''Second Lord. How do you know so much information about the unconquered dungeons in such detail?

　Sylvia's question was critical to my kryptonite.

'...... ah ......'

　I'm at a loss for words.
　What to do. Make an excuse or just reveal it. What to do.

'I've been aware of ...... thinly since we met. There's a reason for that, isn't there?

　Yes, that's right. There is a reason. You can't explain it in a single bite, a reason that is hard to believe all of a sudden.

　Sensing the seriousness that Silvia radiates, Eco and Yukari also turn their gazes towards you. I'm sure you're aware that this isn't the case, but you're unsettled by the fact that you're being accused of something. It's a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you're looking for. If so, should I just tell them?

　No. It's better that I don't tell you.

　My situation is far beyond their understanding. I'm afraid of what's beyond their understanding. That's why we shouldn't tell them. We shouldn't destroy our relationship with them here. The best in the world will fall away.

　Then, whether or not she knew of my concern, Silvia opened her mouth with a dignified expression.

...... I have faith in you. I want you to talk to me if you want. I will accept any facts.

　Strong - honestly, I thought.

　The courage to step in and listen to the fact that that trust might be broken. The guts to stick to your beliefs. Integrity that does not lie about anything. A core that is so straight and unwavering. That's what Sylvia has.

　It is a pure, sincere, pure, clear, strong and righteous heart that I could never imitate and must not imitate.

Sylvia.

　So...

I'm sorry. I don't like to reveal my secrets to anyone.

　--I'm out.

　I admit the secret and declare that I will never reveal it. It was a one-sided decision that I had to take advantage of Sylvia's strength.
　But, you know, if I don't run away from this, I'm not going to be me. If I don't run away now, I won't become the best person in the world, the person I was back then.

"Someday I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to share this with anyone until I'm dead. ...... Sorry.

　I bow my head. I hope to put an end to this and get back to our usual routine.

　Sylvia laughed after a moment of silence, "Hmmm," and then said with a compassionate look on her face, "I don't mind.

'I don't mind one bit. Just ...... if it gets hard, you can always take back your previous statement.

　Sylvia Virginia.
　...... good woman. I wholeheartedly agree.



　　* * * *



　After Master returned to his room, the three of us secretly held a meeting.
　The topic of discussion was, "What is Master's secret? That's what it's called. But--.

'Um. To be honest, I don't really care.

　I'm going to tell you the truth.
　Yes, I have no problem at all with whatever secrets my master is keeping. That seems to be the same for Eco, and he nods his head in a hollow way.

''No, I think so too, but it does bother you a bit, doesn't it?''

　Sylvia said with a mischievous smile.
　Well ...... sure.

'But the idea of prying into your master's secrets is ......
'Mm. I was wondering... Yukari isn't a slave anymore, is she?　Why do you still call the Second Lord your master?

　Oops. She's a real charmer, this one.

"I have promised to take care of my master.
Really?　You want to take care of yourself? Or is it just a maid for the time being?
Yeah, she's the same.
'Yeah, right, but it's funny. A maid gets 20 million CL for her starting salary?
'That's my reward for being a blacksmith, but what is it?'

　Moreover, that 20 million CL has already been used up almost all of it by purchasing a 'special grade maid outfit'. Master is planning to purchase a wonderful mansion in the royal capital, so we'll unveil my maid outfit at that time. Otherwise, I don't know what this fake female knight will say to me. By the way, the special class maid's outfit is quite high quality, perhaps because of its price. But why they decided to make such a high class outfit for a maid to wear is a mystery.

''Maid and blacksmith, can you have both?
Yes, I'll show you how to do both beautifully.

　Sylvia-san falls silent with an expression of "Gugu Nunu". Fufu, I won.

''I want to have a name too!

　Eco throws up his hands in the air and says, "I can't allow that. But I can't let that happen.

'No,'
Ew.

　It's my identity, and I won't give it to you so easily.

'More importantly, you anticipate your master's secrets, don't you?　Let's get back to the point.

　As I said this, Sylvia uncrossed her arms and opened her mouth.

