Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Volume 4 E-Book

Kenichi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 342

Beschreibung

Tenma and his party are headed to the capital to participate in the martial arts tournament. On their way, Tenma manages to bail some young royals out of trouble and earn himself a favor from the crown. Once he arrives in the capital, the king invites him to live in the palace! Many faces new and old await Tenma in the big city, including Aura’s mysterious older sister... Why is Aura so deathly afraid of her, and what’s this about Tenma possibly getting a noble title?
After much mayhem and mishap, Tenma finally gets the moving(?!) reunion everyone’s been waiting for!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Chapter 4

Extra Story: Aina’s Debt

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Chapter Four

Part One

“ACHOO!”

“Tenma, are you all right?”

On the way to the capital, I started feeling a ticklish sensation in my nose that grew more and more intense until I had to sneeze. Apparently it was loud enough that Jeanne heard it from the driver’s seat and checked in with me out of concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine. My nose was ticklish.”

As the weather was good today, we were taking a cart instead of the usual carriage. That was why Jeanne could hear me so clearly from the driver’s seat.

“Goodness! Don’t you two sound all lovey-dovey.” Aura was teasing us, as usual.

“You’re not going to get to me with comments like that, you know! I’m used to it!” By this point, Jeanne had built up an immunity to Aura’s jabs.

Aura gave Jeanne a bored look in response, but then an idea must have popped into her head because she got a naughty look on her face. “Master Tenma? Tonight, when we go to sleep, you two can use the magic carriage. I’ll sleep outside, of course. Oh, and don’t worry! I won’t peek or eavesdrop, no matter what I he— Oof!”

Before Aura could finish her sentence, I flicked a pebble at her with my fingers, and it landed squarely in the middle of her forehead. I hadn’t used much force, but since it was unexpected, it startled her, and she staggered backwards.

“Aura! Knock it off already! Stop saying all those weird things!” Jeanne’s face turned bright red as she continued the assault. Well, to be more accurate, she just took some twigs from the bundle of kindling piled up behind the driver’s seat and threw them at Aura.

However, since Jeanne had gotten considerably stronger from her training, this attack was enough to knock Aura down.

Since the firewood was scattered all over the ground and Aura was now unconscious, I decided it would be the perfect time to take our lunch break. Shiromaru and Solomon played together as they gathered the wood for us, so the cleanup didn’t take much time at all.

“All right—I think I’m gonna grill some meat today!” I piled up some rocks that were lying around nearby to use as a foundation, put firewood on top and lit it, then laid my cooking plate on top.

While I waited for my plate to heat up, I sliced the meat. Meanwhile, my little piggies sat obediently by my side, waiting with drool dripping from their mouths.

I relented and wrapped some raw meat in lettuce and fed it to them. They ate it, skillfully spitting out only the lettuce before begging for more meat.

“Awooo!”

“Squee!”

When I threatened them with a dose of my iron fists, though, they reluctantly began nibbling on the lettuce.

“Tenma! Aura’s conscious!”

“All right—time to have lunch!”

I’d just finished grilling the meat, and a delectable aroma filled the air. I’d seasoned the meat with salt and my original marinade. We also had salad, bread, and milk.

Now conscious, Aura looked around as she rubbed her forehead, then sat down next to Jeanne.

“Thank you for this food.”

“Thank you for this food,” Aura and Jeanne echoed.

“Wuff!”

“Squee!”

Actually, it was rare to see anyone in this world praying with their hands folded before they ate a meal, except for devout followers of religion. Most people offered a toast like nobles did, or other simple verbal prayers. It was rare for someone to say “thank you” for their meal and fold their hands in prayer like I did, but since this custom wasn’t completely unheard of in this world, Jeanne and Aura naturally followed suit.

“By the way, Tenma. Are you sure we’re on the right road to the capital? The last sign we saw said it was to the right,” Jeanne said.

“Are we going somewhere else?” Aura asked.

Both of them asked me this just as we were about done with lunch. The question must have been on their minds for a while now.

“Yeah. It’s a bit of a detour, but I heard that there are wild cows that graze in a meadow nearby. I was thinking of hunting two or three of them for their meat so we can have beef.”

