Chapter 99

“Congratulations, Gaston-san! After a rigorous review, the previous merit and report was granted, and the promotion from semi-D-class to D-class was granted! All of us on the staff look forward to your continued success!”

The receptionist guts posed and called out to Gaston .

The receptionist is quite young, and she doesn’t look much older than me .

Besides, it’s the first time I’ve seen her face before .

I’m sure she’s new and doesn’t know Gaston’s normal behavior .

The receptionist is congratulating him honestly, but the staff member who is organizing the papers in the background is watching the exchange between the two of them suspiciously .

Today’s Gaston was more obedient than usual .

Unusually, he stood in line and walked with no effort, his shoulders slumping discouragingly . Then he occasionally let out a sigh as if he’s remembered something .

He seemed to be very much affected by the sale of his sword .

But after a rigorous review, the achievements and reports were recognized……

Maybe that’s the template, but as a person who is cheating, I’m horrified .

“As expected of brother Gaston! We didn’t think you were capable only just being a semi-D-class!”

The small man beside Gaston utters intelligible sycophancy .

“…… Yeah, I guess so . ”

Gaston’s tension in response is low .

It’s like a different person from Gaston, who was so attached to his rank before .

“Oh yeah, brother Gaston, what happened to that Huge sword?”

“…… Oh, Ahhhh, yeah . Well, just with bare hands is enough for a magic beast . ”

“Kah! As expected of brother Gaston, I can’t take it . That’s right, of course, my brother’s knuckles are harder than mere metal!”

What now, I’m seriously starting to feel sorry for him .

I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong to Gaston, but I feel so guilty about it .

“…… Vairablow . ”

“Hmm? What’s the matter with you, brother?”

“It’s nothing . It’s…… nothing . ”

Gaston glances sideways at me, then slowly shakes his head .

Yeah, that’s a serious injury .

I hope he doesn’t turn on us and resent us…… but he doesn’t look like she has the energy to do so .

It’s okay, Gaston .

I’ll raise your rank as promised, so stay strong .

“Abel? What’s wrong?”

Mea, who was stroking the back of her new shooting wyvern (the bow I made last night), looks into my face .

“Ohhhh, no, I figured I’d better work harder on it . ”

“Yes! And Mea would love to test the power of the reborn Shooting Wyvern! With this, I’ll show how useful this will be to Abel!”

She puts his strength into his hand holding the bow and says so enthusiastically .

Thanks to the Gordon brothers collecting the money from Gaston last night, I had quite a bit of money to spare .

It seems that Mea was also eager to learn archery, so I bought some materials and made a bow, thinking that it would be better than an old raggedy bow .

The bow itself has been made by the Marrene tribe before, so as long as I have the materials, I can make it to fit Mea’s height .

I bought as much good material as possible and stayed up all night yesterday to make it .

…… By the way, because Mea didn’t want to throw away her old shooting wyvern, which was her friend in arms, she took the strategy of first saying ‘The strings are ruined, so it’s hard to aim at them,” and then saying “The life of the wood seems to be short, so I’d better replace it” and replacing the body .

It was what is commonly known as the Theseus ship paradox .

I’d like to think that this has taken over the soul of the Shooting Wyvern .

“Are we going to the forest again next time?”

“Yeah, I want to go to the woods . I’m still curious about the continuing anomalies . I want to look into that in earnest this time . ”

In the meantime, I’ve included a brief discussion of the continuing anomalies in the forest as a P . S . to the last sentence of the report that Mea wrote .

I thought that if I got the ears of the higher-ups at the Adventurer’s Support Center, they might respond in some way, but it’s just an adventurer’s report .

I don’t expect that much, and even I can’t confidently assure you that there’s something there .

To begin with, looking at the current exchange between Gaston and the receptionist, it’s doubtful that the report is even being read properly .

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was thrown out for dereliction of duty .

I’d have preferred to find out for myself if I could, and that’s fine .

“Later…… I’d like to look for some nice, trees that possess magic deep in the forest . ”

“A tree that possess magic?”

“Yeah, because I haven’t carved Ortem at all compared to when I was in the village . It makes my fingertips feel jittery . ”

An Ortem could only make good things if I used trees with high magic power .

