Even though it was a labyrinth city, there were still times when the guild was busy and times where there were less people.
After all, like ordinary monsters, dungeon monsters would become more ferocious at night, so naturally less people wanted to fight monsters during that time.
However, there were also monsters that only appeared at night as well as ores and plants that could only be collected at night, so it wasn’t true to say that no adventurers entered the dungeon at night either.
Then, there were the battle maniacs who enjoyed the act of fighting monsters itself rather than conquering the dungeon or collecting materials. For such people, entering during the night, when monsters were most fierce, may have been a sort of paradise to them.
All in all, with a few exceptions, the number of adventurers in Exil’s guild during the day was small.
Because it was just past noon when Rei and Elena entered the guild, the number of curious glances from the surroundings wasn’t high.
「I didn’t expect Set to fall asleep.」
「Even though you say that, it’s the same for Yellow. Even though it’s my familiar, it decided to prioritise sleeping with Set over its master……」
「Well, I guess that wouldn’t happen with ordinary familiars.」
The two of them entered the guild while conversing with each other as the adventurers and guild staff turned to look at them.
One was a boy in his mid-teens wearing a robe, seemingly a mage apprentice. No one paid much attention to him. The robe he wore seemed to be of good quality, but that was it. It wasn’t like there were mages everywhere in Exil……but there were still a decent number of mage apprentices around.
Unfortunately, there was currently no one in the guild who could sense the magic power of others. Not many people had that ability, and those that did had all gone into the dungeon. Because of that, those who saw Rei only thought of him as a follower of sorts.
As for the person next to him, she had golden hair and a feminine body that drew a rich curve that could be seen even from her armour. She had a dignified aura and couldn’t help but draw the eyes of onlookers.
Elena’s overwhelming presence quietened the guild for a few seconds.
However, whether it was Elena or Rei, both had become used to such reactions and they didn’t care as they made their way to the reception counter.
「Pardon me. We just arrived at Exil today but would like to go through the procedures to enter the dungeon.」
「……Oh, y-yes!」
The receptionist had been lost in admiration after seeing Elena up close but immediately recollected herself. That was as expected of a labyrinth city’s guild receptionist.
「Then, could I please see your ID? ……Him as well?」
The receptionist glanced over at Rei.
「Yes, please do it for me as well. Here is my guild card.」
Saying that, Rei took out his guild card from the Misty Ring under his Dragon Robe.
As he placed his guild card on the counter, the receptionist’s gaze was still directed towards Elena. After casually picking up the guild card, she turned to look at Rei to confirm his identity.
To be honest, the receptionist wanted to know Elena’s identity more than Rei’s. That was why she froze for a moment after seeing the guild rank on Rei’s guild card.
「……Eh? B rank?」
Her voice was almost a whisper. Normally it would have disappeared into the surroundings.
However, all the eyes in the guild were currently gathered on Elena and no one was making a sound. Because of that, even the receptionist’s small voice was loud enough to be heard by all the adventurers near the counter.
It wasn’t heard everywhere in the guild. In the first place, Exil’s guild was much larger than Gilm’s because it was a labyrinth city’s guild. In Gilm, it was hard for a beginner adventurer to subjugate monsters that appeared near the city due to its location on the frontier.
There were monsters such as Goblins that even beginners could kill without any problems. However, because it was the frontier, there would occasionally be monsters near the road that low rank adventurers wouldn’t be able to handle.
Because of that, most new adventurers in Gilm were born and raised in Gilm. There would rarely be low rank adventurers coming in from other places.
Compared to Gilm, Labyrinth City Exil basically only had low ranking monsters in the upper levels of the dungeon. Conversely, there were higher ranking monsters in the deeper levels. In other words, because of the larger number of new adventurers, the guild had to be large enough to accommodate them all. Furthermore, unusually, the guild in Exil didn’t have a bar attached to it. This was probably because there would have been too many adventurers for them to handle.
