“Okay, got it.”
“…Then I’ll be getting back to my team. If you need anything, please call me.”
Elya bowed and walked away.
Hekkeran nearly scowled when he saw the multiple women waiting for him, but he couldn’t let his feelings show. There were times when other people knowing one’s emotions was a disadvantage. If he was going to get caught in that kind of spot, he wasn’t fit to be a team leader.
He buried his reaction and erased his expression.
Shifting his gaze as if averting his eyes from something unclean, he greeted the last remaining team leader.
“Hello, sir. You’re looking well.”
“Hallo, Hekkeran. You’re lookin’ fine yourself!” The whistling quality of the man’s voice was due to the fact that he’d lost most of his front teeth.
Palpatra “Green Leaf” Ogrion…
His nickname came from the armor he wore, which sparkled like a leaf covered in morning dew. It wasn’t made from metal but from the scales of a green dragon. Palpatra’s team had successfully hunted the beast. Of course, it hadn’t been such a big one, but dragons were beyond what workers and adventurers could usually handle.
Palpatra was an eighty-year-old man.
Most people in this line of work retired in their midforties—the faster ones got out before they even hit forty. The number of adventurers dropped abruptly past age fifty. As expected, people who did this harsh work sidled up next to death couldn’t ignore their physical decline.
And actually, although he was an exception, he had still fallen quite far from his peak—during his heyday he was said to have been orichalcum rank. And yet, he remained on the front lines.
Palpatra was so old, but he was still working. Most of the people in the industry respected him.
“That one seems a mite risky, eh?”
Palpatra’s wrinkled face grew even more wrinkly as he lowered his voice, and Hekkeran voiced his agreement. “Right? I don’t care if he wants to destroy himself, but I’m not interested in going down with him.”
“It’s true that he’s strong, but that sort of overconfidence can spread to fellow travelers. It’s extremely dangerous.” Gringham emitted a low groan that seemed to say, What do we do with this guy? There was probably no worker who didn’t think that, faced with Elya’s attitude.
“Actually, how strong is he? I haven’t been to the arena lately…”
“Thou knowest not? I do. And thou, sir?”
“Just stories—I haven’t seen him with my own eyes. If I ask my teammates, they might know something. What’s the standard anyway? If we say Gazef Stronoff is the peak, then where would someone everyone knows, say, the Four, rank?”
“The knights nicknamed Heavy Bomber, Unshakable, Lightning, and Storm Wind? It’s hard to rank them. They’re certainly not as strong as the captain of the Royal Select, but Gazef Stronoff being on top is also in the past. With the passage of time, new powers will emerge.”
“Are you saying Uzruth could be one of those? Is he really that strong? Actually, I’ve never seen the Four up close. Probably the most powerful I’ve seen is the emperor’s direct report, the captain of the Silver Guard. He’s pretty tough—equal to the Four, maybe?”
“The strongest I know are the Council State’s dragonlords. Humans could never defeat them.”
“Some say there are five, but some say seven… Oh, but we’re trying to figure out a yardstick to use to rank Elya, so let’s limit it to human fencers only.”
“In that case, most of the Argland Council State’s fencers get excluded because they’re subhumans. Same can be said for the martial kings of the arena. Then how about the female holy knight of the sacred kingdom Roebel with her divine swords? That said, when it comes to pure fencing ability, I’m not sure…”
As a worker, it was extremely important to gather information about who was strong for carrying out jobs. If someone got in the way, knowing who they were could make the difference between a win and a loss. Of course, a warrior would end up learning about others in the swordsmanship world as a matter of course.
What was happening right now was the same thing. The conversation that had started with the question of how strong Elya was had gradually gained steam and was turning into an exchange of powerful character info. It resembled a group of kids going, That guy’s strong!
“The Slane Theocracy’s overall level is high, but I don’t hear many rumors about exceptional individuals. Even if they have them, they’re faith casters, so they don’t count.”
“One of the top-ranked adventurers in the kingdom is a woman warrior. What about her?”
“Oh, you mean ‘pecs, not breasts’? She’s strong, yeah. But I heard she lost to the captain of the Royal Select in a formal dual.”
“…I heard she nearly killed someone who called her that. Hya-hya-hya! What a terrifying woman!”
“Once you start listing names, it gets hard to keep it to just sword users. The city states have the Brave Warrior and the Dark Knight. The Dragon Kingdom has ‘Furious Flash’ Celebrate from the adamantite-rank adventurer team Crystal Tear and ‘Deep Red’ Optix from the worker team Blazing Crimson. In the kingdom…Brain Unglaus?”
The conversation paused for the first time.
“Brain Unglaus? Who’s that?”
“Thou have not heard? He’s a well-known swordsman in the kingdom… And thou?”
Hekkeran shook his head. He’d never heard that name before.
“Thou knowest not, hmm?” Unable to hide his disappointment, he spoke in an indefinite tone as if digging up old memories. “This happened a long time ago, but I faced him in the quarterfinals of the kingdom’s royal tournament. At the time, I was nowhere as strong as he.”
“Was that the tournament that Gazef Stronoff won?”
