The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank

Chapter 33: To the City of Adventurers

Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”

Fastening the belt so it won’t shift on my waist, I shoulder the great shield.

That is pretty much all of my baggage, the sword, the shield, and the magic bag, that serves as a potion pouch.

Inside the pouch are potions and the paper I received from the count.

I was supposed to get him to sign this paper, to acknowledge the expenses of this journey.

「Nii-san.」

Manicia called and then she tightly hugged me.

That surprised me a bit, but I hugged her back.

「Are you okay?」

「I am. ……But I won’t see you for a while, so please allow me a bit of indulgence.」

「Got it.」

I gently stroke her back.

Running my hand across her slender back brings peace to my heart. She is the cutest in the whole world.

Manicia separated from me a few seconds later.

Now it was my time to be sad.

「Nii-san, please, be careful.」

「It’s okay. It’s just an ordinary trip. Nothing is going to happen. Then, I’ll be off.」

Leaving the room with Manicia, I see Nin and Luna.

It looks like Luna’s preparations are perfect.

Perhaps to protect from the sunlight, she is wearing a white hat. It’s a good match with her grey hair.

Her clothes also were a bit better than usual, enhancing her looks.

Was it Nin, who coordinated it? As expected, she has good taste.

Nin leaned on a chair and sighed.

「If only I didn’t have the church’s job I would’ve gone with you. They have a lot of good alcohol there.」

「That’s all you are thinking about.」

「Isn’t that obvious? Well, while you aren’t here, we will do some female bonding.」

Nin looked at Manicia with a smile, to which Manicia replied, smiling with her whole face.

「Yes, sure.」

……Since they are girls, it should be fine, right?

The twins surface in my mind. ……

I’ll get quite seriously angry if you do something weird to Manicia, okay?

As I silently stared at Nin, her expression became just a bit tense.

「You reeally like your sister.」

「Not really. Nothing out of ordinary.」

With Nin’s words, Manicia blushed and lowered her gaze.

This makes it a bit embarrassing for me as well.

It’s the first time I’ve left since I reconciled with Manicia.

……I didn’t think it would be this hard to part. No, previously it was pretty depressing as well.

Suppressing the desire to postpone the departure until tomorrow, I leave the house.

Heading to the gates, I see a pretty huge crowd of people, who came to see me off.

And it’s not only citizens of the town.

There were adventurers among them as well.

Though I thought that there was no need for such a crowd, I also was happy about this.

Milena, who was nearby, called out to me.

「Rude, Luna-chan. We will take care of the stuff here. I will protect Manicia in Luna-chan’s stead, so rest assured! That’s how it was until now anyway!」

「Yeah, I’m here as well. Leave it to us.」

Feel, who stood next to Milena, knocked on her chest, looking pretty reliable.

Indeed, hearing it from her, clad in full-body armor, sounds quite reassuring.

On the other hand, the fact that she lowered her helmet on her face, bothers me a bit.

Is she nervous, since there are so many people?

「Got it. I’ll also do what I can.」

「Yeah, we are counting on you, Rude.」

「Do your best. And you Luna-chan, go and learn a lot about adventurers.」

Luna bowed to Milena, who was waving her hand.

We walk to the gates.

「Oh, so you came.」

「Sorry. Boo, Gary, did you wait?」

「Not really.」

Gary, who was squatting on the ground, stood up.

Meanwhile, Boo is brushing the head of a lizard horse.

Lizard horse is a crossbreed between dragon-type monsters and horse-type monsters.

Having two of them is quite an impressive sight.

Lizard horses possess amazing leg strength, so many use them for travel.

……But the price is still outside the reach of commoners.

The fact that they have those, implies that their clans are doing quite well financially.

My eyes meet with the lizard horse.

Its eyes emanate a threatening pressure, typical for monsters of dragon species.

Scales cover the body akin to natural armor. If it were to spread its wings, it could even fly, though to a very limited degree.

So this is the means of travel that Boo and Gary said they will prepare.

「Are we going on lizard horses?」

「Of course. Right, Boo?」

「Yeah. With the power of lizard horses, carrying two people is nothing. Now, the question is how are we going to sit……」

Boo and Gary looked at Luna. Both had an indecent feeling to their stare.

These guys probably want to ride with Luna……

「I will ride with Luna-chan, you, Boo, will ride with Rude, kay?」

「The hell are you talking about! As if we can entrust her to such a gloomy and frail mage! What are you going to do if she falls?!」

「I’m not going to ride in such a way! Or rather, fatass such as yourself can barely hold in the saddle on his own!」

Both were butting heads.

Luna put a hand to her chin, and after thinking for a while, tapped on her palm with a fist.

