Chapter 28
"That person... They're a beastman, right? Just like you, Rikila-san."
"Yeah. I'm better off because the 'Silver Scales' party took me in. But living as a beastman on my own in this country is too damn hard. You saw it yourself, right? They even have a half-beastman woman working as a tout. Beastmen have no standing here. Human customers won't go near a beastman just standing around, and pure-blooded beastmen can't even get that kind of work."
"That's..."
"You're not into hairy women either, are you?"
"Ugh, I-I mean, you're right."
"It can't be helped... but the fact remains that this country is a hard place for beastmen."
"So you're saying we should go to another country?"
"That path's been closed off. To cross the border, you need a letter of recommendation from the guild, then you have to take it to a government office and get a pass. I'm only hitching a ride when Dantes-san goes for treatment. That's the arrangement."
"Huh? If we go to the Kingdom of Light Knights, does that mean you'll leave us, Rikila-san!?"
"Yeah, that's probably what'll happen. Just so you know, Mimino and the old man are aware of it."
"W-what...?"
It's only been a few days, but I thought I'd gotten a little closer to this lean, muscular tsundere beastman...
"So does that mean you have some other objective, Rikila-san?"
"...Yeah."
Rikila-san stopped and looked up at the night sky.
A nearly full moon, almost a perfect circle, was rising there—ah, so this world had a moon too. The only difference was that three additional satellites orbited around it.
"There's someone I absolutely want to kill."
The words were spoken so matter-of-factly that they felt utterly unreal. I let out a stupid-sounding, "Huh?"
"The man I gave money to and I originally belonged to the same mercenary corps. It was called the 'Darkfang Mercenary Corps,' and it was made up entirely of beastmen. We were hired for money and moved from battlefield to monster-hunting ground... We were only doing what our client told us, but we made a stupid mistake."
I didn't know the term mercenary corps.
"We went and disrupted a powerful noble's underworld business."
"Criminal operation...?"
"Drugs. The Rigla Kingdom in the Keithgran Federation—it's right next to Achenbach. It's a small country, but it made a fortune shipping drugs to other countries. We knew that, but when we were told to 'take care of the monsters that had settled in the mountains' in Rigla, we never imagined the monsters we killed were guarding a drug factory."
"W-what? Monsters guarding it?"
"Apparently, there's a ridiculous Skill called 【Monster Training】."
Seriously? Skills really could do anything. They were deeper than they looked... No, that wasn't the point right now.
"So... what happened to you guys?"
"The client was overjoyed when we reported that we'd taken care of the monsters. He charged into the factory carrying a self-destructing magic tool, and blew it sky-high along with the drugs."
"...What?"
"I found out later that the client had an only daughter who'd become addicted to drugs, and she had apparently died. We'd been dragged into his revenge."
I was stunned. As I'd thought, this world was filled with violence. And with desire, too...
"He died, and that was that. But we survived. And we were paid in full—that's how they traced us."
Rikila-san says.
Because such a huge sum of money had changed hands, the Rigla Kingdom suspected that the 'Darkfang Mercenary Corps' had been involved in destroying the drug factory.
"Rigla Kingdom put up a huge sum and set the mayor of Valhalla—the federation's capital—in motion. Through the mayor, it set the Adventurers Guild in motion, too. 'The Darkfang Mercenary Corps is the mastermind behind the production of narcotics and must be wiped out'... That was the story."
"Eeeeeh!?"
"You're too loud."
"No, but... huh!? How could something like that happen!?"
"The death of a magnate is a major incident, you know. The factory had been exposed, so people started asking who had been making the drugs... That's when the Rigla Kingdom skillfully shifted the blame."
"Th-that's terrible..."
Rikila-san and his mercenary corps had only been victims...
"And the adventurer dispatched against us was... Mithril-class."
Mithril-class.
The highest rank among adventurers.
"A single adventurer wiped out our fifty-member mercenary corps. I barely escaped with my life, and the others scattered in all directions..."
