by Hiro Ainana
If the miasma was so thick that it was affecting the general populace, she would have definitely had a hard time here.
The Goblin Disease seemed to be much rarer, with only a handful of noble children carrying it.
“Are you already a doctor at your age, Princess?”
“No, but I do bear the divine protection of Heraluon. I can simply breathe upon the ill and make them well. Impressive, no?”
The princess’s Breath of Purification gift seemed to be a pretty useful one.
As time went on, I noticed that most of the conversation I could hear inside the carriage seemed to be between Arisa and the princess; Mia wasn’t joining in at all.
“Thy young lass is a quiet one, no?”
“Yes, Mia is rather shy, you see.”
“Am not,” Mia mumbled at last.
“Ah, so finally thou shall look upon me, n— What’s this?!”
The princess’s sudden change in tone sounded strange, so I opened the hatch and peered inside.
“Why, thou art an elf, no?! Please forgive my rudeness. I am the sixth princess of the Nolork Kingdom, Meetia Nolork.”
“I am the youngest elf of Bolenan Forest, Misanaria Bolenan, daughter of Lamisauya and Lilinatoa.”
The princess bowed in the cramped carriage, and Mia nodded in appreciation.
I’d forgotten that she tended to be cold toward people who didn’t introduce themselves properly.
“Bolenan! Then thou must be kin to the sage Lord Trazayuya, no?!”
“Sage?”
Mia looked flummoxed by the excitable princess.
“Surely, then, you will be traveling to the Ivy Manor built by the sage himself, no?”
“Mrrr…”
Mia hesitated.
“Our master is the one who decides where we will stay, so we aren’t yet sure whether we will be going to this Ivy Manor,” Arisa responded.
“I suppose I have heard that only elves can reach the gates of the Ivy Manor, no?”
The princess seemed to know a lot about Labyrinth City.
I tried searching the map, but I didn’t see any building called the Ivy Manor there.
Maybe it was destroyed sometime after Gillil left the city, or maybe it was hidden. My money was on the latter.
“Have you been to Labyrinth City before, Princess?”
“No, this is my first time leaving my kingdom. I learned much about Labyrinth City from my elder brother, who trained there for a time.”
According to Princess Meetia, the people of the Nolork Kingdom periodically visited Celivera to procure Nolork thorns—an ingredient in monster repellent—and often trained in the labyrinth before returning.
There was a recipe for monster repellent using Nolork thorns in one of my books, too.
According to the book’s explanation, repellent made with this particular recipe was cheaper and longer lasting than other varieties.
As I was listening to this conversation, we arrived at the gates of Labyrinth City.
A large crowd of curious spectators was causing a fuss, probably because the giant golems had suddenly moved not long ago.
Nonetheless, we were able to complete the entry process and pass through the gates without too much trouble.
“Where might you be headed?”
The viceroy’s official residence, which doubled as a government office, was on the left side of the large plaza beyond the gate. To the right was the explorers’ guild. About three hundred feet along the main road straight ahead was the viceroy’s personal dwelling, a palace surrounded by ramparts.
According to my map, the castle-like building visible to the southwest was the garrison of the labyrinth army.
“I was informed that the viceroy would prepare a room for us in his guesthouse, but it would be rude to barge in without a prior introduction. We should go to the office and make our arrival known before we visit.”
With that, the stiff knight guided her horse to the left.
We parked our carriage outside the entrance to the government office, and I accompanied the knight inside.
I was here to deliver a letter in addition to escorting her.
Rayleigh, the viceroy’s second son who we’d rescued when he was adrift at sea, had written me a letter of introduction to his father, and I had written my own greeting note as well.
Normally it would be rude for a viceroy not to greet a visiting noble, but he and his wife were currently away from Celivera, which was why I wrote a greeting.
According to Rayleigh, the substitute viceroy was a particularly high-class noble of great prestige and power from the royal capital.
Rayleigh’s younger siblings lived in Labyrinth City, while his elder siblings lived in the old capital.
“Princess Meetia of the Nolork Kingdom, you say?”
A middle-aged clerk looked at the knight with growing confusion.
The female knight nodded shortly, looking disgruntled.
“Please wait a moment while we ready a reception room.”
The clerk sent an aide to prepare a room while he looked over a schedule.
“…I’m afraid her name isn’t on this list. Please go confirm with Acting Viceroy Sokell.”
“Sir Sokell has not come to the office yet…”
“Again?! The viceroy and his wife cannot come back soon enough… I’m sure Sokell’s at a brothel. Bring him back even if it’s on a leash!”
As the clerk scowled, I overheard his hissed orders to his subordinate with my “Keen Hearing” skill.
From the sound of things, this Sokell fellow wasn’t doing his job, so they weren’t yet prepared to receive Princess Meetia.
After a short while, a staff member came to announce that the reception room was ready.
“We’ll take our leave here, then.”
Since we’d brought Princess Meetia where she needed to go, I figured my party could be on our way now.
“What? Thou art already leaving, Sir Satou? I still wish to speak more with Arisa and Lady Misanaria.”
