Volume 3, Chapter 3.1

Volume 3, Chapter 3.1

Translator: Kureha

Editor: Weasalopes

「Before we introduce ourselves, there’s something I would like to ask you…」

「What would that question be?」

「How long have you been listening into our conversation?」

「I have only started to listen in just now. I only know about the story of Barold.」

The high priest gave a very doubtful answer to Tatsuya who spoke on behalf of his party. However, he did not ask any further questions as he feared to step too deep into the temple’s matter. The high priest overhearing their discussion on Alvan’s orientation wasn’t the issue. What Tatsuya was worried about was his party being dragged into some trouble-some matter for catching onto Alvan’s true identity. Apart from that, they weren’t talking about anything which could lead to a commotion even if the high priest overheard their conversation. Everything which they have been talking about could easily be confirmed by other people mentioned in their conversation over a simple interview.

There were many things which they would have liked to ask. Yet the person who they were dealing with was the high priest himself. So, Tatsuya has decided to not ask any more questions and introduce himself, seeing that it was best for his group to just minding their own business; unless it was someone Tatsuya or Haruna could deal with. Following his decision, or more so from fear that they would let something slip through, the others started to introduce themselves as well.

「I see, shall we go back to our original topic then? The first thing I would like to know is this man named Barold. Was he also in Farlane?」

「Yes; however, it has been almost half a year since we have taken him down.」

「In that case, the Barold who appeared in this country would have been an entirely different person.」

「Was there a man named Barold in this country as well?」

「Indeed. However, he was defeated by Alvan around a year ago.」

The Japanese people maintained eye contact with a serious face after hearing this unexpectedly important information. A year ago, it would have been just before Makoto joined their party. It was hard to believe that there are multiple people named Barold. Yet there was no denying that Barold which Hiroshi’s group has defeated and Barold who was defeated by Alvan are two different people.

「The second question which I wanted to ask was what exactly does your group mean when you say their method was different from the incident with Barold?」

「In Farlane, they kept a low profile for over three years, and by turning over the political system, they caused mass panic by creating no direct death what-so-ever. Due to the impact that was caused by that mass panic, the land was heavily polluted. If by some coincidence, Hiroshi and Haruna didn’t demand help from the princess priestess, Aearis-sama, there would be no country called Farlane as it would have been demolished in that mass panic.」

「Very interesting. Seeing that you have that information, I assume that you young fellows are the visitors from the unknown continent who have saved Farlane from its crisis?」

「I guess it would be pointless to deny, seeing that you know about the crisis in Farlane.」

The spoke honestly, seeing it was pointless to hide the truth. So, Tatsuya admitted to the high priest honestly. After all, they did nothing against the law during the process and there were only two reasons why they weren’t being public about the whole matter. One was that no ordinary person would believe such a story. The second was they didn’t want to get mixed up in some trouble just because they went around telling people about it. However, in this case, it would cause them less pain just to admit it in the first place.

「Over all, you say this all happened by coincidence? To be frank, apart from the incident which occurred to the princess priestess in Wulls, we were not provided with any detailed information. Pardon my rudeness but do you mind telling this old man exactly has taken place?」

「In all honesty, not a lot has happened. The princess priestess went to harvest the web from Rainbow Spider, she got caught in Barold’s trap and was sent away via teleportation magic. The place where she was teleported had Rainbow Spider’s boss, Piaranork and she was almost killed on the spot. At that point, or more so, until we were completely dragged into this issue, none of us have even thought about approaching the palace or if we should do anything at all.」

「I understand.」

The high priest tilted his head over the point that she had gone to harvest Rainbow Spider’s web. But he took in the Japanese people’s story, seeing that none of them had ill intentions. If they truly did have ill intentions, they would not be working as Adventurer’s in Darl anyway.

「You seem to be very well informed about the incident which took place in Farlane. A normal citizen would not know about how the visitors from the unknown continent have solved the commotion within the royal family.」

「Here in Darl, it is impossible to ignore the issues which are taking place in Farlane since they do supply our food stock. It will greatly impact this country if something was to happen in Farlane. So, we keep a good eye on what is taking place in our neighbouring countries. Furthermore, when there is a commotion in Alfemina temple in Wulls, some impacts are made over here at Igreos temple as well. So, we gather as much information as we can to better prepare ourselves for potential incidents.」

「I see.」

A very convincing response was given to Haruna’s suspicious question, wondering why the high priest knew so much about Farlane’s national affair. Although the main temple for Igreos temple was in the Torrid desert, there were numerous sub-temples located around Farlane. Alfamia Temple also had sub-temples in other major cities around the world so it wasn’t strange to think that two temples impacted each other. Therefore, the two temples required a decent amount of information on what was taking place in the other temple to protect themselves.

