DAR Vol. 5 Chapter 20 Part 2

The Adventurers’ Guild, hastily set up beneath a canvas tent, was smaller than the original building and packed with adventurers.

When Uncle Gry tried to enter with Roa and the others, the staff gently blocked the way. A pair of magic wolves might have been manageable, but the tent simply did not have the space to admit a Gryphon safely.

Technically, it was large enough to fit him, but unlike a proper building, there was no room to keep a safe distance. Adventurers and clerks alike started bolting for the exits, and a mild panic broke out. They begged them not to bring the Gryphon inside.

So Uncle Gry and the twin magic wolves, Roo and Phi, waited outside in a cleared area where the rubble had already been removed.

Kristoff stayed with them.

<…>

Uncle Gry found a slightly raised spot, sprawled out, and fell silent. He did not so much as twitch, eyes closed; no doubt using magic to keep tabs on Roa and the others inside the tent.

Kristoff sat on a rock lying nearby, idly watching the traffic around the guild with a bored look.

As for the twins, they had buried their heads in a hedge planted along the guild grounds and seemed to be playing at hunting for bugs or something similar.

Only their rumps stuck out of the glossy green leaves, their tails wagging in neat unison. It was ridiculously cute.

<Hey, hey.>

<What? What?>

With their heads still in the hedge, the twins started a secret chat.

They had once shared a single, unified pack-mind. Even now, though they were distinct individuals, that sense remained, letting them hold private conversations no one—even Uncle Gry—could overhear.

Still, because that strangely perceptive Gryphon, insensitive to human feelings but sharp in other ways, might read their expressions, they hid their faces while they talked.

<The people in this town won’t do, right?>

<Even if we put it on everyone in town, we might still gather less mana than the old man has, right?>

<If we put it on lots of people, Roa would get mad.>

<He would. He’d make us “talk it out” like with uncle!>

<So humans are no good. We want magic beasts.>

<The Gryphons would have been perfect.>

<Roa erased them, so it can’t be helped…>

They whispered back and forth.

What they were talking about was the “Servant Sigil”: the paw-shaped scar on Dietrich’s thigh.

While chasing the Gryphons around in the Citadel Dungeon, the twins had secretly stamped those servant sigils on them. But later, when Roa healed all their wounds with potions, the sigils vanished along with them.

As its name—Cornelia called it “lackey mark”—implied, the servant sigil was the mark of a servant.

It showed that the twin magic wolves had made someone their vassal.

For most magic beasts, that was all it did. But for pack beasts like magic wolves, it had an additional function unknown even to Uncle Gry: it was usable only by beasts that formed packs.

That function was Endowment.

Through the sigil, the pack leader could establish a mana flow and grant mana to the servant; a simplified version of the mana conduit created by a familiar contract.

Unlike a familiar contract’s conduit, however, only the master could use this channel.

This was the secret behind Dietrich receiving mana from the red magic wolf, Roo, and sheathing his sword in fire.

And there was one more thing—

What could be called the sigil’s true function, which the twins had kept hidden: Extraction.

A pack’s leader could forcibly take mana from its servants and use it as if it were their own.

No one had taught the twin magic wolves this; they understood it by the instinct of their kind. In secret, they had marked the five Gryphons with servant sigils, planning to use them as a future mana supply.

But that plan had turned to smoke when Roa healed the Gryphons.

Given Roa’s nature, it had been easy to predict he would mend their wounds, so the twins had simply underestimated him. If anything, they should have reflected on it; they had no right to complain. It had been a scheme to gain power to help Roa, without telling him or Uncle Gry. Complaints would have rung hollow.

<Maybe we could mark another strong magic beast like those Gryphons?>

<Finding one would be hard.>

<Hmm… hard! Wouldn’t it be easier to sneak lots of marks onto weaker ones?>

<Like a whole bunch of Dietrich-level ones?>

<Dietrich wouldn’t help. There are plenty with more mana than Dietrich, right?>

<But we have to keep it secret from Roa!>

<We want to surprise him!>

<Yeah!>

The two of them beamed at each other.

Though they often watched Uncle Gry’s rampages with cool detachment, the twins, for all their talk, seemed to have picked up a few bad habits from him.

𑁋

After they finished their report at the Adventurers’ Guild, they headed home.

“Mm-hmm—m! Hmm-mm!”

Roa was in such high spirits that he burst into a careless little hum.

He clutched the guild tag hanging from his neck, confirming that it was really there. He could not suppress his grin.

They had completed the commission, and Roa had at last become a fully registered adventurer.

It was only natural that he felt giddy.

Compared to that joy, the fact that Viviana—who had somehow gone from a head receptionist to a guildmaster—and her haggard, grim, almost specter-like demeanor had bothered him a little seemed trivial.

Right now, everything looked radiant to Roa.

He looked ready to break into a dance, and the two members of Nostalgia and Uncle Gry watched him with fond smiles.

Roa, who usually never took the lead, practically skipped ahead, too excited to wait. He nearly bumped into passersby more than once.

His happiness proved infectious, and the twin magic wolves, Roo and Phi, hopped around him as if dancing.

“Hey there, boss, boss.”

<“Boss”? What kind of address is that? Revolting.>

Seeing a small gap open between them and Roa, Dietrich turned a syrupy, sleazy grin on Uncle Gry. He slung an arm around the Gryphon’s neck, drawing cheek to cheek.

“Boss, how about paying me back a favor?”

<What favor? Sleepyhead, weren’t you the one who called me “you” and “that guy”? Drop that tone and form of address. It’s disgusting.>

With Dietrich clinging to him like an old pal, Uncle Gry looked genuinely repelled.

