The next day, I stood at the city gates with Gai, Chris, and the banshees they’d just rescued. They looked just like Grace’s group had yesterday, covered from head to toe in tattered robes.
Beneath the robes, though... “Looks like they’re uninjured.”
“We swiftly jumped to their rescue from their pursuers,” Gai explained, his chest puffed out proudly.
“Get a load of this meathead, talking like he did all the work,” Chris jabbed. “Did you forget that it was a close call? Where’s our thank-you, huh?”
I turned to her in surprise. “It was a close call?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Even with you and Gai there? Their pursuers must’ve been terribly strong...”
I found it a little hard to believe. Gai and Chris were two of our country’s executives and our top fighters. When it came to combat, nobody else even came close. How could they have had such a close call?
“Oh, Master, you’ve got it all wrong. The meathead was so slow that he nearly didn’t make it in time to save them. That’s all.”
“Ah...” Well, that made more sense.
“M-Master, you see...” Gai anxiously spoke up. “I merely hesitated for a moment! Because we rarely cross the border!”
“Oh yeah? Well, you must’ve been ‘hesitating’ every step of the way, then, huh?”
“Grrr...!”
Well, this is new. Gai was hardly fighting back against Chris. Normally, by now he’d be biting back with whatever comeback he could muster—whatever it took to get in the last say. But this time, it seemed he was too ashamed of his—
“I am different from you, boar woman!”
Whoops. Spoke too soon. Gai snapped back at Chris just in time. The fight hadn’t left his eyes just yet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chris drawled.
“Does your memory fail you already? The humans went running the moment I entered the fray.”
“Urk... Th-That’s...”
This time, it was Chris on the back foot. She gritted her teeth in frustration.
“What do you mean?” I asked Gai.
“It appears my infamy among human society grows evermore,” Gai answered. “The ruffians engaged in battle with the boar woman...yet fled the moment they saw my countenance.”
I turned to Chris. “Is that true?”
She couldn’t raise any objections. All she could do was bitterly grit her teeth. “Those guys just happened to know him. I’m an SSS-rank bounty too, I’ll have you know!”
“Oh? Then tell me, boar woman... Have you ever made humans flee in fear at the mere sight of your face?”
“S-Sure have. Just sometimes...but it happens!”
Gai was playing into his strengths. Now Chris was the one struggling for a counterargument.
Honestly, I could watch these two bicker all day...
At the same time, my mind wandered back to that “SSS-rank bounty” that Chris had mentioned. Apparently, both their bounties had gone up leaps and bounds since the last time I’d heard about it.
“They must have given the last war their all,” Lardon remarked. “No doubt they are now seen as the Monster King’s loyal subjects, willing to go to the ends of the earth to fulfill his orders.”
“Oh... And that raises their bounty?”
“Certainly.”
Shrugging it off, I then turned to the banshees and did a head count. Gai and Chris had managed to save twenty banshees—just a bit more than yesterday’s group.
“E-Excuse me...” called a new voice.
I turned and found Grace the dark elf approaching us from the city. She was wearing the same black dress as yesterday, with beads of sweat dotting her forehead. She must have come running.
“I was notified of their arrival, but I still don’t know my way around the city...”
“Well, it’s only been a day. You could’ve just told me via the Liamnet.”
“Huh? Oh, sorry... I didn’t think of that...”
“Ahh.” Of course. They did just get here. I’d made sure that they knew how to access the Liamnet, but getting used to it and learning to rely on it was another matter entirely. That’d take some time. “Well, don’t sweat it.”
“O-Okay.” Grace looked significantly less tense now.
With that, I turned back toward our new batch of banshees. “Here are our new refugees. Could you brief them on how things work around here, and also about Familia? It should be fine since they made the trip themselves, though.”
“All right.”
Grace started talking with the banshees. Faced with the dark elf, their first reaction was wariness, but once she started explaining Familia, their mood shifted to disbelief and hesitation.
Among them, a particularly curious banshee volunteered to become my familiar first. The sight of her evolving into a dark elf cleared away all their suspicions, and the rest of the group then willingly followed.
In the meantime, the other dark elves gathered around and watched their fellow former banshees. Soon, we had a grand total of nearly thirty dark elves in our midst. They crowded together and chatted leisurely, relieved at having found their brethren after being subjected to persecution.
“Um...” Grace broke from the group and approached me. “Thank you...very much.”
“Like I said, don’t sweat it.”
“Is there really nothing we can do for you in return...?”