“Indeed. In the end, Unglaus lost to Stronoff, but their dual was worthy of close attention. They were both truly model fencers. I kept thinking things like, How’d he block that? and Oh, in this situation you can curve your blade to strike… I can only say I was lucky to witness it.”
If a man of Gringham’s caliber was saying that, and Brain held his own against the warrior said to be strongest in any nearby kingdom, then he must be one first-rate fighter.
There are a lot of tough guys in the world I’ve just never heard of…, thought Hekkeran admiringly.
“Hmm. So then who do you personally think is stronger, that Unglaus fellow or Uzruth?”
“Uzruth,” Gringham answered immediately. “Compared to Unglaus at the time of the tournament, definitely Uzruth. I saw him recently at the arena, so I’m confident.”
“In other words, he’s equal to the captain of the Royal Select a few years ago? He’s that strong?! Whoops.” Hekkeran lowered his voice after getting so excited he’d been shouting.
“I see. Unglaus, hmm? I guess I should make sure to keep up to date on the kingdom… Speaking of which, have you heard the big news? About the third adamantite-rank adventurer team?”
“Of course I have, sir.”
“Ah, sorry. I haven’t.”
“Hekkeran…thine ignorance will endanger thy team.”
“I realize that, but I can’t go around gathering info on kingdom adventurers. That’d be a waste of money.”
“Hya-hya-hya. You got some mettle! I like you.”
“Sir, I’d like to get your opinion: I’ve heard the rumors about Momon of Raven Black, but are they not overblown? Did his team truly beat a giant basilisk with only two people? With no one specialized in healing…?”
“Whoa, that can’t be true.”
It would be nearly impossible to kill a giant basilisk with two people. Not even an adamantite-rank team could do it.
“So we agree, Hekkeran? The more information I gather, the more suspicious he appears. There is even one story that says during the incident in the kingdom he slayed a demon over two hundred difficulty in one blow. This is merely my theory, but dost thou think perhaps the kingdom a
dventurers’ guilds fabricated the stories and promoted him to adamantite in order to increase their own influence?”
“Could be. The appearance of a high-rank adventurer is major. But would the guild really fudge his rank like that? They can be pretty stubborn.”
“Depends on the city. Each guild master is a little different. The head of the guild I had back when I was an adventurer was the nastiest variety. I socked him right in the face! Hya-hya-hya! That’s why I’m a worker now!” Palpatra laughed heartily.
The story of how he became a worker was notorious. There probably weren’t any workers in the imperial capital who didn’t know it. Anyone who went drinking with him heard it over and over.
“Still, I doubt they would do that.”
“So you’re saying those things are true?”
“It’s hard to believe. Even giving them the benefit of the doubt—although common sense says a difficulty rating over two hundred is already fishy—he wouldn’t be able to defeat something so strong in one blow. If anything, maybe the rumor is exaggerated? A high-difficulty demon appeared, a few teams took it on, and the team that dealt the final blow was Raven Black?”
“That’s more plausible.”
“Anyone stronger than orichalcum rank is crammed into adamantite, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were someone that strong. There has to be a wide range of adamantite abilities.”
“So Hekkeran shares my opinion, but thou, sir, deem the stories true?”
“Hya-hya-hya! Well, not all of them!”
“So seeing is believing? I’d like to meet him someday…sort of…”
Just as the other two were agreeing with Hekkeran, they heard the sound of flesh being struck and a woman’s stifled scream.
The eyes of all the workers present gathered on one point. Several who expected an emergency were already lowering their hips to take a combat-ready stance.
The scream had come from a woman on Elya’s team who was now collapsed at his feet. Given the circumstances, no one had any doubt that he’d knocked her down. Looking up at his face twisted in anger, she begged for forgiveness, frightened.
As Hekkeran suppressed the disgust welling up from the pit of his stomach, something flashed across his mind and he turned hurriedly to check on Imina.
Just as he imagined, all emotion had drained from her face. The only thing he sensed was a dangerous energy, as though she might attack at any moment.
He hurriedly signaled to Roberdyck and Arché next to her that they should intervene.
Personally, he felt the same as Imina, but he couldn’t go sticking his nose into other teams’ business. Not that it wasn’t possible, just that if he were going to do it, he’d have to be ready to take full responsibility for the outcome. Several members of other teams were grimacing in disgust, but for the same reason as him, none of them moved to do anything, either.
Somehow, reason won over. Imina made an obscene gesture at Elya’s back and spat on the ground.
“…I guess he’s only equal to the captain of the Royal Select when it comes to fencing. It’d be great if he were his equal in humanity, too, but I guess that’s too much to hope for. Well, shall we call that good for the small talk?”
“Yes, you’re here now, so we have some important things to decide.”
“Who will act as overall commander? He’s already declined.”
A silence fell.
There were four teams total. Certainly, they were an impressive force, but without someone to unify them and give direction, they wouldn’t be very well coordinated. It didn’t matter how many arms one had; if they couldn’t be used at the same time, it was the same as having one.
Managing these teams with their different personalities would be difficult, and doing it without getting complained at would be nearly impossible. Whoever took charge would be hated by the other teams if their orders led to failure or they were suspected of prioritizing their own team’s reward.
