The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

The Dragon Duchy of Bargia.

As the name suggests, this country is ruled by dragon-kind.

All the territory of this country is the domain of the 'Dragon King', and the country's origins began about 400 years ago when people who worshipped this Dragon King gathered to build a nation. Therefore, the government is run by human nobles, while the Dragon King is said to merely preside over the holy land.

However, the power of this Dragon King, who is just sitting there, is incredibly strong, with his domain covering an area of two-tenths of the entire continent. As a result, as the largest country on the continent, all of the central inland area from the middle to the south is Bargia's territory.

That said, the Dragon King's influence doesn't necessarily reach the frontier. There are just ordinary towns and villages there.

The town closest to the border with the Stoania Kingdom was quite small, and could be called a village without much exaggeration.

The defensive wall surrounding the town was just a stone wall about as tall as an adult, with wooden stakes placed on top as a mere formality.

Being such a village, there was no passage tax, and we could enter freely.

I hope there's at least an inn.

"I'm going to gather some information. Ruruk and the others, go wait at the Adventurers' Guild or something."

Roze said this and disappeared somewhere.

Apparently, she always uses the information broker guild to buy information with money. I once laughed when she said that even insignificant information could be bought for the price of a cheap drink at a tavern. According to Roze, those who can't pay for correct information will regret it after losing something important.

Indeed, in a world without phones or the internet, correct information must be scarce. Since then, I've made a point of taking tavern information with a grain of salt. Especially drunk people's stories, which I believe are 90% lies. For some people, it's 100%. I'm talking about you, members of 【Cheap Beer】.

While Roze was off gathering information, Elen and I headed to the Adventurers' Guild as instructed.

It's not evening yet, so I was hoping there might be some simple quests, but... when we arrived at the guild, we were greeted by an unexpected scene.

"Welcome, adventurers! Welcome to the town of Kenu!"

The moment we stepped in, a great cheer erupted from inside.

More than 10 adults were greeting us with smiles. The welcome was so overwhelming that I doubted if it was some kind of surprise event, but of course, it wasn't. They seem to be genuinely welcoming us.

...However.

When they realized that there was no one behind us and that only children had entered, the villagers all dropped their shoulders at once.

"What, just children?"

"Mere beginners?"

"Damn... we won't make it in time at this rate."

What's this? I feel like we've been incredibly disappointed. I'm a bit hurt even though we haven't done anything, you know?

The adults wobbled over to the reception area and sat down, hugging their knees. Their faces were pale, with despair evident. ...No, that might be a hangover. It's a familiar sight from the Stoania guild, yeah.

By the way, this was a small guild without an attached tavern.

Glancing at this scene, I asked the young girl sitting at the reception.

"Um... what's all this about?"

"Well... quest solicitation? I guess?"

The receptionist gave a wry smile.

"Did you come from Stoania?"

"Yes. We just arrived."

"Ah, so that's why you don't know. Actually..."

The receptionist explained the situation.

This Dragon Duchy of Bargia, as mentioned earlier, is a country that reveres the Dragon King's family - the True Ancestor Dragons.

However, the Dragon King rarely leaves the holy land. The humans who worship him built the country on their own, but he himself seems uninterested in human politics as long as his domain is protected. To support such a Dragon King, most of the intelligent dragon species stay in the holy land - the king's presence.

But there are also some slightly eccentric individuals among the dragon species, and these individuals occasionally come out of the holy land and settle in human society.

Currently, a dragon called the 'Dragon Princess' is staying in the capital.

This Dragon Princess is quite a tomboy, apparently indulging in selfish whims like "I want to eat this" or "I want that". It's the duty of this country's nobles to cater to these whims, but recently, something the Dragon Princess wanted has become a problem.

It's the horn of a horned rabbit monster, the Almiraj.

The sharp horn protruding from its small body is quite hard and shines beautifully when it reflects light. It's a popular material for decorative items like necklaces, and it seems the Dragon's typical collecting habit has been triggered.

The nobles, unable to refuse, issued an order to all villages in the country to hunt Almiraj.

Moreover, they demand one horn per household. Households that fail to obtain one will have their taxes doubled next year. It's quite an extortion, but humans are not allowed to object to the words of the Dragon Princess, who is also of the True Ancestor Dragon lineage.

