9-24. The Search at the Duchy Capital

Satou's here. I sometimes see wonderful urban legends where the character in tales or stories wakes up beside an unfamiliar opposite sex who's sleeping nearby, but it's never happened upon me in reality. However, it's a common spectacle in the other world....

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I feel my face is wrapped in soft sensations, it feels wasteful to wake up now.

Ah, bliss. However, this sensation isn't Nana's, and Lulu's aren't these big. Don't tell me, has Aialize-san intruded?

In case of the last one, it'll be bad if I don't wake up soon, so I escape from dozing off.

Huh? I don't know this room.

Half of my view is a soft body wrapped in unbleached cotton, and the other half is reflecting unfamiliar furnitures in a narrow room. I can smell cheap alcohol mixed among the faint smell of sweat.

Right, I remember now.

"Onee-chan! It's morning."

"Wake up quick. I'm hungry~"

"Starving nano~"

I lightly wave my hand to the little children who have intruded the room.

Oops, I've made the wrong choice. I should have clung to the ceiling and activated hiding skills when the door opened.

"Wa~ Futsuna-ane has brought along a young man~"

"Mom, onee is being loose!"

"Onii-chan, are you going to make Futsuna your bride?"

The children is making noise like a beehive that's been poked.

I'm a bit worried with some of the remarks, so I check my clothes and my body just in case. Yup, it's safe. We've only slept together. Since I've been journeying together with Arisa, it feels strange to have the check become the norm.

Last night, I slipped into the duchy capital in the dead of the night, but it was so late no inn was open. I have a lot of acquaintances in the duchy capital, but it would be bad manner to suddenly visit them in the middle of the night, so, as it can't be helped, yes reluctantly so, I was walking to search for a bed at the night town, but--

Even though it was supposed to be a fun nightlife, I unexpectedly got involved in a little quarrel.

It's just an ordinary quarrel in a night town. A spell-user woman on her late 20s with slightly big breasts was being extorted by a criminal group called [Grey Bat] for her stall. That was it. They were going to sexually assault her since she didn't want to pay the fee, so I intervened as there was no way I could leave it alone. That spell-user woman was Futsuna-san.

I led the criminal group toward the patrolling guard ahead, and when they got close, I quickly handled them with [Magic Hand]. It seems that the members of the criminal group who tried to attack the guards were put into the jail. There were some who tried to escape, but since I caught their feet with [Magic Hand], every one of them seemed to have been captured.

I kept a tense distance while I was leading the criminal group, so Futsuna-san fainted immediately after the guards helped. It couldn't be helped, so I carried her to her house at the housing complex, but I encountered the prostitutes women who seem to be her acquaintances. They seemed to have just finished their works and come home.

And then, after they humorously made fun about Futsuna-san, I told them that I saved her from [Grey Bat] extortion, and Futsuna-san told them that those guys were all arrested by the guards, then the prostitutes onee-san raised cheers of joy. They seemed to be a group of good-for-nothing who leeched on the streetwalkers.

They were originally led by a decent man, but he was seriously injured by the demon rampage at the downtown that occurred before I got to the duchy capital, so his influence decreased and the [Grey Bat] started to do as they please.

Anyway, the party to celebrate the annihilation of [Grey Bat] begun, and it became an all-night drinking bout. I couldn't get drunk, so the prostitutes onee-san who got worked up made me drink cheap liquor in large quantity while glued to me. It was absurd to even compare the liquor to the one that I drank with the black dragon, but it was tasty for some reason. It was truly a fun feast.

I'm worried with the women's finances since we drank quite a lot of liquor. It would be boorish of me if I give them money for the liquor expenses, I guess I'll put some Shiga liquor in a suitable barrel and give it to them later.

I slip out of Futsuna-san whose soft body holds my head, and get up off the bed.

My feet has stepped on some kind of soft things. Since I can hear, "Ahn", soft voice, I look down. The prostitutes onee-san who drank together with me are buried under the empty bottles of the liquor.

I apologize to Futsuna-san's mother for the drinking bout last night. I secretly used [<>] magic so it should have been quiet, but I should apologize with a few words here. She forgives me while saying that it's just like usual, and also, "If you're fine with middle-aged woman who's late at getting married, please get along well with her." while laughing. U~n, she (Futsuna) can't be called a beauty, but she looks plainly cute with her make-up-less face and shoulder-length red hair, there should be some men who fall for her inside their minds.

After having the seaweed and grain soup that Futsuna-san's mother had made, I left the housing complex I had spent the night in.

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Now then, first I need to go to viscount Shimen's scroll workshop.

I changed my clothes in an alley, picked a horse-drawn carriage cab on its pool near the great wall, and went to the scroll workshop.

"Chevalier-sama! You've returned faster than I thought."

"Yes, I have some unreasonable things I need Natalina-san do."

I cut to the chase with Natalina-san in the drawing room of the workshop.

I came here to request them to make new magic scrolls for exterminating jellyfish and crafting things at the elf hometown. There are eight elementary magic, and four intermediate ones. In addition, I earnestly ask them to take out various [Dodge Monsters] type of nature magic of the storeroom. There is [Dodge Marine Mammal] among them, so I'm expecting it to be effective against the jellyfish.

"U~n, the two space magic among this twelve scrolls are not possible. There's no one that can use space magic this advanced. Formerly, there was someone who could, but that person had been invited to become a teacher at the royal capital academy."

Hoo, it's not like there isn't anyone huh. However, I wonder if it's alright for her to leak the scroll-making technology.

"Is it not possible to ask for that person's help?"

