Area 4, Tedumaya, the Queen’s Palace.
“When on earth is Mr. Ian coming out?”
Veronica was pacing back and forth in front of it.
It had been over an hour since Ian had entered the palace, and he still hadn’t come out.
That was why she was anxious.
“He couldn’t have abandoned me, could he?”
Judging by the change in attitude of the scarred man, Sancaca, the captain of the guards, it didn’t seem like Ian had gone inside because of anything bad.
Even so, the fact that he still hadn’t returned meant…
Either he had slipped out through some back door long ago, abandoning her bothersome self, or he was waiting until she collapsed from exhaustion.
After instantly running through all kinds of simulations in her head, Veronica chewed anxiously on her lip.
“No. There’s no way our Mr. Ian would do that. After how good I’ve been to him all this time. After how patiently I’ve endured. Ahh… just imagining that cold expression is making my stomach tremble again. No, that’s not it. Just wait until I catch him. I’ll lock him up all day and sit beside him, showering that body of his with praise—”
“What are you doing there?”
“—upon… Hiiik! M-Mr. Ian?”
“What’s with that reaction? It’s not like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“N-No! I was being g-good.”
At Ian’s sudden appearance, Veronica shook her head violently.
Of course, Ian’s eyes narrowed at her flustered reaction.
She looked exactly like a child trying to hide the fact that she had caused trouble.
But the Ian of the moment had no time to concern himself with Veronica’s behavior.
‘Why is the boss there?’
[Lv 28. Captain of the Royal Guard : Ravana]
Ravana, the captain of the royal guard who protected the queen.
That man was the boss of Area 4.
Because his mind was focused solely on the boss he had encountered inside.
Thanks to that, Veronica, who avoided any further interrogation, let out a sigh of relief and asked Ian a question.
“Um… what did you talk about inside?”
“Uh… nothing much. I met the queen for a bit.”
“Th-The queen?”
“Kalinia turned out to be the queen’s younger sister. Honestly, she should’ve told me earlier. So we had some tea together.”
And he had eaten plenty of delicious refreshments until he was stuffed.
The ending had been bewildering, but in many ways, it had been a satisfying time.
Recalling that bliss once more, Ian walked past Veronica, who stood there with her mouth agape in shock.
Veronica belatedly came to her senses and hurried to Ian’s side.
“Wh-Where are you going?”
“I should take a look around the city. I saw there were all sorts of things when we came in.”
To gather information while he was at it, meet people he knew, and think about how to攻略 this boss.
The two headed for the shopping district.
***
As expected of a place that could be called a city.
After entering Tedumaya’s shopping district, we were surprised once by its scale, and once again by the number of dark elves walking around.
“Wow… there are so many people.”
“It feels like there are more than in Staria.”
“Come on, that’s a bit much.”
“R-Right? Haha…”
I’d spoken like a T, but in Staria’s case, it was a place where nearly two hundred thousand players stayed.
Compared to that, most of the people here were dark elves.
So if we were talking purely about NPCs, it probably wasn’t wrong… but when I thought of yesterday’s confession attack, I couldn’t help wanting to tease her for no reason.
Feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, I looked around.
The structure itself wasn’t very different from an ordinary shopping district.
Shops lined both sides of the street, and dark elves were going in and out of them.
And among them, the place that caught our attention was the equipment shop selling weapons and armor.
“Shall we go in there first?”
“I’m fine going anywhere!”
My mistake for asking.
Shaking my head, I entered the shop.
“Welcome.”
The person at the counter was a dark elf woman with languid eyes and a slender figure.
After checking us over, she looked at us with interest.
“Human customers, huh. I wonder what this batch of customers needs?”
“Have a lot of other humans come besides us?”
“About thirty have come and gone so far. Still, don’t worry. We’ll have what you want.”
“Then please show us your swords first.”
“Swords, huh… A fine weapon. Wait just a moment.”
The woman ducked below the counter for a while, then pulled out a sword and placed it in front of us.
“How’s this? It’s the best sword currently in our shop.”
It was a one-handed sword with a black blade.
Veronica and I checked the sword’s information.
[Rimbahitam Straight Sword]
A sword issued to dark elf sentries. A one-handed sword with light weight and excellent durability.
Physical Attack +6
‘A weapon with 6 attack… That’s a good sword.’
Veronica was making a fuss beside me too.
“Mr. Ian, look at this! Its attack is 6!”
“You seem to like it.”
“Of course I do! Anyone would probably covet it.”
They would. In a death game like this, even 1 point of attack was precious.
I also wanted to change my weapon while I had the chance.
However.
“How much is this?”
“That one is 2,000 gold. But right now, we only have one in stock. More will come in later, but… what will you do?”
At the news that there was only one, Veronica and I looked at each other’s faces.
We were both swordsmen who used swords.
And the fact that there was only one sword meant one of us couldn’t have it.
If things went on like this, the one who would yield the sword would probably be Veronica.
She was someone who had followed me all the way here purely out of affection for me.
As expected, after hesitating for a moment, she pushed the sword toward me.
“You should buy this, Mr. Ian. I’m fine.”
