Royal Capital Frilene.
We arrived there via Alto’s Home. Just like the other towns, the streets were lined with buildings reminiscent of a medieval fantasy setting, complete with cobblestone pathways.
Unlike the other towns, however, a massive castle loomed in the center of the city.
The fact that it was more developed than Tsudon, our usual base of operations, was likely because this was the capital.
I realized something a bit late: looking at the town names, it seemed my nearest town was 1, Penpen’s was 2, Mahariku-san’s was 3, and Alto’s town, Frilene, was 0. Not "Zero," but read as "Re."
The names were probably assigned based on their distance from the Royal Capital. It was a rather simplistic naming convention.
"Anyway, let’s head to the Adventurer's Guild-o," Alto said.
"Alto, what’s the guild like in the capital?"
"It’s not much different from the others-o."
"Look, there are stalls out, ssu! Street food! Let’s grab some street food, ssu!" Penpen chimed in.
Street food. That was a temptation I couldn't resist.
So, we decided to satisfy our hunger before heading to the guild.
"Pops, give me three grilled meat skewers!" I called out.
"Coming right up, freshly roasted—... Eek?! C-copper..."
"Huh? Copper? How many copper coins?"
"O-e-a-go..."
The man’s face turned pale, and he started shaking like a leaf. Was he sick? That wasn't a great sign for a food stall. Well, it was a game, so I didn't worry too much.
"Tria-shi, the sign says five copper coins each, ssu!"
"Oh, right. Then that’s fifteen for three. Here."
"E-e-h..."
I took the skewers and handed one to each of them.
"Here, Penpen, Alto. My treat."
"Thanks, ssu!"
"Ooh, meat tastes so much better when someone else pays for it-o!"
"...But seriously, they were acting terrified of us, ssu," Penpen noted.
Yeah. Even I could tell it wasn't just a cold.
"Alto, did you do something?"
"Hmm? I can’t think of anything-o. All I’ve done around here is check to see if any items dropped, then I headed straight for Tsudon to meet up with Tria."
I see. Well, I didn't get it.
"I guess even you wouldn't go on a rampage in the middle of a city."
"What do you mean 'even me'-o? Anyway, I’ve already scouted this area-o. ...None of the barrels or pots have undergone revival yet-o."
"Well, let's hit the other stalls too, ssu! I'm curious about that stew stall over there. Next one's on me, ssu!"
"Then I’ll handle the drinks-o."
Besides the grilled meat, we stopped at a stew stall selling what looked like a mix of oden and motsu stew, and a drink stand.
Couldn't carry it all? Nonsense. We had our Inventory! We could shop and eat to our hearts' content!
I took a sip of the drink Alto bought—50% fruit juice made from an orange-like fruit diluted with water.
The original flavor was quite strong, so diluting it made it perfect. It was sweet, tart, and very refreshing. I liked it.
"So we have to provide our own plates, ssu? This daikon is amazing, ssu."
"The motsu is great too-dao. Back when I wasn't in VR Mode, stalls were just flavor text—all you could do was look-o. Being able to actually eat is wonderful-o... Nom, nom."
"That's a good point."
VR Mode had only been unlocked for her after she joined up with me.
"Oh, by the way, some thugs tried to corner me in an alleyway once-o," Alto added.
"Heh. Maybe someone saw you taking care of them and got scared?"
"Could be-o. Though they were just trash that vanished in one hit when I whacked them with my gun-o."
If you got hit with that massive gun, an ordinary person would definitely go down in one blow. In VR Mode, facing Alto’s gun was like facing a massive, blunt instrument of destruction.
"In that case, we actually helped improve public order, right, ssu? I don't see why they’d be afraid, ssu."
"Right-dao? I’m such a virtuous ordinary citizen-o."
"The kind of 'citizen' that needs air quotes," I muttered.
"We probably look like illegal citizens without IDs, ssu. Well, we do have our Adventurer's Guild IDs."
Which meant we were likely treated as mercenaries rather than locals. At best, we were provisional citizens.
"Even so, our Adventurer Rank is high enough that we should be treated like ordinary citizens by now-o."
"I hope so."
Between all our constant questing, we’d managed to get everyone up to B-Rank. All six of us, including the second characters, were now a team of B-Ranks.
I wondered if that had been the trigger for the royal family's nominated request.
Satisfied from our street food crawl, we finally made our way to the Adventurer's Guild.
It appeared Alto had been breaking barrels and pots at the stalls while still drenched in the blood of the thugs she’d killed. Though it was technically assault and property damage, no one dared to say a word. After all, she was Spirit-possessed.