Inside a small wooden house, illuminated by the flickering flames, everything fell into tranquility.
Riezel extended his finger toward the shattered window, witnessing the final moments of the demon woman before slowly lowering his arm.
Turning around, he glanced at the gruesome pot, sighing moments later.
"Well, I guess this is vengeance for you... Rest in peace..."
After uttering those words, Riezel walked out of the house, swinging his hand as he did, causing a gust of wind to blow, scattering the fire cooking in the pot and splattering it onto the wooden floor, walls, and ceiling.
As he walked away from the house, with his back turned, flames soared behind him.
The entire house was engulfed, burning fiercely in the darkness of the night, dispersing the darkness that once enveloped the mountains.
Gradually, the sounds of birds and insects began to emerge.
Riezel didn't look back again.
===
The day gradually brightened as sunlight spilled onto the earth.
At the foot of the mountains, a small town also began to bustle.
People gathered in twos and threes, chatting, working at the market, creating a lively scene.
At this moment, the world seemed to have a bit of life and excitement, not as horrifying as before.
Riezel, descending from the mountains, attracted quite a bit of attention as he entered the town.
"Where's that guy from?"
"Never seen that face before."
"Is he a merchant from outside?"
"...Not sure."
People quietly observed Riezel walking down the street, discussing one after another, casting curious, doubtful, and wary glances at him.
'Am I really that strange...?' Riezel was a bit puzzled.
Due to the nature of his consciousness being materialized upon arrival, every time Riezel engaged in dimensional travel, the clothes on his body were not those he originally wore, but rather local casual attire provided by the Dimensional Magic Cube upon materializing his consciousness.
Therefore, his clothes weren't the noble clothes he wore in the main world but rather a very common kimono.
Naturally, he wasn't used to wearing a kimono and wanted to change it, but wasn't it too early?
In theory, he should not stand out from the surrounding people.
Originally, when he dimensionally traveled to the world of Danmachi, appearing directly in Orario's urban district didn't attract any attention. However, this time, it drew so much attention that it puzzled him.
But soon he understood.
In his previous life, the Taisho period was over a hundred years ago. In this period, unless it was one of those bustling big towns, places like small towns and villages probably had very few people.
With fewer people, the interactions between them became more frequent, and the probability of knowing each other also increased significantly.
This small town was located at the foot of the mountain, probably far from the big town. Usually, one could only see familiar faces, so it was rare to see strangers.
Moreover, Riezel came down from the mountain, traveling a long way. Even if he didn't look dirty, there was a feeling of being dusty and weary, which would attract the attention of the town's residents who rarely saw outsiders.
It seemed not so hard to understand.
In the end, Riezel let go of his random thoughts and began to stroke his chin, pondering.
'By the way, where am I now?'
The most urgent thing now should be to figure out where he was and ideally determine the original work's timeline he was in.
Was it before the main story began or after?
"Selling newspapers!"
At the right moment, a newspaper vendor passed by Riezel's side.
"Please give me one."
Riezel quickly reacted, stopped the newspaper vendor, and asked for a newspaper. As payment, he simply tossed a gold leaf to the vendor.
"I... I can't make change for this, Mister!"
The newspaper vendor was taken aback by Riezel's extravagant gesture.
Who would buy a newspaper by casually throwing gold for payment?!
The poor vendor was just a youth doing odd jobs, how could he have ever seen such a scene before?
He was extremely flustered.
"It's okay, you keep it."
Riezel spread out the newspaper, looking at it while speaking indifferently.
"It's not worth much anyway."
He wasn't joking; he genuinely thought gold wasn't worth much. Because the gold he used was created directly through structure system magic.
When Yuri taught him structure system magic, she taught him how to transmute various metals like iron, silver, copper, and gold using magic, allowing him to effortlessly produce gold using magic.
Alchemy magic was the most common magic in the structure system magic.
Since the Akasha Continent had already perfected this magic system, transmuting gold using magic was something that even a beginner magician with first-grade compatibility in the structure system could accomplish.
As a result, gold was practically worthless on the Akasha Continent and didn't even count as a precious metal. The currencies used by various countries were magic gold, magic silver, and magic copper, synthesized using special formulas and structures.
These magic metals had a higher value than ordinary gold, silver, and copper. They essentially replaced gold, silver, and copper in various commercial and economic aspects. When made into currency, they would also have special magic runes attached to them, making them impossible to counterfeit.
