The Tale of Gerald Vader, the Heretic Knight’s Rampage Through Another World
“Um… ‘Kuroganeya’ is one block further ahead, right?”
I walked through the narrow, cluttered alleyway, confirming my location using the map in my hand and the shops and signs lining the street.
The shop I was looking for should have been only about 100 meters away as the crow flies…
Unlike the newly developed ‘New Town,’ this was the ‘Old Town,’ existing since the era when the capital still functioned as a walled city.
Therefore, to protect the castle from invaders, the alleys were twisted and tangled like a maze.
To make matters worse, the tall buildings lining both sides of the alleys made visibility nearly impossible.
Thanks to this, even after walking for nearly thirty minutes since entering the Old Town area, I still hadn’t reached my destination.
Personally, I do like the atmosphere of these old townscapes, but navigating the streets without any sense of the area is a bit tough.
However, tomorrow I have an appointment with Nora to explore a wild dungeon opened to the public by the Adventurers’ Guild.
We’re going to test how effective the ‘Berserker’s Bracelet’ I gave her yesterday really is.
For that, I needed to get some armor together.
Specifically, at the very least, a breastplate, gauntlets, and greaves.
This is because the Adventurers’ Guild, which manages the dungeons, has set that rule.
Of course, I don’t know the exact history behind the rule… but it’s probably because some idiot charged into a dungeon wearing practically nothing but free gear and ended up dying spectacularly.
Manuals and rules are written in blood, as they say.
By the way, there’s no rental system for armor or weapons.
There used to be one, but it was abolished because people kept stealing the rentals.
Adventurers are generally a rowdy bunch.
By the way, Nora isn’t joining us today.
She’s been invited to a tea party by relatives living over here (a cousin, apparently).
Anyway, she apparently borrows her gear from a female knight of similar build who guards the villa, so she doesn’t need to buy armor.
I was walking along, thinking about that.
“Ah!”
“Whoa!?”
Suddenly, a loud voice came from beside me, and my arm was yanked hard.
I almost stumbled, but managed to steady myself.
The culprit, still clinging to my arm with her own… was materialized Twina.
“Gerald! Gerald! Look over there! There’s a cat sleeping!”
She pointed excitedly at a black cat sprawled on a nearby wall.
“Ah, a cat.”
“Oh, there’s another one over there! This one’s brown and striped! So cute!”
“Ah, a calico.”
“…Hm? What’s that beast over there?”
“That’s a wolfdog. I hear they’re often kept as pets even in the city streets around the capital.”
“Then what about that one?”
This time, Twina pointed at a small animal scurrying about on the rooftops.
“Hmm… a squirrel? Or maybe a magical beast because it has horns on its forehead?”
Just guessing.
Seriously, I don’t even know the proper name for a horned squirrel.
Or rather.
“Hey, Twaina… Can’t you be a little quieter? You’ve been making a racket since earlier.”
People walking by are giving us those lukewarm stares.
It’s just… unbearable.
Well, I do think Twaina’s adorable when she gets excited over cats and dogs we see around town.
“It’s fine. This is part of making it up to you, right?”
Saying that, Twina smiled and hugged my arm tightly.
Her soft touch pressed against my upper arm.
On purpose?
It had to be on purpose.
Considering everything that’d happened.
“Hehe… I wasn’t sure what to do yesterday, but just walking around town like this is surprisingly enjoyable.”
But… setting aside her sly little gestures, it seemed she was genuinely enjoying this ‘date’.
Watching her like that, I recalled yesterday’s commotion.
――Yesterday.
I was almost attacked by Twina in her physical form.
Well, I’ll leave it vague as to what exactly ‘attacked’ means…
‘Almost attacked’ means it ended as an attempted attack.
Why did that happen?
Of course, there’s a reason.
Simply put, it seems Twina’s excitement level got too high, causing the magical power flowing into the ‘Exposure Talisman’ to overflow. To prevent damage to the magical circuits from magical power overload, the safety mechanism activated.
As a result, the magic supply to the talisman was cut off… and Twina was forcibly returned to her spirit form.
In spirit form, no matter what she did, she couldn’t touch me.
The ‘Exposure Talisman’ I chose was a fairly high-grade item, meant to be suitable for Twina… but it backfired.
Of course, restarting the talisman was easy.
After all, it was just the safety mechanism activating.
Once she materialized, she attacked me again.
Then the talisman’s effect wore off once more.
Naturally, we repeated this several times afterward.
I held back my magic, trying not to build up too much momentum.
But the result was always the same.
At any rate, it was certain that nothing happened between us yesterday.
Still… for Twina’s sake, I should add that I was prepared for it.
After all, when I met her, I declared I would ‘give everything’.
…But that aside.
In the end, I decided to make it up to her another way.
If the talisman was useless, then at least we could have a pure, proper date around town, like proper young boys and girls should (whether Twina was actually that age or not aside).
“Oh, here it is.”
And after another leisurely thirty minutes of wandering through the old town,
I finally spotted the sign for the shop we were looking for.