Volume 5 Chapter 8: Acquaintances?

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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“He’s wearing unfamiliar clothes. …From a different country, then. ––But still.”

They walked over to the attackers and confirmed their faces.

“These guys… weren’t they C-Ranked?”

“I’ve seen them about. Well, if we take them back to the guild, we’ll know for sure, eh?”

“Yeah, true that.”

They talked amongst themselves, ignoring Cain.

“…Um, this lot are? Do you know them?”

One of the men nodded at Cain’s question.

“I’ve seen them about. I don’t know them personally though… Anyway, a complete victory against C-Ranks, you’re pretty good compared to your size, aren’t’cha. Umm…”

“Ah, I’m Cain.”

“So you’re Cain. We should carry this lot back, right? We’ll help that much. There weren’t any proper requests today. And you can’t carry all five of them on your own, can you… in return, treat us to a drink, ‘kay?”

The man smiled, as if the bad temper until then had all been a lie.

“Um, …can I ask for your names?”

“Oh, right you are. I’m Neil. These guys are Rigg, Gil, and Bran.”

They all nodded as they were introduced.

“Aight, we’ll carry this lot to the guild, then it’s off to the tavern! Cain, you can carry one of ‘em on your own, right? You easily beat them, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right.”

“Ah, yeah. Right…”

“Aight, let’s go.”

The swordsman–– Neil, picked up one of the unconscious men, and everyone followed his lead, picking one up and swinging them over one shoulder.

Cain grabbed the leg of their leader, –– and dragged him along like that.

Cain had no intention of forgiving them, so he felt fine doing so.

“Ooof… that looks painful.”

Neil made a pained expression at seeing the attacker simply being dragged along on the ground, but Cain just walked on, ignoring him.

The adventurers with Cain attracted a lot of gazes from the populace with the attackers slung over their shoulders, but when the people saw Cain dragging along the leader, their eyes widened even more.

Walking through the city bathed in such stares, they eventually arrived at the adventurers’ guild.

Neil and the other three entered the guild unhesitatingly, seemingly unable to care any less, and simply dumped the people they were carrying on an empty spot of floor.

Seeing the men lying on the floor, a receptionist lady immediately hurried over from behind the counter.

“Neil-san!? What is this!? …Wait, aren’t these people Banza-san and his party!?”

“If you want the details, that boy there, ––Cain, will tell you.”

All gazes gathered on Cain at Neil’s words.

The receptionist lady looked at Cain suspiciously.

“Did you do this? Could you tell me what happened? Although I want Neil-san to also listen to the explanation, if possible…?”

“It’s a pain, but what choice do I have… I’ve got to leave you lot for a bit, so Rigg, could ya save me a seat in the tavern?”

“Oh, gotcha. Can we start without you?”

“Honestly. I have no choice. I’ll try to get this done quick. Anyway, could you take this lot somewhere else for the time being?”

The receptionist lady spoke to the staff in the back, and several people came out and carried the unconscious men away.

They would be kept in custody in an underground detention cell in the guild for the time being.

Cain and Neil were shown to a private room by the receptionist lady.

Cain and Neil sat down next to each other, with the receptionist lady and a man in his thirties opposite them.

“Introductions first. I’m this city’s sub-guild-master, Fort. Next to me is Cayla.”

“I’m Cayla. Nice to meet you.”

Cain nodded and introduced himself.

“I’m Cain. I’m a student from Esfort, and am here on a study trip.”

“Neil, B-Rank.”

After they had all introduced themselves, Fort opened his mouth.

“So, can you explain from the beginning?”

“Yes, well––––”

Cain explained how after he had left the adventurers’ guild and gone into a neighbouring alley, he had been attacked.

And how after he had returned the favour, Neil and co. had shown up and helped him carry them to the guild.

“––Got it. Neil, is that correct?”

“Yep, what he said’s right. Well, I don’t know about what happened before that though.”

“And then, those attackers said it was a ‘Request’…”

The two’s expressions froze at Cain’s words.

“––Is that so. Cayla, could you please look into who they’re connected with?”

“Understood. I’ll start looking into them.”

“Yeah, thanks. Anyway, Banza and the others are provisional C-Ranks. I highly doubt you have the strength to beat them all by yourself… You said you have registered as an adventurer though? Could I please see your card?”

Cain’s expression froze at those words.

He understood that there would be no more questioning his strength if he showed them his guild card.

However, Neil was sitting next to him.

Cain didn’t want to be too open about it.

“…Could you please keep it a secret then…?”

Fort and Cayla tilted their heads in confusion at Cain’s words.

“All employees are obligated to keep things confidential. There should be no problems. Neil, are you fine with that?”

“Yep, gotcha.”

Cain sighed and placed his guild card on the table.

Seeing that guild card, everyone’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wha- S-Rank!? Is this real!?”

Fort somehow managed to squeeze out a couple of words, but Cayla and Neil had become speechless.

“…Cain, is this for real!? You’re S-Rank!?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen an S-Rank adventurer with my own eyes…”

Fort thoroughly checked the guild card, then put it back on the table.

“He’s definitely S-Rank. If this is the case, beating five people really isn’t strange at all. Anyway, Banza and his group really did something stupid. They might not have known it, but they challenged an S-Rank, someone who can challenge a dragon alone.”

“I’ve also heard that S-Ranks are the same as ‘Natural Disasters’. Even though he’s so cute…”

“Ahahahaha. Banza’s an idiot. Well, at least he still has his life.”

After that, they discussed what would happen next, and it was decided that the guild would look into who had made the request to Banza and his group.

Leaving it to them, Cain left the private room with Neil.

“Cain, I won’t say anything to the others. It seems like it would get troublesome.”

“Thanks, that really helps. There’s some things going on…”

“If you’re S-Rank at that age, there sure must be…”

When the two of them arrived at the tavern, Rigg and the other two had already started drinking.

“You two were late, so we started without you.”

“Sorry for making you wait. Cain… can’t drink looking like that.”

Cain was still in his uniform, so there was no way he could drink.

He asked for fruit juice, then sat down.

Once everyone had gotten their drinks, Neil stood up.

“Well, stuff happened, but cheers to this interesting encounter!”

““““Cheers!””””

They raised their mugs and gulped down their contents. Cain joined in the conversation while sipping his fruit juice.

“Oh, right, Neil. What happened with the guild?”

“Hm? Ah, the guild’s gonna look into it. We’re already obsolete.”

“Huh, so that’s it.”

“Yep, that’s it.”

Neil swirled the contents of his mug.

Rather than talking about it poorly, Neil just threw everything over to the guild, convincing the other members of his party.

As the five of them were sitting at the table, a voice suddenly called out to them from behind.

“What? Cain, is it okay for you to be here?”

When Cain turned around, a smiling Claude was standing there. Next to him was Lina, and behind them were Milly and Nina.

“Oh, Claude-san, hello.”

Neil and the others’ faces tensed up at Cain’s casual answer.

Then, the four of them stood up, and then unexpectedly bowed vigourously.

“Big bro Claude! It has been a long time! Anyway, do you know Cain??”

“Yeah, we’re escorting them, which is why we came to this country. Can we join you?”

“Of course, please do. We will bring over another table.”

As if their less polite language until then had been a lie, the four of them quickly brought another table over, then sat down.

Cain had quite the surprised expression at that change.

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