Another morning has arrived in mine and Yuna's lives, and today, we will be visiting Galderia's adventurer's guild after almost a month and a half.

Yesterday, after Helen-san finished her "bonding time" with her mother, they both joined us for dinner. During that time, the two didn't say a word to each other. I thought that their quarrel would affect their relationship negatively, but when we woke up, they were already back to normal as if their quarrel never happened.

After our breakfast, we then headed to the guild, and on the way there, we were looking left and right for the things that have changed while we were gone, but sadly, there were none.

When we opened the doors to the guild, a familiar scenery greeted us. Although it hasn't been that long, I still missed the noisy and crowded scene in the guild.

「Ah! Grey-san, Yuna-san! You're back!」Tilda

And as usual, the first one to notice us was Tilda-san. But after she yelled our names and waved at us, the attention of the adventurers were shifted to us and the guild became quiet, but shortly after...

「Hey, it's the Grim Reaper and the Phantom.」

「I heard they defeated hundreds of knights single handedly.」

「They're super strong, even monsters fear them.」

... rumors about us came flying everywhere and we became the center of attention.

Ahh... What a familiar scene....

For now, I'll just ignore them and head towards the reception desk. Dealing with all those rumors is too troublesome.

「Good morning, Tilda-san.」Grey

「Good Morning.」Yuna

「When did the two of you come back?」Tilda

「We just returned yesterday evening. And since we haven't done some quest in a while, we thought we'll visit the guild.」Grey

「Come to think of it, we're still ways off from being eligible to take on an A-rank promotion exam.」Yuna

「Yeah, we barely have any points. We have always accompanied Liz afー」Grey

While Yuna and I were talking about a promotion exam, I noticed that Tilda-san's facial expression changed from cheerful to dumbfounded.

「Something wrong, Tilda-san?」Grey

「No... I'm just amazed by how lightly you take promotion exams.」Tilda

Ah... I see what she means. After all, there are only less than 50 known A-rankers, and out of them, only less than 20 are adventurers.

Come to think of it, Kris-san is a prodigy for reaching A-rank in his early twenties. His talent should be one in tens of millions. He's really amazing.

「Back on the topic, you're here to take quests right?」Tilda

「Yeah. Are there high-ranked ones available?」Grey

「There are... a lot of them actually, and the reason for this is none other than the labyrinth's opening. Because of it, many adventurers have gone to Moterno and the number of quests completed here has decreased. Although the city lord sent out his soldiers to complete quests, there are still a lot remaining, both low-ranked and high-ranked ones. It's actually a big help that the two of you came back.」Tilda

Of course it would turn out that way. After all, other than us, Kris-san and Aria-san also participated in the labyrinth, and I doubt that there was anyone in the city lord's soldiers who were above D-rank.

On top of that, it had been a month since the four of us left. A lot of quests must have really piled up.

「Then we'll be helping ourselves with the quests. Thank you for informing us.」Grey

「Ah, before you do that, shouldn't you two greet the guildmaster first?!」Tilda

「The guildmaster?」Grey

「Yeah... He said that we wanted to meet you two as soon as your back.」Tilda

Ah... So it was an order...

「I think Tilda-san's right, Grey. It's only common sense that we greet someone after coming back.」Yuna

「Hmm... I think so too... Well then, we'll be greeting the guildmaster. See you later, Tilda-san.」Grey

「Yeah.」Tilda

When we left for the guildmaster's office we saw that Tilda-san heaved a sigh of relief. The guildmaster must have really given her a lot of pressure.

Knock Knock Knock

When we arrived at the guildmaster's office, I did the classic triple knock on the door, letting the guildmaster know that we were there.

「Who is it?」Gaston

「It's us. Tilda-san said you wanted to meet us.」Grey

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「Oh, it's you two... Come in.」Gaston

With the guildmaster's consent, the two of us entered and took a seat like how we usually do when we are meeting him.

「So, what did you want to talk about?」Grey

「Is it about the labyrinth?」Yuna

「Not really. But you know, seeing you two here eased one of my worries.」Gaston

「Worries?」Yuna

「It's because of Kris and Aria. When they came back and I asked about you two, they said you still haven't come out. I was worried that you have done something reckless again, but it seems that you two are just fine.」Gaston

So it was about that...

「Well, even now that I see the two of you, I can't help having the feeling that you two did do something reckless. I feel like the reason that you two came out late was because you headed too deep in the labyrinth and didn't notice the closing.」Gaston

Eh? You're just guessing, right?

Hearing the guildmaster's guess, both Yuna and I were amazed. It was as if the guildmaster had a psychic ability. Though I already appraised him, so probably not.

