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The Ogre couldn’t enter the city. Thus to have Maxwell hear him, I had to go bring Maxwell here instead. Since I couldn’t tell Cortina and the rest that I snuck deep into the forest to test my new weapon, I could only tell Maxwell about this.

I ran up to Maxwell’s mansion and heaved a big sigh. From this point on, the path was filled with Maxwell’s hand-picked anti-theft magic. What’s more, Gadius was also lodging here now. Getting to Maxwell without Gadius finding it out required me to sneak in.

If I waited to visit in the morning, there would be no need for that, but in that case, the Ogre has to spend all night near the city. If some other Adventurer discovered it, they would most likely subjugate him, no questions asked.

Based on our talk, the Ogre turned out to be an unexpectedly nice fellow for his species, so I couldn’t bring myself to chance him getting killed.

“Fortunately, I still remember the time I kept him company testing these anti-theft spells, so I think I should be able to manage, but—”

I took a step while muttering to myself. But the next moment, my senses had a blackout.

“What are you doing here so late in the night?”
“I came looking for you!”

I yelled back in anger at Maxwell from the bottom of the pitfall. Of course, in a small enough voice so that Gadius wouldn’t wake up. Wait, can you even call it a yell, at that point?

At any rate, long story short, I fell right into his primitive trap with my very first step. Moreover, the bottom of the pit had some kind of adhesive to keep the invaders in place.

In other words, I was all gooey and sticky now.

“I was bringing you important news, and this is how you treat me? Hurry and pull me up already.”
“Right, hold on for a moment. Let me first photograph you with this copying tool.”
“Why are you trying to photograph me!?”

A copying tool was something that copied sceneries and such on mediums like paper or parchment. It was apparently something the God of Destruction, one of the developers of Magic Tools, had created hundreds of years ago. In other words… That Whitey. Everything she does has to be problematic.

“I had a feeling Cortina would pay a lot for it. Little Finia would too, probably.”
“Hold it. Don’t lead those girls down a wicked path.”

Finia and Michelle were my solaces, so I had to keep them away from this guy’s fetishes.

As we chattered around, Maxwell finally rescued me and I got back to the surface. And it seemed he did actually photograph me.

“So, what is your business?”
“Ah, right, I may have found information that is linked with Klein’s whereabouts. I may have, but first, let me in. Also, lend me your bath.”
“No can do. I cannot let you stain my mansion with that filth.”
“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲…”
“I will cleanse you with magic later, so tell me the information first.”
“If this dries on me, I’ll turn all crusty… Plus, if this stuff gets inside your nose or mouth you can die, you know?”
“Well, it is a trap for a reason. That is one of the possible outcomes.”

Maxwell lightly brushed my complaint aside, but he did have a point.

At any rate, that Ogre was quite good-natured, but he didn’t seem to be that smart. It would be nice if he stayed hidden, but if he started carelessly walking around, he could stumble on some other Adventurer.

Thus, I quickly summed up my previous conversation to Maxwell and voiced my concern to leave as soon as we could.

“Oh, a docile Ogre, you say?”
“That’s what you’re focusing on!?”
“I got it. Good grief, Cortina is being a bad influence on you, eh?”
“It’s just you being too carefree.”
“But you are correct. We can’t bring him inside the city, and there is no knowing whether it would stay hidden even if you instructed him to. It would be better to make haste.”

Raum was the capital, so it had a lot of traffic. The city gate was closed at night, but the travelers that reached it generally spent the night right outside of it. We couldn’t ignore the possibility of someone like that discovering him, either.

“Yeah, he looked a little stupid, so I’m worried.”
“Well, it is an Ogre, in the end. Rather, since he managed to hold a conversation with you, that already makes his intellect outstanding among his race. It is quite interesting.”
“I promised to help him escape if this information turned out to be correct, you know?”
“I see, well monsters aren’t one-sidedly evil. The Carbuncle that you are keeping is one such example.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”

Good-natured monsters. They were extremely rare in number, but there have been reported cases of them. How to deal with such monsters was left up to the Adventurers’ discretions.

There were some that claimed that all monsters had to be subjugated, while others claimed you should not point your sword at those that do not mean you harm.

Since either of those claims had some truth in them, the Adventurer’s Guild had no official guidelines about it.

We also judged that one Ogre shouldn’t be a problem and decided to help him escape this time. If it was a Dragon instead, that would’ve changed the story a bit, however.

“At any rate, I will lead before we leave the city, so follow me.”
“Before that, can you let me prepare a bit? I have nothing but pajamas on me now.”
“Then go and get dressed already! And lend me your bath!”
“Good grief, you are such a selfish person.”
“Look in the mirror and say that again!”

Thus, I succeeded in my attempt to take a bath in his house. Still, as I hadn’t used my Stealth Gift all this time, there might have been someone who had seen me.

Later, rumors may have spread about a slime-covered girl being brought into Maxwell’s mansion.

I successfully brought Maxwell out and had him meet with the Ogre. The Ogre in question hadn’t tried to run and was obediently waiting for us while hiding in the forest. He was hiding so well, in fact, that it took even me some time to find him.

Perhaps it was due to this ability that he was able to survive near a metropolis like Raum.

“Good day. I am Maxwell. This old man has heard that you have witnessed something interesting.”
“Me called Den. Nice to meet.”
“Oho, I did not expect you to return the greeting. So, is this house of yours nearby?”
“No, it far. Walking, seven suns passed.”
“A week, huh…”

He probably loitered around in the forest for a long time, so a straight line should take us a bit less. Still, I couldn’t leave the city for such a long time. My behind-the-scenes operations were only known to Maxwell.

“It cannot be helped. I will cast Flight magic, so let us go there at once.”
“Are you sure?”

Flight Magic was somewhere between middle and high-grade magic, and belonged to the Puppetry system. It belonged to the Puppetry system based on the fact that you controlled your body with magic, but it was close to the Interference system too.

Worthy of special mention was of course the ability to fly in the sky. It allowed you to ignore ground traps including pitfalls, and even to cross over walls and such.

Above all, by ignoring obstacles, your movement speed increased by leaps and bounds. You could fly at 50 km per hour with this magic.

“We can indeed cover one week’s journey in one night, but the magic consumption—Actually, never mind.”

The biggest weakness of this spell was its extreme magic power consumption. Casting it on all three of us should be quite a burden, but a magic power tank like this old man should have no problems with it.

“There you have it. Well then, let us go.”

At the same time Maxwell activated his spell, our bodies floated up into the sky. And thus, we started our flight towards the Ogre’s home.