Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back to My World Whenever I Want! Volume 10

Table of Contents

Cover

Summary of the Previous Volume

Chapter One: The Source

Chapter Two: Celes’s Concerns

Chapter Three: A Conversation with Zidan

Chapter Four: Persuasion

Chapter Five: When Are We Going to the Devils’ Village?

Intermission

Chapter Six: The Teleport Gate

Chapter Seven: The Village of the Devils

Chapter Eight: Visiting Celes’s House

Chapter Nine: An Audience with the Chieftain

Chapter Ten: The Barbecue Party

Chapter Eleven: The Mysterious Merchant

Chapter Twelve: A Clumsy Present

Chapter Thirteen: Sisters

Chapter Fourteen: Mifa’s First Rebellious Phase?

Chapter Fifteen: Contact

Chapter Sixteen: Change

Chapter Seventeen: What Is His Objective?

Chapter Eighteen: The Price of Power

Chapter Nineteen: In the Altar Room

Final Chapter: Counterattack

Epilogue

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Summary of the Previous Volume

At Kilpha’s request, I agreed to accompany her back to her hometown, Zudah Village, located in the Dura Forest, posing as her fiancé. But almost as soon as we got there, we were confronted by Sajiri, a fierce cat-sìth warrior who turned out to be Kilpha’s real fiancé. Needless to say, he was none too pleased to see his betrothed with another man, and to make matters worse, he had a huge number of ogres under his control and was planning to use them to destroy Orvil, the city-state that governed the Dura Forest.

I enlisted the help of my friends, and together, we managed to thwart his plans before he had time to set them in motion, but just as we were starting to think the danger had passed, the true mastermind stepped out from behind the curtain: Magath Onir, the prime minister of Orvil. It turned out he had been the one supplying Sajiri with ogres in the hope that the cat-sìth would attack the city and take out the king, allowing Magath to swoop in and save the day, with his ultimate goal to seize the crown in the ensuing chaos.

And as if ogres weren’t formidable enough, Magath brought with him a far more fearsome creature: a black dragon, which he had enslaved using a Collar of Domination. Fortunately, my friends succeeded in defeating the dragon before it could land a single blow on us, allowing me to capture Magath and deliver him to the king to be imprisoned.

And that was that. All’s well that ends well. Or so it seemed. For one question still lingered: who exactly had crafted those Collars of Domination that were powerful enough to even subjugate a black dragon?

Chapter One: The Source

Cheers!

Having finally made it back from the Dura Forest, I was in the middle of enjoying a few drinks with my friends in Ninoritch, my adopted second home. We’d arrived in town in the evening, and not even an hour later, we were already drinking. What terrible adults we were. Thank goodness Aina’s not here to see this.

Kilpha and I were at a table in the guild’s drinking hall, and we’d been joined by Emille, who had invited herself to sit with us. One after another, adventurers I knew came up to greet me and raise a toast in celebration of my return.

Oh, hey, you’re finally back!

Welcome back, Shiro!

Drink up! This one’s on me.

Am I seeing things or is that Shiro? Hey, waitress! Bring us some booze over here!

Over here too! A mug for me, and one for Shiro!

Shiro, have a drink with me, yeah?

Well, looks like I just started an impromptu drinking party.

Under normal circumstances, Rolf would be casting Cure on us to negate the aftereffects of the alcohol, but since he was still visiting his hometown, we were most likely going to all end up passed out on the floor by the middle of the night. I could only pray that someone would have the presence of mind to stop Emille from dragging me off to a dark room somewhere, because I doubted I’d be able to fight her off in a drunken state, even if I tried. Opposite me, the bunny girl chuckled sinisterly.

"C’mon, mister, drink up. Look, everyone wants to toast you! You’re surely not going to refuse them, are you? That’d be terribly rude of you! she teased, her eyes locked firmly on me like a predator watching its prey. Oh, hey, look, mister. Your mug’s empty! I’ll order you a new drink, ’kay?"

It was hard to miss the drool that escaped her lips. I’m kinda terrified.

