"Where is he?" Lone asked. He had taken a moment to look at their surroundings and was surprised to see no one nearby.

Not even the other adventurers that Daisuke had paid off were in the visible area. Had Gilbert not saved them? Had they escaped on their own? Was the guildmaster keeping their two groups separate since he needed to heal Lone and he wanted to avoid any conflict? Lone didn't know the answers to these questions.

Gilbert sighed. "The hero? On his way back to Ranton, I presume."

"And everyone else?" Lone asked a bit timidly. He was still shaken up over almost losing his life.

The guildmaster replied, "I'd imagine the same as the hero. My only focus was you and Sophie, Lone, no one else, and considering their actions, I hardly care how they are doing or where they are going. I remember their names and faces, so they'll be punished all the same."

Lone slowly nodded as his mind began to wander. 'If Gilbert hadn't used that nature magic on me... I'd have died. Sophie would have been forced to use her Minor Time Control to save me, wouldn't she?... Would she have done that? Would she have accepted true blindness for a whole month just to save me?'

Lone looked up at the girl that was standing by his side as she tried to hide her face desperately. With his acute senses as a foxkin, he could hear her sniffling lightly. 'Is... Is she crying?... I was such an idiot. Why didn't I fight smarter?! Of course there was no way I could realistically block that axe with my flimsy swordspear or with my strength... I should have fought more defensively and taken advantage of any openings afforded to me... That, or just killed him immediately instead of stupidly trying to test myself against a clearly stronger opponent.'

Of course, Lone could feel his internal strength. He had ranked up from the fight. He was now an E-ranker, but he didn't feel proud even slightly when the price of gaining that rank-up was almost his own life or a month's worth of suffering for the girl he loved.

"Lone," Gilbert called as he snapped his fingers. "I know a lot just happened, but I need you to focus for me, okay?"

"S-Sorry. Uh, I guess you want me to explain what happened?" Lone asked.

Gilbert nodded. "The other adventurers wore complex expressions and just left after giving me horrible excuses when I questioned them about the fire. Indignant bastards. They'll be flagged to never go past silver-rank for this, I'll tell you that much. I, thankfully, know a lie when I hear one."

"Uh, well, Daisuke, that piece of shit," Lone said as he wobbled up to his feet and got a helping hand from Sophie to stand - she had stopped crying, it would seem, "He said that it was revenge for me stealing the spider queen from him. You know, the Mana Silk one. He ordered his slaves to kill the woman and children Blue Orcs then he got them to soak Sophie and myself in their blood, making us a target for the chieftain."

Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "And you just let them? The Wood Elven girl is a B-ranker, yes, but she's beyond malnourished even ignoring her lacking motivations. The Crimson Foxkin girl is only an I-ranker, so I doubt the two of you couldn't have dodged buckets of blood being tossed on you, no?"

"In all honesty, I was in shock. I knew the hero was a real piece of garbage when I saw that he had slaves and after hearing what he'd named them, but to try to murder us just because he was done using the girls as sex toys and because he was bitter over me killing the Mana Silk Spider Queen - of which, he had no evidence I was the one that did it, well, that was a bit of a wake-up call for me, personally," Lone said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Sophie's cheeks burned like fire in embarrassment before she said, "We were too focused on the chieftain. We did not want to suddenly become his focus of attention, and thus, gained tunnel vision. Ironically, that was exactly why we became its target. Had we centred our attention on the slaves and the hero, we could have stopped them from killing the chieftain's kin and potentially tried to bargain with the beast."

"Bargain with a monster?" Gilbert asked as he held back a laugh at the thought. "That's awfully naive of you, Sophie. Being able to speak does not mean that monsters are reasonable. The more violence-oriented they are, the more the likeliness of a peaceful dialogue occurring falls. Especially for dragons... Everyone with a sane head on their shoulders should hate dragons..."

Regardless of the guildmaster's apparent disgust for the being of which he was a kin, Lone protested his statement. "I've read about an entire city to the far east run entirely by High Goblins. Trust me when I say that I'm no goblin-lover, but from what I've read, they do business with anyone that has money. They've never once killed someone."

"Not for lack of wanting. Their existence is tolerated because they have yet to murder someone, regardless, it's a silly idea to try to reason with monsters. The smarter and stronger they are, the more likely they are to be scheming to kill you... especially dragons," Gilbert expressed very seriously.

Sophie frowned. "Then what would you have us do? Act like cowards like this kingdom's supposed 'hero'? Sacrifice someone to save our own skin as we wait for you to come and clean up the mess? Lone did not fight perfectly, yes. He nearly died, yes. However, he did defeat the Blue Orc Chieftain, did he or did he not?"

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Lone's heart felt warm when he heard Sophie stand up for him... though he could have done without her bluntly mentioning his recent mistakes.

"I would have had you flee. You are meant to be good at that, no, Sophie? That or use that ability of yours to instantly kill someone before you almost die, Lone, not after." Gilbert saw the awkward look on the foxkin's face so he sighed. "Well, what's done is done."

"What... What will happen to Daisuke?" Lone asked.

"What would you like to happen to him?" the guildmaster asked.

Lone wore a vicious look on his face which was uncommon for him. "I'd like my hands to be wrapped around his neck as he choked to death, personally. Oxygen is wasted on the weasel."

"I wish I could agree, but, unfortunately, the best I can offer is the chance for you beat him up," Gilbert said.

"What?" Lone was genuinely surprised. "Uh, is that okay? Not to disrespect you or anything, but shouldn't you be telling me off for having violent thoughts about this country's hero?"

