Chapter 106: Heated talks between guild staff about heroes
Translator: Tseirp
Zoltan’s north district was the section where farmlands spread extensively.
Within Zoltan, the north district had the largest area but the number of people living there was not the largest. Most of the land was used as farms for wheat and vegetables. The land on which Ruti’s medicinal grass farm was built on was borrowed from the north district.
One of the reasons why there was an Adventurers Guild in the north district was probably because there were a large number of requests to solve issues that happen on the farms.
In addition, since Zoltan’s walls were in actual fact hedges where a grown man could easily climb over, monsters aiming for crops or humans occasionally enter so the guild was built in the north district to be able to deal with that immediately.
Even so, due to the storms, the number of monsters around Zoltan increase very slowly so the average divine protection level was low.
After all, monster levels depend on the life and death battles that follow the rule of the survival of the fittest.
Monsters born with a strong physical body and strong special characteristics or abilities will level up by killing many other life forms during their process of growth.
In a place where natural disasters reduce the number of monsters, either strong individuals that can overwhelm the disaster appear or it will be a peaceful area where the monsters spend their time waiting for the disasters to pass just like the people in Zoltan.
In such a peaceful place like Zoltan, the Adventurers Guild in the north district might have been established to actually make the adventurers assist in farming during the busy times.
“Lit-san! It’s been a long time!”
The girl seated at the guild’s reception area greeted Lit excitedly after seeing her.
“Ruiz, it’s been some time. Are you doing well?”
“Yes! But after Lit-san retired, nobody wants to take up the difficult requests. It’s terrible that Byuui-san is frequently not around and Ruru-san and Tifa-san view their medicinal grass farm as their main job so they don’t accept long duration request.”
“Sorry.”
“Ah, no, I’m sorry, I was grumbling without thinking. It was just an exception when Lit-san was around.”
The guild staff called Ruiz gazed feverishly at Lit.
It seemed that she was a fan of Hero Lit.
“Ah, so, how may I help you today?”
Ruiz caught a hold of herself and her face reddened as she asked about our business.
“I wish to meet Garadin. I’m actually helping Ruru-san and Tifa-san.”
“Ruru-san’s request meaning it is regarding that Veronia warship!?”
Ruiz’s face suddenly brightened.
“Thank god, I was actually feeling uneasy as well. Stories about Pirate King Geyserik’s infamy spread even until Zoltan and I was imagining all sorts of terrifying people on that ship ... but with B-rank Ruru-san, Tifa-san and Hero-Lit as well as Garadin-sama and the previous generation party! Zoltan’s strongest adventurers of each generation were on the move! There is no crisis where it is impossible to overcome!”
Lit laughed embarrassedly after seeing Ruiz raise her voice.
Well, I’m taking action as well you know? Although I’m just a D-rank adventurer.
“By the way, you mentioned Garadin and his party?”
I asked from behind.
Ruiz finally noticed that I was there as well as she reacted with a soft ‘ah’.
“I-it’s been some time, Red-san.”
“Yup, it’s been some time. So, when you mentioned Garadin and his party, you mean he is not acting as the Adventurers Guild executive but with Father Cien and Moen?”
“Not only that. Mistome-shi was with them as well!”
“Mistome-shi? But no matter what, she’s already at an elderly age.”
“That’s disrespectful! Don’t you know magic users are always at their peak! Especially for a hero like Mistome-shi, it might be impossible for her to fight consecutive battles daily but she will gallantly rush to our aid when Zoltan is having a crisis! Red-san is a newcomer so you might not be aware but Mistome-shi was amazing when she was in active duty! Zoltan’s very first 『Arch Mage』! A magician capable of freely manipulating the four major elements! When Garadin and Moen were defending a village against an uncountable horde of goblins and were exhausted and in despair after being surrounded, a beautiful traveling 『Arch Mage』appeared! What do you know about Mistome-shi!”
“Sorry sorry.”
I quickly apologized as she started talking rapidly. It seemed that she was a girl who thought highly of heroic adventurers.
Lit seemed to have found it funny how I was being overwhelmed as she snorted softly.
“S-so, we wish to meet Garadin.”
“I have not finished ... fine, there’s no helping it. Garadin-sama is not in at the moment.”
“He’s not in?”
“Yes, he came by once after the Zoltan summit ended in the afternoon to give us instructions before leaving with Father Cien, Guard Captain Moen, and Mistome-shi. They are most likely acting in order to save Zoltan!”
“Mistome-shi as well huh.”
“Even though she is certainly of advanced age, I could sense a heroic aura that did not lose to the tall Garadin-sama!”
“He-heroic aura huh.”
At any rate, Garadin wasn’t around either.
“Do you know where they went?”
“They left without telling us anything. He is not acting as the Adventurers Guild executive but as the previous generation B-rank adventurer! It is a pity I can’t see their actions personally!”
I turned my gaze away from Ruiz who was having wild imaginations of their heroic adventures with sparkling eyes and muttered softly ‘This is troubling’.
“Going by this flow, Father Cien would probably not be at the church either.”
“Do you think there is something happening behind the scenes?”
“I’m sure there is. Heroes moving to save the country will not move about sneakily. They will raise their swords, grandly state their names and proudly advance. Like how Ruti was relied upon at the summit, heroes act as the pillar for their allies. Doing things sneakily means that their aim is something that they can’t let others know.”
“That is true.”
Lit and I tilted our heads as we looked at each other.
“Well, let’s go to the church for the time being. Even if he is not there, he might have said something.”
“It feels unpleasant to move about like this in the dark.”
“That’s true, then I guess we should do some serious investigation. Let’s research on the previous generation B-rank party’s past.”
The cause of this incident was something that happened in the past. My intuition was telling me that.
“Mistome-shi’s assassination attempt, Garadin and Father Cien who took custody of the unaffiliated assassins as well as Moen who joined them without giving instructions to his subordinates.”
“Furthermore, thinking about it further, it is strange that the three of them, Garadin, Father Cien and Moen all advocated for resisting to the bitter end despite knowing that there was no chance of winning.”
“I want to have information on the Veronia side but I guess we have to leave that to Ruti.”
We will devote ourselves to gathering information on the previous generation B-rank party.
“So where should we go first?”
I strongly answered Lit’s question with a nod.
“The rental bookstore.”
The rental bookstore in downtown. As the name implied, it was a shop that lent books meant for entertainment for a fee.
It was a shop that I still used occasionally and we headed for it first.