Chapter 24: CH 24

Fikar’s morning began with seeing Sumire’s face.

While they were in the house, it was Fikar and Sumire alone — no interruptions. He really wanted to stay in the same room as her all the time, but she’d decided that they would have one room each, so he had no choice but to sleep in his room by night and peek into her room by morning before she woke up, just to check she was still there. When he first started doing that, Sumire got upset when she saw him staring at her as she woke up, so since then, Fikar quietly returned to his room when it looked like she was about to wake up.

About two months after he fell into that habit, Sumire mumbled something to herself at the dinner table.

“That vicious Demon Lord, causing trouble and making the number of monsters rapidly increase. It’s scary…”

Fikar felt sorry for Sumire, who looked uneasy. He had to protect her so she could feel safe. She could defend herself against the usual monsters around Tortea, but if she felt anxious, she might choose to rely on Fikar. As he was slightly hoping for that to happen, Sumire opened her mouth again.

“Well, I heard that if you defeat the Demon Lord, you’d get enough money to play around for the rest of your life. Isn’t that amazing?…”

Like that, Fikar decided to subjugate the Demon Lord.

For Fikar, work was the biggest reason he couldn’t spend more time with Sumire. It cost money to live in town, so Fikar wanted to live in the forest, but Sumire seemed to like the people and life here. However, as they currently lived, they couldn’t pay for clothes or food without a job. As is, Sumire had to learn from the townspeople, carefully keeping track of and calculating living expenses. When buying food, she sometimes hesitated to get anything other than the cheapest items. Fikar had raised his star-rank several times, so they were somewhat better off compared to when they first came to the town, but they still didn’t make enough to live comfortably. Moreover, the more he earned, the longer he had to be away from Sumire. It was a very annoying state of affairs.

If you’d have enough money to play around for the rest of your life, you’d definitely have enough money for two people if you didn’t play around. Thus, Fikar made his decision.

It was a most urgent request, so he should’ve been able to find it on the guild’s bulletin board or in the request book, but when he searched the next morning, he couldn’t find it. Maybe it was a local quest and couldn’t be received in Tortea?

Fikar called out to Ludo, who happened to be nearby, and asked where the Demon Lord lived.

“The Demon Lord? According to the legends, it lives on Mount Thracias at the northwestern end of the continent. Fortunately, Tortea is in the southeast corner, so the damage is minimal.”

The continent was enormous, so it would take some time for him to reach the northwestern end. Fikar thanked Ludo and set off to do some simpler tasks first.

Since the distance was probably much farther than a one or two-day trip, he began preparing for the possibility that Fikar wouldn’t be with Sumire over the winter. He took up well-paying offers, stocked firewood, processed the slain beasts, smoked their meat and repurposed their skins, and generally devised ways to make Sumire’s life more comfortable. Along the way, he considered not taking the Demon Lord request at all because he would be away from her for so long, but he decided to head out nonetheless for Sumire’s safety and money.

First, he took a request to obtain a magic stone near a neighboring town to the north, where he parted ways with other adventurers from Tortea and headed further northwest. He earned his travel expenses by taking requests, looking into each guild branch he passed to see if they had the Demon Lord subjugation request before traveling deeper into the continent.

It was at the guild branch in the royal capital that Fikar finally found the request he was looking for.

“You– Do you even know what this request is for?”

There, the receptionist was a well-built man with mustard-colored hair. He was dumbfounded, pointing at Fikar’s card incredulously.

“For a 4-star, I don’t know if you’re a daredevil or empty-headed, but stop it. All of the 9-stars in the royal capital are already preparing to take it down. It will be peaceful soon enough.”

With that, the man tossed the card back to Fikar. He was a little troubled, but decided to keep going anyway, thinking he would get the rewards so long as the deed was done. The receptionist stopped him as he turned on his heels.

“Ah, wait a sec. The royal castle also accepts requests, but those are under the same jurisdiction as ours, so there’s no point in going there. You should go back to your hometown and become a guard instead.”

Understood. Fikar nodded and started walking towards the royal castle.

He was asked for identification at the gates and, presenting his guild card, a guard guided him through the grounds, albeit with a look of suspicion. He was led to a smaller building near the towering castle where requests could be received. Most of the men there were in uniform, and the rest were in clothing not suitable for adventuring. Fikar felt a lot of eyes on him, but he didn’t pay them any attention and talked to the receptionist. The receptionist, also in uniform, burst into laughter as soon as he heard Fikar’s story.

