The next day, Kyou-san and I visit the castle.

Even though the church is a part of it, it’s being about two and a half months since I last went into the actual castle building.

“Good morning, guardsman-san.”

“Oh, Momokawa-dono! Great to see you again!”

“Thanks. Ah. Hallo, cook-san.”

“Momokawa-kun, you’re as pretty as ever. Is this your boyfriend?”

“No.” Uh, so cold. Her smile vanishes from existence in a fraction of a second.

Kyou-san takes time to greet anyone we meet. Why is everyone so nice to her and some are even including me!? I mean, she’s the hero who got left behind because she was weak. There is no reason to be so friendly to her…

They are luring us into a trap!

“Ken, do you actually think that they’re tricking us?”

“Aren’t they?” I whisper my words and look around carefully. With my [Perception]-ability I should be able to see through their farce.

“No. It’s my [Persuasion], idiot. Isn’t there something like this in games?”

[Persuasion], one of the seven attributes.

[Strength] for damage and physical prowess.

[Vitality] for pain-tolerance and resistance.

[Dexterity] for eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.

[Agility] for speed and reaction time.

[Intelligence] for memory and math.

[Luck] for… being lucky, I guess. It seems to work into all kinds of things.

Finally, [Persuasion], which describes how… Erm, what was it? Can’t be so important. It’s my lowest stat and I simply ignored it, so when I read about it from the pamphlet of the manual that was given us, I deemed it unimportant and then forgot about it.

“What is [Persuasion] again?” I could re-read it, but it’s not worth the effort.

“It measures how non-heroes react to you if you try social interactions.”

“So the more you have, the more people like you?”

“No, it’s more like ‘trust’ or maybe ‘success in doing what you want to’. For example, if I request something, the request is more likely to be fulfilled. If I threaten someone, it’s more likely to intimidate them. If I lie, it’s more likely to be believed as true.”

“… What an evil [Attribute]!” No wonder Kyou-san has that much of it!

“Are you thinking something rude?”

“No… but wait, it’s only within social interactions and what again?”

“It doesn’t work on heroes. Before we went to pilgrimage, my [Persuasion] wasn’t enough to get much better treatment. Teru-chan had a higher score than me and now that I think about it, I felt the difference already back then.”

“…Who?”

“Kurosawa Teruko. … One of our classmates? … My friend?”

“The one with the ponytail?”

“That’s Eri-chan. Teru-chan is small and cute.”

“Ah, the shrimp. So she’s called… Teru?”

“Kurosawa Teruko. Can’t you remember your classmates names?”

“You remember that I don’t care about these guys at all? Let me count… I know five names at all. Well, six now. Kurosaki Teruko!”

“…I want to make a comment, but I don’t know where to begin with.” Kyou-san is holding her head as if she has a headache.

I see, so Kyou-san’s [Persuasion] went up quite a bit. Though it’s just natural since she was Level 5 when we started the journey and she’s now level 20.

“Wait, is that the reason why the ss’rak were listening to you but tried to kill me whenever I tried to negotiate?”

“Most likely.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me then?”

“I needed some time to figure it out.”

… Dammit, Kyou-san! Stop making sense!

I take a look at all the people in the castle corridors. Most of them are most likely servants and there are some guards here and there; even though it’s supposed to be the royal castle of the kingdom, its inhabitants are mostly commoners. There is currently only one guy that wears fancy clothes and he just walked into that corridor from behind a corner.

Wait, don’t I know that guy? When did I see him? … “Ah, isn’t it the chancellor?”

“Oh, that one you remember.” Kyou-san doesn’t seem to feel great seeing the chancellor. Maybe something happened, but she has to be the one to speak to him since I don’t really know him.

I met him back when we were summoned, saw him a few times, but since I disappeared after two days, he won’t remember me.

Kyou-san inhales deeply: “Good. I’m ready.” I think she almost pumped her fist, but hesitates after giving me a quick glance. “Excuse us, chancellor-san, but we have to talk.”

