Meril glanced outside through the window of the building he was using as some sort of temporary headquarters. In fact, it was the same one that the Princess used during her execution of the operation she called Sweet Roses, information that Meril was only recently made aware of. Despite knowing about that operation, he only had the surface information. The specific details were still being kept from him.

That was fine as it would not hinder the mission he was given. But he was still bothered by the fact that he was left out.

At the moment, it was still early in the morning. With him were a pair of knights guarding the room as he sat at the table at the center. Just then, came knockings on the door. A knight checked it out and once confirming the new arrival’s identity, he allowed him inside.

It was another knight, but was wearing a formal outfit.

“Lord Teristro,” he said. “The guild has sent a list of adventurers that have accepted our special quest.”

The crown sent a commission for the adventurer’s guild with a hefty price to each adventurer that would take part in the hunt. And the total budget was nothing to scoff at. Even Meril was surprised for a moment that the king would spend this much on something like this. It was Estelia’s plan, as one would expect.

But to think she would want to elicit the help of adventurers. Her reason for doing so was because we didn’t have enough manpower to take out all the bandits' camp all at once. Yes, she wanted to eliminate the bandits at the same time. Not even letting them give them the chance to send messages to anyone else.

But that was not all, she was concerned that there might still be enemies out there that might be a match or too powerful for knights, and she wanted to keep the knights alive. Meril surmised she didn’t want to lose a large number of knights when the war began. And thus she resorted to those that were less valuable — the adventurers. Ones that were disposable.

Knights were normally more powerful than adventurers. However, there were incredibly strong ones in the guild, with some even able to cast magic spells — not as powerful as nobles could have, but magic casters nonetheless. The adventurers were valuable in their own way. People that trained their bodies to fight monsters, whether they completely have no mana, or just a little.

However, it would seem the princess values the knights more than them. Or perhaps she just didn’t know adventurers very well. Or maybe she knew just enough to realize that adventurers may fit better when traversing forests.

Still, despite that adventurers would be present, the knights would come along with them as well.

“Very good. With the reward we offer, I doubt they would ignore and miss out. We will be ready to move out tomorrow.”

After handing Meril the list, the knight left the room.

He stared out at the window again. Hunter’s Playground was now at play. As for the other one, Rat’s Tail, all has been set. They were to begin the same day the princess meets with other noble ladies in their social party. As for why the princess chose that time — tomorrow — at the same time with the expected start of Hunter’s Playground, Meril did not exactly know.

Perhaps she did it on a whim. No, perhaps she was in a rush. Truth be told, Meril had the impression that they were moving quickly. Almost as if the princess wanted to settle things before a deadline.

Even his Intuition was not much of a help. But his guesses should be close to the answer.

Knocks came from the door again, and the knight allowed a woman in light armor to enter.

“Yes, Ayana?”

“I received word that the princess has left the palace.”

And my niece’s short vacation begins.

She was on her way to Meril’s home.

Hope she at least has to enjoy herself.

“Thank you for informing me. Have you finished selecting who you want to be the squad leaders?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Make sure they’re ready to take the reins tomorrow and make the operation a success.”

“Exterminating bandits, hardly a difficult thing to do. I don’t think we would even need adventurers.”

“We need to cover as much ground, and the princess’s orders.”

“... I will succeed on my part.”

Ayana was quite an incredibly motivated person, the right person for the job. Meril knew very well what kind of person she was, it was easy to read her through his Intuition. A woman with great ambition, and competent to boot. But one bestowed with bad luck.

Terrible.

“I’m certain you will. You may go and rest your mind for today.”

***

Tina stood outside the inn her party was staying in, looking at her surroundings with a small smile. She was alone, for the rest of her friends were still inside, preparing to move out. For Tina, she didn’t have to do much, she was a healer anyways. Not much equipment to prepare.

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Anita was more or less the same case as her. However, the mage was helping Derin with his equipment. To Tina’s surprise when she returned to her friends after months, Anita and Derin’s relationship had changed, one could say they had stepped up. They became closer to each other.

In truth, the man didn’t need help, and Derin even tried to convince Anita that he could do it by himself. But she was insistent, and thus Derin couldn’t do anything else but receive her assistance, all while flustered in front of the group. Tina never expected that Anita would be that way.

There was one man she wanted to help, but he said he would be alright. And Tina was in no position to be adamant, and thus she left to have some fresh air. But that was not all the reason, she needed some peace to gather her thoughts.

The commission they accepted, along with a large number of adventurers, was an object of curiosity. It was from the crown, and strangest of all, the details of the mission were a mystery. Despite that, the adventurers took it considering the large rewards for the participants. Five gold coins for each party.

Also that this was from the crown, low ranked adventurers couldn’t let the merit of this pass. Tina’s party counted among those. However, she was restless. She just didn’t understand the necessity of the secrecy of the mission.

She wondered if the High Bishop and her sister knew what this was exactly about. When her party accepted the commission, she wanted to ask them, but she was reluctant to come back to the church. Especially that her sister severely disliked her going back to becoming an adventurer.