Because of the size of the guild, the receptionist’s words weren’t heard by everyone, but……
「B rank?」
「Eh? That kid?」
「Are you joking? No matter how you look at him, isn’t he just an apprentice mage?」
「Did the guild make a mistake? Even I’m still D rank, there’s no way that brat is B rank.」
「……-!?」
Like that, the news that Rei was a B rank adventurer gradually spread out from those near the counters to the rest of the guild……when a C rank adventurer who had come in late to the guild to train gasped.
That adventurer wasn’t famous in the sense that he stood out, but he was well known as a caring veteran who had spent nearly 15 years as an adventurer. It was natural for a person like him to draw attention after gasping with an astonished expression.
「Is anything wrong, Nebrus-san?」
Noticing the strange expression on the veteran adventurer’s face, an adventurer who saw him asked.
The adventurer was a young man in his late teens who had been indebted to Nebrus many times. In a sense, they could almost be considered to have a master and disciple relationship. It was because of there relationship that he asked worriedly, but Nebrus just silently shook his head in response.
「Don’t worry about it, I just thought of something.」
「But, you……ah, could it be something to do with that self-proclaimed B rank? If you want, I can call him out. At any rate, if he isn’t B rank, which I’m sure he isn’t, we’ll be able to find out if we cross examine him……」
「Stop it!」
Nebrus responded in an unintentionally loud voice. If they actually did that, he knew what would happen. Yes, just like when Nebrus first learned of Rei……
「Nebrus-san?」
「……I didn’t know he was at B rank, but it’s true that he has the skill. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.」
「This is the first time we’ve seen them in Exil. No, I don’t know about the kid, but if such a beautiful young woman had come here before, there would definitely have been gossip.」
What are you talking about? The young man asked as he though Nebrus was joking. However, Nebrus’s eyes were serious as he replied.
「Listen up, you know that I participated in the war with the Bestir Empire back in spring, right?」
「Y-Yes. Of course I know. I wanted to join as well, but I couldn’t because of my rank and was so disappointed. ……No way, that kid was in the war?」
He realised what Nebrus had been trying to say at those words. The young man turned to look at Rei with an astonished expression.
In the war with the Bestir Empire, anyone below E rank had been banned by the guild from joining as a mercenary. At the same time, the young man had been about to take his D rank exam, but due to timing issues, had missed it and hadn’t been able to participate in the war. In other words, the mage apprentice he was looking at……at best, a freshly graduated mage, that kid, had been at least D rank or higher at that time.
In other words, there was a possibility that the B rank the guild receptionist had said earlier might have just been a mistake on the guild’s part.
That was what the young man thought, but reality easily betrayed him.
「Did he participate in the war? No, it’s not that simple. He……he……he is Crimson.」
It was a jarring revelation.
The other adventurers who had been listening into the conversation between the young man and Nebrus started to buzz after hearing the name Crimson.
Am adventurer who had nearly destroyed the enemy’s vanguard troops all by himself. A person who be called a new hero, accompanied by an A rank monster, a Griffon, known as the reaper of the skies. Although it hadn’t been made public who it had been, it was said that among the adventurers, knights and soldiers who participated in the war, this person’s power was what determined whether the war was won or lost. That was the person known as Crimson.
At the mention of the name Crimson, several adventurers who had been planning to mess with Elena and Rei, stopped in their tracks.
At this time, all eyes gathered on Rei as no one had yet to realise that Elena was the General Princess. Her title was well known in neighbouring countries, but no one here had actually seen her before. And, even if they had seen the General Princess before, they would have probably felt that there was no way she would, as the General Princess and a duke’s daughter, come to such a place.
「Crimson……is that kid!?」
「Yeah. I’ve seen him use magic in person. ……It was amazing. To be honest, I had never seen such a huge fire tornado. After that, he even threw barrels into the tornado from the sky, which after being destroyed, sent metal fragments flying everywhere, making it even more lethal. He also used a huge scythe with a shaft taller than himself to cut down his enemies. 」
「……」
His eyes weren’t joking. Nebrus was telling the truth of what he had seen.