Frankly, for how much skill it demanded, the job had more cons than pros.
Knowing that, the team leaders remained silent and tried to gauge one another’s moods. They seemed to want to push it on the one who brought it up.
After the lull had lasted about a minute, Hekkeran finally said, looking exhausted, “Honestly, we’re probably fine without an overall commander, right?”
“Isn’t that just putting off the issue? We’ll have a problem once a battle begins.”
“I propose taking turns. That should get us through this with the least discontent. I think we can confer once more when we arrive at the ruins…”
“Ahh.”
“Right.”
Hekkeran and Palpatra agreed to Gringham’s suggestion.
“Then shall we take turns going in the order we arrived?”
“What should we do about Uzruth’s team, Tenbu?”
“That little punk won’t care if we skip him. There’s no way he’s qualified anyway.”
“I agree, sir. Then I, from Heavy Masher, shall take the liberty of leading first.”
“Thanks, Gringham.”
“Counting on you, young’un!”
“Yes, sir. That said, the chance of any savage monsters appearing within the empire is as good as nonexistent. The problems will start once we enter the kingdom, especially as we near the Tove Woodlands.”
“Ahh, maybe we should have gone in reverse order!” Hekkeran jokingly cradled his head in his hands, and the other two laughed quietly. Then they immediately tensed up and turned to face a man walking toward the group of workers. Everyone else was already looking his way.
It was finally light out, and the count’s butler was approaching across the lawn. His back was straight as he walked—the appropriate posture for one serving a count.
When he arrived before the workers, he bowed. No one responded in kind, but he took no notice and began to speak. “It is time. Thank you very much for taking on the count’s request. Two men from the house will accompany you. There will also be a total of six adventurers to guard the wagons and so on. Your destination is an area of unexplored ruins located in the kingdom—what seems to be a tomb. You will stay there to make your survey for three days. Additional compensation will depend on what my master gains from the information you bring him and will therefore be decided at a later date. Are there any questions?”
The butler didn’t say very much that was different from the request they’d already heard. The only new information was that there would be adventurers attached as guards.
They were interested in where the tip on the ruins had come from, but every worker knew the difference between questions that would get answered and questions that wouldn’t. Anything that was likely to be shared they would have heard already at the request stage.
Besides, if it was a clean job, the count would have used adventurers. The requester was sure to be tight-lipped about a dirty job, and it was safer for everyone not to ask.
“…Very well. I will lead you to the wagons we have prepared.”
There were no objections, and everyone followed behind him.
The members of Foresight brought up the rear.
“That piece of shit should die. Whaddaya think? Should we kill him?”
Unable to hold back her hatred for Elya, Imina began spewing it into Hekkeran’s ear the moment she was next to him.
Was her voice lowered because she was seething or because she had retained some self-control? He couldn’t tell, but he hoped it was the latter.
“I’d heard the rumors, but he truly is a despicable man, isn’t it?”
“The worst.”
The other two didn’t hide their disgust, either.
That was only natural for Foresight. With a woman like Imina as a member, the things Elya did were unforgivable to them.
All the members of Elya’s team besides Elya were women—elf women.
If that were all, neither Imina nor her teammates would have taken issue. But there was a reason they unanimously de
clared him a vile bastard.
Although all the women had the minimum amount of gear, the material and make of it was shabby. That, and the long elven ears that should have been sticking out from under their cropped hair had been sliced off.
They were in that condition because they—all of Elya’s team members—were elf slaves from the Slane Theocracy.
The empire’s slavery system had changed a lot under the previous emperor. They had slaves in name, but the slaves’ actual status was somewhat different. There were also still some slaves, however, such as the subhumans made to fight in the arena, for whom nothing had changed.
The elf slaves Elya had with him were that kind.
The Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize Kingdom, and Slane Theocracy were made up of nearly 100 percent humans and had a more exclusionary attitude toward nonhuman races than other countries in the area. For that reason, even other humanoids—like Imina, who was a half elf—found them difficult to live in.
The only exception was dwarves. Up in the Azerlisia Mountains that ran along the border between the Baharuth Empire and the Re-Estize Kingdom was a dwarf kingdom. Since the empire traded with them, the dwarf race was a properly protected class.
“I feel bad for the elves, too, but our job right now isn’t to save them.”
Imina sighed deeply. She knew that logically. Her emotions just couldn’t keep up.
“Let’s go,” Imina replied simply and walked out in front as they increased their speed a little to catch up with the others. Then everyone’s eyes popped open in surprise.
The butler had led them to the two rather large covered wagons that were being prepared for the trip to the ruins. A group of people was loading them with supplies. They must have been the adventurers the butler had mentioned. The plates around their necks sparkled gold.
Their surprise wasn’t at these people, but at the horses that would pull the wagons.
“Sleipnirs…”
Voices gasped in astonishment.
Eight-legged sleipnirs were bigger than normal horses, as well as superior in terms of muscular strength, stamina, and mobility, which is why they were considered the best magical beast on land.
The Invaders of the Great Tomb Page 8
