The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 7 Page 4
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“We finally made it back,” I said with a sigh after we got inside the city. Even after getting in once before, I didn’t feel confident about using that ID again. I was actually pretty anxious about it.
Unlike me, Lorraine was so used to visiting the capital that she wasn’t at all concerned. We had Augurey enter the city a bit before us, but he had proper identification, so there was no reason it’d be a problem for him.
I was the last to enter, and as soon as I got through the gate, I met up with Lorraine.
“There you are. You really don’t need to be so nervous,” she said when she saw my face, noticing how I felt.
I was hopelessly timid and knew I was doing something wrong, so that was difficult advice to follow. But they didn’t find me out, so I must have dealt with the guard well enough anyway. If I’d acted more suspicious, they would’ve showered me with questions. At places like these, it was best to act confident no matter how guilty you were.
“They didn’t suspect me of anything, so it’s fine. Anyway, where’s Augurey?” I asked. He was supposed to wait for us, but I didn’t see him anywhere.
“Oh, he went to the guild to report that the job is complete. He wants to talk to us about the reward, so he told us to wait.”
“He wants us to wait here?” I asked. Standing around in one place for a long time might make us stand out, so I wanted to avoid that.
Lorraine shook her head. “No, he said to go wait at a particular store. He told me the name and location, so we should find it after wandering around a bit.”
“All right, let’s go,” I said and walked off with Lorraine.
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“Well, this shop looks suspicious,” Lorraine noted.
“Agreed,” I said, nodding.
After walking for a while, Lorraine and I arrived at a store in a back alley far from the main street. The sign at the entrance bore the name that Augurey told to Lorraine, but it was covered in vines and extremely difficult to read. Had he not described the store’s location in detail, we would’ve undoubtedly passed by it. But now that we found it, leaving wasn’t an option. I timidly opened the door. It swayed with a loud creak.
When I peeked inside, I was surprised to find a pleasant room full of elegant furniture. A variety of plants decorated the shop, but not so many that they became an eyesore. The tables and chairs were well-worn and amber in color, but they were polished and of decent quality. Standing at the counter was a skinny old man with tidy short gray hair. He was cleaning dishes like he had done so a thousand times.
“This is a surprise,” Lorraine said. “If someone like Augurey came to this place, I’d think he would stand out.” I couldn’t help but nod, but you never knew what kind of tastes a person would have.
In any case, I approached the man who seemed to be the owner.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“We were supposed to meet with an adventurer named Augurey here,” I said. I wanted to know if he was already here, and if he wasn’t, I wanted to know where to wait.
The man seemed to recognize what I meant and nodded. “He isn’t here yet, but come this way, please,” he said and led us to some seats far in the back of the room. It was hard to see this location from the entrance, so it was a good spot for avoiding attention. “Would you like to order something?” he asked, so Lorraine and I ordered some random drinks which we received a while later. They tasted good enough that if I worked in the capital, I’d happily frequent this place. I was glad to be introduced to such a nice shop.
After waiting so long that we finished our drinks, we heard the door creak open and the owner say something. Then we heard someone walking toward us.
“Sorry I kept you,” Augurey said as he showed himself. “How do you like this place? I’m quite fond of it myself.”
His appearance shocked both Lorraine and me. “What are you wearing?” I asked.
“Something odd about my clothes?” Augurey said and cocked his head.
To be honest, there was nothing odd about them. That was what was so odd. I thought that no matter what Augurey wore, he would always be blindingly flashy, but now he looked downright normal. He wore a brown overcoat, and his outfit overall consisted of dark colors. Even his shoes matched. Not a shadow of his bright, striking appearance from earlier was left.
We looked at Augurey like something was wrong with him, which he must have noticed, because he laughed. “Look, even I know how to read the room. That outfit wouldn’t be appropriate here. Besides, I have to consider you two. You said you didn’t want to stand out, so I’m trying to help. Was that unnecessary?”
I could say I was surprised to hear that from him, but I wasn’t. He was like this in Maalt as well. He didn’t seem that perceptive of his surroundings, but he always knew where to draw the line. He seemed like he couldn’t be considerate, but he was always reserved when it counted. That hadn’t changed since he came to the capital, evidently.
“It’s fine. I’m sorry we concerned you, if anything. So did you report to the guild?” I asked.
“I did, yes,” Augurey answered as he sat in a chair. “I collected two gold coins for it. Here you are.” Augurey had said beforehand he would give us the entire reward, so this wasn’t that unexpected, but I didn’t know how to feel about him actually doing it.
“Hey, are you sure?” I asked. “I know this whole job was for you and all, but the reward is being paid by the tailor. I think you have a right to take some of it.”
“Maybe so, but a promise is a promise. And I said I’d offer something extra, so here’s another.” Augurey added a third gold coin and pushed them over to us.
I glanced at Lorraine to see what she thought and saw that she wanted to accept his generosity. Then I took a close look at Augurey’s face; he seemed more serious than usual. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to refuse, so I decided to accept the three gold coins.
