‘What do I do now?’
When I asked the innkeeper, they said the city’s entry and exit controls still hadn’t been lifted.
I couldn’t get out of the city, and I didn’t have a single coin on me.
In the meantime, Xion might pick up some other passing Demon King and start taking care of them.
‘Ah, right. There’s only one Demon King per generation.’
Anyway, they say humans have short memories to match their short lifespans. I worried that Xion might have already forgotten me.
Reinhild paced in front of the inn, full of all kinds of worries.
At times like this, he had no idea where he was supposed to go.
“There you are!”
Just then, someone approached Reinhild as if they knew him.
It was the merchant who had bought Brownie the night before.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
The merchant hurriedly ran up to Reinhild.
‘Surely nothing happened to Brownie and he’s here to ask for his money back?’
Maybe Brownie suddenly keeled over in the middle of the night, and he’d come to complain.
Reinhild, who had no way to refund the money, turned tail and ran to avoid the merchant.
But he was caught before he got far.
‘To think I’ve gotten so weak I can be caught by a mere merchant, not even a human knight. I’m not worthy of being called a Demon King!’
Regardless of Reinhild’s indignation, the merchant simply shoved something into his hand.
It was a fairly heavy leather pouch.
“I took a close look this morning and the horse was sturdier than I thought. Conscience-wise, I ought to pay the proper price, so I’m making it right.”
With a face full of suspicion, Reinhild opened the pouch.
Inside were a considerable number of silver coins.
It was much heavier than the pouch of silver he’d received right after selling Brownie.
“Now there’s no issue between us. None at all!”
The merchant who had cheated Reinhild into selling Brownie cheap and then been thoroughly chewed out by Xion thrust more than a horse’s worth of money into Reinhild’s hands and fled.
Watching the merchant’s retreating back, Reinhild was impressed.
“There really are so many foolish humans in this world!”
If he’d underpaid, he could have just ignored it, yet he came all the way here to compensate me.
Reinhild was grateful for human folly.
Thanks to it, he could put out the immediate fire.
He immediately ran off and bought a big steamed bun from a street stall.
He knew he should save money if he wanted to get back to Root, but after months of never skipping breakfast, his stomach was already throwing a fit of hunger.
This was all Xion’s fault.
If Xion hadn’t provided delicious meals every time, his stomach would have become robust enough to endure this.
He had no choice but to go back to Xion and make him handle meals for the rest of his life.
“I want to eat bread Xion made.”
Mouth full of a big bite of steamed bun, Reinhild wandered the streets chewing.
Since he had no way to return to Root immediately, he planned to walk around the city and look for one.
After finishing the bun down to the last bite, he stopped in front of a shop.
It was a shabby, tiny bookstore tucked in a corner alley, looking like it might collapse any moment.
‘Might they have the same book I lost here?’
The book that held memories with Xion, which he never did find.
If he was going back to the village of Root, he felt he had to take that book. If Rebecca was looking for the missing book, Xion, who had borrowed it, might be in a bind.
Reinhild carefully opened the bookstore door.
Creeeeak.
The noise the door made opening was just what you’d expect from an old shop.
His plan to crack the door and peek inside quietly failed.
Reinhild stepped in pretending he’d intended to visit the bookstore openly from the start.
“Welcome.”
“Do you happen to have any books by an author named Neria?”
“Neria… you say?”
The shopkeeper widened his eyes and asked back.
‘Was that somehow such a hard question to understand?’
Perhaps humans’ martial prowess had improved over the last five hundred years, but their level of knowledge seemed to have plummeted.
Not understanding a simple question like that, honestly.
While Reinhild was pitying him, the shopkeeper cautiously glanced outside and locked the door.
“How did you know to come here?”
“What do you mean?”
“As expected, you won’t say. Very well. You’ve come to the right place.”
What on earth is he talking about?
Reinhild couldn’t make sense of it.
Given that he could converse with Xion, it didn’t seem like human language had changed over five centuries.
More than that, the shopkeeper locking the door bothered him.
Surely he hadn’t realized his identity and meant to attack.
If that frail-looking human did attack, would he be able to run?
While Reinhild was busy imagining a fight with the shopkeeper, the man produced a well-kept book and held it out.
“Here you are.”
Thankfully, the shopkeeper didn’t seem inclined to attack.
Reinhild, taken aback, accepted the book and checked the title.
<The Land of Plenty, Audrit>
Author: Neria.
A book by Neria!
And it was about Audrit, where the village of Root was.
“Is it a history?”
“It isn’t a history. As you may know, the history of the Audrit domain has never been properly recorded.”
He, of course, did not know.
“This book is closer to something made up. Though… it might perhaps be true.”
What is he even saying?
As expected, this human was hard to understand.
Reinhild ignored him and opened the book.
[Audrit was established about 300 years ago from now.]
No matter how he looked at it, it sure seemed like a history.
[At the time, it was famous for being full of monsters and far from the capital—known as a barren land unfit for people to live.]
[That abandoned land was given to the Count of Audrit.]
[It must have been a punishment for the Count of Audrit’s falling out of favor with the Duke of East.]
[*This may or may not be related to an existing ducal house with a similar name.]
The Duke of East—remarkably similar in name to the Duke of West.
He had no idea how humans kept straight so many confusing names.
[With no options, the Count of Audrit headed to the domain he would newly govern.]
[The Count grieved at the thought that he, his children, and their children would live and die in a land with nothing.]
To capture human suffering so vividly, Neria’s books were indeed fascinating.
‘Humans fear their children’s children living and dying in a place with nothing.’
Reinhild etched that tidbit deep in his mind for future use in tormenting humans.
[But surprisingly, at the edge of the domain there was a small village.]
[Two hundred years before the Count of Audrit came there (about 500 years ago from now) slash-and-burn farmers and people who had fled slavery settled and built a village.]
[The village’s name was Root.]
“Root!”
Delighted by the familiar name, Reinhild brightened.
Now that something he knew had appeared, the book became even more interesting.
[The people of Root did not welcome the lord of Audrit. Of course they didn’t. The free village of Root became imperial property overnight and had to pay taxes to the lord.]
[The Count of Audrit also disliked being near Root’s wary villagers, but it was the only place he could cling to.]
So this jerk was the reason Xion was on the verge of being expelled for failing to pay the rent on his fields!
Seething at the Count of Audrit on the page, Reinhild turned to the next section.
[The Count of Audrit struggled to discover why monsters did not appear in Root. If he could learn the method, he thought he could make even barren land peaceful and safe.]
[And then he realized that at the center of the village of Root there was a certain man.
At the man’s appearance, the Count of Audrit was greatly astonished.
The Count asked the man for help, but the man did not welcome having been noticed by anyone. So the Count tried to subdue him by force.
When the few knights he had brought from the capital went flying at a mere flick of the man’s hand, the Count realized:
‘This one is not human.’
The Count thought he must be a dragon of legend—a dragon indulging in the ‘amusement’ of hiding his identity among humans and living as if he were one of them.
A Count who had such a foolish idea clearly had not properly read the literature on dragons.
Dragons, as is well known, are more majestic than any race…]]
‘Where did this sudden dragon worship come from?’
For about five more pages the dragon-praise continued.
Reinhild quickly flipped ahead.
[Therefore, the hypothesis that the man was a dragon does not hold water.]
[It’s a thought one could easily have if one doesn’t know much about dragons, but it is a pity when such misunderstandings lead to absurd information being recorded about them.]
[If you wish to know more accurately what dragons are, please consult the papers of Rodrin Will, a scholar and mage said to have devoted his life to dragons.]
[Then, returning to the main subject: the man who met the Count of Audrit…]
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