I opened the [Portal] a little away from the guild so we’d walk the rest of the way there and not cut into any traffic. I could sense how much we were attracting attention from other passersby and adventurers but I pay them no mind. For such a large group walking together that includes a bear and cougar cub, it’d be inevitable that we’d be attracting eyes.

When we got inside the guild, we went straight to Ms. Raize who waved her clawed hand at us upon first sight. Representing for the group, I give my request to speak with Eugus about discussing the Assigned Quest he gave to me and Ume yesterday. Ms. Raize had one of the nearby employees notify him in his office and asked us to take a seat on one of the tables to wait. I mentioned to her that we’ll be updating our party registry after that and she nodded in confirmation before we took our seats.

While part of my objective is to notify Eugus who’ll be joining me and Ume, the original adventurers who were scouted first in our Assigned Quest, I will be attempting to persuade the stubborn guild master into letting his niece, Kalline, be registered in our party. For this to work, I need to reconfirm something.

“Before I confront Eugus, I just need to make sure with you, Kalline, do you still want to join our party enough to go this far?” I ask her.

“I owe my life to thee, and it would be unforgivable for me as a Centaur to not repay that … nay, it is not just that, I want to do whatever it takes to be of use by someone of thy caliber. I previously thought my dream was nothing but childish, but if it is thee, thou may help me make that dream become reality. Thou have my word that I will go along with whatever plan thou may have.”

Okay, partially my fault to put such a serious air to this, but her enthusiasm is as fiery as ever, I think as I nod to her. “Then, in order for my plan to work, you must go along with whatever I say without question or doubt despite the direction it may go. That goes for everyone here. Do you all understand?”

Everyone in my party nods in agreement.

“I may not be a part of this party, but is it possible to give us the main point of this quest?” Lili asks.

Eugus told Ume and I that we shouldn’t tell too much about the quest to those outside of the group joining us, but since Lili is a close acquaintance whose mother works for the guild, I think I could trust her. So, I put up a [Soundproof] barrier so people outside of our table aren’t able to hear us.

“To keep things short, it’s an escort mission in Palocaesy Dungeon with a Vampire named Noire Scarletine Krauss.”

““Lady Krauss?!”” Lili and Kalline exclaim. Ren and Erizora look like they have no idea what was going on, which I sort of expected, but I didn’t think I’d get such a reaction from Lili and Kalline.

“Y-You’re talking about the noblewoman Vampire Noire of the Krauss family right? Please tell me I’m mistaken,” Lili says.

“Uh, nope. You’re on the dot.”

“Do you have any idea what you signed up for?! Do you know how much shit you’ll be in if something happened to her?!” Lili asks while shaking me in a panic.

“M-Ms. Lili! Calm down!” Kalline exclaims while separating the two of us. “I understand how important she is coming from a prestigious family, but if it is the guild master who gave Master Jinma and Lady Umeiyon the Assigned Quest himself, then that either shows how confident he is in their capabilities, or I would not be surprised if this is part of some trial for them starting out at their respective ranks as adventurers.”

“Oh, if you’ve been on the social web long enough, you’d know how dire this situation would be, especially if it’s her being escorted by a male, and a human at that! Jinma, I’m not even supposed to be saying this to you, but you need to know this so you wouldn’t even think of trying anything fishy with her.”

Sheesh, can she not trust me being alone with a woman at all?

… Right. Point taken.

“This goes to the rest of you in this bubble as well! This must never be outside of it! Understand?!” Lili asks the others, to which they nod in understanding. “Now, I’ve been running a business as a tailoress in Korangar for some time, and knowing my creations are made from my own silk, you can bet I’d get high-paid commissions from those living the good life. One of which is a wedding dress commissioned by the groom, a Vampire named Lord Perseus Shalloreed Rowling, the second son of the current head the Rowling Family, and also the leader of the Duke of Demon’s Disciples. Basically, he’s the duke’s right-hand man. And guess who the lucky bride is?”

“… Ah, so Lady Krauss is engaged,” I conclude.

