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Thus, the two arrived at the capital of South Romania, Semerium.

Having been far from the Demon King’s castle, they hadn’t suffered any of its damage, so what they decided first was.

“Really, isn’t it better to stay in the Church of Life branch’s room?”

“I don’t want that. I want to go to an inn.”

They were deciding on accommodations.

“No, I mean, an inn wouldn’t be better than a room offered by the branch. Why are you being so stubborn?”

“Every time we borrow the church’s room… it gets old. I’m tired of it.”

“I get how you feel, but it’s not like we have to stay at an inn, right? Besides, this time we decided not to get full support like last time. I think it’s better to save money…”

“……”

Alice, who wanted to experience an inn she had only heard about in rumors, and Eric, who insisted they should save money.

Well, if you think about it normally, Eric had a point, but.

“If you need money, can’t you just ask for it?”

“Alice, where do you find someone who just hands over money? Money is something you get after paying its worth.”

Eric spoke of the harshness of reality. However, Alice had never experienced that.

Alice, the treasured daughter of the Church of Life, would never have such experiences. Whenever she mentioned what she wanted, the priests of the Church of Life would immediately fulfill her requests.

Could it be… that she was raised too spoiled? Maybe they coddled her too much.

“But…”

Alice whined in a small voice, but Eric tried to ignore it and said.

“You’ve said it’s better to hide your identity. If you stay at an inn, who knows when your identity might be revealed, and news of the Dragon Priestess traveling around might spread.”

“Traveling should be… okay, right?”

“Just the fact that the Dragon Priestess is traveling might cause a huge commotion. You saw it on our previous trip, right?”

The appearance of the Dragon Priestess indicated that a situation requiring her direct involvement had arisen.

It was conveyed like a feeling of a major incident occurring later or a forecast that something was going to happen soon.

Well, every time something happened, they would go and resolve it, so such perceptions couldn’t be helped.

Maybe it was time to stop pretending to be the Dragon Priestess? I need to come up with some other disguise.

Well, I still have to figure out what to do with these horns first.

“But…”

“It’s for your own good. Right now, you can only use power at the level of a normal mage, right? In such a situation, if you stay in an inn full of other people, dangerous things might happen.”

“I’m fine…”

“I just can’t relax. So please understand. Instead, I’ll let you explore the inn or tavern during the day instead of booking a room at the Church of Life branch.”

“During the day?”

“Yeah. During the day.”

Only then did Alice nod her head slightly.

She seemed quite happy, but it was hard to express on her face. Hmm.

“However, you can’t stray far from me. Got it?”

“Yeah.”

Thus, Alice and Eric arranged accommodations at the Church of Life branch in Semerium and began to enjoy a leisurely time at the tavern of the inn.

The tavern was often used by adventurers. It was quite empty, as everyone seemed to be busy with work during this time.

But still, for Alice, who found everything fascinating, she began to look around restlessly.

“So, what are you going to do next? Do you have a plan?”

“A plan?”

“Yeah, a plan. You can’t act without any plan, right?”

Alice paused for a moment in thought before responding.

“Well, first, I think we should meet the Divine Flame.”

“The Divine Flame…”

“Yeah. Unlike other ancient gods, it’s not difficult to locate, and it’s not a god of any kind of tribe, so it should be relatively easy to meet.”

“Relatively…”

“Yeah, relatively.”

Well, that’s true.

Shamash and Sylphid travel around a lot, while Thetis is deep in the ocean, making her hard to find, and Yggdrasil and Sagarmatha are likely heavily guarded by Elves and Dwarves.

If a regular person can just cross the blazing desert, they should encounter Ifrit.

And considering Ifrit’s nature… it’s very likely that the desert itself will be a test.

If you can reach Ifrit after crossing that desert, it’ll feel like you’ve automatically passed the test.

Well, it might be a bit too casual of an assumption, but they’ve already wrapped up their conversation with Ifrit adequately.

