383 - - 381st quartet.

Last night, I returned to my room after a sumptuous dinner at a luxury hotel and learned from Sylphy about Baron Messon's movements. Apparently, two necromancers and six military men with extensive battle experience are going to be sent to the inn. I wish I could live a more peaceful life.

Sylphy wakes me up and gets me ready for bed, and we head for Gina and the others' room, with bells and other equipment. When I arrived at the room and knocked, I found Gina and the others already ready to go. ...... People in this world are strong in the morning.

As we head to Mr. Toruku's inn, Sylphy informs us of the presence of a tail. Well, if we know where he is, we can at least put a tail on him.

We can ask Sylphy to get rid of the tail, but we'll leave it alone to settle the matter as soon as possible. We've decided on a general plan last night, so let's let the pointless tailing work for us at best.

With the tail, I tell Gina and the others that the assassins of Galli and his son will be sent to the inn and remind them firmly not to act alone until the situation is resolved.

"Good morning, Mr. Toruku!

From the back door of the inn, I call out to Mr. Toruku, who has already begun his morning preparations.

"Oh, it's Yuta. Sorry, we didn't have a room for you, but I rented Gina and Sara.

"Ha-ha-ha, Gina and Sara are looking forward to helping Mr. Toruku, so don't worry about it. I'll be back to pick them up at a later time in the evening, so until then, please take care of them for me.

"Oh."

"Well, I'll leave you to it."

"Oh, wait a minute. You always cook a lot of food and bring it home, don't you?　What are you going to do this time?"

A burly old man is looking at me with expectant eyes. Why?　Martha and Mr. Kark, you've had so many guests that you can't get tired of them, right?　You're supposed to be cooking as much as you can, but you still want to cook?

"I know you're busy, so I'm not going to do it this time."

"No, no, no, Yuta is taking care of me. No need to be so modest. If you need me to cook, I'll be happy to do it.

Mr. Torque is in a hurry. That's funny, he never said anything like this to me before.

"What's wrong?　You're busy, you do a lot of cooking, don't you?"

"Yes, thankfully we are thriving every day and I get to cook as much as I want. But the guests who come to eat at the inn always ask for dishes made with milk, and Martha has to stop working on them because she's too busy.

Mr. Torque is trying to appeal to me with a sad expression on his face. In short, I want to cook a variety of dishes to the best of my ability. You want to stay up all night to do research on cooking. I guess even a thriving business has its problems.

"Well, I'll order when Martha gives her permission."

"Hey, hey, I'm the owner. I don't need Martha's permission. If you want to order food, you tell me.

Mr. Torque tries to smile briskly with a scary face. He's going to take the order from me and try to convince Mr. Martha that it can't be helped since it's an order from Yuta who's been taking care of him for me. If I do that, Martha will hate me.

"No, I'll talk to Martha first.

Since I came to the other world, I've been reborn as a Japanese who can say NO.

Why?

Mr. Torque asked me weakly in response to my stubborn attitude. Do you really want to cook so freely?

"Mr. Toruku, I don't go against the strong. I have already seen the power relationship between Mr. Martha and Mr. Toruku.

"No, you defied the Adventurers' Guild, didn't you?"

"If it's the Adventurers' Guild, it doesn't matter, because I'm stronger than them."

Of course the Adventurers' Guild is stronger than Martha!

It's okay. The Adventurers Guild has been hostile from the beginning, and it's not a question of physical or violent strength, but of mental strength. Martha, you have an atmosphere that's hard to resist.

"I'll check with Martha if it's okay to ask her to cook, and I'll ask her to cook for me, so please be patient for now."

"...... okay. You got it."

Mr. Toruku nodded his head emphatically, as if my determination had been conveyed to him. I'm indebted to you, too, Mr. Toruku, and I'll do my best to persuade you, Martha. If she insists, I'll just give up.

After the discussion was over, I left Gina, Sara, and my escort, Dine, behind and returned to the inn where I was staying.

"Master, why was Mr. Toruku so tight?

On the way to the inn, Marco asks me a difficult question. Bell and the others, who had been flying around the labyrinth city in the morning, came back, perhaps having heard our voices.

"...... Marco, there's a lot to being an adult."

"Really?　I don't really understand."

Kikka, too.

"Marco and Kikka will understand when they grow up."

He tells Marco and Kikka with a bit of reluctance. In fact, it's better if they don't know, since it's just a desperate attempt by Toruku, who is losing the power relationship with Martha.

