D-4
On the very day the goddess came by, I closed up shop immediately and went around notifying everyone I knew that I was going on a trip (business trip?).
Mia Grand
"Bring back lots of souvenirs!"
Limus
"Yeah, all right. Have a good trip. Don't get hurt."
Kaniel Jo (Somehow, we had gotten pretty close.)
"The City of Sword Emperors, huh... It may not be on Orario's level, but it's a fairly famous forge city. Have a safe trip."
Jian
"Ah... um... have a safe trip. And when you get back, d-din... dinner.... No, never mind."
I also told the restaurants I frequented and my drinking buddies that I was leaving on a trip, so by tomorrow, word that I was traveling would probably have spread everywhere.
D-3
The next day, I went through the things I used when entering the Dungeon to check whether there was anything else I needed to buy.
Hmm... I already had a dismantling dagger. Since I usually returned from the Dungeon within a day, I did not own a tent. I needed to buy two one-person tents first.
Since I had the [Hermes Backpack], there was no need to buy sleeping bags. I could just bring actual blankets.
I also needed monster-repellent items, magic-stone lamps, fireworks, and whistles.
Fortunately, I could reuse most of the support items I used for Dungeon dives, so it looked like all I needed were two one-person tents, emergency supplies, preserved food, and perhaps one or two bundles of firewood just in case.
As for my clothes, I would be traveling in [Black Knight Armor] most of the time, so I only packed some underwear and a few casual outfits. Even if we were a goddess and a Familia member, it would be a little awkward for a man and woman to see each other's clothes, so I put them separately in a small backpack and left it in one spot.
Hmm... Come to think of it, I think Limus's shop sold emergency supplies in packages. Would buying three packages there be enough? Hemostatics, bandages, potions, stomach medicine, headache medicine, and so on—it was basically an emergency kit like the kind every household in my original world kept around. Ah, these were all for the goddess. Like I said before, potions made for adventurers are too potent for ordinary people and can even be poisonous, so the goddess, whose body itself was that of an ordinary person, could not drink adventurer-grade potions either. Of course, even ordinary people could use adventurer-grade potions in the event of a truly severe injury, but the side effects afterward were no joke...
I went to the goddess and discussed in advance what we needed to buy the following day.
Fortunately, neither of us planned to buy anything overly excessive, so the discussion went smoothly enough.
D-2
I got up early, put on some decent clothes, and checked the supplies we needed to buy once more. Two tents, tent repair tools, emergency kits, preserved food, and firewood. Along with a few notebooks and around ten pouches the goddess wanted. If we bought just that much, we could buy the rest along the way.
After writing down a list of everything worth buying, I knocked on the goddess's door at around ten o'clock.
"Goddess, it's about time we headed out. Would you like to have lunch before we go?"
"All right. I'll come down in about ten minutes, so wait in front of the main gate."
"Yeah, yeah."
About twenty minutes passed before I sensed the goddess coming downstairs.
"What were you doing that took you so long?"
"Hey, getting ready takes time for a woman, you know?"
"...A woman?"
"Want to die?"
"..."
"Let's go, pack mule."
First, we headed to Adventurer Street in the northwestern district. Not only could we find almost anything there, but true to its name, it had plenty of shops specializing in adventurer supplies. We could compare products and buy the best ones.
First, we visited Latale, the item shop that could practically be called Adventurer Street's department store. Most goods handled by commerce-oriented Familias flowed through here, so if we just stayed here, we could buy everything we needed today without running all over town. However, it seemed some expedition party had bought out all the preserved food, so we only purchased the tents and repair tools, firewood, and the notebooks and pouches the goddess wanted.
On our way to the preserved-food supplier whose address Latale had given us, I spotted magical water purifiers in a magic-item shop beside the road, so I bought two just in case. They were fairly simple to use. Insert a small magic stone into the handle, submerge the bead at the end in water, and press the power switch—shouldn't it be called a magic-source switch here rather than a power switch? Then, through some process I could not understand, it purified foreign matter and toxic substances from the water.
They were not popular among adventurers who earned money by selling magic stones, but apparently they sold well to merchants traveling long distances and adventurers taking outside quests. Occasionally, nobles from outside Orario would buy them too, fascinated by the novelty...
Fortunately, there was a preserved-food store not far from the magic-item shop. I bought jerky, powdered soup, dried bread, and vegetables to put into the soup. There was a surprisingly wide variety of jerky: duck, beef, pork, chicken, even horse meat. Of course, horse-meat jerky was scarcely supplied, and since its taste was nothing special, it apparently did not sell very much. I also bought smoked meat and had everything delivered to the Familia Home.
The last place we needed to visit was Azure Wind, Limus's shop, where we had to buy emergency kits. We could buy them from the Dian Cecht Familia, but if we were buying a lot, we might as well buy from a friend.
However, the goddess seemed somewhat uneasy about going so deep into Daedalus Street. Even as she followed me, she kept looking around and making it painfully obvious that she was nervous.
"Um, the place we're going to is safe, right?"
"My friend is a pretty big deal around here, so it should be safer than most parts of Daedalus Street."
"Really...?"
After I told her not to worry, she started looking at me suspiciously instead... Why?
"Not because of anything illegal. It's because it's Daedalus Street's only potion shop. Supply and demand, understand?"
"Yeah, whatever. So when are we getting there?"
"Yes, yes, we're here. Welcome to [Azure Wind], Daedalus Street's only potion shop."
