Chapter 375: Visiting Draco Again
Alright, let's hurry up and get to installing the hot spring in Draco.
My attendants this time will be Meat (Masked Maid No. 2), Setsuna, and Shikina.
... Village Sub-Chief Wozuma made sure to give me a warning before I left. He asked for me to please not do anything unnecessary.
I mean that's fine with me, I'll just leave the battle junkies here to mess around with Harvey while I'm setting it up, yep. Everything will turn out fine. Definitely. Thereabouts. Oh, Setsuna and Shikina are here this time to be guards for the magic tool. They're just for show though. Meat's my guard.
"That's a big magic tool, huh~"
"Right~?"
Due to that, the stone block of a magic tool was being transported by cart. It was a pretty hefty one-meter cube, so it wasn't exactly something that'd be easy to steal. Heavy is heavy.
Well, it's actually just a fake. The thing actually doing the work will be a dungeon [Riverhead] I'll be attaching to it on site.
"This really does need a wagon to move around, I wonder how you managed to bring it back in the first place, Master...?"
"[Storage], obviously."
"Oooh! ... Huh? But then why did you not use [Storage] this time?"
... Oh. U-Uh, yeah, whatever. [Storage] is a rare skill, so let's go with pushing my luck.
"Mmm, to be honest, it's to show off the magic tool!"
"I see! You will surely show off how grand it is this way!"
"Actually, this one here is a fake. I have another one that's real, this is a trick!"
"Ooh! So it's to lure out ne'er-do-wells who wish to capture this magic tool? What a Master-like strategy, Master!"
I guess that's a possible strategy, too. Maybe I could lure some easy targets... no, it'd be better to just do what I need to do. It's not like there's anyone who'd fall for it anyway.
We eventually arrived at Draco while we talked about similar things as we progressed through the peaceful tunnel.
It appeared that Cid had been waiting for us at the village's entrance. He had his guard, Harvey, with him too.
"Kehma-dono, you've arrived."
"Yeah, Cid-dono. I brought it, where do you want it?"
"R-Right now? Err, alright, this way please."
Ignoring the two guards who were looking like they were having to hold themselves back from having a match right there and then, we all headed to the possible installation site for the village.
... Hmm, looks like we're still a good ways away from the maximum range of the dungeon's domain, so we could put it here. There's even a well-maintained waterway already set up here, so they shouldn't have an issue dealing with the water here. I held back the urge to joke and say that I didn't think the spot would work out and got to work.
I had Shikina and Setsuna help set up the courtesy tent to block out others' sight as well as bring in the magic tool.
I placed the giant one-meter large cube on the white pedestal I'd set up and followed up by installing a dungeon [Riverhead] into it.
"Alright, now for the ceremony. Everyone but Kuro and I, if you would please leave."
"Understood. By the way, is there anything else we could do to help?"
"Hm? Let's see... oh, right. Cid-dono, I do have something—"
"Sure, please, let me know if there's anything!"
Cid responded quicker than a dog reaching out to bite a steak. W-Wow. What amazing cooperative ability. Is he looking forward to the magic tool's hot spring that much? I mean, I get how he feels, hot springs are amazing as heck. The comfort it provides is just incomparably better than what [Cleanup] provides.
"The other two escorts I brought with me were saying that they'd love to have a bout with yours. Could you let them? Like a practice match."
"That's all?"
"Yeah. One of them isn't too strong, at least. There's various things wrong with her..."
"Hoh... You don't mind them being beaten?"
"Nope. That might actually be better? I mean, she's the type of person who actually wants to meet those stronger than her..."
"I see. In that case, I'll tell Harvey to treat the challenge seriously."
Finally able to leave my two guards with their babysitterCid, Meat and I finally went to the challenge of the magic tool installation ceremony.
Well, it's not like that's actually hard. I just had to customize the [Riverhead] with Menu-san. Viva la Dungeon! Dungeons are crazy convenient. Ah, does this count as indirectly praising Rokuko?
"... I guess I'll first make it so that twisting the faucet changes how much water comes out? I'll make it so it can't get as hot as our inn's... the composition of it'll be like a hot spring though, sooo...."
