Chapter 259
Woah . This stuff is incredible . ”
Sponsored Content
“Indeed . I did not dream of such a thing . ”
Velnoir now hung on the right side of my belt . Daniela was looking at the Hollow Bracelet on her right arm . As the wind dragon cape might attract attention, she kept it stored in the bracelet for now . Combined, the gold added up to four thousand and five hundred pieces . Add that to the four thousand from the auction, and we had nine thousand and five hundred . While we had spent some money on Daniela’s suit of armor, the expense was hardly noticeable now .
“To be honest, we could live quite comfortably with this . ”
“If we did it modestly, we could live off of it for the rest of your lifespan, Asagi . ”
Of course, that’s not what I wanted . We had made a promise to travel the world .
The imperial castle was in the center of the city, and there were entrances to the north, south, east, and west districts . However, the actual entrance to the castle was on the east side . This was so they could march out with the sun, apparently . It sounded superstitious .
And so Daniela and I left through the north side and went straight towards our lodging facility . This was because we wanted to get some more rest .
I called to Mister Hipericam when we reached the front .
“We’re back . Mister Hipericam . ”
“…You sure are a considerate one . ”
He said in his usual lazy voice . He lowered the book he was reading just enough so that he could peer at us over the edge .
“I’ve told you that you don’t have to tell me every time . Just take the key over there…”
“Ahaha . Well, old habits . ”
“Ahh…yes-yes . So, the Imperial Sword Tournament is finished . The inns should start emptying out within a week, so you’ll have to move to one of them . ”
“Oh, really? I quite like it here . It’s very comfortable . ”
“That may be, but this place is for military… It’s not exactly for civilians . ”
We had only been allowed to stay here because one of Mister Tames’ subordinates had given us a priority pass . Though, we were currently wearing bracelets with the same function .
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped then…”
“You . You were thinking of just staying here forever, weren’t you?”
Sponsored Content
“Why not?”
“Huhh…”
He sighed with exasperation and waved his hand for us to go . He didn’t seem to be the most passionate about his job, but I understood that it was business as usual for him, and so took the key and headed for our room .
The door opened with a loud click and the now quite familiar white room greeted us . It was currently littered with Daniela’s things… We had been quite busy recently . But we’d have to clean up if we were to leave soon .
“Asagi . Asagi . ”
“Hmm?”
“Look . It is just wonderful . ”
“Huh…whoah!”
The hollow bracelet on Daniela’s wrist was sucking up all of her things from off of the floor . It was like a vacuum cleaner…
“Hey, don’t suck up your dirty clothes with everything else . ”
“We can just wash it all together later . ”
“You’re so careless…”
If only the Emperor could see this . He would probably be filled with remorse .
Once Daniela was finished vacuuming and the floor was quite clean, we both collapsed onto the bed . The sun was still high in the sky, but we didn’t want to move anymore . Hell, I wanted to sleep until the morning . That was how tired I was .
However, it also came to me that we had achieved everything we had set out to do in the imperial capital . So, what next? I asked Daniela about this, and she thought for a moment .
“…Indeed . Now that we have done everything, perhaps we should leave . ”
“Do you have a destination in mind?”
Walking without a destination seemed very dangerous . And we didn’t have an unlimited supply of food .
Sponsored Content
“I suppose we should stay here until we decide that . ”
“Yeah…”
I had been curious about ‘dungeons’ ever since Manager brought it up . But I was completely ignorant about them . Still, if there were any nearby, I might like to do a little dungeon crawling .
As I considered that possible future, the demon of sleep ambushed us, and we drifted off to the world of dreams .
Then a week passed, and the city calmed down after the festive season . We had left the lodging facility and moved to a single room in an inn . It was a quiet and relaxing place .
