delivering a quick slashing counterattack with her weapon, leaving it

wide open, and that was my cue to jump in with my magic, and so I did, I unleashed

my "Fire Storm" spell, and the sparks of fire that it created appeared all around it and

then exploded, burning that Collagen Coral to death, and exactly the same fate befallen

the two Naï ve Olives, the two enemies that were blown away by Sherry's earlier strike

and who now tried to jump back into the battle after recovering from being made a

part of the wall. And just like that, all of the enemies that engaged us in battle have

been swiftly dispatched.

"All right girls, the battle is over."

We then collected the Drop Items left by all of the monsters, placed them all inside of

my Item Box and then opted for taking a short break, just to catch our breathes after

the recent skirmish.

I can fight. We can fight.

I was worried about how our excursions to the eighth floor were going to go now that

the number of enemies that we would have to fight simultaneously would increase to

four at once, but now that Sherry joined us and we took the time earlier on the lower

floors to see how she would fare in battle so that we could adjust our own fighting

styles to her, it actually turns out that we can fight the groups of up to four monsters

without any major difficulties.

Now, mind you, fighting four enemies at once is not as easy as fighting just two or three

of them at once, but now that there are three of us instead of just me and Roxanne it

is definitely more doable than it could have been before, and it is a much better setup

for myself, because ever since Sherry started fighting alongside Roxanne in the

vanguard, I could just stay in the safety of the backlines from which I could focus on

attacking our enemies with magic without the risk of suffering any major injuries

myself. Compared to the early days of my adventuring in the Labyrinths, such a setup

is a much more preferable on my part, and now that I have experienced how much

easier it is to go trekking through the Labyrinths with three people, it makes me

wonder why did I not thought about adding more members to my Party sooner...

No, you know what, I know why I did not do that sooner. It was probably because up

until recently I was still somewhat anxious about this new and strange world that I

have found myself in and whether or not I will be able to fit in here and get my bearings

enough to actually be able to live a decent enough life while earning enough money in

the Labyrinths to provide food, clothing and a place to stay not only for myself, but

also for my slaves, but now… now I think that I probably managed to get just a little

bit used to my new life and responsibilities that come with it, or at least to an extent

where I could say that I have calmed down enough not to be scared shitless by

everything and everyone around me, especially when it comes to the battles in the

Labyrinth. Heh, it is truly surprising what just a little bit of confidence coming from

having reliable Party Members at your side at all times can do to improve your overall

mood and well-being.

Now that we were done with our usual bit of exploration and killing monsters in order

to obtain Drop Items from them, it was high time to leave the Labyrinth so that we

could sell all of the spoils that we have obtained in the Quratar Adventurers Guild

building. For the time being, this is the primary method in which we are obtaining the

money with which we are paying for pretty much all of our basic expenses, such as

food and clothing. Well, I realize that this is not the best thing to be considered as my

"day job" in this world since it is, all things considered, a pretty dangerous one in

which all that it takes to be unable to do it for an extended period of time is just one

serious injury, but if an injury like that were to happen to me and prevent me from

going to the Labyrinths together with Sherry and Roxanne, that would be pretty bad,

disastrous even, since my magic and my Holy Sword Durandal are the two things that

make the exploration of the Labyrinths and fighting against the monsters inside of

them a relatively easy endeavor and without them Sherry and Roxanne would have

probably had a much harder time with defeating enough enemies to be earning nice

sums of money in a consistent manner, so as you can see, be being here with them at

all times is absolutely essential for the sake of our financial stability. I mean, it would

be pretty swell if there was a job that could allow me to earn large sums of money

without the risk of getting myself injured and/or dead all the time, but if a job like that

really existed, then having it would be a great deal of luxury to me. However, for now,

it all remained in the area of nothing but my own wishful thinking.

.

"Excuse me, sir? Forgive me for asking about it so directly, but might you be an

Adventurer?"

While I was thinking about all those things while waiting for the transaction of selling

all of the items we got from our trip to the Labyrinth would be finalized so that we

could be on our way home, one of the ladies who worked at one of the many Quratar's

Adventurer's Guild's reception desks called out to me.

Hmm? I wonder what that might be about just now. Eh, whatever it might be, it is

probably going to be too much of a hassle for me to actually care about or something

utterly insignificant, so it is going to be much better for me to simply deny being an

Adventurer (not that it would not be the truth, because technically speaking, I do not

have an Adventurer Job just yet) and be done with it... is what I thought at first and

what I initially wanted to do, but after thinking about it carefully I have ultimately

decided against it, and for a very good reason.

Ever since I have moved here to Quratar and started renting a house at the outskirts

of the city, I have been using my "Warp" Spell to travel back and forth between the wall

of Quratar's Adventurer's Guild building and any other place I wanted to visit quite

often, so it is more than likely that this lady working at the reception desks might have

already seen me using the portals on the wall for a number of times, and that might be

what prompted her into thinking that I was actually an Adventurer. After all, under

normal circumstances, only Adventurers are capable of using "Field Walker", a type of

Movement Magic that allows them to travel back and forth between every place that

they have previously visited, while Explorers have exclusive access to "Dungeon

Walker", a type of Movement Magic that allows them to teleport themselves to the safe

rooms of every Labyrinth they have previously visited. Usually, it is impossible to

combine these two, but I am able to do it by using "Warp", one of my Bonus Spells that

basically works as "Field Walker" and "Dungeon Walker" crammed into a single Spell.

But since no one else besides me (and Roxanne and Sherry of course) has any idea

that such a Spell even exist, then I guess to others it really must look as if I was an

Adventurer, which means that I cannot deny that I am not one if I do not want to have

any unnecessary suspicions or attention to be drawn to me, so I guess that with that

said the only option available to me is to not deny that I am an Adventurer, and offer a

polite but firm refusal to whatever she was trying to rope me into.

"You are right. I am an Adventurer, however, I have not formally joined the

Adventurer's Guild, so I am afraid that whatever it is that you wanted to ask me about,

I have no choice but to..."

"Whether you are an actual member of the Guild or not will not be a problem here."

However, with that one sentence, the receptionist lady managed to find a perfect way

to get around the perfect excuse that I was going to prepare in order to have her lay

off my back.

"It does not matter whether I am a member of the Adventurer's Guild or not? What is

this about then?"

"Because of the continued intense rainfall on the territory of Hartz to the north, the

entire region has been plagued by floods and the damage that they are causing to both

fields and the infrastructure, and so the Adventurer's Guild has received an official

commission with a quest to transport relief supplies and other necessities for the

citizens of the flooded regions of Hartz. This is an urgent request about which we have

only learned today and so we are having trouble with finding enough people to take

on the commission, and that is why I would like to ask you, sir: would you be willing

to join other Adventurers and help deliver the supplies? We are pressed for time here,

and so, every pair of hands that could help us with it is going to be immensely

appreciated."

So basically, what this lady is saying is that this is going to be a disaster relief kind of

mission, huh? As I already mentioned, I am not an official Adventurer, so I would like

to decline that quest if at all possible, but... But would that really be the wisest thing

to do here? I mean, I am probably going to be using Quratar's Adventurer's Guild as

my main warping point on a daily basis for quite some time, and because of that

coming up as a selfish person who only thinks about their own selfish interests might

not be the best thing to do here, so should I accept that quest and participate in this

disaster relief operation so that I could earn myself some affinity points with the

Quratar branch of Adventurer's Guild? That seems like the best way to go about it, but

I do have one concern, mainly, the fact that since this is going to be an official

commission from the Adventurer's Guild, then they might be checking my Intelligence

Card, and let me be clear about one thing: I absolutely do not want anyone, and I mean

anyone, to be looking at my Intelligence Card.

Just to give you all a short reminder, in the world of this game there is such a thing as

Intelligence Cards, which can basically be considered to be this world's equivalent of

earth's ID Cards. They are a cards that are about the size of a notepad, and upon their

surface there are inscribed things such as the picture of the person to whom the

Intelligence Card belongs, as well as all the most relevant information about them,

including things such as their name, age, Job, their current status and information on

any slaves that they might own, and because of that, if anyone asks to see my

Intelligence Card at any point, they will instantly know that I am not an Adventurer at

all.

.

And like I was saying, since this is an official quest commissioned from the

Adventurer's Guild, then it would not be strange if at one point or another there were

Guild officials, or perhaps the representatives of the lord of that Hartz region, checking

the Intelligence Cards of those who would come with the relief supplies to verify if

they have the right to take part in this quest in the first place, so should I do anything

that I possibly can to avoid running into this kind of danger? Because that is what my

survival instinct is advising me to do right now. Just decline it and be done with it and

then just be on your way as if nothing happened at all. Yes, that sounds like a

magnificent plan.

