Death Mage 226 – The calm before the thunderclouds

“W-welcome… back… Mas… ter…” said the woman with a clumsy smile, her words unsteady.

Her skin was pale and st.i.tches ran across her entire body. She was an Undead… a Zombie.

But she wasn"t just any Zombie. She was a Vampire Zombie, an Undead created from the corpse of a Vampire. This was made evident by the fangs protruding from her mouth and her eyes, which were still crimson despite now being dull and devoid of light.

In this world, becoming Undead would not mean that one would become more powerful than they had been while alive, but… as this Zombie had enough remaining intelligence to speak, it was absolutely certainly a threat to humans.

And if she was a n.o.ble-born Vampire, she would have been able to use advanced spells and fly despite having no wings. She was a fearsome being… and yet, she was wearing a maid uniform. However, it had been altered to be very revealing; her bosom was visible through a gap at the chest and her skirt ended above the knees.

“W-wel… come… back… Mas… ter…” she groaned.

She had been practicing this greeting over and over for a while.

“Hmm… her speech is unsteady after all. Maybe it"s because you split her head open with your halberd, Nee-san,” said Rita.

“Yes… Her movements are stiff. Maybe it"s because you cut her head off with your glaive, Rita,” said Saria.

Rita and Saria were supervising her greeting practice. She was one of Birkyne"s four n.o.ble-born confidants, and she had been turned into a maid after being defeated by the twins.

Her name was Magisa, and when she was alive, she had been a fearsome Rank 11 n.o.ble-born Vampire Marquess who had operated in the shadows of the Bahn Gaia continent for tens of thousands of years.

But of course, this had nothing to do with how well she would serve as a maid.

“She is a complete amateur as a maid, but we are personally responsible for killing you!” said Rita.

“We have a lot of new Vampires, so we have a lot of new maids as well. But we"ll be sure to turn you into a splendid maid, Magissan,” said Saria.

“Let"s all work together!” the twins said in unison.

Magisa"s dull eyes moistened and her limbs began to tremble in response to their words.

“We"ll leave the greeting for later… Let"s start with acquiring the "Spirit Form" and "Long-distance Control" Skills. The benefit of Undead-type maids like us is that we can split our bodies up and have each part do different bits of housework individually,” said Rita.

“How about getting Bocchan involved first instead, with the goal of acquiring a divine protection?” Saria suggested. “He was with you when he was repairing your body and brain, so I think you just need a little more,” said Saria.

“Bocchan told us off, too, saying that it takes a long time to repair eyes and brains…” said Rita.

“… I think I have a better suggestion. Want to hear it?” asked the "Aegis" Melissa, interrupting the discussion of Magisa"s future education plans.

“Melisssan, have you finished making the baby food?” Saria asked the ap.r.o.ned Melissa.

“Yes. More importantly, if you intend to turn her into a splendid maid, the first thing you should do is have her wear a proper – and by that, I mean formal – maid uniform. Not this cosplay-like thing,” said Melissa as she examined Magisa through narrowed eyes.

Indeed, Magisa"s current clothes were a remodeled maid uniform that would certainly offend real, first-rate maids that served high-cla.s.s masters. On top of that, Magisa had the appearance of a woman in her mid-twenties with a good figure, so it looked like the kind of clothes that a queen-type person in the s.e.x industry would wear reluctantly at the request of a customer.

In other words, it looked forced and unnatural; Magisa did not look like a real maid.

But it seemed that Rita and Saria had objections to this idea.

“If we get a bunch of new formal maids, we"ll stand out too much,” Rita complained.

As a Living Bikini Armor and Living High-leg Leotard Armor, the twins" bodies that were visible in between their armor was spirit form that was protruding from their main bodies. But from the perspective of an outsider, they looked like young girls wearing very revealing clothes.

Even if they were in the company of other maids, they would stand out immediately if those maids were wearing formal maid uniforms.

“And there isn"t a single person in Talosheim who wears a formal maid uniform like those in human society,” said Saria.

Indeed, many of the maids working in Talosheim"s royal castle were members of Vida"s races or Undead. Thus, the common sense that applied in human society did not apply to them.

