The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 5 Read online

  “Looks like nothing but children’s toys and garbage. Why do you want these things?” Lorraine muttered and furrowed her brow.

  We were at the market to buy assorted goods. There was preserved food, portable grindstones, clothes, potions, and more. Lorraine could make high-quality potions on her own, so we didn’t need to buy those necessarily, but gathering the materials to make them would be a pain, so we were purchasing those. Monsters could also attack us on the way there, so we needed containers for any useful materials they might drop. In the past, I used Maaltan magnolia leaves to wrap up orc meat and bottles to contain slime fluid. When it came to things like that, buying from bigger stores got you better quality than vendors, but the vendors sold for cheap. I went to the big stores when I needed something for a job, but this was a personal journey. Somewhat lower quality wouldn’t be an issue. I did have to watch out for goods that couldn’t be trusted, however.

  “The fact that they seem worthless makes me want them. If you only buy things that are useful, it gets boring.”

  Lorraine reacted to my argument by holding her head in her hands. “Are you getting philosophical with me? I don’t get it.”

  I would have retorted it was about adventurous spirit, but I knew who would look like the stupid one in that exchange. I wanted those magic items anyway, I couldn’t help it.

  “Well, you can use your money however you like. I just bought a book with no practical use, so I do understand where you’re coming from to some degree,” Lorraine conceded, holding a thick, leather-bound book she bought from the last vendor we visited. It was called Monster Cooking: How to Make Low-Quality Parts Taste Good, a foreboding title. Cooking with monster parts was normal, but the “low-quality” aspect made me wonder what they meant in particular. Maybe slime, but even that could be made into something palatable. I could only pray I never had to use this book.

  “Oh, there are some more book vendors,” Lorraine pointed out. “Rentt, I’m going to check that out. Go ahead and look at magic items all you want. Let’s meet by the bench on the east side of the central square in about an hour.”

  She wandered off to an area packed with book vendors, presumably to buy more weird books. I had no idea what good they would be, but we were alike in that way. That’s what kept us together for the last decade.

  That left me to look at magic items, so I reached out toward a mysterious board that hovered about three centimeters off the ground.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  The person next to me apologized. She tried to grab it at the same time and bumped my hand. It didn’t hurt me at all, so I didn’t mind, but I thought it bizarre that anyone was interested in this item. Myself aside, of course. But I hid how I felt and looked up to talk to her.

  “That’s okay, I’m—” I began, but then time stopped.

  “Is something the matter? Is there something on my face?” she asked.

  The answer was that there were eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but that wasn’t what left me speechless. I had seen this woman before. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her face made her look young, but with the promise of growing into a beauty in a few years. Her appearance clashed with the leather armor and sword she wore. I never expected to see her here.

  “No, nothing. Do you recognize me?” I asked.

  “Wait, have we met? A mask that covers half your face, a black robe...” She trailed off as she racked her brains.

  It seemed like she forgot, but then I remembered something. My mask looked different from the last time we met.

  “Sorry, how’s this?” I said and changed my mask into a skull shape that covered my whole face. I also put on the hood of my robe and lumbered around suspiciously. She opened her eyes wide.

  “Oh, are you Rentt?!” she screamed. I changed my mask back and took off my hood, nodding.

  “Yes, that’s right. Long time no see, Rina.”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “Where have you been?! I’ve been looking for you all this time. I was so worried,” Rina said with as much concern as she claimed.

  “I’m staying at a friend’s place,” I admitted. “I’ve been doing adventurer work as usual, but mostly at times when nobody else is around. That’s probably why we haven’t run into each other.”

  “That explains it. I go out early in the morning most of the time. But I’m glad you’re okay.”

  Rina was still a novice, after all. Jobs for beginners were posted at the start of the day and were highly competitive, so new adventurers had to get up early. Of course, there were simple extermination requests for slimes, goblins, and other basic monsters that were available at all times, so one could get by without waking up early if they were so inclined, but monster slaying was a challenge of its own. There were safer jobs than that if you went to the guild early, and they paid better for the amount of work too. For example, there were requests to pick herbs or to carry luggage for more advanced adventurers. Some of these jobs were surprisingly risky, however, so it was best to take a close look before accepting them. But novices didn’t know that.

  As for Rina, apparently she managed to survive since we last parted ways. We were only together for a short time, but I taught her a lot of what I knew, such as the best places to hunt, the best stores, what precautions to take as an adventurer, and other general knowledge lessons. Maybe that helped her.

  “Well, I’m doing all right. As you can see, I shouldn’t have the problems I did before anymore. Anyway, how have you been? Are your adventures going well?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course. When I put your teachings into practice, everything went better than ever. Actually, I just joined a party the other day! With a boy and girl around my age, though.”

  I spent my ten years of adventuring alone, so the idea of a party stung to me, but Rina’s communication skills were far greater than mine. I was jealous. Well, not really. I had been invited to join parties myself. At least once, I swear. I just liked going solo.

