The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 7 Read online

  I was a bit surprised to hear him call me his friend, but he ended by asking my name, so I realized he was just saying that. He acted like this when I first met him too, so he could be hard to understand in some ways.

  Unsure what name to use, I looked to Lorraine. Her expression told me that I should make something up. That would be for the best, since he might guess who I was if I said Rentt. Despite how he was, Augurey had oddly strong intuition and could be shockingly perceptive. Taking those kinds of risks with him wasn’t a good idea.

  “The name’s Purple,” I said simply based on the color of my robe. It sounded like an obviously fake name, but I could always claim that I wore these clothes because of it. Maybe. The name did exist, so I thought I should be safe. I looked at Lorraine and she seemed appalled, though.

  “Purple, you say? I see, because purple clothes are stylish! And who’s the woman?” Augurey asked, looking at Lorraine.

  “I’m Olga, his companion. Pleased to meet you,” she answered. Unlike me, she picked an exceedingly safe alias. She also carried herself entirely differently from normal. While she was introducing herself, she wrapped her arm around mine.

  “I see, are you dating? Or are you married, perhaps? You certainly seem close. Purple, quite the beautiful woman you got to marry. You’re one lucky guy!” Augurey said with exaggerated surprise. He was wrong on all counts, but it was hard to say so, and Lorraine didn’t deny it either. She was grinning about the whole misunderstanding.

  Everything we said was a lie anyway, so I decided it might be easier to go along with it. “Making her my wife certainly wasn’t easy,” I said. “You don’t often see women so beautiful, refined, and pleasant to spend time with. I’m a happy man. Anyway, we traveled here from the Empire for our honeymoon. Just the two of us, of course. I heard that unlike the capital of the Empire, the beauty of nature is still present in the streets of Vistelya, so I wanted to come see it for myself. Oh, I’m afraid all this talking has taken up too much time. We have to be going now.”

  I was trying to think of a way to get out of there, and that was what I came up with. While I was talking, it felt like Lorraine’s arm began to squeeze mine tighter, but maybe it was my imagination.

  When I tried to walk away, Augurey grabbed my other arm. “Hold it! I still haven’t gotten to my main point!” he cried. “My goodness, you walked off so suddenly I almost let you go. Would you mind listening to what I have to say?”

  It didn’t seem like we’d get the chance to escape. I could tear myself free from his grip, but then he’d chase after us as a matter of pride. There was no peaceful way to say goodbye, so we had to stay and hear him out. It was bad enough how his outfit drew attention, but it’d be even worse if some weird adventurers suddenly started playing tag in the streets.

  “Fine, so what is it?” I asked, relieving him.

  “Well, you said that job would be easy,” he said, as I expected. “I was wondering if you’d like to accompany me in tackling it. You’re free to take the entire reward. I’m a Silver-class adventurer, after all. I’ll even take care of any monsters we encounter. All you have to do is find the correct herbs. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself.”

  Considering I didn’t want to take any jobs from this guild myself, I couldn’t have asked for more favorable conditions. “Why go so far for this job, though?” I asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious! For the clothes!” he answered.

  I cocked my head. “What are you talking about?”

  “The herb-picking job, of course.”

  “What does that have to do with clothes?”

  “Look at who posted the job.”

  “‘Michel’s Boutique’?”

  “Yes. I ordered new clothes from them, but the dye is a bit unique. They absolutely need those herbs! To be honest, I thought they would be relatively easy to obtain before I placed the order, but then I found out it was rather hard to get them in this city. I need to stop assuming that everything is the same as in Maalt. I could import them, but I was told it would take a whole month. I want to be in those new clothes within the week! And yet they’re out of my reach! I can’t stand it!”

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  I was left wondering why I should care to help. There was no way to see this as anyone but Augurey’s problem. If he could get the dye in a month, then he should have just waited.

  “Is that everything? Goodbye, then,” I said and tried to leave.

