Chapter 143 – Old Connection (2)
After walking through the city for a while, the carriage slowly slowed down in front of a three-story building, then came to a complete stop. Seras and the female student, wearing helmets, got off the carriage in order.
Pangpang, while shaking his butt lightly, Mana looked up and down the building with a satisfied smile.
“Hehe~ Looking at it up close, it feels much better than I expected. Good good. Let’s get together here while staying at Collard.”
“Okay, you’re feeling it again. At least I want you to decide the lodging issue after looking around inside…”
“Listen to everything. Danir, if you’re going to grumble, can you keep it out of my ears?”
Not missing the small muttering of Danir, a bowl-haired young man who had been comforting her horses at the coachman’s seat, Mana hurriedly strode toward the inn.
Seras looked at her from the back and put his hand on Danir’s shoulder as he spoke to her.
“I had a hard time driving it all day. I’ll leave the wagon and go through the dungeon entry procedure at the guild. I told Mana-nim a while ago, so she doesn’t have to tell it.”
“Oh, you said you knew the geography of this city, right?”
“It’s been a while, so I don’t know the details, but I remember the location of the main buildings. Perhaps the adventurer’s guild is also in the place I think.”
“Since senior Seras, who is an elf, says it’s years, I feel a sense of weight…”
ㅡKuddeuk… !
“Gee!!”
“You’re always a problem because you say things you shouldn’t have to say.”
As soon as Seras’ hand, which was placed on Danir’s shoulder, fluttered as he remembered, no small amount of power entered his hand, and he swallowed his words again.
“Mana-sama went inside in the meantime. Hurry up before it’s too late … I’m repeating this just in case, but no matter what happens, stay by his side.”
“Turn it off… Yes, of course.”
After that conversation, Mana and Danir, who entered the inn after parting ways with Seras, asked the manager in suits, who greeted them politely, if there were any rooms left, and fortunately received an affirmative answer.
“Currently, there is only one room left on the 2nd and 3rd floors… Which room would you like to stay in?”
“I’ll borrow both!”
Mana, who made a cool decision and paid the bill for five days, gave her a little tip along with her words to tell her the location of their room when her party dressed in armor returned a little later, and went up.
As she climbed the stairs from her second to the third floor, she turned her head and glanced at Danir, who was following her.
“Since Seras and I are on the third floor, and you are on this floor, why don’t you just follow me?”
“It’s a joke… Just in case, one of us has to stand by our side unconditionally.”
“Let’s sell our worries at an inn in the capital. I want to leisurely look around the room by myself.”
ㅡ Clap, mate!
As if having come up with a good idea, Mana lightly clapped her hands and added a word.
“I’ll tell Seras that I’ve always been with you.”
“It’s a problem because I can’t lie. If you get caught, it’s a shame in many ways. Hairless. Please don’t cut my food line. Please.”
Mana looked at her pleading Danil in a gesture of slitting her own throat, covered her mouth, giggled for a moment, then closed her expression and let out a voice of mercy.
“Hehe, Jeong, then there’s nothing you can do about it. You may follow me.”
“Whoa…”
Thinking that it would be more convenient to drive a carriage, Danir and Mana went upstairs to the room where she and Seras would stay for a few days.
The room was so large and spacious that I thought it would be too much for only two people to stay in, and it was prepared with all kinds of furniture and conveniences such as a bathtub.
“This inn has a feeling like this~ It doesn’t feel sober here either, so it needs to be decorated appropriately.”
After looking around her room for a while while humming her song, Mana, who made a concise assessment, took out large and small glass bottles from her bag and began to arrange them in her room.
In the bottle, a unicorn’s eyeball, a griffon’s beak, a manticore’s poison tail, and so on… The body parts of all kinds of rare monsters are pickled in formalin.
… After a while.
“Whoa~ Whoops. This is perfect.”
Mana smiled contentedly as she looked around her room again decorated with her own collection.
‘Ugh, gross. What’s so good about these pieces of meat… I will never adapt to this collection for the rest of my life.’
Unlike her, her Dani Le, who was by her side, made her feel sick already.
“How is it? Danir, isn’t it much more unique now than the plain scenery from a while ago?”
“Yes, yes, yes, that’s right. Certainly, the ‘personality’ is huge.”
