10-46. Mithril Plate (4) Satou"s here. There"s an impression that the visiting day is the big moment for children, but when I"ve become an adult, I notice that it"s the place for the children"s guardians to compete. The teachers who have prepared the stage for the children to show off with good balance must be having a stomachache.
◇
"Wa~y, it"s Poa nanodesu!"
"s.h.i.+ya, been awhile~?"
Pochi and Tama who see the two people I"ve brought to the villa welcome them with raised arms. These two are helpers for the floormaster subjugation.
Unfortunately, they"re not going to be battle forces, but as paddings to add the number of people. Each of these two lead 5 trolls and 10 spriggans, and 10 leprechauns. Just now, I had disguised myself as a plain middle-aged man, and guided them all to register in the west guild. Since they were all unusual races around here, everyone disguised themselves as a human. It was impossible for the trolls considering their size, so they were disguised as major little giants.
I"ve reserved one whole inn on the ground for every one of them besides two elves to stay at.
It"s the high cla.s.s inn which we have stayed at when we first came to the labyrinth city. There wasn"t any other inn that could hold the trolls. Since all of the meals and liquor are my treats, they should currently be enjoying human dishes for the first time. I"m slightly worried whether the trolls would break the inn when they"re drunk.
"Ou, Pochi! Are you well?! Let"s have some practice later! Prepare some wooden swords!"
"Aye! Nanodesu!"
Pochi"s master, Ms. Porutomea grins while holding the blue rose sword that I"ve given her before with one hand.
Pochi who went back to the villa returned while carrying two Soft Swords overhead and looking happy. Looks like they intend to start the training immediately.
"Tama, are you in good health."
"Saku-saku de gozaru~? Nin nin."
s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+, Tama"s master, is an elf-san who dresses casually. He has calm demeanor yet warrior air around him, but since he looks young outside, he looks like a middle schooler who tries hard, it"s a somehow heartwarming. Since his appearance is shota-like, he"s Arisa"s favorite elf-san.
These two look carefree and it doesn"t seem like they will start training, so I take them along to the villa where Liza"s masters, Gurugapoya-s.h.i.+ and Yuseku-s.h.i.+, and Nana"s master, Keriuru-s.h.i.+ and Ms. Gimasarua are waiting. These people and the other two people whom I brought today also registered on the guild while bringing 10-15 disguised people each.
The 50 people whom I"ve brought ahead of time are the beastkin people living in Boruenan forest. After they had entered the dungeon, I teleported with them to the Ivy Mansion and treated them to a feast made by Leriril.
"Ou! s.h.i.+ya. Yer" not with Poa huh?"
"Poa is having a match with Pochi."
"Geez, that battle mania is handful."
"She sure is."
From the viewpoint of a mild human like me, these five masters are of the same kind.
"I am no match for Liza-dono after all."
"No, against Keriuru-dono is the first time I have a hard time."
"Is that excluding Satou?"
"Because master is special."
Liza and Keriuru-s.h.i.+, the dwarf, said those remarks after finis.h.i.+ng their serious match.
Even though I said serious match, they weren"t crossing swords.
These two have been doing not-sake-tasting, but meat-tasting in the living room.
Liza praised me so, but I don"t have absolute taste or anything. I felt that my taste had been sharpened when I raised the Cooking skill, but I"m no match against these two who can distinguish the producing area, and whether it"s from male or female animals just by tasting the meat.
I just knew it by Appraisal skill and AR (Augmented Reality) indicators.
Liza and her master aren"t the only people who have gone into their own world.
"I see, so we have to be careful with its Magic Invalid (Neutral Magic) and Rampage (Stampede) condition that happens after its health"s been decreased."
"Umu, that"s right. My master also had troubles with those two points."
The shadowkin, Seoru-s.h.i.+ is lecturing Arisa about the way to fight the floormaster. Looks like his party was in charge of scouting when Trazayuya-s.h.i.+ was staying in the labyrinth city. I asked for him to come here when I heard that he had partic.i.p.ated in the floormaster subjugation.
"Arisa-dono, you are strong. However, the floor master is in another dimension. Even for us who had repulsed a dragon, we lost two out of three times we challenged the floormaster. If you judge that you cannot win, retreat immediately, and risk for another opportunity."
"Thank you, Seoru-san! It"s OK! Because we have a trump card! We will hit hard with a boom tomorrow! Tomorrow we"re going to have a banquet with food you"ve never seen before!"
Arisa is even more flared up after hearing Seoru-s.h.i.+"s warning.
That"s fine and all, but I"m the one who"s going to make the dishes for the banquet right? Please stop strangely upping the hurdles. My repertoire is going to run out soon. I do have a lot of fairy dishes that the elf dish study group have taught me, but elves would have been tired with those already.
Since they are served j.a.panese and Western food for a while here, it might be good if I put out some Chinese cuisines and original one.
◇
The next morning, I got a troubling message from s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+ who had come back to the inn.
The trolls who were having a party until late at night seemed to have destroyed the inn"s walls while they were dead drunk. It had been largely broken. The repair cost will be quite considerable.
I"ve decided to use this incident as an opportunity to hire them.
"Is there any trouble?"
"Oh, if it isn"t an excellent young lord. Actually, our friends have made a careless mistake degozaru."
While looking bored, Ms. Porutomea ignore my and s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+"s cheap play.
"I-if it isn"t Pendragon-sama."
