Vol 2: Chapter 2
I recalled the time when I saved the life of Earl Victor de Sillys, but it wasn’t that dramatic of an incident. It was only at the level where I go, “Ah, come to think of it, I guess that happened too.”
More importantly, the cat beastmen, Zerry-san, was more helpful than I had expected! I’m so glad she came with me.
After escaping the capital city of Achenbach Dukedom, I headed for the Saint Knight Kingdom with the guidance of Zerry-san. There was only one border checking station, but there was a back route for people who deal in illegal business. And Zerry-san took us across the border using that route.
It cost a little money to do that, but Zerry-san didn’t even have that “little” money. She seemed to have been barely getting through while earning small changes back in the city.
The Saint Knight Kingdom was a country under the rule of the Knight King, and because the army had been greatly strengthened, there were few places where adventurers could conduct their activity, so we just passed through.
Further ahead, was the Kruvan Holy Kingdom. A country where people of many races lived together. It’s very lively, but there were also a lot of crimes. To me, it seemed like an open-minded country in many ways.
Also, you can hear these often:
「The Holy King’s light shines over all people in the kingdom.」
「The Holy King rules with peace.」
Praise singing of the Holy King was commonplace.
I was planning to register as an adventurer in the holy city of Kruvanyu, and master 【World Ruler】 in the meantime.
「Do you want to become an adventurer to see how other adventurers fight…? Nope, nope, nope, absolutely nope〜. People won’t reveal their skills that easily. Needless to say, you look too small, so no one’s gonna let you join their party, bocchan〜. If you’d like, I’ll earn money as an adventurer, so how about you take on a more stable job?」Zerry-san said, but since there was truth in what she said, I had no other choice but to accept her proposal.
Zerry-san wanted to continue sticking with me even after reaching our destination. I thought that was fine. She acts over-familiar and was irritating at times, but she wasn’t a bad person.
Speaking of me, I got a prestigious position called “Cleaner of the Holy King’s 18th Knights Order”. The knights of the powerful sounding title “Holy King’s Knights Order” have to go through rigorous training. After the training, the knights return to the dorm and sleep like a log. Since they had money, they had a routine of making a fuss in the city during their rare rest days.
Regarding what it is that I clean – their rooms were damn filthy. Also, an abnormal amount of laundry was piled up.
I made the knight’s room look clean and shiny by combining【Water Magic】,【Fire Magic】, and 【Wind Magic】. Same goes for laundry. The holy city has a special climate. It rarely rains, but when it does, it doesn’t let up for a week. They were very pleased that I was able to keep the indoors dry.
Sometimes the knights will tip me when the room is sparkly clean, and if I have time, I observe the knights’ training, and accumulate all kinds of skills.
…The encounter with the Earl is still a little further away.
Anyway, when I was ten years old, I received a mysterious nickname called “Legendary Cleaner”. I was valued by the knights for my work, I was valued by the aunties in the kitchen for providing them with hot water, and I was valued by the frequenting dwarves from the armour mending blacksmith workshop for cleaning their place.
The holy city is large, so I went sightseeing on holidays and treated myself to delicious food.
I was kind of enjoying life too much in the holy city. Though, I wasn’t able to make friends because I was way younger than the rest of the people I met.
Rumors of me spread to other knight groups and I moved around cleaning a number of them. And unexpectedly, I started receiving a knight’s salary. That said, the money was just a by-product, and I was happy to be able to practice magic legally and increase the proficiency of the skills that I continued to learn. My mana quantity also increased steadily – but that seems to be only because I gradually became able to handle the 【Mana Quantity Increase】 skill I learned from observing Crysta-la-Crysta.
I continued my training in secret. If you don’t use the skills, you can’t master it. Therefore, I came up with the idea to detach 【World Ruler】 and then use the skills.
If I remove 【World Ruler】, I will not be able to use all the skills I have learned, but the memory of the skill remains in my mind. Thus, I move my body exactly as per my memory and raise the skill proficiency. Mysteriously, when I reabsorbed 【World Ruler】, I felt a deeper understanding of the skills.
Thanks to this, I was able to fight even if skills were inhibited.
As I saved money while living a cleaner’s life, Zerry-san, who said she’ll earn money as an adventurer, blew all her money away on gambling and fell into debt – a debt which I had to shoulder with all my savings. And three years passed in that manner.
I started thinking it was time for me to act on my own.
Although I didn’t know her whereabouts, I wanted to see my “big sister”, Lark.
I also wanted to meet Lulusha, the granddaughter of old man Hinga who taught me all sorts of things about the world. To accomplish that, I thought about collecting information while traveling around the big cities.
I was thinking about my future plans – late at night during early spring – when I saw several horse-drawn carriages and horse-riding escorts riding through the holy city. I was practicing 【Sprinting Technique】 and 【Jumping Technique】 while jumping from roof to roof, when the carriage suddenly caught on fire.
The driver hurriedly stopped the horses, and rescued a noble-looking man – well, it was Earl Victor de Sillys – from the carriage.
But arrows came flying from the sky, piercing the driver, and he went down. The knights surrounding the carriage also fell one after another.
(Smart. The arrows are painted black, so it’s hard to dodge.)
While feeling impressed by the intelligence of the attackers, I was wondering what to do.
(Should I get in and help? But I don’t know who that nobleman is… He might be a villainous man for all I know.)
Well, Earl Silly’s turned out to be more of an “ill-natured man” than a “villainous man”.
But returning back to the topic, I simply observed the situation.
When the Earl was the only one left standing near the burning carriage, five assassins surrounded him in a semicircle. The assassins, wearing black clothes and masks that only revealed their eyes, said something to the Earl.
「—Prepare yourself… Client requested… as much pain as possible…」
I heard such disturbing words as I listened with 【Hearing Enhancement】.
This guy will definitely be killed, I thought. However, the nobleman seemed calm and totally unfazed.
I observed the nobleman closely.
His smooth blonde hair was beautiful even in the dark of night, and his scarlet pupils, which seemed to carry a weight of sorrow, were so beautiful that even I, a male, was captivated.
Is he in his late twenties?
(Ah, this man… he doesn’t care about dying.)
The person who came to my mind at that time was Raikira-san.
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