“Evenin’. I’ve ’eard all ’bout yer recent achievements. Dealt with those nasty rumors, did ye? Can’t say I’m too surprised. No, what really has me curious is how you managed to leave the city two days ago for Merratoni and yer already back,” he said with a shrug. Then, he glanced at the two young women behind me and crossed his arms. His gaze was sharp as he looked at Rina, but he didn’t seem particularly angry or anything.
“Yeah, I guess most people would wonder the same thing,” I said. “To be honest, I didn’t think I’d be able to solve the case this smoothly. Since I ended up taking care of it, can you cancel the job I commissioned the guild for? Of course, I’ll compensate those who were working on it. Take these coins and share them among the adventurers.”
“Ye sure? That’s real kind of ye.”
In this world, it was all about give and take. Not only did I think it wouldn’t be fair not to compensate the adventurers for their efforts, but more importantly, I didn’t want to make any more enemies than I already had. If that meant building trust with the adventurers, a few coins was a small price to pay.
“Yes. I knew this might happen when I put up the request, after all. Did the adventurers manage to get any intel before I resolved the situation?” I asked.
“Nothin’ worth mentionin’,” Grantz replied. “More importantly, can I ask what the Tempest and her assistant are doin’ in my guild?”
It seemed he was genuinely curious about Rina’s presence here.
I chuckled evasively. “I actually just learned a few minutes ago that she was the ‘Tempest’ who blew up the underground training area. She’s part of my company’s research and development team now, so I wanted to ask if you could unban her. She won’t be testing out her gadgets here anymore, I promise.”
“Ye sure ’bout that?” Grantz eventually asked after a pause.
“She’s very talented, so as long as she’s not a complete lunatic, I don’t see it being a problem.”
“Ye really do have weird tastes, Saint Weirdo.”
“Eh, what’s two or three more troublemakers? Besides, Dhoran is a solid leader. I’m sure he’ll keep them in check.”
“Don’t off-load all the trouble onto him,” he lectured me. “If I were in his shoes, I’d be pissed at ye.”
I chuckled at his comment. His gaze was still fixed on Rina, who eventually spoke up.
“I’m really sorry for the trouble I caused you last time. I won’t be using the guild’s training grounds to test out my inventions anymore. Can you forgive me?”
“Sure. If Sir Saint Weirdo says he’ll take responsibility for yer actions, I’ll unban ye.”
“Please,” I said.
“Consider it done. I can bill Saint Weirdo if ye destroy my guild again, so by all means, blow it up to yer heart’s content.”
With that, he disappeared into the kitchen.
“Please carry out your experiments outside the city as much as you can,” I told Rina as I watched his retreating form.
“Will do. Thank you. I promise to work even harder on my inventions from now on!” she assured me.
The fact that she took a fighting stance while uttering the words didn’t exactly inspire confidence, but I decided to trust her for now.
“I’m looking forward to it,” I said in a strained voice.
Now that Rina was free to roam the guild, the three of us returned to the table where our companions were. The food had already arrived, but they hadn’t started eating yet, likely waiting for us to join them. I took a seat, introduced Rina and Nanya to the rest of the group, and dug into my well-deserved dinner.
“So, Kefin, about that thing you found earlier...” I began.
He nodded. “Long story short, it might be possible to repair the barrier around the Church’s headquarters.”
Ooh, I understood why he’d said we could make a profit from his findings now. The Church would definitely owe us a big one if we fixed the barrier.
“How?” I asked.
“It’s only a ‘maybe’ for now. But, basically, it seems the barrier was created by a certain magic device, which is said to be somewhere in HQ—though it doesn’t work anymore,” he explained.
“A magic device?” It definitely sounded plausible, but I couldn’t help but wonder how it had gotten broken in the first place. It wasn’t like it had been left in the open or anything.
“Yes. I found a note stating that someone intentionally sabotaged it.”
I assumed that Kefin was about to suggest that we have Dhoran and the others take a look at the device to see if they could fix it, but when I asked him if I was right, he shook his head.
“Not exactly. According to the documents I found, the barrier can only be activated by loading the magic device with fire, water, earth, wind, and light mana at once. I thought that sounded like something we could manage,” he said.
“Did it say anything else?”
“No. But it reminded me of the airship Mister Dhoran and Pola built. It has a barrier that cancels wind resistance. I was thinking that, if we could replicate this with all five elements, we could create something that worked a bit like the barrier device.”
I turned to Dhoran, who’d been listening to our conversation in silence until now. “What do you say, Dhoran?”
“I’m thinkin’ that barrier must be the same as the one in Rockford,” he answered.
That made sense; after all, it was likely Lord Reinstar was the one who had set up this barrier as well.
“We might be able to find clues about how to create a similar device there,” I mused. I was almost positive the barrier around the City in the Sky had been created using a similar method, but Neldahl wasn’t the kind of place you could just waltz into.
Reinstar sure was a good guy, huh? Setting up all those barriers everywhere, I thought with a smile.
Kefin tapped his chin pensively and asked, “Are we heading to Rockford next, then?”
Well, if it was up to me, we’d go anywhere we wanted. But unfortunately, the world was in the midst of a big crisis, so I didn’t exactly have the luxury of making that decision. Couldn’t some cheat-tier, overpowered reincarnator do something about Blanche for us?
I let out an inward sigh and said, “It all depends on what Her Holiness decides, but I’m thinking we need to check on Blanche. They’ve got trouble written all over them.”
“Then is that our next destination?” Kefin asked.
“Maybe. We still need more information. And for that, we need Dongahar to wake up. Also...this might surprise Lionel, but I’m starting to think a trip to Illumasia could be worth it now that we’ve got the airship.”
At that, everyone’s eyes turned to me.