It's not good for my mental health if this conversation continues, so let's change the subject. I think it would be better to talk about today's breakfast in a calm and peaceful way.

I return to the inn, talking about what's on the menu for breakfast, and find a group of four adventurers at the reception desk. Huh?　Isn't that a genie magician looking at me and pulling his cheeks?　There's a cute little raccoon dog floating above my head, I'm sure of it, right?

"Yuta, those four adventurer-looking guys are the enemy sent by Baron Messon."

Oh, I see. I thought it was rare to find a necromancer, but it turns out that Baron Mason had hired one. I heard there were eight of them, but four means they were divided in half. How determined they must be to come so early in the morning!

And the necromancer is a scrawny guy, while the other three are muscular macho men. At this rate, we can't expect much from the other four. I wonder if the romance with a woman on the enemy's side will ever happen to me, as is the royal way in fantasy.

But come to think of it, there are so many beautiful women around me that it's hard to find the right partner in terms of love romance. Gina is my disciple, Marie is a miser, Sylphy, Dine, Dolly, and If are all great spirits. Their existence is so endless that I don't even know if I can consider them as my love interest. God, if you are here, please do something about it.

"Yuta, aren't you going?"

While I'm trying to figure out why no romance is happening to me, those four guys seem to have gone to their rooms. I thought they told you to be friends with me.

Well, it's not like you could talk to me on the way to the reception. I'll ask the innkeeper to deliver breakfast and go back to my room.

****

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I didn't hear that!　What are you going to do about it?

As soon as I entered the room, I stormed into the room and confronted the three guys who were looking at me with a carefree expression.

"Blasko, what's going on out of the blue?"

"What do you mean? You met him at the reception. I'm talking about that monster!

"A monster?　You mean that target?　Yes, the equipment was fine, but it didn't look like something you'd be used to wearing. Besides, you knew that you were dealing with the one who defeated the Fire Dragon in the first place. Why are you in such a hurry now?

You don't know shit. Weren't these guys good soldiers?

"...... Oh, yeah, right. You can't read the spirits unless you're a genie. Listen to me, Cogimo. From the information we've gathered so far we've been able to predict the presence of more than one spirit. But there were nine signs around that man. And seven of them were higher than the others, and one of them was unfamiliar. It would be suicide to mess with that thing!

The fire dragon was defeated. Yeah, of course, it would have been easy with that many spirits in tow. I'm confident with spirits too. I was confident that if I joined forces with the other spiritist, we could hold off two or three spirits. But that was impossible!

"Calm down. I don't know what you saw but we're going after women and children. We're not going after that target directly. And now you're running because they're stronger than you expected?　Do you even know who asked you to do this?"

...... it was. It was women and children who were the direct targets. I guess they got impatient when they were suddenly shown something like that. This was a nobleman's request. And if this goes well, I've been promised an introduction to a bigwig in the military.

It was a job that had to be done successfully if he was to escape from the rank and file of the spiritist. Don't let fear scare you off.

Besides, he's a genie with that many spirits. If we take a hostage, we might be able to find out what secret skills he has. I'll be better with it. I'll slay the dragon and take all the titles, honors, and gold!

"...... my bad. I guess I was a little off my rocker. But as a spiritualist I have to tell you this. I don't think you understand, but this is a real monster. Be very careful and back off if you see any danger. Understood?"

"Hmm. ...... we only know the general idea about spirits. We'll follow you, a genie magician like our opponent. But just because it's scary doesn't mean we can't do something about it.

"Yes, I know that. I won't stop you from contacting them, but I will ask you to be very careful. Don't do anything that could cause even the slightest hostility. Get the information and take the best chance you can. If you antagonize them before you get the hostage, you're done."

"Not so much. ...... got it. We've been informed that the target is a powerful man. We've been on our guard, but I swear we'll be more careful than ever.

"Yes, please. And I'd like to meet with the team that's coming in first. I almost panicked myself. If Keane sees that necromancer, he'll freak out for sure.

He's a scaredy-cat. It's not a good thing if he gets spooked and catches your eye.

"Okay. But it's not a good idea to make contact here at the inn. Ettore, go back to the base and inform the captain and the B team. In particular, make sure to tell Keane, the necromancer over there, what Blasko said.

"Yes, sir."

In this way, in addition to his crisp movements, he has the ability to take in the opinions of the spiritists who are the object of his disrespect, and he is quick to assess the situation. It seems that it is not a mistake to say that he is a good soldier. If these guys and the B-team can work together, we can outrun that target. It looks like my luck is finally starting to turn for me.