I think the t.i.tle is like a bad pun of traffic lights though I can"t tell if Bel has blue or green hair... d.a.m.n you j.a.pan.
Year 7442, Month 6, Day 4
Zenom and Zulu brought with them six knights and squires. I introduce myself and Bel to who seems to be the commander of the knights that appeared and after having our Status confirmed we handed over Beilett Dereonola as a criminal. The offenses were abduction and attempted rape against a n.o.ble. Also, we added that he"s a madman. Dereonola with his hands tied to his waist and a tree was looking at us hatefully but after I smiled viciously at him he got scared and looked away from me.
I don"t know to what degree of a crime abduction and attempted rape of a n.o.ble is but as far as I could tell from the verdicts of Marquis Webdos it will probably be pretty harsh. I think it was 5 lashes with a whip for rape? Since it"s attempted it might be a bit lighter but the problem is he tried to do that to a n.o.ble. When I got rid of Begulu B in Keel I did it like I was just wiping away someone who came at me first but I was told that just attacking a n.o.ble is plenty for being executed. Since there"s also the abduction that wasn"t attempted then I think his head will definitely fly.
If that wasn"t the case then there"s no way they could just caught off some limbs or kill him for just that crime I"m sure. There"s also other crimes beyond rape but unless they actually kill the victim then I guess the death penalty is too heavy for just rape. I"m sure cutting something off is necessary though. However, it really is disappointing this guy is a reincarnated person.
While the commander of the knights was withdrawing the tent I tried asking him what level of punishment it would be. After all it was considerably heavy and it"s unlikely he"ll be unable to avoid the death penalty. Since there"s evidence, or rather testimony from several people including a n.o.ble like myself so it seems there"s no need to even interrogate him. Most likely he"ll be executed in the public execution in two months or so. I guess it can"t be helped. I walked over to Dereonola who is still tied to a tree and whispered to him in a small voice just he could hear.
"If you have the chance I think you should obediently confess your crimes. If you show you"ve reflected properly there might be a bit of room for pardon. If you can make up for your crimes that is."
I whisper that into Dereonola"s ear and he made an expression like he heard something suspicious. That"s exactly the case though.
"Na...I won"t fall for that type of thing. I"ll tell them everything."
Tell them everything about what?
"Huh? What are you going to tell them about? Could it be how we"re j.a.panese? I"m not particularly hiding it so feel free? I was just saying it out of kindness because we"re both from j.a.pan. I guess it was pointless? Then, no matter what they ask, you should just say it was a sudden impulse."
Like that"s the case. He even prepared a tent. It"s obvious that it was a planned crime. Furthermore I say,
"You should still answer the things you"re asked honestly, as long as you don"t say anything excessive you might leave a better impression right? Well, if you"re okay with that then do as you please. I won"t particularly stop you, no matter what you say it won"t hurt me. Since unlike you I"m not a criminal."
After I said that he looked down mortified. I continue saying.
"Also you know, your b.a.l.l.s, I can still fix them. Well, as long as you obediently receive punishment and make up for your crimes that is."
He looks back at me with eyes filled with hope. I didn"t lie. If it"s now then I"m sure I can still fix them. Though if the wound heals then it"s probably already impossible.
"It"s fine. We"re the same j.a.panese right? As long as you make up for your crimes then don"t you have a pure body. Don"t they say hate the crime not the person?"
After I said that I left Dereonola"s side. This is the King"s direct territory. If he says weird things like j.a.panese or Reincarnated People then it might end up becoming troublesome. If there"s a reincarnated person among the royalty and if he"s even a bit intelligent then like I told Zenom and Ralpha before he might think of hunting reincarnated people and that would be a problem. It"s somewhat more convenient to keep it hidden at least until I get my own territory. There"s not much meaning in just hiding the fact that I"m a reincarnated person but it"s just being careful of another reincarnated person who might be in a higher position than me. Ah, maybe it would be a good idea to dye my hair. So I don"t forget I"ll make sure to properly write it in my mental notes.
Now then, as long as I say something like then in the case that this guy gets interrogated, I"m sure he won"t blab about all of his crimes but he might just obediently confess to this time. Even if it"s no good it can"t be helped. Ah, if I think about it more carefully then it might have been better to just kill him. Even if I don"t kill him right away and let him swim for a bit, it probably would have been safer to just kill the messenger as well. But you know, even though she was almost raped, I can"t just tell Bel to kill him. I"m sure being whipped and having your b.a.l.l.s crushed is plenty of a punishment. Though it would be fine to cut them off as well.
Well I can"t help something that"s already finished. And even if he says something about j.a.pan he committed a crime against a n.o.ble. The chances are low that they"ll report every little thing a rape demon says to the high n.o.bles or royalty I"m sure. Just now was just something like makeshift insurance.
