Baronet Dyukeli
Satou here. I think that as long as society persists, conflicts of interest will occur one way or another. Even if it’s impossible to please everyone, I think it’s important to try and reach a compromise so that we can get closer to our ideals, one step at a time.
“Calm down, Sir Luram.”
The boy was flying into a panic, repeating the phrases “help!” and “Mary-Ann’s in the labyrinth!” over and over without giving me any details.
Once I got him to take a few deep breaths and calm down, he explained that he had been walking around eating when he saw Mary-Ann, Baronet Dyukeli’s daughter, get invited into the labyrinth by a rogue party of explorers.
“Have you contacted the baronet’s family?”
“Uh-huh. Th-the old man sent me.”
Luram said it had been less than half an hour since Miss Mary-Ann had gone into the labyrinth.
“I shall go into the labyrinth to find her, then.”
“L-let me—”
“You must stay here and inform Baronet Dyukeli of the situation when he arrives, Sir Luram.”
I stopped him before he could say he wanted to come with me.
“A-all right.”
Leaving the young man there, I headed for the labyrinth.
As I went through the gates and dashed down the uneven steps, I used my map search to ascertain Miss Mary-Ann’s current location.
She was in a narrow passage not far from the main hallway of section 1, hunting demi-goblins with three female explorers.
Silencing my footsteps, I snuck toward the spot where they were fighting.
“Come on, little lady! If you’re too focused on one, another monster’ll getcha!”
“Gah-ha-ha! Guess even little noble brats bleed red!”
“Uh-oh, there’s a maze moth above you! Watch out for its paralysis, girlie!”
I could hear the women jeering unpleasantly up ahead.
“P-please assist me. I can’t do this on my own.”
Judging by the position of the dots on my radar, the explorer women were just standing around watching Mary-Ann struggle, ignoring her requests for help.
As I reached the end of the passage, I could see them down below. This passage seemed to come out right above where they were fighting.
“Oh dear, I thought you said you could take a goblin no problem?”
“Why, you’ve even fought a soldier mantis, haven’t you?”
“If you can handle that, you don’t need armor to fight a goblin, right, girlie?”
This last speaker was holding a metal breastplate and smirking.
So they were forcing Mary-Ann to fight demi-goblins without her armor.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I felt like I was witnessing a particularly nasty form of bullying.
Jumping to the ground about ten feet below, I cut down the demi-goblins with my fairy sword, then stood between Miss Mary-Ann and the female explorers to protect her.
> Title Acquired: Savior of Maidens
“We were just training the kid, that’s all…”
“And you had to take away her armor to do that?”
The demi-goblins’ claws had torn up Mary-Ann’s shirt, and her health bar was down by nearly half.
“Th-this is how we train, that’s all!”
“Ugh. Let’s get out of here, ladies.”
“Have fun with your man, little girl!”
The women started to flee, but I grabbed one by her leg with Magic Hand to send her tumbling to the ground, and the other two tripped over her and fell.
As they tried to scramble to their feet, I quickly tied them up with rope from my Garage Bag.
“Wh-what the hell’re you doing?”
“Untie us!”
“You perv!”
“You didn’t seem to have the best intentions. I’m taking you to the guild.”
If I hadn’t gotten there in time, there was a good chance they would have watched Miss Mary-Ann die.
These women had gone a little too far for me to let them off with merely a warning.
“Why would you rescue some bastard noble’s daughter?”
“Yeah, everyone hates Dyukeli. We just wanted to cheer up our pals.”
“How many explorers d’you think died ’cause of Dyukeli’s money-making schemes?!”
“If we made him regret it, magic potions would be cheaper!”
As the tied-up female explorers flailed and raged, Mary-Ann looked away sadly.
These women must have lured her into the labyrinth to get their revenge on Baronet Dyukeli.
“No, you only wanted to take out your own frustration on her. Don’t claim to speak for other explorers.”
“But it’s true! Everyone says so!”
“And who is ‘everyone,’ exactly?” I shot a cold glare at the women. My gaze must have been affected by the “Intimidation” skill, because they started to cower immediately.
I didn’t doubt that some explorers had likely died because they couldn’t afford magic potions, but that was no excuse to blame everything on Baronet Dyukeli, in my opinion.
If they didn’t have magic potions, they should take safety precautions accordingly.
And picking on his young daughter in retaliation certainly wasn’t the answer.
“Lady Mary-Ann, those wounds might leave a scar. Drink this magic potion to help with that.”
I handed Mary-Ann a lesser magic potion.
