The next day, I once again found myself in the capital’s Adventurer’s guild. Willem was there, along with five of the guild’s highest-ranking members in the nation. The way they were all looking at me sort of made it feel like they were judging me, which was awkward, to say the least...and of course, the familiar squad was as completely oblivious to my struggles as ever.
Fel and Gon were lounging around like they owned the place, as usual. Dora-chan and Sui had fallen back on their classic routine as well and were currently napping on Fel. They were all as easygoing as ever, while I was busy staring off into the middle distance, regretting the fact that I’d agreed to come to the capital in the first place.
Having a group of very important senior adventurers inspect me from head to foot made me feel like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming truck. If I’d known I was going to get that kind of attention, I would’ve seriously considered spending the rest of the trip at the earl’s place. As I paused to reflect on the mistakes that had brought me here, my mind drifted back to the events of that morning.
I had woken up in the earl’s house, was treated to breakfast, and went on my way soon afterward. He only treated me to breakfast, by the way—my familiars made a habit of starting their day out with ridiculously heavy portions of meat, so I served them cutlet sandwiches (sans cabbage) that I’d made for them in advance.
When the earl arrived in the dining room, I noticed that he had dark circles under his eyes. Oriane and Celeste, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten up on the right side of the bed. They were as cheerful and animated as could be, and Bastian was all smiles and enthusiasm as well.
It turned out that the ladies were in excellent moods thanks to the all-in-one cream that I’d given them the day before. According to Oriane, “My skin’s so lush and glossy, it’s like I’ve become a whole different person!” Celeste had given it rave reviews as well—in her words, “I had the most horrid pimple on my forehead, and it vanished overnight!” The two of them spent all breakfast extolling the virtues of the cream in exacting, long-form detail.
Oh, and as a sidenote...they’d also taken a moment to ask me in a hushed, very serious tone whether or not I’d given some of that cream to the queen as well. I hadn’t even considered that possibility up until that very moment, and when I explained that I hadn’t, they told me that was “unacceptable” and instructed me to present a bottle of it to her as soon as I was able. Going back to the palace myself felt pretty much out of the question after how it had turned out last time, but thankfully, the earl had to make a trip there to report about the leviathan anyway, and he agreed to deliver the cream on my behalf when he did so.
Talk about a lucky break! I thought that Fel and Gon letting info on the leviathan slip was a huge screwup at the time, but I guess it might’ve turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
I ended up giving the earl’s family some more of the cream as well—I felt a need to show them my appreciation for Oriane and Celeste’s advice, and for the earl’s help with delivering my extra gift to the queen. Oriane told me that I should “feel free to rely on us anytime,” in response, with an extremely serious look in her eye as she said it. Even the earl cracked a smile at just how insistent she seemed.
Through all of that, Bastian was watching my familiars eat their breakfasts with keen interest. I got the sense that he was incredibly curious about the cutlet sandwiches I’d served them, specifically. The breakfast that the earl served wasn’t bad by any means, but to a boy of Bastian’s age, a meal of bread, plain soup with lots of veggies, and scrambled eggs—all of them very lightly seasoned—probably wasn’t the most exciting way to start the day.
I ended up offering him one of the sandwiches, and he devoured it eagerly, pausing to tell everyone how delicious it was as he ate. The earl, Oriane, and Celeste reacted about how you’d expect them to, and in the end, I served sandwiches to the whole family. They proved themselves to be heavy eaters once again, and all cleaned their plates with glee. Oh, and Willem did as well, by the way.
Anyway, once we’d finished our calm and quiet—relatively speaking, I mean—breakfast, the whole family saw me to the front door where I said my goodbyes. I went straight to the Adventurer’s guild afterward...and, well, that brings us back to the present moment.
Ugggh. I wish someone would at least say something! Getting stared down in total silence is really uncomfortable!
“Hmm,” one of the guild higher-ups finally said. “I heard he was brought here by a hero summoning ritual, but I have to say, he hardly strikes me as the heroic sort. Seems a bit feeble for that.”
“True,” said another. “Not weak, mind you, but not anywhere close to unparalleled. There’s no shortage of adventurers as capable as him.”
