The woman in the cloak raises her voice as if unable to contain her excitement.
My thoughts freeze for a moment when the cloaked woman calls me "Orun-sama."
"Um, um! Would it be all right if I could shake your hand!?"
The cloaked woman extends her right hand while asking in a high-pitched, trembling voice.
"Uh, sure... I guess."
Somewhat overwhelmed by her high energy, I lightly grasp the offered right hand.
"Kyaa! Lore, what do we do! I shook hands with Orun-sama!"
The cloaked woman turns toward Loretta-san nearby, expressing her joy.
Apparently, "Lore" is a nickname for Loretta-san.
"Yes, yes. Good for you. Now calm down a bit if you're satisfied. You're bothering the neighbors."
In contrast, Loretta-san scolds the cloaked woman with a tired expression.
"That's impossible! Because this is Orun-sama!? The shadowy figure who protected Tsutorail from a massive horde of magical beasts and prevented the Empire's invasion! Truly a hero of this nation! Meeting someone like that by chance—how could I not be thrilled!? Wouldn't it be rude not to be!?"
The praise is way too exaggerated...
But the fact that I was involved in stopping the Empire's invasion should be information known only to a very small number of people.
Even if she is who I think she is, she shouldn't know that... or has it already spread among royalty, nobility, and their associates...?
Another new question pops into my head.
One after another... give me a break...
"Think about your position... If you make any more noise, I'll drag you back by force, okay?"
Perhaps deciding that mild warnings won't calm the cloaked woman, Loretta-san lowers her tone and says something threatening.
"Ugh...! That's no good!"
Sensing the atmosphere that Loretta-san might actually resort to force, the cloaked woman reluctantly falls silent despite her dissatisfied expression.
Confirming that, Loretta-san turns her gaze back to me and speaks.
"Good grief... —Still, I didn't expect Orun-kun to be in the capital at this timing. Could it be that "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" is responding to the central army's summons?"
"No, we have no plans to go to the front lines. I came to the capital today for some errands, but I've finished everything, so I plan to return to Tsutorail tomorrow."
Hearing my words, the cloaked woman seems about to raise her voice again, but anticipating it, Loretta-san covers her mouth with her own hand.
The cloaked woman struggles with muffled "Muu! Muu!" sounds.
"I see. Actually, we also plan to head to Tsutorail tomorrow. If it's all right with you, Orun-kun, would you mind traveling together with us?"
As she makes the proposal, Loretta-san glances at the cloaked woman whose mouth she's covering at the end.
"...Sure, that's fine. Let's head to Tsutorail together tomorrow."
I respond, picking up on the unspoken implication in Loretta-san's words.
She's probably asking me to be the cloaked woman's conversation partner during the journey.
It's a bit embarrassing to say myself, but in this short time, it's clear she holds favorable feelings toward me.
Even though we have the same destination and departure time, if we traveled separately, her dissatisfaction would probably explode—that much is obvious even to me on first meeting.
Loretta-san likely wants to avoid that situation for her mental health.
For me, spending a long time with two people of such high status would cause mental fatigue incomparable to being alone.
Honestly, it's a development I'd prefer to avoid, but if it means earning a favor from them... then there are plenty of advantages for me too.
"Thank you. Then how about meeting at the castle gate at ten o'clock tomorrow morning?"
"Understood. See you at ten tomorrow."
Loretta-san nods at my reply, then leads the cloaked woman into Aida-san's shop.
After confirming they're out of sight, I also head back on my way.
◇
The next day, when I arrive at the meeting place leading my horse, the two are already there.
"Good morning. Sorry if I kept you waiting."
"Good morning, Orun-sama! No problem at all! I could never make Orun-sama wait!"
Loretta-san's friend is, as yesterday, wearing the same plain black cloak pulled over her head.
At this time of day, it might actually stand out more, but she must have judged it better to keep it on.
And her energy level hasn't changed from yesterday either.
I had hoped a day would calm her down a bit, but that was wishful thinking.
"Good morning, Orun-kun. Sorry for the noise so early in the morning."
"No, don't worry about it."
After saying that to Loretta-san, I turn back toward the cloaked woman and speak again.
"—It seems you already know about me, but allow me to introduce myself properly. I'm Orun Dura, an explorer affiliated with "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky". Pleased to meet you."
"Yes, pleased to meet you! Sorry for being late with my own introduction. Please call me Lucy!"