Her wounds seemed shallow enough, but since they were caused by demi-goblins’ undoubtedly filthy claws, they would probably get infected if left untreated.
Mary-Ann looked at the potion but made no move to drink it.
She must have felt self-conscious about it after what the women said.
“If you’re covered in blood, His Excellency will surely be worried.”
I pulled out a fake scroll and pretended to use it while I healed her wounds with Healing Magic and cleaned away the dried blood from her clothes with Everyday Magic.
“Here’s a change of clothes, Lady Mary-Ann.”
Even with the blood removed, her shirt was still torn in all sorts of places, so I carefully averted my eyes while handing her one of Lulu’s spare shirts. The fabric was ordinary cotton, but since it was made by brownie house fairies, it was exceptionally comfortable.
“Thank you, Sir Knight.”
Mary-Ann bowed her head quietly. I had her put her armor back on before we headed to the exit.
Since I was dragging the tied-up women along, we got some strange looks from explorers on the way, but they were quick to avert their eyes when they noticed my noble clothing.
At the gate, I explained the situation and turned the women in to the guild employee. Then Mary-Ann and I left the labyrinth.
While we were walking toward the west guild, I saw a stylish black carriage speeding into the square. Not far behind it were some armored men riding in a cart.
The carriage screeched to a halt, the door burst open, and an older gentleman—Baronet Dyukeli—came flying out.
From a distance, I saw the baronet speak with little Luram, then come running toward us with the men in tow. He looked extremely distressed.
“Your ride is here, Lady Mary-Ann,” I commented.
“Father…”
Mary-Ann looked up with a mixture of relief and discomfort.
“Mary-Ann!”
Noticing us, Baronet Dyukeli flashed a look of relief, but it was quickly replaced by anger as he charged over.
I thought he was going to scoop her up in a hug, but instead he slapped her harshly across the cheek.
“You foolish child!”
“Father, I was—”
“You can give your excuses at home.”
Baronet Dyukeli grabbed his daughter’s slender arm, ignoring her protests. Then his sharp gaze fell on me.
“I deeply appreciate your assistance. Allow me to thank you someday soon.”
With that, he dragged Mary-Ann away.
For a moment there, I had been bracing myself for him to assume that I was the one who had taken his daughter into the labyrinth, but fortunately it seemed that Luram had told him that I went to rescue her.
As Baronet Dyukeli stormed back into the carriage with his daughter in tow, Luram came up to me instead.
“I’m glad Mary-Ann is okay.” Luram’s stomach grumbled. “All this relief is making me hungry.”
“Here. A little reward for my helper behind the scenes.”
I produced some handmade fried-whale skewers from Storage and handed them to the boy.
He was today’s MVP for alerting me to Mary-Ann’s plight, after all.
“Wow, it’s even yummier than usual!”
Thanking Luram as he delightedly gobbled up the whale meat, I bought some veria water from a passing peddler to quench my thirst.
I guess that takes care of things for now.
“Welcome, Sir Pendragon. Glad you could make it to our banquet.”
“Thank you for inviting me.”
A few days after I rescued Miss Mary-Ann, I was invited to Baronet Dyukeli’s place for dinner.
Seated at the long table in the dining room was the baronet, his wife, Mary-Ann, and her older brother, the baronet’s eldest son.
According to the information I’d gathered beforehand, the baronet had no concubines or lovers, which was rare for a noble of the Shiga Kingdom.
Mary-Ann’s cheek had been healed with a magic potion, so there was no trace of the spot where her father had slapped her, but her makeup couldn’t quite hide the reddening around her eyes that suggested she’d been crying.
This was the second time I’d seen her in a dress, the first time being at the viceroy’s wife’s tea party. Personally, I thought it suited her better than her usual boyish attire with a rapier at her waist.
“S-so you’re Sir Pendragon? Thank you for rescuing my sister.”
The pale eldest son smiled at me weakly.
He seemed sort of wispy, and not in a good way. My AR display showed his status as Goblin Disease: Chronic .
He was sixteen, two years older than Miss Mary-Ann, but he looked younger than her.
Seeing them all lined up like this, the large gap between Baronet Dyukeli’s age and that of his children was very clear.
“Since you’re known as a gourmet, I outdid myself with the food today.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Should you really be tooting your own horn like that?
The way he said that bothered me a little, but the meal itself really was delicious and consisted of ingredients that were very rare in Labyrinth City.
Someone with the “Item Box” skill had probably transported the ingredients here in a refrigerating magic tool over a long distance.
“Joss, eat your vegetables.”
“But I hate vegetables.”
