「Min, Rhodes, you’re safe!」


  At that shout, a muscular man jumped out from the main gate and gave a tight hug to the woman in a robe and the boy in leather armour who were next to Rei.

  「Wai-, dad!?」


  「-!? This stupid strength of yours! Learn to control it!」


  At Rhode’s involuntary shout at the tight hug, Min hit Elk over the head with her cane.

  Fortunately, Min and Rhodes had managed to get back their old equipment. It had been returned by the members of Azure Blades, who had found the equipment left in a corner of the building they had been held hostage in.

  It wasn’t strange for greedy adventurers like Ogre’s Heart to take it for themselves, but since it was Azure Blades that found them, Min and Rhodes could be considered lucky. However, the other members of Azure Blades had all looked at Carla suspiciously, who had a penchant to do things for money.

  A few days after the case had been resolved, due to Tirage’s good will, Min and Rhodes returned to Gilm in a carriage.

  Originally, this hadn’t been part of the request, so there was no need for Rei to join them. However, Rei, Min and Rhodes were on friendly terms with each other, so there was no reason to reject. Set slowly escorted the carriage back from Abuero for almost a full day.

  「Thank you for the hard work.」


  As he looked at the members of Axe of the Thunder God, Ranga greeted Rei and Set with a stern smile on his face.

  「Ah, it was quite tiring. But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t get a good harvest.」


  Rei’s mind searched through the Misty Ring, passing through the high quality spear and the large pot of fried udon. Rei had been caught up in various matters, but those two items, especially the fried udon, were his biggest harvests on this trip.

  (I wasn’t able to find out how to make the sauce, but I still have the real thing with me. If I take it to the Satisfied Stomach for tasting, maybe I’ll be able to have fried udon in Gilm as well.)

  Rei took out his guild card and handed it over to Ranga as he thought to himself.

  Giving it a quick check, Ranga spoke up as he returned the Necklace of Subservient Monster to Rei.

  「That’s right, I was told by the Guild Master to tell you to go the guild as soon as you came back.」


  「……I thought that would happen.」


  Since they had asked for the help of Guild Master Marina to solve this case, there was no surprise that they had to report back to her. Rei nodded without any particular objections and started heading towards the guild with Set, leaving behind the members of Axe of the Thunder God, who were still making a lot of noise.

  「H-Hey! Rei! Do something about my dad!」


  「I’m not that rude to interupt a family reunion. Just don’t end up being too late to the guild.」


  Replying to Rhodes, Rei told him blandly that he didn’t want to be dragged into that hot mess.

  「Oh, Rei-san. I heard you had some urgent work in Abuero……but you’re back quick.」


  As usual, Rei split with Set at the guild entrance as he went inside. A receptionist called out from the counter.

  It was a girl with black hair in a ponytail. It was Lenora, who Rei was familiar with.

  At Lenora’s words, Rei nodded vaguely, knowing that it hadn’t been publicly disclosed that he had gone to help Min and Rhodes in place of Elk.

  「Ah, there were some circumstances. ……I heard the Guild Master wanted to se me.」


  Lenora tilted her head slightly at Rei’s words.

  She had heard from her boss and colleagues that the request hadn’t been too serious, so she didn’t know why the Guild Master was brought up here.

  However, she was still a guild receptionist, the face of the guild. She immediately nodded as she spoke.

  「I understand. I’ll check with the Guild Master, so please wait a moment.」


  「Okay. Your workmate, Kenny……mm? I thought it was quiet.」


  Looking around, Rei realised that there wasn’t anyone else to talk to, so he involuntarily asked Lenora with a smile.

  Spring was just around the corner, and even though it was still winter, there were still active adventurers. Because of that, even though there weren’t too many adventurers gathered in front of the request board, there wasn’t any reason for receptionists to be free. Rei asked with such thoughts, but Lenora stopped walking behind the counter as she replied with a smile.

