Two days after the academy visit, Primera and her group departed from the Royal Capital.
The Fourth Knights of Gunjou City, originally led by Primera, was mainly composed of nobles and their associates, so the farewell was quite a grand affair.
Grand as it was, it wasn't actually hosted by the royal family — the relevant parties had simply gathered on their own to make a ruckus. Even so, when over a hundred nobles and their associates gathered in one place, it was only natural that those with malicious intentions would appear. Because of that, by royal command, guards were deployed around the nobles, creating a rather imposing atmosphere.
However, thanks to that, over a dozen would-be pickpockets and kidnappers were arrested, raising the reputation of the guards. Unfortunately, crime couldn't be completely prevented — a few nobles and several times that many commoners fell victim to crimes, though it was fortunate that they were all minor offenses.
Naturally, there were criminals who targeted us as well, but we repelled them all, resulting in zero casualties on our end.
By my side were my grandpa, my family's associates (including Aina and Namitarou), Duke Sanga and Albert, Marquis Samons, Cain, Lion, Chris, and to top it all off, Branca and Amour. Thanks to them, I couldn't help but stand out.
Normally I would have escaped without hesitation, but since this was a farewell for Primera and the three sisters, I couldn't very well run away, and was exposed to curious stares.
The three sisters had schemed to stay in the Royal Capital until the very last moment, but since they had more or less forced their way into joining the knights, Primera had scolded them repeatedly.
"They're gone."
"What's wrong, Tenma? Miss them already now that they're gone?"
Namitarou replied to my murmur in a teasing manner, but I simply nodded honestly.
Because I nodded, everyone around me was surprised (though Duke Sanga and Albert were quietly pumping their fists). Before the misunderstanding could spread, I explained. Although it wasn't really "before the misunderstanding spread" — Amour was already pinching my right arm. If it were just a light pinch it would be cute, but she was using her full beastkin strength, so the pain was no joke.
"Say what you will, I've known the three sisters for quite a while, and Primera and I have been through a lot together. The length of our friendships varies, but all four of them are among my few friends."
As I peeled Amour off me, I spoke with genuine feeling. It made me sad to say it, but no matter how I looked at it, I had very few friends. Even if Namitarou was my first friend, the three sisters were my first human friends, and Primera was the next closest among my peers.
When I mentioned this, Chris pointed at herself as if to ask "What about me?" but when I said, "You were always neglecting me and just playing with Shiromaru...", she looked away.
When Aina saw Chris like that, she let out a small, mocking snort, which prompted Chris to corner her... but within mere minutes, Chris was completely shut down with no comeback.
"Well then, shall we head home?"
At Grandpa's words, everyone started moving at once, but after walking a short distance, Amour tugged at my sleeve.
"Tenma, I have a favor. Please fix this."
What Amour pulled from her bag was the magic item she'd worn during the tournament — commonly known as the Bandit King's Armor. Well, calling it "armor" was generous; it was more of a full-body fur suit. But it didn't look cool enough for that, so apparently they just went with "armor."
When I spread it out, I could see that Jin's strike had torn it from under the chin all the way down to the right leg — a gash roughly eighty centimeters long. Someone had sewn it shut, clumsily but carefully.
"So... this won't work?"
I tried using Appraisal on the Bandit King's Armor, but just like before, the Appraisal was being blocked. Other than the seam, though, there didn't seem to be any actual problems.
"Watch this... okay... see?"
Amour took the armor from me and started putting it on right then and there. The armor had something like a zipper on the front that you were supposed to open and step into, but since it had been torn straight through the middle, even with the seam sewn together it kept getting caught, and it took quite a while to get into.
Once Amour was inside and pulled the zipper up, the armor puffed up as though filling with air, and she became the same "Bandit King" build as when I'd first seen her.
This surprised everyone — me, Namiitarou, and Grandpa alike — but the moment Amour moved even slightly, air started leaking out and
the suit began
to deflate, until in the end Amour was dragging the armor around
like a trailing
twelve-layered robe.
The whole bizarre spectacle left everyone speechless. According to Branca's explanation, this armor had been passed down from Amour's great-grandfather, who had passed away when she was very young. Since her great-grandfather had clearly doted on his great-granddaughter, Amour wanted to find some way to fix it.
Apparently, the armor was originally meant to enhance abilities useful for hunting and the like. But when powered up, magic energy would fill the gaps in the armor like a sealant, so when someone small like Amour used it, she would temporarily appear to have a much larger build.
"Oh man, that's like one of them mascot costume suits! Like Fu*shii! Or maybe G*n's Mo*ltal Co*e Sy*tem!"
