The work at the mausoleum was an all-nighter, so I slept down until noon after that.

　In addition, tonight was a banquet to celebrate the defeat of the monster. At the beginning of the banquet, King Paul burns the pieces of the monster with acid to convince everyone in the palace that the incident is over. It's actually an experimental rabbit cell, though, so it's actually a kind of propaganda operation.

　But that's the night, there's still plenty of time to spare. So now I'm here to visit Bohdan-senpai Wang. Incidentally, it seems that the former king is disguising himself with his hairstyle, make-up and costumes, and is able to disguise his true identity even inside the royal castle.

　Be that as it may, the king of this country is too light on his footwork.

''Oh Ryouta, you've come a long way!　Since you have children, I made the tea cakes with apple juice and cake (trillon). The cake is laced with gritica, a kind of medicinal barley, which was brought by Uzbek traders from the sacred mountains of the Central Plains. It's the real thing, brought by Uzbek traders from the sacred mountains of the Central Plains.

　The current king is too comfortable with me.
　But I'm going to draw the line at you!


◇ ◇ ◇
　Incidentally, the human-horse (centaur) tribe lost the competition for survival with the horsemen in the central plains and became a minority tribe scattered across the steppes of the Ares stateless region. It seems that the stirrups were invented by the horsemen at this time.

　There are other theories as to why the centaurs were able to outrun the centaurs by using many replacement horses, or the centaurs were able to run and shoot with their horses, while the centaurs had only one head and could only shoot forward.

　However, since the centaurs are not talking about it, the truth is unknown.
◇ ◇ ◇


"Your Majesty, Paul. We are grateful for your urgent permission to visit us and for the delicious sweets you have prepared for us. I am ashamed to say that we have brought you not so much a gift as a gift for you, but rather a remedy for your pain.

　Courtesy is a bulwark to keep your opponent at a distance. My close friend Sailor-sama alone is being swept around quite a bit, it's enough for the rest of the wretched people to only be able to do the transmission.

'Hey Ryota, this is a private place, don't greet me like a royal palace. Your shoulders will get stiff.

"Holy shit, Paul!　You don't use that kind of language with your benefactor!　Ryota-dono, I am truly sorry for the rudeness of my nephew Paul, I have now decided. I'll use the rest of my life span to educate you!

'Geez!　Not in front of Carina, please!　Yeah, and Ryota is my friend.

　Good job, King Paul the First!
　The king was friends with the exterminator yesterday?
　It's a pretty painful excuse!

''Uncle Bohdan, since Ryota-sama has come to visit you, why don't we have some freshly boiled Trion first?

　Carina-sama, your smile is so pretty.
　I'm looking forward to your homemade sweets too.

　And Bohdan-san is happily surprisingly energetic as well... Well, it's better to have a rewarding rest of life than a gloomy one, isn't it? And once the painkillers take effect, they're going to discuss the addition of the will with King Baur.

　Anyway, what's this candy?　Cheese?

'Hey, Windowflower, what's a trillon?　Also, Lingfeng's medicinal barley and other things that seem pretty stinky, are you okay?''

'Tryon is like an ancient cheesecake. Ryota-sama, was it introduced in Goddess-sama's training materials?　

　I don't want to eat anything unknowable either.
　In ancient times, mercury was treated as medicine in some areas. (Nekkidane system.)
　That's why I decided to stall on the chit chat and wait for the window flower.

''Ryota-sama, I finished analyzing it. It contains vitamin B, E and rutin and is actually good for your health. To put it bluntly, it's just buckwheat noodles, but it also has antioxidant properties and is good for gene protection.

　What, is medicinal barley just soba noodles?
　What a fancy name for a buckwheat noodle...!　Soba!

'Window flowers, is buckwheat noodles real?　Is that the one that grows in the north where there is less rain and more barren land?

　Window Flower nodded.
　Seriously, it was there for real....
　It will help you, Douma!

But in the absence of live fruit, I'm afraid I can't provide you with any detailed breed characteristics.

　I can't wait to find out, and if it's a useful breed, I can't afford to let it go. Besides, I might lose the Uzbek merchants. Or rather, I don't want to sell it and lose volume.

　That's why I asked Manya to adjust my prosthetic leg and explain how to take morphine, and after sharing a handful of buckwheat noodles, I examined it with an improvised armored car. Midia's manipulation of the vegetation and analysis of the window flowers revealed the species to be resistant to scrawny land, cold and collapse.

　I hurriedly circled the marketplace and found an Uzbek trader who bought it all up for me, despite the abuse of the other customers, and gave him a run for his money. But I don't feel bad about it at all. This can save many lives, and I'm not afraid of abuse.

　In ancient and medieval times, famine and warfare would attract each other, and it's necessary for peace. Let me kick off the motivation to buy as much health food as possible.

