Skeleton Knight, in Another World Volume 3 Chapter 16

Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「Border Town Gurado」Part 1

The Leibnitz territory of the Holy Leburan Empire.

To the west was the Shiana mountain range which ran from north to south. West of the mountain range it was hemmed in by the borders of the Great Leburan Empire and in the east were the steep volcanic peaks of the Fire Dragon Mountains.

The fertile soil and warmer climate between the eastern and western mountains resulted in the territory becoming rather wealthy due to the ease in which crops could be grown.

In a certain room in the castle of Leibnitz territory’s feudal lord, the sound of a man and woman merrily drinking and exchanging pillow talk could be heard.

The interior was luxuriously decorated and sitting untidily on one of the expensive embroidered sofas was a tall man.

His black hair was twisted into dreadlocks, his face was unshaven and a peculiar tattoo could be seen on his exposed muscular chest.

The man with the exposed chest had a vulgar smile on his face as his hands traced over the curves of a female servant. The woman in question blushed fiercely when the man took a swig from the bottle in his hand and forced her to drink it with a kiss while starting to rub her large breasts.

Along with the sweet aroma of expensive liquor, a breathless moan escaped the woman’s mouth.

“Funoba-sama〜, me too～♪”

Another woman, who had been watching until now, uttered that cry before she clung to the man called Funoba and licked her lips.

“Nuhahah, it’s alright, it’s alright. I’ll let you enjoy a taste of this high-class liquor.”

Just as Funoba was about to take another swig, the room’s door was forced open and a single man stepped in.

“Funoba-sama, do you plan to drown in the pleasures of women and liquor all day!? Have you forgotten the task his majesty gave you!?”

He had a thin looking face and blue veins were visible under his copper colored hair that had been tightly woven into seven braids. Although his tight-fitting clothes weren’t all that glamorous, they were finely tailored.

Funoba felt as if something troublesome had appeared when he looked up at the man.

“Old man Drusus, I just returned from a monster capturing expedition, okay? I’m sure his majesty Domitianus will understand if I take a little down time.”

While chuckling a little, Funoba became playing around with the women, causing them to moan in unison.

“……Youuu!!!”

In a fit of blind rage, the middle-aged man called Drusus took a step forward to grab Funoba, but Drusus stopped in his tracks when Funoba suddenly whistled and large figures entered his sight.

Two huge wolves, about two meters tall, crept out of the sofa’s shadow. Their fur was entirely white and the tips of their tail gave off a phosphorescent blue light. Around the wolves’ forepaws was a dark gray ring, engraved with a complex pattern, that didn’t seem to be connected to any chain.

When the wolves standing front of Drusus snarled, he started to tremble and scream.

“Ahh!”

Drusus quickly backed away from the ferocious beasts and glared at Funoba, who was still fooling around with the women.

“Don’t make such a scary face, old man. These Haunting Wolves are rather clever monsters. If it weren’t for my ability to use the 『Ring of Submission』, they wouldn’t be so obedient, you know? Since I exerted myself for his majesty’s sake, I need to replenish my energy, hehe.”

After having mocked Dorassos, Funoba took another gulp from the bottle of alcohol in his hand and gave the women another mouth-to-mouth drink.

After gnashing his teeth at Funoba’s behavior, Drusus turned heel, storming out of the room and slamming the door shut.

He paced through his own castle with long strides and slumped shoulders. The surrounding servants trembled in fear when they saw their master’s appearance.

“Fuck!! This uncultured barbarian!! Just because you carry his majesty’s favor you think you can selfishly invade my castle!? You’ll regret this, you savage!!”

On that day, the repeated resentful shouts of viscount Drusus De Barishimon could be heard throughout the castle, creating a gloomy atmosphere for all the servants.

Arc POV

Under a cloudy sky early in the morning, a city spread out before my eyes. The three-meter wide moat was filled with water from the Spirit river that ran close to the city. Around the moat was a wheat field that was currently blowing in the wind.

This it the first town I visited when I came to this world, Rubierute. Though it hasn’t been that long since I last stayed here, I was still feeling a bit nostalgic.

Ponta was in her usual spot atop my head and Ariane was looking down at the city beside me.

The reason we came to this town was because there was no other way for us to get to the empire. The city closest to the empire that I could travel to with 【Transfer Gate】 was Rubierute.

However, we still needed to ask someone in the city for directions to the empire from Rubierute. Though we’d received a crude map of the Northern continent in Raratoia, there were no locations of human towns marked on it, and no one in the elf village was knowledgeable about highways.

