The sun was starting to set when we finished off the last slug. Fortunately, the headman was kind enough to offer us a place to spend the night before we returned to Nevda Town the next morning. I had a sneaking suspicion he wanted to have us around in case any other slugs were found, since fires were more visible at night, but we accepted his hospitality anyway.

They even offered us a simple dinner of hard bread and lentil soup. It wasn't the most flavourful meal, but was warm and filling nonetheless. I was also glad to have a warm fireplace and proper beds to sleep in. The headman explained that they usually kept spare rooms for travellers or adventurers who stopped by in exchange for doing some chores or odd jobs. I thought it was pretty nice of them to provide this service.

Naturally, I was rooming with my mum while Masa was with my dad. What, were you expecting otherwise? Our days of unchaperoned camping were over now that my parents had joined the party. Well, we had clearly explained our previous camping situations to them, so they weren't too upset in the first place. My mum did nag at me for only bringing instant noodles, but unlike her, my inventory was rather limited. She did give me some tips on increasing the space in my Void through visualisation, but at the moment, I was all right with my duffel bag image with lots of pockets.

We had an early night and rose with the dawn the next day. I slept like a log after all the exercise we had the day before and woke up feeling refreshed, although my arms and legs were starting to ache. Masa seemed to be in a similar condition, but he still smiled and raised his hand in greeting when he saw me. We proceeded to the living room where a lavish breakfast was waiting for us. There was bread, jam, some sort of gruel, a couple of platters of cut fruits, plus fried tomatoes, potatoes, beans and mushrooms.

My mum was helping to bring out the plates, so I guessed that some of the food was provided by her. She did always encourage us to have a good and nutritionally-balanced breakfast in the morning. The headman and his wife looked rather pleased as they joined us for the feast. It was a nice change to have western food rather than Asian food, so I enjoyed the meal very much. Masa wasn't too picky about food either. In fact, he seemed to like the potatoes and mushrooms as I saw him ask for seconds. My dad ate a whole lot as usual, though I barely saw my mum eat anything, also as usual. Maybe she usually ate while taste-testing the food as she cooked?

We left the village right after breakfast although we offered to stay to clean up at first. The headman's wife insisted that we leave it to her, since we had already shared our food. As we waited by the bus—or rather, carriage stop, we continued a bit of our training, with dad correcting my stance and mum coaching Masa about cooperation and working on his accuracy when using his magic.

The carriage finally arrived and we had an uneventful trip back to Nevda Town. We let my mum handle the report since she wanted to make sure we received our reward. She and a guild staff member haggled back and forth a bit, since we accepted a request to kill a Giant Flame Slug, but had actually ended up killing only Flame Slugs or even Small Flame Slugs, even if their numbers were considerable. The guild staff looked unconvinced, and finally said that he would consult the guildmaster on this matter.

My mum looked annoyed and kept on tapping her foot as we waited. As usual, the rest of us went to look at the request board. I could more or less memorise most of the regular or older untaken requests by now, so I scanned for new ones instead. Ah, but we were leaving Nevda Town after this, so maybe we shouldn't accept any more requests. I was worried we wouldn't have enough time since Masa had to return to his home soon. Would his parents feel better knowing that he was with travelling some capable adults? Hmm…but the thought of my parents meeting his parents was…making me itch. My ears and neck got unbearably hot suddenly.

W-well, it was the responsible thing to do, right? It was partly my parents' fault that he spent so much time in Shyi'eld recently, so—

A crash interrupted my thoughts. Someone had collapsed at the door of the guild. "Someone, anyone?! Our party needs help!" rasped the injured man as he tried to stand up again and failed.

Why did this feel familiar? Oh yeah, something similar happened the last time we were here, didn't it? Was this kind of event merely a typical day at the guild or something? I watched the guild staff swiftly and yet calmly get to work, both healing and asking the man questions to assess the situation.

Apparently their party was returning from a quest and encountered a tougher monster than expected. They used up all their potions while completing the request and didn't have any left to deal with any injuries incurred while taking down the monster. From some of the staff members' response, it was a common occurrence for less experienced parties, but occasionally even veteran parties encountered this sort of thing.

I noticed a couple of the female staff members holding back their colleague. The latter had grabbed her sword and looked ready to dash off into the wilds on her own. "Don't worry, we'll send out an emergency request! Your brother will come home safely!" A female staff member with short blond hair tried to persuade the redhead.

"It'll be too late by then! Let me go!" shouted Crystie, struggling in their grasp. Her gaze caught mine and her eyes widened. "Rynn! Rynn, you've got to help Daryl! This man is from the same party, so Daryl's probably wounded somewhere out there!"

Oh dear…It looked like our plan to leave Nevda Town was going to be postponed again.