The knights on horseback are moving around the carriage.

'Master Merlin, we will soon arrive at the village at the halfway point. In that village, we will look for an inn for today, and our departure is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

　Edgar spoke to Merlin in the carriage as he did so.

'Mm, all right. Let it be that way.

　To tell the truth, Merlin wanted to go to Gunjo City without sleep or rest. However, if I did so, even if the knights and the horses' physical strength could be managed, Merlin knew that his spirit would suffer, so he had to reluctantly agree to it.

It would have been quicker if I had gone alone and forced them to do it.

　I thought that I might have made a mistake in refraining from accompanying the knights directly from Alex, saying that I couldn't ruin Alex's face as king, but since it would be useless to say so now, I only thought of it in my mind.

　About an hour after the report, Merlin and his group were able to arrive at the village at the halfway point.

''Merlin-sama, I'll go find an inn, so please wait a while.''

　Edgar dismounted his horse near the entrance of the village and told Merlin so, and then he took the two knights into the village.
　He left the commanding authority for the time being to Chris, so Chris gave instructions to the rest of the knights and made them alert to their surroundings accordingly.
　At that moment, a carriage came out of the village. Just as their own carriage was in the form of a blocked path, Chris instructed Mark to pull the carriage more to the edge to get it over. As the carriages passed each other.

'Sir Knight, we are merchants, can we get you anything?'

　The man in the carriage got out and called out to him. Chris was a little confused by the suddenness of the situation, but

What kind of merchandise do you guys carry?

　He responded to Merlin's words and casually stood between Merlin and the man. The man seemed to notice, but he didn't particularly care.

The goods we have are: portable food and dry goods, spices and liquor, herbs and potions, armor and weapons, and slaves.

　The man who calls himself Jayman slurs the products that can be sold now.

''Hmm, I don't need slaves as expected........Chris, is the number of potions okay?''

　Merlin thought for a moment and then checked with Chris.

'There's still a lot left, but we've consumed twenty percent of the total.

　Each of them had several bottles of the potion, and Chris managed the rest, giving them to each of them as much as they used and replenishing them each time.
　When Merlin heard how many were left, he said

Well, I'll take about twenty potions and of course I won't buy them if they cost more than the market price or are of inferior quality.

　At those words, Jayman nodded and took out a potion. Merlin took one of them, opened it and examined it.

''Hmm, that's quite a nice potion.

　With that, he paid the fee and packed it into Chris's bag. The fee was about ten percent less than the market price, so I bought another ten additional bottles.



　After bowing deeply, Jayman returned to the carriage and left in the direction from which Merlin and the others had come.

''Merlin-sama, you were a very lowly merchant for a mere thirty or so bottles of potions.......''

　Chris seemed uncomfortable with Jayman's attitude.

He may have known that Chris and the others were the Kingsguard. A merchant sells merchandise to the guards, and that's a status that he or she has, but he or she wouldn't make a fuss about it.

　Chris twisted his head, but stopped to think about it as Edgar and his friends returned just in time.

Merlin-sama, there was a vacant room at the inn, so I got enough for all of us. Merlin-sama, me and Chris will be in a private room, and the rest will be sharing a room.

　That said, they were led to the inn where Jayman and the others were staying, and Merlin's room was the room where Tenma had stayed... most of all, Merlin and the others had no way of knowing.

'Good! Now, you have a good day's rest, and make sure you're in good shape to leave for Gunjo City again tomorrow.

　At Merlin's words, the group made their way to the inn.

(We're almost there to meet Temma! (Temma, my grandpa will be there soon!

　The journey of Merlin and his friends continues.




　Meanwhile, in Seigen at dusk.

Godd*mn it, they were laughing in my face!

　A boy was walking down a back alley. The boy's name was Gary, the second son of the Marquis of Samons, who had caused a great deal of embarrassment by messing with Temma early on when he came to Seigen.

　However, although he was certainly laughed at by the residents, more than half of it was Gary's paranoia. It was true that rumors had spread about him as the son of a nobleman who had messed with Tenma, but most people who knew Tenma thought he was just another idiot, and those who didn't know him were only interested in the fact that there was such a guy, and they didn't know much about Gary's face, either.

　However, Gary couldn't realize that people didn't care about him as much as he thought they did because of the unforeseen circumstances of being humiliated by a kid who was younger and more prominent than him, a nobleman, and even his father, who was unexpectedly angry with him.

'It's all that kid (Temma)'s fault! Why didn't you just shut up and offer me a dragon!

　Gary was growing frustrated with Tenma, not realizing that he was not strong enough to make the dragon (Solomon) his family.