「Then how about you two ride together? And I will ride with Master. Looking at how close you are, I think it would be best.」

Luna proudly puffed her chest, as if saying 「Fufun, I understood everything.」.

「……」

「……」

The two exchanged glances and then dropped their shoulders.

Then, quietly got on the same horse.

The lizard horse on which they sat, softly stood up.

I head to another one and sit on its back.

I rode horseback a few times, but it’s my first time riding on a lizard horse.

Holding Luna’s hand, I pull her up.

I have to say, this one is quite docile.

It has a pretty intelligent look. 「Guee」it cried, so I patted it on the forehead.

Looks like it’s enjoying itself.

「I’m counting on you.」

「Gyueh!」

After letting out a weird cry, the lizard horse stood up.

Slightly panicked, I grab the reins and then turn around to see Luna.

「I heard that they are pretty fast, so be careful not to fall off.」

「Acknowledged. Master, can I hold onto you?」

「……Yes.」

It’s pretty embarrassing, but I can’t have her fall and get injured.

Luna gently wrapped her hands around me.

It’s ticklish.

She tightly pressed her body at me, which Boo and Gary looked at with envy.

Let’s go already.

Their gazes should go away after we depart.

With a swing of the reins, the lizard horse began running.

Since Luna is glued to me, each jolt brings even more of my attention to her.

「By the way, Master. You said that the guardian wanted to come, what became of it?」

「……Well, I refused. Even if he claims that he wants to choose new comrades by himself, you know.」

Just as Luna said, the guardian showed up at my house earlier.

And said that he wants to get new monsters himself.

But, well. It’s a city full of adventurers. Since there is no telling what could happen there, I refused.

The lizard horse sped up.

In response, Luna clung to me even harder.

〇

The second morning of our journey. We arrived at the city of adventurers, Karde.

As always, incredible traffic.

Adventurers and the like filled every corner of the city. Ordinary folk could hardly be seen.

That’s to be expected, most of the people here are adventurers.

The number of adventurers here is so large, that people even say that it is enough to easily crush some small country.

Even though a huge war force was gathered in the city, it wasn’t seen as a problem.

One of the biggest reasons for that was friendly relationships between the country and its top clans.

『Black Dragon Fangs』with headquarters in the east part of the city.

『White Tiger Claws』with headquarters in the west part of the city.

Many clans exist in this city, but it is said that at least half is affiliated with either of these.

Raising my eyes, there is a banner of 『Black Dragon Fangs』.

The west side most likely has a『White Tiger Claws』banner.

Compared to most cities in this day and age, the place gives a wild impression, but that’s what I liked about it.

Buildings, places close to each other, gave an impression of them being built without any plan in mind at all, which again, was very fitting for adventurers.

That’s the kind of town we were now walking through.

Luna, who was walking next to me, was curious about everything, asking me questions each time she saw something.

Boo and Gary went off to their own clans to report about us.

It seems that they already informed them in advance through letters, but received no response.

For now, it was decided that we should meet up in the guild the next morning. I have no idea how things are going to turn out though.

「It’s an amazing city. It’s built out of stone, right?」

「Yes, you are right. After getting used to the wooden architecture of Avancier it must a strange sight?」

「…Yes. But, it has a good feeling to it.」

「It’s a bit noisy, but I like it as well.」

The street is filled with stalls, where merchants are trying to attract customers.

The merchants’ shouts, advertisements, and voices of adventurers, trying to haggle with them.

Taking a proper look at everything on this street would easily take a few days.

Seeing unusual merchandise stirs my childish curiosity, but right now we have a different goal.

First, go to the guild and register Luna as an adventurer.

It can be done in any huge city.

Quite often, materials used for guild cards are not available locally.

Of course, Avancier didn’t have them as well.

The guild is located in the central part of the city.

The only district with which『Black Dragon Fangs』and『White Tiger Claws』don’t meddle.

As we walk towards that area, someone calls out to me.

It was an unpleasant voice with which I was familiar. Turning around, I see the guardian, covering his mouth with a hand.

「Hey, Rude, I tagged along.」

「You…… How?」

「I can tell the location of the monsters that I command. And as you know, slimes can split.」

With those words, a small slime appeared from my bag.

……So he tracked me with this.

「You…… This is the city of adventurers, you understand this? Everyone here is raiding labyrinths with the goal of killing you, okay?」

「That may be so. But isn’t that fun?」

「……Haaah. Well, fine. Follow me.」

Nothing can be done since he is already here. Making him come with us would be better than allowing inadequate solo action.

The guardian squinted, seeing my dissatisfaction.

「……What about the name?」

「Let’s see. Let’s go with Marius. It just suddenly popped up in my mind.」

「Got it……」

Is it going to be okay? This trip.