Located in Zagrant imperial capital mid-southern district are the noble's mansions. It was a usual day for everyone in the area as the hustle bustle of highly esteemed merchants selling their uselessly expensive merchandise such as wine glass made from magic crystal to their customers, the aristocrats with their ever excess money that never fails at inviting jealousy from the commoners.

In one of such mansion, or rather in its vast backyard, a man in his thirties is practicing by swinging a sword about 150 cm in length. It’s not the repetitive swing practice but a practice where you try out your special moves.

“Ruberius style rock crusher sword, first move, vertical impact!”

The man swung his sword as if drawing a straight vertical line in front of him with a loud whooshing sound and stopped before his sword touches the ground, however a depression was made on the ground by the pressure alone.

“Imperial holy sword style, first blade, crossing arcs!”

His sword still close to the ground and without any preparatory movement, the man changed his sword style and with only one hand gripping the sword, made several crisscrossing swings with fluid movements. The sword left some whitish glowing trace for a few seconds, however it is not magic as it is only unprocessed or pure mana that was used to envelop the sword.

*Clap clap clap.

Although he doesn’t look surprised since he sensed that someone was nearby, hearing that someone just clapped from his back the man put down his sword and turned around to see who it is.

“Marquis Amarkus, I have said this many times before but I would appreciate it if you would send me some words before visiting.”

The man whom he called as Amarkus walked forward while keeping a delighted smile.

“Well well, if I did so then I might not be able to watch your sword practice, Sir Ruberius is the only one capable of two distinct sword styles at such high level .”

“Not the only one. Your son has the capability to surpass me someday.”

“He has you as his teacher after all.”

“Enough small talk, let’s get inside and tell me why you’re here.”

“Nah, here is fine. I just want you, one of our empire’s strongest to join the team to check out the information about the demon’s princess.”

Ruberius’ eyebrow twitched. He had heard the information about the young inexperienced demon princess. If the information is true then several knight and magic user will be more than enough. Even after adding the possibility that she is not alone won’t change anything much. Not to mention that this is a joint operation with Rifst.

“Darn, I can see trouble behind this. There’s no way you’ll need me just for something like that. Are you saying that the demon princess is not the only problem?”

Amarkus chuckled then he put his serious face on.

“Glad you caught on quickly. This is an information only I and his imperial majesty know. It seems that we human aren’t the only one after the princess.”

“Hoo…”

“It is obvious that the information about the princess was leaked on purpose by somebody over there, however even another somebody over there also took the bait.”

Ruberius smirked.

“I knew it, another trouble.”

“It seems you like it though. Well, a demon general is coming to get her, so I want you to get her first and if possible also defeat that demon general as well, his imperial majesty has allowed me to prepare any number of troops you’ll need separately from the investigation. Let me handle the diplomatic problem that might arise with Rifst.”

“Get her, eh? Well, she might prove to be useful later on.”

“Correct, however we will need to prepare even more special treatment for the princess. Maybe my torture chamber alone won’t be enough.”

“Just don’t overdo it or you might accidentally kill her.”

“Hahaha. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything that will hinder our holy empire’s progress. His imperial highness especially ordered to capture her alive after all. It seems it was a direct order from the goddess.”

“How about the adventurers’ guild? There’s that old man over there.”

“It’s a pity but we should leave the guild alone, it’s still Rifst’s territory after all. It’s too early to do anything to the guild itself. But if a skirmish happened there, perhaps even the guild will get some impact.”

“That’s too bad, I want to take on that old man at least once but I guess there’s this demon general as well so it can’t be helped. I’ll settle with making a small commotion instead.”

“Small, okay… keep it low. We will need to use the adventurer guild later on. Seriously, our definition of small commotion never match. Nevertheless, with this we can move one step further to realize our plan and his imperial highness’ wish.”

The two then entered the mansion while laughing together.

***

I was looking around the merchant road of Arx Norr. The merchant road encircles this town like a belt at its middle section. It is where certified merchants open their stalls while some who are loaded enough are in their purchased or rented shop. In some area there are also some backalleys where uncertified merchants lurk around.

