Chapter 48 (1/2)
Located in the northwest of the Ribel Kingdom there is a by no means large town called Attis. Although not quite a rural village, it has lush greenery and in one sweep of the eye one can see a lake spread out before a mountain range several thousand meters tall in all its beauty in the refreshing sun.
In that Attis, there is a small restaurant in the corner of the town. A little past noon, during a time that where customers are sparse, a lone girl raises her voice bitterly.
“Aah, Why can’t I pass!?”
Sitting at the counter, although not quite drunk she kept repeating the same complaint.
Maybe because he couldn’t overlook her, the owner called out to the girl.
“You seem pretty mad, Jou-chan.”
“Of course I’m mad! Even though I came all this way, how could it be blocked off right before my eyes…”
“Blocked off?”
“I want to go there.”
The girl points outside the window at the symbol of the mountain range, Mount Giran and answers.
The shop owner reacts almost too surprised to that answer.
“Eeh!? Jou-chan, you plan on entering Mount Giran?”
“What about it?”
“Give up! I don’t know what your objective is but there are a lot of monsters in the mountains.”
“I know. That’s why there’s a restriction to entering the mountain. For that reason I hired those guys to come with me…!”
As she remembered, her anger returned.
Mount Giran exceeds 4000 meters with the last 1000 meters is always covered in snow; it’s the largest mountain in the Ribel Kingdom. Adding onto just the difficulty of climbing it, the snowy mountain is dominated by powerful monsters.
That’s why she hired 5 mercenaries to act as her guards. It seemed favorable until they arrived at Attis, but when she told them they were climbing Mount Giran they scattered in all directions.
Just that proves how dangerous it was, but she couldn’t accept it. She paid half up-front but the journey didn’t have many perils so she couldn’t help but feel like she was ripped off.
At any rate, for various reasons the girl — Lifa was angry.
“The capable people in this town also turned me down…”
With no spirit Lifa spits out the words as if they were poison. Seeing that a bitter smile appears on the shop owner’s face. Because they live in Attis they all deeply understand the dangers of Mount Giran.
“It can’t be helped. You need permission from the Knight Order to climb Mount Giran anyway.”
TL Note: I believe the Knight Order is the Chivalric Order from the previous translation but I’m not sure so I’ll leave it as is.
The ones that give permission to enter the mountains is the Knight Order that are currently blockading the mountain range. They won’t give out permissions to someone with superficial strength.
For that reason Lifa hired mercenaries, but since they ran away the problem is she can’t receive permission.
Coming all this way and not being able to do anything.
“Is there anyway I can enter~…”
Rifa fell down on the counter table.
When she did that, the bell for the shops entrance rang as it opened.
Then a little after it opened surprise spread in the shop.
Sensing the disturbance Rifa turns around.
The first impression is black. A young man who’s atmosphere was filled with indifference stood there. Looking at all the customers with distant eyes he mumbled something to himself. It couldn’t be described as a good atmosphere.
“Who’s that?”
Being caught by the surrounding customers tension Rifa asks the shop owner in a small voice. But the answer came from a different place.
“He’s Harold Stokes. He carries the nickname ‘Knight Killer’ and is the country’s strongest swordsman. Before he was called ‘Bad Boy Harold’.”
“Hmmm… And, you are?”
“I’m just a humble traveler.”
Sporting grey hair and honey color eyes with an androgynous face and voice. The traveler had a large inflated yellow hat that stood out.
Although the traveler seemed to about Rifa’s age she could not tell if the traveler was a boy or a girl.
“Before that, Harold Stokes is quite an infamous name. Do you not know it?”
“Unfortunately his infamy hasn’t reached where I’m from.”
More accurately, Rifa was a bit of an eccentric and was isolated in her hometown so learning something by hearsay is completely impossible.
She hungrily pursues her own interests, but anything else is shutout. It’s her first time hearing about someone with the dangerous nickname of ‘Knight Killer’.
But for Rifa that kind of thing didn’t matter. The important matter was the next point.
“You said he was the strongest swordsman in the country. Is that strong?”
“Of course. To the degree that he could take on the several tens of the elites of the Knight Order and come out unharmed. His strength could be said to be near the current head of the Knight Order, Vincent.”
TL Note: It is the same order looks like but I’m too lazy to change it. So it will now be Knight Order!
“So he’s in the strongest class of humans then.”
Rifa’s pupils glittered suspiciously.
If he’s that strong then he could probably get permission to go to Mount Giran.
“Oi oi, Jou-chan, it can’t be…”
Seeing through her intentions the owner tried to stop her but his voice fell on deaf ears.
Standing up with vigor she quickly walked until she was standing in front of Harold.