“Oh, Momokawa-dono. Long time no see. I heard you came back yesterday, so I wanted to visit you. Yet when I had the time, you weren’t in your quarters anymore and nobody knew your whereabouts.”

“There are reasons for this, but my companion and I have important information to share. It’s about a danger which might befall the kingdom.”

“I see... The king is attending to government business, but this seems to be important.”

…it’s that easy? Wait… [Persuasion], huh? What a cheat-like stat. Even though I don’t really need it since I don’t talk to others.

We are brought to the king’s study room. Why is a king at a desk and reading and writing stuff there? This seems strange, shouldn’t he be like… in the throne room all the time? No, that’s in games, in reality government work is most likely like this.

The chancellor clears his throat. “My king, I’ve brought you the hero Momokawa Kyou-dono and her companion…” He looks at me.

“Katsuragi Kenta.”

“…Katsuragi Kenta, who… wait…” He just stumbled. “-erm, who are bringing important information regarding the security of Feuerberg.”

“Katsuragi Kenta? Ralf, this is a strange name.” So the chancellor is called Ralf?

“Yes, he is the hero who left us early, before even meeting you.” Ah, after hearing my name, he just remembered me, that’s why he stumbled earlier. “Even I’m surprised to see him here, to be honest, especially since I think he looked different back then. Let’s hear them out.” The king nods and the chancellor clears his throat again and turns to us: “You’re in the presence of King Heinrich von Stolzherz V, king of Feuerberg, Protector of the Flames of Freedom!”

The king is a tall man with blonde hair and a full beard, his orange eyes seem to burn, they’re that intense. Yet he looks at us with a poker face, waiting for what we have to report.

“Sir.” Kyou-san bows and after hesitating a bit, I imitate her. “We were traveling to the shrine of Heißquellen in the Vulkan-mountain range.”

The chancellor inquired further: “The one, who got attacked and raided? We got the message from pilgrims which visited the shrine after the attack. There were some priests there, do you know what happened to them?”

“No, but we saw the raiding party. Ss’rak.”

“Ssr’ak, the lizard people? On this continent? In Vulkan?”

“Yes. We were captured and brought into a chasm and…”

Time to cut in, since I don’t want to go into details here: “The chasm is a hard place to survive. You can’t climb the cliff, unless you’re a ss’rak or bring climbing tools. We had to look for another way. We found an underground passage which led to a strange lava cave and there we saw… a dragon.”

“Dragon?”

“A dragon?!” This time even the king seems to be shocked, despite his attempt to keep a calm face. So dragons are special existences in this world, at least. Though they may be just a myth, just like in our homeworld.

“Yes, a dragon. It’s called Muaotef and he’s the leader and god of these ss’rak.”

The chancellor seems to be deep in thought. “Muaotef… maybe the sages know something about him.”

The king doesn’t care about the rumbling of his chancellor and asked: “How did you survive?”

Well, this is uncomfortable, because we only survived by doing him a service. How can I lie about this?

Kyou-san butts in: “He did not have much interest in us. He was arrogant and after what happened afterwards, we understood that he must have thought that we would die anyway.”

“What happened?”

Words like that actually works? Is this the power of [Persuasion]? Even I begin to wish me more of it. They don’t even inquire details! Or maybe they’re waiting for the story to end before asking us questions. Like, why we were in the Vulkain-mountains in the first place.

Kyou-san and I decided to keep the curse-part a secret since it’s our personal business. Also, the whole curse-break-department is part of the church, not the government. Both are mostly separated in this country from what I know.

Kyou-san continues the story. “We saw a city full of ss’rak and encountered multiple of them in battle. We could only run and survive with our power as heroes, but that advantage did not last long.”

The chancellor and the king seem to be engulfed in Kyou-san words. They’re totally caught. This seems like brainwashing.

