“The Stella Brigade is a battalion of the Roman Catholic Church that consists of exorcists. They are all powerful magicians in specific areas. Among the strongest of them, I have heard that one of them has even been caused “Heaven’s Favourite” or something like that, so the person probably has access to some form of holy magic as well. As a battalion, they deal with stuff that normal exorcists can’t handle on their own. That’s the gist of what I know about them,” explained Lucifer as David and Hikari walked over to Lux and Guang.

As they neared the pair of exorcists, Hikari ran over enthusiastically, “Lux-sama. That was amazing! As expected of Lux-sama.”

However, instead of any positive reply, Lux looked back towards her with a grim look, stopping her in her tracks.

Sensing the negative atmosphere, David looked around, and saw that Guang was on the floor. He wasn’t resting there like he had first assumed, it was more like he was unable to push himself off the floor, due to the injuries that could be seen on his arm.

Blood seeped out from the long gashes that ran down both of his forearms. As if noticing it as well, Hikari ran over to Guang’s side and looked at his wounds.

“Don’t move. I’ll have it…”

Just as she raised her hands towards the wounds, probably intending to cast some sort of healing magic, she was interrupted by Lux, “Hikari, don’t do anything unnecessary.”

“But…”

“Lux-sama is right. The wounds aren’t fatal anyways, so they’ll heal in time,” Guang gave a weak smile. Then lowering his voice, he continued, “Besides, the succubus is here. I don’t want my wounds to compromise our identity.”

“Still…”

“It’s fine, these wounds will heal by themselves. Taking into account our constitution, it’ll take only around 2 weeks or so. We’ll also be able to heal it once we leave the village, so don’t worry too much about it.”

“Mhmm okay,” Hikari resigned.

That pillar of lightning… What was that? Mira had assumed that these humans were strong, but to think that at least one of them was able to use a spell that could kill a Grand Strix in one hit. A Grand Strix’s magical defence was nothing to scoff at. Normally speaking, even if it was somehow by itself, it would take at least 3 magicians to continuously throw spells at it to eventually breakthrough its magical defence and kill it. Yet, one of the humans, Lux, possessed a spell that finished it more or less instantly.

No, she would have time to think over all of it later. Mira decided to stop thinking about it went over to where the four humans where standing.

“That was impressive, a spell able to instantly kill so many strixes,” she said to Lux.

“Ahh, it was something like a trump card.”

“Naturally, but it was still impressive nonetheless. Anyways, let’s return to confirm the competition of the quest. We can leave the corpses here for the mayor to confirm and deal with.”

“Mira, forcing your way into my office. What is the meaning of this?”

The one who shouted from his table was Reinstead Uphir, the current Mayor of Enox. In front of him was Mira, a frequent ‘annoyance’ that he has gotten acquainted with over the past years, and behind her was a few new faces that he has never seen before.

“Ahh, sorry. You see, it’s because they didn’t let me in. Ahahahaha,” Mira laughed.

“Just… Whatever, even if I tell you not to do it again, you’re not going to listen are you?”

“Ahahah, maybe. Probably not.”

“Then, what is it?”

“We finished your quest.”

“Heh? You finished the quest?”

“Yep, we killed off every single strix in the strix flock. The corpses are still by the hill on the right side of town.”

“There’s no reason for you to lie since I’ll know immediately. I’ll send someone over there,” replied Reinstead as he conjured up a magic circle and spoke towards it, “Send a group of people over to the hill on the right side of town to collect strix corpses.”

“You probably should get them to bring quite a few carts as well, there’s probably well over a hundred strixes. And there also a Grand Strix.”

“Wait what? Grand Strix!?” Reinstead stood up from his chairs in surprise. “Why wasn’t I informed of there being a Grand Strix in the strix flock!?”

“How should I know? Anyways, get them to bring a few carts, or else they’d start complaining you know?”

Reinstead couldn’t retort, so he conjured up the same magic circle again, “Bring quite a few carts as well, you’ll need it for carrying the corpses back.”

Then he turned back towards Mira and asked, “So are you going to introduce me to your companions today?”

“Ah yes, they’re travellers that worked with me to deal with the strix flock. I would do introductions right now, but Guang’s injured, so could you help patch him up first?” Mira indicated towards Guang.

Reinstead immediately walked over, and noticed the wounds on his arms. Indicating towards the five of them, he said, “Follow me, I’ll patch up your wounds.”

