Tomorrow, we will finally head towards the Royal Capital.

Before that, I must prepare gifts for the Count and the King. I had already received valuable advice from Lambert on what to gift the Count, but what about the King?

This was not the kind of thing I could consult with my familiars.

Instead, I found myself pondering this question over some Granados Tea. The sweet scent of peaches rose from the tea to tickle my nose and settle my mind. Right, first things first, let’s double-check the stuff for the Count.

On the table were:

– 3 bottles of Hair Restorer

– 3 bottles of Hair Growth Shampoo

– 6 bottles of Shampoo, Hair Treatment and Hair Mask (for the wife & daughter)

– 6 pieces of rose-scented soap

– 5 Face Cream

– 3 low-grade potion

– 1 mid-grade potion

– 1 high-grade potion

Finally, a treasure chest from… Doran’s dungeon, I think? to put the gifts in. If I’m not wrong, this treasure chest came from a Mimic. It looked pretty nice with the gems and everything.

The Japanese in me insisted on packing everything nicely and presenting the gifts in a beautiful package. I am not procrastinating at all. In fact, now that the gifts for the Count have been prepared, it’s now time to decide on gifts for the king.

“Ugh, I should have asked Willem-san what to give! Why didn’t I do that, huh?”

Let’s see, how about some pieces of jewellery? That’s always a good call, right?

I started taking out the gems and jewellery from my [Item Box] and piled them on the table. Wow, there were a lot of them. My eyes were dazzled…

Among them, the one thing that stood out was the Charybdis tiara with the pearls. I was terrified when Siegwald-san said something about how this thing could cause a war but… surely he’s just exaggerating?

I checked with [Appraisal], but it only said that the pearls on it were high quality. In fact, now that look at it again, it looks kind of plain compared to all the glittering pieces around it. Surely it’s fine?

Still, what if Siegwald-san said is true?

Ugh, this troublesome thing… let’s just give it away~

Next, there’s this Blue Diamond from Brixt’s dungeon. I think there was a bad story attached to it or something? That some dictator or something destroyed a whole country just to get their hands on it, so people now call it cursed or something.

It looks really good, but what if the king is put off by the bad story behind it? What if they think I’m looking to cause trouble with a (not literally) cursed gem?

“Hahh…” I put the Blue Diamond away with some regret.

Then… how about this completely impractical Mithril dagger encrusted with too many jewels and a giant sapphire? It’s useless to me, but maybe the king could hang this on his wall or use it as a letter opener? Can it even open letters? The blade is Mithril, so maybe, but the handle was so awkward that someone could cut their thumbs off, so it’s better to just display it in a glass case.

Anyway, let’s just give away this useless pretty thing too~

There’s also this large diamond that I had gotten from somewhere, and this ruby ring, and this shiny diamond encrusted bracelet thing, and a golden goblet…

I looked at the pile of shiny and said to myself, “I guess this should be fine? It’s a gift for a king and his queen after all, so it shouldn’t be too shabby, right?”

In fact, it looked like a lot even to my inexperienced eye, but giving more is better than less, right?

“Haah… going to the Royal Capital is such a pain,” I have been avoiding going there because I really, really don’t want the hassle. Well, I guess it can’t be helped now.

Nothing to do but drink my excellent tea, go to bed and prepare for tomorrow’s journey.

The day of departure.

First, I collected the meat from Johan-san.

“Um, I’m here for the meat…” I said as I poked my head into the warehouse.

“Ou, you’re here,”

We chatted casually as we moved meats out from the warehouse storage place into my [Item Box].

“Will you be hunting around the Royal Capital?” asked Johan-san.

“Ah, that…”

“Of course,”

Umu,”

“”Naturally, we must!!””

“”Hunting~ hunting~ pew pew~!””

“I guess we’re going…” I sighed.

I have some faint hopes that since it’s the Royal Capital, there would not be any ‘on the shelf’ mission waiting for us. I had hoped we could take it easy on this trip, but it looked like that’s not likely.

Sob…

“Well, since it’s the Royal Capital, there may not be many interesting things around, but if you do catch something good, bring it here, eh?”

“Haha, best not to expect too much,” I muttered, especially since most of the more interesting prey must have been taken down already.

Umu, that is to be expected. However, there is no reason why we could not stretch our legs a little there.”

“… don’t go too far,” I muttered, remembering his remarks about ‘eating all the fish’ in a lake (or was it a stream?) and their wholesale slaughter of Rosendal’s meat dungeon.

“No need to worry, Master, with me here, it won’t take us long to move from place to place.”

“Wait, why are you saying this to me? Wh-what are you planning on hunting?!”

“”I dunno, but a new place gotta have new monsters, yeah?””

““Delicious meat~~””

I-in that case, I must make sure not to let you guys leave the Royal Capital! Also, isn’t Johan’s mysterious remark of ‘catch something good’ too suspicious?!

Whilst I was in the middle of this crisis, the Guild Master came to the warehouse, “I’ve kept you waiting!”

The only thing he was carrying was an old shoulder bag.

“Is that a magic bag?”

“Ou! Had this since I was an Adventurer, got it way back in the dungeons near the Kingdom of Malbert.”

Woah, I like that backpack-like magic bag. Fer and Co. would be able to use a backpack-style magic bag better.

“Shall we go?”

“Ou,”

We head out of the city walls with the Guild Master for the open grassland area a short distance beyond the city walls. It was GG Airways’ usual take-off and landing space.

“Right, we’ll depend on you, Grandpa Gon.”

“Very well,”

With that, Grandpa Gon suddenly shot up in height. It was only when I heard Willem-san’s sudden intake of breath that I realised that perhaps I should have given him some warning.

“O-oi, are we, are we really riding an Ancient Dragon…”

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you already inform the Guild HQ that we’ll be travelling via Grandpa Gon? Wait, did you forget?”

“No, no, well, I mean, it’s just… it’s one thing to send a report, but seeing in person is…”

“Oi, hurry up!”

“H-hold it, I haven’t mentally prepared myself yet!”

“Haha, he gets like that~” the rest of my familiars were already on board. “It’s fine, it’s fine, I was scared at first too, but it will be all fine~”

“But…”

“Go on, go on, Fer will only be more impatient if we don’t go up now.”

As if to prove his worth as an Adventurer, Willem-san gritted his teeth and charged up Grandpa Gon’s back.

I also quickly got on and patted Grandpa Gon’s massive body, “Right, we’re all up.”

Umu, I shall depart now.”

With a tremendous flap of wings, we took off.

“Hiiiiii—!!!!! L-let me off! Let me off!!!”

Willem-san’s face had turned blue and he was trashing about violently. I did my best to hold him down, “Guild Master! It’s too dangerous to get off now. Just don’t look down!”

Instead of taking my advice, Willem-san looked down. I also looked down at the rapidly shrinking landscape, woah, everything looks so tiny… Then, with a little ‘patan—’ Willem-san fainted.

Seriously, his eyes actually rolled back and the Guild Master of Carelina fainted.

“Humph, how pathetic,” was Fer’s merciless remark.

“Well, at least I had only ‘nearly’ fainted,” also, I had been on planes before so seeing the ground from such a high vantage point was not something too scary for me.

While all the shenanigans were happening on his back, Grandpa Gon continued to make his steady way towards the Royal Capital.

Gumihou: Well, um, be well, Willem-san!

Eguchi Ren: This seems like a good place to stop. I shall be taking a break next week. After that is the start of the Royal Capital Arc! Thank you~!

Gumihou: Gumi will start on the right away, hehe

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