Volume 1 - CH 14.2

Act 1-14.2 : Cygnus’s Knight

Right now, Kuroki was seriously considering looking for a brothel and becoming its patron.

「Is something the matter, O great one?」

Rinea asked with a curious face.

「No, it’s nothing…」

Rinea’s question pulled Kuroki out of his stupor. Looking at her innocent gaze towards him, he couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty and decided to set aside the wild scenarios he was imagining. He evaded her eyes and, remembering his hunger, decided ro eye the cart pushed by Rinea—his meal was placed on top of it.

The menu for today consisted of a jug filled with some sort of beverage, right next to it, the main course was presented. The plate was overflowing with food and consisted of a white loaf of bread, a serving of pork sausages, goat cheese, and a variety of nuts. Next to it was a bowl of bean, onion, and chicken soup, and finally, there was a dessert plate filled with sweet syrup pickled fruit.

It was quite a luxurious meal, and this was not even a one time thing. Yesterday’s menu had river barracuda as its main course and other times, Kuroki had been able to eat delicacies such as herring and trout.

And the former leader, Gendor, was eating such luxurious meals everyday.

To be fair, Kuroki had already thought that Gendor lived such an extravagant life, but he never thought it was to that extent. Not that he was complaining, after all, this status quo definitely made his stay in this country more comfortable.

「OOOH! Syrup pickled fruit like yesterday!」

Nut seemed to have taken a liking to the syrup pickled fruit.

He had especially ordered for the kitchen to prepare this dessert today since he knew that Nut quite enjoyed it as he was extremely delighted when he tried it yesterday. And, just as he expected, Nut was ecstatic and liked the surprise; Kuroki was glad he followed his instincts.

（But then, now everyone must have heard from Dozumi and the others that the Dark Knight loves sweets and flowers, they probably have a weird image of me… Well, it doesn’t matter since the flowers are useful and the sweets are loved by Nut…）

Nut was running around delightfully on the ground.

「Which beverage would you like for today? How about ale?」

Rinea picked up the jug filled with ale, waiting for Kuroki’s order to serve.

Ale was a type of liquor made by fermenting wheat, it was quite similar to beer back in Japan. The only difference was that it used herbs instead of hops to keep its freshness, longevity, and foaminess. It wasn’t cooled either since there were no refrigerators in this world. Kuroki was one hundred percent sure that every beer lover in Japan would be screaming in dissatisfaction by that fact and would roll to their graves. They would probably even come to this world just to start developing refrigerators on their own.

「No, please give me the same as yesterday, juice mixed with goat milk.」

「Acknowledged, O Great One.」

""

In this world, the commonly consumed milk wasn’t the usual cow milk of earth, but was instead goat milk. However, its peculiar pungent aroma and flavor didn’t allow people to drink it raw, so people in this world would usually mix it with juice or herbs.

After unloading the meal and beverage from the cart and serving them on the table, Rinea left the room.

「Let’s eat, Nut.」

「Yes~, Kuroki-sama~.」

Kuroki reached out his hand and picked up the white bread.

Even though this world had spoons and knives people could use for eating, scooping and cutting, they had yet to invent other miscellaneous cutlery such as forks and chopsticks, which was normal since eating with your hands was the norm here; such cutlery commonly used in Japan were not needed.

Kuroki noticed that the bread today was quite voluminous compared to the previous days. The bread in this world was commonly made without the use of yeast, so there was never a need for fermentation. But, it seemed like today the kitchen had used yeast in the bread recipe, which made the bread quite fluffy.

Kuroki tore a small piece from the loaf, dipped it in the soup, then placed it in his mouth, making sure to savor the taste.

To his side, Nut was enjoying his pickled fruit with the same relish.

「Well, the problem is, what should I do from now on?」

Kuroki was pondering about such matters as he enjoyed his meal.

◆

The Alreana Temple was built on top of the hill located in the middle of the Holy Republic of Lenaria.

When the Holy Republic of Lenaria was founded, its foundation and infrastructure was first built around the hill’s base. The country only reached its current state after several hundred years of expansion, which now made it one of the largest countries and made it occupy both the summit and base of the hill.

Kyouka’s maid opened the door and a knight entered the room, he bowed to Chiyuki and the others. From his attire and demeanor, one could conclude that he was a temple knight.

In this world, countries were always preoccupied with monster invasions and would send off their knights to fend off their attacks. It was no wonder that waging wars against other countries was impossible—they were all too busy fighting their common enemy: monsters.

The knights of each country had a specific common job. The job mainly consisted of eradicating the monsters around the main roads leading to their country on a regular basis and also protecting anyone passing through these roads. As for the citizens in the country and the inner city’s public order, that job was reserved for soldiers.

The reason behind the clear separation of responsibilities between soldiers and knights was because the scope of the job greatly differed. The knights’ responsibilities covered much more than the protection of the city-state itself. They had to combat the more powerful monsters, who often popped out around the country and its highway roads unless the area was sweeped regularly, which greatly affects the usage of the main roads.