At the mention of beef, Shiromaru and Solomon began freaking out. It seemed like they wanted to eat some immediately.

“Shiromaru, Solomon. Just so you know, cows aren’t harmful beasts—you’re not allowed to kill too many of them!”

They both nodded with serious looks on their faces, but there were still copious amounts of drool dripping from their mouths. I decided that, worst-case scenario, I’d just stuff ’em into my bag.

“Beef is delicious, isn’t it, Shiromaru?”

“We’ve only been eating pork lately... Orc, that is. I bet you’re dying for some beef, huh?”

Seemingly oblivious to my feelings, Jeanne petted Shiromaru while Aura began rattling off all the ways she would cook the beef.

Anyway, since we were all in agreement, we decided to head towards that meadow to hunt the cows. We traveled for about an hour and came to a river, which we then followed for another hour until we came to the meadow.

“Aura, can you see the cows?”

“There don’t seem to be any nearby. Are you sure they’re around here?”

As we entered the meadow, the girls squinted as they looked around for cows, but there weren’t any in sight. I used Detection just in case with a radius of two kilometers, but all I could find were rabbits. There were no creatures larger than ourselves in the vicinity.

“Solomon, fly around and look for the cows. Shiromaru, if you smell any, let me know.”

“Wuff!”

“Squee!”

I gave the two of them orders, then continued through the meadow towards the capital for a while. All of a sudden, Solomon landed beside me and started flailing around. It seemed he was trying to communicate something.

“Tenma, did he find the cows?” Jeanne asked, but it seemed Solomon wanted to tell me something else. He shook his head and stared at me.

“What is it, Solomon? Uh-huh, uh-huh... What did you just say?! All right, we’ll head there immediately!”

“What?! You understood him just now?”

“Pretty much, yeah!”

I rode Valley Wind in the direction Solomon indicated.

“So, what did Solomon say?”

“Someone’s being attacked by a group of cows up ahead by the river!”

I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted to with Valley Wind pulling the cart, so I said, “Sorry, but I gotta go on ahead! I’ll summon some golems to pull the cart! Shiromaru—you guard Jeanne and Aura! Solomon, lead the way!” I took four golem cores out of my bag and threw them on the ground. “They’re the kind that will obey your commands. You guys take care of the rest!”

I unhitched the wagon from Valley Wind and then hopped back onto him. After making sure the golems appeared, I chased after Solomon. Now free of the wagon, I was able to go as fast as I wanted, and before long I was riding Valley Wind like a jockey on a horse.

It had been a while since I’d run a horse full-out. As such, it was a little uncomfortable, but this was no time to complain.

Less than ten minutes after I left the girls, I spotted two children who were being attacked. It was a boy and a girl who seemed to be the same age. They were dressed in fine clothes and appeared to be nobles, and had several male bodyguards around them.

The cows were charging the group so fiercely that the men were losing due to the difference in numbers.

“Take that!” I yelled loud enough for the guards and the cows both to hear me as I ran Valley Wind into the animals, kicking them aside. I wedged myself between them and the humans, forcing the animals to back away.

Startled at my sudden appearance, both humans and cows froze up for a moment.

“Stone Wall!”

I made a wall appear between both parties, successfully separating them. Once the children and guards saw the thick stone wall appear, they all looked relieved. But when the cows came back to their senses, they began ramming their bodies against the wall in an attempt to bust through.

I had no idea why the cows were rampaging like this, but I saw that some of them had broken horns, and some were staggering around like they had a concussion. And yet they continued ramming into the wall. The nearly thirty heads of cattle outside the walls were all completely berserk.

“What the hell happened to them?” The strange sight shocked me, and I turned towards the children. It wasn’t long before I discovered the source of the cows’ anger.

“I don’t know who you are, but please! Help us!” The children noticed my gaze and ran over to me, bowing their heads. But I slapped them on the cheeks without hesitation. I tried not to do it too hard, but the children still fell on their behinds, their cheeks swollen and red. They were bewildered by my sudden strike, and the guards around them were outraged.

“You bastard! How dare you! Do you know who these children are?!”

“We cannot forgive your barbaric violence!”

