Swept Away, I Became One Of Them (4)

Because of a mess born of pride that kept getting bigger, I finally arrived in Benea, and during the trip the female mercenary I’d exchanged names with, “Hera,” said to me.

“Since Mr. Tritan and Mr. Ballua said they’re going straight to the local mercenary branch, you’re going to have to go on a date with me.”

“…Because it’s dangerous, right?”

“People who saw what happened won’t keep their mouths shut. Even if they promised silence, they’ll end up blabbing. That’s how the world is.”

It was a pretty acerbic judgment, but not wrong. You know that line, right?

“The secret is just between us.” That simple opener to spilling a secret… in the end, that “just between us” becomes known to everyone, and the secret stops being a secret.

And then ultimately you become the victim whose every secret gets exposed. I hated it.

“First, you should take a room at an inn managed by the Adventurers’ Guild. The people most interested in the medicine you make will be adventurers.”

The word “adventurer” hit me with a strange tremor.

There were Heroes, and there was the Demon God. Demon Kings and the Demonic Tribe came as a kind of appendix, and the ones who scrapped with such monsters on the front line were called adventurers.

Among adventurers run by a ranking system, those in the top class often spent money like water. Hera said they could make good customers.

“So earn money by working as soon as we secure your safety. And fatten up our mercenary companies while you’re at it.”

“Whew, scary words. But Hera, don’t you need to return to your mercenary company?”

“I’ll head back once both companies send their people. Otherwise, come with me now—only women there; you’d like the view.”

“…I’ll pass.”

I felt a needless distance at the thought of a place full of rough women like Hera. Honestly, it wasn’t that Hera was bad. She was a textbook case of a strong female figure.

And her face was quite decent, too. The small scars on her face and body only made her look rough; I thought she was actually beautiful.

But I wasn’t foolish enough to tag along as a loner to a group made up of women like that just to loaf around.

As Hera suggested, I headed for the Adventurers’ Guild; when we rented a room at the adventurers’ inn on the second floor, Hera told me,

“Don’t go outside. Wait for me. I’ll be back.”

“I’ll do that…”

My head was a jumble over how things had ended up like this, but it was fallout from what I’d done, so I could only take it. Still, what came next mattered most. I didn’t think everyone who knew about me would act out of goodwill.

Tritan and Ballua might be good people, but that didn’t mean all of their colleagues would be.

Same for Hera. I remembered what the priest said: hide yourself.

So was staying here right now the correct answer?

After a brief deliberation, I thought it might be better to move before the rumors spread further. I felt sorry to Hera, but I judged that staying put was a bad choice. I went straight down from the inn, asked directions, and headed to the harbor. The harbor wasn’t far, and among the ships docked there I found one about to depart and hesitated for just a moment.

I took a quick look back at Benea and, without further hesitation, paid the fare and boarded.

“I’m sorry. It hasn’t been long enough to build trust, and what you told me weighed too heavily on me…”

In the end, already aboard the ship, I had to begin my journey once more.

The destination was a neighboring country far enough away that the voyage would take about fifteen days.

They called it the Terakan Empire, a multiethnic state said to be quite advanced culturally—rated as ahead of its time.

I learned that this world had a human realm consisting of fifteen kingdoms and three empires; a Beastkin Continent made up of twenty small states; and the Demon Continent, home to the Demon God and the Demonic Tribe—three continents in total, all jostling for space.

Among them, the Terakan Empire I was headed to was a large nation deep in the interior of the so-called last bastion, the human continent; with its advanced culture and diverse material goods, it was regarded as a country with a fairly high quality of life.

Upon reaching the coast of the Terakan Empire, the first thing I shouted was,

“Eureka!!”

Since being dragged to this world, I’d been living like a wanderer. By carriage and by ship, I had traveled for more than twenty days in all.

If someone had seen my situation, they would surely have looked at me with pity. But I was determined about one thing throughout the journey.

Medicine could be money, and I had to make the right medicines.

If I did anything too eye-catching, I’d only collide with unfairness, and I’d realized over this long trip that I didn’t have the toughness to withstand that.

“Do you love dry land that much?”

An old man who had been my companion for fifteen days came up to me and asked.

“How could I not? It’s been fifteen days, hasn’t it?”

“Isn’t fifteen days nothing much?”

Realizing the difference between his circumstances and mine as a young man, the old man said,

“Still, it’s good. Do you know how exciting it is to set foot on land after so long?”

