"What in the world is— Oh! Flute, it's been a while!"
When I spotted Flute heading my way at a brisk pace, I called out a greeting—only to have her grab me by the arm and drag me straight to the Guild Master's office.
I'd more or less expected things to go this way from the way Flute was beelining toward me, so Grandpa and the others simply followed along without any panic.
"Guild Master! Tenma's party has arrived!"
"Good! We need you to take on the subjugation of either the Ogre patrol that appeared to the north or east, or the Orc horde that's set up on the western or southern roads!"
The situation in Gunjou City had apparently deteriorated well beyond what I'd imagined. However—
"Grandpa's party already took out the Ogre patrol to the north, so that request is complete. In that case, we're exhausted, so if you'll excuse us…"
On our way to Gunjou City, I'd been scouting the surroundings with Search pretty much the entire time, so the Ogre patrol the Guild Master was referring to had to be the one Primera's group had already defeated.
I made to turn on my heel—but Flute's grip on my arm only tightened.
"At the very least, turn in the Ogre patrol you say you defeated. Knowing you and your party, it's unlikely you let any other Ogres slip by, but it is possible one moved in the opposite direction from what witnesses predicted based on their sighting location."
With that, the Guild Master called over some staff, and the women—minus Amour—were ushered into another room to discuss the Ogre situation. Amour had started to go with them, but the Guild Master told her to stay behind, saying he had something else to ask of her.
"So here's what I'd like: we'll have a veteran adventurer confirm the northern incident, Tenma, I'd like you to handle the Ogre patrol confirmed to the east, and Amour, I'd like you to take on the Orc horde on the western or southern roads. This isn't a designated request, but would you please accept?"
Apparently, most of the adventurers currently active in Gunjou City were rookies, and the veterans numbered only about a third of the newcomers—so they were in no shape to tackle two separate locations simultaneously, let alone four.
On top of that, we'd shown up and knocked out the northern problem like a welcoming gift, so the Guild Master wanted to wrap up the remaining three spots in one fell swoop. He said it wasn't a designated request, but it was practically the same thing.
For reference, each Orc horde numbered close to fifty. Out of the roughly one hundred and fifty adventurers on hand, he was thinking of splitting the hundred or so who could mobilize right away into two groups and sending them out.
"Hmm… In that case, I'll take one of the hordes. I can fly there, so depending on the location, I could be done in about an hour."
When Grandpa, who'd been silent until then, said that, the Guild Master protested that it was far too much trouble—but quickly bowed his head in gratitude anyway. A far cry from how he'd treated me.
"Tenma. I'll be borrowing Slarin. Having Slarin along makes the collection after wiping out a horde go much faster. And as for you, Guild Master—since I'm going, Amour can stay here. It wouldn't sit well with the Guild if 'Orasion' took home the lion's share of the credit, now would it? In exchange, I'll sell the Orcs I personally defeat to the Guild at a discount."
If Orasion headed out to deal with not just the north, but also the eastern Ogre patrol and the Orc hordes to the west and south, we'd end up claiming almost all of the materials and rewards. That would leave very little in the way of additional per-subjugation bonuses for the other adventurers. If that happened, their frustration would be directed at Orasion and the Guild—and if Grandpa carted off the Orcs he defeated somewhere else, the Guild's profit would shrink by just that much.
So the plan was to minimize discontent by sending the adventurers gathered at that location in Amour's place instead, while selling the Orcs Grandpa defeated to the Guild at a discount to prevent the Guild from taking a loss.
Flute reacted to this before the Guild Master even could, and had a contract drawn up on the spot right then and there.
"Amour, you'll stay behind as a guard. I don't think it'll happen, but be ready in case one of the two Orc hordes attacks. For now, I'll leave Shiromaru and Raiden with you."
"Understood! If that's the case, then there's no helping it! If anything attacks, I'll rush to the Knight Order headquarters together with Primera and the others. And if that doesn't work, I'll use Raiden to evacuate everyone!"
Setting aside Amour's joke, with Amour, Shiromaru, and a Golem on site coordinating with the Knight Order, they should be fine even if a horde of a thousand attacked. That said, if a horde actually did assault Gunjou City, considering the influence Primera held, coordinating with the Knight Order would certainly be the better option. Then again, even if a horde did attack the city, if they were that close, either Grandpa or I would notice before leaving town—and if they were far enough away for us not to notice, we could still make it back in time after finishing our respective assignments.
While I was laughing and chatting with Grandpa about all this, Flute came over with an exasperated look, carrying a map marked with the sighting location.
After we confirmed the rough location, Primera and the others returned from dealing with the Ogre situation. Just as I'd expected, the Ogre they'd defeated turned out to be the one that had been spotted—the wounds on the male's body matched what was in the report.
