Interlude: After the Trip
“Did you have fun on the field trip?”
“Aye!”
“It was very, very exerciting, sir!”
When they got back to the royal capital manor, Tama and Pochi eagerly conveyed the fun of the field trip to the rest of the group with the help of a great deal of gesturing.
On top of their “bestie,” it seemed they now had “henchmen.”
From the sound of it, the nuance was more of an apprentice than a manservant.
“When I saw the signal flare go up, I never would’ve guessed that they were fighting an airwalk tiger. Boy, was I surprised.”
“Ni-he-he?”
“It was a fun challenge, sir.”
Mistaking Hikaru’s comment for a compliment, Tama and Pochi beamed.
Until Liza bopped them both on the head anyway.
“How many times have we told you to press the emergency alert button if a powerful enemy shows up?”
From their expressions, they’d clearly forgotten.
“Sorryyy…”
“We’re sorry, sir.”
Since it had appeared right after a series of weak monsters, evidently it hadn’t occurred to them to press the button in time.
“It’s a good thing you showed up when you did, Hikaru.”
“Ah-ha-ha, I just finished off what was already just about done. They could’ve easily won without me, I’m sure.”
I thanked Hikaru despite her modesty.
“By the way, I found this…”
Hikaru pulled out a crushed metal part from her Item Box.
“A Screw, huh?”
It was a tool for controlling monsters that came from the Weaselman Empire.
My guess was that the people who had attempted to assassinate Duke Vistall were using it to try to take Sherin hostage.
“Did they catch the culprits who were controlling the monsters?”
“I don’t know if it was all of them, but they did find a bunch of massacred corpses.”
They’d been torn apart by giant claws, likely killed by the airwalk tiger.
“Was the airwalk tiger being controlled, too?”
“Uh-uh. There was no Screw in its head. That type of monster tends to be motivated by curiosity, so it probably got drawn to the movement of all those monsters.”
Ah, so the people who were up to no good basically got killed by karma.
“What were you doing out there anyway?” I asked Hikaru.
“Some of my friends are buried in the area. I just happened to be visiting their graves when everything went down.”
Hikaru looked a little somber.
“More importantly, the auction starts tomorrow, right? Are you all ready?”
“Yep, locked and loaded.”
She had obviously changed the subject to clear up the slight sadness in the air. I went along with the flow.
My biggest objective in the auction was the Prayer Ring.
I wanted to win it no matter what, since it might be able to free Arisa and Lulu from their Geist.
I’d made all kinds of preparations, although maybe I should come up with a few last-ditch measures in case of emergency.
“Oh, I know! Sete gave me a bunch of gold to help me make arrangements or some such thing. Why don’t you use it to help with a winning bid?”
With that, Hikaru reached into her Item Box and handed me a pouch of around a thousand gold coins she’d gotten from the king.
“In that case, you can use what I’ve earned from helping Miss Nina and the Echigoya Company, too.”
Arisa brought out a pouch as well, prompting the rest of the group to start piling their pocket money on the table from their Fairy Packs.
“I-it’s not much, but…”
“Master, I will provide my stocks, I declare.”
“Here.”
“This is the prize money I earned from my battles in Labyrinth City.”
Liza had a pretty significant stash.
“Pochi will give up her pocket money, too, sir!”
“Tama toooo?”
Tama and Pochi enthusiastically fished through their Fairy Packs, though not to much avail.
“Found it, sir!”
Pochi found a single copper coin and added it to the table with a big smile.
Tama’s shoulders slouched; she must not have found any.
“Sorryyy…,” she said despondently.
I patted her head. “No need to apologize.”
It was no surprise that she didn’t have any left, since I only ever gave Tama and Pochi enough money to buy snacks anyway. No doubt the money I gave them for the New Year had already been turned into meat skewers, too.
“Hikaru, everyone, thank you.”
I bowed my head in gratitude to the group for the 1,300 or so gold coins on the table.
I already had some 300,000 gold coins prepared for the auction, but the gesture was so sweet that I couldn’t turn them down.
Once the auction was over, I’d return their money with my heartfelt thanks.
“Hey, Satou. What’s the auction hall like?”
“The main hall is about as big as a sports arena. I’m told that there will be lots of shopping stalls and food carts set up at the venue on the big day, sort of like a festival.”
The rest of the girls looked fascinated by my response to Hikaru’s question.
“I’ll probably be stuck in the auction hall all day, but I’ll give you each some spending money to enjoy it to the fullest.”
“Exciting.”
“Yaaay?”
“Sir!”
Mia and the others all expressed their excitement.
“Sounds like the kind of place where there might be a lot of pickpockets and purse snatchers.”
“Yeah, there are already some out and about.”
I’d spotted a few thefts when I went with some of the Echigoya Company to hand over goods for sale.
There were also con men near the auction hall selling fakes and criminal guild members milling about, all of whom I’d captured and turned in to the guards’ station.
“Who are you going as on the day of?”
“Kuro, I think.”
I was going as a member of the Echigoya Company.
I’d heard at a tea party that there was a system of using a proxy to bid at the auction, which many nobles used to participate indirectly. Thus, I had set up that system for Satou to use a hired proxy to bid on scrolls, Gift Orbs, and so on.
“Well, no cheating.”
“I would never lay a hand on my employees.”
My heart belongs only to my beloved Miss Aaze, the high elf of Bolenan Forest.
Now, all that was left to do was to win the Prayer Ring in the auction and free Arisa and Lulu from their Geist, and my mission in the royal capital would be complete.
I was a little curious about the Ichirou Suzuki from Hikaru’s world, but if the deity said he wouldn’t show up, it would probably be fine.
If only there were two Prayer Rings, I would use the other one to wish that Hikaru could be reunited with her Ichirou…
Oh, right, I almost forgot.
“Hikaru, I wanted to ask you a favor…”
Might as well throw in one last strategic move.
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