Master’s Smile

《Normal Guild・Shield of Pride》

The men stopped a couple of distances away from the Master and the others.

“Uhh…, what do you want?”

Apollo started asking on behalf of Lucille and the rest.

Judging from the appearance of the person who spoke to him, they are probably adventurers who are in a guild similar to his.

And, those so-called adventurers usually don’t interact with each other outside the city.

Thus, it’s unlikely that they would talk to a group they had never met before.

Hence, Apollo couldn’t help but wonder.

“First, let me introduce myself. My name is Rust. I’m a member of the normal guild, Shield of Pride (Prishield).”

“O-Ooh…, My name is Apollo. I am the master of this guild.”

Apollo immediately introduced himself after the other party did a self-introduction all of a sudden.

He hoped that they are friendly, but seeing the look on the man called Rust’s face, they are not quite what he would call so.

“And? What on earth do you want?”

Rieg spun his words to quickly move on with the story.

Hearing those words, Rust’s eyes widened.

“What we want, you say…? I’m sure you guys understand that better than we do, don’t you?”

“W-What…?”

Apollo was at a loss for words at his strong aura.

And, just as Rust said, he was aware that he’s doing something guilty.

“(Uwoooooh! Please let it be a mistaaaaaaaaake!!!)”

Apollo screamed in his mind, but Rust’s gaze mercilessly caught the Master and Sorglos.

“You bunch are from a dark guild, aren’t you?”

“Haah, haah. Master’s back figure….”

The two dark guild members did not answer Rust’s question, which he was sure he had guessed correctly.

The Master looked back at Rust with a wry smile, not wanting to do a disservice to Lucille and the others by saying something inappropriate.

Sorglos? She positioned herself at a very close distance behind her master and had been staring at his back while swaying her body restlessly.

She simply hadn’t heard what Rust had said.

“H-How did they know!?”

“Ah, you idiot…!!!”

Everything would be fine if not for Lucille letting out his surprise and opened his mouth.

Even if he can bravely engage monsters in close combat, in the end, he’s still a child.

He put his hands over his mouth in a panic, but of course it was too late.

“We received a call from a good citizen. They reported that some members of a dark guild, an enemy of us, normal guilds, have slipped in.”

“(Good citizen, is it…?)”

For the first time, Sorglos finally listened to Rust’s words, standing closely beside her master after she was satisfied with his back figure.

As expected, it seems that their information had been sold to Rust and the others.

So, who on earth is this good citizen?

The first candidate that came to Sorglos’ mind is the members of “Yelquchira”.

It is possible that they didn’t like her lovey-dovey adventuring life with her master (One-sided point of view) and wanted to interfere.

Indeed, it is highly likely.

Sorglos also would definitely interfere if any members other than herself was alone with her master.

However, in this case, that course of action was extremely slim.

The reason is that the person who they sold the information to was Rust, a member of a normal guild.

For example, a person from a grey guild would be able to sell information to anyone, no matter who they were.

But normal guilds are different.

When the request or information is deemed dangerous or shady, they will always try to back it up with more evidences.

As for Sorglos, the “Guild Manager”, she also knew the name of a guild called Prishield.

Even though it’s a medium-sized normal guild, it has the ability to compete with the bigger guilds.

Hence, such guild would without a doubt try to find some evidences first.

“(Then, that would exclude most of our completely suspicious guild members.)”

“Yelquchira” members also consists of those like that duckweed who has never infiltrated any organization, Laladi, as well as, Kühling, who has infiltrated the Demon King’s army, which is at great odds with humans.

Even if these bunch gave some information about a dark guild, they would not trust them at all and would not even take them seriously.

Of course, “Yelquchira” also has a member who have infiltrated places that would be trusted by normal guilds.

(So, it’s Ritter-dono, huh….)

Sorglos was reminded of the face of a certain black bobbed-haired, expressionless bitch knight.

Indeed, she has enough motive and ability to do so.

However, in this case, Sorglos took the consideration at the fact that she might have nothing to do with it.

The reason being was just before she started her lovey-dovey adventuring life with her master.

Ritter had come to her aid when she was receiving an intense lecture from Laladi at the guild headquarters.

Of course, she hadn’t volunteered to help Sorglos for nothing. She was just selling her a favor to become her ally when it’s her turn.

Hence, she thought that Ritter would rather keep her hands off on this.

“(Her action would be for nothing if she becomes a nuisance here.)”

It’s hard to tell what Ritter is thinking, since she usually wore an unfriendly and expressionless face when she’s not in front of her master, but Sorglos still thinks that Ritter would not be that stupid.

Thus, all of “Yelquchira” members are excluded from her list of suspects.

So, who on earth was it…?

Sorglos did not know that far.

“Now then, tell me what this is all about, Apollo or something. Why are you letting people from a dark guild into your guild? Based on the information, you guys already know that these people belong to a dark guild.”

“Kh…!”

“(They’re quick to catch on, I see…, he mostly got it narrowed down.)”

Rust cornered Apollo with a stern look and words.

Apollo was at a loss for words, while Sorglos nodded her head in awed next to her master.