At Namiitarou's words, everyone except me tilted their heads in confusion. But Namiitarou spouting incomprehensible things was nothing new, so they all quickly lost interest. As for me, though — being someone who actually got the references — I was struggling desperately to hold back my laughter. After all, I'd been a fan of both.
I took another look at the armor, but since I had no idea how to go about repairing it, I agreed to take it in with the caveat that I might not be able to fix it.
For Amour, there didn't seem to be any other options, so she said that was fine.
"Hey, hey, Tenma. Truth is, I've got somethin' I want you to make for me too."
That was Namiitarou, stopping me just as I was about to head home again. I figured it could wait until we got back, but apparently he wanted to bring it up now while we were already at it with Amour's request.
"Y'see, my hands are like this, right? If I had a knife and a fork, I could eat just about anything, but it's still a real pain. Can't even peel a mandarin, can I? So that's why I want you to make me something like Tenma's 'Gigant.' A human-sized one."
Namiitarou's chest fins definitely couldn't peel a mandarin... Actually, hold on — why was this guy even able to use a knife in the first place?
"Oh! My hands are Dragon Ball hands!"
Mystery solved in an instant. Well then, a knife and fork would be no problem at all.
"It's not impossible, but it won't be any good in combat. If that's what you want, it'll take a lot more time."
"No worries! Actually, if I tried using it in combat, it'd just create weird openings! So as long as it's reasonably tough and doesn't rust, that's good enough for me."
In that case, it was basically the same as making a Golem, so it shouldn't take that long.
And so, I accepted Namiitarou's request, but since Amour's came first, I decided to prioritize hers.
After spending several days attempting the repairs...
"This... there's no way."
I nearly gave up right on the first attempt. The fur was so tough that ordinary needles couldn't penetrate even a single millimeter before bending and breaking — I lost count of how many needles I sacrificed. When I consulted Kelly, she prepared some needles meant for leather armor. The price started at a hundred G per needle...
A thousand yen per needle in Japanese?! I thought, and ran an Appraisal. Turns out they were made of Mithril, and the high price came from the rarity of the material plus the crafting fees. Incidentally, these needles had no eye for threading — they were the type you tied on, like fishing hooks.
Thinking this would do the trick, I eagerly tried my hand at it in Kelly's workshop, and sure enough, the tip of the needle bent right over.
That left not just me, but Kelly and the workshop staff completely dumbfounded.
According to Kelly, this was the first time she'd seen fur that a Mithril needle couldn't get through.
In the end, we resorted to using Orichalcum needles — the kind used for dragon hide and the like, priced at a thousand G per needle. For reference, when I later showed Amour the needle she'd used, it was indeed made of Orichalcum too. Having forgotten to pass along that information, Amour had gotten an earful from Branca.
Well, the bent Mithril needles could be re-forged by Kelly, so it wasn't exactly a total loss.
Once the needle problem was solved, the next challenge was figuring out a better sewing technique. Since Amour had already tried the straightforward approach, I needed to try something different.
So to increase the seal, I tried overlapping the stitches and weaving them in further, but this made the leather roughly four times as thick, meaning even a single stitch took forever. On top of that, the overlapping shortened the fur considerably, making it look ugly — and the zipper wouldn't even close anymore.
"Honestly... I guess all I can say is I couldn't do it..."
Amour had seemed half-hopeless about it, but this was technically my first failed commission, so I ended up feeling more down about it than I expected.
As for Nanitaro's requested item, I managed to finish it in the spare moments while repairing the Bandit King's armor. If Nanitaro likes it, all that's left is the final adjustments and a functionality check before it's complete. This one was easier than I expected, probably because I'd made something similar before. The most time-consuming part had been gathering materials, and even that was quick once I asked Kerry for help.
The arm was made from Mithril, Magic Iron, and Magic Stones. I crushed the Magic Stones and mixed them into the Magic Iron to form the main shape, then coated the outside thinly with Mithril. However, for about ten centimeters from the base of the arm, the Magic Iron is left exposed to improve the flow of Magic Power.
The whole thing was about a meter and a half long with a diameter of roughly fifteen centimeters, looking remarkably like a mannequin's arm. I modeled the joints after a mannequin as well, giving it quite a high range of motion. Since the joints were built the same way as a human's, though, they can't bend too far in the wrong direction.
I also hollowed out the interior to reduce weight, threaded Mithril wire through the hollow space to act like nerves, and that made fine, precise movements possible. That said, the more complex operation means it's not suitable for ordinary people, but Nanitaro shouldn't have any problems with it.