  But it was good to hear her party members were one man and one woman. That shouldn’t have been too dangerous for her. If they were around the same age too, it didn’t sound like they were approaching Rina with any ill intent. A lot of adventurers in their mid-twenties took advantage of people that way. Meaning those around my age, but I would never do that. In any case, I tried to probe her about this party to see what they were like.

  “That’s nice. Are they good people? How’d you end up in a party with them?”

  Rina promptly answered all my questions. “They’re great. The boy is a swordsman named Raiz. He’s a little reckless, but fights his hardest. The girl’s name is Lola. She’s a mage who can use healing spells. I joined their party after we got in contact with each other through the guild and talked for a bit.”

  There were a lot of reasons not to trust guilds, but Maalt’s guild had Wolf in charge, so it did its job better than most. They paid special attention to safety for their adventurers, so their death rate was low. The guild also put effort into training new adventurers, and when anyone came to them about forming a party, they performed an examination to ensure they didn’t get stuck in a party with suspicious characters. Many new adventurers had mana, spirit, or other special abilities that made them common targets to kidnap and enslave. But thanks to the measures this guild went through, anyone introduced through them could be trusted to an extent. On top of that, the names Rina mentioned sounded familiar.

  “Are you talking about Raiz Dunner and Lola Satii?” I asked. They took the Bronze-class ascension exam with me. Rina’s description fit them perfectly, so they came to mind right away.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Rina confirmed, nodding. “You know them?”

  “Yeah, back when I took the Bronze-class exam, they entered the dungeon with me,” I said.

  “They told me about a nice man named Rentt Vivie. Was that you?!” she exclaimed.

  They’d already told her what happened, it seemed. If they knew me best for being nice, though, that was disap
pointing. I’d rather have been known for something cooler, though something too cool could be hard to live up to. Maybe if it was something like “Rentt, the Man Eaten by a Dragon,” or “Rentt the Bone Man.” Or not. Coming up with cool titles wasn’t my strong suit.

  “I don’t know how nice I was, but that was me, yes.”

  “But I thought your last name was Faina,” she whispered. Nobody was there to listen to us, except maybe the owner of the vendor. She must have been wary of that.

  “Well, some things happened with that,” I said just as quietly. “Just remember I’m calling myself Rentt Vivie for the moment.”

  “Okay, but isn’t it strange how you’ve met both me and my party members before? And we happened to run into each other today, too. Maybe there’s something to this,” Rina said with glee.

  Coincidences could bring about unexpected encounters. Like when I ran into the dragon, or when I met Nive. I hated coincidences. This chance encounter with Rina was the only one I enjoyed anytime recently. She was like Lady Luck, in a sense. Maybe this meant my visit to Hathara would go well too.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “That reminds me, there’s another strange connection between us,” I said.

  “What?”

  “When I went to the blacksmith the other day, I ran into a man named Idoles Rogue. He said he was looking for a woman named Rina Rogue. Would that happen to be you?”

  He claimed to be in search of his younger sister, an adventurer, but her name was different from the Rina I knew. I assumed he was seeking someone else, but I didn’t know of any other adventurers named Rina who came to town lately, and I knew a lot of what transpired in Maalt. There was a high chance he meant this Rina, and as expected, the name I mentioned made her eyes open wide with shock.

  “That’s my brother, yes. I didn’t know he came to look for me.”

  “I knew it. Well, don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about you. He was the very picture of a knight, but he didn’t seem fit for finding someone in a small town like this.”

  From what I remembered, he came across like a big-city dweller, refined in his behavior and with a nice, sincere personality. He seemed like a man who took his work seriously, but that made him stand out in a chaotic town like Maalt. I still spotted him walking around on occasion thanks to how poorly he blended in. He drew the eyes of a lot of women, too. Knights were always popular with the ladies. Not that I was jealous or anything.

  But anyway, if he was walking around so much and still hadn’t found Rina, he couldn’t have been that good at gathering information. Maalt might not have been that large, but it was still a proper city. There were so many people that searching around at random was akin to looking for gold dust in a desert. Knights weren’t familiar with the information sources outside the big city, so they had to resort to asking around at pubs. Rina didn’t seem like she frequented those places, and none of the tough guys who did were likely to know her. Her name wouldn’t ring any bells either. But if he went around to shops like when I met him at the blacksmith, they wouldn’t share information on their customers with him. Shopkeepers were especially wary of knights from the big city, so they shared as little as possible and tried to get them to leave sooner than later. Idoles had a lot of hurdles to overcome.

  If you’re wondering how I knew all this, it was thanks to Edel’s information network. Edel had gained control of about half of the puchi suri in Maalt, so I had ears all over the city. If I wanted to investigate anything, I only had to tell Edel and I’d have an answer within an hour. They couldn’t get near the Latuule house, however. A lot of mysteries surrounded that house. They had numerous magic items, so those must have kept them out. Tiny monsters couldn’t have been that hard to repel. Either way, they were more than a little useful.

  “My brother is the prime example of a knight,” Rina said with a little smile. “But that doesn’t mean he’s inflexible. Back when I lived at home, he took me to all kinds of places.”

