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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Yuma’s group crossed the border of the barbarian nation Pineon.
They passed through the border guard without any problems.
After successfully entering the barbarian nation Pineon, Yuma put the red cloak into his spatial pocket.
Although Pineon’s identity was that of a barbarian nation, it was still fundamentally a country.
The ordinary citizens of the kingdom, unrelated to the war, were unlikely to know anything about Yuma.
He placed the lion-engraved bronze tag that had helped him pass through the border guard without issue into the inside pocket of his black coat.
Hestia and Cloney, wearing robes, looked around with wide eyes at Pineon’s scenery, which was clearly different from the empire.
Unlike the empire’s buildings, which were mainly of refined design, here the natural use of straw, leather, and other materials was noticeable.
“Let’s eat first.”
As soon as Yuma finished speaking, Cloney and Hestia, who were secretly hungry, nodded vigorously.
“It’s a… smell. A delicious smell.”
Sniff sniff.
Hestia lifted her head and shook it around as if tracking some scent.
“Risotto… the smell of risotto. Cream risotto!”
It was quite an amusing world.
In a world where there were red bean buns, there was no reason there couldn’t be risotto.
“Alright, let’s go there.”
Yuma decided to enter the restaurant that Hestia had detected with her innate cat-folk sense of smell.
Restaurant Russo.
“Welcome!”
The cheerful voice of a young boy greeted them.
It was quite a busy establishment.
“Cream risotto!”
Hestia chose her menu without hesitation.
Cloney ordered tomato pasta.
Yuma also chose pasta.
‘It’s delicious.’
As Yuma twirled the tomato pasta around his fork and put it in his mouth, he felt his mind working faster, perhaps because it was proper food he was eating after a while.
Cloney watched Yuma slowly eating the same tomato pasta as her.
“Yuma.”
Cloney’s golden eyes took in Yuma’s still aristocratic face.
“Is there someone like me nearby here?”
Cloney clearly knew what kind of being she was to First Princess Brigitte.
A being destined by the oracle.
‘The daughter of the witch who fell into the hell of the black plague.’
‘The blue-haired sword saint.’
When the two destined ones gathered, First Princess Brigitte would awaken to the fate of becoming the hero who would save the world and the emperor of the empire.
That was the content of the oracle.
Yuma slowly nodded at Cloney’s question.
“We’ll pass through a forest. It’s expected to be one of the people belonging to a tribe-like group beyond that forest.”
“The First Princess said something like that… that there might be a resonance when the beings destined by the oracle meet.”
“That’s right.”
She had indeed said that.
“I should try to concentrate to feel that resonance.”
“We’ll pass through a forest and then that tribe should be there, so you can start paying attention from then.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“We’ll find a guide and head to the forest. Shall we get going if you’re done eating?”
The three who had filled their stomachs rose from their seats.
‘Information guild.’
Two ways to find a guide that Great Warrior Martes had mentioned.
Either from a mercenary group or an information guild.
They only needed to go as far as the entrance of Gelpiel Forest.
It wasn’t a situation that required reinforcement in terms of combat power.
They just needed someone who knew the geography well.
Yuma could conclude that it would be more appropriate to find someone from an information guild.
The location of the information guild was clearly marked on the map.
It seemed to prove that they weren’t operating in the shadows.
After paying for the meal with money from the purse given by Martes, they went outside.
They had received enough of the kingdom’s currency unit ‘Kurf’, so there was no worry about financial matters.
The information guild was located three blocks away.
Step by step
Yuma decided to walk there leisurely.
“Heeh.”
Hestia’s green eyes sparkled.
Hestia and Cloney observed with fascination the unique building styles and the kingdom’s citizens mostly wearing fur outerwear.
Yuma stopped walking two blocks ahead.
A weapon shop with weapons prominently displayed on stands caught his eye.
Was this the barbarian nation’s way of displaying?
Yuma’s attention was caught by two items hanging on the display stand.
One was a silver gauntlet.
The other looked like a small shield used by balancing the weight on the forearm and back of the hand.
‘These would be convenient for parrying when facing martial artists or fighters.’
Attacks from martial artists who fight with fists wrapped in strong qi could still be sufficiently parried with [Black Dragon Bernak’s Fang] as before.
Since qi-wrapped close-range attacks could use qi as a parrying point.
However, for bare-handed attacks, it was quite tricky to establish parrying conditions with a blade.
It wasn’t that he lacked confidence in so-called bare-handed parrying, parrying bare fist attacks with bare hands, but there was no need to leave a risk that could be reduced.
‘Now I don’t know what kind of enemies might appear.’