"That girl won't cooperate unless it interests her. She should be neglecting her teaching duty even now, she's said that she's going to make a holy sword that surpasses Gjallarhorn in her sleep."

Natalina-san is sighing grandly in appalled tone.

Fumu, a holy swords creator huh. Then I wonder if I can use the dragon powder as an exchange?

"Can I get the cooperation of that researcher if I offer this material as an exchange?"

I put a vial on the table while talking.

"This is?"

"It's dragon powder."

"Do you understand the implication?"

That reminds me, the fact that dragon powder is a material for making a holy sword is a highly classified information in Shiga kingdom. Work hard [Poker Face] skill.

"Unfortunately, I don't know the detail. A long time ago, I was told by an acquaintance that, 'If you get a hold of dragon powder, bring it to the royal capital.' When I ask for the reason, he only said that it had something to do with 'Holy swords.'"

The deception skill shiningly assists after a long absence. Common stories flash in my mind one after another.

"Tell you what, Chevalier-sama. Don't talk to such thoughtless person okay. Some dangerous people of the kingdom might set their eyes on you if you're careless."

Natalina-san is warning me so while she opens the dragon powder vial and checks the inside. This dragon powder is made from the scale fragments of Heiron the black dragon. The scale is big in itself, but the volume increases greatly when it's made into powder, I've made 120 vials from fragments that seem to form one piece (of scale). One vial should be about 10 gold coins worth if I'm not mistaken, so it's quite a fortune.

The property of dragon powder differs for the outer circumference, the surface, and the inside of the scale. The dragon powder that I've taken out is made from the fiber of the interior of the scale that makes the most quantity. Of course I didn't forget to change my name to Nanashi when I was making the dragon powder.

"The maid over there! Call gramp Jang here. Tell him, 'Come, if you want the chance to analyze high grade dragon powder'!"

The overly excited Natalina-san told the maid who had come to add tea to my cup to do an errand, and the maid got out of the room.

"Chevalier-sama! Where did you get this! No, that's not it. That's not it. Do you only have one of this? Do you have the fiber part from before it's turned into powder?"

She's too excited, her words are collapsing.

I've gathered many broken scales, and sorted the damaged scales to be on its own, there are three of them. However, what is she going to use them?

"The fiber part is it?"

"Yeah, I've read about a man who created advanced magic scroll from a book at the royal library, that man seems to use a writing brush made from dragon's whiskers."

Whiskers huh~?　Heiron the black dragon has whiskers, but I don't think that thick whisker can be used as a writing brush.

Natalina-san also knew about that.

I'm told that she and her friends went to hunt dragon's whisker at the labyrinth city 150 years ago. What a rash person. The whisker they sought seem to be from lower dragon's, but even so, it was still too thick to be used as a writing brush. I asked if they defeated the lower dragon, but she replied with a bitter smile saying that driving it away was the best they could do. Nevertheless, they still acquired a lot of scales, and it was profitable enough that the party members at that time who also worked in a magic workshop called [Ivy Mansion] could set up a base at the labyrinth city.

Back to the story, from that experience, she's been thinking that the material for the writing brush might be the fiber from the whisker after all. She shouted toward the ceiling that she was not making scrolls back then, so she ignored it. Calm down.

In fact, the elf who was the leader at that time made a high-powered living doll from the fiber taken from the scales. I want to meet that elf, I feel that we will get along well.

Looks like the chance for me to take out the dragon whisker, or rather, the dragon fiber from the storage has been lost.

"W, where is it Natalina! The best dragon powder is thissssss!

At the speed that didn't match his obese body, Jang-shi, the workshop head took the dragon powder on the table and stared at it. He's probably checking it with his [Item Check] skill.

"Ooh! Ooooh!　It's a high-grade no mistake. It's dragon powder made from the scale of a genuine dragon, an old dragon nonetheless, it's not from something like a lower dragon. Isn't this the phantom item that appeared only once at Seryuu city 40 years ago!　Unununu, I don't know the creator. There's no mistake that this is made by a very skilled alchemist! Natalina!"

I thought that he was a more composed person, but he's quite an interesting one. He's fit to be Natalina-san's superior.

"Chevalier-sama, w, would you be so kind as to concede this?!　You would wouldn't you!?"

Jang-shi bloodshot eyes are scary. Ah, please don't hurl your saliva.

If it's like this, I'll ask something a bit unreasonable.

"If you comply with the unreasonable request that I've told Natalina-san earlier, I will present it."

"What?! Are you sure? No, you're sure right?　Do as you wish with this old woman. Yes, in exchange for this flat chest--gwowah"

Natalina-san who can't put up with the sexual harassment remarks body-blows Jang-shi. He's fainted, but Natalina-san probably held back, if she seriously hit him, there would be a wind tunnel on Jang-shi's stomach.

"In other words, if we can complete the scrolls from earlier with the shortest time right."

"Yes."

Natalina-san is laughing while having a carnivorous smile like she's before a prey.

Thanks to the effect of [Poker Face] I didn't get swallowed by her smile, and succeeded with the negotiation. Natalina-san was trying to get another vial of the dragon powder for the researcher at the royal capital.

However, I won't hesitate to make a dragon writing brush if it can really be used to make advanced level magic scrolls. I'll ask the elves if there is anyone who can make it at the elf hometown.

◇

After I've finished the business at the scroll workshop and greeted Hayuna-san and the others, I return to deal with my original purpose. I tried to search for pickles like I did with the short horns during the map search last night, but I couldn't find it. The name must be different.

I went to visit the duke castle head chef as the my remaining hope.

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