With the inquiry concluded, the quest was officially complete.
Altaïr's Hunter's Notes now contained one more record of a 7★ quest, and the corresponding reward was naturally substantial.
Altaïr was quite satisfied with his reward. He had spent less than two minutes fighting during the entire operation, yet the Guild had counted it as a full 7★ quest. No matter how he looked at it, he had come out ahead.
Shalan disagreed. She believed any quest involving "those people" deserved a danger rating of at least 8★.
A 7★ quest? Just who do you think you're looking down on, meow?
Unfortunately, the Guild did not accept her opinion. Since she had invited herself into the affair halfway through, she received neither a quest record nor a reward.
Altaïr offered to share part of his reward with her, but Shalan refused. The Felyne huffily set up her kite by herself and flew off.
Lambert was likewise credited with completing a 7★ quest.
For someone who had only been promoted to 4★ a few days earlier, such a quest was still far beyond her rank, but the bonus money was very real.
Having just replaced her equipment and emptied her pockets in the process, she seized the chance to replenish her funds. She generously invited Altaïr and her two companions, Chia and Vari, to a feast at the People's Tavern.
Altaïr felt awkward about letting his junior pay for his meal, while Chia and Vari were both accustomed to living frugally. The tavern feast therefore became dinner at Lambert's house instead.
In truth, the meal was secondary. Chia and Vari were mainly curious about what kind of parents could have raised a daughter like Lambert.
Besides, as her companions who had come all the way to Dundorma, it would have been rude not to visit her family.
Lambert had no particular objection.
As she put it, if they ate at home, her father would buy the groceries and her mother would cook. They would not even have to spend money on the ingredients.
Her mother's cooking naturally could not compare with that of the professional Felyne Chefs at the People's Tavern, but it was hardly inedible.
The fact that Lambert had grown up tall and sturdy enough to enter the training camp in excellent physical condition clearly proved she had never gone hungry.
The only issue was that her mother would have to prepare several times the usual amount of food. Fortunately, Isis, Lambert's senior, was not there, or the poor woman would have been run ragged.
To be honest, Altaïr had initially had no intention of joining the younger group for dinner.
Although only a few years separated them, he still instinctively thought of them as the "next generation" rather than his peers.
However, when Lambert's trio learned from Sajji that Altaïr's companions had yet to return to Dundorma and he had nothing else to do, they all but dragged him along.
—--
Thus, the four Hunters and two Felynes arrived in Lambert's neighborhood.
Chia, Vari, and Ning-Ning kept looking around in amazement.
Chia, who had grown up in a small mountain village, could not help blurting out, "Whoa, Lambert! You've been holding out on us. You're actually some rich city girl?"
Lambert rolled her eyes. "What do you mean, rich? My family is perfectly ordinary, all right?"
"An ordinary family lives in a house like this?" Chia was utterly unconvinced. "A three-story blue-brick house with yards in both the front and back. Look at those windows. The glass is even colored!
"No way! There's a fountain in the yard?!"
Lambert pursed her lips, too weary to bother with his fussing.
Already quite familiar with Dundorma, Altaïr explained with a smile, "Quite a few artists and writers live on this street, painters, musicians, and the like, so the whole neighborhood has a certain... artistic flair."
What he did not mention was that although this neighborhood could not compare with the truly wealthy districts, it was still a rather upscale commercial and residential area. The houses here probably cost even more than Isis's family home.
By the standards of a mountain village boy who had never set foot in a city before he turned sixteen, calling Lambert a "city girl" hardly seemed unreasonable.
"We're almost there. It's the house with the yellow roof." Lambert looked thoroughly weary. "Don't ask why the roof is yellow instead of dark red like all the others around it.
"My mother liked it. It's as simple as that."
"Lambert?!" An uncertain shout suddenly came from the yard of a house they were passing.
Lambert turned toward the voice, and her reaction confirmed the speaker's guess.
"It really is you, Lambert! Good heavens, I heard you had gone off to become a Hunter. I thought they were joking!"
Everything about the middle-aged woman, from her clothes and hairstyle to her makeup, suggested a carefully cultivated elegance.
Lambert politely bowed her head in greeting. "It's been a long time, Lady Mary."
The middle-aged woman who had been watering the flowers in her yard hurried out, clasped Lambert's hands, and looked her up and down. "Oh my! You've grown so much taller, and you look so much more... spirited than before!
"Oh, Jill has missed you terribly. She's home right now. I'll go and call her!"
Without giving Lambert a chance to speak, she scurried back into her yard, shouting at the top of her lungs as she ran, "Jill! Come out quickly! Look who's here!"
Chia craned his neck to watch, grinning broadly. "So this is how city folk live? Gardening in dresses and those strange, ridiculously high heels?"
"That's city folk for you, meow," Ning-Ning added with a chuckle.
Lambert glared at them. "What did city folk ever do to you?"
Vari asked curiously, "Is she a relative of yours?"
"A neighbor," Lambert replied casually. "Her daughter is about my age. I suppose you could say... we were friends growing up.
"Before I ran off to the Hunter Training Camp, we studied music together."
Just then, a petite girl with apple-red cheeks and a beautiful skirt came running out of the house.
"'I suppose you could say we were friends'?!" The sharp-eared girl had caught Lambert's exact words, and her eyes were already reddening with anger.
"Agh..."
Seeing the teary-eyed girl charge toward her, Lambert sighed like someone nursing a terrible headache.
Under the amused gazes of Altaïr and the others, she stepped forward, opened her arms, and hugged the girl before she could burst into tears in earnest.
"Ah! If it isn't my dearest friend, Miss Jill. It has truly been too long!"
Lambert spoke loudly, but her tone was stiff and perfunctory.
Jill broke into a smile through her tears. After pulling away with a touch of embarrassment, she lifted the hem of her skirt and greeted the rest of the group.
"Good day to you all. I am Jill."
The girl's voice was delicate and soft, completely unlike the shouts Hunters used to make themselves heard.
Altaïr and Vari politely returned her greeting, while Chia put on an exaggerated expression of shock.
"Whoa! Lambert, you actually have a cute, beautiful friend like her? I thought all your friends would be tattooed types who smoked on street corners!"
Unaccustomed to such a direct compliment, Jill shyly slipped behind Lambert.
Lambert kicked Chia away without mercy, sending him stumbling backward. "Get lost! How many times do I have to tell you I'm not some street punk? Are you deaf?"
The girl hiding beside Lambert softly came to her defense. "Lanlan always listened to our teacher, except when she was playing..."
"Lanlan?" Three people and two Felynes turned to look at Lambert in unison.
The corner of Lambert's mouth twitched twice.
The girl seemed to have an endless supply of things to say. "Lanlan, is that the instrument you use now? Why does it look like a giant hammer?"
"It's called a Hunting Horn."
"Lanlan, which of these three gentlemen is your boyfriend?"
"None of them."
"Lanlan, did you put makeup on this Felyne? She looks so much like you."
"She looks like that naturally. So do I."
"Lanlan, who braided your hair? It's so ugly...
"..."
"...Shut up."