Different with the shops at closer vicinity to the adventurers’ guild which sell high quality weapons and armors. The ones around here are more or less general items and daily necessities, there are also some that sells equipment for adventurers but the quality are just so-so although you might get lucky and find rare ones as well.

“Erik, we’re not going to the tower today?”

Liz in human form who is walking by my side asked while leaning her body forward, looking at me. She is wearing her blue long sleeved trapeze. Armor which can be worn as a casual dress is good... in her case it’s more like the other way around though. As for myself, I was just wearing my jacket without the metal plates. I also said goodbye to my trusty but totally worn out high school trouser and bought a new black trouser in place of it.

“Maybe no, I’ve been thinking that we’ll need some newest information about what’s going on in the continent right now especially the war. I was isolated for who knows exactly how long after all.”

Not to mention the locals who know next to nothing about the war, I didn’t say out loud that I can’t count on her for information as well since she was cooped in the castle and then the cottage for most of her time before meeting me. And no, I’m not blaming her.

“I, isolated?”

“Nah, nothing… More importantly, why are you here?”

I pointed at Martlea, also in human form, who is walking about three steps away behind Liz.

Liz fidgeted before looking at her then at me again.

“Actually I wanted to ask Erik about this person as well… Who is she?”

“My name is Martlea, I’m from the adventurers’ guild, nice to meet you.”

Martlea made a slight bow before continuing

“I asked the guild master to let me keep an eye on you guys, to make sure you won’t cause any ruckus in the town before the investigators arrive.”

Although “You guys” was what she said, her menacing eyes are clearly on me.

“What a pain… I won’t. At least I don’t plan to do so.”

“I don’t see any reason to trust you.”

This is really a pain, and she doesn’t seem like anyone who would listen to whatever I’m going to say. Might as well just leave her be.

“Haa, just suit yourself then. Wait… maybe it would be faster to just ask you for the information update.”

“Don’t give me another trouble, gather them yourself.”

I got a hunch that that’s how she will answer but what’s with that condescending tone? This woman is starting to get on my nerves.

Thus I started to look around for both information and useful items. I gave Liz a few denatum coins so she can buy something without asking me first. I told her she is free to look around herself as long as she doesn’t go too far from me. I also told her to meet up at the main road intersecting the road we use to get to the adventurers’ guild in case of us getting separated. Fortunately, Martlea who seemed to dislike or… hate me chose to follow Liz instead. Weren’t you going to keep an eye on me? Do you hate me so much? At least I don’t think she will do anything to Liz. I might need to ask something I don’t want Liz to hear so this is good. I watched Liz and Martlea for a while and started to talk with some merchants myself.

As I approached a stand the owner greeted me with a wide grin.

***

“Eh, you reached the 13th floor already?”

Martlea, bent her body forward and almost shouted but she managed to lower her voice right before she said it whole.

“U, un. I… is it that surprising?”

Liz backed down because Martlea’s face is too close to hers and asked back.

“You are an E rank adventurer, a newbie, and only a team of two so it is surprising. Even a party of five would need to be at least rank C before they are capable to reach there… No, you are the daughter of Demon Lord Orcus, and there is also that man so maybe it isn’t so surprising. How do both of you fight in the tower?”

“Umm, mostly I just use my magic like… uhh, normal?”

Liz had barely seen somebody else fight with magic so she couldn’t be so sure as to what ‘normal’ is. However she doesn’t know what else to say.

“That’s too vague… Then how about that man?”

“Erik? Erik usually gives me some instructions and hints. Ah, but he would help me whenever I’m in trouble or something unexpected happens.”

“So he doesn’t really do the fighting? And here I thought I could guess how strong he is.”

Martlea looked down, thinking. She still couldn’t believe what the guild master said to her about how even the guild master could not get away unscathed from him. Because if that is true then the man called Erik should be on par with demon generals. This disbelief is not just a personal feeling out of dislike to the man himself, but if that is true then how could such person be a nobody? None ever heard of him before, and the information she heard from her colleague that he is a grandson of someone called as ‘Albert the raging storm, the thunderclad swordmaster and dragon hunter from the east.’ is too ridiculous, does someone like that even exist? And his sibling relationship with the demon princess is obviously a lie. To begin with, how could somebody like that end up with the demon princess? This man called Erik is too mysterious, no, suspicious is the correct word here.