  That was something of a surprise. From what she told me, Rina came from a family of nobles. Most knights came from that background. That meant Rina was a wealthy heiress, so I questioned why she was adventuring in a small town to begin with. But putting that aside, bringing a rich heiress with you to any old place was a strange thing to do.

  “Was he a good brother?”

  “Yes, I’d say so. I wouldn’t be the same without him.”

  “Did you become an adventurer because of him?”

  “Yes, I did at his suggestion. I basically ran from home to become an adventurer. He taught me some swordsmanship, so I did okay, but I’m not great at the social aspect of the job. I used to work in the capital, but that didn’t work out, so I came here.”

  The adventurers in the capital were much more vicious than those in Maalt. It was a dog-eat-dog world, as I understood it. That was a bad environment for a newcomer. The guild in the capital sometimes recommended working in other cities first, sending new adventurers to Maalt on occasion. Maalt was easy on newbies thanks in large part to the guildmaster. I heard he was friends with the grand guildmaster in the capital as well.

  “In that case, should I have told him about you? I acted like I didn’t know anything, but I felt kind of bad about it,” I said.

  “Probably,” Rina replied. “My parents are one thing, but I don’t think my brother would be here just to drag me back home. Maybe I should look for him.”

  “Then what’d be a good time for you? I can tell him. You’d rather not go to the trouble of searching, right?”

  It wouldn’t be much trouble for me, thanks to Edel. I could just pretend I ran into him by coincidence and ask if the Rina he was looking for was the one I knew. That would have to make him happy. Maybe my appearance would make him suspicious, but as long as I didn’t ask to meet in any strange places, that wouldn’t be a problem. If I suggested we meet up in a decrepit shack outside the city, that might put him on guard, but maybe it’d be worth a try. No, probably not.

  “Really?” Rina asked of my offer. “Okay, if it’s not too much trouble.” Then she told me when she was free.

  I promised I would tell him, and after a bit more chatting, we exchanged contact information and parted ways. It was about time to meet up with Lorraine.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “Made some big purchases today,” Lorraine said upon returning home and gazing contentedly upon the stack of books on the floor.

  I carried the books from the vendor in my magic bag on the way back, but she demanded they all be taken out as soon as we arrived. She wanted to get straight to reading them. I understood the feeling. When I bought books, I couldn’t wait to read them. She was already reading one of them as we walked home, though. I wanted to tell her to stop in case she ran into anyone, but Lorraine had the skill of a Silver-class adventurer. If any passers-by approached, she could avoid them without even seeing them, so I had no real reason to warn her. However, it set a bad example for any children out there. I wanted to tell the orphans that she was a bad lady.

  “So, like I said before, I’m going out for a little bit,” I told Lorraine.

  “Great, be careful out there.” She waved her hand with disinterest. The book had her captivated already. She was hopeless, but at least she was listening.

  After that, I left the house.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  What I had told Lorraine was I met Rina at the market and promised to deliver a message to her brother, so I needed to head out to meet him. I’d previously explained to Lorraine about how I met Rina in a dungeon, so she was interested in meeting her, but that could wait for another time. Rina seemed busy with her adventuring work, so I didn’t know about inviting her to come mess around.

  Edel’s subordinates were tracking Idoles. Edel led the way ahead of me, so I followed after him. My mask covered my whole face last time I met him, so I adjusted it into that form again. Any on-lookers would see a suspicious man in a skull mask and robe following a rare black puchi suri. I probably
looked like a diseased grim reaper. In fact, I heard the occasional gasp from those who saw Edel and me. At least I looked human, but it was still an ominous sign. Nobody paid attention to me when my hood was off and I reshaped my mask, but seeing me like this during waking hours would be frightening. Oh well, Idoles, wouldn’t recognize me any other way.

  Eventually I came across a familiar man, rugged and clad in knight armor. I hurried toward him.

  “Sir Idoles,” I called out to him. He turned around and looked at me, saw my sketchy clothes, and cocked his head.

  “Ah, I met you outside the blacksmith the other day,” he said.

  “Yes, right. You remember me?”

  “I could not forget that outfit if I tried. Your voice sounds different, though. It used to be a bit more...”

  Idoles didn’t finish his sentence, but I suspected he meant to say how hoarse I sounded. My vocal chords were barely functional at the time, so my voice was just awful. At least now I could talk like a normal person. But I couldn’t tell him I had moved up the undead ranks, so I came up with an excuse.

  “My throat was injured, but it’s better now. Sorry about that.” That was a common enough occurrence. Idoles didn’t question it.

  “Is that right? I am glad to hear it. You appear to be an adventurer, but I am knight myself, so I understand what manner of damage monsters can do. You are lucky it was not permanent,” he said, offering his sympathy.

  The highest class of saint could heal injuries that normal recovery spells and divinity could not, but they seldom offered their assistance to any given knight or adventurer. When he counted me as lucky, that’s what he meant.

  “Yes, I suppose so.” I nodded.

  He nodded back then seemed to recall something. “Now, what in the world brings you to me? I presume you sought me out for something.”