Maruyama Kugane: The Invaders of the Large Tomb

It bothered Hekkeran, and he ended up weakening his gaze and asked the man directly.

"...Just why on Earth are you here?"

"About that, I'm looking for a person that Termite-san also knows, Furt-san."

Hearing the name Furt, the image of a person appeared in Hekkeran's mind.

Even so, was hard to imagine that she would have any connections with this man. That was Hekkeran's conclusion.

"Arche? Did something happen to her?"

"Arche... Ah! That's why. I got confused just then, but we're both talking about Furt-san here, Arche Eeb Rile Furt-san."

"And!? Did something happen to Arche?"

"No, no, I only wish to discuss something with her... The content of the discussion is private, that's why I wanted to know when she would return."

"As if I would know that." Hekkeran replied sharply.

For someone who was never direct when speaking, the man was briefly stunned by Hekkeran's words.

"If that's the case, the conversation is over."

"I-It can't be helped then. If that's the case, I'll have to wait here."

"Get lost."

Hekkeran gestured to the entrance of the inn with his chin. Hekkeran's attitude shut the other man up once more.

"I will make it clear, I don't like you at all. I simply can't tolerate guys like you within my sight."

"But this is the tavern area, I should be able to..."

"Ah, that's right, isn't it? This area is indeed the tavern. But don't forget this is also the place where drunks get into fights," Hekkeran smiled at the man. "But you don't have to worry. Relax, even if you become gravely injured, we have a priest here who’s capable of using healing magic to heal you. As long as you pay the right price, that is."

"It can't be helped that we have to charge you extra. Otherwise the temples would become very annoyed. We definitely don't want to attract any assassins sent by the temples," said Imina. A grin was visible on her face. "Well, at the least we'll give you a discount. Remember to thank me for that, won't you?"

"—And that's what's going to happen."

"If you plan on threa—"

The words coming from the man halted midway, because he saw the dramatic change on Hekkeran's face.

Hekkeran took a step forward, all the way until the distance between their faces was a fist away.

"Hah?! Threats? Who's making threats? Is it such a big surprise that bars have fights? What the hell, I give you good advice for living a long and healthy life and you say I'm making threats? Are you trying to start a fight?"

Hekkeran's current appearance was something only people who had faced death could possess.

Confronted with the pressure coming from Hekkeran, the man took a step back. He clicked his tongue for a bit and then reluctantly walked towards the entrance. Although he wanted to hide the fact that he was frightened, one look at his back was all it took to confirm it. As he reached the entrance, the man turned his and shouted at Hekkeran and Imina one last time.

"Tell that brat from the Furt family! Tell her the deadline is approaching!"

"Hah?!"

Hearing the iron in Hekkeran's reply, the man quickly scurried away.

As soon as the man disappeared, Hekkeran's expression quickly returned to normal. The change was sudden enough that onlookers might have thought that the entire scene had been nothing but an act.

And then, Imina started clapping, as though he had really pulled off a great performance.

"So, what that all about?"

"I don't know. He only told me as much as he told you."

"Damn, I should have listened more before getting rid of him."

Hekkeran held his head in defeat.

"Just wait and hear it from Arche once she gets back."

"...But, it isn't good to pry too deeply into things."

"Well, even though what you said is correct, you're still the leader. Do your best!"

"In that case, I will use my authority as the leader to order you to ask her about it. It would be much better if a fellow woman like you were to ask her about it, don't you think?"

"Come on, give me a break, I don't want to ask either."

The two of them smiled bitterly at each other.

There were a few rules in common between adventurers and workers, where certain things were simply not done. The first would be to uncover a teammate's past. The second would be to display excessive desire.

In the case of the second rule, to some extent, excessive desire was unavoidable due to the fact that many people chose to be workers for personal gains. However, even that had a limit. Too much desire could cause a team to lose its coherence. For example, it was difficult to trust teammates who were constantly grumbling about money. Letting teammates watch your back during dangerous moments was a fundamental part of teamwork and unity. As such, all teams needed a minimum level of trust between each other. But how much could you trust someone who was known to be greedy when you take on a high-risk, high-reward job?

Currently, it seemed like there were problems relating to Arche, which would affect her reliability.

That simply wasn't a matter which could be easily overlooked.

During the course of their jobs, they would be putting their lives in each other's hands. As such they couldn't afford to have even a trace of doubt in their teammates.

Hekkeran shook his head, while displaying his reluctance on his face.

"Looks like it can't be helped, then. I'll have to ask when she comes back."

"I'm counting on you~."

Hekkeran narrowed his eyes at Imina, who was smiling and waving her hand, and said, "Don't think you can get away. You also need to come talk to her with me, yo."

"Eh, ehhh..." Although Imina clearly wanted to refuse, she gave up as soon as she saw the determination on Hekkeran's face. "Oh well, it can't be helped. Hopefully it isn't anything big..."

"Anyway, where did Arche go?"

"Eh? Ah, she's gathering the information behind that job."

"Aren't Rob and I in charge of that?"

After returning from Kattse Plains, they received a new commission, with pretty good terms for the nature of the work concerned. As such, they began the preparations for taking the job.

Originally it should have been Roberdyck, who was best suited for this sort of thing, to research the background of the commissioner as well as the compensation. Hekkeran was to head to the Empire's Administrative office to collect the payment for their undead subjugation—all work related to eliminating undead on the Kattse Plains was treated as government work by the Empire—and at the same time, use alternative methods to gather similar information as Roberdyck.

Imina and Arche should have waited at the inn.

"It wasn't just that. Rob needed help investigating the history and conditions around the area of operations."

Hekkeran nodded his head, as a look of understanding dawned on him. Although Arche had dropped out of the Imperial Magic Academy, she probably still had some contacts there. She was probably more suited at gathering academic-related information and she could also visit the Magician's Guild to collect additional material.

"So that's why she went along. Rob is also quite knowledgeable, and has connections to the temples.

Anyway, how did it go?"

Hekkeran made a sound as he sat down into a chair, and spoke up.

"Although the request was only offered to workers, the content of the job isn't anything bad. The reason why they chose to hire workers this time around is probably because the location of the job is somewhere adventurers can't go. However, just like the client said before, it seems like they've made contact with other teams as well."

"Are we really working with other teams? Even if it is said that the ruins they discovered appear to be untouched, for them to be willing to invest this much without any definite gains seems a bit..."