Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Ian!"

I opened the door hastily, only to see a pale faced Grace panting as she was out of breath….

"What happened? Did something serious happen?"

I had already mentioned for them not to bother me till I came out, and given how they treated me so far, the only chance Grace would try to barge in would be that something serious did truly happen.

"Huff…. I'm sorry for interrupting you, but the situation is far too dangerous for this conversation to be delayed.."

I moved to the table that was in the middle of the house as I sat down on one of the chairs before pointing to the chair in front of me.

"Calm down, sit down and speak slowly."

`~~`~~`

"I see."

It turned out that thanks to me clearing that gate, people from the 'Light Association' praised the small team of three for their work and wanted to send representatives to reward them…. However, was this considered something to worry about? It seemed that this wasn't all there is to their visit?

The 'Light Association' was like some sort of guild that is concerned about 'dark caves', they employ skilled warriors and hunting parties to destroy the caves with considerable rewards, their sole and final goal is the extermination of all dark caves in the domain. In summary, it was a considerable organisation that started in the light empire and spread through the whole domain to achieve their goal.

"It is just a made up visit so they could give us more trouble, they are supposed to arrive within one day! If they come, I fear that they might know about what actually happened and you would be in the same boat with us..."

"But why would the famous 'Light Association' give you trouble? I heard that they were quite a fair and a righteous association."

"Sigh…. While it is true that such situations happen too rarely, the association's root still lies within the light empire, so if an influential party from the light empire pulls a few favors such a situation won't be impossible."

"So you are saying that you have enemies with high authority in the association that want to give you trouble?"

"Exactly! As such you shouldn't get implicated in this, you already saved us once. There is no need for you to risk it once again!"

From the looks of it, the situation didn't seem to be simple, I was starting to consider leaving as the enemy was too great for me to face…

However, seeing that I was still considering, Grace urged me once more.

"Ian! You had just came out from a dark cave just a week ago, and the representatives are more likely to force us to enter more gates using 'our achievements' as an excuse, I don't know if that seclusion was enough to recover from the last cave attack, you should just leave this to us!"

Grace tried to act more bravely even though her face still looked pale….. Wait a sec!

"Huh? The trouble they will give you would be forced dark cave extermination quests?!"

"I know it's bad right? That's why you should fall back."

Just when I was wondering how to find an EP source for my power leveling, this 'trouble' came right to my lap.

"Alright, I have decided!"

"You will leave?"

"No, I have decided to join your party! I would also like to be the vice leader if possible."

"Thank god…. Waitttt, what did you say?!"

Just as the complexion of Grace started to get better, she suddenly turned as pale as a ghost as she fell in confusion.

"Now then, listen to me, we will do the following...…"