Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 32 - The Town

The Demon Continent is covered in rocks. The terrain rises and falls sharply, and the ground is hard, dig just a little and it crumbles into loose, nutrient-dead soil. Barely a step away from desert.

Cooped up in land like this, even the Demon Race would eventually go to war.

There are almost no plants here. Occasionally you spot a strange rock formation that looks vaguely like a cactus.

Under these conditions, we traveled for about 2 months following Aisha's intuition. Finally, we saw a town.

My little sister... might actually be a genius.

.......

Likaris Town.

One of the three great cities of the Demon Continent.

The town that Demon Emperor Kishirika Kishirisu used as her base during the Human-Demon Wars.

Because of that, it also goes by the alias [Old Kishirisu Castle].

The first thing that surprises you about this town is its location. It's built on top of an enormous crater.

The crater serves as a natural wall, repelling enemy invasions countless times over. Even now it functions as a defense against monster incursions, a natural barrier.

At the center of town stands the half-ruined Kishirisu Castle.

The castle was destroyed during the Human-Demon Wars. The traces of the battle between the Demon Lord of the Kishirisu faction and the Demon God Laplace still remain.

Reliable walls. An Iron Fort that still bears the remnants of past glory. These two things are known throughout the world as symbols of the former Demon Emperor's majesty and the cruel history of the Demon Race.

Likaris Town is a place with a long history. And it is at dusk, travelers say, that you can see its true beauty.

Excerpt from [Journey Across the World] by the adventurer Blayde Condor

That's what I knew about Likaris Town going in.

The town has 3 entrances. The gaps in the crater wall serve as the so-called gates.

The crater wall is tall enough that even an aerial approach would be nearly impossible outside of those gaps.

Each entrance has 2 gatekeepers.

In other words, security here is strict.

Anyway.

"Halt!"

Two soldiers stood at the town entrance.

One was a snake-headed fellow who looked deeply unfriendly. The other had a pig-like head and carried himself with an air of complete indifference to everyone around him.

"Who are you! What's your business here!"

The one speaking with his hand resting on the sword at his waist was the snake-headed one.

"We're travelers."

I had Eris take Aisha's hand and stepped forward myself, keeping my posture relaxed, like I was just here to chat.

"Adventurers?"

"Something like that."

The two gatekeepers looked at me, then at Eris and Aisha.

For someone my age and Eris's age to say we wanted to become adventurers was perfectly normal. Aisha, though, was too young. And none of us were exactly clean. In fact, we were filthy.

Less like adventurers, more like refugees.

But well.

Seeing how suspicious they were, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out 2 monster horns.

Unicorn Demon Wolf horns. I'd collected them from hunts along the way. If my read was right, they were worth decent money.

I quietly pressed one into each of their hands, then unwrapped the cloth from around my Arrogant Water Dragon King staff.

The moment they saw it, the suspicion in their eyes went out. They nodded.

"Right then — a powerful mage! Go on through!"

"Thank you."

Eris and Aisha fell in behind me, and the 3 of us entered the town.

Before stepping all the way through the gate, I turned my head and asked.

"By the way — is there a place to earn money in this town?"

"The Adventurer's Guild. Aren't you adventurers? Head straight there. They'll exchange monster materials for coin too."

"Good to know. Thanks."

Inside, the town was laid out similarly to Roa, houses slightly smaller, spreading out in all directions. Near the entrance, inns and stables and other shops catering to traveling merchants were lined up one after another.

"Adventurers, huh..."

From what I'd gathered so far, adventurers were essentially temp workers. People with marketable skills registered at an organization called the Adventurer's Guild, took on jobs the Guild brokered, and built a reputation from there. Clients submitted requests through the Guild; adventurers confident in their abilities accepted them.

"I haven't decided yet whether we should make a living as adventurers, but we should at least register. It'll give us identification. Eris, what do you think?"

"Adventurers! Yes! I want to do it!"