"We are going to be fine."

"Uhm..."

When I glanced backwards, I noticed that Roxanne was pushing her hand against my

back.

Damn Roxanne, if you perform such a cute gesture and say something so considerate

to me, then I will want to find an excuse to decline the request of this lady even more,

but apparently that part of my intentions did not transmit properly, because if I did

that in a manner that Roxanne would be able to clearly understand, then there would

be no need for her to be saying that that she and Sherry were going to be fine at all! So

in the end, it is my loss for not being able to convey my intentions properly!

And as for Sherry... I saw that one corner of her lips was raised in something that

kinda looked like a bitter smile, but when I tried to make eye contact with her, she

simply escaped with her eyes to the side. Just like Roxanne, she is perfectly aware that

I am not an Adventurer and that it would be pretty dangerous if anyone found out

about this, because that would mean a whole lot of unpleasantness and needless

trouble not only for me, but for Roxanne and Sherry as well since they are my slaves,

or in other words, a property that belongs to me.

"It is perfectly understandable that sir would be unsure whether to accept this quest

or not, so allow me to add that every Adventurer who is not affiliated with the

Adventurer's Guild, a daily allowance of one thousand Nars to cover all of the possible

daily expenses is going to be prepared the day after tomorrow."

"Thank you for the information, but I cannot say that this interests me in any

particular way, but anyway, since we are already talking about it, then could you tell

me what exactly would that commission entail? As in, what do you want me to do,

exactly?"

"Of course, allow me to offer you an explanation, sir. Your primary task would be to

travel around the lands of the Hartz region, where you would be distributing

emergency supplies to towns and villages that have been cut off from the rest of the

realm by the water that has flooded the roads, essentially isolating part of the

settlements and forcing the people who live in them to fend for themselves, so as long

as you have experience as an Adventurer, this task should not prove to be too difficult

or particularly demanding. Also, as part of the contract you would be signing with

Adventurer's Guild, you would not have to worry about anything else than carrying

out the task that has been assigned to you, because the people responsible for

providing you with protection from the eventual monster attacks are going to be the

Knights of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, who serve under the direct service of the

Duke of Hartz himself. So as you can see, the commission shall be conducted with the

absolute safety of the ones delivering the supplies in mind, you do not have to worry

about keeping your own person and the members of your Party safe."

Since this world seems to be largely based on the concepts and technology from the

times of medieval Europe, then I guess that would have to entails that villages and

smaller towns that are located far from the larger cities that act as hubs of commerce,

culture and anything in between must have the means of staying relatively selfsufficient for the prolonged periods of time, but then again, when faced with a natural

disaster like a flood, fire or earthquake or a landslide I guess there is only so much that

self-sufficiency can do, not to mention that any methods of self-sufficiency that these

villages might be employing are bound to run out sooner or later, and once that

happens, there will be literally nothing that their inhabitants are going to be able to

do on their own, and that is why the reliance on those relief supplies has to be

absolutely critical for them. To give you an example of such a dependency, the first

place that I have walked up in after being transported to this world, Somara Village,

had its own merchant, but in order to stay consistently in business and not run out of

any of his stock too much, it was essentially a necessity for him to be making trips by

wagon to the city of Vale every few days. Now imagine a situation in which a village or

a town would be in dire need of something what could not be harvested from their

own fields or obtained from anywhere near their location. Yeah, that would make

them completely dependent on obtaining that something from the outside, and with

roads blocked and flooded to the point of being completely untraversable, you have

yourself a simple recipe for a true disaster, but that is just how it is when the

transportation networks and roads are vastly inferior to what we have in our modern

world. Then again, drawing such a comparison also seems to be kind of pointless

because of the technological gap between modern day Japan where I am coming from

and this medieval-looking world. In my times, the response to the occurrence of the

disaster would have been as fast as possible and any damages the infrastructure has

sustained would have been swiftly dealt with, but here in this world, I guess it should

not come to me as a surprise that whenever there is a disaster occurring, roads are

going to be the very first thing that is going to end up in a complete and utter mess.

I guess this is exactly where the Adventurers come into play. It might not be as effective

as our planes or helicopters that can deliver the supplies anywhere where there is

need to, but since they have access to the "Field Walker" Skill, then at least they can

deliver the supplies to the villages and towns that would be in need of them even if

the roads are blocked and untraversable, just as long as they have been to that

particular town or village before, so I guess you can say that this particular "fast travel"

system might be the best thing in terms of speedy deliveries that this world can

currently have.

"Uh-huh, I understand. Is there anything else that you can tell me about this quest, or

would that be all?"

"Certainly, sir. While normally Elves tend to look down on humans, but when it comes

to the help in times of disaster, the race and identity of those who deliver the supplies

does not matter just as long as the good are going to be safely delivered to their

destination."

Ooooh... Elves, huh? I guess that means that the territory of the Duchy of Hartz is the

one where the members of the elven race live, then? And also, hearing that my race

and identity will not matter just as long as I get the job done is an unexpectedly good

thing to hear. Well, I guess that is just how it is during the times when disaster strikes.

If you and your subjects are in dire need of help, then in situations like that there is

definitely no place for such things as pride or racial prejudice. When you are in need

of help, the right thing to do is always to swallow up your pride and your own views

of the world and simply accept any help that others would be willing to send your way

without as much as a word of complaint. As for the matter of why do Elves tend to look

down on humans, I do not think it would be wise to delve too deep into these kinds of

issues, since this is more or less one of the staple example of tropes used in every

fantasy book or a game that has different races such as Elves, Humans and the like in

it.

.

And to be completely honest with you, as long as I know that my identity is not going

to be questioned or that I am not going to be subjected to any form of extensive

screening on their part, then I do not have any reasons to care about such racial

conflicts. And besides, I am sure that there are actually not that many Elves living in

the Duchy of Hartz, and that is why going there should be fine for me, even though I

am a Human, even more so since the identity of the person that is going to be

delivering the supplies is not going to be relevant just as long as they get the job done.

It might have been altogether different if there was actually a lot of Elves living in the

Duchy of Hartz, Elves that would definitely be antagonistic towards Humans. If that

was the case and accepting the quest under such conditions meant that I would be

willing placing myself in danger, I would have turned the offer down instantly because

I am not that crazy, but as long as they are not going to be checking my identity and

there is not going to be a lot of them... then I think it should actually be okay for me

to participate in that quest after all, even more so since my "Warp" is basically like an

upgraded version of "Field Walker" which should make the delivery of the supplies

even easier. Now, even though this lady is saying that no one should care about my

identity as long as I will deliver the goods to them, there is always a tiny sliver of a

chance that someone might actually want to see my Intelligence Card, but if I play my

cards right, then it might be possible for me to just use "Warp" to jump in with the

goods, leave them with the villagers and citizens in need and then get the hell out of

there before anyone even managed to ask me to identify myself. Now that is an

example of some great thinking on my part: you cannot have problems related to

showing your Intelligence Card to others if you do not show your Intelligence Card to

others in the first place! Besides, since this relief supplies delivery is such an urgent,

last minute commissioned quest, I might end up being noticed for all the wrong

reasons if I will straight-up decline it, so I think that I will be taking it after all, just to

make sure that Quratar's Adventurer's Guild is not going to add me to some kind of

blacklist.

"I understand. I will be taking on this quest then. So how should I proceed with it,

exactly?"

"That is wonderful to hear, sir. As for the instructions on how to proceed with this

quest, I would like you to come here to the Adventurer's Guild building tomorrow

morning. Oh, you do not have to arrive at dawn. As long as you report yourself here

sometime after the usual breakfast hour, it should all be fine, and I would also

recommend you to get plenty of rest today, because we would need all of the

participating Adventurers to be at their best condition for this quest. The personnel

required to carry all of the supplies is going to be provided by the Duchy of Hartz, and

it is not required for all of your Party Members to come along with you, since according

to the Guild's recommendation, a single Adventurer should be more then enough to

fulfill this task. Also, make sure that there is more than enough space available in your

Item Box just in case."

"Now, when you say "more than enough space available in your Item Box", just how

much space are we talking about?"

I asked in order to have a clean picture of what I was getting myself into.

"Ideally, it would be best if you had enough space available in it to carry around a

thousand items. If you set out in the early morning, then it is estimated that you should

be able to finish the delivery process around the evening of the same day."

