391 - Hero Party 1
TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/Week Mon-fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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What if there was no craftsman who could handle special enhancent stones?
What if there was an additional quest to use special enhancent stones, what if there was a problem with Old Didi the stone dwarf, what if, what if, what if...
Contrary to the viewers' excited chatter cluttering Han Se-ah's mind, Old Didi was openly hamring away in the largest building on the main street.
"Hm? If it isn't the squishies. Want to enhance your equipnt?"
"Yes. I'd like to use this to enhance my sword."
The stone dwarf called Didi picked up the special enhancent stone that Katie had been cherishing with plier-like tweezers. He examined it from various angles, then hastily unsheathed a sword from his waist and gently caressed the blade.
Perhaps because his fingers were made of stone, a peculiar sound like sharpening a knife with a whetstone could be heard. Despite scraping tal with stone, it wasn't a spine-chilling noise, but rather a calming one. Stone dwarf finger ASMR might actually get a decent number of views.
"Well, well, you squishies have a good eye for quality. Co back in about three hours."
"Okay!"
Katie readily entrusted her sword without question, as if that calm deanor alone had filled her with confidence. It was surprising that enhancing equipnt only took three hours.
When directly enhancing with regular enhancent stones, it took less than a minute for the mana to be absorbed with a whoosh and it was over. I wasn't sure if three hours should be considered long or short. Anyway, this enhancent felt similar to the tutorial for special enhancent, so Katie's sword probably wouldn't shatter into pieces.
For so reason, I felt like I heard humming about slipping hands from a corner of the market street, but it must have been my imagination.
"Three hours, huh? That's just enough ti to shop for food and camping supplies and co back."
"Since our group has grown and exploration will likely take longer, we should reduce the jerky and buy more grain powder and dried beans."
"Ugh, not too many beans."
"Katie, no matter what, you can't be picky in the tower."
Did kids who hate beans exist in both the East and West?
Katie shuddered at the thought of baked beans, a dish much easier and quicker to make than stew or soup. Well, it was hard to eat tasty when it was just dried beans with a bit of sauce simred in.
Honestly, even I, with my mutt's appetite that gobbled up anything Irene cooked without complaint, was a bit reluctant when it ca to baked beans. It was a bit much to just scoop up beans stewed in sauce like rice, without any actual rice or side dishes.
Katie disliked it, and I'd eat it without complaint thanks to my experience roughing it in the tower, but I didn't particularly like it.
And our player Han Se-ah also openly showed her aversion. Well, with gar-friendly options like chik, bulgogi, and all sorts of world cuisines readily available, eating nothing but boiled beans was a bit perverted, wasn't it?
"Hmm... Then how about buying so biscuits instead of beans?"
"Increasing the amount of biscuits instead of bread might work. I prefer dipping biscuits in soup over baked beans too."
"I see..."
Grace also chid in, seemingly willing to give up bread as a side dish rather than eat beans as a staple. As we walked through the market discussing such trivial yet important matters of beans versus bread, a sudden shout rang out.
An angry yell, the urgent sound of footsteps and a crowd rushing, the noise of stalls and junk being overturned, and irritated protests.
For a mont, everyone's attention - not just our group, but the stone dwarves and rchant guild people on the main street as well - turned towards the alley where the commotion was clearly audible even from the main road. But the back alleys seed to be intricately designed like an elaborate maze, so nothing was actually visible.
Even raising the cara high didn't imdiately reveal anything, and Han Se-ah lost interest and was about to move on when,
"Hm? It looks like the one being chased is Lukius."
"Lukius?"
Grace suddenly whipped her head around and started glaring intensely at the alleyway.
The back alleys, while not dirty, ford a maze-like tangle of intersections due to the stone dwarves' unique construction style of using solid rock blocks to make buildings.
But even though it was complexly intertwined and poorly lit, making it dark, the actual distance wasn't that far. It was ridiculously close to fool the senses of a 5★ exploration specialist character. Plus, the side causing the commotion didn't seem to be trying to conceal their presence at all.
"The one being chased is Mr. Lukius, and about ten people are charging at him. From the sound of tal, they seem to be wearing knight-level armor. I don't hear weapons being drawn, so it looks like they're just trying to grab and drag him away... He's not resisting as he's being dragged off either. What's going on?"
"He ran away but doesn't resist when caught, and the knights all rushed to grab him but there's no violence? What the hell kind of situation is this?"
Everyone in the group tilted their heads at Grace's continued explanation. We thought a fistfight had broken out from the shouting and the sound of things crashing and breaking, but hearing Grace's words only piqued our curiosity more.