Eris's eyes lit up as she nodded over and over. She'd heard the stories of Ghislaine's adventurer days more times than I could count. That kind of life was everything she'd ever wanted.

"Brother! I... I... I also want... um... I want an adventurer's ID too..."

Aisha's voice was small, and she was fidgeting as she said it.

I patted her head.

"Of course. Just the ID, at least."

"Yeah! Thank you, Brother!"

......

The Adventurer's Guild.

It was full of fighters.

Some looked like they were built for close combat. Others radiated the careful confidence of a practiced mage.

Some carried swords, some axes, some magic staffs. A few looked ready to fight with nothing but their bare hands.

There were those boasting loudly that they could take anyone in the room. There were others standing off to the side, silently laughing at them.

Armored swordsmen. Lightly-geared mages.

Pig-headed men. Women with serpentine lower halves. Men with wings folded behind their shoulders. Women with horse legs carrying them across the floor.

Every race imaginable, packed into one space, loud and restless.

This was the Adventurer's Guild of the Demon Continent.

Our group of 3 walked straight in like we owned the place. The adventurers inside gave us a single glance and looked away.

I walked up to the counter and stood on my tiptoes.

"Excuse me, miss — can we register as adventurers right now?"

"Of course. Please fill out this form."

She slid 3 sheets of paper across the counter along with a sharpened piece of charcoal. Each sheet was identical: name, occupation, a section of notes, and the Guild's regulations.

What happens if someone can't read?

As if on cue,

"If you can't read, I can read it aloud for you."

That answers that.

"No need. Thank you."

The form was written in the Demon God Language. I could read it fine.

So I read it out word by word for Eris and Aisha.

Halfway through, Eris's expression shifted to one of obvious boredom. Aisha, meanwhile, was quietly working out the unfamiliar characters as she listened.

"One question, miss."

"Go ahead."

"Can we fill this out in any language?"

"Which language were you thinking?"

"Human Language, for instance."

"That's fine."

I took that to mean something like the specialized script of a tiny regional tribe would be a different story. Reasonable.

I filled mine out in the Demon God Language. Better to be seen as a young-looking member of the Demon Race than to be clocked as human.

Come to think of it, the clerk hadn't batted an eye at Aisha's age. She probably assumed Aisha was a Dwarf, or some other short-statured race.

I let Eris handle her own sheet, then turned to Aisha.

"Aisha, can you write your name?"

Aisha nodded firmly and began carefully writing on the paper.

As a side note, everything spoken inside the Guild was in the Demon God Language. Eris and Aisha couldn't understand a word of the chatter around them.

Which was probably for the best. If Eris caught the adventurers nearby making fun of children, there was a real chance she'd draw her sword on them.

I smiled and let it go. They had nothing better to do than mock kids. Not worth my attention.

"Once you've finished writing, please place your hand on this."

What she set in front of us was a transparent board roughly the size of a game console box. A magic circle was carved into the center, with a metal card fixed underneath.

Hmm. Interesting.

"Like this?"

I placed my hand gently on the surface. The clerk confirmed the contact, then tapped one end of the board sharply with her finger.

[Name: Rudeus Greyrat

Occupation: Mage

Rank: F]

She read the contents out in a flat, practiced tone, then tapped it once more.

The magic circle pulsed faintly red, and then the light was gone.

"This is your adventurer card. Please keep it."

A plain iron plate. The characters on it glowed with a dim, hazy light.

After Eris and Aisha finished registering, I laid all our monster materials on the counter and exchanged them for coin.

We hadn't been carrying sacks, so I'd only taken the smaller, higher-value parts off the monsters we'd killed, eyeballs, claws, the shorter variety of horns, that kind of thing.

Even so, the payout was better than I expected. Probably because they were monsters from the northeastern Demon Continent. That region breeds nothing but dangerous creatures.

Exchange done, the 3 of us turned and headed for the exit.

➤ Next: Rest — Heartbreak