――A small building prepared in South Baim.
The Adventurers' Guild, set up near the Dungeon within South Baim, was smaller than the Baim branch, and the number of staff working there was very few.
Those dispatched from the Guild included Marianne, Ryue, and several staff members. As for the shortage of hands, they recruited locally to make up for it.
Few adventurers called South Baim home.
However, that didn't mean they had any free time.
Today, too, a resident of South Baim came to the Guild with a request. To this person, Marianne said:
"I'm sorry. South Baim is not yet ready to accept requests. As such, we are unable to take on your commission."
The person in question was a middle-aged woman.
"Well, that's a real problem! I'm busy with the move and raising kids on top of everything! It's a simple request, so just send someone already!"
The woman—either the wife of a craftsman who had relocated from Baim, or someone who appeared to have come from a nearby village—had to be explained to repeatedly by Marianne before she finally left the Guild. As for the number of adventurers, while there was one party that was first-rate when it came to Dungeons, the rest were nothing more than Erhard and a bunch of dream-chasing youngsters who had gathered from the surrounding areas.
They didn't even know the basics of being adventurers, so there was no way they could complete a request. On top of that, since the branch had just been established, there were all sorts of problems.
"Marianne, the merchants are complaining that they don't have enough materials…"
When one of the staff members reported this apologetically, Marianne responded with a smile despite her exhaustion.
"They'll just have to bear with it. If they want materials, they can commission adventurers directly, or raise the purchase prices—"
This time, it was Ryue who entered the Guild.
"Marianne, about the Magic Stones we have in storage—there's a chance we'll run short at this rate—"
As winter set in, the consumption of Magic Stones increased. Incidentally, the craftsmen were consuming large quantities of Magic Stones for their work. It was inevitable that the Magic Stones managed by the Guild would run short.
While the title of Branch Director sounded impressive, Marianne was expected to work harder than anyone else at the newly established Adventurers' Guild.
Just then, Damian entered the Guild. He had brought three Automaton maids with him, carried a large staff over his shoulder, and was pushing up his glasses with his fingertip.
"You're quite busy here. Or rather, what exactly is going on? The Magic Stones I ordered haven't been delivered yet. If this keeps up, my research is going to fall behind—"
Behind him, Ratarta, a dwarf, came walking in.
"Hey, got any rare metals? If it's gold, Fidel's kid says he'll lend it to Lyle's kid at a high rate, so he'll put up however much there is. I want everything you've got!"
The ones who kept bringing trouble one after another were always people connected to Lyle.
(This is hopeless... I don't know if I can survive here...)
Each time Marianne dealt with yet another trouble that came flying at her, she felt more exhausted—
A complaint from the South Baim Adventurers' Guild.
While reading through the anguished pleas written on the documents, I received the report. The one delivering it was Monica, who had deployed Valkyries to various locations to monitor the situation of the war.
"Chicken. Banseim's forces have approached the walls of Redant Fortress. They're waging subtle harassment and accumulating fatigue on the fortress side, you see. They're inching closer bit by bit, and I can also see signs of them recovering the enemy's arrows."
I stretched in my office.
"So Redant Fortress hasn't been making any effective moves, was it? What about the situation inside the fortress?"
Monica answered immediately.
"It seems they've requested reinforcements. However, Baim appears to be slow to respond."
Upon hearing that report, I decided to withdraw the Valkyries.
"...Pull back the Valkyries I have lurking in Baim. As for Redant Fortress, just keep monitoring it as is."
The fact that Baim was sluggish might mean the merchants were divided among themselves. I'd heard that when there's no clear leader, divided opinions become troublesome. Even with a lord or king, if the retainers disagreed, it was a headache.
And what would happen with merchants who prioritized their own profits above everything else? I'd expected this from the start, but even so, it was worse than I thought.
"Pitiful, those Baim soldiers."
Monica shrugged at me.
"The Chicken who just watches Baim fall into hell is equally guilty, you know. But hey, at least you've got something to look forward to—it's been decided that you're going to hell after you die."
I laughed.
"Sorry about that. My trip to hell's already been decided, so I'm not scared anymore."
Ever since I resolved to fight Ceres, I'd killed countless people for the sake of my own reputation. Telling me now that I didn't want to go to hell wouldn't exactly fly. That is, if hell even existed.