Leaving Meat to keep an eye on what was going on around us, I operated the menu. I put it in the pillar so that it can't be seen from the outside with little dots on the surface facing the stone block—
Alright, all of the preparations are complete now. All that's left is to press the confirm button.
But it's not like I can just stop now, that'd be like saying [Oh, right, so there wasn't actually a ceremony or anything]. I have some time to kill.
... Opening the monitor, I decided to check out what was happening outside. Shikina and Harvey had just begun their practice match. It was such a good point to join in that I decided to watch.
I couldn't get a grasp on Harvey's capability since he was thrown about like a sack of potatoes by Meat in their last fight. Let's hope this is more of an even match.
*
Shikina held up her wooden sword. She was confronting a mighty warrior of Pavuera, Harvey.
Harvey had taken off his full body armor for today, instead relying on leather armor to protect him. I wonder if he was valuing agility over defense?
"I'd heard that you wore heavy armor, Harvey-dono?"
"Only when I'm serious. Ah, I mean I'm always serious o'course, but it's not like I'd die from a cut from a wooden sword, eh?"
"I suppose armor would just be considered extra weight against an opponent with a wooden sword. I look forward to our bout!"
Shikina's eyes lit up as she gripped her wooden sword tightly. Facing her was Harvey, a wooden sword in each of his hands. Although a two-sword style would require a befitting level of strength, as someone who usually wore full body armor, Harvey was easily capable of it.
"Gonna come at me?"
"Of course! Teei!"
Shikina started with a slash. Kicking up a cloud of dust as she closed the distance between them, she raised her sword and swung down vertically. However, Harvey deflected it with the sword in his right hand, using the one in his left to attack Shikina's body directly.
However, Shikina just barely managed to dodge the blow, almost like it passed through where she'd been.
Returning to her original position, Shikina set her sword back up.
"... Phew... haah..."
"Hoh, pretty agile, there."
Seeing Shikina's slightly elevated breathing and that she was still conscious, he returned to his starting position as well in preparation for another go to happen. The cloud of dust filling the space between the two served as proof of that fact.
"Hohoh, you've gotten to the point where you can fight a human opponent, Shikina-san?"
"Fuahahaha! I have conquered my weakness!"
Shikina proudly answered Setsuna, who'd asked her a question from the sideline.
Shikina closed the distance between her and Harvey immediately after, this time slashing diagonally.
However, following the dull sound of two wooden blades striking each other, Harvey's response attack—was ignored as Shikina had already started returning to her starting position.
"Yer pretty good, Jou-chan."
"Are we continuing? Master would have finished me by now."
"Master?"
"Village Chief Kehma. Master has been instructing me."
"So yer sayin' that spindly guy's stronger than that Ojou-chan...? Hmm, Golen's really a village that's stronger than it looks."
As soon as he said that, Harvey immediately closed the distance between himself and Shikina before—
"Geho!?"
"Whoops, sorry."
He made an attack of his own. The attack had a good amount of momentum behind it from the speed. Moreover, it was a two-hit attack due to his two-sword style. Even so, although Shikina was able to stop one of the blows, the second managed to hit her in the gut.
"I-I was hit...? Uguu..."
Shikina was dropped by the blow... should I made her work on her defense for homework? Or maybe it's just that Shikina was also just wearing the bare minimum armor so that she could move quickly?
... I guess the reason Shikina was able to parry one of his attacks was because Harvey wanted to stop her from moving, then?
"Shikina-chan, remember this. Head on attacks are the hardest to deflect, yah? Well, there's a trick to figuring out your opponent though."
"Th-Thanks for your instruction..."
"I like yer spunk."
Shikina responded to Harvey's impressions as she was on her knees. It looked like one of those battle scenes where the victor told the loser where they failed. The match was Harvey's win.
Setsuna was crazy eager after watching their match. Harvey had been defeated by Meat, but he was definitely strong enough to be considered one of Pavuera's strongest.
What would she do? She looked like she was already trying to figure out what she would have done in Shikina's situation to deal with that straight thrust.
"Me next! Or do you want to take a break?"
"I'm fine. Let's go."
And so Setsuna and Harvey's fight began.