Rei and Elena heard an angry voice just after they finished the sale of the materials and magic stones they had.

Probably because it was still early in the day, there weren’t that many adventurers, guild staff or passing by residents and merchants who were inside the guild. Naturally, their eyes were drawn to the commotion, including Rei and Elena’s.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a male warrior, who seemed to be the owner of the angry voice. Next to the warrior was a woman with a spear, a man with a bow, probably his party members. All three of them looked to be in their mid twenties. The one conspicuous person that stood out among them was another male warrior in his forties.

Adding to that, Rei was familiar with the armour worn by the male warrior in his forties. No, it wasn’t just familiar to Rei. Rather, the longer you stayed in Exil, the more familiar you would become with that set of armour.

「Hey, it’s the Church of Holy Light again.」

「Isn’t that too much of a rip off, charging 30% of their total rewards?」

「But, they must have hired him knowing that right? I don’t think they should complain in that case.」

「He’s also only charging 30% of their total rewards. If you think about it the other way, with a party of two, you could just hire one of them and split the remaining 70% themselves.」

「That’s just counting your chickens before they hatch. In the first place, if you have the skill to go down the dungeon with so few people, you wouldn’t need to hire someone from the Church of Holy Light in the first place.」

「If you hire one of them, it’s 30% of your rewards. Two is 60% and three people would mean 90% of whatever you get. ……That really is a bit too much of a rip off.」

「They also don’t give discounts as well. As followers of the Church of Holy Light, it’s not really possible to bargain with them either.」

Rei was slightly surprised to hear the discussion going on in the surroundings.

Despite knowing that they would take at least 30% of their rewards if they were hired, people still seemed to be more positive about the Church of Holy Light than Rei had expected.

That was probably due to the fact that they stated their hire price in advance. If hired themselves out without saying anything and then said the party had to give them 30% after a day’s work, there would definitely be a much greater commotion about them.

Despite the situation gradually attracting more attention, the argument between the four only heated up further.

No, rather, the man from the Church of Holy Light was responding calmly, surprisingly more calmly than expected. On the other hand, blood started to rush to the head of the other male warrior, the leader of the trio.

「Unfortunately, when you first hired me, I did explain my price. I told you that as long as I borrow the power of the Holy Goddess of Light, I cannot discount my price.」

「Stop messing around! Your mistake ended up costing me an extra potion. It was a special potion I had kept for emergencies as well!」

「I’m sorry for that, but I had already made a promise when I formed a party with you. I apologise again, but as I have made a promise in the name of the Holy Goddess of Light, I cannot break it. Please understand.」

The man from the Church of Holy Light said that with a bow.

However, it seemed that the patience of the other man had been exceeded. The male warrior, leader of the trio, clenched his fist……

「Are you planning to make an enemy out of the Church of Holy Light?」

At those words, the male warrior stopped himself.

He understood well. The Chuch of Holy Light’s power had rapidly increased in the last few years. They had many believers like the male warrior standing in front of him. It was clear how dangerous it was to turn the Church of Holy Light, which could currently be described as a mercenary group, into enemies.

In addition……

「Hey, let’s just leave it. It’s said that the Levisor family is backing the Church of Holy Light. If we turn Exil’s Levisor family into enemies……」

Hearing those words from the woman with a spear, the man clenched his fists again as he glared at the man from the Church of Holy Light.

He glared at him with such anger as if he was punching the man.

However, the man from the Church of Holy Light simply spoke while brushing away the angry glare as if it were a breeze.

「It seems you have no further accusations to make. I will excuse myself then. May the Goddess of Holy Light bless you.」

Saying that, he turned around to leave.

He must have felt the angry glare from the man behind him, as if trying to stab the back of his head. However, he knew that they wouldn’t do anything to touch him. The man from the Church of Holy Light left calmly as he walked out the guild.

As soon as everyone else saw that the argument had ended, they looked away and went back to their own conversations.

「So that’s the Church of Holy Light. From what I saw of the exchange, they don’t seem as bad as I had heard about.」

In response to Rei’s words, the guild staff member who had been in charge of exchanging materials shook her head with a sigh.

「You are quite right, they tell you upfront that they will charge 30% of the day’s rewards before they enter the dungeon……but, arguments like this as still quite common.」

「Speaking of which, why is the Church of Holy Light in Exil anyway? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in Gilm.」

「Hm? I don’t know much about them, but I’ve heard that they were a small religious group that was once located in a rural area within the Mireana Kingdom. After receiving the blessings of a goddess, their power started to grow rapidly in the past few years.」

Rei was puzzled at her response.

Although it was smaller than Exil, Gilm was still a city with a population of over 100,000 people. Considering that, it was strange that he hadn’t seen a trace of this religion that had started gaining so much power.

Elena also had a faint frown on her face.

「It seems you’ve heard of it before, Elena.」

「Yeah. It has been confirmed within our territory, but that doesn’t mean it’s gained much momentum. It’s something only a few people have heard about.」

「……In that case, does that mean that they’re deliberately choosing places to spread their message? In the first place, if they really intend to spread the Church of Holy Light, why don’t they they just hand out their services without any pay?」

「Yes, of course, some adventurers have told them that. However, their doctrine forbids them to lend their power without receiving anything in return.」

The female guild staff answered their question with a sigh before covering her mouth and giving a laugh.