The young man understood that because he had been taught the basics of adventuring by Nebrus for a long time……for many years.
In other words……
「He’s the real deal, the real Crimson.」
He gulped as he spoke.
The men around Nebrus who were listening in did the same.
Crimson, that title spread through the guild the same way the words B rank had spread earlier and eyes of all the adventurers in the guild turned towards Rei.
Depsite everyone looking at him, Rei didn’t seem to care as he called out to the receptionist.
「Is there any problem with being B rank?」
「N-No. No problem at all. It will be ready immediately. ……As for the young lady there……」
She glanced at Elena fearfully.
Maybe she was also someone extraordinary like Rei.
It was because she had considered the possibility that she didn’t speak out after reading the documents handed to her.
Even after seeing the name Elena Kerebel written there.
「-!? ……I-I understand. There are no problems. I’ll have everything ready in a moment.」
Taking a deep breath and deciding she couldn’t say something like what she had said about Rei earlier, the receptionist hurriedly completed the procedures.
Few people paid attention to the receptionist, probably because they were focused on Rei.
A few minutes later, two cards were prepared and a crystal like ball slightly larger than the size of her palm was placed on the counter.
「Put your right hand on this crystal and lightly apply magic power while holding this dungeon card with your left hand. After that, the procedure will be complete. ……Just to confirm, you can both use magic power, right?」
The two of them nodded silently at the receptionist’s question.
Although there were differences in how much magic power was needed, the act of using magic power was necessary to use a magic item. This was the case for Rei using the Death Scythe or Elena using her sword whip……this was true even for every day magic items like those used to start fires.
That said, there were also some people who couldn’t even use magic items every day life due to their constitution, so the receptionist asked just in case as standard procedure.
After all, it was Crimson and the General Princess who were standing in front of her.
As expected, the registration of their dungeon cards was completed without any problems.
Even though it was a labyrinth city, there were still times when the guild was busy and times where there were less people.
After all, like ordinary monsters, dungeon monsters would become more ferocious at night, so naturally less people wanted to fight monsters during that time.
However, there were also monsters that only appeared at night as well as ores and plants that could only be collected at night, so it wasn’t true to say that no adventurers entered the dungeon at night either.
Then, there were the battle maniacs who enjoyed the act of fighting monsters itself rather than conquering the dungeon or collecting materials. For such people, entering during the night, when monsters were most fierce, may have been a sort of paradise to them.
All in all, with a few exceptions, the number of adventurers in Exil’s guild during the day was small.
Because it was just past noon when Rei and Elena entered the guild, the number of curious glances from the surroundings wasn’t high.
「I didn’t expect Set to fall asleep.」
「Even though you say that, it’s the same for Yellow. Even though it’s my familiar, it decided to prioritise sleeping with Set over its master……」
「Well, I guess that wouldn’t happen with ordinary familiars.」
The two of them entered the guild while conversing with each other as the adventurers and guild staff turned to look at them.
One was a boy in his mid-teens wearing a robe, seemingly a mage apprentice. No one paid much attention to him. The robe he wore seemed to be of good quality, but that was it. It wasn’t like there were mages everywhere in Exil……but there were still a decent number of mage apprentices around.
Unfortunately, there was currently no one in the guild who could sense the magic power of others. Not many people had that ability, and those that did had all gone into the dungeon. Because of that, those who saw Rei only thought of him as a follower of sorts.
As for the person next to him, she had golden hair and a feminine body that drew a rich curve that could be seen even from her armour. She had a dignified aura and couldn’t help but draw the eyes of onlookers.
Elena’s overwhelming presence quietened the guild for a few seconds.
However, whether it was Elena or Rei, both had become used to such reactions and they didn’t care as they made their way to the reception counter.