Among humans, it would be rare for someone to try to fight stupidly with bare fists without coating them in strong qi, but there might come a day when he would have to face monsters like ogres or orcs.
It would be better to prepare for all possibilities.
With that thought, Yuma pointed inside the weapon shop.
“Let’s drop by for a moment.”
“Yes!”
“Okay!”
Although Cloney and Hestia didn’t know why Yuma suddenly wanted to visit the weapon shop, they just nodded when he said to go in.
As they entered the weapon shop, a man who looked like the shop owner approached Yuma.
For some reason, he was a bald man who inspired trust.
“Is there something you’re looking for?”
“A durable gauntlet. Just about the size of a fist. And a one-handed shield that’s not too large in area.”
The response was quite fast as the order was clear.
In the shop owner’s hands were a silver gauntlet and a dark-colored small shield that matched
Yuma’s thoughts perfectly.
They were significantly inferior to the many famous swords in the spatial pocket of the sword god Chronos, like [Axion], or [Black Dragon Bernak’s Fang] which he received first, but they belonged to the A-grade weapon category.
“Good, I’ll take these.”
“Thank you.”
After immediately putting the purchased items into his spatial pocket, Yuma looked at Hestia and Cloney who were staring at the accessory display stand.
At the end of their view was a necklace containing an amethyst-colored jewel.
“This is the only accessory in our weapon shop. It’s made by crafting Seltrel, an ore found only in Pineon. It’s very beautiful.”
Seeing that the two, who usually weren’t very interested in accessories, were quite interested, it seemed they liked it considerably.
“I’ll buy two.”
At Yuma’s words, a bright smile appeared on the shop owner’s face.
“An excellent choice.”
The two who received the jeweled necklaces as gifts from Yuma stared blankly at the necklaces, particularly the jewels at their centers, for a while.
“Sister, I’ll help you.”
“Mhm mhm, I’ll put it on for you too!”
They took turns putting the necklaces on each other.
And then smiled with satisfaction.
“Thank you, Yuma.”
Cloney, as always, thanked him politely.
“Indeed, a strong person should know how to take care of those around them…”
Scribble scribble.
Yuma tilted his head as he saw Hestia scribbling something in a small notebook.
“What are you writing?”
As Yuma’s shadow suddenly appeared over the notebook she was scribbling in─
“Eek!”
She made a strange sound and hastily closed the notebook.
However, in that instant, Yuma saw the words written in the notebook.
›A strong person should know to take care of their subordinates even if it means spending their own money sometimes….
What on earth was she writing that content for?
What was the purpose?
Yuma decided to pretend not to notice the cat-folk swordsman’s shadiness.
Yuma looked at the gray building visible after walking one more block.
On the gray building was written quite elegant continental common language.
‘Lantern’.
The name of the information guild was Lantern.
Yuma entered that Lantern.
Both the exterior of the building and the interior felt like a cocktail bar.
At what looked like a counter stood a man wearing a shirt.
“Welcome, customer. I’m Hans, the manager of the Lantern information guild.”
A man with a very common name greeted them politely.
“I need a guide.”
“Do you have anything to prove your identity?”
Thump
Yuma took out the lion bronze tag he had received from Martes and placed it on the table.
“Oh…”
An exclamation flowed from Hans’ mouth.
“The most famous person on the continent right now has come.”
“Looks like you know who I am.”
The most famous being on the continent.
Yuma was indeed currently the most famous being on the continent.
The empire’s storytellers who loved to gossip had already spread rumors all over the continent.
Hans spoke in a low voice.
“Ah, don’t worry. I’m the only one in this Lantern who knows the guest. Only the leaders of the four information guilds in Pineon know. Great Warrior Martes has ordered us to cooperate as much as possible with whatever request you make.”
Hans revealed everything honestly.
Yuma slowly nodded.
“I need a guide to go to the entrance of Gelpiel Forest. The barbarian nation’s plains seem too vast to go as a first-time visitor.”
“That’s right. The barbarian nation’s plains are vast. Even if you look at the map carefully, you can’t distinguish each forest. We usually distinguish them by trees, but…”
There was no way a first-time visitor could make such distinctions.
“Please wait a moment.”
Hans, bowing his head deeply, moved away from the counter and immediately called someone.
It was a man with brown hair.
“This friend has been to Gelpiel Forest countless times.”
“I-I’m Masek. Hello, client.”
Having heard from Hans that Yuma was a very important person, though unable to give details, Masek greeted Yuma while breaking out in a cold sweat.
“We just need to go to the entrance of Gelpiel Forest.”
“We’ll depart right away.”
As there was no need to drag out time unnecessarily, they planned to depart immediately.
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