Chapter 18 – The Waste City of Tectis
Returning with money and a letter from the guild master, Hero’s party immediately woke up the Horde and headed for Grid Mall without delay.
The warrior on the wagon felt regret seeing the castle town of Lindmerle getting farther and farther away.
‘I’ve been there for quite some time.’
It was only a few months to say that it was a long time, but in that short time, the hero got to know many people.
I wanted to say hello to them and leave, but it was a bit disappointing to just leave like this.
‘What… I’m not leaving forever.’
Besides, he couldn’t delay at all with the information that might be connected with the executives of the Demon King’s army.
The hero, who had made up his mind, asked Lina, who was leaning against the wall of the wagon and immersed in the map.
“Lina, have you ever been to Grid Mall?”
She asked because it was something she would have done if it was Lina who had traveled to many places, but Lina shook her head unexpectedly.
“I’ve lived for hundreds of years, but how many times do I have to go to a village like that?”
Just because she’s an elf who’s lived for hundreds of years doesn’t mean Lina has been all over the world.
But even though she’d never been there, she had a map, so she had no trouble guiding me to the Grid Mall.
“And first, rather than going to that mining town, I should go to the nearby city first.”
That’s right, in order to be certain now that there might be an infiltrator from the Demon King’s army, I first had to seek cooperation from the guild master in the city.
Unlike the demon lord’s executives that I met in the cave last time, I have to suspect everyone in the village as an infiltrator this time.
“…”
When the hero recalled that fact and made a gloomy expression, Lina, who was looking at her map, said.
“Hero, I didn’t want to say this, but the people of that mining town might be in collusion with the demon king. You know?”
“I know…”
“So, leave all negotiations and conversations in the village to me. You’re not good at suspecting people.”
“Please leave that job to me. In preparation for such a time, I have also learned the miracle of seeing through lies!”
“Was there such a miracle? Anyway, you know Hero, right?”
The hero couldn’t refute Lina’s words and could only nod her head.
She was well aware that people had their place in everything, but the hero felt guilty for leaving Lina and Martha to do something that everyone would hate.
“I’m sorry, Lina. Martha.”
“What is there to be sorry about…”
“We are fine.”
Perhaps it was to erase a little of his helplessness, while going to the city near Grid Mall, the hero devoted himself to miracle training.
He repeatedly asked Martha to teach him the miracle of detecting lies, but Martha refused to teach him.
The journey was unexpectedly smooth, but there was no trouble with being attacked by beasts or beasts, whether it was wild instinct or not.
Eventually, as time passed and the smooth journey passed through the grassland area and entered the vast wilderness, it quickly turned arduous.
The Horde, which drove the wagon in the scorching heat that was incomparable to the grassland, could not last for several hours without Yuria’s magic.
“Mr. Horde, will you take turns with me?”
“Yes… , Sorry.”
Inevitably, the hero and the Horde had to take turns driving the wagon, but each time the Horde moved backwards, there was no sound from the wagon.
‘What happened?’
Even if they didn’t grope like last time, they could have a light chat, but they didn’t even hear it, so the hero thought it was strange.
While thinking that we should make a spot at some point, today, a few days after entering the wilderness, Hero and the others finally arrived at their destination.
The name of the city built in the middle of the wasteland is called Tektis.
Tektis was connected to a large city further away, so it was a resting place for wagons loaded with a lot of cargo.
Therefore, the main mission of adventurers was to escort transportation or wagons, and sometimes subjugation of dangerous demons living in the wilderness was the main task.
Although there was a mine nearby, it didn’t make much money because it was difficult to go deep because of the monsters that inhabited the depths of the mine.
“Eww… !”
When the hero got off the wagon and stretched his back, the sound of bones snapping came from his back.
“This place hasn’t changed even after decades.”
Lina, who had been to Tektis once before, was frowning at the sunlight, but she seemed somehow happy.
I don’t know if there are any pleasant memories in this city, but seeing Lina happy made her feel better as well as the hero.
“Here… So hot.”
When the hero turned his head at the sound he heard from the side, Mirian was sweating profusely.
Perhaps because she was wearing iron armor after entering the wilderness, Mi An was particularly hot.
“If you enter Mirian, you should change to another armor. It gets so hot you can even fry an egg.”
“I guess it would be good…”
“Before I change into a real one, shall we try an experiment?”
As Lina pretends to take an egg out of Horde’s backpack, she says Mirian frowned at her.
“If you do something ridiculous like that, I will charge you for all the maintenance fees for my armor. Oops… !”
Having said that, Miian wiped the sweat off her forehead and involuntarily let out a noise at the heat of her armor.
YuRia then cast a cooling spell on Mirian’s armor, as she always did during her travels.
“Thank you, Yuria. It became a little cooler.”
“… With something like this.”
Perhaps because she has the same man as her lover, Yuria and Mirian seemed very close to her hero.
‘It would be nice if the two of us couldn’t just be friends, but also be friends with Marta.’
Marta seemed to get along well with Lina, but she didn’t like the two of them.
She once thought about recruiting other party members for Martha, who was alienated, but for that reason, she shouldn’t be recruiting easily.
