Hahahahaha!!
Hohohohoho!!!
I walked along, glancing sidelong at Nileri as he bounced up and down beside me.
Hrahahahaha!
It is fine that he is hopping around so merrily… but the way he bounces with his elbows held high is distracting.
Hahahahaha!!
He cannot be this happy merely because he was excused from training when physical training begins tomorrow.
Hohohohoho!!!
“Nileri? You seem… rather excited.”
He beamed as he spoke.
“Of course! There is a massive river and canals running through the city! The colorful boats gliding leisurely along the river are as beautiful as all kinds of lotus blossoms floating upon a lake, you know?”
“I… I see…”
Hrahahahaha!
“Moreover! There are magnificent buildings constructed by the most renowned architects on the continent! Brilliant lights continue shining even after night falls! It feels as though the stars are not in the sky, but upon the ground~”
“I see…”
“We are going to the dream city that is both a sacred ground for artists and the place where more wealth changes hands than anywhere else on the continent!”
“Artists?”
He twirled around in front of me and continued.
“People like me! Is it not only natural that I would be excited to visit a city that suits me so perfectly?”
It seems the word artist refers to someone as frivolous and out of his mind as Nileri.
I stopped walking while staring at Nileri as he noisily prattled on in front of me.
“Why have you stopped, Your Highness?”
“If it is such a wonderful place, why have none of the Elders ever visited it?”
“Ah~ There are two Free Cities on the continent, are there not?”
“Arcia, which lies before Dragonia, and Clonia, which is surrounded by several kingdoms.”
“Cor~ rect!”
Nileri stood beside me and began walking normally as he continued.
“Arcia and Clonia are neutral territories agreed upon by the dragons themselves, free from their influence.”
“I heard that Arcia is a sacred ground where the Dragon temples are gathered.”
“That is correct. Clonia, meanwhile, is a mercenary city with a Colosseum.”
“A Colosseum?”
“Mercenaries fight one another in single combat, and the winner receives half the match fee. Spectators who correctly predict the winner make money! Then they gamble that money again! They pawn their family heirlooms and all manner of gold, silver, and treasure for more wagers, and any heirlooms they fail to redeem go straight to the auction house!”
Hmm… Nileri was speaking so excitedly that I could not understand his explanation precisely.
Was he saying that the victor of a duel received Gold Coins, while those who successfully predicted the winner before the duel also received a portion of the match fee?
There was an auction house as well…
“Why did the Supply Unit never operate in a place where so many Gold Coins appear to circulate?”
Nileri abruptly stopped walking.
“We are… weak, are we not?”
“Hmm?”
“The Supply Unit is staffed by those who fell behind in training. Therefore, we cannot operate in Clonia, where everything requires martial strength to support it. However! From now on, I will undergo the physical training Your Highness devised no. matter. what. I want to become strong like you.”
Was that why he had been assigned to an organization that made money without requiring physical strength?
“I will ask my earlier question again. Why have the Elders never visited this place?”
“All magic is completely blocked within Clonia. Even so, thanks to Elder McGill, did we not manage to arrive in the forest near Clonia?”
Does it possess a Barrier that blocks or tracks Subspace magic? Had the dragons erected a Barrier like Hairi’s?
“Hmm… I understand well enough.”
“Can you see it over there?”
“Do you mean the stone wall surrounding the city?”
“Yes, yes! Is it not fascinating?”
Nileri suddenly knelt on one knee, closed one eye, and examined the stone wall from various angles.
“The city wall lacks artistic sensibility.”
The city entrance was a sea of people trying to enter.
“GAAASP! Is all of that one line?”
It looks as though waiting in that line would take the entire day…
At that moment, someone drove a wagon piled high with cargo leisurely toward the entrance through a gap beside those standing in line.
His clothing does not appear to belong to a noble.
One of the men standing behind the wagon shouted.
“Do not cut in line, you bastard!”
The woman beside him nudged him with her elbow and spoke.
“H-hey! Look at the emblem before you speak.”
The man immediately closed his mouth and said nothing.
Nileri and I stood in line at a distance and watched the scene.
“Nileri. What was that emblem?”
“It appears to be the Mercenary Guild’s emblem… but I am not certain, either. I have heard that one must register as a mercenary to conduct business in Clonia, so perhaps it is an emblem proving affiliation with a high-grade mercenary?”