''That's right. I think that Lord Second-dono is an agent of another country, don't you?

　I see, that's a sharp prediction. If that's the case, it's no wonder you're familiar with the information about the dungeon, and it makes sense why you can't reveal your identity to us.

''It's because I inadvertently told you information that violated confidentiality earlier, so you denied it a little too strongly.
But ...... if you're an agent, how did you get to be number one in the world?
Oh, I see. ......

　Well. Reconsideration, right?

　

"No way, aliens?　Or a psychic?
The man from the future!
There's also the "otherworldly" line: ......

　Our night passed as we made such an impossible prediction.



　　* * * *



　We left the town of Pehoe early in the morning and headed west for five hours.
　When the grass and trees that had been growing thickly were decreasing and the earthy smell was gradually increasing, the blacksmithing town of Badgold came into view in the mountains.

''Alright, we'll dive into Proline as soon as we secure a wholesale source of mithril alloy in the Blacksmith's Guild.

　I said, "Goodness hasten," and sent Seven Stay-Oh sprinting towards the Blacksmith's Guild. It's been a long time since I've been in a prolin dungeon, and I couldn't wait to dive in.

''Second Lord!　Why are you in such a hurry?

　Sylvia, who has managed to catch up with me, asks me from behind a bit.

''Among the B grade, I like Proline the best!
No, that's not a good reason!
I'll know it when I see it!

　I just said yes, smiled, and hurried to the Blacksmith's Guild.



　An hour later.
　We were still in the Blacksmith's Guild.

　There were many good-looking wholesale suppliers. But there was no one who would take us on. It was impossible to supply a stable supply of mithril alloy.

"Well, that's just how it goes, isn't it?

　Yukari muttered. Indeed, if you think about it, if a guy who doesn't know where the horse's bones are from said, "I'll start wholesale mithril alloy tomorrow," even I wouldn't trust him.

What do you think I should do?
　I asked Yukari without shame.

'I thought it would be a good idea to gain fame by conquering the Prolin dungeon in a big way once. If you show your ability, perhaps they'll trust you.
So it's the Adventurers' Guild, huh?
Yes, they will.

　Wow. ...... I hate it so much. I have nothing but bad memories of the Adventurer's Guild from my previous life.

'Can you think of any other way to do it?
I can't think of anything else.
How's Sylvia and Eco?
I don't know.
I don't know.

　They don't seem to understand.

So what happens if we don't register with the Adventurer's Guild?
I thought it would be more complicated.
That's right: ......

　After capturing the game without revealing his true identity, the adventurer's guild caught his attention and said, "Who the hell is that guy?　I can't overlook that! Rather than becoming, "You're our ace!" by pretending to be submissive.　I'm counting on you! It's a little better to be a

　Well, that's only true if the people in the Adventurers' Guild are decent. But most of the time they're not decent. If you capture a guild without registering, you have no idea what they'll do to you.
　It would be nice if they could just follow you around, but they could interfere with your forging guild by spreading rootless rumors, or they could pressure your business partners to sabotage you, or maybe even send assassins to you. If it was the 'Adventurer's Guild of Mevion' as I knew it, it was a good possibility.

...... is the only way. Let's go to the Adventurer's Guild when we get a hotel.

　I gave up and headed for the inn, my shoulders slumping.



'I'd like to register, sir.'
Oh, yes!　This way please!

　The receptionist was awfully affable. It's times like these that I can still feel the benefits of a super beautiful avatar.

　I filled out the registration form and handed it to the receptionist. I registered as a team. The name of the team is 'First Test' and there are four members, including me.

　I refused to do any rudimentary explanations and received a guild card for the number of people on the team. It's like an identification card in adventurers, and a bill of passage in guilds. The content of the guild card is F for both team and individual ranks. The ranks are from F to A.

"The New Adventurer's Guide and various training sessions are
No, thanks.
'Well, well, at ...... the fee is more like 140,000 CL for a four-person registration and team registration combined.
............ Yes.

　I paid the gold and left the receptionist.

　I was getting in a worse and worse mood. I could tell that I was in a bad mood.

