Chapter 44 - The loot

"You're finally here."

"!!!"

Some time later, the brown-haired maid greeted the guild's delegation, which froze speechless at the sight of the giant taking out a precious monster corpse after precious monster corpse from the bag that he had dropped right in front of the city hall.

"Th-that's a crystal-heart golem…!"

The guild's receptionist cried out and pointed at the sparkling monster that looked like a toy in the giant's hand, placing it down… next to another corpse of exactly the same species of monster…

"For level 30, those were shockingly sturdy."

"!?!?"

The maid allowed herself to make a comment while dusting off her skirt, causing the others to look at her as if she lost her mind.

"Shockingly sturdy?! Those creatures deflect all types of magic except curses and boast the highest physical defense among regular golems! Those can't be classified as just shockingly sturdy!"

"Our lady decided to get them despite their low level because their cores are commonly used for the catalysts of teleportation arrays. We did not confirm whether this city's teleportation array catalyst got damaged, but the fact that our lady requires it to be used remains the same. We request you to accept the donation and do your utmost best to fix it for her as soon as possible. Our lady leaves the distribution and order in which all the other facilities in the city will be fixed after that to your discretion."

"..."

The maid pointed out and turned away, watching the unloading process with a proud expression while no one else could come up with something worthy to say.

They could only join the brown-haired maid and observe how high-level rare and precious monsters that no adventurer in the city dared to hunt without singling them out and surrounding with at least a dozen allies be just pulled out of the bag one by one like some common lesser arachnids from right ouside the city walls.

"A-are you serious… about… about donating those to our city…?"

The black-haired guild master got choked up and managed to sob after a few more minutes.

"H-how are we ever going to repay you…? Even if the storm will never end, with this much, Chainlink will be able to get back on its feet…!"

The tremendously moved man let out a cry while shedding tears of gratefulness.

"That reminds me. This superstorm is supposed to last seven days and seven nights, meaning only four days are left. It will be fine. Oh, but our lady requests that the teleporter array be fixed before that."

"!!!"

The maid perked up in realsiation and pointed out without looking back, causing even more stirr amongst the poeple present.

"You… you know something about it!? Please, could you tell us something mo…"

"Miss Adrianna! We're done here! Let's go for the rest, or we won't be done before night!"

The guild master gasped and reached his hand towards the indifferent maid, but then the giant stood up and called out—his sonorous call resounding throughout the entire city, even through the cacophony of rain—throwing the empty bag over his shoulder.

"Understood!"

"!!!"

The brown-haired maid put her hands to her mouth and shouted back, making the others back off.

"W-wait…! What does he mean by the rest…?!"

As the maid turned around and was about to leave, she was stopped by the guild's receptionist.

"..."

The maid looked down at the hand touching her arm and then gave the green-eyed woman the most indifferent look.

"Exactly what he said. We will have to make six to seven rounds to bring everything that our lady wishes to donate."

"!!!"

The maid explained, and the shock value of her words made the receptionist let go of her and back off.

"The Red Cedar Ent could prove a bit tricky… His body might be too heavy for Mister Zane to carry, not to mention hard to fit in here together with all the others… Now, if you excuse me."

The maid muttered to herself with a frown before bowing her head to the group and leaving, jumping up on the giant's left foot and springing up to his arm to finally end up on his shoulder, next to a hooded girl who everyone on the ground didn't even notice from thier spot.

"...did… did she just said… Red Cedar Ent…?"

One of the adventurers managed to let out a pitiful yelp.

"...as… as in the Forest Guardian, Red Cedar Ent…?"

"Huh? Wait… who said that exactly?"

The adventurer added with a frightened expression, but then his colleague looked at him and furrowed his brows.

"What? Didn't we just talk with someone, and that person said something about it?"

Another one voiced her doubts, marking the beginning of a rather peculiar occurrence…

"No… No. I'm prettu sure that the only person who talked was that giant who brought us the monster corpses as donation to reconstruction fund."

"That's right! That guy is the city's savior! He even said that he would require six or seven more trips to bring everything he hunted!"

More adventurers joined in on the talk, sounding as if the brown-haired maid's presence completely escaped their attention the moment she got out of their sight.

"Hold on, everyone… Wasn't there a maid… talking about her master…?"

And even the receptionist who directly faced the maid more than once before, although she spoke up she did so with hesitation, realizng that she could recall just some faceless maid at some point in time…

"...eh…? Am i just confusing something?"

"I bet it's because of stress, Madam Theo. Don't worry about it. We're all under so much pressure."

The green-eyed receptionist began questing herself, and the first adventurer nodded and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"But all said and done… Damn! That guy who can turn into a giant is incredible! He's like a hero from legends!"

"That's right… Everyone… Contact the major and the high priest Ceto… in this moment of trial, goddess Perseverance just might have sent us her champion…"

Someone else breathed out before gasping in awe, and the guild master nodded in agreement before giving a command.