Two of the guards drew their swords and tried to attack me, but I cast magic on them before they could even swing their blades, knocking them unconscious. The remaining guards were more severely injured and fatigued than the ones who’d tried to attack me. They had fallen weakly to the ground the moment I’d made the wall, but once they saw what I was doing, they quickly rose to their feet and drew their swords.

“Do you have any idea why I slapped you?” I asked the two children, ignoring the guards. They shook their heads silently. Left without a choice, I grabbed the boy, who appeared to be the older of the two, and forced him to look. “Any creature would go mad with rage if their beloved children were killed.”

I had forced him to look over at the bodies of ten calves, which had either been pierced through with magic or slashed to death with swords. Judging by the number of cows outside the wall, it was safe to say that every last one of their babies had been killed.

“And now that this has happened, these cows will attack any human they see. It’s a shame, but there’s no choice but to kill the rest of the cows too.” I paused, looking at the children again. “I won’t deny that I’m a hunter myself. I’m an adventurer, after all. But I won’t tolerate people who do it just for fun, killing from a safe location without putting themselves in danger. If that’s the kind of person running this kingdom, the country will fall into ruin.”

There were the remnants of a magic wall around the calves’ bodies. I had a feeling they had used some kind of method to lure the parents—specifically the males—away from the herd while they enclosed the baby cows within the magic walls and killed them.

If they had done this for meat, maybe I wouldn’t have been so angry. But I could tell by the violent magical scars and stab wounds on their bodies that that had not been the case.

While I looked at the calves, the wall could no longer withstand the rampage of the adult cows and finally fell. Most of the cows who appeared before us had broken horns and bloody heads. They were so unsteady on their feet it wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d collapsed at any moment, but their eyes were bloodshot, consumed with an intense fury and hatred towards us.

“I’m sorry...” I murmured as I shot Light magic towards the cows. The magic burst in front of the cows, filling the area with light and blinding them. I’d closed my eyes a second before the light had exploded, taken my sword from my bag, and ran around the herd of cows, using their malice to sense their locations as I slashed them with my blade. I used one swing per cow, slicing off their heads in one quick motion to lessen their suffering.

When the light subsided and the surroundings appeared again, the bodies of thirty-one cows lay on the ground. I knew this was the only thing I could have done, but I certainly didn’t feel good about it.

I wiped the blood from my blade and sheathed my sword. I summoned some golems and had them gather the cows’ heads and bodies, and put just the bodies into my magic bag.

When the children and guards saw that I had summoned golems, they were both surprised and cautious, but I ignored them and used magic to dig holes in the earth. I instructed the golems to bury the bodies of the calves, along with the heads of the adult cows.

Once they were finished, I cast Fire magic into the holes, burning the bodies until only bones remained.

About a half hour had passed since I began burning the cows when Jeanne and Aura finally arrived.

“What are you grilling, Tenma? And who are those people?”

The guards looked cautious again at the appearance of the girls and the golem-drawn wagon, but the girls ignored them as they approached me.

“These are the fools who caused this whole commotion.”

The girls glanced at the children and the guards at these words. They didn’t seem to understand.

What I said had made the guards angry. Their faces turned red, and they opened their mouths to yell, but Shiromaru reacted to their hostile behavior and began growling. This frightened them, and the color quickly drained from their faces.

“I finished burying them, so let’s get to the capital,” I told the girls after I was done burying the cows’ bones. I collected the cores from the golems and put them back into my bag, then hitched Valley Wind back up to the carriage.

Meanwhile, Shiromaru and Solomon seemed to be earnestly searching for something where the earthen wall had been, burying their noses in the ground as they walked.

“What is it?” Shiromaru looked up at me when he heard my voice. He had two cow horns in his mouth. As for Solomon, not only did he have a horn in his mouth, but he was holding two in each hand and one with his foot, for a total of four horns.

Shiromaru looked jealous to see Solomon’s loot, so I took his two horns and had them gather all the remaining horns they could find lying around. For now, I decided to stow the horns in my bag.

Once they realized I was allowing them to bring all the horns with us, they looked thrilled and began racing around to gather them all up.

“Um, uh...”

I heard the boy’s voice from behind me as I watched Shiromaru and Solomon.

