While he killed plenty of monsters, Hikaru did not bring any materials back, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention. He wasn't in dire need of money anyway. His priority was to keep a low profile… or at least that was the plan.
「Hikaru-sama! 」
As he passed through the gate, he was told by the guard to go the Adventurers Guild where he was met by Paula. It was already dark and past the guild's closing time, but Jill was still behind the counter. Her face immediately lit up once she saw Hikaru. It quickly turned sullen, however, as she watched Paula run up towards him.
「…What?」
Hikaru tried to be as blunt as possible. Paula didn't seem to mind, though.
「Welcome back. I wanted to see you, Hikaru-sama, so I waited here.」
「…I don't think you can keep the guild open this late. What's going on?」
「I'm glad you're quick on the uptake.」Pia said, astounded by Paula's behavior.「We actually need your testimony as well.」
「Testimony? About what those adventurers did?
「Not that. They already got those from us. Well apparently they'd have to hear their side of the story first before making a judgment.」
「I see… so it's about the Goblins, then?」
「The guild wants to know more about them.」Jill said, cutting into the conversation.「You'll tell me about them, won't you?」
「Y-Yeah… Sure. So what's this all about?」
Jill grabbed his arms tight and dragged him outside.
「I'm starving.」
「Is that so?」
「I spent all this time waiting for you to come back so I can ask you important information on the massive Goblin outbreak, and now I'm starving.」
「...…」
「I know a place that serves good pasta.」
「Hold on a sec. You're not asking me to treat you again, are you?」
「Wh-What's going on here?! You're sponging off Hikaru-sama?!」Paula interjected.
「Well if you want to treat me, I'll gladly accept.」
With Lavia being transported tomorrow, now was not the time to be having dinner with Jill. But a dinner – conversation, rather – with her was important for tomorrow's plan.
「…Fine. I wanted to ask you something anyway. Is it all right to leave the guild open?」
「Unken-san is still inside. I told you before about the submaster and a receptionist being out on a business trip to the capital, right? They're coming back tonight and he's waiting for them.」
「Hmm… I see.」
Hikaru had a few thoughts about the matter, but he didn't bother for now.
「What about those three?」Hikaru asked.
Paula, Pia, and Priscilla followed the two of them outside.
「…I suppose they can come. I wanted to hear more about the Goblins anyway. You come first, of course.」
「You want me to pay for their food as well?」
「I'm sure they can pay for their own.」
「I don't know about that…」
They looked like they didn't have much money. Hikaru thought the kind of place that Jill went to where they serve pies for over a hundred gilans each would be too expensive for the girls.
Jill brought them to a back alley where no one would go to unless they had a reason to. They arrived at a pasta restaurant located between houses called "Pasta Magic".
Talk about horrible naming sense…
Hikaru opened the door, and as the outside appearance suggested, the inside was small with only two box seats and a counter.
「Hey, Jill-chan.」
The bear-like manager waved at Jill. He was in the back cooking. Jill seemed to have made a reservation as they were led to their seat which was good for four people only, so a chair was added for the dazed Priscilla. She sat down with a blank expression. Hikaru tried desperately not to glance at her breasts that jiggled as she took her seat. Jill sat beside Hikaru while Paula sat across from him. Pia took the last empty seat, her hands trembling as she held the menu.
「Expensive! Too expensive! We can't pay for this!」
· Stewed Beef and Red Spring Grass Pasta — 210 gilans
· Seafood Oil Pasta — 160 gilans
· New Item Red-horned Rabbit Green Sauce Pasta – 590 gilans
Even Hikaru almost whistled from the price. The Red-horned Rabbit one was especially ridiculous.
「Manager, this guy here is Hikaru-kun.」Jill told the manager who personally came to take their order.
「Ohh… he really is short.」
「I'm sure everyone's short compared to you」Hikaru muttered under his breath as he eyed the manager who was almost two meters tall. It's not that I'm short. No, definitely not.
There was a reason the manager himself came over.
「I see, I see. You're a lifesaver. There hasn't been any stock on Red-horned Rabbits lately. A sudden increase in price is one thing, but there's nothing we can do when we can't even order them. Then all of a sudden, I received word that there's some stock now. Today as well. I asked around what was going on and apparently a beginner adventurer hunted the rabbits. I asked Jill-chan to bring you here so I could let you eat to your heart's content.」
So Jill brought me here because of that.
