Riot Grasper

"Come on, come on, it's cheap! It's just fruit that's been nourished from the earth! Your tongue will surprise you with so much sweetness if you put it in your mouth!

"Grandma, can I have one of those there?

"Yes, every time!

East of the Suaven Empire, in the Toggle region.

The market was still vibrant today in Erindal, where the rulers ruled the Toggle region.

While walking down the boulevard, it is Len who is grabbing the fresh fruit he has just bought.

I'm glad I came to see my brother, Rick, but he was away because the person at heart said he would attend the Emperor's engagement ritual.

Len, who thought if he waited, he would come back one of these days, which means he's stayed in Erindal for the past few days.

"After all, no one knows about Oyla,"

It was a long time ago that Ren lived in the Lordship Hall in Erindal, when he was only a child. What's more, as a child, I rarely went out of the hall, so it was natural that no one in the city knew his face.

Most importantly, it makes it easy to walk around the market and so on right now.

"I wonder if Oyla went out of the hall about when Brother Rick snuck me out. Yes... I think I'll stop by the tavern they took me to then."

I also missed visiting Erindal with the Sages before, but I didn't until I actually walked into the store.

Fortunately, there is still room for the cost of the stay that Sage gave me. There will be no problem if I use it in the liquor store for a little while.

When he said it was his home town, Ren came in front of a memorable liquor store, looking at the city's scenery, which he was still unfamiliar with. The time was before sundown, but they're already open.

Opening the door, Ren looked around the store.

I don't see any guests because of the time slot, but it's really where I was brought in.

"Oh, there you are...... ah!?"

In the middle of the saloon owner's greeting, he transformed the smile of welcoming guests into something surprising.

Ren is decent and waits for the store owner to continue his words.

"Yes, no... if you look closely, someone else... and you're young... Shh, sorry. Something suddenly weird."

The shopkeeper, with his prickly head bowed, immediately returned to his loving smile.

"You've mistaken the customer for someone else... what will you place your order on?

The magnificent shopkeeper seems to have mistaken Ren for someone.

Having properly ordered the food and liquor, Ren asks the shopkeeper, who brought what he could with him, with interest.

"Um, who did you mistake Oyla for earlier?

Although I asked the question, Ren had more or less an imagination.

He's a brother, so his face would be somewhat alike.

Besides, his brother should have often attended this tavern hiding his identity.

"No, the customer was a little like the lord when he was younger."

Because there were no other customers, the store owner answered Len's questions in a variety of ways.

Rick, the current lord, still seemed to have a good face in this tavern. He didn't even think of Rik as the lord's son by then, so he was treating him casually.

But when Rick came to succeed him as lord and showed his face in front of the people, he said he was surprised enough that his heart stopped.

Anyway, the other guy who was making a fool of himself at the tavern was greeting him as a lord.

I guess I was surprised to see Ren's face because I mistakenly assumed that Rick had come all of a sudden.

"Well, then you haven't been here since you became lord."

"Yeah. Will that happen? Even if you come now, I don't know how to handle it."

Laughing to miss the old days, the shopkeeper poured me liquor in an empty glass.

"Guests don't have to say they were great, either."

They asked me that because of the similarity in my face.

On that question, Ren smiles and shakes his head "No way".

It was in the past that he was the son of a lord, and now he has no such hard title.

Even though he is the brother of the current lord, he has done countless dirty things with his hands in the Secret Service, and neither does he think he can live as he did in the past.

Talking that far, Ren remembered the painting he had decorated in the office of the Lordship Hall.

According to Deacon Regal, that was a depiction of where Rick was with his friends.

Only... was it named Rahal and Alisha?

"When I was making a scene in the tavern, my lord must have had some close friends or something."

"Ha. Well, I was just dictating about women in the tavern. Looks like Rahal and I used to work together and we used to play together."

"Oh, yeah. Um... no one named Rahal anymore?

"Yeah. One day, I left the store because I was suddenly going to Empire City, and that's exactly what happened."

"Where and what are you doing now..." the shopkeeper snapped, sighing small.

"Yes, yes. There was another pretty lady named Alisha. The three of us seemed to have the most fun."

"Oh well... that Alisha, Li... wasn't spoken to by the lord? He was a cute guy, wasn't he?