"So, everyone is eagerly asking adventurers to take on the subjugation quests when they arrive."

An Almiraj is a D-rank monster when alone, but they usually move in groups, so when they become a subjugation target, they're treated as C-rank. Of course, the villagers know they can't hunt them themselves, so they have no choice but to ask like this.

The troubled-looking receptionist whispers to me.

"Well, it's not the kind of quest for children like you to take on, and Almiraj are particularly ferocious during this breeding season. The villagers will probably keep approaching you while you're staying here, but please try to ignore it."

"I understand. But how many more households in this village still need to request the quest?"

"Um, it should be just over 30."

The receptionist points to the quest board next to her with a half-smile.

There, numerous Almiraj subjugation request papers were stacked on top of other quest request papers. Can we only accept Almiraj subjugation quests?

This is indeed laughable.

"By the way, have any Almiraj herds been confirmed?"

"Yes. There's one nest in the forest southwest of the village, and two nests in the northern forest. But Almiraj are usually timid, so they don't come out of the forest. It's harder to find strays, so all quests assume group battles and are C-rank."

"I see, that's good."

I peeled off all the Almiraj subjugation quest papers posted on the quest board and handed them to the receptionist.

We can take on C-rank quests, after all.

"Eh?"

"Please process the acceptance."

I say this while submitting my guild card. Of course, Elen does the same.

"But... Eh? B-rank!? C-cleared the 100th floor of the Stoania Dungeon!?"

The receptionist blurted out involuntarily, then hurriedly closed her mouth. She apologizes desperately while covering her mouth with her hand.

Yeah, that's personal information, so be careful next time, miss. I'll let it slide this time because you're cute. If it was an old man, I wouldn't have forgiven him.

"So, we're going to do a bit of hunting."

"B-but it'll be dark in about two hours?"

"Don't worry about it. Shall we go, Elen?"

There might not be a need to rush, but...

Knowing Roze, she'll probably say we're leaving first thing tomorrow, so if we can make it before sunset, I thought we should go now.

Besides, this morning's Shoggoth battle ended in one hit each, so I was feeling a bit unsatisfied.

We use teleportation to move to the forest, and Elen's "Full Scan" to find the nests.

Once we find them, all that's left is to hunt. I use "Blade Conversion" to avoid damaging the horns, while Elen uses ice magic to methodically dispatch them one by one.

After mostly exterminating the Almiraj in the southwestern forest, we immediately headed to the northern forest.

We repeated the same process at the two locations in the northern forest, subjugating a total of about 80 Almiraj.

Of course, we collected all the horns and gathered the remaining materials only from the specimens with less damage.

We returned to the Adventurers' Guild before sunset and delivered the Almiraj horns to the surprised receptionist.

Including the subjugation reward, it came to about 60 gold coins. I was skeptical about receiving so much for Almiraj, but it seems everyone was very keen to avoid having their taxes doubled, so they had apparently doubled the reward just recently.

That was lucky.

We left the Adventurers' Guild while being thanked by many villagers.

"You're acting quite like proper adventurers, aren't you?"

Roze, who was waiting outside the guild, greeted us with a tone that made it unclear whether she was praising us or not.

"Well, it's been a while since we've been outside Stoania. We want materials from various monsters too."

No matter how vast the Stoania dungeon is, it's still just a dungeon. There are countless monsters all over the world, and Almiraj live in forests, so they weren't in the dungeon.

For gaining experience and collecting materials, quests like this are just what we wanted.

"Oh? I thought you sympathized with the villagers?"

"No, not at all. It's purely for my own benefit."

"Hmm. I'll let you say that."

"...Anyway, have you decided on our lodging for tonight?"

"Well, yes. Or rather, there's only one, so there's no choosing to be done."

As expected, a village of this size only has one inn.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"There are three rooms available, right?"

"Who knows, we'll have to see when we get there."

"If there are only two rooms available, this time you should share with Elen, Master! I can pay for my own room now! I'm a boy of that age, you know!"

"What are you talking about? Do you think a disciple would ever be prioritized over the master? Besides, Elenora doesn't mind sharing with Ruruk, right~?"

"Mm. Want to be together."

"See? Your cute senior disciple says so."

"Ugh... Please let there be three rooms, please let there be three rooms..."

Huh, a flag?

Those things are meant to be broken, you know! (Raising a massive flag)