GILF Hunter

Chapter 284: 284 The territory of the Gnolls

The festival of the Labyrinth, which had lasted for several days, finally came to an end.

The heat of the festival, which had burned like a wildfire, was gradually cooling down, and the city was clearing away the remaining traces to return to its daily routine.

"Captain. Here is your tea."

"Right. Thanks, Tanya."

Tanya brought tea to Ian, who was reading the newspaper at the first-floor table.

Ian set down the paper and picked up the teacup, glancing slightly out the window.

Because of the festival events held since early morning, it had been irritatingly noisy for the past few days. This was a quiet morning, the first in quite some time.

"It’s quite leisurely today...."

It was a stray thought that crossed Ian’s mind.

...Don’t they say that the moment you say such a thing, something busy suddenly crops up?

Simultaneously with that thought, the outside suddenly became clamorous.

Thump, thump, thump!

As if someone had been waiting specifically for Ian to think that, the sound of someone urgently knocking and shouting was heard.

"Is anyone there! It’s the Mercenary Guild!"

"...."

Ian let out a small sigh.

When Tanya went out and opened the door, a guild messenger boy was standing there, huffing and puffing as if he had run in a great hurry.

The messenger quickly confirmed Ian’s face as he followed out and immediately delivered the business.

"It’s an emergency request! Could you please come to the guild right away?"

"Is it a summons?"

"No. It’s a request for a visit."

"Got it. Tell them I’ll be there shortly."

Ian gave the boy who delivered the news a tip slightly larger than usual.

Since this was an era where news traveled by the feet of people.

Naturally, the more a person was liked, the more accurately and with higher priority good news tended to be delivered to them.

The boy’s face brightened as he bowed deeply in greeting and handed over the letter he had brought.

Ian took the red-bordered envelope and returned inside.

Tanya, tensing up at the mention of an emergency request, asked Ian.

"What could be happening at the guild so suddenly?"

Ian opened the missive he just received, but there wasn’t much content other than requesting a visit within the day.

"It doesn’t seem like much."

The messenger who brought the letter looked unusually hurried, and the word "emergency" itself usually carried a significant amount of tension.

However, Tanya felt puzzled seeing Ian’s calm reaction and asked.

"Doesn’t ’emergency’ mean something big happened?"

"It’s not a summons."

"Is there a difference even in emergency requests...?"

"A summons is a forced call. It’s about pushing a job onto you that you’d likely want to refuse."

Ian briefly showed Tanya the contents of the letter he had just received.

It was an urgent visit request, not an emergency summons.

A request could simply be rejected depending on the circumstances.

"A request means if I don’t want to, I don’t have to. There are plenty of others besides me."

Urgent matters always occur, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was a bad thing.

There are also matters that are both urgent and profitable.

"I’m going to head to the guild for a bit."

"Ah, I’ll come along too!"

As Ian straightened his documents and stood up, Tanya hurriedly followed behind him.

＊ ＊ ＊

"You’re here."

Camilla looked up from her desk upon spotting Ian.

Ian and Tanya bowed their heads slightly to greet Camilla.

"I heard you took on a headache of a case. Have you tamed her well?"

"She’s adjusting reasonably well."

It was about Lia.

It seemed word had already spread through the guild that Rebecca had found a place to dump the C-rank problem child she had been dragging along.

It appeared to be a quite satisfying answer for Camilla.

From the guild’s perspective, it would have been a great loss for a capable C-rank mercenary to only go on short-term missions where they couldn’t properly demonstrate their skills.

Especially since she joined the Ian Mercenary Group, the variety of tasks that could be assigned had increased significantly.

Camilla tapped a folder she had already placed on her desk with her finger.

"An urgent matter has come up."

"Did monsters appear nearby?"

"An errand that needs to be handled quickly has arisen."

What Camilla pulled out from the folder was a document with brief information about the client.

The client was Louise. Occupation: Alchemist.

The content of the request was an escort.

Camilla pointed to a location on the map spread out on her desk.

The place indicated was a small city slightly removed from the Labyrinth.

"This is a client scheduled to arrive at the Labyrinth from Orsia."

"Is it an escort request?"

"Not exactly. They already hired an escort mercenary group from that side and departed."

Camilla pointed to the main road connecting Orsia to the Labyrinth.

"It’s about a week’s distance from there to here, and since the road is well-established, there’s almost no chance of bandit groups or monsters appearing."

There weren’t any particularly dangerous areas in between; it was a road that could be traversed smoothly by carriage.

As long as no problems occurred along the way.

"They departed 10 days ago but haven’t arrived yet."

