Ossan Saikyō Chapter 13 Part 05
The day after leaving the Viscount's residence, we headed to the Adventurer's Guild first.
Personally, I was curious about what had become of the four members of〈Silver Ring〉, and of course, we also needed to gather information about the undead that had been appearing.
It was still early in the afternoon, so most of the adventurers were out and there were hardly any people in the lobby.
Mariane went to see the Guildmaster, while the others went to check the bulletin board.
I noticed several people in the training grounds and headed over there.
More than ten men and women were training in the grounds. Among them were the four members of〈Fortuner〉and the four members of〈Silver Ring〉.
“As I thought, you finally moved out, Kaim.”
When I called out to him, Kaim, the leader of〈Silver Ring〉, turned around with a dark metal rod in his hand.
“Yo, old man. Been a while. Though I guess it hasn't been that long. I finally made up my mind and came back out.”
“It's good to see you again, Soushi-san.”
“Soushi, I've heard the rumors.”
“Soushi-san, the〘Twilight Slayer〙thing is seriously amazing!”
After Kaim answered, the others, Meribe, Ranan, and Raberto, followed with their greetings. Hearing them loudly call me〘Twilight Slayer〙made the gazes of the other adventurers painfully obvious.
“Looks like you've kept up with the training. Did you teach Zeal and the others too?”
“Yeah, I taught Big Bro Zeal and the others too. Big Bro got mad and asked why I hadn't taught him sooner.”
As I expected, Kaim and Zeal of〈Fortuner〉seemed to get along well. Zeal, who had apparently been given the nickname “Big Bro”, approached us with an awkward smile.
“When I saw you before, I just thought you were doing some weird kind of training. But when I asked Kaim about it, there was actually a proper theory behind it. No wonder Soushi keeps getting stronger.”
When Zeal said that, the other members of〈Fortuner〉nodded while looking at me. It seemed they had understood the importance of skill-specific training.
“I just happened to have the knowledge and applied it here. I'm glad if it proved useful.”
“If you take this seriously, you can make up for having a somewhat poor draw when it comes to unique skills. For low-rank adventurers in particular, I'd say this kind of training is essential.”
“I agree. I'd be happy if people realized the importance of training itself.”
“That's the next step. There are a lot of guys who don't train at all. Still, if people who take it seriously, starting with〈Silver Ring〉, make it to the top, more people will probably take notice.”
“〈Fortuner〉is aiming for the top too, right?”
When I said that, Zeal looked a little embarrassed.
“Yeah, I suppose we are. Actually, we'd almost given up once, but we've decided to give it another try. Watching〈Silver Ring〉kind of made us feel like that too.”
“That's good to hear. But I've heard things are getting rather suspicious around here lately. Doesn't that mean you won't be able to travel around much?”
“That is a problem too, but... well, we'll leave that part to〈Silver Ring〉. It helped a lot that Soushi introduced us to such a good party.”
“Hey, Brother, that's not fair. There's still plenty I need to learn from you!”
Kaim hurriedly stepped toward Zeal, and the two of them were starting to look like actual brothers.
It really was nice to see good relationships like this developing, and with that thought, I left the training grounds.
Back in the lobby, I reunited with the members of〈Saul's Guidance〉.
“Did you find any information worth noting?”
When I asked, Spheneia shook her head.
“Nothing in particular. There were several low-rank extermination requests. There also seemed to be several requests concerning undead, but those had already been accepted. It seems they are being dealt with as a priority.”
“The Viscount may have given instructions about that too. If so, there doesn't seem to be any particular problem. Let's stay in Euron for 3 days as well, and use two of those days for Shizuna-dono's dungeon runs.”
“Sorry for imposing on you.”
“However, there is one F-Rank dungeon, two E-Rank dungeons, and one D-Rank dungeon here, and the D-Rank dungeon has 15 floors. If we're going to clear all of them, it'll be quite a forced march, so prepare yourself.”
“That's exactly what I want. I'll clear them all and make sure I get plenty of skills.”
As Shizuna said this with determination, Mariane spoke to her.