“Now that you mention it, you"re right,” Melissa realized, and gave up on trying to convince the sisters. “I"ll just make sure to never become a maid,” she said, doing her best not to look at Magisa, who was trembling like an abandoned puppy.

Suddenly, a troubled bark from Fang, happy noises from the rat sisters, and the laughter of children came from the shed.

“It seems that the children are playing. Though it seems that Fang is the one being played with,” said Saria.

“As expected of Maroru and the others. They"ve learned Kanako-san"s teachings well,” said Rita.

“She taught them tricks, saying that they could become characters that are popular all over the world, right? Luciliano didn"t stop her, either,” said Melissa.

While watching the three of them, Magisa decided to appeal directly to Vandalieu regarding her clothes once he returned from the Adventurers" Guild.

As Vandalieu and his companions entered the Adventurers" Guild building, they drew the attention of the adventurers inside.

The first ones to draw attention were Simon and Natania.

“If I recall, that"s Simon. I remember him, he was with me when I was still a rookie accepting cleaning jobs.”

“He only had one arm… Apparently he uses that Magic Item artificial arm and fights monsters with a two-handed sword like he did in the past. How did he get such a high-quality artificial arm?”

“That"s not the only thing you should be surprised about. Look at the Beast-kin girl next to him. You guys might not know, but she was one of the women who were rescued after being attacked and captured by Minotaurs. She had all of her limbs cut off, not just one arm.”

“What?! Then those arms and legs aren"t just wearing armor…!”

“They"re probably artificial limbs. If you look closely, you can see that there are a few differences, but they"re very similar to Simon"s arm.”

It was fairly well-known among the adventurers that Simon had lost an arm and Natania had lost all of her limbs, and there were now widespread rumors that they had gained artificial limbs.

Of course, the rumors had mistaken their artificial limbs for being Magic Items.

“Is it that kid who gave them those artificial limbs? Apparently he"s a Dhampir, but honestly, he just looks like a creepy brat to me.”

“Hey, don"t say such rash things. That br… That child is a big-shot with friendly relations with the Guild Master here and the Guild Master at the Tamers" Guild, and he was even invited to a tea party with the lord of the land! The red-light district of this city is like his playground now!”

“W-why has a brat made the red-light district his playground?! Just how precocious can you be?!”

“I just told you to stop saying rash things! If he hears you, you won"t ever be able to visit a brothel again!”

“More importantly, tell him about how he"s a capable Tamer. He has a Rank 4 h.e.l.lhound and three other monsters that are all of new races. They might be the cause of all the noise at the front.”

“Monsters of new races, huh. I"m a little interested. Maybe I should go and take a look.”

“By the way, what is that Beast-kin child that he"s carrying on his back? Err… Did bull-type Beast-kin always exist?”

These whispers could be heard all over the Adventurers" Guild. It seemed that the Iron Boulder Brigade, the adventurer party that Vandalieu was acquainted with, wasn"t here.

“Hey, Master. Some of these rumors are pretty weird. Are you sure it"s alright to leave them be?”

“It"s fine. I"m sure that the truth will naturally start to spread soon… although I"m being pressured meaninglessly by the people of the Mages" Guild,” said Vandalieu.

“d.a.m.n those guys, being all suspicious because they think Master is going around handing out Magic Items for free… but I guess it"s fine, since they"re not causing us any real harm,” said Natania.

Vandalieu and his companions were guided to the second floor by a Guild employee and entered the Guild Master"s office in the back.

“It seems that things have been calm as of late. Have you become accustomed to this city?” asked Berard, the Guild Master of the Adventurers" Guild.

He had invited the three of them here because there was a message for Natania.

“… Well, I suppose. Things have been calm recently,” Vandalieu agreed, though his words had a different nuance from Berard"s.

Berard"s "recently" referred to the past half-month. From his point of view, nothing strange, astounding or chilling had occurred around Vandalieu during that time.

