By the time Jade returned to the guild headquarters, the sky was already red.
He handed the fragments of the green crystal to the researchers. Now there was just one more thing to do before he could go help Alina. He quickly headed over to the guildmaster’s office and knocked lightly at the door. The moment he stepped inside—
A sharp voice flew at him.
“I’m against it!”
The voice was refined and feminine but clearly angry. As Jade startled and froze in place, his eyes fell on a rare sight.
The large volume of documents was piled up on the office desk. There was Glen, who seemed to be battling with them, and then the woman who was hounding him, leaning over the desk—his private secretary, Fili.
The yell had come from Fili, Glen’s personal guard. She was always cool and composed and kept her feelings close to her chest. Jade had never seen her like this.
As Jade blinked with surprise, Fili noticed his presence and strode right up to him, fury in her eyes. “You tell him, too, Jade. This unreasonable, stubborn old fart!”
“Old what?! What’s wrong, Fili, is this really you…?”
“Ahhh, Jade, sorry for dragging you into this.”
Glen, guildmaster of the Adventurers Guild, seemed utterly exhausted, smiling wryly as he scratched his head.
He had tanned skin and deep, dignified wrinkles, and a physique on par with that of any young adventurer. One month ago, right after the incident beneath the guild headquarters, he had seemed terribly haggard in his recovery bed, but now he seemed back to his old self.
Save for the fact that he was missing an arm.
That was because in the aforementioned incident, he had used a god core to turn himself into a dark god. To remove the god core embedded in his body, he had parted with his left arm.
“The truth is, I was unreasonable with the healers and got them to discharge me from the treatment center right away. Fili has been like this ever since.”
“Then does that mean you’re not entirely recovered…?!” asked Jade.
“You push yourself a lot, too, Jade,” Glen shot back.
“Please don’t compare yourself to someone so much younger than you,” Fili scolded. “How many years apart do you think you are?”
“…” The all too harsh remark struck Glen silent for a moment. It must have hit close to home, but he covered this by clearing his throat, glancing at Fili to check her mood. “…Well, Fili, I understand how you feel, but I’ve already made up my mind. Even if you call me a stubborn old fart, I’m going.”
“That kind of thinking is exactly what makes you a stubborn old fart. You’re already one limb short to begin with—in your position, it’s ridiculous to head out alone to a place we know is dangerous…! I won’t allow it!”
“Wait, wait, what actually happened? What do you mean, someplace dangerous?” From how angry Fili was, it must be no trivial matter. Jade had only come here to report on their survey of the Great Altano Plains, but now he was having to play mediator.
“…Ahhh, well, about that…” Glen hemmed and hawed, like he was reluctant to explain. But after looking back and forth between the entirely furious Fili and the confused Jade, Glen massaged the spot between his eyes and gave in. “…Yeah, I have been meaning to tell you, Jade. Let me start from the beginning.”
Glen leaned way back in his chair, let out a long sigh, and began. “I got the healers to let me out early so I could do some research on hidden quests. Something’s been bugging me about them, you see.”
“…So that’s what has you worked up.”
Hidden quests. The term referred to mythical quests that were the subjects of adventurers’ urban legends. They weren’t supposed to really exist.
But it turned out that the stories were true. Unlike normal quests, hidden quests were detailed in gold engravings that could be found on certain objects. Accepting them would reveal a hitherto undiscovered dungeon.
It sounded just like a treasure hunt, but the reality couldn’t be further from that. Slumbering inside hidden dungeons were cruel dark gods who would instantly slay anyone who entered unaware—that was how dangerous these quests were.
“How could something still be ‘bugging you’ after all this time? You’ve researched hidden quests extensively for fifteen years, haven’t you?”
Ever since Glen was appointed to guildmaster fifteen years ago, he had been secretly investigating hidden quests in search of dark gods. When Jade tilted his head, wondering if there was even anything more to know about them, Glen gave him a little nod.
“That’s right. For fifteen years, I used every means at my disposal to conduct extensive research on hidden quests. And that’s exactly why something feels off to me… It’s only been a few months since the discovery of the White Tower, but in that span of time, a suspiciously large amount of hidden quests have been found.”
Jade gasped and widened his eyes.
“…Now that you mention it, that makes sense…”
The first hidden dungeon, the White Tower, had appeared when Alina had destroyed a relic that a monster had happened to swallow. The second, the Forest of Eternity, had been found and brought to them by the Information Brokers Guild. A few months back, no one had found mention of hidden quests in any records, so they were considered nothing more than simple rumors, but now the guild was practically swimming in them.
“This is against the rules…but I bought some intel from the Information Brokers Guild regarding their acquiring of the hidden quest to unlock the Forest of Eternity. Apparently, a book containing the hidden quest for it just showed up at guild headquarters one day.”
“…So someone left the hidden quest there…?”
“It’s strange. Whoever it was didn’t sell the book to the Information Brokers Guild—it was as if they were telling them to come find the hidden quest… But that’s where the trail runs cold. The Information Brokers Guild also looked into the person who left the hidden quest, but they said they couldn’t find anything on them.
“I see…” Jade folded his arms and furrowed his brow. “So then why is Fili so angry?”
“…The truth is, I do have a hunch as to who this person could be.”
“Who?”