「I see. I was wondering who purchased them as well.」
「How about you sell them to me directly, eh? I'll give you good money for them.」
「No way! You can't do that! If you do, the guild will get it from the meat wholesalers!」Jill said, panicking.
「Ahahaha! I'm just kidding. Hey, kid. I actually want the Red-horned Rabbit's innards. It's fine, right, Jill?」
His spirit as a cook seemed to have lit up, his eyes burning bright.
「You just dispose of them, right? Please take those with you next time. I want to make dishes out of them. They're not distributed in the market anyway so I can buy them directly. How about it, kid?」
「…It's Hikaru.」
「What?」
「Are you seriously addressing a business partner as "kid"?」Hikaru said, glaring at the manager.
The manager's face turned serious as well.
「…Good point. My bad, Hikaru. I like you. Eat all you want tonight! It's on the house! In exchange, please consider my proposal. Oh, and Jill. When I said "on the house", it doesn't include booze. You have to pay for those.」
「Ugh…」
Jill's face lit up after hearing that food was on the house – though it seemed she was already expecting it – but she was quickly disappointed after hearing that alcohol wasn't free.
Hikaru shot a glance at Jill.
「...…」
「I-I'm not going to drink a lot. I know better.」
「...…」
「Please don't look at me with those cold eyes!」
How much does she even drink usually? Hikaru thought, astounded.
The other girls just sat there dumbfounded, mouth gaping.
「…You heard him. Everything's on the house. But pay for your drinks, okay?」
「For real?」
「Your eyes are too bright, Pia.」 Hikaru's shocked.
「You're drooling like crazy, Priscilla!」
Pia and Priscilla were overjoyed from the sudden blessing of free food. Only Paula looked apologetic.
「I'm sorry it turned out this way, Hikaru-sama.」
「I didn't even know about this. And you should drop the "sama". I'm probably younger than you anyway.」
「I-Is that so? If that's what you want, Master.」
「Why'd you make it worse?!」
「I-I'm your… n-night slave!」
「Don't force yourself if you can't say it with a straight face. And don't speak like that from now on, all right? I'm serious.」
And so they started on their food.
「So Hikaru-kun, how'd you drive the Goblins away?」
Pia and Priscilla silently dug in as soon as the food was served. The former spoke crudely, but she had good table manners when eating. All the pasta was great. It was the first time Hikaru had pasta in this world – besides the yakisoba – and he thought it was delicious. The oil and spices provided some punch, but there was something missing.
Oh, there's no garlic, Hikaru thought.
「I heard from Unken-san that there could be Goblins in the area.」
「Be that as it may, even I don't know how to drive Goblins away.」
「It probably worked out simply because it's Hikaru-sama.」
「You keep your mouth shut, Paula. We won't get anywhere.」
「…Apparently Goblins that grouped up together are called Goblin Families. For a disciplined one, there's usually a chain of command with the Boss on top.」
「That's correct. I'm surprised you know. Did Unken-san tell you that too?」
「No, I read about it on a field guide in the reference room.」
「A field guide in the reference room… That old and bulky book, huh? I'm impressed you actually read that.」
「Of course I would. There are cases where information or the lack thereof will determine whether you live or die.」
Jill kept her mouth shut. A thought crossed her mind. She thought Hikaru was simply lucky. But that might not be the case. This boy doesn't have any special abilities, but he makes use of his knowledge when doing his job as an adventurer, she thought.
She actually took Paula and the others' story about the Goblins with a grain of salt. After all, adventurers tended to exaggerate things.
「Over a hundred Goblins? Are you sure it wasn't ten or twenty? And you're saying Hikaru-kun drove them off? Hmm…」was all she had to say. She could just ask the guy himself at dinner was what she thought.
「…Hikaru-kun, was there a Goblin Leader?」
「I don't know what they're called but there was a Goblin bigger than the manager here and another one with a horn which looked like the leader's right-hand. I thought the whole horde would be in chaos if the Boss was beaten so I attacked it.」
「Did you really do that?! Were you okay?!」
「Ouch.」
「Ah.」
She grabbed Hikaru's shoulders all of a sudden. What he did was that reckless. If a horde of Goblins had a leader, the local guild would have to work together with the neighboring town's Adventurers Guild to kill them. If left alone, they might attack some village in the outskirts and multiply in large numbers. It was similar to pest control. The ironclad rule was to deal with them while the damage was still minimal.