“Because we met another hero. A ss’rak and a hero of Muaotef! We faced him, two versus one, only Ken’s zeal and all the levels I had gotten from surviving in the chasm saved us. We won the battle, but failed to eradicate the city. There were too many ss’rak for us! I don’t know, what they want, but they are malicious and strong.”

Two versus one!? Stop lying! I want to scream, but Kyou-san is giving me a look, telling me to shut my face. Going into a fit would be detrimental right now and she knows it, so I’ll just glare at her with my most furious expression! You bitch!

“I see. Momokawa-dono, Katsuragi-dono, you did well. Heroes are stronger than the average person, but not invincible. This doesn’t call for a group, but rather an army. Can you try to show us on the maps where the city lies, so we can send scouts?”

We try our best to be helpful and, thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be something only a hero can accomplish.

The king is pleased with us: “You should better get some rest, and…”

Suddenly, the door opened and a middle-aged woman comes into the room. A servant, not a maid, which are surely a product of imagination. “My liege!” She kneels before the king and presents a small message like the ones carrier pigeons deliver.

The king takes the message and while reading it he changes color often: red, white, blue. Powerless he hands the paper over to the chancellor who reads it and begins to tremble with a hardened face. What’s written there?

After the chancellor reads the paper, the king exclaims: “Send a message to the border. If they can’t send suitable soldiers, they should send the heroes. No, send a message to the whole kingdom! The one who brings her back alive will be highly rewarded! How much, chancellor?”

“500,000 Newgold would be appropriate.”

“500,000 Newgold for the ones, who bring her back! Double if unharmed!”

Kyou-san and I exchange looks, then she asks: “Who?”

“My idiotic daughter!”

―○●○―

Katarine von Stolzherz, crown-princess of Feuerberg. She’s 15 years old and quite capable from the sound of it. She’s skilled with the sword, able to use divine magic, and well-loved by everyone. The problem is she’s also headstrong and naive.

After it was decided that the kingdom will summon us heroes, she became convinced that she, as royalty, has to play a more active role in the kingdom and especially the war. To please her, she was sent to the southwest to organize the supply lines to the front even though clerks did most of the actual job.

It appears that she got sick of it and was recently seen at the frontlines. The same one where the heroes—my classmates—are. Without any guards or servants, she has left her post and has fought against parties of bandits and demon-soldiers and even defeated them all by herself, without returning to her actual task.

The problem is that she’s the crown princess and should not engage in unneeded danger. But since Katarine-hime is such a powerhouse, and stubborn to boot, normal guards or soldiers won’t be able to bring her back safely.

As the ‘not normal’ soldiers play key-roles in the war, all the hope lies within the heroes and incredibly skillful non-heroes who are able to actually capture her. Her combat-strength is also the reason for this high reward and twice as much for capturing and transporting her unharmed.

500,000 Newgold is no joke, you can buy about anything up to a house with this. In addition to that, if the king owes you, you can count on several benefits in the future. There is no reason not to try if you’re confident that you’re fit for the task.

For us, who needs 300,000 Newgold for another try to break the curse, this is almost a god-send. Then we’d still have 200,000 left, 100,000 for each of us. This is still enough for me to upgrade my entire equipment, though I may just get more consumables for quick power grinding.

If I want to return to Japan, I need to become stronger. I don’t trust the god who claims that he will sends us back if we kill the demon king and end the war, but whatever comes, first I need the power to realize the decisions I make.

An additional benefit of being powerful is survivability, of course.

Kyou-san doesn’t know about my thoughts, but still wants to lift the curse, since she really hates the fact that we are kinda married. While raising 300,000 Newgold will probably take us about one or two months of serious grinding at my pace—and I really doubt that she can keep up—a quest which might take a week or two is preferable.

Even if we don’t capture the princess, we’ll be at the border and can get some materials and monster drops which are more valuable in the capital than the regional ones. Since it’s hard to collect those in a war-zone, we’ll get some bonus payment.

The only downside: We will probably run into our classmates.

I think for Kyou-san it’s a mixed blessing, since she was left behind. Still, some of them are her friends. On the other hand, she’s with me.

