Volume 2: Episode 22 Invitation to the Citadel of Ezerland (from the Princess of the Frontier) I
Let's give each other our best in a duel――and after fist bumping with Serena, Kian left her there.
They are going to see the acceptance announcement at the guild, but both Kian and Serena are wearing normal clothes. Since they're going to show up at work, they should put on their formal attire, which is armor and a sword belt, before they go.
With that said, Kian went back to his room at the Pig's Foot Pavilion, collected his backpack, and left the inn again. The "Windcry Sword" is currently in the process of being made a sheath. The Pigfoot father and daughter have a courtyard in front of their main house, so Kian is renting it and is in the process of shaving wood. The reason he was talking to Esther this morning was to rent a corner of the courtyard.
『Though the sheath is not ready yet, you will take the sword with you?』
「Of course. If I wrap it up in a cloth like I did when I got it yesterday, that wind noise will be better.」
He's just going to do the acceptance and promotion procedures, but he'll be fully equipped for the occasion.
For protective gear, he's not wearing the coat from "Twilight," but a stylish lightweight outfit made by modifying the "Rose Dress" he got from the "Rose Labyrinth".
「Something like this」
In the courtyard of the Pigfoots' house, Kian, who had strapped a "Windcry Sword" to a leather holder on his back, looked down at his own outfit with his hands outstretched.
The lower half of his body, however, was still in the "Twilight" leg band.
The glasses sighed as if to say that they didn't fit in with the slightly sexy equipment that was open at the chest.
『What can I say, ......, these clothes look like the clothes of a well-to-do lower-class aristocrat. I should say that you seem to be making a living as bandits, rather than running a proper estate.』
「Serena told me something similar, but I wonder if it's that bad taste. I don't dislike this kind of flashy clothes, though」
Originally, where he was born and raised―in Azrair, many people wore flashy shades of red, pink, deep blue, etc., so the sensibility that such things are good has taken root in Kian. In fact, he even liked it a lot.
In the Count of Ezerland, fluorescent clothing is not favored, and many people wear relatively plain-colored clothes, so Kian was just trying to match his surroundings.
「Ohhh, I feel like I'm starting to lighten up!」
『It would make for an interesting picture if your name wasn't on the acceptance announcement poster.』
「............」
『It's interesting to watch the gap between the two.』
(I shouldn't have made a breast pocket for my new armor.)
With a quick glance at his bad-taste glasses, Kian finally leaves the courtyard for the main street.
It was already midday, and the street was crowded with vegetable vendors, adventurers, and guards.
Kian weaved his way up the avenue, heading for the Adventurers' Guild building in the heart of the East End.
× × ×
Kian passed the exam without incident.
Without looking for the name, he found the name "Kian" and the examination number "35" in the upper right corner of the first page of the poster. The names are supposed to be written in the order of their grades, so it was assumed he passed at the top of the class.
(Perhaps it was thanks to Oswalt's letter to Friedrich.)
He thinks so as he looks up at the noticeboard at the entrance, which is completely empty.
By the way, Serena's name was on the bottom right.
Perhaps......she got a big point deduction because of the situation of her party when they reached the goal. However, as long as you are accepted, it doesn't make any difference whether you pass at the top or the bottom. They are equally lowly adventurers of the Eighth Class. Both of them were promoted, and they should be happy about that.
(Huh?)
『What's wrong?』
(Did Serena not write her family name?)
『True. Is there a problem with that?』
(Not so much the problem, but ....... Is there some reason why it would be bad to write the family name?)
『It's probably so that the Deadly Swordsman of Azrair won't recognize her. If her brother was assassinated, the assassin must know the girl's family name. There are many names in the world like Serena, but if she wrote down Silverworo, she would have been personally identified.』
(I see that she made this decision in anticipation of when she would become famous as an adventurer. It's a natural decision, but it's a shrewd one. I should learn from her example.)
『You will duel with this shrewd woman, so be careful. I will not allow you to be defeated twice by the same person in front of me. As my greatest knight, you must show that a battle that you will not embarrass me.』
「Since when did I become your knight ......」
While Kian was mumbling to himself, he heard someone coming clacking down the hall.