“One problem, though… while using the heat-blocking magic, I can’t use any other magic. Even if I do, its effectiveness won’t fully come out.”

“Really…?”

“Yeah. It seems that’s normal for mages.”

Alice made a sulky face after saying that. She must have been disappointed that a power that could instantly kill most monsters had weakened so much.

But that’s normal for a mage! Keeping heat-blocking magic going isn’t easy for a regular mage!

“So that means… I’ll need to fight alone?”

“Yeah… but while protecting me.”

Hearing Alice’s words, Eric gulped.

Protecting Alice. It was something he wouldn’t have imagined doing when she was the old Alice… but now the story was different.

The Alice who once split the sky with magic had become endlessly weak, and the Hero’s sword was being used to protect Alice now.

Eric had to fight relying on the sword granted to him by the Goddess of Life, Caladbolg, and the silver-armored Agathlam.

“Can I do this?”

“If I could confirm you could… that would be nice, but…”

Alice wasn’t confident about that either.

“Just in case, let’s find some companions.”

“Companions…?”

“Yeah. Someone to fight alongside you and protect me.”

Alice’s suggestion sounded reasonable but was not easy to realize.

“You mean finding companions to travel with during the crossing of the blazing desert?”

“No. I’m talking about companions who will stick with us throughout this adventure.”

Eric shook his head before hearing the whole story.

“Who would want to join this adventure? It doesn’t make sense! It’s an adventure to meet all six ancient gods and pass their tests to normalize you. It’s not an ordinary rough adventure…Who would join?”

“Well… there might be some oddball out there, right?”

“Oddball…”

It was implying that unless they are an oddball, they wouldn’t become a companion.

“Fine. Let’s assume we could somehow persuade someone to be our companion. What kind of person should we choose?”

At Eric’s words, Alice thought for a moment and said.

“Hmm… an adventurer?”

“That’s a group.”

Eric immediately pointed that out. Reality was harsh.

“An adventurer who makes a living hunting monsters would definitely refuse to join such a death-defying adventure, even if you offered them a mountain of gold.”

“Really?”

“Those who venture out for a living would probably avoid such risky adventures.”

An adventurer is, after all, a profession for survival.

Not for various reasons, but due to intertwining circumstances, going on an adventure to meet ancient gods and gain their recognition is too much for an adventurer.

Although they are adventurers!

“Well, if not an adventurer… how about a knight?”

“A knight would also be reluctant. You’ve seen many knights in our previous adventures.”

“Yeah, I have.”

“Those stiff-headed knights are trapped in their own worldview and don’t listen to others. I don’t want to do anything with those rigid people.”

“That’s class discrimination.”

“I say that because I’ve experienced it firsthand! Anyway, knights are a no-go. I don’t want to deal with those who would draw their swords and challenge me claiming, ‘Who do you think you are to call yourself a hero!’”

Eric, the hero who was constantly harassed by such knights during the adventure to defeat the Demon King.

“Well then… a mage… isn’t feasible either.”

“Hmm. You’re trying to find a companion who can protect you, but it’s not right to bring in a mage as a companion. It would just double my concerns about protecting two people.”

Unless Eric learns techniques like shadow duplication, that would be unreasonable.

“Adventurers are no good, knights are out of the question, and mages won’t work. So what’s left?”

“Yeah, right.”

Thus, Eric and Alice’s worries deepened even further.

At that moment.

“Why can’t I?! I’m willing to pay any amount of money!”

“Hey now, it’s not something a kid should say! Even though the number of monsters has decreased since the Demon King was defeated, there’s no way I’m taking on such a reckless request!”

“I’m not a kid!!! I’m an adult, you know!!!”

“With that height?”

A commotion was erupting in a corner of the tavern.

A battle of words was going on between a man who looked seasoned as an adventurer and a petite girl.

That commotion naturally caught the attention of Alice and Eric.

 

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