With that, Primera's group had finished their errand, so we all briefly discussed what came next. Primera and the others would head to Manpokutei ahead of us to wait. As an added measure, it was also decided that if we didn't make it back by dinner time, whoever was present would go ahead and eat without us.
"Alright then, Grandpa. Let's zip over, wrap it up quick, and head right back! Operation name: 'Quick, Quick, Quick'—and whoever comes back late loses half their dinner side dishes! Now then, start!"
As I casually turned my body toward the door, I used my own made-up start signal to get the jump on Grandpa and dash outside. Well, once we were out, both Grandpa and I would fly there using the 'Sky Flight' spell, so in all honesty, a gap of a few dozen seconds was practically nothing... but I felt like doing it, so there was no helping it. For the record, the gap wasn't a few dozen seconds—it was nearly thirty minutes, as I later found out. Apparenly, Grandpa had been baited into running by my dash, but around his third step he slammed his pinky toe hard and collapsed on the spot. By that point I was already airborne, and Amour, who couldn't fly, was powerless to do anything about it.
Merlin's Side
"Lately, I feel like I've been treated awfully... Is it because she got married?"
Mulling over such thoughts, I was a full thirty minutes behind Tenma. I had somehow recovered enough to move... or rather, I'd recovered so well that even I was impressed with myself. My shin and pinky toe must have had hairline fractures at the very least. Well, my healing magic could fix that, so it probably wasn't that serious... but still, for a normal old person, that would be the kind of injury where you'd stay home and rest. Honestly!
Fueled by this indignation—which I intended to take out on the Orc horde before Tenma could—I kept flying through the air, recalling the map I'd been shown before we left.
The Orc horde was said to be about a day's walk from the city, so if I kept flying at this pace, I should spot them within an hour. Since I just needed to use the highway as a landmark, as long as the horde hadn't moved far from their original position, finding them should be easy enough.
True to my prediction, I spotted the Orc horde in less than an hour. However, about two kilometers before reaching them, there was a group of some twenty adventurers who appeared to be targeting the same horde. You shouldn't judge by appearances, but most of them looked like the sort you'd mistake for bandits or thieves, and the faint laughter I could hear sounded distinctly vulgar.
"They may be waiting for their chance to take down the Orcs, but I've accepted this commission myself, and being this far away, it'd be unreasonable for me to claim rights over that horde. Besides, it doesn't look like they've made their move yet."
Just as I made this judgment and was about to charge into the Orc horde, the adventurers' voices grew louder. It seemed a scout had returned.
I watched to see what would happen, and several of them started laughing while pointing somewhere in the distance. I squinted toward where they were pointing and...
"Is that a merchant caravan?"
A merchant caravan was heading straight toward the area where the Orc horde had set up camp. From the caravan's perspective, they had no idea the Orcs were on the other side of a small hill. Meanwhile, the Orcs had apparently caught the scent of food or something from the caravan and were beginning to move as a group to ambush it.
"The adventurers are... planning to strike after the Orcs attack the caravan, it seems."
Whether the caravan fought back against the Orc horde or tried to flee, either way it would leave a massive opening—making this an ideal opportunity, no question. But choosing that would be a mistake. The merchants over there might just end up being tomorrow's clients.
Besides, if word got out that I'd deliberately used the caravan as bait, I'd face suspension or revocation of my license at the very least, and I'd end up blacklisted everywhere. At that point, living any kind of normal life would be next to impossible.
"Those adventurers can do whatever they like—I couldn't care less. But it would be cruel to let innocent merchants get caught up in all this... Well, now that I've got a righteous justification, there's no reason to hold back!"
At a distance of about two kilometers, I could cover it in under a minute at full speed. I sprinted forward, and first used earth magic to create a wall across the road, both alerting the caravan to stop and making it harder for the Orcs to charge at them.
"Fifty in total, looks like. I'd love to take them all out in one go, but I've got that promise with the Guild Master... Annoying as it is, I need to bring them back in as good condition as possible..."
On top of that, I had to finish them off before the adventurers who'd been planning to use the caravan as bait showed up, so I probably had less time than I thought.
With that in mind, I roughly surveyed the area where the Orcs were gathered, used water magic to drench the entire horde, and then fired off several rounds of 'Thunder Wall.'
The ones hit directly by the 'Thunder Wall' died on the spot, but the lucky ones who managed to dodge were in the majority. However, most of those survivors were electrocuted by the initial water magic before they could even catch their breath, and they collapsed one after another. In the end, only three at the edge of the horde managed to escape. And since they were fleeing in the direction of the adventurers, survival was unlikely for them. Well, even if they did get away, three wouldn't exactly pose a threat—and if they could slow those adventurers down even a little, I'd give them credit for being useful.