“Good to see you’re following along while addressing nobles properly on where they stand, Jinma. I only know this because he hired me to create Lady Krauss’ dress, but the engagement hasn’t been made public yet and the wedding is planned to have only all the noble families attend. I can’t even go to it even though I made the dress. This is how high-strung and serious the Rowling Family takes these things. Now, if something were to happen to Lady Krauss under your watch, and especially if it’s your doing, you can surely bet that the Rowlings, most likely the Krausses as well, and even the entire adventure party handpicked by the duke to be coming for your head. You may be sturdy to make that difficult, but once they know how your party and I am associated with you, we will likely be in the crossfire as well. Do you now understand the severity of the situation, Jinma?”

I sigh in slight disappointment. Well, if that’s what I think it is in Vampire culture, then there’s no way I’ll get into it now, is there?

<“That reminds me, there was another interesting memory I came across that answered my earlier question to why you were so excited about this mission yesterday. I gotta admit, Jinma, you were probably more destined for kinky shit than I thought if you had your ‘Demonic Princess’ go along with your kicks as a kid.”>

Dude! Don’t even spin it that way! I was just curious at the time and we were just playing around! Wait, not that kind of ‘playing around,’ but you know what I mean!

I think Japan might be one of the very few who can make pretty much anything lewd at this point and I’m not sure how to make of that being a former resident of said country.

And for the record, Nyra was talking about the time when Hyo-chan and I were kids watching a movie involving Vampires and I was curious to how getting bitten by one felt. She was embarrassed being the only one doing the biting when I asked her, so we just did it once with each other leaving only hickies on our necks. It didn’t really feel right at the time, but since we couldn’t go further and risk hurting each other, we’d leave it off there.

I was excited for this mission because I would finally get that unfulfilled curiosity I had settled with the help of a real Vampire if she was needing some blood, but if Lady Krauss is engaged and they take biting a little more seriously in a cultural sense than what I’ve seen and read in fictional media, then I can just drop my hopes of getting bitten this time around.

Then again, my defenses are so stupidly high that getting bitten might even be impossible. I get a little depressed when I realize that.

“Hello?! Are you still with us, Jinma?!” Lili exclaims to me.

“Ah, sorry, Nyra distracted me. Anyway, I get it. I wasn’t planning on doing anything to her anyway. I only took this quest because Lady Krauss’ family is close with the Demon King, and I figured if I impress her enough, she could possibly help me get into the castle. Plus, something you didn’t know about me, I have experience in security as a bodyguard back home. I know what I was doing to make sure my coworker who I got stuck with and my clients who my former employer hired me to protect at times got the protection they need. The only thing that made my job difficult was that I had to hold back my strength to keep assaulters alive. Now that I know what I’m dealing with and anything goes in this country, you can bet that anyone and anything that may pose an obstacle in Lady Krauss’ path will be out of the way within seconds under my watch.”

The others sit there agape while taking in this new fact about me. Lili’s the only one who’s not just unsurprised, but also skeptical.

“You sound well received back there. So, why are you here with us?” she asks.

“From how they tried to ‘shut me up’ enough that led me to flee the country, I guess they thought I posed too big of a threat to be left alone after I put in my two-week’s notice. That’s how big of a deal they thought I apparently was when I got tired of how they did their ‘business’ enough to quit.”

“Is that … why you can’t go back to your home?” Ren asks with folded ears.

“Well, that’s part of it, anyway, but it’s all in the past now. After we get things settled with Eugus, we’ll take the rest of the day to prepare for our departure.”

The others nod in agreement.

“Sounds like this is quite the interesting mission in our hands. I can’t wait to start going all out again,” Kenaka says while in Erizora’s arms.

“Careful that you don’t get things too out of hand, or Milord might get that knife up your ass for real, that time.” Mametama quips while currently in Ren’s arms.

“Watch it, cat.”

Just when I put the [Soundproof] barrier down, a guild employee, a Harpy named Dorora according to my ‘Size Up’ skill, comes up to us and said she’d take us to the meeting room where Eugus will talk to us, and so we follow her up the stairs. Lili, not being part of the party, stays behind and waits while we decided to have lunch together after we were done.