About two days had passed since the sake party that night at the castle, and now I, along with the others, went to the guild to discuss Lancer-san's previous request.
Last night, I had already talked about this matter with Hime and Yuu-chan. They said they would think about it.
But until this morning, they still hadn't given their opinions.
Eventually, we arrived at the guild and told the receptionist that we wanted to meet Lancer-san because we had an important matter to discuss.
She immediately left her desk and went up to the second floor to inform Lancer-san of our visit.
One more thing… since the battle a few days ago, our party had become well known to everyone, so when we entered the guild a short while ago—
"Oh, that's the hero party!" "They must have something important to do today!"
"Don't speak so loudly! They're probably always busy, right?"
"Thanks to their help, yesterday's attack felt like fighting small goblins!"
Aside from talking about us, some of them kept staring at us as well.
There were also quite a few people who approached the four of us just to chat more closely. Honestly, I didn't understand why they were doing that.
"Luke, everyone who's been approaching us has been girls, right?" I asked him in a whisper.
"You're right. And all of them just want to talk to Hime-san and Yuu-chan. If it's like this, isn't the situation the same as back then?" he asked back.
"Well, it can't be helped. But at least it's good for our reputation, right? Even though it feels like the two of us are just side characters," I said.
The receptionist returned from upstairs and went back to her original position behind the counter.
"Lancer-san has granted you permission. Please go up," she said.
"Ah, thank you," Hime said before the four of us walked toward Lancer-san's room.
——
"So, how is it? Are you willing to do what I asked?" Lancer-san asked.
Luke and I stayed silent, because Hime would be the one answering that question.
"I thought about it all night. And I've decided to accept it, Lancer-san," Hime said.
I could see joy and relief on Lancer-san's face. He must be very happy right now.
"You three are fine with this as well, right?" Hime asked while looking at the three of us.
"I'm fine with it. After all, the two of us already accepted it earlier," I said, speaking on behalf of what Luke wanted to say.
"I don't mind either. This is also part of our responsibility as heroes," Yuu-chan said.
"Then it's settled, right?" I said with a smile.
Once again, Lancer-san bowed his head to us in response.
"Thank you very much! I'm truly grateful that you accepted my request," he said.
—
Before we left his room and went to prepare our carriage, Lancer-san gave us a few items.
He gave us a necklace that, judging by its shape, looked like a flower. He said that if we showed it to the princess, she would immediately know that we were the hero party.
Then he gave us a letter in the form of a scroll, which we were supposed to deliver later to the village elder there.
Those were the only two items he gave us, but I could feel that they would be very necessary once we arrived in Riruyo.
"Ah, I forgot to ask this. Lancer-san, can you make adventurer ID cards for Yukito and Yuu-chan?" Luke asked.
Only Yuu-chan and I still didn't have one since we came to this world.
"In that case, would you two like to receive Rank D right away?" Lancer-san asked after thinking for a few seconds.
As far as I remembered, adventurer ranks were counted starting from Rank G, and if we jumped straight to Rank D, that meant…
One, two… we were skipping about three ranks at once?!
"W-wait a moment, isn't that too much? I think the jump is too big for newcomers like us who are just getting an adventurer card," I said, trying to refuse the offer.
"To be honest, you've already done the same thing—fighting the Abyss invasion in Necvalion and again here in the city yesterday. If I wanted to, I could give you both Rank C," he said.
"But if you were to jump that far immediately, many adventurers in other places wouldn't accept it, since your name as heroes isn't widely known throughout the world yet."
"That's why, if you start at Rank D, you'll likely be trusted more, especially with your status as a hero party," he continued.
Hmm… I suppose that made sense, but I still didn't expect such a big jump just from defeating monsters.
"By the way, you as well—I'll raise your rank by one to Rank B," Lancer-san said to Hime.
"R-really? If that's the case, I don't mind accepting it," Hime replied.
Lancer-san stood up from the long sofa and walked over to his desk, taking a pen and several sheets of paper.
"You can pick up your cards tomorrow. Until then, you can prepare everything you need to bring before departing for Riruyo," he said.
"Alright. Thank you very much, Lancer-san. Then we'll take our leave," I said.
"Excuse us," Hime said with a small bow before we left the room.
—
"So, what do you want to do after this?" I asked.
"How about going together?" Hime suggested.
"We need to buy food, drinks, firewood, and some other necessities," Luke said.
"Then it's fine, right? We also received quite a lot of money earlier," Yuu-chan said.
Ah right, we had already received a pouch, and when we opened it, there were thirty gold coins, fifty silver coins, and forty copper coins inside.
The guild said it was a reward for our hard work and the influence we had during that battle.
Especially after Lancer-san heard about the brilliant plan Luke devised to defeat the Abyss that tried to attack from the forest inside the city.
That was true—I felt both impressed and amazed by what they accomplished in places different from where I was at that time.
I knew Hime and Yuu-chan were highly skilled in magic, but I only realized then that Luke could also create very solid strategies.
"Wouldn't it be better if we go together? We also need to discuss a few things we'll have to do later," I said.
"It's already decided, right? Then let's go," Luke said.
We left the guild, but we didn't immediately start walking around the city to buy supplies.
I didn't expect it… Hime hadn't put the money we received into her Alter Box yet, because she hadn't thought about it.
As a result, we had to return to the inn first and inform Sikiyomi-san that we would be eating lunch outside, so she wouldn't need to prepare it for us.
Well, we didn't know what we wanted to eat for lunch yet, but at least we would buy supplies first and think about food later.
——
We enjoyed spending time together like this, and Yuu-chan also seemed to really enjoy shopping.
W-well, she had already bought snacks from the roadside stalls almost five times.
Hime had divided the money among each of us and told us to keep it ourselves.
I had also safely placed mine inside the pouch in my robe. Well, the pouch was quite deep and even had a zipper, so that's why I was fairly confident the money would be safe.
"Hey, Yuu-chan. Don't spend your money too quickly!" I said.
Yuu-chan was waiting for the food she had just bought, since it was still being prepared by the vendor.
Ah, she bought something like a grilled sausage. Heh, if it's like this, doesn't that mean she's basically already had lunch?
"It's fine~ Yukito-sama wants some too, right? Ahh~" she said as she held the sausage she just bought up to my mouth.
T-this girl!
Usually, she just wanted to tease me and would only pretend to give it to me.
B-but I couldn't let this opportunity pass, and I took a bite of the sausage she had just bought.
"See what I mean~ Yukito-sama, you definitely thought I was just joking, right?" Yuu-chan asked.
"T-that's not it!" I replied.
Damn it, why do the people around us seem to know what I'm thinking?
"Your cheeks are a little red~ You really are still easily embarrassed by things like this," she said.
"Yeah, yeah," I replied.
She suddenly moved closer and whispered into my ear at an extremely close distance, to the point where I felt like she was about to kiss my cheek.
Ugh, why am I getting so full of myself?!
"Yu-ki-to-sa-ma, if you want, I'll give you the other half too, you know~ I belong to you anyway, so you can use my status screen however you like~" she said in a voice that clearly wanted to tease me.
"Hehe~ I'm going to go over to Hime now!" she said before immediately leaving me behind.
"Yukito, did she buy something again?" Luke asked as he walked over to me.
"Yeah, something like that. What is Hime looking at, anyway?" I asked.
"I don't know. Want to go over?" Luke asked.
"Sounds good. Let's do that," I said.
Luke and I immediately joined the two of them and looked at what they were currently paying attention to.