Monica curtsied, pinching the hem of her skirt with her fingertips. The gesture was flawless, completely at odds with her sharp tongue.
"Then allow me, Monica, to accompany you all the way to hell. See, now even that lonely little Chicken can rest easy. ...This is the part where you're supposed to be happy?"
I wasn't the least bit happy... well, that wasn't entirely true either, but I was more preoccupied with the question of whether an Automaton even had anything to do with an afterlife.
"Anyway, let's drop the jokes. The Guild has been sending complaints. Apparently there aren't enough adventurers, and the demands placed on the Guild are excessive. Think you can send anyone over?"
Monica straightened up immediately and looked at me.
"What about Eva, May, and Marina? As for May, she doesn't have any pressing business at the moment. If Eva calls upon her kin, I expect we could gather manpower to take on the Dungeon."
Eva hailed from the Nihil clan, a well-known family among the elves, and was fairly well-regarded. Beyond the Bards among the elves, even the Dark Elf clans who lived in and managed the forest treated her favorably.
"Round up some people and have them take it on. Gather the idle ones too and put them to work inside the Dungeon. As for the others—"
While I was considering who else to send, Mireia approached me with an unusual request.
"Raial, do you have a moment?"
—The Baim merchants' council.
The key figures had gathered there, anticipating that war with Banseim would soon begin in earnest. A soldier commander who had witnessed the fighting from the fortress had been summoned and was now appealing for reinforcements before the merchants.
"The Banseim forces are advancing slowly but surely, dismantling our traps as they go. We're launching attacks, but they've adapted their countermeasures, and there's no sign of their advance slowing. At this rate, they'll reach the first wall. Please—we need reinforcements!"
One merchant raised a question in response to the soldier commander's desperate plea. While the soldier was visibly agitated, the merchants remained calm. After all, they had plenty of soldiers protecting them, and they trusted the walls surrounding the city of Baim.
"That wasn't mentioned earlier—just how bad are the casualties on the fortress side?"
The soldier commander hesitated slightly.
"As for the fortress, there are some injuries, but we still haven't suffered any deaths or serious casualties. However, if this keeps up—"
One of the merchants sighed.
"Even if they've modified that fortress, aren't they already exceeding its capacity with their current numbers? Sending reinforcements now would only make it more cramped, wouldn't it?"
From there, negative opinions about sending reinforcements came one after another.
"Why send reinforcements before there are even any casualties?"
"Weren't there worse situations before, where they defeated many times the number of enemies? I think they're being a bit timid."
"Weren't massive amounts of supplies already sent in? Plus, they should be fighting under advantageous conditions for our side, right?"
Despite the accusing gazes of the merchants, the soldier commander still insisted that reinforcements were necessary. He knew this would happen if he asked for reinforcements before any damage occurred. That's why he hadn't reported the damage.
However, the sight of the Banseim forces methodically dismantling the traps as if they knew they'd been there from the start and slowly closing in was enough to make them seem dangerous.
The soldier commander's shouts did not reach the merchants. Just then, a messenger soldier rushed into the conference room in a panic.
"What is it? We're in an important meeting right now—"
When one of the merchants reprimanded the messenger, the soldier commander rushed over to him. The messenger was exhausted, having ridden hard on horseback.
"What happened? What's going on!"
The messenger said, gasping for breath.
"Th-the first wall has been breached! Of the nearly twenty thousand soldiers on the wall... less than half made it back to the fortress!"
In just a few days since the start of the battle, the first wall had been breached—.
—Redant Fortress.
On the captured first wall, Broa stretched his back, his work done. His adjutant knight had removed his helmet and was holding it under his right arm.
"As soon as they saw the intelligence was accurate, the other generals showed their eagerness. The Knight Commander even launched an offensive during the enemy's retreat and pushed all the way to the front of the fortress itself."
Broa had been on the front lines until the first wall was captured, and his capture of it caused the other generals to start competing for credit, each hoping for a chance at the front lines since they now knew the intelligence was correct.
The information was already in hand; all that remained was to conquer the Baim side, which could only offer scattered resistance. In that case, they were no match for Banseim.
"Opportunities for the Knight Commander to shine in a siege are limited, aren't they? It's basically when boarding the walls, charging on horseback during the pursuit, or leading a frontal assault. When you think about it, that's quite a bit. Still, the Baim side won't come out for an open-field battle, and I understand the eagerness to claim credit."