Rick, whose hobby is to dictate a woman, can't be silent in front of a pretty woman.

"That's a little strange. I don't mean to sound bad about the current lord, but I don't know if he was just treating that lady normally when he said he was dictating depending on the allowance or whatever... well, that's why I think the three of us were getting along."

Indeed, if you do something bad, the subtle balance between the three is likely to break.

"However, the young lady said she was going to the Imperial City one day, so she stopped coming here. Speaking of which, I guess it was after Rahal quit here... hey, I kind of missed looking at the customer's face and he talked too much."

I see... and Ren thinks.

Was that painted when the three of them had fun together?

I guess the fact that it's decorating the room is still a dear friend to my brother.

My brother, who was not fooled by women's relationships, had such a one-way aspect.

Imagine how my sister Ray would react if she found out about this, and Ren leaked a tickle and a grin.

Good morning, Master.

At that time, a woman's voice echoed in the liquor store.

"Oh, we don't have many customers yet, so you can get ready slowly"

Apparently, she's a woman who works for this tavern.

It's already evening and it's weird to say hello in the morning, but in a liquor store that's open until late at night, it's probably morning when you start working.

"Yes, sir, please take your time."

A woman who bows her head lightly with her predetermined words to Ren, the guest, and tries to pull her back.

- But.

"... hmm?...... Mmm!?"

Slightly packed with distance, the woman stares at Ren's face.

"Rikun!? Huh, but something's different... you're so young! Who are you!?"

Ren had a grin and a loving laugh at the reaction, and the shopkeeper laughed out loud.

Apparently, this woman also mistakenly saw Ren for Rik.

"- Hey, I'm sorry. If I stick around, I'm wrong."

The woman who had changed clothes stood in front of Ren over the counter and said, "That's a luxury," pouring me toktok and alcohol.

"Phew... I know I'm someone else when I try to calm down like this... hey, do you really have anything to do with Rick? Doesn't that mean he was actually that guy's kid?

"Come on, you're gonna keep it in that corner. Customers will be in trouble, too. I'm also not impressed with calling you so comfortable about your lord in the first place. Besides, the lord is not married."

"Well, you can't call him" lord. ”It's not surprising at all that he told me that he had a hidden child, or rather that it was nature..."

This woman has apparently been working in this tavern for a long time.

She is still pretty enough, but she would have been a sawdust cute billboard daughter when she was younger.

There is no way Rik would leave such a woman alone, and I can see from his nickname, Rikun, etc., that the two were close friends there.

"Haha. I don't know if I've ever been spoken to in two seconds since I met her. Most customers drink alcohol and feel better, and then they say things like that."

"If you're as beautiful as your sister, you'll want to speak up even if you're not drunk."

Ren said what he honestly thought.

I didn't mean to flatter you, because indeed the woman in front of me was beautiful.

"Oh, oh, oh. I have a sudden dizziness... Master, can I take the day off because I'm not feeling well? Oh, I have a store that my friends do, and if you like, why don't we have a drink together now?

"You don't have to rest. Or at least we should take care to keep it down in the second half"

The owner looks stunned and brings in the dishes he ordered extra.

"Hey, I got a little bit of a thrill in my chest,"

"Dude, what's our tavern billboard girl saying? You won't even be old enough to truly get compliments from customers anymore. Mostly, I'll always be an old man because he looks a little like me - fumigi-yum!!"

In the middle of the words, the shopkeeper raised his voice like he had crushed a frog and pushed him silently.

I can't see the two feet on the other side from Len because of over the counter, but I can easily imagine what happened.

"And by the way... I guess it's surprising that the man who went to the tavern was the next lord"

"Yes, it is! I can't believe Rick suddenly became a lord at first. That said, if I saw you greeting me as a lord, I'd have to believe you already, wouldn't I? At the time, there were a lot of women who wanted to ride balls, so there were cases where people who had been spoken to by Rick pushed to the Lordship Hall. Well, of course I didn't do such an embarrassing imitation. That's just what I heard."

That... sounds pretty tough.

It's probably around the deacon's legal that you can push those troubles.

Len can only imagine the situation at the time, but can Regal beat up the Lord he serves for about a shot?