“You spent the first week puking, and I thought you’d become a real sailor by now, but no such luck.”

I wanted to retort that such a thing wouldn’t make me a sailor, but I held back. In the end, I wondered if he knew that what had kept me going was the mind-and-body sedative I’d made earlier.

The effect was tremendous. Dizziness and queasiness vanished instantly, and the relief lasted twenty-four hours!

If I hadn’t thought up the pills, I might have collapsed from vomiting and ended up a corpse. A little later, as the ship docked, a squad of soldiers began boarding.

People gathered in small groups and pulled out ID cards to show them. Seeing that, I took mine from my breast and showed it, and I passed without suspicion—but someone trying to slip in illegally was caught.

“Ts, ts, what a miserable life.”

The old man clicked his tongue at the person being dragged away, and his next words were quite provocative.

“If they can’t pay the fine, the woman will become a sex slave and the man a serf. Why do something so reckless…?”

“Do they become slaves straight away instead of paying for their crime?”

“Don’t you know? That’s Imperial Law. It’s pretty merciless.”

I watched the people being hauled off one more time and fixed a spirit of law-abidingness in my mind. Then the old man left, and I, too, began to look around the Terakan Empire’s port city of “Beluga.”

The reason I insisted on a port city was the abundance of food.

The collaboration of seafood and land animals—the fantastic flavors that created—would leave me regretful if I stuck to only one side.

I couldn’t play the games I used to enjoy after coming to this world, so comforting myself with food was my little indulgence—but first I needed to settle in.

So I checked nearby markets and did some market research, and I found that no one sold medicine and the like.

Why not?

I was curious, but after buying goods from a few people and asking around, I learned there was a “Pharmacists’ Guild,” and most medicines were distributed and sold through them; the problem was getting in.

“Unless you’re a noble, it’s hard to get into the Pharmacists’ Guild.”

So said the owner of a nearby stall. Right. Medicine, it seemed, was the property of those with means.

“Then where do adventurers and the like get medicine?”

“I believe the Pharmacists’ Guild sells separately to the Adventurers’ Guild and others. If you want the details, you should go ask at the Adventurers’ Guild.”

It was the look of someone telling me not to ask more unless I was buying more. So I thanked him and, with no choice, asked around until I found the Adventurers’ Guild.

And the moment I stepped into the Adventurers’ Guild—the world of rough men—an uproar hit my ears.

“Bloody hell! Then why are we out of potions!!!”

At the bellowing man’s words, the receptionist at the counter grimaced and said,

“You know the supply of low-grade potions is limited. You’ll have to use mid-grade potions. That’s all we have in stock.”

“How are adventurers like us supposed to pay for mid-grade potions!! Damn it, damn it!! Are you saying we should just let Anna die like this?!”

“You should look for a priest…”

“Damn it, if a priest could handle it, we wouldn’t be here!!”

The big man who was roaring curses and shouting held a woman in his arms, drenched in blood.

She looked truly bad. Anyone could see that if time passed, she’d be a goner. Pale, breathing rough. Seeing the labored, faltering breaths, I thought she might die soon.

“With the emergency wound treatment I have now… I could save her. But then again…”

I was sure trouble would follow. Just then, the door behind the Adventurers’ Guild counter swung open and a burly man came out and said,

“Bring her in—we save her first. Whether she ends up a slave or a sex slave after, we make sure she lives first, right?”

“…Guildmaster, I’m begging you. I’ll raise the money somehow. Give us time.”

“Ha, how long will that take? Bring her in for now. Rita, get the potions.”

“But, Master…”

“Someone’s dying—an adventurer, no less. If we don’t look after adventurers, who will?”

With heavy sighs, a woman named Rita reluctantly pulled something from beneath the counter. Grabbing vials, she hurried into the guildmaster’s room. I hesitated over whether to intervene and realized I’d missed my moment.

“Was my own safety the only thing that mattered…?”

A useless self-loathing washed over me. I had the ability but turned away. That didn’t mean I was wrong, either. I was hiding to protect myself, and it was right to avoid sticking my neck out for nothing.

I decided to watch how things developed. As I sat down a little ways off, the door to what looked like the master’s office banged open and the woman named Rita sprinted back to the counter.

Then she grabbed more potions and rushed back in, and from inside I heard a voice that lodged in my ears.

“Damn it—defective? Those damn bastards at the Pharmacists’ Guild can’t do a single thing right!!”

It was the angry voice of the Adventurers’ Guild Master.,