Act 2: Chapter 37: Adventurer Meeting
After reluctantly leaving Philia alone by herself in my room, Pomera and I followed the man with the pointy hat to the meeting at the adventurer’s guild.
Though I didn’t doubt Philia’s monstrous strength, bringing a child to an adventurer meeting would pose a problem.
Since she wasn’t the kind of child who knew how to hold back, mostly due to her origins, taking her along to the adventurer’s meeting was way too risky.
「Uhm, what’s your name?」
I asked the name of the man with the pointy hat as we followed him along the night street.
He nodded lightly.
「My name is Zild. My main duty is assisting Gannet-san. I didn’t introduce myself since I already knew about you two.」
So he was Gannet’s direct subordinate, huh.
So that’s why he strangely tried to get close to Pomera even when we were riding on a carriage along with the caravan.
Gannet also told us back then when we met him for the first time that he heard about us from his subordinate who’d just returned from Aarburg. The subordinate he was talking about back then must have been Zild.
「… Are demon kings appearing frequently like this?」
I’ve heard about the demon kings once before from Noble Mimic. They’re the kings of monsters who appeared out of nowhere and had the ability to command monsters and increase their potential.
In addition, they could grow almost without limits by stacking self-evolution within a short cycle.
Though they were divided according to their level or scale, they were still fearsome living disasters.
Originally, the very reason Lunaire became a lich was because she traded her life to land a single blow that killed a demon king.
「… Yeah. From what we know so far, there’s no mistake about it. In the first place, the overflow of one type of monster alone is already strange enough. So according to common sense, this is definitely because a demon king.」
「… N-No way!」
Color drained from Pomera’s face.
The adventurer’s guild was sent into an uproar.
I’ve heard that failure in a demon king subjugation would result in the destruction of the city, or even country.
This world was originally a world dominated by monsters afterall. Nevertheless, the reason why humanity didn’t become extinct was most probably because Nyarlhotep and co pulled strings behind the scenes, indirectly preventing the monsters from killing all the humans.
I gritted my teeth in annoyance whenever I recalled that matter.
Now I finally understood the reason why Gannet suddenly left the meeting back then despite every attempt to stop him by the staff; it was to greet Pomera.
Maybe he wanted to recruit Pomera, who defeated Alfred, an A-rank adventurer, in preparation for the upcoming battle against the demon king.
Because if the overflow of Ragno was really caused by a demon king, then this city would face an unprecedented crisis.
If it was left as it is, the magic city of Manarak would most probably be erased from the map.
「Is the reason that the adventurers have gathered together like this so that they can make the first move before the demon king? 」
I heard that there was an S-rank adventurer in this magic city of Manarak.
Regarding the scale of the demon king’s power, not even I could guess it.
「… It should be alright as long as a group of A-rank adventurers are fighting together. Gannet-san doesn’t think that their scale is that great.」
「E–」
「The thing that I say just now is the formal announcement to show our most sincere attitude to you guys. But, I myself have no idea about what Gannet-san is going to say. Anything more than that is just my own speculation.」
Zild spoke with a melancholic look on his face.
I was at a loss for words.
It seems this meeting was really important.
We finally arrived at the adventurer’s guild. We followed Zild into the “staff-only” room which is usually inaccessible and went up to the second floor. Few adventurers were already sitting in their seats by the time we entered the room.
Rosemonde was amongst them.
She was already equipped to the teeth with metal protectors and covered her face with a goat mask.
It seems she had already repaired her broken protectors.
I bowed slightly when our gaze met.
Rosemonde’s body twitched upon seeing that.
… It seems I caused mental trauma to her.
Well, that was only natural though.
「Sit wherever you like.」
Despite what Zild said, I looked around at the meeting room.
Maybe I should choose carefully. I mean, this seating might be decided by some sort of rules.
I had yet to understand the common sense of this world or the customs of this magic city of Manarak.
That’s why Zild must’ve said so to make it easier for me to choose my seat.
That moment, I felt killing intent from my back.
「…. Oi, stop spacing out in the hall and get out of my way.」
When I turned around, I saw Alfred standing right there, glaring at us.
There was cold piercing hatred dwelling in his piercing glare.
I’d already expected for them to call Alfred to participate in the meeting too since they said that they’re going to call A-rank adventurers and above. But then, I thought he would be unwilling to come after he suffered such embarrassment at our hand.
I mean, he forced a duel on us, was beaten one-sidedly, then still beaten miserable even after using a surprise attack, and even received healing magic from his opponent.
If I was in his position, I would feel extremely embarrassed and leave the city immediately.
Pomera glared at Alfred with a sullen look on her face.
「A-Alfred-sama…」
Sarah called Alfred as if to remind the latter.
Originally, the one who asked Pomera to heal Alfred was Sarah. Maybe it’s because she knew that the extremely prideful Alfred wouldn’t lower his head to Pomera.
Alfred quickly seized Sara’s shoulder.
It seems he put some power in his grip since I could hear her bones creaking under his grip.
「What’s your problem, Sarah? I only reminded them since they’re blocking the entrance, right? Do you think I have to bow down to them to sit inside just because I lost in the duel? Haah?」
「I-I, don’t mean… that…」
The line of sight of all participants inside the meeting room gathered on Alfred.
Upon realizing that, Alfred clicked his tongue and let go of Sarah.
「What, I only warned them lightly right? Or else, are you enjoying the sight of a loser wailing?」
Everyone in the room looked away with an awkward look on their face upon hearing Alfred’s remark.
It seems they’re really embarrassed.
「Sorry, we’re blocking the way. Pomera-san, let’s sit over there.」
I pulled Pomera’s arm.
Nothing good would come from going along with Alfred. Even if we somehow repelled him this time too, it would only make things more troublesome.
「… I’m a persistent man. Don’t think that you’ve already won. Kuku… I don’t know what they will say in this meeting, but it seems they’ve perfected the preparation. The time will come when you regret the fact that you shamed me.」
Alfred muttered quietly as he looked at us.
I sat beside Pomera while looking at Alfred with a sidelong glance.
…. From what I understood so far, Alfred was a really troublesome fella. If he is still trying to annoy us, maybe I should change the way I deal with him.
When I sat in my chair, Rosemonde, who sat beside me, twitched.
Her elbow poked the round table as if she got pulled by her heavy clothes.
「M… My apologies… about that event…」
After glancing at me, Rosemonde looked around the room. And then, she placed her hand on the mouth part of her mask and asked with a subdued voice.
「You’re not bringing that green-haired girl with you today?」
「… Yeah, she’s house-sitting right now.」
… It seems she was traumatized by Philia after the latter blasted the ragnos to save her.
Though it couldn’t be helped, I felt bad for her.
「I heard the matter about your duel but it seems you can find that kind of reckless death-seeker whose recklessness know no bound everywhere, huh.」
She was referring to Alfred.
I never expected that Alfred would force a duel on Pomera like that either.
Rosemonde sent a glance at Alfred.
Both Pomera and I followed Rosemonde’s line of sight.
Pomera lowered her gaze immediately after she muttered 「Hii」.
Alfred kept looking at Pomera as if trying to provoke her.
… Alfred did say that this meeting was the perfect opportunity. It should be okay as long as he didn’t try to sabotage the tactics devised by the adventurer’s guild, but…