A Star that s.h.i.+nes in the Night

When Hikaru and Paula returned to the lobby, all the adventurers turned their eyes on them. Some were surprised to see Hikaru unscathed, while some thought he surrendered already. Not one soul considered the possibility that he won.

「Hikaru, here.」

Lavia had finished filling out the party application form. Ignoring the adventurers eyes, Hikaru took the paper.

「Hikaru, that's for the party application, correct? Over here, please.」

Gloria was there, desperate to know what just happened. She had not witnessed the fight in the training grounds.

「In the booth? Isn't the guild busy in the morning? What about the counter?」

「Jill should be back soon. And the submaster is here. Look.」

The submaster came strolling from his office and into the counter to deal with the adventurers.

「Why am I doing this? Then again, we have rank A adventurers today…」he mumbled.

Gloria probably dragged him out here, Hikaru thought. After settling themselves down in the booth, Hikaru checked the application. It was a simple form; you only had to fill out the name and age of the party members, where they registered, and the name of the party.

「Lavia, am I reading this right? You wrote “Hikaru” as the party name?」Hikaru asked.

「It's your party, after all.」Lavia answered.

「That's just weird.」

「I think it's wonderful!」

「Keep quiet for a bit, Paula.」

They hadn't discussed what their name would be. “Hikaru”, however, was just downright terrible.

「Although rare, there are parties that use their leader's name as the name of the party.」Gloria cut in.「But most of those leaders are egoistic.」

The receptionist chuckled. Your wicked side is showing, Hikaru thought.

「What then?」

「Let's see…」

Hikaru wracked his brains. I use the name Silver Face when working behind the scenes, so I want something different. Then again, we'd also be doing things secretly all the same, so…

「New Moon.」Hikaru said.

「New moon? Like the lunar phase?」

「Yup. A night when there's no light from the moon.」

「In that case… How about New Moon Star?」

「Works for me. But why add the star, though?」

「There's no hope when there's only darkness. A star s.h.i.+nes even in the dark. Like how you are to me.」

Lavia could spout embarra.s.sing stuff in front of others without batting an eye.

「That's wonderful!」

Paula, who said yes to everything, was in favor as well. Hikaru felt awkward, but since Lavia insisted, he agreed to the name New Moon Star.

I might be too soft on her. Hikaru didn't mind it.

「All right, then. I'll register your party name.」Gloria said.

「Okay, cool. Bye, then.」Hikaru said as he got up his seat.

「Bye?」Gloria grabbed his arm. She wore a sweet smile, but she was forceful.

「Lavia, Paula. Can you go pick requests? It seems Gloria wants to talk to me.」

「Got it.」

「Okay.」

Having full trust on Hikaru, the girls let him deal with Gloria and made their way to the bulletin board.

「So, Hikaru. What were you doing with Sweet Pleasure?」

「You can ask Jill later. That'll save you some time.」

「Okay… So about Lavia…」

「She's the daughter of the Count.」

Gloria's eyes opened wide. She didn't expect Hikaru to readily tell the truth.

「I doubt anyone still cares, though.」Hikaru added.

「Did she, um… kill the Count?」she asked in a very low whisper.

「No.」

「Are you sure?」

「A hundred percent sure.」

「You have proof?」

「Yup. Lavia saw the killer herself.」

「I see. So you believe her words. By the way, how did she vanish in the middle of the trip to the capital?」

「She mentioned something about being summoned using a spell. I don't know the exact details. I just met her while I went outside of town.」

「Does it have something to do with the hunters you said you met at the forest by the lake?」

Ah, yes. I did make up such a scenario. Hikaru wanted to get promoted faster, so he delivered loots to the guild. And to make things easier, he said he bought them from others, rather than killing monsters.

「I'm forbidden to speak about them. The guild searched for them, right?」

「Yes, but we couldn't find them.」

Of course, not. I made those people up.

「So, you mentioned you had news about Lavia?」Hikaru asked.

「Like you said, no n.o.bles are interested in her anymore. There was one relative of the Count who was searching for the daughter, but only to turn her in and inherit the Count's a.s.sets. I heard that after the incident, most of the members of the Count's faction was absorbed by the grand chamberlain.」

「I see.」

Not entirely useful information, but it wouldn't hurt to learn about these things.

