CH 5

The Kingdom of Asualev, the terminal town, Wishside.

There was a young man in a corner of the guild in the town.

“Is that you? The one who wants the information on the Skill Crystals?”

Dark skin tanned by the sun. The burly man smiles and talks to the unsociable young man.

“And you’re?”

The young man has a murderous tone to his voice.

“I’m Cliff, your information. Nice to meet you.”

Cliff offers his hand, but the young man only takes one look at him and refuses, sniffing and sniffing.

“All I want is the information on the Skill Crystal. How much would that be?”

Cliff withdrew his hand and scratched his skinhead.

“Directly talk about money. Well, whatever. How about 50,000 Yale?”

The young man then takes out five gold coins engraved with the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Asaref from a bag he was carrying.

Cliff took them and used the magic of appraisal to verify their authenticity.

“Okay, it’s real. Fake money is rampant these days, so don’t feel too bad.”

“I don’t care. Just give me the information.”

“Don’t be rash.”

Cliff closes the distance between himself and the young man as he puts the gold coins into his own pocket.

Then he lowered the tone of his voice and began to speak.

The content is that the Skill Crystal is a very rare item, and only people from the royal family and clergy are allowed to possess it. In addition, the royal family of the neighboring kingdom of Yuresh, which the Lisbet Kingdom had destroyed in the recent war, had fled to this kingdom of Asualev, and their sighting was reported in the nearby forest of Wishside.

“So you’re saying that this fleeing royalty would have the Skill Crystal?”

“You know. That’s all I know. You’ll have to find out for yourself.”

With that, Cliff disentangled himself from the young man, raised his hand in a good-bye gesture, and was gone.

It’s been five years since I ran away from the Zweig mansion.

Finally, finally. I’ve finally made it this far.

I really need to get my hands on the Skill Crystal to fulfill my purpose.

At first, I was going to use the church’s, but my name is too well known in Lisbet. It’s a good thing that I went all the way to the neighboring country of Asualev, but I found out that if I wanted to use the Skill Crystals, I would need permission from the king who rules each country.

As a stranger, there was no way I could easily get permission, so I had no choice but to sign up for the guild and start earning some money. I was actually planning to get permission after I had made some achievements here, but there is always a limit to what a level one can achieve. It took me five years to raise my guild rank from G to F. I guess my rank didn’t go up much because I didn’t kill monsters, but rather did a lot of collecting and chores.

However, after the slave-like life I had been forced to live, I had been able to save some money by continuing to live a simple life.

That’s why I had asked the guild receptionist to introduce me to anyone who knew how to get a skill crystal.

And here I’m.

I immediately pick up the sword beside me to go to the nearby forest that I had gotten information about from an informant who called himself Cliff. I don’t know how to use it well at the moment, but I keep it with me for self-defense.

I said a few words to the guild’s receptionist just to thank her for the introduction and left the guild house.

It’s an hour’s walk from Wishside.

I was standing at the entrance to the Ecute Forest. I’ve often visited this place for gathering quests, so I can come here without getting lost on the way.

I went inside immediately, but the situation was the same as usual. There are no such strong monsters here, so if you are careful, you can go back and forth without encountering any.

I went to a certain extent, but it’s really no different than usual. Is the royal family really hiding in this place?

Then, though faintly, I heard the trees around me rustle.

Someone’s coming.

I quickly hid myself in the nearby bushes. A few tens of seconds later, more than a dozen soldiers clad in silver armor walked in formation from my direction.

“Oh, shit, where are them?”

The soldier who stood at the head of the troop says regretfully. It’s probably the chief soldier.

“In this case, we must split up and search the forest with all our might. I don’t care if we have to kill them as soon as we find them. Don’t let them get away at all costs!”

Hmm, the soldiers behind him replied shortly and dispersed.

…… Apparently the rumor was true. After all, the coat of arms on their armor is from the Kingdom of Lisbet. There is no doubt that they’re chasing the royal family of Yuresh.

If that’s the case, I’m going to have to find them before they do.

The geography is probably on me, so hopefully I’ll definitely find it.

A few hours later–

“Maybe they’re not in this forest anymore.”

I tried to find their hidden place while trying to hide from the soldiers, but I couldn’t find any. In that case, it would be reasonable to assume that they were suddenly out of the forest.

“Damn it, this is the only clue I have!”

I punched a nearby tree. I wanted to alleviate this irritation by doing so.

I wonder why things are going so wrong. I also despair a little, wondering how long it will be until I get the next piece of information on the crystal.

That’s when it happened.

“She’s there! Go, go, go!

From nearby, I heard a voice that seemed to belong to the soldier from earlier.

When I turn towards the voice, I see a girl running towards me. So that’s the royal family of Yuresh!

The girl is running while turning around, so she hasn’t noticed me in front of her yet.

I quickly bent down and pushed her body down into the bushes just as she came under me.

My body and the girl’s are tangled together, but we successfully blend into the greenery.

She looked as if she didn’t know what had happened for a moment, but soon started to get loud and violent, so I whispered, “Be quiet if you don’t want to be found,” to shut her up.

Soldiers are coming nearby with the sound of crunching armor.

“You find her?”

“No, she’s gone like a haze again.”

“But I’m pretty sure she’s hiding around here. I’ll look over here, you look over there.”

With that, the soldiers dispersed again.

Now, what should I do about this situation that was created on the spur of the moment, although I was able to get away from the urgent situation?

For now, I’m just going to start by making sure that this kid who’s staring at me so incredibly in front of me somehow understands that I’m on her side.