It seems that they"re almost finished taking the tent down. I wonder what happens to this evidence? Since it"s pretty nice I"d be happy if I can have it but. Ah, I"m not bothered by the fact that it was used as a tool for a s.e.x offense. Since you should hate the crime and not the tool after all.
..................
We climb the night path in groups and then descend after that. If the knight group hadn"t brought a lightning magic tool it would have been troublesome. Since they brought four of them there"s plenty of light so we can pay close attention to the uneven ground.
Once in the town we separated with Dereonola at the split up between our inn and the knight groups quarters and since we were hungry started talking about going and getting something to eat. Come to think of it from here on out Bel will be accompanying us. I need to properly introduce her to Zenom and Zulu.
Bel and them properly introduced themselves. After showing each other"s Status they came to know each other. Zulu said it was too much for a slave like himself to not only be at the same table but to directly touch the daughter of a Sub-Baron family (though she was the second daughter which is far from inheriting the family) so we said not to worry about and properly had him show his Status. After eating and drinking when we were about done with our meals Ralpha started saying this.
"Zulu, you, do you have any loyalty?"
Hey now, what are you saying so suddenly? You?
There"s no other response than he obviously does right?
"Of course. Out of the many slaves I was chosen. I"m very satisfied with how I"m treated as well."
See.
"Hmn. I see. Then I guess it"s fine. But. I feel sorry for you but for today would you return early? Right? Al?"
Why do you throw it to me there? Well it"s fine though.
"Yeah, Zulu. We"re going to have a meeting on our plans from tomorrow on after this. Also, we need to go over the details of Bel"s contract as well. Sorry about crushing your break for this afternoon. Feel free to go and rest first."
I said that and told Zulu to go ahead to the inn before us. Don"t worry about what Ralpha said.
"Yes, I understand master. Then, I"ll go and rest ahead of everyone else."
"Ah, we"ll meet tomorrow at the same restaurant and time as today."
After saying that and waving and Zulu left the restaurant. Now then.
"Bel, just now was close to clearing people out. Since Zenom knows about our situation you can relax. Also, after we finish eating let"s change locations. I guess we can talk at my inn."
I say that and then tilt my remaining beer mug.
"Bel, you can relax. Since Zenom is my father. I"ve talked to him about it since the past."
After Ralpha said that as well she bit into her remaining skewer.
"Yeah, I know the majority of it. I don"t know the small details though. Well, things won"t go badly for you, I can guarantee there"s nothing to lose in just listening."
Zenom says while throwing the rest of his cooked meat and vegetables.
After hearing our conversation Bel said,
"I"m wouldn"t feel uneasy at this point. It"s fine."
After responding like that she ate the rest of what appears to be a type of bird meat. Were rabbits carnivorous? No, I don"t know though.
............
After changing locations we immediately got to exchanging information. Starting from each other"s Unique Abilities (I"m still pa.s.sing it as Magic Acquisition as usual), and we fundamentally talked about things related to this world. In particular it was a big harvest that we were able to hear the names of some Unique Abilities from Bel. Out of "Identify", "Resistance (Poison)", "Scale", and "Predicted Evasion", the only ones I didn"t know were "Scale" and "Predicted Evasion". Putting "Predicted Evasion" aside, I"m interested in "Scale".
Eh? If my attacks are predicted and evaded then won"t I not be able to hit? Don"t say stupid things. Unless they can teleport there"s no way to evade guided magic or depending on the situation burying them in wide-area dirt or ice. Though going off the name it does sound useful in close combat or shooting combat. There"s no need to idiotically stand in the opponents ring.
Also, there was the information that the location she reincarnated to was at the Southeastern edge of the range that reincarnated people appear. Since it seems that I was on the Western edge if we can find one more person who was on a different edge then we should be able to roughly figure out the range. There"s no accurate map. It"s fine even if it"s only general.
However, Bel is living proof that there"s reincarnated people in the Kingdom of Devas as well, so this is big. Depending on the situation there might even be reincarnated people in the Kingdoms of Kanbitt, Bakuluni, or Guranan Empire.
Furthermore, the things they found out about this case with Dereonola through torture (though it was just cute stuff like kicking him or threatening him with a sword) was,
- He just happened to find Bel on a street corner.
- He paid attention to her because she seemed j.a.panese.
- Since she was searching for someone named Semayousuke he guessed that she was j.a.panese.
- He prepared the base outside of town (Including searching for the location he spent around a month on preparations)
- He paid the man who he asked to deliver the message.
- He made Bel who nonchalantly appeared think he was Semayousuke.