Gilbert shrugged. "Being a hero doesn't exempt you from being a decent person. You'll have a chance to kick the lights out of him during the tournament in a few weeks. He's representing Princess Aileen so he's almost certainly going to make it to the finals. He is capped as a C-ranker though, so that makes him two ranks higher than you. Will that be an issue? There will also be B-rankers in the tournament."

Lone shook his head. "I'll make do."

Sophie frowned. "Are you not both forgetting something? He conspired to kill us. Will he not be punished for that?"

Gilbert chuckled. "No, he will. He, like the others, will never be allowed a promotion above silver-plate. I'll be suspending his licence to take on quests for 3-years and he'll have to pay a fine of 5 white-gold coins. Two for each of you and one for the guild."

Sophie nodded. "200 gold each isn't bad. We suppose it will have to suffice. We are warning you, however, if we ever see him again outside of Ranton's city walls, we shall not leave his head attached to his shoulders."

"Scary," Gilbert laughed like an uncle. "He'll get what's coming to him sooner or later, I'm sure. All heroes like that do. Typically, they offend another country's hero who is more skilled than them then they die in a duel, creating a political mess, but it happens all the time. You have to wonder if it's not orchestrated by the powers that stand behind them considering how common such a scenario is."

'Well, I guess that's all I can ask for,' Lone thought as he calmed down a bit. 'If I kill him, it'll be even worse than just running away from the tournament. Logically, I should just lose in round one and scram, but I need to at least punch that cunt in the face once. That means I need to gain as much strength as I can to ensure that I can reach him in the tournament...'

He'd think on this some more later but now that he had properly cooled his head off, he noticed the two lifeless girls just standing there like dolls unsure of what to do.

"Uh, Gilbert, what do we do with them?" Lone asked.

"Hmm? Ah, I actually know who the elf girl is. Her father has been in contact with me, below the board, of course. I've been wracking my brain thinking over how to acquire her so he can safely return to the eastern world tree. The poor man even... did some things only a strong-willed person could to completely avoid any and all suspicion of him being an elf," Gilbert claimed.

A small mote of light returned to the elven girl's eyes as she trembled lightly. "F-Father was l-looking for me?"

Gilbert nodded. "And he'll be over the moon to see that you're now free. Well, free in a figurative sense. We still need to do something about that collar of yours. By all legal intents and purposes, you still belong to Daisuke Tamiko. Same goes for you, young miss Breena Redtail."

"Redtail?" Lone's ears perked up. "Any relation to Lossa, Tiera, or Trella Redtail?"

The girl, Breena, flinched but didn't open her mouth.

Gilbert exchanged glances between Lone and the girl before he suggested, "Well, it sounds like you have some connections with the Crimson Foxkin Clan, Lone, so how about I take custody of our elven friend here while you take custody of young miss Breena? I'll try to do something about their collars. Such devices are dangerous. If Daisuke sees them again, he could order them to kill themselves and they'd be forced to do it by the contract magic."

'That'd make him happy, wouldn't it?' Lone walked over to the two girls and placed one hand on their collars. A few moments later, Lone's face was cramping up in pain and he wobbled to the side.

Gilbert quickly caught the young man. "Are you okay? Root of Life may have stopped you from dying, but you're still very weak right now, Lone. Don't worry my old heart by overexerting yourself like that."

Lone smiled. "Sorry. But now, that bastard can't order them ever again."

"Hmm?" Gilbert wore a curious expression as he carefully put Lone on his back and started carrying him.

"Gilbert, I can walk, you know," Lone protested.

"And I can fly with magic but it doesn't mean I'm going to. Just sit there like a good boy and let me carry you back. If you pass out, then not only will I have to carry you, but I won't be able to talk to you either, and, my boy, that would be a downright tragedy," Gilbert joked with a warm smile on his face that only the two rag-donning girls and Sophie could see.

''My boy', huh? Well, I'm sure that's just the way he talks, but I wouldn't mind having someone like Gilbert as my dad,' Lone wistfully thought. "Okay, I get it. As for the collars, I... uh, how to put it... I altered them. There's no magic in them anymore. They're basically tacky accessories."

"I'm telling you, Lone, this racial power of mine is more trouble than it's worth. Since I know you're being honest, I have about a thousand questions as to the how and the why you can do something like that," Gilbert admitted as he started walking. "Sophie, I'll trust you to keep those girls safe. My hands are a bit tied right now."

Sophie nodded as she motioned for the girls to follow behind Gilbert. They hesitated, but with no other choice, they did as they were instructed to.

"Stop touching my hands with your tails. They're awfully soft even though they're covered in dirt and blood," Gilbert complained.

Lone rested his chin on the head of the man who had almost 400-years on him as he said, "Nope. Either I wipe the filth on you, or I get them dirtier by trailing then along the ground, and a certain someone would kill me if I did that."

A blood vessel almost burst in the guildmaster's forehead as he shook his face about wildly. "Don't rest your chin on my head! It feels creepy when you talk."

"Then don't carry me, you old goat," Lone retorted playfully.

"Hah, even you're calling me a goat now? Well, better be carefully, 'cause this goat has horns and they'll poke your eyes out if you keep talking with your jaw resting on my scalp!" Gilbert shouted.

Lone laughed. 'This is fun, but yeah, I should really take this opportunity to go over my skills level-ups and system notifications. My status too. I wonder how many stat points the chieftain gave me?'