— Leon Greyrat —
"Look, Leon! It's the ocean!" Eris shouted from over my shoulder. "Can we go!? Please?"
Before I could answer, both Aisha and Norn looked up at me. "Please~!"
…Really girls?
"Later," I shook my head at their antics. "We have to submit the quest completion, find a place for the night, and sell our lizard here before we do anything else."
"Aww~" they pouted in unison.
"Don't 'aww~' me! We'll be here until we find a boat to take us across the ocean, so you'll have lots of time to play," I said.
"I don't think that's wise, Leon," Ruijerd said. "There are many monsters in the oceans surrounding the continent."
Oh?
"Even here by the port?" I asked.
"Especially so," he nodded. "At least from what I can remember. The only reason the port city is here is that it's the closest point to the Millis Continent. Though… it sure has grown over the years."
Ah, he was doing his 'old man' voice again.
Now that I think about it, five hundred years ago the demons and humans were still in the midst of war, and only after did they reconcile enough to trade with each other, so this city was probably younger than him.
At least as a trading hub, that is.
"I see. Well, let's head to the guild first."
It didn't take long for me to find the guild building.
As usual, in a city filled with mud and stone houses, the wooden building stood out.
With the cut-off ears from the rogue Alpha Coyotes that were terrorizing a village over my shoulder and the quest slate in my hand, I then walked over to the receptionist with the other four following behind me, not caring about the change in atmosphere upon our entrance.
"Hah!? The fuck are these- Ow? What was that for?"
"Don't swear, you idiot! Do you not know who they are?"
A familiar exchange entered my ears.
"What… those newbies? What's wrong with them?"
"'Newbies'… ah, right, you've been out of town for the past few months, so I guess you didn't hear of them. Those three… or rather those five, are the 'Red Wolves', an A-rank party."
Despite our party officially being named the 'Fangs of the Red Wolf', it seemed that our name had been shortened with the passing of gossip.
I didn't really care, though.
They could call us whatever they wanted.
"A-rank?" the other gasped. "With only three fighters?"
"Yep. Those two little ones are the 'pups'. They don't have any fighting power, but rumour said that the one with the scarf has used attack magic before."
"Really? A halfling then?"
"Dunno. But anyway, the girl with red hair is 'Crimson Fang Eris'. She usually sticks to herself, but if you ever cross her, she'll punch you without a second thought. And people say no one has ever taken one without getting knocked out."
"Damn… so she has some fight in her, eh? And that tall one? He must be the leader, right?"
"Nope, but he isn't exactly a subordinate either. 'The Judge Ruijerd'… from what I've heard, he's one of those justice-loving types."
"Ha. Those don't last long out here, though, do they?"
"Yeah… but he does. They say whenever he catches someone doing something wrong, he sits them down to ask why they did what they did, like scolding a child, and if they deserve it… he punishes them. Especially when they hurt a kid."
"Damn… that sounds scary. I wouldn't want to be talked down to by that guy."
"Yeah. And what's scarier is there are rumours that he's a Superd, but that's just hearsay, as far as I know."
"Fuck…"
"I said don't swear! If you thought the Judge was scary, he pales in comparison to the golden-haired one, 'Guardian Wolf Leon'." The man visibly shivered. "They say whenever he walks into a guild building with his sisters, if anyone swears, or does anything else like unscrupulous, he gives them a scar with the flick of his hand."
"So… what, he's like the Judge then? Protective of children?"
"'Protective' might be an understatement… One of the stories I've heard is that someone touched the Crimson Fang's bottom, and before she could do anything, he carried the dumb guy outside before chopping off his hand and healing it over and over and over again, only stopping when the guy's bowels had nothing left to let out from sh- crapping himself. They say he carried him away from the guild, but close enough so that everyone could hear his screams as a warning. You… don't want to get on his bad side."
Well… while that was true, I had to make it clear that no one touched Eris. Ever.
And luckily, from how his voice was shaking, it seemed to have done the trick.
