85 – Demon Shelter
The carriage that departed from Kuber made several stops at small towns before heading to the capital, Pifnel.
On the first day, Meruru, who was excited thinking about her sister, wagged her tail happily. But as time went by, she seemed to tire and fell asleep.
She woke up and dozed off several times, and we even stayed at an inn in one of the towns we passed through.
The coachman of the rented carriage had a wealth of experience traveling through various cities. When it was time for us to rest in a new city, he recommended places to eat and inns.
Thanks to the experienced coachman and the good carriage, we arrived in the capital, Pifnel, smoothly without any major accidents.
After giving a tip to the coachman who helped us in many ways, I got off the carriage and admired the scenery of the capital, which I was seeing for the first time in my life.
“So this is… the capital of the kingdom, Pifnel…”
Pifnel.
The capital of the kingdom and the largest city.
In the center, there was the Pifnel Castle where the king resided, and the Central Church, the center of the seven denominations.
It was a major city surrounded by two layers of walls: the inner walls surrounding the castle and the outer walls surrounding Pifnel.
Inside the inner walls were the main facilities of the kingdom, including the royal palace, and the residential area for high-ranking individuals.
The guild where adventurers were active was inside the outer city walls.
Although I don’t have any business there, I am interested in how the guild in the capital operates.
Naturally, the entrance to the underground waterway, where the demon protection facility, the destination, was located, was in the slums inside the outer city walls.
Bainar and Kubel were not small cities, but the scale of the capital, Pifnel, was on a different level.
The streets were very wide, with carriages running inside the city and people bustling on both sides.
It felt like looking at the streets of a large city in modern times, where the roads and sidewalks were separated.
The general store occupied a three-story building and attracted the attention of adventurers as they passed by, with blacksmiths placing multiple anvils in a spacious area and six blacksmiths forging in real-time.
It was also impressive to see fully armed knights patrolling at every street corner.
Unlike other cities where self-defense groups or small-scale guards manage public safety, here the knights themselves patrolled and managed public safety.
“Is it true… that my sister is in a place like this?!”
Meruru seemed to be visiting such a large city for the first time, constantly looking around and couldn’t keep her head still.
“We have to go underground.”
“Wow, this is amazing. Is the underground this big too?”
“I don’t know either. I haven’t been there.”
“I want to go see it quickly!”
Deciding to explore the capital later, I immediately headed towards the slums of Pifnel.
Usually, the larger and more splendid the city, the greater the wealth disparity.
As I got closer to the entrance of the slums, the large buildings disappeared and more and more old and small buildings appeared.
The road became so narrow that carriages couldn’t pass, and when I reached the actual entrance of the slums, the atmosphere completely changed.
“Is the difference really this big…?”
Places where people live are all similar.
For every well-off person, there is an equally poor person.
As the scale grows, the distribution of wealth inevitably takes the form of a pyramid, and the number of impoverished people increases accordingly.
At the entrance of the slum, two knights stood tall, serving as guards.
When I approached to go inside, I was immediately stopped.
“Halt. This is a dangerous area, so outsiders are not allowed to pass.”
The knight’s eyes, visible through the sturdy helmet, emitted an atmosphere of strictness without any room for compromise.
If they guard it like this, the people in the slum won’t be able to come out to the regular streets.
Even though it’s the same city, they have drawn a clear boundary as if it were a completely different city.
Since it seemed that mere words wouldn’t solve the problem, I took out the delegation badge that Algot had given me from my pocket.
The delegation badge serves as proof that I am carrying out important guild business, so it might have some influence here as well.
When I showed the badge, the knight examined the badge I presented with narrowed eyes and said,
“Hmm, someone here on guild business, huh? Or perhaps you’ve come to catch a criminal.”
“Well… something like that.”
I didn’t know what a criminal was, but since adventurers who visit the slums for such matters exist, I played along with his story.
“Is the person next to you a party member? They seem to be a rare species, so be careful with your body. If they offer you any strange drinks, never accept and drink them.”
“Understood.”
“And if by any chance it’s a life-or-death criminal, make sure to kill them and dispose of the body properly. Sometimes people only take care of the task at hand and neglect to dispose of the body, which can lead to the spread of diseases.”
“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Then go ahead. If you lose the badge, you won’t be able to leave, so guard it well.”
The knight who saw my Master’s Delegation Badge reminded me with a much softer attitude than before.
“Don’t consume any strange drinks, and make sure to handle the corpses properly.”
From Noble mtl dot com
Do adventurers mainly come here for that purpose?
『The slums of Pifnel were a dangerous place where various mid-level criminals roamed.
The kingdom knew about this, but instead of subduing the slums and the underground waterways, they decided it was better to manage and gather them in one place, leading to its current state.』
As I stepped inside the slums, the narration warned me.
This place could be considered the outskirts of decadence in the kingdom.
But I wasn’t too worried.
If I received such a warning, it was enough to be cautious.
If it was a place where I had to protect myself through the logic of strength, I now had confidence in doing so.
“Let’s see… Behind the 13th pillar of the 2nd entrance to the Pifnel underground waterway….”
It seems like there are multiple entrances to the underground waterway, but where is the 2nd entrance?