For me, it’s complicated. Normally, I wouldn’t mind it, since I don’t particularly care about any one of them, but in the end, I was kinda bullied. Not in a physical sense, only socially. Still, I don’t really want to see those glares and experience that behavior again.

Yes, the girls will look at me like I’m puke again and the guys will probably make fun of me. I’m confident that my level is much higher than theirs, though. I’m level 39 and Inoue Masahiko, the alpha dog, was level 18 just about 4 weeks ago.

Maybe it’s payback-time?

Well, for now it’s traveling with the carriage the chancellor arranged after we agreed to search for the princess ourselves as well.

You gain 1 WP. A lovely evening carriage-ride is romantic in its own way, but also gives you the opportunity for holding hands, snuggling and other ways to show your affection, while observing the rolling landscape.

Except, that this is not romantic and there is no affection between us.

Kyou-san sold our loot before and we bought two pairs of gloves, better to hide our rings for now. Too bad there was no time to find someone who would be able to make my crimson bear pelt into an armor or another piece of equipment.

Yes, Kyou-san sold and bought everything. With her high [Persuasion]-attribute she’s able to haggle the prices to some degree. I really want to get a higher [Persuasion] now, but it’s my worst stat. I have less then half of Kyou-san’s, even though I have about twice her level.

I guess her [Priest]-class heightens her [Persuasion], while none of my classes does the same.

Generally your [Attributes] are level-dependent, but how much your level changes your stats depends on your class. I guess it is a [level] x [class factor] thing. But the math doesn’t add up, so there might be several other factors in there, but at least my [Strength] as a [Pikeman] increases more per level than the [Strength] of my favorite [Scout]-class.

In the end, there is a lot I don’t understand.

Still, there are some possibilities outside the hero-system, to strengthen ourselves. We do gather all these WP for a reason.

“What kind of bonus should we purchase next? Personally, I think we should save the WP up, until we get an XP boost. At the moment we only get 50% each, but even though you profit, my progress has practically halved.”

“Ken, how long do you think we’re going to stay cursed? The WP-amount is too high to aim for it, unless you think we’re going to be stuck for months.”

“Erm… right.”

Well, we need 500 WP for this and we only gain 6 WP per day regularly. But with our WP so far, we should get it in about two and a half months, considering the current WP and the irregular ones.

The only bonus we have so far is [Shared Inventory], but attaining it brought some problems.

Since our inventory simply was put together, we had to rearrange it and it took some time to reach a consensus on how to do it, since it’s important to know exactly where each pot is. It would suck to grab a SP-potion when you want to cure a poison-effect instead.

Maybe that’s like moving in together.

There are still more bonuses to get. I end up thinking about how to spend those WP all the time, it must be my gamer-mentality. Finding ways to exploit and power-game are always fascinating.

Which brings another aspect to my mind: How to bring down bosses! “What do you think, should we ambush the princess while she sleeps and tie her up?”

“Ken, that is no way to treat a girl.”

“But since she’s able to fight bandits and such alone, it might be too hard to capture her unharmed otherwise. What are we supposed to do? Talk to her? Isn’t she stubborn?”

“No matter how stubborn she is, she is still a girl. I will talk to her, befriend her, cook for her, slip some sleep-drug into her meal, and keep her sleeping, while transporting her back to Esse.”

This… is far worse, than my suggestion. Since the princess was called naive, I think it might work, but this strategy is wrong on many levels. Is this how girls treats each other?! Or is this only Kyou-san’s way of dealing with nuisances?

I know she has a bad personality, but seriously: This is outright evil.

As if she knows what I’m thinking, she continues. “Ken, I’ll only use my [Healer]-class abilities, so it’ll be more of a narcotic. This might be the first time the class is actually useful.”

“I think it might be a very useful class, once you get the hang of it.”

Kyou-san dislikes the [Healer]-class. She took it back then because she thought it includes magical healing. She was wrong, it’s basically only compounding and physical treatment. However, crafting classes can be very powerful as long as you know what you have to do.