Plus, that guy should have been glad he didn't touch my sisters in such a disgusting way, or else I would have done the same thing but with his head.
"That's… terrifying."
"That's right. So just keep your head down until they leave, alright?"
"Yeah… thanks, man."
"No problem."
While I didn't really care about such conversation, from the way Eris was bouncing on her feet with a smirk pulling on her lips, she seemed to like being the subject of such legends.
There were a few scenes like this in the stories she loved, so I guess I should have expected this.
"Hey," I said to the clerk, startling her a little. "Here's the quest and the proof of completion. No problems with the reward, I assume?"
With quests that could be exchanged at different guild buildings, the currency of the Demon Continent shined as each guild building essentially had the second function of a bank, keeping extra stores of money for situations like these.
However, it also meant that for smaller cities, the stores were quite low, so to get properly rewarded, you either had to wait for them to get enough money, or they would give you a card to show the next city's guild to get the rest of it.
But for a city as large and mercantile as this, I doubted there would be a problem.
"No problem at all! I will have to double-check the contents of the bag, but consider this B-rank quest complete."
The clerk then took our cards while verifying the information. "Ah, it said here you declined an increase to S rank… is that still the same?"
"Yes, please, we'll stay at A rank," I answered.
"Got it."
The reason for not increasing our rank was quite simple: flexibility.
With the guild's system where you could only take jobs within one rank of your party's, we were already able to take B, A, and S-rank quests, while if we increased our rank, we wouldn't be able to take any B-rank quests anymore.
Of course, there were many benefits to being an S-rank party, such as being able to skirt the rules and being given prominent escort quests, but such things weren't really important to us compared to being able to take any job that worked with our path and schedule, which is why we would be staying at A rank.
"Well, here's your reward. I'm assuming you've just arrived at Wind Port?" she said.
"Yes, I was wondering where I could find some accommodation. C or B-rank inns would be best," I answered.
She nodded her head. "Ah, there are some good places by the port, especially if you don't mind helping the innkeepers with chores from time to time."
"I see… I'll check it out, thank you."
And with that, I quickly made my way out, pulling Eris along behind me as she glared at a few joking adventurers.
While having her learn the language was great, it also meant that she now knew what other people were saying, causing more arguments to pop up.
This went for Aisha and Norn too.
As they were previously ignorant to what was being said, as they broadened their vocabulary, I cracked down on the people who were being uncouth around them to ensure they wouldn't feel uncomfortable anywhere.
Luckily, by now, my reputation did most of the work for me, so there was no need to do anything but send a harsh glare to anyone who wanted to test me, and even that happened rarely.
I know Paul always warned me not to flaunt my strength, but considering the circumstances… I think he'd forgive me. Mama too.
"Alright, now we just have to sell this guy," I said, patting our lizard companion, "and find an inn. After that, we can go to the beach."
"Leon?" Ruijerd said, confused.
"Don't worry, I have an idea for keeping the monsters away."
My words were enough to placate his worries as he briefly nodded in acceptance.
And tomorrow… well, I suppose I would have to start looking for a boat, won't I?
I'll probably have to go back to the guild for that.
— Leon Greyrat —
"Hiyah!"
"Haha! Got you, sister!"
"Y-You! Get back here!"
Watching Norn chase Aisha across the beach, a small smile settled on my face.
"I'm still worried, Leon. There are many monsters out there," Ruijerd said from the side.
"It'll be fine. I blocked off a portion of the beach, and if anything tries to jump over, I have a barrier to block them," I said. "Plus… you wouldn't let them get hurt anyway, would you?"
"Of course not. It is simply unlike you to be so… casual about things," he responds.
"Well, I think we deserve to relax a little after all this time, right?" I shrugged. "Plus… we're done crossing the Demon Continent, so from here on out it should be easier."
"I suppose so," he nodded.
Turning my head away from the two girls, I watched as Eris dutifully swung her sword, her hair swaying with each strike.
Hmm… while I had been practising my swordsmanship every morning, and getting a good amount of practical experience from our missions, perhaps I should start doing some more traditional training too.
