Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, if Humans don’t have an objective, or rather a purpose, they can’t work hard. Too grand of an objective will break your heart--so it might be better if you have both a short and long term objective.”

 

“My my, bringing such wonderful presents like these.” The Madam of Marquis Ashinen is looking at the presents I brought, Silk Cloth, Sapphire Necklace, and Coral Works with great delight.

 

The Coral Works were the suggestion of Viscount Shimen’s secretary secretly advised me that there are a lot variety, and they are quite rare inland.

 

I’ve packed the gold nude-woman statue that’s for Marquis Ashinen and handed it to the butler. It would have just been sold if I had given it to the Madam after all.

 

The Madam of Marquis Ashinen is an obese woman in her late 30s. It seems that the couple have four daughters and two sons, though they’re not here. The children are between 10 - 18 years old, two of the daughters have been married at the Duchy Capital, and the eldest son is working in the Royal Castle. Thanks to the very chatty Madam, I acquired a fair bit of information.

 

“Mother, did you call me?”

“Oh my, you’re late. How about her highness?”

“O Madam! What do you want me for?”

“I’ll introduce this person to your highness. He’s--”

 

The two new people who have entered the room are the second son of the Marquis couple, a plump 15yr old; and the Princess of a foreign Kingdom that I had seen when I was entering Labyrinth City.

 

Unlike at that time, her hair is in a drill twin-style. The silver hair-ornament suits her brown hair very well.

 

A maid with a rather plain face, who seems to be the Princess’s attendant, follows behind her.

 

I guess that this Princess is the fiancee of the second son.

 

With the Madam’s introduction, the second son snorted like he was looking down on me, after hearing my peerage.

 

“Hmm, what, he’s just an Honourary Chevalier, huh? Making me come to specially greet a sham noble who sucks up to mother for her favour, how ludicrous. Can I go back to my room now?”

 

This second son is just like the Marquis, who I bet in the trade city back then. He’s too blunt, he should be more indirect when insulting the other party, even if they are a lower-ranked noble.

 

“Geritz, aren’t you being rude to that person? In our Kingdom, we will be acting a bit more respectful, even if the other person is a lower-ranked noble.” As for this Princess, though she puts some strange accents on words, she’s unexpectedly proper.

 

The second son quietly cursed the Princess, “Acting so impudent, despite being a girl.” in a mutter while leaving the room, after getting the Madam’s permission.

 

The Madam apologized for her son’s remark.

 

The third and fourth daughters entered the room. Gona, the third daughter is slightly obese. While Shina, the fourth daughter is thin and underweight, her face also looks somewhat different to the others.

 

Gona is still 12 years old, yet she’s already been assigned to marry into the house of a Viscount, who’s one of their trusted retainers. Shina, the little sister, is only 10. She hasn’t been pledged to anyone, due to her sickness.

 

“Excuse me,” A maid entered the room while speaking, she’s pushing a food trolley, which has the blue tea that I had brought as a present. It also had some food that Lulu had made, she knew that the noble ladies really liked eating, for some reason.

 

The Madam asked me for my purpose for coming to Labyrinth City, to which I answered, “Adventurer”. The third and fourth daughters didn’t seem particularly interested, but the Princess bit.

 

“Oh! You came here to become an Adventurer? That’s good! I also came here to become an Adventurer. I will absolutely accomplish great deeds like your country’s Ringrande, and become the Hero’s companion!”

 

I think that goal would be very difficult, since she is level 15, but with no combat or Magic Skills--she only has Etiquette.

 

For now, let’s just be polite, so I only said, “That’s quite a wonderful dream.”

 

***

Lulu had been waiting in the carriage.

 

I left her food and water, but I still felt bad when I came back--she waved off my apology, saying that it’s how it should be.

 

The carriage passed through the street of the wealthy, heading towards the eastern Adventurer’s Guild.

 

Arisa and the others are participating in a Short Course that the Guild has sponsored. It seems that participation is free, and I intend to have Arisa teach me the content, later.

 

This Short Course seems to have veteran Adventurers teach beginners various things, like the way to conduct yourself in the Labyrinth, and the important characteristics. The Course is held regularly, and the location is the open space behind the Guild. The lecturer is also projecting an image of the current Monster they are talking about--I don’t know if they are using Light Magic or Nature Magic.

 

Not only Arisa and the others, Gena from back then and five other Adventurers, there are also 40 children there. While the children are of both genders, there aren’t any boys who are older than 10 years old.

