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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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About an hour and a half passed after the night had deepened enough that nothing could be seen.
Those on the change shift came out holding torches.
“There’s a high possibility that the guard duty rotates every two hours.”
“Judging from how the guys going inside don’t seek means to light up, the interior must be brighter than it appears.”
At first glance, the entrance looked like pitch-black darkness itself, but the reality seemed entirely different.
Anyway, I decided to start the actual scouting, and Gaendal fell asleep again.
As if he had a constitution where he could sleep as much as he wanted once he laid down, he began to breathe evenly in less than 10 minutes.
Enduring for 4 hours without doing anything could be quite painful, but in a world where being able to handle mana allowed one to do many things, there was no significant problem.
Mana control is ultimately a matter of practice.
Even if there are no predecessors’ footsteps like with mana and aura, in the end, it improves little by little with daily efforts.
And in this otherworld, the results achieved through effort stand out relatively faster compared to my previous life.
The fast achievements that sometimes make it impossible to shake off the feeling of being arbitrary, while pleasing to the mind, are not entirely pleasant.
Unless I’m the only one achieving such accomplishments, it means the world is chaotic and there are many strong individuals.
It feels like obsession surges up again whenever a brief gap appears.
Anyway, when pondering deeply about such thoughts along with mana control, even 4 hours pass in an instant.
That’s how I spent the night, alternating with Gaendal.
As the night deepened and dawn approached, in the end, those bastards did nothing but stand guard.
The two-hour shift interval was accurate, but there was no other significant gain in information.
In a situation where only trivial chatter occasionally reached our ears, morning finally arrived.
“I’ve slept so much that I can’t even sleep anymore.”
Chewing on the jerky handed to me by Gaendal, who quietly stretched with a hollow smile, we watched the last night shift worker change.
Perhaps their vigilance had loosened a bit, as the voices that had been quietly conversing grew slightly louder.
“The night watch is finally over. Sigh, when will I get to go to the tavern?”
“Saying that after you went last week… I want to go too.”
“It’s definitely good for a change of pace, but sometimes when I come to my senses, I find myself having become a fool, just waiting for the day to go to the tavern. And that’s a problem.”
“Hahaha. You’re right.”
They had a relationship that didn’t seem bad, even throwing jokes at each other.
From what we had seen so far, that was their average relationship.
Even though they’re not soldiers, they claim to have their own purpose, but in the end, they gathered after being apart, so it’s bothersome.
And at the same time, I can’t shake off the feeling that it’s very unexpected for them to build such a bond and connection in this situation.
I hoped they would be guys with a bit less sense of duty as I was listening to their conversation.
“Come to think of it, did you hear? They say the Viscount died.”
“Viscount? More like that bottom-feeder butcher mercenary bastard.”
An unexpected story popped out of their mouths!
Except for one guy who scowled as if he was about to spit, the remaining three began to have an enthusiastic conversation about that topic.
“He’s dead anyway, noble sir. Still, he was a business partner of sorts, so let’s not go that far.”
“By the way, wasn’t he proceeding quite well? I even remember he had quite a number of soldiers, so how did this happen so suddenly?”
“I heard they were completely annihilated. Not only the private soldiers under the Viscount, but even the hired mercenaries were half-destroyed and scattered.”
Unless there was more than one jerk like Pavera near the capital, they’re definitely talking about him.
But this quickly? The fact that an incident that happened just 4 days ago has already reached their ears seems like a serious problem.
“Really? Not only the Viscount, but the skills of people like the butcher Ragiel or the eye hunter Jezl were definitely not to be taken lightly. Did they get caught?”
“They intentionally didn’t spread rumors, but the Pavera Mercenary Corps’ skills were real, so how did that happen…?”
There were guys there who had nicknames because they were so notorious? That’s strange.
As far as I remember, the Viscount was an idiot, and the only decent one was the guy who had a sword-breaking show with me.
Come to think of it, there were a couple more guys who were dressed better, so it might have been them.
No, wait, their skills were real?
It’s not a joke, if you just brought three apprentice knights from the Ogatorf family, half of the guys in the forest would have been killed.
Is the gap really this big?
“It seems there were aura users involved. Two of them at that.”
“Damn it.”
