"Here is your map, Lord Spear Hero." The eager receptionist said as he handed over a large sheet of paper with a map printed on it to Motoyasu, one from a stack that he had.
The blond hero took a mild interest in the map, in that it was the first actual paper he had seen since coming to this world, with everything else being done on parchment. It also had a printed image on it. While movable type printing was already a thing in this world, he hadn't seen any printed images before this.
It seemed that Rozemyne had brought some techniques for that from her own world.
While Motoyasu obviously knew that it was possible, he didn't know the exact process to do it. So he was mildly impressed.
But after a few moments of holding the map, he started to feel very foolish. Obviously, nothing was written in Japanese, so he couldn't read it. At the same time, his male instincts resisted handing the map over to one of his girls to read. It took physical effort to fold the map up and hand it over to a party member before returning his attention to the receptionist.
"So, is there a place you recommend to eat around here?" Motoyasu asked, leaning casually against the desk.
"Ah, well. This is quite the young city, so there isn't anywhere that caters to the upper class, I'm afraid. Though the Sword Hero's party seemed to frequent a bar down the street called 'Ocean's Tears' that serves what they call 'fish and chips'. They have the sauce, can't remember the name of it, but it's really good. The service is really fast too, despite the crowd." The receptionist said.
"Really? We'll have to check it out." Motoyasu said, remembering the comfort food from his old world. "What about other things to do, besides hunting monsters?"
"Well, there is a training ground that is open to the public, and the city library has an extensive reference section in it. They are planning to start having classes for inspired youths who want to someday become adventurers there… but I suppose the Spear Hero wouldn't be needing that. There is also a healthy potion's market." The receptionist said. "Unfortunately, there aren't that many stores catering to fighters yet, so if you are in need of weapon repairs, I'm afraid you'd be out of luck."
"Trust me, I don't need weapon repairs." Motoyasu chuckled, patting the Legendary Holy Spear that hung from his waist in a shrunken form. "Though I was asking more about what you could do for fun around here, rather than the supporting facilities."
"Ah. Again, Alexandra is a very young city, so there isn't much for high class entertainment. We have a few bars where adventurers like to hang out and there is the hot springs, but that is basically it. Even the market place is very immature, with only a few traveling paddlers showing their wears."
"Hm, hot springs." Motoyasu said with a fond smile. Perhaps it was time for the hot springs episode.
"Hmph, this city looks impressive, but it isn't any different than any other rural village." Princess Malty, or Myne, said with a huff of disapproval. The other girls seemed to agree with the statement.
They weren't entirely wrong. And it was a pretty big lurch from how they had been spending their days, staying at high end hotels and going to parties hosted by the local nobility.
Going to a lower town bar was a pretty big downgrade, though one Motoyasu would more than welcome. It had been a while since he had just relaxed at a bar.
"Well, since it is the Spear Hero, I'm sure that you could reserve better at the Lady Shield Hero's estate. I also heard that Our Lady was going to be doing a live music performance tonight in the town square. They say she is going to perform the music herself."
"We'll have to check that out. Thanks for the tips." Motoyasu said, before turning around and leaving the Guild Hall.
"Motoyasu, you aren't really thinking about going and seeing that girl, are you?" Malty asked, giving him a pleading look.
"I don't know. I'd like to think I'm wrong about her and Ren but… damn." Motoyasu said, scratching his head.
At first, he had thought Rozemyne was a sweet girl, but things weren't always as they appeared. Malty had explained that to him.
Those orphans she took care of were all slaves, and the miracles she performed were all done for money. She seemed capable of doing anything for quick cash, child labor, extorting the sick and starving, selling exorbitant expensive accessories. She had sucked up enough money to buy herself her own private city.
And now she was playing with fire, creating some kind of system to force spawn dangerous monsters in order to make herself even more money.
Motoyasu had thought she was a saint, but really, she was a greedy villainess.
Motoyasu had gone and gotten the seed of the Alchemist and gave it to the people out of the goodness in his heart, the desire to help. Rozemyne had healed people's farms in order to collect money from them.
It just felt… wrong. It wasn't how a Hero was supposed to act. A Hero didn't enslave hundreds of orphan children and force them to work for her. A Hero didn't demand money for those in need. A Hero didn't play around, experimenting with creating monsters.
The things that Rozemyne did, they didn't sit right with Motoyasu. She wasn't Yandere, but she still had a twisted personality.
Not to mention that she was going against the scenario. She was using powers that shouldn't exist and changing the rules of the game however she placed. Motoyasu didn't know how or why she was able to do stuff like that, but cheating like that never meant anything good. She's messing with powers that are beyond her control.
(Author's note: He's not exactly wrong. She literally can't control them.)
"We'll teleport back to the capital when it is time for meals if you don't like the food here, and spend most of our time elsewhere, but this place is the most effective training grounds for us at the moment. We can't afford to turn up our noses at it."
"You have a point, but be careful. These people can't be trusted." Malty said, hugging herself to Motoyasu's arm.
"Yeah. I know." Motoyasu said, nodding in agreement. "Come on. Let's check out this hunting grounds they got here."
"Amazing. Amazing. My arm." Rozemyne watched as the middle aged adventurer flexed his newly regrown arm, tears forming in his eyes. "Bless you, Saint Rozemyne. Bless you."
"Think nothing of it. I hope that it wasn't too painful." Rozemyne said, fully aware that while healing fatigue and minor cuts were fairly gentle, anything that involved regrowing nerves was as painful as it gets.
"Ha! Whoever complains that a miracle requires enduring a bit of pain isn't deserving of one!" The man laughed before standing up and bowing to Rozemyne. "Thank you. Now I'll be able to get back to work and provide for my family. Thank you, Saint Rozemyne."