On the other hand Liz looked to be troubled by the fact that Martlea is thinking deeply so she decided to tell more.

“Umm, Erik is strong, very strong. As far as I know, he took out most of the demon beasts we encounter both in the forest and the tower with just one attack.”

“In the forest, Suvaard forest?”

Liz nodded with a smile, it seems she herself is also proud of the fact that Erik is strong.

Martlea once again pondered, she knows that the demon beasts inhabiting Suvaard forest are mostly on the level of floor boss from the 10th to 15th floor. To be able to take them out in a single attack is beyond the normal level of strong. He should be at least at the level of A rank or S rank adventurer, no, it is possible that he is even stronger so maybe it isn’t strange to say that he by himself is at the level of an S rank party which should at least be comprised by several A rank adventurers.

Martlea feels that it is too dangerous to leave such a man be. Thankfully, it seemed that the guild master is also planning something to control him so she is relieved albeit just a little.

“M, Miss Martlea? Is something wrong?”

“Eh, no… nothing. And please just call me Martlea. I don’t really care about social standing and such but it just doesn’t feel right when a princess called my name with honorifics.”

“Ah, well... I don’t think I can still be called a princess either so please don’t hesitate to call me Liz. Anyway, since we’re here, I want to see if there is something good to buy.”

Liz stopped walking to look around then walked again because she didn’t find anything that fancied her eyes. This was repeated a few times before Martlea decided to tell Liz something.

“Um, Liz… I think we’ve been separated from that man.”

Martlea’s word made Liz hurriedly looked back and search for Erik but she couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Eh? Uuu… I, it’s okay. This is better, I want to give Erik a surprise with my present anyway.”

Since she met Erik, Liz has almost never been away from him aside from obvious needs like bath or the likes and when she was getting some treatment from Yusa, moreover she is currently at a market bustling with people. Martlea could also tell that Liz is somewhat shaken but she held back her urge to smile since Liz is trying her best to stay calm.

“So, you want to give him a present?”

Liz nodded.

“Un, Erik has done a lot for me so I want to give him something as thanks… No, I just want to be the one on the giving side at least once. The money is still from Erik though…”

Liz is smiling bashfully at Martlea which just sent some kind of shockwave to her heart and made Martlea want to help the little girl.

“So, is there anything specific you want to give him?”

Liz shook her head weakly.

“Actually, I don’t even know what Erik likes or wants.”

“So you were looking around without a clue then?”

“Uuu… well I decided to just look for something that might suits him.”

“Now that’s hard… I don’t think I can help you on that.”

“I, it’s okay. But please be my company until we meet up with Erik again.”

“Don’t worry, that’s what I intended to do anyway.”

***

The tableware merchant I’m talking with is very talkative. I don’t know if it is because most of his customers are housewives whom got the so called housewives information (gossip) circulation system but his information repertoire is great. If you got stranded in another world while you are too young to enter a bar in that world to gain necessary information, just ask the gossiping local housewives around you! He also does his trading by going back and forth to here, Rifsten, several villages on the way, and a small town where his tablewares are produced.

I asked about the current state of war but it doesn’t seem that the status quo has changed. Not to mention the leaderless demon race, even the human side hasn’t made any significant move for the last 3 months. As a side note, a year in this world is divided into twelve months but with the number of days all uniform, 30 days each. It seems that I was in the tower for almost 2 months. Probably I spent too much time by time going back and forth the higher and mid floors for exp farming and to gather supplies and materials while also crafting some survival tools. I’ve heard some cases where people became insane after being isolated alone for a long time. I did pretty well to stay sane if I’d say so myself. Or like, am I still sane? Even from my own point of view, I’m rather calm for someone who’s going for a revenge.

“…I heard that King Gessald Arde Rifst the 6th is currently ill so the first and second prince are returning to the capital from the frontlines.”

What he said reminded me about Lavinia’s older brothers. I got along rther well with the second prince but I don’t know if it was just me but the crown prince always look at me with a hint of hatred. Not that it matters now.

However… although he is quite old, I can’t imagine that ever spunky-ish king to get ill. I hope it’s nothing bad.