Despite being on Daedalus Street, his shop was surprisingly clean. Was he diligent about cleaning, or was it clean because hardly anyone came by...?
"Hey, open up! You've got customers!"
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!
"Fucking come quietly for once, you severe Orario curse, you severe Prum curse!"
"Hey, hey, stop!"
"And you'll come like this again next time too!"
"Of course I will."
"..."
"Anyway, attend to your customer. Today, I specially brought our goddess with me. You met her once at that company dinner, right?"
"Greetings, Lady Hephaestus. Please come inside first."
"My child gives you a lot of trouble..."
"N-No... no trouble at all..."
After some time passed in which Limus was apparently scolded by Hephaestus, we bought four emergency kits as planned—one of them was for adventurers—and were about to return to the Familia Home... but since we were already out, the goddess insisted we go shopping and dragged me around all day... Was it really true that women had infinite stamina when shopping...?! We had finished buying travel supplies around two, but we did not get back to the Familia Home until ten...
D-1
Today, I packed all the remaining luggage and put it into the [Hermes Backpack]. I also divided the 300,000 valis I received from the goddess and the 700,000 valis I withdrew from the Guild vault into ten pouches. Each pouch held 100,000 valis—ten million won—so I could just carry however much I needed in my wallet at a time.
While I was at the Guild, I asked the reception desk whether there was a caravan leaving tomorrow. Fortunately, I learned that an outside merchant caravan had come in, finished its business, and was heading for the post-town of Karna. So I went straight to speak with the caravan master. In the end, we agreed that we would travel with them in exchange for providing escort services. Honestly, traveling with a group—or hitching a ride in a carriage if possible—was better than walking alone. Besides, even if we got off at Karna, a transportation hub connected to cities in every direction, it would probably have plenty of sights to see and souvenirs to buy.
"Then that settles it. Eight tomorrow morning at the west gate entrance, correct?"
"Yes, yes. We'll see you then."
The young-looking caravan master seemed to have never had an Orario Level 2 adventurer serve as an escort before. By the end of our conversation, he was sweating and fidgeting nervously.
"By the way, how long does it take to reach Karna?"
"Counting the several cities we pass through on the way, it usually takes roughly two to three weeks."
"Hmm... Understood. Then I'll be going."
After finishing the conversation and returning to the Familia Home, I put all the money and goods into my backpack. Then the goddess hesitantly spoke to me.
"Um... Smith?"
"What is it?"
"Hmm... Uranus says, 'Since you are taking him as an escort, I will permit it, but there is a possibility of Orario's internal information leaking out, so have him use an alias. You said he would continue wearing armor, so it should be fine as long as he changes his name.'"
"An alias?"
"Do you have anything in mind?"
"Hmm... If I'm Hephaestus's escort, there's only one option, isn't there?"
"What?"
"Talos, the bronze giant. His blood was the blood of the gods, Ichor, and he was a war machine that never rusted and kept moving forever, right?"
"...You really do know secrets of the heavens that even most Deus Dea would not know. Just how do you know these things?"
"I merely saw them, merely heard them, and merely read about them."
"...That isn't a lie, but still."
Well, it was not a lie, was it?
I watched Greek and Roman mythology cartoons for children,
took a college general-education course on myths and legends,
and read Greek and Roman mythology books. That was all.
"Then from now on, your alias will be Talos, [The Bronze Giant of Perpetual Motion]."
"Yes, let's go with that."
"So what weapon are you bringing? From what I've seen, you seem to have used nothing but axes and blunt weapons so far."
"Ah, there is a weapon I made before, but it was a little too excessive to use in the Dungeon. The kind of weapon that destroys the magic stone along with everything else when I use it..."
"What kind of vicious weapon did you make if it destroys even the magic stone when you use it?"
"Hmm... Originally, it was a weapon meant to ignore armor and strike directly through it... but while making it, it ended up transmitting the weapon's impact directly inside, so it crushes the internal organs and the magic stone together."
"Seriously... That is a dangerous weapon to use in more ways than one."
"Right?"
"So what's its name?"
"Ah... its name? The name of this weapon, once the favored arm of a legendary emperor, is..."
"...An emperor?"
"The hammer of war, the hammer of steel, that which fell from the heavens alongside the flame with two tongues."
"That which was made in the forge of the gods, forged by the work of a High Smith."
"The hammer's name is [Ghal Maraz, Skull-Splitter]."
D-0
I woke early, picked up the backpack containing all my packed belongings, donned [Black Knight Armor], and stood up with the black [Ghal Maraz, Skull-Splitter] in one hand and the [Black Knight Shield] in the other. Hmm... Wasn't this basically a fallen, dark version of Silver Knight Ledo? Other than the hammer being much smaller?
I did not know the exact proportions of Ghal Maraz from the original Warhammer Fantasy, so I modeled its shape after the one from Man at Arms.
It was too long to hang from my waist, so I rested it on my shoulder and went down to the Familia's main gate with the goddess. When we got there, everyone who was awake had come out in front of the gate. Had they come to see the goddess off?
"All right, everyone, I'm off?"
"Have a safe trip, Goddess!"
"I'll be going now."
"Have a safe trip!"
They really did look after me too, since we were members of the same Familia...
"Let's go too, [Talos]."
"Yes, Goddess."
Now, at last, I was setting out on a journey. Since being reincarnated in this other world, I had never once left the world of Orario—but now, I was finally heading toward a wider world.
The journey begins.