Manuke FPS Chapter 151

Published at 8th of August 2021 10:06:17 AM

In the drawing room of the General Guild, I heard about the phantom thief group ‘Nekoyanagi’, aka, Rose Gold Pussywillow, that aimed to steal my labyrinth core.  Nekoyanagi was a mysterious trio of thieves who were wanted in all the nations on the continent. I agreed with their request for cooperation after I received my reward for subjugating the labyrinth then left out the back door. 

“There is an emergency exit if you go straight ahead.” 

“Sorry for the trouble.”

With the guide from Valvarsan, the deputy guildmaster, I left via the backdoor of the main building. There was a wall of light waiting for me to come out the front. This must have meant that my presence was known within the city now. It would be difficult to leave the guild’s campus so I decided to head to the guild’s library as I had originally planned. 

The library itself was three stories tall, with underground floors as well. Though, considering the scale of the city, it was probably just as deep. The first order of business was to investigate the geography of the kingdom on the first floor. I wanted to collect as much information as possible about the location in the north where I’d been teleported to via the transfer circle at the pirate cove. 

It might be helpful in the event of rescuing the kidnapped people. Not to mention that we should do something about the mastermind behind it. 

However, if I ever did go north one day, I wanted to do something about it.

I checked with the librarian if the library had a map of the entire kingdom. He confirmed and I borrowed a terribly simple map of the entire kingdom. I rented a private reading room and then spread out the map. From there, I took screenshots of the map and then examined the map. 

The royal capital of the kingdom stretched from east to west with the seat located to the south, and undeveloped forests to the west. The plains spread until the end in the east, and the north had mountains. That was the terrain of the Kurtmerga. And in the north, was the Kingdom of Drak which bordered Kurtmerga. While neither were officially at war at the moment, a ceasefire treaty existed and they had a history of repeated skirmishes.

It was said that the Bashburn Empire was further north of the Drak Empire, but it was only marked as a simple icon. So was the Drak’s topography. 

When I looked at the way the mountains ran on the map, I tried to guess where the magic circle took me. The kingdom may be the mastermind but that was a dangerous thought. In the first place, there was a high chance that the home of Kaidou would ever be found normally. But there was a transfer circle set up and the destination was within the Kingdom of Drak. Though, even with the destination known, it was likely impossible to find the mastermind. 

I returned the map to the librarian, then looked for books on myths and folklore. Especially the old literature from the kingdom and all of Orlando.

What was the purpose of the sender of that email? Who dropped into this world and tried to make me a labyrinth master? 

In the end, there was nothing. The history of this kingdom was short. After its founding, it had fought often with its neighbors and had committed itself to self-defense. The only literature dated back to the founding of the country itself. If someone wanted more information, they’d have to check outside the country as they had longer histories. 

However, I did not have any such plans at present. So, I decided to suspend my investigation into this matter, and move to the basement floor. There was another thing I wanted to find out about which was about the labyrinth. 

There were two great labyrinths around the capital. This was the Labyrinth of the Demonic Beast King, where the largest number of explorers in the country dove and brought back achievements – while also holding a great many deaths. The other was the Labyrinth of the Snake Head. Which also had caused many deaths and its subjugation had begun to stagnate. So far, based on the exploration, the King labyrinth had reached the 150th floor, and Snakehead was on the 55th floor.

Should I go explore the Snakehead Labyrinth? If possible, it was better to have as few people around, but being next to the capital, the number of explorers exploring it was not small. I did not know if I would attack this labyrinth all-out, though I would go once the festival was over. 

I collected information on the Snakehead Labyrinth, taking screenshots on the monsters and maps available. Since it was called Snakehead, were there a lot of lizard-type monsters and variants? 

After that, when I left the library, I realized the sun had set. The library was not open 24/7, so when I came out the librarian kicked me out since it was past closing time. I reluctantly left and headed towards the first district using mainstreet. The sky was dyed red, and there were no swarms of light spots waiting for me. 

Did they give up since I didn’t come out of the main building, or did the staff tell them I had already left? For the time being, I headed to the Pavillion of Tranquility that had been introduced by Ophelia Dragange for the night. Upon entering the first district, I was able to confirm the location of the inn with the guards and got there without issue. 

The inn itself was a four-story stone building with a mouth shaped courtyard. The stone architecture in this world was often three-stories at the highest. The fact that this went above that meant it’d been built by someone with a high degree of skill, or that magic had been used in its construction.

“Welcome, how may I help you? Would you like to take a meal or a room reservation?”

I entered the lobby and went to the receptionist at the desk. Apparently, the inn used a reservation system. 

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“I came here with the introduction of the Margrave of Dragrange.” 

“The Margrave, is it? Please let me confirm it, but is it correct that the esteemed guest is Shaft-sama of the Mercenary guild? If there is no mistake, please present your guild card.” 

“Sure, I am Shaft.” 

I handed my card over and the man checked it. He then rang a small bell from behind the desk.

“Welcome to the Pavillion of Tranquility, Shaft-sama. We are honored to be used by the hero of Kurtmerga.”

“If possible, I would like it if you kept it a secret that I am here.”

“I understand. You can use the restaurant on the first floor for meals, but if you wish, we can also bring it to your room. Also, Ophelia Dragrange-sama has given us a message to pass onto you. ‘Let’s have dinner together tonight’, that is all.”

“… Understood.” 

“When the dinner is ready, we will send the person in charge, so please wait in your room. Also, all the accommodation fees from today and until the last day of the King’s Festival have already been handled by the Margrave.” 

“I understand. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome. Then the person in charge has come, she will guide you to your room.”

From the back of the front desk, a young beast-woman came. She appeared to be a youngster in her late teens or early twenties. 

“Dear esteemed guest, I am Koti, I’m in charge of your room. I will guide you to your room, nyan.”

Is it like a waitress attached to the room? I followed Koti and headed for the room. Apparently, the room prepared was on the 4th floor, and that all the rooms on the floor had been rented out by the Margrave.  

The room I was guided too was large and spacious, with a king sized bed, toilet, and bathroom. For some reason, the bath culture had not spread to the general public in this world. I’ve only seen it a few times in noble and large trading houses, not individual homes. And there were only a few places similar to public paths. It seemed it was unacceptable to use hot water with others. 

The bathroom in Maltsan’s house had a bathtub with magic runes that consumed magical power, similar to the one here. Only, this one used mana stones. This was very nice.. After I received a brief explanation from Koti about the magic circle in the room, I decided to take a short break until dinner was ready. 

However, Ophelia looked for me… 

Chapter end