“So… what exactly is going on?”
As I asked, readjusting the discarded cloak, the robed girl who had been staring at me opened her mouth, her face flushing slightly in a flustered manner.
“O-Our town is acting strange!”
“…I heard that much.”
She seemed quite flustered, and I couldn’t get any new information from her. Reluctantly, I turned my gaze to the other girl in leather armor, but she seemed preoccupied with something else and wasn’t paying attention.
“H-Hey, is that thing really okay?”
The leather-armored girl was frightened by the giant beast staring at us with emotionless eyes—Nero—and said that.
“Don’t worry. Nero isn’t interested in humans.”
Judging that she wouldn’t be of much help either, I started digging out Magic Stones from the Orc Zombie corpse. At my words, the leather-armored girl let out a scream-like voice.
“B-But, it’s watching us!”
It’s true that Nero isn’t interested in humans. He basically doesn’t care about them.
He seems to have gotten somewhat used to Master (Serejula), but after delivering her to her forest hermitage, he immediately returned to me to report that there were no problems.
The reason Nero stays in the forest around the academy and hunts approaching Monsters isn’t to protect humans, but simply because I, his partner, am protecting Elena.
Even now, he’s staring at us intently, probably intending to kill them instantly if they do anything strange. Still, I have no intention of admonishing Nero, and there’s no need to scare them unnecessarily by saying so.
In the first place, if that were to happen, I myself would not hesitate to do so.
“…I’ll listen while we walk. Guide me to the town.”
Perhaps sensing the dangerous atmosphere, the leather-armored girl seemed unsettled, so I proposed that.
“Nero.”
—Understood—
Nero, understanding just from my calling his name, disappeared into the forest with that massive body, without even rustling the leaves. Originally, I had planned to have him investigate the surroundings when we approached the village I was scheduled to investigate, so this was just a bit earlier than planned.
Even if they didn’t know that Nero was a Mystic Beast, they seemed to feel intimidated just by the sight of a giant carnivore. The leather-armored girl visibly sighed in relief, and the robed girl bowed uneasily.
“Thank you again! I’m Colette, a Magician and Adventurer from Rudo Town!”
“Likewise, Caroline… you can call me Cara.”
So, the robed girl with bluish-black hair is Colette, and the leather-armored girl with brown hair is Cara.
A Magician and a Light Warrior. Both have combat abilities around 120, and both look about the same age as me, but unlike me, they seemed to be close to their actual age.
If your Mana Capacity is high from a young age, your body grows rapidly, but once your body is mostly developed, your appearance hardly changes. Colette is a Magician, but she looked younger than me.
Rudo Town… that’s where the Ostole Robe Baron’s mansion, which I’m scheduled to investigate, is located.
Originally, it was a town managed by a royal chamberlain with the title of viscount, but he couldn’t manage it properly while working in the Royal Capital, so it was transferred to the Ostole Robe Baron family along with a new mansion.
Rudo Town is a few days’ carriage ride from the Royal Capital, but with the Ostole family managing it, a chapel was built next to the mansion, and many people visit from the surrounding villages.
“I’m Aria, an Adventurer from the Royal Capital. So, what’s going on?”
“Y-Yes.”
Colette explained as we walked.
Although not as large as the chapel where the Assassin Guild was located, Rudo Town also had a large cemetery spreading towards the forest.
In this world, cremation and [Purify (Clean)] by a priest are performed to prevent the occurrence of Undead. Then, burials are done differently depending on the region, family, individual, or the amount of donation. But recently, Miasma has been felt from the graves that should have been purified.
“So, we, ‘Golden Arrow,’ received a request… and investigated the surrounding situation…”
Their party, “Golden Arrow,” is a Rank 2 party consisting of two Warriors, one Scout-type Hunter, and one Magician.
They have a good balance and can handle most requests, but if they’re being asked to investigate matters related to the town’s security, they must be highly trusted by the Adventurer’s Guild.
But they encountered an unexpected enemy on that request.
“We knew we couldn’t win… so we split up…”
“Hey, Colette’s at her limit!”
Perhaps because they had been running from the Orc Zombies without taking proper breaks, Colette was out of breath and unable to speak, and Cara’s legs were trembling slightly as she snapped at her.
“Cara, I’m… okay. We need to get to the Guild…”
“Colette, you’re weak, don’t push yourself!”
“B-But…”
“That’s the ‘promise,’ right? Hey, you want Colette to rest, right? Is that okay?”
“Understood.”
Colette seemed to want to return to the Guild quickly, but Cara stopped her. Cara’s way of speaking was a bit off-putting, but I had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of another party.
Besides, seeing Colette’s anxiety about her companions’ safety, it was my fault for not realizing they were tired. I had forgotten that ordinary Adventurers couldn’t run for half a day straight.
But there was a reason why I thought so. Colette was concerned about “something” when she spoke. If she couldn’t talk about it here, I felt it was better to return to town quickly.
When we took a break, they sat down on nearby rocks and started drinking water from leather bags.
As I took out a container from my [Shadow Storage] and poured water into it using Utility Magic, Cara frowned.
“Weren’t you taught not to waste Mana? It’s common sense to refrain from using Utility Magic in places where there might be enemies.”
“Cara, don’t be rude! Aria-san is a strong Adventurer!”
