Side: Yuki

"Well, that was pretty tasty."

"Yes. They even had spices like salt and pepper. It's a wonderful inn."

Just like Ria said, this inn actually used spices in its cooking. Well, it was only pepper, but back in medieval Europe, that stuff was literally called a black gemstone. It really shows you just how much effort this place puts into its meals.

...Though we obviously shouldn't compare it to Weed.

"Now that we've eaten, let's just quietly get some sleep."

"Yes. Those people from earlier might still be searching for us, after all."

Even if we slept and woke up tomorrow, that particular problem wasn't likely to solve itself.

That green-haired princess gave off the same battle-junkie aura as Seraria. And her subordinate, Jessica, seems so incredibly earnest and diligent that she's probably following the princess's orders and searching for us right this second.

In an age of warring states, energetic military officers like that were highly valued. Beautiful, strong, and respected. From a nation's perspective, she'd make a perfect mascot for boosting morale.

"We can just leave this doppelganger body asleep and head back to Weed. I need to make dinner for everyone over there anyway."

"It feels a bit strange. Even though we traveled to a completely different continent, we're basically just doing a day trip."

Ria said, her face looking a bit conflicted.

Hey, what's wrong with a day trip?

Besides, I have absolutely no intention of leaving my pregnant wives completely unattended. If I don't carefully think through the nutritional balance of their meals, there's no telling what kind of negative effects it could have on the babies.

On top of that, I personally hate taking long, exhausting trips. It's incomparably better to just stay home and relax with video games—it saves money and is a much better use of time. Plus, if anything happens at home, I can act immediately.

Everyone hates getting a sudden phone call from work while they're on a trip, right? Feeling like you have to pack up and rush back is the absolute worst.

By the way, I kept the whole thing about the emerald princess a complete secret from the girls at home. Given her personality, the magic sword, and her status as an information source, dropping careless rumors back home would be a disaster. The combat-oriented pregnant wives would immediately want to fight her, and the administrative pregnant wives would start overthinking everything.

Everything I do is for the sake of my wives and our unborn children. That's why I've made it a rule for the scouting team to never casually mention anything until we've gathered concrete information. Whether it's about this city or the village, we mostly just give them post-operational reports.

* * *

Nothing unusual had happened in Weed.

The Allied Army had successfully built a solid defense network centered around the old Demon King's castle. They were also collaborating with Liliana to begin dismantling the retreating Ruumel invasion army from the inside out. As for Rankus, the shadow of the previous king was completely gone, and Taiki-kun was leading the charge to rebuild a brand-new nation.

Taiki-kun himself seems to want a completely free life—or rather, he probably wants to go on a journey to find a way back to Earth—but after pulling off a massive political stunt like that, he won't be getting any free time anytime soon. He also has to repay Weed and Gartz, so I'm sure he's having a miserable time. He's the perfect textbook example of why moving conspicuously out in the open is a massive mistake.

And so, I spent the rest of my day cooking meals, catching up on the situation in Weed, checking on the health of the pregnant wives, and chatting casually.

* * *

The next morning, after making a standard breakfast and eating, I casually return to my doppelganger body on the new continent.

"Alright. Time to put in another day's work."

"Yes, let's do our best."

Yeah, this is basically a job. It feels exactly like commuting to a workplace.

At the end of the day, even if you get thrown into a parallel fantasy world, you still have to work if you want to eat. I'll just look at it that way to keep myself content.

Back on Earth, there are plenty of people who fly all over the world for their careers way more than we do. There are so many admirable individuals who master foreign languages, handle intense negotiations, and pull in a solid profit without relying on a single cheat skill. Compared to them, my life is incredibly easy.

"Well, lets finish up breakfast in these bodies and strike up a conversation with the innkeeper."

"Yeah. It's a huge pain, but doppelgangers still have to eat and use the restroom like normal people once they're outside the dungeon. While we're at it, we can gather information just like you suggested, Ria."

Before they transform, doppelgangers are basically blank-faced, jelly-like magical creatures, but once they take a form, they get completely locked into that specific race's biology. Naturally, that means they have to eat food and excrete just like anyone else. Otherwise, infiltrating a group by impersonating someone would be impossible.

"Ooh? Did you two sleep well?"

"Yeah. The food was great and the beds were perfectly clean. It was flawless."

"Glad to hear it! Go on, take a seat. I'll bring out your breakfast."

"Thanks a bunch."

Ria and I sit down at a random empty table.