Incidentally, the whole thing took two days to make.
"It's done, Nanitaro!"
I called out to Nanitaro, who was sunbathing in the yard. The sunlight was gentle today, perfect weather for lounging in the sun. Shiromaru and Solomon were there too, right beside him.
"Oh, it's already done? That was fast."
"Gyawa!"
"Kyuu~!"
Nanitaro said that while trying to crawl over toward me. A beat after he started moving, I heard Shiromaru and Solomon shriek.
A while back, Nanitaro had been sunbathing on a day with strong sunlight and nearly turned into jerky — a mummified dried fish. Taking that lesson to heart, he'd recently started filling a dedicated wooden tub with water and soaking in it while sunbathing. So when he moved, the tub tipped over, and Shiromaru and Solomon, who were right next to him, got completely drenched.
As if protesting against Nanitaro, Shiromaru and Solomon bit and scratched at him, but Nanitaro didn't seem to mind at all. Shiromaru and Solomon weren't going all out, of course, but Nanitaro's scales had defensive power on par with — or even exceeding — that of an Earth Dragon.
"That stings, both of you... So, how does it feel?"
Even with his waist and neck being bitten, Nanitaro wore a relaxed expression as he extended his pectoral fin toward me. I held out the arm so he could grip it with his fin, and Nanitaro gave it a light swing to test the weight.
"Lighter than I expected. So how do I use it?"
"Just channel Magic Power from the base and it'll move. You won't be able to control it precisely at first, but with practice, you should be able to move it just like a real arm. Oh, and this is a bonus — kind of a reference book."
With that, I handed over the book on summoning arts that Marquis Samons had written.
Nanitaro took the book and began flipping through the pages with one fin. From the side, he looked like someone lying down and reading a book, but since Nanitaro can't hold a book open in front of his face, this was the best he could do — nothing to be done about it.
"It's interesting and all, but...
Summoning arts...
What would I even do if I learned it?"
After flipping through a few pages, Nanitaro made a puzzled face. There were several reasons I'd given him this book, but the biggest one was:
"With this, you can temporarily have four arms, just like my Gigant. The controls get significantly harder, but having your hands free is extremely convenient."
Actually, with my Gigant — I didn't realize it at first, but it had been combining space-time magic and summoning arts all along.
When I first started using it, I'd use space-time magic to connect the bag where I stored the Gigant to a designated location, summon the Gigant there, and then fix it in place with space-time magic.
But after reading Marquis Samons's book, I learned that this method of connecting the bag to a designated location was almost exactly the same as what was called
"Summoning arts."
...It was, in fact, the very same thing.
In other words, summoning arts is an application of space-time magic, so if you want to learn the method I use, there's no better reference book than this.
I'd once considered writing my method into a book, but it relies too heavily on intuition to put into words, and besides, the influence of Creation Magic — magic that makes it easier to give shape to one's imagination — seemed like it would be a factor, so I gave up on the idea.
"Hmm... well, I don't know if I can learn space-time magic, but I'll give it a shot!"
Nanitaro said that, but based on my intuition, Nanitaro should already know space-time magic. After all, he had Concealment 10. I was certain he was also hiding various other abilities.
But since he hadn't mentioned it himself, there was no need for me to point it out. There was nothing to gain from knowing, and nothing to lose. If anything, pressing the issue might actually worsen my relationship with Nanitaro.
"Well, do your best. There's nothing to lose by learning it, and you've probably got several thousand more years ahead of you, so you've got time to spare, right?"
That would be the best thing to say. He may be shaped like a fish, but he's from the same Earth as me. And one way or another, he's my first friend... It makes even me a little sad to say that my very first friend is a non-human — a koi, of all things — but...
"...Yeah. I'll give it a shot! And who knows, it might turn out to be easier than I think."
Nanitaro seemed to realize that I'd caught on, because he answered carefully, laying down a protective disclaimer just in case.
"Well, first of all..."
"...hand—"
"—you've got to start by holding it in your hand and learning to move it freely! So since mine's done, that means the tiger girl's version is done too. How'd it turn out?"
Nanitaro casually changed the subject, but when I told him I hadn't finished Amour's commission, his expression turned serious and he straightened up.
"Well, if that's the case, you oughta apologize to the girl before I start on mine. It's already late, but I'm heading over now!"
I got an earful from Nanitaro and a literal smack on the backside as we headed for the inn where Amour and the others were staying. Shiromaru and Solomon trailed behind us. I thought Slarin was back at the house keeping watch, but before I knew it, she was perched on Shiromaru's back.