But wow… Eris was really pretty, huh?
The way her outfit showed her toned legs and stomach, how her hair tied in a ponytail wrapped around her shoulder, the way the beads of water from her previous swim dripped down her face to her chest…
I instantly felt a shiver shoot down my spine, causing me to wake up from my stupor.
Damn, these… stupid hormones.
It had been getting worse every day to the point where I… Gah! It's embarrassing just to think about it!
Let's just say I requested some privacy when I washed our clothes that day… and the following days too.
Especially after I caught Eris sniffing a pair of my underwear.
Was… was that really common? I thought Rudy was the weird one…
"I-I'm going to check for our transportation!" I said, getting up.
"Are you sure?" Ruijerd asked. "Weren't you going to do that later?"
Walking away, I sent a short wave back. "I just… need to go for now."
If I stayed next to Eris any longer… I felt like I might do something embarrassing.
"Brother! Can you get us some food please!" Aisha asked.
…And I guess I'll be getting lunch too.
— Leon Greyrat —
"Well… this fucking sucks."
Yep, no other way to say it… the situation fucking sucked.
Having asked the clerk at the guild about transportation, as soon as she mentioned fees based on race, I knew there was bound to be trouble.
After asking her what a Superd would cost to take over the sea, my worries were found to be true.
The cost would be… more than we had in savings for Ruijerd alone.
My next immediate thought would be to lie about Ruijerd's race.
After all, not many believed him to be a Superd even when we told them, so I was hoping that it would be the same for the ship.
Unfortunately, the clerk's next words dismissed the idea, as they apparently had a magic tool to check each person's race.
So yeah, that wouldn't work.
That left us with a few options, though none of them were good.
The first, and the most obvious one, was securing enough money to pay the fee.
This could either be done by taking a quest whenever we could, and eventually, we would gain enough savings, but that would probably take quite a bit of time.
Time that I wasn't willing to spend waiting here, especially when we were so close to our next goal of the Millis Continent.
The second way to earn money would be through a big job, like clearing out a dungeon or a labyrinth, but that also would be a no-go for two reasons.
One, I wasn't confident in leaving Eris alone with my sisters for so long, especially if something went wrong, which led me to the second reason… it was way too dangerous.
Even with my skills and senses, as well as Ruijerd's jewel, we would still be helpless before a well-placed trap that didn't have any mana in it or killing intent.
Logically, we could probably do it, but it would be risky, and considering how we would be leaving Eris and my sisters behind if anything went wrong, that option also was not optimal.
The second was that we could leave Ruijerd behind.
After all, without him getting on the ship, it would actually be relatively cheap, considering humans weren't seen as 'troublesome' to transport.
But… that wasn't good either.
Not only would it feel terrible to leave him halfway through our journey, but he was also immensely helpful in protecting us and my sisters.
That's not even mentioning how he was now a sort of mentor figure for Eris' swordsmanship, and a reliable person for Norn and Aisha to turn to.
Plus, Ruijerd had mentioned how even after wandering the Demon Continent for 500 years, he had yet to meet one of his kin, so perhaps the survivors of his race were on another continent, and considering his social… issues, he would definitely need my help to get across to meet them.
So yeah, that wasn't a good option either, which left us with only one more option…
Smuggling.
In a port city that thrived on trade, there were bound to be some bad actors that we could exploit.
It's just… I didn't take kindly to those types of people, especially if the 'goods' they smuggled were people themselves… as in slaves. And Ruijerd would hate them even more.
But it wasn't like they wouldn't exist even without us using them, and we had to find a way to cross the ocean… so I think we would have to suck it up.
Hopefully, we wouldn't need to interact with the smugglers much, and we could finish our business with a simple transaction, but that might be wishful thinking.
Now… where the heck would I even find such people? Maybe the slums?
"Ugh… to think he wanted that kind of thing… This body is only Badi's, dammit!"
Hearing a childish voice from an alley, I turned to investigate.