　It was a combination of various reasons. I was irritated that I was being interrupted from wanting to get to Prolin as soon as possible, irritated by the people who refused to give me the mithril alloy wholesale, irritated by the situation of having to sign up for an adventurer's guild that I didn't want to be involved in, irritated by the fact that I was 'F-ranked', and irritated by the guild that was blatantly making money.


'Oi oi!　I've got a dark elf with me, you hilarious boy!

　I'm frustrated to the max with ...... and the weirdness of being involved with a weird guy. That's why I don't like it.

'You're new, right?　I'll train you. It's a beginner's course. Pretty sweet, huh?

　A big guy with a bearded face comes up to my face and cuts the mensch. Behind him are three turn-of-the-century rattlers. They think they can beat me, but they're already licking their tongues, thinking about the "fun" they'll have after they win.

　Butch," he said.
　I thought I heard a sound like that inside my head.

'I've been wondering, you know. Why do I get tangled up in these things?
'Oh?　What?
Maybe it's a duck's scallion. You think a weak-looking guy gets lucky when he has a beautiful woman with him, don't you?　It's easy to extort for the reason that it's rookie training. That's why there's one misunderstood delinquent like you who got carried away in the class.
'Oh?　Are you trying to pick a fight with me?　You.
No, no. I mean, not really. You're a hardened criminal, aren't you?　I don't think it's your fault. I think it's the fault of the Adventurer's Guild for allowing people like you to go unattended. A teacher has to take care of a bad student and give him or her a warning, don't you think?　No?
............

　When I look around, everyone, including adventurers and guild staff, look away. It would be a different story if there was a knight with an overflowing sense of justice like Sylvia, but normally, it's a "untouchable god". But the fact that there are so many of them and no one is stopping them means that you're all in on it too, right?

'What's that thing about rookie training, huh? What's that, some kind of code word?　Are you guys making a deal behind the scenes?　Hey guys.
Hey, don't just ignore him!
All right, all right, shut up. Come on, let's go and fight. You can't defend yourself.
f*ck!

　The big man, red-faced and angry, threw a big swinging punch.

　Unfortunately, there's a lot of gaps. ...... I can "kill" you anytime.

No!

　--The next moment, Eco interrupted between me and the big man.

　The big man's fist smashed into Eco's head with a thud.

"Ah, ahiye .......

　With a broken bone, the big man waddled backwards, holding his right hand. Eco was not fazed. There was probably too much of a difference between the Deca Man's STR and Eco's VIT.

'Tet!　What ...... that!

　Three of his cronies behind him moved to join him - and suddenly he collapsed to the floor with a bewildered cry.

''I've tied them up just in case, Master.

　Come to think of it, Yukari had learned the [Thread Manipulation] skill. As expected of a top-notch assassin with a former female duke, she didn't even show any pretense of tying up.

''Mmm, I don't have a job to do, do I?''

　Sylvia let out a frustrated voice with her hand on the bow. What was this guy going to do with the bow in this small room?　He muttered something like, "I've been practicing my flame wolf bow kick for times like this: ....... It's probably tactless to point out that I don't know what it means to hold a bow, maybe.

'Thanks. Let's go.

　I thanked everyone and left the guild with a lot of eyes on my back.


　.............

　I walked for a bit, and then I realized.
　My legs were shaking.

　Was I afraid of the big guy?
　No, no. I was afraid of myself.

　If I had fought like that in frustration, I would have "slaughtered" him: ......

　This is not a game. I realized that I didn't fully understand that yet. If you beat someone, it's not a "PK" (player kill), it's a "kill". Even though I know that in my head, I just can't get out of the game sense.

　In a sense, it may be difficult to become the world's number one player in this different world without any problems.


''Let's just take a break for today.''

　I just told the three of them that I did and locked myself in my room at the inn.

　I'm not good at ....... I didn't stop shaking for a while when I killed the bandit.
　From now on, it's best to avoid unnecessary socializing as much as possible. Because when you sulk, you'll be scared.

　I lay in bed and let go of my consciousness as I thought about that.