The man whose wagon was piled high with cargo leisurely approached the entrance and handed over a rectangular plaque that appeared to be made of silver or iron while remaining on horseback. The wagon was then allowed to roll calmly into the city.
“Your Highness! The line is so long that I do not believe we will enter before the end of the day!”
“Nileri, we are going back the way we came.”
“What? No… Even so, perhaps if we wait…”
Nileri and I stepped away from the line and climbed the hill again.
“Your Highness, did you not say something during the meeting with Elder Philn about investigating some Branch business?”
East, west, south, and north.
There are four gates, with five guards stationed at the entrance to each.
It looks possible to scale the stone wall…
“Nileri. Can you get over that wall?”
Nileri swiftly turned his head toward the distant stone wall, then shook it.
“That… seems impossible.”
At that moment, five more guards approached the western gate and spoke with the others as though changing shifts.
“Get on my back.”
“What?”
“Quickly. We are going over the wall before the people in line or the guards notice.”
“Is that possible?”
Haaah.
I slung Nileri over my right shoulder and ran.
“Aaaaaah! Your… Your Highness!!”
SWISH.
I knew how to scale walls long before I entered the Demonic Path Academy.
I can sense no one’s presence in this direction.
TAP.
After using a movement technique for my running start, I cleared the stone wall in a single leap. Then I dumped Nileri from my shoulder onto the ground with a thud and surveyed our surroundings.
“There is no one here, so get up quickly.”
“URK!”
Nileri dry-heaved as he slowly struggled to his feet.
Oh-!
He had seemed so utterly frivolous that I thought his words must have been empty exaggerations.
SPARKLE. SPARKLE.
The buildings were not uniform, but instead came in all manner of shapes.
I had thought the palace where the Heavenly Demon resided within the Divine Cult was the most magnificent building of all, yet this place is no less beautiful.
“Wooooow!!”
Nileri was already walking ahead like an excited child, looking around in every direction.
“Did you say the person called the Mayor holds the highest position in this city?”
Nileri whipped his head around, nodded, and answered.
“Yes. That is correct!”
“Where is he?”
“Hmm… Please wait a moment, Your Highness!”
“Do not call me Your Highness here…”
He ignored me and strode gracefully ahead. I slowly followed him.
TAP TAP.
Nileri approached an unfamiliar young woman.
“Excuse me.”
The woman had been bent over, rummaging through something. She turned toward Nileri, her neatly arranged, soft-looking hair swaying around her.
“Yes?”
Whether male or female, Elves were fundamentally far more beautiful than any of the people I had encountered in my previous life.
At first, I fell for every female Elf I met. However, as I was a prince and held a position in which I was responsible for them, I gradually began viewing them as comrades or family and stopped feeling anything toward them.
However…
That woman is not an Elf.
Her hair was not the golden color of the Elves’, but the pale color of wood.
Deer-like eyes brimming with stars.
A high, well-shaped nose.
White skin like porcelain.
Since becoming Nameless, the only woman with whom I had held a proper conversation was the Divine Maiden who served the Heavenly Demon.
I’m terribly envious….
She smiled shyly and whispered back and forth with Nileri near his ear.
The great undertaking of killing the dragons—the long-cherished wish of the Elves and Kellick’s desire—and securing the complete independence and revival of Ellar Kingdom.
I must not allow myself to be shaken by this woman when that great undertaking lies ahead…
Yet I am wavering.
Like a leaf offering no resistance to the wind.
How should I describe this feeling…?
Before I reached twenty, I trained in a pine-filled training ground until my palms were completely scraped raw. Then my seventeenth love shyly approached me.
Joo Hwayeon.
She had never held a weapon in her life, yet she applied wound salve to me with her delicate hands. At first, her fingernails stung. Her touch soon became soft, and in the end, the wound salve filled me with warmth.
That was my youth.
Because my goal was to become Nameless, I never once spoke to her…
Come to think of it, becoming Nameless meant being castrated and living alone for the rest of my life. That was why I had secretly yearned for so many women without ever experiencing even a common romance.
Ah!
Now I will not be castrated, and I can even get married.
Once I have accomplished the great undertaking, could I not indulge in the luxury of romance?
Nileri hurried over and whispered into my ear.
“Your Highness, Miss Arsha Melisia says that both you and I are handsome. She wishes to drink with us and her friend, the four of us together. What do you think?”