The inn where Amour and her group were staying wasn't exactly high-end by Royal Capital standards, but it was considered upscale for an adventurer's inn—and had become quite the talk for offering quality rooms at surprisingly low prices. Though really, it was Aunt Martha's establishment.
"Welcome! Sorry, but we're full up if you're looking for a room... Oh, Tenma? What brings you here?"
"Hey, Uncle Mark. I'm looking for Amour and Branca..."
The person at the front desk was Uncle Mark. This inn had been founded by Aunt Martha, and she employed several Kukuri Village residents as staff, so you could count on a familiar face being at the reception pretty much always.
They couldn't hire too many people, though, so they ran a rotating schedule to give everyone extra days off, letting them earn money on their free days by doing adventurer work on the side.
Aunt Martha also had us entrust Juubei and the others to her care, and in return, we provided her with White-furred wild ox milk. Apparently, as long as you didn't live too extravagantly, it was more than enough for a perfectly comfortable life.
There were also several other inns run by people from Kukuri Village, and they all pitched in to help each other out.
"All right, I hear you. But we've got our rules, so I'll walk you to her room."
This was standard anti-theft protocol at pretty much any inn, so I agreed to the escort.
The inn was a three-story building. The first floor had the dining hall and four staff rooms, while the second and third floors held twelve guest rooms.
The rooms were designed for one to two guests, so they were a bit snug, but kept spotlessly clean. The rate was five hundred G per person per night including two meals—roughly two-thirds of the average price. They also offered two-person rooms at four hundred G per person (six hundred if booked solo), plus long-stay discounts. It was an impressive lineup of plans.
"Here we are. Miss Branca, you have a visitor."
As Uncle Mark knocked and called out to her, Branca seemed to have already sensed someone approaching, because she stepped out almost the instant the knock came.
"Well then, I'll be heading back."
With Branca having come out, the old man returned to the front desk. He was putting on a calm face, but I'd caught the startled look he had the moment the door opened—his heart was probably pounding like crazy.
"I knew it had to be Tenma—young lady was acting all fidgety for no reason. So, what's up? Did the commission for the young lady get finished alre—"
Before Branca could finish speaking, he was shoved aside by Amour and pushed out of the way.
"Tenma, is it done already?"
I told Amour, whose eyes were shining with anticipation, that no luck—while fighting a twinge of guilt. Amour hugged the "Bandit King's Armor" tight to her chest and lowered her face sadly.
"There's really no way to fix it?"
"I can't. At least with my skills, I can't repair this. I asked Kelly about it too, and he said it's impossible. He did say the materials could be salvaged and reforged into a different piece of armor, but…"
Before I could finish, Amour looked up and handed the Bandit King's Armor back to me.
"Then reforge it. It's better to break it down and make something new than to leave it sitting here wondering if it'll ever get fixed. Grandpa Kei would be happy with that too."
I was wondering who Grandpa Kei was when Branca explained that he was Amour's great-grandfather. And on top of that,
the first
Bandit King, apparently…
"Seriously?! Aina told me he was someone from a hundred years ago, but how old was this Grandpa Kei?"
"From what I heard, I think he was around a hundred and twenty… but I don't know the exact number."
Branca answered while resting his chin in his hand. He also added a caveat: it was fine to say that the Bandit King was Amour's relative (ancestor), but we should try not to spread his real name around. Apparently, Grandpa Kei himself hated being famous, so he wore the Bandit King's armor to hide his identity. Just a few days before he passed, he'd joked, "That's my dying wish, you know!" As for his cause of death, it was probably old age. When Amour's father went to check on him, he had passed away peacefully in his bed—and nobody had ever heard of him suffering from any illness, so old age seemed the most likely explanation.
"Growing old
and only getting
stronger—that was just the kind of man he was… After all, both Amour's father and I couldn't lay a finger on him even though he was over a hundred years old… It wasn't so much raw power; he was just an incredibly skilled fighter."
"The only one who could beat Grandpa Kei was Mom."
While Branca was reminiscing with deep emotion, Amour dropped a bombshell. In other words, the hierarchy was Branca < Bandit King (Grandpa Kei) < Amour's mother. How strong was Amour's mom, anyway?
"For the record, Branca can't even beat his wife."
Apparently, there were also powerful fighters on the level of the Bandit King. Branca scratched his cheek and looked away.
"Setting that aside... Tenma, what can you make from now on?"
He was referring to the Bandit King's armor. I thought for a moment, then listed off a hooded cloak, gloves, gauntlets, shin guards, a chest piece, and pants.