"Hey, old man. There are a ton of empty seats here. Did everyone else already eat and leave?"

I call out to the innkeeper while he's prepping food, looking around the empty dining room.

"Nah, including you two, we only have three groups staying here right now. As you know, our room rates are pretty high."

"How do you manage to stay in business like that?"

"Well, we make our real money as a restaurant rather than a hotel. This place is absolute madness during lunch; it gets completely packed with customers."

"Ah, I see. That makes sense."

"But in the morning, as you can see, there's basically nobody here. I use this quiet time to prep for the lunch rush. Here you go, breakfast is served."

The food is laid out right in front of us. Bread, something resembling bacon, and a salad. It's a pretty standard Western breakfast. The fact that I find myself instantly craving a bowl of white rice really proves I'm a Japanese guy at heart. But there's no point in complaining about what isn't here, so I just dig in.

"So about the guests... Did they already finish eating and head out?"

"Hmm? Only one group left. The other group is... Oh, good morning! Are you here for breakfast?"

As I'm asking my questions, it looks like the final group staying at the inn has just walked into the dining room. This is perfect timing. I'll casually gather some info from them while we eat.

"Hey, if you'd like, why don't you join us and we can talk... oh, never mind."

As I turn around to invite them over, the words instantly die in my throat.

I mean, come on. Look who it is.

"Ah!! So you were here!!"

"Looks like the most obvious place was the right one."

"Truly the last place one would think to look."

It was the emerald princess and her assistant from yesterday.

Ugh, seriously, what is up with this anime cliché flag? Someone please teach me how to snap a plot flag in half. I literally just wanted to gather information in peace.

Oh great gods!

OH, MY GOD!!

Ah right, the god here was Luna. Praying to her is pointless.

No, hold on. Since it's my god... I don't actually follow a specific religion anyway... Uh, Let's go with Amaterasu Omikami.

『Hey, I can hear you.』

My god is officially dead.

『Why!?』

Anyway, let's completely ignore that useless goddess who brings nothing but trouble...

"...Why are you casually sitting down at our table?"

"You're the one who invited us to join you for a meal."

"No, I specifically cut myself off and said 'nevermind' With a very clear tone of rejection."

"I didn't hear anything like that."

"Now, now, Yuki-san. They would have found out we were staying here eventually anyway, so there's no harm in just hearing them out, right?"

Ria was exactly right.

Since we were staying at the same inn, this encounter was bound to happen sooner or later. I should just treat it as if the timeline got bumped up. Since it's come to this, I'm going to squeeze every bit of information out of this girl.

"Ho, so your name is Yuki. And what is the woman beside you called?"

"I am—"

"—Stop. There's no reason for her to give her name to someone who hasn't even introduced themselves first. Let's just eat."

"Understood." Ria replied.

"Aren't you two being a bit too disrespectful? You are speaking directly to the Princess!"

The assistant spoke up, looking half-exasperated and half-angry as we casually focused entirely on our breakfast.

"Look, we don't even know who you guys are. Is it the official etiquette of this country to force other people to introduce themselves when you haven't even given your own names?"

"Well, introducing oneself is standard, but..."

"Then you're definitely the ones lacking manners here. Judging by what happened in town yesterday, you guys seem to be famous, but we've never heard of you. Even if we did know who you were, isn't it just basic common sense to introduce yourself first?"

"......"

"Hahaha! To think someone could completely shut up the deadpan Jessica using pure common sense! Well, if you're simple travelers, it makes total sense that you haven't heard the specific details about me. Though I figured you'd at least have heard the rumors floating on the wind..."

Saying that, the emerald princess stood up from her seat and partially drew the weapon they called a magic sword.

"I am the Wind Knight Princess of the Jilva Empire, Marley Heat!"

"Yeah, never heard of you. And what about the assistant over there?"

"As you have likely guessed, I serve as the Princess's attendant. My name is Jessica. I apologize for my rude behavior earlier."

"Well, I figured the princess was the one running wild, so I wasn't particularly bothered. Anyway, like you heard before, I'm Yuki. A traveler. Still deciding whether to become a mercenary."

"I am Yuki-san's wife, Ria. I'm a traveler just like him."

For some reason, the two of them completely froze upon hearing our introduction.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, no... I see. You aren't lovers, you're actually husband and wife."

"A married traveling couple is rather unusual. Are you planning to settle down somewhere?"

Ah, so that's what caught them off guard.