In any case, something big must be going on in Wisteria. And given that she was not forced to return to the church, it must not need their aid, or she was just not needed. That said, for some reason, she felt that given the scale of the situation, it was almost like this was formulated by her.

If she’s involved in this, then…

It might be something that can largely affect Wisteria, just like how her plans caused the destruction of a large part of the city.

Why am I thinking so much about this?

Not like she was needed, anyway. Everyone can handle whatever problem Wisteria was facing.

My obligation… It's fine.

She took in a deep breath, when at the same time, the door of the inn behind her opened. Turning around, it was Dune. Tina tensed up a little.

“What’s up? You look troubled.”

“Nothing. Just thinking. The others?”

“They’re just about done. Well, Iruyu precisely. The two sweet birds… in a short moment they’ll be done.”

“Iruyu is keeping an eye on them, I presume?”

“Yeah. Derin pleaded.”

Tina chuckled. “Of course…” Tina looked away. “I have been wondering… who initiated it?”

“Heh, Anita. She got more impatient sometime after you left.”

“I see… Good for them. I didn’t imagine it would happen while I was gone.”

“It would seem love comes in unexpected times.”

“Yes…” she glanced at his eyes for a moment, and before their eyes met, Tina looked away. “... So… how about you?”

“What about me?”

Tina subtly gulped. “During the time that I was gone…. Did you find someone, perhaps? One that you were interested in?”

“Oh… Not exactly…”

“Not exactly…?” Tina couldn’t understand why he said it that way.

“Actually, I don’t know. There’s this girl from another party I met.”

What…?

Her heart sank upon hearing it.

Dune continued. “But it was a month before you returned. Nothing much happened.”

That happened while I was gone?

No one had mentioned it at all ever since she came back.

Why?

“I-I… Y-You h-have not talked since?”

“Yeah.”

“Who is she?”

“You don’t know her, you never met.”

I just want to know the name…

“... I see…” that was all that she could mutter.

Her heart felt painful and heavy, her legs weakened. Her hands trembled slightly. To think there was someone while she was gone.

What about me…?

Just then the door of the inn opened. The three that they were waiting for emerged. Dune looked towards them with a smile, while Tina looked away in an attempt to hide the tense expression on her face. Despite being trained to hide her emotions, the pain in the heart was just too hard to hide for her.

“Finally,” Dune said as he watched Anita and Derin following behind the muscular man Iruyu. Anita clung tightly to her lover’s arm. “I hope we can proceed to the guild with no problem at all. Specifically asking you, Anita.”

The mage, Anita, frowned. “What are you trying to say? There’s not going to be a problem.”

She let go of Derin’s arm and went towards Tina. “Tina, let’s go.”

As usual, Tina and Anita were to walk together. Normally it would be expected for romantic couples to constantly walk side by side. However, surprisingly, Anita was quite considerate with the boys and the group, allowing Derin to be with the other male party members, while she would be with Tina.

Before Anita could pull her in, Tina forced herself to gain composure and lifted a small smile.

The group began making their way to the guild building, with Tina and Anita ahead of the rest.

On their way there, they encountered a couple of buildings under repair, but were almost over. These were among the buildings obliterated during the palace’s operation in the middle of the city, where an intense battle took place.

“Wew, how much did it cost to repair all the damages to the city?” Derin asked.

Dune turned towards him. “Enough to leave us fed for a year.”

“And to let us stay in a high-class inn for months.” Added Anita.

Indeed, it was incredibly costly to repair everything. Thankfully, the crown was the one to finance it.

“Should have let us fight along with the knights,” said Iruyu.

“Why didn’t they, anyway? Not like this wasn’t our city or anything.”

“And they say the enemies were monsters, would have been easy work for us,” remarked Derin with blatant confidence.

Tina glanced towards them, wanting to frown. They were wrong. It was more complicated than that, and the enemies were powerful. In fact, she was thankful that they weren’t involved at all. Even the church members struggled to face one non-human.

“... You can’t be sure of that.” Tina couldn’t help but say.

“You know something, Tina?” Anita asked, curious.

“... Not really.” She had to lie. She was sworn to secrecy about the matter, as was the order of the princess and the crown. It was not something the common folk should even know. “Just that even the knights struggled, I don’t think it would be easy for us — for you.”

“I guess…” muttered Anita. “But the crown has evaded being too specific about it. Being from the church, you must have heard something.”

“The church is not privy to the crown's secrets. Especially to a simple priestess like me.”

They seemed to have understood, and they stopped asking about the battle. Tina didn’t want to lie to her dear friends, but it was for the best and absolute. Even though she left the church to go adventuring again, she still had responsibilities, obligations to carry out. And that included keeping secrets.

Obligations…

There was that word again.

Eventually, they arrived at the adventurer’s guild. And to no one’s surprise, the lobby was crowded with adventurers.

Tina took a deep breath. She looked around, but her gaze stopped. At a corner, there were knights from the palace. A familiar woman was in the middle of them. She recognized these knights, they were among the elites.

It was here that Tina was finally convinced that this mission concerned the entirety of Wisteria.