Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Year 7447, Month 7, Day 14

Ah..Really, s.h.i.t!! Even though we were getting to the good point for the first time in a while!?
In the first place what"s the meaning of someone other than a lodging customer coming to someone"s room!?
Even Kamu, Kimu, and Rodrick get stopped at the front you know?
Employees of the inn properly do your jobs!

"Let"s just ignore it."

I lift up Miduchi"s chin.

"Is that okay? Wouldn"t it be better to answer it?"

Miduchi said with a slightly worried face.
It seems the moods completely gone cold. d.a.m.n it.

"Something might have happened."

I"m sure. If she didn"t have any business she wouldn"t come here.

"Hey!? Are you here!?"

Along with some slightly more violent knocking I can hear Anderson"s voice from outside the door again.
It sounds like she"s at her limits.
Furthermore at almost the same time I could hear the voices of the inn"s owner, employees, and the brat saying things like, "Customer, please stop!" or "Hey, you, stop her!", and "Is..isn"t it obvious that"s impossible~"

"It can"t be helped, I"ll go out for a bit."

"Yeah, I think that"s a good idea."

I stood up from the chair and went towards the door.

...................................

"..is the reason why. I"ll blow up the compensation from father and their parents so wouldn"t you lend me a hand?"

I looked down at the middle-aged woman with deep pink hair holding her head down with both hands on the table and looking up at me with upturned eyes and couldn"t help but let out a sigh.

After opening the door just now, Anderson was standing there with her leather armor breastplate on, a crossbow hanging down, and a sword at her side fully armed with a desperate expression on her face. Along with the employees of Boil Manor following her like goldfish p.o.o.p. When I opened the door while making annoyed expression everyone including Anderson made relieved expressions. It couldn"t be helped so I invited her into the room and started listening to her together with Miduchi.

She started off with saying, "I"ll tell you everything without any secrets" before talking.

Last Wednesday(in other words, July 9th), 14 knights came here from the capital on their holiday. Supposedly each of them were split into groups of four or five people. Furthermore, the group was made up of activate duty knights so those with decent official positions in the knight group were mixed in with them as well. It seems all of them took a long holiday from the knight group.

It doesn"t even need to be said that hearing this both Miduchi and I started to get a bad premonition.

Just as expected the bad premonition hit the mark and the three groups were each lead by Noirura.Jibekuto, Yorire.Refaisu, and Mimaru.Fokein. All three of them are the King"s illegitimate children. They brought along what could be called their group of retainers, squires from their parents households and all of them were the same as them active duty knights in the kingdom"s third and fourth knight groups.
They might have been the most elite of the squires from their households.

Putting that aside and the reason they came along to Baldukk was the same. They were going to have the {Verdure.Brotherhood} and {Black.Topaz} who have connections with the King accompany them as they gain combat experience against monsters in the dungeon and build up strength as adventurers.

Acc

ording to what sis Anderson was saying it"s because they needed to be useful talents to me as an adventurer. Well~ I"m sure it will be necessary to hunt monsters to maintain peace in my territory in the future so it"s not as if I don"t understand. It"s also necessary for a new lord to gain popularity with the population of their territory so if an army from the country is willing to hunt monsters without request any compensation anyone would be willing to welcome them.

In other words rather than bringing in money when they come to my place they wanted to bring along some immediately useful subordinates. Additionally I"m sure it"s an appeal that they can combat and defeat monsters themselves as well. It"s not unusual for the spouse of a lord to stand on the battlefield and in this sort of era I"m sure it"s necessary as well.
Even more so you could say it"s indispensable in a place like the Dirt Plains where combat occurs with Devas once every 4~5 years.

In any case, the 14 people who came along to Baldukk just to get used to combat against monsters first off made contact with Viruhaima and Anderson, and requested that they train them as adventurers in exchange for some pretty good compensation. Putting it simply they were hired as guides.

In regards to their circ.u.mstances as illegitimate children not only Anderson knew but Viruhaima did as well. Come to think of it when I was invited to the Elm Tree Manor where Yorire-ojosama was staying I ran into Viruhaima but I guess that wasn"t a coincidence. It must have been because they were clearing everyone out~ Before even that, there"s no way they who worked as spies for the King in Baldukk could turn it down I"m sure.

