38 Chapter 7 (6): Into the demon lands
Chapter 7 (6): Into the demon lands
After talking for a while, our party, now including Haru, crossed the border to the demon lands. Almost as soon as we set foot on the other side, we had to talk to the border guard on the demon's side. In this case, it was a male demon who looked to be in his late 120s, if I'm not wrong. He carried a large spear, and stopped us with his wings flared, before guiding us to a room with quite a few devices, such as the lie-detecting orb, known in the demon lands as a truth orb, this particular one is of the kind that is able to identify and indicate half-truths (lying by omission) and several different things used to authenticate different types of ID cards.
"I know what you are going to say. We are young, but we are strong. Our party is made up of six B ranks and an A rank, so we'll be fine" (Ryuu)
"Fair enough. However, I still do have to ask why you are wishing to enter the demon lands" (Guard)
"Well, three of us, myself included, are originally from the demon lands, and two of us are here to visit family. I don't have any anymore, but I do have friends to visit... a few, at least. The rest are here because we're a party, and may as well stick together" (Ryuu)
"Fair enough. Well, all that is left is to state your names, so that we have a record of your entering" (Guard)
"Very well. I am Ryuu, this is Verene, Charlotte, Mae, Haru, Elise, and Tuare" (Ryuu)
"Full names, please..." (Guard)
"I am Verene... I don't have a family name" (Verene)
"Charlotte von Ascham" (Char)
"Mae Austine" (Mae)
"I cast aside my family name when I got kicked out of my house, so I'm just Elise" (Elise)
When there was a slight pause, we noticed the guard being a bit surprised, so we let him speak.
"Well, two nobles from the human lands... Please remember that those titles mean little here. For Verene, that's understandable, Elise, I guess that works... I'm sorry to hear that, however. Now, for the last three" (Guard)
"I do not wish to say the name of my family, nor even my full first name. Most of the time, I'm just Ryuu" (Ryuu)
My saying that caused him to think for a bit, but he then turned to Haru wordlessly.
"I am similar. I wish to avoid saying my family name, so I'm just Haru right now" (Haru)
"If that is how you wish to be, so be it. However, this does mean that I'll have to ask more about you. Now, for the last of you... What is your full name?" (Guard)
"Ryuu? What do you think? Should I say it?" (Tuare)
"Probably. There's not really much of a reason for you to hide it, compared to Haru or me" (Ryuu)
"Fair enough. My name is Tuareninya Lars. However, I just go by Tuare for now, as I'm trying to live and learn what I can without relying on my family name" (Tuare)
"Ah, that tradition... how... how long have you been on that journey of learning?" (Guard)
"Almost three years, actually... I don't know how long people normally do so, but I'm having fun and learning a lot, so I don't feel a particular need to finish it and return home" (Tuare)
"Uh... what? Three years? Three months is about normal, half a year is considered a long time... I haven't heard of someone lasting much more than a year and a half..." (Guard)
"Well, I left on my 13th birthday, and my 16th is in about two weeks, so I guess I'll see my father around the time I'd been out for three years. I guess this means we'll be visiting Elise's home first?" (Tuare)
"Yeah... anyways, uh... sorry about the slight bit of disrespect towards you... I hope-" (Guard)
"It's fine, I've been treated much worse, and it came about due to your job. Don't worry about it" (Tuare)
"Thanks... anyways, you all are free to go, I guess. If Tuareninya Lars is going to vouch for the two hiding their family names, I can and will let it slide without further investigation" (Guard)
With that, we left, and moved further into the demon lands. We killed, dismantled, stored, and sometimes ate whatever magical beasts we came across, helped out a merchant in need, which we tried to have be for free, but he pushed a few gold coins onto us, and then, after three days, we came to the first town. Entry was easy enough, and we went straight for the adventurer's guild. Surprisingly, it was filled with a larger number of people than we would have expected, but not so many that we wouldn't stand out when we entered.