All of the trees near the Marren tribe’s village had a high magic power, but this was not the case with the trees around here .

I touched it and saw how blessed that village was .

“I’m not expecting to find such a good tree just because I went a little deeper into the forest . It would be nice to have some here, was the goal for now . ”

And even if I found it, I’d have to carry the tree back home or just carve the Ortem and leave it alone .

The reason why the World Tree Ortem is able to be called up at will through teleportation is because it itself is an extraordinary mass of magical power .

I don’t expect a tree with a World Tree class magic power to grow in a forest like this in a magical manner .

When I was talking to Mea about such things, something suddenly called out to me from behind .

“You’d better quit going to the forest . ”

It was a familiar voice .

When I turned around, I saw Maizen’s face .

“It’s been a while, Abel, Mea . Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I wouldn’t recommend the forest right now . ”

As soon as I saw Maizen’s face, a scene I saw in the guild just the other day flashed back into my mind .

A member of Maizen’s party was kissing another man in broad daylight, despite the fact that she had a boyfriend in the party .

I lose track of the words I’m about to say and shut up .

“Oh, isn’t it Maizen . ”

…… Mea had an immediate reaction to the example as if she had determined that it was a blanket imitation of someone else .

“Why do you say we can’t go to the forest?”

“They say they found something dangerous in the forest . Rumor has it that’s why the lord’s private army is heading to the forest today . ”

“Something dangerous?”

“Oh, don’t be surprised . It’s a huge hand made of soil . The adventurers call it the “Hand of God” . I didn’t believe it at first, but then I saw it . I was shaken up and we all ran away . ”

…… that’s the same one I used on Gordon .

Mea seemed to have figured it out and quickly closed his mouth .

“I could tell from a distance, that it was something sinister . I don’t know much about that sort of thing, but how should I say this, I could sense a vicious destructive impulse in the air . ”

I’m the one who made it .

Was that really that sinister?

Eh, by the way, was that really how the Lord’s private army reacted?

Why, it’s just a little raised dirt .

If they find out about this, won’t they make us take responsibility for moving private soldiers around for no reason?

“Eh, heeeh, I see . It’s not that Mea doesn’t think it has any evil or destructive impulses . ”

“Ahhh, you know . I heard that the Support Center is trying to keep the information secret, but I don’t think they’ll be able to hide it . It’s too big . Anyway, you shouldn’t go there . There’s no way something like that would come naturally, so there must be some kind of monster out there . I think it’s hard to take on that thing, even for Abel . ”

The one that made that is me, though .

“Tha-, thank you for the advice…… I, I see . I’m starting to get scared now, yeah . ”

I thought about going in different ways with him now, but I still couldn’t stop myself from asking about the party .

Honestly, I can’t help but be curious .

“You know…… your party, how is it going right now? The two people other than Maizen were dating, right? Has it been awkward lately? No, I’m just using an example……”

“Ahhh, Tilda and Risha . ”

Saying their names, Maizen’s expression darkens .

“The mood has been a little bad lately . It’s just that the situation is they get into an argument over little things, and I’m the go-between . I don’t know what’s going on, they were really close until recently . I’m trying to figure out what to do about it, too, but……”

That’s probably not going to help .

It would be better to break up now, was the words come out just until my throat .

Should I say it, or should I just keep quiet……

I don’t want to feel like I’m knocking over a stick that someone is trying so hard to support from the side .

“Heeeeh, is that so…… I guess it’s called malaise, isn’t it? They seemed so lovey-dovey, but…… it’s kind of sad . ”

Whenever we talk about love, Mea comes on board with a curious tone .

But it’s probably not that cute .

“I’m sure I’ll be able to put my charisma to good use . Honestly, since then I’ve risen from semi-E-class to E-class . As a party, I want to improve its performance from here on out . ”

Maizen huffed and ruffled his hair deliberately .

“I, I see . But if the mood of the party is so bad, I think it would be a good idea to re-create the party or something……”

“N-, no, I don’t think it’s something to be worried about that much, really, yeah . It’ll pass soon, probably . Because you see, I’m here . Me! I’m confident to make the mood relaxed and… . . yeah……”

Maizen, one day there will be a hole in your stomach, won’t there?