Chapter XV
"Okay, Momon, Oshiku, take any open seat."
There were three others in the room. The one who had stood to prompt them to sit was robust but not armed. There was also a lean, nervous-looking man in a robe. Lastly, a portly fellow in the back.
As the Dark Warrior and the Bard Samurai sat down with all eyes on them, the still standing man spoke again. "First, allow us to introduce ourselves. I am the head of this city's adventurers' guild, Pluton Ainzach."
He was a man in the virile prime of his life. The vibes he gave off were those of a veteran soldier and the two friends had no doubt he was considered by all as a brilliant adventurer.
"And this is E-Rantel's mayor, Panasolei Grouzé Day Rettenmaier." Panasolei responded to their slight bow with a brief wave of his hand.
He was a man of great presence—No, to come out and say it, he was obese. There was an overgenerous amount of fat around his abdomen, and so much flesh gathered under his chin that it left onlookers in disbelief. With that much meat on his face, he had the look of a depressed, overweight bulldog. His hair was thin enough that his head was reflecting the light, and the hairs that were still up there had turned white.
"Nice to meet you, Momon and Oshikuru." Due to a seemingly congested nose, he exhaled a "pfe-hee."
"And this is the head of the wizards' guild, Theo Rakheshir."
The extremely lean, nervous-looking man with a delicate frame bowed slightly to the two adventurers.
"Now, the reason why I have called all of you here is to address the elephant in the room…"
Oshiku struggled to stop himself from staring at the mayor and laugh at him.
Pluton kept talking with absolute seriousness. "These two copper plates have performed the deeds of taming the Wise King of the Forest and, yesterday, promptly resolved an incident in the graveyard…"
Theo blurted out: "An incident in the graveyard? You mean the appearance of over a thousand undead was an accident?!"
"I didn't mean it like that, old friend. Anyhow, I judge these two men are adventurers worthy of a mythril plate."
"Based on that one thing? For resolving one incident? Those who went through all the promotion exams in order aren't going to be too happy about that!"
The mayor was truly thankful for what Momon and Oshiku had accomplished last night, but his main concern was to keep order in the city. Making many adventurers upset was not a move he would support.
A voice came from the side. "Hmph. I agree. From a Guild Master to another, I too, am dissatisfied with Sirs Momon and Oshiku being mythril." The one who had interrupted was the head of the wizards' guild. There was something very cynical in his expression, but the two friends could see it was aimed more at the mayor than themselves. Somehow, that was lost on the target as Panasolei smiled at Rakheshir with goodwill.
"It seems like your old friend agrees with me."
"Heh-heh-heh." Rakheshir pressed his thin lips together in a sneer. It was as if he'd just heard something hilarious. There was no goodwill in his expression—his eyes were clearly filled with contempt. "Oh? I think there's a big difference between you and me."
"What do you mean by—?"
"Stop it, mayor. Some at the adventurers' guild and among my ranks believe the deed he performed was worthy orichalcum rank."
"What! Why?" His fat face was screaming, Of all the ridiculous nonsense!
In response, Rakheshir twisted his face into a derisive grin. "A party of two—well, three if you count the Wise King of the Forest, broke through a mob of undead estimated to be thousands strong and defeated the men performing the evil ritual of raising them."
"And I'm very, very grateful for that, but it just shows how good they are at sneaking around!"
Rakheshir sighed audibly. "Honestly, I agree with you. If it were just that one thing, I wouldn't call Sirs Oshiku and Momon orichalcum rank, but the remains of two of those undead proved their strength..."
He paused to gaze intently at Momon in his black armor and Oshiku in his loose coat.
"… Two skeletal dragons. Those horrific monsters are extremely strong and they have absolute magic defense. Still, they slayed them both."
"What?! I wasn't told any of this… I thought those were just zombies and the like…"
"There were plenty of those, but the remains of two skeletal dragons were impossible to mistake for anything else. As far as I'm concerned, no other team of adventurers in E-Rantel has the power to break through a mob of thousands of undead, destroy two skeletal dragons and kill the ringleader behind an unknown phenomenon, all in a short amount of time. Adventurers who went to the graveyard said they witnessed other strong undead like soul-warping wraiths. I understand your concerns, but with this knowledge, only a fool could say these two do not deserve being elevated to the proper rank."
The mayor bit his lip and said nothing, now understanding what this was all about.
