Nightfall.

  Having just pleted their quest and traveled such a long distahat took the entire day, no one was against a joint celebratory dinner Yuuji suggested.

  Although not swimming in money by any means, the Swords of Darkness made enough silver and gold from their adveo save a portion of the profit for better equipment and party funds, while still having enough for their own personal savings and to live a retively fortable adventurer life.

  Unlike some others who chose to spend their spare time on gambling, women, and/or booze, the Swords of Darkness were frugal with their mohey rarely bought expehings that weren’t reted to their adventuring lives. They ate iaverns that still sold fvorful meals that were filling, and stayed in cheap inns.

  So, no one posed to splurge a bit for a celebratory dinner with their new fellow adventurers and friends.

  It would also be a good ce to deepen their friendship with a future Adamantite ranked adventurer party, which they were certain Yuuji and the others would be in future. Perhaps, even in the near future.

  After all, they’ve seen just what kind of inhumas they were capable of.

  The group quickly arrived at a cozy little wooden tavern. From the outside, warm, ish light glowed softly from the seams of the closed windows and the weling two pairs of saloon doors made of woods from trees that grew just outside of town.

  They could see the s sign hung by small s from a wooden stick; “Honey Dew Tavern”. A quite weling and cozy name for a tavern within the fortress city of E-Rantel.

  They entered, and immediately, they could see the interior which was rger than they expected. Four small round tables with chairs on all four cardinals sat o the ter, leaving a path that led directly to the bar and food ter.

  While oer sides of the floor, he walls, were fer, regur tables with a long stool bench that could fit four people if they weren’t in heavy pted armor.

  They could see quite the number of ers already filling most of the round tables and the regur tables at the side.

  Some were adventurers, judging from their leather attire and swords, dagger, and bows. The copper and silver ptes hanging down by the leather string around their neck were also an easy identifier for their profession and rank.

  There were also sur people who had e to simply enjoy the food and the cozy ambience, such as the old man with a half drunk pint of ale and another empty one beside it, or the old couple having their dinner.

  Upoering, their appearance immediately stole the attention of every single person withiablishment.

  While some were clearly drunk, judging by their unfocused gaze and flushed tehey all still had their attention stolen by the two beautiful women who had just ehe small tavern as well as the magnifit, white gold full pted armor.

  The people in the spotlight didn’t seem to care about the gazes poi them, and simply looked around curiously at the pce they’ve e into. The pce was exactly what they would imagine whehought of a cozy, medieval fantasy tavern.

  But Peter, Ninya, Lukrut, and Dyne couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward from the gazes, even though they knew clearly who and why those gazes were poi them.

  Fortunately, a sweet, old woman, a grandmother quickly approached them with a surprised, yet still visible smile as she dried her hands on the apron with flowery patterns tied around her waist.

  “Good evening, gentlemen, dies. How may I help you?”

  “Ah, good evening madam. We came here on the reendation of miss Lizzie Bareare.”

  Immediately upon hearing the name of the old herbalist, the surprise and wariness in her eyes disappeared. Her smile became genuine as the old woman seemed thten.

  “Oooh really? That’s lovely! You all seem like adventurers. Were you hired by old Liz to protect her on one of her gathering excursions?”

  “Actually, we were hired by her grandson, madam. We have just returned from out of town.”

  “I see! Well, it’s o meet you. My name is Maria, the proprietor of this humble establishment! e in and take a seat! lenty of seats on the far left there! And don’t worry, those benches are made of tough wood! In fact, it was used by some rambunctious fel to hit someone in full pte armor once! And it didn’t break! It's the bench right there! So your friend here in amazing armor wouldn’t o worry!”

  Yuuji smiled softly under his helmet and lowered himself slightly and nodded gratefully.

  “Thank you for your hospitality, madam.”

  “Hoho, no need for thanks, deary! We here pride ourselves in hospitality!”

  Maria ughed, revealing a few holes in her set of teeths.

  “Well well, you youngsters must be famished after a hard day’s work! You’re wele to order a lot of things! And since you’re reended by old Liz, I’ll give you a , so don’t worry!”

  “Thank you, madam!”

  Led by grandma Maria, the group made their way to the long, regur table to the left and began food and drinks, whicluded a few pints of ale for Peter, Lukrut, Dyne, and Momonga.

  Although Momonga would unfortunately be uo feel drunk or even tipsy, the middle-aged saryman part of him still yearned for the refreshing, carbonated alcohol that he’d sometime have after a long day’s worth of work (torture) in his pany.

  Yuuji also decided to order additional food for everyoo celebrate, which he would be paying for.