Seeing Broa looking so listless, his adjutant coughed lightly. It was because soldiers from Banseim were nearby, looking toward the general.
Broa also cleared his throat.
"Well, there are our allies inside the fortress as well. They should be launching their attack from the inside as planned. But Baim is wealthy, isn't it? Their supplies are like a mountain. This way, even we, who were worried about our own provisions, can fight with peace of mind."
From the start, Broa had intended to seize the enemy Baim's supplies to fuel their advance. He planned to supplement their shortage of arrows with Baim's stockpiles, and to take food, weapons, and armor along the way. If he didn't do that, once they entered Baim, the feudal lords would simply raid the surrounding villages and towns.
"We've secured a sufficient amount of supplies. I hope this will at least reduce the amount of looting a little."
The adjutant tilted his head.
"Didn't we already have enough distributed? Surely the lords would refrain from such pointless actions now—"
Broa stopped the adjutant's opinion with an unsettling laugh.
"That's what you thought? You're still too naive. Each of them has their own circumstances, but for a feudal lord, looting during wartime is a valuable source of income. Besides, you've heard that Baim is rich. It's sure to get terrible. And the mercenary groups that were in Baim know the layout of the villages and every little detail. They've been saying they haven't been able to 'earn' much lately... who knows what will happen."
When Broa imagined the atrocities the Banseim forces would commit once they broke through the fortress and were unleashed, he let out a sigh. And he felt a sense of inadequacy at being unable to stop it.
"I'll probably be ordered to stand by here, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."
Watching Broa fret, the adjutant could only stand by and watch—
South Baim.
I was leading Eva, May, and Marina, infiltrating the Dungeon.
The Dungeon descended underground, but other adventurer parties had already reached its lowest level. There were over ten floors, but it was a relatively easy Dungeon to clear, with many Monsters and a rich variety of types.
That made it an easy Dungeon to manage.
That was precisely why we had left this one intact.
Eventually, it would become an important source of income for South Baim.
Eva looked at me with a worried expression.
"Lyle, didn't you say you were busy? I heard that when you mentioned going to the Dungeon, Monica went on a rampage or something."
Monica had work, and I couldn't afford to let her take the day off, so I left her behind. She'd just insisted on coming along.
"She didn't throw a fit. She kept annoying me with how capable she supposedly was, so I just ignored her and left. Besides, I'm not planning to earn money here for days."
I'm not an adventurer, and I won't be accepting payment this time. I did, however, intend to pay proper rewards to Eva and May, who had come along, as well as Marina.
"Come to think of it, Marina, weren't you held up back in Baim?"
Marina, wearing her usual leather coat with metal equipment only on her arms and legs, shrugged.
"I want to fight strong opponents. I lost to May, but this time I'd like to have a go with the kid too."
Her way of addressing May had shifted from "little lady" to calling her by name. Apparently she was a musclehead, and having lost, she now followed orders.
If anything, she was even more of a First Generation-type woman. They surely would have hit it off if they'd ever spoken.
May looked my way.
"Even so, what are you trying to accomplish in a Dungeon like this at this point? It's way too easy for someone like you, Lyle."
To May, who couldn't understand what I was after, I gave a brief explanation of the Guild's current situation.
"The Guild came crying to me for help. Marianne seems to be at her limit too, and if I don't help out here... it'd be a problem if she collapsed."
Marianne was the only competent person who knew the ins and outs of managing the Guild. Ryuen had come as well, but while he was a capable enough employee, he was still just staff. He was someone worth investing in for the future, but he wasn't at the stage where he could manage people yet.
May shook her head. Yet for some reason, she looked a little sad.
"That's not what I mean. What I'm saying is, even if you hadn't come, someone else would have been fine. There are plenty of situations where it'd be worse if you were the one to step away."
I walked on in silence.
The Jewel — I'd been asked by Mireia to stay close to May inside the Dungeon. In truth, the Guild matter was only the surface reason. Mireia had asked me to stay by May's side. I understood that, if only vaguely.
"...It's almost time, you know. There's someone whose farewell is approaching. Before that, I wanted to make a little time."
May seemed to understand. She gave a short reply.
"...I see."
And then she murmurs, half to herself.
"Right... it's another farewell, isn't it? Next time... well, I probably won't be able to meet them."