Chapter 37 (1/2)
Thunder’s Fangs
After they finished registering at the guild, they split up to purchase necessary supplies.
Since it was a dangerous town, the women and children weren’t alone. Saying that, Ria went alone though.
If trouble turned up, it couldn’t be helped. Since it wasn’t even a crime if you killed your opponent in a duel, she truly thought it was a good town.
As expected, the first thing she set her eyes towards was the weapons shop.
Due to people challenging the impregnable demonic area known as the Dark Labyrinth, it was filled with many high quality weapons and armor.
Still, there were unfortunately little sharp katanas. Though there were a lot of goods, someone who could create things with magic like Ria could likely surpa.s.s them.
Though other than that, there were magic weapons sold as well.
Swords, spears, axes, and other things like hammers. There were even some rare and eccentric weapons too. When she asked the shopkeeper about them, it appeared that they were brought from a dwarven village.
She asked if there were any dwarf smiths that made katanas, but he unfortunately didn’t know.
She bought a dagger for Maal to use in the shop. Other than that, she also bought a magic s.h.i.+eld.
While doing that, she also sold swords and spears she’d made as practice. The iron-tipped spears sold for a lot. The swords’ evaluations weren’t so high and were offered appropriate prices.
Ria headed back to the guild after exiting the shop.
As she tossed meat skewers to Rudolph, who was laying down in the stable, there was a presence standing behind her.
“Are you good for a moment?”
Though it was a giant figure that one couldn’t just hide, he moved surprisingly quietly.
Ria took Vargas’ invitation.
Saying that he planned to return to the inn in the evening, Vargas invited Ria to the tavern.
“I don’t drink alcohol. My favorite beverage is milk.”
“Come to think of it, how old are you?”
“I turned fourteen the other day.”
As expected, Vargas knit his eyebrows. Her strength didn’t make sense with her age.
“By some chance, are you a reincarnated person?”
He saw through her well. In contrast, Ria didn’t respond, asking for milk at the counter. Fortunately, the shop served goat’s milk.
Vargas asked for beer. Lukewarm beer was poured into a large wooden tankard for him.
“Both you and that small mage comrade of yours. No matter how I see it… you’re a bit too strong.”
Not just Ria, he’d seen through Serge as well. She wondered if he used Identify, but even just by sensing magical power it wouldn’t be too hard.
Since Serge’s magical power leaked out, she had been concerned of that since before. If Lulu didn’t teach him a way to control it, they might encounter unnecessary trouble sooner or later.
“Well, if you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. I had a few other things to ask anyway.”
Vargas scratched his head. He was the one who invited her, but he hadn’t put together all his questions.
“Right. First, why did you come to this town?”
“I would say to be an explorer, but I don’t think that’s all you were asking.”
“That’s probably right. Power, money, honor. There are many different reasons for that.”
Since her reason to be an explorer was to traverse the labyrinth, she hadn’t thought much about it. Rather, it was more like she hadn’t thought about it at all.
“What about you? From the looks of it, you seem strong enough yourself.”
With power, wealth and fame would follow. That’s was Ria believed.
“Me? Well, to live. My wife and I have two younger children than s.h.i.+zuna.”
Without holding anything back, Vargas spoke his mind. It was an extremely ordinary reason.
“In truth, I wanted s.h.i.+zuna to marry someone like normal. Not become something like an explorer. She’s almost eighteen now.”
In this world, marriage was done early. The marriageable age for most people was around up till twenty years old.
“She swings her sword all year round, no man’s figure to be seen.”
Since it turned into something like grumbling, Ria decided to change the subject.
“I have one reason to enter the labyrinth. Knowledge. I want to ask the Dark Dragon Valis something.”
Vargas wasn’t surprised. He also didn’t laugh.
However, he nodded with a serious face.
“With a n.o.ble Ojou-san coming this far, I was sure it was something important.”
“No, it’s more of a privately important thing…”
She didn’t correct him on the thing about being n.o.bility. Even if she said she was actually royalty, the man’s att.i.tude wouldn’t have changed.
In her previous life, she would have chose a man like this to be friends with.
From then on, the two just drank and only spoke a little.
She also decided to secretly return s.h.i.+zuna’s sword to Vargas.
She said it was because they might need it if they were attacked by demons while travelling.
However, she didn’t speak about clearing Labyrinth City’s. Since rumors had quick feet, Ria’s ident.i.ty would probably become apparently sooner or later. She didn’t want to give out the information and encourage it.
The number one thing was that the country’s princess being h.o.m.os.e.xual would be quite the scandal.
Then, when it came time for Ria to soon return, Vargas spoke softly.
“Would you all join up with my party?”
While Ria ate dinner after returning to the inn, she talked about Vargas’ offer.
“An advantage for us is that we would be guided through the labyrinth we aren’t used to. Frankly, we could die from seeing enemy attacks that have abnormal conditions for the first time.”
Unlike the labyrinth in Labyrinth City, you could truly die in the Dark Labyrinth. And it was said there were many unique enemies like the Dogazer and Spectral Knight.