The Saintess (6)

For research on creating gargoyles, I've wound up with a gargoyle as an assistant.

If anything, it's more like a valuable sample than an assistant, though.

"I don't understand Master's way of thinking～…"

It's not my fault—it's Rokuko's bad luck… no, good luck.

By the way, the gargoyle is a stone demon statue with wings on its back. I wondered if it could fly, but they seem to just be decorations. Aren't they in the way?

The gargoyle also doesn't talk. And like golems, it seems to be the type that carries out orders without question… Its joints are connected like a normal statue's, yet somehow they can bend. It's mysterious to watch. It feels hard like regular stone when I touch it, but maybe it's in a state similar to the materials I use when casting [Create Golem]?

"Well, having the real thing should help research progress. I've set up a laboratory inside the dungeon for now, so feel free to research magic tools to your heart's content."

"Thank you so much～!"

Wearing her white lab coat, Nerune answered energetically. She'd put on the coat without much fuss, and she seemed happy about it.

Since we had DP to spare this time, I also made a room along with a dummy core for transportation.

It was a bit of an unnecessary expense, but well, the dummy core cost 5000 DP and two rooms came to 400 DP, for a total of 5400 DP. With the income boost from Rin and the Saintess, that's around two or three days' worth of DP. Or rather, just from the inn's income, the Saintess is paying 25 gold coins per night for the suite. If we just crushed that into DP, it'd be 25,000 DP.

One way or another, the Saintess has already been here for about half a month, so she's become a tremendous source of income. Our vault is practically overflowing with gold coins now. It might be fine to crush some into DP.

… Setting aside the gambling, isn't the Saintess going to go bankrupt from her lodging fees soon? When that happens, I hope she'll go back to her home country—what was it called again? The Holy Kingdom?

The room is placed directly above the core room… They're arranged vertically but count as the same floor. If an intruder were to enter this room, they'd need to do something outlandish like destroying the core room's ceiling. Nobody would do that without some kind of hint.

"I'll help with the research too. I have [Create Golem] after all."

"Ooh, with Goshujin-sama's [Create Golem], you could make golems with the grooves already carved in～. Then I'd just need to melt in the magic stones～"

"… Reproducing those complex patterns sounds like it'd be exhausting."

Plus, don't you have to engrave something onto the magic stone itself too? This is going to take a lot of effort…

For now, let's just practice making water magic tools. I'll prepare plenty of magic stones. Using the options in the DP Catalog, I can easily choose magic stones with specific attributes. It's a bit late to say this, but DP really is convenient.

 

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That day too, the Saintess returned after being devoured by the black wolf in the dungeon.

But her mood wasn't particularly bad. The reason being, this inn's suite was so comfortable that she practically wanted to stay at the inn forever.

Furthermore, there was a game room at the inn where they held a wonderful game called rat racing.

On top of that, the food was unbelievably delicious, and there was even a hot spring—it was simply too wonderful an inn.

Having won a little at a rat race that happened to be running, the Saintess was in high spirits. She then bet all her winnings on the next race and lost everything.

Either way, for someone like the Saintess, it was merely pocket change. Nothing worth worrying about even if she lost.

"Phew, even so, this bedding is wonderful. I'd love to have bedding like this at my home."

She drank the orange juice she'd ordered through room service and flopped onto the bed.

This alone cost one silver coin.

Oranges were plentiful in Pavera. However, this wasn't just fruit juice—it had been made with a generous amount of sugar, a luxury ingredient. That being the case, the price made sense.

By the way, this expense was being deducted from the gold coins the Saintess's attendant had paid in advance.

"… Hmm, but Village Chief-san is quite stubborn. Even though he's been this hospitable to me… Oh, Cent paid the fee, didn't he?"

For now, the Saintess was thinking that she had to do something about that threatening black wolf monster in order to repay his hospitality. Even though she was paying, she was still consuming the village's precious winter stockpile after all.

It might seem like she wasn't making any progress, but the Saintess had been steadily memorizing the black wolf's movements.

After three days, she'd become able to dodge its first attack. Now she could evade three attacks. If she could buy more time and activate the special magic skill she possessed as a Saintess, she'd win.

That thing was probably a dark-attribute monster. In terms of compatibility, it was a very favorable opponent for the Saintess.

However, the overwhelming difference in basic capabilities meant she was being completely toyed with. She just needed to stall for more time somehow.

There was a knock at the door, and her attendant's voice called out.

"Alka-sama, do you have a moment?"

"Nn… come in."

"Excuse me."

The door opened with a click, and Cent entered.

… Come to think of it, what had this attendant been doing since they arrived here? Wait, don't tell me he's been at the rat races this whole time…?! She thought that far before dismissing the idea. There was no way her serious attendant would do something like that.

"So, what do you need, Cent?"

"Our remaining funds are running low."

"It was the rat races after all…?!"

"? What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Anyway, if we're short on funds, we'll need to request additional funds from the home country. I'll write a letter—they should send it right away."

"Yes, please do."

If they submitted a delivery request to the Adventurer Guild, the letter would likely arrive within a few days.

However, there was no guarantee the request would be completed and delivered. If she wanted certainty, she'd need to submit multiple requests.

"Now then, as for the contents… Oh yes. Let's include something about Village Chief-san's hospitality and how I still haven't received the dungeon core destruction rights. If we go through the higher-ups, they might tell Village Chief-san to hand over the dungeon core destruction rights from the Empire's side."

"I see. Since Village Chief-dono says he would like to hand over the dungeon core destruction rights but cannot due to Imperial regulations, that should work."

The Saintess had interpreted Kehma's customer service and statements that way, and she'd told her attendant as much.

"Yes, he's a very serious and good person, but his inflexibility is his only flaw. Though being serious and trustworthy is a good thing."

"He would make a good vassal. If we could formally scout him and have him come to the Holy Kingdom…"

"I'll include that as well… If I write five, at least one should make it."

She wrote five letters with identical contents and handed them to her attendant.

Even so, she'd prepared quite a lot of funds, yet they were running low. Where had it all gone…? Well, she'd written the letter, so things would work out somehow.

"Until the additional funds arrive, perhaps we should economize a bit… It might be a good idea to bring back some of the iron golems I've been leaving in the dungeon. Wouldn't that help cover meal expenses?"

"Yes, I am deeply sorry for troubling you with this."

"It's fine. We're close, you and I, aren't we?"

Then again, if the Saintess just switched from the suite to a standard room, they'd have enough funds to last through winter. However, the attendant made no such suggestion. For the Saintess who was doing the grueling work of dying and returning, the attendant wished to give her even a little peace of mind. He couldn't make such a proposal, nor did he want to.

After seeing her attendant off with the letters, the Saintess entrusted her body to the soft bed once more and rested.

Her body sank in and she felt gently enveloped. "I really do want this bed…" she murmured, and fell asleep.