The streets were overflowing with dirt and garbage.
I noticed beggars sleeping haphazardly near the burnt ruins of buildings.
“Hey, you bastard! Do you want to die?”
“Hand it over! Give it to me!”
Two beggars with disfigured faces fought each other with insults and punches.
The narrow alleyways, twisted like a maze, also carried a strange stench.
“…Is it really possible that my sister is in a place like this….”
Meruru, seemingly shocked by the dreadful environment, clung to me with anxious eyes and asked.
Even I would feel uneasy if I were to say there is a place where my sister is, but I have nothing to say about it in particular.
Because of the nature of the Demon Protection Shelter, a place that should never be discovered, it seems like we inevitably ended up in a secluded area.
All I could hope for was that the interior of the Demon Protection Shelter would be well-protected and unaffected by such a dreadful environment.
As we wandered through the slums, searching for the entrance to the underground waterway, an old man in tattered robes slowly approached us.
“You guys… You don’t seem to be from around here… Are you looking for something?”
The old man had a hunched back and his face was full of deep wrinkles.
But he had a pleasant smile and spoke in a gentle tone, making a good impression as a grandmother.
There was no one around to ask without causing trouble, so I was relieved to have someone to inquire of.
“I’m looking for the second entrance to the underground waterway.”
“Ah, I see… If you go around that corner and keep going straight to the left, there’s a ladder that leads underground.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“Oh my, this place is a bit dreary, isn’t it? But people do live here too… I hope you finish your work safely and leave. We’ve encountered each other for a reason, so why don’t you have something to eat before you go?”
The kind old man put his hand into his pocket and took out two small cookies, offering them to us.
They were star-shaped cookies, nicely baked and looked quite delicious.
To suddenly offer us something to eat here…
It seems too suspicious, no matter how you look at it.
The face of the old man, who had seemed pleasant just a moment ago, starts to look different for some reason.
After hearing so many warnings to be cautious, it would be foolish to accept something given by someone in a place like this.
“It’s alright. I’m not really hungry.”
“Don’t say that, just take them. These were baked by this old lady herself.”
“No, it’s fine. Meruru, let’s go.”
It was a moment of clear refusal as they headed towards the underground waterway.
Meruru quickly received the cookie and stuffed it into her mouth without a chance to dry it.
“If you don’t eat it, Meruru will eat both!”
“Hey! This fool…”
“hehehehe… Is it delicious?”
The old man smiled as he watched Meruru.
Thump thump.
Meruru immediately ate the cookie, not knowing what was inside.
…Was it my fault for not warning Meruru firmly?
The old man who gave her the cookie laughed and disappeared into the alley on the other side, and I examined Meruru’s condition.
“Meruru, are you okay? Do you feel strange?”
“Hmm? Why are you asking that? It was delicious. Even if I wanted to eat it later, it wouldn’t work.”
“It’s not that… sigh…”
Even if it had been poisoned, what could I have done?
Well, I can’t undo what has already happened, and fortunately, Meruru doesn’t seem to have any problems.
If it really was just a cookie… then I’m relieved…
Putting my worried thoughts aside, just as the old man said, there was a ladder leading to what seemed like a hole going underground.
“Meruru… Are you really okay?”
Before descending into the underground tunnel, I checked Meruru’s condition once again.
No matter how much I thought about it, something felt off about that cookie.
Meruru tilted her head and nodded with a smile.
“Why are you acting like that? Meruru is perfectly fine!”
“Listen, you must never blindly accept what others give you here. Got it? And if you keep accepting things as you please, I’ll cancel our plans to meet your sister and just go back from here.”
I didn’t want to resort to such threats, but I deliberately warned her strongly to prevent a recurrence, for Meruru’s sake.
Meruru was startled by my words and promised with a surprised expression that she wouldn’t do it again.
“Well then, shall we go down? I’ll go down first, so be careful coming down.”
Then, I slowly descended the ladder leading to the underground tunnel.
Meruru also followed right behind me, climbing down the ladder above my head.
“Yunoa could have let Meruru go down first, but she insisted on going down first herself.
Was she intentionally trying to create a situation where Meruru’s lower half could be seen?
She couldn’t possibly be the same pervert as before.”
Baseless accusations from the narration suddenly echoed as we descended the ladder.
No, I didn’t go down first with that intention.
I wasn’t even looking up in the first place.
I just thought it would be safer for me to go down first since I didn’t know what could be down there.
But while thinking that, I unconsciously raised my head and looked at Meruru.
It’s not like I wanted to see anything.
It’s just that without wearing a skirt, her curvaceous figure and the outline of her buttocks were clearly visible.
Wait, I didn’t look because I wanted to see.
I unintentionally looked up, swayed by the narrator’s pointless words.
I never intended to go down the ladder first.
Damn narrator…
That’s what I thought.
“……Huh?”
Meruru, who was slowly descending the ladder, started moving strangely.
Did something go wrong?
“Meruru! Hey! Can you hear me?”
Feeling a sense of foreboding, I stopped going down and shouted to Meruru.
But the next moment, Meruru lost her grip on the ladder and fell, hitting my face with her butt.
* * *