 

It looks like the lecture is over and the staff are distributing wooden participation tags. I wonder if they are some kind of certificate of completion.

 

While I was watching the activity, the female receptionist from yesterday called to me, “Oh my, Chevalier. Your vassals listened very intently to the lecture.”

 

She is carrying a large pot out of the Guild building, it seems that the metal is hot, since she is using cloth to hold it. With a small noise of effort, she puts it down on the long table that was prepared in advance, and calls out to the people who participated in the lecture.

 

“We’re distributing food. It’s Selbira-style stew today. Line up with your wooden hand.”

 

I see, so it’s almost like a school lunch. The children who have gathered for the meal end up gaining knowledge about the labyrinth, and as a result, they will probably be able to survive better when they explored the labyrinth.

 

The Guild must be expecting that in exchange for the food and personnel expenses, the losses of Adventurers will decreased, and the number of gathered Magic Cores will increase.

 

However, since this course only opens once every five days, and the number of participants are limited, it seems that the number of children that can come are restricted.

 

The children received the poured stew with their wooden bowls and sat down in the hall, beginning to eat.

 

“Master, thank you for your hard work.”

“ ‘Elcome?”

“It’s Master and Lulu!”

 

The three Beastkin girls, who also carrying wooden bowls with stew in it, come over.

 

Pochi presents her spoon while saying, “Aan”, so I eat it. The food doesn’t really taste good. Although I am the only one who seems to have this impression, the children are eating the stew enthusiastically. Well, when I look again, I see that the Beastkin girls’ expressions look complicated, but they are eating without any complaints.

 

Arisa, Nana, and Mia are still surrounding the female Adventurer who was the lecturer, and they were asking her a barrage of questions.

 

“Sir Felspar, it has been a while.”

“Nice to meet you, Sir Felspar. I am the friend of Gina, the daughter of Baron Keter, Heliona. I belong to the party called Moonlight.” Heliona is a tall, black-haired woman.

 

Her hair is styled in a bob cut. But she has a hair ornament, with arranged feathers, that looks like a peacock’s tail. She’s wearing a normal shirt, and hot pants--a leather breastplate covers her chest and abdomen, and she has leather greaves and boots.

 

The friend that Gina said she was going to meet, is probably this girl.

 

“Sir Felspar. I’m sorry for my rudeness, but you should wear armour when you enter the labyrinth. Even Mages wear leather armour in there, no matter how dexterous you are, we don’t know if there are any Monsters waiting to takes us by surprise. Don’t be careless, okay?”

 

Since Heliona says these words with good intentions, I give an apology and thank her. Alas, we have become famous in the east Guild due to the rumour that we got kidnapped by a swarm of ants. It seems known that it was an armour-less noble who entered the labyrinth while bringing some maids along. She’s probably trying hard to avoid calling me ‘fool’ instead of ‘noble’.

 

We should wear some dummy armour next time.

 

“By the way, Sir Felspar, I’ve heard that you have a Mithril sword. Could you please let me see it once?”

 

While feeling confused because of Heliona’s sudden change, from an Adventurer to someone who is fidgeting like she’s going to confess her love, I pass her the Fairy Sword.

 

“Can I draw it?”

“Sure.”

“What a beautiful sword. However, it’s surprisingly light. Won’t this make it difficult to fight against big Monsters? I think that it’s better to use a spear or polearm as your main weapon, and a dagger as a sidearm.

 

Sadly, most people commonly wear Monster-made armour in Labyrinth City, but don’t you think that nobles should wear beautiful silver full-body armour? That beautiful silver! With that comes the power to crush evil--”

 

It looks like she wears metal armour and uses a poleaxe when she’s inside the labyrinth. She fights with a dagger when constrained by overly narrow passages--she seems to really like metal armour and had thoughtlessly recommended that I wear a full-body one.

 

Since her speech is overly long, I tune her out halfway through, and it seems that Gena has also gotten used to it, because she has a bitter smile as she stands next to Heliona.

 

Her passionate talk about armour seemed like it would continue on for quite a while, and luckily she had handed me back the Fairy Sword, so when Arisa and the others came back--I politely excused myself.

 

In the afternoon, I go to the firm that Suni, the merchant in Seryuu City has told me about, and I mail some letters to Seryuu City. My letters are for the Worker’s Guild, and Zena. Pochi and Tama are sending letters to the Gate Inn, to Yuni.

 

The cost is a single silver coin per letter, which seems reasonable considering the distance.