Joseph, former Deputy Guild Master of the Commerce Guild, had been exiled without incident, and the Guild Master had returned from his trip as well. There had been one small incident where Aggar, the missing corrupt guard, had reappeared in an insane state of mind. But his reappearance was distant from the red-light district in which Vandalieu lived and operated his food cart, so it was considered to be unrelated to him. At least on the surface.

The number of food carts under Vandalieu"s banner had increased, causing Gobu-gobu and baked Kobold meat to become Morksi"s new famous products. The "Starving Wolf" Michael was now in a completely cooperative relationship with Vandalieu, and the thugs working under him had been trained to become bodyguards… security guards, making the slum quarters drastically safer.

As for the Adventurers" Guild, their attention was on the discovery of three new monster races – the Flame Rat, Wet Rat and Iron Rat.

Not only that, but Berard himself was trying to see if Vandalieu could help train other adventurers who had lost limbs to use artificial limbs like Simon and Natania.

Under normal circ.u.mstances, all of these would be a big deal. To the employees of the Commerce Guild and the people working or living in the red-light district and slum quarters, these were highly significant events that they would still remember a decade later. The matter of the artificial limbs was also a big deal to Berard.

But Berard was Guild Master of the Adventurers" Guild; he was in a different societal position from others. To him, these were not really "highly significant events." They were an extension of everyday events; if he had a stomachache, he would not have to force himself to continue working in order to write reports about them to the earl and the Guild headquarters.

But to Vandalieu, "recently" meant "the past two days."

In the two weeks since he had devoured the pure-breed Birkyne and Hihiryushukaka, the evil G.o.d of joyful life, there had been many things to do that Berard didn"t know of, so he had been very busy.

First, he had gone around to visit the organizations and facilities left behind by Birkyne that were dangerous to leave alone or had valuable things.

Most of the facilities "farming" humans to use as sacrifices or turn into Undead or Vampires were fine to leave alone. There had been only a few with brainwashed Dhampirs or Vampires like the one in Morksi, or run by evil Vampires that were fully aware of the situation. Many of them were being run by those who didn"t know anything.

Vampires had apparently been disguising themselves as humans to adopt children from orphanages or pay for the freedom of slaves and prost.i.tutes when they needed someone to use.

The Vampires that had been playing this role had either fled or sworn loyalty to Vandalieu, so they would be operating as very ordinary orphanages, brothels or slave traders from now on. Thus, there was no need for Vandalieu to interfere.

As for the organizations, Vandalieu had left alone those that were just running local criminal organizations, choosing instead to go to the places that stored Undead and Subordinate Vampires whose brains had been meddled with and tortured by Birkyne for his own amus.e.m.e.nt.

Unlike Ternecia who had considered Undead to be works of art and Gubamon who had thought of them as fighting forces, Birkyne had apparently considered Undead to be a source of labor.

There had been several facilities that stored Undead for production-oriented tasks such as constructing buildings or manufacturing arms.

Surely this couldn"t have been because he would destroy entire buildings at a time when he went into one of his hysterical fits…

The Subordinate Vampires whose brains had been altered had lost their ability to reason, showed no emotion or only possessed the intelligence of beasts, but that was actually a fortunate thing. They had become obedient as soon as they saw Vandalieu, being charmed like Undead or living corpses would.

And Vandalieu had also acquired Magic Items that would be considered national treasures, including Item Boxes. Up until this point, he had just teleported around each region very quickly, so there had been no troubles.

The busy times had started after that – after he took the orphans rescued from dangerous facilities, the Undead and the Subordinate Vampires back.

The dozen or so orphans that had originally come from Morksi"s slums and those who had become friends with them during their captivity had chosen to live in Director Holly"s orphanage.

But there were over a hundred orphans in total. Thus, those not returning to the orphanage had been taken to Talosheim. However, there was no way that a hundred parentless children could simply be crammed inside a dormitory.

The production-related Undead did nothing until ordered to do something, so they hadn"t caused any problems, but… it would have been problematic to leave the Subordinate Vampires alone after bringing them back. The ones whose brains had been altered were particularly dangerous to others, even if they were obedient to Vandalieu.

