After that, we went to the Knights' headquarters. Together with me, the Duke, Primera and the guild leader. Someone is sneaking along from behind them.

　We were given a meeting room at the headquarters and began discussing the future.

''Then let's begin. First, let's start with the disposal of Geese and the others...''

　The duke began to speak, but

'My lord, before we discuss it, don't you have someone to introduce to us?'

　Then he looked at the door. The duke said, yes, he did.

Come on in.

　I called out, appearing at the door.

'What are Regil's people doing here!

　It was the man in the hood. Primera reached for her sword in alarm, but

If he's here, that means he's in the hands of the Duke.

　And I restrain Primera's hand.

'What?' What do you mean? Father!

　The Primera sounded surprised.

'Mostly a spy sent by the Duke to Regil's side, I would say.

　'That's right,' he confirmed to the duke and the man.

'Great. I knew that much. That's right, he's my man, the one who works for me, mainly in the intelligence business.

　He simply confessed. The man looked impatient.

'My lord! Teaching that sort of thing would hinder our future activities!

　And that's the most important thing you can say.

'It can't be helped. Temma-kun knows, and Primera is my daughter, and the guild leader is... well, he's not one to be bothered.

　When I asked him, right, the guild leader nodded with a coy smile.

''Well, if that's what you say, Duke-sama, then let's trust you.

　And then he turned to us and said.

I was in the enemy (Regil) camp earlier, but I'm on your side. I can't tell you his name.

"Steele, no problem. Just say hello.

　The Duke was annoying this man Steele to no end.

''It's.......Steele. I work for the duke.

　I introduced myself, somewhat reluctantly. According to my appraisal.

Name-- Steele.
Age... 29.
Race... human race.
Titles... agent, assassin.

HP...17,000.
MP...10,000.

Muscle strength...B
Defensive Power... B-
Speed...A
Magic...
Mental capacity... A
Growth Potential...C+
Luck... b-.

　And he was quite strong.

'I knew he wasn't just a guy.

　After giving me a look that made me look like I bit a bitter worm, he said

But if I fought him head-on, I'd have lost nine times out of ten... or more likely.

You're confident you can win one of those arrows?

　I asked a nasty question, but Steele didn't change his face.

It's probably just a little more likely that way than it is from the front.

　I said matter-of-factly.
　'In the Sengoku manga, he said that ninjas are the ultimate realists, and I suppose Steele is similar.

'I digress. Let's get back on track. I guess that means Gies and the others will sell their rights to me, as they promised, right?

'That's fine. And while you're at it, I'd appreciate it if you would do what we discussed in advance regarding Regil.

　And that's how most of the discussion ended.

'What's going to happen to Guise and Regill now?

'Guise will be investigated for his crimes and sent to the mines, even if it's light, and if it's heavy, he'll be put to death. Regil will probably get the death penalty. This one will be transported to King's Landing for consideration, but that's only to see if treason applies, and I have most of the authority to decide. If it's treason, all of Regil's family would be executed, but if it's just treason, it would only be Regil.

　So take a breath.

'Well, even if something is speared, even if he is spared the death penalty, he will be stripped of his title and confiscated of his personal property. And furthermore, he would be reduced to slavery.

　'Well,' he said with a laugh, 'it's up to my discretion.

'So, when those things are done, you'll give me my reward?

　The duke scratched his head as he asked

'That's what I'm talking about. He owns a lot of hidden property and it could take almost a year to do the math and find out if it's criminogenic. So, can I give you the ostensible portion of the property first, and then we can get to the hidden property after the math is done?

　He suggested. I'm not exactly in a financial bind at the moment.

'That's fine with me. Let the guild know when you're done. I'll come check on you occasionally.

　I'll agree with them and write a contract. It will be kept by me, the duke's family and the guild as before.
　I put a sentence and signature on the contract, stating that Primera was a witness to ensure that it would be carried out without a doubt in case the duke was unfortunate.

'So that's the end of the contract! And, Temma. This is one million g's worth of money for Guise and the others, and this is 1.5 million g's for Regil's personal fortune.

　And he hands me a bag of 2.5 million Gs.

'You're well prepared. You didn't think I was going to be a goner, did you?

　When I asked him that, he flipped out that it was the duke who would be prepared like this.

''Will you continue to be based here, Temma-kun, in the future?

　At the Duke's question, I thought for a moment, and then

I'm thinking of leaving the city soon.

　I told him that I had been thinking about it lately.

'What's the purpose of this?'

'It's more of a goal than an objective. I want to traverse the Grand Old Man's Forest sooner or later.

　It was a memory I didn't really want to remember, but I said as I remembered the existence that I could say was the impetus for me to be here.

'I have a bit of an emotional attachment to that forest. So I'd like to traverse it myself.'

The forest where the incident in the village of Kukuri took place...

　And when the name of the village was mentioned, my body strengthened for a moment. Unluckily, there were three people here who didn't miss it.
　Each of them reacted in three different ways: one was curious, one was cautious, and one looked annoyed.

