Volume 22 - CH 22

The castle was built on top of a small hill, and I could see it from the market, so I didn't get lost.

The path up the hill meandered from side to side, as if to defend against an attack on the castle. When I reached the top of the path, I found two bored-looking soldiers standing guard at the gate.

A man who looked like a merchant walked ahead of me and passed through the gate, so I followed him, but somehow I was the only one blocked by two spears.

「Wait, you suspicious fellow. What do you want with the castle?」

「I heard I could get a quest here.」

Upon hearing this, the gatekeeper furrowed his brow and looked at his partner and colleague.

「Adventurers, huh ...... There are an awful lot of them today.」

「Yeah. But it doesn't matter how many people come. Do you have any idea what this quest is about? No one has ever succeeded before, you know?」

「I know. There's a reasonable reward, right?」

I wasn't looking for a reward, but I thought it would be less suspicious if they thought I was looking for a reward, so I said so.

「A reward? If you come back alive, you'll get a thousand gold coins and a jewel.」

「Well, that sounds like a challenge I'll have to take. Unfortunately, I have no money at the moment.」

That's a fact. My informant, Thoroi, offered me a deal.

「Fuhh. ...... All right, you can go through.」

The two soldiers thought it was useless to say anything, so they let me through.

I could see a few adventurers in the courtyard of the castle. A man in a robe was talking in front of them, apparently explaining a quest. I'm heading that way too.

「――So, just plow straight through the path there and bring the slaves and sinners to the front of the altar, and your mission is complete. Oya, Alec-san.」

「Hmm? Taros?」

The man in the robe who was explaining in front of me was Taros, the gloomy man who was reversing his vomit on the ship.

I think he said he was going to get a fresh start here and look for a job. ......

「Yaa, look at me. Thanks to you, I got a job right away. Alec-san, are you applying for the Quest?」

「Well, yes.」

「Well, well-well. All right, I'll start from the beginning then. I'll explain everything.」

「Hey, his fault for being late. I don't need two explanations.」

Says a small man who looks like a bandit (Thief).

「But ......」

「You're going to the same place, aren't you? Then you can follow us.」

I think it was Camilla the Thousand-Handed, a female spearwoman I saw at the adventurer's guild on this island. She was a beautiful woman with short black hair and cat ears. She is quite a beauty with big almond-shaped eyes.

「Oh, I like that. Well then, Alec-san, just do as she says. Good luck.」

Taros, who says with a smile, is just a hired clerk and seems to be here to see us off. Well, it's better that way. I don't think he's the type for combat.

「Tsk, you brought in an unnecessary person.」

The shifty little man clicked his tongue and became grumpy, but he didn't seem to object.

「Then, I looking forward working with you. My name's Alec.」」

「Ouh, likewise, buddy!」

I held out my hand to Camilla, and a burly hand grabbed it from beside me as if to take it. It was Damien, a demented-looking warrior. This guy's here, too.

「Hmph.」

Shaking off Damien's hand roughly, I held out my hand to Camilla again, but she completely ignored me and started walking ahead. She's such a cold woman.

「Hehe, if you're aiming for Camilla, you'd better give up, Alec. She's the biggest earner on this island. Besides, she's not interested in men, Alec.」

「Damien, don't waste your breath. Just keep a tight rein on the criminals so they don't run away. We're on a mission to get them to the altar.」

「Don't worry, if they try to run away on the way, just give them a good beating to make them calm down.」

Damien, the big man with the rope, smiled, showing his missing teeth, and the connected criminals trembled.

There were five of them. One of them was a loli girl, wearing an iron collar and with a slave crest on her left arm. Perhaps she was the only one who was not a sinner, but a slave. She just walks around with a dead look in her eyes, as if she is despairing about her future.

This quest is unpleasant in many ways.

First of all, it's not wise to have a huddled party.

The little shifty guy had said earlier that he didn't like the idea of having more members, but I guess he was thinking about the distribution of the reward. If the success rewards were to be divided among the members, the more people there were, the less their share would be.

If that's the case, there's a possibility that they might intentionally not help us in the middle of the mission, or even PK us if we're not careful.

Secondly, there are non-combatants.

It may not be necessary to help them because they are criminals or slaves, but if someone who can't fight is there, it will slow down the whole party and slow them down. If possible, I'd like to remove the rope, but if I do that, there's a possibility that they'll run away.

There is one more big problem, but I think I should quickly solve these two problems first.

「Have you decided how to divide the reward?」

I'll ask that first.

「No, we haven't. But of course we'll split it up, right?」

Camilla shrugs lightly and say that, If that's why you're the number one adventurer on this island, then I'll be damned.

There's a fatal flaw in the division method.

I pointed this out to her.

「What about the rare items and treasures?」

There's no problem if you get enough for all the members, but since they're rare, there's usually only one.

Since I don't know what the specific contents of the trial will be, the rare items and treasures will naturally be important.

「It's rock, paper, scissors, of course.」

「I see. Are the others okay with that?」

I check with the other adventurers in the room.

「Yeah, I'm fine with that.」

Damien, the warrior, immediately nodded in agreement.

「Hey, how about this? How about we give a rare item as a reward to the person who works the hardest?」

The little thief said, but that was out of the question.

「No, no, no. If we do that, we'll definitely have trouble deciding how to judge. It depends on the style of the adventure and the favoritism of the person who worked hard in battle and the person who worked hard in exploration.」

Unless the results can be measured objectively, it's obvious that the mishmash party will collapse.

「Oh come on, let's just get along and discuss it there. The Daedalus's Labyrinth is a ridiculously complex dungeon. Without a mapper or a Thief to guide you, you'd be lost in no time.」

The Thief is still trying to sell himself to me.

「I've got the Auto-Mapping. Besides, didn't they tell you something about how to get from the royal castle to the central area?」

When I said that, he wrinkled his brow and looked unamused.

「Yes, they did. I got a map. Here.」

Instead of thief's silence, Camilla showed me a piece of parchment. On it, the maze and the correct route were marked quite precisely. In the center of the parchment, there was an X marked in red, and the mission was to bring the criminals to this place.

「Would you like me to take care of it?」

I reached for it, but Camilla seemed to have shrewdly and quickly withdrawn the map and put it in her own 【Item Storage】.

「Sorry, but this time, "Camilla of a Thousand Hands" will be the leader. You're still a new stranger, and you don't know how to fight.」

「I understand.」

The other two also seem to think that Camilla is better, so I'll give in and stay out of the way. In the worst case scenario, if I get a rare item that I need for my "Second Trial," I can pony up the money to buy it. I don't have any money on hand, but if I reveal myself, I'll be able to get by on the bill.

「Now, I can see it. That's the Daedalus' Labyrinth.」

――It was a bizarre dungeon.

With towering walls like a castle surrounding it, bridge girders and even a dugout filled with water.

It was thoroughly prepared for enemy invasion ―― or perhaps this was a structure to prevent escape from the inside.

The prince of this country is said to be in the center of the dungeon, but it's easy to guess that he's a very bad guy. The adventurers and sinners who had walked this far also thought about this, and looked up at the entrance gate with a nervous look on their faces.