Because of this, magic gold, magic silver, and magic copper were considered precious metals in the Akasha Continent. Meanwhile, ordinary gold, silver, and copper had lost their original value, depreciating to the point where they were almost as worthless as roadside pebbles.
Therefore, when Riezel said gold wasn't worth much, he wasn't just casually saying it.
However, to the ears of the newspaper vendor, it meant something else entirely.
Looking at Riezel's demeanor right now, he seemed like a nouveau riche upstart. If the newspaper vendor were living in modern times, perhaps he would secretly envy and resent Riezel's humblebragging.
Unaware that he had become a master of humblebrag in the eyes of the newspaper vendor, Riezel was busy flipping through the newspaper.
There was plenty of information written on it, like the current date and popular events happening in various big towns, ranging from trivial to involving national affairs, almost everything was documented.
Riezel scanned through it all and finally stopped at a certain spot.
—The man-eating Mugen Train is back in operation, there were no abnormalities after inspection.
The font of this news, the phrase 'man-eating' was especially highlighted, allowing people to sense a faint ironic undertone. It was as if they were saying the so-called 'man-eating' was nothing but baseless talk.
'Mugen Train, huh?'
He finally figured out which timeline he was in.
'Did I really arrive during this arc?' Riezel mused, quite surprised.
After all, the 'Mugen Train Arc' happened quite far into the main story.
'I couldn't have arrived at a better time.'
This arc was a significant part of the main story, as it was also from this point that demons known as 'Upper Rank' started to appear one after another.
Demons of this world were categorized by rank.
Some had just been newly transformed into demons, and their power was not too different compared to humans. Others had been demons for a while, having consumed many people, and were known as 'Lower Rank' with stronger power.
Moreover, there was an organization of demons known as the 'Twelve Kizuki', boasting potent demon blood and ranking among the strongest demons, with demons of Upper Rank and Lower Rank among them.
The Twelve Kizuki referred to the twelve most powerful demons, second only to the progenitor of all demons, the Demon King.
Among them, six were Upper Rank, and six were Lower Rank.
Together, they formed the so-called Twelve Kizuki, humanity's greatest predators and enemies.
In the original work, a strong Upper Rank appeared in the Mugen Train Arc. And now, with Riezel's arrival, he found himself right in the middle of it.
'Coming early is not as good as coming at the right time, is that what they say?'
Riezel chuckled, confirming the time and location of the Mugen Train's operation as mentioned in the newspaper.
Before long, he folded the newspaper, grabbed a map he bought from the market, and headed west.
===
West Side of the Town, Train Station.
When Riezel arrived here, it was already dusk.
Blending into the crowd, he seemed like just an ordinary passenger, casually making his way toward the station. He bought a bento from a little girl selling them, not caring about the gold he handed over, nor the little girl's startled cry of 'Grandma!', nor the bewildered looks from passersby.
Riezel simply walked into the station calmly.
Everyone around was getting ready to board the train, either lugging large suitcases or with their families in tow.
Riezel, on the other hand, was alone, empty-handed, looking more like a sightseer than a traveler.
Yet, he dutifully queued up for his ticket, entered the station, and stood on the platform waiting for the train. No one knew his identity, let alone that this seemingly young man possessed power beyond humans.
Truth be told, Riezel quite enjoyed the procedure.
In his previous life, he was always escorted around, paying attention to appearances wherever he went. His former self could never have imagined that now he could blend in with the ordinary people, squeezing into a train station, and buying a ticket by himself.
In the world of Danmachi, there was a time when he led a very ordinary life, but his focus at that time was solely on delving into the dungeon and slaying monsters to become strong as soon as possible before the dimensional travel ended. There was hardly any time for him to indulge in the life of an ordinary person.
While on the Akasha Continent, let alone ordinary life, with Yuri by his side, he lived more like a noble than the actual noble themselves.
'I'm just an ordinary guy...'
Only at times like these would Riezel find himself wanting to say those words to Yuri, who didn't exist in this place.
Unfortunately—
"Well, the journey ahead might not be an ordinary one though..."
Muttering softly as he looked at his ticket, Riezel's voice was barely audible.
Soon enough, with a blast of a train whistle, a train arrived at the station.