This was a certain high-end residential district in the Imperial Capital, whose sprawling grounds were covered with old yet sturdy and luxurious mansions. Most of the residents of these venerable, yet most certainly not decrepit homes were nobles.
A noble's residence was a status symbol. Anyone who could not bear to spend the money to pretty up their home would become the laughingstock of noble society.
Things like accessories, jewellery, clothes, homes and courtyards; all of these decorative items were military assets on the battlefield known as noble society. That was because these items were not only a sign of wealth, but also of the breadth and depth of one's connections. Living in an austere home was reason enough for mockery. Therefore, unless they were of a military inclination and had no interest in political matters, the nobles fought tooth and nail to decorate themselves and their homes. In other words, it was like a military show of force; only people with sufficient strength could do such a thing.
If one looked around, one would notice a few things.
This place was in a part of the Imperial Capital with excellent security, and it was very quiet. However, there was another reason for the silence of the surrounding region beyond the security. It was also because many of the homes here did not feel like they were inhabited.
In truth, nobody lived in many of these mansions. They were empty houses, formerly owned by nobles who had been stripped of their titles by the Bloody Emperor and had to abandon them after they could not afford the upkeep on these dwellings.
Amidst this sea of empty residences, one mansion was still inhabited. However, the outer walls had not been properly maintained, and it would seem someone had neglected to care for the vegetation in the courtyard.
Arche's parents received her with stiff expressions in the reception lounge of this mansion. Their faces displayed the attitudes appropriate to a noble. They were dressed in superior clothing.
"Oh, you're back, Arche."
"You've returned."
Before Arche answered them, her eyes noticed the glass ornament on the table. It was an exquisitely-carved wineglass, and it radiated an air of class and elegance.
Arche's face twitched, because she had never seen that item before.
"—That is...?"
"Oh, this is from the renowned artisan Jean..."
"—That's not what I'm asking. We didn't have this in the house before, why do we have it now?"
"That's because I bought it this morning."
As she heard her father's casual tone — like he was discussing today's weather — Arche's body wobbled.
"—How much was it?"
"Oh... I believe it was 15 gold coins. Cheap, no?"
Arche's head drooped in despair. Anyone would have done the same, if the debt they had to pay had increased again after they had paid off part of it with the deposit for the job.
"—Why did you buy it?"
"As nobles, people will laugh at us if we don't spend money on such things."
Her father laughed proudly, and Arche could not help glaring at him with hostility in her eyes.
"—We aren't nobles any more."
Those words made her father's face stiffen and turn red
"No!"
Her father pounded his fist on the table with a thump. Fortunately, the guest room's table was thick enough that the wineglass barely budged. While Arche would not have minded it breaking, her father would not have minded either. He would simply have thought that it was an expense of a mere 15 gold coins.
As Arche tried to suppress her irritation, her father continued spewing curses and spittle.
"Once that damn idiot dies, we'll be able to resume our noble status immediately! We're nobles who have served as the backbone of the Empire for over a hundred years! How can he just cast us out like that? This is an investment for when we regain our status! Besides, this show of strength will show everyone that we won't give in to that idiot!"
What a fool.
That was Arche's opinion of her father as he snorted in agitation. "That idiot" probably referred to the Bloody Emperor, but surely he would not care about a family that was as insignificant as Arche's . More to the point, there had to be better ways to show defiance than this.
He was like a frog in the bottom of a well, who could not see anything outside it.
Arche shook her head tiredly.
"That's enough out of the two of you."
Her mother's relaxed tones brought about a temporary ceasefire between Arche and her father.
She then rose to her feet and offered Arche a small bottle.
"Arche, I bought you perfume."
"—How much did it cost?'
"Three gold coins."
"Is that so... thank you."
A total of 18 gold coins, Arche calculated in her head as she thanked her mother, then carefully tucked the bottle and the small amount of fluid inside it into her pocket.
It was very difficult for Arche to treat her mother coldly. That was because buying perfume or cosmetics was a very sensible purchase, from a certain point of view.