Also, putting aside the matter about spies, since several members of the {Verdure.Brotherhood} suffered some pretty heavy injuries and they weren"t able to do very much during that time, they might have also been interested in the decent compensation as well. If they aren"t going to the 5th floor then it"s probably just right for rehabilitation. In regards to {Black.Topaz} it seems that Anderson was on pretty good terms with the youngest daughter of the three Mimairu, so I guess it wouldn"t be surprising if she happily threw down training the slaves they just purchased to be hired by her for a few weeks.

Noirura and three of her followers jointed with Viruhaima and five of his party to form a party of 10 and Yorire and three of her followers joined with the Basu the sub-leader of {Verdure.Brotherhood} and four other members to form a party of 9. Anderson brought along Mimairu and three of her followers to form a party of 10 and they all supposedly entered the dungeon the next day on Thursday.

Since they"re accompanying them they obviously properly confirmed that they had a decent level of skill. They"re active duty knights so even if they aren"t at the level of first-rate adventurers they can still match up to second-rate or so. Even the three illegitimate children themselves were forced to train by the knight groups so I don"t think there was any doubt about them having decent skills.

Of course, I"m sure they were behind the members of {Verdure.Brotherhood} and {Black.Topaz} but if they"re commanded by adventurers with their expertise and they have backup from first-rate adventurers then they should somehow be able to fight up to the 4th floor.

Putting it frankly the ideal place to increase your combat skills against monsters is the 4th floor which has undead mixed in with them. Attack spells are pretty effective against undead on top of them being particular weak to fire magic after all.
Though they have disgusting appearances and attack methods you can"t let your guard down like poison and paralysis but it"s pretty important that their movements are often pretty dull. They should be good for building up courage and guts.

Also, the types of traps increase compared to the 1st and 2nd floors and different from the 3rd floor the halls and rooms are damp natural caves so the footing is bad and it"s good for earning combat experience in those sorts of situations. It"s just right for learning caution against surprise attacks as well. There"s even a lot of places where they come out of the walls. Obviously it"s more dangerous for that portion but on the 4th floor gaining live experience in everything from the basics to the advanced techniques is possible for adventurers. It"s easy to put the actions you learn here to use outside just like that as well.

In any case, there were five people from {Verdure.Brotherhood} with Viruhaima leading them. Another party of four with Basu as the leader and then six from {Black.Topaz} with Anderson as the leader as they brought along each of the three illegitimate children into the dungeon.

And then on the 10th of this month, Friday night, they arrived at the teleport crystal room on the 3rd floor. Since they already had Gwine"s map of the 1st and 2nd floors they cleared through to the teleport room of the 2nd floor on the first day. Then starting from the next Sat.u.r.day they finally started teleporting into the 4th floor.

According to Anderson, at the very least Mimaru and her followers were very obedient in listening to the things {Black.Topaz} say and gave their best trying to learn all of the know-how. Well, it seems Mimaru has some connections with Anderson and in the first place it"s not often you get a chance to receive direct instruction from a first-rate adventurer. Even if it was a true knight from the first knight group I"m sure they"d put in all of their effort trying to learn it. Even I learned quite a bit from {Sun.Ray}.

It seems the first two days, Sat.u.r.day and Monday, when they started challenging the 4th floor things proceeded smoothly with no particular problems. All of the parties properly returned to the teleport room on the 3rd floor at the decided times and got plenty of rest. Obviously there were some small mistakes but they were exploring the dungeon lead by ultra first-rate adventurers so they stopped things before it ever developed into fatal problems. The problem was Monday night, in other words last night.

Since they were camping on the 3rd floor they couldn"t afford to break the so-called unwritten rules. In other words, the slightly more comfortable spots in the corners or along the walls belong to the first ones there and you have to respect other party"s territory.

Of course, it seems that the young ladies and their retainers endured at first without making any complaints.
However, as expected a group of members all wearing expensive metal armor stands out. There"s also quite a few indiscreet fellows among the second-rate adventurers as well. It"s not like there"s no rude fellows who shout jeers and whistle while they"re removing armor or changing either.

