The Town that Won't Speak

It had been a few months since I took down the wyvern, the town had finally calmed down and our development kept going steady.

Now that our town was producing wheat, thanks to all of the farmers that moved from Guano Village, I decided to build a stone mill so that we could process our own flour.

It actually took me way more tries than I would've liked, but in the end, it worked out.

I would have been able to process it myself using magic, but I wanted to give the new villagers more jobs other than just tending the wheat farm, and also as a measure in case I wasn't around to process it for them.

As I was strolling through town, I heard Vespera's voice in my head. Ever since Yoru started using telepathy to communicate with me, we realized that they could both use it even when they were far away from me.

Apparently, it had something to do with our familiar link since they weren't able to send their thoughts to a random person far from them.

Telepathy ended up being way more useful to us than simply being able to talk with Yoru.

[Ichiro, some people wearing full plate armor are on their way to town.]

[People in full plate armors? Do they look dangerous?] I asked, using my thoughts.

[Hmm, they look like knights… They seem wary, but I don't feel any bloodlust from them.]

[Alright, just let them be. If they cause some sort of trouble, we'll just kick them out.]

[Understood.]

As soon as the telepathy link was broken, I decided to scout the knights from a safe distance. These were the first knights that visited this town ever since I got into this world, so naturally, I was curious about what they wanted.

There were 12 of them, and after stopping at the gates to show the guards their credentials, I heard them call themselves the "4th Knight's Order".

The guard checked their documents and allowed them into town. The reason we had put in place this system was to stop bandits and criminals from entering the town.

Since adventurers all had their own cards to prove their identities, it was easy to tell if someone was lying or had forged documents.

While we never put in place any systems to help identify real knights, it was pretty easy to tell that these guys were not bandits or anything like that.

All of their armor and weapons seemed to be the best possible quality. Some of their swords reminded me of the sword that Karla, the retired royal knight turned adventurer, used in the battle against the goblins.

While the knights walked around town, I could see the discomfort in some of them after realizing that shadow dogs prowled all over town. Even after seeing them playing with kids and helping people move their carts, I could still feel the uneasiness in some of them.

A bit later, I saw two of the knights go into Mr. Olliver's store while the rest of them waited outside.

[Hey, Yoru.] I said, using telepathy to call him.

[Yes, master?]

[Can you get inside Mr. Olliver's store and let me hear their conversation?]

[I got it.]

A few seconds later, Yoru weaved through the shadows and got inside the store, then began broadcasting the knight's conversation with Mr. Olliver using telepathy.

"Are you the owner of this store?" said the oldest of the knights.

"Yes, sir. I'm Olliver."

"Would this happen to be the store where these potions come from?" said the oldest knight again. I assumed he took out one of my potions from his bag.

"Yes, sir! They are right there on the counter to your left. I must say, I knew these potions were popular, but to have a commander of a knight's order here is quite surprising!"

"Huh! Commander, look at his prices!" said his companion.

"H-how are they so low!?"

"Ah, well, since this is a poor town, we need to make sure that everyone can afford their medicine if they need it," said Mr. Olliver

"Insolence! These potions should only be used by the nobles and elites!" said the old knight, who I guessed was the commander, from what the other knight said.

"But sir, there are no nobles or elites in this town…Besides, it was a request from the person who made them." said Mr. Olliver with a nervous grin on his face. I didn't see it, but I could tell.

"Hmph," The old knight scuffed. "And where is the man who made these? His name is all over these high-grade potions!"

"Oh, well… I don't really know." said Mr. Olliver.

"Do not play dumb with me! We could have you arrested for interfering with our job, you know?"

"No, seriously. I don't know who that man is!"

"Oh, really? We heard that a man named Ichiro defeated a wyvern. Was it the same person?" the knight continued.

"No, no, sir. Those are just rumors."

Mr. Olliver was trying his best to keep my identity a secret, which I appreciated, but I also didn't want him getting into trouble just for my sake.

I told Yoru that if they tried hurting Mr. Olliver, he was allowed to come out of the shadow and stop them.

After a few more questions and no answers, the two knights told him that, since he didn't want to talk, he would be questioned at the capital and ended up leaving the store with Mr. Olliver behind them.

"So, did you learn anything?" said the commander to the rest of the knights, who had been waiting outside and asking people if they knew about a man named "Ichiro."

"Nothing sir… It feels like the people here don't have a sliver of trust in us." said one of the knights.

"Tch!" The commander ground his teeth in anger.

"Listen up, people! We are looking for a man named Ichiro. You all know this person. We know you do! Tell us where to find him immediately!" he yelled loudly at everyone around him. But the villagers all looked at the commander with contempt.

"You, woman! Where do we find Ichiro?" said the commander to Miss Tanya, the owner of a general store that sold lots of my products.

"Hmm? Ichiro? I have no idea who that is…" she said.

The commander ground his teeth once again, then asked the same question to the person next to her, but the answers were all the same.

He kept trying, again, again, and again, but nobody in town said a word about me.

"Commander… I don't think anyone here is going to tell us anything…" said the young knight that was with him in Olliver's store earlier.

"Is that right!? Nobody is going to talk!? Then I suppose after we burn down a couple of these houses, you will feel more talkative, is that right!?" threatened the commander, but the villagers didn't react to it.

"Very well then, everyo-..." the commander was interrupted in the middle of his order by Vespera, who was now face to face with the knights.

"Hey, Mr. Knight… You should probably think better about threatening this town." said Vespera with the most serious voice tone that I had ever heard from her.

"Huh!? And who are you!?" said the commander, his frustration more visible than ever.

"I'm telling you… Look around you." said Vespera, making all of the knights and their commander look around and notice the reality of their situation.

Hundreds of shadow dogs were surrounding the knight's order, and they were growling and ready to tear apart any threat that came into town.

"You see now? I doubt your knights could take on these many shadow dogs. If you want to threaten us, you better have the power to back it up." Vespera's words made most of the knights turn completely pale, except for one.

"Please…" said the young knight that had accompanied his commander before, seemingly being the only one who was able to speak.

"I apologize for our commander's behavior. However, we were ordered to invite a man named Ichiro to the capital. Nothing more… We have no orders of fighting or anything alike. Please, if I could speak with him…" said the young knight as he bowed.

"An invitation? What made you think that questioning the people of this town and threatening them could count as an invitation?" said Vespera with a sarcastic tone.

"I didn't. As I said, I apologize for my commander's actions. I'm Harvey Tennet, the sub-commander of the 4th order. Please, allow me to speak with the alchemist who made the high-grade potions."

I had been watching the entire thing from the roof of a house. I could tell that the sub-commander, Harvey, was quite competent in his job, unlike the commander, who was just an angry old noble.

The reason why he was so nasty to everyone was because he thought he was above them all. At least Harvey looked like the kind of guy that could keep a conversation going without looking down on you.

"Alright!" I yelled from the roof of the house, then jumped down, landing right in between Vespera and Harvey.

"I'm Ichiro… So, what do you want from me?"

The knights seemed impressed since I was just a kid. They didn't believe me at first, and because they couldn't inspect me, they truly had no way of knowing if I was lying or not.

However, I had been training different ways to show people my name without showing them the rest of my information. I didn't care that people knew my name or my age. I cared more about the title "Child of Phelena," which pretty much exposed me as a demi-god.

A year ago, I had developed a way to hide certain information from my inspect window, just in case this exact sort of thing happened. So, when the knights inspected me, they got:

<Name:< strong> Ichiro

Age: 14

Skills: —

MP: —

Titles: — >

It probably didn't satisfy their curiosity about me, but it was enough to prove that I was the person they were looking for.