Looking pretty, attending classy dinner parties and catching the eye of wealthy nobles. A woman's joy was to be married, get pregnant, bear children and raise them; that was very proper from a noble's point of view. Investing in cosmetics for that objective was hardly a mistake.
Even so, she felt that buying perfume was too much when the family was in such dire straits. More to the point, three gold coins was enough for a plebeian family to live on for a month.
"—I've told you several times, don't spend recklessly. Only spend the minimum amount necessary to get by."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you! This is a necessary expense!"
Arche tiredly looked at her father, who was so mad that his face was covered in red spots. They had argued like this several times in the past, and it had ended inconclusively each time. It was partially Arche's fault that things had ended up like this. If she had put her foot down earlier, perhaps things might not have ended up like this, and she would not have given Foresight trouble.
"—I won't be bringing money back any more. I'm taking my sisters and leaving this house."
Her father began panting heavily upon hearing her calm voice. At least he's smart enough to know what'll happen to him if nobody brings home the bacon, Arche thought coldly.
"Who do you think brought you up so you could live the way you do now?"
"—I've more than repaid that kindness."
Arche's pronouncement was simple and final. The money she had given to her parents was a sizable sum. In addition, that money had been earned through adventures. It was the money that should have been used to become stronger with her companions. While it was true that everyone was free to spend their money as they saw fit, there was a tacit understanding that most of it would go towards strengthening themselves.
What would Arche's friends think when they saw how she hardly bought new equipment?
Not strengthening her wargear meant that she would remain weak forever.
However, the members of Foresight had not said anything to Arche. Arche had taken their kindness for granted.
Arche turned a burning stare on her father. Under her unyielding gaze, her father shrank and turned away, That was only to be expected. Arche had walked the edge of death countless times. She could not possibly lose to a foolish nobleman.
Arche glanced at her father once more, saw that he did not dare speak again, and left the room.
She closed the door behind her, and sighed. A voice called out to her, as though it had been waiting for this moment.
"Young Mistress."
"—What is it, Jimes?"
It was Jimes, the butler who had served them faithfully over the years. His wrinkled face was stiff and nervous. Arche immediately realized the reason for that. That was because he often made that face in the years since her father had been stripped of his noble status.
"I apologize for having to tell you about this, Young Mistress, but..."
Arche raised a hand to interrupt him. The two of them felt that this was not a matter that should be discussed in the corridor right outside the receivjng room, and so they went some distance away.
Arche took a leather purse from a hidden pocket and opened up. Several different colors gleamed there. The most numerous were glints of silver, followed by those of copper, and the least numerous were those of gold.
"—Will this be enough to tide you over for now?"
Jimes took the purse from her. His expression had softened a little after seeing the coins within.
"My wage and the money for the traders... I believe it will be enough, Young Mistress."
"—Good."
Arche sighed in relief. While this was just financing a debt, it ought to last for a while.
"—Couldn't you stop Father from buying that thing?"
"I could not. The seller came with a noble he knew. I tried to remind the Master several times, but he still..."
"—I see."
Both of them sighed.
"—I wish to ask a question. If we terminate everyone we're employing now, how much will we need for severance pay?"
Jimes' eyes went wide, and he smiled glumly. There was no shock in his facial expression; a sign that he had been prepared for this.
"I understand. I will calculate the amount and report it to you, Young Mistress."
"—Please do."
Just then, the pattering sound of quick footsteps reached her ears. She knew who had made it even without turning to look.
The thin line of Arche's mouth softened, and when she turned around, she saw someone running over. The other party did not slow down, simply ran head-first into Arche's arms.
The person who had tackled Arche was a girl less than a meter tall, around five years old, and the shape of her eyes was very similar to Arche's. The girl puffed up her pink cheeks, seemingly very displeased.
"So haaard~"
That was not a criticism of her chest being too flat after throwing herself into Arche's embrace.
