CH 110

Two days after the search at Lingen, Souya and his team returned alive to Ilstadt.

The six adventurers (or their equivalents) who returned were Souya and the familiar Shamil, Louise, Seran, Siren, and Phyllis.

The only survivor of the Lingen residents from the search was one girl, Emily, who was miraculously found and rescued during the search. Including Hans, a hunter who had escaped the disaster while out and voluntarily retreated to a lodge on the road, there were only two survivors from Lingen in the vortex.

In the end, the only Lingen resident saved by Souya and Shamil’s forced action was a young girl. And although they were able to rescue her, Souya could not help but feel a sense of gloom when he thought about the girl who had lost her loved ones and was now alone on her own.

“I will take care of Emily. She said she wanted to do that, too.”

While sleeping in the lodge on the way home, Louise came forward, and the Adventurers’ Guild took custody of Emily for the time being and asked her to sleep in their home.

Since adventurers other than Louise are often away from Ilstadt, this may be a better option for them under the current circumstances.

The Adventurers’ Guild is not a charitable organization, and Louise will be responsible for her living expenses. Souya guessed that this was done out of consideration for Emily, who would be staying with them, and not to cause her any unnecessary hardship.

Another achievement was that, for the first time in many years as an adventurer, I was able to catch sight of the Red Horn.

For many years, it had been thought that the Red Horn were slaughtering people for the purpose of abuse, but it turned out that they actually had a clear objective: to expand the strength of the Otherworldly Gate by sacrificing the residents it had slaughtered, and to grow by cannibalizing his fellow silver demon.

However, considering that the Red Horn had once again destroyed one of our villages and eventually dazzled us, the results were not commensurate with the damage done, and we were forced to reaffirm the difficulty in getting around this case.

And we have also discovered that the situation cannot be put away as a mere disaster at the earliest stage. A dangerous sign: the Demonization Electrum.

It is clear that the situation has turned into a situation that cannot be ignored any longer, no matter how difficult and unprofitable the task of tracking down and confronting this monster may be. We need to take action before the Red Horn grows any larger.

The request Souya and his team received to escort Peryton was treated as a partial success.

In the form of a return on the client’s behalf, it was counted as a success in real terms. We had fulfilled our mission in that we had protected the target of our escort from the monsters along the way.

The reward was slightly reduced because we turned back before reaching Lingen. We were to receive three-fourths of the stipulated reward. The payment to the party was 108 gold coins. Divided into five equal parts by the participants, each person would receive 21 gold coins and 6 silver coins.

Since the escort to Lingen was no longer a real escort, the reduction was unavoidable, and the client, Peryton, had suffered a great loss without being able to fulfill his objective.

Even though it was completely coincidental, his request helped us to recognize the anomaly in Lingen at an early stage, and his decision to send Tat to Ilstadt and Souya to Lingen also paid off. I will have to thank Peryton later for his decision to take the risk.

Souya left the Adventurers’ Guild, rented a private room at the Adventurers’ Inn, and slept like mud.

Due to the long period of tension, the cleanup was left to Louise and the other platinum-class adventurers. We informed them of everything we had witnessed on the way home.

It was obvious that there was a mountain of things to come, but I couldn’t think of anything right now. My brain was strongly refusing to work.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Waking up from a sound sleep, I looked through the half-open window and could guess from the suggested color of the sky that it was almost evening. I had spent more than half of the day sleeping.

I was feeling some pain in my body, but it was what is called “muscle pain,” and it was not bothersome. This pain should heal itself and make my dull body stronger.

AD

And there were two girls in the room. One was a blonde girl wearing the priestly robe of Mikaela, the earth mother goddess, and the other was a wood elf girl with fresh green hair and flower ornaments.

When Souya saw them again, he could finally feel that he was free from tension.

“…… Hey, good morning. Mia-kun, Merylou-kun. It looks like it’s almost evening, though.”

I wondered how long they had been waiting in the room, but I didn’t question them. They were unassuming companions.

Souya reached for the dark glasses beside him and clearly saw their dim reflections.

“…… Welcome back, Souya-san. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Yeah. I can’t say I know what to expect, but I am relieved to know that you’re back in Ilstadt like this.”

Mia looked down when Souya smiled at her. She seemed to have a few tears in her eyes, but I’m not in the mood to make fun of that right now and say anything about it.

“You know, Mia’s been praying ever since she got back …… Well, I’m sorry about Lingen, but I’m glad Souya is back safe and sound.”

“…… It seems that I made you worry. It was such a situation that I needed the help of a goddess. I shall try not to make you worry for a while.”

Mia’s expression showed a slight reaction to the implication of the word “for a while”, which came out unconsciously, but Souya did not notice it.

“I heard you met Louise-san and the others on your way home. I wonder if anything happened after that. I’m sorry for making you cross a dangerous bridge without me and Tat-kun.”

AD

“We were doing well. We didn’t see any monsters, and Peryton-san and his packhorse were safe. Even Tat, who had rushed out at night, was fine and playing in the central square the day after he was treated.”

Merylou pauses for a beat, then continues.

“…… And then, Souya came back like this ……I’m relieved to have been able to fulfill my role as leader, at least for the time being.”

When she finished, Merylou sighed and pulled out a bottle labeled red wine from her backpack.

“What is it, Merylou-kun?”

“From our client, Peryton-san. He sends his regards to Souya-san, the Demon Slayer …… He’s already on his way to the Royal Capital. He said he’s looking for new sales channels.”

Souya accepted a bottle of red grape wine and looked at the label. He remembered that Louise had previously brought a bottle with the same label to Doga’s workshop.

Apparently, it was definitely a high-quality product from Lingen, which has now become precious. Souya accepted it and placed it on the table beside him.

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll have to thank Peryton-san the next time I see him …… What about Aisha-kun?”

“She said she was going back to her hometown of Lunes for a time. She said she had a mission she had to fulfill.”

I told Aisha that I was Silver Rei, and in exchange for my signature on her personal copy of the Tale of the Six Heroes, I entrusted her with a letter that would bridge the gap between me and my old friends. It was gratifying that she moved quickly.

However, Lunes is a long way away. It would be a while before I would know whether or not she would respond to the letter I had entrusted to her.

AD

“…… I’m amazed at how quickly everyone is getting back on their feet. Tat, Aisha, and Peryton-san ……Well, that was my intention, too.”

The eyes that Merylou showed had no power in them.

I could see that she was depressed, but I remembered her having a dry outlook on life and death, so that was a little disturbing.

“Souya.”

“What’s wrong, Merylou-kun? You’re not like yourself.”

“Sorry …… I’m sorry I left you and ran away.”

Merylou is the leader of the return convoy. Of course, there is no evidence that he ran away without me. It was an example of a thing, that is, she may have regretted letting Souya go to Lingen alone.

Her eyes are moist with tears. And if you look closely around her eyes, you can see a little tear-stained mark.