　Now, after securing it, it's time for detailed cultivation methods. According to the merchant, it takes two and a half months to sow the seeds, and it is possible to harvest them twice in the north. This information was extracted from the merchant by surrounding him with members of the group and threatening him with gold coins. They lost their reputation and much of their gold, but it's a greater treasure.

　However, 70% of the funds were wiped out by three jute bags of information and soba noodles.
　The window flower [What do we do with this? He's staring at me with his eyes, quite scary.
　I'll have to cry to King Pawl later and beg for an additional reward.

'Hasty, could I ask the potters' grass to deliver the buckwheat noodles to Prince Holger?　Along with the cultivation methods and notes document.

　I'll leave some of it for experimentation, though.

''You are very good at what you do. Not exactly grass, that I did, but a request from Representative Xienau.

　You mean......
　Hasty is starting to be influenced by the Japanese subculture, too.

'It wasn't me, it was the window flower that picked up the ultrasonic conversation. Scales can see heat, and it's possible that other beastmen have smell, hearing, and even unexpected abilities. Window flowers are more wary of the beastmen than the magicians. Aside from that, if we're in the middle of another request, we can't.......

''No, I can manage at least one person. It seems that they are investigating the trade goods in the central continent to see if they can find something cheap and shiny for the dragon's tribute. Besides, the home of trade is the city of Certo, located in the Great Wall at the eastern edge of this country. You are originally a link in Donescu, aren't you?

　I see, the Great Wall is the key to defense against the horsemen's people, and Certo is the adjacent trading city. It's also a military base, and trading with the horsemen is a privilege of the Knight Country. Only authorized merchants and traders are allowed to enter the trading post. The only exceptions are regular exterminators of the de-restricted Alps.
(Only cavalry merchants who can come to the capital are especially trusted.)

'Well then, please. The reward is ... you want a substitute for the black powder?　...maybe ancient Greek fire?　I'll ask the Goddess. Also, I don't think a real ninja would say Gogoro?　And, you know, with ninnies and stuff.

"My Lord. Don't tell my family about that, that it is not to be revealed to them and I will contact my people and set up the necessary arrangements. And also I expect you to make up for not being able to follow the search anymore, okay?

　With that, Hasty disappeared into the crowd in the blink of an eye.
　Douma-kun also employs some of the potter's men.
　If it's them, it would be easy to hand them over secretly.

　However, it's difficult to make up for it. Hasty is also a big fan of sweets, but grass elves have a habit of stuffing food into their cheek pouches, and it's almost impossible to suppress the habit when it's their favorite food. He's embarrassed by his puffy face in that state, and he doesn't want to eat them all together.

　I think it's cute, but as a girl, I know I don't want to be seen. But, if it's something else I like, it's the dark instrument system... Well, we'll figure that out later. Let's meet up with Manya first and go investigate the ruins.

　The ruins that King Bohdan the Elder told us about. It seems to be located behind the mausoleum, but it's daytime now, so I'm not scared enough to be afraid of it. Since the ruins seem to be only a small room, we should be able to examine it before the evening party.


The entrance to the ruins of the mausoleum

That's the wall. I traced the pattern on the wall and... Huh?　I don't get any response at all?
Sir, you'll need to put some magic in there to make it work. I'll do it.

　Hmm, it's a convenient skin with stealth specifications, but there are inconveniences like this. The local recruitment system for Goddesses was surprisingly well thought out, the inability to produce magic could have stalled the investigation in the middle.

　Also, I think we were lucky to have someone who wanted to join the group. Anya is a girl, but she's willing to trace the walls of even the creepiest mausoleum. She sees through the tricks immediately, and she's knowledgeable and versatile in her knowledge and skills.

　We were very lucky, not only with Manya, but all the local hires were hit and very lucky. Even if you sift through the tests and interviews, the odds are slim. But it's one thing to be lucky, and another to have the help you need at all times. Let's talk about bonuses and higher base salaries for group members and window flowers.

　In between those thoughts, a wall opened and a sci-fi passage appeared.

　The entrance to the ancient ruins from the underground mausoleum... I expected it to look like a dungeon exploration, but the passage is a T shape 20 meters away. From there, I proceeded to the right and turned along the path, and we were back to where we started.

　It's a 12-mat room with a door in the middle in the shape of the letter "B". If you enter this room, can we call it a dungeon conquest or something?　Can one room be called a labyrinth?

　However, there's a cut like a door, but there's nothing like a knob in sight. No signs of opening, and it's terribly solid. Hmmm!　This is a dungeon!

　Well, I expected this situation when it was small and no one had stepped through it. And I had no intention of opening it up seriously from the very beginning. King Paul gave me permission to open it, and I'm planning to force it open.