Ryuraryusu smiled in an utterly exhausted way. “The power he possesses is dozens of times greater than what you imagine. The Supreme One and his subordinates all have extraordinary power… Frankly, there’s no safer place than this city His Majesty is protecting.”
Remedios was quiet; she seemed to be thinking.
“I don’t know what you came here to do, but since you listened to my lesson, I’ll teach you something else. A friend I drink tea with—a widow—told me that an utter fool antagonizes the Supreme One, while a wise man throws himself at his feet and begs for mercy.”
The naga’s voice was surprisingly emotional. Maybe the “friend” was a fib and it had really happened to this naga, Ryuraryusu.
“Thank you for your warning.”
Remedios stood, and the rest of the party followed.
Bringing up the rear, Neia bobbed her head at Ryuraryusu and left the room.
4
The delegation walked through the city of E-Rantel. Their destination was perhaps the city’s most luxurious inn—the Golden Glimmer—recommended by the guard.
Neia looked at the people they passed by.
From what Ryuraryusu had told them, she had expected the place to be full of undead and subhumans, with barely a human to be seen, but that wasn’t the case. It was mostly humans.
The only undead she had seen was a group of the same type as that guard, out on patrol, and skeletal horselike figures wrapped in fog that pulled carriages.
Meanwhile, the subhumans were all strange types.
There were goblins who marched in an orderly fashion down the streets with the dignity of seasoned warriors. That shattered Neia’s preconception of goblins. No, not only hers. She heard shocked gasps from the paladins as well.
There was also a maid with a face like a rabbit’s and another subhuman that looked like a frog standing upright.
It’s more like a normal human country than I thought…well, except not. But I would never guess a horrifying undead king was ruling here.
None of the people they passed by seemed frightened. Neia wasn’t sure if that was because they had broadened their worldview and gotten used to it or because they weren’t worried about coexisting with undead. Either way, there didn’t seem to be any confusion in the streets. She even heard children laughing now and then.
I guess he’s way better than Jaldabaoth, then…
Remedios’s horse abruptly stopped. The leader of the group had halted, so that meant the rest of the party necessarily stopped as well.
“Excuse me, you dwarves, there. Can I have a word?”
She addressed three dwarves doing maintenance on the road. There were also three skeletons performing construction work on their orders.
The skeletons didn’t really faze Neia, but she did feel slightly relieved to finally see something she could win against. That was how surprising everything had been since they had arrived.
“What? Eh? Who are you all? What country are you from?”
“Sorry to talk down at you from my horse. We’ve come from the Sacred Kingdom, and we’re trying to find the Golden Glimmer. Could you give us directions?”
“The Golden…the Golden Glimmer? Oh, you mean that fancy inn?”
The dwarves gave them a rough idea of how to get there. It was slightly different from the way the guard had mentioned, and it seemed like the destination was a bit off. But Neia was sure that asking directions wasn’t the primary objective.
“Aha. I’m grateful for the help. Gustav, a thank-you.”
Gustav dismounted and showed them some money.
“Oh, directions we can give for free!”
“That’s all right. We interrupted your work, after all.”
“Are you sure? Well, thanks.”
A dwarf approached to receive the tip. Then he grinned. “With this money, we’ll get to eat tasty food, so you have our gratitude.”
“No, don’t worry about it… So what are you up to here?”
“Hmm? Can’t you tell by looking? Road maintenance. Because His Majesty the King of Darkness wishes it. It’s mostly people from this city doing the labor, but we were brought on as technical advisers,” he said, and then laughed heartily. “Ga-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
“I see. And what about those undead?”
“They’re skeletons we borrowed from His Majesty the King of Darkness. I have to say, undead really are great for simple manual labor. I see them in a totally new light now.”
“You use undead…?”
“What’s so surprising about that…? Well, I suppose if you’re a traveler, it would be. But in the Nation of Darkness, we take it for granted. I’ve heard undead are a huge help in the villages—because you can order them to take care of even tough chores like plowing the fields. You know, undead don’t get tired, and they don’t need to sleep or eat. Plus, they understand spoken language and follow orders—they’re the best! There’s no way we can go back to the days of horses and oxen. Even my own country has started adopting them little by little.”
“You mean not the Nation of Darkness but the dwarf country?”
“Yep. We came from there and are staying at an inn in the subhuman quarter at the moment.”
“The subhuman quarter?”
“That’s right. That’s what the area where races besides humans stay. It used to be the city’s slum district, but they tore all that down. The area was constructed so that people from all sorts of races would be able to have a comfortable stay. Well, I don’t think the area will be finished for a long time, but there’s already a nice house where people like us who are smaller than humans can stay without any struggles.
“We were really brought in to be in charge of that project!” One of the other dwarves shouted.
“I see. But if you tore down the slums, then where did those people go?” The commander’s eyes seemed to flick toward the undead.
“I don’t know the details, but I heard they were dispatched to the villages. There were a lot of abandoned villages near this city, so to restore them, I heard they were just giving away fields. Apparently the way they use undead is even more amazing. I heard they started a massive agricultural project with undead labor. It makes the food prices here
