About two weeks have passed ever since the Fang Wolf incident, and in that span of time, I kept my suspicion a secret from Yuna and just acted normal the whole time.

Also, due to completing a ton of quests, we were able to rank-up from D-rank to C-rank. But... it sure took longer than expected. I really hate the lack of high-ranking quests.

Haah... I wonder how long it will take us to get promoted to B-rank...

Currently, we are heading to the adventurer's guild after having breakfast at the Rabbit's Den. We were planning to claim the payment for the dismantled beasts I dropped off a few days ago, but when we entered the guild....

「Grey-san, Yuna-san, I've been waiting for you!」Tilda

... it seems something urgent came up, so that might have to be postponed for later.

「What's the matter Tilda-san?」Grey

「I'm not really sure why, but the guildmaster said he wanted to meet you two.」Tilda

He wanted to meet us...? I wonder why?

「Tilda-san, did he say anything about why he wanted to meet us?」Grey

「No... I'm only told to tell you to meet him as soon as you two arrive. Aside from that, he didn't say anything else. I think it would be better to ask him yourselves.」Tilda

Something he can't tell the staff? Ah... it might have something to do with the Fang Wolf incident. Did he find something out?

「Grey, it's certainly about "that" right?」Yuna

「Yeah...」Grey

"That", huh?

Looks like Yuna can already differentiate which things are needed to be kept secret.

I really wanna celebrate this progress, but... it looks like we'll have to attend a certain matter at hand first.

「Tilda-san, did he tell you when we should meet him?」Grey

「He told me you can meet him anytime.」Tilda

「Umm... Can you please tell him that we're going to meet him shortly? We'll just collect the payment from the quest items we dropped off and then we'll head there immediately after.」Grey

「I understand.」Tilda

After calling for someone to take over her post, Tilda-san immediately headed to the guildmaster's office. As for us, we went to Oji-san's counter and collected the payment.

「Dismantling fee reduced, you have a total of 150,800 kiels. Double check if the amount is just right.」Bartolos

「1 platinum, 5 golds, and 8 bronzes. Yep, looks just about right.」Grey

「A platinum coin....」Yuna

「Is it your first time seeing one, lass?」Bartolos

「Yeah... Since whenever we collect the payment, it's almost always gold and silver coins. So seeing a platinum one is a first for me.」Yuna

「Hahaha! You sure are funny. Normal adventurers don't even get paid by a gold coin, you know? Some even don't get paid in silver, you two are just an exception in this guild.」Bartolos

「Really?」Yuna

Yuna asked as she looked at me for confirmation, and all I could do was nod quietly. I wonder how she will react if she knew I have void crystals in my disposal.

Come think of it, aren't we earning too much money? A normal citizen could only earn a bronze coin a day, yet the two of us could earn 500 times more than that without much effort.

Depending on the abundance of high-ranking quests, we can earn 50 to 150 thousand kiels a day! If we convert that to yen, that would be 2.5 to 7.5 million a day!

Somehow, I feel guilty about earning too much money...

Haah... I shouldn't be thinking about things like this right now, we still have a meeting with the guildmaster to attend to.

「Then oji-san, we'll be off now.」Grey

「Oh, right. Then, I'll see later. Be sure to bring excellent materials again!」Bartolos

「Sure, then we'll see you this afternoon.」Grey

「Goodbye～.」Yuna

Having said our goodbyes, we then headed to the guildmaster's office. And to our surprise, there were other people inside already.

There was Kris-san, Aria-san, and two others, and by the looks of it, it seems like they were discussing something important with the guildmaster.

「Kris-san, Aria-san, are you still discussing something with the guildmaster? If so, then we'll just come back later.」Grey

「No, they're here because of the same reason as you two.」Gaston

Same reason? Does that mean that the thing they were discussing before was connected with the Fang Wolf incident?