"It looks like an accident happened somewhere."

Camilla nodded.

It’s common for problems to arise during a journey, causing delays or for travelers to go missing.

Even if a person who was supposed to come didn’t arrive, it was usual to just think they encountered robbers or monsters.

However, this matter wasn’t something that could be overlooked so easily.

"Arrival is too late, so I’ll have to send a search party."

"Is it perhaps an important person?"

"No. This client took out insurance."

The way to make a journey safe was simple. If you hire an expensive mercenary group, you can arrive at your destination safely without any issues.

The problem was... hiring an expensive mercenary group is expensive.

"Hiring a high-rank mercenary group as a long-term escort costs quite a lot. That’s why this ’insurance’ is a product that sells quite well."

Limited specifically to the journey arriving at the Labyrinth.

If the client did not arrive at the Labyrinth by the pre-arranged date, the mercenary guild would send a search party along a pre-designated route.

Of course, one would have to endure the time it takes for the search party to arrive, but it was much cheaper than dragging a high-skilled mercenary group around the whole time.

Among the unlucky ones, those who were slightly more fortunate might at least save their lives.

"Since there’s a deposit paid upfront by the client, you can receive at least this much even if you fail. And if you bring them back alive, you can charge separately for expedition fees. What do you think?"

Camilla explained that it was a fairly popular request because one could earn a substantial reward compared to the effort and time invested.

"If you’re interested, would you like to head out?"

"It’s not bad."

Camilla pointed to a section of the map.

"The branch has already confirmed that the client departed from the city right next door. So, you just need to search the area in between."

Looking at the terrain, there was just an ordinary, straight main road.

There was only one area along that route where a problem could likely occur. A forest that bordered the main road near the middle of the route.

The request would be complete after searching that place during the three-day contract period.

"Um, excuse me...."

Tanya, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, suddenly spoke up.

As they were in the middle of discussing the request, it wasn’t a situation where Tanya should have interrupted, but she had spotted a name that concerned her while glancing at the documents on the desk.

"What’s written here, is this name... for real?"

"Where?"

Camilla looked where Tanya pointed.

"That’s the escort mercenary group the client hired."

"Could I find out more details about this mercenary group!"

"That’s difficult."

Camilla shook her head firmly at Tanya’s request.

"I can’t just show the information of another mercenary group for no reason."

"Is there really no way? If money is needed, I’ll pay it...."

"It’s not a problem that can be solved with money."

Ian also checked the part Tanya had pointed to.

It was simply the name of the escort mercenary group the client had hired and its captain’s name.

Seeing her react this way, it was likely someone Tanya knew.

"Ms. Camilla. We’ll take this request."

Ian, who had been watching, spoke to Camilla.

"Then you can show us the list, right? We need to know who the missing persons are to rescue them."

"...I suppose so."

Nodding, Camilla pulled out a list containing the constituent members of the mercenary group from the bottom of the folder.

It was three members of an E-rank mercenary group the client had hired as escorts.

Ian showed that list to Tanya and asked.

"How is it? Is there someone you’re looking for?"

Tanya, who took it with trembling hands and read the names, answered in a shaky voice.

"They are... my friends."

Ian vaguely recalled hearing the story about Tanya’s friends before.

Since it wasn’t exactly a pleasant story to use as a conversation topic, he hadn’t been able to ask in detail.

It wasn’t a name that would normally pop up in a place like this.

It seemed the same was true for Tanya, as she appeared considerably confused after suddenly discovering her friends’ names.

"The friends you said you lost contact with while doing mercenary work? Didn’t you say you couldn’t find them in the Labyrinth?"

"Yes. No matter how much I searched, they weren’t here...."

Camilla, who had been listening to the conversation, chimed in as if it were strange.

"Weren’t you mistaken about something? That mercenary group belongs to Orsia."

"Pardon? My friends definitely said they were working at the Labyrinth...."

Tanya was flustered, not knowing how to react to information she hadn’t expected at all.

From the names written on the document alone, there was nothing more that could be known about what had happened.

"It looks like there’s a deep story here. We’ll only know once we meet the parties involved."

It could be a coincidence, or it could be a pseudonym or impersonation.

Or there could be a misunderstanding or deep circumstances that Tanya didn’t know about.

To resolve the fundamental questions, they first had to meet the people on this list.

"By the way. If they are people you know, you’d better hurry. It’s already been several days since the scheduled arrival date."

Tanya flinched and looked down at the map where the expected missing area was marked.

The forest was colored in a fairly wide area with red grid marks.

The territory of the Gnolls.