He looked and saw Irina, the head receptionist, walking toward him carrying a large stack of stickers.
When the middle-aged woman, who was close to forty, saw Kian, she said, "Oh my".
「Hello, Kian-san.」
「Hello. Do you need help?」
「This is my job. Don't mind me. Have you completed your application for promotion? You are the last one who came here as a successful candidate. Even though most people were checking the results as soon as they were posted, that's a hell of an "Executive Attendance"」 [TLN: 重役出勤 it means arriving at work late as if one were an executive]
「I-I'm sorry.」
――He said, normally, he would have been flattered and needlessly humble, but Kian looked at Irina and gave her a fresh smile.
「I hate waiting. It's easier to come after a leisurely breakfast of bread and tea than to wait impatiently for the body of examinees to rub up against me.」
「Ha, why don't you consider the inconvenience of those who are in charge of you?」
「Irina-san」
Kian took a step closer to her and looked down at her with a strong gaze.
The head receptionist quickly changed her expression, but Kian broke her expression before she could back away.
「I'm the type of guy who doesn't spend a lot of time on foreplay. I have no patience, so I always suddenly put myself first and make the girl cry」
「Wha..., haah......? W-What are you ......?」
「I'll be careful not to make the receptionist in charge cry.」
「W-Wait a minute! You are ......!」
Hearing Irina's voice chasing after him, Kian turned his head to the side and showed white teeth from his mouth.
「It's just a joke」
「............!」
「Thank you for your work. I will promptly complete the promotion procedures as you said. Thank you very much.」
Irina's face was strangely flushed and her mouth was agape.
It seems that he had unconsciously used his power of fascination.
(I shouldn't have done that. ....... There's something wrong with me lately.........I've been willingly doing crazy things. This is like―)
This is like me when I wear glasses――
Kian, calming himself down, steps into the white halls of the Adventurers' Guild.
It was just before noon and there were few people.
In front of the counter of Kian's new handler, it was deserted.
『Are you going to eat her?』
(I won't. For now, not yet.)
Kian smiled again and strode toward the counter.
× × ×
「Congratulations on passing the exam! Please continue to contribute to the Adventurers' Guild!」
Shaking her pink twin-tail hair, which seems to have been dyed with dye, Myrl, the receptionist in charge of the application, gives him a perfect sales smile.
Not liking this capriciousness, Kian filled out the necessary information on the form offered to him and paid the five silver coins as the registration fee for adventurers.
「Oh, also~. Kian-san has been fined for intercepting a new adventurer's quest. Please pay the ten silver coins quickly as soon as possible~」
「......Now that you mention it, there was such a story......」
It was only about a month ago, but it already seemed like a distant memory.
The pink twin-tailed receptionist smiles and spreads the edges of her mouth from side to side.
「Because of you, my Sophie-chan was fired from her job and sent back to her parent's house, don't get carried away just because you did a little better on your exams, you low-class trash adventurer?」
「......I am sorry to hear about Sophie-san. You were her friends, I assume. I am truly sorry for what I did.」
With that said, Kian gently held out the bag of silver coins he had tucked under his sleeve to Myrl.
「Hah!?」
「Ah, here are the ten silver coins for the fine.」
「...... Eh. Then, what about this bag?」
「A bag? Did I drop something?」
Kian turned his head away from the counter as he said so.
On a white pillar nearby hung a sign that read, 'Please refrain from giving gifts, etc., to staff members'. It was handwritten by Irina. The lettering was decorated in red and blue. It had a rural, unpolished atmosphere that the Adventurers' Guild in Azrair did not have. Kian looked at the letters alone and couldn't believe that a forty-something hag had written them――and a distant look in his eyes.
When he looked back again, the bag of silver coins had disappeared, and the pink receptionist looked up at Kian with a smiling face.