Rakheshir bowed his head slowly to Momon and Oshiku. "As a resident of this city, Sirs, I thank you. If you hadn't moved as swiftly as you did, who knows how many victims there would have been? This is only my personal thanks, but if you ever need anything, please let me know and I'll do my best to support you."
"There's no need, Wizards' Guild Master. We merely happened to bump into this incident at the request of Mrs. Baleare to rescue her nephew," said the Dark Warrior.
"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo…," Rakheshir laughed. It was an emotional one. "I really do believe you two deserve the rank orichalcum, or perhaps even adamantite. To accomplish such a feat with small numbers and then to remain humble about it—you say it as if it was all a piece of cake. Rumor has it you can use up to tier-three magic, but that can't be true, right Sir Oshiku?"
"I thank you for the compliments…but I'd rather not reveal our hand. Let us just say Momon is the thunder and I'm the lightning."
Oshiku and Rakheshir smiled at each other, but the stupid "pfe-hee" breathing noise resounded again. Then the mayor stated: "I get it all now, let's move on. But before that, wouldn't it be the bare minimum of etiquette to remove one's helmet?"
"I think this time he's right. That is a bit lacking in courtesy, my friend."
But Momon had already started removed his helmet and revealed his fake magic face, a very plain one that would never get cast in a leading role. "Since I too come from a foreign country, I'd rather not invite trouble, so I keep my face hidden. Please forgive me; I meant no disrespect."
Making two strangers rise to the top of the adventurers' ranks seemed like to invite trouble from the local ones, but the mayor did not say a word. Those two were strong and he had no intention to make them unhappy. Screw the other adventurers, they're weak. On the other hand, with these two guys E-Rantel will be safer than ever from monsters and the like.
"Then I officially welcome the two of you to E-Rantel and thank you again for protecting it from the undead. Sorry for my earlier misunderstanding and while adventurers who protect people from monsters have no borders, I hope you'll choose to stay in this city."
"… Thanks a lot, mayor. But simply due to being from a different country, I do often attract many stares and unlike my friend I don't like that."
Momon's clever words caused the three locals to smile wryly and then nobody complained when he put the helmet back on.
"Now then, since the two of you agree, I'd like to make it official," said Pluton taking a wooden box. He opened it, revealing two necklaces with tags of pure mythril.
"Before giving you these though I'd like to know if you have a name for your party yet."
Momon knew he wasn't good at naming things and started panicking. I don't want to screw up with the name we'll be known for! Then he remembered the joke Oshiku had made a few minutes before.
"Aye, as my dear friend said, we're Thunder and Lightning."
"Good name. Here you go then, members of Thunder and Lightning, due to the feats you recently accomplished saving innocents from many powerful undead, and for subjugating the Wild King of the Forest, I hereby declare you mythril adventurers. Keep these plates for everyone to see!" And he switched the copper plates on their necks with shinier ones.
While the other two in the room lightly clapped their hands, Pluton whispered to Oshiku: "Honestly, I think it won't take long before you two get adamantite tags. I feel like you deserved them now already, but even I can't push things too much."
The green-haired man smiled and silently nodded while internally celebrating the first big success of their mission. Behind his helmet, Momon was enjoying the moment as well and figured their big adventures were about to get even more exciting.
"Now, of course you're happy to have our agreement to this, but you didn't need it. So, why are we all here?" The mayor now glanced at Pluton Ainzach questioningly.
"Well, I thought you might want to share the information about the culprits to us two and to those who have taken them down."
Panasolei's eyes narrowed, but he knew the two guildmasters had to be told about that, he just hadn't had the time yet.
In the meantime, Momon thought for the first time those people who had been committing an act of terrorism on the city must have belonged to a powerful group. He also imagined the authorities must have been deciding what pieces of information was okay to share with adventurers along with what weren't.
"From the items left behind, we've determined it was Zurrernorn."
Momon was happy not to hear the word for the first time, but he and Oshiku were not so knowledgeable about the necromancers who lurked in the shadows. The former human prayed to a god he didn't believe in that nobody would ask him about the group of fanatics. Ignorance is seriously scary. I have to hurry up on gathering more intelligence.
"That secret society that uses undead?" asked the mayor visibly alarmed.
"Indeed they were. The bastards were trying to make a Spiral of Death in E-Rantel like they already did in another city a long time ago…"
The head of the Wizards' Guild started a long monologue about the dark side of magic Zurrernorn used, terrifying Panasolei who took out a tissue to remove all the sweat forming on his forehead.