「Pardon me. We just arrived at Exil today but would like to go through the procedures to enter the dungeon.」
「……Oh, y-yes!」
The receptionist had been lost in admiration after seeing Elena up close but immediately recollected herself. That was as expected of a labyrinth city’s guild receptionist.
「Then, could I please see your ID? ……Him as well?」
The receptionist glanced over at Rei.
「Yes, please do it for me as well. Here is my guild card.」
Saying that, Rei took out his guild card from the Misty Ring under his Dragon Robe.
As he placed his guild card on the counter, the receptionist’s gaze was still directed towards Elena. After casually picking up the guild card, she turned to look at Rei to confirm his identity.
To be honest, the receptionist wanted to know Elena’s identity more than Rei’s. That was why she froze for a moment after seeing the guild rank on Rei’s guild card.
「……Eh? B rank?」
Her voice was almost a whisper. Normally it would have disappeared into the surroundings.
However, all the eyes in the guild were currently gathered on Elena and no one was making a sound. Because of that, even the receptionist’s small voice was loud enough to be heard by all the adventurers near the counter.
It wasn’t heard everywhere in the guild. In the first place, Exil’s guild was much larger than Gilm’s because it was a labyrinth city’s guild. In Gilm, it was hard for a beginner adventurer to subjugate monsters that appeared near the city due to its location on the frontier.
There were monsters such as Goblins that even beginners could kill without any problems. However, because it was the frontier, there would occasionally be monsters near the road that low rank adventurers wouldn’t be able to handle.
Because of that, most new adventurers in Gilm were born and raised in Gilm. There would rarely be low rank adventurers coming in from other places.
Compared to Gilm, Labyrinth City Exil basically only had low ranking monsters in the upper levels of the dungeon. Conversely, there were higher ranking monsters in the deeper levels. In other words, because of the larger number of new adventurers, the guild had to be large enough to accommodate them all. Furthermore, unusually, the guild in Exil didn’t have a bar attached to it. This was probably because there would have been too many adventurers for them to handle.
Because of the size of the guild, the receptionist’s words weren’t heard by everyone, but……
「B rank?」
「Eh? That kid?」
「Are you joking? No matter how you look at him, isn’t he just an apprentice mage?」
「Did the guild make a mistake? Even I’m still D rank, there’s no way that brat is B rank.」
「……-!?」
Like that, the news that Rei was a B rank adventurer gradually spread out from those near the counters to the rest of the guild……when a C rank adventurer who had come in late to the guild to train gasped.
That adventurer wasn’t famous in the sense that he stood out, but he was well known as a caring veteran who had spent nearly 15 years as an adventurer. It was natural for a person like him to draw attention after gasping with an astonished expression.
「Is anything wrong, Nebrus-san?」
Noticing the strange expression on the veteran adventurer’s face, an adventurer who saw him asked.
The adventurer was a young man in his late teens who had been indebted to Nebrus many times. In a sense, they could almost be considered to have a master and disciple relationship. It was because of there relationship that he asked worriedly, but Nebrus just silently shook his head in response.
「Don’t worry about it, I just thought of something.」
「But, you……ah, could it be something to do with that self-proclaimed B rank? If you want, I can call him out. At any rate, if he isn’t B rank, which I’m sure he isn’t, we’ll be able to find out if we cross examine him……」
「Stop it!」
Nebrus responded in an unintentionally loud voice. If they actually did that, he knew what would happen. Yes, just like when Nebrus first learned of Rei……
「Nebrus-san?」
「……I didn’t know he was at B rank, but it’s true that he has the skill. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.」
「This is the first time we’ve seen them in Exil. No, I don’t know about the kid, but if such a beautiful young woman had come here before, there would definitely have been gossip.」
What are you talking about? The young man asked as he though Nebrus was joking. However, Nebrus’s eyes were serious as he replied.
「Listen up, you know that I participated in the war with the Bestir Empire back in spring, right?」
「Y-Yes. Of course I know. I wanted to join as well, but I couldn’t because of my rank and was so disappointed. ……No way, that kid was in the war?」
He realised what Nebrus had been trying to say at those words. The young man turned to look at Rei with an astonished expression.
