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CHAPTER 289: DEPARTURE 2

 

The night before we set out.

Yurai, as if it were only natural, had claimed the space between me and Kinu after we’d crawled into bed, and was already starting to doze off.

As Kinu stroked that soft coat of her, she spoke up.

「Come to think of it… Shinku said she was going to give Mea and Cherry assignments too, right?」

At her words, I let out a small breath. 「Ahh…」

「Seeing how much Curu’s changed, she figured she ought to set up the same kind of ‘wall’ for Mea and Cherry. But… I mean, coming from me, maybe I shouldn’t say it, but the difficulty’s absolutely brutal. It is killing two birds with one stone, though…」

「What kind of assignment was it?」

「Capturing S-rank or higher monsters that live in hazardous zones. And at least three of them.」

「…Capturing? Not extermination?」

Kinu stopped petting Yurai’s head, eyes widening.

On the outer fringes of the Alto Kingdom, there were dangerous regions that also served as borders with other countries.

For example, in the Nakva Mountain Range along the Ordila border, the boss from the thirty-fifth floor of the Plainevelt Dungeon—that problem child, the Gigantech Centipede—grew in dense colonies.

There was also Raven Gorge, the deep ravine stretching along the border with the Ibrudia Empire.

These days, it was famous as the ‘stage of tragedy’ where two of Princess Luna’s companions had lost their lives when she defected… and what nested there were upper S-rank monsters famed for petrification—basilisks.

Mea and Cherry were both strong. If it were just extermination, there’d be no issue at all.

…But capture was a different story.

「Bringing them back without killing them—and without letting them go on a rampage… that’s at least twice as hard as extermination.」

「Mmm… but why capture?」

「Two reasons. It’s an assignment to strengthen Mea and Cherry, and at the same time it feeds into strengthening the dungeon.」

To newly summon S-rank or higher monsters into the dungeon would cost an enormous amount of Dungeon Points.

But if they captured them, there was a chance I could ‘scout them’ and bring them under my control.

If a monster was subordinated, I could place it inside the dungeon, and even let it act with a decent amount of freedom.

And unlike summoning, it cost zero points.

Even before a subjugation contract, if I released one into the dungeon, it would fight adventurers on its own and earn a respectable amount of points without me ordering it around. From the perspective of ‘earning Dungeon Points,’ there wasn’t a better money-making method than this.

「The only downside is that if a captured monster goes berserk, it’s a pain to deal with… but, well, with Yaou and Quelebre around, it’ll be fine.」

「Yeah. It’ll be a good challenge for Mea and the others too, so I guess it really is two birds with one stone.」

Kinu nodded like it was nothing.

…No, normally you don’t accept that so easily. But inside the dungeon, Barbaru and Irs are watching too—she probably figured there’s no way real damage would happen.

The real problem is whether Mea and Cherry will decide to try capturing an SS-rank monster…

「They are leaving tomorrow too, right?」

「Yeah. They said they’re heading out at the same time as us.」

Yurai lifted her face, looking back and forth between us.

「Kyuui?」

「So it’s the day each of Seiha heads toward their next step.」

◇　　◇　　◇　　◇

The day of departure.

Shinku and Drake bowed as usual, faces unchanged, saying 「Take care」 and 「I’m off, sir!」 Drake transformed into a dragon, and they set out ahead of us.

Nelfie, too, kept her usual untroubled smile—though Kinu still firmly warned her, 「Don’t do anything reckless, okay?」—and then she started walking toward the former dark elf village.

Yaou and Quelebre laughed, saying 「We expect some interesting souvenirs—in the form of stories, of course.」

Mea still looked like she wasn’t thinking about anything at all, and Cherry was so optimistic and hyper it was almost too much…

Everyone was beyond ‘doing things at their own pace’ at this point—their personalities were practically dancing on their own—but the way they all kept looking forward was reassuring.

「…Alright. Kinu, Yurai. Let’s go, us too!」

「Yeah!」

「Kyuu!」

We, the group heading to Bukyo, would fly from the newly built airship port in Plainevelt City, aboard a modified magic-powered flying warship, straight to Ibrand—the imperial capital of the Ibrudia Empire. From there, it would be a journey on foot and by ship to Bukyo.

During the Sphin Seven-Nation Conference, General Kunitsuna Kagura of Bukyo had told me, ‘Come whenever you like. You’ll be welcome,’ but…

Even so, with the country in a semi-isolated state, we couldn’t exactly roll up out of nowhere in a magic-powered flying warship.

And besides—while it would take time, chances for the three of us to travel slowly together like this probably wouldn’t come often.

As everyone saw us off, the airship steadily gained altitude.

Chewing on the ache of leaving as the cityscape shrank little by little beneath us, our new journey began.

Behind us stretched a warm ‘everyday life.’

Ahead of us stretched a ‘road’ filled with nothing but the unknown.

But there was nothing to fear.

If it was the three of us, we could go anywhere.

Bathed in the red of the setting sun, we stepped onto the stage.

—To Bukyo.

Landscapes I’d never seen.

Encounters with strong foes I’d yet to meet.

Foreign cultures Grandpa had told me about when I was a kid.

Just thinking that all of it was waiting for us—

My chest pounded so hard it was almost unbearable.