Orion

『Reinhardt Castle Town』, the largest town among all the neutral towns and cities that exist on the continent of『Rondenia』. On a small hill at the end of the main street that splits off to the east and the west of the town stood the Reinhardt Castle, the symbol of the town as its name would suggest.

This lively town had roughly all the necessary facilities that adventurers needed such as a guild, taverns, workshops, a marketplace, inns, and a courthouse. Take a stroll on the streets for a few minutes and you will be able to find everything you need in your life from today’s dinner to a job for tomorrow. 

For that reason, it was the home for merchants, nobles, rookie to veteran adventurers and such, basically any free wanderers without a home.

When I first came here three months ago, I still remember that my first thought was “Wow, it’s just like a game…”

「Ehe, Saki, what is this? It’s soo delicious!」

「Cut it out, you glutton」

I pulled away my buddy who was glued to a festival food stand.

Her mouth was wide open like a panting dog.

If this girl had a tail it would be wagging non-stop.

We are currently in the middle of a festival that’s going on in Reinhardt Castle Town called the “Clear Sky Festival”, surrounded by a busy atmosphere.

The mainstreet had food stands lined up as families and tourists enjoyed the lively festival. 

Every time we walked by a food stand, the shopkeepers would yell at us like “Hey! You two over there, come check it out!”.

「Can’t you just buy a little bit? You’re acting so stingy even though you’re the lord of a castle too」

「You already know that I’m called a bum-lord, right?」

The young girl who looked at me with resentful eyes is supposed to be my bodyguard, but no matter how I look at it, I’m the one who is looking after her.

However, I guess it can’t be helped since we’re trapped by the smell of roasting sauces and sweet chocolate that was coming from the lined up food stalls.

This girl was the first person I met when I was summoned to this world. Her name is Orion. Her long hair was casually swaying as she carried a round shield on her back and an iron sword by her waist. She had slightly almond-shaped eyes with two vampire-like teeth slightly sticking out.  

She would no doubt be a beautiful girl if she fixed herself up, but I can’t say that she has any class at all even if I tried to sound nice. She followed behind me after she bought a choco-banana while pouting.

「As expected of the Clear Sky Festival, they’re selling all kinds of things. Ohh, look at that! It’s a silver sword! That thing could do some serious damage to an undead. Oh nooo, I want it~」

What Orion was looking and pointing at was a sword with a body that was made of silver. It was shining brightly as it bathed in the sunlight. There was a small gem embedded in it’s handle, so it seemed expensive by the looks of it.

As I thought, the price tag says 100 thousand Vesta. Absolutely out of my reach.

Since there is a candy store next to the blacksmith store, I will use 50 vesta to buy some sweets there.

「We can’t afford that with our financial power」

With that, I picked up the star-shaped candy that was made with hardened sugar.

Or so I thought, but there was nothing between my fingers.

Huh? When I looked down, the candy I just bought was gone.

 「You’re really sooo stingy」

After she said that, Orion tossed the candy I bought into her mouth and started making crispy crunching noises. 

「Oi, that was mine」

「Who cares, I earned it」

「Didn’t I give you some pocket money?」

「It was all gone from the choco-banana earlier」

「Come on…」

My head hurt every time Orion spoke nonchalantly.

Without any reserve, she stuck her tongue out at me and then smiled.

It’s always been like this with her so there’s no point for me to say anything now.

As I sighed, my shoulder bumped into an oncoming festival guest’s shoulder. 

「Watch it」

It was a middle-aged man who seems to be drinking since noon and was a little drunk.

The man wasn’t looking at me with his reddened face, it was Orion who he was staring at.

「Hey girly, are you trying to tempt me looking like that?」

The drunk man wobbled towards Orion and tried to grab her hand. But-

「Don’t touch me」

It happened in an instant.

Orion whispered that in the man’s ear as she pulled her sword with a backhand grip and shoved it at the man’s throat. 

Perhaps that instantly sobered him up, as the man started to run with his head wobbling. 

I lightly flicked Orion’s forehead with my finger.

「Oww, what are you doing?」

「That was too far. How many times have I told you not to pull your sword out on the streets?」

「Because that guy tried to touch me! The only one who is allowed to touch me is you, Saki」

I know that her words didn’t have any deep meaning to them, but it was still embarrassing hearing her say something like that to my face.  

「I guess I’ll have to buy you some equipment, or else you might get tangled up with some weirdos again」

「It’s fine. This outfit is easy for me to move in, it’s functional, and my I can move fast in it」

All of that meant pretty much the same thing though.

「Well yea, it’s because you’re not wearing any armor like you’re poor」

Her protective gear consisted of a bra and a pair of panties like she was wearing some kind of swimsuit. Other than that, she only had leather gloves and boots.

I want to call it fashionable bikini armor, but since nothing on her resembled any armor, it was just a bikini. 

She was bound to capture men’s attention while wearing something like that. And to make matters worse, her breasts were bigger than other people’s so you wouldn’t even know where to look.

It’s a pain in the ass for me as well when she was still growing and had frightening potential to get even bigger still. 

「You’re going to get singled out by the guards, so don’t act too recklessly here」

Even though she was young, she sighed like an old fart in response as we entered the building of the “Stefan Guild”.