「Hahaha. Well, it’s not a good idea for the guild to discuss the reputation of adventurers, so please leave it at that. I’m looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Please collect as many magic stones as you can.」

「Hm? Ah, of course. Well, we’ll ahve to get used to the dungeon first and find ourselves a thief before we can start to talk about magic stones.」

「Mm. We will have to deal with traps somehow. To be honest, if it’s just combat, Rei, Set and I is more than enough. So all we want is someone with skills purely as a thief. ……That is going to be hard.」

Rei nodded at Elena, who said that with a sigh. The female guild staff nodded as well after hearing that.

To being with, as a labyrinth city, thieves were in high demand within Exil. Ordinary thieves would be invited into parties immediately while even unskilled thieves would often be invited into parties for the sole purpose of training them up for the future.

Under such circumstances, the only thieves who still worked solo were those who either had personality problems that stopped them from forming a party with others or were skilled enough to work alone. They could also have other problems that prevented them from joining a party, like Byune.

(Considering their circumstances, they could considering hiring a thief from the Church of Holy Light……however, the one called Rei, who appears to be in charge, seems to have a strange dislike of religion. I wonder if anything had happened to him before?)

The female guild staff member had some confusion in her mind, but as someone who worked in the guild, she didn’t reveal any of it.

Seeing Rei and Elena leave the material purchase counter, she quickly began to deal with the materials in preparation for the upcoming busy hourse.

 

 

「The Church of Holy Light……」

There was a hint of dislike in Rei’s voice as they walked out the guild. Elena noticed that and was about to ask about it when she spotted Set and Yellow coming over to them, having seen them leave the guild.

That said, Yellow wasn’t really moving over himself and was just tagging along on Set’s back.

「Kyu!」

Giving a short cry, Yellow jumped off Set’s back and landed on Elena’s left shoulder. Elena scratched Yellow’s throat, who gave a small cry in response.

Next to those two, Set also rubbed his face against Rei with a cry. The reason for Set’s cry seemed to be because he saw Rei’s expression.

「Guru~?」

What’s wrong? Set seemed to ask. Rei gave a smile and scratched Set’s head to tell him it was nothing.

This continued for about a minute. Rei seemed to have regained his composure after playing with Set. Unlike when he left the guild, he was now smiling under the hood of his robe.

「Well then, there’s still quite some time before evening……what should we do?」

Elena must have also felt Rei’s change of state of mind. She responded carefully to not trigger Rei’s thoughts again.

「Well, I’m a little hungry……but, we still have dinner at the inn, don’t we?」

「Mm. It’s a bit early isn’t it?」

Timewise, it was only just past 3 pm. The sun was shining brightly, as if to say ‘It’s Summer!’.

They had eaten lunch, which had been packed by the inn, inside the dungeon. However, the food that had been packed was only enough for ordinary people. Rei and Set were much less energy efficient that most other people. It wasn’t enough for Elena either, who had absorbed the magic stone of an Ancient Dragon.

Due to the magic stone she had absorbed, it was very hard for Elena to gain any weight. However, at the same time, her body was still physically growing slowly, so there was no doubt she would earn the jealousy of women around the world.

「Since it’s a high class inn, if we asked for food, they would probably give us something……what would you like to do? As for me, I would like to walk around while eating.」

Rei looked at Set while stroking him as he spoke.

Of course, part of the reason was that he wanted to explore Exil, which was bigger than Gilm, while eating. However, he also wanted the residents of Exil to become more used to Set.

After seeing Set happily eating skewers at a street stall before they had entered the dungeon, the fear and awe that many people had of Set had started to diminish. They started to see Set as just a cute, if not slightly large, animal.

Based on Rei’s experience in various cities and towns, including Gilm, he judged that it was the quickest way for people to get used to Set.

Elena nodded to indicate she had no problems with that, probably because she understood Rei’s thoughts.

「Come to think of it, I would also like to try eating food with Yellow. ……With my position, I’ve never done something like that before.」

「Well, that can’t be helped. In the first place, a duke’s daughter normally wouldn’t be able to go out to buy and eat whatever they wanted. In that case, let’s call this your first experience of buying and eating outside.」

「First experience……is it? It’s a strangely exciting term. Okay, let’s call it my first experience then. Rei, let me know if there are any rules I need to know.」

「Even if you ask me if there are any rules. If I had to say any, it would be to not throw your skewers to the roadside after you’ve eaten them.」

In the first place, even if Elena asked Rei about the rules of buying and eating street food, there were really only the basics of not littering or swinging around the food you bought and spilling gravy and sauce everywhere. Everything else would be better learnt over time than being told. The four of them headed for a nearby stall.

Since they were buying food, the first thing they bought were skewers, the most popular food item for sale. After that, they ate some sandwiches and hot dogs.

One of the more unusual things they ate was a sort of crepe. However, it wasn’t a crepe with fresh cream or fruit wrapped inside. Instead, it was a galette with ham, cheese or stewed meat inside.

This was something that Rei had eaten several times before, but it wasn’t as common as skewers, so it could be considered a rare dish.

After eating his galette, Rei turned to look at a nearby eatery.

Something inside was giving off a fragrant and appetising smell.

「Hm? Is that where we’re going next? That’s fine. There’s certainly a nice smell from there.」

Saying that, the two fo them were about to enter the eatery when they stopped. The next moment, a man was blasted straight out of the eatery.

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