"Slarin, I'm going to finish off the survivors. Start collecting the bodies quickly. If we don't hurry, those morons might actually get here."
Since they'd been planning to use the caravan as bait, they'd probably complain that I was stealing their prey. So I needed to collect every Orc I'd killed before they arrived, and explain the situation to the caravan's people. Otherwise, from the merchants' perspective, I might end up being seen as some bandit who'd suddenly blocked their path.
"That should be the last one. Slarin, take care of this one too."
I used wind magic to sever the last one's head, then immediately asked Slarin behind me to collect it. The surrounding area had turned into a sea of blood, but if I used water magic to wash most of it away, there shouldn't be any problem... Though it might smell like iron for a little while.
"Excuse me—might that be Merlin over there?"
As if timing it to when I finished processing the Orcs, one of the merchants called out to me. The voice sounded familiar, and when I thought about it, it turned out to be the representative of the Jay Trading Company.
The people from the Jay Trading Company had been on guard, thinking they were under attack—just as I'd expected. They'd seen magic being used on the other side of the wall but nothing had been done to them directly, so they'd found it puzzling. That said, I did find it questionable that the caravan's representative would call out to me when she wasn't certain of my identity. But for my part, it saved me the trouble of having to observe from a distance, so I was grateful.
"So that's why that wall was there..."
"Now then—the adventurers who've been hiding should be arriving soon, so let me confirm one more time. You didn't notice the Orc horde over there, correct? And you had no prior arrangement or connection with the adventurers who were hiding and watching?"
"No. At the very least, we would never be so reckless as to hire someone lurking far away to use us as bait. If Merlin truly needs them, then the fact remains that Merlin saved us just as we were about to be attacked—"
"...without regard for danger—I swear I will testify that they saved us, no matter who the other party may be."
A slightly exaggerated way of putting it, but it was a declaration made with the understanding that—
if I were caught up in something unreasonable, Alex would show up.
If this were truly about being complicit in wrongdoing, he would have gently refused.
But the fact that he came on strong meant he was confident of winning even if some trouble arose.
Merchants really are shrewd. Well, it works in my favor.
"Well then, could I ask you to draw up a simple contract?"
"All it needs to state is that I defeated the Orc horde because I was hired by you, and that the hiring happened just a little before the wall was built."
"Payment upon later consultation, as we discussed—something along those lines?"
"Of course, I'll have it drawn up right away."
Jayman immediately pulled paper and pen from his pocket and smoothly wrote up the contract.
"Here is the contract. Oh, to have entered into a contract with someone like you, Merlin, just moments before being attacked by an Orc horde — I must say this ranks among the very greatest fortune of my life."
It was a fine bit of theatrical performance, to be sure.
But those people might complain to the Guild that they had spotted the Orc horde first, only for me to swoop in and steal the kill.
So I needed to prepare to file my own report with the Guild — asserting that this wasn't snatching a job but rather accepting a commission, abbreviated though it may be.
Well, they might point out the sequence of the commission, but since they had also tried to use the merchant caravan as bait — or at least made moves that looked that way — they would likely back down.
Unless they were complete fools, that is.
"Well then, it seems uninvited guests have arrived, so the commissioning party should fall back behind me."
It was a long shot, but let me hope those people possessed at least some semblance of rational intelligence.
Merlin's Side — End
"I didn't think I'd get chewed out that badly..."
I'll admit I got a little carried away, but when I returned after taking down the Ogre patrol and the first words out of Primera's mouth were, "You've gotten way too full of yourself!" I was stunned. She chewed me out for a good while after that and told me to go pick up grandpa.
"Since grandpa left over three hours ago, I wonder if he ran into some kind of trouble?"
In my case, the Ogre patrol had moved to a location considerably closer to Gunjou City than the sighting point—roughly fifty to sixty kilometers—so I found them after flying for about thirty minutes. When I reported this, Flute nearly collapsed on the spot, saying it was even more dangerous than he'd imagined.
For nearly making Flute faint, I got another scolding from Primera and was practically chased out of the guild. It wasn't even my fault that Flute almost collapsed...
"First things first—I need to grab grandpa, rush back, and smooth things over with Primera... Ouch! ...Looks like I've stumbled into something troublesome."
Beyond grandpa's signal, which was caught at the very edge of my search, I picked up a multitude of other signals in the surrounding area.
"...Grandpa, did you get attacked by bandits or something?"
"Oh, Tenma! That's right, lass. I took care of them, but now I'm wondering what to do about all this..."