"Lucy," huh.
As I thought, she is indeed the person I suspected.
She's probably not even trying that hard to hide it.
If she were serious about concealing her identity, she'd use a fake name instead of her nickname.
"Understood, Lucy-sama."
"Orun-sama doesn't need to add '-sama' to me! I'd be happy if you called me casually by name!"
"If you'll stop adding '-sama' to me, I'll consider it, Lucy-sama."
"Again with the '-sama'... Sigh... Fine. Then I'll call you 'Orun.' Since in public settings... that's how it'll be."
"I see. If it's for public settings, I suppose I should match that."
"Muu... Orun is unexpectedly mean, isn't he?"
"Sorry. I got carried away. Then I'll call you 'Lucy-san' outside of public settings."
"Understood. I would have preferred just the name, but it can't be helped."
And so our mutual forms of address are decided.
Once our conversation settles, Loretta-san speaks up.
"Well, now that we've sorted out how to call each other, shall we depart for Tsutorail?"
"Understood." "Yes!"
We each mount our horses, pass through the castle gate, and set off along the road toward Tsutorail.
◇
Lucy-san takes the lead in conversation during the journey, and I answer the questions she throws at me one after another.
"So Orun has been an explorer since he was that young!"
Hearing that I've been an explorer since age nine, Lucy-san reacts with admiration.
"Yes. It's only been about ten years since I became one, so I'm not sure how helpful it is as reference, but even veteran explorers seem quite bewildered by the recent situation."
Lucy-san must have decided in advance what she wanted to talk about yesterday.
Questions come one after another without pause.
I'm also trying to share as much information as possible—while keeping back what needs to be kept—about being an explorer, so she can understand.
Her heading to Tsutorail at this timing isn't exactly good news from an explorer's perspective.
She seems close with Loretta-san and probably won't make unreasonable demands, but it's better to lay groundwork where possible.
It depends on how desperate they are... but it doesn't seem like they'll easily share that kind of information.
"I understand that the Nohitant Kingdom has been able to conduct relatively favorable diplomacy thanks to the efforts of explorers like you all. Hearing Orun talk about it especially drives that home. Truly, we can only be grateful to explorers."
I can't see Lucy-san's face under the cloak, but she seems to wear a solemn expression.
Unlike her high-energy self from moments ago, the current calm atmosphere of someone carefully assessing things feels close to the person I've heard about.
What is she thinking right now?
"—By the way, Orun defeated a deep-floor boss solo, right? And because of that feat, you're called 'Dragon Slayer' or something!"
After staying silent for a while as if pondering something, Lucy-san suddenly recalls and asks the next question.
"Yes. It's a rather ominous nickname, though."
"Fufu, sure, looking just at the characters it sounds dangerous, but considering history, I think it's a wonderful title."
History probably refers to the age of fairy tales.
Magical beasts are born inside labyrinths.
And labyrinths began appearing across the land during the age of fairy tales.
Back then, the crystals in labyrinths apparently had weaker effects than now, so quite a few magical beasts rampaged on the surface as well.
Even in such an era, the "dragon species"—to which black dragons belong—were apparently among the most ferocious magical beasts.
Of course, there were many other ferocious magical beasts besides dragon species, but when classifying magical beasts by race, dragon species were considered the most troublesome.
That's why humans who managed to subjugate dragon species in those days received great praise from the people—even if not to the level of the heroes and their companions from fairy tales.
"Being lined up alongside historical greats feels far too presumptuous, honestly."
"With the ability to defeat a deep-floor boss solo, I don't think you fall short at all. Around me, there are quite a few voices saying it's only a matter of time before Orun conquers the Southern Great Labyrinth."
"That's way too high an evaluation. Even assuming the Southern Great Labyrinth has a hundred floors, we've only reached the ninety-fourth. That means we haven't even cleared half of the deep floors yet. We don't know what kind of powerful magical beasts might appear next, and it's hard to say we can definitely conquer it just by taking time. Of course, we'll continue giving our all to the conquest going forward."
"I see. Hearing it directly from the person involved really is important. It's a cliché, but I'm cheering for Orun's conquest of the Great Labyrinth!"
"What, Lucy? You're not cheering for us "Jade Gale"?"
Loretta-san, who had been listening to our conversation, lets out a dissatisfied voice toward Lucy-san who declared she was cheering for me.