'Is there a reason?'

　Inwardly, I thought to myself, "Shit," at the Duke's words.

Yes, I heard that all my relatives were involved and all died, so...

　The duke misled him, but he was

You didn't go to check it out?

　He asks. I try to make sense of the story, and then I build it up.

Yes, I was 12 at the time, so it was a long way to the village of Kukri, and my parents died around the same time, so I was afraid to check on the deaths of the people who loved me again.

　I told him that I regretted it now. The duke seemed somewhat suspicious.

''I see..., then it can't be helped. The village of Kukri is now abandoned, but I've heard that many of the people who survived have moved to Russell City and the royal capital. If you get a chance, you can go and talk to those people about their relatives.

　And I didn't ask any unnecessary questions. I thought for the first time that it might have been a good idea to at least let someone know that I was alive and going on a journey.

　After that, the discussion was tenuous, so the meeting ended prematurely.

　I decided to stop by the guild on my way home and finish redeeming my bet.

''It's Temma~''
Congratulations, Temma.
I knew Temma would win!

'Congratulations. Mr. Temma.

　When I entered the guild, I was greeted by Lily and the others and Mr. Flute.

'You've been waiting for me?'

　I asked, and Lily and the others said, yes! But Mr. Flute replied that

'I'm back to work after the duel. And I got a lot of benefits from my leave of absence.

　He has a look on his face that says, "I'm satisfied. ...From the looks of it, it looks like he received quite a bit of money. As expected of the deputy head of the guild, he was shrewd.

"By the way, Temma-san. Where's the guild leader?

　And when I check my back.

'You were gone before I knew it, so I thought you were back in the guild first, but... haven't you gone back, guild leader?

　At my words, Hannya appeared behind Mr. Flute..........

''Hmph, you've got some good nerve, that father. When you come back, I'll show you hell.

　...This was the moment when the messengers of hell appeared in the guild. As an aside, it was during the dinner hour on this day that a man's screams echoed through the city (mainly around the guild), causing the knights to be dispatched.

''Well, well, Mr. Flute, let's leave that aside, we're here to redeem the money...''

　As I said this, Hannya finally disappeared from behind Mr. Flute once (...).

''Ah, yes. Let me see your betting cards.........Yes, I've confirmed it. Please wait a moment.

　With that, he went into the back room, and after about ten minutes, Mr. Flute came in with a bag of money.

'This will be the 3.6 million G's for the dividend on this bet. Please confirm.

　And when I looked inside, I saw that there were 36 large gold coins.

''I'm sorry, but we're short on white gold coins, so we'll have to pay for the large gold coins.

　But I didn't care either way, so I just put the gold coins in the magic bag, as usual, and returned the bag.
　Lilly and the others had also earned over 100,000 Gs from this bet, apparently. And since many of the adventurers had bet on me, I was thanked by quite a few of them, but on the other hand, I got quite a few stares from those who didn't like me and the citizens who bet on Regil. (I got what I deserved.)

'Temma, I'll have dinner with you tonight!
Let's do it!
Of course, it's on the house!

　I jokingly said that I had made quite a bit of money today, so I agreed that it was fine. I asked him to join us as a thank-you for his contribution, and he agreed to join us at the Manpuku-Tei when he finished his work.
　Since there were still nearly four hours to go before Flute finished, we broke up and headed back to the inn to make a reservation for the night with my father.

　When I returned to the Manpuku-tei, he was in the kitchen preparing for the night.

'Oh, Temma, you're back. Oh, Temma, you're back, I've earned it today thanks to you.

　He was smiling good-naturedly. I told the old man about the reservation, and he agreed to leave it to me, and he would prepare a special menu for me. I also gave him some rockbird meat and eggs and asked him to make me something to eat.

　Even though my appointment was over, I still had some time left, so I made my way to the library.
　The reason for this was to find my destination, since I decided that I would be leaving the city soon, so I thought I would try my hand at some dungeon attack.

　The library is a three-story building, the first floor has a reception area and a shop selling paper and other items for note-taking, the second floor is for entertainment books such as stories and travelogues, and the third floor holds specialized and academic books and other books.
　I usually use the third floor to study demons and refer to magic, but today I'm unusually using the second floor.
　Since the paper books of this world are valuable, they are not loaned out, and if you break or tear them, depending on the degree, you may be fined or even imprisoned.
　For this reason, many people who are eager to study buy or bring their own paper and copy them. For those who cannot read, they can ask a staff member who has free time to read for them, but it costs 50g for 30 minutes.
　It costs 200G to enter the museum for one day, and if you don't do anything annoying in the museum, you get 100G back at the festival to leave.

　I went up to the second floor and asked the librarian to look for travelogues with dungeon-related stories in them, and I wrote down the names of several towns and regions on a piece of paper and compared the candidates with the specialized books on the third floor. Then we narrowed it down to three places.