On top of dealing with problems like these, Vandalieu had also been dealing with the things that Berard was aware of, as well as watching over the training of Natania and the others, beginning a certain plan, and taking care of the reborn "girls."

He had been fairly busy.

Miles has been working publicly as well, so that"s made things easier, Vandalieu thought.

Miles and the others had infiltrated the criminal organization that had controlled this city from the shadows, but there was no longer a reason to continue this infiltration after Birkyne had been disposed of.

They had already seized the organization"s information network, and Vandalieu"s remaining targets – the reincarnated individuals – were likely already aware of this infiltration work, as they were receiving information from Rodcorte and their friends who had become his familiar spirits.

Of course, Miles"s name had become quite well-known in the underworld, so he continued being known as the "Starving Wolf" Michael, while Isla remained in the shadows, as she was an Undead.

“I"ve heard that you have more employees now. And the women outside… Simon-kun, do you know where he is bringing these beautiful women from?” Berard asked.

“No, I have no idea. Well, I mean, it is Master we"re talking about,” Simon replied.

Incidentally, Simon had not been told Vandalieu"s secret. However, he had recently been using the convenient words "Because it"s Master" to explain any strange things about Vandalieu or those connected to him, and didn"t question things any further.

Perhaps he believed that he would be informed one day, or perhaps the hidden letters of his divine protection were being revealed, making him aware of some things.

“I see. I wanted to share in his good fortune. But I suppose I"ll give it up, since I can"t investigate him when he"s not even a member of the Guild,” Berard sighed, giving up on the idea of looking into Vandalieu"s relationships with those around him.

“More importantly, what is this about the Flame Blades having paid the reparations? I thought the amount hadn"t been finalized yet,” said Natania.

“That"s right. Please hurry and explain,” said Vandalieu.

I want to ask about you in more detail, but I also want to pretend that I never saw you… Berard thought to himself as he cast a gloomy gaze at what appeared to be a creature that he was seeing for the first time, and yet looked familiar.

That creature… what appeared to be a five-year-old girl with a bull-like tail and horns, as well as features that strongly resembled Juliana Alcrem, was wearing a familiar"s collar.

“We already told you, this girl is the mutant Minotaur that Julisan gave birth to!” said Natania, noticing Berard"s stare.

“My name is Juliana. Nice to meet you,” the girl said.

Of course, the truth was different. Juliana, the youngest sister of Duke Alcrem, had been pseudo-reincarnated in one of the eggs implanted in her body by the Minotaur King, and had been born a few days after Hihiryushukaka"s destruction.

Initially an egg, she had hatched and developed quickly, going from being a baby to a girl around five years old in appearance in around ten days.

For some reason, she possessed the divine protection of Peria, the G.o.ddess of water and knowledge, in addition to Vandalieu"s. At the same time, it seemed that she had received a Divine Message from Peria, but there were a lot of unexpected things going on, including the fact that she could not remember the Divine Message yet. However, she was developing very well.

… Perhaps too well. But although ordinary Minotaur children did not develop as quickly as Goblin children, they did develop at a fast pace. On top of that, Juliana was a child that had been implanted by the Demon King"s oviducts and mutated by Vandalieu. These kinds of things were within acceptable limits… for Vandalieu and his companions, at least.

“I see, a mutant… I suppose if she"s a mutant, then that"s how it is?” said Berard.

“That"s how it is, isn"t it? Bachem-san of the Tamers" Guild said that since she exists right before his eyes, he has no choice but to accept it,” said Vandalieu.

Mutants were monsters born with abnormal appearances and abilities; in other words, they were those with spontaneous mutations.

“She doesn"t bear the slightest resemblance to an ordinary Minotaur… She"s quite clearly a girl. Not only that, but she is able to speak and looks exactly like a certain somebody whose death in battle during a monster extermination mission was publicly announced… But if she"s a mutant, then that"s how it is, I suppose,” said Berard.

“I think that"s correct,” said Vandalieu.

