Nine days after my friends and I graduated from the Academy, we were at a hotel in the Royal Capital.
The hotel was for Royalty and Nobility in the Royal Capital of the Latash Kingdom.
(As expected, it's a historical city.)
I was staring out the window at the Royal Capital in the morning sun.
I had learned from my classes at Academy that the Royal Capital of the Latash Kingdom had never been moved since its founding.
Thanks to that, in a world that looked like medieval Europe, the streets were even quainter.
And unlike the Academy Cities that were built in the past 50 years or so, there were no Magic Trains running in the Royal Capital.
I could see horse-drawn carriages and people passing by through the window.
My friends and I were staying at the hotel, which was the meeting place for General Lucidral and Elder Philamer, who came from Rosenheim.
We had arrived at the hotel late the day before, and we were able to tell them that we had arrived.
And we were going to have an audience with the King that afternoon as planned.
After getting ready briefly, I headed for the entrance on the first floor.
"Good morning, Kiel. Are you fine?"
Kiel was relaxing alone on a sofa at the entrance of the hotel.
(Didn't get much sleep, did you?)
"Oh, good morning."
"What is it? Something on your mind? You seem worried."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, you are so easygoing."
"Well, I'm not interested in being a Noble."
(Not at all.)
"Seriously? How can a serf say he's not interested in being a Noble? Is your memory from previous life influencing it?"
Kiel wants to use his exploits in the war in Rosenheim to return to the Nobility.
It was also the reason why we came to Royal Capital.
He wanted to restore the Carnell Family and create a place for his sister Nina and her servants to return to.
That was the only reason why he participated in the war in Rosenheim.
That day, two of Rosenheim's leading figures requested an audience with the King, the Kind had already been informed that my friends and I would be present at the audience.
"I suppose that's why I am not interested. Well, I hope your wish comes true. But considering that he is the King, don't get your hopes up too high."
"I know, I know. But was it okay to make that thing?"
"Isn't that fine? There is no proof."
Kiel felt as if he had done something wrong.
And I said that there was no problem.
(Everyone's got something they care about.)
What my friends wanted was different for each of them, depending on their birth and position.
Born as serfs and commoners, Kurena and Dogora had been playing Knights since they were little, and I felt that they still yearned to be Knights.
Sophie cared about Rosenheim, and Formar was risking his life to protect Sophie.
Everyone had different priorities, but with me as the party leader, they were all working towards one goal.
"Oh, you're early."
"I know."
Kiel replied to Cecile, who had come down after getting ready, as if it were a matter of course.
(Speaking of which, I wonder what Cecile wants. Is it revenge for her late brother Mihai? She sometimes looks at the Demon King's army with a stern look in her eyes.)
I felt that Cecile was different from my other friends who had an aim in life.
Her older brother, Thomas, who was two years older than her, had already graduated from the House of Lords and was working at the Royal Castle to study to take over the Granvelle Family.
"Now that we're all here, let's go to the Adventurer's Guild."
While I was thinking, all of my friends gathered, and I gave the order.
In the morning, we walked to the Adventurer's Guild.
It was located at the end of the main street.
(We're at the Adventurer's Guild Headquarters. Teacher Carlova came to the Academy for Kurena, but I wonder if he's still at the Academy.)
The Adventurer's Guild Headquarters of the Latash Kingdom was just a branch when taken in account that it was an organization without borders, spread all over the world.
The receptionist asked me what I wanted to do, and I told her I was here to pick up something I had won at an auction.
"Please wait here for a moment."
I was told to go to a private room, and after a while, a large object was brought to me on a cart. Perhaps because of its weight, the wheels of the cart could not bear the weight and made a grinding sound.
"It looks pretty big, are you sure it's safe?"
Kiel said with concern as he looked at the item that the Adventurer's Guild's staff had brought with them so heavily.
"Maybe I'll be okay."
"I asked Dogora, Allen, not you."
"..."