I just realized it now but I guess I still have some attachment to Rifst, eh? Without mentioning the harsh training and war, I can say that I enjoyed my stay in Rifst after all.

“Also, this is something I heard from a friend who’s doing his business in the empire but, it seems the empire is gathering their best mages and all prisoners they have to their capital.”

“What? Why would they do that?”

“I know, right? Mages are valuable war potential so even though the war is currently going slow such a thing is incomprehensible. I don’t understand why they would gather the prisoners as well.”

It’s not that I don’t have any clue about the mages, but… this is too early. Well, what that bastard said might not necessarily be the truth. But if what I think is true, I might need to do something to prevent it. I can’t think of anything about the prisoners though.

“Do you know anything else related to that?”

“Uhh, no… sorry but that’s all I know. More importantly, won’t you buy something already?”

“Ah, then I’ll have 4 sets of these wooden bowl and spoon.”

“Right’o, they will be 60 mearis coins.”

The merchant then swiftly picked the sets and wrap them with a sheet of crude paper, put them in a paper bag and gave them to me as I paid. This isn’t a useless purchase. I might need to use them in the tower or when I am taking a long journey. Different from that time, now I can procure some ingredients to make a proper meal.

I said my thanks and left the place to look for another possible source of information. I more or less understand the current situation but the more information you have the better.

Next I saw a merchant with quite a rare set of merchandise, magic tools and potions. No they aren’t exactly rare, it’s just that it is said that about 85% of magic tools you can find in the market are made by the secluded living elves so they are hard to get. Then 10% of them would be what you can find in the ruins which are relics of the ancients, and the other 5% are made by either humans or demon race who somehow got a tidbit of the manufacturing knowledge. Let’s just say that elves have monopoly over magic tools making techniques.

I heard one of Liz’s servant was able to make something akin to refrigerator but I don’t know if that servant is one of the killed or the runaway.

This world doesn’t have immediate acting healing items but there is potion and ointment to quicken natural healing or mana regeneration. I don’t see any remarkable potions and I don’t have any particular need for magic tools either so I just skim through them and since the stall owner is tending to a customer I chose to look for another place for information.

As I walked leisurely, I noticed there is someone in front of me walking quickly while looking around and that we will bump on each other so I casually dodged, but to my surprise that person also moved nimbly to avoid the collision. It’s just that we moved to the same direction and bumped anyway.

It might be because of my high strength (I don’t know how high it exactly is) but I only felt slight impact and didn’t even stagger. On the other hand, the other guy… or rather she, fell on her bottom while desperately holding her hood. However I saw two black lustrous horns on both sides of her forehead.

Perhaps she noticed that I saw her horns, she glared sharply at me.

She is wearing quite high quality purplish breastplate decorated with golden engravings albeit not so lavish under her mantle which must be custom made since it follows the contour of her *ahem* nice endowments. It seems unlikely that she is a guild employee, maybe she’s an illegal immigrant or might even be a spy. In short, she is a source of trouble. I need to avoid trouble so I smiled and offered my hand before she can say anything.

“Sorry, are you okay?”

Her eyes showed a hint of surprise but she immediately replied while standing up, without taking my hand.

“Don’t mind it. It is my own fault for being so careless.”

She lowered her head, and I mean just her head. Her body from below her neck didn’t move at all. She then quickly darted away before I could say anything else.

***

I looked around for some more information but I didn’t get anything else worth mentioning. I also tried to ask whether Orcus has an heir or not but as expected nobody here knows anything about that. The guild didn’t publicize the information about tomorrow either. Other than some people, mainly merchants complaining on the prohibition of leaving Arx Norr, you can say that there is no disturbance as well. There’s no point in staying here any longer thus I decided to go to the meeting point.

I don’t think my information gathering took much time, I expected that I got to the meeting point first. There is no sign of Liz and Martlea so I decided to wait while eating some light food from nearby stalls.

After several skewered whatchamacallit meats, I heard Liz’s voice calling for me and I could see Liz and Martlea getting away from the crowd, walking towards me. Liz is holding a paper wrapping of something, hiding it behind her back… or rather, I could see it clearly you know.

“I see you bought something. Did you find something you like?”