- After she finished climbing the hill he got her to drink water with the paralysis drug in it.
- After knocking her out with paralysis he carried her to his base.
- He tied Bel"s limbs to stakes that he had already prepared in advance.
- He let her drink the antidote for the paralysis.
- Right when he was about to get to enjoying himself I charged in.
That"s how it seems to have gone. Well, it"s pretty much entirely as expected.
"And, Ralpha, you made sure to secure it right?"
"Eh? Secure what?"
Hey now, don"t joke with me.
"The paralysis drug he used and the antidote for it!"
It"s only obvious.
"Eh? There wasn"t any left and in the first place it"s evidence right?"
Aaaaaaa, if there was even a drop left I could of identified it...Well, if a slave can get their hands on it then I"m sure I could find it if I try as well. Since it seems they make various drugs using magic stones in this world. I"m sure there"s some sort of store that deals in that stuff here in Baldukk.
"I guess that"s true. It can"t be helped."
Suddenly I remembered. Come to think of it the Scavenger Crawler we defeated this morning had a special skill called Paralysis. I think it was written on the window that in order to remove it if you"ve been paralyzed you need to use either magic or magic-based drug. I don"t know paralysis magic or the magic to remove it. I"ve never used it after all.. I wonder if the general antidote magic works?
I somehow have the feeling that a combination of earth, water, and void magic would work but how much mana you need to pour into each of them... Being unable to use them when I need them or taking 15 minutes for them to activate isn"t a joke. It seems it"s necessary to practice it later. Going off of the identify window then probably even when paralyzed you might be able to use magic though. Since you have consciousness. But, it"s not that sort of problem.
"What is it, suddenly going quiet...are you angry?"
Ralpha called out to me slightly nervous.
"Ah, no, I"m not. I"m not particularly angry. I was just thinking a bit. Since I"ve never tried using paralysis or remove paralysis magic I might need to practice them."
"Ah, I see...I"m sorry. I didn"t think that far.."
"No, it"s fine. Don"t worry about it. If that guy can get his hands on it then I"m sure we can get it somewhere as well. If a slave can buy it then it"s probably not all that expensive as well."
I cheerfully say that to Ralpha who seems apologetic and continue saying.
"And, this is changing the conversation, but I think I"ll have Bel show us her abilities a bit before we go to the dungeon tomorrow morning. Also, some shopping. We"ll buy enough hair dye or something like that for the three of us. Since Baldukk is a large town we should be able to find some."
After I said that I looked at Bel. I thought it might be possible she"s against it.
"Of course I don"t have any problem with showing my skill but why is the hair dye necessary?"
Bel asked me as she finds it strange. And then Ralpha said something that I previously told her. That"s why I said, why are you saying it so proudly? It"s fine but you know. It seems that Bel has consented to it but with that expression I"m sure she"s worried that it will make it harder for Semayousuke to find her.
"Bel, this is just my thinking but until today including you I"ve met 5 reincarnated people. Putting me in and the total is 6 people. I noticed it on the first guy I met but I"m already sure of it now. If the reincarnated person is a j.a.panese then they"re all probably black hair and black eyes. It might be possible if there was a foreigner in that accident then it might be different for them but you guys saw the "television report recording" like thing right?
There were only j.a.panese names "reported" on that. I don"t remember them all though. I can"t deny the possibility that there was a foreigner nationalized in j.a.pan but there"s no point in worrying about such a low probability thing.
That"s why it"s fine to think that all the reincarnated people have black hair and black eyes.
This is a matter of probability. Just like Ralpha just said it"s safe to safe this town is on the lap of the capital. It wouldn"t be strange for there to be a reincarnated person in the royalty of Rombert. Of course, since the capital of Rombertia has a population of around 200,000 people if you think of probabilities then it"s higher that they weren"t born as royalty.
However, it"s not limited to not being the case. That"s why this is something like "insurance". It"s not a problem of whether a foreigner who was "nationalized" in j.a.pan was in that accident or if someone reincarnated as royalty."
After I said that Bel made a face like she comprehended it.
"It"s true it"s just as Al-san said. I knew that I had black hair and eyes but I didn"t know that the other reincarnated people would have the same black hair and eyes. If Yousuke hasn"t met any other reincarnated people then I"m sure he doesn"t know as well."
Yeah, until I saw Kuro"s face, putting aside the facial features, I thought it was just a coincidence that I had black hair and eyes.
"I guess so. I"m the same. Since I was surprised when I met Al and thought he was probably j.a.panese. And black hair and eyes are unusual but there"s just black hair and black eyes as well. There"s also red hair and red eyes. Isn"t a red hair, red eye person just as unusual as a black hair and black eyed person? I think that brown hair and brown eyes are also unusual for the same reason, and the same for blue hair and blue eyes. Above all, the fact that all three of us have black hair and black eyes, this is already "dangerous" right?"
