Chapter 77: Reunion in Korche

Dale took everyone’s guild cards and went to deposit the money into their respective accounts, and everyone’s faces were split into grins.

“So, Leon, things are probably going to get noisy for you from here on out. What are you going to do?”

“They said the same thing in the royal capital, but I have no intention of becoming someone’s retainer.”

“Well, if you keep bringing in that many birds, this is bound to happen.”

“At this rate, it might start happening to us too.”

“When the amount of prey increases, people start trying to stake a claim on you.”

“I’ve heard that accepting an ID from some shady guy can cause serious trouble later.”

“Apparently, there are even people who boast about how many IDs they’ve collected.”

When Dale returned and handed out the guild cards, he said, “Leon, each of us received 100,000 Dara,” and at the same time everyone straightened their posture.

“Out of the total 4,320,000 Dara for the prey, we took 800,000 Dara. The rest has been deposited into your account as thanks for this job. We appreciate your guidance of Farana and the boost to our combat strength.”

Saying that so earnestly left me unable to argue, so I accepted with a wry smile.

I didn’t really need the money—I’d already taken 2,000,000,000 Dara from Count Fleming as compensation—but there was no way I could say that out loud.

Well, even after buying a house, expenses would keep coming up, so I thanked them and accepted it gratefully.

“Camping will be a lot easier from now on. You should all buy simple beds.”

Nodding at Dale’s words, everyone stood up at once when Gel said, “Let’s head to the adventurers’ shop.”

“See you later, Leon.”
“Don’t accept IDs from weird people.”
“Let’s drink together properly next time.”

As expected of adventurers, everyone was refreshingly straightforward—definitely a likability boost.

I booked a room at the Adeliana Hotel where I’d stayed before, told them I wanted to visit Morfett’s Magic Tool Shop and the Commercial Guild tomorrow, and asked them to arrange a hired carriage.

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After changing into my tailored town clothes and enjoying some tea after breakfast, I was informed that the hired carriage I’d requested had arrived.

I asked the driver to take me to Morfett’s Magic Tool Shop and the Commercial Guild, but told him to stop at the magic tool shop first.

Although I arrived by carriage, my respectable town clothes let me enter the shop without any trouble.

I was guided to a counter seat, and they even served tea—excellent service.

“How may we help you today?”

“I’d like time-delay enchantments on a Rank 3–50 item and a Rank 5–30 item. I’d like both delays set to 180.”

As I said this, I placed a magic bag and a magic pouch on the counter, then took out a leather pouch containing 284 gold coins from my wallet pouch and set it beside them.

They immediately called over a technician and began work after confirming the time-delay specifications. I handed over two divided coin pouches and asked them to confirm that the payment was correct.

After receiving a deep bow from the staff member, I left the shop and headed for the Commercial Guild in the waiting carriage.

Entering the Commercial Guild was also smooth, but when I showed my Adventurers’ Guild card and said I wanted to deposit money, their expressions stiffened as expected.

When I placed the remaining 116 gold coins from the magic shop payment alongside another pouch containing 200 coins, their expressions instantly returned to cheerful smiles.

I thought it was a bit much for people handling cash to be so “cash-minded” in their expressions too, but I kept my mouth shut.

Instead, I requested registration as a Commercial Guild member, which they accepted immediately.

With that, 800 coins out of my 20,000 gold coins disappeared from my purse—looks like a long road ahead.

Still, the leather pouches without the Fleming family crest were extremely convenient, and I found myself feeling grateful to that foolish Count Fleming.

The emblem on the Commercial Guild membership card was a pouch with gold coins on it—fitting enough, I suppose—but I had a hard time suppressing a burst of laughter.

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With both the magic pouch and magic bag now set to a time delay of 180, long-term storage of food and prey became possible.

That meant I no longer had to constantly drop by the Adventurers’ Guild, so I could finally relax.

My alibi work in Kreis was finished, but there was no guarantee I wouldn’t be questioned about Berna, so it seemed best to disappear for a while.

I bought about ten days’ worth of food, left Kreis before dusk, and took a short rest on the plains.

In the middle of the night, I woke up, used [Hover!] to cross beyond the neighboring town of Adele, created a [Dome!], waited for morning, and then went to gather supplies.

The next day, I skipped over Kreis, bought food in Verant and then Zandra, and finally flew past the royal capital.

With about fifty days’ worth of provisions secured, I passed over the capital, stopped by to view the remains of the Count’s mansion in Berna, and then flew westward.

My destination was the area where armor buffalo were hunted. I wanted to see the Sham I’d heard about—but I decided to take a little detour.

Skimming along rocky slopes, I spotted a Golden Goat but didn’t hunt it, instead searching for other goat species and beasts around the rocky terrain.

Where there are herbivores, predators naturally follow, and I was curious to see what kinds of beasts lived there.

As a result, I encountered many feline species and several kinds of bears. From a distance of over ten meters away—flying beyond protruding steep rocks—they tilted their heads and watched me, which was oddly cute.

