Chapter 35 Cleaning up afterwards and a reward

“The demon who tried disguising as the queen has been killed by the secret Queen’s Knights.”

That is the rumor of this incident that has been spreading around the city.

Of course, this is made up and intentionally spread by the royal family. They actually changed the time and I’m not one of the Queen’s knights. So they prepared for a rumor to spread and manipulated as they fit.

[I humbly request every one of you as well to keep this matter a secret.]

Because the Queen herself lowered her head, even the adventurers agreed without saying more than that and went home. Another reason they agreed would be that the gathered adventurers were given a reward based on their rank as hush money. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given any though…

Also, that tone Sakuya is using seems to be her formal behavior and is the tone exclusive for when she is a queen. Because we didn’t hear of this tone before, we were taken aback. When we tried asking for details…

[Eh? I don’t have any reason to use that kind of exhausting tone as my usual tone, do I?]

Saying that, she changed back. So she just puts on an act!?

Even after adventurers left, the castle interior is in a state of confusion. That’s currently changing and it seems it will take considerable time to inspect the extend of the impact. Of course, I make full use of Map and Alta’s ability as per Sakuya’s request. During the inspection, we had a number retainers who were exposed of corruption or embezzlement… There were more of them than I expected and Sakuya complained to me when I became even busier, since I had a lot of catching up to do. I didn’t have that much to catch up to, you know.

With Romarie’s plot coming to light, the dungeon jailers have committed suicide. Are they gallant or what….

With this and that going on, I already babysitted the royal castle for 3 days. I’m naturally near Sakuya and displaying my abilities (Alta does). Moreover, my fighting power being high has been exposed, so I have received a secretary-c.u.m-guard-like treatment. It’s to the extent where n.o.body would utter any objections even if I sit next to her during her meal. They even handle my portion…

I personally didn’t intend to have anything to do with politics, but due to the fact I chose to be related to this clean-up, I guess I have to do this.

Right now, Sakuya is struggling with paperwork on my lap. You don’t really need me here, do you?

[I do!]

She won’t budge. Sometimes, Dora comes over, looking lonely. At that time, Sakuya would move aside and share half of my lap with Dora.

Incidentally, all of my main party’s members have free pa.s.s to the castle but only when they are together with me. Of course, together with me = together with Sakuya, but I can say it shouldn’t matter no matter how you think about it.

Another 2 days pa.s.sed. Finally we can see the turmoil caused by the demons revert to normal. However, my treatment also went up even further at the same time. At one point, a portion of the ministers began calling me with “-sama”.

A : There are rumors about Master being Queen Sakuya’s fiancé and part of the future royal family. Because Sakuya doesn’t actively deny it either, the ru

mor is carrying a sense of truth.

Hey, Sakuya…

I glare at Sakuya with half open eyes and she looks back with a innocent-looking(I didn’t say innocent) smile. I pull on her cheeks.

[vut you mow, I don’t fant do deny suj a wonvervul future, fat’s wy.](But you know, I don’t want to deny such a wonderful future, that’s why.)

*sigh* This girl stopped hiding her affection towards me. I thought her proposal was just my imagination, but she seems somewhat serious about it.

[Even though you call me your brother, do you want to call me your husband?]

When I say that as a joke…

[Did you know? Brothers and sister not related by blood can marry each other.]

She answers me back like that with a smile.

Is this a light novel!? (TLN: Yep)

The next day. With the first stage completed, I was relieved from duty for now.

And so, I’m currently in the middle of an audience. The reason? It’s for the reward for this time’s incident. No matter how much Sakuya acknowledges me, I’m an outsider to this country’s management in the end. It’s because I’m nothing but a skilled parttimer. Besides, it looks like I have to be rewarded since I’m the key figure in the demon subjugation.

Of course, this is different from the reward the other adventurers received.