Her adventurer's outfit used a lot of leather and provided excellent defensive strength. The cuirass in particular was made of hardened leather. Surely the girl must have felt like her face had been flattened when she charged head-first into it.
"—Does it hurt?"
Arche touched the girl's face, and caressed her head.
"Mmm, not at all, onee-sama!"
The little girl smiled happily, and Arche smiled to her sister as well.
"...I shall take my leave, then."
The butler departed, not wanting to disturb the two of them, and as Arche watched him go, she patted her sister's head.
"Ulei... running around in the hallway isn't..."
Arche swallowed her words halfway. She wanted to say that running around in the hallways was not befitting of a noble daughter, but Arche had already told her father that they were not nobles anymore. In that case, what harm did it do for them to run in the hallway?
Arche's hand did not stop as she thought, and the girl whose hair had been ruffled into a mess laughed innocently. Arche looked around, and saw that the other one had not come with her.
"—Where's Kuude?"
"In her room!"
"I see... there's something I'd like to tell you. Let's go to your room together."
"Mm."
Her little sister smiled happily. Protecting that smile was her job. Arche squeezed her little sister's petite hand as that powerful emotion gripped her heart.
Arche could feel the warmth through the hand that was even smaller than hers.
"Onee-sama, your hand's so hard."
Arche looked at her other, empty hand. It had been cut several times during her adventures, and it was rough and hard, no longer a noblewoman's hand. But she did not regret it. Her hands were the proof that she had lived with her friends — with Foresight.
"But I like them lots!"
Her little sister's hands closed around her own, and Arche smiled.
"—Thank you."
***
The North Market of the Imperial Capital was as lively and bustling as always. However, very few of the average citizenry came here to buy things, so unlike the packed Central Market, one could browse the stalls as one walked and not bump into anyone.
Hekkeran and Roberdyck let the tension out of their shoulders as they saw the familiar sight, and they began window-shopping.
They were relaxed and carefree, as though the word "caution" did not exist in their minds. This was because there were no pickpockets or thieves in the North Market — it might well be the safest place in the entire Imperial Capital.
"In any case, what are we buying, Hekkeran?"
"Healing items first. I hope we can get wands of [Cure Light Wounds] for the sake of our budget. Judging by the circumstances, wands of [Cure Middle Wounds] are fine too... but buy the ones that are less than half-charged. I hear we're going to a tomb, so we might be able to use them on the undead. After that comes the basic anti-undead essentials, items to resist poison and disease. Ideally, we'd be able to find some way to deal with negative energy or incorporeal undead... Permanent items are too expensive, though, so scrolls scribed with the relevant spells are fine too. However..."
Wands were magic items infused with multiple castings of the same kind of spell, and they were cheaper than scrolls on a per-cast basis. Therefore, buying wands of frequently used spells, such as curative magic, was more economical than scrolls.
"I see. I thought you were planning to buy a gift, and that you asked me to accompany you to hear my opinion."
"A gift?"
"...It's nothing. Hekkeran. Put some effort into finding something good."
"...Er, mm."
Almost everything sold in this market was junk.
For the most part, the displays were simply a bunch of items on a thin board. Few of them were new goods too; all of them looked like old or beat-up second-hand goods.
Almost all the traders here looked like they could fight, complete with bulging biceps. That, or they were dressed like magic casters who looked better suited for battle than bargaining.
At a glance, they looked like bodyguards, but the truth was that they were the bosses of their stalls. However, they were only bosses for today. They made their living as adventurers or Workers. In other words, they were in the same business as Hekkeran and Roberdyck.
What they sold here were items they had used before, or items they had discovered during their adventures, but which their party members could not use. In that case, rather than sell them to a dedicated magical item dealer or the Magician's Guild, it would be better to find clients themselves and save themselves the expense of a middleman in the process. This approach offered many benefits to both buyer and seller. Even after factoring in the costs of paying the Merchants' Guild to set up a stall, they could still make a profit.