　Perhaps that's why, before long, Gary didn't realize that he was lost, on the road.
　Seigen would not get lost so easily if he went down the main street, or worse, if he continued toward the center of the main street, he would reach the dungeon, so he would rarely get lost.
　Gary, however, was lost in a strange land, through back alleys to avoid people, lost because he was thinking, and his head was full of blood.
　So Gary didn't realize that he had wandered into the west side of the city....or the slums, without his knowledge.
　When he finally realized that the area was full of dirty buildings, trash strewn all over the alleyways, and he had stepped into a place where he could see orphans and vagrants hiding in the shadows of the garbage.

'What is this place?' It's disgusting, it's a shame to be in a place like this and to have some kind of disease.

　With that said, we headed back the way we thought we had come, but we couldn't get to the main street at all. As it should be, this area was built very differently from the rest of the district due to illegal build-ups and such, and only those who had lived in these parts for many years were able to find their way around.
　Naturally, there was no way Gary, a newcomer to the city, would know the way, and no matter how far he went, he would never get to the main street.
　Frustrated to no end, Gary told a man lying nearby that he was

Hey, you there! Take me to the main street!

　He gave the order. But the man took one look at Gary and gave him a sneaky smile.

'Heh, a moment, please.'

　The man said and gave some kind of earful to a nearby man before coming back to Gary.

'Then I will show you around. However, it's a bit complicated around here, so it will take some time.

　As he said this, the man stood in front of Gary and began to lead the way.

　He must have walked for the next twenty minutes, just as Gary was beginning to get frustrated that he never made it to the main street.

The main road is right around the corner from here.

　The man said and shifted off to the side, and Gary, without any warning, pushed the man away and turned the corner.

Hey! What's going on here! It's just a dead end!

　Right in front of Gary was a square that had been half turned into a dumping ground.
　Gary looked back at the man.

''This kid is a real idiot. It's so easy to believe a stranger in a place like this and follow him around with a whimper!

　There were four men standing there, apart from the man who had guided them. As Gary quickly as he could, he tried to draw the sword from his hip.

Look out, boy.

　Suddenly, he was seized by a man who appeared behind him. Behind the man, several men emerged from the shadows of the trash.

'Let go of me, you don't know who I am! It's Master Gary, second son of the Marquis of Samons!

　Gary went out of his way to introduce himself, and the guys got a good laugh out of him.

That's good! I'll take the ransom! The Marquis would pay any amount for it!

　As he said this, he punched Gary in the back of the head, knocked him out, then bound his hands and feet and made him bite the gag.

'Oi! Somebody get me a collar!

　The thing the man had them bring is a slave collar that is originally fitted around the neck of a slave, a slave collar that makes it impossible for those who are fitted with it to disobey its owner, the man fitted the collar to Gary, who was unconscious.
　Of course, this was illegal and only official slavers were originally allowed to handle it, but to those living in the underworld, it was none of their business.

I've got a good wig, someone go get some information on this guy! Look, don't ever screw up!

　With those words, some men ran off and the remaining men carried Gary somewhere.



　I had no idea that such a thing was happening on earth, so I was working hard on my dungeon attack today.
　I'm in the middle of capturing the 38th level of the dungeon, which is the shortest time to capture a dungeon, and my name is becoming more and more well known.
　This makes people wonder about my adventurer rank.
　I can solo all the way up to the 38th floor (not strictly speaking), but the fact that I'll always be a C-ranked adventurer is starting to get people's attention, and they're starting to speculate.

　They say that Tenma is a secret agent of the country and travels around the country without raising his rank, secretly investigating the influential people in each place and reporting back to the country.

　He says Temma is a magically created homunculus, and although he looks young, he has lived for hundreds of years, which is why he is so strong despite his appearance.

　She is the illegitimate son of an aristocrat, and since the incoming head of the family feels threatened by her strength, he has decided to expel her from the family, so she will not raise her rank to keep a low profile as she is building up her strength to take revenge.

　This is the reason why he doesn't raise his rank in order to be inconspicuous, because he is in the process of accumulating his power to take revenge eventually. It's really annoying.
　The last rumor I hear most often is that since I am acquainted with the Duke of Sangha, and since the Marquis of Samoens has bowed to me, I am the illegitimate son of a major nobleman, or perhaps His Majesty's illegitimate son in this life. It seems that the rumor was spread by someone who had a hunch that it was a good idea. To the best of my memory, I've never mentioned the name of Duke Sanga in Seigen, so there's a good chance that someone who knew me in Gunjo City, like Jinn, spread the rumor.

　Incidentally, I heard the rumor from the djinn, and for a moment I doubted them, but then I saw them shaking their heads frantically and decided it wasn't the culprit.

''Why do rumors like that circulate?''

　I've been lurking in the dungeon for a couple of days longer to avoid those rumors.
　I've been thinking like that.

Uh-oh.