Um, is there anyone here who knows the Cure spe— I started, turning to the sea of adventurers crowding around us, but Emille cut me off before I could finish.

"Ahem! What are you saying, mister? She fake-laughed. You want someone to use Cure on you? In here? A drinking hall of all places? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! So uncool! So lame!"

Thankfully, Kilpha beside me proverbially leaped to my rescue. Don’t worry, Shiro. I won’t let Emi do anything naughty to you, meow.

Thanks, Kilpha.

She gave me a little pat on the back as if in reassurance, causing Emille to click her tongue. Oh, get lost, you thieving cat.

I haven’t stolen anything. Shiro was never yours to begin with, meow, Kilpha retorted.

"Oh, but he is! He’ll be mine one day, so that means he’s already mine!" the bunny girl declared. In true Emille fashion, her reasoning was completely absurd.

That makes zero sense, meow, Kilpha said, drawing another, much louder tongue click out of the bunny girl.

Just then, Patty—who was sitting at the table next to ours—fluttered over to me. Hey, Shiro? she said to grab my attention.

Hm? What is it, boss?

I hadn’t noticed before, but she had been sitting with a bunch of other fairies. There were around ten of them all in a circle on the table itself, and it looked like they were having a blast. Well, would you look at that? Seems Patty’s made some friends while I was away. I attempted to conceal my cheerful surprise at this and turned my attention to what the little fairy was trying to tell me.

Look over there, she said, pointing to a table in one corner of the drinking hall. Celes has a real scary look on her face. Did something happen?

C-Celes? I queried. She does?

I followed Patty’s gaze and I spotted Celes at the table she had indicated. She was talking to Eldos, who was one of the Sixteen Heroes, and his blacksmith brother, Baledos. From what I could tell, the three of them seemed to be in the middle of a pretty serious discussion. Oh, what’s this? Celes just took a large metal band out of her bag and set it down on the table. That’s one of the Collars of Domination the now-former prime minister of Orvil was using on those cyclopes, isn’t it?

Collars of Domination were magic tools that—as the name suggested—allowed a person to bend a creature to their will. They were considered taboo artifacts and banned in most nations. I watched as Baledos recoiled in horror when Celes explained what the metal band was. She added that the one in front of them had been used to enslave a cyclops, but the prime minister had also possessed one powerful enough to control a black dragon.

Baledos’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at that point. "A cyclops and a dragon, ye say? Cyclopes are gold-rank monsters, but a black dragon’s at least platinum! And yer tellin’ me these collars were controllin’ ’em? Blasted nonsense!"

It seemed their conversation had piqued the interest of folk nearby, as a small crowd was starting to gather around their table. Naturally, I was curious as well. I drained the last of my drink and made my way over to join the crowd so that I could hear their conversation a bit better.

That is what I have been told, Celes said. I asked Nesca about it. She said the amount of mana poured into a Collar of Domination on its creation determines the type of creature it can subjugate.

Baledos nodded. "Aye, that’s right. Now I’d believe ye if it were regular monsters ye were namin’, but a cyclops and a black dragon? I don’t know of a single hume or dwarf who’d have enough mana or be able to forge a collar sturdy enough not to snap under the strain."

So not even dwarves could craft Collars of Domination that powerful? Then, who made them?

Baledos? I said, tapping the dwarf on the shoulder to get his attention. Maybe he had some inkling about who might be behind the manufacture of these collars.

He turned to me, an irritated look on his face. What is it, kid?

If theoretically, no hume or dwarf could have made collars powerful enough to tame a black dragon, then who do you suppose made them?

Well, ain’t that obvious? Demons, that’s who.

Demons? That was what he’d just said, right? I’d already had quite a bit to drink, but I was still sober enough for my senses not to be completely dulled. To be honest, I was so intrigued by this turn of events, I felt myself sobering up a little. But while my inner child was jumping up and down with excitement (Demons! How cool is that?), Celes met the suggestion that her kin were likely involved with a blank stare.

I feared as much. What a nuisance, she muttered, spinning on her heel.

