“Hey, Jean! What happen in here? It is so weird to see this Adventurer Guild so crowded in the morning?”

“Oh, Bard-San… Morning! From what I hear, it seems Dynami country make a request to adventurer Guild?”

“Request? Somewhat unusual, isn’t it?”

“Maybe it is because of the rumor that going around in here recently”

“Rumor? What kind of rumor?”

“The content of the request is that the country requested us to made a raid group to exterminate some Monster around the Dark forest because recently the monster around there increased so fast. The content of the rumor itself is about the birth of the Demon Lord’s son 3 month ago and the sudden appearance of some Monster general that have a strong tie with the sudden information about the new Monster Lord that appear around 7 months ago.”

“Is it just a baseless rumor, right?”

“As you said, I think the same as you too, Bard-San”

Maybe the king want to make sure about the sudden fluctuation of monster itself so they won’t harm any other people who live in here.

But still, to make raid… it is not an ordinary quest isn’t it?

After think about it for a while, finally I ask the woman with the black hair that extend until her shoulder who still sit calmly in front of me.

“So, would you give it a try?”

“If I see from the reward of the quest, it is a lie if I said I don’t want to participate in this quest”

“Then, lets participate.”

Shortly after I and Jean agree, I write my name in the participant column in front of the receptionist. From what I see, there is already 19 people including me and Jean. For the raid itself we need 24 people before we can depart from here. And not only that, there is 3 section participant column in there 2 is a must full column and 1 is an additional column. It means in this time raid, they need exactly around 48 people before they can start the departure.

Making a promise with Jean to meet in here after the afternoon bell rang, I packed my belonging and went to the Orphanage.

Why I went to the orphanage, you said? It is because I’m raise in the Orphanage in this town. In there, I have an existence that I think as my little sister. Her name is Lilina Eidos. Usually I called her as Lilina-Chan. same as me she raise in here too. We have 4 years difference.

After I’m turn 8 years old, as the country tradition, I must leave the Orphanage and I choose to live in the slum. Sometimes I go to the Orphanage to see Lilina-Chan and play with her. But when I’m turn 9 years old, I practiced to use sword and challenge the coliseum. But… I got a very heavy wound that make both of my hand can’t hold a sword more than 30 minutes everyday. After that, I rarely to play with Lilina-Chan and practiced sword the whole time. Before I realize it, Lilina-Chan already worked in the Orphanage itself and I’m already got a nickname as an “8 Sword Guardian” that specialized in Sword Magic style.

“Yo! Lilina-Chan”

“Ah! Bard-San… why suddenly you stop in here?”

“Iya~ I don’t know myself, I just suddenly want to see your face, that’s all”

“Ufufu~ what is wrong with you, Bard-San?”

“I don’t know but, I’ll take a raid quest for now, I just want to inform you about that”

“Raid… is it?”

“Um!”

When I said that, I make a very awkward smile. But when I see Lilina-Chan’s face, she is seems very concern about it, so I tell her that,

“You mustn’t worry about it, After I’m back, I’ll directly inform you”

“Ara~ are you perhaps… worry about me?”

“Wha—!”

“Ufufu~ you looks so funny, wait here for a second”

After teasing me, Lilina-Chan come inside and not long after that give me some bread as a lunch box. Of course it is a handmade Apuru bread from Lilina-Chan.

“Thank you for worrying about me, Bard-San… Be careful!”

“Ah! Wait for me ok, I’ll give present while I come back later”

I wave my hand after see Lilina-Chan smile at me. Really why she still didn’t think about married in her age? It is not like I already married too you know.

After several minute I arrived at the guild, finally the afternoon bell rang and as expected from Jean, she always come punctually. Serious girl type is different huh.

“So what are you bring for the raid, Jean?”

“I just bring some potions with me and something to eat that’s all.”

“As expected from the person who got a title as ‘Silent Witch’, you seem really confident, huh”

“Look at you, one of the ‘8 Sword Guardian’ who wield a title as Magiko Spathiou. From what I see, you only bring your magic sword, Magiko Kofti and some bread, I guess. What kind of Sword wielder are you who didn’t even bring an armor every time you takes a subjugation mission.”

“Stop it and why do you know all of my belonging even I didn’t tell you about it? Are you a stalker”

“What are you talking about the obvious think so suddenly”

“Eh?”

When I’m trying to ask Jean to verify if she is a real stalker or not, suddenly the girl who always in the receptionist desk make an announcement with support magic [Mega Voice] that the raided party consisted from around 63 people must gathered in the third floor to talked about the strategy battle.

That’s why, before I can verify it, we already move to the third floor.

When we arrived in there, there is already a lot of people gathering. From what I can see, It seems the one who will be the leader is The lightning speed [Silver] tags “SS” Tier, Tachytita Astrapis or usually known as Astra.

“Ok because most of you already gathered in here, I’ll start to explain about current strategy”

The strategy that he made is for the member to split into 7 groups where every group will consist around 9 people. It seems I got the same team as Jean and Astra. I don’t really sure but, my team is like a team where only “Ace” and “SS” tier member only. But even so, the other adventurer in here is not weak. In fact, all of the leader who lead another groups is “S” Tier so it is really a very strong raid group. The idea to split this raid group is because the area of the dark forest itself is very wide. That’s why we split the group like this.

“So, Any question?”

“What if… we found a Monster general or above? What should we do?”

One of the adventurer raise his hand. This is an important question because if we make a wrong decision even once, the whole party will got annihilate. After all, we “SS” Tier need around 3 people to defeat one of the monster general.

“If you meet with them, if the total only 3, just deal it by your group combination attack. But if more than 3 but less than 8, you can bring it to another party so you can join a hand to defeat them. If they are more than 8, just leave it before they figure your group existence and if they already figured your group existence, don’t bring it to the another group no matter what happen. Got it?”

“U-understand!”

“Any other question?”

After Astra answer all of the question from the other raid member, Finally—

“So, Let’s start our hunting games!”

“Ou!”

—The Raid that will be the starting sign of the Crimson Crecent Night Festival Begin.