What"s "dangerous"? Young girl. But, what you say is quite true.
"That"s right. It"s true it"s just as Ralpha says, there"s not much of a reason to get neurotic over it. But, I"m sure if they start searching based on physical appearance they"ll look for black hair and eyes first. It would be a good idea to change everyone"s hair color."
After I said that and Bel and Ralpha started worrying about what color they want to use. Does it really matter what color?
It"s gotten quite late at night and I"m going to wake up before 5 tomorrow morning. I"m sure everyone"s starting to get tired. There"s a bit of something that I want to think about by myself as well so I guess we should split up here.
...........
Year 7442, Month 6, Day 5
The next morning, I had Bel show me her skill with the bow and sword. Just as I had expected her skill with the bow was splendid and I"m sure she"ll be a big help in combat from now on. In regards to the sword there was nothing in particular to mention but I"m sure she can at least protect herself.
Also, just like Ralpha I"ve started to teach her magic as well. Since she has a high MP, if she can learn to use magic then there"s no doubt that she"ll add a lot to our combat potential. Please certainly learn magic.
Furthermore, about the contract but Ralpha was annoying about properly creating the contract doc.u.ment again. The details are almost the same as the one Ralpha and Zenom signed but I added "consult with Sema Yousuke before deciding" to the conditions for release. There was no helping this. At first they were saying "until we discover Sema Yousuke". It was quite difficult for me to negotiate it down to here without making them suspicious. Well it can"t be helped though.
In terms of hair dying, I went with red, Ralpha gold, and Bel has become deep blue. Bel and I made it a color where even if the color drops a bit or our hair grows it"s easy to hide. But that idiot Ralpha ignored our advice to go with brown and used blonde.
"In the past I wanted to try becoming blonde once." was what she said.
If the color starts to fade then you pay for it~ rebel. By the way, after seeing each others face after dying it we laughed that "it doesn"t suit you".
Well then, it"s already pa.s.sed 10 in the morning. Let"s get to exploring the dungeon again today I guess. Starting today I"ll have the front-line Zenom, Zulu, and Ralpha take care of the weak opponents like Gnolls and Goblins and have Bel support them from the rear. If it"s a narrow area and there"s 10 or 20 or so of them then shouldn"t it be fine?
I don"t know how well you can use the bow inside of the dungeon. I"ll be careful of the surroundings. If they start having too much trouble then it"ll be fine if I support them with my bayonet or magic. In addition while I"m at I"ll use identify to closely examine and research experience gain. I can predict a bit of it from the information of my hunting at night in Bakuddo but there"s a considerable number of places which I can"t be sure of yet.
Ah, after this I should buy some writing utensils as well. I"m sure it would be more efficient if we draw a map while entereing from now on. Depending on the case I could go all out and buy a map...No wait, 800,000 Z is a lot of money. I can"t spend wastefully.
After saying the meaningless incantation, "ke.ru.ru.he" the same as yesterday and the five of us challenge the dungeon. Now, we need to remain cautious as we go from here. I immediately used my identify vision to sweep the area. Yesterday we teleported to an area like the dead end of a cave but today we"re in the middle of a cave that continues in two directions it seems.
Mu, I don"t know which way is North and which way is South.
I almost reflexively told Ralpha to use her Unique Ability Spatial Understanding but stopped myself. Though Ralpha was able to learn void magic, the special skill is still level 0. Since her MP hasn"t increased yet she still only has 3. Since we can"t hope for natural recovery as well in the worst case it would become a bad situation.
Just like in the past with the Horned Bear if her MP is reduced it would be hard to watch. That time Kerry was rendered powerless in a matter of seconds.
We should endure as much as possible here for now is what I was thinking while preparing to randomly draw the paths down on the paper when,
"North is that direction. Also, it"s probably not tilted."
she said that while looking into the still blank paper. Sh..She already used it...since I still had my vision set to Identify (raising the bright with identify makes it easier to write in the dim cave so it"s convenient) I reflexively identified her and just as expected her MP had become 2. Even though I went to the trouble of looking out for her. It was for your safety, though it"s irritating I can"t say that.
I couldn"t say anything other than, "Y..Yeah, sorry about that." and started drawing the map.
In any case since I don"t know our current position I just drew a pair of parallel lines in the middle of the paper(the direction of North that Ralpha pointed out wasn"t the direction the cave goes but into the wall on our side). While thinking that it"s urgent to level up Ralpha"s magic special skills I finish drawing the lines and since there"s nothing to decide which direction to go I say "Then~ let"s try going this direction first" and walk off.