a staircase that rises only from the inside of a guild counter Langa knocks on the door at the top of the stairs on behalf of the three.
　Incidentally, there are only three people here: Langa, Elk and Ray. Only one of Langa's guards is standing by the counter in case of emergency, while others are heading down to the lord's residence, the headquarters of the guard or the knighthood to inform him of the incident.
　The Knights, let alone the headquarters of the Guard, are essentially stationed at the lord's residence.

"This is Langa, Guildmaster, commander of the Guard." May I ask you something urgent?"
"Yes, I don't care. Come in."

　Langa opens the door to a voice coming from inside the room.
　As soon as it came into view, a dark elf, dressed in a revealing dress, was exposed to brown skin.
　Marina Ariantha He is a guildmaster who brings together adventurers' guilds on the frontier of the kingdom of Milliana.
　The adventurers who are already full of wild people, especially those who gather in this remote town of Gillum, are full of vitality in many ways. Not a few low-ranking adventurers, particularly large in number, are rough. It was Marina Ariantha who brought these adventurers together.
　an eye full of intelligence in provocative dress a high magical power characteristic of a tribe called dark elf A person who was once a Rank A adventurer, and who is also a top-notch archer.

"And I've heard that there's something urgent to do... what? It's already late at night, and you three rush to the guild." I suppose it's quite an incident."

　I won't forgive you for half‐finished business. Elk takes a step forward to Marina, who tells her so suggestively.
　To be so bullish about Ray, who possesses overwhelming magical powers, is probably the guildmaster of the town of Guillum, even though he has known him before.

"I'll explain. Actually...

　He says so and explains what happened to him. Party members, and at the same time family members Min and Rodos, were captured by a black man in the port city, which was on their way to avoid the winter cold. They were held hostage and ordered to take the life of Ray in the streets of Gilm.
　Among them, he came back to the city of Gilm with the man who was the watchman and tried to kill Ray, but he was able to capture the man who was the watchman with his quick wit and incapacitated him. And Min and Rodos, who have been held hostage, are in the city of Abuero. Elk, speaking of all of them, bows his head vigorously.

"Guildmaster, please! Give me your help!"
「……」

　Marina gazes at the bowing elk in silence. In silence, Ray and Langa felt something gleaming from their bodies. In fact, if there were anyone here who could see or sense magic, they would twitch their cheeks. Nearly ten ordinary human wizards' magical powers had emanated from their bodies.

"Huh, huh, Well, I'm going to use one of my guilds, one of my faces, to take the life of a promising man... that's how you do it."
"Guildmaster?"

　Even Elk, who had bowed his head, must have felt something wrong with that remark. raise one's head and call out with a slight twitch in one's cheek
　In fact, Marina's mind was raging with anger at this time. For Marina, a long-lived tribe called the Dark Elves, the adventurers of the city of Gilm are, in other words, objects they should be sheltered. They try to kill Ray, who is also a patron, by threatening the Elk.
　In this case, it doesn't matter that Ray has more magical powers than Marina. As long as he's a guildmaster, Ray is one of his patrons. And in that sense, Elk is above Marina in pure combat.

"... all right. If you're going to get me that far, and you're going to get me a fight with my guild, I'll get you what you want."

　Marina's mumbling smile is a threatening but spectacular one that attracts viewers.
　Goggling. When Ray looked aside at the sound of his breath, he saw Ranga staring at Marina as if she had lost her soul.

"Elk, Ray," What do you want from me?"

　Elk hesitates once but immediately opens his mouth as he looks at him with a ghastly air.

"Min and Rodos must be in captivity in the city of Abuero. I want you to contact the guild over there and find out where it is."
"Yes, there's no problem," The guildmaster over there once took care of me, and I'm sure he'll listen to me like that'said he.

　Marina nods instantly to Elk's words.
　In fact, due to the relationship of the Dark Elves, who live longer than others, Marina has much wider interactions with others than with ordinary people. His connections were considerable, partly because he was a famous adventurer, and he was proud that he could manage a little extraordinary.

"And what are you going to do?"

　Marina's words followed by Ray.

"I'm going to take a set to Abuero. If possible, I'd like to get it done by the end of the night. for if you take the time, you may be able to use strange tricks again."
"... well. It's true that Ray and Sett are the fastest runners in the city right now. Shall we go with that? Wait a minute."

　Marina nods to Ray with a quick decision.
　Then he reaches out to the crystal on his desk and puts his magic into it.
　By being cast away by magic, the crystal connects with the crystal that the user wants to see and projects the other person's face there.

"Huh? This is Marina. What's the matter with you at this hour?"

　It was a poor man in his fifties who appeared on the crystal. This man is not an adventurer, but a former merchant who was selected as a guildmaster as a link between Gilm, the frontier, and Abuero, the outside world. When I was still a young merchant, I was helped by Marina as a bodyguard, or by the special magic items made only in the villages of Dark Elves, or by the materials associated with it, or in many ways by Marina or her party members, Seith and Deerlogo. That's why I couldn't stand up to the marinas.