Moreover, I’m the person who has broken the greatest defense of the royal family. Simply put, it means I can single-handedly overthrow the royal family. There is no reason to make an enemy out of that kind of person. Adding to the fact that I’m also really close with Sakuya, the Queen …

[It is unnecessary to bow, my retainers.]

This charade again, huh. Even though this is not an act, I still don’t want to kneel to Sakuya either.

> (TLN: Read chapter 34)

[Ugh…]

[Your majesty? Is something the matter? ]

[No, there is nothing wrong…]

Sakuya fell on her knees from my jab. But she managed to hold her ground somehow.

[Jin-dono, you have my grat.i.tude for giving us various support in regards to the current incident. Such being the case, I believe a reward for your efforts is in order. I would like to enquire about your desired items first. Are you certain with the following items?]

Because it is troublesome for me to even say them at this place, I have Sakuya convey them first. With those coming out of Sakuya’s mouth, it would push the feeling that these rewards are already acknowledged beforehand, or so it would seem.

[The first item is the arrangements of a base in the capital. The second item is the ownership of the demon’s corpse. And the third item is several treasures containing magic items including “Queen’s necklaces”. These are all the items you desire, is it not?]

[Yes, these are without a doubt the items I wish for.]

Well, I should at least use polite expressions.

[Then, these three…]

[Please excuse me, your Majesty! If you were to award the “Queen’s necklace” to a person who is unknown to us and who is even a person with unknown origins, then I, Hainbel *painful groan*]

A nearby n.o.ble, who is the same minister who addressed me with “sama” if I remember correctly, silenced the n.o.ble who is about to say unnecessary things, with a stomach punch. The verbal gaffe n.o.ble collapsed. I wish I could do that, a stomach punch.

A : If master does the stomach punch, that n.o.ble would follow the same fate as the demon.

I know right~~

More like, why did that n.o.ble go out of his way in this place to say that?

A : He comes from an old house, but he also has many scandals and it appears quite hard to obtain a “Queen’s necklace”.

Don’t invite that kind of guy to this place. Sakuya, I’ve decided to punish you after this.

[Hii~]

[Queen Sakuya? Is there something wrong? ]

[No, there is nothing wrong…]

Oh, a telepathy message from Sakuya.

>

>

>

The minister is encouraging Sakuya who is, on closer look, teary eyed.

[Excuse me, Your Majesty.]

[Ri- right. Then, these three items shall be granted to you, Jin-dono.]

[Thank you very much.]

I guess this is the end. When I thought that, the minister continued.

[And now, a t.i.tle of n.o.bility for Jin-dono…]

[I humbly decline your offer.]

[Is that so…, that is regrettable.]

Don’t think about pushing unnecessary things onto me. Half of the n.o.bles is even making a disappointed face you know. I would think they would normally hate it when an outsider is given a t.i.tle of n.o.bility, but…

A : It seems you aren’t aware of it, so I shall fill you in. Frankly speaking, this country was on the brink of collapse. The upper management in this country considered taking in Master, who was able to stop the collapse and also displayed power when dealing with the aftermath. They have judged a t.i.tle of n.o.bility to be quite inexpensive if it is for that sake.

Oh, really now.

Sakuya wrapped up the situation and brought my award ceremony to an end. Incidentally, that verbal gaffe n.o.ble is still lying on the floor. That minister can deal a quite a nice punch right?

Without delay, we head to the base we were rewarded with by queen Sakuya, which is, to put it simply, an estate. Within the first-cla.s.s district in the capital, there is an estate which is called Sakuya’s Holiday house, where she had lived in for a while.

[Master, where are we heading to?]

Cloud is unusually nervous. Or more like, all rookie slaves are being nervous. Thinking about it normally, I guess you need courage to loiter around in a first-cla.s.s district with a social status of a slave. I didn’t tell them anything about the rewards or my connection with the queen either…

[Towards the base I’ve obtained. I will have you all live there.]