“Princess, you must not trouble them too much,” the nursemaid gently scolded.
“Princess Meetia, you are staying in Labyrinth City as well, correct? In that case, we can meet again anytime. Once we have found a place to stay, we’ll be sure to contact you.”
After Princess Meetia reluctantly went on her way to the reception room with her entourage, we headed to the ticket window to speak with an official.
Noticing me, the middle-aged clerk sprinted outside.
“Has the princess been offended in some way?”
“No, no, I am simply here to deliver a letter for the viceroy.”
As I reassured the clerk, I pulled a sealed, cloth-wrapped package from my breast pocket. It contained my letter of greeting and the letter from the viceroy’s second son, Rayleigh.
The clerk was carefully polite as he accepted the letters and placed them on a delicately crafted tray.
Then, suddenly, his shoulders twitched.
“…Dalton, is this youngster the reason you dragged me in here on my day off?”
An overbearing voice behind me caused me to turn around.
There stood a young man of around twenty, his handsome face twisted with displeasure as he looked at me appraisingly.
It was the acting viceroy, Sokell.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir. I am Satou Pendragon, hereditary knight of the Muno Barony.”
“What, a mere hereditary knight? I expected a noble from some paltry kingdom, but—” Sokell suddenly froze mid-glare. “—P-Pendragon, you say?!”
His expression of distaste vanished, replaced by one of deep hatred.
I had never met this man before, so why was he looking at me like I killed one of his parents?
“The traitorous scum who curried favor with a hero and made a mockery of His Highness?!”
“There seems to be some kind of misunderstanding…”
The only person I’d met whom a Shiga Kingdom
noble would refer to as “His Highness” was probably Prince Sharorik, who I had encountered in the old capital.
“It’s because of you that His Highness lost the Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis and his position with the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga!”
Sorry, what? It’d be one thing if he was blaming my alias, Nanashi the Hero, but as Satou, I’d hardly had any contact with the prince at all.
And while Claidheamh Soluis was indeed in my Storage, the official story was that the imitation I’d returned to the kingdom was the real thing.
By “lost,” he probably meant that it had been taken out of the prince’s hands.
I’d heard that because the prince had been magically aged in the yellow demon incident in the old capital, he’d been sent home to the royal capital to rest and heal up, but I didn’t know he’d lost his status as one of the Eight Swordsmen of Shiga.
“My apologies, but I don’t know what you’re referring to. I have had the honor of speaking with His Highness twice, once at the banquet in the old capital and once at the Tenion Temple, but I do not believe I’ve interacted with him otherwise.”
Although I did seem to remember him acting as though I’d offended him both times.
“Making excuses, eh?! You lousy— Is this a letter? First you smooth talk the hero; now you come after the viceroy?!”
In the middle of his tirade, Sokell grabbed my letters from the middle-aged clerk’s tray, waving them around angrily.
The clerk and the other officials all grimaced at his rudeness.
My letter was one thing, but I would prefer that he stop crushing the one from Rayleigh to the viceroy.
“Excuse me, that letter is—”
I was about to state that it was from the viceroy’s son, but then a third party intervened.
“That is quite enough, indeed.”
A plump, mild-mannered old noble appeared, speaking in a strange manner.
He seemed to favor the color emerald green: His clothes, accessories, and even the items he carried were all the same shade. Impressively, he even wore green lipstick and nail polish.
According to the AR, he was the former count of an esteemed family living in Celivera.
His strange way of ending sentences was a bit familiar, so I checked his race and status, but he seemed to be a perfectly normal, non-possessed human. It was probably rude of me to suspect him of being a demon just because he said “indeed” a lot.
“Counselor Poputema!”
The middle-aged clerk looked relieved to see the green-clad noble.
Sokell, on the other hand, scowled, evidently not a fan of the man.
“You mustn’t handle a letter like that so savagely, indeed.”
The noble extracted the letter from Sokell’s hands.
“Fear not—I will be sure to convey this to the viceroy, indeed.”
“Thank you very much.”
It seemed to me that Counselor Poputema’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, but it didn’t really matter to me as long as Rayleigh’s letter reached his parents, so I simply bowed in thanks.
“Hmph. I’ve had quite enough of this.”
Sick of being ignored, Sokell rushed off to the reception room in a huff.
I was a little worried about Princess Meetia having to deal with this man, but she had her stern lady knight and nursemaid with her. I expected she’d be fine.
I apologized to the counselor and the other officials for the ruckus and excused myself.
Still, who would appoint someone as rude and short-tempered as Sokell to be acting viceroy? Sorry, Rayleigh, but I don’t think your father, Marquis Ashinen, is a very capable statesman.
At this rate, I was a little worried about our stay in Labyrinth City.
“Hey, we should go to the guild first and sign up to be adventurers!”
As soon as we left the office and got back into the carriage, Arisa was bouncing around excitedly.
Shouldn’t we find an inn before that?
Besides, it’s “explorers,” not “adventurers.”
