To sum up the demihuman women’s story, they had fallen prey to the slave hunters invading their villages in the borderlands and were in the middle of being taken to Abrasil. The kidnapping had been completely unlawful.
Once they’d made it to the port town, there would’ve undoubtedly been horrible things awaiting them. That was why they made a run for it when the watchman wasn’t looking, which brought them to the present.
“Please be careful on your way back to your hometowns,” I told them.
They bowed their heads to us over and over. I summoned a Grade 3 beast to protect them. It wouldn’t be good to let them near Abrasil, no matter what, so I set them off toward the next big town over. They’d separate from my summon there and planned to hire an adventurer to guard them all the way home. I gave them a good sum of money for their travels and to hire the guard, of course. I had a ton of it stored in Izanach, so it was no skin off my back.
I didn’t think it was right to save the natives for free, but it was too late to turn back at that point. Just saving them and then leaving them with nothing but the clothes on their bodies would’ve been cold of me.
“You’re amazing, Master Shinobu. I really respect how empathetic you are!” Alice called out.
“Is it really that great?”
“You didn’t even know them. Hardly anyone would do something like this.”
“It was too late to turn back. You were in a similar situation yourself, weren’t you? You were treated horribly as a slave.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Meeting those people... If I’d just left them alone, it wouldn’t have been good for your mental health. You’re family to me.”
“Family...? I’m family? I’m family to you?!”
“I’ll ask you. Have you considered us to be anything else this whole time?”
Alice giggled. Her ears fluttered and her tail wagged excitedly. Super endearing. As long as she’s happy.
Wait a second. I thought dogs were the ones whose tails wagged, not cats. I wanted to raise this issue, but decided it would be better to let it go.
The demihuman women began murmuring among themselves. Strangely, their eyes were all aimed toward the sky.
Following their line of sight, I saw a female harpy land from above. She wasn’t wearing worn-out clothing and looked to be in her late twenties. Her determined gaze and brave, light armor suited her well. Judging by the sword in her possession, it was obvious she hadn’t been captured by the slave merchants.
“What’s going on here? Where are those damned slave sellers?”
Now on the ground, the woman looked around confused. The other harpies ran over to her.
“Lady Mimi!” one of them chirped.
“Oh, Myur, it’s you! Are you all right?”
They seemed to be old friends. After putting together the situation from the women’s stories, Mimi walked over to me.
“Myur just told me everything. I thank you for saving my brethren who were kidnapped from our country.”
It bothered me that she didn’t bow her head even once, and her eyes were filled with suspicion. She hadn’t even introduced herself to me, so it was hard to believe she was being genuine with her thanks.
“My name is Shinobu Iijima. Just think of me as an unremarkable adventurer. And you are?”
She debated it for a moment before nodding softly. “It really isn’t a name that humans are worthy of hearing, but you did save my brethren. My name is Mimi. I am a harpy and a member of the Royal Guard.”
I could sense daggers from her words and demeanor.
“I’ll preface with this,” she continued, “but I only have bad impressions of humans. You all were the ones who attacked my kingdom first while we Royal Guards were away.”
I supposed I couldn’t blame her. Demihumans were historically races that were oppressed by humans.
“So, Ms. Mimi, am I right in assuming that you’ve come chasing after the slave merchants to save everyone?”
“That’s correct.”
The harpy called Myur approached Ms. Mimi. “My apologies. Lady Carolla was taken by a different slave transport than me...”
Upon hearing that, Ms. Mimi placed her right index finger at the tip of her nose, the universal signal for telling someone to shush. “Are you trying to publicly humiliate our kingdom?!”
The harpy hastily shook her head in protest. “Lady Mimi, you know as well as the rest of us that humans are powerful. We don’t even know where our princess is, so wouldn’t it be better for us to ask for help?”
“We already have people working on it in Abrasil! Besides...”
Ms. Mimi glanced at me briefly, then looked back at Ms. Myur. “He already saved you without payment, and even gave us money for the road. Yet you want to ask for more?! Do you have no sense of pride or shame?!”
“B-But...”
Ms. Mimi ignored Ms. Myur’s stammering and turned to face me. “As you’ve heard, the harpy kingdom is in a state of emergency at present. We have no money, so no means of thanking you. After everything is over, you may contact us by letter or Communication Crystal.”