Statuses existed in this world, and race t.i.tles were clearly displayed. But they could only be viewed by their owners, with the exception of those with the rare "Demon Eyes of Appraisal" Unique Skill and Tamers being able to see the Statuses of the creatures they tamed. Juliana"s Status was visible only to herself and Vandalieu.

There was also a way to display one"s Status to another with Magic Items such as Guild registration cards. But Juliana was considered to be a monster rather than a person, and there were no Guilds that allowed the registration of monsters as members.

Thus, no matter how odd and suspicious she was, everyone had no choice but to accept Vandalieu and his companions" explanation that she was a mutant.

“This is really messing up what I know about mutants. And bringing tamed monsters inside the Guild building is supposed to be prohibited,” said Berard, trying to show a small amount of resistance.

Vandalieu stood up from his seat, lifting Juliana up in his arms.

“But there"s a rule that small monsters are allowed if they can be personally managed like this, so there"s no problem, is there?” he said. “… It"s quite a new experience for me to be the one doing the holding,” he added.

“Th-this is most discourteous of me, so I would be most grateful if you could put me down… Berard-san, you can"t fool me!” Juliana said in protest.

“Y-yes, I"ll be careful from now on. Umm, you know…” Berard muttered.

He wasn"t intending to brush aside Vandalieu and Juliana"s complaints, but he decided to stop thinking about her.

Officially, he"s just a Tamer and an apprentice trader, but… he is very influential in this city, especially in the red-light district and the slums… and the redhead and blonde beauties that he has recently brought from somewhere are no ordinary people, either, Berard thought to himself. It seems that it won"t do me any good to keep prodding. As always, the ominous thing is the fact that I don"t know what exactly he is.

Berard took out the report about the Flame Blades. “It"s true that the sum of your reparations have not yet been decided, but… it seems that the Flame Blades have paid the highest possible amount to their Adventurers" Guild branch. One hundred thousand Baums each – Five hundred thousand Baums in total.”

“F-five hundred thousand?!” Natania and Simon exclaimed simultaneously, standing up out of their seats.

“… That"s more than I thought it would be,” said Vandalieu, blinking in surprise.

Juliana covered her mouth with a hand.

Though this could not be measured precisely, one Baum was worth about a hundred yen on Earth. Thus, five hundred thousand Baums was the equivalent of fifty million yen. It was a sum that an a.s.sailant might realistically have to pay his victim who had lost their limbs on Earth, but in Lambda, it was quite the large sum.

If one lived modestly, it was enough to feed themselves for the rest of their lives, even after losing all of their limbs. But apparently, reparations would not be so expensive.

“Th-they overcharged them quite a bit, didn"t they,” said Natania.

“About that… This doesn"t sound good to say out loud, but you were a mere D-cla.s.s adventurer. However, you have attended the earl"s tea party and now have this person as your guardian,” said Berard, glancing at Vandalieu. “It seems that the Guild over there did everything they could.”

It could also have been something to do with the fact that Natania hadn"t mentioned Juliana"s name in her report; she had been referred to as "a village girl by the name of Julia." The possibility that the reparation amount included hush money for her to stay quiet couldn"t be ruled out.

“But that was the maximum amount that they would have been forced to pay; it would almost certainly have been reduced by some amount… by several tens of thousands of Baums. But the Flame Blades have apparently paid the maximum amount before the final amount could be decided, using materials and Magic Stones from monsters that they hunted,” said Berard.

“There"s got to be some kind of mistake; there"s definitely some trick behind it! Less than a month has pa.s.sed since we met Natania and reported her situation to the Guild. I"d understand if they were cla.s.s or B-cla.s.s, but no D-cla.s.s adventurer could earn that much,” said Simon, who was a D-cla.s.s adventurer himself.

Natania and Juliana nodded in agreement.

“I think it"s suspicious as well,” said Berard. “The Guild over there also suspected that something was amiss. Those adventurers left to hunt and didn"t return for more than ten days, but they came back with a huge amount of materials and Magic Stones. So the Guild was more careful than usual when inspecting the goods to buy them. But it seems that all of the goods were real, and they were not obtained in a way that violates the Guild"s rules or the Alcrem Duchy"s laws.”

