Sono Mugen no Saki prologue part5

Translator: mii

「By the way, I wonder if everyone in this queue are adventurers.」

Now that Yuki said it, many people in the line looked like adventurers and mercenary soldiers, considering how they were holding weapons.

I never saw real magician, but some people were wearing robes, just like magician. Rather, the small person on front of us was wearing robe.

「Isn't it normal? People come to the Labyrinth City to become an adventurer.」

「But usually, there are some merchants mixed within the crowd, right? But there's no one who look like merchant at all.」

Certainly, there were only people who looked like they could fight, almost to the unnatural portion.

「Both of you don't know about that?」

The small person in front of me who was wearing robe talked to us. I knew that he was a boy after hearing his voice, but he looked like a girl with that proportion.

Ah, no, there was also Yuki who was standing behind me, so I wouldn't know if he was actually a girl.

I could hardly see his face in that robe, but he looked cute as far as I could see… maybe.

「What do you mean?」

「The inspection here. There's a rumour that Labyrinth City only accepts people who want to become adventurers.」

「Is that the rule?」

Speaking of which, I remembered that the lizardman uncle told me about something like that when I got on the carriage.

Then what would the city do with foreign trades? Was the city isolating itself in the middle of the country, even if they were a part of the kingdom?

「I don't know if it's the rule, but the information that is circulated around the adventurers says so. The city is not accepting refugees or migrants.」

「Hmm, are the ones with adventurer as their main job have their own source of information? I haven't heard of that information.」

「Yeah. The information is published to those who are determined to have real abilities to some extent in the Imperial Adventurer Guild.」

Yuki's information network wouldn't reach that.

So adventurers had their own community.

「Is that so… Wait, do you come from the Empire? It's surely a long journey, huh.」

「Yeah. The route was rather troublesome. I don't even know how many borders I have crossed.」

When the boy murmured so, he looked very tired. This ‘Empire' must be really that far away.

Well, in the first place, I didn't know where was the ‘Empire' located at.

It's not like I didn't know about the national polity called as an empire. What I didn't know was what kind of nation existed in this world.

I wasn't interested, and I didn't have the opportunities to know. I only heard pieces of the rumors in the bar, and they were often abbreviated into something strange. Just like what happened just now, Yuki only said “Empire”. …What empire was it, seriously?

「Anyway, all of the people in here basically have the same profession. That's also the case with both of you right? ….Right?」

Why did this guy lost his confidence the moment he looked at me, oi?

I certainly didn't have anything that looked like weapons, and my clothes inside my cloak were so tattered to the point that it wouldn't be strange if I lived in the slums.

「…Well, because of that, they don't accept immigrants as well, so…」

「No, we want to be an adventurer, so there's no problem about that.」

「I… see. Then do your best.」

He was meaning to tell us to do our best as an adventurer, right?

He wasn't meaning to tell us to do our best to enter the city, right?

“Ohhh…”

We spent a few hours waiting at the long queue. Then we spent another several hours waiting for inspection and entry registration. We started lining up early in the morning, but we finally entered the city around noon.

The sight that spread out in front of me was a sight appropriate to call as a city, that one couldn't even see even in the royal capital in this world.

Even in the capital city, there were only two-story buildings except for the castle, but there were dozens of huge buildings here, even though I just took a quick glance around. Too amazing…

The people who passed around the street were also diverse. I hardly saw other races in my life until now, but I could easily say that the diversity of races here was very big.

Above all, the city was lively. There were smiles on everyone's faces. This was certainly a living city.

There were many ordinary shops, a lot of stalls looked like they came from outside the city.  I could smell delicious things around us.

「Oh, a dragon is flying.」

When I looked at the sky, there was a creature with wings that were flying above the building.

I wondered if that was what called as Wyvern? The dragon that I heard from the rumours.

The number of carriages was bigger than in the capital city, and they were pulled not only by horses, but also wingless dragons. I was reminded that this was really the Labyrinth City, not a random place in remote region.

「Ah, it's finally over. I'm getting tired of waiting.」

Yuki called me out when I was looking at the city like a fool.

Even though I took a pretty long time, Yuki was still waiting for me. He was a rather faithful guy. Didn't he think of the possibility that I couldn't pass the inspection, like what that small guy said before?

