Chapter 84 – Planning a Rescue Mission Part 3

Editor: Thor’s Stone

After taking a quick bath, I went down to the dining hall on the first floor to have an early dinner and found everyone crowding around and talking to Katolle.

“Alan-sama, please take a look at these.”

Oh, those look like the uniforms worn by the castle guards!

“Katolle! You already managed to get some?”

“Yes. I managed to get fifteen sets of uniforms used by the castle guards. I also got five sets of dresses worn by the ladies-in-waiting working at the castle.”

“That’s amazing! You’ve really outdone yourself this time.”

“I merely had no problem locating the company selling them. It was a really famous clothing company here in the capital. But, as expected, I couldn’t get the clothes directly from the company, so I resorted to getting information on subcontractors instead, so I had to put in a bit more work.”

“Alan-sama, Katolle really is an amazing merchant! The methods he used to obtain information one after another are things we probably can’t emulate with our lacking skills.”

The one who said that was one of Katolle’s temporary assistants.

“……I’m really grateful for the compliments, but what I did was just basic for any merchant worth his salt. I secretly obtained these clothes from several subcontractor workshops, so it wasn’t all that hard. So I don’t think I truly deserve all that praise.”

“I see. Even so, that was very well done, Katolle. This will certainly make the rescue mission a lot easier.”

Katolle was then tapped by the rest of the Clan members on the shoulders as they continued to praise him. They all seemed really happy and impressed.

“Alan-sama, you have visitors from the Commerce Guild.”

“The Commerce Guild? I wonder what they’re here for.”

When I went to the entrance of the inn, I found three men who were dressed like your typical merchant waiting there. I also spotted the figures of some armed escorts behind them.

One of the three men then came forward. He was a man who looked to be in his forties and sported a rather dauntless look.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alan-sama. My name is Yan, the guild chief of the royal capital’s Commerce Guild branch. I’m looking forward to working with you in the future.”

“Likewise. It won’t do to stand around here and talk, so please come in, everyone.”

Since the guild chief himself paid us a visit, we must at least show him the minimum amount of hospitality. I lead them to sit around a table in the dining hall and asked for some tea to be served.

“What pressing matter required the guild chief to personally pay us a visit?”

“No, it’s nothing so grand, really. If I must say, our main reason for coming here is to give our greetings to you, a person to whom the Commerce Guild is highly indebted.

Alan-sama, congratulations on your promotion to one of our kingdom’s nobles.”

As expected of a branch chief of the Commerce Guild. It looks like they’ve already found out I would be conferred the title of baron soon.

“Thank you very much.”

“Also, I wanted to personally express my gratitude as well. Thank you for your continued work in cleaning up the bandits plaguing our businesses.”

I see. The Commerce Guild’s request for us to hunt down bandits should still be active. It looks like the bandits we caught a few days ago were also counted as part of our record, so the guild was probably going to give us a reward for capturing them.

“Calling those guys bandits is a bit suspect though.”

“Certainly. Apparently, they directly aimed at Shining Star. I’ve also done an investigation of my own, and it seems some of them were active in the royal capital, and some were even leaders of various underground organizations here.”

“Hou, underground organizations huh. What sort of organizations are they, exactly?”

“Just your usual group of villains. They do things like managing pickpockets, robbery, kidnappings, and even murder. It looks like several of those kinds of organizations came together to perform the attempted ambush on you all.”

“I was wondering if that was really the case…… Were they actually hired by someone?”

“Most likely. After all, people who usually never interact much with each other and avoid each other’s turfs suddenly gathered together for a single objective. It’s only natural to come to such a conclusion. I will immediately inform you once I find out more information.”

“I’ll be very grateful for that. We’ve always been worried they might stage another attack, so as you see, we have quite a lot of people stationed at this inn.”

“I think that’s a wise decision. It certainly is within the bounds of possibility. Let me inform the city garrison so they can keep a tighter watch on the area.”

“Thank you very much.”

It looks like the Commerce Guild branch in the royal capital seems to have the power to move the city garrison. It was definitely worthwhile to have developed a great working relationship with the guild.

“Also, I’ve received a message for Alan-sama through the guild. I brought it here with me.”

“A message for me? Thank you very much.”

The message was put inside something like a sealed envelope.

I wonder who it’s from. It’s possible that it’s a reply from Roberto who’s in the Cecilio kingdom, or maybe it was from Karina-san from Gantz. Anyway, I’ll check it out later.

After chatting with me about the recently conducted auction and the security situation of the royal capital for a while, the people from the guild finally excused themselves. It looks like they really only came here to give their greetings.

Judging from his demeanor while we were chatting, the guild chief, Yan, seems to be a pretty decent guy. I better try to get along with him more in the future.

I immediately opened the letter I received earlier after seeing off the guests.

“Oh, it really is from Roberto. ……What!?”

“What’s written in the letter, Alan?”

Everyone gathered around me and heard me gasp in surprise. I handed the letter to Cleria.

『Congratulations, dragon subjugation. An advance group, heading to the capital. We number a thousand strong. We seek to join you.』

The date of receipt was indicated in the message as well. The date written on it was 25 days ago. Maybe they acted immediately the moment they received the message we sent.

(Iris, please locate the current position of the advance group.)

『Roger that.』

“A thousand of them!? But why……”

After reading the message, Cleria handed it to the others for them to read.

“……This is–!? Just what is Roberto-dono thinking? Why did he arbitrarily decide things without Ria-sama’s consent……?”

“I’m sure they just got excited when they found out we subjugated a dragon. Now then, what should we do?”

“But we haven’t even established a base, right? If a thousand of them were to come, just where would we……”

“No, well, if it’s just a thousand people, our base can already accommodate that much, including us, of course. We can even start living there if we want.”

“Alan! Have you been contacted by your subordinates?”

“Hm? Ah, well, yes they have. They’ve reported the current progress of the base to me.”

“They could have paid us a visit directly……”

“Yeah, sorry about that. But really, what should we do about this? I promised I’d first show you around the base for your approval, right, Cleria?”

“……Alan, is it true that we can already have people live in our new base without problems?”

“Yeah, there’s no problem living there at all. It’s a very comfortable place to live in, just as initially planned.”

“……A comfortable place to live in? But it’s a city built deep within the Great Demon Forest, right?”

“Of course it’s comfortable. Oh, but bear in mind that the buildings have been more or less built, but they still haven’t finished installing the windows. It looks like procuring glass for use in the windows isn’t going so well.”

“Glass windows? Is that really necessary?”

“Huh? Well, of course, it is. We can also use wooden ones, of course, but it’s definitely got to be glass windows after all.”

I checked everyone’s reactions, but it looks like only Sharon and Selena nodded along.

“……Alan. Do you mean your subordinates have already constructed buildings that can house more than a thousand people, and the only things missing from them are glass windows?”

“Yeah. Even if they still don’t have the windows installed, the buildings can already house five thousand to six thousand people.”

“S-Six thousand people!?”

The base construction plan seems to be proceeding far ahead of the originally estimated schedule. Iris initially estimated it would take at least a year to build the base, but the construction time was significantly shortened because it turned out that it was easier to process the raw materials procured on-site than expected.

“Alan-sama. If that many buildings have already been constructed, then you must have also finished building an outer wall, correct?”

“An outer wall? Oh, the walls that surround a city huh. Of course, that’s been finished as well. It’s pretty tough I’ll have you know. It should be okay against any kind of monster out there.”

“How wonderful! If so, then we really will not have any problems living there, right?”

“Well, yeah, that’s right. But just like I promised, I have to show the base to Cleria first before we decide to move, right?”