All of the materials and Magic Stones the Flame Blades had brought back to the Guild were real, valuable items. And it had been determined that they had not stolen them from other adventurers.

… This had been determined through the fact that ten days was not enough for them to gather five hundred thousand Baums" worth of materials and Magic Stones by attacking other adventurers belonging to the city of Itobam"s Guild.

“But according to a witness, there were several other adventurers with them. They might have had those other adventurers help them… Well, that"s a strange story in and of itself,” said Berard.

“Isn"t it wrong for other people to help?!” Natania demanded.

“Unfortunately, there"s nothing against that. A promotion examination is one thing, but the Flame Blades" task was to pay reparations… like repaying a debt,” Berard explained.

Having someone a.s.sist during an examination for determining a member"s ability was not allowed, but the Guild did not mind anyone helping for the payment of reparations as long as they were paid.

“Could you please tell me the names and backgrounds of the adventurers who helped them?” Vandalieu asked.

“Sorry, I can"t do that,” Berard said, shaking his head.

Vandalieu wasn"t surprised by this reply.

“No way!” Natania exclaimed.

“We"re begging you, Guild Master!” Simon pleaded.

“Calm down, I would love to tell you if I could!” Berard said hastily. “High-ranking adventurers helping the Flame Blades who are on the decline, they have to have some kind of motive!”

The situation was understandable if one of the Flame Blades" members possessed some rare, peculiar Unique Skill, or they were an illegitimate child of a n.o.bleman, or had some relative who was a capable adventurer.

But as far as the Guild was aware, the Flame Blades were common, ordinary adventurers. They were apparently on the capable side, but they were not so talented that they drew attention.

It was difficult to imagine that high-ranking adventurers capable of earning five hundred thousand Baums within a short period of time… adventurers who were likely B-cla.s.s or above, would help them. Not without some ulterior motive.

Berard suspected that this motive was related to Natania, the victim, and her guardian, Vandalieu.

That was why he had asked Vandalieu and his companions to come as well rather than having Natania come alone.

“But there"s no information about those other adventurers. They didn"t even enter the city, let alone the Guild. n.o.body in the city recognized their faces, and their names and adventurer cla.s.ses are unknown as well. It"s possible that they"re mercenaries or something rather than adventurers,” said Berard. “What we do know is that they were young human men with hair standing straight up.”

“Then it can"t be helped. If they entered the city, we would have been able to ask the guards to learn their names and what cla.s.s they are if they"re adventurers, but…” Simon murmured.

One needed to present identification when entering a city. If a guard had seen a Guild registration card, they could have been asked about it.

“Hey, if they"re going so far to hide their ident.i.ty, maybe they have a bounty on their head?” Natania suggested.

“We looked into that, but… at the very least, there"s no wanted posters of them around here. There aren"t any portraits that match their faces, either. They"re definitely suspicious no matter how you look at it, but the Guild Master of the Itobam branch has decided that it"s not appropriate to circulate portraits of people around branches in other cities when they haven"t committed any crimes,” said Berard.

“Well, that"s true. If being suspicious was enough to have one"s portrait circulated around the surrounding cities, portraits of me would have been circulated as well,” said Vandalieu.

Everyone else looked surprised.

“… So, you were aware that you"re suspicious, Master…” Simon whispered.

Berard and Natania nodded, as they were surprised for the same reason.

… Incidentally, Princess Levia and the other Ghosts were nodding as well, though they were not visible to the rest of the room.

“How rude!” Juliana exclaimed.

“It"s alright,” said Vandalieu, calming her down. “I have some idea of who those adventurers might be.”

“You do?! They must be related to the Alcrem family after all…!” Berard murmured, suspecting that this was some plot by the duke"s family.

“No, they"re not related to the duke"s family,” said Vandalieu.

Berard sat back down, looking relieved.

“Master, is it those notorious Alda extremists?!” asked Simon.

Vandalieu shook his head. “That"s not impossible, but I don"t think it"s very likely.”

