Chapter 16, Arrival

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

A few minutes after Heino joined the table where Kousuke and the others were sitting, he looked at Kousuke as if to say, ‘now it’s time to get down to business’.

 

“By the way, it appears that the royal family is interested in your group.”

 

Kousuke rolled his eyes at those sudden words. “What do you mean that?”

 

“Kou-san, Kouhi-san, and Mitsuki-san.”

 

Kousuke seriously tilted his head at the sudden mention of this.

 

If Kousuke and the others had informed others about themselves, and their ties to Razequa Amamiya, that would be one thing. However, they had done nothing of the sort this time around. He entered the country as a mere adventurer named Kou, and he had just been doing requests.

 

“I can’t think of anything in particular as to why they would be interested…?”

 

“I see.”

 

“If there is, it would be our activities during the recent escorting request. Oh, and that request to collect materials,”

 

Heino seemed to be taken aback by this. He questioned, “Wait, you did a material gathering request as well?”

 

Heino’s reaction surprised Kousuke. “What? You didn’t know? I thought it was your trading company that made this request.”

 

Heino’s head snapped back to reality at those words. “I see… there is certainly a lapse in our information then. I had heard about the transportation schedule and such, but I hadn’t heard about the adventurers who had killed the target monsters.”

 

Kousuke could not help but question how odd this was. Still, since this was just a large trading company, there were bound to be lapses. There were simply many requests that came through to them, with many targets to be hunted and requests.

 

If there were local branches for the trading company, each branch could send out its own request. It was not surprising such information would not reach Heino, who had jurisdiction over the headquarters but was not in charge of the other branches.

 

However, the requested goods this time was a gift to the royal family. From Kousuke’s point of view, it seemed odd that Heino did not know about the adventurer who had killed the monsters, which were the prepared materials for the gift.

 

However, from the look on Heino’s face, he really seemed to be unaware about this.

 

“No, I beg your pardon for this… I have to rebuild my information network properly once again. There were too many problems to deal with this time…” The last words were like a monologue.

 

Kousuke said nothing. If Heino himself had something on his mind, it was not his place to speak on his behalf.

 

Rather than that, there was something else that was bothering Kousuke.

 

“So, why is the Royal family interested in us?”

 

“Oh. Your group was brought up when we were talking about the delivery of the offering, and I heard that the King is interested in this delivery. I was told by a high-ranking official that he would like to meet your group.”

 

When Heino said this, the adventurers who had been making noise around him froze.

 

The noisy room instantly quieted down.

 

“Well… Is it just us?”

 

“No. No. Although only your names were mentioned, we were approached to get a meeting with all of you.”

 

Hearing Heino’s answer, Claire immediately responded.

 

“No, no. This trip can all be credited to Koh and the others. No matter how you look at it, we hardly contributed. There is no need for us to appear before the King.”

 

“That’s right. No need.”

 

“It’s all to Koh’s credit, no matter how you look at it.”

 

The adventurers praised Kousuke and the others, but it was clear that they simply did not want to answer the King’s summons.

 

However, such hopes were violently shattered by Heino, who shook his head.

 

“Unfortunately, the King’s wishes to call on everyone. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit.”

 

He sharply said, and the heads of all the adventurers fell in despair.

 

♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦♢♦

 

“Has this ever happened before?” Kousuke asked, suddenly wondering after hearing from Heino.

 

“Yes. It has happened. Not many times, though.”

 

“If it does not happen that often, is there some kind of condition that needs to be fulfilled?”

 

“Well, I don’t know that much about it.” Heino’s trading company had delivered offerings to the King on several occasions. However, each time the adventurers involved in the escorting of the gift were not summoned to appear before the King.

 

“By the way, it is unusual for them to get summoned. And it is even more usual for them to be summoned by name.”

 

This was the first time, at least as far as Heino knew, that the King had summoned the escorts by name.

 

For a moment Kousuke wondered if he had been discovered to be a living god? However, the King should not know about it. He had not done anything beyond the bounds of being an adventurer, although he would be considered to be much stronger than normal.

 

Kousuke looked at both Kouhi and Mitsuki, but they both shook their heads as if to say they also had no clue.

 

Heino, perhaps misinterpreting the exchange, continued to speak. “You don’t seem to have any idea about why this has happened.”

 

“Well, the only thing I can think of is our performance during this escort request. But you know better about this whole situation, don’t you, Heino-sama?”

 

“Yes.” Heino and Kousuke were both tilting their heads, and Rein, who was listening to them, interrupted.

 

“Well… If the King learned in detail about how Kou and the others ended up in this escort request, it should not be strange for him to call out to you,”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

At Reine’s words, the surrounding adventurers all shook their heads.

 

“The report is brief, but it was mostly about how Kou and the others fought off the attackers.”

 

“Oh yeah. And we were mostly there to stall the attackers in their tracks.”

 

At Claire’s words, the adventurers nodded again.

 

Normally, they would have been offended to be described as not having done anything important. However, Kousuke and the others were there. With how strong they were, the other adventures dare not take credit..

 

Since Rein had assured them that their fee would not be reduced because of this, there was no reason for them to hide the truth.

 

“So is that it? So, you mean to say that it was because the three of us took care of most of the attacks that occurred on this trip?”

 

“That seem to be the case.”

 

Rein nodded at Kousuke’s, while Heino looked at Kousuke and the others with a stunned expression.

 

Rein and the other adventurers in front of them were in agreement, so there was no room for doubt. Still, this was something that one would have thought impossible just by listening to it.

 

“Rein, you didn’t write down the details on purpose, did you?” That was the first thing Heino noticed when he recovered from his stupor.

 

Rein shrugged his shoulders and quickly admitted it. “We had no choice. I don’t know where the information might leak out from. So, I couldn’t go into too many details. Still, the other party had attacked us so many times. It did not make sense to hide it.”

 

The more times they attacked, the more information could be gathered on them.

 

In fact, the last attack was the first time they had attacked the caravan in a proper formation.

 

However, Kousuke and his team easily crushed their efforts.

 

“That’s true, but… No, let’s not talk about that now. At least now we know why the King has his eye on us.”

 

Heino looked at Rein, as if he wanted to say something. However, he came to look at Kousuke without saying anything more.

 

“Ah~. You mean what we did was too outstanding?”

 

“Well, to put it simply, yes.”

 

Kousuke let out a sigh. This whole thing seemed to be nothing but trouble no matter how he looked at it.

 

“Of course, we can refuse the summon, right?”

 

Heino’s eyes peeled back at Kousuke’s words.

 

“Refuse? !”

 

“…I would if I could.”

 

“Unfortunately, I don’t think so.” Heino tiredly said to Kousuke.

 

---

---