"So, it's like some girls actually got to meet Rick. She couldn't get married, but I think she got the money or something."

"... annoying, legal"

"What, did you say something?

"Yeah, nothing"

"But... it was a little weird."

"What?

"Lords are such a heavy responsibility, so you must be nervous, and you can't have the exact same attitude as before, but you kind of felt a little uncomfortable, you know, not meshing subtly..."

"Phew..."

Ren poured the liquor poured into the glass into his throat chipped to the point of dampening his lips as he mouthed the dish he had been transported.

"Huh? That? That's what I heard... right?

"Of course I am, but what?

Your sister responded very quickly.

◇◇◇◆◆◆◇◇◇

- Meanwhile, at the Imperial Palace in the Suaven Empire, in the Minister's office.

"Hmm... now the emperor would have recognised his position"

After a conversation with the emperor, the minister, who returned to the room satisfactorily, laid his back on the chair somewhat.

All you have to do is wait for the official wedding of your son, Andel, and Emperor Mihasa.

That, too, would not be such a distant future.

"... hmm?

The sound of knocking on the door sounds and Gilbaran calls out to enter the room.

"Get in."

Excuse me.

The visitor was a man named Torphin.

This man was a member of the Secret Service and was diving into Duran's side as a spy by order of the minister.

The Secret Service, which mainly operates in other countries, would otherwise require the emperor's approval to mobilize, as would a regular army, but the minister would also have a good face in the military.

Exactly, we can't bury one person after another who gets in the way, but this man was one of those pawns who could move freely.

"What can I do for you?

"It's about the adventurers, as previously reported."

"Adventurer?... Oh, you instructed me to let you swim for a while"

"Yes. As far as the movement has been going for a while here, it seems to have nothing to do with Duran. I was wondering if it was still a coincidence that the Emperor asked me to do so."

"Hmm... then throw it away already. You're not free enough to spend all your time on just adventurers."

"Yes...... but those are not" just ”adventurers"

A minister who tried to break the report slightly frowned.

"What do you mean?

"As I reported before, it doesn't make any difference to be a high ranking adventurer, but its... seems to have a strength quite out of common sense"

Starting with the crusade of the huge Emperor Serpent over the years, we are lightly doing requests that a large group of Rank A adventurers will finally be able to accomplish, including destroying the nest led by Oak King in one day.

In fact, I also went to the place where there was an oak nest that had been destroyed, where dozens of oak and oak road carcasses were rolling.

It was as if it were traces of a small-scale battle, such as an individual amputated with a sharp blade or crushed by unlikely force.

A soldier in common would not have been able to crusade without mobilizing hundreds.

Of course, a talented man doesn't deserve that much surprise if he talks about gaining unparalleled power over the years.

The problem is that they are still young adventurers.

"It's like a deviation from the logic of this world... but you said it. Well, you're familiar with them, so let's be a little sensitive."

The minister turns his gaze to the universe, often silently opening his tease.

"Isn't that funny? Soon more power will be needed for the Empire to rule the world"

"- and say,"

"I'm getting interested, too. I want to see them once. If you are an adventurer who undertakes requests with gold, it would be interesting to pile up a pile of gold coins instead of greeting them."

"... as you say"

Leaving the minister's office, Tolfin walks early down the long corridor.

Those adventurers shouldn't know I'm under the minister's command.

Even if we want to engage, what should we do?

"Come on, someone but me..."

There was an arrow tip that I was thinking that far - someone to speak to Tolfin.

"Ugh... I heard that. Wow. conversation with you and Master Gilbaran. You said something very interesting."

It was a luscious woman with long hair who appeared softly from the shadow of the pillars.

Torphin stiffens his body, not least, to a gaze that crawls.

"Heh, Master Hella!?... don't be surprised"

"Being deviant from reason... does that mean insanity? I wonder who the hell the insane person close to you is. It's totally rude."

The woman in front of her - Hera - keeps talking without giving Tolfin room to pinch her mouth.

"I knew you were being used as a pawn by Master Gilbaran, but it doesn't look like you're being used surprisingly."

"No, that's..."

"Ha-ha-ha, what the hell? That's... that's gonna make me a little" jealous. "