For that reason, many adventurers and Workers like Hekkeran and his ilk would come to this place to look for hidden treasures. Some people even came here every day during their stay in the Imperial Capital in search of a good deal.
This was also the reason why there was little crime in the North Market. Who on earth would try something on all the combat veterans here?
The two of them browsed the stalls for a while. They were not gloomy, but neither were they glad.
"I've got nothing."
"Me neither."
All the items on sale here were items which Hekkeran and the others did not need or which they could not use. Perhaps if the two of them were low-level adventurers or freshly-started Workers, they might be something they could use, but unfortunately, there was nothing that the pair — or even their colleagues — wanted to buy.
"What a shame, maybe it would be faster if we went to a regular store."
"Well, we were just bargain-hunting here anyway, it can't be helped if we can't find anything. Ah well, humble scrimping like this is how you get your savings started."
"Savings, huh... Hekkeran, what do you think's going to happen?"
"If I could understand what you meant just from that, I could be a super high-tier magic caster... do you mean Arche?"
"So you did get it after all."
"Well, I grew more confident as you went on talking."
"So you know what I'm trying to say?"
"...You're trying to say that this might be our last adventure, right?"
"Please don't phrase it in such an inauspicious way," Roberdyck smiled bitterly. "Still, it's not too far off the mark. Arche said she was taking her sisters away to raise them on her own. That being the case, coming out to adventure again will be difficult."
"Yeah. She'll make good use of her talents or find some job where she can make money without adventuring."
"Finding work won't be hard. She's a third-tier magic caster. While I don't know how many people there are in her family — how many sisters she has, rather — she ought to be able to support three or four people."
"Mm, I think so too. That's why she could come out and say that she could raise them on her own."
"In that case, we're the ones who'll have the problem. Once Arche-san the wizard leaves our team, who should we get to fill the hole in the group?"
"Perhaps we'll be lucky and stumble across a third-tier arcane magic caster somebody left by the roadside?"
"Do your dreaming on the bed, please... If we were adventurers, we could ask the Guild to put out feelers for us... but if we're looking for one on our own, it's all down to luck."
The two of them looked at each other and then sighed in unison.
There were times when one lost a friend, when a friend could not keep up with the group, or when one's strength exceeded that of the other members of the group. In these situations, an adventurer or a Worker would leave their team. It was hardly a rare situation. Rather, actually staying with the same team throughout one's career was the rarity; for the most part everyone would change teams two or three times.
Hekkeran, Roberdyck and Imina were the same way.
However, even if that was the case, that did not mean they could easily find an arcane magic caster — and one capable of casting third-tier spells — who was also a Worker without a team.
"How about letting a second-tier caster join and then training him up?"
"That ought to be the last resort. I'd rather avoid that if at all possible."
"Headhunting will be hard too. People who become Workers usually have some sort of personality defect, and just grabbing someone off the road to join us will be bad if it leads to problems down the road. Like say, if they're battle maniacs or something."
"...From that point of view, we're practically a miracle."
"Ultimately, our team simply does it for money, which is a rarity. Well, Arche joined after hearing the rumors about us, so she's kind of an exception."
"When Arche-san came, we were thinking about who to get as our last member."
Roberdyck gazed off into the distance. Hekkeran felt that he probably had a similar expression on his own face.
"I still remember what I was drinking back then... Arche-san came at just the right time. It even made me feel like the gods were telling us to form the team."
"Oh, that's amazing, my memory isn't that clear. So what were you drinking back then, Rober?"
"Water."
"Isn't that the same as what you always drink... you really are a teetotaler. Still, it would be troublesome if you drank as much as Imina did."
"It can't be helped, I just don't drink alcohol. Of course, Imina-san's bad taste in alcohol is a problem of its own..."
"Ahh, well, you're the sort who changes color from red, blue and then white the moment you down a cup of wine. If not for that antidote spell, I have no idea how the first time you drank would have gone."
"Maybe I wouldn't be here now, but someone else. People have died of alcohol poisoning before," Roberdyck shrugged. "But back to the topic. If Arche-san leaves, what do you plan to do? ISmit possible that you might dissolve the team?"
