Chapter 1233: Objective

Chapter 1233: Objective

They were ordered to attack Fran? Why?

「It seems these men heard nothing about the actual reason. They were simply told to attack you and make you fight back if killing the dragon proved too difficult. Well, you were only described as a “black cat child” though.」

Make her fight back? Not kill or capture? This is only making even less sense.

「You see, there were traces of a certain skill cast on these guys.」

「What kind of skill?」

「Some kind of visual relay skill. Such relays should allow the remote usage of eye-based skills.」

「You didn’t notice it?」

「No, not at all. Whatever techniques they used to conceal it must be incredibly advanced.」

A mage of Eiworth’s caliber failed to notice the usage of this skill? That only serves to emphasize the talent of their client or collaborator.

「However, I sensed no danger, so it was likely some sort of clairvoyance. Perhaps they wanted to assess your abilities as a newly promoted Rank A? Not that these guys were anywhere near strong enough to do so.」

I see. So they were used as pawns to measure Fran’s abilities. Being Rank A seems to attract all sorts of trouble.

So the main target was Bisdra, and if that failed, they wanted to assess Fran’s abilities? And the mastermind is some foreigner? The guys they sent were clearly too weak to take on a Rank A though.

Still fishy. Something doesn’t sit right with me. Perhaps they were only sent to spy on us through the relay skill.

Afterwards, Eiworth spent several days interrogating the men, without any significant results.

Judging by his high spirits and energetic behavior, I doubt Eiworth went easy on them.

In the end, White arranged some guards to escort the men somewhere.

Eiworth protested, demanding that some be left with him. However, there’s no way they could stay in the village. Eiworth would surely start some suspicious experiments.

I don’t really care what he does on his own, just keep it out of the village. I can’t have you influencing Fran and the children’s educations.

After this incident, the Red Knights increased their vigilance and added more guards. Despite the lack of casualties, it was still a major incident.

Meanwhile, the villagers didn’t seem too concerned. People from Raydoss may be tougher than I thought.

Five days after the attack.

The Red Knights had gotten serious, and spotted another group, this time of ten people.

They looked like adventurers, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions given the previous incident.

「Fran, Eiworth, White. I’ll leave the welcome to you again.」

「Nn.」

「Leave it to us.」

「I hope this time we can avoid any violence.」

White complained in a whisper, but who can say for sure?

The adventurers headed for the village were all pretty decent.

The leader-looking guy at the forefront appeared to be Rank B, while about half of them were likely Rank C or equivalent. The Rank D or E-looking guys likely served supporting roles as mages and scouts.

Furthermore, there was a familiar face among them.

「Hey there, it’s been a while.」

「?」

『He’s one of the adventurers who came here on the investigation request a while back.』

「Ah.」

Despite him working on the request with Eiworth and us, Fran didn’t remember him well due to his lack of combat abilities. However, I remembered him clearly due to all his staring at Fran.

I’ve even come up with the perfect way to secretly get rid of him if he turned out to be a lolicon!

「What’s going on?」

「I’ve been requested to guide these folks here, so I’d like you to handle the rest.」

Looks like the Adventurer’s Guild dispatched even more adventurers. These guys seem more skilled than the previous ones.

Maybe they consider this village to be more important than I thought.

We were about to lead the adventurers into the village, but…

「Hold on. Why haven’t I heard anything about this request?」

Eiworth interrupted.

「Show me the request form.」

「Well, you see, I seem to have stashed it at the bottom of my luggage, so I can’t get it out right away… I’ll make sure to show you later.」

「Hmph. You’ll show me right now. Otherwise, get out of my sight.」

The adventurers seemed annoyed, though Eiworth did have a point. His words may be harsh, but I guess it’s best to follow procedure…

Maybe I had let my guard down a bit.

Fran seemed to agree, as she simply stood back and listened to the exchange without any attempt to stop Eiworth.

There was another thing bothering me though, the fact that we were being watched. Fran didn’t seem to notice, but I clearly felt someone watching us via a skill, magic, or some other means.

Could it be one of the adventurers? Even if I knew we were being watched, I didn’t know who was responsible. For now, there didn’t seem to be any malicious intent. It felt more like they were sizing us up.

While I was trying to identify the source of the gaze, Eiworth and the adventurers continued arguing.

「I don’t know what you are so suspicious about, but can you let us into the village first? I can’t simply overturn our luggage here.」

「Oh, but you can. I don’t mind waiting one bit.」

His words sounded like those of an inflexible old man, but his expression was colored with a sense of superiority. Clearly, he found provoking the adventurer to be amusing.

The adventurer’s words gradually dwindled, reducing his argument into a repetitive demand to be let in. Why not just take out the request form if you have the time to dilly-dally like this…?

The man finally realized that Eiworth had no intention of letting anyone through without the form.

「…Fine, we’ll come back later then.」

「Oh? And why is that? Simply show us the request form, and you gain entry. Or is there some reason you can’t?」

「…」

Huh? Could it be that they really didn’t have the request form? So he was lying? But my Principle of Falsehoods didn’t react to anything… No wait, he only claimed to be here for a request! He didn’t mention who it was from or what it was for!

Damn! Eiworth really saved the day.