「Aha, the procedure is over~☆.」
「Thank you very much. Let's continue to build good relationships with each other.」
「Yes! Of course, Kian-san! Ehehehehe」
『What a dirty mind you have. I've always thought of this before, but you were the scum of the earth! Hoho!』
(Why do you sound so happy? And am I not allowed freedom of expression even in my mind?)
「Oh, also!」
Myrl rummaged through the file by her side.
This new receptionist is even more careless with documents than Sophie.
「Two personal requests have been addressed to Kian-san.」
「Two? Not just from Oswalt-san?」
「Yes, it's two! I mean, what kind of person are you, Kian-san!? Both of these are from the upper class living in the Ezerland Citadel, aren't they?」
「May I see them?」
「Please do!」
Both of the letters presented to Kian from the counter were high-class-looking letters.
One was a high-quality parchment.
The other was a formal summons, the kind used by aristocrats, with a scroll-shaped design.
The parchment was from Oswalt's confidant, the dark elf Aisha.
The content was a request to investigate the "Rose Labyrinth".
The scroll's sender's name was Christina Famer.
The letter was written in a prestigious style, probably by a scribe, and it contained a long list of things, but in short, it was a request for Kian to escort her from noon today.
「From noon?」
Kian looked up from the text.
「It's just in time, isn't it? The meeting place is at the entrance to the western stall area, and if I don't go now, I won't make it in time.」
「Then you have to hurry, don't you?」
The pink-colored receptionist is scribbling down the documents that Kian had just presented to her while giving a vaguely unmotivated reply.
You told me the procedure was over, but it's not over at all.
「I asked for the document. Well then, I'll take my leave now.」
「Sure, sure~」
Myrl waved her hand flutteringly.
Returning the lax rookie officer's eye bow once more, Kian turned on his heel from the counter.
And then, from the other end of the hall, he heard the cry of a strong-willed woman he had heard somewhere before.
「――That's why I said I'm sorry! Just get out of my way!」
(What's that, ......?)
Kian looked to the corner area just opposite the hall and saw a thin, hooded figure surrounded by several large adventurers.
The hooded woman? raised her glossy soprano.
「That's why I only bump you a little! What are you so angry about!?」
「Aahh? My lunch went to waste because you bumped into me!」
The bald adventurer with a blue streak on his forehead had a sticky residue of what appeared to be junk food sold at food stalls stuck to his armor.
The sauce seemed to have gotten in between the armor, making it troublesome to clean up.
I see, the girls had unfortunately been in a collision.
Under the circumstances, it was probably the large cane held by the hooded woman that hit him.
It looks like a very expensive magician's staff.
She seems to be a female magician, or at least a regular magician, not a half-baked one like Francisca.
The hooded woman was not intimidated at all by the strong-looking men but stared back at him with a defiant look on her face.
「What's with you!」
Barun――!
Her robe shook loudly.
The high-class dress for magicians―at first glance, it looked like a group blue dress―was very full-breasted. Female magicians use not only magic but also words and appearance as weapons, so they are all often dressed like that
Long black hair.
Bangs in the front.
Beautiful face with dark circles under her eyes.
Her beauty was unparalleled among all the female magicians Kian had ever met.
The most beautiful girl in the world.
No man would not fall for her if she leaned over and whispered sweetly to him.
However, she seems to be using her weapons incorrectly and is facing him with a cocky look on her face.
Instead of attracting him, she only stirs up his appetite for sex.
「Ah, could it be that girl is....」
With the sound of her stout voice, Kian felt the memory of the other day come flooding back to him.
(Christy-san?)
The blonde-haired, masked girl―the female magician who had been mixed in with Mariabelle at the lower-level adventurers' promotion examination. She was a beautiful girl with the appearance of a brilliant student and seemed to want to leave the whole time.
He recall vividly how Oswalt had slapped her on the cheek before the exam began.
(I see, so Christina Famer was her.)
Kian glanced at the scroll in his hand and strode swiftly to the corner of the hall.
「I told you, let me go already! Enough or I'll blow you away with my magic!」
「Aahn!? What did you say, you little brat!? I'll beat you, bitch!」
「Wait a minute.」
Slipping between the men, Kian slips in front of the dark-haired female magician, Christy.