But Veronica’s face was full of lingering regret.
How could I possibly buy it comfortably after seeing that expression?
I pushed the sword back toward Veronica.
“No. You take this, Ms. Veronica.”
“B-But…”
“What level are you?”
“20…”
“I’m 23. Then whose words should you listen to?”
Veronica pouted.
But what could she do? My level was higher.
The only choice given to her was to obediently buy the weapon.
“Uuuu… That’s unfair. Fine. I’ll buy this one. But next time, I won’t give in.”
“Yes, sure.”
But after looking around afterward, aside from the sword, there wasn’t much equipment that I liked.
As for staffs, they had high magic attack, but they were all large, and none had the special ability to use wind magic. The armor wasn’t very different from the corps uniform I was currently wearing either.
In the end, I decided to come back when the weapon was restocked and had to leave the equipment shop without any gains.
There were still a lot of people.
As I was wondering where I should look around to soothe this disappointment…
“Oh! Isn’t that Ian?”
“Naira?”
At Naira’s voice from beside me, I turned my head.
She had somehow come to my side and, as usual, put her arm around my shoulders.
“What, when did you get here? You said you’d come a bit later.”
“I arrived this afternoon. But why are you alone?”
“My sister and Mugi went to Area 3 for a bit. Something about building proficiency. This place is all residential areas, so there are no monsters.”
“Then what about you?”
“Me? Obviously, I came to play. It’s a city we haven’t been to in ages, so it’d be a waste to only hunt things that don’t even give experience, wouldn’t it?”
At that moment, Naira’s gaze turned to Veronica, who was behind me.
“But why are you with her?”
“That’s… there’s a bit of a situation.”
No matter what, I couldn’t exactly say, “She likes me, so she’s following me around.”
“Hmmm… Something seems suspicious…”
But Naira’s gaze remained on Veronica, and at this rate, I might get interrogated.
Just then, noticing Naira’s outfit, I hurriedly spoke.
“B-By the way, you changed your clothes. They look good on you.”
“Hm? Ah, I changed my armor this time. As expected of my friend. No one else even noticed, but you did!”
Then she excitedly started talking about her clothes, and only then was I able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Of course, with my pathetic knowledge of clothing, playing along with Naira’s story was quite the ordeal.
At that moment, Naira checked the shop behind us and looked at me with a meaningful gaze.
“Wait, don’t tell me you bought something here?”
“No. I didn’t buy anything. She bought one sword.”
“That’s a relief, at least.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Then where was I supposed to buy armor?
While I was failing to understand what she meant, Naira patted my shoulder and raised the corners of her mouth in a grin.
“This big sister will show you a good place, so follow me for a bit.”
If someone saw her, they’d think she was a delinquent trying to mess with some innocent kid.
Maybe she felt even more like that because her skin was bronze.
And so, we followed Naira.
“Ta-da! This is the place.”
“What kind of place is it?”
The place we arrived at after following her was a shabby building at the end of the shopping district.
For how confidently she’d spoken, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly special about it.
But Naira continued very proudly.
“Hehe… Listen and be amazed. This is the workshop where we can use all the materials we’ve been saving up until now.”
***
Around the time Ian’s group arrived at the workshop…
“Sister, they’re coming from the right too!”
“Kh! Confirmed!”
Emily and Mugi were absorbed in hunting near northern Durigarda.
The two of them were currently level 22.
They couldn’t get much experience from hunting Durigarda’s monsters.
Even so, there was one reason they had come here.
“Spear!”
It was to raise Emily’s spear technique proficiency.
The red-stained spearhead pierced through the monster’s main body.
After eliminating all the monsters with Mugi’s support, Emily caught her breath and wiped the sweat flowing down her forehead.
“Good support. I survived thanks to you.”
“H-Honestly, I don’t think I really did anything…”
Just as Mugi said, monsters of this level were easy enough for Emily to handle on her own.
But Emily approached Mugi and lightly tapped her shoulder.
“Come on, just having you beside me gives me strength in situations like this. And you took down a few too.”
“It was only a few.”
Mugi had wanted to test out the new magic she had obtained too.
And the results had been quite satisfying.
Before they knew it, the sun was sinking beyond the horizon.
Looking at the sky dyed orange, Emily stretched widely and said to Mugi,
“Then shall we start heading back?”
“Yes.”
If they returned now, they would just barely make it in time for dinner.
The two of them walked toward Tedumaya with very light steps.
Tedumaya at night had a different charm from the daytime.
The soft green night view was enough to put one’s heart at ease just by looking at it, and the gentle music flowing through the air was pleasant to the ears.
As they passed through the plaza and were about to head toward the shopping district where Naira was…
“Everyone! Breaking news, breaking news!”
A dark elf man was shouting from the center of the plaza.
“What is it? Did something happen?”
“I… wonder?”
Emily and Mugi looked at each other and tilted their heads.
To the two of them, Tedumaya’s current situation seemed peaceful itself.
Naturally, they had no choice but to focus on the man’s next words.
Sensing that enough gazes had gathered, the man shouted again.
“Her Majesty the Queen is reopening the birth festival!”