Partner

The northern part of the western region of Haru Empire. As of right now, the town was still in the midst of development, so every part of it was brimming with vigor. Echigoya and his group, accompanied by Tanaka, traveled through such a lively street as they arrived at the northernmost town. Upon entering the town, the carriage headed straight for the guild.

「How should I put it, anyway, can I begin to make a retort now?」

Tanaka muttered, as he gazed around the town from the carriage on their way to the guild.

「What’s the matter, Tanaka-san?」

Echigoya called out to a shivering and shaking Tanaka.

「No matter how you look at it, those are clearly non-human creatures wandering around the town! Why does no one seem to be bothered about it?!」

Tanaka retorted to Echigoya while pointing out at the bustling town. In that direction, people could be seen carrying out their lives normally alongside non-human creatures in their midst. 「Interesting, isn’t it? This town is the place where demons come to work.」

Echigoya responded with a smile on his face, without a hint of concern for Tanaka’s agitation.

「Demons? Are they different from monsters?」

Ever since he came to this world, Tanaka had heard the word monsters being mentioned on numerous occasions, but this was the first time he had heard the word demons. He got a little curious, and asked Echigoya about it.「Tanaka-san, you sure know so little about history, don’t you? Long ago, there was once a country that was founded by various intelligent races that weren’t human. The inhabitants of that country were what we generally called demons. And then, upon their defeat in the war of a thousand years ago, they were driven to the north.」

Tanaka felt as though he’d once heard something similar to what was just mentioned by Echigoya.

「Huh? If I remember it correctly, I think it was supposed to be a war between human and monsters, where the monsters were driven to the north as the result, though….」

It was similar to the story that Tanaka heard previously from General White. However, there seemed to be a slight difference between the two, so Tanaka tried to ascertain it. 「Oh, that’s the story that has been constantly propagated around by Purin Kingdom. They seem to revere themselves as supreme existences, so they tend to lump demons together with monsters. By doing so, I think they want to imply that they are on the side of justice. But well, the war of a thousand years ago, for better or worse, it was no more than a war between two countries.」

「Oh, I didn’t know that.」

Tanaka couldn’t tell which version of the story was the truth. For the time being, however, he decided to keep in mind that there was such a tale.

「It was said that the country lacked cohesion as it was built up by varying races. On top of that, they were then driven to the north, so the existence of the country was no more. And then, up to this day, demons have been in desperate struggle to survive in the harsh environment of the north. Seeing the severe situations demons have fallen in, the Empire felt sympathy, and decided to hire them to assist with the development of this town.」

「Oh, the Empire sure is generous.」

When he heard of the deeds done by the Empire from Echigoya, Tanaka honestly expressed his admiration for them. 「Well, at least that’s what the official reason says anyway. Pragmatically speaking, though, it’s nothing more than a new business development. They export the surplus of their goods, and then import the manpower they need, something like that I suppose.」

As if he’d been waiting for Tanaka to think as such, Echigoya immediately revealed the truth of the matter to him.

「I’d prefer not to hear that additional explanation…. or rather, you should have just told me the truth from the beginning! You don’t need to bother showing me the dirtiness of reality! Give it back! Give me back my pure feeling of admiration from earlier!」Ignoring the cries of such a Tanaka, Echigoya calmly continued on with the explanation.

「If you head a bit farther to the north from this town, you’ll find a small town that’s growing and developing into the center of this demon dispatching business. Well, to put it simply, since both towns are still in the middle of development, there are so many works here and there waiting to be done.」

「In other words, it’s that right? You want me to deal with a bunch of pilling up requests again, something like that?」 Tanaka interrupted, figuring out the glaring coming punchline.

「Ahaha, I’m really glad that you are very quick to the uptake, Tanaka-san. Let’s talk more about the details of this matter later once we’ve arrived at the guild.」

「…..」

The carriage continued on its way heading to the guild, even while Tanaka was seated inside speechless.

◇ ◇ ◇

Tanaka and Echigoya had then discussed about the situations around the area as well as about their future plan at the guild.

The northernmost town didn’t seem to have an official name yet, but everyone there decided to call it the town of Echigoya. Tanaka felt as though he had caught a glimpse of the greatness of Echigoya. The town of the monsters territory, which was located to the north of Echigoya town, didn’t seem to have a name either, so everyone decided to call it the town of Nanashi. Although Nanashi town was located in monster territory, it seemed to be still functioning properly as a town, so there were quite a few humans staying there. And then, as there was also a guild branch, which was a sub-branch of the guild in Echigoya town, in that town, they could mediate in various jobs.

Echigoya had decided that he would stay and finish the works in the Echigoya town first before heading to Nanashi town. And then, it was also decided that Tanaka would head to Nanashi town ahead of him to deal with the piling up requests at the branch guild there first.

Thus, Tanaka quickly finished his preparations and departed for Nanashi town by himself. On the way there, Tanaka felt as though he heard the sound of some sort of dispute.

「Don’t tell me, is this supposed to be that kind of template event? Very well! Hang in there, beautiful girl. This uncle is coming!」

Tanaka swiftly headed towards the source of the voice. His head was filled with pink colored this that and such which was presumably about to occur.

This region was already in monster territory, so once he strayed away from the road, he immediately found himself in an area surrounded with rugged wastelands for as far he could see. Tanaka rushed to the scene with a swiftness that was tripled by his excitement and anticipation, and once he arrived there, he found himself a winged beauty. The moment his gaze lay upon her nice body, Tanaka’s heart leapt wildly. Soon after, he also saw a skeleton, who happened to be being chased by the winged beauty. All at once, his excitement plummeted.