Chapter 99

Congratulations, Gaston-san! After a rigorous review, the previous merit and report was granted, and the promotion from semi-D-cla.s.s to D-cla.s.s was granted! All of us on the staff look forward to your continued success!

The receptionist guts posed and called out to Gaston .

The receptionist is quite young, and she doesnt look much older than me .

Besides, its the first time Ive seen her face before .

Im sure shes new and doesnt know Gastons normal behavior .

The receptionist is congratulating him honestly, but the staff member who is organizing the papers in the background is watching the exchange between the two of them suspiciously .

Todays Gaston was more obedient than usual .

Unusually, he stood in line and walked with no effort, his shoulders slumping discouragingly . Then he occasionally let out a sigh as if hes remembered something .

He seemed to be very much affected by the sale of his sword .

But after a rigorous review, the achievements and reports were recognized

Maybe thats the template, but as a person who is cheating, Im horrified .

As expected of brother Gaston! We didnt think you were capable only just being a semi-D-cla.s.s!

The small man beside Gaston utters intelligible sycophancy .

Yeah, I guess so .

Gastons tension in response is low .

Its like a different person from Gaston, who was so attached to his rank before .

Oh yeah, brother Gaston, what happened to that Huge sword?

Oh, Ahhhh, yeah . Well, just with bare hands is enough for a magic beast .

Kah! As expected of brother Gaston, I cant take it . Thats right, of course, my brothers knuckles are harder than mere metal!

What now, Im seriously starting to feel sorry for him .

I dont think Ive done anything wrong to Gaston, but I feel so guilty about it .

Vairablow .

Hmm? Whats the matter with you, brother?

Its nothing . Its nothing .

Gaston glances sideways at me, then slowly shakes his head .

Yeah, thats a serious injury .

I hope he doesnt turn on us and resent us but he doesnt look like she has the energy to do so .

Its okay, Gaston .

Ill raise your rank as promised, so stay strong .

Abel? Whats wrong?

Mea, who was stroking the back of her new shooting wyvern (the bow I made last night), looks into my face .

Ohhhh, no, I figured Id better work harder on it .

Yes! And Mea would love to test the power of the reborn Shooting Wyvern! With this, Ill show how useful this will be to Abel!

She puts his strength into his hand holding the bow and says so enthusiastically .

Thanks to the Gordon brothers collecting the money from Gaston last night, I had quite a bit of money to spare .

It seems that Mea was also eager to learn archery, so I bought some materials and made a bow, thinking that it would be better than an old raggedy bow .

The bow itself has been made by the Marrene tribe before, so as long as I have the materials, I can make it to fit Meas height .

I bought as much good material as possible and stayed up all night yesterday to make it .

By the way, because Mea didnt want to throw away her old shooting wyvern, which was her friend in arms, she took the strategy of first saying The strings are ruined, so its hard to aim at them, and then saying The life of the wood seems to be short, so Id better replace it and replacing the body .

It was what is commonly known as the Theseus s.h.i.+p paradox .

Id like to think that this has taken over the soul of the Shooting Wyvern .

Are we going to the forest again next time?

Yeah, I want to go to the woods . Im still curious about the continuing anomalies . I want to look into that in earnest this time .

In the meantime, Ive included a brief discussion of the continuing anomalies in the forest as a P . S . to the last sentence of the report that Mea wrote .

I thought that if I got the ears of the higher-ups at the Adventurers Support Center, they might respond in some way, but its just an adventurers report .

I dont expect that much, and even I cant confidently a.s.sure you that theres something there .

To begin with, looking at the current exchange between Gaston and the receptionist, its doubtful that the report is even being read properly .

I wouldnt be surprised if it was thrown out for dereliction of duty .

Id have preferred to find out for myself if I could, and thats fine .

Later Id like to look for some nice, trees that possess magic deep in the forest .

A tree that possess magic?

Yeah, because I havent carved Ortem at all compared to when I was in the village . It makes my fingertips feel jittery .