“What is it?”

The boy shrank back from my unfriendly tone, but recovered quickly. “I’m very sorry! And thank you very much!” he said, giving me a dramatic bow. The girl next to him seemed surprised by his behavior, but quickly followed suit.

The guards looked surprised too. They went to stop the children, but Shiromaru stood in front of the guards, threatening them.

“Grrrrr...”

The guards reached for their swords when Shiromaru got in their way, but raised both hands in surrender when he started growling.

The boy and girl looked momentarily frightened by Shiromaru’s growls, but then directed their eyes towards me again. Honestly, they had more guts than their guards. Must have been in their blood.

“If that’s all, then you’ll have to excuse me, Your Highness.”

Stunned, the children and their guards all fell silent.

“How did you know?!” the girl exclaimed. Once she realized what she’d blurted out, she clapped her hands over her mouth, but it was already too late.

“How did you know?” the boy repeated, giving up on concealing his identity. His posture wasn’t as straight as it had been a few moments ago, and I had a feeling he was getting ready to run, depending on my answer.

“Just a hunch,” I bluffed, unable to tell him I had used Identify on him.

Name: Tida von Blumere KrastinAge: 12Class: HumanTitle: Prince of the Kingdom of Krastin, Second in Line to the Throne

Name: Luna von Blumere KrastinAge: 8Class: HumanTitle: Princess of the Kingdom of Krastin, Third in Line to the Throne

“Do you really think I’ll believe that your hunch was enough to figure out our identities?” Tida stood protectively in front of Luna. I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, and decided to give him a better answer.

“You look like someone I’ve met before.”

“So what?” That made Tida look even more suspicious.

“Have you ever heard of Kukuri Village?” I saw a hint of recognition on his face. “Five years ago, a certain person was on the way to Kukuri Village when he was attacked by a group of orcs, and he was saved by a certain child. He asked the child to join his guard, but the child turned him down. Ring any bells?”

Tida stared at me in disbelief. It seemed that he had definitely heard about me from the king.

“I’m the child who turned down his offer. My name is Tenma, and I’m from Kukuri Village.”

Tida pointed at me, looking stunned. “You’re Dragonslayer Tenma?!”

“I’ve never heard anyone call me that before, but I did kill a dragon. It was a zombie, though.”

All of a sudden, Tida straightened up. “Please forgive me!” And for some reason, he apologized to me as well.

Luna stared at my face and said, “Tida, is this really Tenma? Is this really the hero?”

I reacted to the word she used because I wasn’t used to hearing it. “What hero?” I asked her.

“Grandpa says Tenma is a hero who slew a dragon all by himself to save the kingdom.”

What in the world is that king telling his own grandchildren, seriously? Still, I wasn’t sure why Tida had frozen up like that. “Why are you just standing there?” Giving up, I just asked him. He seemed so nervous he had gone unresponsive, and I noticed that he was looking a little pale too.

“Oh, er... Grandpa says that anyone who can kill a dragon is just as powerful as a dragon. And that anyone who makes an enemy out of someone like that could destroy the kingdom, so he told us to be careful.”

What in the world is the king saying about me? Don’t use me to discipline kids! But of course, as I couldn’t say that out loud, I just held in my anger.

Tida began to tremble when he saw how I looked. “I’m sorry! Please at least spare my sister! She didn’t do anything wrong! Please don’t kill my sister!”

“Who said anything about killing anyone?” I quipped. But with how frantic his plea had been, I probably shouldn’t have joked about it, because now Tida was thoroughly frightened.

“Don’t bully my brother! He was just doing what the minister said and practicing!”

Ahh—now I was finding out who was behind all of this.

“What did the minister say?”

“The minister said that in order to be the king, you have to be experienced in battle. And since this is the season in which calves are being born, he should go practice on those.”

It wasn’t clear exactly who this minister was, but one thing I did understand from what Luna had told me was that that was the person who had influenced the children to do this.

“Listen up, you two. I don’t care if it was the minister who said it, but you can’t believe everything you hear. You were lucky that I just happened to be passing by to save you, but if I hadn’t been here, you probably would’ve died.”

This realization hit them and they both began to tremble.

