Dawn of the next day.
Shin departed from Bear Point Pavilion and passed through the main street where there were crowded stalls towards the south gate. When he exited from the gate, there were people lining up to enter the country, in contrast to Shin who was leaving.
Shin moved along the rampart, while ignoring the people. Tsuki no Hokora was located between the south gate and the east gate, in fact, it was closer to the south gate. The place where trees opened came into view after walking for a little while.
As before, there were huge trees enclosing Tsuki no Hokora with about a 1 mel thickness, it gave off the impression that it was separated from its surroundings. It was because Tsuki no Hokora was originally built at the outskirts of the Arclid continent, which was one of the 4 continents. The ground where Shin lived, which was the Eltnia continent, might originally have been part of the Arclid continent.
The Arclid continent was an even more superior area than the Houzent continent, the area of advanced level players. Moreover, there were originally many quests and monsters which had a higher degree of difficulty than in the common areas of the other three continents. Besides, there were also quests that beginner and intermediate players could receive, but players who yearned for unusual quests, wanted to fight with strange monsters, had often visited there. In a sense, the players were mostly gathered regardless of their levels and jobs.
It could be said that the visitors who came to Tsuki no Hokora, due to being built in the outskirt area, were mostly advanced level players. Seldom there were players who sought shelter after escaping from monsters. By the way, the average level of monsters in the area where Tsuki no Hokora was built was around 600. Meanwhile the lowest slightly exceeded 200, and needless to say, the highest was 1000. It was in the past, but the store was set up casually near the habitat of a boss monster. Even the players replenished their items in Tsuki no Hokora before challenging the boss.
“If I think about it… I wonder what happened to the monsters that were in the Arclid continent. They certainly should have gotten on when the continents stuck together. Did they perish along with the natural disasters?”
Certainly, if the monsters still existed, the Bayreuth kingdom would be destroyed. Anyway, there was monsters with the habit akin to ants, too. The monsters’ levels exceeded 600 and appeared in random areas altogether. It was annoying to the advanced level players, the intermediate level players ran away or went around it, and beginner level players had no choice but to acknowledge death and return. A place where most of the people gathered, such as a country and so on, was unlikely to be targeted, but because of the rate of the encounters rose, the number of party members was increased.
However, he still didn’t know, no matter how much he thought about it. Since damage was not dealt, were some measures taken? Anyway, there might be a reason as to whether the monsters that perished appeared or not. He was convinced that one would not be able to establish the country and the roads if it was not so, and he stopped thinking about it for a moment. In fact, it might be possible that there were different continent grounds outside the surroundings of Tsuki no Hokora.
He kept his questions to himself and stood in front of Tsuki no Hokora. When he visited a few days ago, he was relieved that the store still existed and did not notice it, but a wooden tally about 20 cemels across vertically and 10 cemels wide hung at the door which was the entrance of the store. It had the letters 『The storekeeper struggles hard inside』on it. This expressed that Tsuki no Hokora was doing business normally. And it had the letters 『The storekeeper has left home』 on the back. This expressed the closing time for the store from material collecting or not being logged in and so forth.
He opened the door while admiring that the wooden tally was still being used and entered the store. When Shin stepped forward in the store by one step, a light “Chiri~n” sound of the bell was made. It would ring when someone entered the store. Apparently, the knights didn’t show up today.
“Welcome! Oh, Shin.”
“Yo, I came to leave a message I had forgotten about.”
When she saw that it was Shin who entered, Tiera’s expression changed from a smile into a happy face. The silvery hair that had returned to its original hair shined because of the light from the windows.
“That reminds me, I completely forgot about that.”
When she heard Shin’s speech, she did the expression “Ah!” as if she remembered something she had forgotten. Still, there was no help for forgetting about it when he thought about the previous event. (TL note: he refers to the curse removal event)
“Then, I want you to convey to her that I want to meet and talk if she remembers this.”
Shin said and placed an object, which he took out from his Item Box, on the counter.
It was a dark blue ninja sword, there were flowers engraved on the sheath and handle, which Tiera had never seen before. It was well engraved in such detail, which turned the ninja sword weapon into a work of art.