"Uuu~ but now that I refused, and he's gone, I won't have anything to eat… who knew a year could be so long to go without food? It must be this damn childish body!"
…What the heck?
Looking behind a set of boxes, I watched as a child in a skimpy dress lamented to the world, slamming her fist weakly against the ground.
"Uh… are you okay?" I asked.
"Huh?" she turned my way. "Who are you? Ah! Food! Can you give me some? Please?"
…Well, I was planning to take these skewers back to the beach, but I suppose I could get more on my way.
"Sure… here, have one."
Handing her a skewer, she swiped it from my hand before munching through it in an instant, and before I could comment further, she extended her hand for more, and before I knew it, my fifteen skewers had been reduced to five.
Haa… dammit, Ruijerd's kid-loving protectiveness had been rubbing off on me, huh?
"Thank you! I, Kishirika Kishirisu, the Great Demon Empress, graciously thank you for the delicious meal! Hahaha!" jumping to her feet, the girl happily laughed while sticking out her chest.
She was an odd one.
With mismatched, purple and green eyes, long purple hair, and two horns that jutted out of her temples, she had quite a striking appearance to go along with her mannerisms.
"…It's no problem, now where are your parents?" I asked.
"Truly delicious! To think that such a fine meal would be my first thing to eat in over a year! It seems my glorious retinue has discovered many tasty foods, hahaha!"
She ignored me.
But a year?
Was she joking with me, or was she one of those races with an outrageous metabolism?
If she was, she was quite stupid to have not eaten anything despite having so much time.
"Wow, that's amazing. Now, how about I take you back home?" I offered.
"Huh? My castle is in the north, so it'll take a while," she said. "Regardless, first I need to reward you! You saved me from starvation, after all! Tell me your name, my saviour!"
…A castle? Was she still kidding with me right now?
Anyway…
"My name is Leon Greyrat… And a reward? What do you mean?" I asked.
"Yes! A reward! Ah! But nothing to do with my body! I'm taken, you see," she huffed proudly.
"I… wasn't planning on it."
Just… no. Gross.
She was just a tad taller than my sisters.
Before I could comment further, her eyebrow twitched as she looked closer at me. "Hm?"
Her right eye then spun around before turning blue.
…Gross.
Was that a race trait of hers? Spinning her eye around?
"Oho? You have a good amount of mana in you, boy!" she said with a smile. "But it's… weird. Why is it flowing like that?"
What the hell was she on about? Could she actually see my mana?
Willing some magic power across my body, Kishirika pointed at me with wide eyes. "Like that!"
I guess she could.
How odd… did she have a demon eye like Ghislaine?
"I'm not sure," I said. "Just practice, I suppose."
"Just practice… Anyway, that doesn't matter," she shook her head before pointing at me. "Now, tell this great one what would you want as a reward! It is the first one that I will be giving out since my reincarnation!"
"…Weren't you just starving here?" I asked.
"Y-Yes, indeed. Why ask such a thing?" she said.
"So… do you have any money?" I asked.
"Of course not! Or else I would have bought myself food!" she proudly stated.
"…And do you have any connections?" I asked.
If I was lucky, she may have an inn with a captain or a merchant, which I could then ask to take Ruijerd across for a smaller fee.
"Nope! I have only recently revived, after all!" she proudly stated again.
Right… I guess not.
"Then, what can you even give me? And no, I don't want your body," I stated again.
"Fufufu, do these fools of recent times not remember the exploits of this Great Empress?" she laughed to herself. "I shall bestow upon you a demon eye of your choosing, of course! Should you wish for it!"
…Wait.
Demon eyes… reincarnation… Kishirika…
Was this actually the Great Empress of old?
I had heard the legends that seemed to line up with such things, but… really?
Was this really a Great Empress who took control of an entire race and continent?
I almost didn't want to believe it, but the Demon Continent was full of crazy situations like this, with multiple immortal races here and there.
But demon eyes… Ghislaine had one, and always complained about how hard it was to control, hence her eye patch.