With my “Keen Hearing” skill, I heard the baronet’s wife scolding her son, who was eating only meat and bread.
Noticing this, Baronet Dyukeli scowled. “Quiet, Hoshess. Not in front of our guest.”
His wife stiffened and apologized to her husband and me. She looked back at her son as if she wanted to say something else, but he continued to ignore his vegetables and happily scarfed down a filet of Ohmi beef with sweet-and-sour sauce.
The uncomfortable atmosphere made it difficult to enjoy the delicious food, but I did my best to keep up polite conversation until the dinner finally ended with a pear compote that I forced down so quickly, I couldn’t remember the taste.
“You’re an explorer, right, Sir Pendragon? Tell us some stories.”
“Joss, I have to talk business with Sir Pendragon. You can ask to hear his stories another time.”
“Hmph.”
The boy pouted childishly, and his father smacked him upside the head.
“Honestly, will you ever grow up?”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on his muttered remark.
“That seems about right for his age,” I volunteered.
“Can you really say that when you’re younger than he is?”
Baronet Dyukeli smiled wryly as he led me into the parlor.
Oh right. I guess I look only fifteen or so.
“I wish my son could be more like you in… No, I suppose I shouldn’t make that sort of complaint to a guest.”
I sat down on the sofa in the understated parlor. It wasn’t terribly soft, but it had a nice antiquated aesthetic.
“Thank you for saving Mary-Ann twice now.” Baronet Dyukeli placed two old scrolls on the table. “Consider these a token of my appreciation.”
“Magic Scrolls?”
“I heard that you collect them.”
“Do you mind if I take a look?”
He shook his head, so I carefully opened the scrolls. One was for the Stone Object spell, and the other was Create Earth Servant.
They both sounded so enticing that I wanted to teleport to the labyrinth and test them out right away.
Delicately, I placed them back on the table so I wouldn’t damage them.
“These seem very rare.”
“I originally collected them for Count Fudai and Viscount Gohato, but because I didn’t have anything else that seemed likely to excite you, I decided they should go to you instead.”
“I’ll have to thank Count Fudai and Viscount Gohato, too, then.”
“Neither of them is terribly practical, so don’t expect too much.”
The baronet seemed to have sensed my excitement.
“I’m only interested in collecting them, simply happy to own such rare scrolls.”
“Very well, then.”
“By the way, these look different from the scrolls Viscount Siemmen’s workshop produces. Were they found in treasure chests in the Celivera Labyrinth?”
I could tell from my AR that they were from a place called the Sandstorm Labyrinth , but I decided to ask in a roundabout way.
“No, I’m told they came from a labyrinth that has long since perished.”
He went on to explain that they were sold to him by a foreign merchant who came looking to buy magic weapons.
When I collected the scrolls, maids came over to place beautiful drinking glasses on the table and filled them with a whiskey that smelled powerfully of barley.
“Incidentally, Sir Pendragon…” Baronet Dyukeli took a long drink of whiskey before he spoke. “I have a request to ask of you. It’s about my son.”
“What can I help you with?”
“Do you know about his illness?”
“I’m not aware of the name of the illness, but I have heard that he fell victim to an incurable disease of some kind, yes.”
After requesting that I not speak a word of this to anyone, the baronet told me that his son had the serious Goblin Disease, which he had been treating with ogredrink potion provided by Sokell.
Of course, I already knew all this from my map, but obviously I couldn’t reveal that.
“So are you asking me to make an ogredrink potion?”
Maybe he knew that “Transmutation” was among my publicly viewable skills.
“No, I have plenty of alchemists I could go to for that. I want to ask you to procure ingredients.”
“Ingredients, is it…?”
The ogredrink potion contained ingredients also found in illegal drugs like demonic potion and corpse potion, so they would be difficult to acquire while there was such a fuss about illicit demonic-potion production going on.
I could find the ingredients easily enough with my map, but that would probably make people suspect me of producing illegal drugs.
“I know they are difficult to obtain. And I’ve been told that the guildmaster and a so-called follower of the Hero burned the plunderers’ hideouts. But the explorers who can go deep into the labyrinth are too obsessed with defeating floormasters to listen to me. I’ve asked Silverlight and some of the mid-ranking explorers as well, but none of them responded favorably.”
That made sense to me. Mid-ranking explorers could earn a steady living easily enough, so I didn’t think they would accept a risky request to wander the labyrinth in search of rare ingredients.
“Is there no other cure but ogredrink potion?”
“Of course there is. Bloodstone powder and cure-all would both be more effective than ogredrink potion. I have ordered them, but they are too expensive to use so readily.”
