“I’m afraid you’ve made such an egregious blunder here that it simply can’t be overlooked, Elgart, though I’m sure you already realize that without me having to tell you. You are a Rank 1 adventurer, after all.”
The moment Ridelle heard that voice, laced with scorn and sarcasm, her brow furrowed deeply. She unconsciously opened her mouth, intending to defend her guildmaster, but stopped herself in the nick of time, reminding herself of the position the speaker held.
The man addressing Elgart in front of her was the guildmaster of Horus’s branch, the aristocrat Sergei Uri. He had attained his current position despite only being in his twenties, a testament to how capable he was. And Ridelle, a mere guild receptionist, had no authority to butt into a conversation between guildmasters. To do so would be the height of insubordination, so she had no choice but to stay silent.
Perhaps Sergei had sensed Ridelle’s feelings, however, as his next words were dripping with even more cynicism. “Not only did you discard an adventurer skilled enough to tame an indigo wyvern, but you allowed him to form a clan and take some of your most capable members away from you from right under your nose. Have you heard? Sora has since formed a strong bond with the Dragonaut family here in Horus. And even before that, he single-handedly took out a habitat of a hundred orcs to the kingdom’s south and was recognized as the ‘Indigo Dragon Knight’ by His Majesty himself. Rumor has it that the duke’s second daughter, Claudia Dragonaut, will be moving in with him in the near future. No doubt a marriage is on the horizon.”
Claudia Dragonaut’s position within high society had plummeted once her curse had forced the royal family to call off her engagement to the crown prince. But she was still the daughter of Pascal Dragonaut, and many nobles were champing at the bit for her hand in marriage. Finding a marriage partner for her would be an easy task. If they were ignoring all that to send her to Sora, who was affiliated with no one, then either they just saw that much potential in him, or they wanted him and his power as a dragon knight on their side. Either way, there was no doubt “Raikou” held Sora in extremely high regard.
“And yet you, Elgart, just tossed someone like that away like insignificant trash. Someone who could have been an incredibly valuable asset to our guild!”
“I take full responsibility for my actions, Sergei.”
“Naturally. That goes without saying. The important thing is, how do you plan to make up for this failure? Since you shunned him, I highly doubt Sora thinks fondly of the guild now. In the worst case, we might even end up antagonizing the Dragonauts at this rate, the most esteemed noble family in the kingdom! Yes, this is a severe blow to the guild indeed. And that’s even before mentioning the matter of the Falcon Blades.” His eyes glinted fiercely, as though this was the main topic he’d intended to broach all along.
Elgart’s eyes narrowed slightly. Ridelle pursed her lips. The Falcon Blades: Ishka’s most well-known and promising party of young adventurers. Or at least, they had been. Word among adventurers nowadays was that the party had effectively disbanded.
“The Falcon Blades failed to defeat the griffin that Count Elbe asked them to. Their leader turned tail and ran back home, leaving the scion of the Sauzaar Company stranded on the mountain. In fact, she would have died if Sora hadn’t stepped in to save her. Apparently, the party leader asked him to do so on the very day he got home from the royal capital. Now then, just what were you and the guild doing to resolve the situation during all that time? Twiddling your thumbs? No, you don’t have to answer. It’s clear just from looking at the result that you didn’t send anyone to help her.”
“W-Wait! We did send a rescue party!” Ridelle blurted out despite herself.
Sergei didn’t scold her for speaking out of turn. He just shook his head lightly. “No, Miss Ridelle. You tried to. But you were too late, weren’t you? So the result was the same. Comparing a bunch of adventurers only capable of walking on land to a dragon knight who can fly through the sky might seem unfair at a glance, but the Ishka branch should have gotten word of the situation several days before Sora found out. So you could have beaten him to it if you’d been diligent enough. Am I wrong?”
“B-But...”
“By the way, Elgart, Mr. Sauzaar was quite upset when he found out what happened. Naturally! His beloved daughter was left to die in the mountains. The Sauzaar Company has contributed greatly to the guild up until now, but no more, I’m afraid. Oh, yes, and before coming to meet you, I also visited Count Elbe at his home to speak with him. He was quite displeased as well, you know? Not that I could blame him: An adventurer met with adversity while trying to complete a request of his, and it was Sora, not the guild, who had to step in and save them and even dispatch the griffin. He was very disappointed to learn what an irresponsible, cruel organization the Adventurer’s Guild truly was.”