And then, even if they hide behind a cloth both Anderson and Viruhaima understood it would be hard for a young n.o.ble woman to wipe their body with a large number of adventurers watching. Above all else while they"re illegitimate children they"re also of a high cla.s.s lineage as well. Even by mistake they wanted to reduce the possibility that adventurers would see their skin. That was the same for sis Anderson but it"s kind of late for her at this point and on this occasion her being middle-aged doesn"t matter at all.

They wanted to say just endure it but because of reasons like that it was hard to say. Even if they were to tell the adventurers not to look, there"s no one who would listen obediently. Though Viruhaima and the others are ultra first-rate adventurers it"s not like they have any influence over other adventurers they have no relation to after all. If they"re warned then they might look down or in the other direction but the majority of them would just start looking secretly right after.

Even for the retainers to make a wall of people there"s limits to it and in the end it"s the same as a situation where they"re wiping their bodies from behind a single sheet of cloth. Just like this the retainers gradually started to complain and requested that they do something about it. And then finally, after camping out in the teleport room filled with dirty adventurers for several days the young ladies reached their limit and started requesting an improvement to their camp situation.

It couldn"t be helped so Viruhaima and Anderson discussed moving their campsite to the teleport room on the 4th floor.

Well, it"s troublesome but not all that bad of a decision. The knights acted even more carefully than ever and didn"t get full of themselves. And it was also a fact that they were obediently learning from their guidance. During combat they would fight considerably carefully but also at times boldly so you could feel that they were trained decently well. It"s also big that they felt it was plenty for them to clear through the 4th floor.

As expected even if the 5th floor is impossible they felt it was plenty to continue guiding them while camping in the teleport room on the 4th floor. Instructing them in the depths of the 4th floor where even the second-rate and half first-rate parties rarely enter is somewhat more efficient as well. Above all if they make the teleport room on the 4th floor their base camp then they can form a large party with all 30 of them in one spot. The degree of safety will jump up all that much higher.

Also, there"s obviously their initial aim as well. Normally the only ones who use the teleport room on the 4th floor other than them are just {Gehenna.Flare} and the {Slaughterers} after all. Both of them just pa.s.s through and rarely ever camp on the 4th floor for long periods. Even more rarely a half first-rate party will appear there but that"s a possibility they can just ignore.

The {Exterminators} now use the 5th floor as their home and repeat combat primarily on the 5th floor. After all having proper kitchen and shower facilities and a bed is a big reason. That"s why there was a high possibility that neither {Gehenna.Flare} or the {Slaughterers} would be there. Even if they were it would be at most a single night.

After discussing those sorts of reasons they the two of them decided to switch their campsite to the 4th floor and spend almost a full day moving to the teleport room on the 4th floor.

Morning, the same as usual the {Verdure.Brotherhood} and {Black.Topaz} each teleported into the 4th floor in their parties. And then, Anderson and the others arrived at the teleport crystal room on the 4th floor before 4:00 pm just as they expected. Supposedly the party lead by Basu had already arrived. However, even one hour after the expected time the party being lead by Viruhaima hadn"t arrived.

Though that"s the case, someone with high skill was leading five newbie adventurers. There was a good chance that Viruhaima and the others had bad teleport luck and had to take a long way around for the sake of safety. Also, since it was the 4th floor they weren"t all that worried about it. However, while Anderson and the others were in the middle of preparing the campsite the Bunnyman spear attacker Renbaru.Korumain lead Noirura and just two of her followers as they arrived in the teleport crystal room on the 4th floor. Other than Renbaru all of them had suffered some kind of injury large or small.

After listening to the circ.u.mstances in a hurry and it seems when they were being lead by Viruhaima they arrived at a monster room 2 km away from the teleport room just before noon. Supposedly the {Verdure.Brotherhood} pa.s.sed through that room about one year prior and at the time there was a nest of ghouls in it. They had the map and things proceeded pretty smoothly up until there so they expected to arrive at the teleport room on the 4th floor by about 2:00 pm or so.

They carefully scouted out things inside of the room but couldn"t discover the boss.

