Chapter 346: Two Wheels

The adventurers that had left Tsige were returning bit by bit.

Since the time this city had begun a war, their actions have changed drastically.

In Koran and the neighboring settlements, the rate in which people cross the north gate for miscellaneous work around the Golden Highway, and the rate in which people crossed the grim south gate aiming for the wasteland, have been reversed greatly.

There’s people that are just close enough to the requirements to be allowed into the wasteland but are careful people, so they haven’t entered the wasteland yet.

There’s also people who would come to Tsige, hear about the tragedies of adventurers of the same level as them who went to the wasteland, and get scared.

This city, where people come and go constantly, has quite a lot of those dangling adventurers that are in a pitiful state of trying to earn money with jobs that don’t fit their actual ability while shaving off their savings.

That’s why the Adventurer Guild placed a request with a high reward for first cla.s.s parties to work as instructors for the rookies, and tried to increase the amount of those kinds of adventurers entering the wasteland.

Whether it is in the middle of war or not, the Adventurer Guild exists for the sake of the adventurers and the troubled requesters.

The merchants are also dropping war related requests that are close to the gray zone.

Basically, they are doing what they can so that the adventurers with bright futures, and have the possibility of being able to perform wasteland requests, don’t die in the war.

But there were quite a good number of executives who were thinking about having Tomoe and Mio as the instructors, and were troubled quite a lot in the safety of it and the matters of the rewards, and also brought upon the resentment of a number of people.

It is more of a fun story at present, but Tomoe and Mio raised mostly people that were interesting, and the reward was…honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to that either, but it was really low.

In the end, Root himself came recently, established a new tier called wasteland tier adventurers, and for now has readied four ranks from C to S.

Their ranks up to now will be the same.

And so, there’s a good amount of parties who are in the wasteland rank A and S, and quite a good number of them who left from the northern gate had begun to return.

“They scattered extravagant bait and high cla.s.s anglers, huh.”

“It seems benefits with Tsige were prepared as well for the case where they would personally cooperate. A decent number of settlements consented with the sponsoring of the bait, and there were apparently pretty good results.”

I was listening to Tomoe’s report in regards to what the adventurers, who are normally active in the wasteland, are doing in Aion.

They are doing a surprise attack on the enemy units.

However, it is on the pretext of protecting merchant wagons.

It is a tradition of the country to send mounted forces before a decisive battle, and announce that they will be subjugating rebels and bandits with a large army.

Positioning adventurers in antic.i.p.ation to those mounted forces; these are the anglers.

Positioning merchants prepared by Tsige or the cooperating settlements with a big amount of luggage that has a lot of openings; this is the bait.

Aion demanded money at the time of the announcement, and the mounted troops also have the duty to make the settlements provide supplies.

The former is apparently a side benefit, and the latter is a mission.

The merchant guild that got an eye on that tradition apparently thought ‘if they look like they are going to attack, it should be okay to use adventurers to fight back, right?’.

Those mounted forces are composed by elites that would actually be too strong for decent adventurers…but if it is first cla.s.s wasteland adventurers with the element of surprise, it will just be a one-sided slaughter.

Accurate results still haven’t shown, but the chances are high that the mounted forces won’t be able to regroup with the main force.

There were practically no parties who returned with a grim look on their faces.

“They actually attack merchants, huh.”

“Even if left alone, they would get attacked by bandits or something. Then, they would go ‘if there’s going to be bandits ahead, we will be subjugating them, so cough out the money’. It is completely a pretext, but apparently strong bandits would come in less than half a day if they were to refuse.” (Tomoe)

“…Sounds like an end of the world scenario.” (Makoto)

“This time around, the sheeps were also wolves in disguise, so it equalizes.” (Tomoe)

“But I heard that quite a lot of top ranked adventurers were secured for this. Isn’t that putting too much firepower there? Toa is basically the ace of Tsige and all, right? I feel like that’s a waste.” (Makoto)

They have a home in Tsige.

If the army were to push their way till the city, it wouldn’t just be someone else’s business.