  The Swords of Darkness felt a bit relut at first. After all, although Yuuji and his group seemed to be well off sidering their equipment, they were still a bit hesitant to have someone youhan them and teically their junior in adventuring to pay for their food.

  However, Yuuji insisted and persuaded them as vingly as he could.

  After all, celebration wasn’t the only reason why he wao order more food and drinks for everyone.

  It was timing.

  Although there was a low ce that the Swords of Darkness would return to the herbal shop te into the night, they could still e across Clementine, who was currently in this neighborhood to kidnap Nfirea.

  So until she left with her quarry, he wao make sure that the Swords of Darkness would not e across her path.

  There was no need for unnecessary bloodshed.

  Thus, the group ate and drank and celebrated into the night.

  Lukrut challenged Lupu to a drinking bout after she goaded him. And the results were to be expected. It was an unfair match to begin with. A man who was barely level 10 wouldn’t be able to test against the stitution of a level 75 Werewolf/Succubus.

  Meanwhile, the rest engaged in civil versations.

  Momonga versed with Dyne about each other’s background, in whionga had to mix up some lies with truths by ging the profession “Saryman” as “Court Magus” from some far off try that he worked in before meeting Yuuji and the others.

  Aika chatted with Ninya, mostly about the myths and legends and stories she had read from the books she was fond of. And iurn, whehere es a topic of romance, which was frequent in the kinds of fantasy novels Ninya loved, Aika would tell her episodes of her life with Yuuji.

  It didn’t take long for Ninya to be immersed in Aika’s stories instead.

  Finally, Yuuji aer discussed what sort of things they will be doing from here on out.

  Aer expressed his admiration for him and his desire to tio train and bee strohis enter with Yuuji and the others had broadened his horizons and reignited his will to improve himself, earn more money, and live up to the expectations of his friends and rades.

  “Haha… It’s true, Alexander-san. You’ve helped us in more ways than you know… You helped us reignite our passion aermination for adventuring.”

  Peter gulped dow bit of his beer and pced the gss pint down to the table, marking his third finished pint.

  “Holy, it’s been quite tough and monotonous for us to just go outside of town a little and sge foblin ears, which would only give us a few silvers to be divided amongst 4 people. We’ve tried doing tougher quests, but we never challenged anything beyond our fort zone since we’re afraid of failing it and l our ranking, that is if we return alive.

  So, we’ve been stuck for quite a while here. But seeing you, Aika-san, Momon-san, and Lupu-san in a… It reminded us to look up at the sky when we’ve been busy looking at the ground.

  You gave us the motivatioermination, and will to push the limits and improve ourselves. So thank you…!”

  Peter lowered his head, getting the attention of the other members of his party as well as Yuuji’s party as they all turo look.

  “I didn’t expect our preseo motivate you so much, Peter-san. It is truly an honor. And I wish you nothing but the best moving forward. But, remember. Your safety and the safety of your party members and friends are still paramount, above anything else. For if you live today, you will still have tomorrow to bee stronger.”

  “Yes! Thank you very much for your advice, Alexander-san! I’ll make sure to carve your words in mi-”

  At that moment, the tavern doors opened with a bang, startling everyohin.

  Turning their heads, they saw a short, old woman donned in an apron appear with a face filled with fear and panibsp;

  “A-Alexander-san!!! Please! I need your help!!!”

  --------------------------------X--------------------------------

  After leaving a bag of gold, which tent could easily be used to purchase the eavern, Yuuji cast his Holy Aura I: fort to dispel everyone’s shod ay, and erased the drunkenness of the Swords of Darkness.

  They quickly rushed out of the Honey Dew tavern and headed to the Bareare herbal shop as Lizzie told them about what happened on the way. And her fears that her grandson had also bee… another victim to the rumored murderer that had taken numbers of lives retly.

  “Wait. Let me enter first. Just in case.”“R-Right…”

  Upon arriving, Yuuji held out his hand, stopping Lizzie from entering her own shop first in case there were traps left behind by the kidnapper.

  He pushed open the already opened wooden door, which Lizzie presumably left open uionally when she burst out of her herbal shop to find Yuuji and the adventurers who escorted her grandson iavern in a panibsp;

  The creaking of its hinges, which was normally quiet enough to be negligible, now echoed throughout the darkened interior. There were no torches, dles, ic powered crystal lights to light up the interior. Only silend the soft howl of the chilling night air.

  Yuuji did not sense Clementine’s presehin the area anymore. But ohing immediately caught his attention. A st. A figurative st.