It's true that once people get married, they usually have kids and settle down in one spot. Though technically we already had. I'm literally just commuting here from Weed.

"Ah... well..."

How was I supposed to explain this?

Traveling around as a married couple does sound pretty unnatural for this world. I might have messed up here.

"In that case, leave it to me! If you become my subordinates, your livelihood will be perfectly stable, and I can easily provide you with a permanent residence right in the capital of the Jilva Empire!"

There it is.

She finally dropped the sales pitch.

As a leader, whenever you see talented people just drifting around without a job, your natural instinct is to recruit them.

"We have absolutely no interest in getting involved in a war."

"Just as he said. Rather than that, we're looking for a safe place to travel to, or any information that could lead us to one."

"Muu... my intuition is telling me that I can't just let talent like yours walk away..."

"Princess, I understand how you feel, but as you just heard, these two are a married couple. It would be wrong to drag them into our conflicts."

Hmm, so she isn't completely unreasonable after all.

Thanks to Ria's careful steering, we should be able to get a good read on the continent's current situation.

"Hmm. It feels like a massive waste to let you go, but I suppose it can't be helped. However, I obviously can't share any top-secret military intelligence with you."

"No, that's fine. We just want to know basic things, like which factions are currently fighting the hardest, or where the next big battle is likely to break out."

"In that case, allow me to explain," Jessica offered. "The Princess is rather terrible at separating classified information from general knowledge. Please consider this an apology for my behavior earlier."

Perfect.

Everything went exactly according to plan.

I'll make sure to record all of this using the Call function and my voice recorder so I can play it back for everyone at home later. Information is crucial, and hearing someone's raw voice lets you pick up on specific nuances. The girls back home might notice completely different details than we did.

For the next hour, we listened to a brief overview of the surrounding region, albeit told strictly from the perspective of the Jilva Empire. Minor details aside, it lined up perfectly with the pre-expedition data Luna gave us: the continent was a complete mess of warring factions. The Jilva Empire had been locked in a near-perpetual land-grabbing war for the past ten years.

"By the way, why is someone like you—the Wind Knight Princess, was it?—staying in a common inn with just two people?"

"Yes, I was curious about that as well," Ria joined in. "Since Marley-san is a person of high nobility, shouldn't you have an army of soldiers with you?"

Exactly.

Why on earth were a princess and her sole attendant staying in a cheap place like this? Looking at it objectively, it's incredibly sketchy.

"Oh, I brought my soldiers along. About 2,500 of them."

"Princess!" Jessica hissed.

"Oh, come on, Jessica. Anyone could figure out our troop movements just by watching the city gates. It's hardly a military secret. Besides, we're literally out here cleaning up a complete idiot's mess, so there's no point in worrying about secrecy anyway."

"Well, that's true."

"Hmm? You gathered that many soldiers just to clean up a mess? Are you going to war?"

"Who knows. I suppose you could call it an internal cleanup. As for why the two of us are staying at a city inn, it's tied directly to that situation."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"It's simple," Jessica explained. "We went to confront the official responsible for the recent military blunder. However, the man refused to take any accountability and spent the entire time trying to shift blame while shamelessly sucking up to us. It was incredibly irritating, so the Princess decided to storm out."

"Exactly what Jessica said. I won't pretend there's zero danger out here, but as you saw yesterday, there's basically nobody stronger than us around anyway. If we managed to die to a threat of that caliber, then that's just as far as our potential goes."

"Princess, please be more careful with your words. It is fine to say such things around these travelers, but if the citizens of the Jilva Empire heard you talk like that, it would throw them into a panic. There is no one alive who can defeat you, Princess. Please stop talking about dying."

Hmm, I guess politicians are the same no matter what world you're in. Nobody ever wants to take responsibility. Getting caught in endless corporate buck-passing and dealing with brown-nosers is a massive waste of time.

"I won't pry into the specific reasons for your cleanup mission. But do you mind telling me exactly where you're taking those 2,500 soldiers to deal with it? I want to make absolutely sure we don't accidentally wander into that direction."

"Is it safe to tell them, Jessica?"

"It should be fine. If they accidentally got caught in the crossfire, we would end up having to rescue them anyway."

With Jessica's permission, the princess opened her mouth.

"Our destination is the border between the plains and the forest where the ancient ruins are located—the place where the beastmen and elves are said to live."

Oh, great.

So our next opponent is literally going to be the Jilva Empire's trump card and ace?