They guessed that it must have been soon after {Gehenna.Flare} or the {Slaughterers} pa.s.sed through. In that case it"s possible one of the parties would be in the teleport room but they still expected they would be able to take their time and relax in a s.p.a.cious room without many others around.

And then, the tragedy struck as they in the middle of pa.s.sing through the room.

She said before anyone noticed the enemy was in the room.

Not noticing it"s appearance and being caught completely off guard one of Noirura"s followers who was walking at the rear was taken out.

The sound of that person falling over acted as a warning and thanks to that they noticed the attack.
While they immediately switched to attack formation, the enemy supposedly didn"t appear to be a monster.
Renbaru, Noirura, and her followers all reported that it was believed to be a different adventurer.

Viruhaima, the {Shield.Holder} Sara.Pachiku, and one other follower all started harshly questioning them while pointing their swords but the follower was easily defeated after being hit by an attack spell from that adventurer. Spells started being fired at high speeds in close proximity before they could blink. Supposedly they were shocked by their overwhelming skill.

It was at this point which Viruhaima threw the map to Renbaru and ordered him to immediately regroup with {Black.Topaz} and the other members of the {Verdure.Brotherhood}.

Since they were already halfway through the room and the distance to the teleport room was far closer in terms of distance, Renbaru decided to regroup with them without hesitation.

The ones left remaining were Viruhaima, Sara.Pachiku, the dwarf glaive user Rizara.Redflare, and the elf bow user Rokkuweru.Marosutaron, the four of them.

Just as I was thinking it"s absurd for that old man Viruhaima to choose to go up against a group of adventurers with just the four of them, supposedly that adventurer was all alone. And then, there for the first time I heard the appearance of that adventurer and understood everything.

Supposedly he was naked.

Naked, fires magic at surprisingly fast speeds, and looks exactly like a person...

I happen to have an idea on who that might be.

The floor he appeared on was the same 4th floor.

If I"m certain last time I turned him to dust in a single shot.

"Who"s going to the rescue?"

"The remaining members of the {Verdure.Brotherhood} with Basu as the leader and all of {Black.Topaz} excluding me are heading there. I had the knights return to the surface together with me. I came here right after that.."

And them, we return to the beginning of the story.
After sighing together with me as we change the atmosphere, Miduchi opened her mouth as she was about to say something when I just said, "Hey". Miduchi seems to have figured out my intentions right away as she stood up from her seat.
She"s even faster than me at switch overs like this. As expected of her.
During that time I"ll kill time discussing things.

"But, the opponent is alone right? Even though they were caught off guard at the start, Viruhaima-san had four of them so they should have been able to handle it anyway they want right?"

Miduchi left the room without making a sound. I stood up while talking to Anderson and went to a corner of the room while switching over to combat mode mentally just like Miduchi. Anderson made an irritated face and replied while looking at me.

"..Are you saying that seriously? It"s already beyond abnormal that he"d be completely naked in the dungeon and it"s also strange that he suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. Also, just from what I heard he was considerably skilled at using spells just like you. Probably, he had other allies hiding inside the halls or somewhere to attack them all at once."

Well, since they immediately sent a rescue party and had the members who would hold them back withdraw right away I can tell they felt it was considerably dangerous. But, as expected they don"t seem to have realized it was a monster. They haven"t seen it themselves so I guess that"s not unreasonable. It"s only obvious to think he was trying to get them to let their guard down by attacking naked and the main group would attack from a different direction.

"..Che..It seems I"ve been underestimated quite a bit..Though it can"t be helped."

It"s not like I"m particularly underestimating you. I just wanted to confirm what kind of recognition you had of him and there were no ill feelings.

"And, about the compensation. How much would it be fine to hope for?"

I quickly take off my shirt and start taking my socks and shoes off while sitting on the bed.

"..I"ll promise at least 10,000,000. However, the condition is that you recover the corpse or magic stone of Noirura"s follower. Also, if you can rescue Viruhaima alive I promise to double the reward."

If we consider that it"s the 4th floor that"s quite the high and good reward.
But...
I"m sure..I won"t be able to obtain that reward.
Most likely, I think that old man should have already been killed along with that old dwarf lady, the bunnyman, and elf.
In regards to Noirura"s follower and the others since they were bitten by the naked target, I feel like their magic stones would have changed a bit as well.