  However, Augurey refused to loosen his grip. “No, no, we’re not finished here! Why not help me out?! I’m giving you the whole reward! I’m acting as your guard! This job should be a breeze!” Augurey pleaded desperately. His yelling was drawing attention, so I gave up on trying to break free.

  His offer was certainly in my favor, but still. “There are reasons why we don’t want to take jobs from the guild,” I said. “Besides, I just told you that we’re on our honeymoon. We don’t have much time to spare.”

  I decided that convincing him to give up would be the best option. Augurey was pushy, but he wasn’t completely unreasonable. If I explained myself, I thought he would understand. Not that we were actually on a honeymoon, but it was true we didn’t have much time. We had to meet up with Gharb and Capitan later.

  But against my expectations, Augurey still refused to give up. “There are reasons, you say? That makes it sound like taking a job from the guild would in itself be a problem. In that case, what if it was simply a personal request from myself? And as far as your honeymoon, you’ll get to go places no honeymooners have gone before!”

  “You’re awfully persistent,” I said. “You need these herbs that badly? Why not just wait a month?”

  Augurey shook his head and begged in a grave tone, “I want them as soon as possible. Please. I’ll pay you even more than the reward listed here. It shouldn’t take long. I know they grow in a forest not far from here, so as long as you can tell the herbs apart, it should be done in a matter of hours.”

  I hardly ever saw him act like this in Maalt. I didn’t know he was so obsessed over clothes, but looking at what he was wearing, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “You think we’ll make it in time?” I asked Lorraine.

  “If it’s only a few hours, then probably. Don’t tell me you’re actually going to accept,” she said. She didn’t sound very enthusiastic about the idea, but Augurey did a fair bit for me back in Maalt. He told me about some nice hunting spots and provided the locations of monsters I could handle. I couldn’t turn down such an impassioned request from him. The frivolous nature of his request was somewhat astonishing, but maybe he was in some crisis that we ordinary people couldn’t understand.

  “If I don’t have to take the request through the guild, then I suppose I’m willing to help,” I said. “But if it looks like we’ll be late for our plans, we’ll have to go back. Also, don’t tell too many people about us. We don’t want to stand out.”

  “Of course. Thanks! Then I’ll accept the job myself, and you’ll simply be helping me with a personal request. You say you don’t want to stand out, though? When you’re wearing that? Honestly, the reason I approached you was I thought you’d understand my passion,” Augurey said, confused.

  Our clothes did stand out a lot, admittedly. But unlike Augurey’s, we were wearing the latest popular fashion from the Empire. I wanted to make sure he knew we weren’t like him, but before I could explain that, he went to the counter.

  “Are you sure about this, Rentt?” Lorraine asked. “They won’t keep records as long as we don’t take the job through the guild, yes, and I suppose it will kill time until we need to meet up again, but still.”

  “I’m not that interested myself, but I do owe him to some extent. I don’t mind helping him out a bit as long as we don’t expose our identities. It’ll be an easy job anyway.”

  “You’re too nice for your own good.”

  “I guess. Sorry, Lorraine. We had the chance to see the capital, but now I’ve given us some work to d
o.”

  “It’s fine, I’ve been to the capital plenty of times. There’s not much left for me to see.”

  “Really? If there’s somewhere you want to go, you can go there while I attend Augurey. He’s not looking for help with fighting anyway; he just needs someone who knows herbs,” I said. Apparently Augurey had become strong enough to be a Silver-class adventurer since I last saw him. He had to be far stronger than he was in Maalt, so there was no particular need for both Lorraine and I to go with him.

  “As much as I’d love to sit this out, I suspect you’ll spill the beans if you go alone,” Lorraine said, pointing out my carelessness. I had just accepted a request for not much reason, so I couldn’t argue.

  “Sorry. I’ll make it up to you later.”

  “Oh, will you? Then take me out to dinner at a restaurant called All Flevne on the main street in Maalt. I’ve always wanted to try their full course dinner at some point,” she said.