Three of the highest authorities in the city discussed the matter at length while the two newly named mythril adventurers mostly listened in, grateful to hear such detailed and interesting conversation.
Once the discussion died down, Oshiku stated: "Zurrernorn has chosen the wrong city to mess with. Now they're on our blacklist, we'll kill or capture their members on sight no matter what!" All of the present voiced their agreement.
Momon felt it had come the time for them to get their coins and be gone. How to put it nicely though, if there's something I'm sure of is that people don't like being asked to give money…
Turning to the mayor, Momon spoke.
"Very well then, we're glad to have stopped the actions of those evil wizards. Now, we'll be paid by Lizzy Baleare for rescuing her nephew, but what about a symbolic compensation so we can spend more money in the city we've saved?"
Ainzach and Theo grinned as they too stared at Panasolei, already looked at by Momon and Oshiku with high expectations.
"How much is the bounty on a zombie's head?" The mayor asked to the room after a sigh.
"Two coppers." Was Ainzach's short but precise answer.
"Then let's say you've defeated a thousand of them. That makes two thousand coppers. Another thousand coppers for each skeletal dragon and one thousand coppers more for the ringleader and his associates. Two hundred coppers as an extra bonus, that makes five thousand and two hundred copper coins. So four hundred silvers, which means four golds."
After his cold maths, the mayor put fat fingers into a fatter pouch and took the four golden coins he had calculated.
"Don't party too hard, gentlemen," he advised while dropping the reward into the open gauntleted hand of Momon who chuckled at that remark.
"Hey, gimme one of those!"
Without replying, the Dark Warrior tossed a coin to his best friend who grabbed it with a satisfied expression.
"It was a pleasure doing business with y'all. Mayor, Guildmasters, we take our leave if our presence is no longer required."
"Aye, off you go."
"Bye, then."
As soon as they left, Theo asked Panasolei if he could analyse the corpses of the Zurrernorn agents, but his desire could not be fulfilled.
"They've gone missing," the mayor answered with a sour look.
The Zurrernorn members, who had died a horrible death when Momon and Hamsuke defeated them, had been searched and then laid out in the guardhouse's mortuary, but by the time the sun was up, there was no trace of them. The guards supposed someone must have broken in and stolen the remains, but none of those who had been on duty were harmed and none of them saw anybody.
The mortuary was wary of teleportation magic and the like, so it was built to obstruct their use in or out of the building, a type of locked-down room. For that reason, it wasn't clear how anyone could have gotten in there and all they could think of was that the bodies seemed to have disappeared like smoke.
A search of the city was secretly taking place but had not yet uncovered any information that might lead to the discovery of the missing Zurrernorn dead bodies, and the chance that they would seemed slim. In other words, they'd lost any additional clues they might have gained from the corpses.
The three of them bitterly complained about the situation until the mayor asked: "These guys were performing an undead ritual. Is it possible they have turned undead and ran off on their own?"
"… I can't say no for sure..."
"Well, this is a problem. We can't prove anything yet. I guess our only chance now is the shrine beneath that mausoleum? It'd be great if there was some evidence there…"
"By the way, if we find any valuable items with unspecified owners, is it okay if we give them to Thunder and Lightning?"
"If it's something that doesn't have to do with the undead ritual, of course we will give it to them in line with the adventurers' code."
Pluton nodded. Besides, these guys are something else, I can feel it. They're going to be legends, I'm sure of it. And their first epic feat has just taken place. I wonder what they're gonna do next…
The two had left the room behind and trotted down the stairs, catching the eyes of many adventurers at the ground floor. Their gaze focused on the shiny mythril tags and comments of all sorts started among the crowd.
But only one of them dared going up to the two freshly promoted adventurers.
"Oh, Ninya, there you are. I was wondering… how you holdin'up, young man?"
"Well, I'm still devastated about losing my companions… it made me realise no matter who you are, death may come and get you anytime…"
Ninya's ominous words dampened their good mood, but he wasn't finished.
"Which is why I can't wait any longer to rescue my sister. I must find her, I can feel she's still alive, but how long she will, I don't know." Instead of sadness or despair, determination sparkled in his eyes.
"I approve your resolve but… how are you gonna do that?"
"I'm sure she's somewhere in the capital, I'll be going there right away. I had only come to say farewell to you and say thanks for avenging my friends."