In a way, the knights’ combat with the monsters not only saved the passersby of the highways, but also saved the popularity and economic livelihood of the country as the highways would not be used by merchants and tourists if they were constantly haunted by the appearance of monsters.

Of course, with such a pressuring responsibility came more power and better ressources, for example, knights are always given horses for easier travel.

However, with such power and freedom came conditions. One couldn’t become a knight unless they were extremely proficient in combat. Moreover, knights are demanded to swear absolute loyalty towards the country and its ruler since it’ll be troublesome if such powerful humans were to rebel against the nation.

However, it was different for the knights of the Holy Republic of Lenaria, especially the temple knights. Their loyalty was sworn towards the Goddess herself, Arlena.

The official name of the Arlena Temple knights was the Cygnus Knights. Their name was inspired by the swan, the Goddess Arlena’s totem and holy bird.

In the first place, the founding father of the Holy Republic of Lenaria was a Cygnus Knight named Rowen.

He pledged his allegiance to the Goddess, and built a country dedicated to her.

His successors did the same, they pledged their allegiance to the Goddess and followed her mantle, fighting day and night to protect the people from monsters and protecting the temple.

And the man standing before Chiyuki was one of the Cygnus Knights.

「Thank you very much for sparing some of your time to come here despite being busy with the countermeasures against the Perdas, Lord Boven. Please take a seat.」

Boven sat in the available seat after receiving Chiyuki’s permission.

Boven was the leader of the Temple Knights. He was 56 years old this year. His every movement exuded elegance, befitting of his position as a noble of this country.

Despite being busy with the countermeasures against the Perdas, he had still come in a hurry to meet Chiyuki and the others.

The Holy Republic of Lenaria was located in the middle of wetlands in Vandohl’s plain, and demon beasts, called Perda, were living close to those wetlands.

「It’s not true, the one who executed the countermeasures is Shirone-sama and her companions. All we do is chase these beasts away to their homes. But then, it doesn’t mean we’re in a hurry to do so.」

Boven told Chiyuki with a hearty smile on his face.

Perdas were brutal demon beasts, their strength too much for normal humans to handle.

Even the Holy Republic of Lenaria’s Temple Knights, the Cygnus Knights, who were hailed as the strongest knight group in the center of the eastern continent were struggling against them.

Thus, the temple requested for Reiji, a hero, to help them in this regard.

But since Reiji was still under medical care, the trio consisting of Shirone, Rino, and Nao took up the responsibility and were the ones who helped the knights.

Though they weren’t as powerful as Reiji, they were still far more powerful than the knights. They could do what the Temple knights couldn’t do.

「I see, that’s good then.」

「Hahaha, so, is something the matter today, Chiyuki-sama?」

Boven didn’t beat around the bush, he asked Chiyuki about the reason for him being summoned.

Thus, Chiyuki frankly responded.

「Let’s get to the point then, Lord Boven. What do you think about the content of this package?」

Chiyuki asked Boven, pointing at the package that was placed on top of the desk.

Boven tilted his head, puzzled by the sudden question.

「My apologies, Chiyuki-sama. I can’t answer your question since I don’t have the required magic to see through the package. May I ask for permission to open it and see what’s inside?」

Boven’s words were quite blunt, but still overflowed with elegance. He was merely stating the truth since he couldn’t use clairvoyant magic and couldn’t guess what was inside the package.

「I apologize, but I can’t let you see the insides of the package because this room will be filled by its stinky smell once you open it.」

「Eh? Then, may I ask what’s inside?」

Boven tilted his head again.

「Poison extracted from a manticore’s body. It’s an extremely deadly poison. Lord Boven you should be rather familiar with this.」

Chiyuki had heard of a piece of old information that dated three years back. It was about the sudden appearance of a manticore around this area, a demon beast who should’ve lived in the western region of the continent. She heard that numerous people fell victim to that manticore.

Naturally, Boven who was already the knights’ leader at that time should have been the spearhead of the manticore’s subjugation; it was impossible for him not to know about it.

「Manticore’s poison? But, what does this matter have to do with me, Chiyuki-sama?」

Boven’s question was natural.

Chiyuki continued her explanation.

「This particular item arrived into my hands by sheer coincidence. But, I hear that this type of poison has been appearing frequently in the market during the last three years. Do you know anything about this, Lord Boven?」

「The poison of a demon beast that lives in the western side of the continent appearing frequently in this market? How can it be?」

The poison sealed inside this package was the poison that came through a manticore’s excretion.

Since it wasn’t strong enough to melt steel like the poison discharged from a manticore’s tail, it could be carried around inside a container.

The problem was its smell, but it wasn’t a big deal either as long as it was kept inside an airtight container.

Since that poison had numerous uses, it was sold for a high price.

But, the problem here was that this monster originally lived in the western part of the continent—it was strange for its poison to be found in this country.