The inside of the guild was packed with tough adventurer looking men and women who carried swords and axes on their backs. 

They surrounded the quest board that was filled with quests that come from the castle, town folks, and nearby villagers. Next to the board was a line of counters with guild staff who’s there to help people take up the quests. Then there is a bar even further down. Some people hanging there are drunkards who start drinking from the morning, while some are adventurers who got stuck on quests. 

It’s the same scenery of guilds straight out of a story or a game. I remember I was so excited when I first came here.

However, it had become a familiar scene now.

After walking through the entrance which had become something like a hang-out area, I stood in front of a rectangle shaped machine with a display just like the ATM machines that existed in convenience stores. 

This machine is clearly out of place in this fantasy-like world.

However, the machine is not the only thing that was out of place.

I took my smartphone out of my pocket and connected it to the machine’s external connector.

『Welcome』, the screen displayed. I then proceeded with the touch screen. When it changed to 『Sir Yuusaku Kaji’s Guild Data Reference』, detailed data about me was displayed. 

「Yuusaku Kaji    Sex: Male Age: 17 Occupation: King」

When I touched the cash out button on the screen, the message “Connecting” was displayed on my phone.

After some time, it displayed this time’s reward of 3800 Vesta along with a message that says “Please accept the coins”, as coins get spat out to the coin slot that was located below the screen.

I put the coins in a cloth pouch and tied the strings with my mouth then put it inside of my bag.

「3800 Huh? That’s rough」

Even though the reward for my quest completion was pooled to my phone and I completely cashed out just now, I want to cry because it was such a small amount. 

「Let’s go have a blast with that!」

「Don’t say something that failures would say 」

Orion pointed at the bar inside of the guild. The aroma of delicious food drifted from there and made my stomach rumble.

I’m already not eating much meat…  

Oh no, we can’t. We can’t be using money like this when we’re already so broke. I shook my head to get rid of the temptation to eat.  

「Oh my, look who it is! If it isn’t Kaji! You also came for the festival?」

While I was shaking my head, a cheerful young man’s voice came out of nowhere.

I looked behind me after recovering from the sad face I made from being so broke. 

There was a tall young man with slightly messy, curly hair who would generally be called good looking smiling at me.

「Oh, it’s you, Inui…」

「Come on, don’t look at me with such blatant disgust. We’re friends, aren’t we? F-r-i-e-n-d-s!」

This guy called Takashi Inui is an acquaintance of mine who was summoned here from the same world as me. We came from the same highschool but we had hardly come into contact with each other.

Inui was a troublemaker back in school, but he was a charismatic person. On the other hand, I was the quiet type. There’s no way that we would ever come into contact.

This guy is also called a king like me, but he is so successful you would not think that we started at the same time. The reason for his success was the girl who was next to him.

「……」

Opposite of the noisy Inui, the tall girl stood there quietly. She is Inui’s bodyguard, but she was completely different compared to my bodyguard.

With a machine-like helm that only showed her mouth and her metallic, mobile suit-like (Gundam) armor that covered her upper body, she was shining everywhere. She really gave the vibe of a strong character at a glance. 

「Hello, miss Erica」

When I greeted her with a slight bow, blue light emitted from her helmet with a “byoo” sound as she returned a bow.

「……Greetings」

She stands out just by standing there because she always looks like something that came from a “SF” (Sci-fi) world.

She is of a race called mechhuman. Apparently, they are born part machine and part living organism from the start.

「Hey! Don’t ignore me! That’s rude, so rude!」

「To me, your entire presence is rude 」

I quickly stop Orion from talking more.

「So, what brings you here to the guild?」

「There’s no reason other than to take quests or cash out, right? I don’t really have a hobby in drinking still」

With that said, Inui connected his phone to the ATM like machine (The official name is Vesta Converting Porter, but I call it an ATM ‘cause that name is too long). After a short while, the ATM was spitting out coins like a broken slot machine. 

「300K Vesta, huh? Not that good this time. Let’s earn more next time, Erica. We increased the number of our army, the “Chariot”, so we have to make a lot of money~」

「You increased your numbers again?」

「Well, just people of the “SR” rank (Super Rare)」

「S…R, huh…」

「Well, I guess I was lucky getting Erica who is SSR ranked from the start. It’s about time you ditch the R ranked girl and get yourself an SSR ranked with the “gacha”. Then you could get rich in an instant too. Ahahahaha」

With that loud laugh, Inui left with Miss Erica.

Just having a small conversation with him tired me out as usual.

I then spoke out to Orion who was pouting but still remained quiet.

「What do you want to do? Should we enjoy the festival a bit more before going home? You can have another choco-banana, you know?」

「No, let’s go home」

In a rarely depressed state, Orion started walking quickly. I can guess the reason why she’s feeling down.

Yeah, in this world, there’s a rating to how powerful someone is. My partner Orion is an R-ranked warrior, the second lowest rank in the rarity ranking which goes from N(Normal), R(Rare), HR(Highly Rare), SR(Super Rare), to SSR (Super super Rare).

TLN: WN uses the rank “EX”(Immeasurable) but LN uses “SSR”…So going to use SSR