It would be impossible with a normal build, but someone small like Amour, plus the size of the Bandit King's armor—with some ingenuity, it should be doable. The only real issue would be cutting the leather.
"Hmm, that works then. But make them a little on the bigger side, okay? I'm still growing, so my height and chest are going to get bigger... probably."
Well, at Amour's age, she was definitely right in the middle of her growth spurt, so making things a little larger would be just about right. That meant I'd need to incorporate belts or straps so the size could be adjusted to some degree. Even if she didn't grow, she could just wear extra layers underneath without any problem.
"Got it. I'll make it so adjusting the size is easy."
When I said that, Amour casually reached for the clothes she was wearing and started trying to strip them off right in front of me.
Branca and I hurriedly stopped her, but Amour looked at us with a puzzled expression, insisting that "I can't measure the size unless you take your clothes off."
I planned to consult Kelly about the armor anyway, so I convinced Amour by saying we'd have her take measurements at Kelly's place. After that, a big bump like something out of a manga appeared on Amour's head. The culprit was Branca.
"So, with that settled, I was thinking we could head over to Kelly's place now if we have the time... what do you want to do?"
When I asked Amour that while she was rubbing her sore head, she immediately nodded and went back to her room to get ready. Branca, who had been listening nearby, also began preparing to come along.
"I'll be waiting in the dining hall on the first floor, so come down as soon as you're ready."
After leaving those instructions, I headed downstairs toward the dining hall.
The dining hall here was unusual for an inn in this world—basically, it was off-limits to anyone who wasn't a guest, and the only people already there besides us were Namitarou and his group.
This was because the inn didn't have enough staff to serve outside customers, and since they operated on a rotation system, the food menu wasn't consistent. As a result, they couldn't turn a profit beyond what their guest count allowed, but on the flip side, they didn't take major losses either.
The basic profit for an inn comes from accommodation fees and bar sales, but running a bar naturally requires money for purchasing alcohol and food ingredients.
If this were an ordinary village or town, the folks from Kukuri Village would probably have opened a bar, but in the Royal Capital there were plenty of business rivals, making it harsh for newcomers. On top of that, they'd naturally be inferior to large-scale inns in various ways, and even compared to places smaller than this inn that had been...
...in business for...
...a long time, they couldn't compete with their established supply routes.
With all that in mind, this inn deliberately chose not to operate a bar, focusing exclusively on lodging.
However, simply devoting themselves to lodging alone wasn't enough to guarantee survival. So they kept their room rates low and refused to open their dining hall to the public, setting themselves apart from other inns.
Thanks to that strategy, they succeeded in attracting guests who wanted a quiet place to stay, those looking for affordable lodging, and people with… complicated circumstances. Now it was known as a popular inn.
On top of that, merchants who noticed the inn's strong business performance began opening restaurants and bars nearby to draw in its customers, which reduced friction with the surrounding establishments and created a synergistic effect—yet another reason for its popularity.
I got a little sidetracked, but in that quiet dining hall, there was one
creature
wreaking havoc.
"Tenma… sorry, but I'm going to need you to cover the damages."
As I stood there dumbfounded, Uncle Mark placed a hand on my shoulder and spoke, as though accepting responsibility for the devastation before us.
"Tenma, this is actually pretty tricky, huh."
Namitarou, hard at practice, wiggling the palm of the hand I'd given him back and forth.
The one responsible for all this,
Namitarou,
had a table in front of him piled high with crushed vegetables and fruit. It seemed he'd been practicing his arm control by grabbing and moving vegetables and fruit around. And he had failed every single time.
"Uncle, this…"
I handed Uncle Mark a gold coin to cover the cost of the vegetables and fruit, then quietly summoned the Gigant and grabbed Namitarou.
"Namitarou… anything to say for yourself?"
"No way! Tenma's a pervert!"
Those words pushed me over the edge. I used the Gigant to slam Namitarou into the floor several times, then froze him with magic and stuffed him into my bag.
And when I came back to my senses, what lay before me was…
"Tenma... you'll also need to pay for the floor repairs."
There was Uncle Mark, veins bulging on his forehead, demanding payment.
As it turned out, the floor repairs would cost roughly one large gold coin (100,000 G), and on top of that, he handed over five additional gold coins as a nuisance fee. If the floor had been made of stone or earth, I could have repaired it with my magic, but since it was wooden planks, the only option was to replace them with new ones.
Out of habit, I'd gone and done the same thing I always do at home, but from now on I vowed to properly check my surroundings before summoning the Gigant.