「Anyway, that’s all the information we can provide regarding Barold. Is there anything else you wanted to ask?」

「Let me see. If it is the group that has taken down Barold, then I would like to know the general strength of him.」

Hiroshi’s group hesitated to answer the high priest’s question. Barold was certainly not weak. However, there was a certain aspect of him which was amateurish, so it was hard to say that he was definitely strong. Especially towards the end, he fell in such a comical way and that impression has stuck with the group so vividly that it was hard for them to determine his actual strength.

「Welp, we ya think ‘bout it from normal person’s perspective, he’s definitely strong.」

「The process before defeating him was really troublesome, wasn’t it?」

「Well he apparently took down Helininferno so there’s no way he’s weak…」

Hiroshi and others passed around questions, wondering how to answer the high priest’s question. In all honesty, if Hiroshi’s party wasn’t there, Farlane would have been demolished. If there wasn’t a living magic canceller named Hiroshi, Helininferno would have burnt down the palace, bringing an end to the country. However, just because Hiroshi was in the surrounding area, Barold in Farlane wasn’t even considered to be a boss and was easily dealt with in the end.

「How about we all list out traits of Barold and judge his strength that way? First thing first, his transformation ability.」

The only reason why Barold was easily defeated was Hiroshi, a humanoid cheat system was there. So, Makoto, who has learnt from her fear of permanently being labelled as a noob calmly suggested a way to judge Barold’s strength.

「It’s kinda hard to determine but his magical defence increased every time he changed his form.」

「’T was harder to give him damage.」

「If we’re talking about Hiroshi-kun’s strength and his Pole Attack not being able to give enough damage, then the attack from ordinary soldiers would be completely ineffective.」

「The wall of miasma was pretty troublesome as well.」

「Ya right.」

Following Makoto’s lead, especially with Barold’s two-fold transformation, the party members agreed to that statement. However, if it was just the foundation ability of his second transformation, someone who is as talented as Douga or Julius would have no issue taking down Barold.

「Well, if it was just his basic abilities, several class 5 Adventurers would be able to take him down, right?」

「Yeah, if it was just his basic abilities.」

「So he’s stron’ in the aspect that tis hard to find someone who can deal with Head Attack, Heliniferno and Summonin’?」

「Yeah, I agree.」

「Well, that’s our thoughts on Barold but will that be of any use?」

The high priest showed a difficult expression as he heard the group draw their conclusion in a brainstorm-ish way. After all, someone like the high priest would not have a single clue on how to deal with something like Helininferno.

「Oh, I jist thought o’ somethin’.」

「What is it?」

「The monsters that got summoned at the construction site. Don’t ya think those were oddly weak monsters?」

「Now that you’ve mentioned it…」

It was hard to notice unless somebody has mentioned it. A large number of monsters was summoned to the area. However, if only one or two of them were summoned, there wouldn’t have been any issue dealing with them.

「There’s a lot of odd thing about that incident.」

「I think so too. How they’re directly attacking temple authorities, and summoning monsters in an area like that, it’s all really different from Barold’s incident.」

「If it was Barold, he would have summoned stronger monsters.」

The party members tilted their head at everything which seemed odd about this incident. As the group members brought up quiet important information, the high priest spoke to end the conversation.

「Thank you very much for your help. Those information shall be very useful for us.」

「Hopefully those’re ‘nough…」

「Oh, they are more than enough. However, there is one favour I would like to ask…」

「If you want someone to track down the culprit, I don’t think we can be much of a help.」

The high priest went quiet when the Tatsuya brought up the favour which he was initially going to ask. Then, an idea suddenly struck him. If he went along with this idea, he would be able to resolve the other issue which has been bothering him.

「No, well, I would have wanted you fellows to help with that matter as well. However, separately to the investigation, I was wondering if you could look after one of our priest and a trainee?」

「Could it be that you are asking…」

「Indeed, the two who you young ones have saved today, Primula Norton and Judith Norton.」

To the very sudden request, the group did not know how to respond, until Tatsuya spoke.

「Why do you know about that?」

He could not help it but ask the question which crossed his mind after hearing the high priest’s blunt request. To which, the high priest gave a forced yet solid logical response.

