Trinitas Mundus

Crisis

Starting from the next day, they actively accepted a number of subjugation requests.

In addition to beasts like mountain boars and fanged monkeys, they also subjugated fungus, mushroom type monsters, and a giant leech that was three meters in length.

Ray tried to avoid using his magic as much as possible in order to improve his spear and sword skills and gain experience with close combat. The result after seven days was that he had risen to the thirteenth level.

By experimenting with his magic everyday, Ray increased his repertoire of original magics with a light magic he named "Flare" and a composite magic of water and earth he named "Quagmire".

The two of them always partnered up together and before long, the surrounding adventurers saw them being together as a normal thing.

Ten days after Ray had become an adventurer, on April the twelfth, the mercenary guild contacted Ashley.

Now that they had decided upon the remuneration amount for the mercenaries" betrayal, the guild requested that she visit their branch office. The following day, Ashley headed for the guild together with Ray.

The two of them left the inn at a later time than they normally did and walked towards the guild while casually carrying out their usual conversation.

"Have you decided? The reward from guild."

"Ah, it"s going to be money after all. I"m going to accept whatever amount the guild proposes."

At that moment, a voice suddenly called out from behind them.

"How’re you doing, Ashley?"

He turned his head, and saw a man in his thirties standing there. The air of an adventurer surrounded him and a was hanging at his waist. (TL: curved sword)

With his black hair tied behind his back and a finely chiseled olive-skinned face that was of reminiscent of a gypsy, he seemed to be the type of man who was popular with women.

For an instant, an unpleasant expression flashed across Ashley"s face. She turned her head around and only said, "It really has been a long time, hasn"t it, Seron. I"m in a hurry right now, so you"ll have to excuse me." and then briskly strode forward.

"Don"t say something so heartless. We have a relationship together, do we not . . .?"

Not letting him continue, Ashley cut him off,

"Will you stop saying things that will invite misunderstandings. The relationship between you and me, is nothing more than fellow adventurers residing in the same town. Ray, let"s go!"

Without bothering to hide her displeased expression any longer, she pulled Ray by the arm and attempted to depart from the place. However, the man named Saron continued in a provocative manner,

"Is that guy, your "man"? Seems like you"ve managed to snag a rich kid from somewhere. Well, whatever. One of these days, I"ll make you my woman whether you like it or not."

After uttering those words, Seron took his leave.

Although Ray wasn"t sure what to say,

"Who was that just now? He gave off a slightly malicious feeling . . ."

With a truly irritated expression on her face, Ashley replied,

"Seron"s a fourth rank adventurer. Although his skill isn"t bad, his personality is . . . at any rate, he"s been trying to approach me and I have no idea why. That kind of man really isn"t my type though. At this point, I don"t know how many times I"ve refused him . . . and yet, he continues to follow me around, even now."

Ray now understood that Seron was some kind of stalker.

He must be considerably skilled to be a fourth rank adventurer. After all, he"s strong enough to make Ashley say "his skill isn"t bad".

"Ray, you should also be careful. He"s someone who won"t hesitate to use methods bordering on being illegal."

Thinking that Ray had now caught the attention of a dangerous man, she seemed to be sympathising for him.

Well, now matter what happens, he won"t be able to commit any outright criminal acts, since there"s the existence of the orb. Besides, we can always leave this town if we need to . . .

Ray didn"t ponder too deeply about the matter. After all, stalkers were a never ending problem even for j.a.pan, a nation that had police organizations put into place . . .

Although the mood was now soured, they eventually arrived at the mercenaries" guild.

They requested a meeting with Kottler, the branch chief, and were let into his office after waiting for roughly five minutes.

"Sorry for the wait. The reparation payments for you have finally been determined. One thousand Crona. Phonsu headquarters was hesitant about this, since you weren"t a client, but a mercenary registered at our guild. I have to apologize . . ."

Kottler apologized to Ashley since his negotiations with the main branch in Phonsu, the Lacus Kingdom"s capital, hadn"t gone too well.

"No, don"t mind it. After all, I can"t deny that I wasn"t also careless during the escort mission."