Enough space to carry over a thousand items, huh? If that is the case, then it is more

than likely that the Item Box capacity from just my Explorer Job alone might not be

enough, meaning that I would also have to use the Cook Job, since it also has the "Item

Box Operation" Skill available to it. At times like these, I really am glad that I have the

ability to set multiple Jobs at once for myself, because if I just had to contend with a

single Job, then I would definitely not have nearly enough space available to me in my

Explorer Item Box.

Ahh well, as inconvenient as it will be to change the order of my set Jobs that has been

working so well for me all this time, it is something that I will just have to do while

sucking it up, because if it means a difference between being able to take on this quest

and not being able to take on this quest, the I am definitely going to chose the option

that is going to allow me to do it. Not to mention that when it comes to the mental

aspect of helping people, doing it is not going to be weighting on my psyche at all in

comparison to the situation in which I would refuse to help them and it would not

allow me to sleep at night due to guilt and constant worrying about the repercussions

of my dastardly deed.

Now that I finished talking to the receptionist lady and knew what I had to do to

proceed with the quest tomorrow, all that was left for us to do was to go back home so

we could have dinner while making plans at the same time.

"Just like I told the lady at the reception desk, I am going to go along with her request

and deliver those supplies tomorrow. Since it looks like it is going to be a pretty big

deal, then I suggest that we should take a break from going to Quratar's Labyrinth

early in the morning so that I could prepare everything that I am going to need. As for

the two of you, feel free to spend that day however you like. Is there anything that you

would like to do tomorrow since it is going to be your day off, Roxanne?"

"A day off, you say? Are we really allowed to have something like that, master?"

"That is exactly what I said, and since I said so, then that is what I want you to do."

"Thank you very much for your kindness in giving us this opportunity. You were asking

if there was anything that I wanted to do, right? Well...… uhm...…"

Roxanne looked like she was thinking about the answer that she wanted to give me

really, really hard. I just hope that coming up with one is not going to take her forever

and a half. And since it might take her that long, I might just ask the same question to

Sherry in the meantime.

"How about you, Sherry? Were you not saying that you would like to go to the Library

in the Imperial City someday if you had the chance?"

"Eh? I, well... I most certainly did, but...… but what about the money?"

"You do not have to worry about that. I am going to pay both your admission fee and

the deposit fee."

"Really? You are going to do this much... for me?"

She asked with a voice filled with anxiety. If I remember our earlier talk about the

library in the Imperial City correctly, then the entrance fee and the deposit fee cost

one gold coin each, right? Yeah, that sounds just about right. A gold coin just for the

ability to enter the library and browse the books inside is actually quite a lot for

something that would be pretty cheap back in my old world, but I guess that this is

just how they are rolling here. The percentage of people who can read properly is

pretty low and the books themselves are a pretty valuable resource, so making people

pay two gold coins in total must be the library's way of making sure that not a single

book from their precious collection is going to get damaged by accident, which is

actually quite a clever strategy now that I think about it.

"As long as the deposit fee is going to be returned properly, I see no problems with

allowing you to go there."

.

"Ah... y-yes, of course! Thank you very much, master!"

Sherry bowed her head and thanked me with an elated voice, even though personally

I do not think that I have done anything that I should be thanked for, since I only spoke

my honest mind about approving of her desire to go to the library, and I did that

because she said herself that she wanted to go there and because I knew that

providing her with such an opportunity would definitely make her happy. Now, I only

regret that I will not be able to go there together with her like I promised, but as long

as she gets to go and fulfill another one from a series of lifelong dreams of hers, then I

will be well and truly glad.

"Roxanne, have you made up your mind yet? If not, then do not worry about it, since

it is nothing urgent or something that requires you giving me an immediate answer.

Just think about I carefully and decide about it even tomorrow after I will depart to do

the quest. And really, whatever it is that you would want to do, I am going to be fine

with it."

"Ah, yes, master. Just like Sherry, I also want to be as useful to you as I can and as fast

as possible, so I think that tomorrow I will go to the Labyrinth and do some training

on my own... If that is okay with you of course."

"No, no, no, there is no need for you to be going that far, Roxanne. Really, I mean it. You

are already plenty useful to me when it comes to battling monsters in the Labyrinths,

so if at all possible then I would like you to have a little break from our usual routine,

okay?"

"Yes. Thank you for your kind words, master."

"No problem. Now, I realize that this might be a pretty tall order, especially while

coming from me, but I would like you to just take tomorrow as an opportunity to relax

and not do anything dangerous, okay?"

I know that Roxanne is always serious and that she always wants to be as useful to me

as possible, but really, going into the Labyrinth on her own just so that she could do a

little bit more of training that would not be nearly as effective without me and my

Bonus Skills around as it possibly could have been is just her taking things way too

seriously than she needs to. Whenever I am with her and Sherry as our Party's leader,

all of the members of my Party receive up to twenty times more EXP than they would

normally be getting not to mention that it would be a height of stupidity if she tried to

advance into the higher floors by herself. She has her godly dodging abilities and is

definitely capable of holding her own in a battle with multiple enemies at once, but

something like that would have been too tall of an order, even for someone like her,

and I would have never forgiven myself if she did ended up going to the Labyrinth

alone only to jump head-first into some kinda sticky situation that would result in her

getting seriously hurt.

"Is that so? Well, if that is what master wishes for me, then I will comply with your

wish and refrain from going to the Labyrinth to train myself. Instead, I am probably

going to be staying here at home to do some cleaning that I would normally not have

any chances of doing."

"Yeah, that sounds like a much better idea, so do be sure to do just that... oh yeah!

While you are at it, then how about I leave you some money so that you could go do

some shopping?"

If there is one thing that I have now learned to perceive as a unchangeable constant,

then it would have to be the fact that Roxanne loves shopping and she would never

miss any opportunity to do some more of it, so she is definitely going to enjoy herself

tomorrow if she does that, even more so when I will give them some of mine to be

spent however they see fit.

"You are going to leave us money, master? So it is going to be our allowance, or

something like a pocket change?"

"Sherry, do correct me if I am wrong, but how much was the library admission fee

costing? Is five silver coins going to be enough for it?"

"Yes, definitely! Last time when I checked, the admission fee was around one hundred

Nars."

"Okay, good. In that case, each one of you is going to receive five hundred Nars from

me tomorrow, and you are free to spend all of them on whatever you might possibly

want."

In total, Sherry and Roxanne's allowance tomorrow is going to be ten silver coins. Ten

coins. At first glance it does not seem to be much, however, it is, in fact, quite a lot, and

if the luck will be on the girl's side, then perhaps this situation with the flooding of the

Duchy of Hartz is going to have an impact on the prices on the market being a little bit

better than usual? That would certainly be nice for my wallet, especially since it was

not that long ago since I purchased a specialist slave like Sherry, and while I did

manage to negotiate quite a drop in price for her, t would still be nice to get back the

entirety of the sum that I spent on her as soon as possible and the start making more

money in the Labyrinths from the Drop Items, because it never hurts to have more

money on you, especially when some unforeseen expenses with come our way.

"A-Are you really sure about that, master? We are your slaves, after all, so there really

is no need for you to be going to such lengths just to cater to our selfish desires..."

"I know that. I am perfectly aware of that fact… But I still want to do it anyway. Besides,

your desires are definitely not selfish, Roxanne. You have been doing such a good job

ever since we met each other, so you definitely deserve a chance to just wind down

and spread your wings for a little bit, do you not think?"

"Thank you, master."

I think that five silver coins for Sherry and five silver coins for Roxanne is a reasonable

amount of money to give them. If I gave them any more than that they would probably

not know what to do with it, and if I gave them any less than that, then it is entirely

possible that they would not have enough money to buy the things she wanted, but

with the amount that I am going to give them, it will be possible for them to buy

themselves either something more pricey, or a smaller amount of cheaper things,

depending on what would strike their fancy at any given moment, so I believe that this

is going to be the best decision possible that is not going to be too big of a blow to my

financial situation.

That night, Sherry and Roxanne were talking to one another way into the late-night

hours until they have fallen asleep before they could realize it. All that time, their eyes

have been sparkling like diamonds, which means that they must have been pretty

excited for tomorrow. Heh, good for them. Seeing them all happy like that makes me

happy for them as well.

In the morning, as per the usual, I have been awakened by Roxanne's sweet kiss, and I

made sure to enjoy every last centimeter of her soft lips and warm, slimy tongue.

"Good morning, Roxanne. I see you are as much of an early bird as always, huh?"