No, it might be possible that the old man and others won as well though.

"What about payment in advance?"

I threw my shirt and socks into the dirty laundry while saying.
Anderson"s still sitting in the chair staring at me.
After putting the shoes I was wearing up until now under the bed and I stood up to go and get some new underwear.

"Do you want payment in advance?"

"If possible that is. Of course~ that"s the case."

Both Miduchi and myself don"t care at all about getting payment in advance let alone the reward itself.
Honestly speaking, too much time has pa.s.sed so the rescue itself is probably impossible and almost a joke.
I"m just making small talk to calm myself down from getting too impatient.
In the first place I boast about being number one in Baldukk.
I need to act appropriately for the part.

"Is..Is that so...That sort of..ad..advance payment..is it?"

Anderson seems to have started grumbling about something.
Even if you reject the advance payment I won"t say anything stingy~
I put on some new socks with my upper body still naked and took off my pants.
I start taking my newly tailored underarmor off a hanger from the wall near my bed.

"Th..That is..I"m in a hurry..So..Something that will take time is.."

I roughly check over my underarmor and confirm there"s nothing wrong with the belts and bands for my protectors. No problem.
I take out a clean shirt from the dresser at the base of my bed and put it on then put on my underarmor pants before putting on the upper part as well.
I continue to calm myself down so my feelings so the blood doesn"t rush to my head.

"An..And..I, I, umm..not really.."

I take the sash I had hanging on the hanger along with my underarmor and tie it up around my waist.
I pa.s.s my feet through my combat boots and properly put the hems of my underarmor pants inside of my boots before tying the knot.
I briskly kept putting on half of my armor before tightening my belt.
Just like usual whenever I start putting on my protectors I can feel the tension build up.

"Wo.Wouldn"t a younger girl be..I..I"ll go and call Noirura?"

I equip the parts on my arms, chest, and back.
I pa.s.s both of my legs through the loins and attach the girth parts.
I connect the stoppers for the thighs, knees, and shins.
My heads started to cool down.

"Or..Or maybe..Yorire is best? O..Or Mimairu? The..The younger is better right."

She"s still muttering about something.
I was just joking about saying I wanted advance payment just now.
Defeating the {Vampire} is our objective.
I"ll definitely gouge out it"s eyeb.a.l.l.s!
It might not be a {Lord} but we need to grasp whatever straws we can get here.

"Ah, please(I) don"t mind things like that."

I fix the plate ta.s.sets around my back and gave a random reply.
I fix the parts on my shoulders into place. Then put on my helmet and properly fixed it to my jaw.
I put on my elbow guards, pa.s.s my hands through the long gloves, and start clenching my fingers.
Alright, I"m starting to get worked up while maintain my composure well.
Furthermore, we chose to call ourselves the {Saviors}.
I need to prove through words and actions that we"re appropriate to be called that.

"Eh? You..You unexpectedly..prefer, older women?"

Finally I put on my gauntlets and fixed the emergency supply pack onto the D-ring on my waist.
I pull my knife out from it"s scabbard and check the blade. No problems.
I return it to the scabbard and attach it to the rubber belt on my right thigh.
I can do it today. I can do it!

"I..I"m over 30..and..It..It"s been a while..Wa, I"m embarra.s.sed.."

There"s no problem with the throwing needles in both of my gauntlets either.
I confirm my bayonet leaned up against the wall.
There"s no problem here.
Now then.

Eh!!?

What in the world is she doing? This sis.
Anderson was holding her head down as she undid the string to her studded.leather armor.
She"s been wearing it up until now so there"s no problem right?
I wonder if the string was loose?

"Sorry for the wait, preparations are..it seems you"re ready."

Miduchi entered the room wearing all of her rubber protectors just like me.
She has her bow and quiver on her shoulder, her scimitar on her waist, and is properly suited up as her expression has completely entered combat mode just like mine.

"Yeah~ all we need to do is confirm the location of the room."

I guess because I was ignoring her while putting on my armor, Anderson seemed to start tying up her leather strings again in a fl.u.s.ter. She turned bright red as if she was embarra.s.sed falling behind us in making preparations with her equipment.

