Book 3: Chapter 42

「Ufufu…」

After Her Highness Anastasia left, Non-san started acting weird.

「Ufufu…」

With her trademark laugh, she glanced at me.

We changed into our usual adventurer outfit and left the guesthouse to join Mimino-san and the others. …Hmm, I might never get to sleep in such a luxurious place in my life again. I felt slightly reluctant to part, but my poor person mentality doesn’t allow me to sleep well in this place, so I quickly changed my mind and got out of there.

「Ufufu…」

「Umm… Non-san?」

「Ufu… What is it?」

「What are you laughing about…?」

We walked through the city as the sun shone brightly in the sky. The heat was as hot as in the summer, so we walked under shades as much as possible. The Lev people also, naturally, choose to walk under shades, so we, the outsiders, did the considerate thing by moving out into the sun.

The Lev people raised their heads and thanked us, but when they realised we were humans, they hung down their heads again with a puzzled look.

So they don’t have sweat glands after all? Poikilotherm?

「Oh, nothing really! When I think about how smooth you are with girls, I just feel happy as an onee-san.」

「Huh…?」

Did I just hear something strange?

「The letter you gave to Her Highness Anastasia, was a love letter, right?」

「…………」

It is something strange, after all!

「I understand why you would feel that way. She is a noble person, and also friendly. She is incredibly grateful for what Reiji-kun did. But, you see, there is such a big difference in status after all… Oh, but don’t worry. Love can overcome even the difference in status!」

「Uhh, excuse me, but–」

「Don’t worry! I will support you!」

Non-san happily declared to cheer me on.

「Umm, it seems that there is a misunderstanding, so I’ll correct it–」

「Ah, what do you think Mimino-san will do when she finds out? …Maybe she’ll feel jealous?」

「Aaah, please don’t say unnecessary things!」

I then hurriedly corrected Non-san’s misunderstanding. The letter I gave to Her Highness Anastasia was related to her physical condition.

I found out about Her Highness’ peculiar constitution when I first met her at Muge-san’s company, but I thought it wasn’t my place to talk about it.

The scarf was thin this time, so I was able to see through it and found a sorcery which was somewhat erratic. Thus I noticed something unusual.

ーThat perhaps this person is forcibly confining her constitution by not using words.

I still couldn’t believe how ridiculously unusual Her Highness’ constitution was even after the diagnosis from【World Ruler】. Each cell in her body was optimized for【Fire Magic】. And if she wishes to convey something to the outside, such as words, it will manifest itself as flames.

Furthermore, she had incredibly high mana. Probably because she’s a High Elf royalty.

I had a feeling that it would be truly mind-blowing if Her Highness used【Fire Magic】for real.

However, that constitution can be controlled if she trained her mana control. I have confirmed that by observing Earl Sillys controlling the “Magic Eye of Inquire”, and also Lady Eva noticeably controlled her “Magic Eye of Inspire” after obtaining a【Mana Control ★★★★】.

「Hmm, physical condition, huh…」Non-san said, still sounding suspicious.

「Anyway, I don’t have such feelings towards Her Highness.」

「But she is a very beautiful person.」

「Well, that’s true—」

「See!」

「No, there is nothing to see.」

「But–」

「Then I can also say that you are beautiful, Non-san.」

「…Eh?」

「I originally thought that you were a gentle beauty, but after such dress up and make-up, your shine and radiance increased with your beauty.」

「…………」

「Aah, it’s difficult to put it into words. What I’m trying to say is, Non-san was just as incredibly attractive–eh, what happened, Non-san?」

「Y-You shouldn’t make fun of people older than you by saying that!」

「I’m really serious, though…」

「Come, let’s go quickly!」

「Hey, wait for me!」

Non-san briskly walked in front of me.

Her skin was flushed –【World Ruler】explained that it was “the effect of a sudden rise in body temperature.”

**

By the time we reached Muge-san’s company, I was sweating a little. Muge-san and everyone else were at the company.

「Yo, how did it go on your end?」

In response to Dante-san’s cheerful tone, Non-san, still pouting her lips, turned away. So I explained about the audience.

I cut short about the letter I gave to Her Highness Anastasia, though. I don’t want them to get a strange misunderstanding (speaking from experience).

「What about Polina-san?」I asked.

「When we reached here earlier, Polina said, “I have done my job, so now I need to go take care of my personal affairs,” and left. I didn’t even get to inform her about the Golden Brigade.」

She went somewhere? Places where you can go without a Lev person is considerably restricted in this country, though.

I wonder if she’s alright?

「As for Muge-san, you should probably ask the person himself.」Dante-san said.

「Okay.」

Muge-san, who was drinking water poured from a pitcher, smiled when he saw me. He was smiling ear-to-ear. To see a Lev person’s widely smiling lizard face for the first time was… quite surprising, to say the least.

「Settlement out of court!」

「Settlement? Which means–」

「Yes. In addition to the 1,000 imperial gold coins, they paid 50 more for the inconvenience!」

Muge-san carried a bagーwhich looked really heavyーat his feet with Dante-san’s help, and placed it on the table with a loud thud. The rattling of coins sounded. There was a dazzling amount of gold coins inside.

「Wow! But why did the Rororo Company suddenly change their attitude?」

「It’s all thanks to Silver Balance.」

Muge-san explained, with a still smiling face.

The fact that we had captured the Labyrinth of Fear was communicated to the leading trading companies that day, and it seems that Muge-san received an offer of a settlement from the Rororo Company at the beginning of this morning.

Taking an aggressive position with the company that houses the heroes of the labyrinth capture brings a lot of disadvantage and harm in business. Moreover, they even shamelessly asked to buy the loot we brought back from our last venture.

「I guess…it can be called a strong commercial spirit?」

「Ahaha. That’s right. But it’s simple, right?」

Indeed. It’s far simpler compared to nobles who scheme, shackled by their own pride and obligations.

「And so, 500 gold coins belong to Silver Balance! And I’ll also give the inconvenience fee since you were the ones who actually solved it. So the total will come to 550 imperial gold coins.」

The gold coins Muge-san split with us was worth about 150 to 200million in Japanese yenーeven if the inconvenience fee seems small when considering the overall sum, it was still a huge amount of money.

「…Is what I would like to say, but there is a tax on transactions between trading companies. Since 10% tax is deducted, the final amount will come to 495 gold coins.」

Muge-san added at the end there.