Chapter 16: Chapter 15: Luminaria of Calamity

「That said, do you have any ideas as to their locations? You can’t simply catch those guys without any clues.」

「Well, that is certainly true but at least one is easily predictable.」

Just like Mira said, The Nine Wisemen were a bunch of eccentric guys who never stayed in one place.

While Mira was busy figuring out how to fulfill her end of the promise, Solomon’s words caused her to remember a particular person.

「You’re talking about Soul Howl, right?」

「Yeah, I believe it’s better to start with him.」

『Soul Howl The Great Wall』 was the Elder of the Tower of Necromancy, a guy who loved undead girls to an abnormal extent.

『Ancient Temple Nevrapolis』, it was a dungeon commonly called the 「underground cemetery」 by the players.

In the past, when they adventured there, Soul Howl called that place a paradise. That dungeon filled with a large number of undead monsters was truly a holy land to him.

It was well worth checking for Soul Howl if he was online but not at tower.

「The underground cemetery is a bit far away. I would love to use the Floating Continent but…」

「I’ll aid you with it. Although, I can’t dispatch neither Express Carriage nor the Housing Carriage for this top secret mission.」

「Express Carriage? Housing Carriage? What are they?」

「Ahh, the Express Carriage is the carriage you were riding on the way here. It was quite fast, right? It uses spell braces to decrease the burden on horses to the limit, you see. They are our country’s fastest carriages.」

Saying so pridefully, Solomon puffed up his chest with a smile.

「It was surely fast. Though it doesn’t even come close to the Floating Continent.」

「Don’t compare that to a cheat item. Now you should understand how broken it was.」

For reference, the speed of the Express Carriage was 25 km/h. Compared to that, the Floating Continent traveled at 500km/h. Express Carriage was quite fast considering the technology of this world. Therefore, just like Solomon said, the Floating Continent was a cheat item.

「The Housing Carriage loses in speed to the Express Carriage, but we put effort into adding residence space inside it. Simply speaking, it’s a carriage version of a camping car.」

「Huh, that’s quite nice.」

Mira imagined herself relaxing on the bed, sipping on an Appure while watching the scenery outside move as the carriage gently pressed forward.

「By all means I would love to ride on that Housing Carriage.」

「Well, I’ll let you ride it one day.」

「How stingy of you. You could at least let me ride it to the underground cemetery.」

「I wish I could do that, but like I said before, it’s a top secret mission. Both the Express Carriage and Housing Carriage are custom-made for things involving the country, such as welcoming royalty and similar stuff. You will most likely gather lots of attention wherever you go.」

「…I’d rather pass on that.」

「Right? Well, I will prepare a normal carriage for you.」

While they were talking like this, a noise suddenly came from outside. Immediately after, ignoring Reynard’s pleas to stop, a single woman opened the door of the office with so much strength it nearly broke.

That person who snatched away Mira’s and Solomon’s gaze, was a woman wearing a white and blue robe, and had extremely attractive proportions of her body and beautiful facial features. It was a beauty that would steal anyone’s gaze.

This beauty had a deep crimson hair that looked like it was burning, her b̲o̲o̲b̲s̲ were unimpeded from asserting themselves as they shook. She glanced at Solomon with her crimson eyes which did not lose to the color of her hair, then poured her gaze at the girl.

「What happened all of a sudden? It is not the appointed time yet.」

Completely changing his manner of speaking and adjusting it into one full of dignity, Solomon fixed his gaze on the beauty who had entered the office. At the same time she heard these words, she closed the door with a strong momentum.

Being hit in the head by the closing door, Reynard made an expression of anguish as he staggered and tears appeared in his eyes. Seeing him like that, Joachim put a hand on his shoulder and comforted him by saying, 「Don’t mind it, saying anything to that person is pointless.」

「I heard a girl calling herself Danbulf’s disciple came, so I went to the audience hall to take a look at her, but I found no one. And when I wrung up a guard nearby he told me you moved to the office, so I came here.」

「I see. Well, in any case I was going to bring her to you.」

With these words, Solomon walked to Mira’s side.

「This girl is Danbulf’s disciple, Mira.」

Introduced like that, Mira did not stand up from the seat or said any greeting, she just stared at the woman standing in front of the door, smiling bitterly at how the woman did not change, then reseated herself on the sofa.

「So, it was her? By the way, Your Highness Solomon, should you be speaking this way?」n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The way of speaking as pointed out by the beauty, was one he used when speaking with friends, not the speech mannerism with a self-important tone fitting for a king. The two had decided that when there was someone together with them, they would act in appropriate manner.

「Ah, there is no problem. I mean, this is Danbulf himself. So you can speak normally, too. It’s been many years, but I still can’t get used to you speaking this way.」

While saying this, Solomon made a mischievous smile.

「W… w-w-wha…」

「Ahh, it’s been a long time, Luminaria. At least for you. It had just been two days for me.」

Retaining a relaxed posture on the sofa, Mira just raised one hand in a greeting.

Luminaria. It was the name of one of the Nine Wisemen and the only Elder whose whereabouts were currently known.

「I see. Danbulf, huh. You’ve finally come here…」

Luminaria stared at Mira’s whole body as if inspecting her. Then seeing the adorable appearance of the girl, she clearly recalled the time when she had a discussion with Danbulf on their preferences.

Mira’s appearance perfectly matched the characteristics she heard back then. Seeing her best friend unchanged, Luminaria was both happy and amused, and she burst out into laughter.

Hearing the laughing voice leak out slightly through the closed door, Reynard had covered his ears, and together with Joachim, they nodded to each other. Luminaria sometimes changes into a completely different person. That was the rumor whispered in the castle, which was correct in a sense.

After rolling about with laughter, Luminaria once again captured Mira in her sights. She grinned and made a meaningful expression.

