#028 Achievements
#028 Achievements
After stripping every Mana Stone from the orcs and stuffing them all into my body.
I brought Rosemas, who was completely smitten with Lucius, back to Normance.
There was no particular need to hide her elven ears, and Rosemas, wearing the robe Lucius had given her, walked straight into the Adventurers' Guild with us.
"...What the? How is she all bundled up like that—"
"Hey. She might not even be an adventurer."
"Is that so? Still, she looks dangerous...."
"An elf? If she's an elf... could it be?"
The gazes of those who had been staring oddly because of the robe turned toward Rosemas's ears.
Ears sharper than those of other elves were certainly distinctive, and Rosemas, seemingly unaccustomed to the attention, began to look around nervously.
'Lucius.'
I signaled Lucius with my eyes, and Lucius naturally stepped behind Rosemas, blocking the stares of the others.
The height difference wasn't very large.
Rosemas was taller than my current body, enough that her gaze reached Lucius's collarbone.
"Th-thank you, Lucius."
"Please call me Arthur."
"Ah, Arthur...."
A height perfect for a kiss if she stood on her tiptoes.
Since Rosemas already seemed to have fallen for Lucius, if I soon arranged a place for the two of them to talk alone, they'd both be over the moon.
"Heh heh heh."
Perhaps in about ten months, a half-elf might be born.
I didn't know whether Lucius had any thoughts in that direction, but as long as Lucius wasn't a eunuch or into men, enjoying himself with the flowers around him would be a great help to his relationships with his companions.
'For a wholesome pure-love harem.'
They said the thing a Hero Party had to be most wary of was trouble involving the opposite sex, but I'd already dealt with the problem of several women fighting over one man.
'If they just listen to me, they'll be baking bread even in their sleep.'
Lucius ought to be sincerely grateful.
After all, I was the one who'd once walked alone into an all-female Hero Party, bewitched every one of the women, and turned them into warriors of the Demon King Army.
'Let's gather more companions, Lucius.'
Through more adventures ahead, more women would come to occupy Lucius's side.
For that, we needed to become higher-ranked adventurers and take on quests that built up more results.
For the time being.
"...We'll be reporting our results soon, so please say what we agreed on beforehand. Understood?"
"Understood, 'Witch'."
The tone felt a little off, but it wasn't worth paying attention to, so I ignored Rosemas.
STEP, STEP.
I headed toward the guild reception desk with vigorous strides.
The receptionist standing inside briefly grimaced the moment she saw me, but soon changed her expression and smiled.
"Welcome. To come back after only two days—what brings you here? If you're giving up on the request...."
"We rescued the missing elf."
"...Already?"
"Yes. Here."
I introduced Rosemas to Hora Morgen, a guild employee of the Normance Adventurers' Guild.
Rosemas, who had been fidgeting, changed her expression the moment she saw Morgen.
She was an elf, but she began to read the room.
Rosemas wrapped a hand around Lucius's waist and pressed herself tightly against him.
'You should at least put an arm around her shoulders, you fool!'
It was the perfect chance to get a little closer, and he was just going to stand there?
This foolish—
"Tsk."
Ah, no.
Lucius was a real player.
He had noticed what kind of look the receptionist was sending his way and was deliberately acting indifferent.
'He's a subtle player.'
He left Rosemas's sly flirting alone while playing up how uncomfortable it made him look to Morgen.
He made the two women glare at each other and compete.
If that behavior came out instinctively, the guy was a player with tremendous natural talent.
"Morgen, this is Rosemas. We rescued her when she was captured and being dragged off by orcs in the forest."
That was a lie.
The capture was true, but she wasn't being dragged off—she had already been captured and was in a situation she could never escape from when we saved her.
"How did you rescue her?"
"Well, you see...."
-Master. Isn't this side dangerous?
-We need to search a bit more. Shh. There's something up ahead.
-Aaaah! Save me!
-Snort. Caught an elf. Snort.
-Let's offer her to the boss. Snort.
-Master.
-Go, Lucius! Slash them apart!
-Haaah! Are you all right?!
-Ahh, so you're the one who saved me...!!
-Snort, r-run away!
-Let's flee before the orcs catch up! Hurry!
"And that's how it happened."
It was completely different from what had actually occurred, but I took a situation from my days traveling as a Hero Party and adapted it appropriately to fabricate the story.
"We rescued Rosemas and fled immediately. Fortunately, the orcs didn't chase us until we returned to town."
"Good heavens. You must have been in danger...."
"We were lucky there were only three orcs nearby. We dealt with them quickly and fled."
"I see...."
Morgen began writing something on paper with a quill pen.
"Was Lucius the one who dealt with the orcs?"
"Two of them. I handled one with fire magic."
"Is that so.... Where did you encounter them?"
"I'm not sure exactly. We were fleeing in such a hurry. We encountered them near a lake while following a stream in the northern forest."
"Hmm...."
Whether she believed it or not didn't particularly matter.
Lucius was a swordsman capable of facing two orcs with an iron sword.