"…What demon eyes can you grant me?" I eventually asked.
"Hoho! Well, as I've only recently revived, I am quite restricted, but there are the Eyes of Magical Power, Eyes of Identification, Eyes of X-ray Vision, Eyes of Foresight, Eyes of Distant Sight-"
"Wait!" I shouted, interrupting her. "T-The Eyes of Distant Sight… what do they do?"
"Hm?" she turned to me. "They allow the user to see things a great distance away. But it's hard to focus on things. Why? Is that one you want?"
I felt my heart thump painfully against my chest as my mouth instantly became devoid of moisture.
"H-How far can it see?" I asked.
"Across the entire world, of course! Or… this one, at least," she shrugged. "But you can't affect anything with it, so I don't know how useful that will be to you."
While I could receive the demon eye, I knew that it was incredibly hard to control.
There was no promise that I would ever get to the point where I could use it practically.
So instead…
"That doesn't matter," I shook my head. "Instead of receiving a demon eye, c-could I ask you to search for some people?"
"Of course I can! It is of no consequen-" she bit her tongue. "Auch!"
"Here," I healed her. "C-Can you please search for my family?"
"T-Thank you once again," she said. "And I can. Let me see… well, who do you want to see first?"
"Sylphy! She's… a mix of elven, beastfolk, and demon blood, but she's really good at magic and c-cute and-"
"I get it, I get it," she waved off my description. "Let's see…"
As her eye changed colour, I felt an overwhelming sense of dread wash over me.
Dread at what was likely to be said from the Great Empress.
But I just had to know, for my sake.
"Ah! There she is!" she said. "She seems to be in the Asuran Royal Palace, standing in a garden."
"So she's alive!?" I asked.
"Yep! As long as I can see them, they're alive," she answered.
Thank all the gods! She… she was alive…
But the Asuran Royal Palace… was she… there by her own will?
Well, if not, I'll just have to break her out, even if I massacred the whole place in the process.
"And… my mothers? Sorry, Lilia and Zenith Greyrat," I said.
While I thought of both of them as my mothers, and Mama as my main one, I'm not sure if her method of identification was using my feelings or biological.
"Okay… yep! They're alive too!" Kishirika exclaimed. "They seem to be in the Begaritt Continent a bit north of the Maze City of Rapan."
T-They were alive too… thank god.
"Though… it is a bit weird," she said, her face scrunching a bit. "I can't quite see inside… ah, that must be due to the mana interference. It seems your mothers are in the labyrinth at the moment."
In the… labyrinth?
I suppose it wouldn't be weird for Mama to pick up adventuring again, considering her skills, but Lilia?
Even with her leg?
Or… were they being exploited?
After all, it had been over a year.
Mama would have definitely started heading back to the Central Continent by now.
My fist clenched in anger.
If someone dared… no, I couldn't do anything yet.
After I got my sisters to someplace safe, I could go to Sylphy, and then to my mothers.
After all, Begaritt was a faraway land to the southeast.
I couldn't add it to our current travel plans.
But… they were alive.
They were alive!
"A-And my brother, Rudeus Greyrat," I said.
"On it! Let's see…" she scrunched her eye again. "He seems to be in the middle of the Central Continent right now, around the Shirone Kingdom. Currently, he's… touching a sleeping beastfolk girl's breasts… A lecherous one, isn't he?"
That does indeed sound like Rudy.
What the hell was he doing?
But… he was alive too… they were all alive.
Feeling the tension leave my body, I accidentally let go of the remaining skewers, the food dropping to the ground.
"Ahh! You ingrate! The tasty food!"
Kishirika began waving her hands around as I slowly dropped to my knees in relief.
After getting used to the continent, and having Ruijerd join our party, I had convinced myself that my family was dead.
I had to.
After all, when we came back home and eventually found out the truth, if they were in fact dead, I had to be there to comfort my sisters without being too shocked.
Such was the burden of an older brother.
But… they were fucking alive!
"I'll buy you some more skewers, Kishirika," I softly said. "Thank you… for telling me about my family."