“And if you two had died, not only would the royal family be sad, but it’s highly possible the minister and any of your guards who did survive would be executed. Their families might have been punished too.”

Now all the color drained from the guards’ faces. Since they had been chosen to keep the royal family safe, then they were probably the pride of their own families. And certainly they would never have dreamed that their families would be executed because of them.

“If you had just consulted with the royal family, this never would’ve happened. Under normal circumstances, if you said, ‘Hey, I’m going to get battle experience by killing a bunch of calves!’ the royal family would be furious.”

Tida lowered his face, but Luna didn’t seem to understand. “But calves are veal. I’ve had veal steak and veal soup and eaten veal tons of times. Is that wrong too?” she asked.

I thought it would be difficult to explain this in a way that a child could understand. In the same vein, I always thought it was strange how in my previous world people would say that eating whales and dolphins was cruel, but didn’t say the same thing about eating cows and pigs.

Maybe they felt that way because whales were endangered and it was impossible for humans to intervene to increase the population...but did that mean it was okay to breed cows and pigs just to kill them and eat them later?

The value of life seemed rather poorly defined in my previous world, but in this one, where the concept of species conservation didn’t really exist, there were still a considerable number of cows.

I wasn’t sure if I could explain it properly, but I tried to convey my beliefs in a way that would be easy for them to understand. “First of all, I’m not saying that what I’m saying is the absolute truth. Everyone has their own opinions. But when humans eat other creatures, they get their strength to live from them. Does that make sense?”

“Yes.”

“So in other words, the veal you eat becomes your life source. But the calves you killed today had nothing to do with your survival; they were killed for sport. That means the lives of those calves were wasted. The older cows recognized this, and that’s why they were angry. If it had just been one or two that had been killed, the cows would’ve probably just chalked it up to the order of things and gave up, taking their surviving babies and running away to protect them. But how else could they react other than with anger after every single one of their babies had been killed? And that’s why they tried to kill you. If someone hurt someone in your family, you might try to run away with them. But if they killed someone in your family, wouldn’t you hate the person who did it? That’s how the adult cows felt.”

Of course, I didn’t actually know how cows felt, but I figured it might be something along these lines. Luna seemed to be a child who was earnest at heart, because she immediately took what I said as the truth. Tears began welling up in her eyes.

“So what we did was...”

“You cruelly killed the calves, for nothing but your own amusement,” I said calmly, laying out the facts.

Once Luna realized what they had done, big tears began to stream down her face. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, cows!” She ran over to the place where I’d burned the cows and apologized to them through her sobs.

Tida watched her, then turned towards me with a serious expression on his face. “But what about war? That’s just people killing huge groups of other people, and that doesn’t have anything to do with eating.”

I’d never experienced war, and I only knew what my grandpas from my previous life had told me about it. I thought about it for a moment and then told him what I felt. “I’ve never experienced war before, but I think there are many types of wars.”

“Many types?”

“Wars fought for survival, wars fought to protect something, wars fought to preserve pride, wars fought out of greed... There are all sorts of reasons. But the one common thread is that they all involve killing each other, and once you get caught up in one, you can’t hesitate to take someone else’s life or else you or someone you love could die. So, people kill each other during wars. Sure, it’s not true all the time, but of course the world would be a better place without wars.”

“So then, why do wars happen in the first place?”

His question was simple, but at the same time incredibly difficult to answer. I took a breath and replied, “Because we’re human. Humans have all sorts of different opinions. We want to be happier than others, become blessed and rich, and when all those opinions mix, sometimes others don’t understand our opinions and we clash, leading to wars. That’s just a guess on my part, though.”

I wasn’t sure if Tida was satisfied with my answer, but he didn’t ask me anything else. He watched Luna cry for a while, comforted her, and then came back to me. “Tenma, may I please have one of the cows?”

“Why?”

“I know this is just for my own satisfaction, but I don’t want their life to have been wasted. I’ll pay you, of course.”

He spoke, looking me straight in the eyes. I took one of the cows out of my bag. “You don’t need to pay me. But when you eat this cow, I want you to remember this day, and never forget it.” I handed it over to him.

“Thank you,” Tida said, and put the cow into his own bag.