「This means you finally realized how wonderful this is, right? A woman’s body is great, isn’t it? Did you play with it to your heart’s content yet?」

And while the first thing she said were really indecent words, Luminaria’s glossy lips with their ends raised in a smile were so alluring that they turned even such words into part of her charm.

「Don’t lump me together with you. It was an accident, so to speak, not my will.」

「And yet, that’s some first-class finishing touches you got there. I don’t think you’ll be able to pass this off as an accident, y’know?」

「Ugh… It’s a long story. Hmph.」

Mira briefly explained the whole story starting from the mail notice about the expiring web money and ending with today’s situation.

「I got the vanity case for exactly the same reason. Though I haven’t used it.」

Once Mira finished explaining, Solomon said that he bought the vanity case for the same reason of not wanting to waste the money.

「In which case, I’m the same.」

Said Luminaria as she took a vanity case out from the item box. Mira glared at Luminaria hatefully while she was toying with it in her hands. In a sour mood, Mira pursed her lips sulkily and lied down on the sofa.

「I wonder why I don’t have one.」

「Because you already used it, duh.」

Mira’s heart was gouged by Solomon’s blunt words and she growled before facing up and threw her four limbs out like a kid throwing tantrums.

「But well, at least you should be glad that it wasn’t a joke character. The ideal female image, was it? It’s better than getting something you have absolutely no attachment to or is not your ideal, a silver lining in a dark cloud, isn’t it. From my perspective, this world becoming real was a lucky happening. This world’s the best. I mean, starting from day one I played to my heart’s content.」

Luminaria made a refreshing smile with her pretty face. If one ignored what was inside, she would definitely steal hearts of many men and unfortunately, the only ones knowing her real identity were the two that were here.

Staring coldly at Luminaria who did not change in the least, Mira scooped up a certain question that came to her mind.

「By the way, this has been bothering me since just now, but… Solomon, you were here thirty years, Luminaria was twenty, right? So much time has passed but you two certainly don’t look like you aged at all.」

At first glance, nothing looked out of place for Mira since it had just been two days for her. However, it was inexplicable for the two to remain the same as back then as they had come to this world at different times from her. Even if one overlooked Luminaria, the same couldn’t be done for Solomon. It was impossible for a human to retain a boy’s appearance for nearly forty years.

「Speaking of which, it’s become so obvious to us that I forgot to talk about it.」

「And it’s one of reasons why this world is the best.」

To settle down in place, Solomon pulled his office chair with wheels next to the sofa, but as if it was for first come first served, Luminaria sat down on it and crossed her youthful legs to show them off.

「To put it simply, it looks like we ex-players are different from the normal people who used to be NPCs.」

「What is the difference?」

「Yup. First, it’s about inspecting, did you try to inspect me or Luminaria?」

She actually tried to inspect Solomon in the audience room but no information was shown. Trying again, this time she gazed intently at Luminaria who wriggled around in a disgusting manner. However, no information appeared within the sight.

「Nothing shows for you two. It worked for Suleyman and Graia however.」

Hearing that, Solomon made a boyish smile and sat on the sofa by Mira’s legs as she lied on it with her arms and legs spread.

「It’s likely that inspecting ex-players is impossible. That’s the first difference. By the way, when I first saw you I tried inspecting you but didn’t see anything, so I knew you were an ex-player. You proclaimed to be Danbulf’s disciple the moment he came online and had the appearance of a loli in Danbulf’s taste. Even if it wasn’t me, other people would realize it with that much evidence.」

Solomon explained it while correcting the robe’s edge that became a skirt, covering Mira’s legs to hide her bloomers.

「In other words, it can act as basis for judgement.」

「Exactly. We can’t be certain that everyone you’ll be looking for from now on did not change their appearance. But at the very least you can tell whether someone is a player or not.」

「However, with their personality like that, we have other things to base on other than their looks.」

「Certainly. I have confidence to tell Luminaria apart even if she changed her appearance.」

「Agreed. It would be hard to find another pervert like this.」

After taking a glance at Luminaria who stared at her own legs in rapture, the two laughed meaningfully. Being called a pervert, Luminaria glared at the two, but then for some reason her expression suddenly changed.

「In other words… we’re so close that you can tell me apart even if I changed my appearance, right?!」

Giving an unexpected reply, Luminaria dived into the sofa like doing a body press. Solomon quickly avoided her, but the completely exhausted Mira, with a small surprised cry, was mercilessly hugged by Luminaria.

「My friend!」

「Hey, stop it, Bakanaria! Sto… Where are you touching!」

Luminaria’s wiggling hand treated Mira’s body as a sacrifice for itself and started creeping around her limbs as if to inspect her.

「It’s fine, it’s fin…ngha!」

Luminaria assaulted Mira like a certain evil magistrate’s impression, but along with a bursting sound, she let out a voice that gushed out from deep inside her and flew in the air, then with all the momentum she hit the ceiling before falling back down on the floor.

Mira who lied face up on the sofa, had protruded her right hand up towards the ceiling. She had fired the Sage spell 【Shock Wave】 at Luminaria from point-blank.

「Putting life on the line to cop a feel, aren’t you?」

Solomon spoke indifferently towards Luminaria, who slowly got up and responded with a thumbs up, 「Still worth it.」

Fixing her disordered robe, Mira got up and stared coldly at Luminaria with a warning,「Next time — I’ll include Magic Eye.」

After that, Luminaria, having nothing to do with her dubiously prepared hands, began to pick up the scattered paper on the floor.

「Mm, what an admirable attitude.」

「Oh you, I just like when it’s clean, you see」

「Then please take care of those as well.」

Taking advantage of the moment, Solomon pointed at a desk full of scattered documents, to which Luminaria nodded without a word.