Published: August 10, 2026
On the way back from their request, Lizel and the others were walking through the streets of Sars Town.
Today's job was a classic one: exterminating prairie mice that had come out onto the highway. However, it was ranked C.
Apparently, they had bred in huge numbers a little ways off the road, and before anyone knew it their population had exploded. The ones that migrated over had quickly riddled the highway with holes.
Worse, perhaps because there were so many of them, the swarm had become highly organized. While they were busy killing one, the others would flee from different burrows. The more aggressive individuals and the quicker escape artists had neatly divided roles between them, raising the difficulty of the request to "eliminate every last one."
"Do you really think we got rid of all of them?"
"Probably."
There was no way to prove it, so it was hard to say for sure.
That said, the same was true for the client. If a single prairie mouse happened to be walking around nearby days later, and they said it had probably come from somewhere else, there would be nothing anyone could really object to. Prairie mice were that common everywhere.
The client should know that much. In the end, all that mattered was that the highway stopped suffering damage.
"We scattered monster repellent in the burrows and buried them afterward, so I think it should be fine."
"They didn't come back even when we waited at the old nest, either."
"Then I guess it's fine."
They had done everything they could. From here on, it was up to the client's judgment.
Depending on the request, the client was either the kingdom or the Commerce Guild. Since it was listed under an individual's name, it was probably someone under one of those two.
In any case, Lizel and the others weren't particularly worried, since there shouldn't be any unreasonable complaints.
"Oh, can I peel off here?"
"Then I'll just take your Guild Card."
"Yeah, thanks."
It seemed he was going off to have some fun somewhere.
All that was left was to report the request as complete to the adventurers' guild, so there was no need for everyone to be together. Taking only the Guild Card needed for the paperwork, Lizel and Gill watched the vividly red figure leave in a good mood.
"Come to think of it, that labyrinth yesterday, Quattro was with us, right?"
"He just tagged along on his own."
"He was a little sulky that you kept slicing through everything by yourself, though."
"It's his own fault for being slow."
If they kept up that kind of chatter, they soon arrived at the adventurers' guild.
They had accepted the request early in the morning, and now it was a little past noon. This was the time of day when most adventurers were out.
Lizel figured the reception desks would be open, so he followed Gill through the ill-fitting door.
"We still haven't found a single open slot at the theater. Business must be booming, damn it."
"Eh? Who knows. Hey, where were you before that? The Capital City?"
"And before that was Astarnia. We stayed there pretty long, but thinking about it now, it feels like it flew by."
"Lucky you. Did you run into any wild-type handsome guys?"
"Please come in disguise again. You were so good as the boy last time."
The reception area felt unusually lively, and Lizel heard a familiar voice.
He peeked out from behind Gill and looked that way. Gill's pace didn't change, so he probably still hadn't noticed. He couldn't have forgotten her, since he had interacted with her both in the Capital City and in Astarnia.
Lizel smiled and moved ahead of Gill toward the reception counter.
Gill followed with his eyes, wondering what was going on, and spotted a small back in front of Lizel's path. He stopped for just a moment.
But then he resumed walking, letting out a small sigh as he followed behind Lizel.
"You came to place a request for setup, right?"
"We'd like to, but we can't, damn it. Not until we find a theater."
"Ah..."
The reception sisters, who had been gathered there, looked up at Lizel.
Noticing that, she also turned around with a puzzled expression.