"Yes, good morning to you as well, master. I always have to make sure to wake up

earlier than you, because waking you up with a kiss is the most important part of my

duties as your slave."

The most important part of her duties as my slave she says? I would argue that having

sex with me and helping me out in the Labyrinths are more important than a wake-up

kiss, but as long as that is what Roxanne herself seems to be firmly believing, then who

am I to try and correct her world view, especially since it is not an entirely wrong one?

Yeah, exactly, so there is nothing for me to feel bad about, not at all, especially since

Sherry soon followed Roxanne's example and also gave me a good morning kiss when

she woke up.

.

"Good morning... *Yaaawn* mashter..."

"Good morning, Sherry. And thank you for the good morning kisses, you two. You seem

to be talking to one another for quite a long while yesterday night. Are you sure you

managed to get enough sleep? Are you going to be okay today?"

"Uhm... have we really talked for that long? I... I hope we did not end up bothering

you, master?"

"No, not at all. Actually, it sounded like a pretty nice lullaby to me, so I did not mind it

in the slightest."

"That is good to hear. I do not no what I would have done if we end up being the cause

of you not being able to get the good night's rest before your quest for the Adventurer's

Guild."

I think that it would not have made that much of an impact on me because there is no

way that I would not be able to fall asleep with two beautiful girls like that sleeping in

the same bed with me, but that is beside the point.

Since we were not going to the Labyrinth in the morning just like we agreed yesterday

but we were all pretty much awake now, we had ourselves an early breakfast during

which I disbanded our current Party from my Party settings menu, and then

I decided that this might be a good opportunity for Sherry to have a little training as a

Master Smith, so I had her create another Misanga with her "Item Fusion" Skill. Since

she obtained the Master Smith Job only recently, then raising the Level of that Job so

that she could create more and more items while not running out of MP like she did

after her very first fusion of the Copper Sword of Obstruction was of the utmost

importance not only for her, but for me and Roxanne as well if we wanted her to start

making items, weapons and armors with Skills and Skill Slots in them for us. Today,

she managed to create two Misangas in a row, but regrettably, neither of these two

came with an Empty Skill Slot in it. It is an unfortunate result, but not the one that

would be worth ripping the hair off my head for it, since it was to be expected that a

complete Master Smith novice is not going to be able to create equipment with Empty

Skill Slots in it right from the get-go. And when Sherry's training of fusing items was

done, it was about time to give the girls their allowance for the day.

"All right girls, here is your money. Here you go, Roxanne, five silver coins."

"Thank you very much, master. So, after adding the costs of Sherry's library admission,

it is going to be three silver coins for her and two silver coins for me..."

When I gave Roxanne her share of the money, for some reason she tried to divide her

share of it between herself and Sherry with a two to three ratio.

"Uhm, Roxanne? May I ask what are you doing?"

"Hmm? Why, distributing our allowance between me and Sherry of course! What else

would I be doing?"

"Uhm, no, no, no, it looks like you are misunderstanding something here. You are not

supposed to be splitting these five silver coins between the two of you. Each one of

you is going to get your own five coins. You get five silver coins and Sherry gets five

silver coins. That is how I said yesterday that we are going to handle your allowance

for today, remember?"

We talked about how much each of them was going to get only a couple of hours ago

and they have already forgotten? Maybe that was the effect of them staying up and

talking for so long? *Sigh* Well, I guess it cannot be helped, right? I will just have to

explain it to them all over again.

"Listen up girls: just like we talked about it yesterday, each one of you gets five silver

coins from me so that you could buy yourself pretty much whatever you might want.

Sherry gets five silver coins plus one gold coin for the library deposit, and you get five

silver coins as well."

"Eh? So much? Are you sure that it is truly okay to be giving us so much of your hardearned money?"

So apparently they did forget what we were talking about and thought that they would

have to distribute five silver coins between themselves.

"Yeah, yeah. I am absolutely sure about giving you that much money, and you do not

have to worry, since that is not going to impact my wallet in any significant way, so you

can just accept it without feeling any guilt. This is my present for you, and I want you

to hold onto it. And just so that we are clear about it, I absolutely do not expect you to

be giving any of it back to me if you are not going to spend it all today. This is your

allowance now, and I want you to hold onto it."

"I see. How generous of you, master."

"Yes, thank you very much, master. However..."

Sherry looked at me with a troubled expression.

"I would have been fine with just the money needed for the library admission and

deposit."

"Then it would be perfectly fine for you to use only that much money and just keep the

rest of it for yourself. Like I said, these are your money now, and you can do whatever

you want with it. But if you want my personal opinion, then not spending it on

something nice today would be a huge waste, so I strongly advise you to treat yourself

today."

I also told that to Sherry to ease her worries.

But seriously now, they really thought that I would have the split just five silver coins

between the two of them? In the first place, is five silver coins a lot, or not a lot of

money? I am not entirely sure because I do not know exactly what the standard value

of money is here in comparison to the Japanese yen. But if the price that I had to pay

for our stay in the Vale Pavilion inn back in Vale is any indicator, then I guess it must

not be as bad as I initially thought.

"Putting that aside for now, master, are you not going to wear a cloak?"

As I was slowly making my preparations to depart for the Quratar Adventurer's Guild

Sherry asked me that question. Why would I be wearing a cloak? That was my initial

thought, but when I looked out the window, it dawned on me. She was not saying that

to me because it was raining here in Quratar, but because there is a high possibility

that it might still be raining in the Duchy of Hartz, which has been plagued with the

floods caused by the heavy downpours of rain in the first place. That simple fact has

completely slipped my mind, and if Sherry did not point that out to me, it would be

entirely possible that I would have just gone to the Adventurer's Guild and started the

quest with delivering the relief supplies without even taking any clothing that would

protect me from the rain along with me.

Thinking about it now, of course it is going to be raining in there. The lady at the

counter of the Adventurer's Guild did not say anything about whether it stopped

raining or not, so it would be natural to assume the rain is still going to be falling there,

so going on this quest without a cloak or even a hood to protect myself from the rain

would be a height of foolishness, and I would definitely embarrass myself beyond

belief in the eyes of the people to whom I would be delivering the supplies if I went

there while being soaked to the bone myself. Now that would be a sorry sight to

behold, and a perfectly good reason for me to just want to find myself a hole in the

ground or crawl under a rock and never leave it for the rest of my life.

"I see. Yeah, taking one with me definitely sound like a great idea. Thank you for

suggesting it to me, Sherry. Now, where I have I put it? I was sure that it was around

here somewhere…"

"Here you go, master."

Roxanne handed me the cloak that I was looking for after skillfully taking it out from

the depths of the closet. She is so good at taking care of our house that she must have

memorized where everything is, and so finding clothes was a simple formality for her.

.

I received the cloak from Roxanne and handed her the key to our house instead.

"All right then. I guess I will be heading out now."

"Have a safe trip, master. And make sure that you will come back to us safe and sound."

"Sure, I promise."

After donning the cloak, I opened up a portal on the wall with "Warp" and moved to

the Imperial City's Adventurer's Guild together with Sherry. While there, we asked for

the directions to the Imperial City Library and then we were on our way.

"Ohhhhh... talk about impressive."

"I know, right?! It is amazing!"

The Imperial City Library was a chalk-white building made out of marble, or at least

something that very closely resembled it. It was quite large, and also elegant, a very

fine architectural achievement. Just from looking at it I could tell that it definitely

deserves the reputation that it has among the people, and I am sure that the inside of

it has to be every bit as majestic as the outside is.

"Oh yes Sherry, I can definitely agree with you. This is one hell of an amazing building."

I agreed with Sherry, who was looking at the library building with pure admiration

sparkling in her eyes which became so round that I was beginning to be afraid that

they might just pop out of her head if she keeps that up. If I were to draw any

comparisons between this building right here and what we had back in Japan, then I

guess the closest thing to it that comes to mind would be those neat-looking public

facility buildings that were being built by the local governments during the era of

bubble economy. But I guess that is the least that we could expect from a public

building like that. After all, we are in the Imperial City, that is to say, the capital of the

entire empire, so I guess it stands to reason that the ruler of the empire would want

each and every building that is meant to be used by the general public to properly

convey the grandeur and capabilities of the city's rulers. That being said, I could not

help but to feel a little bit overwhelmed when looking at it, most likely because I have

always found such grand buildings and structures to be difficult to be around, because

they always made me feel even smaller than I already thought myself to be.