Momon and Oshiku couldn't help but feel guilty. If even just one of them had gone to the apothecary back then, the three companions of Ninya would still be alive. While they did not wish to go back in time to change that since it would have prevented them from saving the city afterwards, it still bit to them.
Which is why the Dark Warrior asked: "What if we could help you with that?"
"You two are going to Re-Estize too?"
"No, but some friends of us are going there. I'm sure with them you would be able to find your sister."
"Thank you so much! I don't know how I can repay you for this!" He almost shed tears of happiness.
"Come with us then. We'll introduce you to them but… you must know there's a price to pay. In exchange for finding and rescuing your sister, healing her if it'll be needed, you'll have to join ranks with them and forsake everything else but you and your sister."
"I care for nothing more than her. No matter what I have to do to get her back, I'll do that." No hesitation was to be heard in his tone or seen on his face.
Then he followed Momon and Oshiku who went to their inn, though it'd be the last day of their stay in that shack. With the good money earned in the last two jobs, they could move to the best inn in town. Even if Momon did not care for food or sleep, a little bit of decency in their quarters outside of Nazarick would not hurt.
There was nobody in the room they went in and Ninya looked questioningly at the two who had brought the young adventurer in there. But they ignored the reaction as if it was expected.
Oshiku casted a number of high-tiered defensive magic which shocked Ninya.
Momon turned to the young adventurer and said: "We'll be teleporting in here one of our friends who will help you getting your sister back. I admit we have been keeping some secrets from you, but do not be afraid. You're under our protection now."
Ninya seemed still on edge, but said something unexpected.
"Actually, I've been secrets from you and from the Swords of Darkness too… I'm a girl! And my true name is Celicia Veyron, while my sister's is Tuareninya… in order to never forget about her, I took on part of her name."
Oshiku scratched his head in disbelief.
"Well, this is surprising. While I get the name part, I don't understand why did you dress up as a boy…" that reminds me of Mare. "… is it so difficult for a girl to become an adventurer?"
"The hard part is joining a group. It is almost impossible for women to make a full group, Blue Roses are the one exception. And mixed teams are problematic so, even if there are not many spellcasters of the 3rd tier, I'd have probably been rejected. There's plenty of other girls in E-Rantel who are good, but not enough. Each of them don't belong to any team, but temporarily join one party or the other. Of course the original party takes the lion's share and the helper gets nothing but the crumbs. I think I did the right choice just like I'm doing now, trusting you two makes me feel much better and safer."
"You're very clever. We'll take good care of you and your sister, I promise you that."
Before anyone else could speak, a whirlpool of dark energy materialised in the
bedroom and a tall, wrinkly old man soon went out of it. Behind him walked the most gorgeous woman Celicia had ever seen: she was so awed she did not even feel envious. A cascade of golden hair and a bright green dress did not manage to hide the overwhelming curves and sensuality that smiling woman gave off.
While the two servants felt like they should immediately go to their knees in front of the Supreme Beings even though they'd been messaged not to as it was necessary to put up an act.
"Celicia Veyron, let me introduce you to our dear friends lady Solution Epsilon and lord Sebas Tian. They are our comrades from the faraway country we've told you about. You'll be in their care, helping them to get information about E-Rantel in their undercover mission. At the same time, they'll help you find and rescue your sister Tuareninya in the city."
The girl caster bowed and said:
"Thank you all so much, I'm so happy I found strong and kind people like you are. Please, just call me Celi!"
"I'm also glad I can help a cute girl like you are, miss Celi. We'll do everything we can to save your sister from the clutches of the criminals who are holding her against her will. Helping those in need is common sense!"
Baffled by the passionate and supportive words of Sebas, a wide smile lit up the face of the young girl.
While Solution was definitely not as enthusiastic as Sebas to help such a puny human being to get back her even more weaker sister, she would never dare do anything but follow the orders of the Supreme Beings, so she smiled to the young adventurer.
"Excellent. Since you were ready to go, Nin—Celi, I suggest you join Solution and go on the carriage that's already close to Re-Estize."
Before leaving, Celicia could not refrain from hugging both Oshiku and Momon under the imperceptible glare of the battlemaid and the smile of the butler who had read between the lines and stood behind.
