Master’s Smile

“Not a single bit….”

“None….”

“A bust, huh….”

All of Lucille’s guild members let out a sigh one after another.

By the way, the order goes as follows, Lucille, Apollo, Heroro, and finally Rieg.

I couldn’t help but chuckled at the sight of them. As for Sorglos, she doesn’t seem to be interested and only fixed her gaze at my back.

Wha… You can stand next to me, you know?

“As expected, It’s nice to see Master’s back~….”

Sorglos muttered in an ecstatic voice.

Ah, I guess my voice can’t reach her at this point.

It has been around two hours since we―――or rather Lucille and his friends―――entered the forest in high spirits.

In response to everyone’s completely exhausted request, we are currently taking a break in a slightly open area of the forest.

Everyone was sitting on the ground, sweating profusely, except for me and Sorglos.

“Good grief… even my usually reclusive Master is still in good shape, so how can all of you, the normal guild members, be looking like that?”

No, it was you and the others who locked me up in the guild headquarters for whatever reason even though I wanted to go out, right?

Well, recently that’s not the case anymore, so I guess all’s well ends well.

I couldn’t help but put on a wry smile at Sorglos’ venomous muttering.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that Lucille and the others have low endurance.

To elaborate, we focused on exploring places that I, who have been to this forest several times, didn’t know.

There are very few monsters in the areas where I usually take walks, but for some reason, a lot of them attacked us at the places that we explored for the first time today.

I thought this is a peaceful forest with few ferocious monsters, but was I wrong?

Though, the monsters that attacked us were not that dangerous, like goblins and lizardmen, so there wasn’t any panic.

　The story would have been different if it had been ogres that Laladi, Maho, Yuuto and the others had encountered before, though.

　As a result, Lucille and the others were exhausted after having to explore up to this point with monsters attacking them.

“No, rather than the goblins, how can you be so calm against lizardmen…?”

“If anything, they’d have fought better than us.”

“Are all the dark guilds like this…?”

Lucille scowled at us resentfully and Apollo smiled bitterly as if he had given up.

And finally, Rieg let out his pitiful grumbling.

No, well, I basically had nothing to do back then. it was all Sorglos who fought for me.

As soon as she vanished, she came out of nowhere and precisely stabbed the monsters with a large amount of kunais and I can’t help but be in awe.

Also, I feel bad saying this to Rieg, but we only have children as good as Sorglos in our guild.

Though, Sorglos isn’t exactly a combat specialist. Hence, she’s naturally not as good as what Reese and the others can do.

Still, all of them are my proud guild members.

“Why are you so strong?”

“Fufun. It’s only natural, since Master’s reward awaits me after this.”

Sorglos answered Lucille’s question with pride.

…eh? A reward?

I felt my smile twitched a little as I hadn’t heard about that before, but Sorglos looked at me with a sparkle of anticipation in her eyes.

Her level of anticipation was so great that I can somehow see a tail growing out of her bottom, swaying and swinging wildly from side to side.

…Sorglos isn’t a beastfolk, is she?

“Sigh…. I guess today’s not good?”

Heroro muttered tiredly.

We’ve been in this forest for only about two hours, though.

We normally wouldn’t have overworked ourselves and would still be able to continue exploring.

However, in the short time we’ve been in this forest, we’ve had quite a number of battles.

Even though the last battles were handled by Sorglos, Lucille and the others have also fought bravely against the lizardmen and goblins.

It would be better not to push them any further.

“B-But, Lucica is….”

Lucille, Lucica’s older brother, is worried about his little sister, who is being affected by the curse.

Ragell’s curse is very powerful and vicious, so it must have been hard for Lucille, who could only watch Lucica suffers.

There’s nothing to worry about.

I’ve been diluting―――rather, pouring enough of my magic―――into Lucica.

It’s true that Ragell’s curse is a strong one. But if it’s from a monster of that level, my magic power would be enough to suppress its progress for a while. Thus, she won’t feel any pain or suffering for now.

“I-I see…. Thank you.”

“…Master’s magic is truly all-purpose.”

Lucille let out a relieved sigh, meanwhile Sorglos uttered her amazement.

No, it’s not like it’s all-purpose.

Well, it’s great if it’s useful, though.

In any case, it’s only been less than a day since I poured my magic into Lucica and we started looking for the elixir.

It’s not that easy to find, so why don’t we leave it at that for today?

“…You’re right. There’s no need to push ourself now, so let’s end it for today.”

Apollo, their guildmaster, decided so.

This means that our work for the day is over, huh….

Alright, let’s return to the guild, Sorglos.

“Hah! As expected, it’s going to be like that…!!!”

Sorglos’ widened her eyes while stomping her feet.

Ehh? Are you perhaps don’t like “Yelquchira”?

“N-No, that’s not true…. (I don’t like everyone except Master. But it’s impossible for me to say that to him who is giving me a slightly sad smile….)”

Sorglos was twisting and writhing in some kind of agony.

The others are also sometimes reacting like this. I don’t know what it’s purpose, though.

“Are you guys leaving already? We were thinking of having a drink or something to get to know each other after this.”

Apollo called out to us and told so.

A drinking party, huh….

But there are people waiting for us to come back (or so I would like to think)….

“Nonono, this is quite a rare opportunity, so I think we should accept their kindness! (The others may be eagerly waiting for Master’s return, but as for me, they are probably thinking “Why are you not dead yet?”.)”

“Yup, yup. It’s fine to let off some steam for a day or so, right?”

Sorglos unexpectedly took Apollo’s side.

Apollo was also happy and invited me to join him.

Hmm…. If Sorglos wants to, then I’ll be happy to oblige.

“That’s what I’m talking about!”

“A wise decision, Master! (With this, Master will be mine for the time being!)”

Apollo tapped me on the shoulder, but Sorglos knocked it away while hugging me.

As expected, we would probably be home late from this drinking party.

Apollo seems to be the typical uncle who would be troublesome at a drinking party, you see…

Still, I need to somehow get in touch with “Yelquchira” HQ…. How should I do this?

“If that’s the case, you can rely on me.”

When I was worrying about this, Sorglos said something that made me happy.

I see. Then, I’ll ask of you.

To be honest, I don’t have any way to contact them, so I’m sure Sorglos, who’s a ninja, has such a way.

“Leave it to me! (I will absolutely never report it.)”

“Alright then, let’s get out of this forest.”

“…I hope we don’t get attacked by monsters, though….”

Sorglos nodded her head and Apollo stood up.

Heroro and Lucille followed suit, meanwhile Rieg muttered out a terrible forecast.

Well, Lucille and the others seemed to have slightly recovered, so they should probably be fine when they end up encountering more goblins or lizardmen.

Then, just as everyone was about to stand up and walk out.

“―――Well, well, well, can we have some of your time?”

A voice filled with dignity and strong will echoed through the forest.

The power contained in that voice was more than enough to stop us.

　I looked in the direction of the voice and saw several armed men walking towards us.

The man in the lead was giving us a particularly shrewd look.

…Ah, this is going to be a pain in the ass…