A Commission From The Hunter Guild
I noticed something when our fists collided. Just like that greenhorn sword
emperor, Zack was gifted with a talent for martial arts. To be honest, as I
was born without such talent, I really enjoyed a match against a mass of
talent like Zack.
Maybe because I had gotten too focused on our bout, I had forgotten about
my surroundings until someone called out my name. I immediately looked
in the direction where the voice came from and saw two men prostrating in
front of the arena.
I remember them. One of them was the hunter who had made a laugh of me
back in the hunter guild. He was a tall, blonde hunter called Raiga. Back
then, he had looked down on me. For such a man to assume such a
humiliating posture in front of me, the situation had to be extremely
troublesome.
「What happened? Tell me in detail.」
「EVERYTHING IS MY FAULT! My comrades! The city!」
Raiga's speech was a complete mess. He was crying nonstop. It seemed the
incident had really disturbed his mind.
Since Raiga's speech was a mess, I looked at the other, hooded man with
short black hair to hear his story, but…
「Our careless actions have brought danger to Barse. Please, lend us your
power!」
His explanation was short and to the point.
Barse is in a dangerous situation, huh! That enslaved beast-folk girl and
Arnold are both in that city. Abandoning them is out of the question!
Good grief! Trouble always comes from an unexpected direction.
Then, I realized that along with these two men, a girl with her long hair
tied in a ponytail had come to the side of the arena too. She seemed out of
breath,
「Kai Heineman-san, there's a cooperation request from the guild master of
Barse city, Ralph Excel, to subjugate the [Regional-Class]'s monster.
Please come back with us to Barse city immediately!」
The woman shouting with disheveled breath was the receptionist of Barse's
hunter guild, Mia.
Mia's remark raised a commotion in the entire venue.
「I'm abstaining from the match.」
I stepped down from the arena and walked toward the trio after saying that
to Old Man Aaron.
「Let's go! Tell me the details along the way.」
I commanded them with a strong voice since the situation seemed to be
terrible over there.
Rose and co. were already waiting for us in front of the martial arts venue.
All of us headed together to the closest plaza.
I couldn't prevent Old Man Aaron and Zack from following us since there
was nothing to hide in this situation.
After we reached the plaza, we heard the story from the trio.
「I see. Monsters from the deep forest are heading toward Barse, huh…」
Rose muttered with a dead-serious expression.
Despite their lack of qualifications, Raiga and his comrades had managed to
locate the [Ancient Temple] in the deepest part of the sea forest of Silke,
all thanks to the item they got from a suspicious person. It turned out to be a
trap. That trap killed everyone except Raiga and Hook. And thanks to their
action, the monsters living in the deep forest came out at once toward
Barse.
The one requesting my reinforcement might have been Arnold. That
personage seems to overestimate my capabilities.
「So, Asta, do you know about this?」
Even though not even a day had passed, Asta seemed like a well-informed
person.
「Unfortunately, I still don't have enough information about this world.
Therefore, I lack the foundation to make any assumption.」
""
It seemed she wasn't lying. Or, should I say she was simply not interested
in this matter. It was obvious just by looking at her face after all.
I shifted my gaze to Faf. She had already fallen asleep while clinging to my
clothes. Come to think of it, it's time for her afternoon nap. I guess I can't
ask Faf about this matter either.
「Well, I guess I have no choice but to go back to Barse.」
Let's keep this matter for later. I'll somehow do something about this
situation anyhow.
「So? What are you going to do now? It'll take one and a half day's
journey from this place to Barse even if you use the fastest carriage. I mean,
you should know that Barse might get destroyed during that time, right?」
Zack, you're enjoying this situation, right? Moreover, you seem to be eager
to stop me. Then―
「Uhm, I don't need a youngster like Zack to remind me of something that
I'm well aware of, right? I'm also rather curious about that.」
Old Man Aaron spoke in a curious voice while stroking his long, white
beard.
「Kai?」
Rose looked at me with a pleading gaze.
""
「I understand.」
Heaving a sigh, I took out the [Subjugation Picture Book] from my item
box, opened the page I was looking for, then chanted [Release] in my
mind.
The next moment, a suspicious giant bird appeared before us. Yes, it was
the guardian of the 700th floor, Phoenix. This suspicious bird had the same
name as the divine bird. Although he was a noisy fella who kept on chirping
about immortal this, immortal that, after I kept chopping him up for five
hours straight, he had chickened out and died for real.
『Ooh, Our great Supreme Ruler! What kind of order do you have for this
bird?』
The self-proclaimed divine bird(Phoenix) appeared while lowering his head
till it touched the ground beneath him.
「You hijacked every single authority in [God's Ordeal], and you're
telling me that you're just a "human"!!」
Asta was sweating from head to toe, mumbling some mumbo-jumbo while
chewing on her thumbnail. She looked more repulsive than usual. Uhm,
well, let's ignore her. It's a much better option for her after all.
Besides Faf, who was rubbing her sleepy eyes, everyone looked open up in
silence, mouth wide open in shock.
「Take me to the place I point out to you.」
『Your wish is my command!』
Our bodies then floated in the air and landed on Phoenix's back. Phoenix
ruled over resurrection, fire, and wind. He had lifted all of our bodies with
his wind.
「Fly until the city located in the northern direction of this city comes into
view.」
『As you wish!』
The self-proclaimed, suspicious immortal bird, Phoenix, hovered in the air
as he flapped his wings. Then, he flew toward the northern direction at
lightning speed.