I don’t know where that’s common sense, but it’s certainly wise for her, with her Mana of only 50, to refrain from using it. But Cara, scolded by Colette for her way of speaking, looked away sullenly.
“If I rank up a little more, I’ll be able to defeat Orcs too.”
Certainly, if she becomes Rank 3, she’ll be on par with Orcs in terms of rank.
It seemed that Cara was being strangely confrontational because I, whose appearance wasn’t that different from theirs, seemed to be trusted by Colette, and she didn’t like that.
After several more breaks, we somehow arrived at Rudo Town by evening.
It’s a small town with fewer than a thousand people, and there should be larger villages than this. Still, the reason it’s called a town is simply because it’s managed by the Baron family, so it has the necessary facilities.
The town looked the same from the outside, and the soldiers guarding the gate let us through as usual just by showing our Adventurer Identification Tags, but the soldier became a little agitated when I showed my Rank 5 Demon Iron-made Identification Tag.
The town was also unchanged. …At least on the surface.
Colette and Cara were going to report directly to the Adventurer’s Guild instead of reporting to the gate soldiers, so they headed straight to the Guild. The two men inside rushed over with joyful expressions.
“Cara, Colette!”
“Jean, Slay! I’m glad you’re both safe!”
The four confirmed each other’s safety and rejoiced. But if they had returned earlier, they should have been wary of Orc Zombies, but there was no such tension within the Adventurer’s Guild, and some of the Adventurers inside were giving them cold looks.
“I heard there were Orc Zombies?”
“…Ah, are you talking about them?”
When I called out to the receptionist, the receptionist, who was doing paperwork, sighed with a grimace.
“We had a report of Miasma being discovered, so we had it investigated, but the Ostole family contacted us and said that the Miasma had already been purified. And yet, Orc Zombies in a place like this? We haven’t seen Orcs in this town for ten years.”
“I see…”
It seems that Monsters exceeding Rank 3 rarely appear around here. Looking around, I couldn’t see any Adventurers above Rank 3. Adventurers who reach Rank 3 probably go to the Royal Capital or the Large-Scale Dungeon south of the Royal Capital.
More than that, I felt that “Golden Arrow” wasn’t very trusted. The people in this Guild are those who are stuck at Rank 2, and they think that Colette and the others, who reached that level at such a young age, will leave the town in a few years.
And as I felt when looking at Cara, she might be making unconsciously arrogant remarks, and that attitude might be disliked by those around her.
In the first place, they wouldn’t normally assign an investigation job to Rank 2 adventurers as young as them. Usually, they’d ask an adventurer with enough experience to trust the report.
That was the odd thing, but I understood once I saw this Guild. Strong monsters don’t appear around here. But there are also weak but troublesome enemies like evil spirits. So, I felt like they were treated like “canaries in a coal mine,” as a preliminary sweep before the real investigation took place.
“I saw it too. This is the Magic Stone.”
“A Magic Stone? Even if you say you saw it, the young adventurers reported…”
“How about this?”
When I showed the receptionist my Demon Iron-made identification tag from my chest, she froze and her eyes widened after a few seconds.
“T-that’s…”
“Aria of the Rainbow Sword. I’m here on a national request to investigate the missing villagers, and I encountered them being chased by Orc Zombies. I’m planning to investigate this matter as well.”
“Y-yes, I understand. I will report to the Ostール family, so could you please secure lodging where we can contact you?”
For now, I’ve scattered the “bait.” If Shadow Unit spies are missing, there’s a possibility of being attacked even without revealing my name, but I judged that luring them out would be faster.
If they were rational criminals, they wouldn’t eliminate an investigator who came to investigate; they would quietly let them return home.
Eliminating the spies would trigger a full-scale investigation. Do they not understand that, or are they not afraid of it?
“Wait!”
As I left the Adventurer’s Guild and headed towards the cemetery, a man’s voice stopped me.
“Aria-san!”
I sensed Colette’s voice and the presence of four people including Cara, so the four members of “Golden Arrow” probably came after me. I saw Colette and Cara, and Colette’s expression reminded me of something.
Come to think of it, she looked like she wanted to say something…
“…What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’?”
Cara snapped at my curt reply, but the warrior-like man stopped her.
“Stop it, Cara. We came to thank her. I’m Jean, and this hunter is Slay. Thank you for saving Colette and Cara.”
“It was just circumstances.”
“Even so, we’re grateful.”
Jean is probably the leader. I could feel the pride of leading a Rank 2 member in his late teens from his words and actions.
“And I heard from the Guild that you’ve taken over our investigation. If that’s the case, let us do it too. If we prepare properly, we won’t lose to Orcs.”
“…………”
I see, he seems quite confident. He thinks it’s natural for them to do this investigation and for me to accept their cooperation.
But —
Clang!!
“…What do you think you’re doing?”
Jean suddenly produced a dagger with the naturalness of someone asking for a handshake, and I blocked it with my Knife.
Colette, Cara, and Slay were shocked by Jean’s sudden action, and amidst their confusion, Jean, who had attacked, raised his voice.
“It’s not me! It wasn’t me!”
Jean’s actions, the meaning of his words, and the mysteries of this town…
I haven’t decided how many people will die yet.
Next time, Part 3