Suddenly I realized something. “How are you getting home to the capital?” The carriage they had come here on had overturned, and its wheels were broken. The horses that had been hitched to it must all have fled, because they were nowhere to be seen. It would take about five to six hours on horseback to get to the capital from here, and about half a day by carriage. I was planning to get there within the day myself, but what would these two—and their guards—do?

Shiromaru suddenly began looking towards the capital with caution. I used magic to enhance my vision, following his gaze, and saw a cloud of dust up ahead. It seemed that dozens of horses were running towards us.

Part Two

I had Shiromaru wait next to the carriage just in case, and put Jeanne and Aura inside, instructing them to be on guard.

But it was a needless worry. The people around us couldn’t see them yet, but since my eyesight was boosted, I saw a group of armed knights coming towards us.

“It looks like knights are on their way. They’re wearing the royal crest.”

They stared at me in disbelief, but within ten minutes, the knights came into view.

“You over there! Get away from them!” The knight in the front shouted at me. I moved away from Tida and went over to the carriage. Meanwhile, the knights split into two groups. One went over to the children, and the other surrounded me. The knights surrounding me were armed with swords, so I took my adamantium sword from my bag, just in case.

“You bastard! Do you intend to resist?!” the same knight shouted.

I glared back and said, “Oh, are there bandits who call themselves knights now? Or do the knights from the royal capital really lack such manners that they’d draw their swords against someone who saved the prince’s life?”

“What did you say?!”

Apparently the knights were sensitive to provocation. He was about to continue, but Tida stepped in between us.

“Put down your weapons! Master Tenma saved my and my sister’s life! Don’t you dare raise your swords towards him!”

All the knights fell silent. But one of them towards the back stepped forward. “Your Highness. I understand the situation, but please be merciful. We have reason to fight him...”

His vibe was different from the other knights, and he drew his sword without taking no for an answer. Tida tried to stop him, but another man came from behind and stopped the prince. This only lasted a few seconds, but that was long enough to prevent the prince from interfering in the fight between the man and myself.

I knew he was going to attack me, so I gripped my weapon to ready myself, prepared to take on the entire group of knights. But the weight of the adamantium sword worked against me, delaying my reaction for a split second, and I was just barely able to block his attack.

“What’s wrong, Tenma? You’re pretty sluggish!” It seemed the man had heard of me, because he spoke in a rather kind voice for someone who was attacking me.

At this rate, I thought he might get the best of me, so I flung my sword at him with all my might. I aimed for the exact moment he stepped in, slowing him down ever so slightly. Then I took advantage of that opportunity to pull the kogarasumaru from my magic bag while backing away.

“Guess we’ll just have to start over. Let’s go!” The man tried to charge me again, but as he wasn’t very fast, I easily dodged it. At that moment, I should have been able to get a counterattack in...

“What?!”

...but the man suddenly stopped short, making me slice through nothing but air. I quickly pulled back and swung my sword again, matching his speed.

“Tch!” He aimed his attack at me, but I leaned backwards and managed to kick the hilt of his sword, evading the attack.

The recoil from my kicking his sword made him fall back a few steps, and it was now my turn to go on the offensive. I turned my sword to one side and thrust at him twice. Meanwhile, I adjusted my posture and fired out a third shot with more power, but he easily dodged it.

He seized that opportunity to try to throw me off my stance, but I was prepared for that. And actually, I wasn’t done with my attack. The technique I was using, called a flat thrust, was said to have been used by the Shinsengumi. It was a two-stage attack where you thrust first before performing a side-sweep.

Although I’d only ever heard about the technique, the man was taken aback by it. But I was surprised to find that he stepped in faster than my slashing motion, and I ended up hitting him with just the base of my sword, so he weathered it. Then the man threw his body at me and thrust his sword towards my throat as I rolled across the ground.

And that’s when the match was decided. It was the most complete defeat I’d ever suffered since I’d gone up against my father.

“You got me.” Still lying down, I let go of the sword I was holding and raised both my hands.

“This was just happenstance. If you wanted to kill me, I’d be dead right now. That’s how close it was.” The man sheathed his sword and took my hand to pull me up. “I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Dean, but perhaps you’ve heard of me as your father and mother’s old companion?”