His guess was that it was Murakami or Hajime, the reincarnated individuals other than Asagi"s group that was in the Birgitt Duchy. They had acquired young human bodies of about fifteen years of age when they were reincarnated in this world, though it seemed that the women, "Sylphid" and "Super Sense," had chosen to become Elves.

The reincarnated individuals, with the radar abilities telling them Vandalieu"s location that had been given to them by Rodcorte, had likely been successfully lured into the city of Morksi.

Even considering the fact that they know where I am, I didn"t expect them to come to this city so readily… I wonder what they"re thinking? Vandalieu thought to himself.

The fact that they were acting to ensure that their names weren"t known already gave away the fact that they were reincarnated individuals targeting Vandalieu. But Vandalieu couldn"t understand what they had been thinking when they helped the Flame Blades.

The reincarnated individuals would certainly be aware that even if they used their abilities to make the D-cla.s.s adventurers their p.a.w.ns or persuaded them to help, they were no match for any of Vandalieu"s companions, let alone Vandalieu himself.

“But if an ability is being used to control them, then it is "Marionette," the one named Inui Hajime, isn"t it?” said Orbia through telepathy.

“Probably. From what we"ve heard, his ability targets people he comes into contact with through physical touch or electricity, and it"s difficult for him to control multiple people at once, but… it seems that the abilities granted by Rodcorte can be developed. He might have done a lot of training after being reincarnated,” said Princess Levia.

“Then isn"t it best to bring Kanako here? If it"s "Marionette," he definitely won"t be able to ignore her!” said Orbia.

“Let"s bring Legion-san here and have them transform into Isis"s form!” said Princess Levia.

The two of them looked gleeful as they made these disturbing suggestions.

In Origin, Hajime had used his power to make a failed attempt to manipulate and abduct Isis, one of Legion"s members. Due to the explosives implanted in her body, he had been left on the verge of death. He had then sought help, but was finished off by Kanako, who was supposed to be one of his allies.

Hajime had brought much of this upon himself, but he had deep emotional scars from being treated horribly by women one after another, and he had apparently developed gynophobia in Rodcorte"s Divine Realm.

What had become of him after his reincarnation was unknown, but… in this world, where the field of psychology was undeveloped, it was difficult to imagine that he would have been able to conquer his phobia within three years.

“W-women are scary!” Berkert muttered with a shudder.

“Ternecia was a woman as well, after all…” Chipuras said in agreement.

“… Ternecia?” Daroak said, unable to remember her.

“Well, it"s possible that he will go into a frenzy and try to kill the two of them, so we must be careful…” Vandalieu told them.

With that, he put an end to the telepathic conversation.

“I have an idea of who it might be, but I can"t really say it here,” Vandalieu told Simon.

“That would be for the best,” said Berard.

This response seemed to have made Simon remember that Berard was not in the same position as himself and Natania.

“No matter what happens, I will act as the Guild Master of this city"s Adventurers" Guild. It isn"t that I don"t trust you, and I know that the Flame Blades are obviously suspicious, but there are things that you are unable to tell me,” Berard said.

He had a favorable relationship with Vandalieu and his companions, but he was not one of them.

“Well then, go and collect the reparations from reception. Personally, I would recommend that you deposit it with the Guild. There might be a time you"ll need it if you"re going to continue being an adventurer,” he told Natania.

But just as Berard was having Vandalieu and his companions leave, there was a rushed knock on the door, and a red-faced Guild employee came into the office without waiting for a response.

“Berard-san! There"s a commotion outside!” the employee said.

“I am with visitors,” Berard said angrily.

“There"s no time for that! Your daughter, the "Starving Wolf" Michael and some men are about to begin a duel, with your visitor"s tamed monsters on the line!”

“What?! Why is Jessie doing that?! She"s an alchemist!” Berard shouted, standing up from his chair.

“I don"t understand what"s going on, but this is an emergency!” Simon exclaimed. “Master, we must hurry… Wait, Master isn"t here?!” he said, realizing that Vandalieu was no longer in the room.

“He took Juliana and left just a second ago,” Natania told him. “We need to go as well!”