「Good afternoon, Grey-kun, Yuna-chan.」Aria

「Ah, good afternoon.」Grey

「Good afternoon.」Yuna

Shortly after greeting each other, Yuna and I took our seats, opposite to Kris-san's and Aria-san's.

「Since you two already know Kris and Aria here, I'll only introduce these two to you two. The one who looks like a twig that's about to break, sitting besides Kris is called Arlon.」 Gaston

「Hey, Old fart! What's with that shitty introduction!?」Arlon

「While this one beside me...」Gaston

「Hey! Don't ignore me!」Arlon

The guildmaster introduced us to Arlon-san, and just like how the guildmaster described him, he was a scrawny man who looks like he's about to break any time.

「... is my daughter, Rina, she also happened to be this guild's vice-master.」Gaston

「A pleasure to meet you.」Rina

Rina-san bowed politely after the guildmaster introduced her. Although the guildmaster said she was his daughter, she looked nothing like him. I bet she inherited her mother's genes.

「Arlon, Rina, this is our guild's new rising stars, Grey, and Yuna. Although they're young, both of them are much stronger than me. So I advise you to never cross them, especially you Arlon.」Gaston

「What's your problem with me, old fart!?」Arlon

「I have no problems with you, you just look like the type who would cause trouble here and there.」Gaston

「You wanna take this outside, old fart!?」Arlon

Umm... If I remember correctly, aren't we called here to discuss something... So why are we watching a comedy skit of two grown adults?

Although... Arlon-san sure has the guts to challenge the guildmaster. I wonder what his status screen looks like.

『Appraisal』.

-----------------------------------

【Name】Arlon

【Race】Human

【Sex】Male

【Age】31

【Status】Healthy

【Mana Capacity】896 【Mana Quality】C

【Combat Power】947 【Threat Level】C

【Attribute】Wind 【Spell Proficiency】41%

【Class】Assassin 【Art Proficiency】53%

【Physical Enhancement】58%

【Ability】---

-----------------------------------

Ah... No wonder...

Even though he just looks like a bag of bones from the outside, he surprisingly has a lot of strength hidden inside of him.

After the comedy skit with the guildmaster and Arlon-san, we then greeted each other, and started the meeting immediately.

「Now that all of that's over, I'll explain to you all why we're all here. A few weeks ago, Kris and Aria...」Gaston

According to the guildmaster, when Kris and Aria were on the way home from taking a quest at the capital, they encountered a Magma Crawler, a B-rank beast that is endemic to the Polakras Volcanic Plateau.

Noticing the similarity with the incident with the Fang Wolf, the guildmaster asked Arlon-san to retrieve guild records about similar incidents reported in the past from the capital. When Arlon-san returned, he and Rina-san studied the records, and what they learnt gave them quite a shock.

Incidents in which high-rank beasts strays very far away from their natural habitat has been happening at an increasing rate for the past year. Not only is it strange, but the government suspects that someone is behind it.

Over this past year, there were a number of villages getting destroyed by these beasts, with most of these located near the area of the Haltea Great Forest.

Right now, this topic is a top secret case that is being handled by the government. Only important personnel like high-ranking nobles and selected guildmasters can access the files for this case.

「I know this is unreasonable, but I ask the four of you to work with me on investigating the connections between these incidents.」Gaston

The incident has been increasing for the past year? Isn't that almost the same time as when Yuna's village was destroyed? And didn't he mention the Haltea Great Forest?

It couldn't just be a coincidence! There's no way it's a coincidence! Someone is definitely behind this!

「Yuna-chan, what's wrong!?」Aria

Aria-san asked as she saw tears trickling down Yuna's face.

Looks like Yuna has realized the connection between this and the destruction of her home village.

Ugh... I'm feeling guilty for not telling her what I suspected from the incident yesterday. If I had told her, maybe I could have prepared her for this.

「Grey... you know something else about this incident, don't you?」Gaston

「Yes...」Grey

Without hiding a single thing, I told everyone in the room what had happened more than a year ago. Starting from how I found the village until how I ended up saving Yuna. I also told them that other than Yuna, none of the elven villagers survived the Demon Hound's attack.