Without magic, I’d probably never see them in my life—and they were also beasts I’d never want to meet up close.

Seeing the Golden Goat reminded me of hearing that its meat was exquisite, and I almost started drooling, but knowing I couldn’t possibly eat it all by myself, I swallowed my tears and gave up.

Instead, I hunted a single Chikki-Chikki Bird, butchered it, and enjoyed it as both dinner and a drinking snack.

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This was the habitat of the armor buffalo. Last time, I’d traveled on foot, merely following behind Jaeger and the others as they searched for them for hunting.

This time, it was a carefree aerial journey several dozen meters above the ground, sightseeing as I searched for Sham.

From time to time, I gained altitude and scanned the entire area for anything unusual, but while it looked like a vast basin, from the air I could only spot grassland beasts.

That said, since adventurers rarely came here, there were many large beasts—and among them I noticed something being chased.

From a distance, even with magic-enhanced vision it was hard to tell, but when I got closer, I was shocked.

What was fleeing was a gigantic tiger. Chasing it were seven or eight birds resembling those proud, chest-puffed birds seen atop temple roofs.

They looked over three meters tall. They ran after the tiger at full speed, occasionally jumping, flapping their wings, and flying ahead to cut it off.

They kicked it and stabbed at it with their beaks.

So this was the Sham I’d heard about.

The tiger should have been larger and stronger—but being kicked and pecked by multiple Sham, it clearly stood no chance.

Because it was being relentlessly chased, I thought something was strange and moved closer—only to see that the tiger had a chick clamped in its mouth.

I realized that it had been spotted by the parent birds while trying to escape with a Sham chick in its jaws, and that was why it was being pursued.

Since there were chicks and multiple Sham present, it was probably a colony. I climbed higher again, scanned the surroundings, and spotted dozens of Sham.

As I approached, one of the Sham noticed me, came running, suddenly jumped, flapped its wings, and flew straight toward me.

I had no intention of getting into a midair collision with a bird in a place like this, so I shot straight up.

When I looked back, it was flying straight and preparing to land, touching down while still running.

Sham seem to be birds that are bad at flying, like pheasants. They run to build up speed, then flap their wings while jumping to get airborne, but they don’t seem good at changing direction left or right in midair.

My overall impression after surveying the grasslands was that they weren’t much different from the usual plains or the border between plains and forest—except that the individuals were a size larger and there were more of them.

There were goblins everywhere, practically too many to count, but there were also many beasts that preyed on them, making the area seem pretty harsh.

I tried flying a bit through the forest using Hover as well, but at an altitude of five or six meters I couldn’t let my guard down, and there were quite a few monkeys too.

I’d thought there were a lot of beasts even around towns, but this made me realize that adventurers had actually culled a great number of them.

The mountains surrounding the basin, along with its lakes and rivers, were scenery you couldn’t see along the Brange Highway or the Orvenne Highway, so I toured them in a sightseeing mood.

Thinking that summer was approaching and flowers were blooming everywhere, I suddenly realized something—I’d turned nineteen.

That night, I celebrated turning nineteen, enjoying a solo drinking party with the count’s favorite liquor and the remaining meat from the Chiki-Chiki Bird as snacks.

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I’d seen what I wanted to see, and my curiosity was satisfied for now, so I decided to return to town to indulge another curiosity, once again enjoying a leisurely journey through the sky.

It took four days to fly to Berna and two more to the royal capital, and as I flew over the Brange Highway, I thought things over.

My destination, Korche, had once been territory of the former Marquis Fleming, so there shouldn’t be any strange people left behind—but there was that sarcastic fire mage named Bart.

It was also the place where things had blown up after I clashed with Lord Warrens’s agents. I didn’t think Thaddeus and the others had suffered any harm, but I wondered whether Regina had managed to use magic safely again.

After waiting for nightfall, I descended near a forest close to Korche, then used Hover to move near the town and decided to wait for morning hidden in the grass.

Near-town grasslands weren’t a place where I could use a hut, and when the sun rose I woke up dazzled by the light. Since it was too early, I drank some tea and passed the time lazily.

On a whim, I cut down a nearby slender tree and set it upright near the grass, but it seems I ended up falling asleep again.

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“I’m certain this was set up by Leon.”

“Which means he’s sleeping in that grass, right?”

“Thaddeus, try calling out to him.”

“Leon, are you awake?”

Thinking they were being annoyingly noisy, I suddenly heard my name and snapped fully awake.

There were five presences, no hostility, and since they were calling my name, it had to be Thaddeus and the others.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Thaddeus. I’m glad you’re safe, Leon.”

“Please, come inside.”

They parted the grass and came in through the entrance I’d made for them—but one person was missing.

“Hm? Weren’t there six of you?”

“After we dumped Bart, Ian left us too. He decided he was done with us.”

“He said that even if Bart was just a sarcastic deadweight, without a mage we had no future.”

“Regina, was it? Has she managed to use magic yet?”