While not letting any of these emotions show on my face so that I would not worry

Sherry to much, we went forward and entered the library building proper, and so we

found ourselves in what looked to be a large lobby, and one of the first things that we

saw were the portals on the walls out of which the people who looked like Adventurers

were coming and going back and forth, so apparently this library is also one of the

places where you could travel to by using "Field Walker", and that might be a fact well

worth remembering. In the back of this lobby, there was what looked like a reception

desk, and beyond it was something that might have looked like a reading room, but

from this distance it was too hard to say for sure so I cannot be absolutely certain. But

if there was ever a place where admission fees would be collected, then this would

definitely be that place. And that means that this will also be the place where we will

most likely part ways for the rest of the day, so I took out one gold coin and five silver

coins and handed them off to Sherry.

"Here you go, Sherry, the money for the deposit and your allowance for today."

"Thank you very much, master."

"I will be coming to pick you up sometime around the evening, so feel free to spend

your time until then however you want. When the sun is going to be setting, just make

sure to be around here somewhere and I will be sure to find you, or if you do not feel

like it, just wait for me over there."

I said, pointing towards the reading room. The Imperial City is located to the east just

like Quratar, so when it will be sunset in Quratar, then I would know that it is also

sunset in the Imperial City as well.

"Yes, that is going to be the best possible thing to do. I understand, master."

Sherry confirmed that she is going to be waiting for me in the reading room by the

time it is going to be sunset, and then she saw me off all the way to the proper entrance

to the library, where she paid the money for both the entrance and the deposit, and

after observing as she went inside, I then left the Library by means of the warp portal

which I used to go straight to the Adventurer's Guild in Quratar.

When it comes to the procedure of delivering the relief supplies, I cannot really say

that there was too much trouble with it. Like really, nothing particular happened.

First thing's first, all of the Adventurers who have been hired to take part in this

commissioned quest have been told to gather in the town of Bode, which was the

center of the Duchy of Hartz. After being taken to the castle where we have been filled

in on the situation about the flood and the damage that it has caused by the Duke of

Hartz's officials themselves, it was our job to travel to the surrounding villages and

deliver the supplies that we have brought in with us after being guided by the Knights

and other Adventurers prepared by the Duke specifically for this occasion. And so,

while forming small teams consisting of us, the Adventurers from Quratar,

Adventurers from the Hartz region and the Knights from the Knight Order of the Hartz

Duchy, we were travelling back and forth between Bode and the villages. Honestly, this

commission turned out to be much more boring than I have initially anticipated,

because truth to be told, us Adventurers from Quratar really did not have all that much

to do, because all of the supplies and personnel have been properly prepared by the

Duke of Hartz, and there was not a single monster attacks that would happen while

we were on the way to the villages, so there was no need at all for any of us to play

bodyguards to the Duke's men, because as it turned out, most of the way between

villages and Bode was traversed by using "Field Walker", or in my case "Warp". So as

you can see, this job turned out to be an overall easy one. In the end, I did not even

need to make use of the cloak that I took with me in case of the rain continuing to fall

like mad, because all of the deliveries have been conducted in accordance to one and

the same scenario: grab the supplies, use "Field Walker"inside of Bode's castle to open

up a portal leading up to the houses of the village chief's or the residences of the town

mayors, leave the supplies there, go back through the portal, rinse and repeat. As for

the amount of supplies that we had to carry, the emergency rations, which turned out

to be Rabbit Meat, could be taken in our Item Boxes so that we could transport large

amounts of it at once, but as for the rest, due to the restrictions on "Field Walker"

regarding the amount and size of what can be brought through the portals, each

person could only take as much as a small baggage bag would have, and that is why

we had to move in groups, so that we could still take a large number of supplies with

us even, thus circumventing the restrictions in at least some way. Because of that, it

also went against my expectations in such a sense that before we came to Bode, I

thought that the Duke and his people are going to want to be done with the supplies

deliveries as soon as possible, and because of that they would force us to carry as much

as we possibly could carry all at once, but instead of that, they have opted for the other

option: carrying less items at once and making more frequent trips, but considering

that our working conditions were as safe as they could possibly be, none of us really

had anything against that, because it was certainly better than the alternative of being

like that proverbial workhorse, carrying so much that our backs would soon break and

our legs would give out under our own weight.

.

With every delivery that we were running, the thing that remained a constant was the

number of Rabbit Meats that we were supposed to be carrying in our Item Boxes, and

the exact amount of all the other things that we would be carrying, which was

probably supposed to be a method implemented to prevent us Adventurers from

Quratar form pilfering any of the supplies, which I would not be doing either way,

because I definitely know better than to risk my whole life and reputation getting

absolutely ruined over a piece of Rabbit meat or a blanket or whatever the hell else

the packages with supplies were containing. To that note, the Knights from the Knight

Order always tended to stay grouped together, which was probably their way of

keeping tabs on everyone else, which might have offended me if the circumstances

were any different, but since they were not doing any kind of identity checks at all

because of the emergency that this situation was, this was the next best thing that they

could be doing in order to ensure that none of the hired Adventurers would be trying

to do anything funny while they would think that no one is currently looking at them.

And just like that, after doing what seemed to be like around ten runs of going back

and forth between the castle and the villages, there was finally a moment where I

could catch my breath and rest, and you can be damn sure that I was going to use that

chance to the fullest, because while this job was not at all as tiring as I thought it was

going to be in a purely physical sense, there was another issue which I was

anticipating, and sure enough, as I was sitting on a chair resting, I could feel the effects

of having my MP drop to the dangerously low levels slowly kick in, but honestly, that

kind of thing was to be expected. After all, it has now been around twenty times where

I had to cast "Warp" while we were leaving for another village and on our way back

from those villages because that is how everyone else was doing it so I had no choice

but to follow their example and do exactly what they were doing to keep myself under

everyone's radar. The last thing I want right now is to be continuously asked the

question of how is it that I can create a portal that can last long enough for a trip back

and forth between the destination and the castle while having suspicions and quite

possibly accusations thrown my way. That is the price of trying to act as everyone else

even though you are different than them.

While I was leaning back on the chair, waiting for my lost and expended MP to

gradually go back to the level that would guarantee that depressing thoughts are not

going to live in my head rent free, I was looking at the members of the Knight Order of

Hartz Duchy who were all walking past me without paying any kind of actual attention

to me. I thought that there was not going to be that many of them among the ranks of

the Knights, but apparently I was mistaken in thinking that, as there was surprisingly

quite a lot of them, and I was able to determine that because of the signature features

of the Elven race: long pointy ears and noble-looking facial features that were making

me want to describe even the Elven men not as handsome, but beautiful instead.

I mean really, you would think that the trope of both sexes of the elves being beautiful

is just that, nothing but another one of the tropes brought about by the authors of the

modern fantasy novels to emphasize just how different they are from us regular

humans, but the more I was looking at the Elven Knights who participated in this

operation together with us, the more I was realizing that this trope is actually as real

as it could be, and I even caught myself thinking that it is not fair for guys to be so

beautiful just because they were lucky enough to be born as Elves and that all goodlooking guys should just blow themselves up and die so that we the average and notso average looking guys could also get a chance at scoring ourselves some game, but I

guess that this is never going to happen and I feel bummed just thinking about it, so I

think it is high time to focus my mind on something infinitely more pleasing for the

eyes, mainly: the Elven girls. And oh my God was there a ton of eye candy to be looking

at here. It is a good thing that Explorer is currently set as my First Job, because let me

tell you, if I was still having Sex Maniac set as the First Job after doing it with Roxanne

and Sherry, then I definitely might have done something that would get me thrown

behind bars and have my Intelligence Card be thoroughly checked.

There was this one Elven chick that really, and I mean really caught my eye, because

she was not even a ten out of ten beauty, she was like fifteen or twenty out of ten. Her

face looked beautifully vigorous and filled with youthful energy and her figure was

slender, but at the same time she had an appropriate amount of curves in all the places

where they were needed. Out of curiosity I used "Identify" on her, and it revealed that

this girl was apparently fifty eight years old, while physically she looked like she was

barely even in her twenties! Man, having the ability to check how old people around

you really are is quite a powerful ability, if I do say so myself. Now it also made me

fantasize about what Roxanne is going to look like when she is going to be fifty eight

years old herself. Is she going to look more like Human women of similar age, or is she

going to be closer to the Elven women, looking as young and beautiful as she is now

when she is sixteen years old?