「The two sisters have personally asked me that there was something they would like to ask your group. As they have lived their lives with a promised future, they thought someone who has lives outside the temple would be better suited for this. Also, if today’s attack was directly aimed at them, they will likely be attacked again. And neither of them have enough combat ability to protect themselves.」

「None of that adds up to why we should take them in.」

「Of course, those are not the only reasons. Regarding this matter, I am planning to place a formal request to the Adventurer’s Association. If it is a job requested by the temple, it will look great on your achievements records and it shall help improve your ranks significantly.」

Hiroshi’s group took an interest in the word achievement record. The reason why they weren’t running the food stall as much was precisely that. Even if they just had to boost their ranks up to class 5, the journey to achieving that rank wasn’t going to be easy.

「I would like to request this job to you, young ones, understanding how much of a burden this may sound.」

「… what should we do?」

「If it’s a job request from the temple, I think we’re better off accepting it.」

「But takin’ in more girls in this group…」

「Yeah, there’s that too,」

For Hiroshi’s group, looking after a priest and a trainee wouldn’t have been a problem. The issue was, unlike their past cases, the group has no reason to take in more females in this instance. It wasn’t like Aearis’s case where if they let the situation be, it would have spiralled into something worse. Nor was it like Fum’s case where the group was directly involved in the matter. And unlike Teres and Nora, it wasn’t someone who has taken care of them. The closest case would be the issue involving Artiem, but they knew she was under the care of Elf’s village, and they weren’t sticking together 24/7. So, there wasn’t any need for Hiroshi to form a good relationship with Artiem.

Although the group has some business with the temple, they wanted to avoid deep-diving into the organization’s affairs. After all, it was an issue which was widespread in the main temple and sub-temples. Anyone could become a worshipper as long as they filled in the proper application. And even if the temple had some favours to the group, it wasn’t like they could meet with the priestesses and other authorities at the temple. Also, there wasn’t anything bad about the temple having favour for the group. But just because they rejected their offer, it wasn’t likely that it would lead into rivalry either. As they are very much influenced by the god, they were strict in those aspects.

So, gaining greater achievements and temple having favours towards them wasn’t the most appealing deal. Considering that by accepting more females into the group, they would add more pressure to Hiroshi.

「It seems that you are not satisfied with our offer.」

「To speak the truth, one of our party members isn’t very comfortable around females. Otherwise, we would accept your request gratefully…」

「I see, then how about on top of the previous conditions, we shall permit your group to enter the Torrid Desert and the Sweltering Tower under the name of the temple.」

「Are such thing allowed?」

「From what I heard, you fellows have the minimum combat skill required to survive the two locations. And of course, the temple can provide you with permission to enter those places.」

To the new condition, they discussed their situation once more. Having access to the desert and the tower wasn’t their current top priority. However, from a craftsman’s perspective, it would mean having access to advanced and intermediate class materials. Although this was not a necessity, it also meant having a chance to obtain the rare Mirage set. Considering that they would need to enter the tower sooner or later, obtaining the temple’s permission would be extremely beneficial.

「What should we do? Tis likely that we’d need to go to the Swelterin’ Tower sooner or later.」

「So, it would benefit us to get that permission now..」

「But currently, there’s no reason for us to enter the tower.」

「Ya ‘ight, but the monsters in that area have mighty good materials. So, ‘t would be good for Mio’s trainin’ as well.」

「I see, so should we accept the offer?」

「Ye, I say so. They seem to really want us to accept this job anyways. Maybe we should just give in n’ accept the offer.」

Seeing that Hiroshi was okay with the decision, everyone came to an agreement. They were only trying to turn down the offer as it seemed possible. If it was the Darl Branch of the temple, they should have enough people to protect the two sisters and investigate the case without Hiroshi’s group’s help. Continuing the debate over their offer, knowing the capabilities of the temple would only form a bad relationship with them anyway.

「We will greatly accept your offer.」

「Thank you very much for your help, and I apologize for asking such a troublesome request.」

「Not at all, we also apologize for causing something like an argument.」

「You were only thinking about your comrade’s well-being. It is only natural that you would hesitate to accept the offer over such mild conditions.」

After this, they went to sort out miscellaneous things like cost and period which needed to be considered regarding taking in the priest and the trainee. As they sorted things out for their new request, their life was about to get busier to organise for the two girls which they accepted into their group the following morning.