A look of triumph appeared in Sergei’s eyes as he looked at Elgart and continued.
“A little birdie also told me that a number of former Falcon Blades members have joined Sora’s clan...the Bloodstained Blades, isn’t it? If that’s not a humiliating outcome, I don’t know what is. What a truly egregious blunder you’ve made. I’m sure you already know, but HQ in the Holy Monarchy is already considering this a serious issue. You may be one of only five Rank 1 adventurers and admired by many, but if I were you, I wouldn’t count on that being enough to get you off the hook.”
“Please don’t sulk like that, Miss Ridelle. It spoils your good looks,” Elgart teased her once Sergei had left the room, leaving just the two of them inside.
“I’m not sulking!” Ridelle cried out, louder than she’d meant to. “It’s just...he treated you with such disrespect! Anyway, the royal capital was attacked by undead only a few days ago! Shouldn’t he be at home dealing with the aftermath of that instead of coming all the way here to gloat?! He needs to get his priorities straight!”
Elgart chuckled. “So even the esteemed Sergei is little more than a petulant child in your eyes, eh, Miss Ridelle? Well, I can’t deny his attitude did get on my nerves a little,” he agreed with a wry smile.
In contrast to Elgart, who’d made a name for himself as an adventurer, Sergei had no adventuring experience whatsoever. His talent was not in combat but in the art of negotiation. It was by coming to agreements with fellow nobles and other organizations, accumulating sponsors and supporters, that he’d risen to the rank of guildmaster at such a young age. But since he had no experience in the field, adventurers weren’t too fond of him, and he knew it. For that reason, he had a personal grudge against Elgart, a famous adventurer and fellow guildmaster beloved and admired by all.
“I can’t say he was wrong about my failure to handle Sora, though. And I can’t fault the guild for seeing it as a major problem.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong! He was thrown out because he didn’t follow the rules!” Regardless of what had happened later, that fact wouldn’t change, and for that reason, Ridelle didn’t think Elgart was to blame. But those looking to trip Elgart up, like Sergei, didn’t see it that way. Or even if they did, they were pretending otherwise, and that infuriated her.
She didn’t think Elgart should be held responsible for what had happened with the Falcon Blades either. The guild had handed the party the quest, just like they should have, and the Sauzaar scion Miroslav had chosen to stay on the mountain of her own accord. Her companions had said as much, and she herself had even confirmed it upon returning to the town via wyvern. So why should the guild be blamed for what had happened to her?
And yet, there seemed to be no end to the voices criticizing Elgart. They were all wondering why the guild hadn’t lifted a finger to save a single adventurer in distress, without even considering whether it was even a logical conclusion. That was the nature of criticism through hearsay, Ridelle knew, but being the target of such baseless accusations was frustrating regardless. She’d wanted to do something about it, to put a stop to it somehow, but in the end, she’d been powerless.
Her scowl deepening, she excused herself from the room. Perhaps because they saw the expression on her face, none of her colleagues approached her even as she returned to her seat. Normally, Parfait would at least say something like “Riddie, your face! It’s scary!” But Parfait was currently slumped over her desk with her head down, so she didn’t even notice Ridelle had come back.
Ridelle sat down and performed the rest of her work without a word, reflecting on the Falcon Blades’ current state all the while. She’d heard that not just Lunamaria but Miroslav too had left the guild and joined the Bloodstained Blades instead. Raz hadn’t left the guild just yet, but he’d shown an intent to do some soul-searching and “remember why he became an adventurer in the first place,” in his words. So he wouldn’t be taking on any guild work for a while.
Apparently, he planned to head back to his hometown, Merte. Parfait had tried to persuade him to stay, but looking at her current state, it was clear she’d been unsuccessful.
That left Iria the only remaining member of the Falcon Blades. But based on what Ridelle had observed of her behavior so far, she wasn’t likely to continue adventuring without Raz. All of it pointed to the same truth: The Falcon Blades were as good as finished.