Chapter 79 - Reward Part 1
The day after the search for Julius, thanks to the diligent efforts of the royal castle's physicians, Julius safely regained consciousness.
At that moment, I had believed there was no life-threatening condition in my eyes, but apparently, the lack of sleep for several days due to mining had caused damage to my brain and body.
I heard from the princess that if the discovery had been delayed any further, the consequences could have been severe, even leaving long-lasting effects.
With an early discovery and successful treatment, it was diagnosed that with some rest, Julius would return to normal, as the princess informed us.
"Jin-san, Chloe-san, thank you so much. Thanks to you, I didn't lose my precious subordinate."
After hearing Julius's diagnosis, the princess thanked Chloe and me again.
Though the princess maintained her composure, I knew from the maids that she had been worried. She had even shed tears upon hearing that Julius had been found.
Even now, while she tried to appear composed, her eyes were not completely hidden by makeup.
"Since we've heard Julius-san's diagnosis, it was only natural for us to help. Also, as mentioned yesterday, Julius-san found some Mithril. It's currently stored within my storage skill. Should I give it to you now?"
"No, please keep it in your skill for now. If by any chance it gets damaged while being transported, all of Julius's efforts would be in vain."
"Understood. I'll take responsibility for keeping it safe."
Afterward, since the princess seemed quite tired, Chloe and I immediately left the room.
I had known that the princess cared for her subordinates, but I hadn't realized she cared to this extent. Truly, she was deserving of becoming a saint.
"Jin, what are we going to do next?"
"Well, we should probably request new weapons from Reiza as soon as possible. Shall we go to Reiza's shop?"
"In that case, I'll go with you. My weapon also got damaged during yesterday's search."
During our first battle with the abandoned ore golem, my sword had broken, and Chloe's sword had been shattered while we were aiming for the 30th floor.
The silver lining was that it had been the final golem to appear. If our weapons had broken earlier, we would have been left with almost unusable backup swords.
"Jin, are you going somewhere too?"
After deciding to visit Reiza's shop, we were approached by Andor from the group of soldiers unloading goods in front of the gate.
The goods they were unloading were the ore that Julius had abandoned in the dungeon.
When we brought Julius back with us, we told them about the abandoned ore golem and the potential trouble it could cause if left unattended. Upon hearing the story, Andor had sent some soldiers into the dungeon to collect the ore Julius had left behind from the 20th to the 30th floor and had it transported back to the castle.
"Yes, we came to order new weapons since ours got damaged during yesterday's search."
"Your weapons got damaged? In that case, how about I give you some of the recovered ore?"
"No, it's alright. We already have some leftover ore from our previous mining, and I think the blacksmith will have good quality ore in stock."
"I see. Well then, after you get your new weapons made, show them to me too. Among those who frequent Gafka's workshop, you guys are the only ones I know."
Andor said that with a smile and then suddenly became serious, bowing his head to me.
"Thank you for finding Julius."
"Uh, Andor-san, please don't bow your head like that. Everyone is watching."
As I said that, for some reason, everyone who had been working around us suddenly bowed their heads and said, "Thank you," just like Andor.
What's with this strange situation where hundreds of soldiers are bowing their heads to us?
"Thanks to you guys, we were able to deal with the mutated dungeon monsters right away. If they had been left unattended, they would have caused a lot of trouble for adventurers. I'm really grateful."
Continuing to bow their heads, Chloe and I made an excuse about heading to the workshop and quickly left the scene.
"This is seriously bad for my heart. If anyone besides the royal castle personnel had seen us like that, there would be terrible rumors..."
"You're right. Adventurers who have hundreds of soldiers bowing their heads to them like that... people will definitely wonder what we did..."
With these concerns in mind, we walked for about ten minutes and arrived at Reiza's shop in the commercial district.
The shop's door was open, but Reiza was not at the storefront.
"Oh, Reiza's not here?"
"Is that you, Jin? Just a moment, I'm in the middle of work, so wait!"
I wondered if Reiza had noticed my voice, as she shouted from the back of the store.
After a while, Reiza finished her work, wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel, and came over.
"I was in the middle of work, so sorry for coming during a busy time."
"It's fine, really. I was just killing time with some work. So, what brings you here today?"
"We've come to order new weapons. Our weapons got damaged."
Saying this, I took my sword and Chloe's sword from [Space Box] and showed them to Reiza.
Since these were items I had purchased at Cynthia's shop, Reiza quickly noticed that they weren't cheap quality and asked, "How did they break?"
"I fought a mutated golem and blocked with my sword to protect myself, and it snapped. Chloe's sword broke from the strain of fighting multiple golems."
"I see... Both of these swords should still be usable, but they broke for those reasons, huh? It doesn't seem like they were mistreated, and they protected their masters well."
As she gently stroked our swords, Reiza said so.
After that, we were asked what kind of new weapons we wanted, and Reiza suggested we look at the weapons in her shop for reference, so Chloe and I began to browse the weapons available at Reiza's store.