In the war with the Bestir Empire, anyone below E rank had been banned by the guild from joining as a mercenary. At the same time, the young man had been about to take his D rank exam, but due to timing issues, had missed it and hadn’t been able to participate in the war. In other words, the mage apprentice he was looking at……at best, a freshly graduated mage, that kid, had been at least D rank or higher at that time.
In other words, there was a possibility that the B rank the guild receptionist had said earlier might have just been a mistake on the guild’s part.
That was what the young man thought, but reality easily betrayed him.
「Did he participate in the war? No, it’s not that simple. He……he……he is Crimson.」
It was a jarring revelation.
The other adventurers who had been listening into the conversation between the young man and Nebrus started to buzz after hearing the name Crimson.
Am adventurer who had nearly destroyed the enemy’s vanguard troops all by himself. A person who be called a new hero, accompanied by an A rank monster, a Griffon, known as the reaper of the skies. Although it hadn’t been made public who it had been, it was said that among the adventurers, knights and soldiers who participated in the war, this person’s power was what determined whether the war was won or lost. That was the person known as Crimson.
At the mention of the name Crimson, several adventurers who had been planning to mess with Elena and Rei, stopped in their tracks.
At this time, all eyes gathered on Rei as no one had yet to realise that Elena was the General Princess. Her title was well known in neighbouring countries, but no one here had actually seen her before. And, even if they had seen the General Princess before, they would have probably felt that there was no way she would, as the General Princess and a duke’s daughter, come to such a place.
「Crimson……is that kid!?」
「Yeah. I’ve seen him use magic in person. ……It was amazing. To be honest, I had never seen such a huge fire tornado. After that, he even threw barrels into the tornado from the sky, which after being destroyed, sent metal fragments flying everywhere, making it even more lethal. He also used a huge scythe with a shaft taller than himself to cut down his enemies. 」
「……」
His eyes weren’t joking. Nebrus was telling the truth of what he had seen.
The young man understood that because he had been taught the basics of adventuring by Nebrus for a long time……for many years.
In other words……
「He’s the real deal, the real Crimson.」
He gulped as he spoke.
The men around Nebrus who were listening in did the same.
Crimson, that title spread through the guild the same way the words B rank had spread earlier and eyes of all the adventurers in the guild turned towards Rei.
Depsite everyone looking at him, Rei didn’t seem to care as he called out to the receptionist.
「Is there any problem with being B rank?」
「N-No. No problem at all. It will be ready immediately. ……As for the young lady there……」
She glanced at Elena fearfully.
Maybe she was also someone extraordinary like Rei.
It was because she had considered the possibility that she didn’t speak out after reading the documents handed to her.
Even after seeing the name Elena Kerebel written there.
「-!? ……I-I understand. There are no problems. I’ll have everything ready in a moment.」
Taking a deep breath and deciding she couldn’t say something like what she had said about Rei earlier, the receptionist hurriedly completed the procedures.
Few people paid attention to the receptionist, probably because they were focused on Rei.
A few minutes later, two cards were prepared and a crystal like ball slightly larger than the size of her palm was placed on the counter.
「Put your right hand on this crystal and lightly apply magic power while holding this dungeon card with your left hand. After that, the procedure will be complete. ……Just to confirm, you can both use magic power, right?」
The two of them nodded silently at the receptionist’s question.
Although there were differences in how much magic power was needed, the act of using magic power was necessary to use a magic item. This was the case for Rei using the Death Scythe or Elena using her sword whip……this was true even for every day magic items like those used to start fires.
That said, there were also some people who couldn’t even use magic items every day life due to their constitution, so the receptionist asked just in case as standard procedure.
After all, it was Crimson and the General Princess who were standing in front of her.
As expected, the registration of their dungeon cards was completed without any problems.