“Oi, you all! I hear this 4-star-sama is going to defeat the Demon Lord!”

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“You serious?”

“Someone talk him out of it!”

Fikar frowned at the noisier surroundings. The receptionist was trying to wave him out of the building. He hadn’t even signed the request form, and Fikar asked him if that was okay. The man at the reception desk let out a sigh and nodded curtly as he returned Fikar’s card.

“Hey, someone, teach this guy how to beat the Demon Lord.”

“Oh come on~. A knight like me doesn’t have time for this~”

Fikar walked out, avoiding a man that tried to grab his shoulder as if they were friends, and was led to an open space. Apparently, it was a training center. After defeating some of the men who challenged him to battle, Fikar continued his journey. He didn’t have time to deal with humans.

Earning only the bare minimum to sustain himself, Fikar set his sights back on Mount Thracias. As he went farther to the northwest, the towns gradually become smaller and more robust and the distance between them increased. He used a horse to travel at first, but they eventually became frightened and refused to continue on. He started using carts pulled by other animals, shortening the distance he covered each day, but things got much faster once he caught a dragon.

Dragons traveled through the air, so there was no need to watch out for rough terrain or poisonous plants. This one was a bit noisy, but it wasn’t enough to be worried about. After getting the necessary supplies from towns along the way, Fikar scaled Mount Thracias.

After confronting the Demon Lord, the return trip was several times quicker than coming because he was riding a dragon. When he stayed at an inn though, he had to shoo the dragon out the gates so it wouldn’t cause trouble in the town. However, it would still wait for him on the other side of town when he departed the next morning, so Fikar thought it might’ve been the type that liked to carry humans. If so, he would be able to travel all over the place with Sumire. She once said she wanted to see the ocean, so maybe he could make that happen.

When he returned to the reception desk at the royal capital and presented the fibrous magic stone, the proof of the Demon Lord’s subjugation, a hushed silence took over the building. Then, suddenly, there was an even bigger commotion than last time and Fikar was sent to another room, then moved to a small room in the royal castle, and then told to go to the audience chamber. By that point, though, it had been 3 days and Fikar was getting more and more frustrated. That feeling only got worse when he had to evict the dragon that tried to get into his bedroom each night.

Fortunately, Fikar was able to contain his anger in the audience chamber, being surrounded by nobles, as he received his reward. The bag, which Sumire would need both hands to hold, was filled to the brim with gold coins. The nobles looked like they had a lot of things to say, but Fikar decided to leave after giving a reasonable reply.

Now that he had enough money, there would be no reason to ever live apart from Sumire.

He saw Sumire for the first time in a long time and, although he was interrupted by the dragon and children during the day, he was happy to have dinner with her like before. After dinner, he presented the bag with his reward and Sumire looked inside, curious, and took out a coin.

“Eh?!… This, is this money?”

“Looks like a lot…” Sumire mumbled, trying to return it to Fikar. It was money for her, so he firmly place it back into her hands, hoping she would understand what he meant. Yet, for some reason, Sumire looked flustered and shook her head.

“Wait, wait a minute. If it’s for living expenses, I think just one of these will be enough.”

He’d earned enough to cover both of their expenses, but was politely refused.

At a later date, Sumire, wandering around the currency exchange center, ordered two safes on the spot and gave one to Fikar to store his gold coins. He nodded and tried to put his safe in Sumire’s room, but she refused him with a straight face, saying it would be bad for her heart. He wondered if she was uncomfortable with the presence of gold coins.

“I’m happy you let me use it, but it’s your money, so spend it as you like.”

That’s what she said, but she didn’t take all of the money like he wanted her to.

Another miscalculation on Fikar’s part was that Sumire didn’t quit her job even though they had no problems affording their livelihoods anymore. Still, Fikar no longer needed to work and was able to spend most of his day with her. That wish-come-true alone was worth the journey to defeat the Demon Lord.

In the mornings, Fikar prepared and ate breakfast with Sumire, watched her work, and sometimes helped out. When he helped her, she would smile and thank him. They ate dinner together and slept in the same house, sometimes spending the night at the guild instead, but Sumire was always within Fikar’s reach. When they went to the market, they bought whatever Sumire wanted to eat and shared it with each other. There were many ways to spend a day off, but they’d learned to spend a rainy day doing nothing. They woke up late, had a leisurely meal, and took naps. When he woke up, Sumire was in his arms.

Fikar was very happy.

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