Ankoku Kishi Monogatari - Chapter 58.1

Chapter 58.1 : Goddess Of Spider

Sword’s Maiden Shirone

「Are you… sure about this?」

I unintentionally let out a verbal slip.

「Is something the matter, Shirone-san?」

Kyouka-san asked from my side.

While wearing a swimsuit, she was currently lying on top of a beach chair at the deck of the ship.

Her figure was exactly that of a young lady enjoying a summer vacation.

I was also doing the same as her, lying on a beach chair in my swimwear. However, I wondered whether it was really okay to do this?

We’re currently sailing on the Quiche River.

The reason why we were visiting this place was to investigate it

The lizardmen were also riding on our ship.

It seemed that they were going to go to another location when we enter the labyrinth.

Apparently, they had detailed geography regarding the area around the labyrinth.

This is why after their conversation with Kuroki, they finally decided to help us with the investigation of the Quiche River.

In the first place, we actually didn’t have to come here.

Regena was the one in charge of the lizardmen after all.

For some reason, the lizardmen called Regena, the “Dragon Priest”.

It wasn’t like I wanted to know what it meant though. But for this reason, Regena was in charge of the investigation.

Frankly speaking, there was nothing for us to do here.

However, on the surface of things, this was ‘our’ investigation, Kuroki or the lizardmen were technically not here on paper, this was why we had to show our faces in this area.

We simply came here so that the lizardmen could do their job.

Without us, the knights or freedom fighters would have probably come here to immediately subjugate these lizardmen. As such, we didn’t wish to cause too much disturbance.

This was why the best available choice we could do right now was cruise on the Quiche River in the name of investigation.

The Quiche River was a large river with many large boats that traversed its waters, this was an important trade route between the countries in the Minon Plain.

The Republic Ariadya was located in the estuary of the Quiche River.

Kaya-san readily prepared a ship for us to use.

In fact, the size of this ship might be bigger than the cruiser owned by Reiji-kun’s family

Currently, the ship was anchored at the riverbanks close to the labyrinth.

We were currently enjoying the scenery while lazing about on the beach chairs.

The Quiche River flowed along the Minon Plain and was surrounded by beautiful scenery. This world has a far more natural element when compared to Japan, our birthplace.

「Milady, Shirone-sama. I’ve prepared this beverage for you.」

Kaya-san brought some drinks for us from the kitchen of the ship.

Even at this point, she was still wearing her maid uniform instead of a swimsuit. I thought that she should’ve used this moment to take a break.

「Thanks, Kaya-san.」

I received a porcelain cup from Kaya-san.

Because glass isn’t widely used in this world. Most containers were normally made from metal, wood, or porcelain.

「You’re welcome.」

Kaya bowed gracefully in response.

The fruit juice she brought had a refreshing and nice taste.

「Kaya, How’s the investigation going? I’m bored… There’s no one here I can show this swimsuit to.」

Kyouka-san said so with a bored tone.

We were wearing a bikini-type swimsuit right now.

However, Kyouka-san’s body brought about a dangerous charm despite wearing the same kind of swimsuit as me. She had quite a dreamy figure that many men wanted.

By the way, this swimsuit was also made with special silk. It was the type that didn’t absorb water.

The people who worked in the sea while doing their job would usually wear garment made from this silk.

Due to the western part of the continent being relatively warmer compared to the eastern part.

Clothing that was worn by women, except for the followers of Faeria’s Faith, would usually expose quite a lot of skin.

According to Goddess Faeria’s creed, it wasn’t a good thing for a woman to expose most of their skin to people aside from their husband.

For this very same reason, women from Faeria’s Faith at the western part of the continent wore clothes similar to women of eastern part of the continent.

This is why, speaking from their perspective, our current get-up was on the opposite end.

Since we weren’t Goddess Faeria’s believers, there was no problem in us wearing this kind of attire.

It isn’t like I wore this kind of swimsuit cause I wanted to show it to someone, but… could it be different for Kyouka-san?

「How about showing your outfit to those gentlemen over there?」

Kaya-san said as she pointed at the back of the ship.

She was referring to Regena, Novis, and the men who were on the rear of the ship.

When I looked at her hand again, there was no doubt about it. She was pointing at them.

「Surely you jest, Kaya. Why should I reward those men who are weaker than onii-sama? In the first place, what are they even doing here?」

Kyouka-san responded with a cold tone. So this also meant that she was okay with it if it was a man stronger than Reiji-kun…

Novis and his company were also boarding the ship. They basically forced themself to come with us by pleading,「We’ll show you that we’re useful! Please allow us to come along with you.」.

Although we were hesitant at first, we eventually came to a conclusion that it was much better to have more people when sailing.

「Though I don’t know the name of the other two people, it seems that the man called Novis has yet to give up on becoming your apprentice.」

Kaya-san opened her mouth as she looked at me.

「Geh! Please pardon me from doing so… If he wants to learn about swordcraft, it should be much better to learn it from Kuroki.」

To be honest, I wanted Novis to stop asking me to teach him. For starters, I wasn’t all that good at teaching others. Kuroki is so much better than me in that regard.

「However… Shirone-sama, Kuroki-sama is currently hiding his identity. Don’t you think it’s impossible for him to teach swordcraft right now?」

「Well, there’s also that, but….」

Kuroki was currently house-sitting in Teseshia.

The lizardmen were following Kuroki’s orders. This was why it would be for the best if Kuroki was the one who continued ordering them.

Rena also stayed in Teseshia after she said that there was something she wanted to talk about with Kuroki.

This was why the matters of these lizardmen were left to Regena.

It seemed that Regena received some sort of magic that allowed her to move underwater.

With this ability, she went along with the lizardmen in the investigation of the river below.

Nevertheless, why did he appoint Regena for this duty? He could’ve asked for our help in this matter, it wasn’t like we had something to do either…

「Come to think of it, Shirone-san. Can I ask you something?」

Kyouka-san said so as she looked at me.

「Is something the matter, Kyouka-san?」

「I heard that Kuroki-san hasn’t only mastered the sword, but he can also use magic pretty well. 」

「Uhm… yes, he can use magic fairly well… Is something the matter with it?」

I didn’t understand the underlying meaning behind Kyouka-san’s statement.

「No, I suddenly had an idea when you were talking about teaching swordcraft. Can I ask Kuroki-san to teach me magic?」

Kyouka-san had a serious look on her face.

「Milady….」

Kaya-san looked at Kyouka-san with a surprised expression.

「I think that my situation is similar to that gentleman called Novis. I want to become stronger too… I don’t want to become a hindrance anymore…」

Kyouka-san continued speaking with a crestfallen face.

She was the only one without any combat skills amongst us.

It seemed that she received magic lessons from Chiyuki-san before, however, there hasn’t been any improvement at all.

As a result, she would always receive the house-sitting duty or things similar to it.

I never expected that Kyouka-san was worried about this matter.

「I see. Why does it have to be Kuroki though?」

I mean, she could ask for another lesson from Chiyuki-san, right? Why did it have to be Kuroki?

「Well… since you said that Kuroki-san is good when it comes to teaching other people. This was why I…」

「I understand now. Yes, I said that Kuroki is far better than me in teaching other people, however, I was talking about swordcraft.」

Once in a while, children would come to my family dojo in order to be taught swordsmanship.

Back then, me and Kuroki would become their assistant instructors.

At the beginning, the children would head over towards me and ask for my guidance. But for some reason, a while later, they would instead go over to Kuroki.

I was so shocked when I saw it happen.

「It’s okay! I’ll make it work!」

Kyouka-san exclaimed as she grabbed my hands.

It was hard to refuse her request…