「Of course I'm okay. I'm right here.」
「Y-You're right. I'm sorry. So you got away safely after attacking the Goblin Leader. Did you hit it with something? An arrow?」
「…I did. There were some poisonous plants growing nearby so I coated a rock with their sap and threw it.」
Hikaru was lying. He actually killed the Goblin Leader, but either she wouldn't believe him or he'd only draw unwanted attention. So he went with a story he came up with: he weakened the Boss with poison.
「I thought the horde wouldn't disperse unless I attacked the Boss. Fighting them all is purely idiotic.」
「True.」
「...…」
「.....」
「.....」
The three girls went quiet, realizing they were idiots for trying to fight the Goblins. They were once again reminded of how reckless they were in doing so.
「Uh… Hikaru. Thank you so much for saving us. Is there anything we can do to repay you?」Pia asked.
「We'll give you our first.」Priscilla said with a blank expression.
「That's a great idea!!!」
「Oh, crap. Paula actually loves it.」
「That's enough! You'll only cause trouble for Hikaru-kun. Right? You don't want to, right?」
For some reason Jill grabbed Hikaru's arm, shaking it.
Well if it's their first… Hikaru thought before he came back to his senses.
「You don't need to pay me back. It's okay.」
「But there has to be something we can do.」
「Then I just have one favor to ask. You too, Jill-san.」
「What is it?」
Jill looked at Hikaru as her name got called.
「Please don't tell anyone about the Goblin thing. I just want to live my life as an adventurer in peace. Increasing the chances of me getting picked on by other adventurers would be foolish.」
Jill nodded quietly. She herself was involved once when adventurers picked on Hikaru.
「I agree. There's also the investigation on what those adventurers did to you girls. And if the citizens found out about the Goblins, it'll only fuel their worries. So I have to ask you to not tell anyone.」
「No way…」
Paula looked dejected. I thought I could get intimate with my love and gradually deepen our sexual relationship in time…
「We're done with this matter.」Hikaru said decisively.
He felt a bit reluctant, but he had other things to worry about.
「Jill-san, I have something I wanted to ask you.」
「Right. You did say that.」
「Are the adventurers who will escort the convoy to the capital already in Pond?」
「!」
He was asking about the adventurers who would be guarding Lavia's transport. The three girls looked puzzled, having no idea what Hikaru was talking about. They immediately realized that it had nothing to do with them so they proceeded to eat while giving their impressions about the food.
「Why do you ask? I told you I can't say any more than what I already did.」
「Some staff are coming back tonight, right? I was just wondering if the adventurers are with them.」
「You're too sharp, Hikaru-kun.」
「I'm just asking. Nothing more, nothing less. They must be competent adventurers. I just can't help but be interested.」
「I see what you mean. Yes, they're scheduled to arrive tonight.」
「It's already dark outside. The gates should be closed.」
「Guild staff are allowed to pass if there are special reasons. Apparently those women arrived at the capital late which pushed the schedule back a bit and now it's already dark out.」
「Wait a minute. Women?」
「That's right. The escort is a party of four women.」
Women, huh? I thought for sure they'd be men. Is it because they're escorting a girl? Hikaru thought.
「And they're rank B adventurers.」
Pia spat out her food.
「R-R-Rank B?!」
「Ew.」
「Gross.」
「That's just disgusting, Pia.」
「Yuck.」
「...…Sorry.」Pia apologized.
「Is rank B that amazing?」Hikaru asked.
「Let's see… Among the adventurers stationed here in Pond, the highest rank is D. If I recall correctly, there's one rank A at the capital. Apart from those women, there are only ten other B-rank adventurers.」
「…I think ten is plenty already.」
「Hehe. You've never been to the royal capital? Its population is forty or fifty times more than that of Pond.」
「Wow.」
It's that big? Roland has memories of the capital but most of them were spent inside carriages or a library in some mansion.
「The name of their party is "Four Stars of the East". I haven't met them, but apparently their quest success rate is a hundred percent.」
Hikaru carved the information deep in his mind.
It was about ten o'clock when they parted ways. In this world 10pm was quite late and the whole place would be asleep save for a few bars and some parts of town.
The lights are on.