“He’ll be alright. I put him to sleep so he can recover his wounds quicker,” Reinstead said as he walked out of the room. He had just patched up Guang’s wounds on his arm not too long ago.

“Thanks Rein!” said Mira.

“No problem, but isn’t it about time for you to introduce your friends to me?”

“Ahh, right! These two are Lux and Hikari, The two of them are magicians looking for a powerful familiar,” Mira indicated. “The one in the room is Guang, he’s also a magician. This last one is David. He’s a swordsman. The four of them and I met yesterday and we decided to take the strix flock quest since we need money.”

“You only met yesterday?” Reinstead raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, I met David when I went for a drink yesterday. We got a long pretty well, then Hikari invited me to dine with them as well for dinner. We decided on taking the quest then,” replied Mira, then turning towards David and the exorcists, “This one is Reinstead Uphir, he’s the village mayor and a good doctor.”

“Uphir?” Lux twitched her eyebrows. Why did the name sound so familiar?

“Ah you noticed,” Reinstead smiled wryly. “Lady Lux was it? It is as you presume, I am a member of the Uphir family.”

Uphir family. David started to remember the name from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure of where exactly. Before he could figure it out, Mira begun to explain, “Rein is a descendant of Uphir, the famous demon doctor. That’s also why you shouldn’t worry about Guang, since he did get the best non-magical treatment there is in the area.”

“Non-magical treatment is better for muscle wounds like his. Although magical treatment can heal him instantly, allowing his body to repair the wound naturally with the aid of herbs would allow his body to strengthen as well, which is beneficial even to magicians.”

“I see, that’s why the Uphir family name was so familiar. Uphir is that legendary demon physician,” David nodded. “Thank you for treating Guang.”

“No, I should thank the four of you for dealing with the strix flock, and also protecting Mira.”

“No, Mira has been very helpful to us during our guest. She eliminated quite a few strix by herself. It was also thanks to her that we managed to locate the strix flock so quickly,” David smiled.

“Somehow that sounds more like it is ou of courtesy,” Mira comments.

A magic circle appeared beside Reinstead, “Lord Uphir, we have located the strix flock. It is as Lady Mira said, the strix flock corpses are here. There are more than a hundred strix corpses here, and there is even something that looks like a Grand Strix corpse. I’ll report to you after it is brought back to town and confirmed. However that would take a while since there are just way too many corpses here.”

“Yes do that. I’m at the office,” Reinstead spoke into the magic circle. Then he turned towards David, Mira, Lux and Hikari, “I just received confirmation that the strix corpses have been located. Thank you for your hard work. Let us talk more back in the office.”

“Rein and I are old fiends, so feel free to treat this place as your home,” Mira said casually as she sat down on the sofa.

Reinstead smiled wryly, “Although it is not really right for it to have come from Mira, it is as she says. Feel free to treat this as your home. Mira has been crashing here for several years now, and since you’re her friends, feel free to use this place as you please.

Now, I want to thank you all once again for completing the strix flock quest. Our town don’t issue such large scaled quests often, so we’re very thankful for your help in dealing with them. Although news have been sent to the lord, it was estimated that it would take them at least several more months to arrive since we’re of a rather low priority compared to the cities. The quest is also a local one since we couldn’t afford to spend a large sum of money at the Adventurer Guild to have it be made regional.

“You do say that, but Mira seemed to handle herself just fine. Surely a few more people with Mira could have done our job just fine?” Lux raised her eyebrows.

“That is unlikely. Mira could be said as the strongest member of our town. Although there are other locals of the town that can fight on Mira’s level, they are either unsuitable to hunt strixes in such a large group, or have already gone out to other towns to deal complete quests there since we rarely have large scaled profitable quests.”

“I see, but Mira could have just gone with a few weaker people and hunt the strixes over a longer period of time. What’s more, being a member of the Uphir family, surely you possess the ability to at least deal with some of the strix flock.”

“It is as you say, but that would have been too dangerous for them. It was much safer to simply wait for another capable people to take the quest. As more me, I’m just a physician, not a fighter. It’s also because of this that I’ve become the mayor of a small town instead of being with my family.”

“That explains it.”

“Now that you know a bit about me, how about telling me a bit about yourselves, as well as what you’ve come here for. Since I’m the mayor, I might be able to help you since you have helped us a lot by eliminating the strix flock.”

Author's Note:

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have been really busy with exams. They'll return to normal after my next 2 exams are over.