"You know the location of the room right?"

I took out the map of the 4th floor and spread it out while asking Anderson.

"Room? Yeah~ah, room..Yeah, the room. Oo..Oo..Of course."

She spread out her own map of the 4th floor and showed it to us.
Don"t get so fl.u.s.tered.

"..It should be this room."

Around that area huh...Miduchi and I confirm Gwine"s map that we have spread out on the table again. Since it"s drawn down it"s a place we pa.s.sed through in the pa.s.s as well.

"Miduchi, was everyone around?"

"No one was there. It"s still a bit early for dinner..If I try to search for a bit then the time will.."

"I guess so. Well, they have the map so that"s fine. It should be fine with just the members in Shuni. I need to leave a message for everyone and need to buy food and some garlic as well so you go to Shuni and gather the slaves before going ahead."

"Got it."

I had Miduchi go ahead to the inn where all of the slaves stay.
If we have Miduchi and I, the six combat slaves, the porter Giberuti, and Anderson then it should be plenty. Furthermore, according to Miduchi and crosses and torii probably won"t have any effect so I didn"t take them into consideration from the start. I"d really like to test out a silver bullet but unfortunately all of the guns are in the teleport room on the 8th floor. I have no way of getting them.

"Then, shall we go from here?"

Even if we hurry to arrive it should take us until tomorrow morning. We should move around to buy the food first.
Furthermore, I didn"t feel the need to meet the three young ladies at this point.

.....................................

Year 7447, Month 7, Day 15

The current time is..2:56 am huh?
We"ll take a break in a short while.
We should have entered at around 6:00 pm yesterday so that"s 9 hours after taking a short break in the teleport room on the 3rd floor.
We have Anderson, Henry, Mekku, Rubi, and Jesu with us so the pace is a bit slow.
Well, that"s also why we have the time to look at the map in the halls since we don"t have Gwine with us.

"Madam..huh.."

Anderson whispered to herself while looking at my combat slaves as they took turns going to the bathroom.
Yesterday, after buying food with Anderson and gathering at the entrance plaza Miduchi was giving the combat slaves instructions.
"..Anderson-san is even more of a senior than us. Treat her with respect."
""Yes, madam!""
And said something like that.

Even after that they"ve been calling Miduchi madam, madam over every little thing.
From Miduchi"s viewpoint she must be trying to keep the three illegitimate daughters and the King in check through Anderson.
I understand her touching efforts and feelings though I feel a bit of pity and it"s pitiful, there"s no helping this.

It"s about time.

"Lets go."

I give everyone the sign to depart.
Since Anderson is together with us I talk a bit more politely.

Up to here I haven"t shown her freezing things but both Miduchi and I were using a decent number of attack spells in monster rooms. The monsters we ran into in the halls were taken out by Miduchi and Anderson"s bows effortlessly.

I already have no intention of hiding the fact that our party can clear through the dungeon at an abnormal speed or we have a detailed map anymore.
Either way at latest I intend to say farewell to the dungeon in the spring of next year after all.
Even the map if they want it in the end they can have it, is what I"d like to say but that"s probably no good, yeah.

In any case, even if it"s informal, we have the eldest child of the King and the leader of the ultra first-rate adventurer group {Black.Topaz} Anderson with us so she"s not lacking to be the story-teller about the legends of the {Slaughterers}.

We grab on to the teleport crystal.

"Kudobisu!"

..There"s a slightly bad smell. In a matter of ten minutes or so we should get used to it and not smell anything anymore but it"s always an unpleasant feeling. I opened the map.

"It"s 94, master."

Mekku said after confirming the number on the teleport destination.
..Here.
It doesn"t seem like we"ll need to teleport back in again.
About 6 km from here huh?
If we a.s.sume there"s no traps or enemies and we dash then it wouldn"t even take 20 minutes but as expected even for me that"s way too dangerous.

"Over here. Let"s go."

If we can maintain our pace up until here then I"d say around 2 hours to our destination...
The adventurers camping on the 2nd and 3rd floors said they hadn"t seen anyone from {Verdure.Brotherhood} or {Black.Topaz}.

That must be why.
Recently Anderson has stopped saying much at all.