「Sorry. My examiner was someone who seems like a homosexual guy. He kept taking all of his time and touching all over my body.」

「Oh, Tsuna fits the category of a good uke1 after all. There is this character from a BL game I played in my previous life, and he looks similar to you.」

Stop it. Please stop it.

「I was afraid of messing everything if I hit him so I endured it, but I threw my fist after he finally extended his hand to my butt.」

「Y-yet, you still passed, huh.」

「When I made the full use of the various professional wrestling skills that I had learned in my previous life, the spectators cheered up for me. I was pretty heroic, you know. I even received reward for that.」

「Is this city really alright?」

That brute glasses guy wouldn't be able to move for a while.

Anyway, don't make someone like that as an examiner. Wasn't it obvious that he would harass people?

「By the way, I got a strange ticket as the reward. It seems like this city has its own banknotes.」

「Ha? What's that?」

「So you also don't know about this information? They told me that I can also use the normal currency, so we won't have to sleep in the streets.」

I had been worrying what should I do if I couldn't use the kingdom's currency, but it seemed like it was an unnecessary worry. I didn't know how much this ticket was worth, but then, this was usable.

The ticket was printed with monster pictures and numbers on relatively good quality paper. They told me that the value was 100 MP, but I didn't even know what unit was that. Magic Point?

「Hmmm…」

Yuki stared at the paper.

That was my reward, so return it to me, okay?

「Wow, this is amazing. It's not the same as Japanese bills, but they use considerably advanced technology to make this. There is even watermark included here. …Outside, there's not even any sufficient printing technology.」

「Eh? I certainly never saw a book before, so it's because there's no printing? That sounds like what people who transmigrates here will make, though.」

Yeah, like those modern technology cheat where the protagonist use their knowledge to make new inventions. But it seemed like no one did that in this world.

…No way, did everyone use papyrus or parchment in the capital?

「There's none, because manuscripting is a profession. While paper plantation is not widely popularized, printing is a task with high difficulty. Ink is also very expensive.

I only know the outline of printing, but the technology that is available in this world is at most only woodblock printing. In other words, the outside world is the civilization below the Middle Ages. But since there's magic here, there's no point in comparing it with our previous world.

I think someone can make a lot of money just by establishing papermaking technology. My family will definitely buy it with pleasure.」

Speaking of which, I didn't investigate the degree of civilization in this world while I was in the capital city. So it didn't even reach the Middle Ages, huh?

When I was in the village, I didn't even have a chance to come in contact with the civilization. When I got my previous memories, I even thought that I was in the primitive times. …Well, saying it was a primitive times might be a little too much. …How about ancient times?

「We can't produce anything without having the expertise with this kind of technology. Even if we have the knowledge, there's no way we can develop that technology immediately. In the first place, it costs money.

Even if you were born in farmers family and thought of making cesspool, won't it end up as a big disaster? There are parasites and a lot of factors to think of as well.」

「I made leaf mold in the forest outside the village before.」

「Even if you made it well, we can only do that much, right? I think Tsuna is smart. We don't have money, expertise, and can't afford having trial and error, so being overpowered with our modern knowledge is impossible. I can tell you this since I have failed before, so there's no doubt about it.」

So Yuki was talking from his experience?

By the way, the leaf mold wasn't effective at first, and the insects surged immensely. It was hard.

「That's why, this city is strange. As I thought, it smells like protagonist with cheat power.」

「Hmmm…」

So paper bill alone already showed that much difference? Having credit currency (is this even their currency?) was already that amazing?

「Anyway, let's eat first. You already ate dried meat in the carriage, but I've run out of foods on my way to this place. I haven't eaten since yesterday.」

「Ah, that's right. But I want to save as much money as possible, so I want to go to cheap place…」

Now then, what kind of food was available in this Labyrinth City?

When I looked around, there were surprisingly many restaurants. There were also many stalls, probably because it was already noon. It might be related with how we were still in the entrance of the city.

I wonder if they wouldn't serve us rice like those Japanese transmigrators stories? Or those grilled fish set meal.

Yuki pulled my sleeve in silence so I looked back to him pointing at a restaurant sign board.

[Today's specials! Miso Set Meal with Mackerel Flavour, Free Rice and Miso Soup at lunch time for your second serving!]

We nodded to each other silently, and entered the restaurant unsteadily as if we were sucked into it.

My savings, the sign board that was written in Japanese, those things disappeared from my head and flew away to who knows where.

The receiver in BL relationship. The one who is in the bottom. ↩

Chapter end