More expensive than sending garnet-badge-explorer parties into the labyrinth?
Come to think of it, he hadn’t mentioned bloodpearl powder, which should also cure Goblin Disease. The imperial family of the Saga Empire had a monopoly on bloodpearls. Maybe he thought it wasn’t worth mentioning?
“I was hoping that Princess Meetia’s Breath of Purification might be of help, but judging by Miss Shina’s condition, it seems I can’t expect too much.”
My mind ran to the young Princess Meetia from the Nolork Kingdom.
Her gift from the Heraluon faith, Breath of Purification, had healed the Miasma Poisoning of the viceroy’s fourth daughter, Shina, but it had had no effect on her Goblin Disease.
According to my documents, because this illness was essentially a lifestyle disease brought on by vitamin deficiency, purifying it wouldn’t do much.
If anything, drinking vegetable juice would probably be more helpful.
At any rate, I hadn’t cured the viceroy’s daughter myself because I didn’t want to cause any trouble for Princess Meetia, who was friends with Arisa and the others.
It was becoming clear over time that her Breath of Purification didn’t work on Goblin Disease. I suspected they would seek another cure soon.
So I was copying down all the documents I had about the disease for just such an occasion.
“Would a cure-all work?”
“We tried it once when my son was younger. It seemed to have cured him at first, but the disease returned within less than a year.”
My guess was that the cure-all had fixed it, but it came back because he didn’t improve his eating habits.
“I researched this when I learned of Lady Shina’s illness…”
With that, I gave him the information in question and recommended improving his son’s diet.
I even showed him the original documents to make it more convincing.
“Hmm. Vitamin deficiency, you say? I do believe I’ve read about this in the great ancestral king’s writings.”
Ooh, nice one, Ancestral King. That’s helpful information to leave for future generations.
“It refers to good spirits that hide in vegetables and livestock entrails and the like, yes?”
…Not even close.
Where did the “spirits” part come from?
Oh well. At least the important information was in there somewhere.
“Yes, that’s right. The ones that hide in entrails are tricky, however, so I’m told you have to cook them over flame first to burn away their tendency toward trickery.”
Using my “Fabrication” skill, I came up with an arbitrary reason to warn him against eating liver and similar foods raw.
“But my son despises vegetables, I’m afraid…”
Yeah, I noticed.
“Have you considered trying vegetable juice?”
“I have heard of such things for fruit, but vegetables?”
It occurred to me that I had never seen a magic tool resembling a juicer before.
“Yes, an alchemist friend of mine had a magic tool that could turn vegetable ingredients into liquid. If you give me some time, I can ask whether we’d be able to acquire one.”
Baronet Dyukeli frowned in thought.
I’d expected him to agree right away, but apparently, something was making him hesitate.
“Turning vegetables into liquid… And you’re certain there are no negative side effects?”
Ah, I see. A very parental concern.
“It’s just like regular cooking. The only difference is that it uses a magic tool instead of cooking implements.”
It would be dangerous if he had some kind of vegetable allergy. I called on his wet nurse and asked her, but she said he had never shown such symptoms on the rare occasion he did eat vegetables.
When I said there should be no problem, then, the baronet asked me to acquire one for him.
“All right. I’ll send a letter requesting to purchase the magic tool, then. Since this friend of mine lives far away, I may need a little time… How much ogredrink potion do you have in stock?”
“About a month’s worth. That’s how long it stays effective, so His Excellency the viceroy is probably in the same state.”
That’s not much.
I felt confident that the vegetable juice could cure his condition, but probably not in one month.
“Then it might be best to submit a request for potion ingredients to the explorers’ guild.”
“You cannot take the request on yourself?”
“I’m afraid we specialize in defeating monsters, not gathering ingredients. We’ll search any likely areas along the way, but I do not know whether we’ll be able to harvest them while preserving the active ingredient.”
I gave a distant response, not wanting him to depend on me too much.
Although of course I would collect enough ingredients just in case, with the viceroy’s daughter’s condition and all.
“If you put out the request, explorers are likely to search for them, and other experts might come to Labyrinth City if they hear that there’s a potential for profit.”
Most of the garnet-badge explorers might not be available, but harvesting specialists probably wouldn’t be too eager to fight floormasters, so they were probably just collecting magic potion ingredients due to the high demand.
“No, I won’t be submitting a request. If I do, it might have the opposite effect.”
The baronet appeared to be aware that he was hated by explorers.
“Could you perhaps ask a doctor or alchemist friend to submit it in your place?”