While I was sitting in my chair with my head firmly in the realm of fantasies about this

Elven cutie, the door of the entrance to the hall where I was currently resting have

opened, and somebody walked right in. Could it be a patrol? I used "Identify" to see

who exactly was is... and I almost fell of my chair upon discovering that the person

who just walked in was not a member of some ordinary patrol, but someone much,

much more important

Brocken North Braun Anhalt

Sex: Male, Age: thirty five years old

Job: Paladin Lv.14

Equipment: Orichalcum Sword, Sacrificial Misanga

Oh my goodness, it is the Duke of Hartz himself. His Job is a Paladin. And he has

Orichalcum Sword as a weapon. He was wearing a hooded cloak, so it was pretty hard

to see his face, and instead of doing anything in particular, he was just roaming around

seemingly without a purpose. Now, I know that since the entire castle belongs to him

then he can pretty much do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants without the

need to ask anyone for permission, but since he is the biggest of big cheeses here in

Bode, then should he not technically have some of the guards or Knights accompany

him as his escort? So how come that I am not seeing anyone like that with him right

now? Is it exactly because he is the lord of this castle, so he is that confident that no

harm is going to come to him in here and that is why he is roaming the halls alone?

Well, he probably came here to perform an inspection, but if that is the case, then is it

really okay for me to be leaning on my chair this sloppily in front of him? Yeah, since

hie is the big shot here and I am just a lowly "Adventurer", then it might be pretty bad.

I do not know the exact etiquette of this world and its ins and outs, but if it is indeed

the case that I am doing something extremely disrespectful right now, the I have to fix

it immediately, so I hurried the hell up and bowed down to him as he was passing me

by. Phew, talk about a close call. That was scary just now, almost too scary if I am to be

honest. What would I have done if I was thrown into the dungeon for how rude I acted

towards him just now? Yeah, I do not even want to think about it.

"Oh, so you managed to recognize me even though I was trying to be incognito? I

commend your sharp senses, Sir Adventurer."

.

When the Duke saw me bowing down to him, he quickly approached me and said that

to me in a whisper. Ooooh, so he was actually going incognito, meaning that he

specifically did not want anyone to notice that he was here?

...Does that mean that I have royally fucked up just now? That I have ruined the

duke's plans of inspecting how the operations were proceeding in a secretive manner

because that way he could see how everyone would be behaving naturally without

trying to keep up appearances if they knew that the lord of the entire Duchy, the

person who organized this entire quest was right next to them?

Oh God, oh fuck, this is even worse than what I was being afraid of!

I quickly glanced around us to see if my gesture did not bring unnecessary attention

to the both of us, but apparently no one noticed that the Lord of the entire Duchy was

here, or they noticed but just did not care about it. Or maybe...

Yes, that might be it. The Lord praised my sharp senses for noticing him even though

he was going incognito, but in truth I noticed that it was him not thanks to my sense,

but because I have used "Identify" on him when I heard that someone entered the hall

through the back door, so I guess you could say that in this particular case, the combo

of my own curiosity and my "Identify" Skill worked against me instead of to my

benefit. God damn it, why does this always happen to me?! Why is it that every time

when I want to do something that I think is right, it ends up backfiring against me so

horribly?! Okay, uhm… What can I do now in order not to make this situation any more

of a train wreck than it already is? Oh, I know, for the time being, maybe it would be

best if I apologized for almost blowing his cover? However, when I was about to open

my mouth to offer my heartfelt apology to him, he stopped me with the gesture of his

hand and indicated me to sit back down, so I did exactly like I was told.

"If it is okay to ask, then have you seen me somewhere before?"

The Duke sat on a chair next to me, and it looks like he became quite interested in me

noticing him despite his best attempts to remain unnoticed. And since he went so far

as to cover his face with a hood and trying to sneak around in his own castle, then

being bowed to and recognized by a total stranger must have been the last thing that

he was expecting to happen to him today, so if only I had pretended that I did not see

him at all, nothing would have happened and he would have carried on with his

business, but no, I just had to go and ruin that for him. Great. Standing ovation for me,

please.

"Uhm, yes, I have seen you before… But only briefly and by pure chance."

I had no choice but to lie to his face about this matter, but can you really blame me

here? It was either that or saying that I have never seen him before, which would then

cause him to grill me about how did I know that he was the Lord of the entire Duchy

if I have never seen him before, so it was either that or lying to him, and I would rather

take my chances with lying than having to come up with some other explanation and

hope that it would sound believable enough for him to buy it.

"Is that so? I see…"

What? What so you see? Have I stepped onto a landmine of mine own making? I hope

that this is not going to be the case, but now that I think about it, there is a possibility

that this lie of mine can backfire against me as well, because I just assumed that since

he is the Duke of the Hartz Duchy, then he has to make at least some public

appearances, and there fore it would not be all that strange for random people to see

him if they just happened to pass by whenever he was out on the town, but the

possibility that I have not taken into account is that even though he is the Duke, he

might actually dislike showing himself to the public and just rules the Duchy from the

safety of his castle while his officials handle all the other matters, just like it was with

our briefing for the supply delivery mission. So depending on which breed of a

government official he is going to be, I might be safe, or I might have just dug up my

own grave.

"Your Excellency."

Suddenly, somebody came running to us and called out to the Duke.

"This is not an appropriate place to talk. Follow me."

The Duke checked his surroundings by turning his hooded head left and right for a

few times, and then stood up from his chair and left. Because I bowed to him and got

his attention, it is very likely that I probably interrupted him while he was on his

official business, so if at all possible I would not want to take up any more of his

precious time, so I secretly hoped that our interaction would end then and there, but

apparently that was not how it was going to go, because apparently he expected me to

go with him.

"My name is Gozer, and I am the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy. If you could

please come with us, that would be greatly appreciated."

The person who ran up to us introduced himself to me. He then bowed his head lightly

and made a gesture as if he wanted to escort me by hand.

He is an elf. I realized that immediately because his ears were also sharp, just like the

ones of that Elven hottie who I was ogling before The Duke came in here. Aaand of

course he was not only handsome, but he also had this aura of coolness around him.

However, it is not that he just looks cool, but rather that everything about him, from

his posture and presence all the way to his gestures and the way he was speaking such

fine lines that a host in a host club could be using to woo women around his little

finger was exuding such a chad alpha energy that it instantly began to irritate an

introvert like myself. Pretty guys like that should take a page out of the book of every

normie and just go blow themselves up.

Okay pretty man, let me use "Identify" on you to see just who you are and what are

you bringing to the table.

Gozer North Braun Anhalt

Sex: Male Age: Forty-Six

Job: Grand Wizard

Equipment: Staff of Offerings, Sacrificial Misanga

As expected of someone who holds the position of the leader of an entire Knight Order.

The Level of his Grand Wizard Job is really high. Not only that, but he is also not just a

simple Mage or a Wizard, he is a Grand Wizard, which probably means that he should

be capable of using some really amazing magic. I wonder what he must have done to

even unlock that Job in the first place?

"Understood. I will come with you."

Since he asked me to come with them with such cool words and gestures, then I just

could not find it within myself to say no to this man, or rather, something was telling

me that he is that kind of man who would not have taken no for an answer even if I

wanted to.

"I will be borrowing this Adventurer for a while."

"As you wish, Sir!"

Gozer the Knight Captain told that to the Knights who were together with me in the

team that was delivering supplies, so after giving them a light nod I proceeded to

follow after him and the Duke. When both of them left the hall where I was resting,

they proceeded to go down the long hallway. Even though the torches were placed in

regular intervals on the walls, the corridors themselves were still pretty dark, to the

point where it is basically even darker than in the caves of the Labyrinth that are

basically only lit up by the natural light emitted by the fluorescent fungi. Also, while

we were walking, neither of the two ever looked back at me or seemed to be wary of

me in any way, even though such darkened corridors would have been an ideal place

for an assassination attempt.

.

Are they not in the least bit afraid that I might be an assassin who was sent to kill the

Duke? I mean, they really do not have anything to worry about because I am not an

Assassin, but at the same time, even though they referred to me as "Sir Adventurer",

that designation was not an entirely correct one as well, because I am not an

Adventurer.

After a good while of going around the labyrinth of corridors and stairs, the Duke

finally opened the door in the back of one of them and went inside. It was a not so

large room with a luxurious-looking carpet placed on the floor. As for the other types

of furniture, there was a desk with one chair placed behind it and two of them placed

in the front, and under one of the walls there was leather sofa and a small table. I do

not know if anyone else would have agreed with me if they saw this place, but it

definitely has those "Company President's Room" vibes to it.

"This room is my personal office. Please, do make yourself at home while you are here."

"Y-Yes Sir! W-Well then, pardon the intrusion."