Or maybe they plan on returning after the matters of Tsige calm down?

If it were on the a.s.sumption that Tsige will lose, you could say it is an intelligent choice though.

“Waka, top cla.s.s adventurers are well known. They seem to have a mission in that part as well.” (Tomoe)

“As in?” (Makoto)

“The parties would move around prioritizing the places they have a deep connection with, and would request them to cooperate with Tsige or at least maintain a neutral stance.” (Tomoe)

“…To the settlements that are at the central parts of Aion?” (Makoto)

That’s nasty.

The successful adventurers that are like heroes to those places will return to their homeland and tell them stuff like ‘Tsige is a good place’ and ‘the Aion Kingdom is merciless’?

“Haha…there’s no way Rembrandt is that…” (Tomoe)

“Right.” (Makoto)

“Soft. He is paying all the costs, including the use of teleportation and the Golden Highway in the homecoming of the parties…and has spread them around the world. For the parties that are heading to places aside from Aion, this is basically a tour to return to their homes that has been sponsored to them. It is an extravagant travel expense that would make even Koumon-sama pale white.” (Tomoe)

“…The world, huh.” (Makoto)

“Moreover, he thoroughly investigated the parties, avoiding the shady people, and choosing only the parties that have a bright personality and are the target of admiration when dropping the requests. He really goes all out, ahahaha.” (Tomoe)

Don’t laugh in monotone, Tomoe.

That’s scary.

“Admired adventurers, huh… Toa is?” (Makoto)

“Alpine is already a party that’s basically given specifically designated requests in regards to the wasteland after all. They are comfortably going around all of Aion while using that as resting time. They are interacting with the settlements as they gather information.” (Tomoe)

“…Aion? They are not heading towards Lorel and the demi-human settlements?” (Makoto)

“They recently arrived at a settlement that is famous for their slime dishes which you taught them a long time ago, Waka.” (Tomoe)

“Ah, that place. A place that’s pretty close to the capital of Aion.” (Makoto)

“Yeah. There have been reports in the guild that there were surprising good finds there. They got magic bags and managed to acquire equipment.” (Tomoe)

“…New equipment, huh.” (Makoto)

Is it from Rokuya-san?

He was crazy happy about this Tobikato business.

He is moving at an incredibly fast pace.

I am surprised he even had the time to tease me with all he has been doing.

“What is it?” (Tomoe)

Oops.

Tomoe must have felt hidden meaning behind my words, she is urging me to continue on.

“Rokuya-san must be the one involved with the new equipment.” (Makoto)

“Roku…aaah. That fake ninja.” (Tomoe)

“He seemed to be quite happy about the appearance of the first ever Tobikato. He even came to me to thank me.” (Makoto)

“Tobikato…?” (Tomoe)

“Hm? You don’t know? It is a famous person in the warring times of j.a.pan. He led the Kato Group and is said to have been ninjas that use illusions. His nickname was Tobi Kato. For some reason, there’s apparently also jobs called Mugai and Yagyu in the Adventurer Guild.” (Makoto)

The game that served as the base of the joint skill.

Seriously, what MMO was it?

“Ninjas?! Shin.o.bis?!” (Tomoe)

“Yeah. There’s different types of ninjas, but instead of becoming a Hanzo or a Fuuma, Toa became a Tobikato, which you might have been an influence in, Tomoe, since you specialize in illusions.” (Makoto)

I don’t know if the Hanzo or the Fuuma jobs even exist though.

“…Waka…why…why didn’t you tell me sooner?!” (Tomoe)

Eh?

Tomoe spins her fist and seems to be restless.

No well, talking about the job of Toa isn’t that much of a topic to have with Tomoe anyways.

And I can’t go to that shop for a while because of Rokuya-san.

Even at meals, or when bathing, or after that… I really didn’t find a good time to bring out that topic.

“It was just Rokuya-san getting all excited about it, and I didn’t feel like there was any real need to share this.” (Makoto)

“It is a matter of UTMOST importance!” (Tomoe)

“As if.” (Makoto)

“Also, Mugai and Yagyu? What’s with that mouth-watering information? This is supreme information that settles that the Asora residents will be registering in the Adventurer Guild as well! It really is!” (Tomoe)

Mouth-watering and supreme, that’s exaggerating.