“She said I’m handsome? More importantly, did I not tell you to stop addressing me that way?”
“Hmm? Did you not know?”
Nileri stared intently at my face before nodding and answering firmly.
“You’re the most handsome man after Norqui!”
My favorite drink and the romance I had always wanted…
For a moment, I was so delighted that I could have leaped into the air. However, I glanced at Nileri and forced myself to answer calmly.
“Where is this Mayor?”
“Ah… I… I apologize!”
Nileri walked lightly back to her, swept his golden hair aside with one hand, and spoke.
“Would you happen to know where the city’s Mayor is?”
“Yes! The tallest building beside the Colosseum belongs to the Mayor.”
“Ah, I see~ I thought only your face was beautiful… but your heart is beautiful as well.”
“Hohoho~”
She lightly brushed Nileri’s shoulder with her delicate hand.
I had never envied the frivolous and undignified Nileri before, but I envied his courage to speak so effortlessly with an unfamiliar woman.
[Haaah… How pathetic.]
The Flower of Death sighed and spoke to me through Sound Transmission.
I walked in front of Nileri and spoke.
“Let us go.”
“Are we going to drink?”
“No. We must meet the Mayor.”
“Um…”
From behind, she shyly pinched the edge of my clothing between her fingertips.
“I… I will be staying at the Bolera Tavern for the next few days…”
Nileri suddenly clasped her hand.
No!
How shamelessly he grabs a woman’s hand without hesitation…
“I will visit when I have time. Even if I have none, I will make time. I… want to spend my time on you.”
“Oh my.”
I glanced at Nileri and spoke.
“That will not happen. Um…”
My eyes met her deer-like gaze.
Hmm…
“I apologize, but we are busy.”
I grabbed Nileri by the nape and walked in the direction she had indicated.
“Your Highness!”
“We came here to search for land upon which to establish a Branch. It is deeply disappointing that you would attempt to satisfy only your own desires at such an important time.”
Nileri lowered his head and answered quietly.
“I apologize. I became too excited…”
“That is enough.”
I also allowed my heart to waver for a moment, so I hardly have the right to rebuke Nileri.
STEP. STEP.
Ordinarily, Nileri would have been bounding about in excitement, but he quietly walked all the way to the building containing the Mayor’s office with a composed expression.
I glanced at him and spoke.
“The buildings are indeed as beautiful as you claimed.”
“Are they not? As expected! I knew Your Highness would possess an artistic eye! Do you know how many tears I shed while listening to your speech before the training ground?”
Nileri brightened again and continued.
“You wore such a dignified expression! A single flower cannot make a flower garden!! But if each person plants one flower, it can become a flower garden! And then… you made this elegant expression and said, I will plant the first one… Kyaaaaaah~! I plan to train hard so I can plant flowers by following Your Highness.”
Even afterward, he ceaselessly prattled on about the emblems carved into each building and how every building’s exterior could have been designed more elegantly, until my brain rang from the noise.
“Oh! I believe this is the place.”
CLANK. CLANK.
A guard wearing silver armor of a kind I had never seen approached Nileri and me before the door.
“You may not enter without permission.”
Nileri rummaged through an inner pocket of his clothing and pulled something out.
This object resembling an identity plaque was called a brooch, was it not?
The guard pinched the brooch between his thumb and index finger, raised it, and carefully examined it from every angle.
“The leader of the Libera Musical Troupe?”
“Yes, that is correct! I am Nileri.”
“Ohhh!!”
The guard immediately dropped his wariness and returned the brooch to Nileri.
“You came all this way? I have heard a great deal about you!! I have seen the adapted version of [The Man Holding His C*ck], but they say it cannot possibly compare to the renown of the original.”
“Hahahahaha! Naturally! There is a reason the original is the original.”
I could not have misheard him.
Was he saying that this man had also watched that shameless and vulgar production?
“Our Mayor watched the original live… but with the wages of ordinary mercenaries like us, seeing the original is simply too expensive….”
“Hahahahaha~ Even so, thank you.”
“Have you come to meet the Mayor?”
“Yes! I wish to build a musical theater in this city.”
“Oh! Please enter. The Mayor will be delighted as well.”
During the meeting about establishing the Branch, Elder McGill had told me to bring Nileri because his fame could secure us a meeting with the Mayor of Clonia…
“Let us go!”
Nileri squared his shoulders and proudly led the way into the building.