  「She was feeling a little feverish, so Kenny is taking today off. Seriously, coordinating everything in this busy period is giving me a headache……it’s really inconvenient.」


  「……I see. I guess it’s unavoidable as it’s the turn of seasons, so it’s easy to get sick. I understand, I’ll wait here quietly, so please check in with the Guild Master for me.」


  「Yes, please watch the counter for me.」


  Lenora spoke to a nearby colleague before walking to the back of the room.

  After seeing her leave, Rei thought about the possibility of a similar incident happening before deciding it wasn’t possible. In fact, Kenny seemed to have contacted Lenora telling her she would be taking today off, so she probably hadn’t been taken hostage.

  「A good number of people have already resumed their activities.」


  Rei murmured to himself as he looked at the adventurers in front of the request board.

  From what he could see, the number of people around the board was several times higher than a month ago. It wasn’t necessarily related, but the number of people in the bar attached to the guild had also decreased noticeably.

  There were still people drinking and being noisy in the bar, but those were probably people who had already resumed their activities and completed a request……only a few had yet to resume their activities as adventurers.

  As Rei was waiting for Lenora to come back, he felt somebody approaching him.

  「……Rei. Couldn’t you have given a bit of help? Abandoning us so easily……」


  It was an emancipated Rhodes, who spoke with some resentment. Behind him was Elk, who had a big grin on his face, and Min, who had a wry smile on her face.

  Rei spoke with a smile in his eyes as he saw the family of three.

  「Didn’t I tell you? I would just get in the way of the happy family gathering. Besides……」


  「Sorry for making you wait. The Guild Master would like Rei-san and the Axe of the Thunder God to come to her office.」


  Before Rei could say anything, Lenora cut in.

  Hearing those words, Elk’s big smile tightened as Min and Rhodes’s expressions changed.

  「I understand. We’ll go immediately.」


  Elk took a step forward on behalf of the rest of them. This was probably due to his role as the oldest, as a party leader and as a father.

  However, all that didn’t have much to do with Rei.

  The four of them went past the counter and towards the back. Seeing the head up, Lenora looked towards a nearby guild staff member to ask『what happened?』……but people who knew what had really happened were few in Gilm.

  The Dusk Wheat guests, who were the most aware of what had happened, were not aware of the details as they had only seen the fight between Rei and Elk. They had just assumed that they ended up in an argument after drinking. Or rather, information had been spread in such a way as to cleverly change the details.

  In the case of Gilm, the only person who knew most of what was going on was Marina, the guild master, and other high level people like Margrave Rowlocks. The rest were Rei and members of Axe of the Thunder God, who were the related parties. And in Abuero, there were only four groups of people who knew, the higher ups in the city, the Guild Master, his secretary Verde and the members of Azure Blades.

  「Guild Master, it’s Elk. Min, Rhodes and Rei are with me.」


  Elk spoke while knocking lightly on the door.

  Even though it was light knock, it was still a knock by a giant like Elk. If anything, the sound of his knocks echoed around. Still, it was the door to the Guild Master’s office and not some fragile door that would be damaged that easily.

  「Please come in.」


  Following that voice, the four of them entered the office.

  Inside, Marina was looking at documents with a complicated expression.

  「You’ve come back. It’s good that strong party like you is safe. ……Well, let’s sit down and talk about the details. I’ll prepare some tea, so take a seat on the sofa.」


  Following Marina’s words, the four of them sat down on the sofa. Seeing that, Marina brewed some tea for the four of them.

  「……Now then. First of all, can I ask about the cause of this all? Why was a rank A party like you so easily used by the enemy?」


  Rei, Min and Rhodes all held strange expressions at Marina’s question.

  After all, Elk had been in Gilm the entire time since Rei had left for Abuero. They all thought that there should have been enough time to explain the situation.

  Reading the question from their expressions, Marina spoke with a smile.