"Sebas, while we do owe Celicia Veyron big time, finding an illegal place where women are treated as slaves and rescue such poor girls while capturing the horrible people behind this, well, that is a part of the plan. As you know, it was Demiurge and Shalltear who were tasked to deal with the criminals, but this'll be assigned to you as I think you're more suitable. But don't forget that the primary purpose of you going to E-Rantel is finding out about the Kingdom's best adventurers, magic items and weapons. Additional information about its government, army, resources etc. will be most helpful as well. We've already gained important knowledge from Celicia, she'll be able to help you and make it easier to infiltrate in the human city. Once you find her sister, I'll allow them to spend some time together, then we'll see what happens."
"Understood, Ainz-sama. But what if she's dead?"
"I'll revive her, but not as Momon. Nobody must see through the act, so if Celi asks just tell her both Oshiku and I have come to serve Ainz Ooal Gown after we have fled our country. It'll confirm what we already told her."
"Thank you, master. I see you're so compassionate towards humans you would welcome those few who are worthy among them to serve you. I'll redouble my efforts now that I've seen your wisdom and kindness knows no bounds."
He masterfully bowed until his upper body was perfectly parallel to the wooden floor which creaked under his splendid shoes. At the same time, he wondered to think the Supreme Beings can even bear with this horrible place being their base outside of Nazarick just for the sake of their undercover mission… such an incredible determination deserves greater praise from me!… Hmm, also, maybe they decided to be so kind to humans because of how hard life is for most of them. If this is the average bedroom inn, it speaks for lousy living conditions for people, at least in the Kingdom. I can't wait to see how majestic will it all be once the Supreme Beings rule this nation and the whole world!
After dealing with the one formerly known as Ninya, the Thunder and Lightning adventuring team headed to the Baleare's apothecary.
The place was closed, but Momon and Oshiku were sure that Nfirea and his granny were inside the building. Even if they had rescued and healed the boy, he had gone through a terrible ordeal and he was surely resting for the day, so Nfirea would not go anywhere and his grandmother would certainly not leave him alone for a moment until he had fully recovered.
Although it was a little inappropriate to go knock on their door due to the most recent incident, Oshiku and Momon had to make sure Lizzy and Nfirea just had to make sure those two were still on board. A deal had been struck and since the adventurers had been successful, the two alchemists now had to pay them back.
So Momon knocked on the door while his friend chose a different approach as he grasped a pebble and lightly tossed it at one of the windows upstairs. Not a minute later, someone almost wrenched open that window while yelling: "Can't you read the sign, you ignorant fools?! We're closed and—" she interrupted her angry shouts as soon as she noticed who the two people in the street actually were.
"Momon, Oshiku! Please get in… ah, wait, I'm coming down to open the door."
Faster than expected from a woman at ber age, Lizzy got downstairs and then unlocked the door, letting in some fresh wind and the two adventurers she now venerated as they had rescued her nephew from certain death.
After thanking them for the umpteenth time, she stared at the stairs. "Nfirea! Get out of bed, you've been in there long enough. Your saviours are here, get down here and say thanks!"
While they could here some sudden movements coming from upstairs, Lizzy offered them some tea which Momon politely refused, while Oshiku could only barely refrain from making a disgusted face. Of all the drinks in the world, the one he hated was what he called leaf soup. For an Asian, it was a sacrilege not to enjoy tea, which is why he blamed it on the European part of his genes.
Nfirea rushed down the stairs, apparently in perfect health. He deeply bowed to Momon and Oshiku, repeatedly covering them with waves of gratitude and praise to which Lizzy joined in.
"We're glad you feel this way and we too are happy that you're now safe and sound, Nfirea. But instead of being showered in undeserved praise since we've only done as promised, we'd rather be confirmed you're gonna do as promised as well."
"Ah, of course. Actually, you two may call it payment, but for Nfirea and I it is a dream come true to be working at the creation of a true red potion. So you needn't worry, in a few days we'll move out of here and go live in Carne."
Nfirea smirked behind his bands. Besides the dreamlike work, he finally could live close to the one he loved. This is just perfect, as if the gods had made me suffer a little before giving me a great reward! His memories about last night were scary, but confused. He did remembered that strange girl killing Lukrut and Peter with ease, then her male associate had hit him in the head. After that, some pain and loss of self-consciousness until Momon had rescued him and brought him back to reality with some magic.
To repay him and Oshiku for their feats, both grandma and nephew would do so much more than move to Carne and work on the greatest alchemical project ever.
Reassured by their words, Momon and Oshiku said goodbye and after reaching a spot away from any prying eyes, teleported back home. After all, there was still one loose end that had to be taken care of as soon as possible.