Wait, Celes! I called out to stop her before she could leave. I had known her for long enough by this point to know that whenever she had that blank look on her face, something was weighing heavily on her mind.

What is it, Shiro? she said. Forgive me, but I must go take care of some—

I interrupted her before she could finish her sentence. Please don’t go running off just yet, yeah? Um... I scanned the drinking hall in search of an empty table, but it quickly occurred to me there was no way the two of us would be able to have a calm conversation with this rowdy crowd around us.

How about we go to my shop to talk? I suggested.

Chapter Two: Celes’s Concerns

Celes and I left the drinking hall and went to my shop, aka Shiro’s Shop. Kilpha and Patty must have also sensed something was troubling Celes, as they had volunteered to accompany us, although I could not have told you why exactly Emille had tagged along too. Once inside, we all headed up to the break room on the second floor, and I told everyone to take a seat while I prepared some drinks. After setting the cups down on the coffee table, I took a seat and got straight to the point.

So what’s the matter, Celes? I asked.

Seated on the sofa opposite mine, Celes simply stared at me blankly. What do you mean? she said.

There’s no point playing dumb. It’s about those Collars of Domination, isn’t it? Baledos said they were crafted by demons.

She seemed to hesitate a little before eventually saying, It does not concern you.

I wagged my index finger at her. "Tut-tut-tut. You couldn’t be more wrong there. It is very much my concern, I insisted. I was there in the forest with you and the others when we faced that black dragon, and truth be told, I was pretty much the one who sparked that whole battle in the first place. Don’t you think I have a right to know what’s going on?"

According to Shess, the king’s men had been quizzing Magath day after day in an effort to find out how he had gotten his hands on the Collars of Domination, but the former prime minister was refusing to spill the beans. I admittedly hadn’t thought much of it at first, but I certainly hadn’t been expecting demons to be involved. Life has a funny way of throwing surprises at you, I mused.

Besides, this matter’s clearly troubling you. I can see it written on your face, I added.

Celes’s eyes widened, and she (unconsciously, I assumed) brought her right hand up to her cheek. Eventually, she huffed and said, Why would I be troubled?

You mean you’re not? I replied. I haven’t seen you looking this tense since we first met.

A few months had passed since my first encounter with Celes. Back then, she had been trying to abduct Suama to use her to cure her sister’s illness.

See? You can’t deny it, can you? I added when Celes didn’t reply, though she still stubbornly refused to tell me what was on her mind. "Listen, after that whole debacle with the prime minister, I was granted the title of baronet in Orvil. That means I’m part of the nobility over there now. As such, I need to know where these Collars of Domination have come from in order to prevent a similar situation happening in the future, and prevent more people from getting hurt."

Still no response from her.

"Celes, please, I begged. If you have even an inkling about who made these collars, could you—"

That sentence should have ended with Could you please tell me? but Emille, sitting to my right, rudely interrupted me.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a minute! Mister, did you say you’re a noble now?!" she exclaimed, her eyes gleaming intensely and a look of unbridled desire on her face. She grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to turn and face her.

A noble! Since when? Mister, you should’ve mentioned it sooner! I always wanted to marry into nobility! she continued.

Um, Emille? I’m kinda busy talking to Celes right now— I started, but she cut me off yet again.

"Oh, puh-lease! Our future together is far more important than whatever’s going on with this crazy melon-titted bitch. Orvil’s full of rich folks, yet you managed to snag yourself a title! That’s my mister for you! Still, I never expected you to become an actual noble for my sake—"

Hush up, Emi, meow! Kilpha must have reached her limit because she got to her feet and delivered a solid punch to the back of Emille’s head, the noise of the impact echoing around the room.

"Ouch! Wh-What did you do that for, Kilpha?! You know I’m against violence!" Emille protested.

Shiro and Celes are currently in the middle of a serious discussion, meow, Kilpha replied calmly. I’m not gonna let you keep interrupting them, meow.

K-Kilpha’s right, Emille! Patty chimed in. "I don’t know what exactly is going on, b-but if demons are involved, it must be important. Super important, even! Maybe."

My two friends were both lecturing Emille, but