  「……I heard about it from Elk, but he wasn’t good at explaining and we were worried about you two, so we didn’t get to that point.」


  「But, haven’t you been in contact with the guild master of Abuero? We talked about the situation there in detail after we were rescued, you didn’t hear about that?」


  Marina shook her head at Min’s question.

  「Of course I had heard from him. But, it’s better to hear from the person themselves than to hear it from someone else right? And, there might be things you may remember now because you’ve had time to think about it.」


  「……I see. Rhodes, you start.」


  「Eh? Me?」


  Rhodes responded unintentionally at his mum’s nomination.

  However, Min nodded naturally.

  「I was caught because you were taken hostage. And Elk silently obeyed them because you and I were held hostage. In that case, it would be best for the first person taken hostage to explain first. 」


  「……I understand.」


  Rhodes nodded at Min’s words and began to explain while remembering the humiliating events that had hit him.

  「My dad and mum were busy around the port town, so I went out to explore the city alone. At that time, a girl about my age was kidnapped in front of me, so I chased after her. I was able to defeat the kidnapper and rescue her……but when I tried to wake up the girl who was lying on the ground, she grabbed my hand……I felt a tingling pain and my body was gradually paralyzed and couldn’t move.」


  「I see, so they took advantage of Rhode’s kindness and naivety. ……You’re a C rank adventurer, but you’re still young. I’ll have to tell you to be more alert to women. Well, I guess it’s because you’re young that you would get caught in a trap with a girl as bait.」


  Marina spoke with a sigh as she brought a cup of tea to her mouth.

  It was a perfect trap to catch Rhodes, who was younger, more aggressive and less accustomed to dealing with women.

  (That’s certainly perfect. ……But, it’s too perfect. It was probably an operation they put in motion after collecting enough information about Rhodes. And, the Axe of the Thunder God is mainly active in Gilm. In other words, the information must have been obtained in Gilm. That said, they might also have received that information from other people.)

  Axe of the Thunder God was a well known party in Gilm. If something happened, people would definitely talk about it, so getting information wasn’t that difficult.

  Thinking like that, Marina prompted Rhodes to continue his story.

  「After that, I was gagged, tied up and couldn’t move. So……」


  Rhodes’s eyes turned to Min.

  Min, who also turned to look back, nodded slightly before speaking.

  「I’ll talk from here. Rhodes didn’t come back after going out, so Elk and I split to look for him around the city just in case. Then, one man approached me and showed me a necklace that increased defense against fire that Rhodes had been wearing. At that point, I was already in their hands.At least, if Rhodes had been in front of me, I could have rescued him, but he was somewhere far away……moreover, the man who contacted me said that Rhodes was in their hands and if I did anything, they would hurt Rhodes. He also said that it was pointless to capture him to lure them out since he was a stranger to them, so I had no choice but to surrender.」


  「……I see, that’s clever. If I think about it, no matter what you did, it would only move things in a worse direction. ……In that case, Elk?」


  Seeing Marina turn to look at him, Elk nodded bitterly.

  「Ah. I was told the same thing as Min. Min and Rhodes were also held in separate places. I couldn’t even fight my way through it.」


  「That’s the case, isn’t it. Even if I were to try to capture Elk, I’d use underhanded means instead of combat.」


  Marina muttered to herself before silently carrying a cup of tea to her mouth as she seemed to think.

  Then, after drinking a few mouthfuls of tea, she spoke again.

  「Adventurers are basically responsible for themselves, so the plan from the guild is only to issue a small fine. ……However, we’re also indebted to Abuero’s guild, so if any request come through from Tirage, Axe of the Thunder God will have to give them priority.」


  「Ah, I understand. He helped my family. I’ll do everything I can.」


  At Marina’s words, Elk gave a declaration as Min and Rhodes nodded in agreement.

  Marina looked at the three of them with a satisfied expression before turning to Rei……


  「Then, there’s Rei. You’re the one who suffered the most disadvantages in this case. So you can ask for compensation from Axe of the Thunder God. ……What will you do?」


  And asking him that question.