What the hell was that just now?! When we walked into the room, which actually

turned out to be the Duke's office, and he removed the hood from his head, I saw that

he had such a beautiful face that it made me feel like I could not defy any of the words

he was saying to me and that I felt like worshiping how sophisticatedly-handsome he

was, and it made me feel extremely terrified for some reason! I guess this is actually

the true power of the pretty boys, huh? They can force you into obedience just because

they have a handsome face that you cannot look away from. All I could do was to agree

with what he was saying, after which I just timidly sat in the corner of the sofa for the

time being. After taking of his cloak entirely and hanging it on the coat rack in the

corner behind his desk, the Duke sat on the chair behind his desk. Since he was an Elf

then I knew that he would be good looking, but never in my wildest dreams would I

have ever expected him to be such a hunk that even I would be enchanted by this

hopelessly cool, handsome face of his that looked as if it has been chiseled from marble

by the most talented sculptor in the entire world! I... I am legitimately terrified to

tell you that the longer I looked at him, the more I did not know where exactly I should

be looking in order not to come off as some uncultured commoner who gets awed

whenever he sees the figures in power who are much higher in the social hierarchy

than they are, so I just chose a random point on the wall slightly above one of his

shoulders and focused my eyes on that point and that point alone, hoping that my eyes

will not end up being unnaturally drawn towards him. This just goes to show that all

of the pretty boys in the world should really just go and die so that they could stop

spreading their aura of handsomness all around them, captivating the vulnerable

hearts of both damsels and gallants alike! Seriously, why having such a handsome face

was not made to be a criminal offense punishable by law is completely and utterly

beyond my comprehensive ability.

"Now then… As I was saying, this office is my private room, and while in here, I do not

care much about formality, protocols and etiquette, so I will not hold it against you if

you continue speaking to me in a casual tone. Actually, I would prefer it to be that way,

because it makes the conversation less suffocatingly boring."

"U-Underst...…"

"What did I said just now? I do not like formality, and that includes polite speech, so

you do not have to force yourself to be using it because of the difference in our social

standing."

"Okay. I will try to remember that."

I certainly did not expect him to be an advocate of informality and equality between

himself and those with whom he was engaging in a conversation. I only hope that my

attempts at speaking in a casual manner are going to be properly translated by the

game's systems and that it will not result in some fatal miscommunication errors.

"Before anything else, let me offer you the words of my gratitude. I cannot thank you

enough for lending your hand in the efforts to combat the damages that the floods

have inflicted upon my territories."

"No, no, no, there is no need for you to be thanking me, really. I was just doing what

anyone else would have done."

"This whole situation would not have happened if it was not for the leftover winter

snow that ended up melting later than usual this year. Unfortunately for us, it ended

up overlapping with the heavy rain season typical for the early period of spring around

these parts, which led to the amount of water, and the damage it has caused, being far

greater than we could have ever anticipated."

I see. So that is why there was a flood in the first place. The Duke said that it is because

the late melting of the snow overlapped with the rainy season, but I cannot help but

to wonder if that was only a one-time occurrence, or is it something that happens

more frequently every year? But that is probably why the relief supplies have been

prepared properly and were ready for distribution. They must have anticipated that

something like that might happen, and so they already had supplies prepared, but

because they have been caught off guard by the amount of water that came in along

with the downpours of rain, it ended up throwing quite the wrench in their operations,

and that is why they had to result to asking the Adventurers from Quratar for help

with the distribution of the supplies.

*Knock Knock*

"Pardon the intrusion, my Lord."

As I was talking with the Duke, someone has knocked on the door and asked for the

permission to enter. It turned out that this person was the leader of the Knight Order,

Gozer. Oh yeah, that is right! I did not even noticed that he did not enter the room

together with me and Duke, because I stopped paying attention to him once I went

inside and saw how handsome the Duke actually was.

"Is that you, Gozer? Please, come on in and have a seat."

"As you wish."

The leader of the Knights, Gozer, entered the room and bowed before me once more.

"Thank you for your help with the distribution of the relief supplies. It is a favor that

neither I nor the Knight Order of the Hartz Duchy will soon forget, you have my word

for it."

After raising his head back up, he then sat at the opposite sofa to the one on which I

was sitting. So not only is he cool, but he can also be uber polite? Talk about a killer

combination. Ladies must be fawning all over him for that, I am sure!

"I understand that you are both grateful for the help in dealing with this sudden crisis,

but is it really okay for you to be inviting an Adventurer and an outsider like me to

your office without any precautions? How can you know that I have not been sent here

to try and kill you?"

Since he said that he does not like formalities, I decided that this would be as good of

a moment as any to address that particular concern of mine that I had.

"A valid concern indeed, but not the one that you have to worry yourself with, young

man. Now that we are in the castle, the guards and the Knights would immediately

storm in if either of us called out for them or raised any kind of suspicious noise. Not

to mention that both Duke and I are wearing Sacrificial Misangas, so even if you did

managed to strike a blow that would normally kill us, then you would be in for quite

an unpleasant surprise. We are well aware of the risk that is involved with our

positions, and so we have done all that we possibly could to employ every safety

measure possible to guard ourselves from any and all attempts at our lives that our

would-be enemies might be plotting behind our backs."

"I see. When you put it like that, it certainly makes a lot of sense."

.

With so many diverse security measures in place, it definitely would not make any

difference if the Duke or Gozer were holed up in the castle all the time or actively going

out of it, because no matter the situation, they would always be protected from

assassins in some way: inside of the castle it would be the guards and Knights who,

according to Gozer's words, are trained in such a way that they would immediately

react if they were called upon or if they would sense that anything was amiss with

either of them, and if anyone tried to do something to them while they were outside

of the castle, their Sacrificial Misangas would prevent the first mortal blow from

claiming their lives, and I guess that the perpetrators would not even be getting any

kind of second chances at finishing their job because they would have been swiftly

dispatched either by the Duke or Gozer with their weapons and magic or by the escort

that would be coming with them. In that sense, I guess it really does not matter if their

location changes or remains the same all the time.

"And what about the Labyrinths that are located here in the duchy? Are the members

of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy the only ones responsible for clearing them, or do

you also have Adventurers who are regularly going inside and explore them?"

"The Knights are the main force responsible for the exploration of Labyrinths and the

extermination of the monsters that are dwelling inside of them, but the aristocracy of

the entire region is also helping in that endeavor, and we are keeping enough of an eye

on them to know if they would ever plan to make a move against us. So as you can see,

an assassination attempts are not going to be all that effective against us, and if anyone

were to try and take us out in open combat, then I am sure that our abilities would be

more than enough to stand our ground and emerge from such a battle more or less

unscratched. If we were not able to do at least that much, then we would not be worthy

of keeping our titles for as long as we are holding onto them right now. Or maybe you

would like to try your luck in a duel with one of us to see for yourself that we are telling

the truth and my words are not just empty lip service without any ground in reality?"

"Oh no, no, no, there absolutely is not going to be any need for that, because I believe

in every word that you just said."

I know that the Duke and Gozer were probably joking, but in the off chance that they

were not, I absolutely needed to clarify that there is not going to be any need for me

to be challenging them to a fight, and even if I did, then my instincts were telling me

that would have a distinctly bad time fighting them and that emerging victorious from

such a bout would be borderline impossible for the current me, especially if these guys

were fighting seriously right from the get-go. In that case, I have a feeling that I might

have even died if I was too careless.

"Oh really? Well, that is certainly a shame. You look like you are a pretty capable and

excellent Adventurer, so I think that you might have had a pretty decent chance of

giving His Excellency a run for his money."

"N-No, I still have ways to go as an Adventurer, so I do not think that calling myself

capable, or excellent would be appropriate here…"

"Now, now, there is no need to be too modest, hahaha..."

When I tried to deny Duke's words, he simply laughed them off. I know that he meant

them only as a harmless compliment, but still, I did not know what to think about

people like him complimenting someone like me, but since we are being all informal

here, then I should probably not think about anything that he says and simply accept

his words with a healthy pinch of salt.

"According to the report that I have received from my people, it would seem that the

transportation of your portion of the relief supplies to the village of Tare has already

been completed."

"Hmm... Tare, you say?"

"Tare is a village that is located the farthest out of all the towns and villages that are

counted among the ones belonging to my Duchy, and as you are probably aware,

travels to distant place with the usage of "Field Walker" are especially difficult since

they consume much of the caster's magic power In fact, you were the third Adventurer

whom we have asked to deliver the supplies there, but the other two did not even

deliver half of the amount of supplies that has been prepared for them as their portion

of the job."