  That restaurant was famous for being the most expensive one in Maalt. The prices were, of course, exorbitant. A full course dinner from there wouldn’t be impossible for me to pay nowadays, and considering everything I asked of Lorraine, I felt like I at least owed her that much.

  “Sure, we can go next time we’re in Maalt,” I said, to Lorraine’s surprise.

  “I was kidding. Are you sure?” she asked, looking worried now. But as an adventurer, I couldn’t go back on my word.

  I pounded my chest and said, “Leave it to me. You’ll get to eat all you want.” Then I smiled.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “I believe this should be the place,” Augurey whispered as we walked through a forest outside the walls of Vistelya.

  After Augurey finished the paperwork to accept the job at the guild, we immediately set off. It had been a little over an hour since then. Just as Augurey told us earlier, it looked like it would take a few hours total. He knew to research the destination in advance, as any Silver-class adventurer should, so we never got lost on our way. Thankfully, the forest was close to the capital, so few monsters were in the area at the moment. The kinds of monsters that would appear here were perfect for new soldiers to train on, so they were frequently exterminated. That was why it was relatively safe to walk around here. From an adventurer’s perspective, though, they were systematically eliminating our source of income. But that also meant the guild in the capital had tougher, more rewarding jobs than the others in the region. That made it hard for new adventurers to work in the capital, so there were advantages and disadvantages.

  “There does seem to be a lot of different herbs here,” I said. “We’re looking for fire spirit madder, right?”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t say what it looks like. They all look the same to me,” Augurey answered, his head in his arms. He stared at the plants but couldn’t seem to tell them apart at all.

  There were a lot of little plants with yellow-green flowers, and at a glance, they all appeared identical. But I knew they were all different. “Fire spirit madder can be identified by the shape of its leaves and flowers, the number of leaves, the shape of the stem, the scent, and the roots. This is a good chance for you to learn that,” I said, explaining the unique features of the plant to Augurey. There were three or four similar types of plants, and they all grew in mostly the same places. They could be hard to collect, but not if you knew how to distinguish between them. I described them repeatedly until Augurey could also tell them apart after a few attempts.

  “I see, so that’s how you do it. I’ve learned something today,” he said.

  I didn’t teach him for his sake. I did it so that requests like these wouldn’t be left untouched in the capital. Augurey was a solo adventurer, but he was a relatively compassionate one, so he would probably pass this information on to the next generation.

  If the fire spirit madder was meant to be used for dye, then he must have wanted the clothes to be red. Dye could be collected from the dried roots of the plant, producing a bright red color. It was as red as the setting sun on days when the power of the fire spirits was especially strong, which is where the name came from. He was dressed in rainbow colors now, but this would make clothes that were glaringly red, apparently. I didn’t like the sound of that, but there was no accounting for taste.

  “Shall we return, then? I think you’ve gotten enough,” Lorraine said.

  Augurey and I nodded. This would be plenty to use for dye, so we had no reason to stay here any longer.

  Chapter 2: Backup

  The three of us were walking back to the capital when I suddenly smelled blood. When I came to a stop, Lorraine and Augurey looked at me with confusion.

  “Is something wrong?” Augurey asked.

  “Yeah, I smell human blood from over there.”

  Augurey sniffed the air. “I don’t notice anything. You must have the nose of a dog,” he said with a shrug.

  My vampiric abilities actually made me frightfully sensitive to the scent of human blood. I knew the odor of other creatures as well, but human blood was especially fragrant. I knew from this smell that it had to have come from a human.

  “Why don’t we check, if you’re so curious,” Lorraine said. “This outing was quicker than expected, so we should have the time.”

  “Do you mind?” I asked Augurey.

  “Not at all,” he said. “In fact, if someone’s being attacked, I’d like to help. Let’s hurry.”

  We decided to do what any adventurer would do. We ran to the destination, with me leading the way because I could sniff out the exact location.