And with that he left, letting the next person in line come forward, a woman with horrible burn scars on her body.
Back before the entire explosion of the Adventurer's Guild, Rozemyne had been trying to lure in adventurers who had become too injured to continue to work into her territory, since no one would miss them and once healed, they would provide the city with extra security.
She had offered up free healing magic for all for the first few years, and just because that was no longer necessary, doesn't mean she was going to go back on her word.
Most cases, those with minor injuries, were going to be handled by the Library Rabbits, who each inherited Rozemyne's affinity for all the elements from constantly having their stones dyed with her mana. But Rozemyne was going to perform mass healings once a week to both remove fatigue and prevent disease, and would handle any injuries that were beyond the Rabbit's abilities to heal, restoring missing limbs and removing terrible scars.
Rozemyne wondered what the nobles of her old world would think of this, using magic to heal commoners. They'd probably think she was out of her mind. Or more out of her mind than they already did.
"Thank you so much." A young woman with wavy, shoulder length hair said, grabbing onto Rozemyne's hands and looking at her with tear filled eyes. She had at some point in her life been half mauled by wolf monsters, leaving horrible scars on her stomach and breasts. The injuries were severe enough that she wasn't able to walk properly. "I'll finally be able to bear children without worrying about opening up old wounds."
"I'm glad for you. But let me do a bit of a check up to make sure there aren't any sorts of damages that couldn't be healed by my spells." Rozemyne said, directing her to a large magic circle and getting the woman to strip down.
Rozemyne activated the circle and looked at how the magic energy flowed through the woman's body, looking for magical disruptions that couldn't be healed with ordinary spells. If she did find one, they would need to undergo the process of creating a Jureve.
Jureve's were expensive to make, but even if one didn't go all out on the materials, creating a Jureve capable of removing scars and regrowing limbs was easily within the abilities of most nobles. But repairing damage to one's magic flow… that was more challenging.
"Looks like everything is all clear. I pray for you and your husband's happiness and that you have many healthy children." Rozemyne said, with a kind smile. The woman gave a few more thanks, bowed and left, reuniting with her husband in the waiting room. "Next patient please!"
An elderly man hobbled in on a cane. He wore a black cloak over his shoulders, though the hood was down, showing that he was a man in his late sixties with liver spots covering his face and thin white hair.
Rozemyne couldn't see any obvious injuries, so perhaps he was just old, or maybe they were hidden underneath his cloak.
"Please, tell me what seems to be the problem?" Rozemyne asked, as the man approached.
But then, to her shock, he suddenly lunged at her at tremendous speeds, a dagger flashing from within his sleeves. "Die, Demon!"
*plink*
…The awkward sound that indicated that no damage had been dealt rang out as Rozemyne stared at the man in surprise, his knife pressed up against her throat as hard as he could manage… only for it to do nothing at all.
"Monster…" Those were to be his last words before he was dog piled by dozens of Library Rabbits and kicked into submission.
"After he was restrained, a magic contract that bound him executed him so that he wouldn't be able to reveal anything to us." Rozemyne said as she held up the fake face of the ninja who had tried to stab her.
It really was an unbelievable thing, with some form of magic woven into it so that it would mimic real facial expressions and match the person's lip movement's perfectly. The robes and knife had been magical in nature as well, with enchantments that Rozemyne would have had a hard time reproducing.
It just went to show that, while Rozemyne's magic was superior in power and she had blueprints for spells of incredible scale, she was far behind the true spellcasters of this world when it came to finesse.
After all, the old woman who ran the magic shop was able to use magic to shapeshift into a dragon.
Rozemyne looked forward to researching such things, once she found the time.
"How are you so calm about this!?" Ren shouted, his face paled. "Someone tried to assassinate you! How can you act like this is just an assuming sideshow!?"
"...Because if I let myself fall apart every time someone tries to kill me, I'd never get anything done." Rozemyne said with a detached tone of voice. "Regardless of what just happened, I am still responsible for this city, for my retainers and everyone who works for me. There are people who depend on me and who I depend on. Because of that, I can't let myself freeze up."
Ren looked at her in dumb shock. "...How many times?"
"...Good question. I never really counted. …Twelve, I think. Though there could be some that I just wasn't made aware of. That actually seems probable." Rozemyne said before placing the mask on the table.
"Rozemyne." Ren said, a look of absolute weakness on his face.
"Welcome to the world of politics and business." Rozemyne said apologetically. "I'm going to send a report about this to the castle, let them handle it. Maybe there was something in the man's possessions that we overlooked that can point towards the person behind this."
"Are there any suspects?"
"Dozens. And I don't even know the full scope of the political field of this country. You have no idea the kinds of toes I stepped on when Alexandra was made an adventurers' hub. Every single city that based its economy on dungeons basically wants me dead. Then there are the human supremacists, my nearby neighbors who thank that they could take the land if something happened to me, foreign powers that see how much I am strengthening the country as a whole, and women who have their eyes on you…"
"Excuse me!?" Ren shouted in shock.
"There are a lot of reasons why people might try to kill me. Honestly, I should have been more careful." Rozemyne admitted.
She really had been way too relaxed with security around herself. She hadn't even made new defensive charms for herself, since they kept turning to dust in moments of weakness. If it wasn't for the fact that the assassin had been a relatively low level and the Holy Shield boosted her defense to an almost unrealistic degree, she would have been dead.
"Well, regardless, I need to prepare for tonight's performance." Rozemyne said. "Indigo, please bring me my harspiel."
"You're still going to do it?" Ren asked in shock.
"I can't show weakness. If they believe that this can get to me, then it will never end." Rozemyne said. "That is just how politics works."
"...Just… Please, be careful."
"I'll do my best." Rozemyne said, with a bright smile that failed to make him feel any better.