As to whether this was an appropriate reward for collecting fire spirit madder, it was actually rather high. In Maalt, a silver coin would have been plenty for this job. It was the sort of job any Iron-class or Bronze-class adventurer could take, so that was only natural. Putting out jobs in Maalt to collect plenty of this plant and then selling it in the capital might have been a decent way to turn a profit, but there were similar enough products available to use as a replacement, so it wouldn’t go so well. Fire spirit madder wasn’t in particularly high demand unless someone like Augurey insisted on obtaining some for special reasons. So while it was worth a lot, there probably weren’t many people willing to buy it. With that in mind, maybe this was an appropriate price. It was hard to find anyone who wanted fire spirit madder, but it was also hard to find anyone who would collect it.
“We’ll happily take it, then,” I said. “I do think this is too much of a reward, though, so at least let me pay for the food here.” I planned to pay with some of the reward money I just got, of course.
Augurey didn’t seem to mind. “Oh, thanks. You don’t mind if I order something? The food here is actually great.”
As an aside, the drinks we’d ordered were a luxury item called arouzal. It was made from the crushed roots of a plant called kazuki grass mixed with fluid extracted from dried and roasted beans called loa. The extraction device looked very peculiar and was hard to use, so this drink could taste wildly different at any given shop, but this one was a success. If you weren’t that particular about the flavor, though, this beverage was available just about everywhere. But because it was relatively popular in Yaaran, the local population was often picky about the taste.
According to people from other countries, it was apparently too bitter and sour to be drinkable no matter what, but Lorraine seemed fine with it. In fact, she drank it so often she almost seemed addicted. She even had an extraction machine at home. It cost a lot to get one for personal use, but that was just how much she liked this drink. People who didn’t care so much for the flavor tended to add mil
k or honey, including me, because it was just too bitter. Augurey seemed to drink it straight, though.
“Order whatever you want,” I said. “But in that case, maybe we should get something too.”
“Right,” Lorraine agreed. “I was feeling a bit hungry.”
We called the owner over and asked him to cook something up.
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“Oh, would you look at the time? I have to get going,” Augurey said. I looked outside and noticed that the sun was approaching the horizon. We had mostly finished the food and had moved on to just chatting.
It turned out that I had a lot in common with Augurey. We never ran out of topics to discuss. We were both solo adventurers and had drank together plenty of times before, so I felt comfortable around him. But this was our first meeting from his perspective, so maybe he was just quick to make friends.
“Yeah? Should we leave, then?” I asked.
“Sounds good, Rentt. Remember, you’re paying for everything.”
“Right, I got it. Hm?” I answered, belatedly noticing something was strange. I looked up from my wallet and saw Augurey smiling and Lorraine looking at me like I was an idiot.
“I knew it. So you’re Lorraine, I take it?” Augurey asked her.
She thought to herself for a moment but seemed to see no sense in hiding it. “I am, yes. Goodness, when did you figure it out?”
“Just now, if I had to say. I wasn’t entirely certain, but the way ‘Purple’ here fought was just like Rentt. If I hadn’t seen him fight, I doubt I would’ve noticed anything.”
“Is his swordsmanship actually that unique?”
“No, I’d actually say there’s little unique about it. I suppose you could say it looks very clean. Like he does everything by the books. It all seems very practiced, so maybe you could consider that unique. Anyway, why are you visiting the capital in disguise?”
I didn’t know how to respond, but I had to say something. I couldn’t mention the teleportation circle, so there was no way to be fully honest, but I decided to say what I could.
“There are reasons we can’t leave any records that we were here. As far as why we came to the capital, I guess you could say we’re sightseeing,” I said. It was the same claim I made to the guard at the gate, but it wasn’t untrue. Gharb and Capitan just brought us here out of nowhere, and if there was anything we were doing, it was sightseeing. That and checking out the guild headquarters.
“I’d love to hear what those reasons are. But, well, asking another adventurer for too much information is against the rules, I suppose. So you want me to keep quiet about this, I assume?” Augurey asked, getting the idea without us having to explain. He was similarly considerate when we encountered the knight and the princess, so it stood to reason.
“We’d appreciate it if you did.”
“Got it. If you’re still uneasy, we could use a magic contract,” he offered, but it was my fault he found out.
“No, I trust you,” I said, thinking about how I’d have to be more careful about the way I fought in the future. “But now that you know, you might end up in danger, so I really recommend you don’t say anything.”
The simple fact that we were here wouldn’t prove we used a teleportation circle, but if someone found out about that, there was a fair chance they’d try to obtain it for themselves by whatever means possible. If that happened, we wouldn’t be the only ones in trouble. Augurey only had some minute amount of information, but that was enough for him to be threatened too.
“I think we should use a magic contract then,” Augurey suggested, a bit frightened by what I said. “If we use a good one, it should prevent any little mistakes.”
With that, we walked off to obtain a magic contract.