Er, I don’t exactly want any thanks in the first place. They’d be confused if I told them that, so I just smiled wryly. “Ms. Mimi, it’s too late for me to abandon you now. We may be able to aid you or give you information, depending on the circumstances.”
This was partly out of goodwill, and partly because it would be beneficial for us. The people the harpies were chasing were slave merchants, which could lead to useful information on the girl from the photo who looked like Megumi. There was a good chance that the bastard would resort to kidnapping to get his hands on her. Since she was potentially already captured, there was merit in following the slave sellers’ routes.
“Um, Master Iijima, was it?”
“Yes, what is it?”
Ms. Mimi furrowed her eyebrows. She then said this to me in a tone that sounded like a teacher scolding a child. “Haven’t you ever heard of ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’?”
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
“We’re chasing after people who kidnapped the princess of a demihuman kingdom. That should tell you enough about how tough of a foe they are.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Master Iijima, I thank you for releasing my brethren. However, this issue belongs to our kingdom alone.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“You do not need to interfere any further. I don’t want to subject our savior to danger either. It would be a different story if you were an A-rank adventurer or above, but judging by your clothes...you can’t be any higher than a D-rank.”
Man, how long has it been since I last heard that one? Since I first arrived in this world?
Back then, I was treated as the most pathetic adventurer possible because of this outfit. Ms. Mimi wasn’t treating me the same way, so was this her way of showing respect? She probably specified “D-rank” to call me a veteran, giving me the bare minimum of compliments. I had the impression that she was the type of person who would be polite to even someone she hated.
I took note of Gabriel flicking her eyes at me and nodded. We didn’t need to prolong our stay here and waste any more time.
“In that case, we’ll take our leave.”
“We will pray for your safe travels.”
And so, after some fuss, we parted ways with the demihumans and set off toward our goal, Abrasil.
†
“We’re attacking from the front, Master Shinobu?” Alice’s anxious words made me laugh. It wasn’t strange for her to interpret the situation we were in that way.
We were at the headquarters of the Merchants’ Alliance—the home base for the Lions of Patriotism. The building was about ten stories tall. I’d compare it to medieval European architecture; it was obviously high-quality. It wasn’t just tall, but massive all around. It was so huge that it looked strange among all the other buildings, an obvious display of wealth.
“Nah, we’re not attacking. We’re conducting reconnaissance.”
That was why we got fake adventurer ID cards from Ms. Kaori’s guild. My card stated that I was an A-rank adventurer named Chan Muchen. I had them give me an East Asian feel because of my black hair.
There was also a reason I was designated as an A-rank instead of S-rank. In this world, S-ranks were generally level 40 and up. They were obviously weak compared to the players, but by natives’ standards, they were ridiculously strong. I didn’t want to be labeled as such because I would stand out too much.
“But in this city, aren’t there a lot of godlike people like you, Master Shinobu?” Alice shuddered at the thought.
I shook my head. “Remember, we’re only doing recon. There’s nothing to worry about.”
As I waltzed through the door to the Merchants’ Alliance, Alice’s face contorted with fear.
“Aw, don’t be so shocked,” I consoled her.
“But...this is...”
“We’re not even using our main bodies right now.”
To explain: the versions of us in this place weren’t our real bodies—they were like the doppelgängers created by Tsukuyomi’s ability to control shadows. She’d started to be able to produce these at level 120 when one of her original skills evolved.
Among other things, her stealth skills had also evolved, making her something of a monstrosity now, but we’ll save that for later.
The reason we were using these doppelgängers was simple: we wouldn’t stand a chance against the bastard’s Lions of Patriotism if we were to get caught.
That said, these forms came with certain restrictions as well. First, by nature of being doppelgängers, their physical capabilities were low. While they possessed our actual abilities, they were only about as strong as level 50. Not nearly enough to withstand a battle against players.
Our real bodies were back at the inn, vacant and in deep sleep. Our consciousnesses were astral projections, occupying these vessels. Gabriel and Cerberus remained with our real bodies to prevent any affronts to them.
“Let’s get going, then.”
“M-Master Shinobu! Wait for me!”
It’s in God’s hands from here. We crossed through the lobby crammed with people and headed straight for the reception desk.
We finished our investigation of the Merchants’ Alliance, then made our way to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“It’s just as Ms. Kaori told us it’d be,” I remarked.