"Woah, what 'ave we 'ere? A large group of girls? Not a man in sight... I guess it's a bunch of D ranks or some'n like that" (Demon A)
"Yeah, they're new here... I don't know of any parties like this one, so they must be D or lower" (Demon B)
We ignored those two and went to the counter to sell our materials, only to find the dwarven clerk there expressing the same attitude as the two adventurers we passed.
"We have enough parts from horned rabbits and a surplus of herbs. You'll be better off eating the meat from the rabbits and selling the herbs to herbalists directly. If that's all, you can leave now. There are others who wish to sell bigger prey, so scram" (Clerk)
"We are some of those wishing to sell bigger prey... let's see... how many horned bears was it?" (Tuare)
"37, though only 34 still have their meat. We also have 76 horned wolves, 9 blade stags, a lesser wyvern, 19 orcs, an ogre, several serpents of various types, and more" (Ryuu)
"And where, pray tell, is all of this stored? Storage magic has limits based on your mana, so-" (Clerk)
I pulled out a silver serpent (upper B rank) and the ogre (lower B or upper C) to prove my point. After that, we went in back, sold about a tenth of the materials we had, as they didn't have room for more, and received about 15 large gold coins for it all. When we came back out, the two who were talking about how we had to be D ranks at most tried to block us from leaving the building.
"Hey... I don't know what tricks you used, but getting all of those materials couldn't normally be done by a bunch of nobody girls like you. Now, please explain how you did it" (Demon A)
"Well, we killed them all. It's not that hard to explain, now is it?" (Char)
"And I'm supposed to believe that a group of seven girls who can't be more than D ranks, or maybe a few C ranks, could bring down things like a wyvern?" (Demon A)
"I'd like to correct you on one thing... Here's my card. On it, you can see that I'm an A rank. Now, would you please get out of our path? We actually have things we wish to do, including get a place to stay the night as well as get some food, as we haven't had lunch yet" (Ryuu)
"An A rank... you expect me to look at this card and think that it's anything but a fake? I know everyone who's a promising C rank or at least a B rank, and I don't know you or anyone in your party" (Demon B)
"If you wish, I could prove it. Care to spar a bit? I'm sure there're places to do so" (Ryuu)
"Sure thing. If I win, you hand over half of that bag you got from the guild" (Demon B)
"And if I win, you'll do what? Pay me an equal amount to what you'd get for winning?" (Ryuu)
"Sure, whatever you want. I'm not going to lose to someone like you!" (Demon B)
We moved to the guild's sparring ring, with several people watching, most of them with an expression showing pity when they looked at me and I actually had a bit of fun fighting him. He's pretty good with a spear, but I still won without using magic, or any weapons besides my spear and body. He actually managed to land a small cut on my arm once, but that was it before the point of my (shortened) spear rested on his neck, my free hand gripping the edge of his wing.
"What... the hell... was that?" (Most of the people watching)
"That was an A rank giving a beatdown to a... what did you say was your rank again?" (Ryuu)
"I didn't say... I figured you'd recognize me, as I'm an S rank nearing SS. The name's Iroh" (Demon A -> Iroh)
"Oh... well, uh... if it makes you feel better, you seem to be good enough to be able hold your own against Akuja Baal, were he still alive. You wouldn't have beaten him, but you could have lasted for a while against him, I think" (Ryuu)
"How would you know that?" (Iroh)
"He's the one who taught me the spear" (Ryuu)
"Who... who are you, to have been taught by a demon general?" (Iroh)
"Nobody much. Just the one who will be marrying the heir of Takigawa Lars in the future. You'll learn more about me sooner or later, once the marriage is announced. Until then, I'll remain a mystery, I guess" (Ryuu)
With that, I left, taking the 8 large gold coins he lost with me. We ate, then went to an inn, got three double rooms, and quickly fell asleep. The inn's walls were too thin to want to do much else, you see. The next day, we left town to visit Elise's family... or rather, the people she once called family. It took us about a week to reach the wall around the hidden village of the high elves, and when we did... we were met with dozens of bows and spears aimed at us.
