Chapter 235: Gallus’ Whereabouts

Chapter 235: Gallus’ Whereabouts

We got ready to open Gallus’ letter after we settled down.

『Alrighty, let’s give it a look.』

「Nn.」

『Wait, don’t be so rough with it. Try opening it with a bit more care.』

Fran ripped the letter open and undid the seal to reveal the piece of paper within.

It clearly had Gallus’ signature on it, but the writing seemed kinda messy. It was almost like he’d rushed to finish writing the letter.

The letter started off by describing his predicament. It said that an important noble had ordered him to complete a request with utmost secrecy, hence why he wasn’t able to contact us through any other means. It then continued on as follows.

I can’t tell you exactly where I’ve gone. All I can really say is that I’ll probably be somewhere in the capital by the time you read this letter. I won’t be able to see you for the time being, but I’d like for us to meet up once the royal auction starts. They sell all sorts of equipment there. I’m sure they’ll have something that catches your eye, so I encourage you to come. Oh, and I’m planning to make you a new sheath, one I hope will be to your liking. I’ll be waiting for you in the capital.

Gallus.

So he’s in the capital? That sure does sound pretty convenient seeing as how we were planning to head over eventually anyways.

『Welp, so much for finding him Barbra.』

「Nn. More reasons to go to capital now.」

『Yeah. True that.』

***

We headed to the Adventurers’ Guild the next day. Our goal was of course to trade notes with Regus. We’d already gained a rough understanding of where Gallus currently was, but we were still hoping he could provide a bit more info.

「Kept waiting?」

「Nah, I also only just got here. I’ve got a good few bits of info for you.」

Alrighty. Here’s to hoping it isn’t redundant.

「I got us a room upstairs. We should probably head over before I tell you any more.」

「Got it.」

Regus’ proposal was promising, as it more or less implied that the info he had for us couldn’t be said within the public’s earshot. To that end, we moved upstairs and sat ourselves accross from him.

「Silence.」

I saw Regus’ point, but in my eyes, nobles had the tendency to be stupid enough to take risks like that.

「You don’t need to worry. Gallus is said to be the closest thing you’ll ever find to a god-tier blacksmith. His services are worth a ridiculous amount. They won’t do anything that’ll cause them to risk losing him.」

Again, Regus had a point. It seemed that we’d gotten the wrong idea, and that there’d been no reason for us to think that he’d been forcibly dragged off. Thinking about it, while Gallus’ letter had made it seem like he’d been forced into something he hadn’t wanted, it didn’t make it seem like he’d been subjected to any sort of violence.

Him telling us to meet him at the auction could’ve just been interpreted as him just not knowing where he’d actually be until then. He basically was telling us that we’d be able to get in touch with him there. That was all it was.

「That’s all I know about Gallus, but I do have a bit more information for you. Specifically, it’s about Marquis Ashtonah and his household.」

「Explain?」

「Apparently one of his subordinates caused some sort of incident. As a result, his secondary residence, which lies here in Barbra, will soon be subject to a government inspection.」

It seemed that the whole Celldio incident really had caused the country to start suspecting the Marquis. Did that mean that the request they issued Gallus was in some way connected to the incident?

There was no way for us to discern whether or not that was actually the case because we lacked too much information to do so.

「He also dispatched a group of knights to the Marou Plains, but they weren’t able to reach it. Only a few made it back, most were wiped out in the Forest of Exhaustion.」

「Marou plains? Forest of Exhaustion? Why?」

「Sorry, but I wasn’t able to dig *that* deep. I do, however, know that he hired a group of adventurers to try investigating the exact same area after his knights failed him.」

It seemed that the Marquis was really fixated on the idea of having the Marou Plains scoped out. The plains housed B ranked magic beasts, so I had a hard time believing that he actually found anyone capable of doing the job.

「The adventurers that accepted his request were rather low ranked, so they weren’t able to bring about the results he wanted.」

Apparently the Marquis didn’t want the whole thing to blow up, so they didn’t make it out to be a big deal or ask for a designated request.

「And I think that’s everything I managed to find. Sorry, I couldn’t get you any big reveals.」

「Valuable intel.」

He’d not only verified that Gallus was safe, but also told us quite a bit about the Ashtonah family’s affairs. We definitely got a good bit of value out of his services.

We paid Regus the 30k Golde we owed him and bid our farewells.

『Well, so much for locating Old Man Gallus.』

「Nn...」

『Though, he said he’d get in touch if we went to the auction, so I guess we might as well just wait till it happens.』

「Got it.」

Alright. Time to go fulfill Gamud’s request, I guess.