  When we arrived, we found a carriage toppled over. It was surrounded by about twenty forest wolves and ten rock wolves. Forest wolves were a size larger than the average wolf and commonly appeared on the third floor of the New Moon Dungeon. They weren’t that powerful individually, but in packs they were dangerous enough to compete with a Silver-class adventurer. Rock wolves were even more threatening, dwarfing the forest wolves in size. Their bodies were coated in a layer of stone that acted as armor. Despite that, they were as agile and coordinated as other wolves. You never wanted to run into these monsters on the road.

  The wolves were ganging up on this carriage. A few armored men were defending it, but they were greatly outnumbered. A few were lying on the ground and seemed to already be dead. If nobody interfered, they would probably be wiped out.

  “So what should we do? Leave, or help?” Augurey asked me.

  “Sorry, but mind if we help? You can go hide somewhere if you don’t want to.”

  “That’s quite all right. I can offer backup too. Honestly, I’ve been itching for a fight.”

  “Then shall we begin?” Lorraine said without needing to be asked. “I’ll scatter them with magic to create a path.” She cast a spell that launched blades of wind from her wand and attacked the wolves.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Lorraine’s wind blades blew the forest wolves away. That attack alone killed five or six of them, so it must have packed a punch. Then we ran through the space she cleared and approached the carriage.

  “Who are you people?!” the oldest of the armored men asked when we suddenly appeared. He didn’t let his guard down, of course. He kept slashing at the monsters to keep them at bay.

  “We’re adventurers,” I answered. “We’re here to offer backup.”

  It was a brief explanation, but it seemed to be enough to convince the man. “You have my gratitude!” he said and then continued to fight. His skill was nothing to scoff at, but against this many monsters, it didn’t quite match up.

  The other men seemed to be having a rougher time, so we decided to split up and help them. We cleared out the monsters until I finally slayed the last one, ending the battle.

  “Phew, looks like that worked out somehow,” the older man said. He was clad in silver armor and wielded a sword. It was the same equipment as the other men, but his armor was different in that the shoulder of it displayed a crest that was presumably a mark of his status. He was cle
arly a knight, so I could guess what this carriage might have held. I sensed danger.

  “There don’t seem to be any more monsters, so I think we should be returning to town,” I said. “Bye.”

  “Wait a moment! I can’t let you go unrewarded after all your help,” the man replied, not unexpectedly.

  His generosity was only a hindrance in this case, but I couldn’t say so. Regardless, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. “Well, we were in the middle of a job,” I said, trying to sound like I had no choice.

  “In that case, perhaps you could be rewarded another day,” he insisted.

  “Yes, please allow me to reward you!” a precious girl in a dress said from behind the man. She looked to be around fifteen or sixteen and a bit sickly, but she gave us a firm look.

  The knight looked at the girl and frantically ran toward her. “Princess! How many times do I have to tell you to hide in the carriage?”

  “The fight is over anyway. Besides, my saviors are about to leave. It would bring shame to the royal family if I didn’t thank them somehow,” she responded.

  “What should we do?” I asked Lorraine and Augurey as I watched them from afar.

  “I think we ought to find a way to leave as soon as possible,” Lorraine suggested. “It sounds like she’s someone of considerable status. But whether she’s of Yaaran royalty or some other nation, I don’t know.”

  “I agree,” Augurey said. “They may certainly offer plentiful rewards, but getting involved with royalty could be bothersome. Still, though...”

  They were both of the same mind, but judging by the princess and the knight’s exchange, it wouldn’t be easy for us to get away. We could have just turned and left immediately, but that would probably create problems for Augurey in the future. Lorraine and I were acting under false identities, but he was an adventurer who worked in the capital normally. If he ran off now and was contacted through the guild later, and they asked him who we were, it could be a serious issue. He could simply say he didn’t know, but then they might undertake a detailed investigation into us. Considering that possibility, peacefully turning down their offer would be the only safe way out of this.