Volume 11 Chapter 2 Part 6
I take my sweet time wiping her meat buns, which were so big that they couldn’t stay in my hands and overflowed form them.
On the next day, after we went to the Labyrinths and pushed forward to yet another floor due to Roxanne’s persistence, and after that, I went back to Bode’s castle, just like the Duke wanted me to do.
「The commander is waiting in his office at the back of the castle.」
When I arrived at the castle’s lobby, I was once again allowed to enter the castle’s depths without supervision.
When I’m alone, the Knights that are stationed here are not as cautious as when I came with my Party yesterday. Or rather than saying that they are not as cautious, it would probably be better to say that they are getting careless around me.
Do they allow anyone who they’re familiar with inside the castle? Or am I perhaps an exception to the rule?
I don’t know any other place inside the castle other than the Duke’s office, so maybe that’s part of the reason as well?
I arrive in front of the office and knock the door quickly and knock on the like I usually do.
「Come in.」
It’s Gozer’s voice. He seems to be here today as well.
「It’s Michio.」
「Ooh, Lord Michio. Good, we were waiting for you.」
When I go inside the Duke’s office, the Duke receives me. But this time, there’s one more person inside apart from the Duke and Gozer.
A huge, dog-eared Paladin, and a male at that. He’s tall and imposing.
「Hou, so this is the man was the one who defeated Sabo Baradam, huh?」
He suddenly starts talking to me. His head is covered by the droopy dog-ears, but at the first glance, it is difficult to tell that they are dog-ears, but upon closer inspection, they look just like a Saint Bernard’s ears.
「Uhm…」
「That is the full name of the man whom you defeated during the duel, Lord Michio.」
When I was flustered and confused at the abrupt question thrown my way, Gozer came up with an explanation.
A Duel?
Did I have a duel with someone from the Baradam family? Oh yeah, that guy who butt in on Roxanne’s duel! Now I remember!
「Although Sabo Baradam was a violent person, his ability was on par with me when it comes to the Wolfkin tribe. If you were able to defeat him, then I don’t have any objections about it.」
「There’s no doubt that Michio-dono defeated him. I was there as a witness to his slave’s duel and saw the entire thing as it happened.」
That man said that he doesn’t have any objections about the Sabo Baradam incident, so I guess he must be the member of the Empire Liberation Society as well. Or is he perhaps the one who’s going to be responsible for examining me?
「Lord Michio, this man’s name is Ester. He will be conducting the Empire Liberation Society admission exam.」
The Duke introduces the man to me properly. So he’s going to be the examiner after all.
「I’m Ester.」
「Michio.」
「As for his official position…」
「No, there’s no need to tell him that. My official position has nothing to do with my position within the Empire Liberation Society after all.」
The man declined to be introduced any further. However, thanks to my 「Identify」Bonus Skill I already know that he is actually a Baron of Ester, Ester Esterlitz Anestera.
His name is quite complicated, to put it mildly. And that name… I wouldn’t want to be called Ester, because that’s dangerously close to Estelle.
「Oh well, if you say so, Ester.」
「Feel free to just call me Ester, Michio. There’s no need for honorifics. I’ll just call you Michio, as well.」
「Okay.」
That’s probably the best option, since if I called him Baron Ester when he didn’t reveal that information about him himself, he could definitely start getting suspicious of me.
Because he didn’t introduced himself as a noble, there’s no problem in calling him normally like that, and even if he is a member of the nobility, maybe he just prefers it that way.
If I had a noble post, it would be great.
「You probably heard about it already, but just in case, I’ll explain it to you again. The Empire Liberation Society is a support organization which exists for the purpose of helping those who aim to liberate the empire from the Labyrinths and their monsters. If you become a member, you’ll have to fight in the Labyrinths everyday in order to clear the Labyrinths as fast as possible and work hard in order to improve yourself. This will be your only obligation to the Society.」
Ester explained the organization’s purpose to me once more.
There really doesn’t seem to be many duties and restrictions to being the member of the Society, so there shouldn’t be any problems if I joined it, right?
Besides, I am already fighting in the Labyrinths on a daily basis, and the same thing can be said about constantly improving myself, since that’s what the levelling and getting new Jobs for myself is for.
「Is there no other obligations besides those?」
「Because you were recommended by Brocken, Michio, you are an exception, since that is one of the rules of the Empire Liberation Society: new members can join its ranks through a recommendation from one of the existing members if they are strong enough to fight on the 34th floor and above. If you were admissioned through regular means, the requirement would be that you must be able to fight against the monsters up to the 45th floor, but even in the case of special admissions, it is desirable for such members to be able to fight above the 45th floor as soon as possible.」
Brocken is the Duke of Harz’s name, so if this guy used his name so casually, then he really must not care about titles at all.
「The 45th floor?」
「Yes, it would be preferable if you could reach it as fast as possible… but that being said, by 「as fast as possible」I don’t mean to impose something like 「clear the Labyrinth up to the 45th floor in the next twelve years」or anything of the sort. Don’t worry about it and just go at your own pace.」
「Well, I’m not worried about it.」
Or rather, I don’t have to worry about not reaching the 45th floor soon, because thanks to the stubbornness of a certain someone, we are almost there, even if getting as high as we did recently was more than a bit reckless.
But before we proceed to the 45th floor, I plan to stop on the 44th floor for a little while. If we get that far, then I think that even Roxanne wouldn’t object to it.
I had no idea that the usual requirement for new members of the Empire Liberation Society is to be able to fight against the monsters on up to the 45th floor, but since most of the Labyrinths ramp up their difficulty after the 50th floor when they have around 100 floors, then having the power to go above and beyond the 50th floor and subjugate the Labyrinths seems like a reasonable requirement to me.
「When you become a member of the Empire Liberation Society, any kind of discrimination against the members of the other races is strictly prohibited. The Society aims to liberate every citizen of the empire from the threat of the Labyrinths, and we expect all of the members to uphold that ideal.」
「I know.」
「One more thing, you cannot leak any inside information of the Empire Liberation Society to outsiders, especially information related to the other members and their identities. You can’t tell anyone that you’re a member either. This rule is in place because the labyrinths, in order to defend themselves, launch counterattack against those who fight with the objective of killing them. They may also resort to cowardly methods which may not be limited to just assassination.」
Is this the reason as to why it’s a secret society?
I think that you’re thinking about this a little too hard, but then again, their opponents in this battle are the Labyrinths.
However, that they are claiming so confidently, they must have a reason to back it.
「What do you mean by 「outsiders」? Is talking about it to my Party Members not allowed either?」
「Normally, only the representative of the Party is admitted to the Society, but the representatives are allowed to talk to their Party Members about it, since it would be too difficult to keep that fact confidential from other Party Members.」
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
Harem in the Fantasy World Dungeon
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 50 hours
“you’ll have to fight in the Labyrinths everyday” – so inspirational …