“Don’t be cold, boss. I’m talking about the Adventurers’ Guild building collapsing. That was you, right? I kept it from Roa, so I’ve got a little request I want you to… accommodate.”

<The Adventurers’ Guild!? No… I did nothing! Where is your proof? Proof, I say! I’ve been framed! I set up nothing that would make it fall!>

His shifty behavior said more than words.

Uncle Gry tried to shake off Dietrich’s arm, but Dietrich only tightened his hold, pressing their cheeks together.

“Are you fine with Roa finding out? Thanks to how you set us up in the Citadel Dungeon, your trust with him is already in the gutter, boss. What do you think happens if he learns you smashed the guild today, hmm? Was that week without meals rough? If Roa seriously investigated, he might even dig up actual evidence. He’s a genius about weird things like that. Want him mad again? This time it might be worse than a missed dinner.”

<Gnnnnn… What is it!!>

“Huh?”

Dietrich blinked at the sudden reversal.

<What is this “accommodation” you want? I know nothing about any collapsed guild, but I have a broad heart. From time to time, I might not refuse to hear out the wishes of small fry like you…>

Dietrich had not expected him to fold that easily. He recovered quickly and grinned wider.

“Knew you were the best, boss! Truth is, we want to invite young master Roa to our homeland, and I’d like you to help pave the way.”

Dietrich beamed with a transparently fake smile, hands nearly rubbing together.

Uncle Gry glared at him like he was trash.

<Drop that tone already! Homeland? Nereus? You’re not planning to drag the brat into some tedious conflict between nations, are you? If you are…>

“I’d never allow that.”

Dietrich’s air shifted in an instant.

The phony smile vanished.

<Your tone returned. I see—you had to say something against your true feelings, so you put on that act to make light of it. So it’s a request from your country? They have something on you? You pushed yourself pretty far this trip. A quid pro quo, then?>

“…”

<Silence means yes. You never needed to tag along with us, and yet—how troublesome.>

“Shut it. Anyway, if you don’t want me blabbing, cooperate.”

<Hmph. I don’t dislike sea fish. A little jaunt wouldn’t hurt. But you lot are paying for the meals.>

“Seriously?”

Dietrich looked both relieved and baffled by how readily Uncle Gry agreed.

<I don’t want to pick a fight with you and spoil the brat’s happy day.>

“That’s… fair.”

Man and Gryphon both looked toward Roa, whose smile was as guileless as his age, who proudly held up his guild tag to admire it. Their own expressions softened without thinking.

None of this scheming reached Roa’s ears.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a Gryphon and a man stuck together and only thought: as usual, that they got along well.

Kristoff, walking close by, had heard everything, but Dietrich was acting exactly as planned. Having finished the negotiation with Uncle Gry, he, too, breathed easier.

Inviting Roa to their country was the condition the queen had set in exchange for granting Nostalgia permission to enter the Citadel Dungeon. Roa would likely have agreed if they had explained, but the real obstacle had been Uncle Gry.

If Uncle Gry had refused, Roa’s consent alone might not have been enough.

This time, thanks to Uncle Gry’s “incident,” they had leverage for the negotiation.

With that weight off his shoulders, Kristoff found it easier to keep track of their surroundings. Roa, roaming aimlessly alongside the twins, was starting to become a bit of a nuisance to other pedestrians. Thinking so, Kristoff drew closer and gently patted Roa’s head to calm him.

Roa accepted it without fuss and gave Kristoff a beaming smile like none he had shown before.

“But… was it really all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“…No, if you’re happy with it, then it’s fine.”

Kristoff swallowed the words he had almost spoken.

He knew; he had been there, and when Dietrich told him, it had shocked him.

When Roa submitted his registration papers, he had written “All-rounder” in the occupation field.

And Viviana had let it pass as-is.

Roa’s official occupation was now an all-rounder.

At the moment of writing, Roa had hesitated.

His first thought had been “Swordsman.”

He hoped to become a swordsman as an adventurer, but for now he could barely handle a knife.

Next he considered “Tamer,” but that clashed too much with both reality and his own idea of what a Tamer was.

Tamers commanded magic beasts and directed them in battle.

At present, he was not issuing orders; he was the one being dragged along. In combat, Uncle Gry was the one barking orders at Roa.

He could hardly call himself a Tamer.

Uncle Gry wanted Roa to be a “Mage,” but Roa’s mana was borrowed. Only because his familiar contract shared Uncle Gry’s magic could he cast spells that mattered in a fight.

Roa was not brazen enough to declare himself a mage on the strength of power that was not his.

In the end, the only label that felt right was all-rounder.

It was natural, he had lived that way for years.

His low self-assessment, that he had not yet become anything and his stubbornness, unwilling to claim a title unless he could accept it, led him to choose all-rounder.

Ordinarily, no one called themselves an all-rounder after becoming a full-fledged adventurer; it was a trainee’s job. A clerk would usually stop them and make them rewrite it.

But Viviana, exhausted by too many troubles, approved it as written.

Receiving a letter about Roa from the guild’s behind-the-scenes Fixer had also spooked her into believing Roa was connected somehow, and made her want no part of him.

For that reason, she decided not to oppose Roa and to approve whatever he did.

She was not about to nitpick over his chosen job.

“Come on! Let’s head back and celebrate! I’ll cook a feast!”

At Roa’s words, his familiars cheered.

Laughter rose and melted into the wide, blue sky.

And so, the world welcomed its one and only officially registered all-rounder.

(DAR Vol. 5 END)

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