“The result would be the same. Explorers dislike anyone in my employ as well.”
They must think of them as his cohorts.
“About the magic potions…,” I began.
“Yes, I know. If I was to lower the price, the explorers would doubtless change their tune, but I cannot do that. Do you know why?”
Sure. It’s a major source of income for you.
I couldn’t very well say that, so I just shook my head.
“Compared with the royal capital area, Labyrinth City has far less areas where one can find magic potion ingredients. I keep the price stable because if it was any lower, the alchemists would have a hard time eking out a living due to the rising costs of ingredients. Some of them can barely afford to eat as is.”
I see. So it was actually a case of extreme deflation.
“The situation even led some to quit alchemy or leave Labyrinth City altogether.”
He explained that he took the lead for the waning alchemists’ and doctors’ guilds and accepted the role of being hated for raising the prices.
Incidentally, he added that the guilds were obligated to sell magic potions at the same price as they went for in the royal capital area.
This is a problem.
If the potions were too expensive, the explorers would be in trouble, but if they were too low, the alchemists would struggle.
For explorers, magic potions were a life-saving last resort in the case of unforeseen danger. Ideally, they should be affordable even for newbie explorers.
But it wasn’t right for alchemists and doctors to not be able to eat, either. I sorted through the information in my mind, trying to find a solution that would satisfy both sides.
High costs of ingredients. Shortages. Not enough areas to find the necessary materials.
So if the ingredients were cheaply and widely available, would that solve the problem?
There were plenty of them deep in the upper stratum of the labyrinth, but going that far to get them wasn’t profitable for explorers.
Determined, I searched through the documents left behind by Trazayuya, the elf sage who had once worked in the Celivera Labyrinth.
“…Veria potion?”
Veria was a kind of succulent that grew plentifully outside Labyrinth City and could apparently be used to make a health recovery potion.
“Hmph. An oft-used lie of swindlers.”
“Swindlers?”
“That’s right. If someone tried to sell such a thing to you, you should report them to the police immediately. That’s a swindler, without a doubt.” Baronet Dyukeli’s voice was hard. “They use the so-called legend that an elf sage once made magic potions from veria and try to sell fakes from an incomplete recipe at high prices.”
The baronet added that nobles and merchants who were new to Labyrinth City often fell for such schemes.
“An incomplete recipe?”
“Indeed. Two hundred years ago, an apprentice of the sage was able to reproduce it using transmutation equipment the sage left behind, but ever since that equipment broke, veria potions have been the stuff of legend.”
I looked at the recipe in my documents.
True enough, it wouldn’t be possible to make it in this state without an elf Transmutation Tablet.
If I wanted to popularize the use of these potions in Labyrinth City, I would have to adapt the recipe for human Transmutation Tablets.
Deciding to research this later, I went back to the topic of ogredrink-potion ingredients for now.
“As for the ingredients we discussed before, would it be all right if I submit the request to the guildmaster and have her put it out as a formal request from the guild itself?”
“I suppose those damn explorers might accept it then…”
Damn explorers?
Couldn’t you be a little more respectful?
“These are the ingredients we’re missing.”
I looked at the list of ingredients and their requisite amounts listed on the paper he handed me, then wrote down the reward amount he was offering.
I was willing to just put out the ingredient-gathering request as a favor, but he gave me a rare magic spell book as thanks.
The book was written by an Earth Magic user who had dedicated his life to the labyrinth, including his studies about golems.
He had probably prepared this to go with the scrolls he gave me earlier.
“By the by, Sir Pendragon, do you know of a magic potion called Monster Incense?”
“No, I’ve never heard of it.”
It wasn’t anywhere in my recipes, either.
“It’s a forbidden potion that attracts nearby monsters,” Baronet Dyukeli explained. “I’m told that someone has been bringing bewitching slime to unlicensed alchemists and demanding that they make Monster Incense.”
He didn’t know who the culprit was.
I tried searching my map for Monster Incense but didn’t find anything. Unfortunately, the contents of an Item Box wouldn’t show up on my map search, so I couldn’t say for sure that it didn’t exist within the city.
“That’s troubling news. I’ll have to be careful when next I enter the labyrinth.”
With our discussion at an end, I decided to take my leave.
“Thank you for your help.”
“Not at all. I’ll handle it.”
Baronet Dyukeli saw me to the entryway, then bowed deeply.
I guess he cared more about his son than he let on.
Miss Mary-Ann was watching from the window. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but, worried about raising weird flags for future events, I ignored her.
I would just have to find an explorer school that she could attend with the viceroy’s son Gerits to keep them both happy.
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