Chapter 42: Quest Failure
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 42: Quest Failure
Krima, who had been treated wretchedly during the day, sat in the living room of the party house with a face that had lost all hope.
She had been mocked and knocked around by Gerend, then stepped on by the bank manager, only to end up saddled with Alto’s debt.
The party leader and members who had been there turned their backs on her the moment they heard about the debt.
Mirei, finding the presence of Krima—who was staring into space with dead eyes—burdensome, took her frustration out on Diane for no reason.
“Are you sure about that lead on Alto?”
“I am.”
Resin felt a sense of dissonance at Diane’s calm demeanor.
Normally, Diane would have been unable to sit still, boasting about her achievement, but now she only looked profoundly exhausted.
“Where is he? Tell us, quickly.”
“……”
“Diane?”
“……”
Gurgle.
The embarrassing sound from Diane’s stomach echoed through the living room.
As the impatient Mirei was about to snap, Resin stopped her with a glance and stepped forward herself.
“Diane, you said you’d give us a lead on Alto. We’re all gathered here, so go ahead and tell us.”
“…I’m hungry.”
However, Diane said something completely unexpected.
“Have you guys eaten?”
“A little while ago. You?”
“I haven’t eaten properly in over a week. I’ve only been doing quests. Trying to find a lead on what happened to Alto.”
Gurgle.
“If Alto were here, he would’ve asked me every day… if I’d eaten.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t look out for you, Diane. But we’ve all been out of our minds lately. The crisis facing our party is growing by the day.”
At the unexpected apology, Diane finally raised her head to look at Resin.
Even though she was staring straight at her, Resin realized she had pushed Diane too hard when she saw the lack of focus in her eyes.
“What are we going to do when we find Alto?”
“What?”
“We’re going to apologize, right? He left because we did something wrong.”
Resin wondered if Diane was saying such crazy things because she was delirious.
Resin and Mirei momentarily glanced at each other and frowned.
An apology.
Strictly speaking, based on cause and effect, an apology was the right thing to do.
But why did that word feel so repulsive?
“We should probably apologize to each other.”
“To each other?”
“Yeah. I admit we neglected him. But Alto is Alto. Look at the state our party is in because he acted so unilaterally.”
“Resin.”
“Speak, Diane.”
It was incredibly annoying how Diane kept trying to argue.
Was she trying to act smart now? Why was she constantly challenging Resin’s authority?
As a Ranger, she should just focus on scouting.
“Everyone is talking about us. They call us idiots for treating our party’s man so poorly that he left. They call us bitches who cheated on him with other men.”
“Those other women were all busy badmouthing Alto with us! They said he betrayed us by leaving!”
“Then Alto didn’t do anything wrong, so why should he apologize to us too?”
“That’s…”
“Alto just worked hard for the sake of the party. Why?”
Diane couldn’t understand.
“Alto really did nothing but work.”
“Diane, I admit Alto worked hard. But because he acted selfishly just because his feelings were hurt, all four of us are suffering. Look at us! We’re struggling just to find party operating funds!”
That was because they had poured money into Claude and Gerend.
It wasn’t an amount that would have run out immediately just because Alto left.
It was their own fault for spending money like that for a long time.
“We can’t even take on dungeon quests, so our source of income is dry!”
That wasn’t because Alto had left, but because of their own responsibility for making him leave.
Diane found it strange.
Even though she was starving, her head was terrifyingly clear.
She was calm enough to even talk back to Resin, who had been the Magic Tower salutatorian.
But she didn’t.
As a Ranger, she trusted her intuition that doing so would lead to nothing good.
“So, Alto needs to apologize for this too…”
“I remembered.”
“Interrupting me again…! Sigh, fine. What did you remember?”
“The day Alto resigned and left.”
“What about that day?”
“That day was Alto’s birthday.”
Mirei was the most shocked.
She hurriedly checked the small calendar in the living room, but Alto’s birthday wasn’t marked.
In the same month, Diane’s birthday was circled in a large, bold stroke.
“It’s not marked as Alto’s birthday.”
“Alto’s birthday and mine are two weeks apart. In the same month.”
Diane didn’t care about her hunger anymore.
“My birthday was just a few days ago, too.”
Was this how Alto felt?
He thought people would recognize his hard work if he did his best, but the harder he worked, the more it was taken for granted.
His sacrifice and devotion became expected.
“What were we doing on Alto’s birthday?”
Neither Mirei nor Resin could answer Diane’s question readily.
At that time, the two of them were in the party house with Claude and…
“Do you happen to know where Alto was that day?”
Flinch.
Diane asked because she truly didn’t know, but the other two trembled violently.
What if Alto had been in the party house that day?
Mirei and Resin had thought they were the least to blame for Alto’s departure.
A mistake of just not taking care of him.
But conversely, what if Alto knew they had dared to bring another man into the party house and had physical relations with him?
Then they had committed a sin at least as great as Krima’s, if not greater.
Mirei aside, Resin’s mind was quickly running through scenarios.
If that were true, and if Alto had revealed this to the Adventurer Guild when he left, and that was why the Branch Manager was pressuring them?
If that were the case, it explained why the Branch Manager’s attitude had changed so drastically.
She could somewhat understand why both the Branch Manager and the bank manager were so insistent on bringing Alto back to Lukart.
However, she still couldn’t fathom why the major figures of Lukart were so obsessed with just one ugly, pushover bastard.
“Let’s apologize, Mirei. Resin. Krima. We were wrong…”
“Diane, you’re talking too much. So, what’s the lead on Alto you found? We need to see that first before we decide whether to apologize or not.”