“Name one thing which can’t be replaced by magic.”

Uh, hard. Having consumables around is practical, but considering Kyou-san’s personality she will refuse to accept the gamer’s kind of reasoning. Is there something else?

I take a look on Kyou-san, who’s furrowing her brows. Is me looking at you directly so bad!? Seriously! But looking at her brows, my look wanders to her black hair and I get an idea.

“Couldn’t you try to compound shampoo?”

“!”

She’s actually interested. Hair washes are hard to get, even in the inn I used only a kind of soap, but in the end, my hair is still not as smooth and clean as it should be by Japanese standards. Even though I didn’t care much about hygiene back home, after months even I feel the desire for modern cosmetics. Kyou-san, as a girl, is likely much worse off than me.

“It’s not as easy as you might think! I don’t have an idea where to start.” Ah, she resists my idea.

“But your [Compounding]-ability should help there. The basics for shampoos are easy, first select your tensides and cotensides, alkyl sulphate is a common tenside. Then-”

“Wait! How do you even know about this?!”

“It’s only chemistry.” We might not had this exactly in class, but I picked it up in some self-study. Good grades for more playtime without nagging parents. Kyou-san, shouldn’t you, who most likely don’t play games, study more instead?

“…I totally forgot that your grades aren’t bad.”

“…hey!” Actually I’m rank 19 in school! Remember that! I’m second best in class!

“Keep going, but make it simple.”

“Erm… you have the [Herbal Lore]-skill, this shows which substances are in herbs, right?”

“Yes.”

“If you look for alkyl sulphate there, you have the basics for a shampoo. Afterwards I guess, you need to rely on your [Compound]-ability.”

“Great advice, model student.”

“I only read about it! It’s pure theory with few actual examples and we’re in a fantasy world!”

However, I guess we’ll try it at some point. At least it’s better than nothing, I guess. Yet there is still one topic I’d like to discuss: “Why did you lied to the king and chancellor? About us fighting the patriarch together?”

“Didn’t we?” She tilts her head in wonder.

“Don’t even try.”

“You used my backpack, so it counts as-” After seeing my face, Kyou-san corrects herself: “It was a quick way to shorten the story, since I didn’t want to go into the details. You need to feed some details in a deception to make it interesting and plausible enough, so I wanted to create the impression that we more or less ran through the city together.”

“And you wanted to show off.”

“Yes, but I don’t expect you to understand. I have my own issues as well.” Come to think of it, she complained a lot about the chancellor, when we met again in Esse.

“You’re owing me for that one.”

“Yes, yes.”

She’s so not serious. “Phew.” I’ll let it slide for now, since it’s too much of a pain in the ass, but I’ll remember it.

Another question: How long is this journey supposed to take? I mean, the idea of traveling with Kyou-san isn’t that bad in itself anymore, but we already ran dry of topics to talk about. Strange, I never felt the need to talk to someone before. I guess it’s because I had my games... Hey that’s it, let’s talk about games!

“Kyou-san, did you play games back at home?”

“…” She was looking at me as if I have presented a turf right under her nose. Maybe this was a bad idea. “Some. My younger brother has a WiiU, so sometimes I play with him. He’s twelve and a brat, but cute enough.”

“Then sport games?” Since she plays with her brother, these seems to be more likely.

“Racing, Mario Kart, some titles I don’t know.”

Like I mentioned before, I mostly play RPGs. I do care about story or customization, so a good classic one on a console is as good as a modern MMORPG. But these games don’t seem to be Kyou-san’s forte and gaming itself doesn’t seem to interest her one bit. Although this opens another topic. A nasty streak hit me, I wanted to paint Kyou-san in my colors. In a way.

“You asked me to teach you about the hero-system, but back then there was only time to explain you some specific tactics, so since we got some time with nothing to do, let’s finally go through the basics to how I got so strong!” Time to talk about MMORPG-theory.