I listened to the explanation from grandpa and Jeyman, who had been hiding nearby, about how things had ended up like this, and we discussed what to do with the so-called bandit adventurers. The conclusion we reached was:
"Grandpa! The cages are ready—have them load everything up and haul it in!"
The plan was to make cages, stuff the immobilized adventurers inside, and have the guild come collect them later. Since cages alone might get broken through if Orcs showed up, we also dug a surrounding moat several meters deep.
"As long as they're not catastrophically unlucky, they should hold up until the guild sends a recovery team."
Even though I said they were immobilized, all we'd done was bind their hands and feet together behind their backs and gag them—so escaping by cutting the ropes with hidden weapons or magic was still theoretically possible. However, I'd confiscated their guild cards and anything else that could serve as identification, so being interrogated by the guild after recovery was a foregone conclusion.
Incidentally, I also collected any visible weapons, Magic Bags, and Dimension Bags, built a mound near the cages, and buried everything inside. If left as-is, they could dig them up after escaping the cages, so I stationed four Golems as guards over the mound. According to grandpa, the adventurers didn't have the strength to take down four Golems, so if they wanted their weapons and belongings back, they'd have to behave. Well, depending on the guild's judgment, the weapons and belongings might end up confiscated anyway, so there were no guarantees—but there was nothing to be done about that. Those guys might think grandpa was some kind of inhumane old man, but according to him, they were the ones who crossed the line first, so they had only themselves to blame for getting a taste of their own medicine.
"Tenma. We're done here, so let's head back already! I'm getting good and hungry!"
"In that case, grandpa and I will head back first. The area ahead is comparatively safe now, so it should be fine. Well, you still can't let your guard down completely."
"Understood. Besides, we have our own escorts here, so we just need to carry on as usual. Oh, and when you get a chance, please stop by the Jey Trading Company in the Royal Capital. Apparently they've been grumbling lately that they hardly ever get to see your face."
After that exchange, grandpa and I headed back to Gunjou City.
Jeyman and the others would probably arrive in Gunjou City the day after tomorrow. As for the adventurers in the cages, they were scheduled to be collected late tomorrow or the day after.
"In that case, it'll be about four days before the Guild's recovery team gets back."
The quickest they could return would be four days, and then another one or two days for questioning, so they'd probably be stuck in Gunjou City until then. A slight extension to their stay beyond the original plan wasn't a big deal, though.
That said, there was a chance the adventurers would make a fuss. But Grandpa had a commission from the Guild itself, plus proof that the job came from Jeyman. Of course, Jeyman's side might claim the documentation was forged, but Grandpa could insist that was an issue to be raised after the paperwork was finalized. Besides, if they had merely been observing from a considerable distance, they couldn't claim priority rights, and if they had been nearby, they could even be accused of abandoning Jeyman's group as they approached. Most importantly, the moment those adventurers told Grandpa to hand over the orcs they had defeated and attacked him when he refused, the fault lay squarely on their side.
"Understood. We'll immediately dispatch trustworthy adventurers to apprehend them. Also, please don't leave Gunjou City until we've taken at least a statement from that merchant."
The Guild Master and Flute looked grim-faced as they set about arranging the recovery operation for those adventurers. Apparently, those adventurers may have taken the commission from a Guild in another city, but even so, kills were fundamentally first-come-first-served, so making trouble over it was strictly prohibited — meaning even if there was a Guild behind those adventurers, there was nothing they could do about it.
"So, Grandpa, how much commission are you planning to charge Jeyman?"
"Oh, about that — we settled the deal after taking out those scoundrels. Turns out I'm getting some strong liquor made up north! Apparently it's very popular but rarely circulates near the Royal Capital, but the northern branch can stock it regularly. They told me they'd really appreciate it if I tried it and liked it enough to become a regular customer."
Speaking of the north, that was where Maria's family was from, so it wasn't impossible to get the liquor through that connection — but Grandpa didn't seem to want to push too hard, since I was the one who had established that connection and he was already looking forward to the seafood. Besides, having a contact who could procure things without going through me was appealing in its own right, and he intended to keep the relationship going even if the liquor wasn't to his taste.
And so, we linked up with Primera and the others who had been waiting at the Manpukutei — but since we had taken considerably longer than expected, Primera and the rest had already finished lunch. On top of that, it was that awkward in-between hour between lunch and dinner, so the old man told us there was nothing left, and we ended up heading out to eat at the street stalls. As punishment for getting carried away, I also ended up paying for everyone's meals. Well, the commission for defeating the Ogre Brigade had just come in and street stalls weren't that expensive, so it didn't really bother me — but the two of them and the two beasts, who had been hyped up about eating through the entire Ogre Brigade bounty, ended up with upset stomachs from overeating. That was a real problem.