I, Mage Bel, was a mage who could support Lucius.
'This will help when we take the rank-up exam later, right?'
We were clearly stronger than E Rank adventurers.
To hide the Holy Sword and conceal our true strength, we needed a suitable record of accomplishments.
Since we had sliced up the orcs with the Holy Sword, we needed to make people think the slaughtered orcs had nothing to do with us.
Even if someone later saw that the orcs had been wiped out, we simply needed to be people who happened to pass by and rescue an elf.
But at the same time, we couldn't appear utterly incompetent, as if we'd just gotten lucky.
I had my pride, after all—if they told me to go hunt slimes or goblins as a recommended quest, my pride wouldn't allow it.
"First, Rosemas, would you like to tell the receptionist what you agreed to tell her?"
"Yes...."
Rosemas stepped forward in front of Hora, fidgeting.
"I'm sorry...."
This wasn't so much something we'd discussed beforehand as it was simply the proper thing to do.
"I'm sorry for unintentionally causing trouble for the Adventurers' Guild."
It would be a slight blow to her pride, but at the very least, it was true that she had been captured by orcs through her own mistake and caused trouble for the Adventurers' Guild.
"It's all right. I'm just glad you're safe. I'll contact the search party separately."
Rosemas was registered as a D Rank adventurer.
Since someone like her had gone missing, a search party had been combing the area around the town and forest for the past few days looking for Rosemas.
'So the search party moves on its own, and they also posted a notice on the board asking ordinary adventurers to look for her.'
The request we had accepted was a kind of missing-person notice—not a request aimed at any specific individual, but an announcement meant to get more people searching for the missing person.
If we hadn't found her, they probably would have searched for about two more weeks and then given up.
And then, eventually, only bones would have been found.
"I'm truly sorry."
"It's really all right! This is exactly the kind of work the Adventurers' Guild does. Now then, Bel, may I have your adventurer cards?"
"Here."
"First... regarding the 'Search for the Missing Elf,' I'll report that the two of you have completed the request."
Morgen took out one of the request forms from beneath the reception desk and stamped it with a large seal.
Mana began to flow from the seal, and soon it began to seep into the adventurer identification cards she had been handed.
Whoosh.
The engraving on the back rose up a level from below.
"Morgen, does this mean our results are going up now?"
"Yes. Since you're still E Rank... you'll need at least four more, but rescuing a person on your very first outing is a truly significant achievement. It will be a great help in your next rank-up exam."
"Four, huh...."
An oddly large number.
"Lucius. We can do more, right?"
"Of course, Master."
If we steadily resolved requests one by one from now on, we'd be able to set our sights higher.
"Have confidence. You're strong enough."
And with good reason....
"Big trouble!! A massive orc settlement discovered to the north!!"
"!!!"
The adventurers turned pale in an instant.
While everyone else grew grave, I alone maintained my composure—
'Should I tremble too?'
"The orcs have all been slaughtered, including a Highlord Orc captain! This should have been at least a B Rank mission!!"
"......."
With the power of a Holy Sword, something like B Rank could be handled without any trouble.
"...Master."
"That was dangerous. Really dangerous."
Two E Rank adventurers resolved a B Rank mission?
Wasn't this exactly the kind of situation that easily drew attention?
"It must have been truly dangerous. Right, Lucius?"
"...Yes."
"From now on...."
I gave Lucius a light wink.
"...we'll train until we can do the same thing without that. Understood?"
So that no one else could hear, I whispered quietly to Lucius alone.
* * *
The Holy Sword Village, fallen.
Every human had died, and there were no survivors.
No—there was exactly one.
"Daughter."
Peisa Odron, head of House Odron, felt terror at the sight of his daughter gripping a sword.
"...You are certainly my daughter. But."
"Father."
"...You are too talented."
Count Odron felt terror at his daughter's skill.
How long had it been since she first took up a sword?
A week?
Ten days?
In less time than that, she had shown tremendous growth.
"I was called a prodigy from a young age myself. But you have far surpassed my talent. Look."
Count Odron pointed at the sword his daughter, Droniel, held.
"Who awakens Aura in such a short time?"
"......That doesn't matter."
Droniel swung her sword with a cold expression.
"I will train in swordsmanship and definitely go to help 'him.' So please help me, Father."
"...Hah, you...."
"Father."
Droniel swung her sword at a training dummy with a confident face.
"If I end up with him, it will also be a great help to House Odron."
"...A help? It would be far more than that... The owner of that thing would become a member of our family."
"Yes. So...."
Slash.
The dummy's head flew off from Droniel's horizontal slash.
"Make me strong, so that I can stand at his side."
"......So, you're growing so fast right now that I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'll think it over."
Count Odron left.
Alone in the training ground, Droniel clutched her sword, then sat down for a moment, stroking the blade and smiling.
"Lucius...."
Droniel.
"Lucius. Lucius.... Lu, cius.... Heh heh.... My... Lucius."
She simply repeated one word over and over, fiddling with her sword.