“If you can clear all of them, Shizuna-san, you'll be able to advance to D-Rank. I've confirmed the conditions, so please do your best.”
“Really? In that case, perhaps I'll finally be able to face Mother again with my head held high.”
As we were having this exchange, about 3 adventurer parties entered through the entrance.
They looked as though they had just returned from a job, and judging by Rani's reaction of “They reek of zombies”, they were probably a group that had been exterminating undead.
While they were completing their procedures at the counter, they began chatting while waiting for the processing to finish.
“Undead have definitely been increasing lately, haven't they? I wonder if that rumor is true.”
“Rumor? You mean the one about someone deliberately unleashing undead?”
“Yeah, that one. Same thing happened during the last major extermination. People were saying there were some suspicious characters involved.”
“Ah, that... Actually, I've heard it might be people from Orz.”
“Orz? Come to think of it, there was someone saying that a while ago.”
“There's a rumor that the people of Orz enslave undead and make them work. There's even talk that a huge undead golem appeared in an elf town. Maybe they're targeting us.”
That sounded like something I couldn't simply ignore. Shizuna also looked toward the adventurers as if she wanted to say something.
However, at that moment, something caught my attention. The adventurer who had mentioned “Orz” had an appearance that seemed strangely familiar to me.
“Rani, a moment.”
“What is it?”
“Doesn't that man smell like he's from Mekalinan?”
(E/N: She can smell nationality?! 🤣)
“Huh? Umm... The zombie smell is really strong... Ah, but now that you mention it, I think he does.”
“As I thought.”
“Did you figure something out?”
“I'll tell you at the inn.”
If I left her alone, Shizuna looked like she might go over and complain to the man herself, so I called out to everyone and urged them to head back to the inn.
However, if my suspicion was correct, it might be worth meeting Viscount Varius once more. I had a feeling this wasn't something an ordinary adventurer like me should get involved in, but now that I'd noticed it, I couldn't simply ignore it.
After returning to the inn and taking a short rest in our room, the other four entered with Rani at the front. We'd booked one of the better inns in Euron, but putting five people in a single room was still quite cramped.
Once everyone had taken a seat on a bed or chair, Rani asked impatiently,
“Hey, Soushi, what did you figure out earlier?”
“Some of those adventurers were spreading a rumor that the undead trouble was Orz's fault, right?”
“Huh? They were?”
“They were. It's completely baseless, though. Perhaps I should have gone over and given them a piece of my mind.”
Shizuna folded her arms, looking indignant.
“We're escorting you at the request of the Royal Family, so it'd be a problem if you drew attention to yourself, Shizuna-dono.”
“I suppose that's true, but...”
“So you suspected that the man spreading that rumor was from Mekalinan?”
Rani brought the conversation back on track.
“That's right. If Mekalinan is behind the undead incidents, and at the same time deliberately spreads rumors blaming Orz for the undead, wouldn't that have a much greater effect?”
“So that adventurer was spreading that rumor? Ahh, I see.”
As Rani's ears twitched in understanding, Spheneia continued,
“In other words, Soushi suspects that the adventurer we saw earlier may be an agent of Mekalinan?”
“We already know about the adventurers who tried to use Shizuna, after all. It's almost certain that Mekalinan is using adventurers as agents within other countries.”
“I see. If that's the case, then it would mean they're operating with considerably more adventurers under their control than we initially thought.”
“Maybe. But now that I think about it, I can't imagine the Guild would tolerate adventurers being used that way.”
“We should ask Mariane about that. Though even if the Guild doesn't approve of it, there are plenty of people who would do it on their own.”
If this theory was correct, it raised the possibility that people from Mekalinan had infiltrated not only Viscount Varius' territory, but other territories as well.
The Viscount and those of his rank had probably noticed it long ago, but perhaps some agreement with the Adventurer's Guild or something similar made it difficult to take straightforward countermeasures.
Then again, that would mean Mekalinan was a country willing to use some truly ruthless methods.
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E/N:
Reuniting with old friends (not that old) and witnessing spies at work, huh? Nice!
Stay tuned!
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