  Traces of a presence… A dark presehat of a sinister murderer.

  Yuuji stepped into the dark, the sound of metal from his armor echoed throughout the wooden interior.

  Peter and Lukrut tried looking inside and passed Yuuji’s figure and readied themselves in case there was indeed danger. However, the darkness didn’t let even Lukrut to see beyond the faint shapes of the objects within, much less Peter.

  There were no signs of struggle. The furniture was unmoved, and there were no signs of their drawers and cupboards being ransacked. Except in one pce.

  On the rge work table deep ihe room, all the various types of herbs and pnts Nfirea had harvested from their journey had been id out ly. And there was one area, he longer side of the table, where herbs were scattered on the floor.

  Yuuji entered and tinued walking in as he sighe others to enter with his hand.

  Peter entered first, followed by Lukrut and Lizzie. Aika, Momonga, and Lupu e.

  Yuuji waved his hand and four, brilliant, spheres of light appeared, lighting up the entire room.

  It was then that they could all see what had happened.

  “...He must have been taken while he was s the herbs he harvested.”

  “Yes… I was out in the garden at the back, pig up some herbs to make tea. That’s when I heard a noise inside. Didn’t think much of it. Though he just dropped something, I took my time. But when I came ba… he was gone!”

  Seeing the se of the i once again, Lizzie’s plexion paled once again. Cold speared on her forehead, slowly dripping down her wrinkled face, as she imagihe worst case possible. Her legs were trembling. The only thing barely keepianding was the slim hope of finding her grandson alive.

  Just then, a hand touched her shaking shoulder, and a warmth apanied by the st rant rose and flowers wafted into her nose as she looked to her side.

  “It will be fine. Since he was taken, not killed, they must need him alive. So at the very least, he’d still be alive for now.”

  “Yes… You’re right. You’re right…”

  Lizzie took a few deep breaths before steeling herself and looked towards the warrior in the impressive white gold draic armor.

  “Alexander-san, I’ll hire you and your friends.”

  Yuuji turned and looked down towards the old woman looking up to him. Her reddened eyes shined with steeled determination as faint tear marks still painted her fabsp;

  “Please. Find my grandson. Keep him safe. Bring him bae, alive. And I’ll pay you handsomely!”

  There regnant silence. All eyes gathered towards the white pted armor warrior, waiting for his answer.

  Some filled with expectations of acceptao the old woman’s desperate request. Some simply waited for his answer with the iion to follow any decision he made. While some simply waited for the ahey’ve already determio be spoken.

  After a few moments that felt like hours, Yuuji looked up, and turowards Peter and the rest of the Swords of Darkness.

  “Would you please notify the guards of this i and secure the area?”

  Surprise colored all of their faces. They did not expect Yuuji to suddenly address them instead of responding to Lizzie’s request.

  Peter looked at him in shock. But soon, he slowly nodded.

  “Alright…”

  “eter?”

  “Let’s go, you guys… We o notify the guards aheir help to track down the kidnapper.”

  “O-Oi, wait-”

  Peter walked out without waiting for Lukrut, and the rest of the Swords of Darkness followed him out hurriedly, leaving Lizzie aloh Yuuji and the others.

  Lizzie looked at the remaining group perturbed and fused. And before she could say another word, Yuuji spoke up.

  “Miss Bareare, as of now, we are the most powerful adventurer in this city, and the only ones who could bring yrandson back, alive. I am sure you are aware of this as well.”

  Lizzie slowly followed Yuuji’s gaze as he turowards Momonga slightly, and realized something.

  “If you wish to hire us, then we will accept. However… the price will be high. Higher than you may think. Because I am fully aware of how troublesome this would be.”

  “That’s… That’s right… If it was you, who possessed that potion… And Nfirea’s stories were real… Then there’s no doubt about your strength. I-I’ll do it! How much will you be satisfied with?”

  “Everything.”

  “...What?”

  Lizzie froze in shocked angst as her body trembled violently.

  “Any gold you have in possession would be a drop in the o for me. I have no need for it. But you, your knowledge, your skills, and your loyalty. That would be the price I would ask in exge for the life of yrandson. I believe it to be a fair price?”

  The old grandmother caught herself with a step back as she looked at the white gold holy warrior in shocked fusion.

  The juxtapositioween his holy appearand the geone of his voice… to the implication of the words he just said.

  His words were akin to the words of a devil, a pact. Yet somehow, Lizzie felt… assured. His words felt genuine.

  From that moment forward, the tremblings stopped, and her ay disappeared.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll give you everything I have! So please save my grandson!”

  VergsX