　Shiroumaru suddenly began to growl and Solomon became more alert.
　I stopped moving and pulled out the korasumaru I was carrying at my waist, searching for signs of my surroundings.

(Surely, something is aiming at us... where...)

　I was about to search for a position when a killing spirit came from above me.

'There it is!'

　I slashed at the top of my head with my kogarasmaru. I could definitely feel the response from the kobolds as if I had slammed something (.........) into it.
　Something that had been slammed into me was bounced a little away from me and revealed itself. There it was.

Snake! Now the response ... it was like hitting a rubber tire with a stick, but ...

　What I saw was a big, black snake.
　According to the appraisal, it's a dark rubber anaconda, B-rank, I heard. From what I feel right now, it seems that a half-hearted blow or slash won't be able to pass the damage.
　Even though it was actually an incomplete blow, it doesn't look like Kogarasuma's slash was very effective.

''Let's get a little serious.......''

　I sheathed Kogarasuma and took an iai stance. The anaconda shrank back as I jitterily closed the gap between us, and in the next moment it flew at me like an arrow with tremendous force.

''Phew.''

　I exhaled briefly and drew a counter-like sword at the anaconda.
　It's not as fast as you might expect because this korasuma has little warpage, but when you swing it off halfway through, the blade bites into the anaconda's lower half of its jaw and cuts straight to the back of the anaconda's head.
　The body of the anaconda whose head was cut off flew behind me without killing the momentum, and when it hit the wall, it lost momentum and fell to the ground. It was still moving, but as expected, it didn't come at you again.

''If you don't get your blade up properly, the effect of the slash won't be much...?''

　After muttering that, I sheathed the little crowbar and retrieved the anaconda.
　Looking at the cut, the surface of the body was covered with rubbery skin about 5 mm thick, the flesh was a beautiful pink color and looked like chicken at a glance, but when you touched it, it was more resilient than chicken.

　However, the strange thing is that an anaconda of about six meters in height was falling from above. If this were a forest, it would not be a problem, but this is a dungeon and this place is full of rocks.
　I took a closer look at the place where the anaconda was thought to have been, and found a hole.
　I floated down to try it out and looked into it, and I could see that the wind was flowing in from the back.

　So I asked Slarin to go and find out what was going on, and he came back in about two or three minutes. Apparently, there's a space in the back.

　So I used my earth magic to expand the hole and spread it out until it was big enough for me to advance by moving forward on the ground, and then I decided to go inside.

　I followed Slarin for about five minutes, and after that we were able to get to an area where there were a lot of rugged rock formations.

　I was looking around the area where I got off, and there was one place where I felt a strange presence.
　The place is just across a large rock from where we are now. I felt as if they were eliminating some signs, so I passed Kogarasmaru and ordered Shiroumaru and the others to stand by, and then slowly approached the place, eliminating the sound of footsteps and signs.
　I couldn't see anything as far as I could see from behind the rocks, but I could feel something like a ward only where I felt a presence.

　So I cut towards that place, chanting the counter-magic 'Dispel', but the one in the place where the ward was broken was....

"Girl... why are you here...?

　They were two dingy dressed girls.
　One was a petite, white-haired girl, and the other was dirty but blonde, and it seemed to be more of a woman than a girl.

　The two of them didn't notice me, and were surprised to be suddenly unbound, but the white-haired girl who had returned to me glared at me with a tattered sword nearby.
　The other woman checked me with her empty eyes and then tried to move to protect the white-haired girl, but she seemed to be debilitated and fell down.

'Wait!' I have no hostile intent!

　With that, I dumped Kogarasuma at my feet and raised my hands.
　The white-haired girl still didn't break free of her stance, but

'We have numerous potions and several medicines over here! If you're going to put the sword away, I'll give you what you need to treat that woman!

　The girl looked lost at those words, then

Then you'll just have to send the pills over here!

　Then he lowered his sword. He didn't take his hand off the sword, but he still seemed to relax his guard somewhat.

''For now, I've put in a potion and a whole bunch of antidotes and stuff like that.

　I wrapped the potion and other items in Kobold's fur and threw it lightly at the girl.
　The fur fell about three meters in front of the girl, and I sat back nearly 10 meters from the spot. However, just in case, I placed Shiroumaru and the others around the girls.

　The girl cautiously approached the furs, making sure not to turn her back on me, and quickly retrieved the furs and took out a potion.
　The girl opened the bottle of the potion she had taken out and lightly licked the liquid inside to see what was inside before she tried to make the woman drink it.

'Aura, drink it!'

　But whether the woman is not strong enough to swallow, or whether she is so debilitated as to be ineffective in her potions, I can't see from here, but by all appearances, she shows no signs of recovery.

'Aura! For God's sake, drink!