I don't know if it was alright to tell them those things without consulting Yuna first, but in her current condition, I just did what I believed to be the right thing to do.

「Yuna-chan...」Aria

「It must have been hard for her.」Kris

「Poor kid.」Arlon

After hearing about Yuna's past, the others in the room showed their sympathy to Yuna. And the person in question has calmed down and stopped crying, although grief and sorrow were still evident in her eyes.

「Grey, is it really alright to tell us about your appraisal ability?」Gaston

「If it means it would help solve the case, I would be more than glad to do so.」Grey

In order to help solve the case quickly, I even revealed to everyone in the room the existence of my 『Appraisal』. I know that it was a risky move to reveal one of my abilities, but compared to helping Yuna, that risk is worth nothing.

I also made a promise to the villagers that I will find whoever is responsible and make them pay for the lives that they took.

「The information from your appraisal will surely be put to use. Don't worry, when I report what we discussed here, I will hide the existence of your ability. I swear it on my name as the guildmaster!」Gaston

「I also swear on my name as the vice-guildmaster.」Rina

「You also have our word. We won't tell a single soul about it.」Kris

「Un.」Aria

「Same here.」Arlon

「Thank you, everyone.」Grey

After that, we discussed a little more for the possible connections of the mentioned incidents. We also tried to figure out who was behind the said incidents but in the end, we didn't figure out a single thing about the perpetrator.

「Haah... I guess we should end the meeting for today. I'll just notify you all when I find more things about these incidents. And Grey, you should take care of Yuna, I think you're the only one here capable of cheering her up.」Gaston

「Yes.」Grey

「Well then, that's all. You're all dismissed.」Gaston

Having been dismissed by the guildmaster, the five of us slowly exited the room, leaving only the guildmaster and his daughter behind. But amongst the five of us, it was noticeable who amongst us has a heavy atmosphere.

Beside me, Yuna was walking slowly, and it was evident in her face that she cried for a long time. Unlike before, Yuna's eyes weren't lifeless, but rather, full of sorrow and sadness. It was as if the sky was weighing down on her.

In order to give us privacy, Kris-san, Aria-san, and Arlon-san left the two of us alone and headed to the lobby.

「Grey, you knew, didn't you?」Yuna

「Yeah...」Grey

Even though Yuna's question was vague, I fully knew what she meant. And hearing her words, my heart is being crushed by guilt.

「Why didn't you tell me?」Yuna

「I was still not sure whether there was a connection between the Fang Wolf and the Demon Hound, so I thought that it was for the best to tell you after I'm sure about my assumption.」Grey

「Grey, I'm your partner, it's my right to know.」Yuna

That's right, as partners, we should tell each other what we think of. Every bit of information is a crucial point to determine between life and death.

And what makes it worse is the fact that I didn't act because I wasn't sure if it was true. I acted because of my own selfishness of not wanting to see Yuna's sad face. But even after I hid that fact, it still ended up making Yuna dejected.

Ughh... I'm the worst! I wonder if Yuna has come to hate me now.

「But... knowing you, you probably did that to protect me. And I'm really happy that you are thinking of me. So I'm really thankful for that.」Yuna

Looks like she didn't come to hate me, I'm happy.

「But, Grey... next time, please tell me what you're thinking of, I'm your partner after all, aren't I?」Yuna

「Yeah... I'll be sure that you'll be the first to know, and... I'm sorry...」Grey

「I'll only accept your apology after you cook me some curry!」Yuna

Yuna declared with a big smile on her face.

But I'm worried that behind that smile of hers, she's hidー no, I'm her partner, I should trust her that she can overcome this.

「Alright. So what meat do you want on the curry?」Grey

「As long as it's delicious.」Yuna

「Then how about.....」Grey

CHAPTER 17 END