The leader of the Knights explained that to me. Is that why I have not seen anyone else

around here? Because I was the only one who has actually finished everything that has

been assigned to him and so I could take a break while everyone else was still going at

it? But if that is the case, then should I not be going back there to help others so that

we could wrap up the process of delivering supplies to every village that needed them

a fast as possible?

From what the Knight leader Gozer told me just now, I think that it is safe to assume

that "Field Walker" works in the same was as "Warp" does, meaning that the amount

of MP that this spell consumes is actually dependent on the distance that the user

intends to travel. If that distance is relatively small, then the MP consumption is not

going to be all that big at all, but if the distance is going to be considerable, then the

amount of MP used is going to be quite substantial as well. And for this commission

the MP consumption is going to be that much greater, because the trips that have to

be made with "Field Walker" are not one way, but actually back and forth ones, which

essentially doubles the amount of MP that has to be used for the purpose of constantly

opening and closing "Field Walker's" portals, and I definitely know that to be true

since I was only resting in that hall on that chair because I was running dangerously

low on MP and needed a while to allow it to recharge. But still, I do not know if it

means that I have more MP than the other Adventurers or does it mean that "Warp"

uses less MP over short distances than "Field Walker", which allowed me to make

more trips back and forth between our delivery destinations and do them faster than

the others did, or if maybe a fact that I currently have more then just one Job and their

Passive Skills equipped: Explorer Lv.35, Hero Lv.33, Mage Lv.35, Monk Lv.34 and a

Cook Job that I have swapped for my Alchemist Lv.19 so that I could have more space

available in my Item Box to be able to fulfill the requirements of the commission, has

anything to do with it?

Oh, and while we are still on the subject of Jobs, presently, I often catch myself

wondering if I would ever need to get my hands on the Adventurer Job now that I have

so many diverse Jobs at relatively high levels like Explorer, Hero or a Mage? Not to

mention that they all give me rather good passive Skills, and I have grown quite

accustomed to exploring the Labyrinths and fighting monsters with them, but if I were

to obtain the Job of an Adventurer now, I would have to specifically go out of my way

to start levelling that Job up all the way from Lv.1 which would make me that much

weaker, and the Skills that the Adventurer Job gives you might not actually be all that

good in comparison to what I have now, however.... am I using most of my Jobs in

vain? Or rather, am I even using the effects that they are giving me to their fullest

extent and potential?

Two of the Jobs that I decided it would be better not to remove under any

circumstances were Hero and a Mage because a) Hero's Job allows me to use

Overwhelming Skill which comes in pretty handy whenever I am finding myself

fighting against a fast opponent or the ones that utilize surprise attacks, and b)

because Mage allows me to use magic Spells, duh.

.

The ability to use ranged spells instead of having to go up close and personal with the

enemy is invaluable to my current playstyle of hanging around in the backline while

supporting Roxanne and Sherry who are now fighting together in the vanguard, and

their teamwork is getting better and better by the day. As for the bonuses to our Stats

such as increased STR or increased DEX, neither of usually pays them any mind and

we fight without relying on them too much, so these are never a problem whenever I

switch my Jobs around, although if I have a choice, then I always prefer to leave the

Jobs that increase my overall INT stat, because the higher the INT stat, the more

damage my offensive spells are going to be doing.

When I was in the middle of thinking about such things related to my Stats, Jobs and

their Bonus Skills, Gozer, the leader of the Knight Order and the Duke spoke the words

that I did not expect to hear, and that I initially took for some kind of verbal trap.

"Forgive me if what I am about to say is going to sound disrespectful, but... you are

of Human race, correct?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yes, I am most definitely a Human, I have no doubts about it."

"Then it would seem that there really are some truly excellent Humans in the world

after all."

Eh? N-No, Mr. Duke, I think there has been a misunderstanding here, or rather, that

you are misunderstanding something here!

"Yes, excellent indeed."

"How about this then? Would you be interested in joining the ranks of the Knight Order

of Hartz Duchy?"

"Ehhh?! Uhm, while that would be a great honor for me, I am afraid that I have to

respectfully decline the offer. After all, I am still an Adventurer in the process of

learning and discovering my own limits, so I would not have any of my many

shortcomings to be slowing anyone in the Order down or result in having a negative

influence on either of your reputations."

I refused their offer without even thinking about it. All of that praise they are directing

my way is under the assumption that I am an Adventurer, so if I agreed and the

information that I am actually not an adventurer would have ended up reaching them

or any higher-ups in the Knight Order, it would mean no end of trouble for me, and

who knows that my freedom or even my life would not have been placed in danger as

well? But more importantly… I thought that the Elves were supposed to be looking

down on Humans, so why are these guys praising me out of the blue like that?!

Well, since they have already said all those things then I guess there is no need to be

thinking about it all that much, because it is entirely possible that the "Elves look down

on humans" might be the stereotype about Elves in general, and as we all know, there

are times where the stereotypes do not apply to every member of a given race, but

rather to the majority of it, and there will always be that small percentage of the

minority to are anything but the stereotype that describes the entire race, and

apparently the Duke and Gozer must have been exactly those people: Elves who do not

look down on Humans, or at the very least Elves who are not afraid of recognizing the

accomplishments of an individual, even if that individual was a Human.

"I see. Well, that is quite a shame, but if you do not want to join the Knight Order, then

there is nothing I can do to force you to do so. Anyway, if you ever encounter any

problems while you are in my Duchy, do not hesitate to go with it to Gozer. Since he is

the leader of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, there is nothing that he or his

subordinates would not be able to do, and if it is for someone like you, who helped us

in our hour of need and proved himself to be a capable Adventurer, then they would

be more than glad to lend you a hand with whatever you might be needing. We are

well aware that most of the other races think that we Elves look down not only on

Humans, but on other races as well, which is exactly why we should be doing

everything in our power to change that harmful mentality, so I hope you would not

mind it if I asked you for your help with other endeavors some other time?"

At the beginning I though that he might be joking around with me, but those words of

his just now seemed to be genuine, and he does not look like someone who uses his

words lightly only to withdraw from them moments later, but rather he looks like

someone who takes his words and the promises that he makes extremely seriously.

But I sure am glad that he turned out to be this kind of person. That takes a load of

potential worries off of my shoulders. Since he, Gozer and apparently even the

members of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy are people who want to fight against

harmful stereotypes of the Elven race, then establishing a connection with them and

helping them to achieve that goal is definitely going to be something that I am not

going to regret. But damn, now a part of me wishes that it could have met this Duke

and his Knight Order leader earlier than I did, because if only I knew that someone

like him existed, I would have kept the Copper Sword of Obstruction on me and I

would have sold it to him or one of his people in order to increase my reputation with

them as a Human who is willing to sell the weapons and items with Skills in them to

the Elves as a sign of good will and prosperous partnership.

"Well, I would not mind that, especially since I might have some business to do around

here in the future, but for the time being, I think it would be high time for me to be on

my way. I need to get back to work, after all."

With that said, I stood up from my seat. Talking to this man was actually more fun than

I have expected, but if I stay here for too long doing nothing but chatting with him,

then I am afraid that I might just lose any sense of time which would cause me to miss

my appointed meeting with Sherry back at the library in Imperial City.

"Ah, yes, of course. It was not my intention to be holding you back here for so long, so

do forgive me for that. However, about you going back to work, I do not think that it is

going to be necessary."

"Huh? Why is that?"

"Before I came here I went to collect the report from the Knights who have been

partnered with you during the distribution of supplies and they have informed me

that you have done everything that was expected of you, so that means that your work

for today is over and you are free to return home if you wish, Kaga Michio."

So they actually checked in with the Knights who were together with me because we

finished everything so fast that they must have found it suspicious that I was resting

back there even without anyone telling me that my work was officially over? I guess

that is understandable, but... wait, did he just addressed me with my full name? But

how does he even... oh. Ooohhh, I see. Before I was dispatched to Bode from

Quratar's Adventurer's Guild, I had to fill in the form with my personal information,

and I also had to state my name when we arrived here and the Duke's officials were

explaining the specifics of the commission to us and it did not even cross my mind to

come up with some sort of pseudonym because I thought that it is going to be too

much of a bother, and as a result of that, they now know my full name. As for whether

or not that I is going to prove to be a bad thing or not… I guess only time will tell.

Now that my talk with the Duke was over, Gozer escorted me out of his office and

brought me to a large room that looked like a foyer or a lobby, where I could

presumably use my "Warp" to leave the castle and go back home to Quartar. He then

bowed to me and promptly left the room, leaving me alone in it.