An Ortem could only make good things if I used trees with high magic power .

All of the trees near the Marren tribes village had a high magic power, but this was not the case with the trees around here .

I touched it and saw how blessed that village was .

Im not expecting to find such a good tree just because I went a little deeper into the forest . It would be nice to have some here, was the goal for now .

And even if I found it, Id have to carry the tree back home or just carve the Ortem and leave it alone .

The reason why the World Tree Ortem is able to be called up at will through teleportation is because it itself is an extraordinary ma.s.s of magical power .

I dont expect a tree with a World Tree cla.s.s magic power to grow in a forest like this in a magical manner .

When I was talking to Mea about such things, something suddenly called out to me from behind .

Youd better quit going to the forest .

It was a familiar voice .

When I turned around, I saw Maizens face .

Its been a while, Abel, Mea . Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I wouldnt recommend the forest right now .

As soon as I saw Maizens face, a scene I saw in the guild just the other day flashed back into my mind .

A member of Maizens party was kissing another man in broad daylight, despite the fact that she had a boyfriend in the party .

I lose track of the words Im about to say and shut up .

Oh, isnt it Maizen .

Mea had an immediate reaction to the example as if she had determined that it was a blanket imitation of someone else .

Why do you say we cant go to the forest?

They say they found something dangerous in the forest . Rumor has it thats why the lords private army is heading to the forest today .

Something dangerous?

Oh, dont be surprised . Its a huge hand made of soil . The adventurers call it the Hand of G.o.d . I didnt believe it at first, but then I saw it . I was shaken up and we all ran away .

thats the same one I used on Gordon .

Mea seemed to have figured it out and quickly closed his mouth .

I could tell from a distance, that it was something sinister . I dont know much about that sort of thing, but how should I say this, I could sense a vicious destructive impulse in the air .

Im the one who made it .

Was that really that sinister?

Eh, by the way, was that really how the Lords private army reacted?

Why, its just a little raised dirt .

If they find out about this, wont they make us take responsibility for moving private soldiers around for no reason?

Eh, heeeh, I see . Its not that Mea doesnt think it has any evil or destructive impulses .

Ahhh, you know . I heard that the Support Center is trying to keep the information secret, but I dont think theyll be able to hide it . Its too big . Anyway, you shouldnt go there . Theres no way something like that would come naturally, so there must be some kind of monster out there . I think its hard to take on that thing, even for Abel .

The one that made that is me, though .

Tha-, thank you for the advice I, I see . Im starting to get scared now, yeah .

I thought about going in different ways with him now, but I still couldnt stop myself from asking about the party .

Honestly, I cant help but be curious .

You know your party, how is it going right now? The two people other than Maizen were dating, right? Has it been awkward lately? No, Im just using an example

Ahhh, Tilda and Risha .

Saying their names, Maizens expression darkens .

The mood has been a little bad lately . Its just that the situation is they get into an argument over little things, and Im the go-between . I dont know whats going on, they were really close until recently . Im trying to figure out what to do about it, too, but

Thats probably not going to help .

It would be better to break up now, was the words come out just until my throat .

Should I say it, or should I just keep quiet

I dont want to feel like Im knocking over a stick that someone is trying so hard to support from the side .

Heeeeh, is that so I guess its called malaise, isnt it? They seemed so lovey-dovey, but its kind of sad .

Whenever we talk about love, Mea comes on board with a curious tone .

But its probably not that cute .

Im sure Ill be able to put my charisma to good use . Honestly, since then Ive risen from semi-E-cla.s.s to E-cla.s.s . As a party, I want to improve its performance from here on out .

Maizen huffed and ruffled his hair deliberately .

I, I see . But if the mood of the party is so bad, I think it would be a good idea to re-create the party or something

N-, no, I dont think its something to be worried about that much, really, yeah . Itll pa.s.s soon, probably . Because you see, Im here . Me! Im confident to make the mood relaxed and . . yeah

Maizen, one day there will be a hole in your stomach, wont there?