Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Volume 3

Chapter 8: The Adventurers' Inn

By the time we left the guild, it was getting dark outside. The sky was still bright, but the streets of Rikarisu seemed oddly gloomy. After a second, I realized it was a side effect of its location; the tall walls of the crater had cast the city into shadow well before the sun actually set. It'd probably be pitch black in no time.

"I guess we should find an inn right away."

Eris looked over me with a puzzled expression. "Can't we just camp outside the city or something?"

"Oh, come on. Might as well get a good night's sleep in a real bed when we're staying in a town, right?"

"You think?"

Ruijerd didn't seem to have an opinion one way or another. When we were camping out in the field, he'd often handled the night watch duties all by himself, since he could sense approaching enemies even when he was half-asleep. I'd woken a couple times in the middle of the night to the sound of something exploding, only to realize that Ruijerd had just sliced apart some hapless monster. It wasn't exactly conducive to a relaxing rest.

Anyway, an inn was definitely in order. For one thing, I was starving. We could probably buy something in the city, but we still had a ton of dried meat left over from the other day. It was probably smarter to finish that and keep our expenses down for now, but I was hungry enough that I at least wanted someplace to sit down and stuff my face in peace.

"Hey, Rudeus! Look at that!"

Eris's voice was full of excitement. Curious as to what she'd spotted, I looked up to find that the inner walls of the crater had begun shining faintly; the light seemed to be growing brighter by the second.

"This is amazing! I've never seen anything like it before!"

By the time the sun set completely, the crater's walls were brilliantly illuminating the stone and clay buildings of the city. It felt like we'd stumbled into a lit-up amusement park.

"Wow. That's really something, isn't it?"

Of course, I'd spent my previous life in a place that never got completely dark at any time, so I wasn't quite as awestruck as Eris. Still, this was definitely a magical spectacle. Why were the walls shining like that anyway?

"Ah. Those are the illuminators."

"Hm? You know something about this, Raiden?"

"Raiden? Who's that? Hm. Was there a Sword God a few generations ago with that name...?"

Naturally, the reference was completely lost on Ruijerd. There probably wasn't a single person in this entire world who would have understood it. Kind of depressing.

"Sorry. I used to know someone by that name, and he knew all sorts of weird things, so... It was just a slip of the tongue."

"I see."

Ruijerd reached down and patted me gently on the head, like a man comforting a child who'd reminisced about a deceased parent.

Uh, just for the record, Raiden isn't my dad's name or anything. My old man's named Pat or Pablo or something like that. Pretty decent father, pretty crappy human being.

"Anyway, what are these illuminator things?"

"They're a variety of magic stone."

"How do they work?"

"They absorb light during the day, then release it like this once it's dark. They shine for less than half as long as the daylight hours, though."

So they were basically solar-powered lights? I didn't see anything like these back in Asura. It was surprising they weren't in broader usage, considering how convenient they sounded.