Bolton’s choice of a long spear wasn’t just because the mace was too cruel.
He said that he wasn’t very confident in his physical abilities, so when small and quick monsters got too close, he couldn’t hit them even if he swung the mace.
So after much consideration, he chose the long spear.
He said that with a spear’s long reach, he could stab enemies before they got too close.
Hearing that, it made sense.
Among the strong, the difference between weapons wasn’t that significant, but among weaklings like iron tokens, it was almost impossible for someone with a sword to win against someone with a spear.
Unlike Bolton, who only had a spear and priest’s robes, Kikel was well-armed, befitting a warrior who would stand at the front.
A harpoon of suitable length to grip and thrust with one hand, and a circular shield reinforced with iron around the edges over wood covered with leather.
And that wasn’t all. He even had a hand axe and dagger hanging from his waist.
This level of armament could be considered A-grade among A-grade for iron token adventurers.
Me? Of course, I’m S-grade.
Although I only had a longsword and a short dagger that was more of a tool than a weapon, my armor was of a level rarely seen even among copper token mercenaries.
Anyway, as the receptionist girl had guaranteed, both of them passed at least in appearance.
There were just minor issues of one being a zealot and the other being a lizard.
* * *
As we chatted about various things while waiting, before we knew it, thirty minutes had passed.
“The client is a bit late. I wonder if something happened?”
I tilted my head, glancing towards the gate of the request office.
Considering the schedule, it seemed about time to depart, but our client still hadn’t shown her face.
“The client, that is… Amy, was it? Well. She’ll probably arrive soon if we wait a bit longer. She’s a magician, after all. She probably had a lot to prepare.”
Bolton’s reaction was extremely relaxed.
Apparently, while picking a priest’s pocket was a sin deserving of having one’s head smashed, stealing a priest’s time was surprisingly not a crime.
Well, I suppose there’s a difference in status as wide as the Nile between a pickpocket boy with no money or backing and an apprentice magician from the Magic Tower.
The ‘church principles’ must have that much flexibility. If they didn’t have such flexibility, they would have gone bankrupt long ago from picking fights everywhere.
“Kachak! Women often late! Always like that! Don’t know time is gold!”
Kikel Greg laughed ‘kachak’ and shared his anecdotes.
A story about a female lizardman he had eagerly courted, who made him wait all day despite promising to meet.
And a heartbreaking tale of how he had to hunt alone because the female who was supposed to be in the same hunting group didn’t show up until the hunt was over.
“Uh… you must have had a hard time.”
It was a cruel story that was hard to hold back tears.
Hey, you must have been really unpopular back home…
I’m not sure about the aesthetic standards of lizardmen, but it seems Kikel Greg was considered an ugly male by lizardman standards.
To the point of having zero charm as a man.
* * *
The client who commissioned the dungeon exploration request, apprentice magician Amy, arrived at the request office about five minutes later.
“Are you the ones? The adventurers the guild recommended?”
Amy was a girl with short red hair reaching her shoulders and faint freckles on her face, and her rudeness in speaking informally without a word of apology for being late was quite impressive.
It was like the epitome of a Magic Tower magician’s personality.
She seemed to be in her mid-160s in height. Her age was clearly below twenty, and she wore a fur cloak over her robe proving her affiliation with the Magic Tower.
“Ah, are you Magician Amy? Pleased to meet you. I am Bolton, a faithful servant of the Goddess Elianelle.”
Bolton welcomed the client with a face full of smiles. His tone was overflowing with politeness, befitting a priest.
“I’m Hilde.”
I briefly introduced just my name.
One shouldn’t mingle words with the ill-mannered. It was a principle I had gained from experience.
Engaging in long conversations with this type usually ends up with both sides desperately searching for each other’s parents.
“Swamp warrior, Kikel Greg! Late, quick step! Night cold!”
Kikel introduced himself and urged us to depart quickly. In the lizardman’s unique short and strange manner of speech.
Come to think of it, this lizard had been using informal speech from the start too. I had let it slide because he didn’t seem capable of using polite speech in the first place.
“Uh… hm. That’s right. We can talk about the details as we go.”
Surprisingly, Amy didn’t show any particular aversion to Kikel’s attitude.
No, far from showing aversion, she nodded obediently and readily agreed.
I thought she would say something, being a rude magician, but why?
“Kachak! Kachak! Good answer! Let’s go!”
“Ugh…”
Seeing her flinch every time Kikel opened his mouth, I think I understood the reason.
Yeah, the lizardman did look a bit scary.
The pointed and bumpy reptilian face unique to lizards.
If it were the size of a palm-sized pet lizard, it might have been cute, but with such a face on top of a giant muscular body covered in scales…
To be frank, it looked several dozen times more menacing than any monster face.
If I had encountered such a race in the wild without knowing they existed, wouldn’t I have attacked first, thinking it was a monster?
Even if I accidentally killed one, the jury would unanimously declare me not guilty. Saying that having such a face is more threatening than a thug holding a weapon.
That’s the kind of face the lizardman race had.
* * *
And so we left the city and headed towards our destination.
A small ruin about 4 hours away by carriage. The low-level dungeon lurking beneath it was the destination for this request.
It would have taken quite a while if we walked, but since the client had prepared a carriage in advance, we were able to save some trouble.
For that distance, just arriving at the destination was a job in itself.
“Abnormal levels of magical power were detected at the dungeon entrance. That means there’s a high possibility a grimoire is stored there. Even if it’s not a grimoire, there must be something related to magical power.”
Amy elaborated on the details of the request.
“Your job is to protect me while I find it.”