Daniela and I had nothing to do during that week, and so we just spent our days lazing around . When we did go outside, people would swarm around us, as we were the ‘winner and runner-up duo . ’ Though, it did mean that people would buy us food and drink at night . Daniela got to eat to her heart’s content . I felt a little bad that people were spending money on us, but I had to accept it, as it was all part of their festival tradition .
But even that started to fade after a few days . People returned to their jobs and normal life continued . We had gone to a Lambrusen restaurant yesterday, and it was pretty quiet .
Today was the day we finished moving . It so happened that Lemon’s inn was nearby, which meant we had already seen much of the area and knew that there was no point in exploring it .
Daniela was standing by the window now and staring at her hollow bracelet . It was times when I caught her like this, that I wished I could paint . Then, without warning, Daniela’s rapier materialized in her hand .
“Woah . ”
“Watch . ”
As she said this, the sword disappeared and her bow took its place .
“The bracelet?”
“Aye . Now I will be able to switch weapons much more smoothly . ”
“I’m so jealous . ”
How nice would it be to be able to switch between a one-handed sword, greatsword and a spear on the fly… It was also pretty impressive that Daniela even thought to use it like that .
“I am not giving it to you . It is my prize for winning . ”
“I wasn’t going to ask for it…”
That being said, watching her was like rubbing salt in the wound . If only I could do something similar with the hollow bag…
But speaking of prizes, I had Velnoir . I took it out of the bag and inspected it . The blackness seemed to suck in all the light . It was pretty cool .
“I didn’t expect to get an actual Emperor’s sword . ”
“Aye . It was a surprise . ”
We had talked about what the prize might be before the fight . And the possibility of receiving such a treasured sword had been brought up . But it was still a surprise .
The Black Empire Blade was longer than the demon sword . It was two-edged and had a ‘sword breaker . ’ So…it was for fighting humans… Certainly, it was something that could come in handy against bandits . Not that that was a very appealing use for such a sword .
Apparently, it had been wielded by an Emperor known as Kisaragi . Unless my guess was wrong, this person was from Japan . Perhaps he was called the ‘Black Emperor’ because of his hair . Hmm…Black Emperor . Black Rabbit . What caused this difference in treatment, I wonder… I suppose it was the good old ‘protagonist compensation’ thing .
“Ah, Asagi . ”
“What?”
“I took a walk to the guild recently, and heard a rather interesting rumor . ”
“An interesting rumor?”
“Aye . About a labyrinth town to the south . ”
“Labyrinth town?”
A town that was like a labyrinth . Who would want to live there?
“Yes . The labyrinth is underground . Below the town . ”
“Uh, wouldn’t that make it a sort of dungeon?”
“Yes, a dungeon . And the rumor is related to this dungeon . ”
A dungeon under a town . And a rumor regarding it…
“They say that the dungeon has been cleared recently . ”
“Uhhh… And I was just thinking about going . No point now . ”
“Hold on . I have not finished . This dungeon is supposed to have a core deep within, and when touched, the formation of this dungeon shifts . That seems to be what happened . And the result was that half of the town was swallowed up . ”
“That sounds like a complete disaster?”
“It is . And the guild is going to investigate it . ”
This was pretty big . So someone went dungeon crawling and caused half of the town to be swallowed up… Perhaps it was a trap for treasure seekers…
“So, we have our next destination then . ”
“Uhh…we’re going…? I don’t like the sound of this place at all . ”
“I do not see how it would be possible to ignore something so fascinating . ”
Daniela showed that she had every intention of going . And we had only just got our new room . It seemed like a big waste of money .
“I want to go . ”
“Yeah, but…”
“I want to go . ”
“Still…”
“I want to go . ”
“…”
She was being unreasonable… She had been like this when we decided to enter the tournament as well… In that case, there was no other option but to go…
“Fine . Let’s go…”
“I love you, Asagi . ”
“Yeah-yeah…”
And that was the moment that our next destination was decided .
Still, a town swallowed up by a dungeon… Sadly, the words had an adventurous ring to them that began to stimulate my sense of curiosity .