「It seems my companion has done something rude. I'll apologize with her, so could you forgive her?」
「Oh? Look who's here, aren't you the 'Garbage Scavenger'!? Get out of my way! I ain't got no use for you!」
「―――」
「Heh heh heh. Just right. I was frustrated. Come outside. I'll rape your little bitch afterward!」
「Hah, go ahead, do it if you can! I'm not going to let you people get the better of me!」
(Why doesn't she just apologize?)
『Moreover, she's ready to use you as a shield and shoot magic from behind. Be careful, that woman is going to blow up the whole hall with you.』
(I won't let that happen. We'll settle this peacefully.)
「Oraaa!」
One of the adventurers surrounding the group comes to Kian.
Behind him, he heard Christy jump a step and start chanting magic.
Kian caught the man's arm and turned his mesmerizing eyes on the man who was hitting him from the front.
「――――!?!?」
「Pull back your fist.」
「――――, ――――」
「You too. Pull back. Don't attack me.」
「......., Yes........」
Feckless, the two men in front lowered their fists.
An adventurer rolls his eyes as Kian parries his fist.
「O-Oi, you guys, what's wrong――」
「Let's talk it out, shall we? Peacefully.」
「......, Ah, yeah ...... you're right.」
「You saw nothing here. No one bumped into you.」
Kian wiped the sauce on the man's armor in front of him with his handkerchief.
I felt sorry for him if I didn't at least do this.
「It's not a good idea to cause a ruckus in the guild. Now walk away from here.」
「...... Oh, yeah.」 「You're right, 'Garbage Scavenger'.」 「Huh, what were we mad about?」 「I don't fucking know. Anyway, ...... we'll figure it out when we get out.」
「That's good.」
Kian watched as the men curled up in a ball and lined up in a row to leave for the entrance of the adventurers' guild.
The effects of the fascination will last a while.
At least until they fall asleep this night.
There is probably no way they will suddenly come to their senses after this and strike again.
.......It was worth practicing even wearing glasses during the night.
『The heck, you don't suck their chi?』
(The amount of magic power they have is five buckets or so. It's not an amount I'd suck nowadays at the risk of killing them.)
「Eh ......? Huh? Huuuh? Hey, you, what did you just do?」
Christy, who had interrupted her chanting, came up to Kian from behind with a threatening attitude.
Her hood was coming off, exposing her glossy black hair, and a fragrance similar to that of roses was wafting through the air.
It was the kind of "artificial good scent" that Arueno makes.
She looks about seventeen or eighteen years old, but she seems to be practicing the proper etiquette of a lady.
「I didn't do anything. I just politely asked them to leave.」
Kian replied quietly, putting away his soiled handkerchief.
「Huuh? That can't be true! Because those guys were so pissed! They weren't going to back down until they beat the crap out of us!」
「Even if you say that」
Kian shrugged his shoulders.
「As you can see, they were merciful enough to put their fists down」
「――――! ......Y-Yeah, right, ....... And you don't seem to be wearing any suggestion spells.」
As Christy said that, she stopped to look at the "Windcry Sword" on Kian's back.
「Have you ever had a sword like that before?」
「No, I won a bet and got it.」
「I can feel its strong magic power. It's a magical sword made from monster material, no? It looks so expensive that even 20 of you wouldn't be enough to buy it.」
「Hahaha」
Kian laughed and held the scroll at her.
「By the way, I just got this from the receptionist, do you need anything from me, though?」
「――――! That's it!」
「Huh?」
「I told you, it's your fault! I had to pick you up because you didn't show up at the meeting place! And now I'm getting tangled up with a bunch of weirdos because of you. ...... Sighh ......! Come on, move your leg!」
「Uh, ......, where are we going?」
「Out, side!」
Christy said, tugging on Kian's arm.
「I have Manon waiting outside! We have to get back there now! I hope she didn't get tangled up with those guys earlier. ......」
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