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Magic contracts varied greatly in quality and had all sorts of uses and effects. The most basic and common use for them was to penalize whoever broke the contract. Even the standard variety could vary in quality, though. They were generally available for purchase at adventurer’s guilds or commerce guilds, but what Augurey meant by a ‘good one’ was a little different. Those kinds didn’t simply impose a penalty; they had the power to force all who signed it to obey the terms of the contract for as long as it existed. These types were a bit special even among magic contracts as a whole, and for pieces of paper, they were pretty expensive. They were extremely dangerous if used with ill intent, so they weren’t available at guilds and could only be used in certain places.
“Here we are,” Augurey said as we arrived at a grand building. “This is our local temple dedicated to Hozei, the God of Contracts.”
White pillars held up the heavy ceiling of the massive building. It was so large that it had to be constructed far from the center of the city, closer to what might be considered the outskirts. When the king had business with the head of the temple, he went to an office for priests that was located in the center of the capital, apparently. Then they sent a message to this temple, and the head of the temple traveled from here to the castle. It all sounded like a hassle. I started to feel bad for priests.
But anyway, despite the enormous size of this building, it wasn’t even this god’s main temple. The main temples of the gods were located all over the place, whereas this temple’s location was determined by the city. I’d heard that the main temples were sometimes smaller too, so it made sense after thinking about it. However, the God of Contracts had a close relationship with humans, so maybe that was the reason for such a huge temple in a city like this. I had no idea where the main temple was, though.
“Considering you moved here from Maalt, you’ve got the layout of this city down pretty well,” I said to Augurey as we entered the temple.
“I’ve been here for quite a while,” he replied. “I’ve done plenty of walking around town for jobs and such, so by this point I have the map memorized. When it comes to back alleys, though, I’m not so confident.”
Adventurers sometimes had to meet with their clients directly for some jobs, like I did for Laura. In those situations, it was common knowledge among adventurers that you should know the layout of your city. But it was questionable as to how many adventurers actually did. The young ones in Maalt did, at least, thanks to the lectures we held for new adventurers. Augurey may have been an adventurer in the capital now, but he had his roots in Maalt.
The temple was filled with tranquil air. Not only did it feel that way, but all temples of this scale housed a fair number of divinity users who purified the air daily, so the place was actually full of clean air. A vampire enjoying that air was kind of strange, but so was a vampire who could use divinity at all. Maybe that was why it didn’t affect me. I also liked gloomy places, though.
“Welcome to Hozei’s temple. What brings you here today?” a priest asked after we progressed a fair ways inside.
At the back of the spacious room, there was a giant statue of Hozei, and I could see people praying to it. Hozei held a staff that delivered justice in one hand and a scale for guaranteeing impartiality in the other. She wore her hair long and her clothes loose. Her eyes stared straight ahead, showing the strength of her convictions, like she would never forgive any injustices. She asked those who stood before her if they were prepared to carry the weight of their contracts or accept the consequences of breaking them. Gods had all sorts of personalities, but Hozei was known for being one of the harshest. I preferred the more laid-back gods, but this was no place to mention that.
“We’re here for a magic contract with Hozei’s blessing,” I said to the priest. I didn’t need to specify the quality, because ordinary magic contracts didn’t have Hozei’s blessing. Hozei’s temples knew how to make those standard contracts as well, but it was common knowledge that those were produced through an extension of regular magic. What we wanted, however, was a magic contract that placed a limit on the contractee’s actions, and creating those required divinity. That meant they were made by saints and thus received Hozei’s blessing.
r /> “Then you will have to use it inside the temple, if that’s acceptable,” the priest said.
“That’s fine. May we have a room to ourselves?”
“Yes, I’ll take you to a room enchanted with soundproofing magic. This way, please.”
The priest led us past the giant statue of Hozei and into a hallway full of doors. Each door we passed had a sign that read “In Use” in red letters, so there were presumably people inside. Eventually, we reached a door with no sign.
“Here we are,” the priest said, opening the door and prompting us to go inside.
The three of us entered the room, as did the priest, who then went quiet. I wondered what he was doing until Lorraine jabbed me in the side and whispered that he wanted a donation. I completely forgot about that, but we had prepared a leather bag to offer in advance.
“Offer this to Hozei. We pray that we be granted her blessing,” I said and held out the bag. The priest lowered his head and took it.
“Here you are, then,” he said and handed us a piece of parchment that clearly contained divinity. This was the magic contract we sought. “It’s used the same way as any magic contract. It differs in that it has some control over your actions, however, so keep that in mind. I must be going now. If there’s something you don’t understand, please ring this bell. I’ll come right away.” As soon as he finished his explanation, he left the room.
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“How does he hear the bell if the room’s soundproof?” I asked as I looked at the bell sitting in the middle of the table. It was decorated with religious iconography.
“It’s hard to sense it, but it’s actually a magic item with a faint amount of mana,” Lorraine explained. “I would guess this bell has a counterpart that rings at the same time this one does. Soundproofing magic blocks a fair bit of mana as well, but I assume this was specially made with that in mind.”