I ask the inn manager who"s noticed and greeted me awkwardly about the damage cost.
Looks like it"s 50 gold coins. Certainly, the cost for repairing this much damage and the compensation for the inn closure during the repair should be that much.
"Fumu, you guys seem to be skilled explorers. I will bear the cost of repair for the inn if you"re willing to lend me your power."
"Oh! We are indebted to you. We will even help you subjugate the floor master!"
Although I"m not one to speak, s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+ is quite the ham actor. However, he seems to really like it despite failing at it, s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+ is acting dramatic in high spirits. Well, it"s fine as long as Tama isn"t infected with some strange influence.
I pay the cost of repair to the inn manager. It has decreased to 28 gold coins for some reason when we"re chatting for a bit. How curious.
◇
When I"m taking along s.h.i.+s.h.i.+touya-s.h.i.+ and the others to the west gate, the townspeople are buzzing and saying whatever they like. They must be surprised with the big bodies of the trolls.
"Oy, aren"t that the Pendragon young master?"
"What"s he doing? He"s usually with little girls and big-breasted beauties isn"t he."
"If it"s the Black Spear Liza-san and the Maid King Lulu-san, they"ve gone to the labyrinth several days ago."
"Did they not get back on schedule? That"s worrisome."
"There"s no need to be worried, when even the people of [Pendora] training school are that strong. The only thing that can hurt the girls of the main members should only be the floormaster~ rite"?"
Maybe due to the food distribution, before I knew it, we have become quite popular among the young explorers.
The [Pendora] that those guys are talking about is the alumnus of the training school. As their graduation certificate, we gave a blue mantle dyed with simplified Pen Dragon crest--A dragon holding a pen--to each three of them, so they became known with that name.
This simplified crest is Arisa"s idea, and the favorite of Nana. The sketches that Arisa drew in the beginning have been put into Nana"s pouch as an important thing even now.
However, Maid King huh, where did that nickname come from? I think it should be Queen instead of King for Lulu though.
"Maybe he"s taking those seemingly little giants guys on the floormaster subjugation mission?"
"Subjugation relying on the power of money huh.... Maybe he would hire us too."
"Don"t even think "bout it. The guys who defeated a monster like Hunter Mantis unhurt are going to fight an opponent dangerous enough to prompt them hiring helpers. People like us won"t even be useful as meat s.h.i.+eld."
Alright, as planned, my goal of making a lot of people witness me entering the labyrinth while bringing a lot of battle forces has been met.
I was displaying the figure of me negotiating with four people who brought along 50 people on an open terrace with a lot of explorers, so they should be in the impression that I had hired a lot of parties.
Fuuh, next I just need to join Arisa and the others, achieve safe hunting, and it"s mission complete.
◇
A little while after we"ve entered the labyrinth, I take everyone I"ve brought along to the party meeting place in the Ivy Mansion.
Since the slaves who were staying in the Ivy Mansion are working on the experimental farms in the labyrinth city and the outskirts, they"re not here anymore.
Tifaliza and Nell are working in Echigoya Firm that I"ve created in the royal capital. Only the n.o.ble daughter explorers are still staying in the Ivy Mansion.
The five compounders in Furusau city who make medicines are treated as the medicine division of this firm, while Porina and the others who are staying in the worker tenement in labyrinth city, making daily products are treated as the the general goods division.
Our best selling item is the kickboard which Arisa"s designed. It"s popular enough in the royal capital that it"s generated two months build-to-order list. Even though it"s something that anyone can create, did the past teleported and reincarnated people not make it? It was nice that it was selling well, but transporting it to the royal capital was troublesome, so I bought a workshop in the royal capital suburb and decided to produce it there. I"m planning to send Porina as the workshop manager.
"Satou-sama, are you bringing trolls in addition to the spriggans and the leprechauns now? Giving my all is worth the trouble with this!"
"Is there enough ingredients and liquor?"
"Yes!"
Leriril"s tension is high, looks like she"s happy to welcome the various fairy kins.
"There are plenty of wine and mead!"
"Then, I trust you to entertain them."
"Yes! Please leave it to me!"
I leave Magic Puppets to help the enthusiastic Leriril, and bring along Pochi"s and Tama"s masters to the villa where Arisa and the others are staying.
◇
"Everyone, are you prepared?"
"Yes nanodesu! Both the lunchbox and the snacks are perfect nanodesu!"
"There"s Bananas too~"
"Of course nanodesu! Bananas aren"t with the snacks desuyo!"
Pochi and Tama hold bananas on both their hands and take a pose.
I glanced at Arisa, but the suspect was busy completing preparation, she didn"t notice it.
"I inform that the equipment check is complete. The character bento that Lulu"s made has a chick drawn too, so I boast."
The fully equipped Nana takes her lunch box from her fairy bag and shows it to me.
The equipment and lunch box of these three are similar.
The vanguards are wearing full armors I"ve made from orihalcon recently, while the rear guards are equipped with dress armors which have magic boost function. Mia"s and Arisa"s dresses look showy like they"re some magical girls, probably because I"ve left the designs to Arisa.
Lulu"s equipment is basically a maid uniform, but since she has the duty to protect Arisa and Mia if push comes to shove, she"s the next heavily equipped one after Nana.
I project the summoning room for the floor master of Area 66 in mid-air. Arisa who looked at it and confirmed the objective place by sight used [Gate] magic to open the road there.
Now, let"s go.
We stepped into the opened gate toward Area 66.