“…You don’t have any requests?”
The receptionist smiles, though looking troubled.
“That’s correct. We currently do not have any requests that we could ask an S Rank party like you, Miss Angeline and co…. All our requests for now can be handled by at most AA Rank adventurers.”
Of course there’s no rule that S Rankers aren’t allowed to accept such requests, but making sure that labour is divided between the adventurers as evenly as possible is also part of the guild’s job.
And considering how much work Angeline’s party has done until now, at this point there isn’t much need for them to go back and do lower-ranked work.
“Is there anything like a caravan heading in the direction of Tornela needing guards?”
“Those are not the kinds of requests that S Rank adventurers should be handling, and so…”
“…Then can I take a vacation for a month?”
“N-no, that’s a bit too much… We don’t know when something might happen, after all…”
“Tch…”
Angeline, having already decided to go home no matter the cost, smiles bitterly towards the receptionist.
Regardless, it seems like she’s free for the day. Though not free enough to be able to take a long-term vacation. In that case she might as well just go out and play with Anessa and Milliam.
As she turns around to leave she looks over at the cracked counter and narrows her eyes.
“…When are you going to fix that? I’ll pay for the repairs…”
The receptionist laughs impishly.
“Well, you see, the guild master decided to leave it as it is, as a piece of the legend of the “Black Haired Valkyrie,” Miss Angeline.”
“…I see.”
‘Are you trying to low-key harass me, you bastard?’ Angeline thinks to herself, but if it’s just that then it’s nothing to her. Angeline goes over to where Anessa and Milliam are waiting in the lobby.
“Oh, how was it?”
“Were there any good requests?”
“No… They said they don’t have any requests for S Ranks. So we have the day off.”
The two make a face as if they’re thinking ‘oh?’
“Our schedule is suddenly open, huh…”
“Yeah… What should we do?”
“I’m going to go back home and change for now…”
Since they expected to immediately go out on a request they’re dressed up as adventurers. They don’t exactly enjoy walking around town in light armour. Anessa nods.
“You’re right. Then let’s meet up at the usual pub.”
“Yeah… Later.”
Angeline separates from the group and goes back to her room.
She has been renting a single room of a small boarding house in the corner of downtown Orphen to stay at. Considering her income she should be able to live in a more respectable residence but it seems that Angeline doesn’t have that sort of desire and says that a room small enough to be able to reach everything easily is a lot more calming for her.
Angeline changes her clothes and sits down on her bed. You can clearly see that it’s autumn by looking out the window. The roadside trees are dyed red and the sun can’t be called harsh.
Flopping down onto her bed she once again reads through the long letter she received from Belgriff a while ago. Whenever she reads it she smiles, unable to suppress her happiness.
She carefully folds the letter before placing it in a drawer, then flops back down onto the bed and stares at the ceiling, thinking to herself about how she wants to eat rock cowberries.
Back when she still lived in Tornela she always looked forward to eating them in the autumn. When Belgriff started taking her into the mountain with him she would immediately go out searching for rock cowberries. Even now she can remember where all the spots they grow are on the mountain.
Since coming to the capital she has had sugar-preserved and dried rock cowberries, but they just don’t have the impactful sweet-sour taste of freshly-picked ones. She gets lost in her thoughts, thinking about things like how when she would beg him Belgriff would feed her rock cowberries directly, though while smiling wryly.
“…I want to go home.”
When she is left with nothing to do her homesickness strikes heavier than usual.
Angeline lays on the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling until she remembers that Anessa and Milliam are waiting for her. She gets up.
“Just when will I be able to see Daddy again…”
Sighing, Angeling leaves her room.
The main street is crowded.
Orphen houses a great population. Though this can be partially attributed to how important a center of trade it is, there are also a large number of adventurers. The number of people that come and go from the towns surrounding Orphen cannot be compared to Orphen itself. When Angeline had first come here to the capital she was overwhelmed by the number of people around.
Though it can be difficult to walk through the crowd, the pub isn’t that far away. Even though it’s still the middle of the day, the pub is full of people. But since Anessa and Milliam have already grabbed seats, Angeline is able to easily take a seat with them.
“You look really unhappy, Ange~”
Milliam cackles. Angeline irritatedly drinks her water.
“I don’t need a tiny holiday like this.”
“Hey, we finally get a holiday so don’t be like that.”
Looking troubled, Anessa scratches her cheek. Angeline shakes her head as if disappointed in Anessa’s reply.
“A holiday is what it’s called when I get to go home and get pampered by Daddy…”
“What are you talking about?”
“You want to be pampered~? I can pamper you! I’ll hug you, so come over here~”
Grinning, Milliam spreads her arms wide towards Angeline. Angeline pouts.
“As if someone like you could be a substitute for Daddy, Milly… If you think you can act motherly just because you’ve got big boobs you’re sorely mistaken.”
