"...Why?" Cecil was a little puzzled at her proposition. Surely as a businesswoman, offering something like the monster he had just picked out for free would be an absurd thing to do.

"Let's just say that I've taken an interest in you~"

"Sorry, but Lucia and Serilla are the only two women I will ever love in this life time," Cecil bluntly replied.

He resolved to himself that Serilla would be the last so he'd swiftly and firmly shoot down all others that take 'interest' in him.

"Wha—it's not like that you idiot!!!" Benedicia immediately flared up when she noticed that she had been misunderstood. "And, what the h.e.l.l are you doing by moving all the way over there?!"

Benedicia pointed at Cecil in exasperation. When she had finished her words earlier, the boy had suddenly backed away in the blink of an eye and stated his rejection. It did hurt her pride a little, but that wasn't what she meant by 'taken an interest'.

"I mean that I'm interested in forming a connection with you and your party! I just found out from your wives that your party is actually platinum ranked!"

Cecil immediately returned back to his seat. He only did this as a precaution since he didn't want a second coming of Serilla to happen again.

"Sorry, I was...traumatized once before," Cecil said as he side-eyed Serilla who was already trying her best to suppress her laughter. Lucia was just the same. Couldn't they have at least informed him beforehand? This way, he'd avoid embarra.s.sing himself and Benedicia.

"Ahem, anyway, I meant that I've taken an interest in your party. After all, you guys are platinum ranked. In all of Tempest, there have only ever been 5 parties who achieved this rank and only 2 parties who have achieved an even higher rank. The current 5 parties, I know all of them, but I haven't met you guys yet, and most importantly, you're all very young."

"And?"

"And that means you guys have the potential to become Diamond ranked!"

"...so?"

Witnessing his lackl.u.s.ter response to all of this, Benedicia immediately grew vexed. "Hey, Cecil, just so you know, Diamond ranked parties are treated by the kingdom on the same level as Earls! Platinum ranked parties is just a step below that, Counts!"

"Should I be happy at this news?" Cecil replied, a little unsure of himself, should he really care about a n.o.bility rank when he wasn't even going to be staying here for long?

"...Honestly, are you just that clueless or are you just uncaring?"

"Honestly, I don't care," The boy immediately replied.

"..."

'This confirms it. This is totally a party of n.o.bles. They don't care about the honor or peerage that accompanies their ranks! If they were commoners, they'd be ecstatic to hear this!'

She was already inclined to think they were n.o.bles when she interacted with Lucia and Serilla earlier. Serilla's mannerism and speech was practically screaming to her that this one right here is a n.o.ble. Lucia was no better, although she talked a little crudely, but her misunderstanding further deepened with how nonchalant Cecil was acting.

In a sense, she was correct. Lucia and Serilla were n.o.bles, but not human n.o.bles. They were beastkin n.o.bility. Cecil wasn't taught any of that mannerism, but his polite way of talking was a little n.o.ble-like.

Another thing that strengthened the misunderstanding was how rich Cecil was. He pulled out a platinum bank card like it was just a piece of paper and waved it around without a care. Not to mention that all 3 of them had spatial rings.

Despite them 'pulling' out things from their bags, they couldn't deceive Benedicia's eyes. She had long since noticed that the 'plain' looking rings on each of the Wanderers' fingers were in fact spatial rings, what more, they were all white spatial rings.

This was something only the royal family or a duke family would have. She immediately inferred this information from what she had seen, but the problem was, as a n.o.blewoman herself, she has never seen these 3 individuals in front of her, so naturally they must be n.o.bles from another kingdom who were out adventuring.

"Well, I want to sell you the monster for a favor, is that okay?"

"A favor?"

"Yeah, I'll probably require your help sometime in the future, so let's just say I'm gifting you this monster so that you'll help me later," Benedicia said.

Cecil frowned a little at this, they were going to be moving far away from this kingdom so whatever favor this young lady wanted to ask from him and his party would probably be unfulfilled later.

"I don't think we can help you, let's just settle the bill normally," Cecil declined her offer.

"Eh?"

"You see, we'll be departing for the western regions after we purchase the monster, we're not just an Adventurer party, but also a mercenary group. We'll be partic.i.p.ating in the Regulus-Merkruz conflict that's rumored to happen in the next couple of years or so."

"What? But...the western regions are so far away! It'll take you guys at least 4-5 years to make it there under if you begin traveling now! Winter is about to set in so it'll be dangerous to being your travels during this time!" Benedicia argued.

"Doesn't matter, we've already made preparations for the journey. We'll be setting off right away, so if you want to buy a favor from us, it's highly likely that we wouldn't be able to fulfill it. So let's just settle things the normal way, yes?"

"..."

