RMGCFW — Chapter 104 - City of Commerce

Half a month later, Banxia finally arrived in the Central Continent, supplies completely gone.

As for why it took so long and drained every last scrap of provisions.

That fell squarely on him taking a wrong turn into the Mushroom Forest, one of the Human Forbidden Areas, and spending an entire week fighting the fairies inside before he could break free.

The ferocity of that battle was written plainly in his empty pack.

"Finally here." Banxia rubbed his hollow stomach and looked toward the towering city gate ahead.

The City of Commerce. He'd heard Kaguya Shinomiya mention it before.

Supposedly the finest business environment on the continent, even the nobles and city administrators bent over backward for merchants.

It was also a city of dreams. Even the utterly penniless had infinite possibilities here, or so the promise went: fortunes within easy reach that most people outside would never see in a lifetime.

Because of that, in this peaceful stretch of the Central Continent, able-bodied young men and women poured out of villages and toward this city in a steady, endless stream.

"So slow..." Banxia yawned, shuffling along in the entry queue.

The city walls were pristine white, looking no older than ten or twenty years, clearly kept in careful repair. Nothing like Alterna, over a hundred years old, where the outer walls were little more than decoration and the ground itself was falling apart. He'd heard that maintenance costs had gotten so steep that many towns in the south had simply given up on their outer walls entirely.

"Next." The guard's voice cut through the noise.

Banxia fished a few copper coins from his pocket and stepped forward.

Standard procedure for a city this size, a small entry fee, copper coins, and you were through.

He'd heard that high-rank adventurer nameplates from out of town got you in free, with better treatment than the locals to boot. Unfortunately, his nameplate was with his mount. Getting it replaced meant visiting the Adventurers Guild inside the city for recertification, assuming their records had been updated here.

He paid the entry tax. The guard waved him through.

Banxia stepped inside and was already weighing his dining options when a burst of shouting cut through the noise.

"Stop that person! How dare she demand wages by force in the City of Commerce!"

"Hurry! She came from right here!"

"She can't have gone far!"

A squad of fully armed guards swept down the street, moving fast.

Banxia watched for a moment, then looked away. He had more pressing concerns, specifically, what he was going to eat.

"Meow~"

Something small cried out near his feet. A strange little creature caught his eye.

"Huh? Why would a Manu be here?"

These things were a local specialty from the villages near Xiaoyan. And since when did they go meow?

He reached down and picked it up. The weight was all wrong compared to a real Manu. The little thing shrank back shyly.

"Hm." He turned it over in his mind, and the source of the nagging wrongness finally clicked. "You've got a shape-mimicking magic item on you.

You're who the guards are looking for, aren't you?"

The "Manu" in his arms immediately panicked, grabbing onto him with both little paws and looking up with wide, miserable eyes.

"H-Hero..."

"...Mabel." That voice. He glanced back at the guards still combing the street and understood everything in an instant.

"You didn't actually use force to collect your wages, did you?"

"N-No! I followed Hero's teachings the whole time... I haven't bothered anyone, I really have been trying hard to earn my own money..."

"Then why are they chasing you?"

"That awful merchant was the one who broke the deal! He promised to settle the wages after a month of caravan guard work, and then he said he was holding back a whole month's pay, so I..."

"Ah."

Banxia adjusted his hold, pulling the "Manu" a little closer to his chest, and started walking.

"Excuse me, sir — have you seen a blue-haired girl?" The guards were working their way down the line, and now one was standing in front of him.

The "Manu" in his arms had gone rigid, curled into a tight ball. Anyone with eyes could see something was off.

"No."

That was all he said.

"...Understood. Sorry to bother you." The guard couldn't have explained why he backed down.

This man was obviously suspicious. And yet something deeper than thought kept firing a single, clear alarm through his body.

Push this, and you die.

Almost without deciding to, the guard stepped half a step aside and watched the young man walk away at an easy pace, carrying that strange little creature, until the crowd swallowed them both.

Only then did the guard notice their back was soaked through.

A hard swallow, then a wave to the squad. "Nothing here — check the next street!"

The guard never saw the "Manu" in Banxia's arms twist around and stick its tongue out.

Not that it would have mattered. Going after them was never going to happen.

It was the most primal honesty there is: a creature's instinctive retreat before something higher on the food chain.

Banxia just held the featherlight little bundle against his chest and let the noise of the City of Commerce wash over him.

...

The Central Kingdom. Holy Capital Stral.

In the great royal castle, the most powerful person in the kingdom sat alone on the throne.

"Your Majesty, most of the witnesses have already been dealt with." The figure kneeling at the foot of the dais was among the finest assassins the royal family had cultivated across generations.

"Do you know why I called you back?"

"...I don't."

"That man did not die in the Lova Labyrinth."

"Wh—" The assassin's head snapped up, pupils shrinking.

Thousands of meters underground. Buried alive in solid rock. How did anyone walk out of that?

"Apparently there was an ancient spatial-transfer artifact involved. A narrow escape."

"I see."

"The matters Griffin exposed have been contained for now, but as long as that man is alive, someone will dig them back up eventually."

"Your Majesty... you mean..."

"Go kill him."

"M-Me?" The assassin pointed at themselves without thinking.

Serving the king all these years, and the assassin had to wonder, now, if something had gone wrong with the man.

The rumors about Hero Banxia, the assassin had heard enough of them.

That was not a target anyone could simply handle.

"Don't worry. The kingdom will back you fully." The king clapped once, and an attendant came forward bearing a dagger on a cushion. "This blade has been passed down from the mythological era. It carries a death curse on the edge. One cut, that's all it takes. No human survives it."

"This weapon is real..." The assassin stared, astonished, but the doubt didn't disappear. "Even with it, the odds are still..."

"I've had people look into this carefully." The king waved the concern away. "The man's combat ability is worth respecting, no question. But avoid that strange slashing attack of his, and the flame magic that needs time to charge, and he's not undefeatable. You won't need to face him directly either. You know assassination better than I do."

"Your Majesty... understood."

"Good. How confident are you?"

"I'll win."

The assassin's expression settled into something calm and certain.

"When this is done," the king said, nodding with satisfaction, "you'll be free."