"Was one of your comrades that person from earlier...?"
Rikila-san nodded.
"...We told that adventurer everything. That we'd merely been set up and were victims. He listened, nodding along, and then immediately unleashed a massive spell. My comrades burned and screamed, and the place became hell in an instant."
I could do nothing but listen.
Were the flames raging inside Rikila-san as fierce as the flames he had witnessed himself?
"He laughed as he killed my comrades... He said, 'So what?'...! Pathetic... All I could do was flee in terror. I ran and ran until my strength gave out, and just when I thought I was going to die... Mimino saved me."
"I don't think giving your all to survive is pathetic."
Rikila-san looked at me and gave a small smile.
I thought it was a sad smile.
"Reiji... Even if I can't destroy the Rigla Kingdom, I have to land at least one blow against it. So I... can't forgive that cold-blooded bastard."
A grinding sound rang out.
Rikila-san's hand clenched tight, and blood began to drip from it.
"The half-elf Mithril-class adventurer, Crysta la Crysta. I'll be the one to kill that adventurer."
＊ Magic Airship "Castle of the Heavenly Princess" ＊
The incessant rumble never stopped. The magic airship "Castle of the Heavenly Princess" was flying 1,000 meters above the Kingdom of Geffert.
Rather than resembling a huge ship, it was shaped like a rounded boat, flying through the sky as it spun one enormous propeller and dozens of smaller ones.
Its black hull, made from a combination of special wood and iron plating, was faintly tinged with blue light even at night, making its presence known far and wide.
The enormous vessel, large enough to carry up to 500 passengers, advanced slowly but surely in a straight line toward the capital of the Duchy of Achenbach.
"It gets boring once you're used to it."
"Pardon?"
"At first, I thought the magic airship was novel, but after riding it so many times, I've grown bored. It's terribly dull having no entertainment on board."
"I-I'm sorry, sir."
"What's so 'Heavenly Princess' about it? It wouldn't satisfy even me, an adventurer, let alone a princess of a nation."
"Y-yes..."
The one hunching his large frame was an executive of the Adventurers Guild.
Inside the "Castle of the Heavenly Princess" was a lounge where passengers could enjoy food and alcohol.
Facing the staff member, a slender man sat sunk into a sofa, drinking wine from a transparent glass rarely seen in this world.
He was tall, which only made his slender frame stand out more.
His smooth blond hair was cut level with his shoulders. It concealed his ears, which were just a little more pointed than a Human's.
His red eyes, with white showing beneath them, were not focused on the staff member; they merely stared at the glass.
The surface of the wine reflected the ceiling—a rugged ceiling with exposed pipes, from which a magic lamp hung.
The man clicked his tongue and drained the wine. Knowing that a single glass was worth enough to support a commoner for a week, the staff member offered the decanter and refilled it.
He also knew that this man could buy dozens of barrels of the wine with a single commission.
"When do we arrive?"
"Early tomorrow morning, sir."
"Couldn't we go straight to the mine? Traveling from the ducal capital will take time."
"We need you to greet the new duke first. The magic airship's takeoff and landing sites are also designated, and we aren't permitted to fly wherever we please."
"Humans have gained wings, yet choose to break them themselves."
The man said it with disgust, then set down his untouched glass of wine and rose to his feet.
"Monsters are boring. They only get angry. They don't scream or beg for their lives... But slaughtering a large number of beastmen—that was exhilarating."
"............"
The staff member had already averted his eyes. The man's groin was bulging as he licked his lips.
"I'm going to sleep. Wake me when we arrive."
"...Understood."
With that, the man took the thin robe draped over the sofa and left.
"...To think someone like that is a Mithril-class adventurer. The world is coming to an end."
The staff member sighed deeply, but his next thought was what to do with the half-finished wine.
The "Castle of the Heavenly Princess" continued steadily toward the Duchy of Achenbach.