“Wasn’t the point of only targeting Green and Blue-ranks to avoid such people? Even if you’re unlucky, there’s a limit to how unlucky you can be. What the…”
The reactions of the guys lamenting convinced me.
Indeed, the difference between having aura and not having it is significant.
However, their statement that implied that even Blue-ranks didn’t have aura users was enough to make me puzzled.
“Huh? Don’t Blue-ranks usually have some aura users?”
“…Your common sense is twisted in strange places. We’re the unusual ones. Normally, you start seeing them around the Red-rank.”
Ah.
So that’s why when introducing Gaendal, they talked about his skills not in terms of the rank directly above, Red-rank, but another level higher, Silver-rank?
I thought it was normal since both Cheryl and I use it.
The measure of strength in this otherworld never clicks with me, so I’m always confused.
Our party was even more amazing than I thought.
My heart swells with grandeur, truly.
“It has disrupted Lord Rudna’s plan. He must be devastated.”
“How are the demons reacting? Do they know?”
“The demons are the ones who informed us about this. They didn’t seem to care much.”
“Didn’t they get caught? Did they pull some trick?”
“They just killed the Viscount before he could say anything. Since they only made contact with the Viscount, they don’t think there’s any way for them to get caught.”
Life is truly spectacular.
It’s surprising that the trash that I didn’t even bother killing was involved in a bigger incident than I thought, and it’s also surprising that I was about to pass by without knowing.
But the Adventurers’ Guild had already caught other signs and was tracking it, and it’s even more surprising that it’s connected to the part I missed.
“Is someone deliberately manipulating me…?”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“No. Just talking to myself.”
Come to think of it, since the connection is with demons, it’s good for me, and there’s nothing bad.
I can tolerate this kind of manipulation to that extent.
“At least that’s fortunate. Our sleeping quarters were about to be unsettled.”
“Anyway, that’s the situation, just be aware of it.”
“Will do. Good work, everyone.”
The long-awaited shift change of the guys who had given us a big harvest ended like that.
After confirming that the guys who had changed shifts were having another trivial conversation, I explained the value of the story we had just heard to Gaendal, who had a very disappointed expression.
It was natural for Gaendal’s attitude to change drastically.
“The part where they received information in such a short time is suspicious. Were they monitoring that human named Pavera?”
“If that were the case, it took them 4 days… No, 3 days. Considering how they talked, they probably heard about it yesterday. Anyway, the fact that it took them that long to find out is subtle. Because their way of speaking sounded like they were talking about something they heard yesterday.”
It had a nuance as if they were literally talking about a story they had heard while on duty.
It was too ordinary for it to be an exaggerated way of speaking, and the attitudes of the others listening to his words were also normal.
“Moreover, he definitely said ‘demon bastards’. It seems there were separate personnel for management, as you said.”
“That’s right. This request is really lucky.”
It’s obvious that it’s easier to deal with dispersed, less powerful guys, than to deal with one powerful guy.
Both Gaendal and I smiled at that part.
“But it’s also true that one worrisome thing has increased. It means they may have at least one magical tool that can quickly deliver information.”
“At the minimum…?”
“The moderate case would be teleportation. At worst… they may have created a gate.”
The worst-case scenario is truly the worst.
Of course, if we could destroy that gate, it would be a tremendous gain, but if troops pour out from inside, it would be a really big problem.
“I think just finding out this much is already a big harvest. Shall we go back?”
“No. Let’s stay a bit longer. Since we’ve been this lucky, it might not be bad to hope for a little more.”
The time was still a little past 6 o’clock.
It was worth observing the situation a bit more, at least until lunchtime.
“I see. If it goes as you predicted, the time for the tavern-goers to come out would be around noon. It might even be today.”
Gaendal quickly understood and nodded.
He seemed sufficiently convinced as well.
“There’s nothing bad for us, so let’s wait a bit more. Honestly, with things going this smoothly, I’m getting excited too.”
It was going so smoothly that there was no need for even a shred of doubt.
Moreover, judging from their reaction to the mention of aura users earlier, it was clear that their skills were not far superior to the Pavera Mercenary Corps.
The difficulty of the request was starting to be specifically measured even in my eyes.
And in a very, very optimistic direction at that.
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