Well, we have no responsibility to answer his question, so we'll just keep quiet about it. Thankfully, Yuna already knows how to keep secrets.

「Other than that, I also heard from them that you two helped out Moterno's lord. Seriously, why do you two keep involving yourselves with such matters.」Gaston

「It's not our fault, you know?」Yuna

「Yuna's right. It was just a coincidence.」Grey

There was nothing we could do about it. Us saving Liz in that alley was just pure coincidence.

「Well, coincidence or not, I'm glad that nothing went terribly wrong. Oh, right, the city lord said he wanted to meet you two.」Gaston

「Galderia's city lord?」Grey

「His name is Cedric Aldridge, a count. Although I don't know what his reasoning is, I have a hunch that it has something to do with the Bellowing Specter incident last month.」Gaston

When Gaston mentioned the bellowing specter incident, Yuna's hands trembled a little. She must have remembered what had happened to her home village. Although she has moved on, it can't be helped that she remembers about it sometimes.

To calm Yuna down, I held her hands tightly. When I did that, she was startled at first, but she gradually calmed down.

「Thanks.」Yuna

「Anytime.」Grey

After I calmed Yuna down, Gaston then briefly explained his theory. He said that we might be sent to the capital for an awarding ceremony for the Bellowing Specter's defeat. It seems that since we helped out in the raid, we will be awarded with a medal of honor, also known as platinum star.

Speaking of which, Fritz also tried to reward us after everything we have done, but since we were just doing it for Liz's sake, we decided to decline it. After all, even without that reward, we still have a lot of valuables from the labyrinth.

Hmm... Now that I think about it, isn't the medal of honor the highest degree medal that a nation can bestow as an award of one's meritorious actions? Is it really alright for us to receive such a thing? We only did it for our own satisfaction after all.

But even if it's the highest degree medal, there's no way I'm going to accept it. It's too troublesome to deal with an award ceremony. And judging by Yuna's reaction, it seems that she's thinking of the same thing.

「Guildmaster, is there any way we can decline it.」Grey

「I don't think there is. But why would you want to? It's a great honor to receive such a medal.」Gaston

I want to say that it's because it's troublesome, but I don't think that it's a satisfactory reason.

「Well, if you don't want to, you can decline it. But it would be rude to the king if you do that. Some people might even make it hard for you because of that.」Gaston

Great... Even more troublesome things. Looks like we have no other choice but to accept it.

Ugh... How troublesome.

After that, the guildmaster talked with us about a lot of things, but most of them weren't as important as the possibility of getting a medal of honor.

I also asked him about when we are going to meet the lord, and he responded 「I still need to tell him that you agreed with meeting him. After that, he will schedule your meeting, so it might take a few days.」. It seems that we still have some time to accumulate some quest points.

As soon as we were dismissed, we went out of the office and headed to the lobby to pick up some quests, and unsurprisingly, there was a mountain of quests waiting for us. There were so many quests that some are overlapping with each other on the quest board.

Even with that said, there were only a handful of high-ranked quests. There were only 4 B-rank quests, and as for C-rank ones, there were a little less than 20. But for D-rank ones and below, there were hundreds of them.

With just the C-rank and B-rank quests alone, we could already earn more than 40,000 points. That's already more than a quarter of our goal.

「Hey, have you heard? There was an accident in the capital.」

Hm?

While Yuna and I were choosing quests from the quest board, we heard the other adventurers talk about an accident in the capital.

I know that it's rude to eavesdrop, but it's also the other adventurers' fault for talking about an interesting topic with such a loud voice.

「Yeah, I heard that an explosion happened at the royal academy. They said a lot of instructors were hurt.」

「But was it really an accident?」

「That's what they say, but I feel like they were just trying to cover it up. It was probably an assault or something.」

「Whatever it is, it really doesn't concern us.」

「You're right. Ah, right, have you seen that...」

The topic ended as suddenly as it started, and the adventurers returned to their normal selves. It was as if the topic was never brought up to begin with.

「What do you think about it, Yuna?」Grey

「I don't know, but I think it would be better if we ask Tilda-san about it. But first, we should probably pick our quests.」Yuna

「You're right.」Grey

After selecting 5 quests, Yuna and I headed to the reception counter and gave it to Tilda-san for processing. But while this was happening, I asked Tilda-san a question to satisfy mine and Yuna's curiosity.