Benedicia still wasn't convinced, but seeing as Cecil wasn't going to relent any time soon, she could only reluctantly take Cecil's card and charge him the required amount for selling off the rare breed of Storm Colt to him.

Benedicia sighed regretfully when she handed Cecil his card back, "I just missed out on having a future Diamond Ranked Adventurer Party owe me..."

"Haha, you can post a personal quest for us at the adventurer guild. If we receive word of it and if it's possible for us to do, we'll take it up. Naturally, you'll have to reward us with some—" Cecil ended his sentence by rubbing his two fingers on his thumb.

Seeing the gesture, Benedicia shrugged and said, "Naturally, if it's a quest from me, the reward will naturally be high!"

"Hm, we'll be going now. Thanks for doing business with us."

"Likewise, do drop by sometime."

"That'll be pretty hard to do, this may even be the last time we see each other."

Benedicia led the party outside and they waited for the warden to come. He was currently inside the forest with his team of tamers and they were apparently trying to find the monsters that the people waiting inside the building were asking for.

Cecil didn't want to wait for so long. He had already spread his Mana Sense inside the forest and saw that the warden and his team were still going around finding one final monster to take out.

He walked close to the fence and told the party's new Storm Colt to stay put and to not worry. He began manipulating the roots inside the ground and carefully began encasing the Storm Colt inside a capsule made of roots before pulling it into the ground.

"W-what?!" Benedicia exclaimed in surprise when she saw Cecil's plant manipulation.

Cecil carefully pulled up the Storm Colt to the other side of the fence. He made sure to place the roots he used earlier into their original spots and return the upturned earth into their original places.

"Y-y-you! You used Nature Magic! T-that's—"

"There are things better left unsaid, right Lady Benedicia?" Cecil said with a smile.

"Ugh..."

Seeing Cecil's meaningful smile, Benedicia nodded in reply despite being full of questions. She also turned to look at her butler and her 2 maids. They only nodded in return and this satisfied Cecil.

It wasn't like they were going to be staying in this kingdom any longer, as long as it wasn't the royal family of the kingdom or whatever, it didn't matter to him whether or not someone found out and spread the news. His party would be long gone by then.

"Huhuhuhu~ our Cel's showing off again~"

"Darling, you're only going to attract attention to yourself if you're being so high profiled like this!"

"And whose fault do you think this is? I've been living my life on the low, but some girl came barging into my life and told me that it was stupid and illogical to live life like that!"

"Hey! I'm not just some girl y'know!" Lucia said with a pout.

"Yeah, you're my girl," Cecil replied plainly. His response made Lucia smile brightly at him.

Cecil led the party's new monster to the carriage after they bid farewell to Benedicia. The girl did invite Cecil and the girls to a cup of tea, but he politely declined. He wanted to quickly leave the kingdom as soon as possible.

They've completed their objective for coming into the city so there wasn't much else to do. Now they had to continue on their journey. It also seemed that his earlier prediction of the trip being only 2-3 years was a little too optimistic.

Even Benedicia, a native of Midgard said that it would take the party 4-5 years. Cecil hadn't factored in the terrain condition they'd be traveling through that would obviously provide some form of impediment. There was also the weather that needed to be taken into consideration and the danger areas that they'd have to either go through or avoid.

"c.r.a.p...looks like I was too optimistic..." Cecil mumbled.

"Something wrong Cel?"

"Yeah...it seems our journey will take much longer than expected..."

"Oh...that's okay, Cel! This just means we'll be able to spend more time with each other!"

"Yeah, I guess it does," Cecil said as he patted Lucia on the head. He really liked her optimism. She liked to see the bright side of things.

"Hmhm~ we can make more memories with darling during these 4-5 years together~"

"Well, lady Benedicia did say that it might take 4-5 years, but I'll do everything I can to cut down our travel time. After all, I want to meet my family much sooner than 5 years!"

Lucia had remembered something and she quickly quipped up, "By the way Cel, while you were out finding this horsey, me and Seri were able to exchange some info with Benedicia earlier!"

"Oh? And what's this info about?"

"We'll talk about it later on the wagon!"

Cecil nodded in reply and the party arrived next to their wagon. The people around who saw the group of 3 bring out a large Black Trihorned Storm Colt with them were astonished at the sight. It didn't have any restraints on it and was only calmly walking behind the 3 individuals obediently despite the monster clearly radiating an immense amount of ferocity.

Many people had heard about the few A ranked monsters kept on the ranch that was still untamed, but they didn't expect to see one walking out so calmly without kicking up a fuss.

Yuna exited the wagon from the back door and greeted everyone. Silver was naturally in her arms happily resting in between her two large b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Cecil was beginning to think that Silver was having it way too comfortable nowadays.

Now that he found a replacement for him, he'd now have much more easier days ahead.