But her expression carries a teasing smile, so she's probably not serious.
Lucy-san seems to understand that too, as she responds:
"Fufu, of course I'm cheering for Lore and the others too! But I'm Orun's fan!"
"Thank you. I'll do my best to live up to your cheers, Lucy-san."
◇
(About halfway now. If I remember right, around here there's a mid-sized labyrinth and Farira Village, where our "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" base is.)
After covering roughly half the distance to Tsutorail, while conversing with Lucy-san and Loretta-san, I mentally cross-reference my memorized map to confirm our current location.
"—っ! Lore! My bad premonition was right!"
Suddenly, Lucy-san raises her voice.
Her tone is no longer soft as before but laced with tension.
At Lucy-san's words, Loretta-san clicks her tongue softly, dismounts her horse while firing a red signal flare into the sky.
She then manifests two swords of different sizes—a greatsword in her right hand and a long sword in her left.
While she's making preparations, I also raise my alertness level. My detection net catches a massive horde of magical beasts...
Looking carefully in that direction, dust clouds are rising.
(Magical beast overflow—the one Abel-san mentioned. If this is artificial, then the target is almost certainly——)
"Orun, sorry for dragging you into this. We can't cause you trouble. Please go on ahead to Tsutorail without worrying about us!"
I thought I was being used again like with the Edington family in Leglif territory, but Lucy-san immediately tries to have me withdraw.
She wasn't counting on me as fighting strength; she purely wanted to talk with me during the journey to Tsutorail?
No, that's thinking too positively.
Still, even though I got caught up in this, looking at the big picture, traveling together was the right call.
Whether I accompanied Lucy-san and the others or not, if an overflow was happening, being able to learn of the fact quickly is huge.
Our current position is sandwiched between the magical beast horde and Farira Village.
In other words, if the horde keeps charging straight ahead, it will eventually hit Farira Village.
That means the clan members of "Silver Rabbit of the Night Sky" would get caught up in this overflow.
There are probably several explorers at the outpost, but if magical beasts suddenly flood in, even high-rank explorers would find it nearly impossible to protect the village unscathed.
That's why we should annihilate the horde here.
Even if total extermination is difficult, we should reduce their numbers as much as possible, then find the right timing to inform the village and buy time for defense preparations.
Fortunately, an ace from an S-rank party—Loretta-san—is here, and judging from the signal flare earlier, the rest of "Jade Gale" is likely approaching from behind.
Having instantly decided my course of action, I dismount and grip Schwarzhaese.
At that moment, the front of the magical beast horde enters my field of vision.
"...Orun?"
Lucy-san lets out a bewildered voice seeing me dismount.
"I have my own reasons too, so I'll lend a hand here. Loretta-san, how long until the other Jade members join us?"
"You noticed?"
"Given the ongoing overflow incidents across the kingdom and your actions earlier, it's the obvious conclusion, isn't it?"
"—っ! How do you know about the overflows... No, that's not important right now. If you're willing to help, we're grateful. The others should join in less than two minutes!"
(Less than two minutes... that's not enough.)
The horde in view will reach us in less than a minute.
For me and Loretta-san—aces of S-rank parties—the horde itself poses no threat.
But since we're both vanguard attackers, protecting Lucy-san at the same time would be quite difficult.
We can't let her get hurt either, so no choice.
"Understood. I'll wipe out the first wave. Please contact the others to hurry and join before the second wave arrives."
"Taking on that number alone!? Even for you that's reckless!"
"Yes! It's dangerous! I can handle it! With my magical tools, I can hold out for a few minutes at least! There's no need for Orun to put himself in danger alone...!"
Ahead of our gazes, nearly a hundred magical beasts are charging toward us.
Certainly, for vanguard attackers, that's a tough number.
—But only if we engage in close combat.
"Don't worry. I'm supposed to be called Tsutorail's strongest explorer, after all. Just leave the first strike to me. ——[Demonic Sword Unity Ortration], [Land Type Mont Zex]"
After reassuring the two, I step in front of them.
Schwarzhaese reacts to the continuously converged "converged mana..." stored in the storage magic tool, transforming into fluid mana.
It then changes shape into a bow.
I convert the remaining converged mana into an arrow and nock it.
As I converge the arrow's mana to its limit, the space around the arrow begins to distort.
I release the converged mana arrow toward the sky above the magical beast horde.
"—Rei Ten"