Arlott returned the same way he arrived after changing his clothes and hurried to the hotel's terrace.
He immediately saw four handsome amen wearing leather combat outfits. They were in their mid-twenties, standing at the table near Iris.
The men seemed to be standing servile with fawning smiles while Iris had a strict expression on her face.
[Wow. Iris is clearly nervous and angry, and more chaotic than what she is showing outside.]
Arlott nodded as he felt that.
"Iris, what's going on?" Arlott walked towards the table.
"Brother," Iris turned to Arlott, her eyes slightly shaking.
The four men were surprised. "So you are Iris's brother!"
"Hahaha, nice to meet you, brother. I am Polar."
"I am Jale. We are Iris's colleagues in the guild."
'Lave?' Arlott ignored their words and just narrowed his eyes at them.
[Beat them up. I'll tell you their stories, though their past one is more disgusting than their plan revolving around Iris.]
Arlott smiled. Lave read their memories, and she told him to beat them, so she must have a very good reason.
*Swoosh!*
Those four men were just 2nd class mages, and their physical power was far from Arlott.
In a few seconds, all four of them were lying on the ground with a punch each, not knowing what the hell happened and how they were hit.
"Security!" Someone shouted upon seeing the scene, but Arlott paid no heed to it and sat at the table as Laverna told him the whole situation and other things about those four as she had read their memories.
But Arlott still held Iris's hand and asked, "What happened?"
"They are members of the same guild," Iris said as she bit her lips. "And they wanted to court me, so they are competing for it. I...sigh, they were too annoying to me, so I let them compete if they stopped annoying me, and then they started listening to everything I say."
"If I tell them to bring coffee, one of them brings it. They were acting like my servants, but…they want me to choose one of them quickly recently…" Iris sighed.
"And you know I won't choose them."
Arlott shook his head as he wryly smiled, "It's not your fault. You were just outnumbered and overwhelmed in this psychological fight because this was their plan all along."
"Right, scums?" Arlott turned to the four men, who looked at Arlott while clenching their stomachs and sweating like pigs.
"Regulate your breaths, dumbasses," Arlott snorted.
The four men finally took a stable breath after a few seconds, and they looked at Arlott with terror because he somehow found out that it was their plan!
And right after that, security arrived.
"What's going on?! Fighting is not allowed on the hotel grounds!"
Arlott chuckled. "Nobody is fighting here."
"Right?" Arlott smilingly narrowed his eyes at the four men, who quickly stood up and nodded, adopting smiles.
"We were just getting pointers. Nothing's going on," the man with curly green hair said with a forced laugh.
"That's right, that's right."
The other two also quickly followed up with the same story. The four of them knew that Arlott was dangerous after getting beaten without even knowing how because they couldn't see Arlott's movements at all.
Moreover, the four of them were constantly feeling pressure from Arlott, which was scaring them further.
The security confusedly left after glancing at the woman who called them, a bit annoyed.
"Where are you from?" Arlott asked after the security left.
"W-we are from Tepel region's C-grade city, Makof city."
"We came here to study and settle."
"So, four of you were together from the start?" Iris frowned.
"We are ch-childhood friends, miss Iris."
"Fucking scums," Arlott coldly smiled, causing a chill to assault those four men. Laverna told him how much of scum they were, so he wasn't planning on sparing them.
"We will never bother her ever again. Please spare us."
"Y-Yes, I..no, we swear."
[Too bad you can't kill them in broad daylight, but you need to remove these black souls and devour them.]
'I know, and I got a plan that is worse than devouring their souls and more beneficial for us. Since they did that disgusting thing in the past, I won't let them off with just deaths.'
"I'll spare you on one condition," Arlott smiled. "Follow us to the forest and help us collect some materials."
"Forest?" Luna was startled. "We are going to hunt Minions?"
"Yes, and one more thing. You'll know when we reach there."
Arlott stood up. "Let's go."
The four men looked at each other and gulped, ultimately agreeing to the condition.
The four of them didn't have much backing here, so they always remained low-key, and since Iris was so beautiful and joined the guild around the same time as them, they wanted to make a move on her by being manipulative simps.
Being lower than her and making her feel superior while slowly instilling pressure on her.
Iris had clearly expressed her decision, but the four of them were co-workers and hovered around her like flies, not offending her too much and licking her feet but still being annoying enough to force Iris to consent to the competition.
But what Arlott heard about their story of five years ago from Laverna, he didn't feel like sparing them and decided to add them to his human resource list that he could use in any way he liked.
The group left the hotel and entered the forest. Since this was an adventurous area, there were many young mages entering the forest and returning to the town with bags and materials after hunting Minions or encountering some magic phenomenon, but such occurrences were rare.
However, this huge forest was more magic-rich, so there would be at least five or six lower-graded magic phenomena appearing every day, both good and bad.
Alas, humans would only encounter one or two of them while the rest would be dealt with by the forest and Minions living in them.
If the phenomenon turned out to be some magical tree or materials, Minions would devour them unless humans encountered them first.
If it was a dimension door, something would come out and might start living in the forest, influencing Minions living inside. If the door of the dimension remained open, more troubles might enter the forest.
And since the forest was huge, even if one or two were encountered by people, it would be dealt with quickly by the lucky ones who encountered them unless the phenomenon turned out to be something big and powerful.
Just two months ago, a dimension gate appeared for a short while that spewed out a bunch of 8th and 9th-grade flying Minions from another dimension. Several adventurers died from their claws before a ranked 114th and ranked 174th powerhouses arrived and dealt with them quickly.
But all in all, the forest was always rich with exotic Minions and materials of early grades, so it was a good area for newbies who wanted to challenge themselves and progress.
Similarly, Arlott was entering the forest for a magic phenomenon that he wanted to unleash for significant benefits and the first big step of his plan to make his organization.
As for the Cloudford Guild's hidden research facility, Arlott decided to go there after finishing this small work here that would yield big profits tomorrow.