[Eh!? N- no matter how I look at it, this is the first-cla.s.s district…]

[Master, you really are out of the norm, aren’t you…]

[I knew it…]

I don’t know what they knew, but after I gave them a short explanation during our walk, we arrived at the estate.

Yep. I’ve seen it from the map, but it’s huge. It has quite a large garden and there are over 20 rooms in the main building. And there is even an annex for the employees. I shouldn’t be given an estate that size as a mere reward, right?

A : Isn’t this good enough for the one who saved this country?

[It’s bigger than I thought…]

[Isn’t this normally a palatial residence…]

Sakura and Mio are also dumbfounded.

[This size should be natural for Jin-sama.]

[That is right, what Maria-san said is correct.]

These two fanatics do nothing but support me. Come to think of it, these two add “san” when calling each other don’t they? Why though?

A : (It seems their policy is to have no difference in position between believers, you know.)

Hm? Did you say something Alta?

A : No, I didn’t say anything.

Then it’s fine.

We open the gates and enter the estate grounds. Sakuya did say she hasn’t used this estate for a while, but since it seems to have been maintained normally, there’s no dust in here. In other words, we have to maintain it by ourselves from now on.

[I guess we’re going to have to employ maids and butlers for this…]

[Jin-sama, if you plan on spending money on that, I humbly ask of you to please use your money to buy slaves. I think it is a good idea to educate those as maids and butlers, including the rookie slaves.]

I see, up until now I took combat and traveling as criteria for buying slaves, but should I buy a slave that has base maintenance included this time? Why haven’t I thought about this before…?

Also, even the rookie slaves will be trained as maids and butlers from the looks of it.

[I understand. Then, shall we head to the slave market later…?]

[Please wait. Would it be acceptable for you to entrust the buying to me and Lusia? Please leave the training of the new slaves to us as well.]

Maria looks at me with a serious face. There’s also Lusia’s case, so I felt somewhat anxious. Although they won’t fall in a worse situation than Lusia, it may be fine to leave this matter completely in their hands. As long as they don’t openly call me a G.o.d, I will allow them to do so. More like, they won’t stop treating me as G.o.d even if I say something about it.

A : So you did notice after all.

Yeah of course. Those two were doing something in secret for some reason after all… I hate to be openly called “G.o.d”, but believers and subordinates aren’t really that different are they? I don’t have any intention to stop them from increasing the number of subordinates on their initiative after all.

A : I will monitor them. I will report if a problem appears.

Yeah, that would be fine. I’ll entrust this to you.

A : Yes.

[Then, I will leave the purchase of the new slaves to you two. Just in case, don’t forget to check their skills.]

[Yes, please leave this to us.]

[Wow~, this kitchen is as good as “Room” ’s kitchen!]

The first thing Mio does is head to kitchen. The equipment itself is roughly the same but this kitchen is overwhelmingly bigger. However, I’m taking Mio for our trip, so won’t she hardly have any chances to cook here?

All of the other members also explored to their heart’s content.

[The largest room will naturally be Master’s room, don’t you think?]

[Well, there is no one else except Jin-kun who could take that room, right?]

So, the largest room used by Sakuya became my room.

[So, first off, each of the main members will get one room in the main building…]

>

[The same is fine for me. I will be at the closest place to guard him.]

Dora and Maria requested to stay in my room. Given that my room is larger than two rooms together, it won’t be a problem if we have a few more people stay there.

[Oh, I am fine with the room next to master.]

[I am also fine with the room next to Jin-kun.]

[Likewise for me. It is the best room for my peace of mind.]

The other members want the room next to mine. No wait, aren’t you too biased?

For now, we decided to a.s.sign the rooms with rock-paper-scissors. In the end, Sakura and Mio won the rooms next to mine. Sera gets the room in front of mine. Dora and Maria’s private room are arranged to be left and right of hers. They fully intend to sleep in my room, but I decided to prepare their private rooms separately. There won’t be any worries by doing so.