If he wasn't resisting, why did he run away in the first place, and if they were shouting in excitent, why weren't they using violence? What the hell kind of situation was this?
"Well, we'll have to check this out, won't we?"
As Han Se-ah turned her body slightly towards the alley, leading with the cara, Grace naturally started guiding the way. Their teamwork was so smooth - I guessed Grace must have been quite curious too after hearing the sounds directly.
"Let's go see!"
"What the hell is going on...?"
The dim alleyway was like a maze. Since the city was built by carving out rock in an underground cavern, the lighting from the main street didn't reach into the corners of the alleys.
On the right were buildings carved from stone so dark gray it was nearly black, on the left were walls carved from off-white stone, creating a maze-like alley with jagged edges. Grace guided us towards the clamorous sounds, seemingly with no intention of moving stealthily even in such back alleys.
Turning right at a wall, past a tall building, then past a smooth block-shaped building without a single window, we saw burly n in armor moving in a group.
"Ahaha, hero? Hero!"
"Uh... Lukius? What's going on?"
"He... Hero? What the hell."
There was no sign of violence or intimidation. Just two burly n holding Lukius by both arms, as if escorting him, walking side by side.
In a world that slled vaguely of dark fantasy once you got a little far from the capital - where pickpockets got their wrists cut off and swindlers had their tongues ripped out - this level of treatnt could be considered polite. As Grace detected, it didn't seem like he'd been subjected to any violent ans either.
In the first place, the knights looking this way in bewildernt at the word "hero" were mostly interdiate level. About three of them were high-rank, but at that level, 5★ Lukius could draw his sword and resist if he wanted to. Even if his stats weren't great, his swordsmanship skills were quite decent.
"It looks like that's our party mber over there. Is sothing wrong?"
"Well, that is..."
Flinching at the word "hero", not even daring to reach for their weapons, and anxiously looking around.
Though they outnumbered us, we were the stronger side here. Han Se-ah's strear instincts seed to work in situations like this too - she imdiately noticed this and stepped forward to confidently ask questions, making the other side shrink back instead.
As expected, even if she seed lacking in so areas, she delivered when it counted. Thinking that, I also stepped forward and folded my arms behind Han Se-ah. Given their armored appearance, they looked like knights from so domain, so they might recognize my face.
"I-Isn't that Sir Roland? The, the owner of the holy sword..."
"Just what has the young master been up to..."
They certainly seed to recognize the face of the holy sword's owner, if not the hero's. The people who recognized my face shrank back even more and started whispering amongst themselves.
But wait, what?
Young master?
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Raei Translations
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5★ 'Lucky One' Lukius was, to be precise, 5★ 'Lucky One' Lukius Cornelius.
'What is our party, so kind of family for runaways?'
So he wasn't lying about being from the Empire. When Han Se-ah asked about his sowhat romantic na, the answer ca back that he was from a count's family in the eastern part of the Empire.
The Cornelius County in the eastern Empire. A prestigious family that had boasted wealth for generations, owning vast and fertile lands. Not just a family with money, but wealthy national contributors in charge of military supplies sent to the northern part of the Empire.
Lukius was born as the third son in a strict household that took duty and devotion as their family motto to the point of making it their family precept, and wanted for freedom... This really was a fucking runaway family, wasn't it?
"He may say that, but I believe he left for the sake of his older brothers."
"Older brothers?"
"Despite appearances, the young master is soone who really cares for his family."
The knights - that is, the knights of the Cornelius County - who guided us to their quarters at the ntion of "hero", heaved a deep sigh as Lukius scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression. At least with his ★-boosted handso middle-aged face, he didn't look pathetic even with such a sheepish expression.
The knight's subsequent explanation was quite predictable. The knight, who had served the Cornelius family since childhood, slowly unfolded a cliché story, saying he rembered Lukius from when he was young.
The eldest son, kind but incompetent. The second son, on the contrary, capable but with a nasty personality. And the third son, average in both personality and ability, but strangely "lucky" since childhood. Because of this, the family's retainers were divided into factions over who to serve as the next count.
Serving the legitimate eldest son didn't seem like it would help the family business. But promoting the capable second son to count when the eldest wasn't incompetent enough to ruin the family was also problematic. Then how about young master Lukius, who strangely revitalized every business he touched during his successor training...?
The factions were split like this, he said.
Seeing the retainers split not just into two, but three factions and start to falter, Lukius followed his 'Lucky One' instincts and ran away from the family, eventually reaching the high ranks and fatefully joining the hero's party.
After carefully listening to all this explanation, Han Se-ah put down her empty teacup on the table and muttered softly.
"Isn't this a runaway family rather than a hero's party?"
We were on the sa wavelength.
Fuck.
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