As expected, the culprit does not seem to be “Yelquchira”.

She had narrowed down the suspects considerably in her mind.

“…hmmph, so you can’t answer, huh? You bunch can no longer remain as a normal guild, even having to understand that you had invited the sworn enemies of the kingdom. At best, you guys will fall into the grey guild. At worst, your guild will be terminated.”

“T-That’s…!?”

Lucille screamed in grief.

In the first place, the reason why he happily welcomed the Master and Sorglos into the guild was to help his sister, Lucica.

Furthermore, it was Lucille who had suggested that they join the guild.

When he realized that his shallow decision was causing trouble for Apollo and the others, his consciousness was slowly fading away.

However, Sorglos tilted her head at his reaction.

“Hm? Why are you looking as if it’s the end of the world?”

“You guys may not understand it, but when a small, weak guild like ours loses credibility and is dropped from the normal guild, we can’t survive.”

Heroro said so while glaring at Rust and the others with hatred.

Indeed, certainly many of the requests that come to the grey guild are more dangerous than those of the normal ones and the rewards are also not quite worthy of the task.

It is also common for grey guilds to extort such requests and raise the bounty, but it is hard to believe that Lucille and his guild can do that.

However, that wasn’t the point Sorglos was trying to make.

“The punishment for falling into grey guild or something like that, umm… will happen if Rust-dono’s group have reported it, yes?”

“T-That’s right!”

Apollo understood what Sorglos was trying to say.

In short, they only need to earnestly request Rust and the others to not report them.

“What is it? We are members of Prishield. We don’t take kindly to evil.”

“Please listen to us! We’ve got our own circumstances!”

“Circumstances?”

Lucille started to talk to Rust, who was glaring at him with sharp look.

It might have been because he’s a child that Rust seemed to at least listen to him.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Lucille desperately told him about their dire situation.

The fact that one of the guild members was under the curse of Ragell’s death curse.

In order to lift that curse, they need a natural elixir.

And since they couldn’t do it on their own, they were borrowing the help of a dark guild they happened to meet.

“…….”

Even after hearing that much, Rust was silent.

Lucille and the others were holding their breath waiting for his decision. On the other hand, Sorglos was enjoying herself looking at her master all by herself, while her master floated a mysterious smile which makes him unreadable.

“It’s unfortunate, but I still must report this.”

“―――!!!”

It was an expected reply.

However, even though Apollo and Rieg understood, Lucille would not shut up.

“W-Why…!?”

Rust began to talk to him as if he was treating a poor-mannered child.

“Even if it’s an absurd request, asking help from a dark guild is absolutely unacceptable. To begin with, if you ever wanted help, you should have sent a request to our guild or any other normal guild instead.”

“That’s-…!!!”

Lucille also had something to say.

Even if they had submitted the request to other guilds, it would almost certainly be ignored.

The reason being is that the natural elixir is more or less treated as a legend. No guilds would take a request from a puny guild seriously even if they told them where it is.

If they had specified a large bounty, some might have at least listened to them. However, they couldn’t do that as they had spent almost all of the guild’s funds to get information from World Eye.

“It’s good that you guys care about your guildmates, but you should regret asking for help from the evil dark guild. I’m sure you will be forgiven if you bunch asked a grey guild later and after that, you can start looking for the elixir once again.”

Rust’s words were absolutely right.

There’s not much information about “Inicken”, which is the same dark guild as “Yelquchira”, but, all of them are viewed as evil and treated as enemies by the kingdom.

It is already bad enough that they asked for help, but….

“It will already be too late…!!”

Lucille let out a voice full of pain, as if he was coughing up blood.

It had already been quite a number of months since Lucica had been affected by Ragell’s curse.

It is currently being suppressed by the Master’s magic, but they don’t know when it will start progressing again.

He doesn’t want to see Lucica in such pain anymore.

But no matter how many times he told him that, Rust won’t change his mind about reporting them.

For him, there was no way he could let the sweet words of evil stall the execution of justice.

“As I was saying, wouldn’t this be a simple matter?”

Sorglos let out a big sigh of disgust at the stiff atmosphere.

Though, she didn’t care if this situation continues indefinitely.

Rather, she can enjoy seeing her master’s back figure even longer while they are at it.

However, the stares that Rust and the rest of “Prishield” were giving her were a bit heavy.

She would be in no condition to accept any other information when she’s gazing at her master.

Which is, the same goes for the current hostile glances.

“Eh…, that’s why, we’re trying to talk-….”

“Hmm? No, that’s not what I’m trying to say, though?”

Apollo asked in confusion, and Sorglos tilted her head not understanding what he was trying to do.

Sorglos, the “Guild Manager”, knew of a normal guild called “Prishield”.

They are a medium-sized guild which is a veteran in terms of size and strength, and it’s notable for their insistence on justice.

That’s why she knew that they would never compromise on a dark guild, which was considered evil by the public.

For Sorglos, being by her master’s side is what justice is.

After being mistaken and a lot of self-indulging conclusion, Sorglos finally said what she wanted to say.

“―――Everything would be fine if we just kill all of these people here, you know?”