I’ve decided to have the annex be used by the rookie slaves and Lusia. Although I’ve said the main building is fine, they declined out of concern after all. Furthermore, it looks like two to three people are a.s.signed to each room in the annex. Well, I guess it is impossible even if I suddenly tell them to get used to this kind of treatment.

We eat the lunch that was prepared by the slaves (except for the slaves who can’t cook, me, Sakura and subordinate monster.) and then we take independent actions. During our independent actions, I discuss Maria and Lusia about choosing new slaves.

[Then, I will put this in the .]

[What did you put in there?]

[My blood. It’s necessary for slave contract, right?]

I show Maria and Lusia a bottle of my blood. Blood that’s necessary for making slave contract doesn’t have to be taken out on the spot, does it?

A : Freshness is necessary, but it won’t be a problem since will stop the time flow.

[J-Jin-sama! Isn’t this a quite a fair amount of blood though!?]

[Everything’s fine, since I immediately used “Heal” .]

[A- at the very least, please do this with surpervision! This is bad for our hearts!]

Maria and Lusia pet.i.tioned me with teary eyes, they’re severely overprotective.

[Even if you don’t do such a thing, we can just do a transfer after we make the slave contracts ourselves. Jin-sama can use as well…]

[No, doing it like that is troublesome right?]

[…I understand. Then we shall form the slave contracts directly under Jin-sama’s name. Let us go Lusia-san.]

[Yes, Maria-san.]

Those two traveled with “Portal”. When I asked why they’re using “Portal”, they told me it is because they will also check the slaves in the other towns. They don’t have to go that far…

This estate has a lot of s.p.a.ce that is naturally for a horse carriage, so I move ours here. Midori seems to like the garden and is taking it leisurely in the shade of a tree in the corner. No wait, you’re a plant, so go to a place where there is sunlight, okay?

I also don’t have any reasons to take Midori along with my travels and it may be more useful to have her focus on production in the estate.

>

The person in question also said that. Oh, it seems like she wouldn’t do anything unless I a.s.sign a quota, so I instruct her in advance. I’ve already explained the rookie slaves about my subordinate monster, so I’ll put them in charge for collecting her products.

Oh right, I just remembered from the talk about the subordinate monster, but Tamo-san finally used . About , it can be used when not in a state, so I have given him the skill, but he never divided up until now. Even if I ask him for the reason, all he answers me with is >…

A : It seems there is a waiting time that I’m not sure about.

Even when I ask Alta, this is what I get… Since Tamo-san increased himself by one, I’ve decided to request one Tamo-san to escort the horse carriage and the other one to patrol this estate for now. Temporarily though.

As I had expected, his skill level halved after division. But he got a bonus that makes it increasingly easier to level the skill up until the level before splitting. Or more like, it seems that it’s become easy to return to the original. In other words, it means that Tamo-san can increase skill points relatively easily if Tamo-san divides with the skills I gave him.

I don’t have anything to test this out. I’ll have him tell me the next time he seems to be able to divide. If it goes well, the skill points will increase like mice would. Ah, Tamo-san would also multiply.

[So, oniichan. Have you decided on the kind of magic items you want?]

[Not yet, there aren’t really any magic items that are nice…]

[Well, looking at onii-chan, I think you can do almost everything if you have your special power and Sakura-chan’s magic.]

Sakuya said with her teary eyes and cheeks that are swollen red from getting pulled. Of course, it’s the result of her punishment.

Right now, I’m here selecting magic items for my third reward. I had her show me a catalogue in Sakuya’s private room. But like she said, there aren’t any magic item to be found that can cover us up when there’s something we can’t do.

In the first place, my wanting magic items was just Sakuya saying okay when I said “Please give me other stuff in addition to the “Queen’s necklace”, it doesn’t mean I told her I had some purpose.