“It makes one wonder just how in the world he managed to earn the service of a fenrir and an ancient dragon.”
“Makes you wonder, yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that he managed it.”
“Quite. And supposedly, the pixie dragon and the slime are rather powerful as well.”
I’d thought that this would be a conversation, and I hadn’t exactly been wrong about that. It just turned out that I was the subject rather than a participant. They weren’t exactly holding back with their opinions either, though considering I agreed with pretty much everything they said, I didn’t take offense.
Actually, wait, since when did the guild know that I was brought to this world by a hero summoning? I guess their information network’s not to be underestimated. But also, for the record, I was never a hero in the first place! I was collateral damage!
Also, if you really want to know why Fel, Gon, Dora-chan, and Sui became my familiars, you’re going to have to accept that the answer is “for food.” It’s not like I battled them into submission or anything. They wanted better meals, and they signed up to get them. They’re all nothing but huge gluttons, plain and simple!
I had plenty of thoughts that I was very tempted to share, but since butting into the bigwigs’ discussion seemed like it would only make things more complicated than ever, I decided to keep quiet instead.
I wonder how much longer this is going to take? I’d really like to go find a place for us to stay tonight sometime soon.
“Have you not yet finished your discussion?” Fel finally cut in. Apparently, he’d also gotten frustrated that the guild folks still hadn’t gotten to the point yet.
“Oh, do excuse us,” one of them said. “Allow me to introduce myself, Sir Fenrir. I am the guildmaster of the capital branch of our organization, Bram Alders. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. As for my colleagues...”
Bram introduced the other big shots as Cyril, Leocadio, Vivian, and Noah. All four of them were rather elderly—probably around the same age as Bram himself—and all four of them served as joint sub-guildmaster of the Adventurer’s guild’s capital branch. According to Willem—who knew his stuff, being the guildmaster of the Karelina branch—the five of them were essentially the governing body of the whole guild, at least in the Kingdom of Leonhardt.
Cool! I’m terrified!
“Now then, Willem has informed us that you have a request you would like to make?” Bram prompted.
“Indeed. That is the purpose for which we came here,” Fel said.
“Quite, quite! We hunted a leviathan in a dungeon, and we would like you to butcher it for us,” Gon explained. He made it sound nice and simple, but I was very certain that cutting up something that enormous wasn’t going to be anywhere near that easy.
Silence fell, and stuck around for a good long while.
“Sir Ancient Dragon,” Bram eventually said, “I’d like to make sure that I didn’t just mishear you. Did you, in fact, say that you’ve felled a leviathan?”
“I certainly did,” Gon confirmed. “It was a dungeon drop, technically speaking, in that the whole corpse remained after the beast was slain. Leviathan meat is a rare delicacy, but my liege claims that he needs it to be processed before he can cook it for us.”
“He,” Fel said, indicating Willem, “claimed that his guild was not up to the task. He told us that the capital, however, would be capable of it.”
“Excuse me, Fel—might! I said that the capital might be able to manage it!” Willem urgently insisted as he wiped the sweat from his brow. I got the sense that he didn’t want the capital bigwigs to think that he was going around making claims about what they could and couldn’t do.
“Have it your way,” Fel grunted. “So? Can you, or can you not?”
“H-Hey, simmer down, Fel!” I cut in. For crying out loud, we’re trying to talk with these people, not coerce them! What if they can’t handle it? How could they possibly admit it if you ask them like that?
“I-I can’t quite say for sure, at the present moment,” Bram said, his expression taking on a rather strained twitch. “We’ll have to see the monster in question before we can make that call.”
“Then show it to them,” Fel said as he turned to look at me.
Yeah, I don’t think so. “That’s definitely not happening here,” I said. Its head alone would’ve blown out the ceiling.
“He’s right, Fel. Think of its size!” Gon chimed in.
“Hmph. I suppose. You—is there a large, wide open space we can use?” Fel asked Bram.
“The storehouse should suffice,” Bram replied.
He and the other bigwigs quickly led us toward the capital branch’s storehouse.