“And then, and then! We’ll start off as F-rank adventurers! And then some nasty mid-level adventurers will be all ‘this ain’t a job for little girlies, got it?’ and then we’ll smack them down on the spot!”
I don’t think anyone’s going to say something like that to a noble, you know.
And why rank F?
The Roman alphabet did seem to exist here thanks to heroes and reincarnations of the past, but it seemed so obscure that I doubted they’d use it for ranks.
“And then, once we’ve got everyone’s attention, we’ll go into the labyrinth and get results no one would ever expect from a bunch of newbies, and it’ll freak out the reception lady.”
Why would we want to freak anyone out?
“Then there’ll be a part from a super-rare monster in our spoils or something, and we’ll get called to the guildmaster’s office, and they’ll promote us to C rank or B rank all in one go!”
Arisa was breathing so heavily as she finished her little fantasy that the younger group all gave her a round of applause.
Lulu giggled. “Master, shall I take us to the explorers’ guild?”
“Sure, please do.”
Before long, our carriage was parked behind the explorers’ guild near the viceroy’s dwelling.
There was a fairly large parking area, and one of the guild staff guided us to an empty space.
A cute little girl, maybe the staff member’s daughter, was tending to the horses.
“I’m going in!” Arisa shouted as she dashed to the entrance, followed closely by Pochi, Tama, and Mia.
“Waaait?”
“Wait up, sir!”
“No fair.”
Per my instructions, Liza and Nana handed over the reins of their runosaurs so that they could go keep an eye on the younger group.
Looking around, I saw that most of the other carriages still had their coachmen with them, so I approached the little kid by the horses.
“Excuse me, I’m here to register these girls. Would you mind watching our carriage and runosaurs for a little while?”
“Of course, mishter. Erm, mister!”
She turned bright red and looked down, embarrassed to have slipped on a word.
“Thanks,” I said, patting her head gently and handing her a tip.
“Let’s go, Lulu.”
“Yes, master.”
I headed toward the explorers’ guild entrance, Lulu following in her maid outfit.
Although it was as hot as early summer outside, the inside of the guild was comfortably cool. The floor was made of marble, making it look like the lobby of some big company.
There was some kind of conference booth to the right of the entrance, where a staff member and some wealthy-looking merchants were having a meeting.
Farther inside was a counter like you might see at a bank, with eight reception windows but only two receptionists. One was a businesslike-looking woman in her twenties, while the other was a handsome man in his thirties.
Arisa and the others were already talking to the female receptionist.
There didn’t seem to be any other customers at the moment. The male receptionist was watching Arisa and the others with a grin.
“Hurry, hurry!”
“Masterrr?”
“Over here, sir!”
“Here.”
The excited younger girls called me over to the counter, where the receptionist smiled.
“Welcome, Sir Knight. My name is Kehna, and I’ll be taking care of you today. I understand you would like to register. Are you looking for a regular or a special registration?”
I hadn’t heard anything about this from the elf teachers or the explorers I befriended in the old capital.
I assumed Arisa had already told her I was a knight.
“What’s the difference between the two?”
“With a special registration, you can immediately receive your gold badge, which identifies you as an e
xplorer. Unlike regular registration, there is a fee, but the gold badge is a magic tool that periodically broadcasts your exact location back to us. If you register your intended return time when you enter the labyrinth, a rescue party can use that signal to come retrieve you if you have not returned after a certain grace period.”
Broadcasting my location? No thank you.
Besides, since the location signal was sent only a few times a day, I got the sense that it was more for the purpose of collecting remains than rescuing anyone.
“We don’t intend to stray too far into the labyrinth, so we’ll stick with regular registration, please.”
“Certainly, sir. Now, may I have all your names, please?”
For some reason, we didn’t have to present any documents, and I was curious why.
“You don’t need to see any identification?”
“No, we only need a name for initial registration. There are a small amount of explorers who prefer to use an alias or false name.”
Huh. They didn’t seem too strict about all this. The labyrinth was sort of like a nationally owned mine that produced resources, so I was surprised they didn’t control entry a little more thoroughly.
“So are these eight names correct?”
As I opened my mouth to confirm, someone else charged in.
“Wait! Allow me to register, too, no?!”
It was Princess Meetia, who I’d thought was still back at the government office.
“Isn’t Lady Ravna with you, Princess?”
“She engaged herself in a fight with a rude noble. I took the opportunity to sneak here and register. Clever, no?”
I had suspected that the stern knight Ravna wouldn’t get along with Sokell, but it was a little concerning that she’d been so caught up arguing that she let her ward get away.
“But won’t you be scolded for registering without permission?”
“I will be an adult next year, no? And mine father said he would allow me to register if I do nothing else. Therefore, all should be fine, no?”
If she has her guardian’s permission, I guess that’s all right.
“Please register Lady Meetia here, too, then.”
Placing a pouch with the right amount of coins on the table, I added in a whisper, “A gold badge for Her Highness, please.”
It wouldn’t do for a princess to have an ordinary ID, I was sure.
