Chapter 443: Objective
「As of now, death would only result in the guild’s copy turning black. 」
Butler gently interjected.
「Oh my, so they improved the spell work? 」
Hauron seemed a bit taken aback.
Well, I guess that makes sense. The guild will catch fire if the spare copies keep on exploding or bursting in flames, after all.
「The Guild rarely gets involved with quests that have oaths, but they do have many documents stored over since they keep for a long time. It’d be a disaster if they all burn up. 」
Retze explained to Hauron ーno, he’s probably saying it to me, huh?
There are two types of written oaths. The first type is disposed of after the mission is over, and the other one is stored for a long time, apparently. The latter is a hassle, since they have to mount and bind each sheet and turn them into books!
It’s tough protecting stuff from the naughty spirits, huh. It can be quite labor intensive, but there’s no helping it since It’s said that tons of paper are sold in the market thanks to the spirits.
「That means the Guild already knew that the oath has been broken. I wonder what reason they came up with? 」
Hauron swirled his soup with the spoon; his mind probably spinning with his thoughts.
「Even if I want to tell you that they probably came up with a plausible reason, sad to say they’re probably still snoring in their beds at this time. The night watch will probably relay what happened to the Guild Master by morning. 」
Retze was staring at this empty bowl after drinking all his soup. Maybe he wanted to eat more now that his stomach had been filled a bit?
I softly added some bread, liver pâté, and mentaiko dip, plus some cheese that is gentle on the stomach. No soggy pasta for the sick people’s meals.
Anyway, I wonder if the Canum guild is alright? Aren’t they too lax? Oh well, the only important event for Canum is the investigation of the Magical Woods, after all. They also have spirit-related cases from time to time, like what happened to Dean’s sister back then.
Well, I’m pretty free thanks to the temple and the fief lord being so lax, so no complaints here.
「 The problem is with this Emerald young lady. Jean, you also revoked this young lady’s oath, right? 」
Chris looked at the soundly sleeping lass.
「 Yes, I did.」
By overcoming the obstacle of her chest.
Chns called her Emerald, so either she’s possessed by a spirit, or she has the Sight, or she has some sort of an ability related to the spirits ー oh, didn’t they mention that she can sense them?
「 Something must’ve happened to the Fortress City, then. The young lady seemed to be bound by some kind of restriction, but it was already like that even from when we first met her.」
「Well, the Fortress City’s adventurers who died aren’t few, and some are also missing. 」
Dean is quite the optimist, or should I say tipsy.
I bet the one currently in chaos must be the fief lord’s house, not the fortress city guild. It’s mentioned that they have the lass’s younger sister held hostage, after all.
「Can’t we just hand her over to Canum’s guild and call it a day? 」
Hauron glanced at the lass.
「We’ve already made this far to protect her, so we won’t do that, alright? Let’s listen to her story first. Depending on the situation, I’ll go to the fortress city guild and warn them or something.」
Dean jovially declared.
「 Well, I might end up making enemies of the whole fortress city and the fief lord, but you guys can just play dumb when that happens. Just make sure to get me to Canum, okay?」
He grinned and even winked once.
I thought Dean didn’t know that the fief lord is behind all this mess, but it turned out he did. It’s amazing that his attitude didn’t change.
「I only protected her because it’s within the quest’s clause. 」
Retze added with a sigh through his nose, looking resigned.
「Ash got seriously injured trying to protect her. Kind of feels like a wasted effort if we hand her over just like that. 」
I also chimed in.
「Mm… 」
Ash’s face is scary, obviously embarrassed.
Maybe it’s because of her horrible experience, the furrow between her brows had become deeper! What a bummer, just when her expressions had started to soften…
「Let’s teleport to a different country and get a room there for now. We’ll listen to her story there and deal with the rest after. I’ll check what’s going on with Anoma tomorrow morning. 」
Hauron was about to sigh. Will he send a spirit, I wonder?
The fortress city might be in chaos too, just in a different sense. The temple spirits will slack off, so the adventurers returning from the Labyrinth won’t be purified from the influence of defeating monsters. Trouble should be brewing by the time the adventurers who fled from the Magical Woods arrive.
The fortress city thrives off the Magical Woods, so it’s not just the adventurers who might suffer; even the ordinary folks might get sick. I was about to recall the faces of the townsfolk who laughed during the execution way, way back but I hastily stopped myself from doing that.
And so, I decided to focus on remembering the friendly face of the lady who gave me a discount at one of the food stalls in the fortress city. I should probably imagine a kind world instead.
「You don’t really want to show this place to other folks, right? How about this, if anybody asks, let’s just say that somebody I know happened to be in the woods and he called me over to pick them up? 」
「What a brilliant idea! Jean is the Sage of the Woods, how about you pick an alias or something? 」
Chris beamed, expressing his agreement to Hauron’s suggestion.
「Sage of the Woods…Then, let’s go with Oran. 」
Gutan.
If you say sage of the woods, then it should be an orangutan ー known as the wise old man of the jungle. Owls are usually associated with woods at night, but since 『Bird of Light』decided to possess an owl with similar wings, so I’ll let that spirit have the owl symbolism, then.
「Oran, right? 」
「Yup. 」
Gutan.
「Oran, is it! 」
「Yup. 」
Gutan.
「Oran, huh? I should remember it too. 」
Dean guzzled his wine after saying that. I wonder what he was so happy about, he’s been grinning ear-to-ear since earlier.
It is Gutan.
「… 」
「Is there perhaps a problem? 」
Butler asked Retze.
「…I kinda want to pull this guy’s cheeks. 」
「Why!? 」
I immediately retorted when Retze answered.
「Man, every time someone calls you ‘Oran,’ you do this little neck stretch thing towards that person. That name must be tied to something sketchy, huh? 」
Hey, Retze, why don’t you direct those keen eyes of yours to someone else!
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 80 hours
Thanks for the treat.