“Ahhn, you’re so bitter, Angeee~”
Milliam slumps backwards onto the back of the chair, mumbling and complaining to herself. Because of her loose robe it’s hard to tell, but apparently she’s concealing a pretty splendid chest underneath it.
The three order what they want from the menu and banter about random topics to pass the time. However they are adventurers. The conversation naturally turns towards talking about magic beasts.
“It feels like the magic beasts have been really active lately.”
“I think so too~. I don’t think they used to attack towns or anything as much as they do now~”
Almost all of the requests brought to Angeline’s party of late have been for subjugating magic beasts that have appeared near towns. And there have also been cases where the magic beast has already attacked the town and the party needs to go to save it.
Such occurrences wouldn’t have happened that often not long ago. It used to be that high-Ranked magic beasts would mainly live only in remote areas and so high-Rank adventurers would receive requests to go out there to obtain their materials or defeat them so that humans can settle into the area. There are also cases in which a magic beast might have a bounty on its head, and in the past high-Rank adventurers would make a living mainly off hunting them it seems.
But now high-Rank magic beasts spawn even near human settlements. That’s why Angeline and her party have had increasingly more and more work lately.
As long as the high-Ranked magic beasts stay in remote areas or the depths of dungeons, S Rank adventurers should be able to freely go out and hunt them at their own pace without needing to be constantly stationed at the guild waiting for an outbreak.
Grumpy as usual, Angeline stuffs herself with her favourite duck meat sauté.
“Ghey shugd jush stay nish an quiegt far awag, *chew* *chew*”
“Swallow your food before talking…”
“*chew chew*…*gulp*. They should just stay nice and quiet far away from here… Going out of their way to come all the way over to where people are living, how annoying…!”
“…Well, you could say that’s what’s keeping our wallets fat though.”
“Even so, they’re still doing it too much…!”
“Maybe the thing about the return of the Demon Lord was true.”
Milliam says as she licks some yoghurt sauce off her lips.
“The Demon Lord, huh…,” Anessa speaks out with her chin resting on her hands. “It might not really be a true story but it is true that the magic beasts have stimulated by something…”
“Demon Lords… there were a lot, right?”
“Ah, you mean Solomon’s seventy-two Demon Lords, right? That’s if the legends are true, though.”
According to legend, a long time ago there existed a great sorcerer named Solomon. He was well-versed in every kind of magic and alchemy there was.
Solomon created several artificial life-forms, known as ‘homunculi,’ and using them as his hands and feet he stood above the rest of the continent. However in his final years he was overcome with madness and disappeared into the end of space-time. The homunculi, left behind with their master gone, rampaged around. They are what is known as Demon Lords.
The Demon Lords rampaged all over, completely destroying everything around them.
In the end, almost all of Solomon’s precious research papers and the objects he built were lost. You could say that Solomon had destroyed all that he created.
It is said that the Demon Lords were sealed by the Hero blessed by the Goddess Viena and now lay in an everlasting sleep, all in different corners of the world. The legend says that the mana emitted by the Demon Lords is what made the magic beasts start spawning.
“Well, it’s just a legend so we don’t really know if it’s true or not…”
“But it’s true that there are places with lots of mana…”
“You’re right~. And there are small shrines all over the place to appease the souls of the Demon Lords too.”
It’s said that there were, in all, seventy-two Demon Lords. Shrines sit all across the continent to worship the Demon Lords, though they are at most to keep the Demon Lords’ souls resting in peace and not used for demonstrating faith to them like you would a God.
From that topic they move on to about how apparently the heretic cult that worship the Demon Lords and their creator, Solomon, have been rather active lately.
“With all these bad things happening at once it really seems like when it rains it really does pour, huh…”
“They’re trying to revive the Demon Lords, right?”
“Seems so. They’re all so annoying.”
Angeline nods, agreeing, to Anessa’s annoyedly made statement.
“If a Demon Lord is revived then our work will increase… I won’t get to take a holiday off…”
“…No, I don’t think that’s the real problem.”
“Fufu, though it feels like if it’s you, Ange, you’d be able to beat up a Demon Lord or two~.”
“There’s no reason I can’t win… I’m the “Black Haired Valkyrie” Angeline, daughter of the “Red Ogre” Belgriff after all.”
Angeline and Milliam start making a ruckus in high-spirits. Thinking that Angeline might actually be able to win even if a Demon Lord was revived, a shiver travels up Anessa’s spine.
At that time a guild employee bursts in to the pub.
“Ah, good, you really were here!”
Furrowing her brow, Angeline looks at the guild employee.
“What is it?”
“An Earth Dragon appeared in the plains near Orks… I’m sorry for disturbing you on your day off but could you go out there and deal with it?”
The party of three meet eyes and wryly smile. This isn’t the time to be chattering about Demon Lords or whatever.