Apparently, we’d reach the Holy Leburan Empire if we headed straight north and crossed over the volcanic area called the Fire Dragon Mountain. Given what happened with Buranbeina, it was necessary for us to get accurate directions.

When we reached the gate, I showed the guards the copper pass I received after saving the feudal lord’s daughter and asked them if they knew the way to the empire, but they were only able to shake their heads.

The majority of this world’s people don’t seem to travel far from their birthplace, since there weren’t many people that knew the distance to far-away locations. Most people we asked only knew the way to nearest town from their home village.

Just as I was about to give up and go ask some peddlers traveling the highway about it, a voice suddenly called out to me.

“Arc-sama!?”

When I looked back I saw a woman I recognized.

Her curly red hair was cut in a short style, barely reaching the nape of her neck and her deep brown eyes were opened wide in shock. She was dressed in a maid’s uniform and seemed to be in her early twenties. She was also the first person I ever talked to in this world.

“Ah, Rita-dono. I never imagined meeting you in such a place.”

Ariane was wearing her gray cloak beside me and from underneath her hood she was sending me a questioning gaze, so I whispered an abridged version of how I helped Rita with the bandit situation to her.

“Yes, Arc-sama. Have your travels been going well since you left?”

“Hmm, I’ve been here and there, I even managed to visit the capital……”

“Huh, you’ve been to the capital? I still haven’t been there.”

Seeing how happy Rita looked when she talked, I began to stroke my chin.

A maid in direct service to Lauren, the daughter of this territory’s feudal lord, was right in front of me. She was surely brighter than commoners, with that in mind I looked straight at Rita.

“I actually need to go to the Eastern Leburan Empire for a business trip, so I wondered if you could help me with the directions.”

Rita raised her eyebrow at my statement and turned towards Ariane with a weird expression on her face.

Rita seemed troubled by something as she opened her mouth and started speaking.

“I do know the way there, but the roads around the border have been overrun by monsters recently, and I’ve heard commercial travel to the area has decreased. ……It would be quite dangerous to travel those roads with a female companion.”

Ariane and I shared a look after she said that.

“I don’t think that will be a problem. Will your legs be okay, Arc?”

Ariane’s large chest bounced a little as she chuckled and showed off the 『Sword of the Lion King』 that had been covered by her cloak.

If we did run into a large group of monsters, I could use 【Dimensional Step】 to escape, or it would be easily within Ariane and my power to annihilate the threat if retreat was impossible.

“Well, it shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

When I nodded and agreed with Ariane, Rita reluctantly told us the exact directions to the empire.

After another minute or two of chatting, we said our goodbyes to Rita and then left Rubierute along the western highway.

The road rose at a gentle incline and soon we could see the gorgeous scenery from atop a hill. While the Spirit river flew in the southwestern direction on my left, I was more focused on the highway in front of me.

At the bottom of the hill, the highway split into two paths, with one path traveling along the river and the other heading northwest. The border town Gurado was along the northwestern path.

Although Rita didn’t know the way to the empire, she did know the way to the nearest border town Gurado, and she mentioned that the Holy Leburan Empire’s territory was just beyond it.

She said that it’d be a half-day journey from Rubierute to Gurado by carriage, but it shouldn’t take more than an hour using 【Dimensional Step】.

Since monster appeared all along the northwestern path, our main objective was to remain undetected. Thought it was a common scene for people to hang around monster spawns in a game, hanging around a monster’s habitat was quite dangerous.

While it would seem like some type of safari for someone like me, who could use short range teleportation, the ones who were only able to walk would only be a stone’s throw away from a vicious monster attack.

As we quickly made our way down the highway with transfers, we didn’t pass a single person or carriage. Since there were usually other people traversing the highways, I had to limit my use of transfer magic, but with no one around I could use it without holding back.

It wasn’t long before Gurado came into view. Since it was called a border town, I thought it would be large, but even from this distance I could tell it was smaller than Rubierute. If anything else, it was more like a large village in size.

Since Gurado was surrounded on two sides by a forest, and monster attacks must have been frequent, the residents had built a large stone wall that was suitable for a city.

The town was in a distorted oval shape and there was a field outside the wall, just like the other places I’ve been. However, I couldn’t see the shadows of those who should be tending the field despite it being early in the morning.

Though I suppose that they could have been hidden by the crops’ shadow. As we walked the rest of the way to the town, I suddenly heard a child’s scream.

“Whaaaaa!!”

Ariane and I shared a look while Ponta’s ear stood up as she started to look around.

All of a sudden, two boys burst out of the field a short distance away. Chasing after them was a monster I hadn’t seen I visited since Rata village some time ago.