Chapter Text
—Somewhere in the Milim Empire, Former Puppet Nation Jistav. November 2016
"Pheew! That should be the last of them, right Alice?" spoke Ryota. His words escaping from his mouth between the huffing and puffing of trying to catch his breath.
"Mm. Yeah, that's the last of them. There isn't a single magical beast present within a hundred kilometers," replied Alice. She had barely broken a sweat despite the intense battle the group just fought. She had used her Unique Skill 「Perceiver」 to confirm that the last of the rampaging magical beasts in this area had been slain.
"There really were too many of them this time. Gale and Royta-kun are completely out of breath, you should see your faces! Ke-ha-ha!!" were the boisterous words echoed from the mouth of Kenya. His appearance betrayed any idea of being worn out, looking like he could keep fighting for hours before he even thought of taking a break.
"It can't be helped, Ken-Kun. It's the mating season for some of the real bad monsters up north. These guys all got pushed out in the territorial dispute," said Gale. He was ever the intellectual and quick to remind Kenya in moments like these.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You said that when we left and the lady at the guild said the same thing. Well, I'm not gonna complain about it. Taking emergency requests like these really rakes in the dough. And I need that right now more than anything," spoke Kenya. That last part was spoken in a hushed whisper that only Gale could hear. Kenya's eyes had briefly glanced at Alice, who was patching up Ryota's wounds with recovery magic.
Gale didn't fail to notice the faintest hints of a blush at the edge of Kenya's cheeks and let out a chuckle. He placed his hand on his old friend's shoulder and leaned in to offer his sage wisdom, a common occurrence between the two of them. "Look. The amount of money you spend on it isn't what matters. What matters is that it comes from the heart and that it comes from you. No matter what you get I'm sure she'll treasure it."
Kenya scratched his cheek as the blush on his face only grew a deeper shade of scarlet. "I know that, okay? But still… it's going to be her 16th, it's supposed to be special. If I get her something boring she'll probably kick my butt."
"Pffft. She'll kick your butt no matter what you get her, I have no doubt. I wouldn't worry that much about it, Ken-Kun. But you're right, it's pretty special, even among birthdays. If you're going to go big on the investment… you should probably get her jewelry. Something like that is a little bit much coming from me and Ryota, but from you? I'm sure she'll love it," was the reply of Gale. He was well aware of the feelings the two held for each other, even if they hadn't fully realized it themselves.
"Thanks Gale. You always have the best advice," replied Kenya. "Jewelry huh…" Kenya muttered to himself. He barely had time to sort out his thoughts before Alice inserted herself between him and Gale, practically beaming with curiosity.
"Whatcha ya two talking about?" was the innocent question that escaped her lips. Despite her playful tone, her eyes gleamed with a hint of seriousness, a bit like a cat staring at a mouse.
"Oh. Umm…." Kenya stuttered and his mind raced to come up with an answer. He was moments away from activating 「Thought Acceleration」 as his last resort, but luckily Gale–ever the quick thinker–came to his rescue.
"We were just talking about where we wanted to eat after we check in at the guild. It's going to be a huge payout and we also plan on feasting like kings for your birthday tomorrow," said Gale. He didn't miss the opportunity to aim a cheeky smirk and a wink in Kenya's direction.
"It's gotta be steak, right? I'm sure some of the fancy places in the city import Tempest A5," chimed in Ryota. He didn't want to be left out of the conversation, being quick to follow behind Alice. The healing magic hadn't even had a chance to fully heal the scars across his body.
"That does sound delicious. We've been away from Rimuru City for over a month now, I could kill for a meal like Cafe Jura's steak platter right now," said Gale. His stomach let out an audible growl, to which he flashed an innocent smile and blushed in response.
"Mm, yeah. It's a shame we can't make it back in time for Alice's birthday. But speaking of, if it's a birthday then we gotta find a nice cake yeah? Amarita's got some real nice sugar imported from the east, so they gotta have some nice sweets," replied Kenya. His sweet tooth nature was ever quick to rise to the surface when the topic switched to food.
"Jeez. Why don't we worry about all that once we get back to the guild. Right now we have to disassemble all these monster corpses," was the firm reply Alice made as she interrupted the three boys' conversation. She had to remind them that their job still wasn't finished, though it was a secret that her mouth had also begun to water at the thought of food. However, their appetites were quick to turn the other cheek as the four of them looked back at the mountain of bloody corpses that needed to be processed before they could return to the guild.
Meanwhile, among the treetops, a single figure stood. One that Alice failed to notice due to its close proximity, her senses keened in on distant objects. It held the appearance of a simple cat, though if one were to look at it more closely they would find it to be not simple in the slightest. Its ebony fur shone like fine silky oil on a canvas and its eyes shone like gemstones. It held an eager look of curiosity on its face, its eyes trained firmly on the group below as it licked its paws.
—City of Puppets Amarita, Milim Empire.
It was two hours after the party of young heroes had finished processing the corpses of the monster horde. They found their way back to the city and were quick to make their way into the guild hall. Kenya, as boastful as ever, was quick to yap his tongue and told the surrounding adventurers of their latest exploit. Meanwhile, Alice and Gale made their way to the counter and began the process of turning in their quest.
The clerk was a dark elf lady, with long white hair messily tied into a bun and a name tag that said Hazel able to be barely made out on her wrinkled shirt. She could be called beautiful, but the massive bags under her eyes and tired atmosphere she radiated drowned everything out. She let out a faint but audible sigh as she thought of all the paperwork she still had to do. "I know I've said this before, but I seriously can't thank you guys enough, coming all the way out here from HQ. Everyone's been worn out dealing with the increased activity, it went way beyond our predictions. But, that should've been the last of them according to the scouting parties we sent out. There might be some stragglers here and there, but nothing we can't manage."
Alice couldn't help but raise a blush in response to the compliments, while Gale scratched his head. "It's no problem at all. If anything, you're the one who deserves praise Hazel. You look like you haven't slept in over a week. Do you want to come with us for dinner? You look like you could use the break," offered Alice in response.
Hazel let out a faint chuckle before replying. "Thanks for the offer Miss Alice, but I still need to evaluate the value of the magic crystals you recovered, write up a full report for HQ and Eva-Sama, and send out more teams to investigate the exact cause of this stampede. There had to have been some powerful monsters if even B-ranked beasts were pushed out of their territory. And speaking of, here's your payment for responding to the emergency request. The total comes out to 210 Gold Coins per person, for a total of 840 Gold Coins. Please sign here and here, your points will be transferred to the record shortly."
Alice held the stamp with their parties symbol and stamped the papers. She felt so bad for Hazel, who was practically running the guild alone in a state of emergency. Apparently their regular clerk was on maternity leave and spending time with her family back in Inglassia, while the Guild Master fell seriously ill near the start of the monster outbreak. Alice had met her before on several occasions, but the Vice-Guild Master had never looked quite in this bad of a shape.
And so with the matter of their emergency quest handled, it took but only a few moments for Gale to gather Kenya and Ryota as they took to the streets in search of grub to fill their empty bellies.