"Long time no see, Tillage," I'd like to talk about a lot of things, but I'll put it off and get right to the point. You know the axe of the Lightning God at Rank A party?"
"Yes, of course," They have taken good care of our town many times."

　If Gilm is in the frontier of the kingdom of Milliana, Abuero is the closest city to the frontier. Naturally, they are more likely to be attacked by remote violent monsters than in other cities, which has led to several attacks by monsters or rare species appearing around them. Thunder God's axe has solved it several times. Ray listened to Elk's explanation with a nod.

"He is a member of the Thunder God's axe, and you know Elk?"

　Marina says, moving the crystal towards Elk.
　On the other side of the crystal, Tillage nods softly.

"Yes, of course," Long time no see, Elk. And you're the captain of the Guards and... who's the other child?"

　Tillage's gaze turns to Ray, who he sees for the first time.
　It was Marina, not Ray herself, who answered the question.Basically, it was because he didn't want Ray to waste his time answering the question of politeness towards his superiors.

"Ray, haven't you got any information in the city of Abuero? I'm looking forward to a rookie who has run up to Rank C as soon as possible since I signed up for the guild in this city of Guilm."
"Oh, come to think of it," They say they are always accompanied by a Gryphon... No, I envy Marina. One promising newcomer after another..."
"Leave that to me." I don't have much time now."

　Marina interrupts Tillage.
　You must have understood that something had happened. In the first place, it's a good time for those who are late at night and go to bed early. You must have expected something to happen when you contacted them at that time using the magic crystal. It was just a more urgent issue than Tillage had expected.

"... I'll ask you,"

　Marina opens her mouth with a serious expression, as if she had lost her usual languid atmosphere.

"Actually, Elk's party members, his wife and children, are being taken hostage by a group of people. And he threatened to kill Ray if he wanted his life."
"...what?"
"Well, fortunately, Ray was able to catch the watchman who was in the town of Gilm, but now that he has caught the watchman, I want to keep the rest of us down as soon as possible."
"I see. The rest of them and Elk's family are in the city of Abuero?"
"Yes, I hear so," I'm going to send Ray over there, and I wonder if you'll get that information before then."
"... from now on? Wouldn't it be faster for us to move directly?"

　In Marina's words, it sounded like an insult to the guild in the city of Abuero. Tillage frowns faintly.
　But it's no wonder. If we take Marina's words honestly, we can't solve them with your own strength, so we can send you our strength.
　You must have guessed it. Marina shakes her head slightly.

"This time it was probably the shadow of the Empire of Bestia." I guess you've had Ray's tricks crushed several times before, and that's why you were going to get rid of them. But Ray is strong. It's almost out of the standard. I think that's why I tried to use Elk, who is also a Rank A adventurer. In other words, Ray is used to dealing with the shadows of the Westian Empire. Unfortunately, there are very few such people in the guilds of Abuero."
"...that's for sure." But there are a few, if not so many, adventurers of rank A in our guild, and I don't think we can handle it."
"Tillage," Have you ever had my words wrong?"
「…………」

　Tillage responds silently to the interrupted Marina.
　Ray, Elk and Langa were just watching the conversation in silence.
　What is going on now is a conversation between guildmasters. Even if you're a Rank A adventurer or a guard captain, you don't deserve to cut in. Even if it were Ray, who ran up to Rank C at the fastest rate, it was out of the question.
　And then, we were silent for about a minute. Eventually, Tillage breathes as if he had been defeated.

"All right. It is true that I have never made a loss by following Mr. Marina's words. This time I will quietly concentrate on collecting information."
"Yes, I'm glad you understand. Then, I'll send Ray and Sett over there right away, so please proceed with the preparations under the guildmaster's authority."
"Yes, yes. I'll be obedient to what Marina says. Do you have any other requests? This is the case, and if we can handle them, we will accept them most of course.
"Well... Ray, do you have anything else?"

　Marina listens to Tillage and turns to Ray. Since it was Ray who was actually going to the city of Abuero, he probably asked him if anything had happened.

"Well, when I used to stop by the city of Abuero on my way to escort, I couldn't let Seto into the city to avoid disrupting the city's inhabitants. But this time we need to launch a surprise attack. It would be a great help if you could consider it."
"Yes, that's right. It doesn't mind?"
"...what? Oh, oh, yes." There's no problem. I will contact the guards and the deputy lords with guildmaster authority."

　Marina recognizes herself as a superior figure. Tillage nods to Ray, who speaks in a tone that can be called violent toward Marina, even though she is slightly surprised.
　Marina is originally averse to formal language, but her personality is one of the strongest in the dark elves. Therefore, even if you say that you don't have to use formal language, it's really difficult. Nevertheless, Ray thinks that's irrelevant... yes, he talks to his colleagues as if he were speaking to them.
　It may have been at this point that Tillage's mind was deeply imbued with Ray.