‘Not now, but I should think about what to do.’
The hero decided to think about this later and looked around the city first.
Tektis was frequented by other cities, so wagon stops and inns were lined up.
Looking at the inns lined up on the street, the hero was relieved that he would not have to worry about sleeping today, Lina, who was next to him, said to the hero.
“Warrior. It looks like there are a lot of rooms, but there are a lot of people, so it won’t be that easy to find one.”
“Okay?”
If you think about it, the fact that there were so many inns meant that there was such a great demand.
“Then… Should I get a room first and then go to the guild?”
“There’s no need to do that, let’s split into two, one for finding a room and the other for going to the guild. Let’s get them all and meet again here before the day ends.”
When Lina said that, the party naturally consisted of the Hero, Martha, and Lina. And it was divided into Horde, Yuria, and Mirian.
Since their relationship with Horde became public, it has become common for them to split like this when splitting into two at parties.
Yuria and Mirian had sad faces for some reason, but the hero couldn’t figure out why.
“Oh, and Yuria and Mirian…”
“What’s wrong, hero?”
“Is there anything you want to say?”
When the hero called, the two of them looked back with high hopes, but their expressions were even more saddened by the words that followed.
“If you get a room early, you can go on a date with Hod! Oh, but you shouldn’t be late for the meeting time?”
“Okay…”
“… I will keep in mind.”
*****
“Oh! Are you still there?”
It had been quite some time since Lina’s last visit to the Adventurer’s Guild of Tectis, but the guild was still there.
However, the guild didn’t look old.
Upon entering the guild, it was busy with adventurers seeking requests to escort the wagon or subdue the demons in the wilderness.
The group of warriors first went to the reception desk and registered their information like other adventurers, while secretly showing the receptionist a letter with the seal of another guild master.
“I want to meet the guild master.”
“Ah… Please wait a moment in the lounge. I will contact Master as soon as possible.”
The receptionist, who suddenly faced the most powerful person in the workplace, not his immediate supervisor, put on a nervous expression.
And after a while, as the receptionist said, the receptionist came to Hero and the others who were taking a break in the lounge.
“Hey, hero. The guild master wants to see you.”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
When the first party went up to the second floor, they drew attention to another party, but it was only for a moment, and everyone focused on their request.
There was no time to be distracted by adventurers who live day by day.
The warrior party went up to the second floor and went inside after receiving permission from the guild master.
The tektis guild master was a tanned middle-aged man in his 40s, and the muscle on his arm the size of Lina’s waist made him look like a skilled warrior.
“I am the guild master of the Adventurers Guild Tectis branch. Did you bring a letter from the guild master of the Lindmer branch?”
“Yes. Please read it.”
As I read the letter given by the warriors, the more I read the letter, the more I broke into a cold sweat.
When I finished reading the letter, that arrogant attitude from earlier went away and I spoke to the hero with a real smile as if it were flattering.
“This… I didn’t know you were a warrior and made an excuse.”
“No. I didn’t even have to say it was rude.”
“… By the way, I don’t doubt the contents of this letter… It’s hard to believe that you moved a large amount of nurturing stones without us noticing.”
The hero did not hear how much the growth stone was found in the cave, but from the words of this article, it seemed to be a considerable amount.
“Maybe this isn’t something that will end at the level of an executive in the Demon King’s Army, but it might be something bigger. If possible, I’d like to request an army from the lord or send an emergency request to adventurers…”
If you move that big, you might be caught by the opponent and rather miss the trace.
“Then, first of all, our party will go to the mine where nurture stones are mined and investigate. Then, when we get the information, how about deciding what to do based on that?”
“That would be fine, but…”
At the warrior’s suggestion, this magazine looked at the warrior’s face and then said with a sharp expression.
“Warrior… Excuse me.”
“Yes? What…”
-Shusyuk! Shush! Shook!
Before the hero’s words were finished, Bonji, who ran into the hero, threw dozens of fists at the hero, but…
“… Uh?”
The next moment, when Bonji opened his eyes, he was staring blankly at the ceiling with one arm restrained by the hero.
Beside her, Lina was aiming a bow with an arrow at Bonji’s neck, and on the other side, a blade of light that appeared as a result of a miracle Martha had activated was aiming at Bonji’s back.
In an instant, her arm was restrained, thrown away, and arrows and blades of light aimed at him.
Contrary to such a newspaper, the expression of the warrior was calm, but it was common for the warrior to suddenly test his skills.
‘Do I look that weak?’
I was grateful for the thought that I couldn’t send myself, a warrior, to a dangerous place, but on the other hand, I felt sad that my skills were still not recognized.
When the hero released the restraint on his arm, the head sighed and stood up from his seat.
“… Excuse me very much. I couldn’t send the hero without knowing the hero’s skill, so I did something to test it.”
“No, I am used to it. By the way, is it okay to think that I passed the test?”
“You mean this? I was moved by this magazine to see the outstanding skills of the warrior.”
Having said that, Bonji took out a key or something from the desk drawer and handed it to the warrior.
“This is the key to entering the Sealed Mine. There may be an infiltrator from the Demon King’s army in that village, so please be careful.”