Exploring a dungeon with unusually high magical power levels and finding and bringing back the object presumed to be the cause.
That was the test assignment given to Amy by the Magic Tower, she said. If she brought back proper results, she could remove her apprentice label and proudly call herself a full-fledged magician.
“As per the contract terms, I’ll take all grimoires or magical items. You three can divide the rest of the loot among yourselves. That should be fine, right?”
If she had spouted such words in a normal 4-person party, she would likely have ended up as a corpse with a knife in the back of her head, magician or not, and been buried.
It was essentially saying she’d take all the valuable stuff, and the rest could just pick up whatever mediocre trinkets were left.
However, our composition was not four adventurers gathered together, but closer to three adventurers hired as escorts by the client.
“Yes, those were the conditions from the start.”
“I don’t mind.”
No one was going to complain about the person who paid taking the valuable items.
“Wait! One have, request!”
…That is, no ‘person’ would.
The non-human party member raised his hand and objected proudly.
“Request…? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of changing the terms now? Do you think you can get away with breaking the contract a bit since we’ve already left the city? If so, that’s a big misunderstanding…”
Amy frowned and snapped.
She was asking if he thought he could reveal his true colors and try to threaten her as soon as they left the city, despite having agreed to those conditions from the start.
Her attitude seemed to have forgotten even her fear of his lizard face.
“Wrong! We keep contract well!”
Kikel denied, raising his tail straight up.
“My request, simple! Sell warm thing! I buy all!”
“What are you saying, warm thing…? Ah, do you mean warming items like the Cloak of Warmth or Heating Stones?”
“Right! Such things, I buy all!”
As if that was the correct answer, Kikel nodded, inflating his vocal cords and hissing.
Cloak of Warmth, Heating Stones. Both were magical items that emitted their own heat, one of the essential items for maintaining body temperature in places like snowy fields.
As befitting high-demand magical items, they were also items that the Magic Tower monopolized the supply of and sold at outrageously high prices.
I heard they sell like hotcakes even at those prices when winter comes.
While the warm south might be different, here in the Kingdom of Hervor, befitting the north, the average temperature was quite low.
Brunhilde’s body was quite resistant to cold, so I didn’t care much, but just looking at Kikel and Amy’s attire, one could guess the importance of warming items.
Even though the real winter hadn’t even started yet, both of them were already tightly wrapped in fur cloaks.
Why was Bolton fine, you ask?
I don’t know that either. Maybe he’s enduring with priestly fortitude?
“You could just buy those at the Magic Tower… Ah, right. I guess they’d be a bit expensive for an iron token. Alright. If we find any warming items, I’ll give them to you at cost price.”
“Really! Kachak, thank you! I kill hard!”
At Amy’s mercy of giving up the enormous margin and selling at cost price, Kikel widened his yellow eyes and expressed his gratitude in an even more hissing tone.
Even I was surprised by that kindness, so how much more must Kikel, the recipient, have felt?
It seems that, contrary to her rude first impression, Amy was one of the kindest people among magicians.
Yeah, come to think of it, isn’t her informal speech natural?
If we were fellow iron token adventurers it might be different, but she was clearly in the position of an employer. Subcontractors aren’t usually spoken to politely.
* * *
After that, the atmosphere in the carriage became much more convivial.
Bolton kept nodding his head, saying that mercy is one of the finest virtues, and Amy, seemingly satisfied with the praise, grinned with her freckles slightly reddened.
Kikel’s gaze towards Amy was now almost at the level of a lizard looking at a mealworm.
Is this what they call a honey-dripping gaze?
Despite his lizard face making it difficult to read expressions, somehow this time his emotions seemed to be conveyed intensely.
Is it that good?
Well, I suppose being a lizard, he can’t help but be weak to cold…
But if he’s so desperate to buy warming items, couldn’t he have just stayed in the south?
“Come to think of it, Kikel, how did you end up coming to the north?”
I asked him the reason.
“Kachak! Want to know? Nothing special.”
It was a question close to personal matters, so I didn’t expect him to answer… but it seems there wasn’t any particular reason he couldn’t tell.
Kikel answered surprisingly readily, raising the corners of his mouth to reveal his teeth.
“Me, Kikel Greg, warrior! That’s reason!”
…No, that doesn’t explain anything.
I had no choice but to ask again, giving more specific examples.
“Um… because there are many aggressive warriors in the north, so you wanted to test your skills against them… something like that?”
“Similar! Swamp warrior, like strong enemy! I came to fight strongest enemy!”
Kikel nodded.
The strongest enemy. Is he aiming for monsters in mid-level or deep-level dungeons?
Let’s see, what elite mobs are there in the north…
“That’s quite interesting. It doesn’t sound like something an iron token should say. So, what exactly are you planning to fight?”
Amy, who had been quietly listening, seemed to be interested as well and asked about the identity of the enemy Kikel had come all the way to the north to face.
“Cold!”
Kikel answered with a laugh.
“What…?”
“Huh?”
“Cold is enemy. Makes us weak! So came to kill cold, to coldest place!”
Surprisingly, the ‘enemy’ Kikel was trying to defeat wasn’t a tangible entity.
It was an intangible concept called ‘cold’.
“I will kill cold! When cold dies, warm world. Kikel Greg becomes swamp hero! Kakakakak!”
And Kikel seemed to think this was something he could fight and win against.
That if he just stabbed and killed something called ‘cold’, a warm and comfortable world would come.
“…”
I felt like I was about to lose consciousness at such a grandiose goal.
I see. So what’s inside that head isn’t a brain, but udon noodles.
I could finally understand why Kikel was rejected by the females of his race.