“Resin, that makes no sense. Alto will only come back if we apologize. If you have no intention of apologizing, why bother tracking the lead?”
“What? Diane, you’ve gotten quite smart lately, haven’t you? Daring to talk back to me?”
“Me? I just…”
“WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT MATTER!!!!!”
Between Resin’s increasingly sharp attitude and Diane, who couldn’t understand the thorns in those words, Krima stood up with a scream.
“Alto? What’s more important than Alto right now is securing a dungeon quest. The reason we’re in trouble without Alto is ultimately because of money!”
Krima shouted as if having a fit, but in reality, she wasn’t wrong.
The reason Mirei’s party was struggling was money.
It was because their means of making money had been blocked by Alto’s absence.
“We need to take on a job that pays immediately and build up our record. Otherwise, otherwise, starting from the end of this month, I’ll…!”
“Ah, Krima. I know your situation is urgent, but if we bring Alto back, everything will be solved…”
“Mirei! It’s 40 million Dalk! At 12%, the monthly interest alone is 4.8 million!”
“In the end, you’re only doing this because your own wallet is hurting!”
This time, Mirei and Krima clashed.
When Mirei, who wanted to restore her honor more than immediate cash, prioritized Alto, Krima forgot even her duty as a priestess and screamed, using informal speech.
“If we bring Alto back, we can get dungeon quests, and we can breathe a sigh of relief by putting Alto’s national subsidy into the party operating funds. Of course Alto comes first!”
“Don’t make me laugh! How do you know where he went? He moved to the countryside! Do you think I don’t know we don’t even have money to pay a carriage driver?”
Mirei and Resin, hit where it hurt, could only glare at Krima without a word.
Just going to the countryside would easily cost over 1 million Dalk per person.
Alto had only been able to go because his carriage fees for moving were waived; in reality, the distance to Hus was enough to cost 2 million Dalk per person for a one-way trip.
One must not forget that even within Hus, a round trip from Dakuren to Massa Village cost 2 million Dalk per person.
To digress, Krima was currently backed into a corner.
She had been stepped on by Gerend, stepped on by the bank manager, and even her donation contracts, which had been a source of small pocket money, had been cut off.
Finally, as she mentioned, she had to pay 4.8 million Dalk in interest every month.
It was all her own doing, but no one except Diane realized or admitted it.
“Even if we want to move, money comes first! Let’s take a dungeon quest.”
“What do you want me to do when the Branch Manager won’t give us any!”
“Then go and beg! Tell her we’re desperate! That we’re ready to do whatever she says!”
At this very moment, this division.
This was exactly the state the Lukart Adventurer Guild Branch Manager had wanted.
And the Lukart receptionist, whom Nasian had praised as capable despite not knowing who she was, finally took action after hearing this division through magic.
Knock, knock.
“Who is it?”
Leaving the two snarling at each other, Resin opened the door instead.
Upon seeing the guild receptionist, Resin was a mix of confusion and surprise.
“Excuse me.”
“W-wait a moment. This is our party hou…”
Ignoring Resin who tried to stop her, the receptionist walked straight into the living room.
In front of the other party members, who were equally surprised, the receptionist spoke directly to Mirei.
“Are you ready to do as you are told?”
“W-what?”
“If you are, I will commission the dungeon quest you wanted.”
“I’ll do it! We’ll do it! Please! Give us anything!”
Mirei was flustered, while Krima immediately knelt and begged.
Diane watched silently.
Resin stood behind them, suspicious of the hidden agenda.
To the Mirei Party, which had completely split into every woman for herself, the receptionist unfolded a quest request form.
“Here is the request. It is reported that four Ogres in the Lukart Dungeon have left their original habitat floor and ascended to the highest level near the entrance.”
Resin the mage’s eyebrows twitched.
“Adventurers of Gold rank and below have already fallen victim to the appearance of Ogres in a floor where they don’t belong, and now they cannot even enter the entrance.”
Mirei, feeling a surge of competitive spirit, rolled her shoulders and smirked.
“Eliminate them and track down the cause of how they backflowed to the highest level.”
At the word ‘track,’ Diane closed her eyes.
“The reward is 10 million Dalk for the elimination, 10 million Dalk for identifying the cause, and the loot is left to the party’s discretion, totaling at least 20 million Dalk.”
At the amount of the reward, Krima clasped her hands in prayer.
“Will you accept?”
“Well, of course…”
Looking around at their determined expressions, Mirei struck her palm with her fist and declared boisterously.
“We accept! It’s been a while since our last expedition!”
“I happened to be full of rage. I’ll burn them all to a crisp.”
“I will heal you without reserve.”
“……”
Before the Mirei Party, who were burning with fighting spirit, the receptionist slammed a stamp onto the quest request form and handed it over.
The Mirei Party, who had accepted the dungeon quest with bright smiles, set out for the dungeon after three days of thorough preparation.
They started smoothly by eliminating one of the four Ogres, but they were hit by a counterattack. Diane had to use every ounce of her strength to carry the wounded and escape, barely surviving.
Hero-rank adventurer Mirei Party.
Their first dungeon quest failure since Alto’s departure.
* * *
[Result Report]
Only 1 out of 4 Ogres eliminated (Later, a coalition of multiple adventurer parties succeeded in the Ogre subjugation quest; Mirei Party included).
List of Casualties:
Hero-rank adventurer Mirei Party, quest failed.
Comment: Since the departure of Supporter Alto, the party has failed to produce results befitting their rank. A re-evaluation test for their Hero rank has been requested from headquarters.