3 bar menu

Chapter 258: Commission

「Silver-ranked Veya, affiliated to Anoma, is that right? I hereby order you once again as the Deputy Guild Master. Hasten now and return to the surface and block the entrance leading to the levels below the 20th. And please tell the Guild to prepare restraining ropes and iron cages — I will write an order request now. 」
Glasses skillfully wrote the letter while speaking, then he handed the paper to the party leader named Veya.

His tone changed to a more powerfully coercive one as he gave the order, and it’s laced with urgency.

「Are the ropes coming from the 「Fae’s Bough 」so as to restrain the spirits? Are we perhaps binding the possessed individuals and transporting them to the surface using the iron cages? 」Butler confirmed, but he’s probably asking for my sake, more like an explanation. Are the ropes intended to capture spirits really being sold here? Oh, come to think of it, I think I remember Snow Leopard telling me that such things existed, or did he…? Eh, was it Horsey?

Yup, I’m still using brute force to capture the black spirits and name them even until now.

「Yes. We will carry them to the fortress city and have them exorcized at the 『Fae’s Bough』. Veya, if you can, please hand this to the manager of the labyrinth, and these are for the Guild. The Guild will deal with it later. 」
Glasses finished writing two more letters which he then gave to Veya.

「Ou, make sure the compensation is worth it. People or baggage, which one should we leave behind? 」
Veya confirmed while accepting the letters.

「The compensation will be increased, so please leave your baggage behind. Unless you can See spirits or have the means to go on offensive, then it’s dangerous for you to stay. 」
After hearing Glasses’ response, Veya then called out to their party and they started sorting through their baggage.

It seems like they’re gonna leave a lot of supplies behind; they’ve been prepared to stay for a few days, apparently. Climbing cliffs is easier if you carry less, and their baggage will also give us, the remaining party, a bit of a leeway. Adventurers sure are decisive!

「Valmour-dono, will you accept the commission? 」
「…Dean’s the leader here. 」
Dinosso pointed his thumb to Dean.

We are affiliated to Canum, and we didn’t file a report about our sojourn in the fortress city, so Glasses is being polite. Actually, he can use his authority to force us to submission since he’s higher than a Silver-rank, but he can’t act recklessly. Or maybe it’s because he’s talking to Wolf King that he’s a bit cautious.

「The commission is to rescue the aforementioned adventurers that have gone ahead. Dean-dono, I heard that you are here to be promoted to Gold, is that correct? When any member of this party rescues the select people, I, Iscal, the Deputy Guild Master of Anoma’s Fortress City will support and endorse the promotion of both Dean and Chris to Gold rank. 」

Select people.

Did Glasses tag along because there’s some bigwigs or important folks in here? That’s honestly disappointing. Should I go around rescuing folks other than that ‘select’ people? — I was seriously considering that when Retze lightly tapped my back while keeping his eyes on Glasses.

Can you please stop reading other people’s thoughts, Retze?

「— Your face is easy to read. 」
Butler muttered in a voice that only I could hear.

But I’ve been living a life of wearing a poker face mask all this time, you know? Both of you are well experienced in life, or maybe you just have excellent observation skills, that’s why you can tell.

「I am also not fond of the idea of prioritizing life according to certain conditions. 」
Ash whispered quietly.

‘I’m also’? Eh, Ash also read my thoughts!?

「So you’re fine with just anybody doing this, huh. That’s disgusting, so I’ll pass. 」
「So do I. 」
Dean and Chris had a smile plastered on their faces, but it’s void of humor.

「I’ll rescue them, but I won’t prioritize those ‘select’ people that you’re talking about. They’re all strangers to us anyway. 」
Hmpf, Dean’s absolutely right. If you turn it the other way, if there’s someone close to us mixed with them, then they’ll be our priority.

There might be somebody who would still rescue everyone fair and square in that sort of situation, but I prefer Dean’s way hands down.

「I apologize, I’ve been too hasty. I retract my previous statement, and once again request that you rescue everyone. However, it might be difficult for you to proceed if you are inadequately equipped or if there is none among you who can wield magic. 」
Glasses bowed. Oh, he’s pretty gracious towards a Silver rank, huh.

My rating of Glasses keeps on fluctuating.

「If it’s a weapon, then we have these. 」
「— Please keep it a secret from the Hero-dono who is staying here! 」
The duo quietly let Glasses have a peek at their weapons without Veya’s party noticing.

「Whoa…. 」
Glasses murmured in awe.

Retze, Ash and Butler should keep their spirit weapons a secret, but that’s not the case for the duo since they’re aiming to be at the top among the adventurer’s. It’s just they have to wait until Amadeo is far, far away before they can debut their weapons.

Amadeo is the scapegoat in case my novelty-loving Sis wants a spirit sword of her own. In fact, Fake-kun came to the fortress city where Amadeo and his group had been just a little bit earlier, so this anxiety isn’t entirely unfounded.

Actually, Sis might prefer bows than swords based on her personality. Perhaps she’s aiming to get her paws on the sword that I made and the bow that one of Amadeo’s party members uses, since it’s also a spirit weapon.

Amadeo’s group had been bragging about it in a large-scale manner, so it’s easy for us to hide ours.

「Khan and I can See the spirits. We can warn them if black spirits appear, and if there’s someone possessed we’ll have a rough idea where they are, so I think we can deal with them. These guys can be our support, it’ll be easier to move that way. Everyone in this party will remain here. 」
Dinosso blurted out a lot of stuff summarizing the roles of each member.

What about me?

「You there, are you a swordsman or a mage? If you can use magic then we’ll be grateful if you can stay with us. 」
「Yeah, I can use it. I’ll join your rescue team. 」
Khan brought it up so I immediately jumped on it.