Dogora silently grasped the handle in the center of the object that the Guild staff had brought and carried it up with one hand.
"You got it. Can you use it with the two-handed axe?"
"Yeah, maybe we can. But it's pretty heavy."
Dogora held a two-handed axe in his right hand and a large shield made of Adamantite, which we won the bid for, in his left hand.
(So it depends on Dogora's [Strength]. I wonder if he can easily use them as he levels up.)
After the war in Rosenheim and the fights against the Demons and the Demon General, I thought that there was something that my party was lacking.
It was the defense of the entire party.
With Kiel's, Sophie and my summons' buffs, our party's [Endurance] would increase, but there were still concerns about the overall protection of the party.
It was a very tough battle, especially against the Demons and the Demon General.
What was important in battle was the balance between offense and defense.
The S-class dungeon we were planning to conquer was said to be overrun with A-rank magical beasts.
Even in Rosenheim, there were only about three A-rank magical beasts at most fighting at the same time, but Helmios told me that that was not the case in the S-class dungeon.
I wanted Kurena to take care of the offensive side with her two-handed sword, and Dogora to take care of the defensive side with his ability to handle a large shield.
My plan was that as his status increased and his shield art skill level rose, Dogora would naturally be able to handle it.
"The axe and shield are both quite heavy. Hold on to them as best you can."
"Oh."
In the meantime, the guild staff who had been waiting near the entrance came over to Allen and the others.
"Are you sure the item is correct?"
"Yes, I'm sure. How much should I pay?"
"Yes, that would be 3,600 Gold Coins, including fees."
"One moment, please."
(That didn't cost 5,000 Gold Coins.)
Thinking so, I prepared 3600 Gold Coins. I was the one paying for the Adamantite Great Shield.
Everyone was buying a 1000 Status increase Ring, so they didn't have that much money to spare.
I had said before that I would pay for equipment as an initial investment.
And I told my friends that we would continue to do what we had been doing in the future.
In S-class dungeons, we would get rare weapons, armor, and magic items.
However, it was unlikely that we would be able to get what we needed equally for us all.
I told them that in the future, when we obtained rare items during dungeon raids, they should not worry if the results were biased towards one of us.
"There is no mistake. Thank you for visiting the Adventurer's Guild."
The staff of the Adventurer's Guild seemed to be comfortable with us, who were not even 15 years old, bringing 3600 Gold Coins with us. It was because he had already received information that we had already conquered 5 A-class dungeons.
"I'd also like to collect as many E, D, and C-rank magic stones as possible. May I?"
"Of course."
(I'll buy as much as I can here as well.)
Once I returned to the Academy City, I resumed collecting magic stones.
As a result of participating in the war, the number of magic stones and healing items I had, dwindled.
In the future, the chances of us encountering magical beasts of C-rank or lower was very low, so if I could collect them, I wanted to.
(You never know what will happen and you will need a large amount of magic stones. Well, recruiting like a Demon in the small Latash Kingdom won't change the market price.)
The largest exporter of magic stones was the Bakius Empire. The reason for that was that it had the most dungeons among all the countries. There were a lot of adventurers, and as long as the Bakius Empire existed, the price of magic stones would remain stable.
By the way, the largest importing country was Rosenheim. Rosenheim seemed to have few dungeons, and magic stones were basically bought from the Giamut Empire.
The Giamut Empire exported only slightly more.
I wanted 10,000 magic stones of each rank and asked that they be mailed to Viscount Granvelle's mansion if I couldn't come to pick them up, as I would pay the fee.
"Well, we should start going towards the Royal Castle."
I thought that since I had already got the shield and requested the magic stones, all we had to do was go to the Royal Castle.
Allen and his friends returned to the hotel where General Lucidral and Elder Philamer were staying.
Translator's Thoughts
I was working on this chapter when suddenly my laptop crashed. I was so angry. I had to do like one-fourth of the chapter twice even when auto-save was on.