In addition, even the “Queen’s necklace” has no more meaning than to stop others from suspecting me even if I use magic from my inside the castle. Basically, there’s practically nothing I need.

[Oh, what do you think of this one? They say this bag creates a strange laugh if you fill it with magic power (MP).]

[Don’t limit it to joke materials! Why is something like that here?!]

Seeing that there is nothing I want, I think it’s a good idea to run for the funny types of items.

[Then, this women’s underwear that becomes seethrough when you run magic power(MP) through it…]

[That’s even worse! Err, that’s a lie isn’t it. Is there really a magic item like that in this castle?]

[Look, here.]

I point at the catalogue. It seems like this page is a joke material magic item page. Other items, like an item where water flows when filled with magic power(MP) (it’s just that its appearance is that of a peeing boy statue), or a skirt that flips itself. Relatively erotic, no, stupid magic items can be seen on this page.

[There really is an item like that! Moreover, there’s even one for men! What would you use it for!?]

[I can’t say that as one would expect. I will be executed for lèse–majesté.]

[What are you saying after all this time! Onii-chan, you installed “Portal” in my, the queen’s private room after all! You can a.s.sa.s.sinate me or do a sneak visit whenever you want! You have certainly grasped power over my life and death!]

Well, that’s right I guess. I’ve placed a “Portal” only I can use in the Queen(Sakuya)’s private room. To be exact, there is nothing Sakuya could do to stop e from doing that.

[But, you’re currently accepting night visits don’t you?]

[Of course!]

It’s this. To be honest, even if the “Portal” is gone, I’ve been given the keys to her private room. I think everyone would understand what this means.

I flip over the pages of the catalogue. Within those pages are two items I couldn’t ignore. Written there is the “Guardian’s Greatshield” and “Guardian’s Greatsword”. They are in the equipment item’s page, so they must be magic weapons.

[Sakuya, can I have this “Guardian’s Greatshield” and “Guardian’s Greatsword”?]

[Yeah? Yes, I’m fine with that. It seems that they’re more or less weapons the Hero left behind, but it’s too heavy and n.o.body was able to use it so they’ve been gathering dust in the treasure warehouse the whole time…]

I got permission more easily than I thought.

[Is it really okay? Aren’t they weapons used by the Hero?]

[No. It’s not like that, they are weapons that the Hero “made”. There are virtually no legends of them being used at all. Beside this castle, there are various other items made by the Hero, so I’m fine with giving you at least unused and unusable weapons.]

[I don’t understand what this means. Why go out of his way to make those…?]

While racking my brains over it, we head towards the treasure warehouse without delay. A number of soldiers were surprised by Sakuya’s sudden visit, but Sakuya invited me in without minding that.

This treasure warehouse is arranged and filled to the brim with magic items from the catalogue. Our objective, the “Guardian’s Greatshield” and “Guardian’s Greatsword” seems to be inside.

[Okay, it’s put in there, so you can go to get them, okay? You don’t have to lift them if you just put them in the , do you?]

[Yeah.]

In there were only the greatsword and greatshield made by hero, they’re quite fine products.

Guardian’s Greatsword

Cla.s.sification : Greatsword

Rarity : Legendary

Note : Increased effectiveness when equipped together with the “Guardian’s Greatshield”, reinforces just several allied rearguards during combat, particularly effective against demons.

Guardian’s Greatshield

Cla.s.sification : Greatshield

Rarity : Legendary

Note : Increased effectiveness when equipped together with the “Guardian’s Greatsword”, reinforces just several allied rearguards during combat, complete immunity against knockback effects.

How should I put it, both of them are legendary grade. It’s a so called set equipment. They have increased effectiveness when both of them are being equipped at the same time, but normally you don’t equip both a greatsword and a greatshield. They are too heavy to use together, but it’s like the equipments are made just for Sera. The Hero does a good job once in a while huh.