Name: Dean D. DuranAge: 50Class: HumanTitle: Former First-Class Adventurer, Viscount, Captain of the Royal Guard, The Royal Army’s Strongest

HP: 25000MP: 15000Strength: A+Defense: S+Agility: AMagic: A+Mind: S+Growth: C+Luck: B+

SkillsSword: 10Spear: 10Brawling: 9Rod: 8Throwing: 8Endurance: 8Archery: 7Axe: 7Physical Boost: 7Fire Magic: 7Wind Magic: 7Sensory Boost: 7Earth Magic: 6Dismantle Items: 6Debuff Resistance: 6Nightvision: 6Vitality Boost: 6Water Magic: 5Combat Master: 5Destruction Boost: 5Cooking: 2

He’d definitely earned the title of strongest in the royal army. His abilities were very high-level, but most of all, his technique was amazing. He could read his opponent’s movements and hold them in the palm of his hand.

“You could’ve used magic too, you know,” Dean said. But since I was fighting someone with better technique than me, I felt like it would’ve been a waste to use magic. Although half-hearted magic probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.

“No, I thought it was a waste to use magic on someone with better technique than me... Actually, it brought me back to when my father used to train me, so I forgot all about using magic halfway through the fight.” I wondered if it was rude to say he reminded me of my father, but Dean didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it looked like it made him happy.

“Ricardo was like an older brother to me, so I feel like an uncle to you. I’m happy to hear it.”

That went over better than I expected. We chatted for a while, and then the man who had stopped Tida came over.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but where did you get that adamantium sword?” Despite his calm demeanor and tone of voice, he had a commanding aura about him. I could tell he was no small fry either.

I picked up the adamantium sword, then knelt down and offered it to him. “I got it from a shop in Gunjo City, Your Grace.”

Everyone seemed shocked by my words, except for the archduke himself and Luna. Jeanne and Aura were also surprised that the archduke had suddenly shown up, and immediately came out of the carriage and knelt down like I had. Luna still didn’t seem to realize what was going on.

“Ho ho! No need to be so polite. By the way, what makes you think I’m an archduke?” His demeanor changed entirely and now he was even more intimidating. In fact, everyone except for Dean and Luna succumbed to his aura.

“Please stop playing around, Your Grace. You’re scaring my slaves.”

The knights glared at me accusingly as if to say, “How dare you speak to him like that!” but the archduke didn’t seem to mind.

“Ah, sorry, sorry! I got a bit carried away.” With these words, he began laughing. Dean shrugged, leaving everyone except for me and Luna to stare in astonishment.

Luna still had a puzzled look on her face... She seemed to have no clue what was going on, which meant she might be the most important person here.

“So? How did you know I was the archduke?” the man asked, ignoring the crew, whose jaws were all hanging open.

“Well, there are several reasons. First, this sword doesn’t have a crest on it, so it’s just a regular high-quality sword... But it starts to mean something different once you put it together with these.” I took the adamantium armor and gauntlets I’d bought at the same time out of my magic bag.

“Oh—you have the whole set? They’re looking pretty good. That’s how you could tell?”

Although there was no crest on the sword, the armor and gauntlets had crests with a lion and a dragon on them.

“You had a reaction to the sword, so I thought it was possible... Also, there’s something else.”

“Oh?”

I took a deep breath and then glanced over at Tida. “There are only a few people capable of stopping a prince, and who have the same air as the king,” I explained.

The archduke looked satisfied by this, and laughed out loud.

“Ha ha, you certainly are just as His Majesty described you! A very interesting fellow, indeed. By the way, didn’t you have any other weapons on you?”

“These?” This time, I took out my mythril shortsword and orichalcum knife.

“Yes, that’s right. How much would you sell them to me for?” he asked in a straightforward tone.

I thought about it quickly. “I can let you have the adamantium items, but I don’t think you need the shortsword or the knife.”

Everyone except for me, the archduke, Dean, and Luna broke out into a cold sweat.

“For the same reason?”

It felt like the air temperature around us had dropped, but I wasn’t afraid to answer him honestly. “The archduke’s crest is on the adamantium equipment, but there’s nothing on the shortsword or knife to prove ownership. Therefore, I should be the rightful owner.”

