The deep-fried fish snack in my hand broke and crumbled as it fell.
Damn, I was a little absent-minded while I was thinking about Grond.
It was great thinking about the revenge I would exact, but it was hard to control my emotions.
As I thought about it, I raised the teacup to my lips.
ăWhoa, this is good!ă
I changed lodging and at the new place, I drank some tea instead of resting.
The first boarding place had excellent beds, but I didnât want to stay for long as others might start taking notice. This boarding place wasnât as great as the first but at least the beds were decent.
ăMan, tea really is great.ă
I used the roasted tea I got from the seller and I had Minnalis make me some fish-bone chips from mackerel to pair with the tea.
You canât call it a luxury but if you could try those chips, they really do satisfy.
Rice crackers and tea. A bit low on the totem, but Japanese people love it and the combination makes you relax.
ăStrange uhh? Itâs a bit like brown tea, Master. It smells good and is a bit bitter. Itâs unfamiliar, but it is very delicious. It really is the taste of your home world.ă
ăThe tea of the empire is black, but this is like coffee. You did well to find it.ă
I shrugged and looked out at Dartlas through the window.
Dartlas was a town with a lot for trade just like Ermia.
The difference is that Ermia has magical developments also being sold along with regular things.
Also, the type of sellers you find in Ermia are totally different.
Ermia had domestic products from all around as well as foreign ones, compared to Dartlas that just had imperial and the empireâs goods.
In other words, it was a place where the two kingdoms traded.
Otherwise, there were places that produced things exchanged for the imperial goods, and Dartlas also took care of trading those things as well.
People crowded here, working with small and large businesses, and traded many goods and currencies.
Copper, silver, gold, and white silver.
A melting pot for those four currencies.
That was the shape of the place called Dartlas.
ăI donât hate it either, but I like it with a lot of milk.ă
ăYeah, you canât get it in this town but there is also stuff called matcha as well. Itâs good with milk and called matcha-latte. Next time we go to the empire, Iâll take you to a place that sells it good and sweet.ă
ăGood, I canât wait!ă
ăU, uh, master? Me too.ă
ăYou donât have to make that face, weâll take you too, Minnalis.ă
ăThank you, master!ă
The two girls were very happy about it. I guess sweet things capture a girlâs heart in any world.
Using many known and unknown methods, we had collected a lot of information about Grond.
The first thing I didnât know.
On the front, Grond was a good trader, everyone said.
On the back , he was very forceful and evil.
Out of everything we searched out, we found several good connections.
Grond secretly had a huge amount of bestial slaves he was sending to the empire.
When I was summoned, they used a beast slave as a sacrifice for me.
Then, Nonorik was currently used as the person who secretly made the first strike against an enemy.
Finally, he had killed the husband of a certain orphanage owner, and taken the manâs weapon as payment for the debt the orphanage had created.
ăAh, did it again.ă
I broke another cracker, and it fell on the floor.
ăMaster, youâre like a child.ă
ăYou spilled again. You need to be more careful with your food.ă
ăSorry, sorry.ă
Minnalis and Shuria could tell I was thinking about something, so they both made fun of me.
ăBut both of you have cracker crumbs all over your faces.ă
ăăWhaaa?ăă
ăJust kidding.ă
ăAh, master?! ăăHow rude!ă
ăHah hah hah, yeah, I fooled both of you.ă
I laughed at both of their angry and embarrassed faces and took another drink of my tea.
I was thankful for both of them. They didnât get lost in their anger, just looked at each other and then suppressed it.
So I looked back out the window again.
What I saw out there was the dateless orphanage.
The building and garden, children playing with a young woman outside.
At one time, she must have doubted that Grond had killed her husband.
Then she knew that Grond and I knew each other, at a time I left the town.
That time, she seemed shaken when she saw me again, and she smiled silently but must have been thinking something.
(âŠshe had to have.)
I didnât know when that was.
Through the ăHoly Sword of Vengeanceă, I could see there was something black and hot that was inside her.
ăâŠă
Her important orphans, when they were drugged and have died, how much of that did she knew, how did she feel.
No, even more than that, what happened if she was still alive.
ăAh, I made a mistake staying here!ă
I stuck out the remaining chips to the other two.
ăâŠno matter what bed, I canât sleep in a place like this!ă
From then on, I didnât break another chip.
Instead of having something in my hand, my tightly squeeze hand dripped one drop of blood.
â
The next day after resting while partaking in the chips and tea, I went into the dungeon near Dartlas.
Dungeons like this that were hard to know the difficulty werenât very popular, but we had agreed that this was the place. An undiscovered dungeon was the best of all, but there were none near this town.
ăFinally outside! Nice to feel the sun.ă
We felt the humid air of the normal cavern-like dungeon, as we stretched and breathed in the clean, sunny air right outside it.
ăItâs much nicer and warmer than the light of the light moss. Are we okay in the dark? I just donât like the humidity inside.ă
ăI donât like it much either. Itâs a lot easier to dry your clothes in the sun than by a torch.ă
Shuriaâs words caused Minnalis to deeply nod.
âŠMinnalis had completely become a maid.
ăWell, anyway, this first part is done.ă
My hand was in the bag and holding the goal, the dungeon core.
Of course, it would be big trouble if this was revealed so I did all I could to hide it.
A dungeon close to the emperor, ăThe nest of goblinsăhad a fragment of a dungeon core I got that gave the ăAbsorption Swordă its power along with some rocks that were mixed to form something like a dungeon core.
Even though this place wasnât popular, there were still people around.
Soldiers and adventurers managing these dungeons could be tricked by Minnalis for a short while by erasing their memories and we could press on to a place where we could use a torch safely.
Of course, normally they would think it strange but we werenât noticed.
In addition, there were a lot of magic beasts chased in here.
If we were discovered now, there would be a sudden request to expel us. Because of this, the main amount of adventurers avoid the place, and people visit less and less, so the dungeon monsters are a bit too late to be repopulated for new adventurers.
But as a time killer, itâs definitely enough.
ăThis dungeon core like thing will awaken that magical storm like thing. If so then that magic tools with transport magic wonât work.ă
The magic storm is a natural disaster that is special to this world and occurs irregularly.
There are different ranges and patterns, the magic essence in a place gets thicker, becomes strangely chaotic, and precise magical waves become unusable. Normal magic becomes harder to control, and anything below the mid-level magic that the magical beasts use becomes difficult to do.
Thatâs why places of thick magical essence are places where magical beasts live.
If you have a dungeon core, you can generate one of these magical storms. Thatâs why you bring one in, and keep a dungeon core with you.
In order to trap Grond, he and the emperor, no, he and the princessâ connection needs to be destroyed. If he gets recognition from Alesia, our plan is half kaput.
In order to blockade the roads and set decoys, and for the magic monsters chased in here by Sura-kichi, the magic storm needs to be explained.
There is only one problem in all of this.
ăOkay, how many potions are we going to open. We still havenât prepared everything, so Iâm a little leery.ă
ăIâm not good with drinking MP potions.ă
ăThat reminds me Shuria, there are a lot of people that donât like the taste. Even so, you need to put up with it and help no matter what.ă
In order to use the dungeon core and cause that magic storm like thing, you need to make sure thereâs no break in magic that exceeds the amount in an unbroken dungeon core, so you have to be careful.
ăEven in exchange, you canât avoid getting overwhelmed by all the MPâŠă
It would be good to get through this without a lot of foolishness going down, I said in a loud enough whisper.
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