Both greatsword and greatshield has a blue line in the white base and it has silver colored craftsmanship here and there. It somehow possesses the feeling of holiness. It’s a type of design that a holy knight in a game would use or something.

I tried holding the greatsword and greatshield which look too heavy, unmovable and placed practically uncovered. It’s heavy…, but it doesn’t mean I can’t carry it.

[Wait, onii-chan, why can you lift it normally like that…? Ah, your status…]

[…I’ve decided my present for Sera.]

I really don’t intend to not use the long-awaited legendary equipments. Sera should be able to use them, so I have them stored in the for now.

[Oh, that’s right. Sakuya, can I also ask for the magic items written on this paper?]

I ask Sakuya for other interesting magic items.

[Yes~ Hmm, Hmm, Ah, so we do have these. Phew~]

Sakuya is heading towards me with a grin on her face. I guess I should go back before she says anything unnecessary.

[Then, I’m going back now.]

[Ah, wait a minute! Take weapons for the others too!]

[What do you mean with that?]

[I saw everybody’s weapons, but aren’t the level of the weapons everyone is using clearly low in compared to their abilities? Since we’re already here, I think you should upgrade their weapons]

Aah. I have the spirit sword – Incomplete, so I don’t need an upgade. The other kids also don’t lack weapon power thanks to their status. As a result, they never changed their weapons at all and ended up using weapons whose grade doesn’t correspond with their abilities.

[With the n.o.ble whose embezzlement was exposed the other day being a mithril weapons collector, we seized them all so we have those at hand. Or more precisely, it appears that he took part in the embezzlement for the sake of buying mithril weapons you know…]

[Items with questionable history again. And so they are mithril…]

It’s the appearance of the weapons made of the fantasy metal mithril. This world’s mithril possess a quite few traits and are said to be suitable for weapons.

It’s a mysterious metal that is great for edged tools like swords, great for staves that reinforces magic. And with an unusual aspect that gives it moderate elasticity through a special manufacturing method, it’s possible to make a bow out of it.

I can’t say they’re expensive with the produced weapons fundamentally being rare grade. To be more exact, they’re the top of the rare grades and they’re very close to being artifact grade.

[Since Onii-chan, Sera-chan and Maria-chan have weapons of artifact grade and above, I’ll give a mithril weapon to Sakura-chan, Mio-chan and Dora-chan. I will put them in the later.]

[Yeah, I leave that to you.]

I wasn’t that bothered by it, but since it’s unstylish for an influential person to use low grade weapons, I decided to gratefully receive them. Generally it seems enough if a C rank adventurer have a rare grade weapon. If we go up in ranks, we’ll be blessed with opportunities to obtain something like artifact grade weapons through various connections, among other things.

I leave the rest to Sakuya and decide to return to our estate.

What was waiting for me when I returned is an army of over 20 (mostly) girls praying.

Maria asked me to enter from the front door when I told her I’m returning home. When I checked the map, I see about 20 blue dots nearby, so when I concluded they are the new slaves and returned without worries, all of them are kneeling and offering prayers.

[Oh, Jin-sama. Welcome home.]

Maria approaches me with the face of someone who finished their hard work. By the way, the girls are all wearing a maid outfit and the boys are wearing a butler outfit. The maid outfits are divided half-half between cla.s.sic and mini-skirt.

[What is this?]

[They are new beli…, slaves. We have already completed their education. This is proof of their loyalty isn’t it?]

This is pretty much a religious faith, no matter how I look at it.

I suddenly come up with an idea and tamper with the Map’s setting. Allies and followers are blue, enemies are red, neutral are green, believers are yellow and ther, close settings.

[Wow~]

As soon as I did that, the whole neighbourhood changed to bright yellow. And of course, Maria is also yellow.

[Did something happen?]

[No, it was nothing. Leaving that aside, there are quite a few people here, but how much money did you use?]

The return value will be higher than the cost to buy them, so I’m not really worried about that, but just to make sure.

