Act 2-48 - The Details of the Situation

Chapter 48 : The Details of the Situation

――Two days had already passed after we defeated the grey cult and returned to Romburgh city.

After receiving the support money from the Razin firm and distributing it to every participant, the sum of money we got when compared to the danger we went through aside, it was still a fact that I got a lot of money.

In the first place, we’re more like a volunteer group who did this for the city.

In my case, I’m fine even if they didn’t give me anything in return.

… Gamdon seems to be making a fuss over the amount he had to take responsibility for the death of Ciel, the adventurer reared by the company, I heard that there was a dispute over that matter but, honestly it’s none of my business.

As for the army, they… are the same as usual.

At least on the surface, I had no idea about what happened inside though.

According to what I heard from the guild side, the explanation that the army gave for this matter was. 『It’s not that we’re not doing anything, we’re investigating this matter in secret since we had to make sure to settle this problem properly as the army who govern this city. We kept this matter as a secret so that the citizens won’t feel anxious.』.

The reason why such a childish excuse could pass safely showed me just how powerful the authority of the army in this city.

Before long, the guild side wanted to give an award to the adventurers who participated in the mission.

… That was the army’s bribe money for sure.

It seems Magus Assistant Malty wants to distract the citizens’ attention by giving an award to the adventurers who released the hostages.

I refuse to participate in such an event though, it seems the same goes for Mani and Edda but… It seems that some adventurers who were afraid of the army, or those who were expecting additional reward decided to participate.

I thought that our goal was to give a blow to the army by defeating the grey cult but… as a result, we were forced to witness what the army could do with their authority.

Shelving that matter as it was might put Magus Assistant Marty in a bad position but… at the same time, the already deteriorated relationship with the army reached a point of no return from this moment.

That fact alone was enough to send a chill running down my spine.

… Regarding the matter of Childick’s betrayal, all participants of the mission agreed not to mention a single thing about this.

We go with “Childick escaped to save his own life when the other adventurers were confronting the gray cultists.

Anyone who made a slip on this matter would definitely suffer from untold tragedy.

The most frustrating thing about this matter was the difference of power between the army and adventurers.

I mean, even if the life of the adventurers and the hostages were in jeopardy due to Childick’s betrayal, It was nothing more than one part of the army’s plan.

As a result, you can say that the army achieved the best result with minimum effort and manpower and just suffering from a slight drop in reputation.

Childick himself had mentioned this matter to me… No matter how much we, the adventurers, struggle, we couldn’t change the flow that was created by influential people.

I couldn’t even move properly for two whole days due to fatigue.

Mani was in the same situation as me, even though she wasn’t that exhausted from the battle, she had to maintain 《Airla》 until the last drop of her mana.

Yesterday, I spent the whole day sleeping… and today, I finally managed to walk outside without any problem.

I should keep my promise to provide a gorgeous banquet for Beelzebub. After buying the ingredients from the market, I returned to Mani’s smithy.

We’re going to hold a small banquet for our and the hostages safe return… like a small party.

I tried to invite Edda to come when she visited us yesterday to check on our situation but the person didn’t seem to be interested in this small party.

Though I told her that I wanted her to come if possible… the person herself might be in the middle of sword training somewhere in this city.

I borrowed Mani’s hearth to make a whole roasted ogre chicken.

The sauce that I smeared on its surface started to shine as the surface heated, the heat also carrying the wonderful aroma of meat and herb in the smithy.

I smeared another layer of sauce over the surface of the ogre chicken which turned its color to a beautiful golden color.

The combination of crushed herbs, salt, needle bee’s honey, and Makey’s cider were just like a match made in heaven.

This technique of baking chicken meat while smearing honey sauce on its surface was also known as Leiden baking style, taking from the place where it originated from.

… Nevertheless, it was more popular as a golden grilling style as of late.

Since the golden honey of needle bee and makey’s cider were quite expensive, the normal me treated it as high class ingredients beyond my reach.

Though both monsters which became the source for those honey and cider were D-rank like battle rats, they were troublesome in nature, or simply just strong.

Thanks to that, the golden honey and cider was treated as treasures of demon beast, and one would need to hire help to enter the nest of those two demon beast.

And the cost for hiring those helpers was expensive.

Oh, it seems to be re… no, just a bit more.

I was looking at the condition of the grilled chicken as I rotated the iron skewer bit-by-bit.

『O-OOO…! WHAT A NICE AROMA! DEAN, THIS MISTRESS CAN’T HOLD BACK ANYMORE! FINISH IT ASAP! THIS MISTRESS HAVE BEEN HOLDING BACK SINCE YESTERDAY DUE TO YOUR CONDITION AFTER ALL!』

《Beelzera》 which I placed on top of the desk, was jumping up and down by herself.

… The main reason Beelzebub wanted to wait yesterday was Mani’s undeniable, and long persuasion though.

「Just a bit more. It’s been a while since I have cooked with such high grade ingredients after all, I don’t want to mess the dish in the last minute of the cooking process.」

『Muu, Muu… That’s… reasonable…』

《Beelzera》started rolling around on the desk by herself.

It was rolling around slowly, and finally stopped.

As reluctant as she was, Beelzebub had to agree that I was right, nothing wrong with being too careful with cooking.

「… How should I say… you’re an extremely expressive enchanted sword huh.」

Mani who was tidying up her smithing tool said so with a wry smile.

『Dean, when will you materialize my body with Tulpa? I might be able to endure a while longer if you allow me to lick the leftover sauce on that plate.』

「N-No matter what you say that’ll be waiting for later…!」

『W-What did you say!? Dean, how dare you say those words to this mistress, one of the (Ex)ruler of Orgol?! 』

「… How about you reflect on your behaviour before you spoke those words.」

I stopped the grilling process after I’m sure it was cooked perfectly, and then pulled out ogre chicken’s Leiden grilling style from the hearth.

After lining up the tableware along with Mani on the table while glaring at a certain mysterious sword who made a merry by herself, I heard a sound come from the door.

Mani and I stopped moving immediately.

I quickly used 《Odo Perception》 to raise my awareness of our surroundings.

The other party stopped in front of the front door of the smithy.

… This amount of odo was definitely not the amount of odo of a normal citizen.

From the intensity of the odo, I could guess that the person was fairly powerful.

A burglar… no, it was most likely someone from the army.

I signaled Mani with my eyes, grabbed 《Beelzera》 which I left on the table, and then opened the front door really carefully.

Thereupon, the person standing on the other side of the door, Edda, was jerked when I opened the door.

「… What are you doing sneaking around the front door like that?」

「…」

Edda averted her gaze, and coughed a little bit.

I could see a pink rose color started to appear on her pale cheeks.

「… I-I just come since I happen to have nothing to do in my room.」