Liz got flustered and finally gave up on hiding (attempt of) whatever she bought.

“U, un.”

She just nodded. What did she buy anyway? Is it something bad… or not something for kids? Nah, they do exist in this market but I doubt she would buy such a thing. The wrapping looks more for that of a clothing as well.

As I thought of such stupid thing Martlea approached me, she stopped before she get closer than 3 meters though, and said

“Well then, I’ll be going back to the guild since I still have some work to be done.”

“Yeah, thanks for taking care of Liz.”

“Thank you for helping me choose, Martlea.”

“It’s nothing.”

Liz added cheerfully and Martlea answered her with a gentle smile before going off. When did they get this close?

“Shall we go back to the inn then?”

Liz nodded again nervously while hugging the paper wrapping strongly. Now I’m kind of curious on what she just bought.

***

(What should I do?

Thanks to Martlea taking me to various good stalls and shops, I finally bought a present for Erik. Martlea also gave me some money when I realized that I didn’t have enough to pay. But... I couldn’t give the present to Erik. Erik asked me whether I could find something I liked before I could say anything. Why did I nod to it? Ah, but it’s true that this is something I personally like. Erik also looked at the paper wrapping a few times, although this was supposed to be a surprise… did he realize about the present? Or maybe Erik is thinking that it is for myself?

Aaaah, what should I do?)

Anyone would tell her that there’s no need to think that much and to just give the present already. However, not to mention the opposite gender, the innocent Liz doesn’t have much experience on interacting with people since she spent most of her time in the castle. Surely she talked quite a lot with her father, her servants, and some demon generals but those are trivial compared to the outside world, moreover it’s the human’s territory so obviously humans are everywhere.

Back to the current problem.

(Maybe I should just leave it in Erik’s bag after he is asleep so that he’ll find it naturally tomorrow. No, no… Erik will just think that I put it there and not think of it as a present.)

“FUEEE!?”

Liz let out her usual “fuee” when Erik grabbed Liz’s shoulder to stop her right before Liz was going to bump onto a wall.

“What’s wrong Liz? It’s dangerous to walk like that.”

“Ah, no… that’s uh… Sorry.”

And now to top it off, Liz has become unable to stand it when Erik look at her directly like this. Her face would become hot and her heart rate suddenly increases. Actually, it’s not that Liz is clueless on the cause. Thanks to the talk with Yusa, Liz is now aware of her feelings toward Erik.

“By the way, Liz…”

“H, hyess?”

“What did you buy?”

“Fuee? No, nothing special… it’s just some kind of clothes or… not… uhh, it is! Wait, what was it?!”

“L, Liz? Calm down...”

(Ahh, I missed another chance to give it… and Erik is looking at me with a worried face… uuu, it’s getting more and more embarrassing. Please, give me another chance.)

“Haha, I thought for a second that it might be something for me but if you’re this flustered, did you buy something bad?”

(T, there’s the chance!)

“It is…”

“Huh? You really bought something bad?”

“N, no! I… it is something I bought for Erik!”

(I finally said it!!! I felt like I just used several master class magic…it’s really exhausting. Uh, why is everyone around looking at me while smiling?)

Unaware that she shouted loud enough to be heard by everyone else around, Liz gave, or rather shoved the paper wrapping to Erik who accepted it while looking troubled since he also noticed the warm gazes from the onlookers.

“T, thanks?”

Perhaps because Liz was looking at him with maximum expectant mode, Erik then proceeded to open the paper wrap to find a rather long scarf with dark scarlet color not unlike that of Liz’s real hair color. From the texture, he thought that it wasn’t made from just cloth, in fact it almost made entirely from a combination of a lesser wyvern’s scales and leather of a demon beast called Ulgias which lives in the volcanic region of Valis Republic. Erik also thought that the money he gave to Liz weren’t enough to buy something like this but he chose to dismiss it since it’s possible that Martlea who was with Liz might have covered for her.

Erik grimaced for less than a second but he smiled and patted Liz’s head which in turn also made her smile while blushing.

“Thanks again Liz, I’ll treasure it.”

“Fueehehee.”

The two then resumed their walk toward the inn while having a small talk about what happened today.

Thus end the exaggerated worry of an innocent little girl.