[No, they weren’t that expensive. I didn’t even use 100,000g for everyone.]

…Cheap. There seems to be 24 people if I count correctly. Not even using 100,000g for these, what kind of people did you bring here with you…? Oh, that was my policy after all this time. Hahaha (dry laugh).

As far as I can see, none of them have any damages, they aren’t sullied either and moreover, they are wearing seemingly clean clothes. Among those, 20 of them are girls. There are only four boys.

[There are a lot of girls, aren’t there?]

[Yes, Jin-sama is a man, so I have taken consideration that you will be more pleased with women looking after your daily necessities.]

If I’m normally been taken in consideration in that area, even I’d feel like running away though…

[As one would expect, it would still be a problem if all of them are girls and there are no male labor, so we bought four boys. Also, most of the boy slaves are “Red”.]

Oh, I see. I told them about red or in other words slaves with malicious intention, so they won’t buy them. That’s obvious. There is no merit in going out of your way to buy that kind of people. There is no way I would want them unless they have t.i.tle or a rare skill.

Naturally I may not understand’s something like the slave’s mind, but the fact the map does is a big advantage.

[I got it then. And, what are we going to do about their maid and butler education from now on?]

[For that matter, we could employ the staff that are staying at Lusia-san’s estate as their trainer.]

[Lusia’s mansion?]

Come to think of it, I completely didn’t care at all about what happened with Lusia’s house.

[Lusia-san was given a mansion from the country as the vice captain of the Queen’s Knight. And that also includes maids and butlers that are working there. However, she resigned as a Queen’s Knight because of the current incident, so it seems she had returned it. It looked like they wouldn’t have minded if she took it as it is though …]

It doesn’t look like I can feel any regrets from Lusia resigning as Queen’s Knight. Sakuya is a little pitiful. I’m sure she drew the short end of the stick in this case. She doesn’t get any benefits from this after all. In the end, she also became my subordinate…

A : (Isn’t that the biggest benefit she received…?)

[We have taken her private properties to this mansion. It has been decided that the maids and butlers return to castle as well, but they couldn’t suddenly decide their a.s.signments. I had Lusia-san ask them to educate our maids and butlers in the meantime. We have also received Queen Sakuya’s permission for this.]

[I see. Can I leave this matter to you then?]

[Yes, please leave it to me.]

I guess it’s a safer bet to ask a professional to educate them. As a gift from me, I gave each girl and boy one skill point of and  respectively.

By the way, I stole the skill from Saladin and I copied the skill Maria acquired before I noticed.

Speaking of copying skills, I took one point of each rare and unique skills the S rank and A rank adventurers possessed. It’s a selfish excuse, but I’ve decided to accept one point as a favor for getting them to avoid partic.i.p.ation in the war the demons planned. Of course, I returned them two points.

Interestingly, when I stole their skills there were even adventurers that were looking around, as if they felt out of place. Humans are amazing. Even so, the treatment of S rank adventurers is quite harsh…

The following is the list of skills I got.

The beast form can only be used by a select few among the beastmen. This is an even higher beast form. You can even call it a super beast form. They will return to normal when transformation ended.

It is possible to delay the magic activation. The number of magic it can delay depend on level. It’s not possible to use it in the castle. I’m satisfied if I have .

Those are about the S rank adventurer’s unique skills.

No, I know they’re convenient to have but they are all on a single person. This person is like a walking resistance skills…

Those are rare skills… We finally got our hands on the highly antic.i.p.ated skill.

But I was thinking about asking Sakura for the resurrection skill about now…

While I’m at it, I handed over the new weapons to everyone.

[Excuse me, but me holding something like a legendary grade equipments, they’re so grand…]

Sera says so when I handed over the the guardian’s set. Ah, Sera can carry the equipment as if it’s natural, and with one hand too…

Her jaw dropped when I told her they were legendary grade after handing them over. That line back then was her first tone after she returned to normal.