It is true that it is interesting information, but I honestly think that learning that the rival of the Neptune King Tuna are the twins An and Chovy was more of a shocking piece of information for me.

At the time when I was told by them that they wanted to dispatch people there to protect Koran because they had business there, I was desperately trying to endure my laughter.

Also, the mountain of anchovies I was given as present.

There may be a lot of fish dishes, but having that all the time as a full course for several days, you would have a bitter smile unless you were someone who likes that food a lot.

Quant.i.ty, quant.i.ty, quant.i.ty.

The amount was astounding.

Ah, by the way, the ones who liked it were the winged-kin.

They were happy as if everyday was their birthday.

Right right, the karaage h.e.l.l is also continuing.

It won’t go as far as being part of our three meals, but there’s no day where it doesn’t show up.

The children are super happy about that.

The demon, Sari, also seemed to like it quite a lot. She was indulging in them with such zeal that it felt like she was counting them as a luxury meal that could even be served as snacks.

I honestly regret having that karaage talk with Rokuya-san.

“To that extent…?” (Makoto)

“Toa, huh. Muuh, meeting her now would be a bit bad. That d.a.m.n Rokuya. Keeping such an auspicious event a secret…!” (Tomoe)

“Auspicious event, you say…” (Makoto)

She is already going crazy.

“But to think the Tobikato originates from a ninja. Looks like I still lack study. Now that it has come to this, I will have to take good care of Toa…” (Tomoe)

“The fact that they are going around Aion must mean that Alpine have another mission aside from gathering good will and splitting.” (Makoto)

“? They want to pull out the Apostle or a subordinate of the king, right?” (Tomoe)

“With Toa?” (Makoto)

“Yeah, she would be the best choice.” (Tomoe)

“…Aah, that’s how it is, huh. Bringing down the “wheels” of the city, right?” (Makoto)

“And to the people who have power, political influence, and distance.” (Tomoe)

Tsige is a city of merchants and adventurers.

Adventurers don’t get involved in politics too much, so as a result, the ones who manage and move the city are the merchants.

Also, there was a time when the dagger Lapis of Toa created trouble for the Kuzunoha Company.

I see, so Aion hasn’t yet received the information regarding what happened after.

That’s why they can move them around so carefreely in Aion.

I get it now.

“And so, the moment they come, counter them.” (Makoto)

“Must be.” (Tomoe)

“Haah, both sides have really thought it thoroughly. It is a war, so that’s obvious, huh.” (Makoto)

“Teleporting your whole forces to the capital and rampaging is a plan that you normally can’t pull out after all.” (Tomoe)

We can though.

But only we can, huh.

“Whatever the case, I think that things are currently proceeding according to the plans of Tsige.” (Tomoe)

“Got it. Thanks… Hey, Tomoe…” (Makoto)

“?”

“When talking about Yagyu, who do you think was the origin of the job?” (Makoto)

I suddenly remembered the part that bothered me in the talk of Rokuya-san, and tried asking Tomoe.

“If it came from the master samurai, it would be Juubei. I personally think Toshikane is also a possibility, but there’s already a Mugai as well. If that’s the case, it should be a general or an instructor…Munenori?” (Tomoe)

“…”

“Waka?” (Tomoe)

“I think you have studied plenty well, Tomoe. You really do love your history.” (Makoto)

“It is my life pursuit!” (Tomoe)

Toshikane, huh.

How to say it. This might be natural since she sees the period dramas and history from my memories, but…the likes of Tomoe and I sometimes overlap, and for someone like me who didn’t have many people who I could share period drama talks with, this feels ticklish and it makes me happy.

These kinds of moments are nice.

I would like things to stay like this forever.

For the sake of Tomoe…I also want Toa to come back safely.

I think that with Rokuya-san and Tomoe having an eye on her, she should be okay.

For some reason, I thought that.