Yukitaka and the female adventurer Iris ended up spending the night in the den.
The den stank, of course, so Yukitaka gathered every bone and scrap of dead meat inside it with his magic storage handbag.
Once the source of the smell was gone, everything improved, but the filth soaked into the stone walls of the den itself and refused to lift.
Yukitaka was wearing a mask, so the smell did not bother him at all, and he decided to lend one of his three masks to Iris.
Iris gave him a puzzled look, but she put it on anyway.
"It's true the smell is a little better, but not that much..," Iris said it through the mask, her voice muffled.
"Huh? Really?" Yukitaka turned toward her and frowned at the mask in her hands. "That's weird. Does it not work if I lend it to someone else?"
Yukitaka took the mask back from Iris and checked how well it worked.
When he used it himself, there was no smell at all.
"So it does work. But..," Yukitaka held the mask out to her again. "Then I'll give you this mask, Ms. Iris! How about that? Put it back on."
Yukitaka handed the mask, now precious, to Iris again.
"It doesn't smell at all! This is amazing!" Iris's eyes went wide, and she looked from the mask to his bag to his umbrella, working out an idea.
When Iris put it on again, this time she was surprised that it really worked.
"Are Mr. Goto's things high-grade Magic Tools?" She turned the mask over in her hands. "Or maybe the kind of Divine Artifact people talk about?"
And then she brought up a crazy possibility.
"Divine Artifact?" Yukitaka tapped the umbrella's handle.
"To put it simply, in this world we call legendary weapons like holy swords and holy spears Divine Artifacts. I've never seen one myself."
Iris had never seen an umbrella before, so she assumed it was a weapon with spear-like abilities. She probably never imagined that it was made for blocking rain, and that it was originally a fragile thing that could break in a strong wind.
"This is a Divine Artifact...?" Yukitaka stared hard at his favorite umbrella.
And then he finally began to realize that maybe all of his belongings had strange abilities.
Not just the umbrella that mows down everything and the handbag with magic storage, but the water bottle in his backpack too. The two of them had gone through a lot of water together that day, and still the bottle had never gone down. Cold, fresh water always came out of it.
Is this one a Divine Artifact too?
Yukitaka tilted his head.
It was true he had no Skill and everyone treated him as useless, but maybe his belongings had quietly turned into Divine Artifacts that hid unbelievable power.
When Yukitaka thought about it that way, he suddenly felt a lot stronger.
But soon, he noticed something.
If he got attacked while he was not wearing his Divine Artifacts, it was all over.
Also, if they really were Divine Artifacts like holy swords, everyone would want them.
They would come for him, one after another.
Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.
Maybe even Iris, sitting right in front of him, now that she knew about the Divine Artifacts, would cut his throat in his sleep to get them.
"Mr. Goto, please keep this a secret," Iris looked at him with a serious face. "I don't know how things work in your world, but here, if people find out your belongings might be Divine Artifacts, the people who want them will absolutely show up. There must be people who would take them by any means."
Yukitaka saw the sincerity in those eyes and felt ashamed that he had doubted her even for a second.
"Ms. Iris, thank you," Yukitaka rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "I was thinking the same thing. I was about to be wary of you. To doubt someone as sincere as you..."
Yukitaka smiled bitterly.
"Huh?" Iris blinked at him.
She had no intention of tricking Yukitaka or using him, so it took her a while to understand what he meant.
"I excluded myself without thinking about it at all..," She started to untie the mask. "You're right. I'll give this mask back. If I misused it, it might put Mr. Goto in danger too."
Iris realized she had missed the obvious and tried to hand the mask back to Yukitaka.
Yukitaka smiled bitterly at her honesty.
With a personality that good-natured and sincere, anyone who betrayed her would have to be the dishonest one.
"No, I trust Ms. Iris," Yukitaka shook his head and pushed the mask back toward her, telling her to keep it as proof of that.
"Mr. Goto... I understand," Iris took the mask and held it to her chest. "I'll do my best to live up to that trust!"
Iris showed a wide smile.
Yukitaka felt his heart twist at that smile, but he remembered that Iris herself had lost trust in people because her own comrades betrayed her, so he said nothing more.
The night passed quietly, and the smell faded on its own.
Iris was an adventurer, so her clothes were fine and she could sleep outside, but Yukitaka was in a Suit.
So he thought sleeping outside would not rest him much, but when he woke up in the morning his tiredness was gone, and he felt good.
"Maybe the Suit itself has some kind of ability too..."
Yukitaka took off his jacket and stared at it closely.
Looking carefully, there was not a single wrinkle and no dirt either.
Even after spending a night in this smelly den, it had no smell.
"Mr. Goto, what's wrong?" Iris caught him staring and laughed at him. "Your face is funny."
"Ah, it's nothing!" Yukitaka gave an embarrassed smile and put his jacket back on.
Trivia:
- Yukitaka's water bottle never runs out, and this is the third item he slowly realizes is abnormal, hinting his whole Suit may be a Divine Artifact too.
- Iris warns Yukitaka to keep the artifacts secret, yet she forgets to exclude herself from suspicion, showing her honesty is so deep she does not think of herself as a threat.
- The line about Iris having lost trust in people because her comrades betrayed her is the first hint of her painful past, and it stops Yukitaka from acting on his feelings.
Notes:
• Yukitaka - First given name of Yukitaka Goto. He is a twenty-five-year-old salaryman summoned to another world without receiving a skill, who maxed out his level at 99 in half a day without gaining meaningful power, spent about three months at the royal palace before being pushed toward the frontier, and discovered that his black-rimmed glasses let him appraise objects.
• Iris - A Gold-rank adventurer. She is used to butchering monsters and pulling out magic stones. She explains the adventurer rank system to Yukitaka and hesitates at first to eat monster meat, but ends up enjoying it. Carries salt and a plate, and owns a magic storage. A Gold-rank woman adventurer. She was saved by Yukitaka from a dangerous situation and now travels with him. She has a magic storage and knows about the world. She is calm but gets flustered in close contact. She has not been able to wash her gear properly for half a month. She wears light armor that hides a soft build. A female adventurer who spends the night in the den with Yukitaka. She is honest and sincere, and she warns Yukitaka to keep his Divine Artifacts a secret. She has lost trust in people because her comrades betrayed her. She is good-natured and pure-hearted. The only Gold-rank adventurer of the Silver-rank team 'Platinum Fang.' Good-natured and hardworking, but often used by her comrades. Betrayed and left as bait for a monster, then saved by Yukitaka. Left distrustful of people.
• Goto - First given name of Yukitaka Goto. He is a twenty-five-year-old salaryman summoned to another world without receiving a skill, who maxed out his level at 99 in half a day without gaining meaningful power, spent about three months at the royal palace before being pushed toward the frontier, and discovered that his black-rimmed glasses let him appraise objects.