"Thank you for your kind words . . . the reward for subjugating the bandits" and the proceeds from the sale of their equipment are a total of 1500 Crona. This is the limit of what our branch here in Molton can give, so although it"s only a little, we"ve also added a little extra money in there."

Ashley conveyed her thanks to the branch chief and accepted the leather bag that was filled with gold coins.

The branch chief then turned towards Ray and asked, "Ray-dono, about the matter of a reward from our guild. Have you decided what it will be?"

"If possible, I would like to request money . . ."

"Understood." The chief made a large nod, and continued,

"I"ll try to convince headquarters to hand over to you as much as possible. Although it"s regrettable, I have to ask that you give me around ten days."

Discussions ended. Just as they were about to leave the room, Kottler added,

"Have you thought about becoming a mercenary, Ray-dono? If you"ve registered at the adventurers guild, then the procedures here are simple."

"For the moment, I"d rather have monster and wild beasts as my opponents instead of humans . . . sorry."

He lightly bowed his head and left the room.

Actually "killing a human" is going to be impossible for me. It"s bearable if it"s for the sake of protecting myself, but I"ll never get used to "killing" as an occupation. I want to avoid having human opponents as much as possible . . .

This was how strong feelings were towards the matter. Although he had vowed in his heart to throw away the common sense of j.a.pan, he couldn"t help feeling hesitant about killing humans. Pointing his weapon at humans.

Because they had gone to the mercenaries guild, their schedule was now messed up. They hadn"t planned to accept any requests today anyway. However, there was still too much time left since their business with the guild had concluded earlier than expected.

Although Ray couldn"t think of anything in particular he needed to do, Ashley said, "There"s still quite some time left. Want to take a stroll through town? Ah, before we do that, could you store away my money for me? I"m afraid it would be much more insecure otherwise . . ." and held out the leather bag to him.

"Alright." After finding a deserted place with few people, Ray stored the leather bag into his item box.

Although this is certainly safer, it sure is inconvenient to have to hide every time I want to deposit or withdraw something.

The two people then began their carefree stroll through town.

Although Ashley already lived in this town for more than a year, it seemed like she still hadn"t taken many of these kinds of strolls yet. Even as she explained various things to him, she would periodically show an expression of admiration while walking through the town.

They headed towards the residential district at the top of the hill, the central part of town. Different from the commercial district on the southern side, there were small brick and mortar stores lined up along the streets. In the narrow alleyways were numerous grocery stores and general stores that sold things like clothes and accessories to the common citizen.

The energetic voices of old men called out from their fish markets. Vegetables of various colors were neatly lined up in rows. The delicious and tempting scent of bread wafting over from the bakeries. Although they were only walking, the experience was plenty enjoyable for the two people.

If you think about this carefully, isn"t this a date? Eh? My first date??? I feel like the tension has suddenly gone up . . .

Since Ray had never really a.s.sociated deeply with any particular woman until now, naturally, he had also never gone a date before.

What should I do? Act normally? I wonder how Ashley thinks about this?

Utterly ignorant of Ray"s thoughts right now, Ashley saw his face redden all of a sudden, and asked, "What"s wrong?" Unable to say anything, he could only shake his head in response.

Worried about his strange state, Ashley brought her face closer to him. However, that only caused his face to redden even further.

After saying, "I"m fine, it really is nothing." he then pointed at the windmills in the distance in an attempt to change to subject.

"I was wondering about this earlier, but, what are those giant windmills used for?"

"Ah, those things? They"re used to pump up water, I think. I"ve heard that after being pumped up to the top of the hill, the drinking water is then supplied out to the rest of the city."

There were large water tanks behind the baron"s mansion at the top of the hill. These tanks seemed to supply water to each of the districts in town. Incidentally, this town was also equipped with a sewage system. Compared to the medieval towns of old, Molton was relatively free from any foul smells. This wasn"t something that was noticed by Ray though.

Some time later, the pair continued towards the commercial district.

The reason for this, was because Ray said that he wanted to visit a weapons store. However, since they didn"t really need to buy anything in particular, Ashley couldn"t understand why he wanted to go.

"Don"t we both have enough weapons already? Why would you want to go to a weapons store?"