Mana smiled at her rather satisfactory answer, her eyes shining through her thick glasses as she looked at the glass bottle containing the dinosaur flesh, the object that was the decisive moment of this trip.
“It’s a dungeon full of new Drakes. Just imagining meeting them in person is thrilling. I’ll ask for an escort once you get in there.”
“I don’t agree with Mana-sama’s hobbies, but well… I will definitely do my job. Just rely on me and Seras-senpai.”
“Yep. It’s trustworthy.”
For a while after that, the two of them chatted while looking at the scenery over the railing, and Mana’s whim, saying that being in her room was boring, forced them to go downstairs again.
“Oh?”
There was a group I ran into while going down the stairs from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor.
A human woman who appears to be a wizard wearing a bold robe that half-exposes her voluptuous upper body, and a demonic woman with impressive horns rising under her hood worn down.
“…”
“…”
The two of them passed by, exchanging eye contact with each other, while Mana stared blankly at the back of the girls as they entered their room.
“Wow, they are both beautiful.”
“I thought there were only two special rooms on the third floor, right? Are those demons slaves led by wizards?”
Demons who live in human cities often live as someone’s slaves, so Dani made a reasonable guess.
“Probably not. The air you feel between the two of you and the look in your eyes are completely different from those of slaves.”
Even as she said that, the demonic beauty and horns on her head, which she had noticed earlier, shimmered in her mind.
“The horns are really pretty. What’s his name? If possible, I’d like to add that demon’s horn to my collection as well.”
“!”
Danir, startled by Mana’s unmistakable display of possessiveness, desperately stopped her.
“Mana-sama! If even a demon does such a thing… !”
“Hey, I’m kidding. Joke. Why are you so serious about being surprised?”
“It’s because I can’t take it as a joke if Mana-sama, not anyone else, says that.”
“I’m not the type to go that far. Let’s go on our way.”
Mana, who showed no regrets on the outside, had the idea that if there was a chance in the future, she would like to talk to that demon separately.
* * *
Meanwhile.
From dungeons to abandoned mines, from abandoned mines to collars…
Roden, who returned to the city without any problems with Marill, reported his return to the adventurer’s guild receptionist and announced that he would challenge the dungeon again in the near future.
“… Are you really okay with entering the dungeon three times in a row?”
“It’s okay. Are there any procedural issues?”
“Oh, no. Seats remain, so no problem. I’m just a little surprised. There are very few adventurer parties that go in there three times in a row. Anyway, please read here and sign.”
Here is a rough summary of the contents of the document shown to the receptionist:
The guild is not responsible for any serious injury or death occurring inside the dungeon, but all loot acquired is recognized as the property of the adventurer, and a dungeon bounty of 5 gold is paid when attacking the dungeon. … Called.
“Next time, I will consult with the party to decide how many people will enter and come back.”
“All right. That it costs 5 silver per person. Please keep that in mind.”
“Yes.”
Since it is stabilizing and managing the surroundings of the dungeon by mobilizing the manpower of the adventurer’s guild, you have to pay a fee to use it.
After finishing his conversation with the receptionist, Roden strode to the waiting area where Marill was seated.
“Are you bored of waiting?”
“No, it didn’t take too long. Anyway, Master, that person…”
Rising from her seat and turning her head away, Marill turned her attention to the figure who was talking to the receptionist right after Roden.
What you see is a knight armed with light green armor. He was wearing a sword on his waist and a bow and arrow holder on his back.
“Your equipment is exceptionally better than the adventurers around you.”
“The weapons and armor are all flawless. … There’s no way I wouldn’t remember if he was dressed like that, but he must be someone I haven’t seen since the timing wasn’t right.”
Roden, who was evaluating the knight’s equipment, recalled the gaze he felt from behind when he was at the reception desk a moment ago.
‘A while ago, I felt like that nobleman was glaring at me… Is it excessive self-consciousness?’
Roden, who fell for a simple feeling, left the building with Marill.
… And after a few minutes
“You worked hard, then excuse me.”
Seras, a knight who had finished his errands at the reception desk, began to follow the traces of Roden and Marill, who had been keeping an eye on them even while talking with the receptionist, using his innate tracking skills.
‘I don’t know if it’s going to be too late to come back… I have to check it out.’