Hikaru was heading to the Adventurers Guild. Lavia was to be transported tomorrow, but he didn't know exactly what time. So he could only save Skill points and money until today.
What he needed last was information. But even without much of it, he thought it would still be possible to overcome a crisis as long as he had Skill points available for use. The most important information he needed was that of the escorts – the adventurers he had to outwit. He had already anticipated them to arrive the day before Lavia was transported and was going to get information on them then. Things were going just as planned.
Let's see what kind of people these women are.
Hikaru entered through the back door. It wasn't locked. He soon found the room where there were people since it was the only place where voices could be heard from. He had all his Stealth Skills on, of course.
「Haha. You're worrying too much, guildmaster.」
The one laughing was a well-built man. A beautiful woman who looked to be exhausted stood beside him. They were the guild staff – the submaster and a receptionist – that went to the capital.
「You're the odd one for not even being the least bit worried even though things did not go as planned.」Unken replied.
Hikaru guessed right. The old man was the guildmaster.
「Well, uhh… what did you say your name was?」
「The Distant Glittering Stars. I'll have you know I'm rank C. You should be grateful we even came all the way to this mediocre town.」
The man speaking disrespectfully was an adventurer who appeared to be in his thirties. There were three of them. What caught Hikaru's attention was the male-sounding voice.
He was eavesdropping from the corridor. There was a high chance of him not being noticed if he went in, but with the adventurers apparently being rank B and Unken's four points on Instinct, he couldn't take the risk.
「How are you three going to escort her anyway? The standard is to have at least four people – at least one watch for each direction.」
「I told you old-timer. We're rank C. I haven't heard of C-rank adventurers being ambushed by bandits on the road. Even if we do get ambushed, we can send them packing. If somehow the girl escapes, she can't get far anyway.」
Hikaru recalled what Jill told him. The party's name was "Four Stars of the East", composed of four women, and they were all rank B. The information he got was different. Perhaps some sort of problem occurred that prevented the Four Stars of the East from coming. And Unken was worried about that…
「...…」
「We're not the substitutes of those East whatever girls. People say we're more skilled than them. What's with the attitude anyway? We should just head back, then.」
「N-No, please stay.」the submaster appeased, rubbing his hands together.
「Then you know what you have to do, right?」
「Yes, Sir. We have a place reserved for you.」
「Wait. The escort job is tomorrow and you're going for a night out?」
「Guildmaster, I'm sure you don't mind if they left around noon. If they leave around that time, they'll arrive at the capital in the evening.」
「...…」
「There you have it. Let's go, Nogusa-sama.」
「All right. It better be a great place.」
「Why, of course.」
The three men left along with the submaster. Hikaru immediately distanced himself from the door. They didn't notice him at all. He took a quick peek inside before the door closed to see only Unken and the receptionist left in the room. Hikaru had never seen the woman before. Softly, he pressed his ears on the door just to check if there was any information he might've missed. What he heard was Unken heaving a deep sigh.
「How sad… What's going on with the guild at the capital?」
「Apparently the guild is trying to raise their adventurers' ranks as much as possible because of the war so that if the kingdom requests for men, they can get more money.」
「That's just sad…」
The receptionist simply heaved a sigh. After that, they talked about work-related things. With the important topic over, Hikaru left.
This is great.
Lady luck was on Hikaru's side. It was fortunate enough already that they were one man short, but even their rank was one step lower apparently. He stayed just within five meters of the three men and checked their Soul Boards. The man called Nogusa had the following stats:
[Soul Board]Nogusa Garage
Age: 31 Rank: 38
33
[Vitality]
..[Natural Recovery]2
..[Stamina]2
..[Immunity]
….[Magic Immunity]1
….[Disease Immunity]1
….[Toxic Immunity]1
..[Perception]
….[Hearing]1
[Magical Power]
..[Mana]2
..[Spirit Affinity]
….[Earth]3
[Physical Strength]
..[Strength]6
..[Weapon Mastery]
….[Sword]4
….[Armor]2
[Willpower]
..[Mental Strength]4
[Intuition]
..[Instinct]1
..[Detection]
….[Life Detection]1
He must be a magic swordsman of some sorts. He had one point on Life Detection, but it wasn't enough to find Hikaru. The other two had similar stats as well. To gather the last piece of information he needed, Hikaru headed out into the night-shrouded town.
The rescue mission starts tomorrow.