After I finished saying that, the archduke and I stared at each other for a few moments. Everyone around us was silent, intimidated by his aura. Jeanne and Aura, who stood behind me, were completely frozen, and Shiromaru had begun to display a cautious attitude towards the archduke after sensing the mood in the air.

“Hrm... I suppose you’re right. I’m sorry for being unreasonable.” However, he gave up on it surprisingly quickly, so I had no ill will towards him. Those around us, who had been rather tense, all let out sighs of relief.

“It’s fine. By the way, how much would you pay for the adamantium equipment?”

“Hrm... Dean, what do you think it’s worth at market value?”

I had a hard time believing that Dean would know if neither of us did, and as it turned out, I appeared to be right on that point. “I’m not sure, but I doubt it would be worth as much as a platinum coin. But it’s possible he added value to it... Why don’t you ask an expert once we get to the capital?” he asked.

“Yes, I think I’ll do that.”

And thus it was decided that I would hang onto the equipment until then.

“Now, let’s go back to the capital. Tida, Luna!”

“Y-Yes!”

“What is it?”

The archduke called the two of them over. “You’re going to have a lecture waiting for you when you get home!” he said. He was about to get into his carriage when he looked over at me instead. “Hey, Tenma. Sorry, but could you let these youngsters ride in your carriage? I can’t ever relax when they ride with me.”

I didn’t have any particular reason to say no, so I agreed. Then I asked what he wanted to do with their carriage, which had been destroyed.

“Well, as it’s broken, we’ll just leave several people here with it. I’ll send some craftsmen from the capital to repair it.”

I suppose it made sense that they couldn’t just leave a carriage with the royal crest lying around somewhere, but I had room in my magic bag. “I can put it in my magic bag if you want,” I offered. I walked over to the carriage, picked it up, and stowed it in the bag. The archduke and Dean looked shocked.

“Amazing... How much did that thing cost?” the archduke asked.

I was fiddling with my bag, and didn’t put much thought into my answer. “Oh, I made it myself, so it’s probably not even worth 100G,” I blurted out. Both the archduke and Dean froze, but by the time I realized it, it was already too late.

“You...made that yourself?”

“To think that you made that... You could search this whole kingdom—no, this whole continent over—and never find a craftsman who could make an item of that class!”

It was something I’d just thrown together in my spare time, so maybe I had been too nonchalant about its value. Under normal circumstances, you might discover a magic bag from a large dungeon, or a first-rate craftsman would work in conjunction with a sorcerer over a period of many days to make one. It would be impossible for most fifteen-year-old kids to make one by themselves.

It was too late to say I was joking, but at this rate I didn’t want to get myself in trouble over it.

There was a strange feeling in the air between the three of us.

“I think I might be getting hard of hearing in my old age... That must be it,” the archduke said abruptly.

“I had a bug in my ear, so I didn’t hear a thing,” Dean agreed.

“So? You say you got your hands on that magic bag in a dungeon, did you? That was lucky!”

Fortunately for me, only the archduke and Dean were nearby. None of the knights had heard a thing.

“Yes. I was very lucky.” I played along with the two of them, which made me feel like I was part of some bad classroom skit, but at least I’d escaped this one unscathed.

I left their side and walked back over to Jeanne and the others, where Tida and Luna were already waiting.

“Um, I’m Tida von Blumere Krastin. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Tenma.”

“I’m Luna von Blumere Krastin. Nice to meet you.”

Royals certainly liked to introduce themselves a lot, and once they’d gotten it over with, I decided I might as well follow suit. I told them about how Jeanne and Aura were my slaves, and that Shiromaru would be riding inside the carriage with us as well. I took my usual carriage out of my bag, and hitched Valley Wind up to it.

Tida and Luna looked surprised, but that was just because I had pulled a carriage out of my bag. The archduke and Dean were plainly acting as though they couldn’t even see my bag anymore.

“Well, shall we be off?”

I instructed Valley Wind (via Rocket) to head to the capital, and invited Tida and Luna inside the carriage.

“Pardon us... Huh?!”

“Excuse us... Wha?!”