[I’ve been master’s companion after all this time, but these amazing weapon is not something a slave would carry…]

[Don’t worry. They ‘re a gift from Sakuya, they are just weapons that the Hero made.]

[Now they are even grander…]

Sera knows that no matter what I say to my companions, I won’t take back what I’ve said, so she gave up and put them away in the .

[You also prepared equipment for us didn’t you? Jin-kun, thank you.]

Sakura says so as she bows. Her ruby staff is rare cla.s.s but the mithril equipment is more expensive and a lot stronger. It’s a bad way of saying it, they’re the pin and dust of the rare grade weapons.

[It is a bit late to say this, but mithril equipments are expensive too. Without a doubt more than I was…]

[Well, there’s not even one person here who is more expensive than the equipment, now is there?]

[Don’t say it…]

Mio retorts with an awkward smile. Basically, these kids all come from the “Dirt cheap slaves” after all.

Afterwards, we go out and hunt monster in order to test our weapon. Since the enemies around here are too weak to test our weapons with, we go to the Tiara forest to kill orcs and ogres. Those are enemies that seems you need at least a party of B rank adventurers to fight with.

Well, our party is way more powerful than that, even without joining a party. Unfortunately, there are no extermination bonuses. It looks like there won’t be any bonuses if they were exterminated just recently.

—Unknown point of view—

One of the connection I have within me made a sound and fell apart. …Did Romarie die?

[Are you saying that Romarie woman was taken down!?]

[It appears so. Seeing that the curse I provided disappeared, I don’t think there is any doubt about that.]

[Fu, fu, fu~, she is still the weakest of the four heavenly kings.]

[That’s a given. If the the scout type that possesses Mimic is the strongest of the four heavenly kings, then the other three would lose face wouldn’t they?]

Well, the difference in ability between the four heavenly kings are well within calculation error from my point of view though.

[More importantly, “my” magic sword! What was happened to the magic sword that “I” gave her as a loan!?] (ED: Imagine the guy addressing himself very arrogantly and self-important when I put I in quotation marks.)

[If you think about it normally, someone must have picked it up, I suppose. It is also normal to think that our plans were exposed if Romarie is dead.]

[d.a.m.n it! If it was like that, then “I wouldn’t have let her borrow “my” precious collection! Even though “I” reluctantly let her borrow it because of Your Majesty’s request…]

[That was my bad wasn’t it? But, I wonder if this is really unforeseen as one would expect. It’s regrettable, but how about we refrain from meddling with Kastal for a while? If we’re making too many movements for the sake of crushing Erudia and the Heroes and they come banding together, we won’t be able to stop them after all.]

Well, there hasn’t been any world-level cooperation at all from looking at their history though.

[If “I” know at least who possesses the magic sword…]

[Meddling is therefore prohibited.]

[Boo…]

He had to get a troublesome hobby like collecting magic swords. Not even one of them ever had a decent history. There are a lot of useful ones but none that I want to use deliberately.

[Shall we let go of Kastal for the time being and instead focus on other preparations?]

I want to at least investigate the one who crushed our plans, but it’s better if I don’t go out of my way to do something like stepping on a landmine. Let’s at least do this after the situation had calmed down a little more.

Status

Only the changes are listed here

Shindou Jin

LV 64

Skill :

Equipment : None

Kinos.h.i.ta Sakura

LV 47

Skill :

Equipment : Mithril Wand

Dora

LV 45

Skill :

Equipment : Mithril staff, Mithril round shield.

Mio

LV 39

Skill :

Equipment : Mithril Bow

Maria

LV 55

Skill :

Equipment : Treasured sword – Everlasting darkness

Sera

LV 36

Skill :

Equipment : Guardian’s Greatsword, Guardian’s Greatshield

The skills below are what everyone has (Excluding subordinate monsters, except Dora, and rookie slaves). Only listing the changes here.