"A-Ah! Of course! Umm… is there something wrong, Leon?" she asked, confused.
"Nothing," I said, wiping away the tears of relief that had gathered in my eyes. "One last one, can you see where my father, Paul Greyrat, is?"
I was wondering what he was doing right now, seeing as his whole family had disappeared.
Maybe he was in the labyrinth with my mothers? Or was he with Rudy in the Central Continent?
If everything went well, I would be able to leave Aisha and Norn with him, and then venture to get Sylphy and my mothers.
Assuming the idiot hadn't already gotten himself killed, that is.
"Paul Greyrat… he's in the Holy Country of Millis, it seems. More specifically, the capital Millishion. He seems to be… drinking. And quite a bit at that. Though not in a fun way…" she frowned.
"Thank you anyway," I said, bowing lightly.
I didn't bow my head easily, as I had learned from Sauros the value of pride, but this was a moment where it was deserved.
But drinking, huh?
I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt and guess that he had been trying his best and simply needed some time to relax.
I'd be sure to visit him on our way back to tell him the information, let Aisha and Norn stay there, and if need be, knock some sense into the man.
But hopefully, his daughters would do the trick and get him back to normal.
Getting back to my feet, I couldn't help but feel a smile spread across my face.
My family… they were all alive.
And with my strength that had been growing with each day, if they were in any difficult situations, I could simply break them out of it… hopefully.
Alright! I'm feeling energized now!
"You wanted some food, right?" I said, holding my hand out to the Great Empress. "Let's go back to the stall."
"Ahh~!" she said with stars in her eyes. "I thank you! In fact, you may even ask for another reward!"
"Are you sure? Well, you can tell me about your demon eyes on the way," I said.
"Sure thing! First, there are the Eyes of Foresight-"
— Leon Greyrat —
"So? Have you decided yet?" Kishirika asked, polishing off her plate of meat and cup of beer.
"Almost. I'm just thinking," I replied.
Eyes of Foresight or Eyes of Magic Power… that was the question.
While I obviously had no experience with the two, from what Kishirika explained, they were the best demon eyes for me.
On one hand, the Eyes of Foresight would do wonders for reading enemies' moves and surprise attacks, but it would be quite useless if I wasn't able to see the attack.
She also said that it was hard to control, and with more experienced opponents, the future sight would be too numerous to read.
The Eyes of Magic Power, on the other hand, didn't have any limitations, at least according to Kishirika.
This would also go along with my Water God style training, where I could sense the mana, and hopefully amplify its effects.
And while it wasn't as obvious to help in surprise attacks, considering most lethal things in this world had mana or touki, I was fairly confident that by understanding it correctly, it would be even greater than the Eyes of Foresight.
And for combat, as touki was simply the mana in someone's body, the demon eyes would be able to accurately read the flow within someone's body, which as far as I knew, was as good as foresight, as long as you knew what you were doing.
Well… I guess I kind of made up my mind already, huh?
"I'll take the Eyes of Magic Power, please," I said.
"Haha! Perfect for a magician like you!" she exclaimed. "Now face me for a moment!"
As soon as I did so, she then stuck her finger into my eye.
…Ouch.
But well, she did say she would need to grab my eye to pass on her Demon eye during our walk, so I expected this.
As soon as she was done, I blinked the tears out of my eyes, only to be instantly blinded by light, but only in one eye, which was a very odd experience.
Clicking my tongue, I instantly covered my eye that had been replaced.
"Ah, right! Since mana is laced throughout the world, it's quite annoying without the proper control! But I bet you can do it!" Kishirika said with a smile.
Fuck. This must have been why Ghislaine always wore an eye patch.
"Anyway, thank you for the meals! Should we meet again, we can share a drink! Hahaha!"
And with that, Kishirika patted me on the arm before leaving, going off to who knows where.
Dammit. Now I was blind in one eye for the foreseeable future. How annoying.
Oh, and I still had to bring over the skewers.
I hope the other four didn't get too hungry.