「Is it true? Did you really clear the dungeon?」

「I just happened to meet Gafrasti N. Valves in the dungeon. I found what he was looking for, so I gave it to him. That's all. After that, the place collapsed. Satisfied by what he received, he said he'd bear witness to me clearing the dungeon.」

Gloria's eyes narrowed. It was a lie, of course. She could take it however she wanted, but there was a record of Gafrasti actually acknowledging his clearing the dungeon.

「You can check with him if you want.」

「You know I can't do that. He's in the middle of this conflict.」

「Would that be all?」

「One more thing. It's said that Viscount Valves is behind the current dispute between Prince Kudyastoria and Prince Austrin. Does it have something to do with what you did?」

「I could tell you, but it might put you in danger.」

「I'm a guild receptionist. I'd rather learn the truth of the world and die than live a long life of ignorance.」

Gloria flashed a beautiful, broad smile that captivated Hikaru for a moment.

「Okay, your funeral.」

Hikaru couldn't say no to her smile. He owed her for not telling Jill about Lavia. She might just be an information junkie. She watched him with bright eyes.

「I'll tell you, but on one condition.」

「Not a word to anyone. I got it. I won't tell Jill about it either.」

「Glad you're quick on the uptake. All right, listen closely…」

Hikaru explained what happened from start to end. The dungeon was Poelnxinia's royal capital. Gafrasti was a descendant of the real royal family and should be the one ruling Ponsonia. Hikaru found the family tree in the dungeon that responded when held by a member of the royal family. In other words, it could tell who was the legitimate descendant. And Kudyastoria was a distant relative of Gafrasti, so he was trying to elevate her to her rightful position.

Gloria listened attentively to the end, not asking questions in between. When Hikaru finished…

「W-Wait. I need time to digest this information.」She stood up and went inside. She was covering her nose, but Hikaru caught a glimpse of blood.

「Calm down, sheesh…」

「Can we trust that receptionist?」Lavia asked.

They were outside town, working on a quest to get Lavia and Paula promoted—searching for rare flowers that only bloomed during winter.

On that note, Gloria disappeared, so no one could manage Hikaru's promotion. Thankfully, when they went to the counter to take the quest, the submaster worked on it. He was now rank D.

He wanted the girls, who were rank G at the moment, to climb up to rank E quickly. There were many things a rank E adventurer could do. They could enter dungeons, and the procedure for crossing national borders became easier.

「We can't trust her, but I think we can get her on our side as long as there's something in it for her. I didn't really tell her anything that would get us in trouble, and I'm sure we can use her to gather information if we need it.」

As a matter of fact, she had follow-up reports about Lavia. Hikaru couldn't possibly have a grasp of every n.o.ble's movements. Adventurer Guild receptionists usually received all kinds of information.

「Hikaru-sama, there's flowers over there.」

「Oh, you're right. You have pretty good eyesight.」

For a while now, only Paula found the flowers they needed.

The healer giggled.「I grew up in the sticks, after all. I'm good at finding edible stuff in the mountains. Also moving around without caring about monsters…」She stopped.「I-It's nothing!」

「Yeah, I know it's strange how monsters can't see you when we're holding hands.」

The effects of Group Obfuscation. There were monsters with keen senses around, so he'd been holding hands with the girls—Lavia on his right, and Paula on his left.

Lavia had her Stealth skills, but the Stealth G.o.d plus Obfuscation combo was much more effective.

With his Greater Angel job cla.s.s, Hikaru could now stack five cla.s.ses together. He already had Stealth, Throwing, and Wide Area Detection inputted beforehand, so he added Forest Walker and Civilian to the list. Night Stalker and Sinner had a disturbing ring to them, he'd had enough of Eye of the Storm, Dungeon Walker seemed pointless, and Town Thief just made him feel unpleasant.

Paula knew Hikaru's abilities was top-secret. She refrained from prying into it.

I don't think she has to be that cautious, thought.

They kept gathering materials. After steadily going at it for four straight days, the girls were now just one step short for a promotion to rank F. To actually get to rank F, they needed to work on a request that took them from one Adventurers Guild branch to another. The plan was to take delivery requests to the royal capital tomorrow.

On a side note, Senkun deposited the hundred million gilans he promised to Hikaru's account.

Money left: 1,402,889 gilans (+111,550,000 gilans)