　The girls are shouting that, but the women's reactions are gradually becoming weaker and weaker.
　The women are in danger at this point, I thought, so I immediately closed the distance between me and the girls.

''What are you doing!''

　Before I knew it, the girl was right in front of me, swinging her sword at me, but

Now is not the time for that!

　I caught the sword with the back of my left hand and flicked it farther away. Blood flowed from the back of my left hand, but I lightly wiped it off with my clothes and let it go.
　The girl was on her buttocks on the ground, as if she had buckled.
　In the meantime, I checked the woman's condition and found that she was quite pale and breathing heavily. It seemed that she had contracted an infection where her body was probably weakened by a weak poison or something else, and honestly, she could die at any time if she continued like this.

''Antidote, Cure, Resist, Aqua Heel.''

　I use magic in rapid succession. I used Antidote to erase poison, Cure to disinfect and increase resilience, Resist to increase resistance, and Aqua Heal to heal the wound.

　After that point, his complexion finally improved and his breathing subsided. I gave him a potion to try, and this time he seemed to be able to swallow it.
　I guess we can call it a relief for now. That's when the girl who had been falling on her buttocks got up and took the woman from me and held her close.

　The girl was happy to see the woman's complexion improve, but she still hadn't let her guard down against me.
　I stood up as the girl held the woman in her arms and pulled the bed out of my bag.

'Sorry about the one I was using, but it's better than having that woman lie on the ground. You could use it.

　With that, he moved away from the girls and called Shiroumaru and the others to him.
　The girls were frightened by Shiroumaru and the others who jumped out from behind the nearby rocks and so on, but I promised to tell Shiroumaru and the others enough to get them down and never let the girls be harmed.
　After that, I sent Shiroumaru and the others to scout the perimeter while I treated my left hand and then started cooking.

　The menu was a stew with anaconda meat.
　The first time I tasted anaconda meat, I tasted it raw and found it to be low in fat and tasting of protein, which I thought would be good for the weak girls to eat, so I chopped it up and stewed it with vegetables and other ingredients. For seasoning, I made a white sauce with milk and flour, made it a little thinner and without using spices, prepared it with the goodness of the vegetables, a little salt and soy sauce, and milled taro (or potatoes as I call them) to thicken it up.

　But that wasn't enough for me, Shiroumaru and Solomon, so I also added anaconda kabayaki and orc meat skewers... and the orc bones, which would normally be a snack for Shiroumaru and his friends, were tucked away in my bag for my own ambitious purposes.

　The scent of Shiroumaru and the others came back to me, perhaps caught by the smell.
　In the midst of them, Slarin took up position in front of me, and with a thud, he spat out the demon's corpse... No, I know the dimension bag is inside my body, but no matter how Slarin acts, it looks like he's ghettoizing.

　When I regained my composure and looked at my prey, I found one small dark rubber anaconda (two meters in size), five kobolds, an orc and three hornbills. I transferred them to my bag for now and fed them while praising the three animals.

　The girl who was watching them suddenly blushed and held her stomach. Perhaps it was because her stomach was growling. I didn't hear her, but I filled my bowl with stew and approached the girl.

''I'm cooking it so it's good for digestion, so it should be safe to eat.

　I said and offered her a bowl along with a spoon, but the girl didn't take it.
　She looked at me as if she was probably hungry, but she still couldn't trust me. I had no choice, so I put it on the ground nearby and then went back to the pot and started my own meal.

　I took a bite and thought.

(Anaconda ... yum!

　It was. When I first tasted it, I thought it was low in fat and tasted like protein, but when it was stewed, the gelatinous part between the fibers of the meat melted, and when I put it in my mouth, the meat melted. Plus, there seemed to be some hidden flavor in the gelatinous area, which made the stew taste better.

　I scraped it into my mouth, and even had a second helping. Naturally, Shiroumaru and Solomon also demanded another meal of just the meat of the stew...as expected of No. 1 and No. 2.
　However, being the master of evil, I put a lot of vegetables in the stew as well as meat. The disappointed faces of Shiroumaru and Solomon were interesting to watch. They ate the vegetables as if they had no choice, but in the end both of them ate the whole thing up.

　The girl who was watching them fearlessly took a mouthful of the stew and gradually increased the speed of the spoon.......it seems she liked it.
　She seemed to have eaten it all in a flash, and looked a little underwhelmed, so when I took the pot and asked her if she wanted a refill, the girl nodded shyly, cocooning, with a little hesitation.

　In the middle of pouring a second cup into the girl's bowl.

Ummmmm ... this place...

　The woman seemed to have noticed.

'Aura, I've noticed! Can you understand me?

　The girl threw out her stew and ran up to the woman. The woman was stunned for a moment, but

'Jeanne where am I? Why are we in this place?

　He replied back.