「Tilda-san, did something happen in the capital?」Grey

「Hm? Why do you ask?」Tilda

「I heard the adventurers talking about it. I just want to ask what it was about.」Grey

「Well... From what I heard, there was an accident in the royal academy about 2 weeks ago. They said that a device they were working on malfunctioned and blew up, resulting in an explosion. Thankfully, there were no casualties, however 23 instructors were injured.」Tilda

「Was that all? I think I heard saying that it wasn't just an accident.」Grey

「They said it was an attack.」Yuna

「That's the rumor. Some of the witnesses said that rather than an explosion from a malfunctioning device, it looked more like the mid-level fire magic 《Explosion》. Because of that, some speculated that it was an attack.」Tilda

That makes sense... After all, an explosion made from a device and an explosion created using magic are drastically different if an expert looks at it closely. If it was a spell, there should be remnants of the mana used, looking like small shimmering particles.

「Though, it's just a rumor so I don't really know if it's true.」Tilda

「Ah, no. What you said was enough.」Grey

「I'm glad to be of help.」Tilda

Hmm... Now that I hear about it, I'm starting to rethink about going to the capital if ever we are going to be invited.

Haah... Give us a break...

「Here are your quests. I've done processing them.」Tilda

While I was thinking of such thoughts, Tilda-san finished processing the quests we picked, and handed it to us.

「Thank you, Tilda-san.」Grey

「No problem. After all, apart from Kris-san and Aria-san, you're the only ones who can complete these. Just make sure to complete those before the time runs out or else the guild will be in trouble.」Tilda

「Don't worry, we will.」Grey

「Bye, Tilda-san.」Yuna

「Goodbye～!」Tilda

After receiving our quests, Yuna and I headed out of the guild and went out of the city in order to complete them. But even while completing them, I just couldn't get the accident off my mind. Yuna was also the same.

Currently, Yuna and I are on our last quest to subjugate a group of High Treants, plant-attribute monsters that are higher variants of Trentlings and Treants.

「《Aqua Stream》!」Yuna

Yuna fired off an extremely high-pressure stream of water towards the last High Treant. The spell destroyed the trees on it's path, but when it was approaching the High Treant, it was able to lessen its impact by erecting a wall of trees in front of it. The attack hit it but was not able to take it down.

「Tsk.」Yuna

Taking the opportunity, I appeared behind the High Treant and gave it a good hit with a high-level art.

「《Megaton Shotgun》!」Grey

The attack instantly blasted the High Treant's upper body into smithereens. As for the lower part, it fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Although I was also thinking of the accident, it didn't affect my performance. It should have been the same for Yuna. Was there perhaps something she knows that I don't?

「Yuna, you seem distracted. Is that accident really bothering you that much?」Grey

I asked in order to answer the question on my mind.

「No, I'm just worried.」Yuna

「About what?」Grey

「About Liz's older sister. Liz said she was studying in the royal capital, so I was just wondering if she was safe from that accident. Liz would be sad if something did happen to her.」Yuna

Right, Liz did mention that she had an older sister. I was wondering where she was, but it seems she was just studying in the capital. Now I understand why it affected Yuna's performance.

「Don't worry about her. I'm sure she's fine, after all, the news only said that only the instructors were hurt. I'm sure all the students including her are fine.」Grey

「You're right... I shouldn't have let that affect me. Sorry.」Yuna

「I understand why you're worrying, so it doesn't bother me. Actually, now that you mention it, I'm also a little worried about her for Liz's sake.」Grey

「Liz has become like our little sister after all.」Yuna

「Yeah... Actually, sometimes, I even think of her as our daughterー」Grey

Eh? What did I just say?

Before I realized it, those embarrassing words had already leaked out of my mouth.

「Wait, Yuna. That's not what I meant! No, wait, it's not like I don't want to have a daughter with you! No, I mean I really want to but it's still too early. Wait, what am I even saying?! I mean, Liz is like, umm, you know a little sister. Yes, right, a little sister, but sometimes she acts like a small child so I kept thinking that she's like a daughter. No, that's not what I meant! What I meant to say waー」Grey

「Grey.」Yuna

Panicking, I tried to explain myself to Yuna with the best of my ability. I tried and tried but I kept fumbling what I wanted to say. I was about to reach my limit, when suddenly, Yuna held my hand and called out my name.

「You don't have to explain yourself. I'm actually happy that you think of it that way...」Yuna

Yuna said bashfully, with her face as red as it could be.

Seeing her like that and hearing her words, my mind finally reached its limit. Her words were just too destructive for my mortal heart to handle.

「Grey, are you alright...? Grey...? Hey, Grey～. Wait, Grey... Grey! Greeeey!! Come back to me! Gre～y!!!」Yuna

CHAPTER 51 END