They can see a town in the distance. It was a small town enclosed with a surrounding moat and hedges. There was a gate facing the highway, with a hut by its side. It might be the guards’ post. Even though it was a small town, there was the arrangement for guards. Because of that, Hajime who thought they’d be able to do quality shopping, loosened his cheeks.
“… … If you are in a good mood, can you take off the collar already?”
Shia with a disappointed expression earnestly asked Hajime who smiled while looking at the town. Fixed on Shia’s neck was a collar with a black body embedded with a small inconspicuous crystal. It was something sturdy that Hajime used as punishment for Shia’s verbal slip. Because for some reason she couldn’t take it off, Shia asked Hajime to remove it only to have her words pass through Hajime’s ears.
Slowly, Hajime and his party could clearly see the town, so he put the magic-driven two-wheeler into the “Treasure Box”, and switched to walking on foot. It was because it’d cause a commotion to arrive with a jet black bike, after all.
Along the way, Shia kept ‘bla bla’ complaining. As expected, that just went through his ears and they finally arrived at the town’s gate. As he thought, the hut beside the gate was a guard’s post, with an armed man coming out of it. He was equipped with leather armor and a long sword on his waist, rather than a soldier he looked more like an adventurer. That adventurer-like man called Hajime and his party to stop.
“Please halt. Show your status plate. Also, what are your objectives coming to this town?”
It might be something like a regulation, because he somehow looked unmotivated. Hajime pulled out his status plate while answering the guard’s question.
“Our main objective is to secure rations. They’re to be used for our journey”
An indifferent voice, ‘Hu~m’, can be heard from the guard while he checked Hajime’s status plate. After that, he blinked his eyes, held the plate a little farther, then rubbed his eyes. Having seen the guardsman done that, Hajime with cold sweat thought, “Ah, this is bad, I forgot to hide that”.
Inside status plate, there is a function to hide the numerical value and skills’ column. Even for adventurer and mercenary, the leak of combat ability proved to be fatal. Hajime immediately tried to deceive the guard by telling him a lie.
“A while before, I was attacked by demonic beasts. It looks like it broke at that time”
“I-it broke? That was, well…”
The guard was perplexed. It was no wonder. After all, Hajime’s status plate didn’t display the level, and the numerical value of his stats, as well as his skills column were all over the place. Even though he sometimes heard of people losing the status plate, for it to be broken (in sense of it being bugged) was something he had never heard of. Normally he would just laugh it off, but something unbelievable was displayed after all, so he didn’t understand how to judge it.
To further his attack, Hajime shrugged his shoulders with a manner of someone totally bothered by it.
“If it wasn’t broken, isn’t that display too strange? It’s as if I am a monster. Mr. Guard, do I look like a monster that could destroy a town with just the tip of my finger?”?
To Hajime who used a joking gesture by opening both of his hand, the guard only gave out a wry smile. If what the status plate displayed was correct, then he would be a monster that easily surpassed even the demon kings and heroes. Even without hearing that explanation, he already considered the plate to be broken.
If he know he was truly a monster, surely, this guard would have fainted. Hajime who boldly told that lie, looked at Shia and Yue who had amazed expressions.
“Haha, well, of course I don’t see that. Even though I have never heard of any bug in the display, well, there is always a first for everything… … and those two…”
Turning his gaze to Yue and Shia, the guard asked to see their status plate. Only to be stunned. With his face dyed red, he looked alternately at Yue and Shia with a blank and unfocused look. Even though it was said before, Yue is a beautiful girl with a bisque doll-like appearance. Shia, while quiet, was also a beautiful girl that gave off a mysterious feeling. In other words, the guardsman was truly charmed by them.
Hajime unnaturally cleared his throat, then ‘Hah’, the guard turned his gaze to Hajime in panic.