"...If we can't get enough members together, then we won't have a choice. Adventuring with three people is just too dangerous... or do you want to go back to being an adventurer?"
"I don't want to go back to those days of begging the temples for permission to save someone. I'd rather retire instead."
"Retirement, huh... that might not be a bad thing."
"I've got a sum of money saved up, and I hope I can find my way into a job where I can help the weak and become a source of strength for others. Maybe I could go to a frontier village and be a part-time priest as I plow the fields. How about you, Hekkeran?"
"I haven't decided yet."
The corner of Roberdyck's mouth curled up.
"...It might not be good to decide on your own."
Hekkeran did not understand the meaning of Roberdyck's words for a moment. In the end, he finally understood what the other man was getting at, and Hekkeran's face twitched.
"—Why you!"
"Kuku," he smiled evilly. "You thought I hadn't noticed?"
"Ahhhhhhh~! It's not like that, I wasn't hiding it from everyone on purpose! Think about it, I just couldn't find the right time to tell you guys, right... so that's what you meant by the gift."
"Who confessed first?"
"Oi, Rober! Look over there."
Hekkeran was pointing at a pair of people who were inspecting the merchandise within a luxurious tentage.
One of them was a warrior in jet-black armor. A crimson cape descended from behind him, and there were a pair of greatswords crossed at his back.
"That was a sudden change of topic... alright, so be it. I'll ask you about it later. Hmm, his equipment looks top-notch; if he's as good as his gear, then he ought to be a mighty warrior indeed. Is that someone you know with new weapons or armor?"
"I'm not sure, but I have the feeling I've never seen that person in the Imperial Capital before. I mean, do you see that girl beside him? I think he's blocking her. I've never seen her before."
"Yeah, the angle was bad, so I didn't see her. So, who's prettier, between her and Imina-san?"
"—Enough of that! How am I supposed to answer that question?! ...Though frankly speaking, that girl there is prettier."
"Imina-san is a beauty in her own right! And of course, they do say that one's beloved is the fairest in one's eyes, so if even you think that way, Hekkeran... I see, the two of them are travellers, or adventurers from foreign parts. They might also be a team that's just shifted their base of operations to the Imperial Capital."
"Still, they're buying daily-use magic items, isn't that strange?"
The luxurious-looking tent was festooned with all sorts of magic items. However, those items were not the kind which adventurers or Workers would use, but rather, they were items intended for use in daily living. For instance, a box that generated cold temperatures within itself and kept food fresh, or a fan that could create air currents to keep people cool.
Many of these items had been innovated 200 years ago, by a Minotaur known as the All-Talk Sage.
That warrior came up with ideas for all sorts of devices, but he did not have the ability to make them, and he could not explain why these items had to look the way they did or what principles drove them, hence his nickname.
However, the man himself was an absolutely top-notch warrior, who had left a hole slew of unbelievable tales behind him, such as the ability to call forth hurricanes with a swing of his axe or create earthquakes by slamming it into the ground and so on. In addition, he had become famous by elevating the status of humanoid races from food to slaves within the Minotaur nation.
The fact that adventurers — who typically lived in inns — would actually take an interest in these daily-use magic items which had been designed by such a demihuman, was quite unusual.
"It's not like it's that strange. The Empire's magical technology is quite advanced, and these items are cheaper than in other nations. They're probably thinking that it'll be worthwhile to bring them home, even if it does take a bit more effort."
"Ah, I see. Yeah, that's definitely possible."
"It's weird from our point of view, but if you consider it from a traveller's perspective, it's hardly strange."
"Mm, indeed. From that angle, I can understand why they're picking them out so seriously."
The armored warrior seemed to be carefully fiddling with the magic item. He opened and close the doors, picked it up and then turned it over. One could almost see the sweat forming on the salesman's forehead.
"We should probably shop for our stuff as earnestly as he does."
"You have a point."