　The first was a dungeon located about 100km west of this city, discovered thirty-five years ago and conquered two years later. It is 20 stories underground and is one of the smaller ones on a scale.

　The second one is about 300km northwest of this city and about 200km away from the royal capital. It is located in a city called Dungeon City, which was discovered more than twenty years ago, but it has never been conquered, and its depth is estimated to be more than 100 stories below ground. It is oversized.

　The third one is located about 500km west of the first one, which was also discovered 32 years ago in a dungeon city and was captured three years later. It was forty-five floors underground and medium in size.

　While comparing these, I somehow opened up a book I had at hand called "My First Dungeon".

　Dungeons mainly refer to the labyrinths and underground labyrinths. However, as an exception, there are times when magic power runs out of control, creating a distortion in space and using that as an entrance to create a dungeon in another dimension. Most of these dungeons are similar to the one around the entrance, but they are almost completely devoid of demons and are difficult to escape from. Even if you find one, it is best not to enter it. There have been two discoveries so far, with more than 200 victims and about 20 survivors.

　The word "labyrinth" refers to a sea of trees with thick magic, which has no nucleus, and there is no concept of an attack, but some people call it an attack when you reach the center.

　Underground dungeons, as the name implies, are dungeons that can be created underground and grow deeper until the dungeon core reaches its growth limit. The mechanics of getting deeper are unknown, but basically the core is often at the lowest level, and if you destroy it or take it away from the spot, it will be restored to the same position after a reasonable amount of time. Strangely enough, if you take the nuke out of the dungeon, it will spread its magic and collapse. Typically, destroying the nuke is called a capture. The crumbling nuke is used as evidence.

　A dungeon nucleus is made up of magic power, and the quality of the magic power determines its maximum size. The nucleus lures demons and absorbs magical power from demons and intruders. The closer a demon is to the nucleus, the more powerful it becomes under the influence of the nucleus. The ones that are especially strong are called bosses.
　Bosses have a territory, often at regular intervals, and rarely leave their territory.

　Dungeon cities are cities that thrive around dungeons, many of which have their own laws. They are the best place for newbies to dive into dungeons because they are easy to get support and gather information.

　And it was written. Given that, I'd dismiss the first one. Then it would be the second and third, but I'd prefer the bigger one anyway, or I'd make the second one my first choice and the third one my second choice.

　While I was looking for other places to go, it was almost closing time.
　I put the book back in its place, said hello to the librarian and left the library.

　After that, I passed the time in my room in the Fullness Pavilion, dealing with Shiroumaru and Slarin.

'Slarin, Shilomar. I'm thinking of leaving this city, what do you think?

　I try to talk to him, but of course he doesn't respond. Slarin seems to understand the meaning of my words, staring at my face and twisting his body as if he wanted to say something.
　Shiroumaru, on the other hand, was lying on his back with his belly showing.

　When we headed to the dining room as it was probably time to go, the landlady showed us to the reserved seat.
　After a while, Lily and her friends and Mr. Flute arrived. I heard that Lily and her friends had gone to pick up Flute. The hostess saw that we were all there and brought us our food and drinks.

'Well, now that we have our food, let's get started!

　They each picked up a glass of alcohol and made a toast.

"'Thank you for the drink~'" "'Thank you for the drink~' "'Thank you for the drink~' "'Thank you for the drink~' "'Thank you for the drink! Temma!

Thank you. Mr. Temma.

　And then Lily and the others bring the food to their mouths one after another. In contrast, Mr. Flute's movements are slow, but he is sure to aim only at the delicious parts of the food.
　The first topic of conversation was, naturally, about the duel.

''Come to think of it, what happened to Regil after that?''

　Millie asks, sort of. The other two seemed to be interested in it, but only Froot-san had heard about it from the guild leader and didn't seem to be particularly concerned about it.

''Oh, I heard he's going to be transferred to the royal capital to be discussed. He said that at worst, he could be charged with treason. The death penalty is almost certain, he said. Apparently Guise will either be executed or fall into slavery.

　And although it doesn't seem to be an appropriate topic of conversation during the meal, Millie doesn't seem to mind, I see.

''Well, thanks to that, Temma-san can buy me a meal, so I have to thank you for that.

　And Mr. Flute still seems to be rooted in it, and is quite tongue-in-cheek.
　After that, we talked about trivial matters, ate our food, drank our drinks, and had a good time.

Speaking of which, what should we do next? I'm not in need of money at the moment, but it's not a good idea to have a weird interval between them.''

　Lily said.

'Right. I'd like to get a proper request this time, with Temma.'

Mr. Flute, do you have anything new for me?

　And Nellie and Millie follow, and Mr. Flute looks like he's trying to remember if there was something wrong.
　I turn to the four of them, thinking that the sooner I say it, the better.

'I need to ask you something,'

　At the sound of my serious voice, the four of them let go of their food and turned their bodies around.

'I'm actually thinking of leaving the city sometime soon.

　As I said this, the four of them stopped moving at my words.

""Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

　The four of us all exclaimed.